Arizona Racing Agency Ignoring Immigration Violations

A state ombudsman's report says the Arizona Department of Racing is licensing improperly documented aliens to work at horse- and dog-racing tracks in violation of the law.

The report from Patrick Shannahan, Arizona ombudsman and citizens aide, says Racing Department stewards and administrators do not uphold immigration statutes or consistently enforce visa requirements for foreign workers.

"ADOR did not uniformly take action to suspend licenses when documentation had expired or was otherwise deficient, inconsistently handled immigration documentation, misinterpreted immigration laws . . . and failed to comply with public records law," the report says.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2010/12/31/20101231arizona-racing-industry-immigration-law-violations.html#ixzz19hEJkWVO

http://www.azcentral.com/

http://townhall.com/cartoons/2010/12/29/76893

Obama's Czars: The Hidden Government

They enjoy wide-ranging bureaucratic authority beyond the purview of Congress, earn six-figure salaries, and exhibit political views that reflect a distinct tilt to the left.

They're called President Obama's "czars," special advisers with sweeping powers, and Obama has gone far beyond his predecessors in naming nearly 40 of them to high-level positions.

From health reform czar, border czar, counterterrorism czar, urban czar, and global-warming czar to faith-based czar, domestic violence czar, stimulus accountability czar, Eurasian energy czar, Great Lakes czar, and safe-schools czar, they almost all have several things in common: They were never elected, they were never confirmed by the Senate, and the have immense power over our government and our lives.

When green jobs czar Van Jones resigned amid controversy over past inflammatory statements, Newsmax opened a special investigation to find out who are Obama's czars and what their real agenda is.

Newsmax magazine's special report "Obama's Czars" takes an in-depth look at Obama's army of advisers, who seem to some critics part of an audacious end-run around congressional authority.

Do these appointed czars threaten our democracy? http://w3.newsmax.com/a/dec09/?s=al&promo_code=B623-1                                                              

cartoons@townhallmail.com

Big Nannies of the Year

It was a nefarious year for nettlesome nosy-bodies employed by the Nanny State. Here are the top power-grabbers of 2010 who just can't leave us alone:

-- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Two feet of snow paralyzed trains, buses, plows and emergency vehicles in the Big Apple this week. Perhaps if Bloomberg -- the nation's top self-appointed municipal food cop -- spent more of his time on core government duties instead of waging incessant war on taxpayers' salt, soda, trans-fat and sugar intakes, his battered bailiwick would have been better equipped to weather the storm.

-- Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. He proposed meddling mileage taxes, mused about a system to track drivers' routes, lobbied for high-speed rail boondoggles and promoted a "livability initiative" to limit suburban growth and force dwellers into public transportation. Then America's driving czar floated a plan earlier this fall to disable cell phones through some kind of centralized government mechanism. LaHood backed off that creepy crusade, but he is still intent on waging war against drivers who choose to use cell phones, entertainment systems and GPS devices on the road. Just last week, the unstoppable control freak proposed a new rule banning truck and bus drivers from any use of cell phones while driving -- including emergency calls on hands-free devices. His anti-car agenda is stuck in overdrive.

-- The city of Cleveland. The green police in this Midwestern metropolis made headlines in February with an intrusive plan to roll out electronic snooping trash cans -- "smart" rubbish bins bugged with radio frequency identification chips and bar codes to monitor residents' recycling habits. Violators can be fined $100. Federal stimulus money has gone to fund similar programs in Dayton, Ohio. The technology originated in Germany, was adopted by eco-authoritarians in England (where at least 500,000 trash cans are now embedded with snitch chips) and has spread across Europe. Welcome to the age of Bin Brother. To read more on these out of control idiots follow this link: http://townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2010/12/29/big_nannies_of_the_year

Obama Embraces 'Death Panel' Concept in Medicare Rule

During the stormy debate over his healthcare plan, President Barack Obama promised his program would not "pull the plug on grandma" and dropped plans for death panels and "end of life" counseling. But earlier this month the administration seemingly flouted the will of Congress by quietly issuing a new Medicare regulation that "may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment," The New York Times reported. http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/obama-death-panels-medicare/2010/12/26/id/381043?s=al&promo_code=B5BE-1
Bailey: Who are these people who come up with these regulations? I don't think you or I would give complete strangers the right to decide the time for us to die. If and when it happens it should be up to that person or their family's to make that decision. The government is already trying to tell you what to eat and what to feed your children, now they want to tell you when to die.

