Monthly Archives: October 2010
Hypocrisy overload!
Charlie Crist, who would screw anyone over for power chastises Marco Rubio for “blind ambition”? Yankee Phil has video of hypocrisy unlimited!
Mermaids?
Yep, Bob Belvedere is in love with them, and looks longingly at Weeki Wachee Springs located in my home stateof Florida
A history of Progressives in America
Bob Belvedere looks at some of the founding fathers of the evil of American Progressives.
When discussions of the Progressive [aka: Fascist/Socialist, aka: Fabian/Marxist] Movement happen these days, the names of Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Robert LaFollette get mentioned as founding leaders of the Movement in America. And, it is true, they are responsible for unleashing the cancer of Leftism into the American body, turning it from benign to malignant. However, we cannot understand how the infection was able to grow unless we also understand the role played by members of the SCOTUS in this invasion, especially Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Thankfully, Silverfiddle reminds us in a short primer how destructive this Justice was. A highlight:
When you deprecate natural rights as Holmes did, you are left with whatever the state decides you deserve.
More on Holmes and his twisted ideals
Holmes’ jurisprudence is the wellspring for much of current American views about jurisprudence. Holmes 1) tuned everyone to a social view of law—”The life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience;” 2) was perceived to advocate judicial restraint when (conservative) judicial activism was denounced by progressives; 3) advanced the idea of law as prediction, thus leading to the is/ought of legal realism; 4) urged a view of law from the perspective of a bad man, which led to a form of authoritarian control; and 5) argued for a thoroughgoing positivism (and opposition to moral language in law). (Ariens – Oliver Wendell Holmes)
Therein lies the fatal flaw of Statism. The more society, or government values the collective, or the “community” the less they value the individual. Caught up in their deluded pursuit of the “greater good” they sacrifice individual liberties. And without those liberties soon everyone is but a slave of the State, and history shows us where that path leads.
Daily Benefactor News – Judge Disses Dems’ ‘Alice In Wonderland’ Health Defense – More Articles
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Judge Disses Dems’ ‘Alice In Wonderland’ Health Defense – Politico
A federal judge in Florida on Thursday said he will allow some of the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the health care law to proceed – and criticized Democrats for making an “Alice in Wonderland” argument to defend the law.
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson allowed two major counts to proceed: the states’ challenge to the controversial requirement that nearly all Americans buy insurance and a required expansion of the Medicaid program.
In his ruling, Vinson criticized Democrats for seeking to have it both ways when it comes to defending the mandate to buy insurance. During the legislative debate, Republicans chastised the proposal as a new tax on the middle class. Obama defended the payment as a penalty and not a tax, but the Justice Department has argued that legally, it’s a tax.
“Congress should not be permitted to secure and cast politically difficult votes on controversial legislation by deliberately calling something one thing, after which the defenders of that legislation take an “Alice-in-Wonderland” tack and argue in court that Congress really meant something else entirely, thereby circumventing the safeguard that exists to keep their broad power in check,” he wrote.
Vinson ruled that it’s a penalty, not a tax, and must be defended under the Commerce Clause and not Congress’s taxing authority.
A Dec. 16 trial date is planned in the lawsuit, brought by 20 state attorneys general and governors. Many legal experts expect it to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Just last week, a Michigan judge struck down a similar challenge to the reform law, arguing that Congress was well within its constitutional authority when it crafted the law. There are several lawsuits against the health law that are working their way through the court system, but the attorney general suit is the highest-profile challenge.
Vinson dismissed three of the states’ challenges, including complaints that the law interferes with state sovereignty as to whether employers must offer insurance; that the law coerces states into setting up insurance exchanges; that the individual mandate violates the states’ due process rights.
The states argued in September that the law violates the Constitution by requiring an expansion of the Medicaid program that’s funded in part by the states and for penalizing people for not purchasing health insurance.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican who lost the state’s gubernatorial primary this summer, filed the suit minutes after President Barack Obama signed the health care bill into law in March.
The Obama administration argued that the states and the National Federation of Independent Business, the small business lobby that joined the suit, don’t have standing to bring the lawsuit. They said that only individual taxpayers do.
