Gordon's On It First

The GOP Charge Up Capitol Hill

2010-12-16T08:00:00Z

When Republicans take over the House of Representatives in January, they'll have a solid majority, 242 to 193. With enough imagination and fortitude, they could become the party of hope and change.

For the past two years, with Democrats in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, Republicans were seen by Democrats and the media as the "party of no." Indeed, they opposed nearly all of President Obama's agenda: the omnibus spending bill, the economic stimulus package, cap-and-trade climate legislation, health-care reform, a slew of new regulations, and billions in spending.

Congressman Calls on Obama to Take Illegal Immigration 'Seriously' Following Death of Border Agent

2010-12-16T08:00:00Z

The incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent is a "sad reminder" of the dangers law enforcement officers face on a daily basis and called on the Obama administration to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Elect Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said the killing of Brian A. Terry in southern Arizona late Tuesday should serve as wake-up call to President Obama and his administration.

Cuccinelli savors health care win

2010-12-15T08:00:00Z

he man who put the first dent in the president's health care law, Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, is a newcomer to the national stage, but he's long been a crusader against the expansion of federal powers - winning his share of friends and foes along the way. Mr. Cuccinelli, a Republican, says anybody who has followed his political career - including eight years in the state Senate - shouldn't be surprised that he's challenging the health care act, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency,against which he is also leading the charge in a potentially groundbreaking lawsuit.

Government Wants 'No Refusal' Policy on Drunken Driving

2010-12-13T08:00:00Z

When 18 people died in alcohol-related crashes in his Louisiana parish two years ago, Sheriff Craig Webre looked for new ways to combat drunken driving. Using laws already on the books, the sheriff found a simple answer. Webre's department west of New Orleans started using a "no refusal" policy for suspected drunken drivers who declined breath tests.

Long Legal Fight Ahead for Democrats' Constitutionally Challenged Health Care Law

2010-12-13T08:00:00Z

The scorecard on the legal fight over President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is two judges in favor and one against. But these are the early rounds in preliminary bouts. The one that really counts -- a showdown at the Supreme Court -- is at least a year away.

Cash is Not King

2010-12-10T18:00:00Z

"Cash is king" is a well-worn phrase that has been used quite a bit over the last few years. I hate to burst the bubble, but it is not true. Cash can be king for a day, a month or maybe even a year, but eventually it will be unseated by the real king: profit.

Don't get me wrong, cash is critical. Without cash, a company can become insolvent, unable to pay its people, its bills, its other obligations. The end result could be bankruptcy. But without profit, cash will eventually be revealed as a fraud. Think Bernie Madoff. He had plenty of cash, it just wasn't his. There are many ways to have cash without profit. It could be borrowed, or from investors, or from customer deposits, or from inventory that was sold but not replaced, or from the sale of an asset.

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Who Says There Aren't Any Good Jobs Out There?

2010-12-09T08:00:00Z

Over 200k just to separate the white males from the rest in order to contribute to a more colorblind society free from sexual discrimination? That sounds like a job I could handle - if I wasn't a white guy.

Top Ten Reasons to have a Gun instead of a Woman

2010-12-09T08:00:00Z

#10.) You can trade an old 44 for a new 22.

#9.) You can keep one gun at home and have another for when you're on the road.

#8.) If you admire a friend's gun and tell him so, he will probably let
you try it out a few times.

#7.) Your primary gun doesn't mind if you keep another gun for a backup.

#6.) Your gun will stay with you even if you run out of ammo.

Spy vs Spy

2010-12-08T18:00:00Z

Just as data security had been an afterthought for many businesses in their rush to get online in the 1990s, creating opportunities for the likes of Shadowcrew, many firms had taken no precautions as they eagerly adopted WiFi in the early 2000s. Gonzalez was especially intrigued by the possibilities of a technique known as "war driving": hackers would sit in cars or vans in the parking lots of big-box stores with laptops and high-power radio antennae and burrow through companies' vulnerable WiFi networks. Adepts could get into a billion-dollar multinational's servers in minutes.

..

Scott cracked the Marshalls WiFi network, and he and James started navigating the system: they co-opted log-ins and passwords and got Gonzalez into the network; they made their way into the corporate servers at the Framingham, Mass., headquarters of Marshalls' parent company, TJX; they located the servers that housed old card transactions from stores. Scott set up a VPN - the system Gonzalez and the Secret Service used to ensnare Shadowcrew - so they could move in and out of TJX and install software without detection. When Gonzalez found that so many of the card numbers they were getting were expired, he had Stephen Watt develop a "sniffer" program to seek out, capture and store recent transactions. Once the collection of data reached a certain size, the program was designed to automatically close, then encrypt, compress and forward the card data to Gonzalez's computer, just as you might send someone an e-mail with a zip file attached. Steadily, patiently, they siphoned the material from the TJX servers. "The experienced ones take their time and slowly bleed the data out," a Secret Service analyst says.

...