Saudi King Interested in Moving Ground Zero Mosque

A New York lawyer with ties to the Saudi royal family claims the desert kingdom’s King Abdullah might want to move the controversial ground zero mosque to an Islamic cultural center he would build on the site of a shuttered Manhattan hospital. According to attorney Dudley Gaffin, the king also would pay to reopen most of the hospital units that closed when St. Vincent’s Medical Center filed for bankruptcy in April, sources told the New York Post.

Gaffin is floating the possibility to gauge community reaction, the New York Post reported Sunday in a story it labeled as an exclusive.

"He's asking what it would take to put in a bid," the Post quoted a community leader who did not want to be identified as saying. "He says the king wants to do this as a PR move — to save the hospital and move the mosque away from the World Trade Center site. He wants to show that Muslims can do good works."

The 87-year-old king is recovering from back surgery at another Manhattan hospital.

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/ground-zero-mosque-Saudi/2010/12/20/id/380509?s=al&promo_code=B55E-1

Congressional Salaries on the Rise Even as Obama Freezes Federal Wages

WASHINGTON -- For a guy who insists that federal bureaucrats make too much money, incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor sure doesn't mind handing out handsome government raises of his own.

Cantor, the Virginia Republican who has led the GOP charge this year to freeze federal salaries, has boosted his congressional office's payroll by 81 percent since coming to Congress in 2001 -- about 8 percent per year through 2009. When he became minority whip last year, the office's personnel expenses went up by at least 16 percent.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/20/congressional-salaries-rise-obama-freezes-federal-wages/

Bailey: For the ones that still don't get it there is always 2012 coming up!

Facing Closure, U.S.'s Largest Sleeping Bag Maker Seeks Relief From Free Trade Loophole

The country's largest manufacturer of sleeping bags says new competition from Bangladesh could force it out of business if the U.S. does not level the playing field.

Exxel Outdoors Inc., which employs nearly 70 workers in its Alabama factory and makes about 2 million sleeping bags per year, has been pressing the Obama administration to lift an exemption that lets Bangladesh import sleeping bags into the country without paying a 9 percent tariff.

"You can't leave an American manufacturer at a competitive disadvantage with a foreign worker," Harry Kazazian, chief executive of the company, told FoxNews.com.

But that's apparently what the Obama administration has done, turning down the company's request in an initial ruling and forcing Exxel to submit another request.

The office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which is reviewing Exxel's request, told FoxNews.com that its review will conclude in the spring and that President Obama would have to sign off on any changes to the list of duty-free products – changes that would go into effect before July 1.
"We take Exxel's concerns seriously," the office said in a statement.
Exxel is also seeking help from Congress.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., has tried to slap a tariff on Bangladesh sleeping bags but he has been unable to sway his fellow lawmakers to change the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences, or GSP, which determines which products third-world countries can import duty free.
So Sessions has placed a hold on the annual GSP bill, making it all but certain that the program will lapse at the end of this month.
"I have supported free trade, probably more than my colleagues," he said on the Senate floor Friday. "But I have worked for two years to try to obtain a simple justice to close a loophole in the tariff laws that has impacted and will close a sleeping bag textile manufacturer in my state."

"They are an independent, hard-working people," he said. "And this bill as written will close that plant. And it should not happen. "

Sleeping bag imports have been on the duty-free list since Czechoslovakia successfully lobbied for it in the early 1990s. But the country, which split soon afterward into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, never followed through with its plan to get into the sleeping bag business, leaving the loophole dormant until Bangladesh took advantage in recent years, an Exxel official told FoxNews.com.

