News of the Week for Oct. 21st, 2012
- Election 2012
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Election
2012
Some States Not Sending Absentee Ballots to Military
Jurisdictions in Vermont, Michigan, Mississippi and Wisconsin have failed to mail absentee ballots to military members by the Sept. 22, 2012, deadline established by the MOVE Act. That was 45 days before the November 6 elections, which was what was required.
Obama ahead, Romney gains independents in Nevada poll
President Barack Obama recovered lost ground among older Nevada voters since his dismal first-debate performance against Mitt Romney, according to a new poll that shows the Democratic incumbent holding a precarious three-point edge over his GOP challenger, 48 percent to 45 percent.
Whistle-blower audio: Sen. Claire McCaskill’s husband cut business deals in Senate Dining Room
Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill’s husband used the U.S. Senate Dining Room to cut business deals selling tax credits tied to stimulus money, a whistle-blowing executive inside his company alleged on an audio recording exclusively obtained by The Daily Caller.
Pot Prizes May Have Lured More Eagle Rock Residents To Vote
Fliers offering $40 worth of free medical-grade marijuana were reportedly passed out in Eagle Rock to try and draw residents to vote in the local election.
Is Obama Buying the Election With His Welfare Explosion?
With the unprecedented budget explosion of means-tested, welfare-related entitlements, does Team Obama think it can buy the election?
International monitors at US polling places draw criticism
United Nations-affiliated election monitors from Europe and central Asia will be at polling places around the U.S. looking for voter suppression activities by conservative groups, a concern raised by civil rights groups during a meeting this week. The intervention has drawn criticism from a prominent conservative-leaning group combating election fraud.
Professors donate to Obama, opine about election in the news
At least a half-dozen professors who gave political donations to President Obama have been quoted in news articles opining about his administration and the 2012 race for the White House.
Horsford struggles vs. Tarkanian in Nev.
“When Frank Hawkins came the morning after the primary and said he was going to endorse Danny and go door to door with him, that was a shock to a lot of people in the African-American community,” Cunningham said. “A lot of people were puzzled and offended by it, but it was quite the discussion in the community. And it was divisive because of his position.”
Calif. official whose agency under-reported unemployment stats was Obama campaign donor
Marty Morgenstern, the secretary of the California agency that substantially under-reported unemployment claims last week, contributed to President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential election campaign, The Daily Caller has learned.
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
Lord Monckton: Sea Ice: An Open Letter to Jeremy Paxman of the BBC
Your Newsnight segment on Arctic sea ice (BBC2 TV, 8 September 2012) featured a “scientist” who said ice loss since a high point in 1979 would cut the Earth’s albedo and, by this feedback, cause warming equivalent to 20 years’ global CO2 emissions.
A123 Files for Bankruptcy
Yet another failure of central planning
Electric car battery-maker A123 Systems has filed for bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg News.
Taxpayers To Recover $0 On Solyndra
It will come as no surprise to some but the bankruptcy court hearing for Solyndra just threw up all over any hopes that our taxpayer-funded loans to this solar sinkhole will be recovered:
SOLYNDRA HAS ABOUT $71 MILLION IN NET DISTRIBUTABLE ASSETS
SOLYNDRA LENDERS AHEAD OF GOVERNMENT OWED ABOUT $77 MILLION
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
In Britain’s Liverpool Pathway We Get A Preview Of Obmacare And Hell
It isn’t often that I open a story with a quote from a liberal but, as a Catholic, I have a great deal of affinity for Hubert Humphrey. As you read this you’ll see just how far the modern left has strayed from the liberalism of FDR, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson.
War
& Terror
Clinton: I’m responsible for diplomats’ security
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday tried to douse a political firestorm around the deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, saying she is responsible for the security of American diplomatic outposts.
The Three Benghazi Timelines We Need Answers About
Every White House sooner or later succumbs to the temptation to cover up an embarrassment.
Report: Unmanned Drone Observed Benghazi Terror Attack, Did Nothing: “They stood and they watched and our people died”
As the details of Obama’s cover-up slowly trickle out, we get the feeling by the time this is all done with we’ll find out Obama himself was personally observing the action in between fundraisers. Now we discover we had drone surveillance of the attack as it happened and did nothing. Maybe we were concerned about innocent civilians protesting a video getting hurt.
North Korea rebuffs U.S. at secret meeting in China
Two North Korean government officials told a top U.S. official dealing with North Korea that the hermitic Stalinist state would not continue on its path to denuclearization, as promised in 2005, until the United States ends what it sees as America’s hostile policy to the DPRK.
Girl Shot By Taliban Interview On CNN, Malala Yousafzai 14 year old girl Pakistan Activist
National
The New Blacklist
Some proponents of gay marriage would rather intimidate their critics than debate them.
The Great Meteor Grab
“New regulations by the Federal government define asteroidal material to be an antiquity, like arrowheads and pottery, rather than a mineral — and, therefore, not subject to U.S. mining law or eligible for mining claims. At the moment, these regulations only apply to asteroidal materials that have fallen to Earth as meteorites. However, they create a precedent that could adversely affect the plans of companies such as Planetary Resources, who intend to mine asteroids in space.”
Lost boy kept warm by puppies, officials say
Warning: The following story is so damn heartwarming it may melt your computer or mobile device.
‘When I saw the handle turn, I shot him’: Home Alone girl, 12, shoots home intruder while hiding in the closet with gun
A 12-year-old girl is being hailed a hero for shooting a home intruder after she hid with a gun in the closet.
The most inappropriate show of support: Madonna, 54, dedicates onstage striptease to Pakistani girl shot by Taliban
Slammed as ‘cheap self-publicity’ as singer strips off to ‘support’ teenager shot for criticising terrorists
Madonna writes Malala Yousafzai’s name across her back after education activist was shot on a school bus
Pakistani people furious at bizarre display during the MDNA tour
California City Bans Smoking Inside Multi-Family Homes, Condos & Apartments
New York City’s sugary drinks ban has created a multitude of controversy, as small government enthusiasts charge that the policy, which places a 16-ounce restriction on cups and bottles of non-diet soda, sweet teas and other related beverages, is an example of nanny-state overreach.
How the Russian ‘Reset’ Explains Obama’s Foreign Policy
The president’s naivete about Vladimir Putin is the root cause of his failure.
How the Colleges Skew U.S. History
American history has been radically transformed on our campuses. Traditional topics are now not only marginalized but “re-visioned” to become more compatible with the dominant race/class/gender paradigm.
Second Circuit Strikes Down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act
Economy
& Taxes
Gideon Gono Comments on QE3
Gideon Gono, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe who destroyed the Zim dollar by creating hyperinflation, weighs in on the parallels between QE3 and the policy he followed last decade, in the RBZ’s mid-term 2012 monetary policy statement.
What Can We Cut to Balance the Budget
Coburn report details $18 billion of wasteful gov’t initiatives
The failure of modern economics
Today’s economists overlook the most basic element of economic science
Welfare spending jumps 32% in four years
Welfare spending has grown substantially over the past four years, reaching $746 billion in 2011 — or more than Social Security, basic defense spending or any other single chunk of the federal government — according to a new memo by the Congressional Research Service.
Weekly Jobless Claims Drop Proves to Be Short-Lived
Weekly applications for U.S. unemployment benefits jumped 46,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 388,000, the highest in four months. The increase represents a rebound from the previous week’s sharp drop. Both swings were largely due to technical factors.
Welfare government’s single largest budget item in FY 2011 at approx. $1.03 trillion
The government spent approximately $1.03 trillion on 83 means-tested federal welfare programs in fiscal year 2011 alone — a price tag that makes welfare that year the government’s largest expenditure, according to new data released by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee.
Japan and the Exhaustion of Consumerism
Japan’s faddishly fantastic fashions illustrate the exhaustion of consumerism as a driver of wealth creation.
International
Ukraine and the Sword of Vladimir
Watching old-school power politics unfold is a fascinating activity, and no better example can be found than those played by Russia and Vladimir Putin. The current maneuvering with respect to Ukraine harkens back to the Cold War days with a decidedly modern twist – i.e. energy supplies, and in particular natural gas.
Will EU Regulations Effectively Ban High-End Video Cards?
You thought the whole ‘EUSSR’ thing was over the top? Have a look at this poster
Take a close look at this promotional poster. Notice anything? Alongside the symbols of Christianity, Judaism, Jainism and so on is one of the wickedest emblems humanity has conceived: the hammer and sickle.
France to Cover 100 Percent of the Cost of Abortions
The French national health-care system is called Sécurité Sociale. It is currently running a $13 billion deficit, but President François Hollande has some ideas about a new direction for the program. For starters, in 2013, it will start covering the cost of abortion entirely.
European Military Decline Accelerating?
It could have been a moment of triumph for Europe—a symbol of global relevance and power when it was most needed. Instead, the failed merger between continental European aerospace giant EADS and British BAE Systems, two of Europe’s largest defense companies, is an alarming sign of the increasing irrelevance of Europe.
France to Ban Homework. Really.
In the name of social justice and equality, François Hollande wants all learning done in school.
The Coming Collapse: Authoritarians in China and Russia Face an Endgame
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, China and Russia have been constants in the world. They have been autocratic, resistant to the spread of freedom, occasionally belligerent toward their neighbors, and increasingly prosperous. They have consistently joined together in order to block Western initiatives in the UN Security Council and to defend dictatorships like Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
Britain’s High-Tech Thought Police
British authorities target bloggers, tweeters, and t-shirt wearers for speech crimes.
Rowan Atkinson: we must be allowed to insult each other
Rowan Atkinson has launched a campaign for a change in the law that bans “insulting words and behaviour”.
Opinion
Obama’s Progressivism: the Least Good for the Smallest Number
