Monthly Archives: December 2011
Top 10 Worst Federal Rules Of 2011
Top 10 Worst Federal Rules Of 2011 – Heritage Foundation
Hindsight is supposed to be 20/20, but looking back on the past 12 months, it’s tough to see any sense in many of the Administration’s regulatory missteps. Of course, there are bound to be a few howlers when government churns out more than 3,500 rules in a year, including dozens unleashed by Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, and the perpetually errant Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But by any standard, 2011 brought forth a remarkable number and variety of regulatory blunders.
Fair warning: Our Top 10 list may prove fatal to any bit of faith in government as a “fixer,” if faith somehow has managed to survive despite all evidence to the contrary. In any event, it should steel our resolve to fight the Leviathan in the coming year.
1. The Dim Bulbs Rule. As per Congress, of course, for issuing an edict to phase out the incandescent light bulbs on which the world has relied for more than a century. With the deadline looming in 2012, Americans by the millions spent the past year pressing lawmakers to lift the ban which, contrary to eco-ideology, will kill more American jobs than create “green” ones. (Congress evidently overlooked the fact that the vast majority of fluorescent bulbs are manufactured in China.) The 2012 appropriations bill barred the use of funds to enforce the regulation, but it remains in law.
2. The Obamacare Chutzpah Rule. The past year was marked by a slew of competing court rulings on the constitutionality of the individual mandate, the cornerstone of Obamacare. The law requires U.S. citizens to obtain health insurance or face financial penalties imposed by the Internal Revenue Service. Never before has the federal government attempted to force all Americans to purchase a product or service. To allow this regulatory overreach to stand would undermine fundamental constitutional constraints on government powers and curtail individual liberties to an unprecedented degree.
3. The Nationalization of Internet Networks Rule. Regulations that took effect on November 1 prohibit owners of broadband networks from differentiating among various content in managing Internet transmissions. (In other words, the Federal Coercion Communications Commission effectively declared the broadband networks to be government-regulated utilities.) The FCC imposed the “network neutrality” rule despite explicit opposition from Congress and a federal court ruling against it. The rule threatens to undermine network investment and increase online congestion.
4. The Equine Equality Rule. As of March 15 (the Ides of March, no less), hotels, restaurants, airlines, and the like became obliged to modify “policies, practices, or procedures” to accommodate miniature horses as service animals. According to the Department of Justice, which administers the rule, miniature horses are a “viable alternative” to dogs for individuals with allergies or for observant Muslims and others whose religious beliefs preclude canine accompaniment.
5. The Smash Potatoes Regulation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed stricter nutrition standards that would prohibit school lunch ladies from serving more than one cup per week of potatoes per student. Instead, schools would be required to provide more dark green, orange, and dry bean varieties (think kale) in order to foster vegetable diversity. The cafeteria mandate will affect more than 98,000 elementary and secondary schools at a cost exceeding $3.4 billion in the next four years.
6. The Bring on the Blackouts Rule. The EPA is proposing to force power plants to reduce mercury by 90 percent within three years – at an estimated cost of $11 billion annually. A significant number of coal-fired plants will actually exceed the standard – by shutting down altogether. Indeed, grid operators, along with 27 states, are warning that the overly stringent regulations will threaten the reliability of the electricity system and dramatically increase power costs. Just like candidate Obama promised.
7. The Wal-Mart Windfall Amendment. One of hundreds of new regulations dictated by the Dodd–Frank financial regulation statute requires the Federal Reserve to regulate the fees that financial institutions may charge retailers for processing debit card purchases. The prospect of losing more than $6 billion in annual revenue is prompting financial institutions to hike fees on a variety of banking services to make up for the much smaller payments from stores. Thus, consumers are picking up the tab for retailers’ big regulatory score.
8. The Plumbing Police Rule. The U.S. Department of Energy began preparations for tightening the water efficiency standards on urinals. It’s all spelled out in excruciating detail in the Energy Conservation Program for Consumer Products Other Than Automobiles, which also regulates the efficiency of toilets, faucets, and showers. And refrigerators and freezers, air conditioners, water heaters, furnaces, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, ovens and ranges, pool heaters, television sets, and anything else the Energy Secretary deems as electrically profligate. (Urinals also are regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which requires at least one urinal for every 40 workers at a construction site for companies with less than 200 employees and one for every 50 workers where more than 200 are employed. The Americans with Disabilities Act also delineates the proper dimensions and placement of bowls.)
