White House wants to kill royalty-in-kind program

WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today told Congress he would kill a controversial program that allows energy companies to use actual oil and natural gas — instead of cash — to pay the government royalties for drilling on public lands. Read the full story

We need to push for this, I have to catch up on some sleep right now but I will elaborate more for the uninformed tomorrow.

House near vote to admonish Wilson over ‘You lie’

WASHINGTON — Bitterly divided over an accusatory outburst — “You lie” — lawmakers on Tuesday prepared to admonish one of their own for his jarring interruption of President Barack Obama. Read the full story

FDA approves swine flu vaccine

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration approved the new swine flu vaccine Tuesday, a long-anticipated step as the government works to get vaccinations underway next month. Read the full story

NEW YORK —  Law enforcement agents have raided residences in New York City as part of a terrorism investigation, and are preparing to brief Congress about the investigation.

New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne confirms that searches were conducted in the borough of Queens on Monday by agents of a joint terrorism task force. He would not discuss the matter further. Read the full story

By Dr. James Howenstine, MD.
December 7, 2003
NewsWithViews.com

Dr. James R. Shannon, former director of the National institute of health declared, “the only safe vaccine is one that is never used.”

Cowpox vaccine was believed able to immunize people against smallpox. At the time this vaccine was introduced, there was already a decline in the number of cases of smallpox. Japan introduced compulsory vaccination in 1872. In 1892 there were 165,774 cases of smallpox with 29,979 deaths despite the vaccination program. A stringent compulsory smallpox vaccine program, which prosecuted those refusing the vaccine, was instituted in England in 1867. Within 4 years 97.5 % of persons between 2 and 50 had been vaccinated. The following year England experienced the worst smallpox epidemic[1] in its history with 44,840 deaths. Between 1871 and 1880 the incidence of smallpox escalated from 28 to 46 per 100,000. The smallpox vaccine does not work. Read the full story

Olbermann Offers “Special Comment” On Joe Wilson: ‘You’ve Embarrassed The Nation‘

On “Countdown” tonight host Keith Olbermann offered a “Special Comment” about Republican Congressman Joe Wilson yelling out “you lie” during President Obama’s speech last night to a joint session of Congress. Olbermann concludes that the only thing more offensive and embarrassing than the lack of civility Wilson displayed in “shouting at the President like he was a referee at a ball game and you were a drunk in the stands,” is that Wilson was glaringly wrong in a comment that has “embarrassed the nation.”

Olbermann digs deeper to uncover Wilson’s sometimes tumultuous relationship with the truth.

I have to say: I could not be happier that we have a President in office who can speak clearly, intelligently, and does not have to resort to made up words to make a point. Man that guy can give a speech, I will give him that. What he can not do, although, is stick to the facts. I’m sorry Mr. President, but as someone boldly yelled tonight on live television – “you lie”.

We need to start with the beginning of his speech before we tackle any of the larger issues discussed tonight. President Obama had some uplifting words regarding the economy. However, the words he spoke hold no ground if they are not backed up by facts. (For reference purposes, all quotations taken from the speech’s transcript are credit to http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/us/politics/10obama.text.html ) Read the full story

I’m sure this member was escorted out the door very shortly after this outburst, please don’t interupt. Also, way too much standing up and down took away from the overall flow of the speech. Nancy’s reaction was great.

This is a topic, in my opinion, that has not been brought up enough when health care reform is discussed. This has been taken from getreaal.com and contains very valuable information which allows citizens to inform themselves on this issue.

Just as it has been stated on GetREAAL, “according to Benjamin Franklin, our elected officials are civil servants.”

If you find this information helpful, please take the time to visit GetREAAL and respond to some of the polls they have put up along with other helpful information as well. Read the full story

By Thomas Lahey

Forum Columnist

“Economic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics.” These words, written by economist Ludwig von Mises, seem terribly pertinent in light of recent developments in the United States. Congress extends its reach over the economy daily with every new regulatory measure it can think up. In today’s world, where problems are a dime a dozen, that means a lot of new legislation. Unfortunately, the question is never “Should the government do something?” but always, “What should the government do and how quickly?” This is a recipe for bad policy. Read the full story

If President Obama is planning a speech within the next week, will he take over ABC like he did for his last televised speech regarding health care? I still believe that when ABC handed over programming to the White House the previous time, ethical standards for journalism were broken and questions should be raised regarding ABC’s new ties to the White House….

Under fire, President Obama shifts strategy

Aides to President Barack Obama are putting the final touches on a new strategy to help Democrats recover from a brutal August recess by specifying what Obama wants to see in a compromise health care deal and directly confronting other trouble spots, West Wing officials tell POLITICO.

Obama is considering detailing his health-care demands in a major speech as soon as next week, when Congress returns from the August recess. And although House leaders have said their members will demand the inclusion of a public insurance option, Obama has no plans to insist on it himself, the officials said.

“We’re entering a new season,” senior adviser David Axelrod said in a telephone interview. “It’s time to synthesize and harmonize these strands and get this done. We’re confident that we can do that. But obviously it is a different phase. We’re going to approach it in a different way. The president is going to be very active.”

Top officials privately concede the past six weeks have taken their toll on Obama’s popularity. But the officials also see the new diminished expectations as an opportunity to prove their critics wrong by signing a health care law, showing progress in Afghanistan, and using this month’s anniversary of the fall of Lehman Brothers to push for a crackdown on Wall Street. Read the full story

This is good news for Ron Paul and his Campaign for Liberty. There have been threats by the Fed and others that auditing the Fed would have devastating consequences for the American, and world, economy. What exactly are they hiding?