Using similar methods, they hacked into OfficeMax, Barnes & Noble, Target, Sports Authority and Boston Market, and probably many other companies that never detected a breach or notified the authorities. Scott bought a six-foot-tall radio antenna, and he and James rented hotel rooms near stores for the tougher jobs. In many cases, the data were simply there for the taking, unencrypted, unprotected.

...computer security was something that was just dollars and cents off the bottom line - it doesn't bring in money," Heymann told me when I asked why war-driving hackers were able to steal data so easily.

Full story...

Using Capitalism to Combat Poverty

2010-12-08T18:00:00Z

Mr. Khosla's advocacy of the bootstrap powers of capitalism is part of an increasingly popular school of thought: businesses, not governments or nonprofit groups, should lead the effort to eradicate global poverty.

Some nonprofit experts say commercial social enterprises have significant limitations and pose conflicts of interest. But proponents like Mr. Khosla draw inspiration from the astounding global growth of microfinance - the business of giving small loans to poor entrepreneurs, of which SKS Microfinance is a notable practitioner.

Advocates also find intellectual support for the idea from the work of business management professors like the late C. K. Prahalad, who have argued that large corporations can do well and do good by aiming at people at the so-called bottom of the pyramid.

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US Lawmakers Urge President to Remember God

2010-12-08T18:00:00Z

Since 1956, the official national motto of the United States has been "In God We Trust." The motto also appears in the national anthem, and on the nation's currency.

In a speech given Nov. 10 to students in Jakarta, Indonesia, Obama said that the United States and Indonesia share a similar history: "It is a story written into our national mottos. In the United States, our motto is 'E Pluribus Unum.'"

The members of the Congressional Prayer Caucaus said that it was "unacceptable" for the president to misrepresent the national motto: "The president is the primary representative of our nation to the world, and whether mistake or intention, his actions cast aside an integral part of American society."

"President [Ronald] Reagan once warned that 'If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under,'" the letter added.

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Small-Biz Killers: Who Pays for Jobless Benefits?

2010-12-08T08:00:00Z

There is no such thing as a "free" government benefit. Ask small-business owners who are footing skyrocketing bills for bottomless jobless benefits. While politicians in Washington negotiate a deal to provide welcome temporary payroll, income and estate tax relief to America's workers, struggling employers wonder how long they'll have to pay for the compassion of others -- and whether they can survive.

You're either with us, or you're with WikiLeaks

2010-12-08T08:00:00Z

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got one thing right last week - she described WikiLeaks' disclosure of hundreds of thousands of classified documents as "an attack." Indeed, it was the third such attack in five months that WikiLeaks has launched against the United States and its international partners. WikiLeaks itself has described its struggle in military terms. Founder Julian Assange recently posted a Tweet from one of his supporters declaring: "The first serious infowar is now engaged. The field of battle is WikiLeaks. You are the troops."

The Jobs O Hates

2010-12-07T08:00:00Z

For all his talk of job creation, President Obama has targeted many occupations for extinction. Using un-elected bureaucrats to implement a host of job-killing measures, his administration is generating piles of pink slips:

Too Big to Fail is Here to Stay

2010-12-06T20:00:00Z

it is one thing to empower the Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to fire senior bankers, wipe out stockholders, and impose losses on creditors. It is quite another thing for the authorities to exercise these powers. If Goldman, say, was to run into serious trouble shortly after giving up its banking license, it is hard to believe that the Treasury and Fed would shut it down and let the dominoes fall where they may. If markets were plummeting and creditors, depositors, and other counterparties were rushing to liquidate their positions, the authorities would come under enormous pressure to prop up the firm, or find a healthier rival to take it over. Then we would be back to September 2008.

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Ethanol on the Run

2010-12-06T08:00:00Z

The political class inevitably invokes the moon shot or Manhattan Project as a model for every unrealistic energy goal, but for once maybe that hyperbole is apt: A left-right coalition is emerging to end ethanol subsidies.

Last week, no fewer than 17 Senators signed a letter calling ethanol "fiscally indefensible" and "environmentally unwise." Led by Democrat Dianne Feinstein and Republican Jon Kyl, the group said Congress shouldn't extend certain subsidies that expire at the end of the year, including the 45-cent-per-gallon tax credit for blending ethanol into gasoline and tariffs on cheaper imports. Conservatives like Tom Coburn dislike this costly industrial policy, while liberals like Barbara Boxer and Sheldon Whitehouse are turning against the hefty carbon emissions that come with corn fuels.

The Walking Death Tax

2010-12-06T08:00:00Z

Overlooked in the brawl over expiring Bush-era tax rates is what will happen to the death tax. Without action in the lame duck Congress, the estate tax will rise from the dead on January 1 with a vengeance, the rate climbing back to 55% from zero this year. The exemption amount will revert to a miserly $1 million, unindexed for inflation, so more middle class taxpayers will get hit year after year.

President Obama and Congressional Democrats don't think this is a high priority, but voters do. A November Gallup Poll found that Americans think that keeping the estate tax "from increasingly significantly" is "very important" by 56% to 17% "not too important."

