Culture/Society (News/Activism)
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Click Celebs Who Lean To The Right (slideshow)Hollywood stars and celebrities are generally considered to be a liberal and Democratic-leaning community, but these celebrities are all declared Republicans according to the FEC, or known conservatives.
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Nobody can see the future but I’ll take my best stab at it -- here’s hoping I’m not just sticking my foot in my mouth. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time. The following predictions should hopefully be very controversial -- just like many of the predictions in my book Discover the Upside of Down. All of my contrarian predictions are based on how I see things setting up the weekly charts in stocks, oil, gold, currencies, commodities, foreign markets, and bonds. I’ll also throw in some specific possible catalysts that could ignite these very powerful setups as they appear...
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School Lunches = Pet Food? Many of you may be quite picky about what you feed your children. So many parents these days, in a hissy fit of Whole Foods-fueled hippie-ness, boycott the likes of a Happy Meal. State governments, much like our own here in California, rail against ye olde fashioned childhood snack time staples like candy bars and sodas, banning schools from vending all things that aren't dried fruit and Nutri-Grain bars. And parents these days, in their infinite laziness and longing to be "one of the kids," push their children toward video games in lieu of real...
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Law: American heroes are arraigned for allegedly punching a terrorist in wartime. What happens to Tiger Woods isn't vital to our country's future. What happens to Matthew McCabe, Julio Huertas and Jonathan Keefe is. People are more likely to recognize the names of Tiger's alleged bimbo eruptions than the names of these three Navy SEALs we sent into battle. They are not household names in a nation consumed with Climate Gate, the public option and the antics of billionaire athletes. An administration consumed with apologies has said the architect of 9/11's massacre, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, must be given all the...
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Not Barack Obama the man, mind you. Barack Obama the idea. Which, in fairness, is true. The evolutionary “flash point” in question is called religious worship and it happened a long time ago; the cult of The One, of which Smith is evidently a proud member, is just the political example du jour. But whatever: After watching Demi Moore pledge to “serve our president” and Tony Bennett encourage people to support him in whatever he does, no amount of celebrity bootlicking should surprise anyone. Instead, and since it’s semi-related, let me use this post to open discussion on something that’s...
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Vatican Paper Urges Obama to Remember War on Life Notes Reservations on Criteria for Peace Prize Selection VATICAN CITY, OCT. 13, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Upon accepting the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, U.S. President Barack Obama should remember not only the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also the war being waged against the unborn, according to an article in L'Osservatore Romano. The semi-official Vatican newspaper published an article in Sunday's Italian edition that responded to Obama's peace prize win. The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the news Friday, saying it recognized the president's "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between...
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Q.38 Now, I am going to read you a list of words and phrases which people use to describe political figures. For each word or phrase, please tell me whether it describes Barack Obama very well, well, not too well, or not well at all.
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By the time this newsletter wings its way through the Internet to you, I’ll be winging my way to Copenhagen as a non-governmental organization representative during the climate treaty negotiations there. Expectations for Conference of the Parties-15 (COP-15) have swung dramatically up and down in recent weeks: it would result in a strong, binding treaty limiting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide; talks would collapse and no treaty would emerge; non-binding commitments would arise as the basis for negotiating a binding treaty next year in Mexico; or, most recently, with the release of the so-called ”Danish text,” perhaps back to collapsing...
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A deal between the White House and the pharmaceutical industry is holding up a bipartisan amendment to allow the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from abroad, according to a member of the Senate Democratic leadership. The Senate has been debating the amendment, sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), since Tuesday but has not held a vote, which is contributing to a stall in the floor action on healthcare reform. Dorgan’s measure, which would permit bulk exports of medicines from countries such as Canada, enjoys broad and bipartisan support and likely has the backing of more than 60 senators, which would...
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“The most remarkable thing about the book signing,” she said, “was that everyone is so unremarkable.” Common people turned out to see Palin, not big shots, she said. Some people were so excited to meet Sarah Palin, MamaJD said, that they had tears in their eyes, including Vietnam War veterans. “I don’t know about her political prowess,” MamaJD said, “but there’s something mesmerizing about her. She’s a warm person who has an energy about her.”
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~ It’s Finally Friday!! ~ HORNET REFUELING A U.S. Air Force KC-10 Extender aircraft refuels a Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft over Afghanistan, Dec. 7, 2009. The squadron is part of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, which is deployed to the region. The Super Hornet is assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 41. U.S. Navy photo by Lt. j. g. Kyle Terwilliger Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY A member of the joint international security force in Afghanistan eyes...
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A skeptical public repeatedly has been told that questions about purported global warming are closed. "I think everybody is clear on the science. I think scientists are clear on the science ... I think that this notion that there's some debate ... on the science is kind of silly," said President Obama's Press Secretary Robert Gibbs when asked Monday about the president's response to the controversy. The flack was talking smack. Contrary to the whitewash job conducted by propagandists, there are 450 academic peer-reviewed journal articles questioning the importance of man-made global warming. The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine...
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Nursery-age children should be monitored for signs of brainwashing by Islamist extremists, according to a leaked police memo obtained by The Times. In an e-mail to community groups, an officer in the West Midlands counter-terrorism unit wrote: “I do hope that you will tell me about persons, of whatever age, you think may have been radicalised or be vulnerable to radicalisation ... Evidence suggests that radicalisation can take place from the age of 4.” The police unit confirmed that counter-terrorist officers specially trained in identifying children and young people vulnerable to radicalisation had visited nursery schools. The policy was condemned...
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Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) tells the Minnesota Post that she has a hard time understanding why her Democratic enemies hate her. And she says she doesn't "fear" the left, despite the fact that she represents a solidly Democratic state. "I don't know. I'm a lovable little fuzz ball! I have no idea what they would have to fear. I guess you would have to ask them; they would have the better answer to your question. I am doing my job. That's what I was elected to do. I don't fear the left, and maybe that's part of the loathing that...
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Michelle Obama is more than just the First Lady; she's also Barbara Walters' "Most Fascinating Person of 2009." During the broadcaster's TV special on Wednesday night, Obama was given the top honor over people such as Sarah Palin, Kate Gosselin, Lady Gaga, and Brett Favre. In addition to appearing on Wednesday night's TV special, Walters saved part of the interview for Thursday's episode of "The View." During the previously-unaired footage, the First Lady talked about attempting to raise humble and gracious children while they continued to live in the White House. In terms of responsibility, Obama told Walters that "they...
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Barack Obama's faux populism is beginning to grate, and when yet another one of those "we the people" e-mails from the president landed on my screen as I was fishing around for a column subject, I came unglued. It is one thing to rob us blind by rewarding the power elite that created our problems but quite another to sugarcoat it in the rhetoric of a David taking on those Goliaths.
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Misanthropy: Calls for forced population control as a means to conquer global warming are in the news this week. We knew the Copenhagen climate conference would keep drawing out the cranks. 'Humans are overpopulating the world," Diane Francis, a staff writer for Canada's National Post, said in Tuesday's edition. "A planetary law, such as China's one-child policy, is the only way to reverse the disastrous global birthrate currently, which is one million births every four days." Zhao Baige, a member of the China delegation at Copenhagen, holds a similar view, according to a report from China Daily. "Dealing with climate...
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12/10/2009 - KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- The Zabul Provincial Reconstruction Team is on a nine-month tour assisting the Afghan government in bringing about stability through governance, reconstruction and development. Although the Zabul PRT has been in country for several years has completed approximately 40 projects this year and is scheduled for more than 30 more. In the end, approximately 350,000 Afghans and their future generations will reap the benefits of the Zabul PRT's labor. The Zabul PRT, a diverse organization with joint, interagency and international components, is one of the principle counter-insurgency units in the region part of a...
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Marriage Penalty Hidden in Health Care Reform by Kim Trobee, editor Higher premiums may discourage people from getting married. A closer look at premium payments in both the House and Senate health care bills shows higher premiums that might discourage couples tying the knot. For instance, in the House version, an unmarried couple each making $30,000 a year would pay $1,320 combined each year for private health insurance. If that couple chose to marry, their premium would jump to $12,000 a year, a difference of $10,680. Allen Quist, a former Minnesota State legislator and current candidate for Congress, discovered the...
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Senator Jim DeMint is urging the Republican establishment to tack further to the right. That's because he believes the leadership has swung too far to the left. In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody, DeMint (R-SC) said his party deserves a better slate of candidates than the ones put forward to run against the Democrats "I need some new Republicans, people who believe in constitutional government, a balanced budget and liberty and so I’m out across the country recruiting new Republicans who I think if they get here will not only challenge the institutions of government but...
