The cartoons mostly come from:

www.townhall.com/funnies.

If you receive this and you hate it and you don’t want to ever read it no matter what...that is fine; email me back and you will be deleted from my list (which is almost at the maximum anyway).

Previous issues are listed and can be accessed here:

http://kukis.org/page20.html (their contents are described and each issue is linked to) or here:

http://kukis.org/blog/ (this is the online directory they are in)

I attempt to post a new issue each Sunday by 5 or 6 pm central standard time (I sometimes fail at this attempt).

I try to include factual material only, along with my opinions (it should be clear which is which). I make an attempt to include as much of this week’s news as I possibly can. The first set of columns are intentionally designed for a quick read.

I do not accept any advertising nor do I charge for this publication. I write this principally to blow off steam in a nation where its people seemed have collectively lost their minds.

And if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, always remember: We do not struggle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12).

This Week’s Events

Kim Jong Il, North Korean dictator, dies.

The Obama administration is working out plans to renew scientist exchanges between U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories and Chinese nuclear facilities. The idea is aimed at promoting openness and transparency by China's military about its secret, large-scale buildup of nuclear weapons, according to U.S. officials. Critics say the plan is similar to an exchange program in the 1990s that sent U.S. nuclear scientists to China and produced one of the worst cases of nuclear espionage. Secrets about every deployed warhead in the U.S. arsenal were compromised, including the W-88 small nuclear warhead deployed on submarine-launched missiles.

House Republicans have been fighting to extend the payroll tax cut for one year as opposed to the two month extension the Dems are pushing. By the end of this week, the Democrats won this battle.

Last week, I reported that a similar bill passed the Senate and the House; but, because the exact same bill was not passed in both houses, it does not go to the president. Usually, leaders from both houses meet and hash out the differences; however, this is not occurring this time around. Instead, this is being argued on television and on the radio. At the same time, a stealth $1 trillion spending bill was passed by both houses, which most news services have ignored almost entirely.

As a side-note, implementing the 2-month version of this bill may be nearly impossible for most businesses.

Actress Eva Longoria says she will have dinner and an "intimate conversation" on how to help U.S. President Barack Obama win reelection in 2012 with the winners of a raffle which people can enter by making at least a small contribution to his reelection campaign. $3.

The last troops out of Iraq have landed at Fort Hood.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to submit enough valid signatures to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot. Apparently Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum will not be on the ballot either.

A federal judge blocked three key provisions of South Carolina's controversial law cracking down on illegal immigration, which favors the Obama position. Part of the story nearly ignored by the media; this judge was an Obama appointee.

Mitt Romney has indicated that he will not release his tax returns if he wins the Republican nomination for president. He did ask for Ted Kennedy to release his returns when they ran against one another back in 1994.

Politi-Fact named the Democrat claim that Republicans voted to end Medicare (including the Medi-scare ad with a Paul Ryan lookalike throwing granny off the cliff) as the “Lie of the Year.”

Bob McLean, a U.S. Postal Service worker, has been dressing up as Santa for the past decade. He was ordered to stop doing that, due to a complain from a fellow Bellevue, WA worker.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a complaint requesting "forfeiture of property" belonging to a New Mexico gun dealer charged with knowingly selling weapons to straw purchasers operating on behalf of Mexican drug cartels. This crime occurred during the same time frame in which DOJ conducted its own gunwalking scheme, Operation Fast and Furious, encouraging other gun dealers to do exactly the same thing.

The “Holiday Tree” at the U.S. Capitol Grounds is a 63-foot Sierra White Fir. There is no ornament readily visible to a person standing near the tree's base that uses the word "Christmas," or includes an image of the Nativity, or bears the name or image of Jesus Christ. However, this is an ornament that says: "I ♣ President Obama."

Quite a number progressive and liberal media folks came to the White House today to chat with President Obama over coffee in the Roosevelt Room. They chatted with the president about economic messaging, his agenda for 2012, the various campaign arguments against different GOP candidates, the desire among some Democrats for him to highlight his foreign policy accomplishments, fighting corporate influence and the "crappiness" of the Senate filibuster , as one attendee put it. Hence, the name, the Obama Media Complex.

The National Association of Realtors reports that the U.S. housing market was artificially inflated by 14% during 2007-2010.

The Occupy Denver encampment fell to the city police force, where retreating protesters left cops a set of burning shelters to deal with as they made their way out of the camp. It is unclear who set off the fire, but it appears to have been the protestors.

Occupy D.C. is still going on; recently Al Qaeda and Hezbollah flags were flown there.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has announced that the Department of Defense will now allow Muslim and Sikh students participating in Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) to wear headscarves and turbans while in uniform.

In an effort to mend badly frayed relations with Pakistan, the CIA has suspended drone missile strikes on gatherings of low-ranking militants believed to be involved in cross-border attacks on U.S. troops or facilities in Afghanistan.

Egypt's main Islamist parties won 65% of the in the second round of a historic election for a new parliament after Hosni Mubarak's ouster. I recall brilliant talking heads discussing this uproar in Egypt, saying that the Muslim brotherhood is only 10% or so of the population and would therefore have little overall impact on their elections.

A wave of at least 14 bombings ripped across Baghdad on Thursday morning, killing at least 60 people in the worst violence Iraq has seen for months.

At least 675 Pakistani women and girls were murdered during the first nine months of the year for allegedly defaming their family's honour.

Local Islamists and Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria attacked a Christian community in Kaduna state, killing 5 and wounding 6.

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that the Ethiopian Christians who were arrested a week ago in Saudi Arabia for holding a prayer meeting are now being charged by Saudi officials with mixing with the opposite sex. In Saudi Arabia, it is illegal for men and women (non-family) to be in the same room together.

UN Security Council members, led by Britain, France, Germany and Portugal, condemned Israel for the planned Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria, alleging that this poses a threat to the peace process. I am unsure whether the hundreds of rockets lobbed into Israel each year by the Palestinians was included as another possible roadblock to peace in the Middle East.

A recent book says that there is clear evidence that Iran was involved in the 9/11 attacks. At the same time, the U.S. government has just offered a $10 million reward for Iran-based al Qaeda financier named Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil, also known as Yasin al Suri.

Say What?

Liberals:

President Obama in Best Buy: “Let’s see if my credit card still works.”

President Obama wanting Congress to pass the 2–month extension of many people not having to pay FICA taxes: “The issue right now is this: The clock is ticking; time is running out. And if the House Republicans refuse to vote for the Senate bill, or even allow it to come up for a vote, taxes will go up in 11 days. I saw today that one of the House Republicans referred to what they're doing as, "high-stakes poker." He's right about the stakes, but this is not poker, this is not a game - this shouldn't be politics as usual”

White House site posted question: "What does $40 mean to you?"

President Obama’s statement on the payroll tax deal that was worked out: “For the past several weeks, I've stated consistently that it was critical that Congress not go home without preventing a tax increase on 160 million working Americans. Today, I congratulate members of Congress for ending the partisan stalemate by reaching an agreement that meets that test...I urge them to keep working to reach an agreement that will extend this tax cut...And I want to thank every American who raised your voice to remind folks in this town what this debate was all about. It was about you.”

President Obama, before going on a $4 million vacation in Hawaii: “Giving of ourselves; service to others - that's what this season is all about. For my family and millions of Americans, that's what Christmas is all about. It reminds us that part of what it means to love God is to love one another, to be our brother's keeper and our sister's keeper. But that belief is not just at the center of our Christian faith, it's shared by Americans of all faiths and backgrounds. It's why so many of us, every year, volunteer our time to help those most in need; especially our hungry and our homeless.“

Reggie Love, also known as the President’s “body man” in a fund-raising email about getting a dinner with the Obama by donating $3: "You should know this practically never happens. While Barack wants to do these dinners throughout his campaign, I know that dinner with Barack and Michelle is something that usually only happens with the girls, and no one else. The fact that this dinner is with the two of them should tell you how much it matters to them to know that you have their backs out there."

DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz: "And if they [House Republicans] vote against a middle class tax cut and extending that middle class tax cut right at the holidays and they know that that is going to cause the economy some harm, they don't want to be in that situation. So the Republican Leadership, I think, can't defeat this bill tomorrow if they bring it up for a vote. So they're not going to bring it up. That's just shocking. It's outrageous. It's not letting the democratic process work its will. It shows us they really don't want to be supportive of the needs of the middle class. It's 160 million Americans that would face “

Joe Biden Op-ed: "Romney also misleadingly suggests that the president and I are creating an `Entitlement Society,' whereby government provides everything for its people without regard to merit, as opposed to what he calls an "Opportunity Society," where everything is merit-based and every man is left to fend for himself."

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on why Democrats will not appoint any conferees to a House-Senate conference the payroll-tax-cut extension: "We are not falling for that stunt again. He is not Lucy and we are not Charlie Brown."

Obama advisor, David Axelrod: "You have to wonder whether some folks over there think somehow -- think screwing up the economy, throwing a wrench in the works is a good political strategy for them," Axelrod told Fox News. "Somehow if they can slow the recovery down, if they can cost a half million or delay a half million jobs, that that will hurt the president."

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: “Maybe the principle at stake here is the anti-government, ideological warfare that the Tea Party Republicans, in the extreme, have taken us to. They alone are standing in the way of a tax cut for the middle class.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY): "What began with the debt ceiling and now continues with this issue, people - you know, the American people have pretty good sniffers and they're beginning to smell that this Tea Party is extreme and not really interested in what's good for Americans. Not simply that they might have a different viewpoint, they want to cut government more than others but rather that they're basically trying to paralyze government and get nothing done.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn explains why there is gridlock in Washington: "All of this is about President Obama; it's not about anything else."

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas): "It is extraordinary, don't get me wrong. But I'm feeling the pain of the constituents I left [at] home. I consider this a crisis. I consider leaving Americans without unemployment insurance for January and February a crime. I consider not extending the payroll tax cut ... a crime."

Congressman Barney Frank: “As to the Stimulus, they over argued; it is quite clear, thinks are better than they would have been. I understand, it is not a good political slogan to say, things would have been worse without me.”

Democratic Reps. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Pete Stark of California, Yvette Clarke of New York, Lois Capps of California, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, Barbara Lee of California, Donald Payne of New Jersey, Lynn Woolsey of California, Diana DeGette of Colorado, Maxine Waters of California, Louise Slaughter of New York, and Jesse Jackson Jr of Illinois in a letter to President Obama: "We are concerned that improper implementation of current foreign-assistance restrictions may be impeding our ability to provide even more effective and life-saving information and services. In particular, we are concerned that the Helms Amendment - which restricts but does not prohibit abortion funding - is being implemented as though it were an absolute ban." In case you don’t get the gist of this, according to these and many other Democrats, we are not spending enough taxpayer money on foreign abortions nor are we promoting it as much as we should.

Gov. Jerry Brown, speaking at the Capitol Menorah Lighting this morning: “[This is a good time to reflect on the whole idea that we're running out of oil so we need a miracle. Today's miracle is not to find more oil, but to utilize the sun...We need a lot of miracles here in Sacramento to get our problems solved.”

Democrat pundit James Carville on a robo-call: "Something remarkable happened this weekend. Democrats and Republicans in the Senate worked together to stop a $1,000 payroll tax hike on 160 million middle class families." Since the bill being pushed for by the Democrats runs for 2 months, it is approximately a $180 tax cut.

MoveOn Executive Director Justin Ruben: "Imagine if MoveOn disappeared and the work so many people do through MoveOn stopped happening altogether. Not to get technical, but it would be bad. To avoid that - to keep MoveOn going and growing - costs money, even though we keep our staff small and work from home to keep overhead low. Right now, to make ends meet, we need to raise $400,000 by the end of the year.”

A disappointed Matt Damon: "I've talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, `Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician.' You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better."

Alec Baldwin on why he is not going to run to be New York City’s mayor: "I've lost my appetite. Plus the people that are running for mayor - I know this is terrible - I look at them and I don't see myself in that crowd. They're like a guy on a date that you can tell he just can't wait to get his hand up your blouse before even the lights go out in the theatre. They're all just so horny for it. Horny for their own ascension. Whereas for me, I've got a job now - which, I've got a good job. Is the most creative thing in the world?”

Michigan atheist Douglas Marshall wants this sign put up next to the nativity scene at Warren's City Hall: "At this season of the Winter Solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds." This is the same sign put up in Washington state (I assume, year after year).

Adam Nicolson in an article about the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible in the December 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine: “[the Book of Leviticus's condemnation of homosexual acts is a] troubling part of the King James inheritance: a ferocious and singular moral vision that has become unacceptable in most of the liberal, modern world."

The Compliant Obama Press Corps:

Barbara Walters of ABC: “The Obamas' marriage has always been a political asset. Not so for every politician, like Republican candidate Newt Gingrich, who has had to address questions of whether infidelity is fair game during a presidential campaign. This topic has come up recently in the Republican debates.”

Barbara Walters to the President, reading a Middle school student’s question: “If you were a super hero and you could have one super power, what would it be?”

NBC co-anchor Amy Roach: “Presidential push: President Obama scores a win for some 160 million workers as Congress passes a measure to extend the payroll tax cut through February, ending the year on a high note, as the Commander-in-Chief looks ahead at his reelection campaign.”

TIME's Joe Klein: “Iowa Republicans are not neoconservatives. Ron Paul has gained ground after a debate in which his refusal to join the Iran warhawks was front and center...It's one thing to just adore Israel, as the evangelical Christians do; it's another thing entirely to send American kids off to war, yet again, to fight for Israel's national security.”

Liberal magazine, the Nation: “Newt Gingrich...has been lobbing anti-SNAP bombs for months, but his most infamous, issued in May and repeated in December, was his slam calling Obama the food stamp president - a declaration of barely coded racism that harked back to decades of racially inspired attacks on food stamps, most notably Reagan's slur about strapping young bucks dining out on T-bone steaks.”

One-time newsman, Tom Brokaw, who had nothing nice to say about the TEA party: “Certainly, they've landed on something that I think resonates with a lot of people, and that's the one percent versus 99 percent. Most people, the overwhelming majority obviously, are in the 99 percent. And there is that great concern about income inequality in this country. In the course of the last three weeks, I've been all over America, 19 cities altogether. And I've had a lot of high-income people come to me and say we really do have to do something about income inequality because that could trigger a class war in this country. And the consequences are not very pretty to contemplate.”

Liberal civility:

Ed Schultz: “What these tea partiers are going to do right now, and I'm going to label them tonight as sewer rats. They have a sewer rat mentality. You know what sewer rats do? They go down in the hole and they don't come out. And they all hang out together. And they're comfortable in their environment. And that's what these Tea Partiers are doing right now behind closed doors. They're just sewer rats.”