The White House downplayed the ruling Thursday.
“Having failed in the legislative arena, opponents of reform are now turning to the courts in an attempt to overturn the work of the democratically elected branches of government,” Stephanie Cutter, an assistant to the president for special projects, wrote on the White House blog. “This is nothing new. We saw this with the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act – constitutional challenges were brought to all three of these monumental pieces of legislation, and all of those challenges failed. So too will the challenge to health reform.”
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First Lady Breaks Law By Campaigning In Polling Place – Drudge Report
First lady Michelle Obama appears to have violated Illinois law – when she engaged in political discussion at a polling place.
The drama began after Mrs. Obama stopped off at the Martin Luther King Center on the south side of Chicago to cast an early vote. After finishing at the machine, Obama went back to the desk and handed in her voting key. She let voters take some photos.
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Baby Snatched For Dad’s Politics Back With Parents – WorldNetDaily
A tiny baby girl snatched from her parents’ custody a week ago when her father was accused of being an “Oath Keeper” was returned to her parents on Thursday.
According to WorldNetDaily sources close to the case, the accusations against the father, Johnathon Irish, whose fiancée, Stephanie Taylor, is the mother of Cheyenne, have been dropped.
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Soldier Says He Was Ordered To Delete Fort Hood Videos – Kansas City Star
A soldier who recorded the terror of last year’s deadly shooting rampage in Fort Hood using his cell phone was ordered by an officer to delete both videos, a military court heard Friday.
Pfc. Lance Aviles told an Article 32 hearing that his noncommissioned officer ordered him to destroy the two videos on Nov. 5, the same day that a gunman unleashed a volley of bullets at the Texas Army post.
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Breakthrough For World’s Longest Rail Tunnel – Financial Times
The world’s longest tunnel made a decisive breakthrough on Friday when a boring machine crushed the remaining short distance between the north and south ends of the easterly shaft of the Gotthard rail tunnel under the Swiss Alps.
At 57km, the tunnel eclipses other links, such as the Channel tunnel between Britain and France, opened two years ago.
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GM Recalls 300,000 Impalas Over Seat Belt Problem – NewsMeat
General Motors said Friday it was recalling more than 300,000 Chevrolet Impala sedans because the seat belts may fail to restrain people in the front seats during a crash.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on its website that the front-seat belt webbing may not be secured properly to a lap belt anchor on the side of the seat near the doors.
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The state’s largest insurer has been approved to raise health premium rates by 41 percent to 47 percent for some of its policies sold to individual buyers, in the largest price hikes yet seen in Connecticut since the adoption of national health care reform.
For all of its individual market plans, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield has received approval to raise rates by at least 19 percent.
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China Shuts Down 1,600 Illegal Coal Mines – ABC News
China has shut down more than 1,600 small, illegal coal mines this year as part of an effort to improve safety standards in a mining industry that is the most dangerous in the world.
The state-backed People’s Daily newspaper reported Thursday that 1,611 small mines across China with outdated facilities were closed this year, citing the National Energy Bureau.
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Military Ballots May Not Count In Illinois – WLS
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the state of Illinois missed the deadline for mailing absentee ballots to members of the military and other overseas American voters.
Cris Cray, Director of Legislation at the Illinois State Board of Elections, says not all of Illinois’ 110 jurisdictions were compliant with the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act.
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Authorities Uncover $163 Million Medicare Scam – New American
U.S. authorities have announced the biggest fraudulent enterprise in Medicare history. A group of Armenian gangsters set up “phantom” healthcare clinics, as well as a variety of other measures, with the intent to cheat Medicare out of $163 million.
Thus far, 73 associates have been indicted, 53 have been arrested, and seven suspects remain on the run.
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Jobless Claims, Inflation, Trade Deficit Each Surge Higher – CNBC
Unemployment claims rose last week, hardening the view the central bank will pump more money into the economy, and keeping pressure on Democrats poised to lose congressional seats in November.
At the same time, record0-high imports from China helped push the U.S. trade deficit wider in August, while rising food and energy prices pushed inflation at the wholesale level up.
