When hearing news about MI road spending as...

(1) When hearing news about MI road spending as... - Scott Hagerstrom:
"When hearing news about MI road spending as outlined below.
Remember MI has the 7th highest tax on gasoline. Michigan residents are already paying for first class roads. It is up to our elected officials to put that money into roads.
Michigan Ranks 50th In Per-Capita Spending On Roads And Bridges
Some Census data could better explain the numerous potholes in Michigan.
The state is dead last in per-capita spending on infrastructure among the 50 states, according to the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association (MITA).
According to 2010 Census Bureau data, Michigan spends $154 per person annually on its infrastructure. Many neighboring states spend anywhere from $60 to $376 more per person, MITA reported"

Obama's executive actions "a very dangerous thing," says legal scholar

Obama's executive actions "a very dangerous thing," says legal scholar:

"A legal scholar said Wednesday on Fox New’s “The Kelly File” that President Obama’s decision to bypass Congress to enact legislation is “a very dangerous thing.” 

“The framers created a system that was designed to avoid one principle thing, and that’s the concentration of power in any one branch, because that balancing between these branches in a fixed orbit is not only what gives stability to our system, but protects us against authoritarian power, protects civil liberties from abuse,” Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University Law School, told host Megyn Kelly.

“And what we’ve been seeing is the shift of gravity in that system in a very dangerous way that makes it unstable.”"

Cuomo aide caught breaking gun law quickly receives waiver

Cuomo aide caught breaking gun law quickly receives waiver | The Daily Caller:

"Jerome Hauer, a top aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, appears to have regularly carried a firearm to work in violation of state law.

 Hauer runs New York’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.

Cuomo, an advocate of ultra-strict gun control laws, appointed him to the job in 2011.

Hauer’s 9-millimeter Glock first came to the attention of local newspapers when he used the gun’s laser sighting attachment as a pointer during a meeting with a Swedish delegation.

....State law, however, explicitly bans state workers from bringing guns to the workplace, which Hauer apparently did frequently. Reporters began asking questions about Hauer’s habit of carrying his gun to work, only to be stonewalled by the Cuomo administration.

On Wednesday, the Times Union learned that Hauer had received a waiver allowing him to carry a handgun to work. The waiver was issued only four days after they ran the story about Hauer using the laser sight as a pointer.

Colorado Health-Exchange Director Indicted for Fraud, Theft

Colorado Health-Exchange Director Indicted for Fraud, Theft | National Review Online:

"[Christa Ann] McClure, 51, pleaded not guilty Feb. 6 in federal District Court in Montana to eight counts of theft and fraud from a nonprofit housing agency in Billings."

LINCOLN PARK: Governor appoints financial review team

LINCOLN PARK: Governor appoints financial review team - thenewsherald.com

— A financial review team officially appointed for the city Monday by Gov. Rick Snyder likely will decide by late April whether it will recommend appointment of an emergency manager.

...When the team concludes the review, it will recommend that the one of the following options for the city:

......File for bankruptcy, an option that is considered unlikely.

Endangered Senate Dems openly pushing IRS to target opposition political groups

Politics: Endangered Senate Dems openly pushing IRS to target opposition political groups | Best of Cain:
"So what do they do?
Why they call the IRS for help, of course.
From The Hill's piece entitled "Vulnerable Dems want IRS to step up"...
Senate Democrats facing tough elections this year want the Internal Revenue Service to play a more aggressive role in regulating outside groups expected to spend millions of dollars on their races.
In the wake of the IRS targeting scandal, the Democrats are publicly prodding the agency instead of lobbying them directly."

Clarence Thomas: Northern liberals are more racist than southerners

Clarence Thomas: Northern liberals are more racist than southerners:
"“My sadness is that we are probably today more race and difference-conscious than I was in the 1960s when I went to school.
To my knowledge, I was the first black kid in Savannah, Georgia, to go to a white school.
Rarely did the issue of race come up,” Thomas said during a chapel service hosted by the nondenominational Christian university.
“Now, name a day it doesn’t come up. "

Another impossibly stupid Common Core worksheet

Another impossibly stupid Common Core worksheet | The Daily Caller:

"Here is the latest in a long line of frighteningly stupid Common Core math worksheets to bubble up courtesy of Twitter, according to Twitchy."