Crazy Muslims:

Taliban (not our enemy) spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid: "The nations of the world must put pressure on the United Nations and other international organizations to drag and put on trial those perpetrators of the American administration who had a role in burning the Iraqi people in the flames of gunpowder for nearly a decade under false pretexts."

An article published on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban's shadow government) website: "The American Red Cross . . . Showed Its Astonishment as to Why the Dead Bodies of Taliban had Not Decayed or Gave Off a Foul Smell!"

Saudi Arabian textbook for 9^th graders, paid for, in part, by U.S. tax dollars: "The hour (of judgment) will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. ... There is a Jew behind me come and kill him."

Dr. Sabeel Ahmed, the Director of Gain Peace Project-Chicago, of recent commercials meant to eradicate Islamophobia: "It's very important for us to realize that by watching these ads, we hope that the viewers could realize that Islam is not a faith to be feared but a faith that cherishes human values, a faith that encourages its followers to reach out to the neighbors and to the community." Weasel Zippers suggests the condemnation of violent jihad would be a nice start.

Moderates/Affiliation Unknown:

9-year-old girl after being pulled over by the police, her drunken father in the passenger seat: `What did you stop me for? I was driving good.'

LA High school student’s evaluation of their new healthy lunch program: “Nasty rotty stuff.”

Crosstalk:

Robert Reich: “Well, I -- let's just be clear about the facts. I mean, right now, the top 1 percent is claiming in terms of their pay, a larger share of total income than has been at any time since before the Great Depression. And their tax rates -- and their tax rates are lower than they have been in 30 years. You look at that period. I mean, George, you say that, you know, big -- rich people and big corporations have undue influence. Yes, I agree with you. But the answer is not to shrink government and not even to have government attempt to invest in education, in job training and all of the ways in which we traditionally have generated upward mobility. The answer is to get money out of politics, to make sure that those who are at the top reaches, that is both individuals and corporations, don't have the untoward influence they now have. One final point. In the first three decades after the second world war, we had in this country much more of an equal distribution of the fruits of economic growth. And yet what happened? It turned out that in those days, the economy grew faster than it has grown since. There was, under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom nobody accused of being a socialist, a marginal tax rate on the top of 91 percent. I'm not advocating we go back to 91 percent. I'm just saying that for conservatives to say that we cannot tax the wealthy, when all of the nation's wealth and income, virtually speaking, is at the top, to invest in people and education and training and everything else we need to invest, it's absurd on its face.

George Will: “Bob, You are a pyromaniac in a field of strawmen. No one is arguing against government investing in education.”

_______________________________________

Christiane Amanpour “You talked about what the government should be doing. So let me ask you, one of the big issues obviously that we have been debating all year is election. This election is jobs, the jobs crisis. There are something like nearly 23 million people who are either unemployed, underemployed or out of the work force. And of course during the Great Depression the government created big programs to get people back to work. Why shouldn't they do right now? Why shouldn't they be that kind of...”

George Will: “First of all, because it didn't work during the depression. The cardinal aim of the New Deal was to put the country back to work. Unemployment never came below 14 percent until we geared up to be the arsenal of democracy in the Second World War. We have had a remarkably clear test under the Obama administration. They said, pass the stimulus and by 2011, the economy would be growing at 4% and unemployment would be 7.1 percent and falling. I don't fault the president for having his economic projections wrong. This is a complicated society. John Kenneth Galbraith, one of your liberal friends was once said, that the purpose of economic projections is to make astrology to look respectable.”

_______________________________________

Christiane Amanpour, Host: “Can government, should government do what the congressman is doing and allow upward mobility, which stalled?”

George Will: “Big government inevitably exacerbates the problem of inequality. Big government inevitably is a servant of the strong. I'll give you two examples. The tax code has been changed 4,500 times in the last decade. Every one of those times at the service of a group strong enough and attentive enough and wealthy enough to hire a Washington lawyer to represent them to game the tax code. The welfare state exists to transfer wealth basically from the working young and retired elderly -- working young and middle aged to the retired elderly. The elderly are, according to the CBO study, the net worth of a family of a household on average, household headed by someone 65 years old or older is 47 times larger than that of the net worth of a household of someone 35 or younger. That's a record, and has doubled in the last five years. Big government is responsive to big, muscular interest groups.”

_______________________________________

Gordon Peterson, Host: That anticipates my next question. After two months, what happens?

Charles Krauthammer: Well, they're going to have two months of arguing over this. They will get the one year extension. It is not a great economic idea. It's not going to create jobs. Nobody is going to hire, and hiring a person involves a lot of long, it commits a person, an employer, to many years. He is not going to do it on the basis of a one year or two month tax holiday. However, it will pass because there is no way you can make a political argument in an election year against putting money in the pockets of working people.

Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg: But unlike the Bush tax cuts, it's a tax cut that could actually help the economy, not because these are people the employers will necessarily hire people, but the tax cut is going to people who will actually spend the money and fuel the economy.

Krauthammer: The way last year's payroll tax holiday actually helped our economy?

Carlson: And the hiring the way the Bush tax cuts resulted in?

Krauthammer: You are saying that it's going to help the economy. There is no evidence it's helped the economy.

From:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/12/24/charles-krauthammer-schools-margaret-carlson-payroll-tax-holidays#ixzz1hVJQ96iz

_______________________________________

Barbara Walters: “What's the biggest misconception about you?”

President Obama: “Me being detached, or Spock-like, or very analytical. People who know me know that I am a softie. I mean, stuff can choke me up very easily. The challenge for me is that in this job I think a lot of times the press or how you come off on TV people want you to be very demonstrative in your emotions. And if you're not sort of showing it in a very theatrical way, then somehow it doesn't translate over the screen.”

_______________________________________

Barbara Walters: “What's the trait you most deplore in yourself, and the trait you most deplore in others?”

President Obama: “Laziness. Nothing frustrates me more than when people aren't doing their jobs. The thing actually that I most dislike is cruelty. I can't stand cruel people. And if I see people doing something mean to somebody else, just to make themselves feel important it really gets me mad. But, with myself, since I tend not to be a mean person, you know, if I get lazy, then I get mad at myself.”

_______________________________________

Barbara Walters, ABC News: "What is your biggest peeve of each other?"

President Obama: "I don't have one."

Walters: "Aww."

Michelle Obama: "My list is too long."

_______________________________________

Barbara Walters, ABC News: "Mrs. Obama, you've recently said something that I thought was very interesting for other women to hear. You said `you put your own self highest on your priority list.' That sounds selfish?"

Michelle Obama: "No, no, it's practical. It's something that I found I needed to do for quite some time, even before the presidency. And I found it other women, in similar situated balancing career family, trying to do it all and a lot of times we just slip pretty low on our own priority list because we're so busy caring for everyone else. And one of the things that I want to model for my girls is investing in themselves as much as they invest in others."

_______________________________________

Vice President, Joe Biden: “Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy. That's critical. There is not a single statement that the president has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy because it threatens U.S. interests.”

Taliban operative: "Biden is talking both sense and nonsense - if we are not your enemies, then what are you doing in Afghanistan? Is this some kind of joke, to say we are not your enemy after you occupy our country, imprison us in cages and kill tens of thousands of our people? We didn't invite you here, and we never wanted to become your enemy."

30ish Taliban subcommander from southern Afghanistan: "When I first heard the statement I laughed. I wondered if this was an American joke." He and others are far from ready to forgive and forget. "You are only saying we are not enemies now because we have put up such a strong and unbeatable resistance. Before 9/11, I didn't hate America, But after ten years of war, after the bombings and atrocities, I now think the U.S. is enemy No. 1. And I'm proud to say that."

_______________________________________

Attorney General Eric Holder, concerned about the attacks against him over Operation Fast and Furious: "This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him, both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we're both African-American."

Representative Allen West: "It is a slap in my face as a professional African American member of Congress and a career military officer, that this gentleman who is the head of the Department of Justice is going to resort to that very nefarious theme of the race card"

_______________________________________

CNN's Lisa Desjardins, after Hoyer and Van Hollen called an impromptu press conference after Wednesday's brief House session: You were saying that Democrats want the politics to end here and get to business and Republicans the same; with all due respect, this is the second partisan dog and pony show that we have all attended in the past hour. So if you want the partisan gimmicks to end, why is it that you still doing partisan gimmicks? A partisan dog and pony show, with all respect?

Steny Hoyer: “With all respect, I think your premise is—dog and pony show—this is democracy. We are saying we believe very importantly we ought to pass what the senate—no dog and pony show—overwhelming bipartisan support—sent to this house.

[Crosstalk]

Desjardins: “You expected that you weren’t going to get recognized. Also, the house republicans have pseudo conf committee when they know there’s not going to be a conference committee. It seems like game playing while both parties are calling for the games to end.

Hoyer: “We're not playing a game. We’re prepared to have bill come back and pass it and send it to president and we can do it today. That’s not a game. None of 160 million people, who are going to lose their tax cut, think it's a game. None of the 48 million Americans who are concerned about having continued access to their doctors think it’s a game. None of folks on unemployment who are relying on that unemployment to feed themselves, to help support their families, think this is a game. This is not a game. Why are you [reporters] all here? Why are we now able to communicate to the American public? Why have you [inaudible]; because we went to the floor. We went to the floor to speak to the American people and to the members of the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, the Speaker walked off. Not Speaker Boehner, the Speaker Pro Tem walked off the floor. They shut off the cameras. They wanted to shut us down. We’re here on very serious business. No game.”

At this time, it would have been appropriate to ask Hoyer if there was much of a difference other than the Democrats want a 2 month bill and Republicans want a year bill; but the reporter did not ask that.

_______________________________________

Reporter: “Okay. And I hope this doesn't affect my Christmas Day invitation, but if you feel like John Boehner and the House Republicans now are blocking the payroll tax cut extension - and many times at this podium you've said that the Republicans are out to stop him, practically at every turn - how is it then the President was able to tell CBS news that basically his accomplishments in three years are only beaten by three other Presidents in American history?”

Press Secretary Jay Carney: “Well, he was talking about legislative accomplishments.”

_______________________________________

President Obama: "It seems to me that the ties between Venezuela's government and Iran and Cuba have not served the interests of Venezuela and its people."

Hugo Chávez : "Focus on governing your country, which you've turned into a disaster."

___________

Newsweek: But they're [the European Union] looking to us for something we can't give anymore, which is cash to bail them out.

Joe Biden: We're not going to. These guys at the end of the day are going to have to choose: they either lose now or lose later. And if they lose later, they lose real, real big.

Newsweek: And it's got to be their bailout, not ours?

Biden: Exactly right. We did our bailout. They've got to do their bailout.

_______________________________________

Actress Maria Conchita Alonso to actor Sean Penn at LA airport: `You are in favor of Hugo Chavez and [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad.'

Sean Penn: 'I've never said that about Ahmadinejad. You're a pig.'

Alonso:`And you are a communist, Sean Penn!"

Alonso: You're a communist a**hole

Alonso [later]: "I'm not apologizing for calling him a communist because that is what he is." The conversation is according to Alonso.

Conservatives:

George Will: “It is axiomatic that if you want to reduce the role of money in politics, reduce the role of politics in allocating money and opportunity in this society, leave it to the market, private voluntary transactions between individual.”

George Will: “Some of us think that the big problem began in this country in the financial crisis because a lot of wizards in Washington decided they knew - they just knew how many Americans ought to own houses. And they were going to do whatever they needed to do to support banks, to subsidize banks, and to set interest rates that would encourage this.”

George Will (this bears repeating): “This is a complicated society. John Kenneth Galbraith, one of your liberal friends was once said, that the purpose of economic projections is to make astrology to look respectable.”

Mitt Romney on the Joe Biden Op-ed this week: "Someone had written an op-ed in the Des Moines Register attacking me and blaming me for the economy. I thought now, who would have the chutzpah - there you go - or the delusion to imagine that I was responsible for the decline of this economy over the last three years. And it was none other than Vice President Joe Biden. You wonder in some respects what fantasy land he lives in. He needs to get out and meet with people. He seems to think that he and the president have made things better.”

Steve Forbes, on reintroducing recess and P.E. to our schools: “Feed the kids; starve the lawyers.” There have been enough lawsuits to eliminate P.E. from many public schools.

Greg Gutfeld, to the occupy young people: “Your parents have wisdom and knowledge that dwarfs your degree in gender studies.”

Newt Gingrich, after some Occupy types stormed his stage and were escorted out: “You just saw the one-tenth of one percent...all noise and no thought.”

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney on not calling Obama a socialist: "I prefer to use the term he's over his head."

Rush Limbaugh: "Imagine what it would be like if I were no longer on the radio. Picture the mourning in North Korea and multiply that times 20."

Rush Limbaugh: "All of a sudden Social Security at this point in time is not the third rail of American politics. You put a Republican in the White House, you let a Republican talk about cutting the funding of Social Security by the amount Obama's talking about, and you watch utter hell unleashed by the Democrat Party."

Rush Limbaugh: "Can you name one important positive thing Romney accomplished as governor of Massachusetts? Can anyone?"

Rush Limbaugh: "What do the Democrats have to do? They've got a monumental charge here. They have to defend a large majority of the Senate seats that are up, plus Obama, they have to defend Obama. And what have they done? They have no budget. They have not done one thing towards deficit reduction. Despite what they say they have not done one thing toward job creation."

Rush Limbaugh: "This is so damn topsy-turvy, the news media and the rest of the Democrats have managed to convince the American people that cutting Social Security funding by hundreds of billions of dollars is a good thing."

Rush Limbaugh: "As we all know, most citadels of higher learning are the incubators of Marxism, liberalism, socialism, that's where the indoctrination takes place. That's where Obama's educated elites are. That's the group of people Obama goes after in his reelection campaign.”

Rush Limbaugh: "The uninformed voter is the Democrat target audience. The uninformed voter, the stupid, ignorant voter is the victim in American society. That's who the Democrats go after."

Rush Limbaugh: "The Republican Party does not want a conservative nominee. They're not comfortable with conservatives."

Rush Limbaugh: "I know what you people want. I'm fully aware you want a candidate who sounds like what you hear on this show."

Rush Limbaugh: "There is no conservative movement in Washington. I hate to break it to you."

Rush Limbaugh: "There's nobody who is informed properly on capitalism in America who would vote for Obama unless they personally benefit from it and don't care what happens to the country in the process."

Conservatives being mean:

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.), according to a Democratic operative who heard at the Delta Crown lounge at Reagan National Airport Sensenbrenner talking loudly on his cellphone, in reference to first lady Michelle Obama: "...she lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself." Apparently he was set off by thinking about praise that some lady gave the first lady at a recent church auction.