The Case Against Health

2010-12-03T20:00:00Z

We may be nearing a point where institutions of public health and the commercial interests that surround it, including the media, do more harm than good to the nation's health. The official version of health peddled by our current system is not only venal but potentially noxious. In some instances, public health has been transformed into a kind of iatric disease, a medically induced assault on the health of society. Our minders trumpet the obesity epidemic even as epidemiological evidence suggests that "yo-yo dieting" (repeatedly losing and regaining weight over a period of several years) actively damages the immune system. At any given time, it is estimated that 50 percent of all women are on diets, and 95 percent of all diets fail. The more we diet, the fatter we seem to become.

To be against health is to be critical of the myths and lies concerning our health that are circulated by the media and paid for by large industries. It is to demystify their hidden moralizing and their political agenda. It also means expanding the idea of iatric disease to include the moral and physical harm that is done to the public by particular nostrums of public health, especially those that impose constraints and privations "for your own good," as the saying goes.

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Negative Advertising

2010-12-03T17:00:00Z

Dozens of people over the last three years, she found, had nearly identical tales about DecorMyEyes: a purchase gone wrong, followed by phone calls, e-mails and threats, sometimes lasting for months or years.

It's all part of a sales strategy, he said. Online chatter about DecorMyEyes, even furious online chatter, pushed the site higher in Google search results, which led to greater sales. He closed with a sardonic expression of gratitude: "I never had the amount of traffic I have now since my 1st complaint. I am in heaven."

"I've exploited this opportunity because it works. No matter where they post their negative comments, it helps my return on investment. So I decided, why not use that negativity to my advantage?"

"Look," he says, grabbing an iPad off a small table. He types "Christian Audigier," the name of a French designer, and "glasses" into Google. DecorMyEyes pops up high on the first page.

"Why am I there?" he asks, sounding both peeved and amazed. "I don't belong there. I actually outrank the designer's own Web site."

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Recruiting Robots for Battle

2010-12-03T17:00:00Z

"One of the great arguments for armed robots is they can fire second," said Joseph W. Dyer, a former vice admiral and the chief operating officer of iRobot, which makes robots that clear explosives as well as the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner. When a robot looks around a battlefield, he said, the remote technician who is seeing through its eyes can take time to assess a scene without firing in haste at an innocent person.

Yet the idea that robots on wheels or legs, with sensors and guns, might someday replace or supplement human soldiers is still a source of extreme controversy. Because robots can stage attacks with little immediate risk to the people who operate them, opponents say that robot warriors lower the barriers to warfare, potentially making nations more trigger-happy and leading to a new technological arms race.

"Wars will be started very easily and with minimal costs" as automation increases, predicted Wendell Wallach, a scholar at the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics and chairman of its technology and ethics study group.

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Twinkling Stars May Reveal Human-Size Wormholes

2010-12-02T17:00:00Z

"This is a neat calculation showing that, if wormholes are out there, this would give us a fighting chance to see them," said Matt Visser, a theoretical physicist at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand (also not involved in the study). "But wormholes are speculative stuff. A lot of work has been done with them, but primarily as a theoretical tool to stretch Einstein's ideas to their limits, to break them and see what drops out the other end."

Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen proposed the existence of wormholes in 1935, dubbing them Einstein-Rosen bridges. Decades later, the objects were mathematically shown to be unstable: Before even a piece of light could have a chance to fly through, the throat of the wormhole would close up for good.

More recent work by Michael Morris and Kip Thorne, however, suggests that highly exotic negative mass and energy - thought to behave counter to gravity - could prop open a wormhole's throat long enough for a courageous human to sneak through.

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Economists' Grail: A Post-Crash Model

2010-12-02T17:00:00Z

Mr. Farmer sees a perhaps greater flaw in the models' mathematical structure. A typical "dynamic stochastic general equilibrium" model-so called for its efforts to incorporate time and random change-consists of anywhere from a few to dozens of interlinked equations, which must agree before the model can spit out a solution. If the equations get too complex, or if there are too many elements, the models have a hard time finding the point at which all the players' preferences meet.

To keep things simple, economists leave out large chunks of reality. Before the crisis, most models didn't have banks, defaults or capital markets, a fact that proved problematic when the financial crisis hit. They tend to include only households, firms, central banks and the government. They also commonly use a single equation to represent each player, impairing the models' ability to explain the unexpected outcomes that can emerge when millions of different people interact.

"You are limited by what you can solve," says Mr. Farmer. "It puts the whole enterprise in a straitjacket."

His proposal: Create a richly complex, computer-based simulation of the economy like those scientists use to model weather patterns, epidemics and traffic. Given enough computing power, such "agent-based" models can include millions of individual players, who don't have to be rational or agree with one another. Instead of equations that must be solved, the players have open-ended rules of behavior, such as, "If I've just turned 55 and I'm feeling blue, I'll buy a sports car."

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Time to Topple Keynesian Economics

2010-12-02T17:00:00Z

Classical economists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, from Adam Smith to J.S. Mill (and neoclassical economists like Marshall and Pigou who followed them in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century prior to Keynes) conflated the big picture-the nation and trade-with the small picture-households, workers and firms. They had it right because the big and small pictures are inextricably linked. You can't look at one without considering the other.