The company says it has been able to compete with China because the communist regime isn't exempt from the tariff on its sleeping bag imports. But the company says in 2009 it began losing major orders from large U.S. retailers because of new sleeping bag operations in Bangladesh flooding the market with their imports.

Exxel says if its factory is forced to move offshore or close down, the economic ripple effect would hurt the company's U.S. vendors, such as suppliers of sewing thread, sleeping bag fill, packaging, as well as suppliers of trucking services and other factory supplies.

Kazazian, said it is ironic to be in this situation after he moved his factory from Mexico to Alabama a few years ago, adding jobs to the economy.

"If the playing field should be tilted, it should be tilted in an American manufacturer's favor," he said, adding that he's not looking for a hand out.

"I want the law to be interpreted the way it should be and the playing field leveled," he said.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/18/facing-closure-uss-largest-sleeping-bag-maker-seeks-relief-free-trade-loophole/?test=latestnews

Bailey: This is why our country is in financial trouble now! Some dumb politician in our government wants to give a break to a overseas company that probably only pays their workers a dollar a day! How can an American company compete with that, especially when our own government seems to be putting Bangladesh's interest over our own!

Bank of America Stops Handling WikiLeaks Payments

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Bank of America says it will no longer process transactions for the website WikiLeaks, following similar actions by several other financial institutions.

The bank said in a statement that it believes that site "may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments."

It joins financial institutions including MasterCard and PayPal that have stopped handling payments for the site.

Reached by phone, Bank of America spokesman Scott Silvestri declined further comment to The Associated Press.

WikiLeaks responded with a Twitter message urging its supporters to stop doing business with the bank.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/12/18/bank-america-stops-handling-wikileaks-payments/

Bailey: It would seem the old saying that money can't buy you love is really true in this case!

Border agent shot dead in Arizona, four arrested

PHOENIX (Reuters) – A U.S. Border Patrol agent was shot dead by suspected smugglers close to the Mexico border in southern Arizona and four suspects have been arrested, authorities said on Wednesday.

Agent Brian A. Terry, 40, was shot dead after he confronted several suspects while on duty in a mountainous area a few miles northwest of the border city of Nogales late on Tuesday night, local and federal police said.

Police arrested at least four suspects, and are searching for another who remains at large, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the Terry family for their tragic loss," CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin said in a statement.

"Our commitment to Agent Terry and his family is that we will do everything possible to bring to justice those responsible for this despicable act," he added.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer ordered state flags flown at half staff in tribute to Terry, a Marine Corps veteran from Detroit, Michigan, who served in the Border Patrol's Tucson sector.

Agents patrolling the sector's 262-mile stretch of the Mexico border make around half of the illegal immigrant arrests and marijuana seizures recorded along the southwest border.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said the assailants were likely smugglers who use the rugged, mountainous area west of Nogales to haul both drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States.

"That area is known to be a smuggling area, both human and drug smuggling, so it was either one of the two more likely," Estrada told Reuters.

The FBI is leading the investigation into the agent's death, with the assistance of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office.

The last Border Patrol agent to be killed on duty was Robert Rosas, 30, who was shot to death near Campo in southern California in July 2009. Police caught the killer, who was subsequently jailed for 40 years.

Bailey: "Any of you left wing liberal idiots getting the picture yet of why America has to do something about the illegal Mexicans coming across our border ?"  

White House insists health law rollout unaffected

– Tue Dec 14, 11:39 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The White House insisted Tuesday that the implementation of President Barack Obama's landmark health care law will not be affected by a negative federal court ruling, and the Justice Department said it would appeal.

"There's no practical impact at all as states move forward in implementing ... the law that Congress passed and the president signed," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said that, as expected, the department would appeal Monday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson in Virginia. Hudson declared that a central provision of the law — the requirement for nearly everyone to carry health insurance — was unconstitutional.

The ruling by the Republican-appointed judge in a high-profile lawsuit by Virginia's Republican attorney general was a setback for the Obama administration, but not a surprise. Two other district court judges, both Democratic appointees, have found the law constitutional.

Obama administration officials noted that consultations with states on implementing the law were moving forward. Later this week officials from all but a handful of states are expected to travel to Washington to meet with the Health and Human Services Department to discuss setting up the state-based insurance marketplaces, called exchanges, required by the new law.

These include officials from many of the 20 states that are simultaneously suing to overturn the law in a fourth case which begins oral arguments Thursday in Florida. Many state officials have concluded that it's better to participate in discussions on implementing the law than not, even if they don't support it. Even so, Republican members of Congress seized on Hudson's ruling to caution states against moving forward.

Central provisions of the law including the exchanges and the requirement for everyone to be insured don't take effect until 2014 anyway. By then the Supreme Court will likely have weighed in with the final verdict on the health law.

Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell, a Republican, urged the Obama administration Tuesday to join him in seeking to take the cases straight to the Supreme Court, bypassing the appeals process, in order to provide certainty for states and businesses. Such a course is highly unusual, and the Justice Department weighed in against it.

"The department believes this case should follow the ordinary course of allowing the courts of appeals to hear it first so the issues and arguments can be fully developed before the Supreme Court decides whether to consider it," Schmaler said.

Bailey: The above article shows you just how much our Washington politicians have heard our votes. It is pretty bad when they force a law on the majority of people who has voted against! This law was created by a bunch of deadbeat, lazy people who want everything for free and are to sorry to work for it!

Mexican Criminals Tap Texas for Guns in Drug Wars

Mexican criminals are turning to U.S. border states for firepower in their drug wars. Mexican police have seized more than 60,000 U.S. guns at crime scenes in the past four years. Most of the guns, including assault rifles and armor-piercing .50 caliber weapons, were sold by dealers in Texas, Arizona, and California.http://www.newsmax.com/US/Texas-Guns-Find-Mexico/2010/12/13/id/379759?s=al&promo_code=B48F-1

Off with their heads!

Chilling video released by the AP shows a violent, blood thirsty mob attacking a car carrying Prince Charles. The supposedly bullet proof car ended up badly beaten, and you can see in some of the still pictures the fear in their eyes as they are surrounded by the angry mob of students and others protesting a proposed hike in tuition rates.https://mail.google.com/mail/h/uz5ohgkvq73x/?v=c&th=12cd2036f82a0aba
Bailey: This is a good example of young adults in our society. What a bunch of morons and idiots parents have raised up in this world!  If  the brat doesn't  get a free ride on anything they want and get it right away, they want to go out and riot or kill somebody.  Just goes to show you what kind of parents they were brought up by.

Rum Punch: Reid Adds Sweeteners to Tax Bill to Placate Dems

Tax cut bill introduced by the Senate majority leader is chock-full of sweeteners — which cover everything from the Hollywood industry to rum producers — to serve as a legislative pacifier for Dems upset over the concessions the president has handed Republicans. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/10/obama-predicts-tax-passage-senate-presses-ahead/
Bailey: It looks to me like Reid and the Dems are trying to do as much can to finish screwing up our economy before we vote the rest of them out in 2012. It sure looks to me like we also need to vote out some more republicans.

WikiLeaks' Assange Threatens to Go 'Nuclear' With New Leaks

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is threatening to go “nuclear” if he is killed or arrested, releasing a “poison pill” of secret documents even more devastating than the ones that already have sparked diplomatic chaos around the globe, according to the British tabloid The Daily Mail.

Assange’s British attorney, Mark Stephens, called the documents a “thermo-nuclear device” intended as an insurance policy to guarantee Assange’s safety.

Stephens noted that several conservative American politicians, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, have called for Assange to be executed. In addition, GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Assange a “high-tech terrorist” on "Meet the Press" Sunday.