9. The Chill the Economy Regulation. The EPA issued four interrelated rules governing emissions from some 200,000 boilers nationwide at an estimated capital cost of $9.5 billion. These boilers burn natural gas, fuel oil, coal, biomass (e.g., wood), refinery gas, or other gas to produce steam, which is used to generate electricity or provide heat for factories and other industrial and institutional facilities. Under the so-called Boiler MACT, factories, restaurants, schools, churches, and even farms would be required to conduct emissions testing and comply with standards of control that vary by boiler size, feedstock, and available technologies. The stringency and cost of the new regulations provoked an outpouring of protest, including 21 governors and more than 100 Members of Congress. On May 18, the EPA published a notice of postponement in the Federal Register, but the regulations remain on the books.
10. The Unions Rule Rule. New rules require government contractors to give first preference in hiring to the workers of the company that lost the contract. Tens of thousands of companies will be affected, with compliance costs running into the tens of millions of dollars – costs ultimately borne by taxpayers. The rule effectively ensures that a non-unionized contractor cannot replace a unionized one. That’s because any new contractor will be obliged to hire its predecessors’ unionized workers and thus be forced by the “Successorship Doctrine” to bargain with the union(s).
Man Jailed After Calling Police To Complain About Prostitute’s Bad Service
Man Jailed After Calling Police To Complain About Prostitute’s Bad Service – Weekly Vice
Jerry Eugene Streng, a 63-year-old Berlin man was jailed after he allegedly called 911 to complain after two hookers charged him for sex, but failed to include him in the act.
According to Pennsylvania state police, Streng hired two Berlin area hookers, Jacqueline Eubanks, 50, and Tonia Good, 34, for $400 under the agreement that he would be in the middle of the women as they all engaged in sexual activities at his residence.
The women got undressed, and began smoking Streng’s marijuana, but when it came to sex, they seemed to be more interested in pleasing each other rather than Streng.
Investigators say Streng took off his clothes and got into bed with the women. However, instead of being in the middle of the women, he was relegated to a corner of the bed as the two women had sex with one another.
When the women were finished, they reportedly took Streng’s money without giving him the “full service” he had paid for.
Streng called 911 to report what he referred to as a robbery. When officers arrived on the scene, they arrested Streng. Eubanks and Good were also apprehended.
A few hours later, Steng called 911 a second time when one of the prostitutes returned to his home to use the restroom. She and Streng were taken into custody.
Streng was booked into jail and charged with patronization of prostitution. Eubanks and Good were also booked into jail on prostitution charges.
Out: Gay. In: Very Open Sexually
Anthony Weiner is rumored to be, well, a big fan of, weiners
From that Traci Nobles sext-partner.
She says — ahem, she alleges — that Weiner brought up the possibility of 3-ways. Not the classic two girls one guy three-way, which is just a natural expression of the wonderment of sexuality in all its glory, but the ugly, twisted, morally-dark kind.
“I’m not really talking about other chicks… How about with another guy?” Weiner asked Nobles.“Hmmmm, haven’t done it before,” Nobles said.
“It can be hot,” Weiner replies.
“Are you turned on by other guys?” Nobles asked.
“Well it depends on the guy, but generally yes,” Weiner divulges.
But…
“Anthony’s not gay though,” an insider told RadarOnline.com.“He’s just very open sexually.”
Not commenting further, not at all.
Federal Judge Rules: Iran Behind 9/11 Attacks
Federal Judge Rules: Iran Behind 9/11 Attacks – The Examiner
More than 10-years after the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda attacks, a federal district court judge in Manhattan gave a Christmas present to the families of victims killed in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.
U.S. District Judge George Daniels ruled Friday that Iran and Hezbollah materially and directly supported al Qaeda in the September 11, 2001 attacks and are legally responsible for damages to hundreds of family members of 9/11 victims who are plaintiffs in the case.
This historic ruling revealed new facts about Iran’s support of al Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks, as well.
Judge Daniels had announced his ruling in Havlish, et al. v. bin Laden, et al., in open court on Thursday, December 15, 2011, following a three-hour courtroom presentation by the families’ attorneys. Then Judge Daniels entered a written Order of Judgment backed by 53 pages of detailed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law on Friday, December 23, 2011.
Fiona Havlish, whose husband Donald perished in the World Trade Center North Tower on 9/11 said in a press statement, “This is a historic day. For ten years we’ve wanted the truth to be known about who was responsible for our losses. Now we have that answer.”
Ellen Saracini, the wife of United Airlines 175 pilot Victor Saracini, which the hijackers crashed into the WTC South Tower, said after the hearing last week, “We just came from Judge Daniels’ court where he ruled in favor of holding accountable those who perpetrated the attacks of 9/11… I just smiled up to Victor and I said we’re still thinking about you … we’re there for you… we’ll always be there for you. But today’s very special.”
In Havlish, et al. v. bin Laden, et al. , Judge Daniels held that the Islamic Republic of Iran, its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Iran’s agencies and instrumentalities, including, among others, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (“IRGC”), the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (“MOIS”), and Iran’s terrorist proxy Hezbollah, all materially aided and supported al Qaeda before and after 9/11.
The evidence was developed over a seven-year international investigation by the Havlish attorneys who pursued the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation regarding an apparent link between Iran, Hezbollah, and the 9/11 hijackers, following the Commission’s own eleventh-hour discovery of significant National Security Agency (“NSA”) intercepts: “We believe this topic requires further investigation by the U.S. government.” 9/11 Commission Report, p. 241. The Havlish evidence included sworn testimony and affidavits from the following:
* Ten expert witnesses including three former 9/11 Commission staff members, two former CIA case officers, two investigative journalists, and an Iran analyst who has testified in 25 cases involving Iranian terrorism.
* Three Iranian defectors who were operatives of MOIS and the IRGC. Witness X, whose dramatic testimony was previously filed under seal, was revealed to be Abolghasem Mesbahi, a former MOIS operative in charge of Iran’s espionage operations in Western Europe. Judge Daniels found that Mesbahi has testified in numerous prosecutions of Iranian and Hezbollah terrorists, including the Mykonos case in Germany and the AMIA case in Argentina, and found to be highly reliable and credible. Judge Daniels also credited Mesbahi’s testimony that he received messages during the summer of 2001 from inside the Iranian government that an Iranian contingency plan for unconventional warfare against the U.S. called “Shaitan dar Atash” had been activated. “This is compelling proof that Iran was deeply involved in the 9/11 conspiracy,” said Tim Fleming, lead investigative attorney for the Havlish group.
Included among Judge Daniels’ findings in Havlish are the following:
* Members of the 9/11 Commission staff testified that Iran aided the hijackers by concealing their travel through Iran to access al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Iranian border inspectors refrained from stamping the passports of 8 to 10 of the 9/11 hijackers because evidence of travel through Iran would have prevented the hijackers from obtaining visas at U.S. embassies abroad or gaining entry into the United States. The 9/11 Commission Report addressed these facts and called for further investigation. 9/11 Commission Report at pp. 240-41.
* Expert and U.S. government evidence also confirmed that Iran facilitated the escape of al Qaeda leaders and members from the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan into Iran and provided safe haven inside Iran after 9/11.
* Abolghasem Mesbahi testified he was part of an IRGC-MOIS task force that designed contingency plans for unconventional warfare against the U.S., code-named “Shaitan dar Atash” (“Satan in Flames”) which included crashing hijacked passenger airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the White House. During the weeks before 9/11, Mesbahi received three coded messages from a source inside Iran’s government indicating that the Shaitan dar Atash plan had been activated.
* Mesbahi also testified that in 2000 Iran used front companies to obtain a Boeing 757-767-777 flight simulator for training the terrorists. Due to U.S. trade sanctions, Iran has never had any Boeing 757-767-777 aircraft, but all the airplanes hijacked on 9/11 were Boeing 757 or 767 aircraft.
* A May 14, 2001 memorandum from inside the Iranian government demonstrating that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, was aware of the impending attacks and instructing intelligence operatives to restrict communications to existing contacts with al Qaeda’s Ayman al Zawahiri and Hizballah’s Imad Mughniyah.
* Documents obtained from German federal prosecutors showing that 9/11 coordinator Ramzi Binalshihb traveled to Iran in January 2001 on his way to Afghanistan to brief Osama bin Laden on the plot’s progress.
* Evidence from the 9/11 Commission Report that a “senior Hezbollah operative,” which the Havlish evidence identifies as Hezbollah terrorist chief Imad Mughniyah, coordinated activities in Saudi Arabia and was present (or his associate) on flights the hijackers took to and from Beirut and Iran. 9/11 Commission Report at pp. 240-41. Mughniyah, a longtime agent of Iran, orchestrated a string of terror operations against the U.S. and Israel during the 1980s and 1990s. He was assassinated in Syria in February of 2008.
“The families have waited a very long time for this day and they have been through a lot. So I was greatly relieved that the families received an answer to the question that they asked me ten years ago: they asked who was the responsible party? How did this happen? Today a federal court judge has said that a principal responsible party is the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said Thomas E. Mellon, Jr. of the law firm of Mellon Webster & Shelly, the lead attorney for the Havlish plaintiffs.