Keynesianism produced a pedagogical schism in economics that has no relevance at all for the way economies work. Textbooks were divided into two parts: microeconomics and macroeconomics. Macroeconomics took on a life of its own. It was and still is a Keynesian world of aggregates, seemingly distinct from the economic forces at work among households, workers and firms. Keynes and his followers invented a new artificial world which, in fact, has no relationship to underlying economic forces. It has no underpinning. It has no legs. Trying to understand how the economy works, and how to put it right, through macroeconomics is like trying to understand how an engine works, and how to fix it, without regard at all to its constituent parts and how they work together.

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Can Republicans Talk?: Part II

2010-12-01T08:00:00Z

Guess who said the following: "It is incredible that a system of taxation which permits a man with an income of $1,000,000 a year to pay not one cent to his Government should remain unaltered."

Franklin D. Roosevelt? Ted Kennedy? Nancy Pelosi?

Not even close. It was Andrew Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury under conservative Republican President Calvin Coolidge.

Coming: Gov't By Regulation Instead Of Law

2010-12-01T08:00:00Z

Republicans are assuming that cap-and-trade (aka cap-and-tax) is dead because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lacks the votes to bring up the House-passed bill and because this issue proved a loser in the 2010 House races. Like the famous Mark Twain saying, its death may be exaggerated.

Hoekstra: World's Trust in U.S. Now at Risk

2010-11-29T08:00:00Z

A leading Republican Congressman called WikiLeaks' release of secret U.S. State Department documents "catastrophic" which would make other governments question whether America can be trusted.

Rep. Peter Hoesktra, R-Mich., Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the more than a quarter-million diplomatic messages released by the whistleblower organization and published by news media organization in the U.S. and Europe contain "a whole number of time bombs."

China acts as conduit for North Korea's weapons trade, US claims

2010-11-29T08:00:00Z

THE WikiLeaks documents will intensify pressure on China to clamp down on its North Korean ally's extensive secret arms trafficking, much of it conducted across Chinese territory according to American diplomats.

They show that the former US president George Bush complained about North Korean shipments of advanced missile components via Beijing to Iran when he met China's President, Hu Jintao, at the 2007 summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation group in Sydney.

TSA pat-down leaves traveler covered in urine

2010-11-22T08:00:00Z

A retired special education teacher on his way to a wedding in Orlando, Fla., said he was left humiliated, crying and covered with his own urine after an enhanced pat-down by TSA officers recently at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

"I was absolutely humiliated, I couldn't even speak," said Thomas D. "Tom" Sawyer, 61, of Lansing, Mich.

Pentagon to Release 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Report Early

2010-11-22T08:00:00Z

Can one day make a difference? Defense Secretary Robert Gates apparently thinks so. He's ordered the early release of a Pentagon report on the effects of ending the military prohibition of gays serving openly in the armed forces. The report is due by Dec. 1, but Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Sunday it will be released Nov. 30 in order "to support Congress's wish to consider repeal before they adjourn."

Four in 10 Say Marriage is Becoming Obsolete

2010-11-18T17:00:00Z

About 29 percent of children under 18 now live with a parent or parents who are unwed or no longer married, a fivefold increase from 1960, according to the Pew report being released Thursday. Broken down further, about 15 percent have parents who are divorced or separated and 14 percent who were never married. Within those two groups, a sizable chunk - 6 percent - have parents who are live-in couples who opted to raise kids together without getting married.

Indeed, about 39 percent of Americans said marriage was becoming obsolete. And that sentiment follows U.S. census data released in September that showed marriages hit an all-time low of 52 percent for adults 18 and over.

In 1978, just 28 percent believed marriage was becoming obsolete.

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Gloria Steinem insults "Right-Wing Women"

2010-11-18T17:00:00Z

Question: Why do some women vote for Republicans even though the party wants to take away their reproductive freedoms?

Gloria Steinem: It's very difficult. I mean, of course any group of people that has been subordinate absorbs the idea of our own subordination, and that it is natural, and comes to think that the only way to survive is to identify with the powerful. And I think that is not surprising, and it is what happens to a lot of right-wing women. I mean they think they better do what the powerful tell them do otherwise they'll be in even more trouble. So, I understand that, but anyone with any faith in the future, self respect, hope for themselves... you can't vote for people who don't vote for you and that is... There is a whole wonderful book called "The Republican War Against Women" that documents this from the '60s forward. It wasn't always true. The Republican Party was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment for instance, but it is true now.

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GM Stock Sale (WSJ)

2010-11-18T08:00:00Z

GM sold about 478 million shares Wednesday at $33 each, a price higher than the company and its bankers thought was possible just days ago. An additional 71.7 million shares are expected to be sold by GM's bankers as part of an "overallotment" allowed when sales are stronger than expected. And it sold $4.35 billion in preferred shares.

Wednesday afternoon at the Manhattan headquarters of one of the lead bankers, Morgan Stanley, GM executives were greeted by traders and bankers standing and cheering while wearing blue GM T-shirts over their shirts and ties.

Buyers of the GM shares included giant pension and hedge funds as well as GM factory workers and retirees. Among foreign buyers will be China's largest car maker, SAIC Motor Corp., which is GM's biggest partner in the world's largest auto market. SAIC will buy about $500 million of shares for a GM stake of close to 1%, people familiar with the matter said.

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Soros Tells Progressives to Drop Obama

2010-11-18T08:00:00Z

WASHINGTON -- At a private meeting on Tuesday afternoon, George Soros, a longtime supporter of progressive causes, voiced blunt criticism of the Obama administration, going so far as to suggest that Democratic donors direct their support somewhere other than the president.

The Hungarian-American financier was speaking to a small side gathering of donors who had convened in Washington D.C. for the annual gathering of the Democracy Alliance -- a formal community of well-funded, progressive-minded individuals and activists.

According to multiple sources with knowledge of his remarks, Soros told those in attendance that he is "used to fighting losing battles but doesn't like to lose without fighting."

"We have just lost this election, we need to draw a line," he said, according to several Democratic sources. "And if this president can't do what we need, it is time to start looking somewhere else."

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Motor Trend 'Car of the Year': Chevy Volt (Congratulations, Taxpayers!)

2010-11-17T08:00:00Z

The vehicle that the New York Times called "GMs electric lemon" has been named Motor Trend's Car of the Year: The 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle has been named Car of the Year by Motor Trend magazine, for General Motors' second title in four years.

The Volt beat out contenders that include the Ford Fiesta, Hyundai Sonata, Lincoln MKZ hybrid, BMW 5 Series, Jaguar XJ, Infiniti M and Audi A8.

7 Celebrity Men of Old Whose Careers Would Flounder in Modern Wussy Hollywood

2010-11-17T08:00:00Z

I may be too young to start a sentence with "when I was growing up." Be that as it may, when I was a child, boys used to challenge each other to engage in risky behavior by saying, "It'll put hair on your chest." Implied in such a challenge was the idea that hair on your chest was a desirable attribute. Indeed, as a boy, why shouldn't it be? Body hair is a sign of physical maturity, and what boy doesn't take pride in becoming a man?

The big disconnect: D.C. elites think Obama will be re-elected, the public doubts it

2010-11-16T08:00:00Z

The midterms not only dealt a big shock to the Democrats, but also sent a message to President Obama. According to the new POLITICO "Power and the People" poll, only 26 percent of the public believes he will now be re-elected as President in 2012.

This difference of expectations could mislead the president if he is listening to the Beltway chatter - right here in D.C. he may just find a lot of comfort in this assessment by insiders , and that may lead to actions that don't fully adjust for the sea change that has occurred among the general public.

Why We Need to 'Cool It' on Global Warming

2010-11-16T08:00:00Z

For 20 years now, we've been debating what (if anything) we should do about global warming, with very little to show for it. Despite grandiose pledges such as the 2008 promise by the Group of Eight industrialized nations to work to cut global carbon emissions in half by 2050, no meaningful international climate agreement has ever been reached and greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are higher than they've ever been.

Why Spam Exists

2010-11-15T17:00:00Z

This guy paid his local computer repair guys $20,000,000 over 3 or 4 years to protect his computer from "a sinister virus emanating in a remote village of Honduras and created as part of a plot to infiltrate the United States government by Polish priests linked to Opus Dei." The New York Times article, linked below, doesn't say it but I'm pretty sure he's allowed to vote.

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Israeli official: Hamas rockets can reach Tel Aviv

2010-11-15T08:00:00Z

A senior Israeli intelligence official warned Sunday that Hamas rulers in the Gaza Strip have rockets that can travel 80 kilometers (50 miles) - a longer range than previously reported, which would put the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv within range of its launchers.

The official blamed Egypt, saying it was not doing enough to stem smuggling through a network of tunnels along the relatively short border between its Sinai desert and the Palestinian territory. An Egyptian security official reached for comment maintained that Egypt was combating the smuggling successfully.

Just Stay Home

2010-11-15T08:00:00Z

The trade association of U.S. airlines -- the Air Transport Association -- says that it expects that about 24 million Americans will take to the air over the Thanksgiving holiday. That would be about 3 percent more air travelers than flew last Thanksgiving. I hope they are wrong. Travelers should drive, take the train, bicycle, walk or just stay home. Just don't fly. If we stay on the ground, the message may finally get through to our government: stop harassing us and concentrate on finding the bad guys.

Hobbled Dems, eager GOP back for lame-duck session

2010-11-15T08:00:00Z

Seven weeks ahead of the GOP House takeover, hobbled Democrats and invigorated Republicans return Monday to a testy tax dispute and a lengthy to-do list for a postelection session of Congress unlikely to achieve any landmark legislation. With change clearly in the air, more than 100 mainly Republican freshmen arrive on Capitol Hill to be schooled on the jobs they'll assume when the next Congress convenes in January. For Democrats, it's another sad note as one of their most venerable members goes on trial on ethics charges.