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Riot Police, Protesters Clash At Acropolis – Yahoo News
Riot police clashed with protesting Culture Ministry workers barricading the ancient Acropolis on Thursday, using tear gas to clear the entrance to Greece’s most famous landmark.
But the monument remained closed for the rest of the day as guards there launched a strike in solidarity with the evicted protesters. Protest organizers said they would gather again at the Acropolis early Friday.
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Republicans Plan January Takedowns Of Obama’s Czars – Daily Caller
Republicans will have President Barack Obama’s czars and his use of regulatory powers to circumvent congressional inaction in GOP crosshairs if the party takes control in January.
Obama has named more than 30 czars without Senate confirmation and congressional oversight, and together they hold power over everything from the environment and bank bailouts to the auto industry.
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French Students Up Protests Over Retirement Reform – Associated Press
French students blockaded more high schools and universities Thursday, as the third straight day of nationwide strikes over the government’s retirement reforms snarled train travel and sent a renewed challenge to President Nicolas Sarkozy.
France’s BFM TV showed groups of students toppling trash cans in southeast France and erecting barricades in the middle of a Paris avenue.
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Jerry Brown Flashback: ‘We Need More Welfare And Fewer Jobs’ – Fox News
For a guy known to hold some pretty strange views, this might be the most bizarre perspective on welfare policy I have ever seen. Here is Jerry Brown from his Pacifica Radio show in 1995:
“The conventional viewpoint says we need a jobs program and we need to cut welfare. Just the opposite! We need more welfare and fewer jobs. Jobs for every American is doomed to failure.”
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Ethics Complaint To Be Filed On Harry Reid – Red White Blue News
The 527 Harry Reid Votes will file an ethics complaint against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada as early as this Friday.
The complaint alleges that Reid violated “the Senate rules of conduct by accepting certain contributions from the top executives of a federal government contractor,” according to a draft of the letter to be sent to the Select Committee on Ethics.
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Teen Crashes Into License Center After Passing Driving Test – Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A teenager who just passed his driving test crashed into a state driver license center in western Pennsylvania.
The accident happened Wednesday afternoon as the teen was trying to leave the parking lot of a driver license center in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bridgeville. Officials said at least three people were injured, but their injuries were not considered serious.
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Oregon Company Rents Landscape Goats To Weed Lot – CBS News
About 50 goats were hired for an unusual job in Oregon, but one they obviously were born to do: lawn mowing. The animals were brought in to clear weeds from a two-acre lot in southeast Portland, drawing hundreds of onlookers.
The idea came from Brett Milligan, whose Portland landscape company was hired to tend the lot. Milligan liked the idea of avoiding gas-powered mowers.
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Man Builds 70MPH Mobility Scooter – Orange News
A Lincolsnire plumber has built the fastest mobility scooter in the world – which whizzes along at an incredible 69mph. Colin Furze, 31, spent nearly three months converting the machine which has a 125cc motorbike engine under the seat, five gears and twin exhausts.
The petrol-powered super scooter can almost reach the national speed limit and keep up with cars on the motorway.
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Prostitutes Jailed For Calling Police On John Who Refused To Pay – Weekly Vice
Megan C. Taylor, 20, and Donna Toure, 34, two Cincinnati area prostitutes were jailed Monday after a customer refused to pay one of the women, and she reported him to the police.
According to Cincinnati police, officers were called to a Camp Washington hotel on a report that hostages were being held at gunpoint, and they needed help fast. When officers arrived, they found no hostages.
Your “Just Because Doug is Sucking Wind Right Now” Linkaround
As I explain here, I suck right now. But, the blogging must go on so, here is a linkarama of other bloggers who do not suck!
Bob Belvedere? He has a gigantic Republican woman
Aleister sums up my feelings on the Intellect of Team Obama while Dave C asks where are the brains?
Donald Douglas asks What the Frum?
Carol, in her Closet, looks through some glass windows
Cassie defends Hooters from the Feminuts!
Doug Powers gives us a disturbing mental image!