Attorneys emphasized that it is important to understand that Iran, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda formed a terror alliance in the early 1990s. The attorneys cited their national security and intelligence experts, including Dr. Patrick Clawson, Dr. Bruce Tefft, Clare Lopez, Kenneth Timmerman, Dr. Ronen Bergman, Edgar Adamson, and 9/11 Commission staff members Dietrich Snell, Dr. Daniel Byman, and Janice Kephart, as well as the published writings of Robert Baer, to explain how the pragmatic terror leaders overcame the Sunni-Shi’a divide in order to confront the U.S. (the “Great Satan”) and Israel (the “Lesser Satan”).
Iran and Hezbollah then provided training to members of al Qaeda in, among other things, the use of explosives to destroy large buildings. The Iran-Hezbollah-al Qaeda alliance led to terror strikes against the U.S. at Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia (1996), the simultaneous U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania (1998), and the USS Cole (2000).
Shortly after the Cole attack, Iran was facilitating the international travel of the 9/11 hijackers.
After Only 2 Qualify For Presidential Primary, Virginia GOP Chairman Says State Should Change Election Law
After only two Republican presidential candidates qualified for the ballot in Virginia’s March 6 presidential primary, Virginia’s Republican Party chairman is calling for the state to change its ballot access law.
“I was not happy at all in signing that certification with only two names on it,” Virginia GOP Chairman Pat Mullins told CNSNews.com on Tuesday.
Last Thursday, four Republican presidential candidates presented petitions bearing voter signatures to the Virginia Board of Elections. They were seeking to fulfill the state’s legal requirements for a place on the ballot in its presidential primary.
The candidates submitting the petitions were former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Under the terms of a Virginia election law that the Virginia Board of Elections says was enacted in 1998, each candidate was required to submit at least 10,000 signatures of registered Virginia voters with at least 400 signatures coming from each of the state’s 11 congressional districts. In signing these petitions, voters were promising that they intended to participate in Virginia’s Republican primary. (Virginia voters do not register by party.)
Under Virginia’s law, the Virginia Board of Elections was required to pass these ballot-access petitions on to the chairman of the state Republican Party who was responsible for certifying whether each candidate had fulfilled the requirements of the ballot-access law.
Mullins says that a group of volunteers checked the signatures submitted by the four candidates against a computer database of registered voters. He also says that each of the four campaigns that submitted ballot-access petitions had a representative present when the signatures were being checked and that the media was invited and welcome to attend and observe the petition-checking process.
Mullins also says that before the signatures were checked he had consulted with the general counsel of the Virginia Republican Party to insure that the party followed a process that was in keeping with what the law required.
When the petitions had been checked, it turned out that only Romney and Paul satisfied the terms of Virginia’s ballot access law. Gingrich and Perry did not.
Mullins told CNSNews.com that all four candidates – Romney, Paul, Perry and Gingrich – had succeeded in securing at least 400 signatures from registered voters in each of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts. Perry and Gingrich, however, had failed to secure the signatures of at least 10,000 registered voters statewide.
Mullins refuted a report published online by Ballot Access News that the party had checked the validity of the signatures on the ballot access petitions submitted in this presidential campaign because of a lawsuit that had been filed this fall by an independent candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates.
On Oct. 24, Michael Osborne, an independent candidate or the Bristol, Va.-based 5th District seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, sued in the Bristol Virginia Circuit Court arguing that Virginia’s ballot access law was discriminatory. While Osborne’s ballot-access petitions were reviewed by the registrars of voters, his Republican opponent’s petitions were, under the terms of the law, reviewed and certified by the local Republican Party chairman.
As reported by the Bristol Herald Courier on Oct. 19, 2011, the Republican chairman of Virginia’s 5th district, Brandon Boyles, did not check whether the signatures submitted by the Republican candidate for the district’s seat in the House of Delegates, Israel O’Quinn, belonged to registered voters in the district.
“What upsets Osborne about this process is the fact that Boyles checked each of O’Quinn’s petitions only to ensure there were no duplicate signatures and whether the forms were properly signed by their circulators,” the Herald Courier reported.
“The party chairman,” reported the Herald Courier, “did not check whether the people who signed the petitions were registered voters, as Osborne was required to do, nor whether they actually lived in the 5th District. Boyles confirmed this statement Monday during a phone interview with the Bristol Herald Courier. He also said that nothing in the state’s election laws requires him to take any extra steps.”
