In Obama's america "Pro-business" means "pay-to-play-business"-Crony Capitalism-------Conservatives question US Chamber's plan to spend millions to defeat Tea Party style candidates in 2014

Conservatives question US Chamber's plan to spend millions to defeat Tea Party style candidates in 2014 | Fox News:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says it will back “pro-business” candidates against Tea Party-styled opponents in this year’s elections, largely in response to conservative lawmakers fueling last year's partial government shutdown fight.

“In 2014, the chamber will work to protect and expand a pro-business majority in the House and advance our position and our influence in the Senate,” Chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue said Wednesday. “We will support candidates who want to work within the legislative process.”  

Donohue, in his annual State of American Business speech, didn’t single out the Tea Party specifically but said afterward the chamber’s frustrations are with the movement’s extreme faction and politicians who have linked themselves to the Tea Party.

“It’s people who don’t want to play,” Donohue told Fox Business, referring to last year’s budget stalemate that partially closed the federal government for 16 days and the ensuring debt-ceiling negotiations that almost resulted in the same outcome.

“The Tea Party has lots of good ideas,” Donohue said. “But those people are not helping us.”

The "perfect" public-private partnership. Union thug style-----AFSCME reports using thousands in taxpayer money to organize unions

They're so confidant no one cares, they steal tax money and funnel it into the union to steal money from unsuspecting child-care workers.
Despicable!
Yet, so predictable.
AFSCME reports using thousands in taxpayer money to organize unions - EAGnews.org powered by Education Action Group Foundation, Inc.:
"Two LM-2 annual financial reports filled out by AFSCME Council 5 in 2011 and 2012 show $33,300 in taxpayer money from Ramsey County DHS  — Department of Community Human Services — were categorized as an “organizing reimbursement” and apparently spent on organizing for a controversial child-care providers’ union.

“It angers me that my tax money is going to do the one thing that is going to hurt me,” said Cyndi Cunningham, an opponent of a provider union who operates her own St. Paul child-care business.

”It’s not just Ramsey County’s money, it’s my tax money. I’m paying to have somebody organize against me.”"

Everyone Loves Intel's Smart Bowl

Everyone Loves Intel's Smart Bowl - Business Insider:
"We've all got one:
A large bowl that sits in the kitchen or the hall or the dining room where you put all the junk you don't have any other place for: keys, mail, rubber bands, matches, batteries, take-out menus, whatever.

At CES, the big tech conference in Las Vegas, Intel unveiled a "smart bowl" that could change all that forever. 

It's a wireless charging bowl:
You dump your phone, iPod, earpiece, Fitbit or any other gadget that needs a charge into it and — boom! — pick it out a while later and it's fully charged.
No more wires.
No more jacks.
No more plugs and sockets.
Your gadgets go into the bowl (probably with a bunch of other non-tech junk too) and voila!
They're charged."

Old salt, Capt. Fred, clears up the myth of the "drunken sailor".

"There have been objections that the Congress spends money like a drunken sailor and there are always the defenders of drunken sailors who say that at least they stop when they are out of money. 

I would like to add to that - sailors spend their own money when they are on leave. 

They borrow sparely and when they do they pay it back promptly. 
And they spend money on actual benefits - beer, booze, women and fellowship. 
They receive an actual benefit from the expenditure of their funds - an adventure during time off. 
None of those things can be said for Congress at all. 
So the description is not apt. 
Instead - perhaps we should start comparing Congress spending to someone else - I would suggest the Obamas on vacation."

Excellent LTE-Letters: It's time to change the auto insurance legislation in Michigan

We CAN make our states more efficient... but it takes effort.
The powers that suck the $200/month from each of us will fight like the devil they are to maintain their money and power.
This is NOT republican vs democrat.
It's entrenched insiders and the pandering politicians who listen to loudest voices.
Call your state reps tomorrow!
Letters: It's time to change the auto insurance legislation in Michigan | MLive.com

"There is legislation in the works to place a cap on awards for auto accidents. As it now stands, we are the only state in the union with no cap which translates to some of the highest auto insurance rates in the country. I am asking you to standup and contact your representatives and senators in support of insurance reform.

Here’s why:

• Through my experience it adds an additional $200 per year per car. If there are 1 million registered vehicles that is $200 million right off the top of the Michigan economy. I attempted to get an estimate of the number of registered vehicles through the Secretary of State phone system but no one could help me. Imagine if there were 5 million, that’s $1 billion that could be spent on food, vehicles, housing or recreation.