More updates later
Apologies are owed
My friends I am struggling, struggling mightily, with some personal issues right now. this blog used to be a great escape for me, and I am sure it will be again very soon. But right now I just cannot seem to get the mental energy to focus on this blog I love so much.
I frankly feel like I have been failing my readers and I sincerely apologize for my lack of energy right now. I ask your patience, and yes, your prayers. I could really use some pats on the back, or maybe kicks in the ass.
I am not gone, or going away, but I felt it proper to share my struggles with y’all.
Doug Hagin
Maine Democrat’s Elitist Hypocrisy Exposed
Chellie Pingree Wants To Have Her Cake (Jet) And Eat It Too – Pine Tree Politics
As the President of Common Cause, a non-profit citizens’ lobbying group, Democrat Rep. Chellie Pingree criticized lawmakers who traveled on corporate jets.
But Rep. Pingree is engaging in the same activity she derided four years ago.
An investigation by MaineWatchdog found that Pingree has been traveling on a private plane owned by the firm of her significant other, Donald Sussman, Founder and Chairman of Paloma Partners, a billion dollar hedge fund.
When AOL reported in late July that Pingree’s office was reimbursed for more travel expenses than any other house member in 2009 [editors note: "more" refers to the numerical number of reimbursements, not total monetary value], MaineWatchdog asked whether any of those reimbursements were related to travel on private planes. A spokesman for Pingree said: “To my knowledge, the Congresswoman does not fly on privately chartered jets.”
The investigation, however, produced a video of Representative Pingree and Sussman disembarking at Portland International Jetport after a flight from Bridgeport, Conn., on September 17, 2010.
Pingree and Sussman landed in Portland at 1:26 p.m., at which point a red carpet was rolled out for them on the non-commercial apron.
Prior to her election in 2008, Pingree was an outspoken critic of congressional members who flew on corporate jets.
According to written remarks delivered before the Subcommittee on the Constitution in 2006, Pingree said:
“Most Americans never have and never will fly on a chartered jet, much less a fancy corporate jet complete with wet bar and leather couches. So when members of Congress constantly fly around on corporate jets and pay only the cost of a commercial ticket, it contributes to the corrosive public perception that members of Congress are more like the fat cats of Wall Street than they are like the rest of us.”
In the aftermath of the Abramoff scandal, Pingree lobbied for a tough ethics-reform law that would have, among other things, completely banned privately funded travel. When a weaker bill was introduced, Pingree called the drafted bill “window dressing.”
It is not clear whether Pingree’s use of Sussman’s aircraft was limited to the incident on September 17.
Flight logs of Sussman’s plane obtained by MaineWatchdog indicate that Pingree may have used the aircraft on several other occasions.
In several instances, Pingree’s trips between Maine and Washington, D.C. closely track the movement of Sussman’s plane.
MaineWatchdog uncovered the following facts:
On the morning of September 13, Representative Pingree visited Presumpscot Elementary School in Portland.
According to flight logs, Sussman’s plane took off from Portland International Jetport at 12:31 in the afternoon. Forty-nine minutes later, at 1:20, it landed an hour’s drive north of New York City at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, NY.
At 6:30 p.m., two prominent New York theater producers threw a house party to raise money for Pingree at their home in the Upper East End. The party was scheduled to end at 8:00 p.m.
At 9:22 p.m., Sussman’s plane lifted off again at Westchester County Airport in White Plains. It landed at Dulles International Airport an hour outside of Washington, D.C., at 10:17 p.m.
The next day, Sept. 14, Pingree cast two votes (HR 1571 and HR 1052) in the evening on the House floor in Washington.
There are other similar cases where Pingree’s movement parallels that of Sussman’s plane.
MaineWatchdog compared Pingree’s voting record to the movement of Sussman’s plane.
On July 24, Pingree was in Brunswick with Gov. Baldacci to celebrate Kestrel Aviation’s move to Maine.
On July 26, Sussman’s plane left Knox County Regional Airport in Rockland, the closest airport to Pingree’s home in North Haven, at 12:51 pm. Pingree was on the House floor at around 6:30 to vote on HR 1320. She also appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews that afternoon.
