Rush on Pres. Obama vs. The Constitution

Obama is not confronting the Republicans. He's confronting the Constitution. The Republicans are not Obama's obstacle. The Constitution is Obama's obstacle.


http://nation.foxnews.com/rush-limbaugh/2012/01/05/rush-pres-obama-vs-constitution

Cygnus_X-1

The American Dream has been stolen by the greedy elite, who can never have enough, and also the illegals, who are willing to work harder for less. The American Dream rose up out of the idea that average citizens will not be beholden to government, businesses, or elitists. Slavery was gone for a good century, but it's come back strong because of the illegals and overseas outsourcing. It's shameful what corporation do these days to make a buck.


http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/05/9974429-american-dream-or-canadian-dream

NUGENT: Pay lawmakers what they’re worth: 10 bucks

In the inescapable, common-sense world to which producers of America are hopelessly addicted and in which they proudly reside, compensation is determined by dreams, work ethic, skill, knowledge, ability, expertise, level of effort and, last but not least, results. Put that in your merciless pay pipe and suck on it till you drop, Occupiers. 

Employees who lack these most basic of work characteristics are tossed out on their lame rears in short order, as it should be; that is, unless you are a member of Congress, where dismal performance is richly rewarded.

Congress routinely earns around a 10 percent approval rating by the American public, which is being generous. Zero approval would be more appropriate once you begin to understand how our professional political punks have wrecked America through gross ignorance or with willful, fraudulent intent, just to get re-elected. 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/2/pay-lawmakers-what-theyre-worth-10-bucks/

Nobody Understands Debt

In 2011, as in 2010, America was in a technical recovery but continued to suffer from disastrously high unemployment. And through most of 2011, as in 2010, almost all the conversation in Washington was about something else: the allegedly urgent issue of reducing the budget deficit.
This misplaced focus said a lot about our political culture, in particular about how disconnected Congress is from the suffering of ordinary Americans. But it also revealed something else: when people in D.C. talk about deficits and debt, by and large they have no idea what they’re talking about — and the people who talk the most understand the least. Read more at Link below
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/opinion/krugman-nobody-understands-debt.html?_r=1

Happy New Year!

Pelosi's $10,000-a-Night Vacation

President Barack Obama is not the only VIP to be spending his holidays in exclusive islands in Hawaii. 

While the president and his family are on a 17-day holiday vacation in beach front homes in Kailua, Oahu, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is spending her Christmas at the exotic Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Ka'upulehu in Kona, reports the Hawaii Reporter.The California Democrat's suite, which she has rented for the past two Christmases, goes for a whopping $10,000 a night. Pelosi has been escorted by local police during her two visits, at a cost of $34,000 to local taxpayers, the Reporter says.

Bailey: It takes the average working American almost three and a half months to make ten thousand dollars.

Pelosi has many friends in Hawaii, including Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, whom she supported during his successful campaign for governor in 2010. 

Obama’s trip to the island of Oahu is much higher. Last week, the Reporter added up the total cost of his vacation to be more than $4 million.

Read more on Newsmax.com: Pelosi's $10,000-a-Night Vacation
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!

Merry Christmas !

Despite surplus gasoline, fuel prices increase

Fuel prices continue to rise, even though America has more gasoline and diesel fuel than it can use. CBS News' Bill Whitaker explains why.

L.A. small businessman Peter Adeli had a good idea: keep shipping costs down by loading many small shipments under one big truck. But now he's being hit not by the recession, but high fuel costs. His trucks run on diesel.

"It costs about $160 to fill up the tanks in 2009," he said. "Now in 2011, it's costing over $350 to fill up the tanks on one truckload."

He can't afford to hire more workers and expand his business. This year the average American household will spend a record $4,155 on gasoline. Adeli says he'll spend about $98,000 on fuel.

"I can't understand why the prices increased so much," he said, "even though the national economy and business overall have not picked up."

Yet for the first time in 62 years, the U.S. will export more refined petroleum products -- gasoline and diesel -- than it imports.

"It's preposterous," said Adeli. "It's ridiculous."

In the first nine months of this year, the U.S. exported a net 64 million barrels of gas and diesel -- enough to run America's engines for a week. With the U.S. economy in the doldrums, we're using less fuel. Gasoline, and especially diesel from American refineries, is following demand -- flowing to growing economies in Central and South America.

Tom Kloza is chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.

"Right now across the globe, it's the product that refiners can make the most money on, and it's the product that's in the most demand in emerging economies," he said.

"Those exports should be staying here in America, keeping our prices low," Adeli argued.

It's unlikely to get better for Adeli in 2012. Gasoline and diesel are expected to stay above $3 a gallon.

More at Link below:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57346678/despite-surplus-gasoline-fuel-prices-increase/

Fraud remains a way of life for liberals.

There are a lot of good names for the Democrats and the liberals.  Calling them the Party of Treason is a good start.  Calling them the Party of Surrender is also accurate.   Perhaps the best is calling them the Party of Fraud and Corruption.

Why is this name for them so accurate?

Because fraud is a way of life for the Democrats and the liberals.

In Indiana, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may well have gotten on the ballot fraudulently.   Of course, Barack Obama’s Department of Justice has no interest in investigating voter fraud.  They have much more important things to do, like suing states that want to protect themselves against illegal aliens.

Hundreds of signatures for the petitions filed for both Obama and Clinton in the Democratic Primary may have been forged.  The result is Obama may not have been legally on the ballot for the primary in Indiana. 

If Obama was not legally on the ballot in Indiana, what other states was he not legally on the ballot?  How many other states had fraudulent petitions filed for Obama and Clinton?

For the left, election fraud is not something of the long forgotten past or even four years ago. 

Politico, the left leaning newspaper and website, reported that in Wisconsin, petitions are being signed by liberals with such names as Mickey Mouse and Adolf Hitler.   The Hitler signature was struck because the signer also listed his residence as Berlin, Germany.  However, the Mickey Mouse signature will stand unless it is challenged.

Wisconsin is a huge battle for the left and they know it.   Scott Walker has done an amazing job of dismantling the money machine the left uses to fund itself.   Unions use an insurance monopoly that is negotiated by the State to reap huge profits, which are in turn funneled back into campaigns to put more liberals into office. 

 http://www.teapartynation.com/forum/topics/fraud-remains-a-way-of-life-for-liberals

Democrats find their bogeyman

Democrats' flagship campaign theme for Nov. 2012 has emerged in full force in recent weeks.

It's this: Behind all our nation's economic problems -- from abysmal unemployment numbers to sky-high deficits -- lurks a greedy businessman.

This guy is ruining things for the rest of us. He refuses to play by the rules, and lives in luxury while "the 99 percent" suffer.

Who's facilitating his misdeeds? Unprincipled Republicans, who fawningly enable the machinations of their "tax-cut-at-any-price" masters in the private sector.

This message -- now rising from many "progressive" quarters -- is a far cry from "the politics of hope" that dominated the last presidential campaign.

Democrats' businessman-as-bogeyman theme takes a variety of forms. We can see them on display in recent remarks by three of its champions: President Obama; Elizabeth Warren, who's challenging Scott Brown for a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts, and Minnesota's own Gov. Mark Dayton.

Obama's need to finger businesspeople for America's economic plight is clear. In his first year as president, though he blamed George W. Bush for the nation's economic downturn, Obama assured us his own progressive policies would soon put things right and guarantee a shining future.

Now the cat is out of the bag. Obama's policies -- the gargantuan, failed stimulus; out-of-control spending; Obamacare and other huge expansions of government, and an out-of-control regulatory state -- not only failed to extricate us from economic stagnation, but made our problems far worse.

So Obama has turned to Plan B. To divert attention from his own failed policies, he's conjured up a hobgoblin.

In his recent speech at Osawatomie, Kan., the president fired a salvo in his new class-warfare campaign: The top 1 percent must stop cheating the rest of us and pay their "fair share." The "breathtaking greed of a few" is destroying the middle class.

While Obama's goal is to divert attention from his own failures, Warren offers a different flavor of "us vs. them" politics. In her world, the wealthy are not so much greedy cheaters as ungrateful dependents on a government funded by the middle class. Read More at Link Below:

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/135762258.html

Million-Dollar Nurses Show U.S. Payroll Struggle

California (BCAX) has paid Lina Manglicmot $1.5 million since 2005, an average of $253,530 a year, to work as a prison nurse in the agricultural town of Soledad.

Manglicmot is one of 42 state nurses who each made more than $1 million in those six years, mostly by tapping overtime, according to payroll data compiled by Bloomberg News. Together, those nurses collected $47.5 million. In 2008, Manglicmot was paid $331,346, including $211,257 in overtime.