• My wife and I are both 63 and and live on fixed incomes. We could use an extra $400 per year. How about you?

• In a tough economy people have to make some tough choices. Do we buy food, pay rent pay mortgages or pay the highest auto insurance rates in the country? This could turn honest people into law breakers because they choose to eat.

• It is a punitive tax on law abiding citizens. If you obey the law and buy auto insurance, you get nailed extra dollars.

• Could we do with one less bureaucracy at the state level? In talking with some insurance agents they understand where I’ve coming from but big money talks and is ever present in politics today.

Typically, John Q. Public just sits idly by on the sidelines. That is why I’m asking you to make your voices heard to those who write and pass the laws. Who knows a call, letter or email could save you $200 times your number of registered vehicles.

ED O’BRIEN/Twin Lake

It's not about the poor, it's about the stupids who will vote for a free lunch----5 Ways the Liberal Obsession With Income Inequality Hurts the Poor - John Hawkins - Page 1

5 Ways the Liberal Obsession With Income Inequality Hurts the Poor - John Hawkins - Page 1:
"After the last century, it shouldn't even be controversial to assert that the more a nation focuses on income inequality, the more it hurts the poor.
After all, there have been whole societies formed around the slogan Marx popularized, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" -- and they've universally been lousy places to be poor. 
Would you rather be poor in America or Cuba, Vietnam or the old Soviet Union? "

Perfect example of why we're broke-----Help city of Muskegon decide how to spend more than $1 million in urban development funds

There is no stated need.
Just a pile of "free moolah".
Jump in cuz it's govmn't money!
And the loudest, most "connected" gonna walk off with the whole lot....
Ain't america great?
Help city of Muskegon decide how to spend more than $1 million in urban development funds | MLive.com:

MUSKEGON, MI – The city of Muskegon will have more than $1 million in federal housing and urban development funds available for the next fiscal year and city officials are seeking ideas on how best to spend it.

...The city expects to again receive about $900,000 in CDBG funds and $250,000 in HOME funds, according to Community and Neighborhood Services Director Oneata Bailey. In the past, the city simply had a “public hearing” as part of a city commission meeting but few, if any, showed up to provide ideas or even ask questions.

History for January 12 - Movers, Red Line, Dogs, Kukla!, Democrat war leader, Peace?, Republican war leader, Democrat love

History for January 12 - On-This-Day.com:

Happy Birthday!  Jeff Bezos, Rush Limbaugh

49 BC - Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River signaling a war between Rome and Gaul. 


1943 - The Office of Price Administration announced that standard frankfurters/hot dogs/wieners would be replaced by 'Victory Sausages.' 

1949 - "Kukla, Fran and Ollie", the Chicago-based children’s show, made its national debut on NBC-TV. 


1966 - U.S. President Johnson said in his State of the Union address that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there was ended. 


1973 - Yasser Arafat was re-elected as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. 


1991 - The U.S. Congress passed a resolution authorizing President Bush to use military power to force Iraq out of Kuwait. 


1998 - Linda Tripp provided Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's office with taped conversations between herself and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. 

Climateers Caught in the Vortex

Climateers Caught in the Vortex | Power Line:
"The trouble is that climate change has become what philosophers call a “non-falsifiable hypothesis.”  
Everything—Hurricane Sandy, warm winters, cold winters—is said to be proof of climate change."

Big Obama Donor, Accenture Paid $90M to Fix GCI ObamaCare Mess: Accenture Fined $63.7M for Defrauding US Government

Big Obama Donor, Accenture Paid $90M to Fix GCI ObamaCare Mess: Accenture Fined $63.7M for Defrauding US Government |:
"GCI, the “international” firm hired to build the ObamaCare online machine has been fired, walking away with millions, probably billions, of American taxpayer dollars.
In comes Accenture, hired by Obama to fix his mess. 
Accenture has agreed to pay $63.7 million for defrauding the U.S. government. "

Questions you know they will not answer-----Some questions for proponents of redistribution

Some questions for proponents of redistribution | AEIdeas:
"In Don Boudreaux’s December 25 op-ed in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, he poses eight questions for proponents of redistribution (two are featured in today’s WSJ Notable and Quotable section).

Four of Don’s questions appear below, and I’ve added two of my own below his:

1. Do you teach your children to envy what other children have? 

4. You allege that great differences in incomes are psychologically harmful to poor people even if these poor people are, by historical standards, quite wealthy. So how do you explain the great demand of very poor immigrants to come to America — where these immigrants are relatively much poorer than they are in their native lands?

