The city's bankrupt. The state broke. And we're borrowing/taxing for new hockey arena?????? Proposed hockey arena district on DDA agenda today

These democrat, economic fascists are taxing the poor (property taxes) and guaranteeing less money for schools so their business cronies can get rich!
When are the PEOPLE gonna get it?
Proposed hockey arena district on DDA agenda today | Crain's Detroit Business:
"The state’s Michigan Strategic Fund in July approved the sale of $450 million in 30-year tax-exempt private activity bonds to pay for construction of the arena itself.
Another $200 million would be private-sector investment in ancillary construction, such as residential, office and retail space around the arena.

The state bonds will be repaid by the DDA and county property tax capture, $231 million in school taxes within the DDA district that the Legislature in December 2012 approved for the project’s use, and $11.5 million paid annually by Olympia.

The state reimburses the schools for the diverted money, the DDA has said.

Wayne County last month approved an inter-government agreement with the DDA that allocates 1.5 mills of new county property tax capture in the expanded district to repayment of the arena bonds, said Bryce Kelley, director of the Wayne County Economic Development Growth Engine.

Tiny Vermont Gets $208 Million to Build Disastrous Obamacare Exchange; Where Are the Press Watchdogs?

Tiny Vermont Gets $208 Million to Build Disastrous Obamacare Exchange; Where Are the Press Watchdogs? | NewsBusters:
"In mid-November, Americans for Tax Reform compiled a list of federal spending on state Obamacare exchanges totaling a breathtaking $4.5 billion.

One number on the list stands out from the rest — and it's not California's, though its $910 million amout is awful, disproportionate, and surely highly wasteful (before considering scalability concerns, the fixed costs of building a web site should be close to the same regardless of a state's population).
The big eye-catcher is tiny Vermont's staggering $208 million. 
The nation's second-least populous state (626,000 as of 2012) has 0.2 percent of the U.S. population, but has received 4.6 percent of grants from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "

NEVER trust the lying (redundancy alert) MSM-------Arapahoe High Gunman: Republicans Are the Party of 'Let 'em Die'

Arapahoe High Gunman: Republicans Are the Party of 'Let 'em Die'

The Denver Post reports that Pierson had "very strong political beliefs" and that one Facebook post he authored tore into Republicans as political party that wanted to let people die:

"[Y]ou republicans are so cute" and posting an image that reads: "The Republican Party: Health Care: Let 'em Die, Climate Change: Let 'em Die, Gun Violence: Let 'em Die, Women's Rights: Let 'em Die, More War: Let 'em Die. Is this really the side you want to be on?" …

Pierson also described himself in a Facebook post as "Keynesian" when it came to economic thinking, and criticized free market thinkers:

In one Facebook post, Pierson attacks the philosophies of economist Adam Smith, who through his invisible-hand theory pushed the notion that the free market was self-regulating. In another post, he describes himself as "Keynesian."

Pierson's classmates described the suspected gunman's political beliefs as "outside the mainstream," and described Pierson as "an outspoken kid about what he believed and a good political thinker." Another classmate said Pierson held "very strong beliefs about gun laws."

The Los Angeles Times quotes friends who described Pierson as an advocate for gun rights. In its lengthy report, The Los Angeles Times does not, however, include the information about the Facebook posts where Pierson describes himself as Keynesian or mocks Republicans as wanting people to die."

Hilarious: NYC artists and independent professionals realize ObamaCare targets them

Blog: Hilarious: NYC artists and independent professionals realize ObamaCare targets them:
"So will these deep blue people turn on Obama?
Maybe, but it will take some time:
It is an uncomfortable position for many members of the creative classes to be in.
"We are the Obama people," said Camille Sweeney, a New York writer and member of the Authors Guild. 
Her insurance is being canceled, and she is dismayed that neither her pediatrician nor her general practitioner appears to be on the exchange plans. 
What to do has become a hot topic on Facebook and at dinner parties frequented by her fellow writers and artists.
"I'm for it," she said. 
"But what is the reality of it?"
Ah yes, reality.
That's always the problem for liberalism, isn't it?"

Isn't this sorta like when the FBI knew about Muslims who wanted to learn to fly, but didn't want to learn how to land? DHS IG: Tunnels Along U.S.-Mexico Border ‘Significant and Growing’ Threat

DHS IG: Tunnels Along U.S.-Mexico Border ‘Significant and Growing’ Threat:
"According to a report by the DHS OIG released December 11, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, charged with protecting the U.S. borders, lacks the technological capability to detect subterranean tunnels.
“Illicit cross-border tunnels along the southwest border are primarily used by criminals to transport illegal drugs into the United States, and they are a significant and growing threat to border security,” noted the report.
“In an effort to counter this threat, CBP has modified its operations through patrols, intelligence gathering, and closing of illicit cross-border tunnels, but it does not yet have the technological capability to detect the tunnels routinely and accurately.”"

