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(CNSNews.com) – Cass Sunstein, President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), has advocated a policy under which the government would “presume” someone has consented to having his or her organs removed for transplantation into someone else when they die unless that person has explicitly indicated that his or her organs should not be taken. Under such a policy, hospitals would harvest organs from people who never gave permission for this to be done.

On the linked video, Al Franken engages in a debate about healthcare with a group of tea partiers. Based on the title and the reaction from his supporters (link, link), I'm going to guess Franken won the debate handily. 1. While the people in the video might have valid concerns, perhaps it would be smarter if they had put their egos aside and let someone else express those concerns to Franken. Franken is a politician and he's familiar with the legislation; a trial lawyer who's familiar with the legislation might have been able to show how Franken is wrong about...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House on Friday dismissed as pointless the furor over President Barack Obama's plan to deliver a televised back-to-school speech to the nation's students. "I think we've reached a little bit of the silly season when the president of the United States can't tell kids in school to study hard and stay in school," presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. "I think both political parties agree that the dropout rate is something that threatens our long-term economic success."

Followers of Emanuel can be saved by grace through an investment in obedience which determines the willingness and desire to live back within the presence of God. In 2 Nephi 25:23 it states: “for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” This commonly referenced scripture was the basis for Brad Wilcox’s Tuesday lecture, “After All We Can Do,“ from the series “Using the Atonement to Turn Weakness into Strengths.” “This is a source of discouragement if not understood,” said Wilcox, an associate professor of teacher education at BYU. Wilcox focused on...

A Westport lawmaker who voted to hike the state sales and alcohol taxes was spotted brazenly piling booze in his car - adorned with his State House license plate - in the parking lot of a tax-free New Hampshire liquor store, the Herald has learned. Michael J. Rodrigues’ blue Ford Crown Victoria, emblazoned with his “House 29” Massachusetts license plate, was parked outside a Granite State liquor store on Interstate-95 South over the weekend, according to a witness who provided pictures to the Herald. The witness, who requested anonymity, claimed he approached Rodrigues, noted his State House plate, and asked...

Getting It: My Two Cents on Who’s Missing the Point By David J. Aland 4 September 2009 The White House just doesn’t get it as to why so many Americans just don’t get it. With the August Congressional recess turning the health care debate from merely muddy to toxic sludge, the President is now preparing to take his message – any message – to anyone he can get to listen. Whether in front of joint sessions of Congress or millions of school kids, the President is desperate to get someone to listen in the hopes that they will get it...

Inquiring minds are wondering How Overpriced Is The S&P? It's an excellent question given bulls feel the market is headed much higher while the bears feel the opposite after a remarkable 50% rally. Let's start off with a look at the financial sector where Allowances for Loan and Lease Losses (ALLL) have plunged even though non-performing loans soar. To understand the importance of ALLL, inquiring minds are reading a description of Allowances for Loan & Lease Losses. Businesses try to predict, on an ongoing basis, the amount of loss in their accounts. They take periodic charges to earnings to better...

Madonna has joined Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his family in lighting Shabbat candles and reciting a blessing together with Netanyahu's wife Sarah. A statement from Netanyahu's office said the singer spent two hours at the Netanyahu home on Friday evening. Although not Jewish, the 51-year-old pop star claims a special bond with Israel and Jewish tradition. She's been exploring Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism, for more than a decade and has taken the Hebrew name, Esther.

Rep. Mike Pence, the no. 3 Republican in the House, is calling on Obama green jobs czar Van Jones to resign. This sort of thing would usually be laughed off by Democrats -- a conservative Republican telling a Democratic appointee to quit. But the Obama team isn't exactly jumping to back Jones today in wake of revelations that in the past he signed on to one of the "truther" groups that claimed 9/11 was an inside job. Oh, and he called Republicans a**holes in a video earlier this year before he was appointed. Asked about Jones' affiliations with the 9/11...

Sofia HayatIn a recent piece in the Daily Mail, a Muslim woman, Sofia Hayat, discusses a brutal and oppressive upbringing by her parents, which included imprisonment in a cellar and ended in death threats – because Sofia longed to be free. This brings to mind the battle we are in at the moment with Naomi Wolf, a supposed feminist who should be standing up for persecuted Muslim women but, instead, has reached her hand out in solidarity to their oppressors. This is understandable, of course, because as a leftist, Wolf cannot be honest about the tyranny of an adversarial culture....

Authorities in Guyana grew "uncomfortable" with the presence of Mormon missionaries who have been ordered to leave the South American country, a governing party leader said Thursday.About 40 missionaries were briefly detained Wednesday and told to leave within a month as authorities said their travel documents were out of date.Comments by Donald Ramotar of the governing People's Progressive Party, however, suggested the crackdown went beyond immigration issues.-SNIP-Church spokesman Leslie Sobers also raised the issue, saying he thought the government might have been uneasy over perceived links between the Mormons and the opposition. He said opposition legislator Volda Lawrence traveled...

The unemployment rate jumped almost half a point to 9.7 percent in August, the highest since 1983, reflecting a poor job market that will make it hard for the economy to begin a sustained recovery. While the jobless rate rose more than expected, the economy shed a net total of 216,000 jobs, less than July's revised 276,000 and the fewest monthly losses in a year, according to Labor Department data released Friday. Economists expected the unemployment rate to rise to 9.5 percent from July's 9.4 percent and job reductions to total 225,000. By contrast, in a healthy economy, employers need...

Radical Ecoterrorist Group Topples Two Radio Towers Near Seattle EVERETT, Wash. (AP) - Two radio station towers were toppled early Friday, and the station's manager said an ecoterrorist group's initials were left at the scene. A sign bearing the letters ELF was found near the towers, said Andy Skotdal, general manager of KRKO Radio in Everett, about 25 miles north of Seattle. The Earth Liberation Front is a loose collection of radical environmentalists that has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks since the 1990s. However, Snohomish County sheriff's office spokeswoman Rebecca Hover wouldn't confirm that a sign was found. A...

(CNSNews.com) - Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, wrote on Thursday that he confronted President Barack Obama on the question of abortion in the health care reform plan now before Congress when he spoke to Obama in a Boston church at Sen. Ted Kennedy’s funeral. O’Malley made the revelation in a long blog posting on his archdiocesan Web site responding to Catholics who were distressed that he had taken part in a very public funeral Mass celebrating the life of Sen. Kennedy. Kennedy supported legalized abortion (including legalized partial-birth abortion), federal funding for research that kills human...

It's now been discovered that Van Jones, President Obama's "Green Jobs Czar" is a member of the 9-11 "Truther" movement. Glenn Beck told viewers tonight that although he wanted to lead his program with this revelation, in fairness to the White House he held off until half-way into his show to give the administration time to respond. They never did. While some might think that Beck gets unduly agitated about some of his topics, this ought to be truly chilling to anyone with more than two functioning brain cells. Beck reported that Jones' signature appears on the 9-11 Truth Statement,...

One of Congress's strongest proponents of a public option criticized President Obama for failing to lead the way on healthcare reform. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said Obama has been sitting out the healthcare fight in August. "We've been in a scrap through the month of August, but we really haven't had presidential leadership in the way we need it most," Weiner told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow last night. Weiner has previously threatened that up to 100 Democrats would vote against legislation that doesn't include a so-called public option. The New York Democrat told Maddow that Obama's should use his address to...

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How do you feel about Pres. Obama's planned address to students? At this point, 37% = Like the idea; 48% = Don't like the idea; 13% + Don't care