“The code is basically silent on how we are to conduct our certification process,” Boyles told the Herald Courier. “It says we have to certify the petitions. It doesn’t say we have to do that in any specific manner.”
The suit filed by Osborne will be heard by the Virginia court early next year.
A blog entry posted on the website Ballot Access News on Dec. 25 argued that the Virginia Republican Party only checked the validity of the signatures on the petitions filed by presidential candidates because of Osborne’s lawsuit.
“The only reason the Virginia Republican Party checked the signatures for validity for the current primary is that in October 2011, an independent candidate for the legislature, Michael Osborne, sued the Virginia Republican Party because it did not check petitions for its own members, when they submitted primary petitions,” said the blog entry.
“Osborne had no trouble getting the needed 125 valid signatures for his own independent candidacy, but he charged that his Republican opponent’s primary petition had never been checked, and that if it had been, that opponent would not have qualified,” said the Ballot Access New blog entry.
“The lawsuit, Osborne v Boyles, cl 11-520-00, was filed in Bristol County Circuit Court,” said the blog. “It was filed too late to be heard before the election, but is still pending. The effect of the lawsuit was to persuade the Republican Party to start checking petitions. If the Republican Party had not changed that policy, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry would be on the 2012 ballot.”
In a telephone interview, CNSNews.com read the above passages from Ballot Access News to Virginia Republican Party Chairman Mullins.
“I know nothing about that case,” said Mullins, insisting he did not even know of its existence prior to being asked about it by CNSNews.com.
“The case had no bearing on what we did,” Mullins said.
Mullins noted this was the first presidential primary he had resided over as chairman of the Virginia Republican Party. In preparing for it, he said, he had consulted with the party’s general counsel and set up a procedure that complied with what Virginia law required of both political parties.
“We followed what the code of Virginia told us to do,” he said.
When the candidates’ ballot access petitions were handed over to him by the Virginia Board of Elections for certification, as required by the Virginia law, Mullins said he opened them and had a crew of 30 or more volunteers ready to check them against a computer database of registered Virginia voters. The media had been invited to witness the process, and each of the four campaigns that had submitted petitions had representatives there to watch it.
The signatures on the petitions were checked by the addresses that accompanied them. These addresses were fed into the computer database, which brought up registered voters by household.
Mullins said that when the petitions were checked, it turned out that all of the candidates had been able to secure at least 400 valid signatures in each of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts, but that Perry and Gingrich had not been able to collect 10,000 valid signatures statewide.
Mullins told CNSNews.com he is not happy with the outcome and would like Virginia to change its ballot access law.
“Is there a balance somewhere between protecting the ballot so there are not 30 Mickey Mouse candidates on it and loosening it a little?” Mullins asked.
That is something, he says, the Virginia legislature should deal with.
He believes such a balance can be struck, perhaps be requiring candidates to pay a filing fee of as much as $5,000 while submitting far fewer signatures.
He made clear, however, that he would like the law to be changed so that non-frivolous candidates are not excluded from Virginia’s primary ballots.
School Goes Ballistic When Boy Eats Pizza Into Shape Of Gun (Video)
School Goes Ballistic When Boy Eats Pizza Into Shape Of Gun – WorldNetDaily
In the past, a gunmaker’s name on a pen and a drawing of a space weapon have been enough to bring down school officials’ wrath on students; now it’s a piece of pizza.
At an elementary school in Smyrna, Tenn., student Nicholas Taylor, 10, has been ordered to spend lunches for the rest of the semester at the lunchroom’s “silent table” because he allegedly picked up a piece of pizza and waved it around like a gun.
According to a WKRN television report, school officials say Taylor “threatened” other students “with a piece of pizza with bites out of it so it looked like a gun.”
The station said his mother, LeAnn Taylor, described the punishment as “absolutely ridiculous” and said her son never said anything derogatory or anything about shooting.
“The kid across the table from him said it looked like a gun so he picked it up and started shooting it in the air,” she said, according the television report.
A school official, James Evans, said the punishment actually is because “some students reported he was making some threatening hand gestures, that he was shooting at other kids at the table, and they reported it to a teacher.”
The WKRN report:
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Howard Portney’s irony-laced commentary at Hot Air.com speculated, “Evans did not reveal whether any of the students sustained injuries from the shooting, though a forensic analysis should help investigators determine whether any red splotches found at the scene are tomato sauce or blood.”
The commentary noted the punishment could lead to further trouble.
“I am no psychologist, but doesn’t associating mealtime with punishment send the sort of negative message that leads to problem eating? Paging Michelle Obama and the food police,” he wrote.