She was in Washington for votes on July 27, 28, and 29.
On July 30, Pingree was on the House floor. The last vote of the day was at around 6:30 p.m. At 7:39, Sussman’s plane left Washington, D.C. for Rockland, Maine.
On August 6th, Pingree attended the Maine Lobster Fest Parade in Rockland.
On August 9, Sussman’s plane departed Rockland for D.C. at 2:33 pm. The next day, Pingree was present in the Oval Office when President Obama signed the $26 billion aid package for states. Sussman’s plane departed D.C. on August 10 at 7:16 pm and returned to Rockland.
At the time this article was released, MaineWatchdog was waiting for Pingree’s office to provide receipts for all commercial flights that the Congresswoman booked over the last several months.
Daily Benefactor News – U.S. Cities Face Half A Trillion Dollars In Pension Deficits – More Articles
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U.S. Cities Face Half A Trillion Dollars In Pension Deficits – CNBC
Big U.S. cities could be squeezed by unfunded public pensions as they and counties face a $574 billion funding gap, a study to be released on Tuesday shows.
The gap at the municipal level would be in addition to $3 trillion in unfunded liabilities already estimated for state-run pensions, according to research from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the University of Rochester.
“What is yet to be seen is how this burden will be distributed between state and local governments and whether the federal government will be called upon for bail-outs,” said Joshua Rauh of the Kellogg School.
The financial demands of unfunded pension promises come as state and local governments grapple with years of falling tax revenue related to the recession.
The combination has raised concern that defaults, which are historically rare in the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market where local governments obtain money, could now rise.
“The bondholders would be competing with the pension beneficiaries for scarce government resources,” Mr. Rauh said.
Current pension assets for plans sponsored by Philadelphia can only pay for promised benefits through 2015, while Boston and Chicago would deplete their existing funds by 2019.
Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Florida and St Paul have current pension assets that can only pay for promised benefits through 2020.
Local governments use unique accounting methods that many, such as Mr Rauh, believe understate obligations. Based on his estimates, which use U.S. Treasuries as the benchmark, each household already owes an average of $14,165 to current and former municipal public employees in the 50 cities and counties studied.
“Philadelphia has the most immediate cause for concern, as the city can pay existing promises with existing assets only through 2015,” Mr. Rauh said, assuming an 8 percent annualized return, the most common benchmark for municipal plans.
In New York City, San Francisco and Boston the total is more than $30,000 a household and, in Chicago, it tops $40,000.
Taxpayers in these areas risk not only local tax increases and service cuts to pay for benefits, but potentially some of the bill for the $3 trillion unfunded obligations at the state level, the researchers say.
“The fact that there is such a large burden of public employee pensions concentrated in urban metropolitan areas threatens the long-run economic viability of these cities, as residents can potentially move elsewhere to escape the situation,” Mr. Rauh said.
The research examines 77 pension plans sponsored by 50 major cities and counties and covering about 2 million workers, which is estimated to be two-thirds of workers covered by local pensions. Researchers then extrapolated the results – an unfunded liability of about $5,300 per worker – to come up with the total estimate of $574 billion.
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White House Press Secretary Once Part Of Group That Refused To Disclose Donors – Daily Caller
The White House plans to continue attacking groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative organizations for not disclosing the names of donors behind political ads.
But during the 2004 Democratic primary campaign, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was involved with a political advocacy group that refused to reveal its own donors until the law required it.
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Sharron Angle Raised $14 Million In 3rd Quarter – Washington Post
Former Nevada state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle (R) raised an eye-popping $14 million between July 1 and Sept. 30 for her challenge to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D).
“Sharron Angle produced one of the most successful single quarters of fundraising in the nation’s history for a U.S. Senate campaign,” said Angle’s communications director Jarrod Agen.
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14 Chilean Miners Emerge In Problem-Free Rescue – NewsMeat
One by one, the miners trapped for 69 days in a dungeon that could have been their tomb climbed into a rescue capsule and made a smooth ascent to the surface Wednesday.
