John Kerry invents country of Kyrzakhstan

John Kerry's quite adept at "inventing" things ie. his war record.

In an embarrassing slip of the tongue, Mr Kerry last week praised US diplomats working to secure "democratic institutions" in the Central Asian country, which does not exist.

The newly minted diplomat was referring to Kyrgyzstan, a poor, landlocked nation of 5.5 million, which he appeared to confuse with its resource-rich neighbour to the north, Kazakhstan.

The State Department kindly omitted the error in the official transcript of Wednesday's speech, which Mr Kerry delivered on the eve of his first foreign trip as secretary of state.

Sunday Funny

Thanks RR.

5 Reasons Not to Worry About the ‘Dreaded’ Sequester

Excellent article. The sequestration amounts to a measly 2% of budget. A drop in the bucket but the Libs would have you believe the consequences to be catastrophic. Leftist hyperbole at it's most vile.

With the automatic spending cuts kicking in next week, it’s tough to separate fact from bluster. Both the Obama administration and congressional Republicans chose this week to go with finger-pointing, a subtle acknowledgement that their differences on taxing and spending won’t be bridged by more negotiating.

President Obama and his team warn of government services getting even worse if the $85 billion of across the board cuts in fiscal 2013 are allowed to kick in next Friday—cars stuck idling at under-staffed border posts, furloughed bureaucrats, fewer police and firefighters, thousands of hungry children kicked off government nutrition programs.

 Meanwhile, House Speaker John Boehner labors to remind the country that these reductions – or sequestration –were initially a White House-proposed fix in order to raise the debt ceiling back in 2011.

Average Michigan Government Employee Compensation Exceeds Six Figures For The First Time

The only group that's flourishing in this economy.

The Michigan Civil Service Commission’s website boasts: "Invest your talent with the state of Michigan. The rewards are enormous."

In fact, for the first time, the average salary and benefit package for state employees surpassed $100,000 a year in 2011-2012.

The average combined cost of salary and benefits for a state worker jumped to $104,067 in 2011-12, increasing from $97,883 in 2010-11.

James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, did the analysis using the Michigan Civil Service Commission’s certified aggregate payroll.

Detroit Review Team Finds 'Financial Emergency' In City

This is what 4 decades of liberal leadership, rampant corruption and unrestrained spending has wrought.

DETROIT -According to the Michigan State Treasurer's Office, the six-member financial review team appointed in December to examine the city of Detroit’s finances has unanimously determined that a local government financial emergency currently exists in the city, and no satisfactory plan is in place to resolve it.

"This review team spent two months pouring over the city’s finances, taking careful consideration of both long and short-term issues, including recent actions by the administration and City Council,” said State Treasurer Andy Dillon, a member of the six-person panel. “While we appreciate the steps the city has taken over the past number of weeks, key reform measures have not occurred quickly enough, if at all. The team collectively believes the city needs assistance in making the difficult decisions necessary to achieve the significant reforms that are so crucial to the city’s long-term viability."

Home-builder confidence declines in February: NAHB

Well if the MSM can't spin this into a positive they'll just choose to ignore it.

A gauge of confidence among homebuilders declined in February, the first weakening since April, due, in part, to ongoing headwinds from economic uncertainty and strict lending standards, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index released Tuesday.

The index ticked down to 46 in February from 47 in January. Analysts polled by MarketWatch had expected a February result of 48.

Pic of the Day

Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm Flees Illinois

The 67% hike in its corporate and personal income tax rates makes Illinois about as attractive a place to locate as Belarus.

Insurance chain State Farm is reportedly buying up substantial workspace in Texas, which may signal a coming exodus from the company's home state of Illinois.

State Farm is keeping the move quiet so as not to alarm employees. But the Dallas Morning News reports that it is a “major business relocation” already underway and that this is “one of the biggest stories in the Dallas-area real estate market and will ultimately involve thousands of workers.”

Texas-based real estate expert Bob Gibbons notes in a blog post that State Farm’s Dallas office space lease--about 2.5 million square feet of workspace in a few different places--is the Dallas area’s largest-ever office space lease by a single company.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported this week, too, that State Farm leased several hundred thousand more square feet of office space in Atlanta.

Sunday Funny

Thanks RR.

Facebook paid no taxes despite record profits

As long as you're not big oil, Fox News or a gun manufacturer all's good.

Despite earning more than $1 billion in profits last year, social media juggernaut Facebook paid zilch when it came to federal and state taxes in 2012.

In fact, the website will actually be getting a refund totaling $429 million thanks to a tax reduction for executive stock options.

In the coming years, Facebook will continue to get monster tax breaks, totaling about $3 billion.

I'm such a sex symbol I get underwear sent to me in the post, says Piers Morgan

Can you believe the ego of this nimrod?

Piers Morgan believes that he is now a pin-up for both men and women, as he even gets underwear sent to him in the post. In an exclusive interview with TV Magazine, the 47-year-old broadcaster revealed that his fame has attracted some unusual attention. "I've always been a huge sex symbol, so it comes as no surprise to me that I've now got a fan club from the opposite sex and the same sex as a matter of fact," the Sun quoted him as sasying. "I've had the odd pair of knickers sent to me. It's a perk of the job.

I'll just bet that most of the underwear he receives are soiled.

Parents Complain About School Ad Excluding Whites From Tutoring Program

I wonder if white parents still have to pay for the program.....rhetorical question.

A principal said no white children were allowed at an after-school tutoring program, and now some parents call it discrimination.

The principal at Mission Viejo Elementary in Aurora sent a letter telling parents the program is only for students of color. Parents CBS4 talked with said they were shocked to see, in this day and age, what they consider to be segregation.

“I was infuriated. I didn’t understand why they would include or exclude certain groups,” said parent Nicole Cox, who is white.

Cox’s 10-year-old daughter needs tutoring. After receiving the notice, other parents complained to the school’s principal, Andre Pearson.

Appears the school principal got caught stating his true beliefs. This kind of attitude from white or black should NOT be tolerated. He should be fired.

Students Told to Remove Patriotic Bandanas

A group of students at a California high school basketball game were told to remove patriotic bandanas and stop chanting “USA, USA” because school administrators wanted to be sensitive to other spectators.

The incident occurred during a basketball last week between Camarillo High School and Rio Mesa High School in Ventura County.

A school administrator pulled aside four boys and told them to either remove their American flag bandanas or leave the game. The boys complied but returned to lead the crowd in a chant of “USA, USA.”

Camarillo High School principal Glenn Lipman told the Ventura County Star that the students were told to remove the bandanas as a “precaution” – because the two schools have “diverse student bodies.”