Later, by Sensenbrenner: "I regret my inappropriate comment and I have sent a personal note to the First Lady apologizing."

Conservatives not making any sense:

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.): "It angers me that House Republicans would rather continue playing politics than find solutions. Their actions will hurt American families and be detrimental to our fragile economy. We are Americans first; now is not the time for drawing lines in the sand." Do you recall the time that many spoke of Scott Brown as our next Republican Presidential candidate?

Joe Biden Prophecy Watch

Well-coordinated, destructive attacks in Iraq after we pull out. Clear connection between Al Qaeda funding and Iran.

Watch This!

A Voter’s Guide to the Republican Party (the greedy, fascist, racist party).

Occupy Wall Street Protesters respond to finding out that Time Magazine named them Person of the Year (it includes some weeping; a non-OWS type slips in there)

I am not sure if you are aware of this, but New Gingrich seems to be getting the brunt of the occupy movement protests:

Mic-checking at the University of Iowa

Better quality, but with a commercial first

Protesters from the Occupy Wall Street movement on Dec. 21 disrupted an Iowa Statehouse

Media in Review; Media Mash for the year

Obama wondering if his credit card still works

Alyona Minkovski gives multiple tool awards to Newt Gingrich; basing much of this on Gingrich’s infidelities

This is quite weird; numerous young people telling you how they try to convince their family members to vote for Obama. These people deserve to have no social security money waiting for them when they reach age 65.

Nancy Pelosi tells Yogi Berra story twice on the House floor.

The Courage Campaign says that Kim Kardashian needs to pay a little more in taxes. At no time do these people suggest that the 47% who pay no federal taxes and, probably no FICA taxes, ought to pay their fair share as well.

“Bag Monsters” bring their grievances to the Seattle City Council Meeting and sing.

Without the tax cut, Joseph will miss pizza night with his family

A Little Comedy Relief

I missed this one; Mike Tyson spoofing Herman Cain; made me smile a bit.

Bad Lip Reading; Newt Gingrich; “Rick James knows what I like; hip parties with elephant money”

Bad Lip Reading; Ron Paul “Free Bananas; never mind” There’s a commercial first.

Short Takes

1) The EPA claims that they want a lower mercury level. So, I am holding my breath, waiting for them to ban CFL light bulbs.

2) At the very least, with regards to “Operation Fast & Furious,” Attorney General has been incompetent and it appears as if he is hiding or protecting those responsible for F&F. However, according to the research done by CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson, F&F was done simply to advance restrictive gun legislation.

3) Over and over again, we keep hearing about how the distance between the very poor and the very rich is growing. Part of this is, there is a distinct bottom for the very poor, with is a $0 salary. However, as a society become more prosperous (and sometimes when it is not), the rich will automatically continue to grow their wealth. I agree that there ought not to be subsidies or tax credits; but that there ought not to be a class of people who pays no taxes as well.

4) What has increased beyond all imagination is the distance between the wealth of the government as compared to the wealth of the richest men in the United States. This is far more profound than the wealth of the rich verses the wealth of the poor. In the 1920's, the richest man in the United States could have written a check to pay off the national debt. If you confiscated all of the wealth of rich today, you might pay off the deficit for one year.

By the Numbers

Obama’s statement: “Because of this agreement, every working American will keep his or her tax cut - about $1,000 for the average family.” It is actually a 2 month tax holiday, which will amount to about $180 altogether.

Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it - a total of $3 billion altogether.

Just to give you some ballpark numbers; a GDP growth of 2% or less is not producing enough jobs for the new workers coming on the scene. A GDP of 2.75–3% is normally associated with a stable economy (which we have not had for a very long time). Most of the time, when we have come out of a recession, it has been with a 4–6% growth, for many quarters in a row. So, the 1.8% and lower “growth” rates under Obama is not even treading water.

Polling by the Numbers

Rasmussen:

70% of likely U.S. Voters believe voters should be required to show photo identification such as a driver's license before being allowed to cast their ballot.

22% oppose this kind of requirement.

Marist Poll:

64% prefer the holiday greeting "Merry Christmas,"

31% favor "Happy Holidays."

Ipsos-Telemundo poll

56% A majority of Hispanics still approve of the president,

62%                                                                                                            Hispanic approval of the president I in June of this year (same poll)

86%                                                                                                            Hispanic approval, same poll, in April of 2009

A Little Bias

The framing of a controversy is all-important. The most recent Republican-Democrat battle was between whether or not certain Americans ought to get a tax cut or not. There are two aspects to this tax cut which was fought over: (1) those receiving the tax cuts pay no federal taxes as it is; this is their social security tax; and (2) this is going to de-fund social security, a program that is in trouble right now through lack of funding. If what is emphasized over and over in the news media is, tax cuts and $1000 going back to middle class families; you see one side of the picture only. The fact that this money funds social security right now is equally important, and that fact has received almost no media attention. Also, the actual differences between the House and Senate bills received almost no attention as well. So the news media allowed the Democrats to frame the arguments, to set up the language to be used, and the media went along with it. If the media continually presents only one side of the picture, that is certainly going to have an effect upon the public perception and therefore opinion of that controversy.

_______________________________________

Will Brian Williams report on or even say the words Fast & Furious?

_______________________________________

President Obama said Friday he will not be bound by at least 20 policy riders in the 2012 omnibus funding the government, including provisions pertaining to Guantanamo Bay and gun control. Do you recall how much media was put out over George Bush’s signing statements? Here, Obama has said that he does not consider himself bound with regards to the defunding of his czars and of the moving of the Gitmo prisoners; and how much news have you heard about this?

_______________________________________

That Operation Fast & Furious is not a front page story nearly every day but flimsy accusations by women against Herman Cain warranted new stories about every 20 minutes tells you all that you need to know about the news media. We are at the point when it appears that Operation Fast & Furious is all about getting stricter gun legislation passed. That’s a real story.

_______________________________________

When Obama was candidate Obama, there were almost no questions about Reverent Wright, Bill Ayers, or Tony Rezko. However, over and over again, there are references to Gingrich’s previous infidelities and broken marriage vows; to Ron Paul’s old newsletter; and to unsubstantiated accusations against Herman Cain. Even Sarah Palin’s relationship to her local library was seen as an issue in the previous presidential bid. When it comes to investigating the past of a presidential candidate, there is no such thing as fair and balanced.

________________________________________

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has financial ties to Chicago newspaper owners. Any reports in the news about this?

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NY Times writer Susan Saulny: "Bob Vander Plaats, president of the Family Leader, a conservative advocacy group popular with evangelical Christians here, has been saying supportive things recently about Newt Gingrich," she wrote, "suggesting that social conservatives are open to looking past his extramarital affairs and two divorces as they make a choice in the Republican presidential race."

In nearly all forms of news, conservatives are described as conservative, right-wing, extreme right-wing, etc.; but liberals are nearly never described as liberals. This article again and again and again used these terms. Now, I have no problems with these terms; but why are the appropriate terms rarely found with liberals?

_______________________________________

Since 2008, government has increased in size and the private sector has shrunk. Have you heard that story anywhere? Anywhere at all? Even in passing? Of course not! And many of the economic articles written will talk about how the GDP was downgraded again; but that a higher GDP is expected right around the corner—a story which has been found again, and again, and again in the Obama Media Complex.

Obama-Speak

So, why aren’t Democrats out there saying, “These are tough times and some people are just scraping by; so we believe that most people should not pay any federal or social security taxes whatsoever. Now, even though we will pretend as though this is a temporary position, every time this comes up for a vote, we are going to say, these are poor people, times are tough, and they should not be required to pay taxes or to pay for their own retirement.”

Questions for Obama

“President Obama, you continually use phrases like tax cuts when you are talking about tax credits and investments when you are talking about government spending. Do you believe that it is necessary to use dishonest language in order to sell your programs?”

Political Chess

The Democrats outfoxed the Republicans on the so-called tax holiday, with the help of the press. The Democrat tax holiday essentially takes those people who pay no federal taxes and also released them from paying social security taxes as well. However, no one in the news presents it this way, and few Republicans will present it in this way. So, both Democrats and Republicans have been vying to show who is willing to blow the biggest hole in social security. The end result is, one income level of people will provide all of the retirement pay for another level of people. This is completely a Democratic principle of the redistribution of wealth. From each according to his ability to each according to his needs.

________________________________________

Having been through the presidential run process before, Mitt Romney has done very little by way of media blitzing until this week. Now he is everywhere giving interviews to everyone. That is his plan, to “break out” right before the Iowa election.

You Know You’re Being Brainwashed if...

If you think the recent “tax cut” will have any affect on our economy.

News Before it Happens

The President set himself up for a barrage of ads, where we will be told about the national debt, how much is being spent by the government, followed by Obama, in BestBuy, saying, “Let’s see if my credit card still works. Uh, it’ll really be embarrassing if it doesn’t, doesn’t go through.” Since this is a video, we will see this clip again.

Prophecies Fulfilled

Arab Spring is Resulting in Radical Muslim Control

Fast & Furious was designed to push unpopular gun legislation.

My Most Paranoid Thoughts

There has been all of this back and forth between the President and various Congressional leaders on this bill to let some taxpayers have another free ride for a year and not have to pay their FICA (social security) taxes. I have seen next to no news about the $1 trillion spending bill that passed around the same time. Are both parties in collusion here to make everyone get up in arms about the small bill and to ignore the huge one which both houses passed?

Missing Headlines

Latest Tax Cut Defunds Social Security

Will Obama give Military Secrets to China in Scientist Exchange?

$1 Trillion Spending Bill; no cuts; no fuss; no news

South Carolina Immigration Bill Goes Down in Flames—by Obama Judge

Biggest Lie of the Year: Dem Medi-Scare

Holder Fast & Furious Designed to Push Gun Legislation

Christian Persecution Increases During Arab Spring

Come, let us reason together....

Capitalism and the Right to Rise

In freedom lies the risk of failure. But in statism lies the certainty of stagnation.

By Jeb Bush

Congressman Paul Ryan recently coined a smart phrase to describe the core concept of economic freedom: "The right to rise."

Think about it. We talk about the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, the right to assembly. The right to rise doesn't seem like something we should have to protect.

But we do. We have to make it easier for people to do the things that allow them to rise. We have to let them compete. We need to let people fight for business. We need to let people take risks. We need to let people fail. We need to let people suffer the consequences of bad decisions. And we need to let people enjoy the fruits of good decisions, even good luck.

That is what economic freedom looks like. Freedom to succeed as well as to fail, freedom to do something or nothing. People understand this. Freedom of speech, for example, means that we put up with a lot of verbal and visual garbage in order to make sure that individuals have the right to say what needs to be said, even when it is inconvenient or unpopular. We forgive the sacrifices of free speech because we value its blessings.

But when it comes to economic freedom, we are less forgiving of the cycles of growth and loss, of trial and error, and of failure and success that are part of the realities of the marketplace and life itself.

Increasingly, we have let our elected officials abridge our own economic freedoms through the annual passage of thousands of laws and their associated regulations. We see human tragedy and we demand a regulation to prevent it. We see a criminal fraud and we demand more laws. We see an industry dying and we demand it be saved. Each time, we demand "Do something . . . anything."

As Florida's governor for eight years, I was asked to "do something" almost every day. Many times I resisted through vetoes but many times I succumbed. And I wasn't alone. Mayors, county chairs, governors and presidents never think their laws will harm the free market. But cumulatively, they do, and we have now imperiled the right to rise.

Woe to the elected leader who fails to deliver a multipoint plan for economic success, driven by specific government action. "Trust in the dynamism of the market" is not a phrase in today's political lexicon.

Have we lost faith in the free-market system of entrepreneurial capitalism? Are we no longer willing to place our trust in the creative chaos unleashed by millions of people pursuing their own best economic interests?

The right to rise does not require a libertarian utopia to exist. Rather, it requires fewer, simpler and more outcome-oriented rules. Rules for which an honest cost-benefit analysis is done before their imposition. Rules that sunset so they can be eliminated or adjusted as conditions change. Rules that have disputes resolved faster and less expensively through arbitration than litigation.

In Washington, D.C., rules are going in the opposite direction. They are exploding in reach and complexity. They are created under a cloud of uncertainty, and years after their passage nobody really knows how they will work.

We either can go down the road we are on, a road where the individual is allowed to succeed only so much before being punished with ruinous taxation, where commerce ignores government action at its own peril, and where the state decides how a massive share of the economy's resources should be spent.

Or we can return to the road we once knew and which has served us well: a road where individuals acting freely and with little restraint are able to pursue fortune and prosperity as they see fit, a road where the government's role is not to shape the marketplace but to help prepare its citizens to prosper from it.

In short, we must choose between the straight line promised by the statists and the jagged line of economic freedom. The straight line of gradual and controlled growth is what the statists promise but can never deliver. The jagged line offers no guarantees but has a powerful record of delivering the most prosperity and the most opportunity to the most people. We cannot possibly know in advance what freedom promises for 312 million individuals. But unless we are willing to explore the jagged line of freedom, we will be stuck with the straight line. And the straight line, it turns out, is a flat line.

From:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203893404577100330414585006.html

What kind of society does America want?

By Mitt Romney

In less than a year, the American people will go to the polls and choose a new president. A matter of great moment is at stake in this election. The question we will decide is this: Will the United States be an Entitlement Society or an Opportunity Society?

In an Entitlement Society, government provides every citizen the same or similar rewards, regardless of education, effort and willingness to innovate, pioneer or take risk. In an Opportunity Society, free people living under a limited government choose whether or not to pursue education, engage in hard work, and pursue the passion of their ideas and dreams. If they succeed, they merit the rewards they are able to enjoy.

Over the past three years, Barack Obama has been replacing our merit-based society with an Entitlement Society. The federal government has insinuated itself more and more deeply into health care, finance, energy, industry, the environment and labor. As a result of one of the most dramatic expansions of Washington's power in our nation's history, federal spending under Obama is now nearly a quarter of our GDP, and has risen to the highest level since the national emergency of World War II.

With the growth of government has come an inevitable contraction of the private sphere. The American economy, once the envy of the world, has fallen into disrepute. Unemployment stuck over 8% for 34 months - the longest such spell since the Great Depression- is only one symptom of the profoundly disturbing transformation of American society that the Obama administration has pursued.

Glimpsing the future

If we continue on this course for another four years, we may pass the point of no return. We will have created a society that contains a sizable contingent of long-term jobless, dependent on government benefits for survival. Many more in the middle class will be pushed into poverty. And there is the special problem of America's young people. What social and political path will newly minted college graduates follow when they are unable to find jobs in which to put their energy and talents to use? It will be a tragedy if we have to find out the answer.

It will not only be a tragedy; it will be a needless tragedy because we can extricate ourselves from this distress. America is a fabulously rich country. Yet our wealth consists not only of material things, but also our ideas and our traditions and our founding principles. These principles empower our people and have made America the strongest nation in the world.

Our first principle is freedom. If we remove the shackles of government, if we unburden ourselves from the mountain of debt that we have been saddled with, we can become the Opportunity Society that we once were. America has historically rewarded hard work, education, industry, thrift and daring. The Founders called this a God-given right to the "pursuit of happiness." We call it opportunity.

Limited government

The first step in returning to an Opportunity Society is scaling back our vast federal government. I will put every single government program to a simple test: Is this program so critical to our nation's future that we should borrow money from China to pay for it? But my objective is not merely to cut unnecessary spending. As president, I hope to accomplish something far larger.

America has tremendous dynamic potential. Just in the past decades, America pioneered the computer revolution and the Internet revolution that have profoundly changed the world. Equally important revolutions are under way in American laboratories in fields ranging from biotechnology to nanotechnology to energy. Our potential as a nation is boundless. We need to unleash it again.

Building ever costlier government entitlements is not the way to go about that. Quite the contrary; the dead hand of bureaucratic Washington can only stifle entrepreneurship. Government dependency can only foster passivity and sloth. We need to rein in government and unleash the extraordinary vitality and creativity of the American people.

We must not wait to suffer a crisis like Greece's or Portugal's to right the ship of state. With the proper policies and strong leadership, we can once again become a society that rewards merit, that welcomes innovators and new ideas, and is capable of creating undreamed of opportunities for all who seek them. That is what the election of 2012 is all about.

From:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2011-12-19/romney-us-economy-entitlements/52076252/1

Gridlock to the Rescue?

By Thomas Sowell

Not only does gridlock allow the president to blame Republicans for not solving the financial crisis that his own runaway spending created, the inability to carry out as much government intervention in the economy as when the Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress means that the market can now recover on its own to some visible extent before the next election.

Such a recovery would of course be credited as a success of the Obama administration's policies. With this theme being echoed throughout the pro-Obama media, enough voters might be sufficiently impressed to give the president a second term.

The media and the intelligentsia seem obsessed with the idea that government intervention is necessary to get the economy out of the doldrums. This is certainly the prevailing dogma but it is contradicted by history. Yet who reads history any more?

If you look back through history and compare what happens when the federal government intervenes during a downturn in the economy with what happens when the government leaves the market free to work its own way back, doing nothing has by far the better track record.

First of all, this country existed for a century and a half without the federal government intervening to save the economy. No downturn in all that time was as severe or as long-lasting as the downturn that persisted throughout the decade of the 1930s, when both the Hoover administration and the Roosevelt administration intervened on an unprecedented scale.

There was no Federal Reserve System to help - if that is the word - during downturns before 1914. One of the few things on which liberal economists like John Kenneth Galbraith and conservative economists like Milton Friedman agreed was that the Federal Reserve made the Great Depression of the 1930s worse.

Economists writing in a leading scholarly journal in 2004 concluded that government intervention prolonged the Great Depression by several years.

Back in the 1930s, John Maynard Keynes cautioned President Roosevelt about demonizing and threatening business. Yet FDR, who said in his famous first inaugural address, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," spent the rest of the decade spreading fear to businesses and investors - and wondering why there was still mass unemployment, despite his record-breaking spending.

Back in 1920-21, there was a sharp economic downturn, with unemployment spiking to 11.7 percent. President Warren G. Harding did nothing, except for cutting government spending. Yet the economy quickly recovered and annual unemployment rates ranged from a high of 6.7 percent to a low of 1.8 percent in the rest of the decade.

In the mid-1940s, as World War II neared its end, Keynesian economists were frantically trying to come up with postwar plans to prevent massive unemployment when 12 million people were to be discharged from the military and millions of civilians would lose their jobs when plants producing military supplies shut down.

Two things prevented those wonderful Keynesian plans from being put into operation. First, the atomic bomb brought the war to an end much sooner than anyone expected. Secondly, the Republicans got control of Congress, producing the "do-nothing 80th Congress" that President Harry Truman excoriated during his 1948 election campaign.

In short, plans for vastly expanded government intervention were thwarted - and the "problem" that such intervention was supposed to solve did not materialize. There was a G.I. Bill of Rights for returning military veterans but this was a fraction of what liberal Keynesians had been contemplating.

Anticipating postwar employment problems, former Vice President Henry A. Wallace wrote a book titled "60 Million Jobs," advocating sweeping government interventions to achieve this otherwise unattainable goal. Wallace's interventions never took place, but the free market created 60 million jobs anyway.

A stock market crash in 1987 broke some records set in 1929. But Ronald Reagan did nothing, despite howls from the media, and the economy recovered - leading to 20 years of prosperity.

Obama may yet be re-elected, as a result of gridlock.

From:

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell121311.php3

The Past and the Present

By Thomas Sowell

If Newt Gingrich were being nominated for sainthood, many of us would vote very differently from the way we would vote if he were being nominated for a political office.

What the media call Gingrich's "baggage" concerns largely his personal life and the fact that he made a lot of money running a consulting firm after he left Congress. This kind of stuff makes lots of talking points that we will no doubt hear, again and again, over the next weeks and months.

But how much weight should we give to this stuff when we are talking about the future of a nation?

This is not just another election and Barack Obama is not just another president whose policies we may not like. With all of President Obama's broken promises, glib demagoguery and cynical political moves, one promise he has kept all too well. That was his boast on the eve of the 2008 election: "We are going to change the United States of America."

Many Americans are already saying that they can hardly recognize the country they grew up in. We have already started down the path that has led Western European nations to the brink of financial disaster.

Internationally, it is worse. A president who has pulled the rug out from under our allies, whether in Eastern Europe or the Middle East, tried to cozy up to our enemies, and has bowed low from the waist to foreign leaders certainly has not represented either the values or the interests of America. If he continues to do nothing that is likely to stop terrorist-sponsoring Iran from getting nuclear weapons, the consequences can be beyond our worst imagining.

Against this background, how much does Newt Gingrich's personal life matter, whether we accept his claim that he has now matured or his critics' claim that he has not? Nor should we sell the public short by saying that they are going to vote on the basis of tabloid stuff or media talking points, when the fate of this nation hangs in the balance.

Even back in the 19th century, when the scandal came out that Grover Cleveland had fathered a child out of wedlock - and he publicly admitted it - the voters nevertheless sent him to the White House, where he became one of the better presidents.

Do we wish we had another Ronald Reagan? We could certainly use one. But we have to play the hand we were dealt. And the Reagan card is not in the deck.

While the televised debates are what gave Newt Gingrich's candidacy a big boost, concrete accomplishments when in office are the real test. Gingrich engineered the first Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 40 years - followed by the first balanced budget in 40 years. The media called it "the Clinton surplus" but all spending bills start in the House of Representatives, and Gingrich was Speaker of the House.

Speaker Gingrich also produced some long overdue welfare reforms, despite howls from liberals that the poor would be devastated. But nobody makes that claim any more.

Did Gingrich ruffle some feathers when he was Speaker of the House? Yes, enough for it to cost him that position. But he also showed that he could produce results.

In a world where we can make our choices only among the alternatives actually available, the question is whether Newt Gingrich is better than Barack Obama - and better than Mitt Romney.

Romney is a smooth talker, but what did he actually accomplish as governor of Massachusetts, compared to what Gingrich accomplished as Speaker of the House? When you don't accomplish much, you don't ruffle many feathers. But is that what we want?

Can you name one important positive thing that Romney accomplished as governor of Massachusetts? Can anyone? Does a candidate who represents the bland leading the bland increase the chances of victory in November 2012? A lot of candidates like that have lost, from Thomas E. Dewey to John McCain.

Those who want to concentrate on the baggage in Newt Gingrich's past, rather than on the nation's future, should remember what Winston Churchill said: "If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost." If that means a second term for Barack Obama, then it means lost big time.

From:

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell122011.php3

Senator Tom Coburn's Annual "Wastebook" Just Released

by Bob Adelmann

Tom ColburnSenator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) introduced his annual report, "2011 Wastebook," noting, "This report details 100 of the countless unnecessary, duplicative, or just plain stupid projects spread throughout the federal government and paid for with your tax dollars this year." He added, "Over the past 12 months, Washington politicians argued, debated and lamented about how to reign [sic] in the federal government's out of control spending. All the while, Washington was on a shopping binge, spending money we do not have on things we do not need, like the $6.9 billion worth of examples provided in this report."

Of the 100 projects covered, three are especially egregious, and reflect the "spend spend spend" mentality prevalent in the halls of Congress. "The Super Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska is one of two projected bridges which became notorious during the 2008 presidential campaign.

The Knik Arm Bridge is designed to connect residents in the southern part of the Matanuska/Susitna Valley, or "MatSu," with Anchorage, which would save them an hour's driving time each way. The bridge would be 2.7 miles long and cost between $650 and $700 million (some estimates are much higher). The only problem is that there are very few residents living in MatSu, hence the bridge is named in Coburn's report. Corburn complained, "At least $15.3 million was spent on the project this year alone. In total, more than $65 million in federal taxpayer money has been directed to various aspects of the project, including $57,390 for a 14-minute video, 'The Knik Arm Crossing: Bridge to Our Future.' "

And $1 million of that money was spent just for staff salaries to promote the project.

The other bridge, The Gravina Island Bridge, is the one that got vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin in trouble, with her initially supporting the project while running for Governor of Alaska and then later opposing it while running for Vice President with John McCain in 2008.

However, it wasn't only Palin who got into trouble. In 2005 Coburn himself offered an amendment to remove funds totally from the two bridges. But he didn't want to keep the funds in the U.S. Treasury or return them to the aforementioned taxpayers. No, he wanted to spend them elsewhere on another "worthwhile" government boondoggle: to repair the bridge over Lake Ponchartrain that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. (His amendment was defeated overwhelmingly.) So critics note that Coburn himself qualifies as one of the big government spenders he decries in his report. He also qualifies as a luke-warm conservative with a score of just 72 percent in The New American's "Freedom Index" in the current Congress to date.

A second item brought out by Coburn's report was the revelation that the federal government spent more than $120 million last year sending benefit checks to former government employees who were dead. The Inspector General for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management found that "the amount of post-death improper payments is consistently $100-150 million annually, totaling over $600 million in the last five years." Coburn's report noted a specific instance where "The IG found an annuitant's son [who had] cashed his dead father's checks for 37 years. The son's scheme, which cost taxpayers more than $500,000, was discovered in 2008, when he himself died."

A third example that defies belief is the foreign aid that the United States provides to its biggest lender: China. In 2011 alone, the US sent $18 million to China for "social services" and "programs to improve China's environment." As Coburn acidly noted: "China can better afford to fund these programs than the United States."

These three are just the tip of the iceberg. Others noted in detail are "Politicians Partying on the Taxpayer's Dime," "Subsidy Program for Small Airports.to Achieve Sustainable Air Service," "Paying for Pancakes," and "Extreme Home Makeover: Federal Highway Funds.... Transform [an] Abandoned `Rock House' into [a] Visitors Center."

Even if all 100 of these leaks were plugged, observers note that it would scarcely make a dent in the country's $15 trillion national debt. It wouldn't even slow it down. Daniel Horowitz observed in his RedState.com blog: "At some point we will need to go beyond merely cutting waste, fraud and abuse. We will eventually have to wind down the welfare state and close government departments and agencies. However, there is no reason we shouldn't demand an immediate bipartisan effort to eliminate programs that are just plain dumb, even according to Democrat socialist ideology."

From:

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/congress/10303-senator-tom-coburns-annual-wastebook-just-released

Tom Coburn’s 2011 Wastebook

1.                                                                                                                Politicians Partying on the Taxpayer Dime – (Presidential Election Campaign Fund) $35.38 Million

2.                                                                                                                Mangled Mango Effort Could Hurt Farmers It Meant to Help – (Pakistan) $30 Million

3.Poor Planning Hobbles Air Force Green Energy Effort – (Department of Defense) $14 Million

4.Subsidy Program for Small Airports Fails to Help Most Recipients Achieve Sustainable Air Service – (Federal Aviation Administration) $6 Million

5.Paying for Pancakes – (Washington, D.C.) $765,828

6.The Super-Bridge to Nowhere – (Alaska) $15.3 Million

7.Dead Federal Employees Continue to Get Benefits Checks – (U.S. Office of Personnel Management) $120 Million

8.Extreme Home Makeover: Federal Highway Funds to Transform Abandoned ―Rock House. into Visitors Center – (Oklahoma) $529,689

9.Video Game Preservation – (New York) $113,277

10.Millions In Foreign Aid to… China? – (Department of State & U.S. Agency for International Development) $17.80 Million

Tom Coburn’s 2011 Wastebook (PDF)

Tom Coburn’s 2010 Wastebook

Documents: ATF used "Fast and Furious" to make the case for gun regulations

By Sharyl Attkisson (CBS)

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.

ATF "Gunwalking" scandal timeline

In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

ATF officials didn't intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called "Demand Letter 3". That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or "long guns." Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.

On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF's Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious:

"Bill - can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks."

On Jan. 4, 2011, as ATF prepared a press conference to announce arrests in Fast and Furious, Newell saw it as "(A)nother time to address Multiple Sale on Long Guns issue." And a day after the press conference, Chait emailed Newell: "Bill--well done yesterday... (I)n light of our request for Demand letter 3, this case could be a strong supporting factor if we can determine how many multiple sales of long guns occurred during the course of this case."

This revelation angers gun rights advocates. Larry Keane, a spokesman for National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun industry trade group, calls the discussion of Fast and Furious to argue for Demand Letter 3 "disappointing and ironic." Keane says it's "deeply troubling" if sales made by gun dealers "voluntarily cooperating with ATF's flawed 'Operation Fast & Furious' were going to be used by some individuals within ATF to justify imposing a multiple sales reporting requirement for rifles."

The Gun Dealers' Quandary

Several gun dealers who cooperated with ATF told CBS News and Congressional investigators they only went through with suspicious sales because ATF asked them to.

Sometimes it was against the gun dealer's own best judgment.

In April, 2010 a licensed gun dealer cooperating with ATF was increasingly concerned about selling so many guns. "We just want to make sure we are cooperating with ATF and that we are not viewed as selling to the bad guys," writes the gun dealer to ATF Phoenix officials, "(W)e were hoping to put together something like a letter of understanding to alleviate concerns of some type of recourse against us down the road for selling these items."

ATF's group supervisor on Fast and Furious David Voth assures the gun dealer there's nothing to worry about. "We (ATF) are continually monitoring these suspects using a variety of investigative techniques which I cannot go into detail."

Two months later, the same gun dealer grew more agitated.

"I wanted to make sure that none of the firearms that were sold per our conversation with you and various ATF agents could or would ever end up south of the border or in the hands of the bad guys. I guess I am looking for a bit of reassurance that the guns are not getting south or in the wrong hands...I want to help ATF with its investigation but not at the risk of agents (sic) safety because I have some very close friends that are US Border Patrol agents in southern AZ as well as my concern for all the agents (sic) safety that protect our country."

"It's like ATF created or added to the problem so they could be the solution to it and pat themselves on the back," says one law enforcement source familiar with the facts. "It's a circular way of thinking."

The Justice Department and ATF declined to comment. ATF officials mentioned in this report did not respond to requests from CBS News to speak with them.

The "Demand Letter 3" Debate

The two sides in the gun debate have long clashed over whether gun dealers should have to report multiple rifle sales. On one side, ATF officials argue that a large number of semi-automatic, high-caliber rifles from the U.S. are being used by violent cartels in Mexico. They believe more reporting requirements would help ATF crack down. On the other side, gun rights advocates say that's unconstitutional, and would not make a difference in Mexican cartel crimes.

Two earlier Demand Letters were initiated in 2000 and affected a relatively small number of gun shops. Demand Letter 3 was to be much more sweeping, affecting 8,500 firearms dealers in four southwest border states: Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. ATF chose those states because they "have a significant number of crime guns traced back to them from Mexico." The reporting requirements were to apply if a gun dealer sells two or more long guns to a single person within five business days, and only if the guns are semi-automatic, greater than .22 caliber and can be fitted with a detachable magazine.

On April 25, 2011, ATF announced plans to implement Demand Letter 3. The National Shooting Sports Foundation is suing the ATF to stop the new rules. It calls the regulation an illegal attempt to enforce a law Congress never passed. ATF counters that it has reasonably targeted guns used most often to "commit violent crimes in Mexico, especially by drug gangs."

Reaction

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is investigating Fast and Furious, as well as the alleged use of the case to advance gun regulations. "There's plenty of evidence showing that this administration planned to use the tragedies of Fast and Furious as rationale to further their goals of a long gun reporting requirement. But, we've learned from our investigation that reporting multiple long gun sales would do nothing to stop the flow of firearms to known straw purchasers because many Federal Firearms Dealers are already voluntarily reporting suspicious transactions. It's pretty clear that the problem isn't lack of burdensome reporting requirements."

On July 12, 2011, Sen. Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., wrote Attorney General Eric Holder, whose Justice Department oversees ATF. They asked Holder whether officials in his agency discussed how "Fast and Furious could be used to justify additional regulatory authorities." So far, they have not received a response. CBS News asked the Justice Department for comment and context on ATF emails about Fast and Furious and Demand Letter 3, but officials declined to speak with us.

"In light of the evidence, the Justice Department's refusal to answer questions about the role Operation Fast and Furious was supposed to play in advancing new firearms regulations is simply unacceptable," Rep. Issa told CBS News.

From:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-57338546-10391695/documents-atf-used-fast-and-furious-to-make-the-case-for-gun-regulations/

Also, Is Operation Fast and Furious Going to be Reported?

Conclusion of Calvin Coolidge's Inaugural Address

Wednesday, March 4, 1925

This Administration has come into power with a very clear and definite mandate from the people. The expression of the popular will in favor of maintaining our constitutional guarantees was overwhelming and decisive. There was a manifestation of such faith in the integrity of the courts that we can consider that issue rejected for some time to come. Likewise, the policy of public ownership of railroads and certain electric utilities met with unmistakable defeat. The people declared that they wanted their rights to have not a political but a judicial determination, and their independence and freedom continued and supported by having the ownership and control of their property, not in the Government, but in their own hands. As they always do when they have a fair chance, the people demonstrated that they are sound and are determined to have a sound government.

When we turn from what was rejected to inquire what was accepted, the policy that stands out with the greatest clearness is that of economy in public expenditure with reduction and reform of taxation. The principle involved in this effort is that of conservation. The resources of this country are almost beyond computation. No mind can comprehend them. But the cost of our combined governments is likewise almost beyond definition. Not only those who are now making their tax returns, but those who meet the enhanced cost of existence in their monthly bills, know by hard experience what this great burden is and what it does. No matter what others may want, these people want a drastic economy. They are opposed to waste. They know that extravagance lengthens the hours and diminishes the rewards of their labor. I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form.

If extravagance were not reflected in taxation, and through taxation both directly and indirectly injuriously affecting the people, it would not be of so much consequence. The wisest and soundest method of solving our tax problem is through economy. Fortunately, of all the great nations this country is best in a position to adopt that simple remedy. We do not any longer need wartime revenues. The collection of any taxes which are not absolutely required, which do not beyond reasonable doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of legalized larceny. Under this republic the rewards of industry belong to those who earn them. The only constitutional tax is the tax which ministers to public necessity. The property of the country belongs to the people of the country. Their title is absolute. They do not support any privileged class; they do not need to maintain great military forces; they ought not to be burdened with a great array of public employees. They are not required to make any contribution to Government expenditures except that which they voluntarily assess upon themselves through the action of their own representatives. Whenever taxes become burdensome a remedy can be applied by the people; but if they do not act for themselves, no one can be very successful in acting for them.

The time is arriving when we can have further tax reduction, when, unless we wish to hamper the people in their right to earn a living, we must have tax reform. The method of raising revenue ought not to impede the transaction of business; it ought to encourage it. I am opposed to extremely high rates, because they produce little or no revenue, because they are bad for the country, and, finally, because they are wrong. We can not finance the country, we can not improve social conditions, through any system of injustice, even if we attempt to inflict it upon the rich. Those who suffer the most harm will be the poor. This country believes in prosperity. It is absurd to suppose that it is envious of those who are already prosperous. The wise and correct course to follow in taxation and all other economic legislation is not to destroy those who have already secured success but to create conditions under which every one will have a better chance to be successful. The verdict of the country has been given on this question. That verdict stands. We shall do well to heed it.

These questions involve moral issues. We need not concern ourselves much about the rights of property if we will faithfully observe the rights of persons. Under our institutions their rights are supreme. It is not property but the right to hold property, both great and small, which our Constitution guarantees. All owners of property are charged with a service. These rights and duties have been revealed, through the conscience of society, to have a divine sanction. The very stability of our society rests upon production and conservation. For individuals or for governments to waste and squander their resources is to deny these rights and disregard these obligations. The result of economic dissipation to a nation is always moral decay.

These policies of better international understandings, greater economy, and lower taxes have contributed largely to peaceful and prosperous industrial relations. Under the helpful influences of restrictive immigration and a protective tariff, employment is plentiful, the rate of pay is high, and wage earners are in a state of contentment seldom before seen. Our transportation systems have been gradually recovering and have been able to meet all the requirements of the service. Agriculture has been very slow in reviving, but the price of cereals at last indicates that the day of its deliverance is at hand.

We are not without our problems, but our most important problem is not to secure new advantages but to maintain those which we already possess. Our system of government made up of three separate and independent departments, our divided sovereignty composed of Nation and State, the matchless wisdom that is enshrined in our Constitution, all these need constant effort and tireless vigilance for their protection and support.

In a republic the first rule for the guidance of the citizen is obedience to law. Under a despotism the law may be imposed upon the subject. He has no voice in its making, no influence in its administration, it does not represent him. Under a free government the citizen makes his own laws, chooses his own administrators, which do represent him. Those who want their rights respected under the Constitution and the law ought to set the example themselves of observing the Constitution and the law. While there may be those of high intelligence who violate the law at times, the barbarian and the defective always violate it. Those who disregard the rules of society are not exhibiting a superior intelligence, are not promoting freedom and independence, are not following the path of civilization, but are displaying the traits of ignorance, of servitude, of savagery, and treading the way that leads back to the jungle.

The essence of a republic is representative government. Our Congress represents the people and the States. In all legislative affairs it is the natural collaborator with the President. In spite of all the criticism which often falls to its lot, I do not hesitate to say that there is no more independent and effective legislative body in the world. It is, and should be, jealous of its prerogative. I welcome its cooperation, and expect to share with it not only the responsibility, but the credit, for our common effort to secure beneficial legislation.

These are some of the principles which America represents. We have not by any means put them fully into practice, but we have strongly signified our belief in them. The encouraging feature of our country is not that it has reached its destination, but that it has overwhelmingly expressed its determination to proceed in the right direction. It is true that we could, with profit, be less sectional and more national in our thought. It would be well if we could replace much that is only a false and ignorant prejudice with a true and enlightened pride of race. But the last election showed that appeals to class and nationality had little effect. We were all found loyal to a common citizenship. The fundamental precept of liberty is toleration. We can not permit any inquisition either within or without the law or apply any religious test to the holding of office. The mind of America must be forever free.

It is in such contemplations, my fellow countrymen, which are not exhaustive but only representative, that I find ample warrant for satisfaction and encouragement. We should not let the much that is to do obscure the much which has been done. The past and present show faith and hope and courage fully justified. Here stands our country, an example of tranquillity at home, a patron of tranquillity abroad. Here stands its Government, aware of its might but obedient to its conscience. Here it will continue to stand, seeking peace and prosperity, solicitous for the welfare of the wage earner, promoting enterprise, developing waterways and natural resources, attentive to the intuitive counsel of womanhood, encouraging education, desiring the advancement of religion, supporting the cause of justice and honor among the nations. America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force. No ambition, no temptation, lures her to thought of foreign dominions. The legions which she sends forth are armed, not with the sword, but with the cross. The higher state to which she seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.

Obama Documents Not Released

by Doug Ross

Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign on Romney not releasing his financial records: "Why does Governor Romney feel like he can play by a different set of rules?What is it that he doesn't want the American people to see? Governor Romney, who has favored secrecy over openness time after time, should live up to the same standard of disclosure his father and others set."

1. Occidental College records and transcripts -- Not released

2. Columbia University records and transcripts -- Not released

3. Columbia Thesis paper -- 'not available'

4. Harvard University records and transcripts -- Not released

5. Medical records -- Not released

6. Illinois State Senate schedule -- 'not available'

7. Illinois State Senate records -- 'not available'

8. Law practice client list -- Not released

9. Certified Copy of Original Birth certificate -- Not released

10. Harvard Law Review articles published -- None

11. University of Chicago scholarly articles -- None

12. Record of Baptism -- Not released or 'not available'

From:

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/12/oh-irony-it-burns-obama-campaign-rips.html

I Still Can’t Believe It

Juanita Martinez

This is cool; answer 11 questions, and USA Today will tell you which candidate you are most like.

Banking Crisis Will Spark Deflationary Spiral

CAIR’s questionaire for the 2012 candidates.

CAIR voting guide; I was surprised; it wasn’t really that bad.

Gen. George S. Patton and the Third Army Prayer and Christmas Greeting

Hitler admired in PLO youth magazine because he murdered Jews

Climate sceptics might just be captive to basic emotions.It can’t be a matter of logic or reason; it is because we humans are unable to put off what we want today for a better result tomorrow.

Hollywood supports Barack Obama with a lot of cash.

PDF of Ron Paul newsletter

The Democrats, who offered a 2 month payroll holiday while the Republicans offered a 1 year payroll holiday, also launched a website to garner support:

http://dccc.org/pages/gopstolechristmas

What does $40 mean to you?

What does $40 mean to President Obama?2 dog toys?Or, a $40 plate of sushi at his arrival in Hawaii?

Healthy Lunch pilot program in LA schools isn’t going over very well. Many of the kids are bringing junk food from home, including those on the free and subsidized lunch program.

The funniest pictures of Kim Jong Il looking at things.

Amazing: Democrat President Demands Cut in Social Security Funding

RUSH: Well, there he is, the Bamster's on television, ladies and gentlemen, all upset that nobody will go along with him on extending the payroll tax cut for the length of time that he wants it cut. He's out there blaming the Republicans. Of course, he thinks that's gonna drive up his-poll numbers. He's sitting there, he's all excited, he's up to 50% job approval, and they're telling him this is why, so he's out there hammering the Republicans again.

Now, the House Republicans want to cut the payroll tax for a year. Senators of both parties don't. And that's the bottom line today. The Senators of both parties only want to go two months. Obama wants to go two months. The House Republicans want to do this for the whole year. So what's happened here, folks, the House has rejected the Senate's two-month extension, after the Senate rejected the House's one-year extension. Now, everybody's knows that the House plan on this is more rational, and it's more economically sound, but despite that, the Republicans are gonna be blamed for this. But I want to raise another point.

By the way, welcome back, Rush Limbaugh and the EIB Network and the Limbaugh Institute. And it's great to have you with us.

Obama -- stick with me on this. Obama really wanted to cut the payroll tax by 4%, which experts say would have blown a hole of $250 billion in Social Security funding. Now, what we're talking about here, the payroll tax cut extension, the payroll tax, FICA on your pay stub, if you see it -- I need to ask a question, seriously, pardon my ignorance on this. I just don't know. Are any of you on the other side of the glass there -- Dawn, Snerdley -- do you get paid with direct deposit? Okay. Where do you see what your deductions are? Okay, the statement is sent to you in the mail or electronically? Okay, but you get either electronically or in the mail, but is it just like any other piece of junk mail that shows up? Do you have to look at it? Is it something you normally look at every week to see how much you got paid and how much is withheld?

My question is, and I'm sitting here saying payroll taxes, FICA on your pay stub, do people know what I'm talking about? Okay. All right. Good. In the old days where you actually got paid with a check, you know, had your deductions listed on there and that's back in the old days. I'd get paid by a Brinks truck so I don't -- (interruption) right, I know you get a statement, but is it -- you know, I get junk mail I don't even open 'cause I know it's junk mail. So I'm just asking, how many people look at these statements? You know what your net is but you don't know what your FICA deduction -- what I'm asking is, is how many people know what that is? I'm telling you that the vast majority of people, I'm guessing, do not know what the number next to FICA is. Okay. Well, that's why I'm spending time, because the FICA deduction, if you are paid by electronic deposit, next time you get your statement, look at FICA, that's your payroll tax. That is the sole funding mechanism for Social Security outside of borrowing and all the other rotgut.

I'm talking about the direct constitutional, virtue-of-the-law way that Social Security's paid for is with that one deduction on your paycheck, FICA. I don't remember what it stands for and it doesn't matter. Now, my point about this is, here you have a Democrat president, who wants to cut the payroll tax by 4%, he wants that large a tax cut in the payroll tax, which would blow a $250 billion hole in Social Security funding at a time when everybody knows that we're short on being able to pay all the obligations now. We have reached the tipping point. People who are receiving Social Security payments are now receiving more than they contributed. That's not a knock. I don't want to get any phone calls, I don't want to hear it.

We're getting to the point now where the youngsters in America know full well that it's probably not gonna even be viable by the time they retire, and yet here is a Democrat president advocating a huge tax cut in the sole funding mechanism for Social Security. If this were a Republican president, folks, we wouldn't be having the argument about whether to extend it for two months or a year. The Republican president would be in the process of being destroyed as somebody who wants to kick senior citizens out of their houses, deny them health care, force them to eat dog food. This is so damn topsy-turvy, the news media and the rest of the Democrats have managed to convince the American people that cutting Social Security funding by hundreds of billions of dollars is a good thing.

Meanwhile, when George W. Bush came along and wanted to privatize a portion of Social Security, or allow individuals to, so as to increase, maximize the returns, make their stash bigger, you remember the demagoguery. Bush wants Social Security recipients to go broke. Look at what happens in the stock market, want to turn it over to those Wall Street people. It's another get rich quick scheme for Wall Street people. Now we have a Democrat president, Democrat Senate doing everything they can to blow holes and underfund Social Security under the guise of a reelection tactic for the president and putting money in people's pockets.

"Mr. Limbaugh, you're leaving out something very key, and that is how the president is choosing to pay for it." There's no paying for it. Raising taxes on millionaires and so forth, there's no paying for this thing, there never is any of this paygo stuff never happens, it never works. Folks, this goes to show you two things, the raw power of the media but also the unrelenting power of propaganda and the absolute lack of objectivity on the part of the news media covering this, because I am here to tell you that if anybody with a capital R beside their name were proposing a one-month cut, if he were a president, in the payroll tax, my God, there would be an endless parade of seasoned citizens in Washington with pitchforks, and they'd be hunting down members of -- remember what they did with Rostenkowski in Illinois? They surrounded his car. And that was over a tiny little Medicare thing.

I find this bizarre. I find this truly bizarre. And Obama's out there saying, "Well, we've got more important things to worry than politics right now." By that I mean his Hawaii vacation and his reelection. I'm gonna tell you something else about this two month business and I'll make this a little selfish. Like some Americans, I pay my taxes every, on average, three months, quarterly estimates. The second estimate of the calendar year, that's the bear, because that comes in two months. For those of us that pay our taxes this way, on April 15th we pay whatever we owe, and we always structure it so that we owe a little. You pay what you owe for the year you file, then you have your quarterly estimate for the first quarter of the current year. And then two months later you have the second. That June 15th estimate, that's a bear.

My point is, they're gonna extend this, they want to extend this payroll tax cut for two months, but it's an accounting nightmare for people who file quarterly estimates, and there's a lot of self-employed, entrepreneurs, contract hires, this kind of thing, independent contractors. And this is what the report out yesterday said. We can't implement this. Two months is not enough time to rewrite the software, we just can't. This is nothing but a political football that's being kicked around, and the House is the only place where there's a rational belief or policy involved here. Senators of both parties want to cut payroll taxes for two months. House Republicans want to cut payroll tax for the full year and just be done with it.

Now, for those who want to know, FICA equals the Federal Insurance Contributions Act. And the FICA tax is 6.2%. If you're self-employed, you pay the whole thing. It's a mess. I don't even want to get sidetracked on that. But we have here a Democrat president and a Democrat Senate cutting Social Security funding by $250 billion with a payment mechanism that doesn't exist. There is no paying for this. And people don't associate a payroll tax cut with Social Security. That's why I asked, "How many people know what the FICA number is on their pay stub or on their statement?" I find this literally amazing. At any rate, Obama's out there, you know, yapping on the Republicans. Now Boehner is taking his turn. Our microphones are there, if there's anything interesting being said we'll have it for you.

We Stand for Principle Over Politics and the Establishment Can't Stand It

RUSH: "House Democrats tried Wednesday to force a vote on the Senate's two-month extension of the payroll-tax cut, but Republicans gaveled the House closed to prevent them from having a chance, as top GOP leaders huddled down the hall to try to figure a way out of the mess. The House was set to hold a pro forma session, but two top Democrats, Reps. Steny H. Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen, demanded to be recognized to try to force a vote on the two-month extension. House Republicans have blocked that deal, which is strongly backed by President Obama, and are holding out for an extension that covers all of 2012."

Remember, folks, how Obama and the news media fought a temporary deal during the debt ceiling debate. He said the markets needed confidence, we can't do this temporary stuff. He said we can't keep doing these continuing

resolutions and these temporary debt ceiling increases. We gotta do the whole thing here. Now, all of a sudden, we got temporary, temporary, temporary, and we do a two-month fix that cannot even be implemented. The House Republicans, the freshmen, the Tea Party conservatives, the other conservatives in the House are holding firm on this on principle. Even some in the media are saying the House Republicans are acting on principle, not politics. Everybody else is looking at this through the optics. And as I mentioned in the first hour the Wall Street Journal has an editorial that just excoriates the Republicans in the House and essentially accuses them of losing the tax issue to Obama and guaranteeing that Obama is gonna end up being the king tax cutter in an election year.

Now, I'm telling you, with all due respect, the people at the Journal who wrote the editorial, the House Democrats, the Senate Democrats, the Republicans, are all dead wrong on this, every policy and political level that I can think of. If the Republicans want this tax cut extended, then they ought to fight to actually extend it for a year. Two months doesn't do anything. There's some conventional wisdom in the establishment circles, "Oh, yeah, two months, Rush, that would be good, because then we come back and get to debate Obama on it all over again." Well, how's the debate gonna change? You still say Obama is gonna be leading the charge for more tax cuts, what are we gonna do, then agree with him? This is the time to plant the flag.

Now, if they want to stop it, Wall Street Journal, Republicans, if they want to stop this, explain what's really going on here. Explain that this isn't a tax cut. Since when did Social Security taxes, when were they actually called tax increases? These are contributions. These are actual deductions from your pay that end coming back to you -- this is how it's always been sold -- in your retirement years, in your golden years. Theoretically, it's your money. All we're doing is defunding the only mechanism that funds Social Security. If they want to stop this, then just explain that this is draining money from Social Security without any of the necessary reforms. Throw it right back on Obama and what he's doing here. The worst possible position is the one supported by the Senate, Obama, and the Wall Street Journal.

What's really going on here, folks -- and don't doubt me -- including on behalf of the Wall Street Journal, just angry at conservatives. They're angry at the Tea Party conservatives, the Tea Party freshmen. They're angry at conservative freshmen and conservative members of the House. And they're simply trying to reject it. Now, if you believe -- and I mentioned this in the opening hour -- if you believe that our beloved country is collapsing due to government, why continue with these games? Why continue with such things as two-month expansions of the debt limit? Continuing resolution after continuing resolution instead of a budget? A two-month extension of a so-called payroll tax cut. These are games. This is style over substance.

If we are to stop this, if we are to reverse this, if we are to get anywhere, we need to start now, make our case, we need to begin to reverse course. We can't be so timid and scared and gutless that we jump every time Obama says jump. Now, here's the problem. These people on the establishment side of the Republican Party are gonna have to resolve for themselves their position that the nation is in dire straits with their policies of timidity and fear. Now, I'm guessing they don't think the nation's in dire straits. If they agreed with us that the nation's in dire straits then they wouldn't be playing these political games unless they do agree with us but they think they have to play the political game in order to win the election and beat Obama. You can do both.

But this isn't even a big issue. This is what gets me. It really isn't a big issue. We're talking about whether to extend a payroll cut one year or two months. Nobody believes that two months makes sense in any substantive way. Meanwhile, while all of this is going on, the pipeline issue is huge! How about a standalone pipeline bill, Republicans? How about delinking the pipeline from this? "Well, they tried that, Rush, they actually think more political pressure could be applied to Obama." Well, no, because the Republican establishment is undermining the coupling of the pipeline with the two-month payroll tax cut. But the pipeline issue is huge.

The Iranians are cutting to cut off access to Middle East oil, the Strait of Hormuz. And that wouldn't take much. Leon Panetta, the Secretary of Defense, says that Iran getting nukes is a red line for us, meaning possible war. He's saying that. I know Obama's not saying it but his secretary of defense is. And yet Obama and the Democrats are blocking a source of oil from an ally and are blocking the exploration and the use of natural gas and on and on. Obama and his party are doing everything they can to keep this nation imprisoned in the dependence on foreign oil, while claiming that they want to do just the opposite.

The prime minister of Canada is telling us, if you won't buy our oil, fine, we are going to sell it to the ChiComs, and we'll sell it to the ChiComs happily. I have a story somewhere in the Stack, that a senior American official or two confided to Stephen Harper, the Canadian head honcho, "Don't worry, don't worry, we're going to buy your oil." They're not named, and the conditions under which we would buy the oil are not specified. But clearly the message, if the reporting is true, the message is that we're whispering, "Psst, psst," winking, "Hey, Mr. Harper, look, we gotta play our political game here but, when it's all said and done, we're gonna be buying your oil. We just can't do that now. Obama needs to hold out here. He's gotta placate his environmental base. But we're gonna buy your oil. Just stick with us." That's the message that we are under the table giving.

But once again, we are subordinating what's best for this nation to Obama's political whims, desires, and needs, and we've got a Republican Party that's apparently willing to help him. This payroll tax cut, it's chump change compared to the things that we face. All of these people claim that they're conservatives when they run out and push their subscriptions and ask for donations and promote all of their social activities and so forth. But they don't act like it much.

The key line in the Wall Street Journal editorial is this. "We wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest." That's the key line in the Wall Street Journal editorial. And a lot of blogs are picking that up and they're agreeing with the Wall Street Journal, "Oh, no if these Republicans keep this up, oh, my God, we're gonna go ahead, we're gonna, for all intents and purposes, we're gonna elect Obama before we even get to November." That's the key line in their editorial: "We wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest," because of not giving him his two-month extension on the payroll tax cut.

So what we have here, the Republican establishment is scared to death of Obama's class warfare campaign. Is that right? Has the Republican establishment now lost faith in the free enterprise system? Is that it? That we can't win that argument with Obama over the next year, in the middle of what he has done to this economy? We are willing to say that we will cede the election to Obama if we don't give him his two-month tax cut extension. So am I wrong here, the Wall Street Journal believes that 11 months from now the election's gonna turn on Obama draining tens of billions of dollars from Social Security? 'Cause that's what's happening.

I can't emphasize enough my whole life as a Republican, and you, too, you've been hearing about all these horrible things we want to do to old people. We want to cut their Social Security. I heard Alan Cranston say in 1987 that we wanted to kick old people out of their houses by cutting Social Security. I've heard other Democrats say that we want old people eating dog food and not having enough medicine. Republicans are going to end Medicare when it's the Democrats who are doing all of this, and Obama right before our very eyes is underfunding, cutting funding for Social Security up to half a billion dollars. Five hundred billion, put it that way, that's the correct way to express it.

We're just gonna sit around and let that happen? Obama's gonna cut Social Security funding by $500 billion, an amount that equals less than $20 a week for most people in the form of this middle-class tax cut. If Americans can be bought for 20 bucks a week, then we may be in a hopeless situation anyway. But let me just close this out by saying the Democrats have insisted for 75 years that Social Security as an insurance program that you are contributing a percentage of your paycheck into your own account, which is part of a trust fund, to pay for your retirement benefit. It is not, they insist, it is not welfare, it is not an entitlement program. It is insurance. They've told us this for 75 years. Like an annuity program.

Meanwhile, every argument they are making now strips bare the big lie that they've been telling for 75 years. If this payroll tax cut is a tax cut, then Social Security is not an insurance program. And yet we're gonna run around and let them have it both ways because we're afraid of the optics or we're afraid because Obama's African-American? Is it a welfare or entitlement program and the money people are having withheld from their paychecks is not an insurance contribution, then it's a tax. Pure and simple. But they've sold this as an insurance program and all of a sudden now we're cutting taxes on this program? It's a welfare or entitlement program. The money people are having withheld from their paychecks is not an insurance contribution, a tax, that's what they're telling us now? Okay, then you are being taxed to pay for somebody else's retirement.

Now, the fact that the Republican establishment cannot make that case and other arguments tells me that they may have already surrendered, and this is a big difference between us and the establishment. They're in this defensive posture, I've told you, I said on Greta how many times, a lot of people inside the Republican establishment secretly don't even believe Obama can be beaten. And that's why they want Romney, 'cause they think at least Romney will help 'em take the Senate. He'll lose less down the ballot than Gingrich or some conservative will. But conservatives, you Tea Party activists, you don't want to give up and you haven't given up, and you don't want to accept this propaganda from the left. We insist on challenging it, we insist on fighting it 'cause there's no other way to save the country, and continually playing these games letting the Democrats rewrite the language, change the definition of things, get away with false accusations against us, never do anything about it, constantly stay on defense.

Looky, all of a sudden Social Security at this point in time is not the third rail of American politics. I'm gonna tell you something. You put a Republican in the White House, you let a Republican talk about cutting the funding of Social Security by the amount Obama's talking about, and you watch utter hell unleashed by the Democrat Party. They wouldn't get caught up in the two-month or one year tax cut, middle-class tax cut, payroll tax cut. What they'd be focusing on is, "See, the Republicans want to cut Social Security," and they'd be talking about, "How can they dare, this is the only funding mechanism of Social Security, and they want us to give a tax cut to the rich." That's what they'd be saying, that's how they'd be playing it.

We're accepting their terms, once again, we're accepting their premise and we're acting frightened, "Okay, we gotta go along. We gotta let Obama have this so the issue goes away because otherwise he's gonna be seen as king tax cutter." Well, but he's not. Now, I mentioned earlier how this is actually going to be paid for, whether it's two months or one year.

RUSH: Just a couple of more observations, and then we'll move on. As you know, 47% of the American people pay no income taxes. The Democrats, when you hit them with that, say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, well, those 47%, they're still paying payroll taxes. Everybody pays payroll taxes, so they're still paying taxes." Okay, fine. So now, look. Obama wants to cut the payroll tax for two months, big whoop, for two months. And pay for it from people who buy a house or refinance with a mortgage of $200,000 or more. In a nutshell, this is all about the Democrats trying to get us to pay the Social Security tax for their constituents who already don't pay any income tax.

So not only are these people not paying any income tax, they're now gonna get a payroll tax cut and working people are going to pay for it. And the Wall Street Journal says let Obama have it, if you don't let him have it, oh, God, he could win reelection, oh, God, you gotta let him have it.

Payroll deduction to come out of mortgages.