The anxiety that had accompanied the careful final days of preparation broke at 12:11 a.m., when the stoutest of the men, Florencio Avalos, emerged from the missile-like chamber and smiled broadly.
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Judge Orders Military To Stop Enforcing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ – CNN
Left-wing activist judge Virginia Phillips ordered the military “immediately to suspend and discontinue any investigation, or discharge, separation, or other proceeding, that may have been commenced under the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Act.”
The judge had previously ruled that the policy violated service members Fifth Amendment rights but delayed issuing the injunction.
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Obama Administration Gave General Electric $24.9 Million In ‘Stimulus’ Grants – CNS
The Obama administration gave corporate giant General Electric – the parent company of NBC – $24.9 million in grants from the “stimulus” law President Obama signed in February 2009.
Despite getting $24.9 million from U.S. taxpayers, GE decreased its U.S.-based employees by 18,000 in 2009, according to the company’s 2009 annual report. GE took in $156 billion in revenue in 2009.
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Senator Barabara Boxer (D-CA) along with Representatives Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Henry Waxman (D-CA) secured diplomatic courtesy letters that allowed anti-American Code Pink activists to travel to Fallujah, Iraq.
The radicals traveled to Fallujah in late 2004 to donate $600,000 worth of aid to the people who had just killed 51 Americans and wounded 560 more.
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Drill Ban Over, U.S. Tells Judge Weighing Challenge – Bloomberg
The U.S. has lifted its moratorium on deep-water offshore oil drilling, Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar told the New Orleans judge weighing a challenge to the ban.
U.S. regulators imposed the moratorium on drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet on July 12, to replace an earlier ban struck down by U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans.
*Pictures* Merry Christmas From Democrat Congressional Candidate Krystal Ball
Photographs courtesy of The Frisky.
Daily Benefactor News – New York Fails To Mail Ballots To Active Military, DOJ Yet To Act – More Articles
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New York Fails To Mail Ballots To Active Military, DOJ Yet To Act – Pajamas Media
The 2010 debacle involving military ballots just became surreal.
New York City and Westchester Country are but two of the several New York jurisdictions which admitted that they failed to mail military ballots. This fact should have been known on October 2, when the Justice Department should have marched into court seeking an immediate order that the ballots be sent – preferably by rapid express mail.
Instead, a Justice Department press flack says they are in “urgent discussions.” Great. Congress should ask why they aren’t in urgent “litigation.” New York had already received a waiver, which DOJ supported, allowing the state to mail ballots on October 1. They couldn’t even meet that relaxed deadline.
In 2008, the Justice Department engaged in Keystone Kops enforcement of military voting rights. Their failure to enforce, aggressively, federal laws protecting military voters resulted in 17,000 wasted, late, or lost military ballots. Amazingly, Justice Department enforcement of military voting rights has only gotten worse in 2010.
This deterioration wouldn’t have anything to do with the change in administrations, would it?
Senator John Cornyn of Texas laid down the gauntlet this past weekend to Fox News:
If DOJ does not file a suit to right this wrong as soon as the courts open on Tuesday, then we will know once and for all that DOJ is not serious about safeguarding military voting rights.
Cornyn has particular interest in military voting rights. He has blocked the nomination of James Cole for deputy attorney general because of the lax enforcement of military voting rights. He has asked for basic information from Justice – which Justice has been unwilling to provide – about which states are not in compliance with the law. Now, we learn that DOJ obviously didn’t know about New York (and Illinois).
Even if DOJ rushes to sue New York on Tuesday, Cornyn shouldn’t expect much. DOJ sued other states like Wisconsin, and then rewrote the federal statute Cornyn sponsored in a settlement that shortened the congressional mandate of 45 days.
The worst part of this? Justice knew, or should have known, months ago which states were not in compliance with the law. Months ago, election officials in many states like Maryland and Wisconsin literally made statements that they would not be in compliance with the law. Justice did nothing but sit and wait.
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Figures. The day after Barack Obama smeared the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in his speech he uses the business group in a speech to promote his radical agenda.