Obamacare's america-------Colorado Health-Exchange Director Indicted for Fraud, Theft

Colorado Health-Exchange Director Indicted for Fraud, Theft | National Review Online:

"The director of Colorado’s health exchange has been placed on administrative leave after the state discovered she had been indicted for stealing from a non-profit, the Denver Post reports:

 [Christa Ann] McClure, 51, pleaded not guilty Feb. 6 in federal District Court in Montana to eight counts of theft and fraud from a nonprofit housing agency in Billings."

Get the facts!-----------RNC Committeewoman Candidate Questionnaire Results

RNC Committeewoman Candidate Questionnaire Results » Grassroots in Michigan:
"I have received many questions from Party members about the candidates for National Committee person. In order to gain insight to give input to our state committee members I have complied a questionnaire of most asked questions.
I believe that people should know where those who wish to be in leadership positions stand on issues and policy.
As you know voting will take place at a 8:00 a.m. session on Saturday, February 15th. 
This has placed a time burden on both candidate and membership in gaining valuable information needed in order to make a knowledge choice so I want to thank all the candidates for taking time out from their very busy schedules to answer these questions."

History for February 14

History for February 14 - On-This-Day.com

Saint Valentine’s Day

Great Backyard Bird Count (Feb 14-17). See www.birdsource.org/gbbc.

Ferris Wheel Day: birth anniversary of inventor George Washington Gale Ferris (1859-1896).

Birth anniversaries of sports broadcaster comedian Jack Benny (1894-1974), football coach Woody Hayes (1913-87) and labor leader James Hoffa (1913-75?).

Happy Birthday! Teller, Meg Tilly

1903 - The U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor was established. 


1929 - The "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" took place in Chicago, IL. Seven gangsters who were rivals of Al Capone were killed. 


1932 - The U.S. won the first bobsled competition at the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid, NY. 


1946 - ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was unveiled. The device, built at the University of Pennsylvania, was the world's first general purpose electronic computer. 
 

1962 - U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy gave a tour of the White House on television. 


1989 - Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie because of his novel "The Satanic Verses."  (In 1998, the Iranian government rescinded the death sentence.)

Rush Limbaugh’s Really Bold Prediction About 2014 Midterm Elections

Rush Limbaugh’s Really Bold Prediction About 2014 Midterm Elections | TheBlaze.com:

"Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh went “out on a limb” and predicted Wednesday that the 2014 midterms will be a “wave election like 2010.”

“I think the people of this country are gonna sweep Democrats out of office every chance they get, every opportunity they get — and I think there’s plenty of evidence for it right now,” Limbaugh said.

“You don’t have Henry Waxman and these people retiring unless they know.”

He argued Democrats like Waxman don’t want to be a member of the minority party and are getting out of the way.

“These people don’t want to be in the minority. 

It’s no fun,” the radio host added. 

“If a guy like Waxman’s gonna quit… 

Believe me, this is all he knows. 

He doesn’t play golf.

He doesn’t play shuffleboard.

He uses nasal spray, but that’s about it.”

Limbaugh also theorized that Democrats have the polling data that shows their support lacking."

Experts Agree – Gun Buybacks Are Useless and Do Nothing to Prevent Crime

Experts Agree – Gun Buybacks Are Useless and Do Nothing to Prevent Crime:

"Today, the Boston Globe has published an article on the ineffectiveness of these programs.

Here is are some of the highlights,

“Unfortunately, there is no compelling evidence that gun buyback programs are an effective crime-fighting tool or that they reduce the rates of crime,’’ said Jon Vernick, co-director of Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research…

 …Gun buyback programs have been a staple of urban crime-fighting measures across the country for more than two decades, but a growing body of research has concluded they are ineffective, at best.

A 2003 study of buyback programs nationwide by Anthony Braga, a crime specialist who is now a professor at Rutgers University, found that the programs had no impact on gun crime or gun-related injuries, and that the programs do not target guns highly likely to be used in violence…"

Nolan's Cheddar-watch to the end!