Michelle Obama's School Lunch Menu Forces Kids to Find Back-Alley Meals

RUSH: This is hilarious. Los Angeles schools have rejected First Lady Michelle Obama's school lunch program. This story is from three days ago. It's in the Los Angeles Times. "For many students, Los Angeles Unified's introduction of healthful lunches -- part of a campaign against obesity, diabetes and other problems -- has been a flop. The district says the menu will be revised." Here's how the story begins.

"It's lunchtime at Van Nuys High School and students stream into the cafeteria to check out the day's fare: black bean burgers, tostada salad, fresh pears and other items on a new healthful menu introduced this year by the Los Angeles Unified School District. But Iraides Renteria and Mayra Gutierrez don't even bother to line up. Iraides said the school food previously made her throw up, and Mayra calls it 'nasty, rotty stuff.' So what do they eat? The juniors pull three bags of Flamin' Hot Cheetos and soda from their backpacks.

'This is our daily lunch,' Iraides says. 'We're eating more junk food now than last year.'

"For many students, L.A. Unified's trailblazing introduction of healthful school lunches has been a flop. Earlier this year, the district got rid of chocolate and strawberry milk, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, nachos and other food high in fat, sugar and sodium. Instead, district chefs concocted such healthful alternatives as vegetarian curries and tamales, quinoa salads and pad Thai noodles. There's just one problem: Many of the meals are being rejected en masse. Participation in the school lunch program has dropped by thousands of students. Principals report massive waste, with unopened milk cartons and uneaten entrees being thrown away. Students are ditching lunch, and some say they're suffering from headaches, stomach pains and even anemia. At many campuses, an underground market for chips, candy, fast-food burgers and other taboo fare is thriving."

So here's Michelle Obama trying to co-opt and take over the school lunch program for healthful eating and just like everywhere else in the free market, if people can find a way around what's dictated to them, they will do it, and a black market ends up being created. Now, the Los Angeles Unified School District, second largest in the country, it's the largest to try a government-approved school lunch menu that was championed by Michelle Obama. They bragged about this three months ago. The only problem is the kids are refusing to eat the stuff. The participation in the school lunch program by the students has plunged to 13%. Eighty-seven percent of the students are finding lunch on the black market. There is a Mafia, there is an organized crime of alternate food at lunch. Back-alley lunches. Look what the kids are learning at the Los Angeles Unified School District.

This is another thing. The school lunch, of course, is provided el freebo. The kids are refusing to eat it. Instead, there's a black market for burgers, tacos, whatever. Where are they getting the money to buy this stuff on the black market, folks? Hmm? Hmm? Weren't we told that the students and their families were so financially disadvantaged, that there was so much financial struggle going on they couldn't afford their own meals. That's why we even have to start serving school dinner in Memphis. And yet students seem to have plenty of money for a black market school lunch menu. And, by the way, you know somebody's making a profit in that black market. This is not being done out of the goodness of somebody's heart. So back-alley lunches at the Los Angeles Unified School District.

"One teacher asked his eleventh grade US history students to write five letters about the food to the mayor, the media and First Lady Michelle Obama." A history class was asked to write letters to the First Lady about the abomination that the school lunch program had become. I love this. I absolutely simply love this, folks. And here's a story. This is from September 1st of this year. " Los Angeles Unified School District's 'I'm In' campaign promotes healthy lifestyles and invites districts locally and nationwide to join in the effort." This is a story trumpeting the great arrival of the new healthful school lunch program. They're so proud of it. "LAUSD Launches Wellness Campaign -- Are You 'In'?" is the headline. It has been a dismal failure. Black market food for lunch at the Los Angeles public schools, back-alley lunches.

RUSH: By the way, the Los Angeles Unified School District has now said they're gonna bring back hamburgers. Hamburgers will be offered daily as well as pizza. Even bringing back pizza.

RUSH: Bill in Hampton, Virginia, we go back to the phones. Great to have you, sir, on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Merry Christmas, Rush.

RUSH: Same to you, sir.

CALLER: Hey, I want to back up a little bit back to your story about the high school lunches and your use of the term the black market and --

RUSH: Back alley, black market, back-alley lunches, yeah.

CALLER: Yeah. I really think there's too much negative connotation that goes with that term.

RUSH: Yeah?

CALLER: And really it is the resiliency of the free market that no matter what the government tries to do to squash it, capitalism and free enterprise will survive.

RUSH: That's an excellent point. It actually was the free market triumphing over a command-and-control economy from the White House.

CALLER: Absolutely.

RUSH: You're exactly right. We were having fun with the term back-alley lunch. I just love ramming liberals' terms right down their orifices, especially that one, just love back-alley lunch. But you're right, it wasn't a black market, it's the free market, it's the kids saying, "I want burgers." And, look, here's something else. When they really want it they'll find a way to pay for it. Here they have this free lunch of tofu garbage, whatever else Michelle Obama wants 'em to eat, they don't want to eat that, they are willing to pay free market prices for food they do want to eat, even though we're told that the children of America don't have any money and everybody's too poor, that's why the government has to pay for it. In that article school teachers were caught selling so-called junk food to the kids. The junk food being a hamburger or a slice of pizza, junk food, yeah. But even teachers were caught getting in on the act.

LA Times on their Local School Lunch Program

District Launches Program

The Coordinated Attack on the Rich

The Greed of Big Education

Jake Tapper: ABCNews: Two-Month Payroll Tax Holiday Passed By Senate, Pushed By President, Cannot Be Implemented Properly, Experts Say

Since there are some links you may want to go back to from time-to-time, I am going to begin a list of them here. This will be a list to which I will add links each week.

Doug Ross blog; mostly a collection of articles, news links, photos and cartoons; some actual blogging.

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/

Political News Now; the Snow Report

http://www.politicalnewsnow.com/

The Long War Journal

http://www.longwarjournal.org/

Christine Rouselle’s website:

http://thecollegeconservative.com/christine-rousselle/

Ending Spending:

http://endingspending.com/

The Congressmen spending huge amounts of money and those who attempt to curb this spending:

http://endingspending.com/sheriffsandbandits/

Very good free enterprise blog and news source; The American:

http://www.american.com/

Crossroads GPS site (the YouTube site is the best organized):

http://www.youtube.com/CrossroadsGPSChannel

http://www.crossroadsgps.org/

http://www.nomoreblankchecks.com/

Excellent set of short videos:

www.youtube.com/user/LearnLiberty

Split nation (news and opinions from both sides):

http://www.splitnation.org/

Very interesting economic news and views:

http://www.zerohedge.com/

The Bluegrass pundit (a collection of stories of the day): pumpkin

http://www.bluegrasspundit.com/

The Global Warming Policy Foundation:

http://www.thegwpf.org/index.php

Current list of Obama’s executive orders:

http://1461days.blogspot.com/2009/01/current-list-of-president-obamas.html

The Times Watch, which gives example after example of the latest bias on mainstream news sources:

http://www.mrc.org/timeswatch/default.aspx

A syndicate of talent:

http://www.creators.com/

Conservative Daily News:

http://conservativedailynews.com/

Merging Corruption:

http://emergingcorruption.com/

Liberal blogger:

http://doninmass.com/

Pro/Con on important issues:

http://www.procon.org/

Stolen History. This is a Black historian who seeks to teach the actual history of the Black man in America:

http://stolenhistory.org/

Which interest groups support which party?

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/index.php

Open Secrets:

http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php

Honest news on the Occupy movement:

http://www.owsexposed.com/

Are you a woman who wants a nice bag which is the right size to carry a weapon?

http://designerconcealedcarry.com/

Political Cartoons:

http://drawfortruth.com/

News opinion site I am still thinking about:

http://www.maggiesnotebook.com/

Examples of liberal results:

http://urbangrounds.com/

The Global Warming Policy Foundation:

http://thegwpf.org/index.php

The Occupy unofficial site:

http://www.occupytogether.org/

The Freedom Post, a conservative blog who often likes facts and figures.

http://www.myfreedompost.com/

Conservative blogging from the great unwashed

http://www.policymic.com/main/index

The Right Scoop, where there are a number of videos, mostly of recent speeches of presidential candidates.

http://www.therightscoop.com/

James O’Keefe’s website (independent journalist):

http://www.theprojectveritas.org/

Rebel Pundit; citizen journalism from the belly of the beast:

http://rebelpundit.com/

Free Republic:

http://www.freerepublic.com/home.htm

Anti-Wall Street groups include:

Stop the Machine under October 2011, which apparently had permits for months for October. This is very organized; these are not people who just showed up suddenly. Their issues: protect the planet, healthcare for all, end wars, tax the rich and end corporate welfare.

http://october2011.org/

Freedom’s Lighthouse:

http://freedomslighthouse.net/

The Swine Line (Citizens Against Government Waste):

http://swineline.org/

Right Change:

http://www.rightchange.com/

Misfit Politics on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/misfitpolitics

Translating Jihad:

http://www.translatingjihad.com/

The Five Myths archive of the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/five-myths/2010/07/06/ABCCtvO_linkset.html

The Obama Diary (this is a very pro-Obama diary with lots of videos):

http://theobamadiary.com/

I Hate the Media:

http://www.ihatethemedia.com/

In case someone tells a fib about Obama, we need to turn that person in. Luckily, the President has provided for us such a website:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/signup/o2012-attackwatch-report-an-attack or after they have your email address, then use:

http://AttackWatch.com

The Obama Diary. This appears to be a pretty serious site, dedicated to telling you what the president is doing right:

http://theobamadiary.com/

Tomorrow’s Economy Today (lots of graphs).

http://www.economy-tomorrow.com/

We the people; online petitions from the people to the White House:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/WeThePeople

Conservative blogging and news:

http://senseofevents.blogspot.com/

Political news site; looks comprehensive and possibly non-partisan:

http://electzu.com/

Workforce Fairness Institute (it sounds like a liberal group, but it looks like a conservative group):

http://www.workforcefairness.com/

Wrote Left Turn and measures media bias as well as individuals. There is a 40 question test to measure your political quotient and the quotient of various media outlets are given.

http://www.timgroseclose.com/

Conservative Refocus (conservative opinion and a little news):

http://www.conservativerefocus.com/index.php

News and right-leaning commentary

http://www.frumforum.com/

Big Hairy News (right-leaning tongue-in-cheek and some actual news, sort of):

http://peacemoonbeam.typepad.com/bighairynews/

National Taxpayers Union:

http://www.ntu.org/

Millionaires who think they should pay more taxes:

http://patrioticmillionaires.org/

Sunshine State News (almost the only news service which ran a story on Mack’s Penny Plan). They are not a conservative news source, by the way.

http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/

Bankrupting America:

http://www.bankruptingamerica.org/

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis (a number of fairly easy to understand article on economic matters):

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/

Start Thinking Right, a mostly conservative blog, but he does not support every single conservative in each and every case:

https://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/

The cut, cap and balance amendment:

http://www.cutcapandbalanceact.com/

Club for Growth:

http://clubforgrowth.org/

Social Network of the Revolution (they seem to be a conservative organization):

http://rtr.org/

Watts Up With That (a lot of recent scientific news is posted here—there were 9 stories for July 5^th alone):

http://wattsupwiththat.com/

Corruption Chronicles (wtching things judicial):

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog

If you are a small business and you want to air out your problems with how government has hampered your business, here’s the place to go (enjoy the video):

http://jobs.majorityleader.gov/

Excellent economic news:

http://www.zerohedge.com/

Uncover age, sometimes a sensational right wing blog site:

http://www.uncoverage.net/

The Bare Knuckled Pundit, a right-wing blog site with in-depth articles.

http://www.bareknuckledpundit.com/

Front Page Mag; in-depth right-leaning stories:

http://frontpagemag.com/

Framing the Dialogue (mostly individually produced blog postings and interesting articles):

http://www.framingthedialogue.com/

Obamacare 411 (stories about what to expect from Obamacare):

http://obamacare411.wordpress.com/

The U.S. misery index, determined month-by-month:

http://www.miseryindex.us/customindexbymonth.asp

TEA Party . Org (conservative news and views):

http://www.teaparty.org/

Seems to be a middle-of-the-road news organization; iwatch news:

http://www.iwatchnews.org/

Front Page magazine, which is conservative with Jewish emphasis:

http://frontpagemag.com/

The fake Obama Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002453027874&sk=info (the name "Harrison J. Bounel" - a suspected Obama alias, based on official records)

Our Dirty Spending Secrets:

http://www.dirtyspendingsecrets.com/

The Right Perspective (blog):

http://rightperspective.wordpress.com/

Conservative byte (conservative blog; news):

http://conservativebyte.com/

The Government is not God, a political action committee:

http://www.gingpac.org/

Obama’s autopen twitter account:

http://twitter.com/#!/ObamasAutopen

The Minority Report (conservative blogging and news):

http://www.theminorityreportblog.com/

Shadow Government Statistic; excellent economics site (some information is free, but this is a subscription site):

http://www.shadowstats.com/

A George Soros funded site to go after specific Fox anchors through their advertisers (is there any parallel to this on the right?):

http://dropfox.com/

Cato Institute’s Downsizing Government

http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/

Cool blog with a lot of excellent articles:

http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/

Slimeball comics:

http://slimeball-comics.blogspot.com/

Anti-Fox, anti-conservative “news and opinion” site:

http://www.newscorpse.com/

Lots of current vids:

http://www.therightscoop.com/

Men with Foil Hats (occasionally borders on conspiratorial without being completely nuts; mostly a repository of news stories from elsewhere):

http://www.menwithfoilhats.com/

iwatch news is a repository of interesting news items; there might be a slight left slant? It is hard to tell.

http://www.iwatchnews.org/

Calculated Risk Blog:

http://cr4re.com/charts/charts.html

Calculated Risk Charts and Graphs:

http://cr4re.com/charts/charts.html

This website, asks the eternal question...

http://www.isglennbeckright.com/

Renew America:

http://www.renewamerica.com/

The Party of 1776:

http://www.partyof1776.net/

Climate Realists:

http://climaterealists.com/index.php

In case I did not list it before, Iowa Hawk (insightful economic blogging):

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/

American Legislative Exchange Council (Limited government, free markets and federalism):

http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home

Right Wing News Watch

http://www.rightwingnewswatch.com/

It is mostly libs who post here, but this way, you get their weird perspective on things political:

http://www.politico.com/arena/

The Right Scoop:

http://www.therightscoop.com/

Pro-Life Unity:

http://www.prolifeunity.com/

Christian Healthcare Ministries (an alternative to health insurance)

http://chministries.org/

Daniel Mitchell’s blog:

http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/

Capitalism Magazine

http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/

The truth wins (mostly commentary on economics).

http://thetruthwins.com/

Conservative 21 (blog)

http://www.conservative21.com/index.cfm

Translating Jihad. What is broadcast in the Arabic is one thing; and how it is said in English is something entirely different:

http://translating-jihad.blogspot.com/

The Center for Responsive Politics:

http://www.opensecrets.org/

What if George Bush did that?

http://whatifgeorgebushdidthat.wordpress.com/

The Lonely Conservative (news and conservative opinion):

http://lonelyconservative.com/

The right weather underground (blog, with some emphasis upon the phony green agenda).