Obama's culture of contempt------------Rep. Diane Black on ‘The ICE Shell Game’

Rep. Diane Black on ‘The ICE Shell Game’

In “The ICE Shell Game,” Black covers the on-going struggle to stop the Obama administration from funding an illegal alien lobbyist position at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Rep. Black writes:

At a time when our country is $17 trillion in debt, the last thing we should be doing is using taxpayer dollars to fund a position whose primary purpose is to advocate on behalf of individuals who have entered our country illegally and in some cases broken other laws as well. This is why in the summer of 2012 I introduced an amendment to the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill to defund this public-advocate position; it is why my amendment was passed unopposed by voice vote in the House; and ultimately it is why language to defund the position was passed by the Senate and included in the final Continuing Resolution that President Obama signed into law on March 26, 2013.

Last February, the Obama administration created a “Public Advocate” position for illegal aliens at ICE. The following month, H.R. 933, “The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013,” eliminated the position in Section 567, which stated, “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to provide funding for the position of Public Advocate within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

President Obama signed the appropriations bill on March 26, 2013, but the position was not eliminated as Congress intended. In September, Fox News reported that the administration had simply renamed the position while maintaining the same job description and the same staffer.

Yet, 110% will vote for him and his henchmen in every election. Caint fix what dont want fixin---------Obama’s hometown left behind in War on Poverty?

Obama’s hometown left behind in War on Poverty? | Fox News

As President Obama laid out his "Promise Zones" for economic development, he made a notable omission -- his hometown of Chicago. 

The president's beginnings were on the South Side of that city, first as a community organizer, then as a state senator. 

Today, though, swaths of the city are a powerful reminder that the "War on Poverty" is not over. And some wonder where the federal government is. 

The Englewood neighborhood is probably the most severe example of poverty in Chicago. It is a focal point of the street violence that plagues the South Side. On many streets, the boarded up homes seem to outnumber the occupied ones. 

"This used to be a working-class poor community," state Rep. Mary Flowers said. "There used to be hospitals here, libraries, schools, transportation, stores, theaters. That's all gone now." 

Walking the streets of Englewood, Rev. Jesse Jackson stopped short of accusing the president of abandoning his hometown -- but Jackson noted the lack of attention to the poverty in Chicago. 

"I wish he would do something major like come to Englewood where he was an organizer and bring with him the agencies of government," he said. 

Beck Predicts Massive Changes for Talk Radio: We Have ‘Had It’ With the GOP

Beck Predicts Massive Changes for Talk Radio: We Have ‘Had It’ With the GOP | TheBlaze.com

Glenn Beck on Friday predicted massive changes in talk radio over the coming years, saying that as far as he knows, the titans of the industry have all “had it” with the excuses of the GOP.

The fiery segment was a response to a caller on Beck’s radio program Thursday, who said Beck needs to stop “poisoning the well” for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie because conservatives may have to vote for him in 2016.

“Anyone else who feels this way, I want you to listen carefully,” Beck told his audience. “This isn’t the show for you. Let me tell you what we do on this show. We tell the truth as we know it. It’s not our job to make sure the Republicans get elected at just any cost. We will tell you what we truly believe.”

(Photo: Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program Jan. 10, 2014. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

Beck said he believes people like Thursday’s caller will be “absolutely shocked” over the next few years, because he is “not the only one who’s had it with the GOP.”

“Sean Hannity has had it with the GOP,” Beck said. “Mark Levin has had it with the GOP. The biggest, quote, ‘shill of the GOP,’ as they have always liked to say, Rush Limbaugh, has had it with the GOP … So if you’re looking for shills for a political party, you’re probably going to have to shake talk radio.”

Shovel ready jobs!---------------DMC launches 'Obamacare' enrollment campaign with 60 participating organizations

Michigan republicans like Sen. Goeff Hansen voted to expand Medicaid with full knowledge there is no money to pay for it.
RINO.
DMC launches 'Obamacare' enrollment campaign with 60 participating organizations | Crain's Detroit Business:
"Most health systems and health insurers in Southeast Michigan have developed programs and campaigns to help enroll people in the nation's new health insurance system or Medicaid expansion in Michigan, which begins April 1.

Moreover, hundreds of trained certified application counselors and navigators at dozens of nonprofit agencies in Michigan are assisting the uninsured enroll in a health care plan."