The extra pay that allows some nurses to triple their regular compensation underscores a broader trend in California, where government workers are paid more than in other states for similar duties and civil-service job protections hamper efforts to close budget gaps. Governor Jerry Brown said this week that revenue will fall short of expectations, triggering $1 billion in cuts to school busing, libraries and care for children, the elderly and the disabled, among other programs. Read more at Link below:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-16/million-dollar-nurses-show-california-s-struggle-to-reduce-payroll-costs.html

Poll: Most want US payroll tax cut extended

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans want Congress to vote to continue the payroll tax reduction, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll that comes as Democrats and Republicans wrestle over whether to extend the cut through 2012.

It's the latest instance in which lawmakers on Capitol Hill have allowed partisan sniping to hold up action that polls show most Americans support, like ending the Bush tax cuts or adding a surcharge on millionaires.

The dragged-out debate over whether to extend an expiring payroll tax reduction is one of many developments that have kept voters furious with their leaders all year. On the brink of the 2012 presidential and congressional elections, virtually all Americans are disappointed and frustrated with the political scene and nearly 6 in 10 say they are angry, the AP-GfK survey showed.

"It seems like there are parties that only want to get their agenda done," said liquor store owner James Jacobsen, 47, of East Hartford, Conn. "They're catering to special interests and not Americans. They are not representing the individual American."

Nearly 6 in 10 respondents say they want Congress to pass the extension, according to the poll. Letting the Social Security payroll tax break expire would cost a family making $50,000 about $1,000.

Yet, Republicans and Democrats are rejecting each other's proposals and trying to make law from what's left, a tactic they've used all year on debates over the budget and the nation's debt. The stalemates have caused a decline in confidence. About 15 percent of all adults and a third of political independents say they don't trust either party to manage the federal budget deficit.

Retired postal worker Larry Collier wishes Congress would get on with what help it can give — an assurance to 160 million American workers that their payroll tax cut will be extended through 2012.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hE_EDIjvNPP6yg5ccTd70qodCUsg?docId=0cda0a90cda1407f83d4de83a0e83e01

Do We Need Big Government?

Government payouts now account for more than a third of all wages and salaries in the United States. Worse, if one includes government employees’ salaries, more than half of Americans receive a substantial portion of their income from the government. The government provides welfare to the poor, of course — 126 separate anti-poverty programs. But it also provides corporate welfare to the rich. The Cato Institute estimates that the federal government provides at least $92 billion in direct grants and subsidies to businesses each year. It even provides regular welfare to the rich. According to a new report from Sen. Tom Coburn, 2,362 millionaires received unemployment benefits in 2009.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/285713/do-we-need-big-government-michael-tanner

Crossroads GPS

http://www.crossroadsgps.org/

The US government pays its staff NOT to work

WASHINGTON—As Congress looks for ways to cut its $1.3 trillion deficit, the federal government is paying its employees $137 million a year not to work for Uncle Sam. Not working. That’s right. The Office of Personnel Management reports that taxpayers paid Federal workers over $137 million in 2010 to work as representatives for government unions, up from $129 million in 2009.

The time that union representatives spend not working for taxpayers is labeled 'official time' by OPM. According to the report, 'Official time is time spent by Federal employees performing representational work for a bargaining unit in lieu of their regularly assigned work.' Under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, this is perfectly legal.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2071716/The-US-government-pays-staff-NOT-work.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

More Than 60% of Americans Support Congressional Pay Cut, Say Congress Should Work

In a year where the U.S. congress has a record-low approval rating, it is perhaps to no surprise to many that a majority of voters say congressional lawmakers should have their salaries cut, their pensions eliminated, and be required to spend more time on Capitol Hill, according to a new poll from The Hill.One thing is for sure -- Americans across the country believe the U.S. Congress need to have their salary and benefits reflect their disappointing job performance. Sixty-seven percent of respondents said the $174,000 base salary for Congress should be lowered, while 69 percent said congressional lawmakers' pensions should be discontinued and another 64 percent said they should be required to work more days each year.  
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/262323/20111206/60-americans-support-congressional-pay-cut-say.htm

Must be Nice

China Rejects U.S. Ruling on Solar Imports

China said a preliminary ruling by a U.S. trade panel that imports of Chinese solar panels are harming the domestic industry shows the country’s “inclination to trade protectionism.”