Both schools have a large Hispanic student population.

The "diverse student bodies" happen to be IN THE UNITED STATES! And as long as they are taking advantage of all the this great country has to offer they better damn well put up with open display of patriotism or get the hell out.

Nugent compares Washington to 'King George'

Except for one thing, the tax burden under King George was lower.

Rock showman, humanitarian and TV host Ted Nugent, who also is a columnist for WND, says he thinks America needs to start over because of the mess that Washington has made of the nation.

He told reporters today in advance of Barack Obama’s State of the Union address that if he were giving the speech, he would say, “We need to start over and review the subjects that made us different than King George.”

Nugent, who was invited to accompany Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, to the Obama speech, described government in Washington as a “scam.”

“The modus operandi is already established … it is all a scam,” he said, noting the White House reportedly has invited illegal aliens to attend the address in support of Obama’s immigration-reform proposal

.

Olympic Arms to New York State – Take Your Business Elsewhere

Bravo OA BRAVO!

Olympia, WA --(Ammoland.com)- Olympic Arms is a staunch believer in and defender of the Constitution of the United States, and with special attention paid to the Bill of Rights that succinctly enumerates the security of our Divinely given Rights.

One of those Rights is that to Keep and Bear Arms.

Legislation recently passed in the State of New York outlaws the AR15 and many other firearms, and will make it illegal for the good and free citizens of New York to own a large selection of legal and safe firearms and magazines.

We feel as though the passage of this legislation exceeds the authority granted to the government of New York by its citizens, and violates the Constitution of the United States, ignoring such SCOTUS rulings as District of Columbia v. Heller – 554, U.S. 570 of 2008, McDonald v. Chicago – 561 U.S. 3025 of 2010, and specifically the case of United States v. Miller – 307 U.S. 174 of 1939.

Due the passing of this legislation, Olympic Arms would like to announce that the State of New York, any Law Enforcement Departments, Law Enforcement Officers, First Responders within the State of New York, or any New York State government entity or employee of such an entity – will no longer be served as customers.

Disgrace : IOC recommends to cut wrestling from 2020 Olympics

Synchonized swimming, Badminton, Floor dancing stays on and one of the original Greek Olympic sports is eliminated.....what a joke.

Wrestling should be removed from the 2020 Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board recommended on Tuesday as it looks to revamp the Games sports programme.

Wrestling, contested in the first modern Olympics in 1896, will join a list of seven other candidate sports battling for one spot on the programme. It is very unlikely, however, that wrestling will get back in.

The IOC session in Buenos Aires in September will still need to ratify the decision.

Giffords: "Too many children are dying"

How hypocritical is that considering the numerous pro-abortion votes she's cast over the years.

Former congresswoman and shooting survivor Gabrielle Giffords urged members of congress to "be bold, be courageous" at the first gun violence hearing since the Newtown massacre.

Video HERE.

Christopher Dorners "Ideology"

MSM conceals Christopher Dorner’s “ideology”.

Quote of the Day

Rush Limbaugh: “There’s one big difference between Obama and God, and that is, God knows He’s not Obama”

Initial Claims Miss For Second Week In A Row As Nonfarm Productivity Tumbles Most Since 2008

Sooner or later the "unexpected" should become the expected.

As is the case every Thursday, the BLS reported its weekly initial claims which unlike two weeks ago did not estimate the initial unemployment claims for America's most populous state when the number plunged, and has now missed expectations for two weeks in a row, printing at 366K, on expectations of a 360K number, while last week's 368K was as usual revised upward to 371K. As a result, the Mainspin Media already has its headline: Initial Claims decline by 5,000.

Such is life under the US Department of Truth, even as unadjusted initial claims spiked by 16.7K to 386K in the week ended February 2. In other news, people on Extended Unemployment Comp plunged by 288K after soaring in the week prior, and making some wonder just what is going on with the EUC 2008 data series for it to get such massive weekly shifts each wee

And concerning productivity.

Penney’s Johnson seen slashing jobs

Apears that making an in your face spokesgay like Ellen DeGeneres your company frontperson wasn't such a slick corporate move.

JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson is getting ready to break more hearts at headquarters — a few hundred more.

In what some Penney insiders are calling the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre,” the former Apple exec plans this month to fire at least 10 percent of the remaining 3,000 employees at the retailer’s home offices in Plano, Texas, sources told The Post.

While the bloodbath was originally targeted for last month, sources said Johnson opted to delay it until after the flailing company’s fiscal year ended last week.

Tuesday Funny

Every Elementary school in the country should be prepared to post this warning sign.

'Father of the Prius' Declares Electric Cars 'Not Viable'

At a cost to the American taxpayer of at minimum of $240,000,000.....Idiots.

Hybrid car pioneer and “father of the Prius” Takeshi Uchiyamada says the billions poured into developing battery electric vehicles have ultimately been in vain. "Because of its shortcomings--driving range, cost and recharging time--the electric vehicle is not a viable replacement for most conventional cars," said Uchiyamada. "We need something entirely new."

Uchiyamada’s comments come as the U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday that the government is backing off President Barack Obama’s promise to put one million electric cars on American roads by 2015. As Breitbart News reported last September, there are just 30,000 electric cars on American roads.

Factory Orders Ex Transports Post First Annual Decline Since July

Wonder how the MSM will try to spin this into a positive.

Today's December factory orders data came as a surprise to those expecting a whopping beat of expectations in the aftermath of the superficial beat in the Durable data released last week.

Instead, the headline Factory Orders missed expectations of a 2.2% rise, growing just 1.8% in December, with the November data revised lower from 0% to -0.3%.

Worse news was that Factory Orders ex the meaningless and volatile transportation number (see Dreamliner), rose just 0.2% in the last month of 2012, after declining 0.2% in November.

Sunday Funny

Thanks RR.

No. 3 Hawks start fast, beat top-ranked Penn State

Terrific dual meet, came down to the last match!

On paper, the third-ranked Iowa wrestling team had every bit a chance to win Friday night’s dual with Penn State as the top-ranked Nittany Lions.

Both teams had top-ranked wrestlers and both had matches they should have won.

The Hawkeyes took care of the matches they were favored in and did a little more as Tony Ramos earned a big win by fall at 133 and sophomore Mike Evans won the only true swing match of the night during a 22-16 victory over Penn State in front of a loud and crazy sold-out crowd of 15,077 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The win gave the third-ranked Hawkeyes (16-1, 6-0) sole possession of first place in the Big Ten and snapped Penn State’s (8-1, 5-1) streak of 20 consecutive dual victories.