“In addition to the stigma of silent lunch, Nicholas was required to meet with the school resource officer to learn about gun safety. I submit that the school should have further required that the child… meet with the dietitian to discuss pizza safety.”
The controversy developed, according to the WKRN report, a few days ago at David Youree Elementary School in Smyrna, a part of the Rutherford County School District.
Evans wrote, “I realize some might say we are going overboard but the principal is just trying to use an abundance of caution and send the message that we don’t play about guns and it’s not something we joke around about.”
Taylor told the station the school made it clear if her son eats his pizza into the shape of a gun again and there is another incident, he would be suspended.
Several years earlier, WND reported that a judge banned a student from wearing an anti-terrorism T-shirt because it “promotes illegal behavior.”
WND reported earlier when Donald Miller III wore to classes in the Penn Manor School District a T-shirt with the following slogans on the front and back:
“Volunteer Homeland Security” and “Special issue – Resident – Lifetime License United States Terrorist Hunting Permit – Permit No. 91101 Gun Owner – No Bag Limit”
The shirt also had a silk-screened image of a handgun silhouette.
“It’s the district’s position the wording on the T-shirt advocated violation of the law and acts of violence,” Superintendent. Donald Stewart told WND.
According to a report from the Student Press Law Center, U.S. District Judge James K. Gardner has determined the T-shirt “promotes illegal behavior” and therefore can be banned.
WND also previously reported a student was threatened with a three-day suspension for bringing to campus and using a pen with the corporate logo of the Glock company, a large stylized “G” with the letters “lock” inside.
The father in that incident reported he convinced school officials to withdraw not only the threat but the formal reprimand that had been placed in his son’s educational file.
Earlier, school officials raised alarm over a drawing of a gun by a 13-year-old boy in Arizona. The boy was suspended for three days because his sketch resembled a gun, school officials said “absolutely” could pose a threat.
According to a report by KPHO-TV in Phoenix, the principal at Payne Junior High School kept the drawing, and officials with the Chandler Unified School District declined to release any information about the case.
The mother said her son “was just basically doodling and not thinking a lot about it.”
WND also reported a student’s punishment for advocating gun rights.
Obama Wants To Burden Americans With Another $1.2 Trillion Of Debt
Obama Wants To Burden Americans With Another $1.2 Trillion Of Debt – The Hill
The Obama administration will be asking Congress to increase the debt limit later this week, two senior administration officials have confirmed.
The White House is expected to ask Congress to raise the U.S. borrowing limit by $1.2 trillion. This would mark the third and final increase from the debt-ceiling deal that was reached over the summer by Congress and the administration. The agreement said that the borrowing limit would increase by $2.1 trillion in three steps.
One senior Treasury official explained that the boost was essential because the U.S. would be within $100 billion of the current limit “by the end of the day on Friday.”
“Assuming the projection is correct we anticipate that pursuant to the Budget Control Act, the president would submit a certification to Congress confirming that we are within $100 billion of the statutory debt limit,” the official said.
The increase would help boost the U.S. borrowing limit to $16.4 trillion, the official said.
Congress – currently in recess – could reject the increase, but Obama could veto that objection, sources say.
Treasury officials said if a joint resolution of disapproval is not enacted, the debt limit is expected to be increased 15 days after Congress receives certification of the increase, on Jan. 14.
Congress won’t be back in session until Jan. 17.
After a heated debate about the debt ceiling and a partisan stalemate on Capitol Hill this summer, the House brought up a resolution that disapproved of another $500 billion increase in the debt ceiling in September.
At the same time, the Senate, with its Democratic majority, refused to block the increase.
Treasury officials say they anticipate the debt limit will not be reached again until late 2012. But they said it’s too early to say if would happen before the 2012 elections.
Officials said Treasury would be able to invoke extraordinary measures to extend borrowing authority beyond the next elections.
Rick Perry Sues To Be Added To Ballot In Virginia
Rick Perry Sues To Be Added To Ballot In Virginia – Daily Caller
After failing to provide enough voter signatures to make it on to the primary ballot in Virginia, Republican presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry is resorting to suing the state.
Perry’s campaign on Tuesday filed suit in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, seeking to have the ballot access requirements in Virginia struck down as unconstitutional.
Virginia requires candidates to provide 10,000 signatures of valid voters. Only former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Rep. Ron Paul met the requirement.
It’s viewed as a major problem for both Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who also didn’t make it on to the ballot.
The lawsuit lists the members of the Virginia State Board of Elections and the chairman of the Virginia Republican Party as defendants.
