Abortion equivalent to viagra; Dems raise debt ceiling; Stimulus III; TSA helps terrorists

1) Here is the asinine quote of the day, by Senator Barbara Boxer: “The men who have brought us this [amendment] don’t single out a procedure that is used by a man, or a drug that is used by a man, that involves his reproductive health care, and say they have to get a special rider...There is nothing in this amendment that says if a man some day wants to buy Viagra, for example, that his pharmaceutical coverage cannot cover it, that he has to buy a rider." As if a drug used to enhance sexual pleasure were the equivalent of murdering an unborn baby! And how dare she claim to speak for women. How dare she.   And here is #2: "Is it morally right to use tax dollars from pro-life Americans to cover insurance plans that cover abortion?" Feinstein said: "Is it morally correct? Yes, I believe it is. Abortion is legal, and there (are) certain very tragic circumstances that a woman finds herself in. Married, with an unborn baby that’s unable to survive outside of the womb, her doctor tells her it’s a threat to her health. I think she ought to have a policy available to her." First of all, 95% of abortions are elective - not based on the ability of baby or mother to survive. Secondly, the Hyde and Stupak Amendments include exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.

Commentary, mine. The quotes you can find all over any internet search engine.

2) Dems to lift debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion, fear 2010 backlash

In a bold but risky year-end strategy, Democrats are preparing to raise the federal debt ceiling by as much as $1.8 trillion before New Year’s rather than have to face the issue again prior to the 2010 elections. “We’ve incurred this debt. We have to pay our bills,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told POLITICO Wednesday. And the Maryland Democrat confirmed that the anticipated increase could be as high as $1.8 trillion — nearly twice what had been assumed in last spring’s budget resolution for the 2010 fiscal year. See: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30417.html?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell 3) Stimulus III Democrats want TARP to become a revolving line of political credit. If at first fiscal stimulus doesn't succeed, spend, spend again. That's the motto President Obama embraced yesterday, even if he didn't use the word "stimulus," which has managed to set a political record in the speed with which it has become unpopular with voters. This time, the spending is being called "Proposals to Accelerate Job Growth and Lay the Foundation for Robust Economic Growth." But wasn't that also supposed to be the point of last February's $787 billion stimulus, or for that matter of the Nancy Pelosi-George W. Bush $165 billion stimulus of February 2008? Nearly two years after that first Keynesian stimulus that was supposed to prevent a recession, and nearly a year after the second that the White House said would keep the jobless rate below 8%, the President now feels obliged to propose a third. Like the joke about Paul Krugman having predicted seven of the last two recessions, sooner or later the White House is bound to get the political timing right. See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703558004574584221812178920.html?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell 4) ObamaJobs: Uncle Sam's Hiring Hall The U.S. can't have new entrepreneurs and tax them too. Every serious person should welcome the president's proposals to lift the dormant economy and reduce unemployment. Not because every serious person would agree with them but because they are a clear test of how a left-wing government would run the American economy. If this works, hats off to them and we become France. If not, Americans may finally dump left-wing economics into the ash heap of history, starting next November and then in the next presidential election, which can't come soon enough. …Everyone in politics genuflects in the direction of the job-creation powers of "entrepreneurs" and their ideas. But the generation of Democrats who rose to power with the Obama presidency and the current House majority don't really trust or much like real entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship, the kind that creates industries and jobs on the scale we'll need in the next century, is about two things: Ideas that spring randomly from some slightly crazed dreamer's head; and worse, they often get filthy rich if the dreams are real. The left likes neither. …Barack Obama campaigned for a year against "the top 1%" and "the wealthiest." It sounded like more than economics to me. But a nation can't have entrepreneurs and eat them, too. Asia is overflowing with rich entrepreneurs. Google "China's auto industry." They have more new auto manufacturers than you can count. If the U.S. has any hope of competing long term with this rising force, it will have to let some Americans get as rich as nouveau riche Asians. This presidency won't do that. At the jobs summit, Mr. Obama said "I want to hear from CEOs what's holding back our business investment." Really? How about the world's highest corporate tax rate? How about the 5.4% health-care surtax on top of the expiring Bush tax cuts, which will push the top marginal individual rate, paid at the outset by many entrepreneurs, well over 40% (emphasis mine)? See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704240504574586351637609092.html 5) House Democrats double tax Obama said he’d cut House Democrats keep stepping on President Obama's applause lines about innovation and job creation. On Tuesday, Mr. Obama announced that "we're proposing a complete elimination of capital gains taxes on small business investment" for one year. Responding with rare dispatch, the House voted yesterday to change the capital gains rate for venture capitalists who invest in technology start-ups. But rather than eliminating the tax, the House more than doubled it, moving the tax rate to 35% from 15% by reclassifying such gains as ordinary income. Private equity fund managers and managers of real-estate and oil-and-gas partnerships would also get socked with this 133% tax-rate increase. Now there's a way to encourage economic growth and new jobs. See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704240504574586274278223030.html 6) Bush closes the gap …Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama's declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they'd rather have his predecessor. See: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1209/Bush_closes_the_gap.html 7) TSA accidentally reveals airport security secrets The Transportation Security Administration inadvertently revealed closely guarded secrets related to airport passenger screening practices when it posted online this spring a document as part of a contract solicitation, the agency confirmed Tuesday. …Criticism from Congress was scathing. Sen. Susan M. Collins (Maine), the ranking Republican on the Senate homeland security committee, called the document's release "shocking and reckless." "This manual provides a road map to those who would do us harm," she said. See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/08/AR2009120803206.html