"F**k the EU" Is Right: The World Would Be Better Off Without It

"F**k the EU" Is Right: The World Would Be Better Off Without It :: Gatestone Institute:
"No one in the world takes the unelected, unaccountable and non-transparent EU seriously, except its members -- least of all the Iranians, who benefit so much from their greed and naïevté.
......A second farce – and equally harmful to Israel's vital interests – is the deal that Ashton brokered last autumn between the West and Iran. 
It has allowed Iran to develop a nuclear program for so-called peaceful civilian purposes. 
Such a program makes no sense in a country that possesses the second biggest gas and oil reserves in the world. 
The reason why Iran wants to go nuclear is the opposite of peaceful. 
It wants to develop nuclear arms in order to "put down Israel," mostly likely among other countries -- in particular those still with no nuclear weapons but with tempting oil fields. 
Not to mention a nuclear-tipped warhead being aimed at virtually every capital of Europe; Iran would not even have to use them for any political or economic blackmail; a reminder should do the trick.

What Republicans and Democrats Don’t Understand About the Insurance Company “Bailout”

What Republicans and Democrats Don’t Understand About the Insurance Company “Bailout” | John Goodman's Health Policy Blog | NCPA.org:

"The third vehicle is the risk corridor, which basically redistributes funds from profitable insurers to unprofitable ones.
Unlike the first two vehicles, however, this adjustment is not revenue neutral.
If the entire market turns out to be unprofitable, the federal government steps in to subsidize some of the losses.
In fact, there is potentially an unlimited taxpayer liability here — at least for the next three years.

By the way, did you know that there is a similar risk corridor in the Medicare Part D program — one that was never sunset?
And because insurers are overall profitable in that market, the federal government actually is making an annual profit from the Part D risk corridor. 
In essence, seniors are overpaying for drugs and the federal government is pocketing the overpayments. (We’ll save this scandal for another day.)"

When Obama Rewrites Obamacare, Why Doesn't Anyone Sue Him?

When Obama Rewrites Obamacare, Why Doesn't Anyone Sue Him? | The Weekly Standard:
"According to Senator Mike Lee of Utah, a conservative Republican with impeccable legal credentials, the main problem is finding someone who would have the standing to sue the president over his unilateral changes to the law."

Europe Considers Wholesale Savings Confiscation, Enforced Redistribution

Europe Considers Wholesale Savings Confiscation, Enforced Redistribution | Zero Hedge:
"At first we thought Reuters had been punk'd in its article titled "EU executive sees personal savings used to plug long-term financing gap" which disclosed the latest leaked proposal by the European Commission, but after several hours without a retraction, we realized that the story is sadly true.
Sadly, because everything that we warned about in "There May Be Only Painful Ways Out Of The Crisis" back in September of 2011, and everything that the depositors and citizens of Cyprus had to live through, seems on the verge of going continental. 
In a nutshell, and in Reuters' own words, "the savings of the European Union's 500 million citizens could be used to fund long-term investments to boost the economy and help plug the gap left by banks since the financial crisis, an EU document says."
What is left unsaid is that the "usage" will be on a purely involuntary basis, at the discretion of the "union", and can thus best be described as confiscation."

DOJ Argues to Court Against Rules to Prevent Foreigners From Voting

The PJ Tatler » DOJ Argues to Court Against Rules to Prevent Foreigners From Voting

Justice Department lawyer Bradley Heard was in court today trying to stop Kansas from ensuring that only citizens register to vote.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, relying on a United States Supreme Court opinion of last year, asked the federal Election Assistance Commission to permit him to ensure that only citizens were registering to vote.

Despite harping about resource concerns (which apparently means that the DOJ can do nothing about corrupted voter rolls), Holder found the time and money to send Bradley Heard to a hearing in Kansas to argue against Kobach’s election integrity measures.
The Election Assistance Commission said no, so Kris Kobach went to federal court. Enter Eric Holder’s Justice Department, as usual, opposing election integrity measures.

Vancouver baby first to have three legal parents under new BC legislation

Vancouver baby first to have three legal parents under new BC legislation | LifeSiteNews.com: "VANCOUVER, British Columbia, February 11, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) –

In a first for British Columbia, a three-month-old baby girl born in Vancouver has three people, her biological father and a lesbian couple, listed as her parents on her birth certificate.

British Columbia’s new Family Law Act, which came into force last year, allowed a child to have three parents listed on the birth certificate.

The law requires a prior written agreement between the birth mother, her spouse or partner, and the donor."