Obama's america---No sign Rep. Bobby Rush paid rent for South Side office; contributions helped bankroll his wife

No sign Rep. Bobby Rush paid rent for South Side office;  contributions helped bankroll his - Chicago Sun-Times:
"For the past dozen years, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., hasn’t reported paying any rent for his campaign office, records show, in what experts say could be a violation of federal election law or House ethics rules.

It’s one of a series of questionable practices an investigation by the Better Government Association and Chicago Sun-Times found involving Citizens for Rush, the South Side congressman’s campaign committee.
Rush’s campaign also has:

◆ Subsidized the South Side church founded by Rush, who is the congregation’s pastor, giving Beloved Community Christian Church more than $196,000 since June 2004.

◆ Paid Rush’s wife Carolyn Rush a year-round salary since January 2007 totaling $404,000 as a consultant. That’s nearly a quarter of the $1.6 million the congressman’s campaign fund has raised in that time."

Scariest thing about North Korea's Kim Jong-un? He's totally sane

Scariest thing about North Korea's Kim Jong-un? He's totally sane | Mail Online

Judges have pronounced sentence for crimes as trivial as owning a Bible, communicating with South Koreans or Christian missionaries, or simply complaining about the hardship of life in a state where millions spend their lives close to starvation.

The prisoners — a rock stuffed in their mouths to prevent them shouting out and ‘defiling the great leader’ — are tied to a post and shot, one by one, by a three-man firing squad. 

Armed with rifles or machine guns, their killers shoot them so many times their faces are usually unrecognisable. 

The bodies are thrown into bags and dumped.

As with any ‘offences against the people’, not only are the perpetrators punished but also three generations of their families — with grandparents and children alike ‘disappearing’ into horrifyingly brutal prison camps.

Hundreds of thousands of political prisoners such as these are locked away in a network of North Korean ‘kwan-li-so’, or penal-labour colonies.

Such is the regularity of executions in these godforsaken places that according to one former prisoner, Kang Chol-Hwan, in his book The Aquariums Of Pyongyang, a bulldozer preparing some ground to become a field in his prison camp unearthed masses of body parts. 

‘Scraps of human flesh re-emerged from the final resting place,’ he remembers. 

‘Arms and legs and feet, some still stockinged, rolled in waves before the bulldozer. 

I was terrified.’

We spend billion$$ for presidential security and get this?-----Funeral Spice

Funeral Spice | National Review Online

But how heartening, as one watches the viral video of Obama droning on while a mere foot and a half away Mr. Jantjie rubs his belly and tickles his ear, to think that the White House’s usual money-no-object security operation went to the trouble of flying in Air Force One, plus the “decoy” Air Force One, plus support aircraft, plus the 120-vehicle motorcade or whatever it’s up to by now, plus a bazillion Secret Service agents with reflector shades and telephone wire dangling from their ears, to shepherd POTUS into the secured venue and then stand him onstage next to an $85-a-day violent schizophrenic.

Heartwarming story of a girl and her protector

▶ Hilarious gun commercial - YouTube: "

We pay these people? Really?!!!! Hamilton High Suspends Girl for Christmas T-shirt but Says Okay to Hijabs

Hamilton High Suspends Girl for Christmas T-shirt but Says Okay to Hijabs - National Report | National Report
:Mia’s mother Gina Mendez spoke with local reporters about her daughters punishment.
“The district’s policies are way out of line. There are Muslim girls who attend school at Hamilton and four or five of them frequently wear hijabs.
Tell me that isn’t a religious symbol. If a hijab is permissible attire on campus then how does a T-shirt saying you love Christmas not?”

Hamilton High School principal Jerry Kemp spoke with the National Report about the school’s dress code. Kemp told us, “The district addressed religious attire on campus two years ago and the policy here is the same for all schools in the district. The law states students have a legal right to reasonable accommodation in matters of faith, so long as the attire does not present health or safety concerns. The district recognizes Christian faith does not have a strict dress code as do other faiths. Sometimes this has lead to concerns that our dress code has a disproportionate impact on students of Christian faith, but that is not true.”

Kemp explained, “The hijab is a piece of traditional headwear that is part of the religious and cultural beliefs of students of Islamic faith. 
Wearing a hijab is derived from and mandated in the Quran.
While the district recognizes a students rights to wear a hijab, it does not recognize a T-shirt that has text promoting a religious holiday or belief.
Christian students are not mandated by their faith to wear specific religious garb.
We do not allow students on campus to wear clothing that says, I love guns, drugs, or sex either.”