The U.S. International Trade Commission on Dec. 2 took the first step toward imposing added tariffs on Chinese solar imports, voting unanimously in Washington on a petition by Bonn- based SolarWorld AG (SWV) that called for antidumping and countervailing duties. The commission will now hold a full investigation.

“The ruling was made without sufficient evidence showing U.S. solar panel industry has been harmed,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its website yesterday. The decision was taken “regardless of defense opinions from Chinese firms, as well as opposition from the U.S. domestic industries and other stakeholders, which prominently shows the U.S.’s strong inclination to trade protectionism and for which China is deeply concerned.”

The Chinese government uses cash grants, raw-materials discounts, preferential loans, tax incentives and currency manipulation to boost exports of solar cells, according to SolarWorld’s Oct. 19 complaint to the ITC and the U.S. Commerce Department. SolarWorld, a maker of solar modules, is seeking duties to offset the practices.

US jobs report: No relief from mass unemployment

The US employment report for November, released Friday by the Labor Department, was hailed by the Obama White House as a significant improvement. In fact, the report shows that the US economy remains mired in mass unemployment, with conditions deteriorating for employed and unemployed workers alike.

The survey concluded that the US economy recorded a net gain of 120,000 jobs last month, below the number of new jobs needed to keep pace with the monthly growth of the population. Previous post-recession recoveries typically saw monthly payroll gains of 200,000–300,000.

The Labor Department revised upward its earlier figures for job growth in September and October, adding a total of 72,000 jobs for the two months. The October figure was raised from 80,000 to 100,000 and the September figure from 158,000 to 210,000.

While the official unemployment rate fell from 9 percent for October to 8.6 percent for November, the drop was largely due to a mass exodus of long-term unemployed and discouraged workers from the labor force. Unemployed workers who have not looked for a job for more than a month are not considered part of the labor force. Thus the staggering labor force decline of 315,000 last month is a more accurate reflection of the social impact of protracted mass unemployment than a net job gain nearly 200,000 lower than the labor force contraction.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/econ-d03.shtml

Health Care for a Changing Work Force

Big institutions are often slow to awaken to major social transformations. Microsoft was famously late to grasp the importance of the Internet. American auto manufacturers were slow to identify the demand for fuel-efficient cars. And today, the United States government is making a similar mistake: it still doesn’t seem to recognize that Americans no longer work the way they used to.

Today, some 42 million people — about a third of the United States work force — do not have jobs in the traditional sense. They fall into a catchall category the government calls “contingent” workers. These people — independent contractors, freelancers, temp workers, part-timers, people between jobs — typically work on a project-to-project basis for a variety of clients, and most are outcasts from the traditional system of benefits that provide economic security to Americans. Even as the economy has changed, employment benefits are still based on an outdated industrial-era model in which workers are expected to stay with a single company for years, if not their whole careers.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/01/health-care-for-a-changing-work-force/

Boehner Sees ‘Hell of a Lot Worse’ Economy Without Deficit Deal

House Speaker John Boehner today warned that the U.S. economy will get “a hell of a lot worse” if Congress fails to address the country’s long-term debt woes, but he acknowledged that Republicans and Democrats must “find more common ground if we’re going to be successful.”

“I’m never going to give up on making the changes necessary to get our deficit and our debt under control because if we don’t the future for our kids and grandkids is going to be pretty bleak,” Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters today in Washington. “If you look at what happened with the supercommittee, it’s not a whole lot different than what happened in the conversations between President Obama and myself and Senator Reid and Senator McConnell and myself later in the summer.  There’s got to be a balance to this if it’s going to happen, [but] both of our views of what is balanced still have room between us.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/boehner-sees-worse-economy-without-deficit-deal/

For real change, Occupiers must reject Obama

There’s only one way the Occupy Wall Street movement can become like the tea parties, and that’s for Barack Obama to lose in 2012. Why? Because Obama is the most divisive figure in American politics today.
I suspect that sentence reads funny to some people because in the mainstream press, “divisive” is usually a term reserved for “conservatives we disagree with.” But as a factual matter it can apply to anybody who is, well, divisive.
Obviously, Obama divides the right and left. That’s not all that interesting or relevant (even if it does represent a failure to live up to his “one America” rhetoric from 2008). But Obama also divides everyone else. Independents, whom he desperately needs to win re-election, are split over Obama, with the bulk siding with Republicans.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg?articleid=1376923