No snow, too much snow: must be global warming; Tax increases for middle class; Cold War with China?

1) Morning Bell: Global Warming – Is There Anything It Can’t Do? Tomorrow, NBC (which is owned by General Electric) will begin broadcasting the 2010 Winter Olympics from Vancouver, Canada. Only two events are scheduled for the opening day (alpine skiing and ski jumping), but even those events will be difficult to pull off. Why? There is no snow in Vancouver. And International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge knows exactly what is to blame: global warming. Rogge tells AFP: “Global warming of course is a worry, it is a worry for the entire world.” Considering that NBC/GE has already received billions in TARP bailout cash from the Obama administration and is actively lobbying for a global warming energy tax bill so that it can receive billions more in government green-energy subsidies on top of the millions it already receives, we are sure to hear lots from NBC announcers about how the lack of snow in Vancouver is just another reason Washington needs to act now to stop global warming. But back in Washington, the global warming scare-monger crowd is singing a slightly different tune. Facing record snowfalls, Time is reporting: “Snowstorm: East Coast Blizzard Tied to Climate Change.” But do not confuse this headline with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s column from two years ago claiming that global warming was causing “anemic winters” in the Washington region. No snow, too much snow. It does not matter to the enviroleft crowd. For them, global warming always is to blame…One British citizen even maintains a comprehensive list of everything the enviroleft has tried to blame on global warming including: Atlantic ocean less salty, Atlantic ocean more salty, Earth slowing down, Earth spinning faster, fish bigger, fish shrinking, and (most importantly) beer better, beer worse. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/11/morning-bell-global-warming-is-there-anything-it-cant-do/ 2) Democrats rush to curb corporate election spending before Nov. Democrats are hoping to fast-track a set of sweeping new campaign finance regulations to prevent the Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United decision from affecting the November midterm elections. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Thursday unveiled the majority party's legislative response to the Citizens United case, which they and other Democrats — including President Barack Obama — have sharply criticized as one that will "open the floodgates" to corporate financing of federal elections. Opting against a constitutional amendment to undo the court’s rejection of existing laws that ban certain political spending by corporations, Democrats are proposing to ban donations by foreign-influenced (which are already banned - see http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDcxNjNjNTlhNmQxZDYwYjNkOGJjZjkxZTZiMjI0NTg - this is nothing but political spin) and taxpayer-assisted corporations, as well as a series of tough new disclosure requirements on corporations that would still be allowed to steer money toward political action groups. See: http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/80745-dems-look-to-crack-down-on-corporate-political-spending-ahead-of-midterms

3) Obama ‘Agnostic’ on Deficit Cuts, Won’t Prejudge Tax Increases

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit. Obama, in a Feb. 9 Oval Office interview, said that a presidential commission on the budget needs to consider all options for reducing the deficit, including tax increases and cuts in spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. “The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table,” the president said in the interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “So what I want to do is to be completely agnostic, in terms of solutions.” See: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-11/obama-agnostic-on-deficit-cuts-won-t-prejudge-tax-increases.html 4) PROMISES, PROMISES: Jobs bill short on making jobs WASHINGTON – There's a problem with the bipartisan jobs bill emerging in the Senate: It won't create many jobs. The bill includes tax cuts to please Republicans and its passage would hand President Barack Obama a badly needed political victory. But even the Obama administration acknowledges the legislation's centerpiece — a tax cut for businesses that hire unemployed workers — would work only on the margins. Tax experts and business leaders said companies are unlikely to hire workers just to receive a tax break. Before businesses start hiring, they need increased demand for their products, more work for their employees and more revenue to pay those workers. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100211/ap_on_bi_ge/us_what_jobs 5) 2011 Budget Increases Funding for Planned Parenthood President Obama's proposed budget for 2011 includes more than $327 million for Title X, the program that funds Planned Parenthood. That's a $10 million increase. Carrie Gordon Earll, senior director of issue analysis for Focus on the Family Action, said even though the funds cannot go to pay for abortions, any time Planned Parenthood funding is increased, it's cause for concern. "What Title X funding does is it frees up other money that they can then use for abortion," she said, "or other things that people would disagree with." One of the major problems with the funding, according to life advocates, is a change that allows taxpayer dollars to be used to pay for lawsuits involving abortion. "That's something previous administrations have stayed away from, because of the political nature of abortion," Earll said. "It's just not appropriate for tax dollars to be used in the way."

See: http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000012061.cfm

6) Family feud: Nancy Pelosi at odds with President Obama House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s increasingly public disagreements with President Barack Obama are a reflection of something deeper: the seething resentment some Democrats feel over what they see as cavalier treatment from a wounded White House. For months, the California lawmaker has been pushing Obama hard in private while praising him in public. But now she’s being more open in her criticism, in part because she feels the White House was wrong — in the wake of the Democrats’ loss in Massachusetts — to push the Senate health care bill on the House when she knew there was no way it would pass. …“He wants a jobs bill, we get a jobs bill,” the official said. “He wanted health care, we got health care. Then the answer is, ‘You just need to twist enough arms to pass the Senate bill.’ You can twist arms if you’ve got a handful of them to twist. You can’t twist over 100 arms. There needs to be some reality check there.” “Both ends of the Capitol — the House and the Senate — are starting to wonder if they’re on their own,” the official continued. “You have a lot of frustration there. And the White House’s reaction to all of that seems to be, ‘Run against Congress’ — which, as you can imagine, doesn’t go over very well with House members. The White House reaction seems to be, ‘Position ourselves against Congress.’” See: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32863.html 7) Rockefeller on Obama: Prez isn't 'believable' Message the same as famous 'You lie' by GOP's Joe Wilson Republican Rep. Joe Wilson created waves that left Washington rocking for weeks by shouting "You lie" to Barack Obama during the president's address to Congress last fall, and now a similar message has been delivered by a member of the president's own party. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told an audience today the president is "beginning to be not believable to me." The comment was just the latest evidence of the dissension in the Democratic Party that prevented Obama from passing his health care proposal last year despite having a significant party majority in the U.S. House and a supermajority of 60 votes in the Senate. Rockefeller, a Democrat in a family of lifelong Republicans, was referring to Obama's proposed budget that would cut tax incentives to coal mining companies. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=124963 8) Feds push for tracking cell phones Two years ago, when the FBI was stymied by a band of armed robbers known as the "Scarecrow Bandits" that had robbed more than 20 Texas banks, it came up with a novel method of locating the thieves. FBI agents obtained logs from mobile phone companies corresponding to what their cellular towers had recorded at the time of a dozen different bank robberies in the Dallas area. The voluminous records showed that two phones had made calls around the time of all 12 heists, and that those phones belonged to men named Tony Hewitt and Corey Duffey. A jury eventually convicted the duo of multiple bank robbery and weapons charges. Even though police are tapping into the locations of mobile phones thousands of times a year, the legal ground rules remain unclear, and federal privacy laws written a generation ago are ambiguous at best. On Friday, the first federal appeals court to consider the topic will hear oral arguments (PDF) in a case that could establish new standards for locating wireless devices. In that case, the Obama administration has argued that warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their--or at least their cell phones'--whereabouts (emphasis mine). U.S. Department of Justice lawyers say that "a customer's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records" that show where a mobile device placed and received calls. …"This is a critical question for privacy in the 21st century," says Kevin Bankston, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who will be arguing on Friday. "If the courts do side with the government, that means that everywhere we go, in the real world and online, will be an open book to the government unprotected by the Fourth Amendment." See: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10451518-38.html 9) Germany, Forced to Buoy Greece, Rues Euro Shift BERLIN — As Europe edges toward emergency guarantees to stem market panic over one of the most profligate members of the euro bloc, the country that the region turns to for leadership, Germany, is suffering from growing doubts about the European experiment it long championed. Reluctant German leaders now find themselves forced to help Greece remain solvent, or risk watching markets attack one weak member after the next, from Portugal to Spain to Italy, threatening the stability of the euro, the European currency Germany fought so hard to create. On Thursday, European leaders meeting in Belgium announced they had agreed to a political statement to try to reassure bond markets and head off the crisis, and said that finance ministers would work through the details next week. Earlier, in a conference call with the finance ministers from the 16 countries that use the euro and the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, officials said that some action had to be taken to calm markets and take pressure off Greece. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/world/europe/11germany.html?ref=todayspaper 10) New 'cold war' gaining steam Intel report reveals China's new tone LONDON – A secret intelligence report warns a number of Western nations soon could be caught up in a new "cold war" brewing between China and the United States, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. The dispute apparently was sparked by a Washington decision to arm Taiwan with $6.4 billion of state-of-the art weapons systems. The deal includes 60 Black Hawk helicopters, 114 Patriot anti-missile missiles and 12 Harpoon missiles. Now the impact could be felt in Britain as well as Germany, France and other European nations that have substantial trading relationships with China. For the U.K., the slowest nation to recover from global recession, any threat to its business relations with China could be devastating. The threat is contained in a highly confidential report about the U.S. sale to Taiwan and Washington's criticism of China's position on Tibet, climate change, Internet freedom and human rights that has poisoned relationships between the Obama administration and Beijing. …Sources close to Milliband say he is alarmed that the Chinese leadership could use the arms sale to Taiwan as a reason to sell a range of its latest weapons to Syria and Iran to kick-start the trading cold war (emphasis mine).

See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=124811 11) Declining U.S. Navy facing Chinese challenge Fleet's status creates door of vulnerability to other powers, terrorists A growing Chinese fleet could keep the declining U.S. Navy out of the Western Pacific, according to an expert cited in a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. The U.S. also could be faced with new military challenges around the globe because of the projection of power a growing Chinese navy would present. Yet, the U.S. Navy has cut back the number and type of ships to the level it was prior to the Reagan administration. Indeed, the Navy hasn't been as small since the administration of William Howard Taft, according to naval expert Seth Cropsey. The dire development leaves the U.S. vulnerable to "proliferation, resource scarcity, environmental change, the emergence of new international power centers including non-state actors, significant changes in relative U.S. power, failed states and demographic change … (in) an increasingly unstable future and a challenging international strategic environment," Cropsey said. Cropsey, who served during the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations as a principal deputy under the secretary of the Navy, said the U.S. Navy is "in distress." See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=124930 12) Iran is now a 'nuclear state' says Ahmadinejad as thousands take to the streets Iran is now a 'nuclear state', President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced this morning. As Gordon Brown warned that the world's patience is wearing thin, Ahmadinejad told scores of cheering Iranians that the Islamic Republic is capable of producing weapons-grade uranium. He said it had produced its first batch of 20 per cent enriched uranium - and had the capability to enrich to far higher levels at its Natanz plant. Enriching uranium produces fuel for a nuclear power plants but can also be used to create material for atomic weapons. The international community has warned Iran against further enrichment activities, threatening new UN sanctions. …Thousands of supporters had been brought in on buses to hear Ahmadinejad speak as security forces threatened to crush any opposition protests. Witnesses say security forces fired paint balls to disperse anti-government protesters in one of the first clashes of the day's ceremonies. …Iranian authorities again tried to squeeze off text messaging and Web links in attempts to cripple protest organisers. The opposition has used internet and text messaging as its main communication channels. Internet service was sharply slowed, mobile phone service widely cut and there were repeated disruptions in popular instant messaging services such as Google chat. But several Iranians reached by The Associated Press said some messenger services, including Yahoo!, and mobile phone texting were still sporadically accessible. Many Internet users said they could not log into their Gmail account, Google's e-mail service, since last week. See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1250127/Iran-Revolution-day-protests-Islamic-Republic-nuclear-state.html 13) How being vegetarian does more harm to the environment than eating meat It is a claim that could put a dent in the green credentials of vegetarians: Meat-free diets can be bad for the planet. Environmental activists and vegetarians have long taken pleasure in telling those who enjoy a steak that livestock farming is a major source of harmful greenhouse gases. But research has shown that giving up meat may not be as green as it seems. The Cranfield University study found that switching from British-bred beef and lamb to meat substitutes imported from abroad such as tofu and Quorn would increase the amount of land cultivated, raising the risk of forests being destroyed. Production methods for meat substitutes can be energy intensive and the final products tend to be highly processed, the report, which was commissioned by the environmental group WWF, found. The researchers concluded: ‘A switch from beef and milk to highly refined livestock product analogues such as tofu could actually increase the quantity of arable land needed to supply the UK. See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1250532/Being-vegetarian-does-harm-environment-eating-meat.html#ixzz0fNGOq9GF

Serving the goals of al-Qaeda?; 2011 budget - 59% increase for community organizers; China to punish US?

I wrote all nine articles on my hand.   

1) Morning Bell: Is USA Today Serving the Goals of Al-Qaeda? Yesterday, USA Today ran an editorial on the Obama administration’s handling of terrorism, writing: “Officials’ handling of Christmas Day attack looks like amateur hour.” Graciously given the space to respond to this charge, Obama administration Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan replied: “Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda.” Got that? The Obama administration considers any criticism of its national security policies, even from as benign a source as USA Today, as serving “the goals of al-Qaeda (emphasis mine).” And the problems with Brennan’s letter don’t end there: …Coordination Contradictions: Brennan asserts “Senior counterterrorism officials from the White House, the intelligence community and the military were all actively discussing this case before he was Mirandized and supported the decision to charge him in criminal court.” But this has been directly contradicted by the sworn testimony of National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair and FBI Director Robert Mueller. Someone is not telling the truth about a vital national security matter. Congress must investigate. …Military vs. Civilian Custody: Brennan writes: “There is little difference between military and civilian custody, other than an interrogator with a uniform. The suspect gets access to a lawyer, and interrogation rules are nearly identical.” That is perhaps the most fatuous sentence in Brennan’s op-ed. The roles of lawyers in the civilian and military system are completely different. In military custody, detainees are not read their Miranda rights and their lawyer’s purpose is to challenge his detention as an enemy combatant. Under civilian custody, the suspect is read his Miranda rights and his lawyer is there to make sure he does not say anything that will incriminate himself. The situations are completely different, not “nearly identical.” See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/10/morning-bell-is-usa-today-serving-the-goals-of-al-qaeda/ 2) EDITORIAL: Rotten to the AmeriCorps Among the most wasteful of the spending in- creases hidden in President Obama's 2011 budget proposal is his plan to create an army of government-funded community organizers at the shocking price of $1.4 billion. While the economy reels and many taxpayers are looking for ways to trim their personal spending, the president is demanding a whopping 59 percent boost for the Corporation for National and Community Service and its best-known program, AmeriCorps. It's time to pull the plug on both. …Rep. Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Republican, attempted last year to prohibit groups "engaged in political or legislative advocacy" from receiving taxpayer dollars through AmeriCorps. The left saw this as a direct attack on what has become a prime source of income and blocked the effort. As a result, the state of Oregon hosts on its official Web site a job listing for an AmeriCorps "volunteer" to accept an $11,100 living allowance and a $4,725 education award to work full time for a local Planned Parenthood office. The position requires a "commitment to the mission of Planned Parenthood," which - among other things - is to maximize the number of abortions performed by Planned Parenthood. Support in the past also has gone to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and various homosexual advocacy groups. This is the fundamental problem when government gets in the business of deciding which charitable efforts are worth supporting. The inevitable result is that politically correct causes will dominate, to the detriment of true community service that can only exist in the private sphere. Thousands of worthy charities, churches and other true volunteer groups are looking for eager young workers, but they can hardly compete with lavish federal subsidies that boost government's liberal pet causes. So instead of learning the ropes under the instruction of real charities, a legion of 250,000 "volunteers" can learn to become dependent upon the federal government. See: http://washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/10/rotten-to-the-americorps/ 3) 63% Say Better for Country If Most of Congress Not Reelected Most voters think the country would be better off if the majority of the current Congress wasn’t reelected this November, and their confidence in their own congressman continues to fall. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 63% of likely voters believe, generally speaking, that it would be better for the country if most incumbents in Congress were defeated this November. Just 19% disagree and say it would be better if most congressional incumbents were reelected. Another 18% aren’t sure. The Political Class strongly rejects these views, however. While 78% of Mainstream voters say it would be better for the country if most of the current Congress was turned out of office, 89% of the Political Class think it would be better if most were reelected. The number of voters nationwide (61%) who give Congress a poor job performance rating is now at its highest level in more than three years. More voters also think most members of Congress are corrupt. See: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/february_2010/63_say_better_for_country_if_most_of_congress_not_reelected 4) America: A fearsome foursome At a crucial stage in the Democratic primaries in late 2007, Barack Obama rejuvenated his campaign with a barnstorming speech, in which he ended on a promise of what his victory would produce: “A nation healed. A world repaired. An America that believes again.” Just over a year into his tenure, America’s 44th president governs a bitterly divided nation, a world increasingly hard to manage and an America that seems more disillusioned than ever with Washington’s ways. What went wrong? …In dozens of interviews with his closest allies and friends in Washington – most of them given unattributably in order to protect their access to the Oval Office – each observes that the president draws on the advice of a very tight circle. The inner core consists of just four people – Rahm Emanuel, the pugnacious chief of staff; David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, his senior advisers; and Robert Gibbs, his communications chief. …With the exception of Mr Emanuel, who was a senior Democrat in the House of Representatives, all were an integral part of Mr Obama’s brilliantly managed campaign. Apart from Mr Gibbs, who is from Alabama, all are Chicagoans (translation, thugs) – like the president. And barring Richard Nixon’s White House, few can think of an administration that has been so dominated by such a small inner circle. …John Podesta, a former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and founder of the Center for American Progress, the most influential think-tank in Mr Obama’s Washington, says that while he believes Mr Obama does hear a range of views, including dissenting advice, problems can arise from the narrow composition of the group itself. …This White House-centric structure has generated one overriding – and unexpected – failure. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Mr Emanuel managed the legislative aspect of the healthcare bill quite skilfully, say observers. The weak link was the failure to carry public opinion – not Capitol Hill. But for the setback in Massachusetts, which deprived the Democrats of their 60-seat supermajority in the Senate, Mr Obama would by now almost certainly have signed healthcare into law (those pesky, pesky citizens…emphasis and comment mine) – and with it would have become a historic president. …But the normally liberal voters of Massachusetts wished otherwise. The Democrats lost the seat to a candidate, Scott Brown, who promised voters he would be the “41st [Republican] vote” in the Senate – the one that would tip the balance against healthcare. Subsequent polling bears out the view that a decisive number of Democrats switched their votes with precisely that motivation in mind (emphasis mine). See: http://www.marklevinshow.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b6b4700a-10fb-11df-9a9e-00144feab49a.html 5) Anti-Tea Party website linked to union funds The fact that TheTeaPartyIsOver.com website was funded by organized labor is not surprise. Bloggers had ferreted out the information that the site was backed by the SEIU within hours of its first appearance last month. But Joseph Abrams of Fox News has dug a little deeper and uncovered a massive astroturf effort by several large labor unions to attack the tea party movement, and fund ads for Democrats in competitive states and districts: …Here's how it works: What appears like a local groundswell is in fact the creation of two men -- Craig Varoga and George Rakis, Democratic Party strategists who have set up a number of so-called 527 groups, the non-profit election organizations that hammer on contentious issues (think Swift Boats, for example). Varoga and Rakis keep a central mailing address in Washington, pulling in soft money contributions from unions and other well-padded sources to engage in what amounts to a legal laundering system. The money -- tens of millions of dollars -- gets circulated around to different states by the 527s, which pay for TV ads, Internet campaigns and lobbyist salaries, all while keeping the hands of the unions clean -- for the most part. The system helps hide the true sources of funding, giving the appearance of locally bred opposition in states from Oklahoma to New Jersey, or in the case of the Tea Party Web site, in Illinois. And this whitewash is entirely legal, say election law experts, who told FoxNews.com that this arrangement more or less the norm in Washington. It's pure sleight of hand with dummy offices set up for bogus "grass roots" organizations that turn out to be interconnected 527 groups who raise millions from SEIU, the Teamsters, the Communications Workers of America, and the biggest contributor of all - AFSCME. Taxpayer monies paid to AFSCME employees go to dues which are then used to fund partisan political activities. There ought to be a law but there isn't. The list of 527's are innocuous sounding enough - "Bluegrass Majority" and "Pioneer Freedom Fund" - except they are cut outs for big labor to influence elections and public opinion. Monies are transferred freely between the fake organizations to further muddy the waters and cover the trail. And it's all run by two guys and their lawyer - a long time general counsel of the Democratic National Committee. See: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/02/antitea_party_website_linked_t.html 6) China PLA officers urge economic punch against U.S. BEIJING (Reuters) - Senior Chinese military officers have proposed that their country boost defense spending, adjust PLA deployments, and possibly sell some U.S. bonds to punish Washington for its latest round of arms sales to Taiwan. The calls for broad retaliation over the planned U.S. weapons sales to the disputed island came from officers at China's National Defence University and Academy of Military Sciences, interviewed by Outlook Weekly, a Chinese-language magazine published by the official Xinhua news agency. The interviews with Major Generals Zhu Chenghu and Luo Yuan and Senior Colonel Ke Chunqiao appeared in the issue published on Monday. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) plays no role in setting policy for China's foreign exchange holdings. Officials in charge of that area have given no sign of any moves to sell U.S. Treasury bonds over the weapons sales, a move that could alarm markets and damage the value of China's own holdings. See: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6183KG20100209 7) Another Showdown at the Mullahs’ Corral (Keep Your Eyes on Iran Tomorrow) I believe that the Iranian regime has assembled the largest armed force in history to protect it from the Iranian people’s righteous indignation on Thursday the 11th. There will be hundreds of thousands of police, revolutionary guards, Basij, and people bused in from the countryside to Tehran. Additionally, the regime is shutting down communications, especially in Tehran. Iranian Tweeters say internet is largely gone, and cell phones are not working. None of this is new, and in the past the dissidents have managed to beat the censors; it will be interesting to see if the mullahs’ trusted advisers (mostly Chinese) are more effective this time. See: http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen/2010/02/10/another-showdown-at-the-mullahs-corral/ 8) Gov. who linked Christians, violence latest Obama pick Missouri report tied 'domestic terrorists' with opposition to abortion, immigration President Obama has picked to advise him on military actions inside the U.S. the Missouri governor whose state "Information Analysis Center" last year linked conservative organizations to domestic terrorism and said law enforcement officers should watch for suspicious individuals who may have bumper stickers from Ron Paul or Chuck Baldwin. Missouri Gov. Jeremiah Nixon, a Democrat, is being joined on the Obama's special advisory panel by the governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuno, and Arizona Gov. Janice Brewer, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's replacement when she moved to Washington. They are among Obama's nominations for the 10 positions on Obama's new "Council of Governors" that he will use for advice on "military activities in the United States." WND reported earlier when Obama announced the council to advise on military actions in the U.S. and "to protect our nation against all types of hazards." A subsequent WND report confirmed when a rebellion developed to the order, and a new push was launched for states to adopt laws limiting the use of their National Guard units unless there is an invasion, insurrection or other limited circumstance. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=124238 9) Planned Parenthood Pushes Intensive Sex Education for Kids as Young as 10 A new report by the International Planned Parenthood Federation is advocating that children as young as 10 be given extensive sex education, including an awareness of sex's pleasures. The report, "Stand and Deliver," charges that religious groups, specifically Catholics and Muslims, deny their young access to comprehensive sexual programs and education. "Young people's sexuality is still contentious for many religious institutions. Fundamentalist and other religious groups — the Catholic Church and madrasas (Islamic Schools) for example — have imposed tremendous barriers that prevent young people, particularly, from obtaining information and services related to sex and reproduction. Currently, many religious teachings deny the pleasurable and positive aspects of sex." the report states. The report demands that children 10 and older be given a "comprehensive sexuality education" by governments, aid organizations and other groups, and that young people should be seen as "sexual beings." …The report argues that sex education should be "recast" to show sexuality as a "positive force for change and development, as a source of pleasure, an embodiment of human rights and an expression of self." See: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585108,00.html

Gangster gov targets Toyota; Obama trashes Las Vegas, AGAIN; Debt crisis in Europe

"[A] wise and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." --Thomas Jefferson 1) Gangster government targets Toyota What is it about the automotive industry that inspires such thuggish attitudes in the Obama administration? The Examiner's Michael Barone coined the term "gangster government" to describe threats by the White House last spring against Chrysler creditors who had the temerity to insist that bankruptcy laws be followed in the bailout of the perennially ailing third member of the once-fabled Detroit Big Three. Now along comes Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood muttering darkly that "we're not finished with Toyota (emphasis mine)" in the controversy over sticking gas pedals in vehicles made and sold in America by the Japanese automaker. The basis for these threats is little more than anecdote-based suspicions that an electronic malady related to electro-magnetic interference from power lines might be the problem instead of the mechanical wear identified by Toyota engineers. Regardless, LaHood, headline-chasing congressmen like Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and a chorus of Naderite auto safety nannies led by former National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration Administrator Joan Claybrook are demanding that Toyota submit to a punishing new round of subpoenas, hearings, and media inquisition. It's not enough that Toyota -- the auto industry's perennial leader on respected measures of initial and long-term quality -- has already taken the unprecedented step of suspending production and sales of eight of its most popular models, undertaken a crash course to identify the cause of the problem, and guaranteed a fix for every one of the 2.3 million affected owners. Given the Obama administration's catering to one of its favorite special interest groups, the United Auto Workers union, during the government's bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler last year, it is difficult to avoid wondering whether Toyota has become a victim of the Chicago Way of dealing with competitors. … Keep the controversy going and odds are good that Toyota sales will continue to drop. The biggest losers besides American consumers will be the men and women who own and work at Toyota's 1,200 U.S. dealerships and the 30,000 Americans who build Toyotas in its five factories here. LaHood might as well have said "Nice car company ya got there, be a shame if anything happened to it (emphasis mine)." See: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Gangster-government-targets-Toyota-83460857.html 1a) Does the Government Pose a Bigger Threat to Toyota Than its Sticky Pedals? Toyota’s bad press has been for its sticky pedal incident certainly isn’t surprising, but is all the negative attention warranted? When asked about the Toyota recalls, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood responded by saying, “My advice to anyone who owns one of these vehicles is stop driving it, and take it to the Toyota dealership because they believe they have the fix for it” and that “we’re not finished with Toyota.” Hood later toned down his remarks but immediately after his “stop driving” comment, Toyota’s stocks plummeted. Even after recovering some, the stock closed down 6% that day. Much like Vice President Biden’s comments not to use public transportation or ride an airplane because of swine flu, LaHood’s comments were a bit over the top and have caused some to question the government’s motive. We don’t speculate motives at The Heritage Foundation, but it’s easy to understand why a government that now owns a major stake in General Motors would want to put continuous bad press on a rival automaker. In fact, GM’s sales were up 14 percent in January while Toyota’s fell 16 percent. Ford, which refused government bailout cash, had sales figures increase 25 percent. This could simply be a market response to a bad product; profits and losses are a telling sign in the economy, but the government shouldn’t be holding Toyota’s head under the water. Toyota handled the problem quickly by recognizing the problem as well as recalling and guaranteeing a fix for all 2.3 million potentially affected owners. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/05/does-the-government-pose-a-bigger-threat-to-toyota-than-its-sticky-pedals/ 2) Morning Bell: The President’s Permanent Political Slush Fund After suffering major electoral and legislative defeats last month, President Barack Obama took to the campaign trail in Nashua, New Hampshire, pitching his administration’s latest new plan to lower our nation’s double digit unemployment rate. This time, the President hopes to do for small businesses what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did for home mortgages. Specifically, he wants to create a new $30 billion “Small Business Lending Fund” which will loan money to banks with assets under $10 billion at favorable new rates, as long as they comply with a slew of new regulations designed to incentivize them to loan that money to small businesses. Never mind that a recent poll of small business owners by the National Federation of Independent Businesses ranked “Finance and Interest Rates” as the second to last most important problem facing their business. And just where does the President plan to get this new $30 billion? The President explained yesterday: “This proposal takes the money that was repaid by Wall Street banks to provide capital for community banks on Main Street.” In other words, TARP – the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program first signed into law by President George Bush, and then used by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to force many financial firms into taking taxpayer money they never wanted in the first place. But if Wall Street banks are paying-back their TARP funds, then how can President Obama say the following when justifying his Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee: We want our money back, and we’re going to get it. And that’s why I’m proposing a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee to be imposed on major financial firms until the American people are fully compensated for the extraordinary assistance they provided to Wall Street. If these companies are in good enough shape to afford massive bonuses, they are surely in good enough shape to afford paying back every penny to taxpayers. Now, our estimate is that the TARP program will end up costing taxpayers around $117 billion — obviously a lot less than the $700 billion that people had feared, but still a lot of money. So which is it? Are Wall Street banks repaying their TARP obligations in full so that the President can afford to spend $30 billion on his new Small Business Lending Fund? Or is TARP going to lose $117 billion? The answer is both. In reality, the major financial firms that took TARP money – many against their will – are paying-back those funds, and American taxpayers will get every single dime they are owed. But TARP has long since devolved from a one-time emergency action into a crony-capitalist political slush fund. TARP will lose money. But those losses will come almost entirely from the bailouts of union-backed firms General Motors and Chrysler, as well as AIG. Of course, GM and Chrysler are exempted from President Obama’s Crisis Tax, as are the government firms at the core of the housing bubble – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The President’s Crisis Tax has nothing to do with recovering unpaid taxpayer TARP money and everything to do with finding a new source of revenue to help cover up the Obama administration’s massive new spending increases. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/03/morning-bell-the-presidents-permanent-political-slush-fund/ 3) The States Fight Back: Virginia Rejects Obamacare’s Individual Mandates Yesterday the U.S. Constitution and federalism won a key battle. The Virginia Senate, which has a Democrat Majority, passed a bill prohibiting a requirement for Virginians to purchase health-care insurance. Five Democrats from swing districts joined all of the Senate Republicans in voting in favor of the measure. And with a Republican State House and Governor, this bill is expected to make it into law. …With the health care debate in limbo, news outlets are highlighting state efforts to protect their residents from federal Government intrusion. In addition to Virginia, over 2/3rd’s of the States have introduced measures to stop individual mandates on health care. Many State Attorney Generals have threatened to sue if current federal reform proposals are passed into law. State legislators across the country are considering various bills that would allow their state to opt out of key provisions of Obamacare or provide state voters a chance at the ballot box to reject nationalized health care in their state. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/02/the-states-fight-back-virginia-reject-obamacares-individual-mandates/ 4) House Allows Debt to Rise $1.9 Trillion WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Thursday to allow the government to go $1.9 trillion deeper in debt, an increase of about $6,000 for every United States resident. The accumulated debt already amounts to roughly $40,000 per person. The debt increase, approved 217 to 212, is only enough to keep the government afloat for about another year as it borrows more than 40 cents of every dollar it spends. The budget is more than $3.7 trillion this year, and the deficit is approaching $1.6 trillion under the budget submitted by President Obama this week. Democratic leaders devised the increase, to $14.3 trillion in the cap on federal borrowing, to ensure that the rank and file will not have to vote on another increase before the November midterm elections, when they will face voters who are angry over government spending and debt. Passage of the bill sends it to Mr. Obama, who will sign it to avoid a first-ever default on United States obligations. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/us/politics/05debt.html 5) Morning Bell: Second Stimulus, Same as the First When President Barack Obama was sworn into office, the U.S. economy employed 134.6 million people and the unemployment rate stood at 7.6%. In response to growing job losses, President Obama passed an $862 billion stimulus plan that his economic experts promised would help the United States employ at least 138.6 million people by 2010. Reality has not been kind to President Obama’s hope. Today, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics released its monthly jobs report showing the U.S. economy shed another net 20,000 jobs, leaving only 129.5 million jobs, almost 10 million short of the President’s promises. Anticipating this bleak job news, the President announced in his State of the Union address last week: “That is why jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill tonight.” It is understandable why the President wants to call this new legislation a “jobs bill” instead of what it really is: his second stimulus. But that would mean admitting that his first stimulus completely failed, which both the objective evidence and the opinion of the American people show it has. And why did the President’s first stimulus fail? For the same reason his second stimulus is destined to fail: Only the private sector in pursuit of opportunity can create jobs on net. The best we can hope from government is that it keeps to a minimum the jobs it prevents and the income and wealth it destroys. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/05/morning-bell-second-stimulus-same-as-the-first/ 6) Obama responds to ire over 2nd anti-Vegas remark …It was the second time since taking office that Obama singled out Las Vegas as a potential example of spending excessively. …"When times are tough, you tighten your belts," Obama said, according to a White House transcript of his appearance Tuesday at a high school in North Nashua, N.H. "You don't go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage," Obama said. "You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college. You prioritize. You make tough choices." The comments quickly sparked a flurry of reaction in the Silver State, which supported Obama in the 2008 election. Nevada had an unemployment rate of 13 percent in December. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said during a hastily called news conference that Obama is no friend to Las Vegas and would not be welcomed here if he visits. "I'll do everything I can to give him the boot," Goodman said. "This president is a real slow learner (emphasis mine)." …"Enough is enough!" Democratic Congresswoman Shelley Berkley said in a statement. "President Obama needs to stop picking on Las Vegas and he needs to let Americans decide for themselves how and where to spend their hard-earned vacation dollars." …Reid, one of Obama's closest allies, issued a statement headlined "Reid to Obama: 'Lay off Las Vegas'" and was unusually blunt in his reaction. "The President needs to lay off Las Vegas and stop making it the poster child for where people shouldn't be spending their money," Reid said. "I would much rather tourists and business travelers spend their money in Las Vegas than spend it overseas." …One year ago, Obama commented during a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Ind., that corporations shouldn't use federal bailout money for trips to Las Vegas, the Super Bowl or corporate jets. Tourism and casino officials said the comment hurt the city as companies canceled meetings in Las Vegas and rescheduled them elsewhere (emphasis mine). See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100203/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_las_vegas 7) Stop the Erosion of National Sovereignty Many Obama administration officials — and most likely the president himself — are enamored with international law and institutions. Thus, when it was reported last year that the administration was seeking to change U.S. policy toward the International Criminal Court (ICC) to facilitate increased U.S. cooperation with the court, there was barely a ripple of surprise. But the story did raise justifiable concerns over what such a policy shift might mean for U.S. military servicemen and civilian officials, and what impact it might have on America’s ability to defend its interests. Last summer, we wrote a rather lengthy piece discussing the reasons that policymakers should be concerned about changing U.S. policy toward the ICC. Our concerns were underscored by the ICC prosecutor’s subsequent announcement that he was looking into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan that could involve actions by U.S. servicemen and officials. …The ICC and the use of universal jurisdiction are two facets of an increasingly prevalent and alarming trend of eroding national sovereignty by divorcing the vital link between the law and the people subject to it. As Hannan concludes, we need to arrest this trend and “return to the well-tried and understood concept of state sovereignty, which operated effectively enough between 1648 and the 1990s. When was the internationalization of jurisdiction agreed? When was it even discussed? To quote Judge Bork again: ‘What we have wrought is a coup d’état: slow-moving and genteel, but a coup d’état none the less.’” See: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTcxOTA5YTNhNzRkMjdkODc3Y2M3MTgxNzljODI4ZjA= 8) US Recession Job Loss May Have Been Undercounted By 824,000 In a blow that could come down on the Obama administration and U.S. economy like Thor’s Hammer, the US may have lost 824,000 more jobs than the government said it did between April 2008 and March 2009. According to Bloomberg, which provided the numbers for the possible adjustment, the revision would be posted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics tomorrow, February 5th. That would increase the number of jobs lost due to the recession from 7.2 million to 8 million. …The numbers, if correct, would add a nearly unbearable load to the economic recovery which has caused huge deficits due to government programs led by the Obama $787 billion stimulus package. The package was meant to save or create 3.5 million jobs. Unemployment has risen above 10% despite the government spending. The Administration and some members of Congress have proposed that the government spend another $80 billion on jobs programs. These expenditures would be part of a federal budget which would create a $1.6 trillion deficit in the government’s 2010 fiscal year. …It is not difficult to guess the impact that the news will have on the financial markets which have recovered in large part due to the belief that the jobs problem has improved. If the data from April 2008 to March 2009 could be off by such a large margin, how inaccurate are the numbers from April of last year until now? See: http://247wallst.com/2010/02/04/us-recession-job-loss-may-have-been-undercounted-by-824000/ 9) Embattled Dem Ill. candidate won't step down CHICAGO -- A political newcomer who won the Democratic nomination for Illinois lieutenant governor said he has no intention of leaving the race after details emerged about his arrest for allegedly holding a knife to his former girlfriend's throat. Scott Lee Cohen struck a defiant tone even after running mate Gov. Pat Quinn predicted he would have to leave the race. U.S. Senator Dick Durbin also said Friday that Cohen needs to step aside - though Durbin said he didn't expect President Barack Obama's White House would have to intervene. …Cohen was arrested on domestic battery charges in 2005, accused of pushing his then-girlfriend's head against a wall and of the knife incident. The police report noted abrasions on her neck and hand, but charges were dropped after she failed to appear in court. Police records show the woman had been arrested for prostitution, the Chicago Tribune reported. Cohen said he did not know that at the time. He told WTTW-TV that he met her at a "massage therapy place" and believed she was a masseuse. Cohen denied hitting her and said their relationship was "tumultuous." Fantastic! Keep it up, Illinois! See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/05/AR2010020501515.html 10) Intel chief: Al-Qaida likely to attempt attack WASHINGTON – Al-Qaida can be expected to attempt an attack on the United States in the next three to six months, senior U.S. intelligence officials told Congress Tuesday. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100203/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_intelligence_threat_senate 11) Debt Crisis in Euro Zone Is Severe Political Test for Bloc PARIS — What began with worries about the solvency of Greece in the face of high deficits, fake budget figures and low growth has quickly become the most severe test of the 16-nation euro zone in its 11-year history. Anxiety about the health of the euro, which has spread from Greece to Portugal, Spain and Italy, is not simply a crisis of debts, rating agencies and volatile markets. The issue has at its heart elements of a political crisis, because it goes to the central dilemma of the European Union: the continuing grip of individual states over economic and fiscal policy, which makes it difficult for the union as a whole to exercise the political leadership needed to deal effectively with a crisis. …While no one expects that the European Union will allow Greece or the others to default or the euro zone to collapse, European leaders and the Central Bank will almost surely have to bend the rules to provide guarantees or loans, if necessary. But even tiding over countries in trouble will not solve the main flaw in the euro: the sharp divergence of national economies that share a common currency without significant fiscal coordination, let alone a single treasury. “The challenges facing the euro zone are very serious,” said Simon Tilford, chief economist for the Center for European Reform in London. “For countries that have become pretty uncompetitive in the euro zone and have weak public finances, the current environment is very dangerous.” See: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/world/europe/06europe.html

Spend our way out of this recession?; Higher taxes for all; Reuters, Hensarling bullied by Obama; Iran says "harsh blow" coming

Here’s a fun little study in opposites: "Make no mistake. This is a budget aimed to advance the administration's philosophy and ideology. By increasing taxes and letting country spiral into debt, this budget is a firm step toward transforming America into collectivist society overseen by a social welfare state." - Wisconsin Republican Representative Paul Ryan “We are not going to save our way, uh, out of this recession. We've got to spend our way out of this recession, and I think most economists know that.” South Carolina Democrat Representative James Clyburn 1) Higher Taxes For All In Obama Budget, $1.6 Tril 2010 Deficit After cutting taxes for 95% of working families in his first year, President Obama has proposed a budget that would raise taxes on 100% of them. Even as the White House calls for another quick shot of stimulus to speed up job creation, its new 10-year budget promises to impose a fiscal regimen of major tax hikes and modest spending curbs. …The White House budget would extend Obama's signature $400 Making Work Pay tax credit for one more year at a cost of $61 billion, and it would permanently extend the middle-class tax cuts passed under President Bush. Left unsaid was that Obama's Making Work Pay tax credit would lapse at the end of 2011 as proposed tax hikes ramp up to $156 billion. See: http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=519783 1a) Obama budget: Record spending, record deficit WASHINGTON – Spelling out painful priorities, President Barack Obama urged Congress on Monday to quickly approve a huge new shot of spending for recession relief and job creation, part of a record $3.8 trillion budget that would boost the deficit beyond any in the nation's history while only slowly beginning to put Americans back to work. If Congress goes along with Obama's election-year plan, the nation would still end the year with unemployment pushing double digits at 9.8 percent and this year's pool of government red ink deepening to $1.56 trillion — by the administration's accounting. …The budget paints a remarkably dire picture of a federal government that will have to borrow one-third of what it spends next year as it runs a deficit that still would total some $1.3 trillion. …Proposing a partial spending freeze, tax increases for wealthier people and a new fee on banks, the president's proposal still amounts to just tinkering at the edges of the larger budget problem. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100201/ap_on_bi_ge/us_budget 1b) Reuters Withdraws 'Backdoor Taxes To Hit Middle Class' Story Linked By Drudge Report The lead story at DrudgeReport.com as of 11:30 a.m. this morning was "**REUTERS: Backdoor taxes to hit middle class." But Reuters withdrew the article last night. Drudge noted the change and wrote: "**REUTERS pulls tax story..." then added another link to the top left margin: "Largest-ever federal payroll to hit 2.15 million employees..." So what happened? According to a Reuters rep, the was withdrawn "due to significant errors of fact." "The story was wrong on multiple points and should not have gone out," she emailed us. A formal withdrawal will issued will address specific points that were incorrect later today. UPDATE: A White House official told Talking Points Memo that administration aides appealed to Reuters to take it down. The original link lead clickers to an article posted on Monday, Feb. 1 at 4:09 p.m. which reads, in part: “While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases. ...Millions of middle-class households already may be facing higher taxes in 2010 because Congress has failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, most notably a "patch" that limited the impact of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, initially designed to prevent the very rich from avoiding income taxes, was never indexed for inflation. Now the tax is affecting millions of middle-income households, but lawmakers have been reluctant to repeal it because it has become a key source of revenue.” See: http://www.businessinsider.com/reuters-takes-down-story-linked-by-drudge-report-2010-2 2) Rep. Hensarling fires back at Obama in the rumble over deficits Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), who got President Barack Obama a bit miffed during the question-and-answer session after his address to the House GOP retreat Friday, fired back Saturday evening after the conclusion of the Baltimore conference. Hensarling, in criticizing government spending, told Obama that the yearly deficits Democrats complained about under George W. Bush had now become "monthly" deficits in lengthy remarks that clearly frustrated the president. (Watch the video here) "Jim, I know there's a question in there somewhere, because you're making a whole bunch of assertions, half of which I disagree with, and I'm having to sit here listening to them. At some point I know you're going to let me answer," said Obama, who called the congressman "Jim" three times even after being initially corrected by Jeb. "With all due respect, I've got take this last question as an example of how it's very hard to have the kind of bipartisan work that we're going to do. The whole question was structured as a talking point for running a campaign," Obama continued, before calling Hensarling's assertions about deficits "factually just not true." In anticipation of Obama rolling out his budget proposal Monday, Hensarling's Saturday statement cited Congressional Budget Office statistics putting the average deficit during 12 years of GOP House control at $104 billion and the average deficit under three years of Democratic control at $1.1 trillion. “The President challenged the facts I presented to him about House Republican budget priorities and Democrat budget priorities," Hensarling said. "I am happy to provide him with the following facts to back-up my statements. I stand by what I said." See: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/78901-hensarling-fires-back-at-obama-in-the-deficit-rumble And: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012902848.html And: http://spectator.org/blog/2010/01/31/hensarling-strikes-back 3) 'Iran will deliver telling blow to global powers on Feb. 11' Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the nation will deliver a harsh blow to the "global arrogance" on this year's anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. "The Islamic Revolution opened a window to liberty for the human race, which was trapped in the dead ends of materialism," Ahmadinejad said during a cabinet meeting on Sunday. "If the Islamic Revolution had not occurred, liberalism and Marxism would have crushed all human dignity in their power-seeking and money-grubbing claws. Nothing would have remained of human and spiritual principles," he added. Ahmadinejad said that in the three decades of its history, the Islamic Revolution had inspired some great developments in the world. The Iranian president made the remarks as the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution approaches. Iranians are expected to pour into the streets on February 11 to celebrate the occasion in public rallies across the country, as they have done annually over the past three decades. See: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117545&sectionid=351020101 4) NETANYAHU AT AUSCHWITZ SAYS PROPHECIES OF EZEKIEL 37 HAVE BEEN FULFILLED …I awoke to read news coverage of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address this week in Poland, commemorating the 65th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz. Speaking on the actual site of the Nazi death camp, the Prime Minister delivered a major address warning the world of new genocidal threats against the Jewish people and the importance of acting early enough to prevent such threats from coming to pass. He also declared to the people of Europe and the world that the prophecies of Ezekiel 37 have been fulfilled. It was an extraordinary moment. Rarely has any world leader given a major address on an international stage declaring End Times prophecies from the Bible have come true. But that is exactly what Netanyahu did. Excerpts: -“The most important lesson of the Holocaust is that a murderous evil must be stopped early, when it is still in its infancy and before it can carry out its designs. The enlightened nations of the world must learn this lesson. We, the Jewish nation, who lost a third of our people on Europe’s blood-soaked soil, have learned that the only guarantee for defending our people is a strong State of Israel and the army of Israel. We gave learned to warn the nations of the world of impending danger but at the same time to prepare to defend ourselves. As the head of the Jewish state, I pledge to you today: We will never again permit evil to snuff out the life of our people and the life of our own country…” -“[After the Holocaust,” the Jewish people rose from ashes and destruction, from a terrible pain that can never be healed. Armed with the Jewish spirit, the justice of man, and the vision of the prophets, we sprouted new branches and grew deep roots. Dry bones became covered with flesh, a spirit filled them, and they lived and stood on their own feet. As Ezekiel prophesized: ‘Then He said unto me: These bones are the whole House of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone; we are doomed.’ Prophecy, therefore, and say to them: Thus said the Lord God: I am going to open your graves and lift you out of your graves, O My people, and bring you to the land of Israel.’ I stand here today on the ground where so many of my people perished — and I am not alone. The State of Israel and all the Jewish people stand with me. We bow our heads to honor your memory and lift our heads as we raise our flag-a flag of blue and white with a Star of David in its center. And everyone sees. And everyone hears. And everyone knows – that our hope is not lost.” The question for all Israelis and all people everywhere is now this: If the prophecies of Ezekiel 37 have come to pass in our lifetime, isn’t it remotely possible that the prophecies of Ezekiel 38-39 will come true in our lifetime as well? See: http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/netanyahu-at-auschwitz-says-prophecies-of-ezekiel-37-have-been-fulfilled/ 5) Israel allows Palestinians to grab foothold in capital Sources: U.S. pressured decision to permit Arab infiltration of city JERUSALEM – Under intense American pressure, Israel has silently agreed to allow the Palestinian Authority to open official institutions in eastern sections of Jerusalem, a senior official in PA President Mahmoud Abbas' office told WND. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office did not deny the report. When asked whether Netanyahu agreed to allow PA institutions in Jerusalem, Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev told WND, "The prime minister's position on Jerusalem is clear. Jerusalem will remain the united capital of Israel." Separately, an official from Netanyahu's office confirmed to WND that in recent meetings, President Obama's envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, pressed Netanyahu to freeze Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem as a confidence-building measure to begin direct talks with PA President Abbas. U.S. National Security Adviser Jim Jones also pushed for a construction freeze, even imploring Netanyahu to quietly impose the freeze without making any public announcements. Abbas had publicly stated he would not commence direct negotiations with Israel unless a Jewish construction freeze was imposed in eastern Jerusalem. Speaking to WND, the Netanyahu official said the prime minister rejected any construction freeze in eastern Jerusalem, but did acquiesce to a U.S. request to allow the PA to open institutions in Jerusalem. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123690 6) Feds claim authority to regulate in-state commerce Government cites Constitution in demanding dismissal of gun challenge The federal government is claiming in court documents demanding the dismissal of a gun-law challenge in Montana the authority to regulate in-state commerce under the Constitution's Commerce clause. But the plaintiff in the case says the court needs to review that provision in its amended form – since the 10th Amendment, adopted after the Commerce Clause, can be viewed as modifying the Constitution's provisions regarding the regulation of commerce, specifically granting additional authority to states. The argument is arising in a lawsuit filed in Montana against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and others. The complaint seeks a court order that the federal government stay out of the way of Montana's management of its own firearms within state boundaries. As WND reported, the action was filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Montana Shooting Sports Association in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Mont., to validate the principles and terms of the Montana Firearms Freedom Act, which took effect Oct. 3. The law provides guns and ammo made, sold and used in Montana would not require any federal forms; silencers made and sold in Montana would be fully legal and not registered; and there would be no firearm registration, serial numbers, criminal records check, waiting periods or paperwork required. The idea is spreading quickly. Similar plans have been introduced in many other states. (A similar plan has passed in Tennessee). See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123419 7) Crisis-pregnancy centers to be gagged? Planned Parenthood pushes law dictating what counselors say to women Two hot-button issues – abortion and free speech – are clashing in Washington state, as lawmakers attempt to regulate what is said in crisis pregnancy centers. About 250 people packed the chambers of the state's Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee earlier this week for a hearing on Senate Bill 6452, a proposed law that requires crisis pregnancy center counselors to communicate only "medically and scientifically accurate" reproductive health information – even though what is "accurate" has been hotly contested, even in the committee's chambers. The bill's sponsor, State Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, for example, backed by a doctor from the University of Washington, claimed that in some cases, center volunteers have misled women to believe that abortion increases their risk of developing ovarian cancer. Yet later in the hearing, former nurse Sen. Cheryl Pflug, R-Maple Valley, told the committee a 2009 study by the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center found that an abortion does indeed increase the risk of cancer by 40 percent. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123582 8) Abstinence Education Effective in Reducing Teen Sex, Comprehensive Sex Ed Not A new study concludes that abstinence-only education had a significant and long-term effect in reducing teen sexual activity. “The abstinence-only intervention reduced sexual initiation,” reports the study, which is featured in the most recent issue of the medical journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, published by the American Medical Association. The study found that a short eight-hour abstinence program reduced sexual activity among youth by a third. Despite the brevity of the abstinence training the effects lasted a full two years after students left the classroom. Moreover, if students who took the abstinence course did become sexually active they were not less likely to use contraception. In contrast, study found that alternative types of sex ed failed. “Safe sex” programs (which promote contraception only) and “comprehensive sex ed” programs (which teach both abstinence and contraceptive use), had no effect on teen sexual behavior. These programs neither reduced teen sex nor did they increase contraceptive use among teens, which is their major emphasis. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/01/abstinence-education-effective-in-reducing-teen-sex-comprehensive-sex-ed-not/

Obama hammers the Supreme Court, and LIES (what else is new); Dems to stop EPA; Stimulus III

“...in questions of power then, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” - Thomas Jefferson, 1798, Kentucky Resolutions “Justly revered as our great Constitution is, it could be stripped off and thrown aside like a garment…” -  Woodrow Wilson “Ultimately, though, I have to side with Justice Breyer’s view of the Constitution—that it is not a static but rather a living document, and must be read in the context of an ever-changing world.” Barack Hussein Obama, The Audacity of Hope 1) Obama, in a tremendous breach of decorum, hammers the Supreme Court… Justice Alito mouths 'not true' POLITICO's Kasie Hunt, who's in the House chamber, reports that Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words "not true" when President Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court's campaign finance decision. "Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections," Obama said. "Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong." The shot of the black-robed Supreme Court justices, stone-faced, was priceless. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) stood up behind the justices and clapped vigorously while Alito shook his head and quietly mouthed his discontent. Schumer and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md) are trying to find a way to legislate around the Supreme Court decision. See: http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0110/Justice_Alitos_You_lie_moment.html 1a) President Wrong on Citizens United Case Tonight the president engaged in demogoguery of the worst kind, when he claimed that last week's Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, "open[ed] the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities." The president's statement is false (emphasis mine). The Court held that 2 U.S.C. Section 441a, which prohibits all corporate political spending, is unconstitutional. Foreign nationals, specifically defined to include foreign corporations, are prohibiting from making "a contribution or donation of money or ather thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State or local election" under 2 U.S.C. Section 441e, which was not at issue in the case. Foreign corporations are also prohibited, under 2 U.S.C. 441e, from making any contribution or donation to any committee of any political party, and they prohibited from making any "expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication." This is either blithering ignorance of the law or demagoguery of the worst kind (emphasis mine). See: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTVkODZiM2M0ODEzOGQ3MTMwYzgzYjNmODBiMzQzZjk 1b) More on this: Obama’s Shameless Demagoguery (1) The Citizens United case dealt with a blanket ban on corporate expenditures. The Court struck down the ban, which is part of 2 USC 441b. (2) A separate section of the law, 2 USC 441e, prohibits “foreign nationals” from making expenditures or contributions. “Foreign nationals” includes corporations that are not incorporated or headquartered in the United States. This is an extremely broad prohibition that applies to any U.S. election (including state and local elections) and to any activity “in connection with” an election. The Citizens United ruling doesn’t touch this prohibition and specifically notes that it makes no judgment about foreign corporations. (3) This would allow a U.S. corporation, incorporated and headquartered in the United States, to make expenditures (Obama, remember, referred to “foreign corporations”). But . . . (4) FEC regulations at 11 CFR 110.20 further delineate the prohibition: A foreign national shall not direct, dictate, control, or directly or indirectly participate in the decision making process of any person, such as a corporation, labor organization, political committee, or political organization with regard to such person's Federal or non-Federal election-related activities, such as decisions concerning the making of contributions, donations, expenditures, or disbursements in connection with elections for any Federal, State, or local office or decisions concerning the administration of a political committee. Additionally, the FEC requires that any funds so spent come from U.S.-generated income (in other words, the parent corporation cannot send capital to the U.S. subsidiary and then have the subsidiary spend that in connection with U.S. elections). See: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDcxNjNjNTlhNmQxZDYwYjNkOGJjZjkxZTZiMjI0NTg 1c) Morning Bell: A Speech Only Washington Could Love The more things change, the more things stay the same. A little over a year ago, President Barack Obama came to office expecting to pass a “big bang” of policy changes all in the first year: health care, cap-and-trade, and banking regulation. With the big-bang strategy officially a failure, President Obama’s State of the Union address last night desperately tried to keep all of these legislative efforts alive while also acknowledging that the country has firmly rejected his policy agenda. The result was an incoherent mess of promised tax cuts for small businesses coupled with the threat of tax hikes from his health care and energy proposals; more federal money to encourage banks to lend to businesses, coupled with new taxes on banks and individuals; the continued waste of his $862 billion stimulus plan and $2 trillion in new health care spending, coupled with a delayed and temporary spending freeze. As one of the longest State of the Unions in the past 45 years,… …The Bank Tax President Obama tonight called for a new tax on banks and other large financial institutions, “a modest fee,” he said, “to pay back the taxpayers who rescued them in their time of need.” That sounds great, but in truth, the new tax would do nothing of the kind. Mr. Obama knows that almost every major bank has paid-back their bailout funds, with interest. Taxpayers made substantial profits on those repayments. On the other hand, most of the companies that still owe billions to taxpayers, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and auto firms GM and Chrysler, would not be subject to the tax. In short, Mr. Obama would tax those that have paid back taxpayers and exempt those who have not (emphasis mine). The Spending Freeze Obama’s spending freeze would apply to a narrow sliver of spending (somewhere around 1/8th of total spending) and at best, savings would be less than one percent of the total budget (emphasis mine). Moreover, it explicitly exempts the very entitlement programs driving future deficits. At a time when the deficit is $1.4 trillion and we face a sea of even worse red ink as far as the eye can see, such a freeze is tantamount to bailing out – forgive the double entendre – the Titanic with a dixiecup. And it would start next year, conveniently after the elections. Freezing spending is the right idea, but this freeze falls short of real action. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/01/28/morning-bell-a-speech-only-washington-could-love/ 1d) Barack Obama LIED! (Really?) Tonight, Barack Obama said, “To close that credibility gap we must take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; and to give our people the government they deserve. “That’s what I came to Washington to do. That’s why – for the first time in history – my Administration posts our White House visitors online. And that’s why we’ve excluded lobbyists from policy-making jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions.” Maybe this explains why his national security policies are so weak. He put William Lynn in the Pentagon as Deputy Defense Secretary. Mr. Lynn was a lobbyist for Defense Contractor Ratheon. I guess the Deputy Defense Secretary is not a policy-making job. But it is not just Lynn. -Eric Holder, attorney general nominee, was registered to lobby until 2004 on behalf of clients including Global Crossing, a bankrupt telecommunications firm [now confirmed]. -Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture nominee, was registered to lobby as recently as last year on behalf of the National Education Association. -William Lynn, deputy defense secretary nominee, was registered to lobby as recently as last year for defense contractor Raytheon, where he was a top executive. -William Corr, deputy health and human services secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until last year for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a non-profit that pushes to limit tobacco use. -David Hayes, deputy interior secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until 2006 for clients, including the regional utility San Diego Gas & Electric. -Mark Patterson, chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, was registered to lobby as recently as last year for financial giant Goldman Sachs. -Ron Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, was registered to lobby until 2005 for clients, including the Coalition for Asbestos Resolution, U.S. Airways, Airborne Express and drug-maker ImClone. -Mona Sutphen, deputy White House chief of staff, was registered to lobby for clients, including Angliss International in 2003. -Melody Barnes, domestic policy council director, lobbied in 2003 and 2004 for liberal advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the American Constitution Society and the Center for Reproductive Rights. -Cecilia Munoz, White House director of intergovernmental affairs, was a lobbyist as recently as last year for the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group. -Patrick Gaspard, White House political affairs director, was a lobbyist for the Service Employees International Union. -Michael Strautmanis, chief of staff to the president’s assistant for intergovernmental relations, lobbied for the American Association of Justice from 2001 until 2005. See: http://www.redstate.com/erick/2010/01/27/barack-obama-lied/ 2) Dems ally against EPA regulation

