News of the Week
Election 2012 *************** LePage wants 'floor fight' in Tampa Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage told POLITICO Saturday he hopes to see a “floor fight” at the GOP convention in Tampa this summer, giving the party an opportunity to nominate a “fresh face” rather than one of the battered members of the 2012 field. ************** Santorum Supported Federal Role in Evolution Debate, Compared Belief in Darwinism to Nazism ************** Rapper Cornbreadd Now Running For Congress Rapper and 2009 Houston Press cover subject Cornbreadd, aka Maurice Duhon Jr., has just announced his candidacy for Congress. Duhon is running as an independent for Texas' 18th District, trying to unseat longtime incumbent Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. ************** Buddy Roemer ending GOP bid, will seek Reform Party nomination Frustrated and largely ignored, Buddy Roemer is ending his bid for the Republican nomination and will instead seek the presidency on a third-party ticket. ************** America’s as Happy with Obama as it was with Jimmy Carter You know who this helps? Anyone running against Barack Obama. ************** Sale of Philadelphia newspapers raises bias concerns One group led by ex-governor Rendell ************** Santorum In 2008: Satan is Systematically Destroying America In 2008, Sen. Rick Santorum spoke at Ave Maria University and said that Satan is destroying academia, politics, and the Protestant Church. ************** What really happened inside the Nevada GOP caucus ************** Billionaire Sheldon Adelson Says He Might Give $100M To Newt Gingrich Or Other Republican Sheldon Adelson plays as stubbornly in politics as he does in business. So the criticisms that he’s trying to personally buy the presidential election for Newt Gingrich are met with a roll of the eyes. Occupy Wall Street *************** Occupy Protesters Target Cops with “Urine Bombs” ************** Auto union orchestrates, leads ’99% Spring’ campaign, records show From April 9 to 15, “100,000 Americans will train for non-violent direct action,” promises a new website called “The 99% Spring.” But while the 43 organizations co-signing a letter on the ragtag-looking site indicate the sort of leaderless resistance characterized by the Occupy Wall Street movement, a series of files The Daily Caller downloaded from the United Auto Workers website indicate that the organized labor powerhouse is behind the effort. ************** Occupy Wall Street calls for May Day general strike At the General Assembly meeting last night, Occupy Wall Street’s dreamer contingent got a very special valentine: the GA endorsed the Direct Action Working Group’s proposal to call for a general strike on May Day—May 1, 2012. Occupiers celebrated with cheers and Valentine’s Day balloons. ************** OWS Letter to the Editor in USA Today: We Will Storm Wall Street With Guns Obamacare ************** Omitted variable fraud: vast evidence for solar climate driver rates one oblique sentence in IPPC AR5 report "Hide The Decline" *************** Another Sign of the End Times for the Climate Campaign? ************** Per person cost of federal high-risk medical plan doubles Medical costs for enrollees in the health-care law’s high-risk insurance pools are expected to more than double initial predictions, the Obama administration said Thursday in a report on the new program. ************** Solyndra abandons efforts to go clean and green Federal officials hailed Solyndra LLC’s plan to create clean energy when they awarded the company more than a half-billion dollars in loans, but the solar-panel maker’s abrupt closure now threatens to leave behind an environmental mess. ************** EPA scrubs grants database of Gleick grants Gleick’s grants from EPA get Stalinized from the EPA Grants Database. ************** Climate models need revising: Droughts, heat waves not such a big deal 'Not something we expected', say US gov boffins War & Terror *************** China preparing for space warfare Growing threat to United States Army Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, disclosed new details of China’s space weapons programs last week, including information regarding China’s anti-satellite missiles and cyber warfare capabilities. National *************** Wyoming House advances doomsday bill CHEYENNE — State representatives on Friday advanced legislation to launch a study into what Wyoming should do in the event of a complete economic or political collapse in the United States. ************** NJ Teachers’ Union Thugs Protest At Student’s Home To Send Father A Message In Delsea, New Jersey, the teachers’ union (a sub-chapter of the NEA) has been fighting over the amount of their pay increases (not decreases) since 2010. ************** Another Obama fundraiser turns out to be a bad ambassador Candidate Barack Obama promised to end the time-honored American practice of appointing ambassadors who have no experience in foreign policy, but President Obama has completely ignored that promise, appointing fundraisers to dozens of ambassadorships all over the world. ************** Time Magazine apologizes for putting non-Latino on ‘Yo Decido’ cover Time Magazine's March 5 issue, hitting newsstands Friday, carries the coverline: "Yo Decido. Why Latinos will pick the next President." The cover, illustrating Michael Scherer's story about how Latino voters in Arizona could impact the 2012 presidential election, features the faces of 20 people readers would assume are Latinos. ************** The Sharia Court of Pennsylvania A state judge in Pennsylvania has dismissed an assault and harrassment case against a Muslim defendant who admitted attacking the victim. Magistrate Judge Mark Martin, a veteran of the war in Iraq and a convert to Islam, ruled that Talag Elbayomy’s sharia defense — what he claimed was his obligation to strike out against any insult against the prophet Mohammed — trumped the First Amendment free speech rights of the victim. ************** Eleventh Circuit Finds Fifth Amendment Right Against Self Incrimination Protects Against Being Forced to Decrypt Hard Drive Contents The important decision is In re Grand Jury Subpoena Duces Tecum Dated March 25, 2011. From the opinion by Judge Tjoflat ************** California Asks Judges: Gay or Straight? In order to make sure gays and lesbians are adequately represented on the judicial bench, the state of California is requiring all judges and justices to reveal their sexual orientation. The announcement was made in an internal memo sent to all California judges and justices. ************** Obama Adviser Argued: Kids from Big Families Have Lower IQs John P. Holdren, the top science adviser to President Barack Obama, wrote in a book he co-authored with population control advocates Paul and Anne Ehrlich that children from larger families have lower IQs. ************** The Great Gibson Guitar Raid: Months Later, Still No Charges Filed ************** Nevada students received class credit for volunteering for the Obama campaign ************** The U.N. Threat to Internet Freedom Top-down, international regulation is antithetical to the Net, which has flourished under its current governance model. ************** Why don’t you Americans riot more? Ah, for the good ole’ days. Do you remember way back when Americans, unsatisfied with the current state of affairs, would just grab the kids, the dog, a couple of cans of gasoline, a box of matches and just go light up the town? Good times. Over at The Atlantic, Emily Badger asks the same question. ************** U. S. Supreme Court To Hear Texas Affirmative Action Case--Fisher v. Univ. of Texas The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Abigail Noel Fisher v. University of Texas, a case challenging the constitutionality of UT's reintroduction of racial preferences in the undergraduate admissions process in 2004. ************** Parenting Is Now Child Abuse A bratty 10-year-old got suspended for the fifth time from riding the bus and his mom punished him -- not by giving him a car ride to school, no punishment at all -- but by making him hoof it to school 4.5 miles. I say good for her -- consequences equal incentive to change behavior. Economy
& Taxes *************** World Bank Wants Control Of The High Seas ************** The Geography of Government Benefits The share of Americans’ income that comes from government benefit programs, like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, more than doubled over the last four decades, rising from 8 percent in 1969 to 18 percent in 2009. ************** The Colonization Begins: Germany May Send 160 Tax Collectors To Greece Since the European colonial state of southern Bavaria Sachs (formerly known as the insolvent Hellenic Republic) no longer even pretends to be anything less than a pass-thru funding colony of its creditors, said creditors (European banks and various insurance companies) are about to send out the first group of colonial scouts in the form of German tax collectors. ************** Private Employment Has Recouped Only Three-Eighths of Its Recent Loss As the most widely reported rate of unemployment (U-3) has fallen in recent months, people with a political agenda served by painting a rosy picture of the recovery have made considerable noise about this decrease. Their political opponents have responded that one reason for the decline is that the labor force has fallen as more people have given up looking for work, some of them going into retirement sooner than they would have if the labor market had been more robust. ************** Behold The Greek Debt Slavery "To Do" Checklist Permitting It To Bail Out Europe's Insolvent Banks Yesterday, in our daily list of shocking discoveries of just how far forward Greece is willing to bend over, we realized that not only will Greece not receive a penny (or is that a drachma?) from Europe, but it itself will have to fund the European bank bailout via a Greek-funded Escrow account. ************** A Modest Proposal To Boost US GDP By $852 Quadrillion: Build The Imperial Death Star ************** Greeks Welcome Their New European Overlords... In German ************** Greece’s Lenders Have The Right To Seize National Gold Reserves ************** America’s Per Capita Government Debt Worse Than Greece The office of Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, sends along this chart, showing that 'America’s Per Capita Government Debt Worse Than Greece,' as well as Ireland, Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain ************** Home prices at lowest point in more than 10 years Home prices fell to their lowest point in more than a decade in January, which helped to lift the pace of home sales, according to a report from an industry trade group. ************** Deal "Really" Finalized? Will Greece Survive the Ides of March? Disastrous Piecemeal Breakup of Eurozone Likely in the Cards As a point of curiosity, the Greek 1-Year Bond Yield touched 682% today, now down to a mere 666%. Bloomberg quotes the open as 566%, if correct, the one year yield soared 116 percentage points from the open to the high. ************** False Recovery 2.0: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like 