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By Robert J. Samuelson
Opinion Writer
Dec. 25, 2011
There are moments when our political system, whose essential job is to mediate conflicts in broadly acceptable and desirable ways, is simply not up to the task. It fails. This may be one of those moments. What we learned in 2011 is that the frustrating and confusing budget debate may never reach a workable conclusion. It may continue indefinitely until it’s abruptly ended by a severe economic or financial crisis that wrenches control from elected leaders.
We are shifting from “giveaway politics” to “takeaway politics.” Since World War II, presidents and Congresses have been in the enviable position of distributing more benefits to more people without requiring ever-steeper taxes. Now this governing formula no longer works, and politicians face the opposite: taking away — reducing benefits or raising taxes significantly — to prevent government deficits from destabilizing the economy. It is not clear that either Democrats or Republicans can navigate the change.
Our political system has failed before. Conflicts that could not be resolved through debate, compromise and legislation were settled in more primitive and violent ways. The Civil War was the greatest and most tragic failure; leaders couldn’t end slavery peacefully. In our time, the social protests and disorders of the 1960s — the civil rights and antiwar movements and urban riots — almost overwhelmed the political process. So did double-digit inflation, peaking at 13 percent in 1979 and 1980, which for years defied efforts to control it. Read more…
So what was the federal government’s biggest “oops” moment of the year? The readers have spoken.
With more than 7,500 votes cast, readers of The Federal Eye believe that new reports of federal waste — erroneous payments to dead people, fraud tied to the economic stimulus program and lax oversight of tax cuts, among other examples — were the biggest mistake or concern across the federal government in 2011.
Close on its heels, readers said the “Fast and Furious” scandal still unfolding at the Justice Department should rank second, followed by the multiple threats of a government shutdown amid disagreements over federal spending. And while we initially gave readers 11 choices to choose from, a reader-submitted suggestion managed to top several others: Readers believe that the Defense Department’s decision to move thousands of employees to the new Mark Center office complex in Northern Virginia — a facility with insufficient parking and public transportation options — was the government’s fifth-biggest mistake of the year. Read more…
Posted: December 23, 2011
By Aaron Klein
© 2011 WND
But stated aim of his new position is ‘keeping business in America’
President Obama’s new manufacturing czar, John Bryson, served until his recent government appointment as chairman of a major globalist organization whose stated goal is to build a “network of globally oriented business, civic and government leaders.”
That internationalist intent may conflict with the announced purpose of Obama’s new White House Office of Manufacturing Policy, which says its aim is to keep businesses in America.
In the statement announcing the new manufacturing office, Obama declared last week: “At this make or break time for the middle class and our economy, we need a strong manufacturing sector that will put Americans back to work making products stamped with three proud words: Made in America.”
Obama tapped Bryson and National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling to head the new Manufacturing Policy office.
Bryson was appointed in June as commerce secretary.
WND broke the story in September that Bryson served as chairman of the board of a solar energy company, BrightSource Energy,that recently received a $1.37 billion federal loan guarantee – the largest the Department of Energy has ever given to a solar power project.
WND reported in June that Bryson co-founded an environmental activist group that is a member and funder of the controversial Apollo Alliance.
Apollo is run by a slew of socialists and radicals, including Jeff Jones, a founder of the Weather Underground domestic terrorist organization. Jones himself boasts of doing work for the environmental group founded by Bryson, the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Until his appointment as commerce secretary in June, Bryson served as co-chairman of the Pacific Council on International Policy, a globalist organization whose members can be found throughout the Obama administration.
Besides his position at BrightSource, which he vacated when he was selected as Obama’s Commerce pick, Bryson is the former chairman, chief executive officer and president of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison.
He serves on the U.N. secretary-general’s advisory group on energy and climate change and as co-chairman of the globalist PCIP, a partner of the Council on Foreign Relations. Read more…
Keeper
I grew up in the 40s/50s with practical parents. A mother, God love her, who washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused it. She was the original recycle queen, before they had a Name for it. A father who was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones.
Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress, lawn mower in one hand, and dish-towel in the other. It was the time for fixing things. A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep.
It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, eating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there’d always be more.