Dems extol facts and science but act on ideology

2010-11-12T08:00:00Z

President Obama recently fretted that our politics has become so rough-and-tumble that "facts and science and argument do not seem to be winning the day all the time." Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser just before the election, the president worried that Americans were so rattled by economic anxieties that they might lose their heads and choose Republicans over Democrats -- a fear that became a reality on Nov. 2.

Dems extol facts and science but act on ideology

2010-11-12T08:00:00Z

Energy czar Carol Browner needs to go the way of disgraced green jobs czar Van Jones: under the bus and stripped of her unbridled power to destroy jobs and lives in the name of saving the planet. ASAP.

One of the Beltway's most influential, entrenched and unaccountable left-wing radicals, Browner has now been called out twice by President Obama's own federal BP oil spill commission and Interior Department inspector general. How many strikes should a woman who circumvented the Senate confirmation process and boasts a sordid history of abusing public office get?

The Dangers of Quantitative Easing

2010-11-11T17:00:00Z

Thank the Federal Reserve. The central bank has embarked on its program of "quantitative easing," a second round of experimental monetary policy in which the Fed buys up assets - like longer term government bonds - to bring down interest rates, which is supposed to spur lending and borrowing, thus reigniting the economy.

Nobody knows whether it will work to bring down the intractable rate of unemployment. But it has already worked in one significant way: the speculative juices of the markets are flowing.

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More federal workers' pay tops $150,000

2010-11-10T08:00:00Z

The number of federal workers earning $150,000 or more a year has soared tenfold in the past five years and doubled since President Obama took office, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

The fast-growing pay of federal employees has captured the attention of fiscally conservative Republicans who won control of the U.S. House of Representatives in last week's elections. Already, some lawmakers are planning to use the lame-duck session that starts Monday to challenge the president's plan to give a 1.4% across-the-board pay raise to 2.1 million federal workers.

No Illegal Alien Pilot Left Behind

2010-11-10T08:00:00Z

Chalk up another Code Red Elmo moment for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. While Islamic terrorists groom suicide bombers starting in kindergarten, the grownups in charge of protecting America can't seem to reach an elementary level of competence.

The "good" news: Hindsight-driven bureaucrats at DHS moved to ban high-risk cargo from Yemen and Somalia this week after a global air scare involving makeshift printer/toner cartridge-bombs. The bad news: More than nine years after the 9/11 jihadist attacks, untold numbers of high-risk flyers have been able to board, ride and pilot American planes -- some with Transportation Security Administration approval to boot.

Newsmax Poll: Gates, Buffett, and Trump Could Beat Obama in 2012 Race

2010-11-10T08:00:00Z

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett have no political experience or aspirations, but both would defeat President Barack Obama in a head-to-head race for the presidency, according to a new Newsmax/SurveyUSA poll.

The poll also found that such well-known business figures as Donald Trump, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally are within striking distance of defeating Obama.

A recoil against liberalism

2010-11-04T07:00:00Z

Unwilling to delay until tomorrow mistakes that could be made immediately, Democrats used 2010 to begin losing 2012. Trying to preemptively drain the election of its dangerous (to Democrats) meaning, all autumn Democrats described the electorate as suffering a brain cramp, an apoplexy of fear, rage, paranoia, cupidity - something.

Obama's turn to change

2010-11-04T07:00:00Z

What is the most damaging - Democrats losing control in the House, the GOP falling short of control in the Senate, the decimated ranks of centrist and conservative Democrats, the coming investigations, the loss of 19 state legislatures to the Republicans, who will now have a lock on redistricting, or the flight of independents, women and suburban voters to the GOP? For President Obama, preparing a reelection campaign for 2012, it would be hard to imagine a worse outcome to the 2010 midterm elections. Democrats have now vacated the South and the Midwest, and Republicans have reclaimed territory Obama won in 2008, including Pennsylvania, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. The election shrank the Obama coalition that won in 2008, with women, independents, Roman Catholics and suburban voters all trending away from Democrats. Seniors showed up in high numbers, and a majority of them voted for Republicans.

Driver gets false 'revenge' ticket for telling-off parking officer

2010-11-04T07:00:00Z

A Denver parking enforcement officer took revenge on a driver who called him a "meter maid" by asking a co-worker to write the driver a false parking ticket, 9Wants to Know has learned.
The parking officers then mailed the $150 handicapped parking ticket to the driver late, so by the time he received it, the fine had doubled.

Guess Who

2010-11-02T07:00:00Z

Guess who said the following: "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work." Was it Sarah Palin? Rush Limbaugh? Karl Rove?

Not even close. It was Henry Morgenthau, Secretary of the Treasury under Franklin D. Roosevelt and one of FDR's closest advisers. He added, "after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. . . And an enormous debt to boot!"

Explaining Why The Democrats Will Be Obliterated Today In 7 Quotes

2010-11-02T07:00:00Z

If you ask the Left, they'll give you every excuse in the book for why they're going to get their brains beaten out today. The economy is bad, Obama cooperates too much with the Republicans, the American people are irrational, it's Bush's fault -- it goes on and on.