Obama's war against parents protecting their own children from harm------From Sandy Hook to Malpractice?

PJ Media » From Sandy Hook to Malpractice?:
"As we approach the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, it has become clear that civilian disarmament proponents use 20 dead children to promote their disarmament agenda. Missing from the dialogue are many truths they intentionally circumvented.

Government mandates that taxpayers support government-run schools, but exempts itself from responsibility should your children die while in school custody:
The Supreme Court rules repeatedly, via cases like DeShaney v. Winnebago and Castle Rock v. Gonzales, that government agencies have no duty to protect your children.


Taxpayers also fund tuition for Obama’s — and other government employees’ — children at Sidwell School, which employs 15 Special Police Officers and other security personnel to provide armed defense against the terror that resulted in Sandy Hook Elementary School being razed and replaced, costing taxpayers another $50M."

Mount Soledad Cross Will Be Purged from Veterans Memorial

Mount Soledad Cross Will Be Purged from Veterans Memorial: "After 24 years of litigation, a federal court revealed in an emotional hearing that it has ordered the famous Mount Soledad Cross removed from a veterans memorial, holding it is a violation of the U.S. Constitution. 

Since 1913, a cross has stood as the centerpiece of the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial in San Diego, surrounded by nearly 3,000 granite plaques, individually honoring war heroes from every American war, from the Revolutionary War to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The structure is a 29-foot Latin cross, which was erected in 1954.
For much of this time, it was in a city park in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego.
Then, in 1989, the ACLU filed a lawsuit, arguing that allowing a cross on government land violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
This memorial has been embroiled in litigation ever since."

Somethings seriously upside down in America these days

A clear war on our national celebration by zealots of the Fundamentalist Atheist Religion-------9-Year-Old Suspended For Saying ‘Merry Christmas’ To Teacher

9-Year-Old Suspended For Saying ‘Merry Christmas’ To Teacher - National Report | National Report
San Francisco, CA — The ‘war on Christmas’ continues as a simple well-wishing of ‘Merry Christmas’ has led to big trouble for one fourth-grade San Francisco boy this week.
Timothy Dawson, a 9-year-old student at Argon Elementary School in San Francisco, CA., was in the school cafeteria Monday eating with friends when he was taken to the principal’s office and given a week-long suspension.
His punishment was consequence for saying ‘Merry Christmas’ to his homeroom teacher earlier that morning.
Dawson’s teacher, 35-year-old Paul Horner who is an outspoken Atheist, was offended at the students display of Christmas spirit and had staff suspend the young boy for the rest of the week.
“I say ‘Merry Christmas’ to everyone,” the boy told CNN. “I didn’t think it would cause so much trouble just for saying a couple little words.”

Arguably the most import and depressing article you will read in 2013----What Will It Take?

PJ Media » What Will It Take?:
"Let me begin with a categorical statement that, given current events and recent political history, can be easily defended: Barack Hussein Obama is a willful, indoctrinated child of the Left with strong Islamic sympathies who is not fit to govern.
Indeed, he would not be fit to govern Lower Slobovia, let alone the United States of America.
Obama is a historic disaster of the first magnitude and, if not restrained, he will see to the irrevocable decline of the country which foolishly elected him, leaving the world on the brink of a conflict — or in the midst of one — whose repercussions cannot be underestimated."

Oh my golly! You MUST read and see this wonderful video------Husky abandoned on trash heap develops friendship with chihuahua

Do grab a hankie....
Husky abandoned on trash heap develops friendship with chihuahua | Mail Online:
"A dog who was discovered clinging to life on a pile of trash in a junk yard has been given a second chance by animal rescuers and made a stunning transformation.

The female husky was weak and covered in painful-looking mange when Eldad Hagar from Hope For Paws found her in a Los Angeles garbage dump.

In a moving video, Hagar shows the resilience of a dog who was abandoned and likely abused and left to die on a pile of garbage."

WALMART? Who Funds the Far Left? You’ll Be Surprised

Who Funds the Far Left? You’ll Be Surprised | Power Line:
"The Center for American Progress is a left-wing organization that is closely associated with the Obama administration.

Its principal product is a web site called Think Progress.
Think Progress is part of the internet cesspool that modern liberalism has become.
Written by hack left-wing bloggers, it is bitterly hostile to free enterprise.
It is a low-rent site that traffics in the most absurd smears and conspiracy theories.
Many have wondered for some years who finances far-left web sites like Think Progress.
As of today, we know at least part of the answer, as CAP released its corporate donor list for the first time."

* Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, one of Washington’s most powerful lobbyists.
* American Iron and Steel Institute
* America’s Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP
* Apple Inc.
* AT&T
* Bank of America
* Blackstone, one of the largest multinational private equity firms
* Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
* Citigroup
* The Coca-Cola Company
* Comcast NBCUniversal
* CVS Caremark Inc.
* Eli Lilly and Company
* Facebook
* GE
* Goldman Sachs
* Google
* Japan Bank for International Cooperation
* Microsoft Corporation
* Northrop Grumman, defense contractor
* PepsiCo
* Samsung
* Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States
* Time Warner Inc.
* Walmart
* Wells Fargo

MSU Rose Bowl 2014: Prepare For Glory

Rose Bowl 2014: Prepare For Glory - YouTube: ""

China's Colonization Of London Hits Ludicrous Speed, And Now: It's Detroit's Turn

China's Colonization Of London Hits Ludicrous Speed, And Now: It's Detroit's Turn | Zero Hedge

Which brings us to point number two: the latest target of the Chinese hot money colonization is none other than bankrupt Detroit.

Forbes explains:

"Detroit, broke with almost no prospects for recovery, is the fourth most popular U.S. destination for Chinese real estate investors.  In fact, it was bad news—the city’s July 18 bankruptcy filing—that triggered renewed interest.  “While the bankruptcy is viewed as a bad thing elsewhere, it raised the exposure level of Detroit’s real estate market in China,” says Evonne Xu, a Michigan attorney catering to Chinese purchasers.  Middle Kingdom, meet Motown.

Chinese shoppers can’t resist a bargain.  Where else can you buy a two-story home in the U.S. for $39?  China Central Television, the state broadcaster, in March reported that two houses in Detroit cost the same as a pair of leather shoes.  No wonder a poster on Sina Weibo, the Twitter-like service, asked, “Seven-hundred thousand people, quiet, clean air, no pollution, democracy—what are you waiting for?”

Who says the Chinese are waiting?  Dongdu International Group of Shanghai bought, sight unseen, two downtown icons, the David Stott building for $4.2 million and the Detroit Free Press building for $9.4 million, both at auction this September.

Moreover, Chinese purchasers are making bulk purchases of “inexpensive properties”—those selling for $25,000 or less—in the rings surrounding the city center.  “They’re banking on the downtown resurgence spiraling out into those rings,” explains Kelly Sweeney of Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel.  Mainland parties often buy at tax and foreclosure sales, hold their property, and patiently wait for appreciation."

It will be interesting to see if anyone votes against this----New Bill Would Allow You to Sell Event Tickets Without Fear of Arrest

A change that makes sense.
What a concept!
Let's see if they increase penalties on those who sell fake or stolen tix.
MichiganVotes: New Bill Would Allow You to Sell Event Tickets Without Fear of Arrest [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
"Tickets to the Rose Bowl to see Michigan State play Stanford are hard to get and those who don't already have them will be further restrained if they try to buy them in Michigan because of a state law that makes it illegal to sell tickets above face value. 
But a new bill would change that.
House Bill 5108, sponsored by Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw Township, would make it legal for people to sell tickets above face value on the secondary market in Michigan. "

History for December 14

History for December 14 - On-This-Day.com:
1799 - The first president of the United States, George Washington, died at the age 67.












1896 - Gen. James H. Doolittle, who led the first air raid on Japan during World War II, was born.

Bush's fault--------Current Solar Activity Cycle Is Weakest in a Century

Current Solar Activity Cycle Is Weakest in a Century | Space.com:
"The sun's current space-weather cycle is the most anemic in 100 years, scientists say.

Our star is now at "solar maximum," the peak phase of its 11-year activity cycle. But this solar max is weak, and the overall current cycle, known as Solar Cycle 24, conjures up comparisons to the famously feeble Solar Cycle 14 in the early 1900s, researchers said.

"None of us alive have ever seen such a weak cycle. So we will learn something," Leif Svalgaard of Stanford University told reporters here today (Dec. 11) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. "

I'm thinkin' president Wimpee prefers cheating at golf to toughing it with Chinese Admirals------------------------U.S. Navy-China showdown: Chinese try to halt U.S. cruiser in international waters

U.S. Navy-China showdown: Chinese try to halt U.S. cruiser in international waters - Washington Times:
"A Chinese naval vessel tried to force a U.S. guided missile warship to stop in international waters recently, causing a tense military standoff in the latest case of Chinese maritime harassment, according to defense officials.

The guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens, which recently took part in disaster relief operations in the Philippines, was confronted by Chinese warships in the South China Sea near Beijing’s new aircraft carrier Liaoning, according to officials familiar with the incident."

"Holiday Trees"?