Archive for the ‘Federal’ Category

from Center for Bio-Ethical Reform
http://www.abortionno.org/abortion_no.html

The AbortionNO web project is an animated presentation of the most compelling, anti-abortion arguments and images on the internet.AbortionNO mixes scientific fact, historical examination, and contemporary analysis with the most sobering 1st trimester and 2nd trimester abortion images in existence.

WARNING: Abortion is an act of violence that kills a baby. CBR’s site graphically depicts that reality.

CBR (Center for Bio-Ethical Reform) (and the RPMC) condemns all abortion related violence and will not associate with groups or individuals who fail to condemn such violence.

By Michael O’Brien, thehill.com, 8/30/2010

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said he plans to introduce legislation next year to force an audit of U.S. holdings of gold.

Paul, a longtime critic of the Federal Reserve and U.S. monetary policy, said he believes it’s “a possibility” that there might not actually be any gold in the vaults of Fort Knox or the New York Federal Reserve bank.

The libertarian lawmaker told Kitco News, a website tracking news about precious metals, that an audit was necessary to determine how much the U.S. maintains in gold reserves in case the government were to use gold to back the dollar.

“If there was no question about the gold being there, you think they would be anxious to prove gold is there,” he said.

“Our Federal Reserve admits to nothing, and they should prove all the gold is there. There is a reason to be suspicious and even if you are not suspicious why wouldn’t you have an audit?

“I think it is a possibility,” Paul said when asked if there was truth to rumors that there was actually no gold at Ft. Knox or the New York Fed.

Read more at http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/116341-ron-paul-plans-bill-to-audit-us-gold-reserves

by Andrea Tantaros, NY Daily News, 8/26/2010

George W. Bush has been the presidential equivalent of a punching bag. Before he left office, he was vilified for the war in the Middle East, the credit crisis and the housing crisis. Democrats ran against his persona and policies in the 2008 election and successfully painted the Republican nominee for President, Arizona Sen. John McCain, as his Doppelganger.

He was radioactive, and even Republicans viewed him as such. But these days, though he’s seemingly blamed for everything but bad weather by the left, Bush is making a comeback. As President Obama’s approval numbers slide, people are starting to see the man they once laughed at and loathed isn’t looking so bad.

Start with the economy. For all the finger-pointing backward, a Rasmussen survey released Aug. 3 shows that slightly more Americans, 48% of voters, now believe that Obama’s policies are to blame for the dour economy than the 47% who fault Bush.

Read more at http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/columnists/tantaros/index.html#ixzz0xvMjKldt

By Adam Cohen, Time magazine via Yahoo, Aug 26, 2010

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn’t violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway - and no reasonable expectation that the government isn’t tracking your movements.

That is the bizarre - and scary - rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants - with no need for a search warrant. (See a TIME photoessay on Cannabis Culture.)

It is a dangerous decision - one that, as the dissenting judges warned, could turn America into the sort of totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell. It is particularly offensive because the judges added insult to injury with some shocking class bias: the little personal privacy that still exists, the court suggested, should belong mainly to the rich.

–SNIP– Plenty of liberals have objected to this kind of spying, but it is the conservative Chief Judge Kozinski who has done so most passionately. “1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it’s here at last,” he lamented in his dissent. And invoking Orwell’s totalitarian dystopia where privacy is essentially nonexistent, he warned: “Some day, soon, we may wake up and find we’re living in Oceania.”

Read more at http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599201315000

Join Congressman Paul Ryan, U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson and other Republican candidates for office at this Patriotic Rally at Serb Hall. Be in on the final push to take back our country and state. No refunds will be given unless the event is canceled.

Friday, October 22, 2010 at 5:30 PM

Location: American Serb Hall
5101 W. Oklahoma Av
Milwaukee, WI 53219

Coordinator: Rose Ann Dieck (414-421-9337)

Registration Options
$100 - Individual
$200 - Couple
$250 - Host - 2 tix with photo
$500 - Host - 4 tix with photo
$1,000 - Host - 10 per table with group photo

Sign up for this event at https://secure.yourpatriot.com/ou/rpmc/190/714/eventsignup.aspx

mms://71.87.25.133/ivod/cpn/CPN_100823_SEBRING.wmv

Dan Sebring for Congress (campaign website) http://dansebringforcongress.com

by Thomas Sowell, August 24, 2010

There is so much political spin, and so many numbers games being played, when it comes to medical care, that we have to go back to square one and the simplest common sense, in order to get some rational idea of what government-run medical care means. In particular, we need to examine the claim that the government can “bring down the cost of medical care.”