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The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, frustrated by the Justice Department's failure to explain the dismissal of charges against New Black Panther Party members who disrupted a Philadelphia polling place during last year's elections, has subpoenaed the department demanding records showing how the case was handled...
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Obama administration's moves toward regulating greenhouse gas emissions are sending Congress a message to act quickly on climate change legislation, Entergy Corp.'s chairman and chief executive said Wednesday. Wayne Leonard told reporters he believed the administration was acting because Congress has been too slow to address the problem. The Environmental Protection Agency declared Monday that carbon emissions could endanger human health and would be subject to federal regulation.
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Economy: In a follow-on to the president's jobs summit, Congress is cooking up a jobs bill for a vote next week. It's the same tired recipe to expand government at the expense of the private sector. Call it a jobs kill. Last week, we watched as 130 Big Labor bosses, community organizers, left-wing think tanks and a few token CEOs supposedly put their heads together to come up with a way to create jobs in the worst U.S. recession since 1929. It was window dressing. Instead of looking to proven solutions to create jobs, like tax cuts and free trade,...
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Senate Dems May Change Health Care Compromise ERICA WERNER WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats are considering changing a proposed expansion of Medicare to address complaints from doctors and hospitals and defray costs for consumers, officials said Thursday, two days after party leaders hailed it as part of a breakthrough for health care. Under the plan, uninsured individuals ages 55 to 64 could purchase coverage under Medicare. The expansion is part of a compromise for dropping a full-blown national government-run insurance plan from the legislation that Democrats and the White House hope to push through the Senate by Christmas. The American Hospital...
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An organization representing the grandest ambitions of climate scientists wants Western nations to spend at least $2.1 billion a year for the next five years — and as much as $60 billion overall during that period — to glean huge troves of still undiscovered climate information from the world's land, air and seas. The information system aims to measure literally everything environmental, from the full amount of plant leaf material in the world's ecosystems to the differences in saltiness throughout the world's oceans to the discharge from every one of the world's major rivers, to the monitoring of water vapor...
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At National Review Online, conservative curmudgeon John Derbyshire has weighed in on the Climategate scandal by encouraging conservatives not to jump on the anti-science bandwagon. I share his worry and find his advice is good so far as it goes; but I think Derbyshire’s defense of science might actually encourage the skepticism he wants to prevent. Most of the trouble comes from his invocation of the word “science,” and his claim that science has a magisterium.His article is called “Trust Science.” I’m not sure what that means. What is “science,” and how do we “trust” it? Imagine if someone said:...
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WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2009 – The increase of troops into the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility also is increasing the nontraditional roles filled by airmen in combat, a product of the Air Force's "all in" philosophy. Air Force Capt. Maureen Wood, right, stands with fellow legal officer Air Force Capt. Jaime Espinosa prior to a mission in Iraq. U.S. Air Force photo (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Air Force Capt. Maureen Wood, a legal officer deployed with Multinational Force Iraq’s Joint Task Force 134, recently found herself in one of those situations that was anything but "traditional." She...
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Charlotte, NC (LifeNews.com) -- A legal abortion on a woman at a Charlotte, North Carolina abortion center may have clamed her life. Local pro-life advocates shot video footage of an ambulance taking a woman from the A Preferred Women's Health Center abortion facility on Sunday. The video shows a woman taken on a gurney from the abortion center to a waiting ambulance.However, she was completely covered from head to toe with no sign of movement and the man who took the video says this is different than women other women who have suffered from botched abortions have been transported to...
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CAMP BUCCA, Iraq, Dec. 10, 2009 – From the air, the basic outline of Camp Bucca appears as most military forward operating bases in Iraq, except for nine fluttering white flags affixed to poles jutting from the ground. Army Sgt. Marcus Jemison tees off on the 570-yard fifth hole at Camp Bucca, Iraq. The golf course allows servicemembers a chance to relax between missions. U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. David Bennett (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The flags aren’t tokens of surrender, but they often elicit cries of frustration from soldiers who have thrown their best at...
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If every great cause requires an even greater villain, Democratic greens have found one in Sarah Palin. House Democrats spent Thursday targeting former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for using e-mails, many from the 1990s, from English climate scientists to bolster her claim that global warming is “bogus” and ridiculing her op-ed in The Washington Post calling for President Barack Obama to boycott the Copenhagen climate talks. Palin and other critics of Copenhagen have seized on a passel of stolen messages reportedly showing that scientists from East Anglia University may have fudged climate change findings. Progressives, in damage control mode, have...