Yesterday they were a threat to our society. Today they’re a respected American business organization. You just can’t make this stuff up. Click HERE to watch related Fox News video footage.
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Hurricane Paula Heads For Mexico’s Yucatan Coast – Reuters
Hurricane Paula, the ninth hurricane of the busy 2010 Atlantic season, churned toward the east coast of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula on Tuesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
A hurricane warning was in effect for the east Yucatan coast from Punta Gruesa to Cabo Catoche including the tourist island of Cozumel. The hurricane center said Paula was packing sustained winds of 75 mph.
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42 Killed When Bus And Train Collide In Ukraine – CNN
A collision between a bus and a train in the Ukraine on Tuesday left 42 people dead and nine others injured, officials said. The crash took place when a commuter bus and a railway locomotive collided in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.
The accident occurred at an unguarded train crossing near the village of Maksimovka on the stretch between the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets.
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Senior Citizens Brace For Social Security Freeze – NewsMeat
Seniors prepared to cut back on everything from food to charitable donations to whiskey as word spread Monday that they will have to wait until 2012 to see their Social Security checks increase.
The government is expected to announce this week that more than 58 million Social Security recipients will go through a second straight year without an increase in monthly benefits.
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How GM “Lied” About The Electric Car – Jalopnik
The Chevy Volt has been hailed as General Motors’ electric savior. Now, as GM officially rolls out the Volt this week for public consumption, we’re told the much-touted fuel economy was misstated and GM “lied” about the car being all-electric.
In the past, and based on GM’s claims, we’ve gone so far as to call the Volt GM’s “Jesus Car.” And why wouldn’t we call it that?
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Rioters Burn Police Station In Northern Nigeria – ABC News
Suspected members of a radical Islamic sect set a police station ablaze in northern Nigeria, wounding three officers in an attack similar to one that sparked rioting that left 700 dead last year.
The attack comes as authorities already blame followers of the Boko Haram sect for a string of assassinations by motorcycle-riding gunmen and a massive prison break in September.
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Federal Government Spends $918,856 On Bar Fight Study – CNS
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism paid $918,856 in tax dollars to fund a study of “Alcohol and Bar Violence”.
It determined, among other things, that bar fights tend to occur in venues that are relatively dark, dirty, noisy, hot, and crowded and that are frequented by a clientele of younger, less agreeable, less conscientious, more impulsive heavy drinkers.
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Vermont Police: Women Had 77 Cats Living In Two Cars – First Coast News
Two women have been cited for animal cruelty in Vermont after police found 77 cats living in two cars.
The Bennington Banner reports that prosecutors will consider whether to upgrade the civil citations to criminal charges against 54-year-old Regina Millard and 61-year-old Bertha Ryan, both of Troy, N.Y. Police say one of the cats was found dead in the trunk of one of the cars Friday.
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Armless Pianist Wins Talent Show – Orange News
An armless musician who plays the piano with his toes has won the Chinese version of Britain’s Got Talent. Liu Wei, 23, who lost both arms in a childhood accident, performing James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful to a packed audience at the Shanghai Stadium.
All three judges praised Liu for his determination, urging him to keep on pursuing his dreams, and the Beijing native said he would try.
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Drunk Man Jailed For Chasing One-Legged Goose Into River – Weekly Vice
Troy Kaczor, a 40-year-old Wausau man was jailed Thursday after he allegedly jumped into the Wisconsin River to chase a one-legged goose, then had to be rescued from the cold waters.
According to Wausau police, Kaczor took off his shirt and shoes and dove into the river at Big Bull Falls Park in downtown Wausau. He was attempting to catch a one legged goose in hopes of roasting it.
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Cops: Man Grew Marijuana In Front Yard – WKMG
Most people growing marijuana illegally at least try to hide it from authorities. One man in Central Florida is accused of growing the plants in his front yard.
Agents with the Osceola County Investigative Bureau on Monday arrested Bryan Hartman on charges of cultivation of cannabis. Hartman had 17 marijuana plants – some as big as 7 feet tall – that could “easily be seen from the roadway.”
If You Are Left You Just Ain’t Right- Why History Matters
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