“Virginia ballot access rules are among the most onerous and are particularly problematic in a multi-candidate election,” said Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan.
His campaign is arguing that voters and candidates have rights under the First Amendment and 14th Amendment that the Virginia law infringes upon.
The campaign also claims the Virginia Republican Party can instruct the Virginia Board of Elections to disregard the signature requirements.
Daily Benefactor News – Obama Skipped Christmas Statement But Issued Statement For Fake Holiday Kwanzaa
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Obama Skipped Christmas Statement But Issued Statement For Fake Holiday Kwanzaa – Gateway Pundit
Barack Obama did not release a special statement for Christmas this year.
From the White House website:
But, Barack Obama did issue a statement in celebration of the fake holiday Kwanzaa on Monday December 26.
From the White House website:
Michelle and I send our warmest wishes to all those celebrating Kwanzaa this holiday season. Today marks the beginning of the week-long celebration honoring African American heritage and culture through the seven principles of Kwanzaa — unity, self determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.
We celebrate Kwanzaa at a time when many African Americans and all Americans reflect on our many blessings and memories over the past year and our aspirations for the year to come. And even as there is much to be thankful for, we know that there are still too many Americans going through enormous challenges and trying to make ends meet. But we also know that in the spirit of unity, or Umoja, we can overcome those challenges together.
As families across America and around the world light the red, black, and green candles of the Kinara this week, our family sends our well wishes and blessings for a happy and healthy new year.
To be fair, the president did send out a Christmas card,,, But it did not refer to Christ or Christmas. It was a picture of Bo the dog.
More… RedBeard added:
Where’s Obama’s Festivus statement? If one fake holiday deserves a statement, then all fake holidays should rate a statement.
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Further evidence that some people are in desperate need of an ass-whipping
Defacing a military monument? Really? Richard G. Williams shares the troubling news that the forces of extremism are out and about
There have been several incidents of vandalism of Confederate monuments here in Virginia in recent months.
There are just some things that get my temper going, and this is one of them. I am well past fed up with these fools that trash Confederate soldiers as racists, are saying they fought over slavery. That is, frankly, a load of doctored history. Sadly many well-educated folks buy into it, yes, even a good many Conservatives.
Those defacing public monuments are, in my opinion, intolerant extremists. I can’t help but be reminded of what the Taliban did to the ancient Buddhist sculptures in Afghanistan. To be consistent, those who favor this kind of base, uncivilized conduct would have no problem with others doing the same thing to a statue of Lincoln or FDR, or placing their own “interpretative plaques” in order to make a political statement. If the monuments of Lee and other Confederate heroes should be “moved to a museum” (how utterly stupid), then the exact same argument could be made for ALL monuments to ALL our Founding Fathers. Hmmm . . . now just where are we going to put the Washington monument? What about any future monuments to President Obama? Will it be acceptable for his political opponents to paint “Marxist” on some future monument?
So, what is an appropriate punishment for the bigots that commit these acts? Fines? Jail? How about we take a page from Singapore? Cane them! Yes, I am serious. In my experience, miscreants that do such things are spoiled brats that are, as the post title suggests are in desperate need of an ass-whipping!
DaleyGator DaleyBabe the new mother edition
One of the most beautiful women, Beyonce, is said to be close to having her baby, so, congratulations are in order, and a look at the lovely Beyonce is as well.
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What could be useful about an idiot?
The term Useful Idiot refers to those individuals that, through their unchecked stupidity, help Communism spread throughout the world. Conservative Hideout is having their Useful Idiot of the Year contest. Go vote!
For anyone who is new to this, a useful idiot is a person that, knowingly or otherwise, promotes Communism. They were called that by Lenin and Stalin. Their purpose was to destabilize a Western nation in order to create crisis. Then, it was hoped that a Communist regime would be installed to deal with the crisis. Then, most ironically, the useful idiots would be mostly jailed, exiled, or executed. After all, the Communists can’t allow ideological pawns to interfere with their tyranny, can they?So then, the process is simple-the readers nominate useful idiots. Then, I put them in a poll, and we all get a chance to vote. Again, we are not ACORN, or the SEIU, so you only get to vote once.
Well, Well, Well… The Texas, Christmas Day Massacre Was A Muslim Honor Killing After All (Video)
Truth be told, I quickly discounted my initial reaction that Muslims might be involved because the killer was reported to be in a Santa costume. Stupid me. The ‘Santa’ who massacred his family on Christmas morning was a Muslim who was enraged that his daughter was dating a non-Muslim.