But then my mother died, and on that clear summer’s night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn’t any more. Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away, never to return. So, while we have it, it’s best we love it and care for it and fix it when it’s broken and heal it when it’s sick.
This is true for marriage and old cars and children with bad report cards and dogs with bad hips and aging parents and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it. Some things we keep. Like a best friend that moved away or a classmate we grew up with.
There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special. And so, we keep them close!
Good friends are like stars: You don’t always see them, but you know they are always there. Keep them close!
The Associated Press
Arizona Daily Star | December 24, 2011 12:00 am
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Justice Department on Friday rejected South Carolina’s law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, saying it makes it harder for minorities to cast ballots. It was the first voter ID law to be refused by the federal agency in nearly 20 years.
The Obama administration said South Carolina’s law didn’t meet the burden under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discriminatory practices preventing blacks from voting. Tens of thousands of minorities in South Carolina might not be able to cast ballots under South Carolina’s law because they don’t have the right photo ID, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez said.
South Carolina’s law was passed by a Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by GOP Gov. Nikki Haley. The state’s attorney general vowed to fight the federal agency in court.
“Nothing in this act stops people from voting,” said Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is also a Republican.
South Carolina’s new voter ID law requires voters to show poll workers a state-issued driver’s license or several other alternative forms of photo identification. Read more…
Capt. Karl P. Koenigs
M&M Sons and Daughters of Liberty
December 22, 2011
My prognostication is that our Government nor The FED will let our economy just simply collapse. I have economic history to propose that The FED will produce so many QEs (quantitative easings) and seed Wall Street and crony Banks and corporations in the next few months that we have only a few months left until the Dow hits close to 16,000 and employment skyrockets. At that point we are going to experience a sudden hyperinflationary collapse of our currency to an extent and effect never before experienced in history, including Weimar Republic – Germany, Zimbabwe, Argentina, Russia and all of the rest of the “fall of nations”. All of this will happen BEFORE the election. Why do you think Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act “behind closed doors”! Go figure!
Wake UP and buy long term storage food, water and other supplies NOW! Food, water, heat and necessary supplies are their primary weapon against Freedom; to compel all of you to comply and acquiesce to the “final ultimatum” to march into the U.N. Agenda 21 designated cities for food, water, shelter and a job of perpetual slavery with nowhere on earth to run from the IRS or the One World Government, and One World Currency, which “they” will claim is for our own good.
I have been writing about the economics and ‘history’ of this since 2005.
Since The People do not “WANT” to talk about economics, world history, The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence and most importantly the Creator who made American Freedom possible, nor do anything about our plight through the power of enlightenment and peaceful resolve by the confluence of Unity, now we are going to have to deal with martial law BEFORE the election. Read more…
Dr. Laurie Roth
December 21, 2011
Canada Free Press
Understand how Marxism and ‘change’ from the Obama empire work. The US must be brought down low, her wealth taken and redistributed, then forced to submit on multiple levels to Obama, the UN, national and international Military.
There is nothing naive or inexperienced about Obama in critical areas of importance that would affect his goals. He is most calculated and backed by his handlers, namely, global elitists and Islam. He has surrounded himself with total secrecy, paid millions to hide all his records, from birth, passport, College records…on and on. You name it, it is hidden from view.
How can any real American watching even from the outfield not reel in horror at what is going on day after day at the hands of this President? I beg America, don’t be a frog and boil to death! Be an American, rise up, organize, pray, march in the streets and join the Tea Party. Demand that patriots and constitutionalists get in the House, Senate and White House in 2012. We don’t have time for depression or fear. We are in the battle of our lifetime and the world depends on us winning, and so do our kids.
Obama is a destruction machine and playing ‘rules for radicals’ perfectly.
Whoever dares run for the office of President, and I as an outsider, I dare, must know that they aren’t running against another Democrat and liberal, but a complete liar and enemy to capitalism, our constitution, our freedoms, our Judeo Christian values and leadership in the world. Not only must they know who Obama is and the danger he represents to America but they must stand in front of America, defending her and confronting Obama with full force. I will. Read more…
Border apprehensions with Mexico were down 53% in the fiscal year ended September 30 from the previous three year period. This announcement came jointly from the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense. The statistics apparently are emboldening the White House to reduce the number of National Guard troops assigned to patrol the US border with Mexico, and instead increase drone surveillance from the air. The administration also recently announced that it would have unmanned border checkpoints run by a camera and a computer. This White House has been reluctant to protect the US border, and is now using its reluctance to increase use of spy technology.