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Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- Canada's nationwide newspaper, the National Post, is generating controversy today with an editorial that promote China's one-child, forced abortion policy. That's the program that makes it so couples can't have two or more children and it has been enforced with human rights abuses nationwide. Diane Francis, of the Post writes today that, "The whole world needs to adopt China's one-child policy" -- calling it an "inconvenient truth."The editorial comes at a time when international leaders are meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark to discuss the much-disputed climate change theory."The 'inconvenient truth' overhanging the UN's Copenhagen conference is not...
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STRASBOURG, December 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-life advocates involved in the "A, B and C v. Ireland" case fear that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is preparing to issue "an activist" decision that could lead to the abolition of the pro-life amendment of Ireland's constitution. The ECHR heard arguments yesterday in the case that has been described as the "Roe v. Wade of Europe." Three women, two Irish nationals and one Lithuanian, who live in Ireland and obtained abortions in the UK, have complained to the Court that had they been allowed to have had abortions in...
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Amazon is cutting prices even further on two big Kindle pre-order titles. Kindle pre-orders for Stephen King's "Under the Dome" (Scribner) and Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue" (HarperCollins) are fetching the low low price of $7.99, the New York Times' Motoko Rich reports. Rich writes:
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For the past 28 years, the village of Amelia, Ohio, has hosted a Christmas parade. It won't this year. One person threatened village mayor Leroy Ellington with legal action. Rather than duke it out, Ellington caved. He offered to host a " Holiday Parade." Village residents told Ellington where to stick the "Holiday Parade." Each year, it comes to this, a facile attempt to take the name "Christmas" from the Christmas season. How did we get to the point of political correctness where saying "Merry Christmas" risks a lawsuit or being kicked out of school? Christmas Day, Dec. 25, honors...
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A natural glue that sticks mussels to rocks and boat hulls has inspired US scientists to develop a new type of medical adhesive for use in pancreatic islet transplantation, an experimental medical procedure for treating patients with type 1 diabetes. The glue, developed by Phillip Messersmith's team at Northwestern University in Evanston, consists of a branched poly(ethylene glycol) core with catechol-derived end groups. Speaking at the Materials Research Society's meeting in Boston last week, Messersmith explained that the catechol functional group plays a key role in the solidification and adhesive capabilities of the marine blue mussel Mytilus edulis' adhesive proteins. 'Catechol in the presence of an...
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A crowd estimated at up to 1,200 people has been waiting in the cold for former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to begin signing books at the Fred Meyer store in Coeur d’Alene. The first 700 people in line are being given wristbands that will guarantee a chance to have Palin sign up to two copies of her book, “Going Rogue.”Fred Meyer officials have begun to pass out the wristbands in preparation for the noon event. The first person in line, Mary Ann Porter, of Spokane, said she arrived at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Overnight temperatures plunged as low as 9...
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Cover-up hinted as case recalls 'flying imams' Evidence that an incident on an Air Tran flight from Atlanta to Houston could have been a "dry run" for a possible hijacking is mounting, with analysts hinting at a cover-up because of an airline gag order on employees and more witnesses coming forward to say they were afraid. The airline, meanwhile, is sticking to its prepared statements that there was an issue with a passenger and a cell phone but the matter is considered closed. ... Charges of suppressed information now are being leveled. "Two and a half weeks later, the incident...
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Consider that 23 percent of conservatives and 35 percent of liberals say that they have been in touch with the dead. Eighteen percent of conservatives and 33 percent of liberals believe in reincarnation. Another 18 percent of conservatives condone the power of "spiritual energy" compared to 30 percent of liberals.
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The U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating a complaint that the Fort Worth school district discriminated against a high school volleyball player because she was pregnant. The player, 17-year-old Mackenzie McCollum of Arlington Heights, was a starting setter until the school discovered she was pregnant on Oct. 7, according to Laura S. Kaufmann, a lawyer with Washington-based National Women’s Law Center, which represents McCollum. She was 10 weeks pregnant at the time. School officials told McCollum that she needed a doctor’s note clearing her to play. Kaufmann says the district violated Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits...