“We've seen a number of suggestions that he should be assassinated, again from credible sources around the world,” Stephens told the Daily Mail. “This is all about a man who is a journalist. He received, unbidden, an electronic brown envelope that journalists receive.”

Those attacking Assange are “criminalizing journalistic activity,” Stephens said. And he described the revelations as “a thermo-nuclear device in the information age.”

Interpol, the international police organization, has issued a warrant for the arrest of Assange, an Australian thought to be in hiding in Britain.

The warrant stems from encounters that Assange had with two women in Sweden in August. Stephens has denounced the charges as “political theater.” Assange is subject to arrest at any time.

Assange’s “poison pill” is thought to include embarrassing revelations about the BP oil spill, aerial video of a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan that caused civilian casualties, sensitive information on Bank of America, and secret documents that discuss the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, according to the Daily Mail,.

Thousands of the site’s supporters have downloaded the “nuclear bomb” from the WikiLeaks website, Stephens claims.

However, the documents can be opened only with a 256-digit key or password that is thought to be virtually impossible to hack.

If anything happens to Assange or the website, Stephens says, the digital password will be distributed automatically, and the documents will be released.

Other revelations continued to bleed out Monday from the 250,000 sensitive State Department cables that have already been posted to the site. Among the latest leaks:

• A document was exposed that lists in detail a host of sites around the world that U.S. officials worry could be vulnerable to terrorist attack.
• Evidence a senior Chinese political figure directed the hacking of Google, which led to the company's leaving China.
• Iran is dismissing cables that indicate Arab countries are terrified that the Shiite Islamic nation may develop nuclear weapons. Iranian presidential adviser Esfandiar Rahim Mashai told Spiegel Online that U.S. authorities leaked the documents themselves to pit governments in the Middle East against each other.
• A leaked note from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton charges that Saudi Arabia is the No. 1 bankroller of terrorist activity. In a secret memorandum, Clinton wrote that the Saudi kingdom remains “the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide" and that "it has been an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority,” according to The Daily Telegraph.

PayPal cuts WikiLeaks from money flow

BERLIN – Online payment service provider PayPal says in a company blog it has cut off the account used by WikiLeaks to collect donations.

The company said in a blog posting the move was prompted by a violation of its policy, "which states that our payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity."

The short notice was dated Friday, and a spokeswoman for PayPal Germany on Saturday declined to elaborate and referred to the official blog posting.

Donating money to WikiLeaks via PayPal on Saturday was not possible anymore, generating an error message saying "this recipient is currently unable to receive money."

PayPal is one of several ways WikiLeaks collects donations. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101204/ap_on_re_us/wikileaks_donations

City Workers To Get Raises on Taxpayer Dime

City Manager Rashad Young let the City Council know last week that he planned to give 155 city employees raises on Jan. 1, 2011.

This week President Barack Hussein Obama declared a moratorium on raises for civilian federal employees and is being asked by some Democratic leaders to include military employees. State employees didn't get a raise last year and have almost no chance of getting a raise this year.

In the private sector companies continue to lay off employees and use tricks like requiring employees to take furlough days – where employees cannot come to work but, unlike vacation, are not paid for those days. Being furloughed one day a month results in about a 5 percent pay cut.

The city, instead of looking at pay cuts, is giving raises and has plans to give a lot more.

The raises are preliminary to a compensation study that the City Council, by a 7-to-2 vote, approved when it authorized the 2010-2011 budget in June. The budget was primarily the work of Mayor Bill Knight and Councilmember Danny Thompson. Councilmembers Trudy Wade and Mary Rakestraw voted against the budget because of the water rate increase – which they said was unnecessary and has now been cut in half – and other items, including the $250,000 compensation study and the $200,000 diversity study. http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/Articles-c-2010-12-01-206635.112113-City-Workers-To-Get-Raises-on-Taxpayer-Dime.html

Bailey: If you think that this crap is only happening in someone else's city, try checking out the city where you live. This is happening everywhere in the country!

Federal Employees Continue to Prosper

Posted by Tad DeHaven

The Bureau of Economic Analysis has released its annual data on compensation levels by industry. The data show that the pay advantage enjoyed by federal civilian workers over private-sector workers continues to expand. This state of affairs is a thumb in the eye of the private sector, which continues to struggle with high unemployment. Many private sector employees have been forced to take pay and benefit cuts while continuing to fund generous federal employee compensation with their taxes.

Figure 1 looks at average wages. In 2009, the average wage for 1.95 million federal civilian workers was $81,258, which compared to an average $50,462 for the nation’s 101 million private sector workers (measured in full-time equivalents). The figure shows that the federal pay advantage (the gap between the lines) continued its steady increase over the past decade.http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/federal-employees-continue-to-prosper/

King: WikiLeaks Should Be Declared Terrorists

WikiLeaks, the group that released the sensitive documents on U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic policy, may end up causing the deaths of Americans and our allies through its actions. So it stands to reason that the government must do something to punish the organization. Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., the incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee calls for a strong response, The Hill reports. 

"I am calling on the attorney general and supporting his efforts to fully prosecute WikiLeaks and its founder for violating the Espionage Act. And I'm also calling on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to declare WikiLeaks a foreign terrorist organization," King told 1010 WINS radio in New York.

"By doing that, we will be able to seize their funds and go after anyone who provides them help or contributions or assistance whatsoever," King explains. "To me, they are a clear and present danger to America."

Whistleblower website Website WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks is one example of why the American people are sick and tire of the government politicians. The first time these wikileak idiots let our classified information be known to the world someone in our government should have put a stop to it! What are the people in Washington waiting for? More of our soldiers, citizens, and friends to be killed before they act on this? The guy that runs this website should be shut down and arrested for murder & treason.
It's fine and dandy to tell the world about companies or countries that are doing things to harm human beings! But when you put out information that produces the same results, it's time your website should be shut down!

Sharpton Wants FCC to Ban Limbaugh

Liberal firebrand Rev. Al Sharpton is telling audiences that the Federal Communications Commission should take Rush Limbaugh off the airwaves because of perceived offenses toward racial minorities and other groups.

The attack was only the latest in a series of attacks by Democrats, including President Obama, who suggest that America's political discourse is being crippled by talk radio and cable news shows.

Specifically, Sharpton suggested that the FCC should establish "guidelines" or "standards" to regulate speech.

"You've got to remember that those stations that Rush Limbaugh is on and others are regulated by FCC, granted by FCC; they go back to them to get waivers," Sharpton said on his own radio show on Nov. 19th

"They go back to them to get consolidation," Sharpton continued. "They have the right to set standards. That does not impair your right to speak what you believe, but it does say that you are not going to do that to offend groups of Americans based on their race, their gender, their sexual status - none of that."

Sharpton's broadside followed a similar attack last week by Sen. Jay Rockefeller. The West Virginia Democrat went after both right-leaning Fox News and left-leaning MSNBC.

Said Rockefeller during a Senate hearing: "There's a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to Fox and to MSNBC, 'Out. Off. End. Goodbye.' It would be a big favor to political discourse; to our ability to do our work here in Congress; and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and, more importantly, in their future."

And earlier this year President Obama himself lamented what he described as the sad state of political discourse hampered by iPods and cable TV shows.

"And with iPods and iPads; and Xboxes and PlayStations - none of which I know how to work - information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," Obama said during a commencement address at Hampton University in Virginia. "So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it's putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy."

Conservatives and civil libertarians are concerned by what they see as a growing tolerance by liberals to regulate and even censor the airwaves, especially as outlets like Fox News and shows like Limbaugh's grow ever more popular.

Limbaugh is the most listened to radio host in the nation with more than 15 million weekly visitors. Fox News continues to trounce its cable news rivals CNN and MSNBC in ratings.

"This is scary stuff," lamented an editorial in Investors Business Daily. "Strong speech has always been quintessentially American.