That border apprehensions were down does not mean success in protecting the border. The question needs to be asked if they are down because there are less illegals crossing or is the stark reduction a result of a dismal lack of protecting the border as a matter of policy. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates there are some 11.2 million illegals in the US. The number of illegals in federal, state and local prisons and jails in 2010 totaled 351,000, and most of them were from Mexico. The Government Accountability Office estimates that 50% of illegals in federal prison were sentenced for immigration and drug offenses, 40% were convicted as a result of terrorism-related investigations. Read more…
By Michael A. Memoli
December 19, 2011, 1:50 p.m.
www.latimes.com
Is Sarah Palin flirting with the presidential race again? Might Jeb Bush be the GOP’s white knight? And shouldn’t Democrats give Hillary Rodham Clinton another chance?
‘Tis the season. The silly season, that is, at least as far as the race for the White House goes.
With just two weeks before we finally see votes cast in the 2012 race, it seems some just refuse to accept that the field of candidates is settled.
Among them, apparently, is Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee.
Palin was asked in an interview set to air this evening on the Fox Business Network whether it was too late for her to consider running for president next year.
“It’s not too late for folks to jump in. Who knows what will happen in the future,” she said, according to an advanced copy of her remarks.
Palin is a paid contributor to the Fox cable news networks, and is reportedly trying to land another reality show deal.
Donald Trump already has a reality show, and coincidentally refuses to rule out his own candidacy as an independent if he is unhappy with the ultimate Republican choice. He’s gone on just about every news show willing to book him to say so.
From the conspicuous timing department comes Jeb Bush. As polls show that Newt Gingrich, the most recent GOP frontrunner, appears to have lost some steam, the former Florida governor has penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that has some Republicans hoping it’s a sign that he is now leaving the door open after having definitively ruled out the possibility.
“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?” Bush asks.
“Can you still get on the ballot in enough states to spare us from Mitt Romney?” some Republicans can be heard asking back.
But Republicans aren’t alone in such flirtations. In a Politico op-ed, pollsters for two former Democratic presidents call on voters in New Hampshire to write-in Clinton’s name in the state’s Jan. 10 primary.
“Clinton pulled off a stunning New Hampshire primary victory over Obama during the 2008 primaries. There is every reason to believe that, as a write-in candidate, she would get a substantial number of votes in the Granite State next year,” Patrick Caddell, who worked for Jimmy Carter, and Douglas Schoen, a former Bill Clinton pollster, wrote.
Schoen is now also working for Americans Elect, an effort that seeks to land an independent candidate on the general election ballot.
These whimsical notions come as most Americans say they just can’t wait for the election to end. A Gallup survey found that just 26% of respondents can’t wait for the campaign to begin, while 70% say they can’t wait for it to be over. Independents and seniors tended to be the most eager to see the election come and go.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Taking a stand Part 1: How its done in Texas
Over 5,000 people gathered together at high noon in Athens, Texas Saturday. They were not protesting. They were not the Occupy Wall Street movement. They were not the TEA Party. They were men, women and children who were taking a stand for the values of their community. And they were joined by others around the state who share their values. They were showing support for the local judge and officials who kept a nativity scene on display at the Henderson County Courthouse after an anti-religion, anti-American group out of Wisconsin called “Freedom From Religion Foundation” sent a letter to Athens officials demanding their atheist banner be displayed along side the nativity.
Athens is a small town of some 13,000 people. The nativity scene has been on display each Christmas season for more than ten years. Henderson County Commissioner Joe Hall told WFAA of Dallas, “I’m an old country boy, you come to my house looking for a fight, you’re going to get one. That’s from the bottom of my heart. We’ll remove it when hell freezes over. It’s not going to happen.” Freedom From Religion has on its Board of Directors Ronald Reagan, Jr., an activist for homosexual rights and atheist son of the former president, and Michael Newdow, who has failed at several attempts to get the Supreme Court to remove the phrase “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. Read more…
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