The most basic fact is that it is cheaper to remain sick than to get medical treatment. What is cheapest of all is to die instead of getting life-saving medications and treatment, which can be very expensive.

Despite these facts, most of us tend to take a somewhat more parochial view of the situation when it is we ourselves who are sick or who face a potentially fatal illness. But what if that decision is taken out of your hands under ObamaCare and is being made for you by a bureaucrat in Washington?

We won’t know what that leads to until the time comes. As Nancy Pelosi said, we will find out what is in the bill after it has passed. But even now, after ObamaCare has been passed, not many people want to read its 2,400 pages. Even if you did, you would still not know what it would be like in practice, after more than 150 boards and commissions issue their specific regulations.

Read more at http://www.creators.com/conservative/thomas-sowell/medical-care-facts-and-fables.html

By Bob Ivry, bloomberg.com, Aug 23, 2010

An appeals court refused to reconsider a decision compelling the Federal Reserve Board to release documents identifying banks that might have failed without the U.S. government bailout.

The full U.S. Court of Appeals in New York, in a docket entry dated Aug. 20, denied a May 4 request by the Fed to review a three-judge panel’s unanimous March 19 decision requiring the agency to release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program begun primarily after the 2008 collapse of Bear Stearns Cos.

Unless the court stays its decision, the Fed will have seven days to disclose the documents. In the event of a stay, the central bank and the Clearing House Association LLC, an organization of 20 commercial banks that joined the Fed in defense of the lawsuit, will have 90 days to petition the Supreme Court to consider their appeal. The Clearing House has already said it will ask the high court to rule on the case.

Read more at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-23/u-s-appeals-court-refuses-to-review-disclosure-ruling-on-fed-bailouts.html

Join Dan Sebring, Republican candidate
In Wisconsin’s 4th Congressional District
for a brewery tour and meet/greet

on Sunday, August 22nd at 1:00 pm
at Sprecher Brewery, 701 W. Glendale Avenue, Glendale WI

Cost is $20 per person and includes tour, beer and soda sampling, raffles and giveaways.
Come out and support Dan as he takes on Gwen Moore in the upcoming fall election!

Tickets are advance sale only and will not be available the day of the event.
When the 1 pm time slot is full, there will be an additional 2 pm tour time available, based on advance sales.

For more information on Dan, please visit  http://www.dansebringforcongress.com/
Call (414) 321-3605 or email info@dansebringforcongress.com with questions.

Its been five months since Obamacare was passed.

Let’s work for REAL change on Tuesday November 2, 2010

Join the Republican Party of Milwaukee County (RPMC), fellow Republicans and conservatives for a fundraiser to benefit Ron Johnson in his campaign against Senator Feingold for the U.S. Senate.

At the Bavarian Inn, 700 W. Lexington Ave., Glendale, WI 53217
on Friday August 20, from 5:30pm to 9:00pm.

$30 per person, $60 per couple, $75 (single with a photo of Ron)

Host: $125 (2 tickets an a photo), $250 (4 tickets and a photo), $500 (8 tickets and a photo)

All of the above tickets include a light supper. Cash Bar.

Register online at https://secure.yourpatriot.com/ou/rpmc/190/713/eventsignup.aspx

For further information, call the RPMC at 414-727-1220.

No refunds will be given unless the event is canceled.

PDF flyer is at  http://milwaukee.wisgop.info/files/2010/08/ron-johnson-fundraiser-ltr-with-band-1.pdf

by Kerry Picket, Washington Times, August 17, 2010

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, called for an investigation of those who are protesting the building of the Ground Zero Mosque on Tuesday. She told San Francisco’s KCBS radio:

AUDIO at http://cbskcbsam.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/pelosi-on-mosque.mp3

“There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some. And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded,” she said. “How is this being ginned up that here we are talking about Treasure Island, something we’ve been working on for decades, something of great interest to our community as we go forward to an election about the future of our country and two of the first three questions are about a zoning issue in New York City.”

(h/t Kristinn)
Calls to investigate the funding for those proposing the $100 million “Cordoba House” have fallen on deaf ears, though, as New York’s Mayor Mike Bloomberg has described such an investigation as “un-American.”

Read more at  http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2010/aug/17/audio-rep-pelosi-calls-investigation-wtc-mosque-op/

By Cong. Paul Ryan, Washington Post, August 13, 2010

The annual analysis of Medicare’s financial health released by the program’s trustees on Aug. 5 led some Democrats to claim that Medicare’s imminent bankruptcy has been delayed, thanks to the creation of their health entitlement program. Only in Washington could the government raid one entitlement program to finance a brand-new one and still claim that deficits have been reduced and entitlements have been reformed.

The trustees’ report compares the revenue that supports Medicare’s trust funds with the program’s planned expenditures. Last year’s report revealed a $38 trillion shortfall over the next 75 years. This year the shortfall appears to have decreased, but only after the Democrats’ health bill cut $529 billion from Medicare. This apparent improvement was the basis for Democratic celebration — even though the program remains tens of trillions of dollars in the hole.

With the same legislation that cut more than half a trillion dollars in Medicare spending, the Democrats created a nearly $1 trillion health-care entitlement. The Obama administration’s own chief actuary has explained that in addition to the dubious assumptions on provider cuts and other claims of savings, the health-care law’s Medicare cuts cannot be used to both reduce Medicare’s unfunded obligations and pay for a new entitlement. And the Congressional Budget Office said in March that the health-care overhaul’s Medicare savings “would be used to pay for other spending and therefore would not enhance the ability of the government to pay for future Medicare benefits.”

Put simply, Medicare is on course to collapse. Medicare and interest on the national debt alone will soon overwhelm the federal budget, crowding out all other national priorities.

Read more at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/12/AR2010081204918.html

There are a lot of good Republicans campaigning this fall.

Find a campaign to help out at http://milwaukee.wisgop.info/politicians/

How Many “Top Priority” Issues Does Obama Have?
Posted by Mark Knoller, CBS News, August 13, 2010

After the Senate passed that $600 million Border Security Bill yesterday, President Obama issued a statement asserting that securing the southwest border has been “a top priority” since he took office.

But if you think Mr. Obama can have but a single “top priority,” you’d be wrong. He’s got a load of them.

In an Address to the Nation two months ago, Mr. Obama declared “our top priority is to recover and rebuild from a recession that has touched the lives of nearly every American.”

More than any other issue, he has used the phrase “top priority” about digging the economy out of the recession and creating jobs. And on this issue, he drew a distinction between “a” top priority and “the” top priority.

Read Obama’s laundry list of “priorities” at http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20013622-503544.html

by Scott Walker

Dear President Obama:

Last month, U.S. Transportation Secretary, Ray La Hood was in Wisconsin to release $46.7 million of the $810 million in federal stimulus money designated for a train line between Milwaukee and Madison. Releasing these federal funds now is both premature and irresponsible. Public support for the Madison-Milwaukee train has fallen to just 41% as weary taxpayers watch our roads and bridges crumble without sufficient funds to repair them.

Still, Secretary La Hood declared that: “High-speed rail is coming to Wisconsin,” and “there’s no stopping it.”

I am drawing a line in the sand Mr. President: No matter how much money you and Governor Doyle try to spend before the end of the year, I will put a stop to this boondoggle the day I take office.

Read more at http://notrain.com/

By: William Kristol, Weekly Standard, August 16, 2010

The left has collapsed.

Its political support has collapsed. Public opinion polls point to a historic repudiation of the president and the Democratic party this fall, something on the order of a 60-seat Republican gain in the House. The GOP has an outside shot at taking the Senate as well.

Its claim to intellectual integrity has collapsed. Paul Krugman, Ivy League professor, New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate (the holy trinity of the liberal establishment), has humiliated himself with a startlingly dishonest attack on Paul Ryan’s budget proposal. Krugman, called out by Ryan, rebuked by honest analysts and unwilling to concede his errors, has retreated into uncharacteristic abashed silence.

Its Leninist discipline has collapsed. Last week, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs complained about the craziness of the professional left in the punditocracy. “Those people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs explained. “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian health care and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality. … They wouldn’t be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president.”

–SNIP– Its democratic credibility has collapsed. In recent weeks, the left has the arbitrary rulings and sophistic arguments of federal judges who have overturned an immigration statute that mirrors federal law passed by the state legislature in Arizona, and a constitutional amendment defining marriage as it has been defined for all of American history, enacted by the citizens of California.

Read more at http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/The-left-is-unpopular_-undisciplined-and-ill-tempered-1010441-100730264.html

Terror group’s leader: ‘Have to build it’

By S.A. MILLER in Washington and TOM TOPOUSIS in New York, NY Post, August 16, 2010

A leader of the Hamas terror group yesterday jumped into the emotional debate on the plan to construct a mosque near Ground Zero — insisting Muslims “have to build” it there.

“We have to build everywhere,” said Mahmoud al-Zahar, a co-founder of Hamas and the organization’s chief on the Gaza Strip.

“In every area we have, [as] Muslim[s], we have to pray, and this mosque is the only site of prayer,” he said on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on WABC.

Read more at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/hamas_nod_for_gz_mosque_cSohH9eha8sNZMTDz0VVPI

Obama’s Mosque Remarks Reverberate

By VICTORIA MCGRANE And SIOBHAN GORMAN, Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2010

President Barack Obama’s weekend remarks supporting the right to build a mosque near Ground Zero reverberated across the country, nationalizing a debate over the New York City project.

A number of Republicans on Sunday folded the president’s remarks into their election-year narrative that Mr. Obama, a former constitutional scholar, is out of touch with the American citizenry.

Read more at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703382304575431862521820780.html

By Nile Gardiner, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, August 12th, 2010

The last few weeks have been a nightmare for President Obama, in a summer of discontent in the United States which has deeply unsettled the ruling liberal elites, so much so that even the Left has begun to turn against the White House. While the anti-establishment Tea Party movement has gained significant ground and is now a rising and powerful political force to be reckoned with, many of the president’s own supporters as well as independents are rapidly losing faith in Barack Obama, with open warfare breaking out between the White House and the left-wing of the Democratic Party. While conservatism in America grows stronger by the day, the forces of liberalism are growing increasingly weaker and divided.

Against this backdrop, the president’s approval ratings have been sliding dramatically all summer, with the latest Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll of US voters dropping to minus 22 points, the lowest point so far for Barack Obama since taking office. While just 24 per cent of American voters strongly approve of the president’s job performance, almost twice that number, 46 per cent, strongly disapprove. According to Rasmussen, 65 per cent of voters believe the United States is going down the wrong track, including 70 per cent of independents.

Read more at http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100050412/the-stunning-decline-of-barack-obama-10-key-reasons-why-the-obama-presidency-is-in-meltdown/

by Megan McArdle, theatlantic.com, Aug 10 2010

As I think I may have mentioned, I am skeptical of Paul Ryan’s roadmap. Not because it’s dishonest, but because it’s hard. Really hard. As in, I-don’t-see-how-it-could-possibly-survive-the-legislative-process hard.

The tax rates in his alternative tax plan would probably have to go up, just because that’s the general fate of policy proposals that go through the legislative process; people with policy proposals are, almost definitionally, not pessimistic about their possibilities. The entitlement changes would be gleefully gutted by politicians with a keen eye to their own re-election. The discretionary spending freeze would not survive first contact with the next recession. Even the most responsible, careful politician cannot guarantee responsibility and care in their successors.

Nonetheless, I think it’s a really, really important document. Why? Because it is the most honest attempt I’ve seen by a politician to grapple with the challenges ahead of us. Strike that; it is the only attempt that I’m aware of to grapple with what lies ahead of us. Others have been willing to discuss things piecemeal, or delegate the nasty job of balancing a budget to a commission, but as far as I know only Paul Ryan has come forward and said, “Here’s how all the moving parts are going to fit together.”

And what this document shows is that it’s going to be difficult. Regardless of what you think of his tax plans, Paul Ryan has done what liberals keep asking Republicans to do: show us what he’d cut. No, he hasn’t gone through the whole budget with a fine toothed comb and given us the exact funding level for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. If he had, it would be stupid; even the most powerful legislator cannot tie the hands of those in the future completely. He’s offered cuts to domestic discretionary spending and entitlements that would hold the line under 20% of GDP. If Republicans want to shrink the size of government, they’re going to have to sign onto Ryan’s spending plan, or put forward their own, with equally dramatic trimming.

Read more at http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/08/whats-wrong-with-paul-ryans-plan/61263