As usual, the media ignored the obvious honor-killing elements of this massacre. Aziz Yazdanpanah had lost control of his family. His wife had left him. His daughter was dating a non-Muslim. And he killed them all. Just as the Ft. Hood Jihadist Massacre was labeled “Workplace Violence,” the Obama-subservient media are trying to pass off this mass honor killing as “Holiday Blues.”
“Neighbors horrified at news of family’s slayings in Grapevine,” by Gloria Salinas and Scott Goldstein for the Dallas Morning News.(H/T Jihad Watch)
Citing public records and interviews with friends and neighbors, media reports identified Aziz Yazdanpanah and others who had died: his estranged 55-year-old wife, Fatemeh Rahmati, their 19-year-old daughter, Nona Narges Yazdanpanah, and 15-year-old son, Ali Yazdanpanah. Friends of the family said Fatemeh Rahmati’s 58-year-old sister, Zohreh Rahmaty, and her husband, Hossein Zarei, 59, and daughter Sahra Zarei, a 22-year-old pre-med student at the University of Texas at Arlington, also were killed.
Aziz Yazdanpanah seemed to be losing control of his life in recent months – his wife left him, his house was in foreclosure, and his 19-year-old daughter was dating a young man he didn’t like.
Yazdanpanah, a volunteer high school debate coach described as a doting father, is the focus of suspicion a day after a Christmas morning massacre in which a man dressed as Santa Claus killed six relatives and then committed suicide.
Grapevine police arrived at the Lincoln Vineyard Apartment Homes a few minutes before noon and discovered bodies sprawled among opened presents and wrapping paper. The victims were ages 15 to 58…
Yazdanpanah said he bought a gun after expressing concern that his daughter’s boyfriend was stalking him. He also insisted on picking up his daughter from her job at a phone kiosk inside Sam’s Club in Grapevine because of concerns about the alleged stalker. The boyfriend has not been publicly identified.
Neighbors said the family was Muslim but had always hung Christmas lights on their home – except this year…
But a more ominous portrait emerged of Yazdanpanah in interviews with some of his daughter’s other classmates.
“She would come to school crying and telling us her dad was crazy,” said Lacie Reed, 18. “He wouldn’t let her wear certain things. He was always taking her phone away, checking her call history and checking her text messages.”
Friends said Nona’s father had installed cameras all around the home so he could watch the family’s comings and goings. Others said he nailed her bedroom window shut so she could not sneak out at night and see her boyfriend.
“She couldn’t date at all until she was a certain age, but when he was going to let her date she couldn’t date anyone outside of their race or religion,” Reed said. “He would take her phone away and her mother would give it back to her and her brother would let her use his phone,” Alvarenga said. “She was doing good. She was just excited that her life was going to start and she was going to have control of it.”…
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H/T YouCruising
*LIVE STREAMING* GOP Pro-Life Tele-Townhall Hosted By Steve Deace And Personhood USA – December 27, 2011 – 9pm EST
Call In: 1-877-229-8493 – Passcode 18564
Click HERE to visit the official Steve Deace Show website.
Click HERE to visit the Personhood USA website.
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Sedlec Ossuary: Cathedral Made Out Of Human Remains (Pictures)
Cathedral Made Out Of Human Remains – Talk About Anything
The Sedlec Ossuary a.k.a the Church of Bones is a small and the most unusual Roman Catholic chapel, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, many of whom have had their bones artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel.
Woman Calls 911 To Report “I Ate Too Much”
Woman Calls 911 To Report “I Ate Too Much” – Weekly Vice
Mary Ellen Lisee, a 45-year-old Fort Pierce woman was jailed Sunday after she allegedly called 911 because she “ate too much”.
According to the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, officers was dispatched to the Traveler’s Inn motel in Fort Pierce on a report of a 911 hang-up.
When police arrived on the scene, a woman was yelling and jumping around in her room. The woman’s boyfriend was exiting the room, and told police he was leaving to get some peace and quiet because she “could not stop talking.”
When officers entered the hotel room, the woman, identified as Lisee, stated that she had called 911 because she “ate too much food” that evening. Officers noted that she smelled of alcohol and appeared to be intoxicated.
When officers asked her to write a statement, she wrote: “My name is Mary Ellen Lisee. I have beaten, I believe in God, and He forgives me. I may joke, but I do not do crack. I will not for as long as I live.”
When officers asked Lisee to swear the statement to be true, she refused and was apprehended. Her address is listed as the hotel.
Lisee was booked into the St. Lucie County Jail and charged with disorderly conduct.
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Dave C