2011 The US economy is billions of dollars and 1.7 million jobs stronger than we were twelve months ago. But the same headwinds that doomed last year's recovery are swirling again. ************** In Entitlement America, The Head Of A Household Of Four Making Minimum Wage Has More Disposable Income Than A Family Making $60,000 A Year Tonight's stunning financial piece de resistance comes from Wyatt Emerich of The Cleveland Current. ************** Un député grec ayant placé de l'argent à l'étranger dans le collimateur des autorités Les autorités grecques se sont engagées vendredi à dévoiler le nom d'un député qui a sorti du pays la somme d'un million d'euros pour la placer sur des comptes étrangers alors que l'Etat exhorte la population à conserver son épargne dans les banques du pays en pleine tourmente financière. ************** Here Is Why The Dow Just Passed 13,000 ************** Germany drawing up plans for Greece to leave the euro Plans for Greece to default, potentially leaving the euro, have been drafted in Germany as the European Union begins to face up to the fact that Greek debt is spiralling out of control - with or without a second bailout. *************** International *************** Mexican drugs cartel burn newspaper offices ************** Dad arrested over daughter's gun drawing ************** German showdown with IMF looms as Bundestag blocks rescue funds Germany's ruling parties are to introduce a resolution in parliament blocking any further boost to the EU’s bail-out machinery, vastly complicating Greece’s rescue package and risking a major clash with the International Monetary Fund. ************** Iran’s Net Neutrality: They Shut Down the Internet for Everyone Equally With elections pending, the Mullahs that lord over Iran aren’t taking any chances. …Iran has begun blocking Internet services, Web security experts say, adding to concerns that government leaders hope to shut off Iranians from the rest of the online world… ************** "Friends of Syria" to demand ceasefire, aid access Western and Arab nations will demand that Syrian forces implement an immediate ceasefire to allow relief supplies to reach desperate civilians in bombarded cities such as Homs when they meet in Tunis on Friday. ************** The Next International Right The past century was one of barbarism and mass murder, one in which the world stood by while large populations were exterminated by governments bent on power and possessed of the means of killing. ************** Gun culture spreads in India Indians own about 40 million guns, second only to the U.S. Rising incomes, along with crime and fear of terrorist attacks, have fueled firearms purchases. ************** Russian Scientists Grow Pleistocene-Era Plants From Seeds Buried By Squirrels 30,000 Years Ago On the frozen edge of the Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia, in an ancient pantry harboring seeds and other stores, an Arctic ground squirrel burrowed into the dirt and buried a small, dark fruit from a flowering plant. The squirrel’s prize quickly froze in the cold ground and was preserved in permafrost, waiting to grow into a fully fledged flowering plant until it was unearthed again. After 30,000 years, it finally was. Scientists in Russia have now regenerated this Pleistocene plant, transplanting it into a pot in the lab. A year later, it grew forth and bore fruit. ************** Hate speech section of Canadian Human Rights Act nears repeal The repeal of section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) seems inevitable now that MP Brian Storseth (Westlock–St. Paul) has successfully steered his private member’s Bill C-304 through its second reading. ************** Spanish socialists pour into the streets to protest With unemployment at a staggering 23% - half the young people in Spain can't find a job - one would think that even socialists, who ran up the largest deficits in Spanish history, would acknowledge that change was necessary. ************** Putin Pledges 400 ICBMs for Russia in Ten Years Russia’s armed forces will receive over 400 modern intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), more than 100 military spacecraft and over 2,300 new tanks within the next ten years, Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin said. *************** Opinion *************** Progressivism as Conservatism ************** What Beer Can Teach Us About Emerging Technologies The home-brew movement serves as a lesson in DIY innovation. ************** A Nation of Villeins In medieval times, “villeins” were a class of serfs who held the legal status of freemen in their dealings with all people except their lord (according to the American Heritage Dictionary). How close are we to becoming “villein citizens”? ************** The Paradox of the Nostalgic Progressive ************** Obama: Leviathan 2012 A daring power grab, on many fronts ************** $2.50 per Gallon Gasoline, Energy Independence and Jobs -- An Address by Newt Gingrich ************** Why Capitalism Isn't Going Anywhere It's the only system known to humanity that increases both growth and freedom. ************** The 'Fairness' Fraud During a recent Fox News Channel debate about the Obama administration's tax policies, Democrat Bob Beckel raised the issue of "fairness." ************** The New Commandments on the Barn Wall Ten Commandments for Our New Century If you think our quiet lives of desperation can sometimes become a bit much, relax. Here are some guidelines to soothe your frustration — a few commandments that make sense out of today’s nonsense. *************** |