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HAVANA — Suspected drug smugglers used spikes to deflate the tires of a U.S. Border Patrol unit during a pursuit Tuesday night — at least the second incident in which area authorities have discovered the devices in a week. Border Patrol would not confirm whether the spikes deflated the tires of an agency vehicle Tuesday night, but court documents reveal agents also found the homemade devices after an agent fired gunshots during a confrontation last week. Meanwhile, authorities are concerned the spikes could cause further incidents on Rio Grande Valley roadways. The spikes, or caltrops, consist of several metal points...
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LOS ANGELES – California has more Chihuahuas than it can handle, and it has Hollywood to blame. There are so many Chihuahuas at shelters in Oakland, they have started shipping the dogs out of state, said Megan Webb, director of Oakland Animal Services. They have sent about 100 to Washington, Oregon and Arizona, she said, "and as soon as they get them, they are ready for new ones." Chihuahuas make up 30 percent or more of the dog populations at many California shelters. And experts say pop culture is to blame, with fans immitating Chihuahua-toting celebrities like Paris Hilton and...
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This is that wonderful time of year when a roly-poly, white-bearded fellow descends from the North Pole to lavish us with presents. So when President Obama follows suit, maybe it's just his way of getting into the spirit of the season. He sounded uncannily like Santa Claus the other day in a speech taking credit for creating and saving 1.6 million jobs and vowing to do even more. The recent uptick in the economy and dip in unemployment, the president announced, came about because of the $787 billion economic stimulus package he signed last February. But with unemployment still at...
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Someone posted that original link broke, hence this repeat. “In a startling disclosure from an exchange at an East London mosque, Imam Abdul Makin and a leading Muslim lawyer have supported the killing and raping of non-Muslims, declaring all non-Muslims as guilty and subject to lethal abuse.”
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When it comes to greetings during the Winter Shopping Spree vaguely associated with the 25th of December, I guess I'm hopelessly old-fashioned. I say "Merry Christmas." Some will think me too retro. Too bad. I'm like Linus from the "Peanuts" cartoons. The birth of Christ is the reason for the season. But if someone offers a "Happy Hanukkah" or "Merry Kwanzaa" -- even those timid souls with their safely corporate "Happy holidays" -- I thank them. They're being kind. Yet the other day I was watching TV, and saw something astounding: a commercial for the Illinois Lottery, aimed at getting...
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"It's the economy, stupid," was the message that Democratic political strategist James Carville kept repeating to Bill Clinton in the 1992 campaign against then-President George H.W. Bush. It seems that President Barack Obama has finally gotten the message, too, and not a bit too soon. While the Democrats in Congress have been delivering votes for government health care and Obama has been opining on troop deployment in Afghanistan, everyday Americans have been trying to figure out how to spend less and make ends meet. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is based on the belief that you cannot focus on a higher-level...
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CBS) The words, "Yes, dear," have a whole new meaning in one Ohio household. This family has a deer living inside their house. Dillie the deer has lived with the Buteras in Canal Fulton, Ohio, for the past five years. Abandoned by her mother at birth, because the mother incorrectly thought she was blind, Dillie has since become part of another family -- a family of humans.
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In an interview on my radio show Wednesday, Arizona Senator Jon Kyl underscored the fact that Senate Democrats do not have the 60 votes they need to pass Obamacare, and that reports about the inevitability of Obamcare passing are part of the Democrat's strategy. (The transcript of the interview is here.) Kyl asserted that Harry Reid routinely announces, and then the MSM echoes, statements about the inevitability of the bill's passing, but then reality catches up. This is happening again today as the premature reports of an agreement to expand Medicare to those 55 and older are exposed as more...
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Earlier this week, a Gallup poll indicated that the American people hold Congress and our nation’s elected officials in such low esteem that only Wall Street scammers and HMO paper pushers rate lower … and not by much. This, of course, is not new data, Congress has routinely rated lower in public opinion, than most professions. But while there may have been times in the past where the public might not have been able to put its collective finger on specifically why it held Congress in such ill repute, this time the reasons are clear. It could be Capitol Hill’s...
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House Democrats passed a massive $447 billion appropriations conference report Thursday to fund a host of different government agencies in fiscal 2010. The conference report, approved on a 221-202 vote, didn't get any support from House Republicans, who raised concerns about spending increases. In the Senate, Democrats and Republicans are tussling over when to vote on the conference report, which combines six of the seven remaining 2010 appropriations bills. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is pushing for a quick vote on the spending measure to avoid a weekend session, but GOP senators said they may force Reid to file...
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