What you will very seldom hear are liberals admitting that they richly deserve to be decimated today because of their poor performance, terrible policies, and astonishing arrogance. Most conservatives are willing to admit that the American public rejected the GOP in 2006 and 2008 because the Republican Party did a lousy job. If and when liberals are willing to admit that they deserve the beating that they're going to get, then you'll know that they're starting to act a little more like adults and a little less like, well....liberals.

What's At Stake In This Election

2010-11-02T07:00:00Z

Political junkies can hardly count the minutes until the returns start coming in. Pollsters and pundits have been feeding the addiction with new data from the latest surveys, early voting trends, and stories from the campaign trail. The big question: just how high will the Republican wave go and how hard will it hit the Democratic party?

Yet that's not really what this election is about. It's important, of course, to send current Congressional leadership home. Representatives need to be reminded that they truly are accountable to voters. Importantly, voters also won't just be sending a new set of political insiders to Washington. Many of the newly elected will come from outside of the political arena. This will change Congressional culture, and the GOP in particular will be a different party. Republicans aren't just adding seats; they are gaining numerous outspoken champions of more limited government and free markets. These new Members hopefully will hold the party to account, as well as the government.

NASCAR Gasoline Going Green In 2011

2010-10-21T16:00:00Z

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- NASCAR will move from unleaded fuel to an ethanol blend in all three of its national series beginning next season.

The switch to Sunoco Green E15 was announced Saturday by NASCAR chairman Brian France, who touted the switch as yet another step by the auto racing series toward environment friendly practices.

"This is the most visible thing that we can do to let our partners and our fans know that NASCAR is taking a slow, steady march as an industry," France said at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The E15 blend is a mixture of 15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gasoline. It is a clean-burning, high-octane motor fuel, and the ethanol portion is produced from renewable resources that Sunoco will get from the Midwest.

"Domestic ethanol, for sure," France said.

The blend will replace Sunoco 260 GTX, a 98-octane fuel that is currently used at all three of NASCAR's national divisions. NASCAR made the move, with Sunoco, from leaded to unleaded gasoline at the start of the 2007 season. more

Robert Miller, MOH Recipient

2010-10-07T16:00:00Z

..."If I get killed on this mission," Miller said to his friend Staff Sgt. Nick McGarry a few hours before the patrol, "I don't want to be remembered for dying. I want to be remembered for who I was."

What Miller showed that morning about who he was will be recognized Wednesday at the White House...

...The second of eight kids, Miller, 24, was a driven staff sergeant who seemed destined for his fateful mission from the time he took his first steps at 7 months old. As a Boy Scout, he was thrilled to go camping and hiking. In eighth grade, he wrote a poem about the valor of the Army in World War II. In high school, he was a star gymnast, played sousaphone in the Wheaton North marching band, loved Hemingway and deep-dish pizza and was grateful for the D he got in Latin. The owner of the gym where Miller worked trusted him with keys to the place when Miller was 16. His homecoming date said she never felt more secure than when he was with her... more

WSJ: Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling. Too Bad it is not for U.S.

2010-10-07T16:00:00Z

Even though President Obama is against offshore drilling for our country, he signed an executive order to loan $2 Billion of our taxpayer dollars (which we can't afford to loan since we're broke) to a Brazilian Oil Exploration Company (the 8th largest company in the entire world), to drill for oil off the coast of Brazil.

The Chinese Communist military owns and controls all industry in China. So what? So here's the connection: the Chinese military is under contract to purchase all the oil that this field will produce, which is hundreds of millions of barrels; we Americans have absolutely no gain from this transaction. None.

Guess who is the largest individual stockholder of this Brazilian Oil Company and who would benefit most from this? It is American billionaire, George Soros, who was President Obama's most generous financial supporter during his campaign.

Not a word of this transaction was broadcast on any of the news networks!

Below is the Wall street Journal article confirming
this information.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574346610120524166.html

Vote Big Spenders Out

2010-10-06T16:00:00Z

The Spending voted for by each Member of Congress and the National Debt are being scrutinized by 2010 OR BU$T, a nonpartisan public information organization. Its website, www.votebigspendersout.com [VoteBigSpendersOut.com], keeps a running tab on the spending of Members of Congress starting January 2009.

North America about to be hit by tsunami of Far East goods

2010-10-06T16:00:00Z

The Chinese deep-water port at Yangshan, near Shanghai, provides ample evidence North America is about to be hit by a tsunami of containers from China. Yangshan is a reclaimed island the size of 470 soccer fields that lies in the East China Sea Port, offshore from Shanghai. According to Bloomberg News, the Chinese have invested $15 billion to develop Yangshan, currently the largest port in China. story

National Cryptologic Memorial

2010-10-06T16:00:00Z

The National Security Agency/Central Security Service Cryptologic Memorial honors and remembers those who gave their lives, "serving in silence," in the line of duty. It serves as an important reminder of the crucial role that cryptology plays in keeping the United States secure and of the courage of these individuals to carry out their mission at such a dear price. more

Thomas Jefferson Quotes

2010-10-05T16:00:00Z

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:
'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.'