Texas Senator Tells Chicago Mayor To Back-Off Gun Manufacturers

Rahm Emanuel has his ass handed to him by Senator Ted Cruz, Bravo!

Texas Senator Ted Cruz wants Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to back of gun manufacturers. The Republican senator issued a response to Emanuel’s letter to banks which do business with gun makers.

The Lone Star politician considers the former Obama administration official a bully. Cruz told gun companies that Texas banks would welcome their business and offered to personally introduce them to leading lenders.

Senator Cruz’s response to Rahm Emanuel stated:

“Your city’s longstanding policies stripping citizens of their Constitutional rights to keep and bear arms have, in turn, produced some of the very highest murder rates in the nation. Regardless, directing your attack at legitimate firearms manufacturers undermines the Second Amendment rights of Texans. In the future, I would ask that you keep your efforts to diminish the Bill of Rights north of the Red River.”

The Texas Senator’s Rahm Emanuel response also maintained the Chicago mayor was trying to deprive law-abiding citizens of the right to bear arms, the Washington Examiner notes. Mayor Emanuel’s letter was sent to both the Bank of America and TD Bank. Both banks extend a massive line of credit to two major American gun manufacturers.

169,000 Americans Drop Out of Labor Force in January As Unemployment Ticks Up

All we need is another 15,000,000 to drop out of the labor force and we'll have 100% employment!

The number of Americans not in the labor force grew by 169,000 in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest jobs report. BLS labels people who are unemployed and no longer looking for work as “not in the labor force,” including people who have retired on schedule, taken early retirement, or simply given up looking for work. There were 89 million of them last month. The number of people not in the labor force had declined in December to 88.8 million from 88.9 million in November. The nation's unemployment rate increased a tenth of a point in January, rising to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent, a level the Labor Department described as "essentially unchanged."

New U.S. jobless claims jump 38,000 to 368,000

So much for "Happy Days".

The number of people who filed new applications for U.S. unemployment benefits climbed 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 368,000 in the week ended Jan. 26, putting them at a one-month high, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected claims to climb to 355,000. Initial claims have returned to a level that prevailed through the later stages of 2012 after touching a five-year low earlier this month.

Claims are often extremely jumpy in January after the end of the holidays and the start of a new year. Companies let go of temporary hires and some people wait until after the holidays to file claims. Initial claims from two weeks ago were unrevised at 330,000.

The average of new claims over the past month, meanwhile, edged up by 250 to 352,000. The four-week average reduces seasonal volatility in the weekly data and is seen as a more accurate barometer of labor-market trends. Also, Labor said continuing claims increased by 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.2 million in the week ended Jan. 19.

GDP Shows Surprise Drop for U.S. in Fourth Quarter

Looks like the beginning of another Bush recession.

The U.S. economy posted a stunning drop of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, defying expectations for slow growth and possibly providing incentive for more Federal Reserve stimulus.

The economy shrank from October through December for the first time since the recession ended, hurt by the biggest cut in defense spending in 40 years, fewer exports and sluggish growth in company stockpiles.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter. That's a sharp slowdown from the 3.1 percent growth rate in the July-September quarter.

US: Consumer Confidence falls to 58.6 in January

Change without much hope.

The most awaited piece of data for today surprised investors negatively, as Consumer Confidence in the US fell from 66.7 (revised from 65.1) to 58.6 in January. Actual data came in much lower than the 64.0 expected.

Unions Crumble Without Stimulus Spending

Unions haven't been about the worker for decades, they're all about self perpetuation.

Overall union membership dropped by about 400,000 members from 2011 to 2012, a decline of 11.8 to 11.3 percent of the U.S. workforce. But the worst news for union leaders is where the decline occurred: in what had been their only growth sector, government workers.

More than half of the loss came among government workers. The majority of union members are now government workers and government workers have a union membership rate of 37 percent, about five times higher than the private sector.

An irony for private-sector labor unions has always been that their larger ideological aims of protecting workers from abuse are often at odds with their more urgent objectives of growing membership rolls and increasing dues payments.

Barack Obama To Shut Down Southern Air Defense Systems

Red Dawn scenario?

As the U.S. government continues to expand surveillance and monitoring systems to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars within the borders of the United States, a recent announcement regarding the country’s southern air defense systems is raising eyebrows.

Our southern border is, in part, protected by the Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS), which utilizes moored balloons hovering at about 15,000 feet to identify low flying aircraft and missiles that may penetrate the border and cross into U.S. airspace.

The system is utilized by the U.S. Air Force, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection for a number of missions including detection of drug smuggling and preservation of the air sovereignty of the continental United States.

According to Exelis Systems Corporation, the company that built and jointly maintains TARS with the U.S. Air Force, the government has ordered a complete shutdown of Aerostat flight operations...

Sunday Funny

Thanks RR.

Photo of the Day

Hundreds of thousands join record-breaking U.S. March for Life.

You may have missed it as CNN,NBC,ABC,CBS,and NPR didn't feel it important enough to report on.

Utah Biz Owner Fires Employees Because They Supported Obama

Love it when those chicken come home....

Dead weight? A business owner in Utah has become the latest employer to blame President Obama's health care reform bill for layoffs and has doubled down on his public disdain for the current administration by admitting he singled out Obama supporters.

Terry Lee, owner of Cedar City-based Terry Lee Forensics, told the Salt Lake Tribune that he was so impressed by a Vernal, Utah, smoothie bar's policy of asking liberal patrons to pay more, that he, too, took action to recoup losses he said were incurred by Obamacare.

George Burnett, owner of I Love Drilling Smoothie & Juice Bar, said recently he is asking liberal customers to pay an extra dollar for their beverages.

Lee posted a commiserating comment on The Tribune's smoothie bar story this week:

Love it. We had to let two employees go to cover new Obongocare [sic] costs and increased taxes. Found two Obongo supporters and gave them the news yesterday. They wanted the idiot in the Whitehouse [sic], they reap the benefits.

Obama Inc Trying to Use Banks to Destroy Gun Manufacturers

Fascism pure and simple.

There were fairly clear policy rules once upon a time. If you wanted to pass gun control, you would get up, use a bunch of kids as props and put in a Senate bill that would get the job done. That’s still being done, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Obama Inc. is consolidating control over the economy which puts its minions in the position of being able to make policy through economic pressure and policy. Under Socialism, you don’t have to pass a law, you just have to use your economic control to make the companies enforce the law.

Growing government control over banks and investment companies, directly and indirectly, allows those institutions to be used to target firearms manufacturers.

Cerberus was bullied into dropping the Freedom Group which includes Remington and Bushmaster. Bushmaster has become a special target for the anti-2nd amendment movement. Now Rahm Emanuel is demanding that TD Bank and Bank of America end their lines of credit to firearms manufacturers unless they come out in support of Obama’s war on the Bill of Rights.

No place is it more evident than the Peoples Republic of Chicago.

Now They Tell Us: Obama's Tax Promises Were Bogus

Yes Virginia, Obama is a liar.

Remember all those mainstream news reports before the election about how President Obama's expansive spending plans would require massive tax hikes on everyone, not just millionaires and billionaires? Neither do we.

But somehow after the election, reporters are finally admitting that Obama's budget numbers simply don't add up and that new taxes on the middle class — including a European-style value added tax — are "inevitable.

" New York Times columnist Eduardo Porter, for example, wrote this week that the $620 billion in tax hikes on the rich that Obama secured as part of the fiscal-cliff deal are "hardly enough to stabilize the nation's debt in the next 10 years, let alone deal with the long-term budget deficit."

'What Difference Does It Make!?'Secretary Clinton Gets Heated During Benghazi Hearing

Brazen hubris!

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that the misinformation that came out about the Benghazi attacks in their immediate aftermath no longer mattered, saying that the important thing was to find the persons responsible.

Clinton had a heated exchange with Sen. Ron Johnson during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he questioned her about the initial reports on the motives behind the attacks on the U.S. Embassy that left four Americans dead. Initially, UN Ambassador Susan Rice blamed the attacks on protests over an anti-Muslim video when she appeared on the Sunday shows, apparently speaking off of talking points prepared by the intelligence community.

On Wednesday, Johnson accused her of “purposefully misleading the American people” by blaming nonexistent protests.

“With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. If it was because of a protest or if it was because guys out for a walk decided to go kill some Americans. What difference does it make?” Clinton shot back in a raised voice.

Inaugurating President Chamberlain

The best synopsis of the Presidents speech I've seen. Be sure and read the whole thing.

Obama’s speech: Very long on gaseous generalities; exiguous with details. “Par for the course,” you say. Yes and no. Yes, an inaugural speech is intended to set the tone for an administration rather than spell out in detail a policy program. I appreciated, as must every American of good will, his promise that his oath of office was before “God and country, not party or faction.” I wish I could believe it. Most leftist commentators I’ve checked in on have regarded the speech as they regard Barack Obama, as a consummate example of “pragmatism.” I find it curious that well-meaning leftists regard the president as a pragmatist. To me, he is a pragmatist only in his pursuit of a radical, Alinskyite agenda to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.”

He’s gone quite a distance already, and I suspect that the fellow who said, shortly after November’s election, that the country was in for a “four-year stress test” was right. And this is where I think Obama’s second inaugural sharply departs from most inaugurals of yore. The tone that he set: What was it? Reading through the speech (I will be honest: I couldn’t bear to listen to it live, I just couldn’t), I was haunted by an echo. The speech reminded me of something, of someone. Who was it? Woodrow Wilson? Yes, in part. But there was another ghost in the wings . . .

Got it: “Peace in our time,” the president said, “requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.”

First Term: Americans ‘Not in Labor Force’ Increased 8,332,000

Now here's Obama's true legacy.

(CNSNews.com) - The number of Americans age 16 or older who decided not to work or even to seek a job increased by 8,332,000 to a record 88,839,000 in President Barack Obama’s first term, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

At the same time, the number of retired workers collecting Social Security increased by only 4,234,480.

The increase in Americans opting out of the labor force during Obama’s first term resulted in a decrease in the labor force participation rate from 65.7 percent in January 2009, the month Obama was first inaugurated, to 63.6 percent in December 2012, the latest month reported. Before Obama took office, the labor force participation rate had not been as low as 63.6 percent since 1981, the year President Ronald Reagan took over from President Jimmy Carter.

Sunday Funny

Thanks RR.

The 5 Worst/Recent Mass Murders Committed with a Firearm in the USA Came from the Left

Perhaps it's not firearms that should be banned but, rather, Democrats.

Ft Hood: Registered Democrat/Muslim.

Columbine: Too young to vote; both families were registered Democrats and progressive liberals.

Virginia Tech: Wrote hate mail to President Bush and to his staff. 

Colorado Theater: Registered Democrat; staff worker on the Obama campaign;

Occupy Wall Street participant; progressive liberal.

Connecticut School Shooter: Registered Democrat; hated Christians.

Common thread is that all of these shooters were progressive liberal Democrats.

Read rest HERE.

Holder Begs Court to Stop Document Release on Fast and Furious

Remember this: “Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency,” - Barack Hussein Obama 1/21/2009

Attorney General Eric Holder and his Department of Justice have asked a federal court to indefinitely delay a lawsuit brought by watchdog group Judicial Watch. The lawsuit seeks the enforcement of open records requests relating to Operation Fast and Furious, as required by law.

Judicial Watch had filed, on June 22, 2012, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking all documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious and “specifically [a]ll records subject to the claim of executive privilege invoked by President Barack Obama on or about June 20, 2012.”

The administration has refused to comply with Judicial Watch’s FOIA request, and in mid-September the group filed a lawsuit challenging Holder’s denial. That lawsuit remains ongoing but within the past week President Barack Obama’s administration filed what’s called a “motion to stay” the suit. Such a motion is something that if granted would delay the lawsuit indefinitely.

Assault Weapons Were NOT Involved in Sandy Hook Massacre

NO AR was used at Sandy Hook. Only 4 handguns were found.

Video HERE.

Shocker, from the beginning we were lied to by both the MSM and the President.

Graphic of the Day

Obama's speech illustrates he really doesn't have a clue.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

-- Ben Franklin

House Democrats aim to repeal the debt ceiling

Just another way to hide the irresponsuble rampant liberal overspending from the American people.

One way out the debt ceiling showdown: getting rid of the debt ceiling altogether. A group of House Democrats is introducing legislation Wednesday that would repeal the federal debt limit.

Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Jim Moran (D-Va.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) are behind the effort. Some of the same lawmakers attempted to repeal the debt limit in 2011. Given Republican control of the House, it is incredibly unlikely that this legislation will pass.

The debt limit dates to 1939, and stems from earlier limits on borrowing that were meant to give the Treasury secretary more freedom from congressional oversight. But attempts to use the debt ceiling to extract budgetary concessions from the White House began as early as 1953.

“There is certainly a time and a place for discussion of the proper levels of taxation and spending, and I am ready to have that discussion,” Nadler said in a recent Hill op-ed. “But such discussions need not – must not – be tied to the routine raising of the debt ceiling to pay for debts already incurred.”

The Pentagon's New 30,000-lb MOP Bomb Is Ready To Go

DAMN!

Boeing has successfully improved its 30,000-lb Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb UK’s Royal Air Force to support French forces deployed to Mali with airlifters. And drones. French Rafale “omnirole” fighter jets join air strikes in Mali. With brand new weapons. U.S. spyplanes, drones already flying over Mali France escalates war in Africa: Mirage 2000D bombers hit targets in North Mali Senior Pentagon officials told Congress the nation's largest conventional bomb, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), is ready for action.

The Air Force said as much back in June after rushing the MOP back to Boeing for $82 million in modifications and enhancements, but this report puts it on the books as deployable ordnance.

According to Bloomberg’s Tony Capaccio, on his annual report, the Pentagon’s director of operational testing Michael Gilmore confirmed that tests conducted with the heavy GBU-57, a 20-foot long, 30,000 pound GPS-guided bomb thought able to penetrate 200 feet of concrete before exploding, have demonstrated that the redesigned bomb is able to hit and destroy deeply buried targets.

Global warming stopped 16 years ago, reveals Met Office report

How long before Al Gore takes credit.

The world stopped getting warmer almost 16 years ago, according to new data released last week.

The figures, which have triggered debate among climate scientists, reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012, there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures.

This means that the ‘plateau’ or ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996. Before that, temperatures had been stable or declining for about 40 years.

4th Quarter GDP Estimate Reduced to .8% from 1.5%

So much for the Rainbows and Unicorns promised by the Obama administration.

J.P.Morgan analysts cut their estimate for fourth-quarter GDP growth to an annualized 0.8% from a prior forecast of 1.5%.

“The trade deficit for the month was much wider than expected, and it now looks like net exports will subtract a few tenths from GDP growth in the fourth quarter,” according to a J.P. Morgan research note. Elsewhere, Barclays analysts cut their estimate for fourth-quarter GDP growth to 1.3% from 2.0%, while analysts with Morgan Stanley cut their forecast to 0.7% from 1.5%.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. trade deficit widened in November to the highest point since April. The trade gap widened 15.8% to $48.7 billion in November.

Sunday (not so) Funny

Thanks RR.

The Perfect Nosh

16 1/2 hours later, pulled pork to die for.

The Second Amendment Is Not About Hunting

Read the whole thing, it's bang on.

You know it. I know it. The unspoken truth is the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America is about citizens resisting and overcoming tyranny. A common law and natural law right considered for 200+ years as an inalienable right. Speaking plainly, the 2nd is our bulwark against government which becomes despotic.

Armed free citizens are the final bulwark against tyranny by local, state or federal government.

When the Declaration, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights committed our people to founding a new Nation guns were natural and necessary. For putting food on the table and, wait for it, personal defense against hostilities.

Armed citizens have a long history of taking action to correct despotic governments. Feudal economies faded away due in no small part to enough peasants acquiring arms. And the will to use them.

US: Initial Jobless Claims rose to 371K

Well at least the estimate for last week was revised DOWN breaking the streak of upward revisions of 77 weeks.

According to the Labour Department, the Americans that filed in their first initial claims for regular state unemployment-insurance benefits rose by 4K last week to a seasonally adjusted 371K in the week ended January 5, above expectations at 365K and coming from 367K (revised) in the previous print.

Continuing claims, which reflect people already receiving benefits, fell by 127K to a seasonally adjusted 3.109 million in the week ended December 29 vs. 3.236 million in the previous week (revised)

Economy Grows, Revenues Increase After Texas Slashes Spending

California, Illinois, etc should learn a lesson from this.....but they won't.

The Texas state comptroller estimated Texas will generate $96.2 billion in revenue for the 2014-2015 fiscal cycle and reported Texas collected $8.8 billion more in revenue than expected during the last fiscal year. When unemployment in Texas was at its highest in a decade and the state government faced a $27 billion shortfall in 2011, legislators wrote what was then described as a “cut-to-the-bone” budget.

And it worked.

According to the Associated Press, “unemployment now is at a four-year low of 6.2 percent, sales tax receipts are skyrocketing and money is pouring into state coffers behind a new energy boom.”

And while Texas is projected to have more revenue to spend, Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst have indicated they would “limit any increase in state spending to a sum of population growth plus inflation, or 9.85 percent,” to prevent Texas from racking another budget shortfall.

Texas has company.

Pic of the Day (Photobombing Dog)

Obama to Boehner: 'We Don't Have a Spending Problem'

Typical Libthink. Spending is never the problem, it's all about "revenue enhancement".

One of the reasons that President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner had difficulty agreeing to a "grand bargain" on deficit reduction and avoiding the "fiscal cliff" was that both men disagreed on the nature of the debt problem. Boehner believes that government spending is the problem while Obama believes the problem is the rising costs of health care, not government spending.

During those negotiations, Obama repeatedly told Boehner that "we don't have a spending problem," Boehner recalled in an interview with The Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore.

A similar disagreement can be heard frequently on political talk shows. "We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem," Republicans repeat often. "We don't have a spending problem, we have a health care problem," Democrats often counter.

Monday Funny

Illinois Tax Hikes, Two Years Later: A Failure

As always, tax hikes had absolutely the opposite effect that was intended.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, upon signing income tax hikes into law on January 12, 2011: "We had to take decisive action. … Our fiscal house was burning."

Almost two years later, the Land of Lincoln is still aflame. The state began its 2013 fiscal year this past July with an estimated $8 billion of unpaid bills and a total of some 160,000 bills awaiting payment.

What about additional tax receipts garnered by the state’s dramatic income-tax hikes? Unseen and unfelt, according to the Republican state comptroller, who has acknowledged that the gains were undercut by financing pension contributions, Medicaid expansion, and the expiration of President Obama’s 2009 stimulus.

Sunday Funny

Thanks RR.

U6 Unemployment Rate Holds at 14.4%, Employment to Population Falls to 58.6%

More great news from Obamaville.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their monthly jobs report. Now for the BLS Boogie. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 155,000 workers last month following a revised 161,000 advance in November that was greater than initially estimated.

The unemployment rate printed at 7.8% which is up from 7.7% in November but the same as the UPWARDLY REVISED print of 7.8%. U6 partial unemployment printed at 14.4%.

 Labor force participation remained at 63.6%.

And the civilian employment to population ratio fell to 58.6...

Despite fiscal cliff deal, taxes to rise for most Americans

Nothing to see here, just another broken Obama promise.

WASHINGTON (AP) — While the tax package that Congress passed New Year's Day will protect 99 percent of Americans from an income tax increase, most of them will still end up paying more federal taxes in 2013.