7a) More on this…TSA Posts ‘How To’ Guide For Terrorists

…Among the most disturbing disclosures concern the settings used to test and operate metal detectors. For instance, officers are instructed to discontinue use of an X-ray system if it cannot detect 24-gauge wire. The manual also describes when to allow certain firearms past the checkpoint, and when police, fire or emergency personnel may bypass screening.

The document identifies the minimum number of security officers who must be present at checkpoints, how often checked bags are to be hand-searched, and screening procedures for foreign dignitaries and CIA-escorted passengers. It also says that passport-holders from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen and Algeria should face additional screening. Of course it is probably this last line that will get the TSA in trouble. We must not have profiling. See: http://sweetness-light.com/archive/tsa-posts-how-to-guide-for-terrorists 8) GOP opposes expanded water act

Calls bid stealthy power grab

A group of 28 Republican lawmakers from Western states is fighting efforts by Democrats in the House and Senate to quietly expand the scope of the Clean Water Act, the federal government's main tool for regulating the quality of the nation's waterways.

The lawmakers sent a letter Tuesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada opposing efforts to rush through Congress the Clean Water Restoration Act, a bill that would allow the federal government to protect all waters of the U.S. from pollution, not just the "navigable" waters covered in current law. The letter says that the lawmakers would vote against any legislation that contains the expansion. See: http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/10/gop-opposes-expanded-water-act/ 8a) EDITORIAL: Leave our fish ponds alone Not content to have the government control the very air we exhale, some liberal members of Congress want to regulate every drop of water in the country and the land on which it sits. If they get their wish, the government would exercise dominion over land, air and sea to an extent never before seen. Earlier this week came news of the decision by the power-hungry Environmental Protection Agency that carbon dioxide, which all animals and people exhale with every breath, amounts to an "endangerment" of human health. Now comes Rep. James Oberstar, Minnesota Democrat and chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, to try to match a Senate committee that already advanced a bill to radically expand the scope of federal water regulations. Last week, Mr. Oberstar's staff repeated his determination to do likewise by year's end, with a bill misnamed the Clean Water Restoration Act (CWRA). The Senate version of the legislation looks deceptively like a minor change. As confirmed in several recent U.S. Supreme Court cases, federal regulatory authority currently extends only to waters that are navigable or perhaps directly connected to navigable waters. The Senate bill would remove the word "navigable." The significance of the dropped word is that any backyard fish pond or birdbath, any swimming pool or even a piece of low ground that is prone to forming puddles after rains, could be subject to the dictates of bureaucrats at the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers (emphasis mine). See: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/10/leave-our-fish-ponds-alone/ 9) Promotion day arrives for white Conn. Firefighters NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Amid blaring bagpipes, the crowd erupted with even louder cheers, whistles and shouts when firefighters entered a high school auditorium to receive their promotional badges after a 5-year legal battle that ended with a U.S. Supreme Court victory. The high court ruled in June that New Haven officials violated white firefighters' civil rights when they threw out 2003 test results in which too few minorities did well. …The case became an issue in confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who ruled against the white firefighters when she served on a federal appeals court (emphasis mine). See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091211/ap_on_re_us/us_firefighters_lawsuit 10) ACLU loses its biggest donor: $19 million a year Previously anonymous giver says economy has taken toll on his finances GOOD! NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union has lost a quarter of its yearly donations after a major donor cut off $19 million in annual donations because of economic difficulties. David Gelbaum, a wealthy California conservationist, said he was indefinitely stopping the donations that had made him the New York-based group's largest anonymous donor. See: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34364175/ns/us_news-giving