Legislation Could Repeal Incandescent Ban

2010-10-04T16:00:00Z

Incandescents may be given a stay of execution. Last week, U.S. Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas), Michael Burgess (R-Texas), and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn) introduced legislation designed to repeal the incandescent light bulb ban.

The "Better Use of Light Bulbs Act" (H.R. 6144) would repeal Subtitle B of Title III of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the latter of which acts as a de facto ban on incandescent light bulbs. As it stands, 100 W incandescents will be phased out in 2012, and by 2014, the Edison light bulb will be contraband. In turn, this has raised concerns about forced obsolescence of legacy technologies. story

Scientific American: Coal Waste More Radioactive Than Nuclear Waste

2010-10-04T16:00:00Z

The waste produced by coal plants is actually more radioactive than that generated by their nuclear counterparts. In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power plant-a by-product from burning coal for electricity-carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy.

...estimated radiation doses ingested by people living near the coal plants were equal to or higher than doses for people living around the nuclear facilities.story

Politically Correct Terrorism, and the Invincible Ignorance of the Left

2010-10-01T16:00:00Z

If you are politically incorrect, then you are not following the party line-your politics are somehow out of sync, and you must be brought back into alignment with the correct, approved way of thinking, speaking, and behaving-for the good of the collective. story

Kim Jung Un

2010-09-30T16:00:00Z

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea introduced its heir apparent to the world Thursday, a chubby-faced young man with a serious expression, combed back hair cut high and tight on the sides and wearing a communist-style black suit. story

The Lawyer Party

2010-09-30T16:00:00Z

The Democratic Party has become the Lawyers' Party. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are lawyers. Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama are lawyers...

..The Republican Party is different. President Bush and Vice President Cheney were not lawyers, but businessmen. The leaders of the Republican Revolution were not lawyers. Newt Gingrich was a history professor; Tom Delay was an exterminator; and Dick Armey was an economist. House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer, not a lawyer. The former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is a heart surgeon.

article

The Pain Begins.

2010-09-23T17:05:00Z

Today, six months since Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Obama will be celebrating the signature achievement of his administration.

It's apt to be a lonely celebration: Few Democratic candidates are willing to talk about the health-care bill -- except the ones running ads to remind the electorate that they voted against it.

Still, the president will speak today before a group of state insurance regulators, while a coalition of labor unions and liberal activist groups organize rallies around the country. They'll undoubtedly focus on some of the new law's more popular provisions, many of which start today -- while ignoring the mandates, taxes and rationing that will come later. Indeed, the provisions they'll tout come with asterisks that they won't mention.

Colbert Offers Comedy Shtick in Farm Workers Testimony, Fails to Amuse Lawmakers

2010-09-23T17:05:00Z

Stephen Colbert's routine as a Republican commentator on his hit TV show might leave millions of his fans laughing every night, but he failed to amuse lawmakers Friday during a House panel hearing on farm jobs and illegal immigrants.

T-Mobile Claims Right to Censor Text Messages

2010-09-23T17:05:00Z

T-Mobile told a federal judge Wednesday it may pick and choose which text messages to deliver on its network in a case weighing whether wireless carriers have the same "must carry" obligations as wire-line telephone providers.

Wind Energy's Real Problems: (Hint: It Has Nothing to Do With The Wall Street Journal)

2010-09-22T17:24:00Z

My August 24 article in the Wall Street Journal has apparently caused some discomfort among various advocates of wind energy.(1)

Given that discomfort, it's worth revisiting the thesis of my Journal piece. As a reminder, here's the thesis statement: several studies have concluded that "wind-generated electricity likely won't result in any reduction in carbon emissions -- or that they'll be so small as to be almost meaningless."

The Estate Tax Is A Tax On Those Without Estates

2010-09-22T17:17:00Z

The one-year disappearance of the estate tax in 2010 has unsurprisingly generated a great deal of commentary about how accumulated wealth should be taxed going forward. Former Goldman Sachs head Robert Rubin recently joined with hedge fund eminence Julian Robertson to ask for the quick reinstatement of what some term the "death tax."

Democrats Likely Lose Another Key GOP Vote on DADT

2010-09-22T17:17:00Z

It appears as if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's chances to start debate on a $726 billion defense policy bill just got a little dimmer.

Moderate GOP Sen Susan Collins of Maine just said she would not lend her vote later today to shut down a GOP filibuster if Reid does not allow a full and open debate on amendments, including one she would oppose that would strike language from the bill that repeals the military's policy against homosexuals serving openly in the armed forces.

Black Panther case roars back to life

2010-09-21T18:17:00Z

New Consumer Agency Architect Vows Tough Stance on Businesses

2010-09-21T17:14:00Z

The woman President Barack Obama has installed to set up a new consumer protection agency says she won't back down in the face of business resistance.

Military Ban on Homosexuals Becomes Election-Year Hot Button

2010-09-21T17:14:00Z

It's John McCain versus Lady Gaga on Tuesday as the Senate takes up the emotional issue of repealing the ban on gays serving openly in the military.