That's because the legislation did nothing to prevent a temporary reduction in the Social Security payroll tax from expiring. In 2012, that 2-percentage-point cut in the payroll tax was worth about $1,000 to a worker making $50,000 a year.

Households making between $40,000 and $50,000 will face an average tax increase of $579 in 2013, according to the Tax Policy Center's analysis. Households making between $50,000 and $75,000 will face an average tax increase of $822.

Unemployment claims rose during holiday period

The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims rose by 10,000 in the week ended Dec. 29 to 372,000, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday.

That total was also 10,000 more claims than the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists, according to a Bloomberg report.

The prior week's figure was revised [UP] to show 12,000 more applications than previously reported. So it actually went up 22,000 from what was reported last week.

Des Moines Register publishes gun-ban column advocating deadly violence against NRA, GOP leaders

Nothing like a New Years dose of liberal fascism from the Heartland.

Donald Kaul retired earlier this year. Now he has decided to return to writing occasional opinion columns for OtherWords.org. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. brought out all his ugliness.

In a column that appeared after the shooting with the headline "Kaul: Nation needs a new agenda on guns," he proposed a new liberal agenda: repeal the Second Amendment, declare the NRA a terrorist organization and make membership illegal, and well, make violent threats to Republican leaders and NRA members. The Des Moines Register published this junk on December 29.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

"Let's Give up on the Constitutution"

Unfortunately for this nimrod the rights of individuals as enumerated in the Constitution get in the way of collectivist progressivism.

As the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American system of government is broken. But almost no one blames the culprit: our insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions.

Consider, for example, the assertion by the Senate minority leader last week that the House could not take up a plan by Senate Democrats to extend tax cuts on households making $250,000 or less because the Constitution requires that revenue measures originate in the lower chamber. Why should anyone care? Why should a lame-duck House, 27 members of which were defeated for re-election, have a stranglehold on our economy? Why does a grotesquely malapportioned Senate get to decide the nation’s fate?

Our obsession with the Constitution has saddled us with a dysfunctional political system, kept us from debating the merits of divisive issues and inflamed our public discourse. Instead of arguing about what is to be done, we argue about what James Madison might have wanted done 225 years ago.

What's really scary is that these self-righteous douchenozzles are filling the minds of our youth with their twisted tripe.

Sunday Funny

Thanks RR.

Ron Paul Leaves Congress as One of the Most Conservative Members Since 1976

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), libertarian hero and constitutionalist congressman, will end the last term of his political career as the number two conservative in the House of Representatives behind Jeff Flake (R-AZ), according to a ranking system of all members of congress created by two political science professors. The “DW-Nominate” ranking system, created by University of Georgia political science professor Keith Poole and New York University professor Howard Rosenthal, ranks all 636 legislators in the House and the Senate and is available on Voteview.com. According to the rankings, Paul held the number one spot for multiple years, despite being behind Flake in recent ones.

Being Libertarian doesn't make you a conservative. Aside from being a self identified Constitutionist, he is blatant lefty. That in addition to the fact, he's a flaming whack job. BTW, The American Conservative Union ranks Paul as one of the least Conservative congressmen out there.

Chicago reaches 500 homicides with fatal shooting

Hey Chitown, how's that Draconian gun control workin out for ya?

Chicago has logged its 500th homicide of 2012.

The last time the city reached the 500-homicide mark was in 2008, when the year ended with 512 killings. Last year, city records show Chicago had 435 homicides.

On Thursday, officials with the Chicago Police Department said the city was one homicide away from the 500 mark. Hours later, a 40-year-old man was fatally shot in the Austin neighborhood on the city's West Side. Police say Nathaniel Jackson was found on the sidewalk outside a convenience store with a gunshot wound to the head late Thursday.

Maybe they should make it illegal for gang members to own guns.

Israel approves another 1,200 settlement units around Jerusalem

Netanyahu essentially tells Obama "FO".

Israel has given the green light for the fast-track development of a further 1,200 settlement units around Jerusalem. It brings the total number of new approvals to 5,500 in just over a week, the largest wave of proposed expansion in recent memory. The latest plan, which would see almost 1,000 new apartments built over Jerusalem’s green line in Gilo, comes as the Israeli media is reporting mounting pressure on the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to drop his commitment to a two-state solution from his platform for re-election in January.

Have a Glorious Christmas

School Obama's Daughters Attend Has 11 Armed Guards

What's good for the ruling elite is generally too good for the lowly peasants

Some interesting news has broken in the wake of the latest push for gun control by President Obama and Senate Democrats: Obama sends his kids to a school where armed guards are used as a matter of fact.

The school, Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, has 11 security officers and is seeking to hire a new police officer as we speak.

If you dismiss this by saying, "Of course they have armed guards -- they get Secret Service protection," then you've missed the larger point.

The larger point is that this is standard operating procedure for the school, period. And this is the reason people like NBC's David Gregory send their kids to Sidwell, they know their kids will be protected from the carnage that befell kids at a school where armed guards weren't used (and weren't even allowed).

Sunday Funny

Graph of the Day

HOUSE REPUBLICANS CIRCULATE PLAN TO OUST BOEHNER FROM SPEAKERSHIP

Rumor has it Ryan will be his replacement.

Several conservative House Republican members are contemplating a plan to unseat Speaker John Boehner from his position on January 3, Breitbart News has exclusively learned. Staffers have compiled a detailed action plan that, if executed, could make this a reality.

The Republicans, both conservatives and more establishment members alike, are emboldened after the failure of Boehner’s fiscal cliff “Plan B” on Thursday evening. Dissatisfaction with Boehner is growing in the House Republican conference, but until now there hasn’t been a clear path forward.

Those members and staffers requested anonymity from Breitbart News at this time to prevent retaliation from Boehner similar to what happened to those four members who were purged from their powerful committee assignments a few weeks ago. Their expressed concern is that if Boehner knew who they were, his adverse reaction toward them would be much more brutal than losing committee assignments, such as a primary challenge in 2014 by a leadership-sponsored candidate.

Union Speaker to Governor: 'We'll Be At Your Daughter's Soccer Game!'

Talk about a thinly veiled threat...

LANSING — A speaker at a union protest against right-to-work legislation said if Gov. Rick Snyder signed the bill he would get "no rest" and that protesters would be at his "daughter's soccer game." (Video below).

The Rev. Charles Williams II made the comments Tuesday to loud cheers before a group of thousands of union workers. After his promises to harass Gov. Snyder, he introduced Rep. Richard Hammel, D-Mt. Morris Township, and House Minority Leader Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills. Williams is a Detroit-area pastor and left-wing activist.

