Free Republic

Bolton is thinking about running for president in 2012, and he’s thinking about it hard. He first thought about it in 2008, during the general-election campaign. “I was watching what was happening in 2008, and I thought, ‘How can this be?’” What he meant was, How could vital issues of national security be receiving so little attention? Then Barack Obama was elected. And, “as I followed his obsession with restructuring our entire domestic way of life, it became completely clear to me that our willful ignoring of national-security policy was going to cost us.” Someone, Bolton felt, had to raise...

One of the provisions of the health care reform legislation passed earlier this year increases the medical expense deduction threshold from 7.5% of adjusted gross income to 10% of adjusted gross income, effectively increasing the cost of medical care for many taxpayers who itemize on their tax returns, by reducing their medical deductions.

One of the most controversial provisions of the Obama health care reform legislation is the individual health care mandate. This is a requirement that individuals maintain essential health care insurance coverage beginning in 2014 or face an excise tax enforced by the Internal Revenue Service. This provision has already spawned numerous court challenges by individual states challenging whether the federal government has the constitutional authority to compel Americans to buy something they may not want to buy.

The US House of Representatives passed a $15 billion dollar bill designed to stimulate job creation. The bill passed narrowly 217-201 on Thursday with little Republican support. ...this is probably a waste of money.

While Oregon Measure 67 focused on corporations, Measure 66 has three provisions that affect individual taxpayers. The first two provisions target “the rich” with tax increases and the third affects Oregonians receiving unemployment compensation.

Lawmakers and lobbyists who favor mental health parity legislation have said for months that the 110th Congress is the best chance in more than a decade to get a bill to the president’s desk. But the inclusion of the parity provisions in a financial bailout package is another in a series of high-risk gambles that could fell the parity legislation yet again, depending on whether the House clears the Senate’s new package this week. However, now that the mental health provisions have been added, at least one House member — key parity advocate Jim Ramstad , R-Minn. — is reconsidering...

With top Dems fearing Barack Obama is in a hole, the Obama campaign has made a weird decision. It's going to dig that hole deeper, harder and faster.

Germans accustomed to Angela Merkel's domestic track record are hard-pressed to recognize the chancellor as she re-orients German foreign policy and takes it back toward its rightful place: at America's side.

See link: http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=141466,00.html

SPIEGEL: You also mentioned the hatred for the United States throughout the Arab world which has ensued as a result of the invasion of Iraq. Given this circumstance, does it come as any surprise that Washington's call for democracy in the Middle East has been discredited? Carter: No, as a matter of fact, the concerns I exposed have gotten even worse now with the United States supporting and encouraging Israel in its unjustified attack on Lebanon. SPIEGEL: But wasn't Israel the first to get attacked? Carter: I don't think that Israel has any legal or moral justification for their massive...

IV. CONCLUSION In sum, we conclude that (1) plaintiffs' claims are justiciable; (2) Measure 37 does not impede the legislative plenary power; (3) Measure 37 does not violate the equal privileges and immunities guarantee of Article I, section 20, of the Oregon Constitution; (4) Measure 37 does not violate the suspension of laws provision contained in Article I, section 22, of the Oregon Constitution; (5) Measure 37 does not violate separation of powers constraints; (6) Measure 37 does not waive impermissibly sovereign immunity; and (7) Measure 37 does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The trial...

Oregon's Supreme Court has resuscitated the controversial property rights law that could redefine rural Oregon. Measure 37 did not violate state and federal constitutions as a lower court thought, justices said this morning in a sweeping, unanimous opinion. Their decision -- which will be dissected across the nation -- jump-starts more than 2,500 applications to develop land controlled by government regulations.

I have always thought that leftist worshipped big government. Now I have confirmation. The critics of the Federal relief effort seem to be crediting President Bush and the Federal government with many of the attributes usually reserved for God. For example, they seem to think Bush is all powerful, omnipotent, and accordingly either started or should have stopped the hurricane. They also assume that he should have created, ex nihilo, a bunch of National Guardsman in the center of New Orleans minutes after the storm passed. Furthermore they seem to think that he is omniscient--having infinite awareness and should have...

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/front_page/103364614083282.xml

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