A resolution would stop the agency from acting on greenhouse gases.

Several Democrats have joined Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in trying to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases. A joint resolution (S.J. Res. 26) with 39 co-sponsors, including three Democrats, was introduced Thursday on the Senate floor. It reflects a political shift in the chamber just days after Democrats lost the supermajority . Until recently, Murkowski didn't have enough votes for her push. Now it seems possible that enough Democrats could deflect from the party line and join her as they court voters for midterm elections. "We cannot turn a blind eye to the EPA's efforts to propose back-door climate regulation with no input from Congress," Murkowski said after introducing the resolution. See: http://www.congress.org/news/2010/01/21/dems_ally_against_epa_regulation 3) Senate permits gov't to borrow an additional $1.9T WASHINGTON – The Senate voted Thursday to allow the government to go a whopping $1.9 trillion deeper in debt, offering a vivid election-year reminder that the government has to borrow 40 cents of every dollar it spends. The measure would put the government on track for a national debt of $14.3 trillion — more than $45,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. And the debt is increasingly held by foreign nations such as China. …The measure passed 60-39 under ground rules insisted upon by Republicans that required 60 votes to pass it. Democrats and allied independents control 60 seats — for now — and were only able to win the vote because Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts has yet to be seated (emphasis mine). See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100128/ap_on_bi_ge/us_senate_debt_limit 4) Audio: “We’re told not to call it another stimulus bill” Honest leadership … open government … and the Tooth Fairy. Breitbart and Naked Emperor News catches Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) telling his constituents in a telephonic town hall meeting that the new stimulus bill Democrats will promote in coming weeks is “pretty much similar” to Porkulus, just smaller in scale — which isn’t exactly news, since even Democratic leadership isn’t foolish enough to think they can get another $787 billion after getting nothing more than the loss of 3.4 million jobs from the first one. In an Orwellian admission, Sherman tells listeners that he’s been told not to call it a stimulus bill, but a “jobs bill,” even though he also admits that the jobs won’t come for years later: See: http://hotair.com/archives/2010/01/27/audio-were-told-not-to-call-it-another-stimulus-bill/ 5) Morning Bell: It Is Time To Prioritize Security Over Terrorist Rights Yesterday, the White House ordered the Department of Justice to begin considering places other than New York City to host the civilian criminal trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other terrorists. The New York Times describes a decision to move the trials out of New York as “a retreat by the administration” and reported that the Obama administration “was scrambling” to find a new way forward. This latest bit of self-inflicted national security chaos comes after Obama ally New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday that he did not want KSM’s trial in Manhattan. And Bloomberg was not the only Obama sympathizer to plead with the President to rethink his detainee policies. Six Senators, including Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Jim Webb (D-VA), John McCain (R-AZ), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) all signed a letter saying of KSM and his conspirators: You will be providing them one of the most visible platforms in the world to exalt their past acts and to rally others in support of further terrorism. And the KSM trial debacle is not the only sign the Obama administration is putting their personal politics over protecting American citizens. Last week, the nation’s top intelligence official, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, told a Senate committee that the Obama administration was wrong to question Flight 253 would-be-bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab with civilian law officers instead of using specially trained interrogators from the recently-created High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/01/29/morning-bell-it-is-time-to-priortize-security-over-terrorist-rights/ 6) Pentagon set to seek repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell' law Fantastic! That will bolster the already low morale of our warriors for sure! The Pentagon is moving ahead with plans to seek a repeal of the law that prohibits gays from serving openly in the U.S. military in what is expected to set off a new debate on the issue. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are scheduled to testify next week before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the effort to change the law on the policy known as "don't ask, don't tell" that allows gay service members to remain if they do not disclose their sexual orientation. See: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/29/pentagon-set-to-seek-repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell-/

Public debt 98% of GDP in 2020; Tim Tebow glad he wasn't aborted, NOW not so glad; Dems reject reconciliation