We know it's gonna happen! Why are we just sitting around waiting?---------------Why America Is Headed Toward Bankruptcy In 13 Terrifying Quotes

Read them all and weep for the children...... or yourselves if you're under 90 years old.
Why America Is Headed Toward Bankruptcy In 13 Terrifying Quotes - John Hawkins - Page 2:
1) "What would you think of a person who earned $24,000 a year but spent $35,000?
Suppose on top of that, he was already $170,000 in debt.
You'd tell him to get his act together -- stop spending so much or he'd destroy his family, impoverish his kids and wreck their future.
Of course, no individual could live so irresponsibly for long. 
But tack on eight more zeroes to that budget and you have the checkbook for our out-of-control, big-spending federal government. -- John Stossel"

Their strategy is clear. "Baby steps"--------California Democrats will push background checks for ammunition

California Democrats will push background checks for ammunition:
"SACRAMENTO — Following passage last year of some of the strongest gun-control laws in the nation in the wake of the school shooting in Newton, Conn., leading California Democrats will open a new front in the fight against gun violence this year with a proposal to conduct background checks on people who purchase ammunition.
State Senate Democrats will push to require a comprehensive background check on anyone seeking to purchase ammunition, and to require a one-year permit for ammunition purchases.
“Anyone can walk into any gun store, a bait and tackle store, and purchase all the ammunition they want to, no questions asked,” Sen. Kevin de Leon (D), the bill’s lead sponsor, said in an interview. “The ammunition is the fuel that feeds the violence. The gun itself, the hand gun or the long gun or the high-powered weapon is the delivery device. The gas, the fuel, is the ammunition, and no one knows who buys it.”"

Soooo, the "solution" is to allow a merger, reduce competition. And raise prices?----------------Time Warner Cable loses 215,000 viewers

Time Warner Cable loses 215,000 viewers - Neowin:
"United States-based television provider Time Warner Cable lost 215,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to reports.
The company, which is one of the largest television service providers in the U.S, has reported these losses amidst a potential bid for takeover by other service providers including Charter Communications, which according to Bloomberg may announce a $62 billion dollar bid for ownership of the company.

While Time Warner is still the second largest organization in the industry, these reported losses may only mean bad news - in the entirety of 2013 Time Warner lost around 825,000 subscribers, up almost 300,000 from 2012. "

Why don't we dump NASA and hire these guys?----------Virgin Galactic's supersonic space ship in 71,000-ft record smash

Virgin Galactic's supersonic space ship in 71,000-ft record smash • The Register:
"The "feather mechanism" to which Whitesides refers is SpaceShipTwo's unique reentry system, in which the twin tails of the craft tilt upward by 65 degrees to allow a stable, hands-free descent that doesn't generate excessive heat from friction."

China surpasses US as world's largest trading nation

China surpasses US as world's largest trading nation | Business | The Guardian:
"Beijing describes 2013 figures as 'a landmark milestone' as annual trade in goods passes the $4tn mark for the first time"

"Miracle drug" makes ya crazy! Who'd of guessed--------------Daily pot tied to age of first psychotic episode

Daily pot tied to age of first psychotic episode - Yahoo News Canada

In a study of adults who experienced psychosis for the first time, having smoked marijuana daily was linked to an earlier age of onset of the disorder, according to UK researchers.

"This is not a study about the association between cannabis and psychosis, but about the association between specific patterns of cannabis use . . . and an earlier onset of psychotic disorders," Dr. Marta Di Forti, who led the research at the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College, said in an email.

Obamacare Hasn’t Slowed The Growth of Health Care Costs - It’s The Economy, Stupid!

Obamacare Hasn’t Slowed The Growth of Health Care Costs - It’s The Economy, Stupid!
The problem is the report does not say what Furman suggests it says.  
In fact, the report actually acknowledged that the main driver of the temporary slowdown in the rate of health care growth was not Obamacare, but an economy shaken by the Great Recession.  
Since World War II, the historical pattern is that the annual increase in the rate of health care spending slows a bit during periods of economic turmoil or recession, as consumers lose their health coverage or have fewer dollars to spend on care.

Jimmy Carter style---People Not In Labor Force Soar To Record 91.8 Million; Participation Rate Plunges To 1978 Levels

People Not In Labor Force Soar To Record 91.8 Million; Participation Rate Plunges To 1978 Levels | Zero Hedge:
"Curious why despite the huge miss in payrolls the unemployment rate tumbled from 7.0% to 6.7%?
The reason is because in December the civilian labor force did what it usually does in the New Normal: it dropped from 155.3 million to 154.9 million, which means the labor participation rate just dropped to a fresh 35 year low, hitting levels not seen since 1978, at 62.8% down from 63.0%."