With the airwaves and cyberspace replacing soapboxes, it's more vital than ever to protect it against politicians favoring a new 'fairness doctrine' that would keep voters from being armed with the information and analysis that can be used to unseat them."

Crisis, What Crisis? Time For a New U.S. Strategy On the Korean Peninsula

North Korea assaulted its southern neighbor today, its latest act of war against U.S. treaty ally South Korea 

and fresh on the heels of news of a previously undisclosed uranium-enrichment facility. Last March, 

North Korea sank a South Korean naval vessel without provocation, killing 46 sailors.

Today’s incident involved sustained shelling of a South Korean island by Pyongyang’s military, and resulted in at least two deaths.

This is likely part of an effort by Kim Jong Il to bring the North Korean military closer to him as he works 

through the installation of family members to surround him in power and eventually succeed him. It is also 

North Korea’s tried-and-true method of scaring us back to the negotiating table, where Pyongyang has 

gotten so much largesse over the years in exchange for false promises to disarm.

The response taking shape in Washington is insufficient.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/11/23/crisis-crisis-team-obama-comes-short-korean-peninsula/#ixzz16Cm064e7

Bailey: Maybe Obama should meet with the North Korean Leader and bow down to him like he has to several of the other Communist Leaders!

Newsmax Poll: O'Reilly, Beck Could Rival Obama in Head-to-Head Presidential Race

By Jim Meyers

In a clear sign of voters’ disdain for President Barack Obama’s policies, several media personalities with no political experience, including Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck, would be within striking distance of defeating Obama in a head-to-head race, according to a new Newsmax/SurveyUSA poll.

Newsmax conducted the survey to find out how several well-known political and "dark-horse" celebrity figures, ranging from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to businessmen Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to O’Reilly and Beck, would fare if they ran against Obama for the White House.

The survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted Nov. 3-4, after Republicans won the House and gained six seats in the Senate in the midterm elections — results widely interpreted as a rejection of Obama and raising questions about his chances for re-election in 2012.

In the Newsmax poll, respondents were asked: “If there were an election for president of the United States today, and the only two names on the ballot were Bill O’Reilly and Barack Obama, whom would you vote for?” They also were asked that question with other leading media figures in place of O’Reilly.

Overall, O’Reilly got 46 percent of the vote and his fellow Fox News Channel host Beck received 45 percent.

Those percentages are remarkable considering that a prominent political figure, Sarah Palin, got 48 percent of the vote in the Newsmax poll.

O’Reilly even outpolled Obama among men with 52 percent of the vote, among Republicans (79 percent), and conservatives (82 percent).Beck tied Obama among men at 50 percent, and won among Republicans (78 percent) and conservatives (80 percent).

Both Beck and O’Reilly received 49 percent of the vote among white respondents.

Radio talk show host and former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs got 44 percent of the vote in the hypothetical head-to-head race against Obama, and top-ranked radio host Rush Limbaugh got 42 percent.

Other media personalities in the poll were “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno, who got 40 percent of the vote, Comedy Central host Jon Stewart (39 percent), and Oprah Winfrey (37 percent).

But all of the media figures in the poll, including Winfrey, defeated Obama among Republicans and conservatives.

SurveyUSA is an independent research company that conducts public opinion polls for media and academic institutions, and conducts private market research for commercial clients and nonprofit organizations.

More Voters Say No Obama Second Term: Poll

Almost half of voters say President Barack Obama doesn’t deserve a second term, and he is in a statistical tie with two top possible Republican challengers, a Quinnipiac University poll shows.

By 49 percent to 43 percent, poll respondents say Obama shouldn’t be re-elected in 2012. If a contest were held today with Republican rival Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, Obama is supported by 44 percent of those surveyed and Romney by 45 percent.

In a race with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Obama garners 46 percent to Huckabee’s 44 percent. Obama does the best in a race against former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, winning 48 percent to 40 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Palin “is very unpopular among independents, and although she recently said she thought she could defeat Obama, the data does not now necessarily support that assertion,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Hamden, Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement.

Palin responded “I believe so” when asked in an interview with Barbara Walters of ABC News whether she could defeat Obama in 2012. ABC has released portions of the interview, which is scheduled for broadcast Dec. 9.

Democrats, by 64 percent to 27 percent, say they don’t want another member of the party to challenge Obama in a primary race.

Men Less Supportive

Obama’s support lags among men, with 39 percent saying he should get a second term. Independents also disapprove, with only 35 percent saying the president should be re-elected.

“His weakness among independent voters at this point makes his 2012 election prospects uncertain,” Brown said.

Among the possible Republican contenders, Palin is viewed most negatively, with more than 50 percent of voters saying they have an unfavorable opinion of her. By comparison, 25 percent have an unfavorable opinion of Huckabee and 26 percent of Romney. Newt Gingrich of Georgia, the former Republican speaker of the House, is viewed unfavorably by 43 percent.

Obama’s approval rating is split at 48 percent favorable and 48 percent unfavorable.

The telephone poll, conducted Nov. 8-15, surveyed 2,424 registered voters nationwide.

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/voters-obama-second-term/2010/11/22/id/377734?s=al&promo_code=B290-1

Obama Says He Understands Ire Over Airport Screenings

"I understand people's frustrations," Obama said, while acknowledging that he's never had to undergo the stepped-up screening methods.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/11/20/obama-says-understands-ire-airport-screenings/


Bailey: I thought the best leader were the ones that lead by example? I think Obama and his family should go through these airport screenings like everyone else. What makes him think he's better then any other American?

one-term president

The crazy way the Democrats have been doing things in the last few years, and a lot of american voters that go right along with them make me wonder if Obama is a one-term president? Many Americans thought that we'd be seeing the last of Pelosi & Reid this last election, but they're still there and still in power! All of the Democrats that were not voted out are still pushing Obama's agenda and are still in Washington. So what is wrong with that picture?

We didn't lose the election because of me

We didn't lose the election because of me

Welcome back, Nancy

Despite 'shellacking,' Democrats re-elect Pelosi as House minority leader.


Bailey:  Remember my post yesterday morning saying if they re-elect Nancy then we could vote out the rest of the idiots in 2012?

Well guess what, SHE'S BACK!

Pelosi Expected to Remain Democratic Leader

WASHINGTON -- Despite suffering near-historic election losses this month, House Democrats appear ready to keep their leadership team intact, with Nancy Pelosi of California still on top.

Both parties will hold closed-door House leadership elections Wednesday. But the main focus will involve the soon-to-be minority party, the Democrats.

Pelosi, the nation's first female speaker, appeared to soothe enough angry colleagues Tuesday to ensure her election to the top post. Barring a surprise, she will become minority leader in January, when the new Congress convenes. The second- and third-ranking Democrats seem likely to hold their positions as well.

Republicans, meanwhile, are expected to keep Rep. John Boehner of Ohio as their leader, putting him in place to become speaker in January.

By quarreling among themselves and sticking with Pelosi, House Democrats are departing from the example set by Republicans, who quickly closed ranks around a new leader, Boehner, four years ago when they lost the majority.

Pelosi let her supporters and critics vent their emotions Tuesday at a four-hour closed meeting in the Capitol. She got an earful at times from colleagues who said a party must change leaders when it suffers the type of losses Democrats absorbed Nov. 2.

Rep. Allen Boyd of Florida was particularly pointed in his remarks, according to people present, saying Pelosi is the wrong person to represent Democrats as they try to rebuild. But others defended the San Francisco liberal, and even her toughest critics said she is likely to defeat Rep. Heath Shuler, a moderate from North Carolina.

Shuler told reporters he's trying to make a point. After a whopping election defeat, he said, it's not wise "to go back and put the exact same leadership into place."

Bailey Comment: " I hope that the Demos put Nancy back in because she and Reid are one of the reasons we voted out so many Demos."  That way when 2012 comes around we can vote the rest of the dumbcrats out!