1) Morning Bell: President Obama Is Right, We Have A Spending Problem Tonight in his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama is expected to propose a “freeze” on government spending. Obama’s spending “freeze” will only last three years, will not start until 2011, will only apply to a $447 billion slice of the federal government’s $3.5 trillion budget, and will not apply to any of the unspent $862 billion stimulus plan, his health care plan or the House of Representatives’ additional $156 billion stimulus plan. …The CBO’s summary of the report is bad enough: “Under current law, the federal fiscal outlook beyond this year is daunting … accumulating deficits will push federal debt held by the public to significantly higher levels. At the end of 2009, debt held by the public was $7.5 trillion, or 54% of GDP; by the end of 2020, debt is projected to climb to $15 trillion, or 67% of GDP.” But as bad as those numbers are, our fiscal health is actually worse. The CBO is forced by Congress to make a number of unrealistic assumptions about future revenue and spending changes. But their report makes up for this by including alternative projections that make more realistic assumptions. Heritage fellow Brian Riedl crunched those numbers and found: -The public debt — $7.5 trillion at the end of 2009 — is projected to triple to $22.1 trillion by 2020. -Over what would be President Obama’s eight years in office if re-elected, baseline budget deficits are projected to total $9.7 trillion — nearly triple the $3.3 trillion in deficits accumulated by President George W. Bush. -By 2020, the budget forecasts a $1.9 trillion annual budget deficit, a public debt of 98 percent of GDP and annual net interest spending surpassing $1 trillion. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/01/27/morning-bell-president-obama-is-right-we-have-a-spending-problem/ 2) Democrats are waking up #1: Lincoln, Bayh Won't Support Passing Health Care Fixes Via Reconciliation Two Democratic senators, Evan Bayh of Indiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, have declared that they won't support a plan to have the House pass the Senate health care bill whole, then pass fixes to the bill through the reconciliation process. A third, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, suggested lawmakers give up on the comprehensive health care bill entirely and pass reforms one by one. "We need to focus on things where we have a consensus," Bayh said."Just ramming through a bill on a purely party-line vote on a strictly partisan basis will not do much to generate the kind of progress around here on other issues that we need." See: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/lincoln-bayh-nelson-wont-support-passing-health-care-fixes-via-reconciliation.php 3) Democrats are waking up #2: Two Senate Democrats want KSM trial out of NYC Two Senate Democrats are pressuring the Obama administration to move Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s trial out of New York City and into a military commission. Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Jim Webb of Virginia signed on to a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder condemning the administration’s November announcement of a criminal trial in Manhattan. “Your decision to prosecute enemy combatants captured on foreign battlefields like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is without precedent in our nation’s history,” the senators wrote. “Given the risks and costs, it is far more logical, cost-effective, and strategically wise to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the military commissions.” See: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32021.html 4) And Republicans agree! Chairman and Ranking Republican of Senate Homeland Security Committee: Does Everyone In Obama Administration Know We’re At War? The chairman and ranking Republican of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today urged the Obama administration to transfer the Christmas Day bomber into military custody, and harged that though President Obama “has said repeatedly that we are at war, it does not appear to us that the President's words are reflected in the actions of some in the Executive branch, including some at the Department of Justice, responsible for fighting that war.” See: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/01/chairman-and-ranking-republican-of-senate-homeland-security-committee-does-everyone-in-obama-adminis.html 5) How the court's campaign finance ruling hurts Wall Street favorite Chuck Schumer Politico provided my favorite reaction to the Supreme Court's ruling today that Congress shall, in fact, make no law abridging the freedom of speech, even when it's called "reform": Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) "This activist and far reaching decision is even worse than we had feared. This opens the floodgates and allows special interest money to overflow our elections and undermine our democracy. The bottom line is, the Supreme Court has just predetermined the winners of next November’s election. It won’t be the Republican or the Democrats and it won't be the American people; it will be Corporate America." This is entertaining -- and enlightening -- in the context of some numbers from OpenSecrets.org… …So, of the five most politically active industries (not counting "retired"), Schumer is the top recipient of campaign cash from three of those. You might say he's awash in "special interest money," and sniff some hypocrisy or political posturing here. But Schumer does have a legitimate gripe. Until now, if corporations wanted to influence politics and policy, their ability to speak directly to politicians was limited by law. That meant they needed to make their case through indirect means, such as contributing to politicians -- mostly to Schumer, it seems. Or it meant paying big bucks to hire lobbyists from among the staffs of powerful lawmakers, such as…Or any of the other 9 former Schumer staffers now serving as registered lobbyists. Now, set free of from Congress's speech regulations, non-profits and corporations might not rely so much on these indirect means of political influence. That means less campaign cash coming into Schumer, fewer corporations courting Schumer's staff, and less sucking up to Schumer by lobbyists. See: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/How-the-courts-campaign-finance-ruling-hurts-Wall-Street-favorite-Chuck-Schumer-82288732.html 6) Welfare rolls up in '09; more enroll in assistance programs WASHINGTON — Welfare rolls rose in 2009 for the first time in 15 years, but the 5% increase was dwarfed by spikes in the number of people receiving food stamps and unemployment insurance. The cash-assistance program that once helped more than 14 million people served an average of 4 million in the 2009 fiscal year, up from 3.8 million in fiscal 2008. By comparison, there were more than 37 million people receiving food stamps in September, an increase of 18% from the year before. The number receiving unemployment benefits more than doubled, to about 9.1 million. See: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-01-25-welfare-rolls_N.htm 7) Union Membership Drops 10% Organized labor lost 10% of its members in the private sector last year, the largest decline in more than 25 years. The drop is on par with the fall in total employment but threatens to significantly limit labor's ability to influence elections and legislation. Oh, darn! See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703822404575019350727544666.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines 8) SEIU's Stern: Dems may not get labor's full support in fall midterms A highly influential labor leader Friday suggested congressional Democrats might not the full support of unions in the upcoming midterm elections should they not pass a full healthcare reform package. Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern chided House Democrats for contemplating scaled-back healthcare reform in favor of passing the Senate bill through the House. “It’s gonna be incredibly difficult to stay focused on national politics if by the end of 2010 we have minimal health care and minimal changes on what’s important to our members,” he said in an interview with liberal blogger Greg Sargent. Oh, darn again! See: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/77607-seius-stern-dems-may-not-get-labors-full-support-in-fall-midterms 9) Obama Seen as Anti-Business by 77% of U.S. Investors Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. investors overwhelmingly see President Barack Obama as anti-business and question his ability to manage a financial crisis, according to a Bloomberg survey. The global quarterly poll of investors and analysts who are Bloomberg subscribers finds that 77 percent of U.S. respondents believe Obama is too anti-business and four-out-of-five are only somewhat confident or not confident of his ability to handle a financial emergency. …Carlos Vadillo, a fixed-income analyst at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in San Francisco, said Obama has been in a “constant war” with the banking system, using “fat-cat bankers and other misnomers to describe a business model which supports a large portion of America.” See: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a8UiI1bCRdmY&pos=5 10) Specter Tells Bachmann To Act Like A "Lady": Bachmann stunned by Specter’s arrogance See: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/01/21/specter_tells_bachmann_to_act_like_a_lady.html 11) Help wanted: $24,000 to stop Glenn Beck, 'tea-baggers' 'Grass-roots' organizers sought to 'counter hysteria and lies' Help-wanted ads are appearing on Craigslist that offer to pay citizens $24,000 a year, plus health insurance, to "counter the hysteria and lies of Glenn Beck and other talking heads" and "stop the tea-baggers!" The ads are being posted by Grassroots Campaigns, a canvassing group that has performed services for the Democratic National Committee and MoveOn.org. Its postings can be found among Craiglist listings in Chicago, Ill.; San Francisco, Calif.; Boston, Mass.; Philadelphia, Penn. and Austin, Texas. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123267 12) States' rights rebellion over National Guard Lawmakers fight to keep governors, not president, in control of troops Responding to an executive order by President Obama, a new push is under way for states to adopt laws limiting the use of their National Guard units unless there is an invasion, insurrection or other limited circumstance. As WND reported, Obama's order establishes a new "Council of Governors" designated to advise on the "synchronization and integration of state and federal military activities in the United States." The recent order, posted on the White House website, was accompanied by the explanation that the group is to work "to protect our nation against all types of hazards." It comes just weeks after the president issued a similarly obscure order vastly expanding INTERPOL's privileges in the U.S. The White House said the new council is to include governors and administration officials to review "such matters as involving the National Guard of the various states; homeland defense, civil support; synchronization and integration of state and federal military activities in the United States; and other matters of mutual interest pertaining to National Guard, homeland defense, and civil support activities." However, there was no definition of the group's authority. Can the council recommend "military activities" and can the governors, who already are in command of their own state guard units, mandate activities outside of their areas of jurisdiction? Now the Tenth Amendment Center is recommending a model legislation that states can use to limit the activities of their own National Guard members. The model legislation states: "The governor shall withhold or withdraw approval of the transfer of the National Guard to federal control in the absence of: a) A military invasion of the United States, or b) An insurrection, or c) A calling forth of the guard by the federal government in a manner provided for by Congress to execute the laws of the union, provided that said laws were made in pursuance of the delegated powers in the Constitution of the United States, or d) A formal declaration of war from Congress." See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=122689 13) Busted! Obama praise planted in U.S. newspapers Bogus messages from 'president's supporters' infest American print Obama supporters are flooding newspapers with pro-Obama letters purportedly from average citizens – with duplicate messages appearing in more than 70 publications across the nation. One writer identified as "Ellie Light" has published identical form letters in newspapers around the country. Sabrina Eaton of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Light claims to have different hometowns within the respective newspaper readership areas. Each letter is nearly identical in grammar, style and subject. Light's letters have appeared in many mainstream publications, including Politico.com, the Washington Times, USA Today and even Thailand's Bangkok Post. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123085 14) Pro-Life, Pro-Abortion Groups Clash on Tim Tebow Super Bowl Ad, Lobby CBS Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The controversy over the coming Super Bowl ad from Focus on the Family about pro-life University of Florida football star Tim Tebow is generating as much, if not more, attention than it will when it runs before and during the championship game. …The New York-based Women's Media Center has coordinated an attack on the ad -- launching a campaign with the pro-abortion National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority and other groups to persuade CBS not to run it. Today, in an email to its supporters that LifeNews.com obtained, NARAL is also urging its members to lobby CBS and, surprisingly, used the term "pro-life" to refer to it. "CBS has cleared the way to subject nearly 100 million people to Focus on the Family's extreme agenda by agreeing to air its new pro-life ad during the Super Bowl," the group's president Nancy Kenen said. Marjorie Dannenfelser, the head of the Susan B. Anthony List, another pro-life women's group, also weighed in on the debate. "NOW and company are losing their grip as their pro- abortion position sinks in public opinion," she said. "What is real here is their desperation to keep full information from women," Dannenfelser continued. "Shouldn't the 'pro-choice' position respect Pam Tebow's decision to choose Life (emphasis mine)?"

See: http://www.lifenews.com/nat5932.html

15) Calgary Church Loses Charity Status: Opposition to Abortion, Homosexuality Cited as Reasons CALGARY, Alberta, January 21, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has revoked the charitable status of Kings Glory Fellowship (KGF), a Christian church in Calgary. CRA cites a number of issues with KGF's application, but the decision is based, in part, on the ground that certain KGF Board members have spoken out strongly against abortion, and other moral issues. "The members of the Board of Directors espouse strong negative views about sensitive and controversial issues, which may also be viewed as political, such as abortion, homosexuality, divorce, etc.,” wrote CRA agent Dian Prodanov in an October 29th letter. These “political” views make the church ineligible because, according to the agent, a registered charity “may only engage in non-partisan political activities as long as it devotes substantially all (usually 90% or more) of its resources to charitable activities." Time TO be willing to LOSE YOUR TAX EXEMPT STATUS, CHURCH! See: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jan/10012102.html