Gov. Snyder later that day signed a bill into law making Michigan a right-to-work state. One of his daughters is a 16-year-old high school student.

"Just know one thing, Rick Snyder: You sign that bill, you won't get no rest," Williams said. "We'll meet you on Geddes Road. We'll be at your daughter's soccer game. We'll visit you at your church. We'll be at your office.

"Because Michigan workers will not take it laying down — by any means necessary!" he said.

Eric Cantor: We have the votes for Plan B

A given that it's dead in the Senate but this will make the the Democrats appear like the dictatorial obstructionists they truely are.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said unequivocally Thursday that Speaker John Boehner’s fiscal cliff fallback plan would pass the lower chamber later in the day — at the same time his party’s leadership was working privately to shore up support. The so-called Plan B Boehner is pushing would extend tax rates for income below $1 million but force families making over that threshold to pay Clinton-era rates of nearly 40 percent. Late Wednesday night, Republican leaders incorporated a proposal to spare the Pentagon from looming spending cuts and shift the reductions to other agencies. Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, said the plan is the “nation’s best option.”

Robert H. Bork 1927-2012, RIP

Brilliant legal mind and a great man, sad day indeed.

Judge Robert H. Bork, one of the the greatest jurists this country has ever produced, died early this morning from heart complications in a Virginia hospital near his home. He was 84.

Bork was a national celebrity. Several years ago, my wife and I visited the Borks in Maine where they had taken a summer house off Somes Sound. I cannot count the times that total strangers would approach us at a lobster shack or park asking to shake the Judge’s hand and to assure him of their admiration and support.

Bork’s celebrity was only partly conferred upon him by brilliant legal work and his service as Solicitor General and then Acting Attorney General in the tumultuous Watergate years of the Nixon administration. (Andrew McCarthy wrote an excellent summary of Judge Bork’s work in The New Criterion a few years ago: “Robert H. Bork on Law and Life.”) But by far the most important fuel for fame was the riveting, not to say obscene, attack upon his candidacy for the Supreme Court in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan.

White House Rejects Boehner's Backup Plan

Sooner or later Boehner is going to realize he's negotiating with himself.

The White House rejected a House GOP proposal Tuesday to extend the Bush tax cuts for those making up to $1 million, saying it doesn't go far enough and wouldn't pass the Senate anyway.

The swift White House response came shortly after House Speaker John Boehner, along with other House GOP leaders, proposed the tax-cut extension as a fallback position, or "Plan B," in case the "fiscal cliff" talks failed.

Boehner said he still hopes to reach a "balanced" agreement with the administration on the fiscal cliff. But he said he expects the "Plan B" proposal to come to the House floor later this week.

The deadliest school massacre in US history

And there's our kneejerk reactionary in chief decrying "US will have to change".

In the end there were 38 children dead at the school, two teachers and four other adults. I’m not talking about the horrific shooting in Connecticut today.

I’m talking about the worst school murder in American history. It took place in Michigan, in 1927. A school board official, enraged at a tax increase to fund school construction, quietly planted explosives in Bath Township Elementary. Then, the day he was finally ready, he set off an inferno. When crowds rushed in to rescue the children, he drove up his shrapnel-filled car and detonated it, too, killing more people, including himself. And then, something we’d find very strange happened.

Nothing.

No cameras were placed at the front of schools. No school guards started making visitors show identification. No Zero Tolerance laws were passed, nor were background checks required of PTA volunteers—all precautions that many American schools instituted in the wake of the Columbine shootings, in 1999. Americans in 1928—and for the next several generations —continued to send their kids to school without any of these measures.

Sunday Funny

Thanks RR.

10 shot, including 4 teens, Friday afternoon and night

Some of the most oppressive gun control laws in the country certainly have worked out well for Chicago.

Shootings across the city Friday afternoon and night wounded at least ten people, according to Chicago police, including four teens in three separate South and West side attacks.

Someone shot two boys, both 16, about 5:11 p.m. Friday afternoon in the 1700 block of East 71st Place in the South Shore neighborhood on the South Side. Both were taken to Comer Children's Hospital in stable condition with gunshot wounds to their legs.

Two other teens were wounded Friday afternoon -- a 15-year-old near North Avenue and Lorel Avenue in the Austin neighborhood and a 16-year-old near Western Avenue and Taylor Street in the Lawndale neighborhood.

22 children and elderly woman stabbed outside primary school by Chinese knifeman

Guns aren't the problem, people are the problem.

A knife-wielding man injured 22 children and an elderly woman outside a primary school in central China as students were arriving for classes. The attack took place in the Henan province village of Chengping just before 8am, said a local police officer. The attacker, 36-year-old villager Min Yingjun, is now in police custody, according to an officer who declined to give her name, as is customary among Chinese civil servants.

It is the latest in a series of similar periodic rampages at Chinese schools and kindergartens. A Guangshan county hospital administrator said the man first attacked an elderly woman.

Democrats Find Out What's in ObamaCare and Don't Like It

A little freakin late for buyers remorse.

Senate Democrats who helped pass ObamaCare are finally seeing what is in it and aren't really so sure the massive tax increases mandated in the legislation will be good for their constituents, especially when it comes to the medical device tax which is set to further increase on January 1. With some of their most influential constituent groups facing onerous tax increases that are slated to help fund the law’s mandates and regulations, Senators like Al Franken (D-MN), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Patty Murray (D-WA), John Kerry (D-MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and others -- all of whom voted in favor of the law -- are aiming to delay or outright repeal parts of ObamaCare.

Governor Says Pennsylvania Won't Set up Health Exchange

Yet another state tells Obama to stuff it.

Pennsylvania will not set up its own health care exchange under the federal Affordable Care Act — at least not for now, Gov. Tom Corbett said Wednesday.

Setting up a state-based exchange would be irresponsible, Corbett said as he faulted federal authorities for what he said were inadequate answers to his questions about cost and other issues.

"Health care reform is too important to be achieved through haphazard planning," said the Republican governor. "Pennsylvania taxpayers and businesses deserve more. They deserve informed decision making and a strong plan that responsibly uses taxpayer dollars."

NFIB Small Business Outlook Drops To Record Low

How Obama was re-elected is beyond comprehension.

While Europe's confidence-inspired rally is floating all global boats in some magical unicorn-inspired way, the reality is that on the ground in the US, things have never looked worse. The NFIB Small Business Outlook for general business conditions had its own 'cliff' this month and plunged to -35% - its worst level on record - as the creators-of-jobs seem a little less than inspired. Aside from this unbelievably ugly bottom-up situation, top-down is starting to be worrisome also.

Unemployment Is Not Going Down: The Employment Rate Has Been Under 59 Percent For 39 Months In A Row

The truth...

The mainstream media is heralding the decline of the official unemployment rate to 7.7 percent as evidence that the U.S. economy is improving. But it is a giant lie. The truth is that unemployment in America is not actually going down. The percentage of working age Americans with a job actually dropped slightly in November. During the last recession, the percentage of working age Americans with a job fell from about 63 percent to under 59 percent and it has stayed there for 39 months in a row.

In November 2012, 58.7 percent of all working age Americans were employed. It is more then 3 years later, and we are in the exact same place!

RFK Jr. Slams “Right-Wing Control of American Media”

Appears yet another Kennedy is hitting the sauce, or worse.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a lawyer and environmental activist, told the Huffington Post that the “right-wing” controls the media in the United States and as a result has “divided our country” in a way not seen since the Civil War...

“95 percent of talk radio in our country is right-wing,” he said. “And you need—according to Pew [Research Center] survey—and so you have whole sections of our country that’s what they are hearing from when they wake up in the morning to when they go to bed at night. Twenty-two percent of Americans say their primary news source is Fox News,” Kennedy said Friday in an interview with Huff Post Live.

Sunday Funny

Thanks RR.

Spirit Drummer Ed Cassidy Dead at 89

Brings back memories.

 Ed Cassidy, the drummer for the classic rock band Spirit, died in San Jose, Calif. on Thursday (Dec. 6) of undisclosed causes.

Video HERE.

U.S. Small-Business Owners' Hiring Intentions Plunge

And this surprises whom?

PRINCETON, NJ -- U.S. small-business owners expect to add fewer net new jobs over the next 12 months than at any time since the depths of the 2008-2009 recession, according to this November's Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index survey. Small-business owners' net hiring intentions for the next 12 months plunged to -4 in November, down from +10 in July and matching the previous record low recorded by the Wells Fargo/Small Business Index of -4 in November 2008.

No Joy in Obamaville

The topline unemployment figure from the Labor dept. is truely meaningless.

The jobless rate dropped in large part because the labor force fell by 350,000, suggesting that people gave up looking for work. The number of people saying they had a job actually fell by 122,000. And the Labor Department revised downward its estimates of job creation in September and October by a combined 49,000. So as 122k more people became unemployed, we celebrate a decline in unemployment. Welcome to the fantasy world of government statistics.

The unemployment rate for government workers plunged from 4.2 percent in October to 3.8 percent in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as government added 35,000 to its taxpayer-funded payrolls during the month.

Friday Funny

BREAKING: Michigan to Become Right-to-Work State

Great untill the first Marxist judge shoots it down.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said today that a bill will be introduced that would make Michigan the nation's 24th right-to-work state.

"When it arrives on my desk, I plan on signing it," he said.

In a press conference with the House and Senate Majority leaders and three union members, the Governor suggested that a bill would be introduced today.

Under the legislation, employees would only pay union representation fees (also called "agency fees") if they chose to do so. Federal law prohibits workers from being required to be union members and pay union dues as a condition of employment. However, unless a state has a right-to-work law, employees in companies where a union already exists are forced to pay union fees if they don't pay the dues. Typically, the fees are nearly as costly as the dues.

U.S. Unadjusted Unemployment Shoots Back Up

Funny how things always look worse when the truth is unfiltered.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, was 7.8% for the month of November, up significantly from 7.0% for October. Gallup's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 8.3%, nearly a one-point increase over October's rate.

Detroit councilwoman to Obama: We voted for you, now bail us out

You created this toilet, now live in it.

DETROIT (WJBK) -- The city of Detroit faces a major financial crisis and one member of city council thinks President Barack Obama should step in and help.

City Council member JoAnn Watson said Tuesday the citizens support of Obama in last month's election was enough reason for the president to bailout the struggling the city. (Click the video player to listen)

"Our people in an overwhelming way supported the re-election of this president and there ought to be a quid pro quo and you ought to exercise leadership on that," said Watson. "Of course, not just that, but why not?"

Egypt's Mursi Leaves Palace as Police Battle Protesters

Appears that Mohamed may have pushed the envelope a bit too far.

(Reuters) - Egyptian police battled thousands of protesters outside President Mohamed Mursi's palace in Cairo on Tuesday, prompting the Islamist leader to leave the building, two presidential sources said.

Police fired teargas at demonstrators angered by Mursi's drive to hold a referendum on a new constitution on December 15. Some broke through police lines around his palace and protested next to the perimeter wall.

Several thousand people had gathered nearby in what they dubbed "last warning" protests against Mursi, who infuriated opponents with a November 22 decree that expanded his powers. "The people want the downfall of the regime," the crowd chanted.

"The president left the palace," a presidential source, who declined to be named, told Reuters. A security source at the presidency also said the president had left the building.

Jovan Belcher's murder of girlfriend, suicide made much easier by a gun

Owning an automobile makes it much easier to die in a car accident but....

After the predictable, shocked rhetoric of death about Jovan Belcher of West Babylon High and the Kansas City Chiefs, you still arrived back at the only place that mattered in the last hour of his life: the gun.
You plowed through all the rest of it in the aftermath of what happened Saturday morning outside Arrowhead Stadium, went through the résumé of how many positions Belcher played for Coach Al Ritacco at West Babylon, how he played linebacker at the University of Maine before he became a defensive lineman, and how he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Chiefs and emerged as a star. All that was relevant in the end, the only relevant job description, was this:

Jovan Belcher, shooter.

Shooter of the mother of his 3-month-old daughter with his own mother in the house, then himself. Maybe we will never find out what brought him to this moment, rage or jealousy or the need to obsessively control Kasandra Michelle Perkins, his girlfriend. Maybe it will turn out to be a brain injury nobody knew about, or something else that caused this madness.

But we do know this: Murdering this young woman, 22, and then killing himself in front of his coach and his general manager was made easy by a gun, because a gun always makes it easier.

Talk about overly simplistic logic.

Sunday Funny

Thanks RR.

Obama Slaps States That Don't Comply With Obamacare

Just a taste of the "revenge" Obama was talking about before the election.

Residents of states that refuse to set up health insurance exchanges under Obamacare are set to be hit with higher premiums under new rules announced by the Health and Human Services Department.

Insurance companies will be charged 3.5 percent of any premiums they sell through the federal exchanges, the department announced Friday.

And insurers are likely to pass that surcharge on to clients, leaading to higher premiums.

The only states to be affected are those that refuse to set up their own exchanges because of opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. They are almost certain to be those under Republican control. In those states, HHS will set up the exchanges.