Check out the videos from Ron Paul and others for some more information on this topic. Read the full story

(CNN) — Bringing a growing health concern to Congress, scientists squared off Thursday over whether cell phones contribute to brain cancer.

Studies have indicated that long-term cell phone use may be associated with brain cancer, according to Dr. Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and Dr. David Carpenter, director of Institute for Health and the Environment at University of Albany. They both testified in front of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Policy. Read the full story

Blair Holt Bill
Claim:   A bill before Congress would prohibit ownership of handguns by those who have not obtained firearm licenses.

TRUE

It has started.

Very Important for you to be aware of a new bill HR 45 introduced into the House. This is the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sale Act of 2009.

We just learned yesterday about this on the Peter Boyles radio program.

Even gun shop owners didn’t know about this because it is flying under the radar. Read the full story

Dirty Secret No. 1 — Health Care

Dirty secret No. 1 in Obamacare is about the government’s coming into homes and usurping parental rights over child care and development.

It’s outlined in sections 440 and 1904 of the House bill (Page 838), under the heading “home visitation programs for families with young children and families expecting children.” The programs (provided via grants to states) would educate parents on child behavior and parenting skills.

The bill says that the government agents, “well-trained and competent staff,” would “provide parents with knowledge of age-appropriate child development in cognitive, language, social, emotional, and motor domains … modeling, consulting, and coaching on parenting practices,” and “skills to interact with their child to enhance age-appropriate development.”

Are you kidding me?! With whose parental principles and values? Their own? Certain experts’? From what field and theory of childhood development? As if there are one-size-fits-all parenting techniques! Do we really believe they would contextualize and personalize every form of parenting in their education, or would they merely universally indoctrinate with their own?

Are we to assume the state’s mediators would understand every parent’s social or religious core values on parenting? Or would they teach some secular-progressive and religiously neutered version of parental values and wisdom? And if they were to consult and coach those who expect babies, would they ever decide circumstances to be not beneficial for the children and encourage abortions?

One government rebuttal is that this program would be “voluntary.” Is that right? Does that imply that this agency would just sit back passively until some parent needing parenting skills said, “I don’t think I’ll call my parents, priest or friends or read a plethora of books, but I’ll go down to the local government offices”? To the contrary, the bill points to specific targeted groups and problems, on Page 840: The state “shall identify and prioritize serving communities that are in high need of such services, especially communities with a high proportion of low-income families.”

Are we further to conclude by those words that low-income families know less about parenting? Are middle- and upper-class parents really better parents? Less neglectful of their children? Less needful of parental help and training? Is this “prioritized” training not a biased, discriminatory and even prejudicial stereotype and generalization that has no place in federal government, law or practice?

Bottom line: Is all this what you want or expect in a universal health care bill being rushed through Congress? Do you want government agents coming into your home and telling you how to parent your children? When did government health care turn into government child care?

Source:

http://townhall.com/

I find myself questioning the government’s decision to destroy all the cars that are traded in through this program. That has to cost money, and I’m sure the taxpayers will get the bill. With all the emphasis being placed on becoming more environmentally friendly, I believe Ron Paul made a great point about the environmental impact this program has as well.

Cash for Clunkers

The Cash for Clunkers program has received a lot of attention this week on Capitol Hill and across the country. The program offers a voucher of up to $4500 in federal funds to anyone who trades in a working used car for a new one with better fuel economy. Congress was shocked at how quickly people responded to promises of free money and drained the program, while car dealers have been equally shocked at how slow and arduous the government’s website to claim the rebates has been.

It’s not a shock that people respond to incentives. The program has been deemed a resounding success, and Congress has authorized 2 billion more taxpayer dollars for it. But not everyone is happy about this. Low-income earners who would have been in the market for those perfectly serviceable, working cars will have fewer to choose from, and those cars will probably be more expensive than they normally would have been. Automotive repair shops actively lobbied against this program, as it will destroy many of the cars they would have repaired. They were out-lobbied. And of course, Americans as a whole are hurt, because this additional bailout of auto companies comes at our expense through inflation.

I have introduced a somewhat similar bill that would have provided a much better alternative to Cash for Clunkers because it does not rely on increased government bureaucracy or spending. My bill HR 1768 provides tax credits to people trading in used cars for new cars with better fuel economy. There is a big difference, in my mind, between letting people keep their own money versus giving them someone else’s. It is clear which one a free and fair society would choose. Not only that, but my bill would not have required working, serviceable cars to be destroyed for scrap metal.

Cash for Clunkers is a popular program right now, but in the larger scheme of things it does very little towards accomplishing its stated goals. Requiring cars to be destroyed and new ones made to replace them might help the auto industry in the short run, but any improved fuel economy will not make up for the environmental impact of junking one car and making a new one. So this is not a program that should really make environmentalists happy.

There is also much evidence that the boost in demand for autos, that has made dealers happy, is just borrowed demand from the past and the future. In other words, many have put off purchases they would have made anyway because they were waiting to see what the government would do. Others who would have waited a little longer to trade in a vehicle are accelerating their decisions so they can get in before the money runs out. So I would not be surprised to find that this artificial boom in auto sales is followed by an extended drop. This should serve as a very tangible example of how government meddling in the economy creates booms and busts. While everyone loves the booms, the busts are what creates the crises that government thrives on, and that is what we really need to watch out for!

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