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/sebastianjer/

An article on the federal reserve:

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/fed_reserve.htm

The Economic Collapse Blog:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Albert Mohler’s blog, which is Christian and conservative:

http://www.albertmohler.com/

Readers begin a discussion, and other join in:

http://ricochet.com/

The Other Half of History (the history which is ignored in the modern classroom):

http://historyhalf.com/columns/

American History:

http://wallbuilders.com/

Citizen Tom (news and conservative commentary):

http://citizentom.com/

Pronk Palisades (recent news and editorial videos and links):

http://raymondpronk.wordpress.com/

The Right brothers (sort of newsy and commentary):

http://therightbrothers.posterous.com/

Freedom Fighter’s Journal (news and opinion articles):

http://ronbosoldier.blogspot.com/

Liberty’s Army (mostly economic and middle eastern revolutionary news right now):

http://www.libertysarmy.com/

News and opinion articles:

http://iusbvision.wordpress.com/

STORM’s official Revolutionary document:

http://www.leftspot.com/blog/files/docs/STORMSummation.pdf

Climate Depot’s 321-page 'Consensus Buster' Report:

http://www.climatedepot.com/a/9035/SPECIAL-REPORT-More-Than-1000-International-Scientists-Dissent-Over-ManMade-Global-Warming-Claims--Challenge-UN-IPCC--Gore

The Iowahawk, which is a blog, at times, heavy with stats, and at other times, it is hard to tell:

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/

Liberal collector of links and liberal news:

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/

Good conservative news blog:

http://a12iggymom.wordpress.com/

The radio patriot; a news repository and right-wing blog:

http://radiopatriot.wordpress.com/

Glenn Beck’s news page; almost everything is a video:

http://www.theblaze.com/

Conservative Girls are Hot:

http://girlontheright.com/

The Food Liberation Army (I am still unsure whether this is a put-on or not):

http://www.freeronald.org/en/fla/

Good news site—Buck’s Right:

http://www.bucksright.com/

In case you want to refer others to this; statistical comparison between gays and straights:

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS04C02

Palestinian Media Watch:

http://palwatch.org/

Right Bias:

http://rightbias.com/

Red, White and Blue news:

http://redwhitebluenews.com/

The Right Scoop (lots of videos):

http://www.therightscoop.com/

Excellent news source:

http://home.myway.com/

Union refund? Really?

http://www.unionrefund.org/

The Right Reasons (news and opinion):

http://www.therightreasons.net/index.php

Meadia Research Center where the bias of mainstream news is exposed again and again.

http://www.mrc.org

Pundit and Pundette:

http://www.punditandpundette.com/

News directly from people in Egypt (called Broadcasting from Tahrir Square):

http://eltahrir.org/

Stand with Us:

http://www.standwithus.com/

A George Soros funded site:

http://thinkprogress.org/

Progressive media matters action network:

http://politicalcorrection.org/

The Jawa Report (there is some moderate emphasis upon Islam):

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/

Kids Aren’t Cars:

http://www.kidsarentcars.com/blog/

Stuff you probably did not know about greenhouse gases (this is a good link for friends):

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html

The Top 100 Effects of Global Warming (I am fairly certain that this is serious; but it is really hard to tell). It is saying goodbye to French Wines, glaciers, guacamole, mixed nuts, French fries, baseball and Christmas trees and saying hello to cannibalistic polar bears, jellyfish attacks, giant squid attacks, more stray kittens, suffocating lemmings, burning cow poop and acidic oceans.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/09/climate_100.html

Comprehensive List of Tax Hikes in Obamacare (this includes individual health insurance costing as much as $695/month by 2016—which is not the only cost):

http://www.atr.org/comprehensive-list-tax-hikes-obamacare-a5758#

Tammy Bruce

http://tammybruce.com/

[California’s] Public Speakers blog:

http://pubsecrets.wordpress.com/

Flashpoint—California’s most significant political news:

http://www.flashreport.org/

The Publius Forum (more of a newscast than a blog; located in Chicago, I believe):

http://www.publiusforum.com/

Political Chips:

http://www.politicalchips.org/

Brits at their best:

http://www.britsattheirbest.com/

Political Affairs, which used to be called the Communist (in case you are interested in what the Democratic Par, I mean, the communist party is up to.

http://politicalaffairs.net/

Headlines, short news stories:

http://www.thehotjoints.com/

Christmas is evil (Muslim website):

http://xmasisevil.com/index2.php

Conservative blogger:

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/

Verum Serum

http://www.verumserum.com/

The Tax Professor Blog

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/

Moonbattery:

http://www.moonbattery.com/

Arbitrary Vote:

http://arbitraryvote.com/home

The Party of Know:

http://thepartyofknow.com/

Slap Blog

http://slapblog.com/

The latest news from Prison Planet:

http://prisonplanet.tv/

http://prisonplanet.tv/latest-news.html

Right Wing News:

http://rightwingnews.com/

The Frugal Café:

http://www.frugal-cafe.com/public_html/frugal-blog/frugal-cafe-blogzone/

The Left Coast Rebel:

http://www.leftcoastrebel.com/

The Freedomist:

http://freedomist.com/

Greg Gutfeld’s website:

http://freedomist.com/

This is one of my favorite lists; this is a list of things which global warming causes (right now, it causes over 800 things—most of these are linked):

http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm

The U.K.’s number watch:

http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/number%20watch.htm

100 things we can say goodbye to (or, hello to) because of Global Warming (all of these are linked). They are very serious about these things, by the way:

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/09/climate_100.html

If you are busy, and just want to read about the Top Ten things:

http://planetsave.com/2009/06/07/global-warming-effects-and-causes-a-top-10-list/

Observations of a blue state conservative:

http://lonelyconservative.com/

Thomas “Soul man” Sewell’s column archive:

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell1.asp

Walter E. Williams column archive:

http://townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/

Israpundit:

http://www.israpundit.com/

The Prairie Pundit:

http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/

Conservative Art:

http://secularstupidest.com/

Conservative Club of Houston:

http://www.cclub.org/welcome

Conservative blog, but with an eye to the culture and pop culture (there is a lot of stuff here):

http://hallofrecord.blogspot.com/

Conservative and pop culture blog (last I looked, there were some Beatles’ performances here):

http://thinkinboutstuff.com/thinkinboutstuff/nfblog/

Raging Elephants:

http://www.ragingelephants.org/

Gulag bound:

http://gulagbound.com/

Hyscience:

http://www.hyscience.com/

Politi Fi

http://politifi.com/

TEA Party Patriots:

http://teapartypatriots.org/

South Montgomery County Liberty Group:

http://sites.google.com/site/smclibertygroup/

Hole in the Hull:

http://www.holeinthehull.com/

National Council for Policy Analysis (ideas changing the world):

http://www.ncpa.org/

Ordering their pamphlets:

http://www.policypatriots.org/

Cartoon (Senator Meddler):

http://www.senatormedler.com/

Bear Witness:

http://bearwitness.info/default.aspx

http://bearwitness.info/BEARWITNESSMAIN.aspx (there are a million vids on this second page)

Right Change (facts presented in an entertaining manner):

http://www.rightchange.com/

Bias alert from the Media Research Center:

http://www.mrc.org/biasalert/archive.aspx

Excellent conservative blogger:

http://mikesamerica.blogspot.com/

Send this link to the young people you know (try the debt quiz; I only got 6 out of 10 right):

http://ourtab.org/

Center for Responsive Politics:

http://www.opensecrets.org/

The Chamber Post (pro-business blog):

http://www.chamberpost.com/

Labor Pains (a pro-business, anti-union blog):

http://laborpains.org/

These people are after our children and after church goers as well:

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Their opposition:

http://resistingthegreendragon.com/

The Doug Ross Journal (lots of pictures and cartoons):

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/

The WSJ Guide to Financial Reform

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703315404575250382363319878.html

The WSJ Guide to Obamacare:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574441193211542788.html

The WSJ Guide to Climate Change

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704007804574574101605007432.html

Video-heavy news source:

http://www.mediaite.com/

Political News:

http://www.politicsdaily.com/

Planet Gore; blogs about the environment:

http://www.nationalreview.com/planet-gore

The Patriot Post:

http://patriotpost.us/

PA Pundits, whose motto is, “the relentless pursuit of common sense” (I used many of the quotations which they gathered)

http://papundits.wordpress.com/

Index of (business) freedom, world rankings:

http://www.heritage.org/index/pdf/2010/Index2010_ExecutiveHighlights.pdf

U.S. State economic freedom:

http://www.pacificresearch.org/docLib/20080909_Economic_Freedom_Index_2008.pdf

The All-American Blogger:

http://www.allamericanblogger.com/

The Right Scoop (with lots of vids):

http://www.therightscoop.com/

In case you have not seen it yet, Obsession:

http://www.therightscoop.com/saturday-cinema-obsession-radical-islams-war-against-the-west

Inside Islam; what a billion Muslims think:

http://vimeo.com/14121737

World Net Daily (News):

http://www.wnd.com/

Excellent blog with lots of cool vids:

http://benhoweblog.wordpress.com/

Black and Right:

http://www.black-and-right.com/

The Right Network:

http://rightnetwork.com/

Video on the Right Network:

http://rightnetwork.com/videos/860061517

The newly designed Democrat website:

http://www.democrats.org/

Composition of Congress 1855–2010:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774721.htm

Anti-American and pro-socialist, pro-Arabic:

http://www.zeropartypolitics.com/

The anti-Jihad resistence (which appears to be a set of links to similar websites):

http://www.antijihadresistance.com/

Seems to be fair and balanced with an international news approach:

http://ibnlive.in.com/

http://www.rawstory.com/

Black and Right dot com:

http://www.black-and-right.com/ (the future liberal of the day is quite humorous)

Mostly a liberal blogger, who says vicious things about most conservatives; and yet, says something sensible, e.g. posting many of the things which the healthcare bill does to us.

http://www.osborneink.com/

Conservative news site (many of the stories include videos):

http://www.theblaze.com/

http://nakedemperornews.com/

http://pajamasmedia.com/

Muslim hope:

http://www.muslimhope.com/index.html

Anti-Obama sites:

http://howobamagotelected.com/

http://www.impeachobamacampaign.com/

http://www.exposeobama.com/

International news, mostly about Israel and the Middle East:

http://www.haaretz.com/

http://www.jpost.com/

News headlines sites (with links):

http://drudgereport.com/

http://www.thedeadpelican.com/

Business blog and news:

http://www.bizzyblog.com/

And I have begun to sort out these links:

News and Opinions

Conservative News/Opinion Sites

The Daily Caller

http://dailycaller.com/

Sweetness and Light

http://sweetness-light.com/

Flopping Aces:

http://www.floppingaces.net/

News busters:

http://newsbusters.org/

Right wing news:

http://rightwingnews.com/

CNS News:

http://www.cnsnews.com/

Pajamas Media:

http://pajamasmedia.com/

Right Wing News:

http://rightwingnews.com/

Scared Monkeys (somewhat of a conservative newsy site):

http://scaredmonkeys.com/

Conservative News Source:

http://www.newsrealblog.com/

David’ Horowitz’s NewsReal:

http://www.newsrealblog.com/

Pamela Geller’s conservative website:

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/

The news sites and the alternative news media:

http://drudgereport.com/

http://www.hallindsey.com/

http://reason.com/

Andrew Breithbart’s websites:

http://biggovernment.breitbart.com/

Conservative Websites:

http://www.theodoresworld.net/

http://conservalinked.com/

http://www.moonbattery.com/

http://www.rockiesghostriders.com/

www.coalitionoftheswilling.net

http://shortforordinary.com/

A conservative worldview:

http://www.divineviewpoint.com/sane/

http://www.theamericanright.com/forums/index.php

http://politipage.com/

Liberal News Sites

Democrat/Liberal news site:

http://intoxination.net/

News

CNS News:

http://www.cnsnews.com/home

News Organization (I mention them because I have seen 2 honest stories on their website, which shocked and surprised me):

http://www.ocregister.com/

Business News/Economy News

Investors Business Daily:

http://www.investors.com/

IBD editorials:

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/IBDEditorials.aspx

Great business and political news:

www.wsj.com

www.businessinsider.com

Quick News

Even though this group leans left, if you need to know what happened each day, and you are a busy person, here is where you can find the day’s news given in 100 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/user/tpmtv

Republican

Back to the basics for the Republican party:

http://www.republicanbasics.com/

Republican Stop Obamacare site:

http://www.nrcc.org/codered/main.php

North Suburban Republican Forum:

http://www.northsuburbanrepublicanforum.org/

Politics

You Decide Politics (it appears conservative to me):

http://www.youdecidepolitics.com/

The Left

From the left:

http://www.loonwatch.com/

Far left websites:

www.dailykos.com

Weatherman Underground 1969 “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

http://www.archive.org/details/YouDontNeedAWeathermanToKnowWhichWayTheWindBlows_925 (PDF, Kindle and other formats)

http://www.antiauthoritarian.net/sds_wuo/weather/weatherman_document.txt (Simple online text)

Insane, leftist blogs:

http://teabaggersrcoming.blogspot.com/

http://poorsquinky.com/politics/all.html

Media

Media Research Center

http://www.mrc.org/public/default.aspx

Conservative Blogs

Mike’s America

http://mikesamerica.blogspot.com/

Dick Morris:

http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/

David Limbaugh (great columns this week)

http://davidlimbaugh.com/

Texas Fred (blog and news):

http://texasfred.net/

Conservative Blogs:

http://atimetochoose.wordpress.com/

http://americanelephant.com/

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/*/index

The top 100 conservative sites:

http://deathby1000papercuts.com/dbkpreport/2010/02/the-conservative-100-most-popular-conservative-sites-feb-14-2010/

Sensible blogger Burt Folsom:

http://www.burtfolsom.com/

Janine Turner’s website (I’m serious; and the website is serious too). This is if you have an interest in real American history:

http://constitutingamerica.org/

Conservative news/opinion site:

http://www.humanevents.com/

The Left Coast Rebel:

http://www.leftcoastrebel.com/

Good conservative blogs:

http://tammybruce.com/

http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/

http://faultlineusa.blogspot.com/

http://makenolaw.org/ (the Free Speech blog)