An Executive Order that Hurts

Blog: An Executive Order that Hurts:
"Employers with over 100 employees -- say 110 -- are still bound to obey and incur fines, no taxes, (or is a penalty?).
They are being placed in a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace.
The term "competitive" is the bad word that progressives only seem to apply to politics.
But those businessmen with over 100 employees are clearly still hamstrung by the bill, while their competitors are released. 
It's unfair to them and now they now have a standing in court.
Executive orders (EO) truly need some legal clarification, so let's get it done before the court gets further packed with progressive liberals.
The concept of EO has morphed beyond reasonable construction of the Constitution. Never was the Executive branch allowed to alter passed law."

Winter Storm Seen from Space Over Southern US

Winter Storm Seen from Space Over Southern US | LiveScience

Liberal Paradise

A Liberal Paradise

 
"... A "Liberal Paradise" would be a place where everybody has guaranteed employment, free comprehensive health care, free education, free food, free housing, free clothing, free utilities, and only Law Enforcement has guns. And believe it or not, such a place does indeed exist. It's called prison."


Sheriff Joe Arpaio 
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
Phoenix, Arizona

Krauthammer: Obama Now Just ‘Decides What the Law Is Going to Be’ Every Morning | Mediaite

Krauthammer: Obama Now Just ‘Decides What the Law Is Going to Be’ Every Morning | Mediaite: "“Remember how Democrats were complaining that Republicans were trying to overturn Obamacare, it was somehow unpatriotic, because it was an attack on the law of the land.

This law of the land doesn’t even exist. It exists in Obama’s head.

It’s whatever he thinks.

He wakes up in the morning and decides what the law is gonna be.”

Watch the video below, via Fox News:"

History for February 13

History for February 13 - On-This-Day.com:

Employee Legal Awareness Day

Happy Birthday! Kim Novak, Peter Tork, Chuck Yeager

1542 - Catherine Howard was executed for adultery. She was the fifth wife of England's King Henry VIII. 


1633 - Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition. 

1920 - The National Negro Baseball League was organized. 



1945 - During World War II, Allied aircraft began bombing the German city of Dresden. 


1965 - Sixteen-year-old Peggy Fleming won the ladies senior figure skating title at Lake Placid, NY. 


2000 - Charles M. Schulz's last original Sunday "Peanuts" comic strip appeared in newspapers. Schulz had died the day before. 

Prepare to bend over, folks. They're comin' again.........MDOT: Harsh winter may mean more potholes, pavement cracks than 'we've ever seen' in Michigan

MDOT: Harsh winter may mean more potholes, pavement cracks than 'we've ever seen' in Michigan | MLive.com:

"LANSING, MI -- Michigan's road funding need is growing on paper even as potholes are growing on pavement, according to Department of Transportation Director Kirk Steudle.

 "In the next couple of years, deterioration will accelerate," Steudle told lawmakers on Tuesday during a budget hearing in Lansing.

"I think you're going to see a lot of that in this next month."
As this brutal winter finally lets go, you're going to see one of the biggest pavement breakups that we've ever seen in our lifetime. It's already started.""

Review team to look over Lincoln Park's finances

Review team to look over Lincoln Park's finances | Crain's Detroit Business:

"Gov. Rick Snyder has appointed a review team to look at the finances of Lincoln Park.

 The review is part of the process under state law that could lead to the appointment of an emergency manager. The review team was announced Monday.

 A loan board determined last month that "probable financial stress" exists in Lincoln Park, southwest of Detroit.

 Lincoln Park borrowed $2.5 million from its water and sewer fund for a pension payment in fiscal year 2013, and 46 percent of its general fund revenues in fiscal 2012 went to debt payments and retirement obligations."

Obamacare creates new ways to prosecute American business

The Insiders: Obamacare creates new ways to prosecute American business:

"And the fine print of the latest announcement from the Administration is worse than the terrible headlines.

This rule includes a provision that says you have to have the right motives for having a certain number of employees to be in compliance with Obamacare. 

Bear with me, that’s right:

You must certify to the IRS – under the threat of perjury – that the reasons for your employee head count have nothing to do with your opposition to or avoidance of Obamacare.

This president doesn’t just selectively enforce the law as he sees fit; now he is actually inventing new crimes.

It’s jaw-dropping that if you fall below 100 employees, the burden will be on you to prove that you meant no disrespect to Obamacare. "

Timeline Photos

Gary L. Bauer - