Whitewashing Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer
Russians: START Covers Antimissile Defense Systems
NYC Blizzard: Feds Open Criminal Probe
ACLU Sues South Dakota for Not Allowing Non-U.S. Citizens to Carry Concealed Firearms
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Rules Public Park Cross Unconstitutional
The 10 Most Underreported Stories of 2010
Martinez Calls for Spaceport Spending "Accountability"
Words to Live By
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally.
Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better." - Senator Barack Obama 2006. Read full story here:
Only Public Sector Layoffs are "Cynical"
NewsNM note - After more than two years of devastating job losses in virtually every industry in the private sector, the chickens are starting to come home to roost in the fat, bloated, and lethargic public sectors in every state. In typical fashion, editors at Progressive Magazine express the fervent desire that the least productive group of workers in society (public employees) be rendered OFF LIMITS to the same sorts of economic down cycles that damage all other participants in working society. Below is a portion of the ramblings of a Marxist dreamer. Progressive Editor Matthew Rothschild waxes eloquent on the injustice of government employees sharing the tough times like everyone else....  |
| Matthew Rothschild |
Progressive.org - The attack is cynical in so many ways. First, as McEntee noted, “The problem in the economy has not been created by public workers. It was created by Wall Street.” Second, it’s not as though any public sector workers are getting filthy rich like the Wall Street bankers who got bailed out and are now back to bathing in ridiculous bonuses. Third, the attack on public sector workers is an attack on the idea that there should be a decent middle class in this country. If everyone’s wages and benefits have to be reduced to those offered by the stingiest private sector boss, you can kiss the middle class goodbye. Read full column here:
York: Brief Moment of Power
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| Byron York |
Then, in late December of that year, Senate Republicans were just as powerless to stop a filibuster-proof majority of 60 Democrats from pushing that far-reaching and deeply unpopular piece of legislation through the Senate. With the passage of Obamacare, GOP lawmakers learned what defeat really meant. The country is still learning the full extent of the damage. A new analysis by the Washington Post shows that a provision of Obamacare dealing with high-risk patients is attracting far fewer participants than expected but still costs vastly more than projected -- a bad omen for the law's other programs. Read full column here:
The Science of Forecasting
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| Armstrong Williams |
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| Keynsian Economist |
The invention of science and statistics has replaced old-school fortune telling in very insidious ways. Now, while careful to disclaim – past performance is no guarantee of future results – hucksters of all sorts try to sell us stuff by pointing to long term trends. In fact, America’s current state of economic recession was caused by a confidence born of scientific analysis. Supposedly, we all believed, housing prices would never fall. After all, they had risen steadily for over eighty years. Very few people alive and relevant today remembered the last time when the U.S. housing market went bust. Those people who lost their homes in 1933 are no longer around to delivery any cautionary tales. Read full column here:
Governor Scott: The Axis of Unemployment
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| Rick Scott |
Obamacare Stops Construction of 45 New Hospitals
From the weeklystandard.com -Under the headline, "Construction Stops at Physician Hospitals," Politico reports today that "Physician Hospitals of America says that construction had to stop at 45 hospitals nationwide or they would not be able to bill Medicare for treatments." Stopping construction at doctor-owned hospitals might not seem like the best way to boost the economy or to promote greater access and choice in health care, but that exactly what Obamacare is doing. Kenneth Artz of the Heartland Institute explains, "Section 6001 of the health care law effectively bans new physician-owned hospitals (POHs) from starting up, and it keeps existing ones from expanding." Politico adds, "Friday [New Year's Eve] marked the last day physician-owned hospitals could get Medicare certification covering their new or expanded hospitals, one of the latest provisions of the reform law to go into effect."
Sheriff Paul Babeu Slams Napolitano's Afghan Trip
From gatewaypundit.com -Arizona Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu slammed Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for visiting Afghanistan to lecture them about border security while the US border with Mexico is compromised and not secure. “It’s outrageous… Napolitano, who’s charged with the security of our country. Who’s over in foreign countries now. She’s the Homeland Security Secretary. She’s not the Secretary of State. She of anybody should be sounding the alarm and talking about security threats and she’s the one carrying out the “political speak” of the president saying this border is more secure than ever before. Meanwhile the threat that we face in Arizona and literally for our nation’s security I believe is a far greater national security threat to our nation’s security than Iraq, than Afghanistan, than any of these other places.”` Video and more here
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| Sheriff Paul Babeu |
NM Citizen Poll: Cut Spending
More than 2,000 people took the opportunity to weigh in and the results are as follows: Saving $20 million annually by cutting the state work force by 2,000 was the most strongly supported with a rating average of 8.08; Saving $60 million annually by repealing SB 33 which increased the costs of public works projects around New Mexico followed close behind with an average rating of 7.91; Saving $6.4 million by diverting probationers and parolees who are revoked for technical violations of their supervision, not new offenses, from prison, scored 7.79; Diverting drug possession offenders from prison at a savings of $13 million garnered a score of 7.73;
Saving $30 million by capping the cost of New Mexico’s 25% reimbursement for films made in the state scored 7.34; Shutting down the Rail Runner at a savings of $20 million annually scored 6.44; andThe only budget cut items that scored below 5 were shutting down half of New Mexico’s branch campuses with a score of 4.81 and raising tuition to the national average which scored 4.71.
Read full story here:
Slowdowns? European Public Union Tactic
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| Kevin Hassett |
Bloomberg - By Kevin Hassett - Europeans have grown accustomed to seeing government workers shut down their countries when provoked. At this time of huge deficits from Washington to the smallest towns, government workers in the U.S. also face significant cutbacks. Americans may have had their first taste of what that will mean. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Governor David Paterson are both calling for an investigation of allegations that city workers intentionally dragged out the cleanup of the Dec. 26 blizzard as a way to protest cuts in the city budget. The New York Post, citing City Councilman Dan Halloran, reported that some snow-plow drivers skipped streets on their routes or kept their plows too high to clear streets.
In October, the Bloomberg administration said it would eliminate 200 supervisory positions in the Sanitation Department and hire 100 entry-level workers to lower salary, benefit and overtime costs by about $20 million, part of an effort to close a $3.3 billion deficit in the 2011 budget. The mayor is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
Two Californias: Coming to a State Near You
ANWR Still Off Limits: Oil Approaches 27 Month High
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| U.S. Energy Policy |
Regulatory Runaround
DNA Lab Equipment: Back to Albuquerque
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| Governor Martinez |
Heather Wilson Weighing Senate Run
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| Heather Wilson |
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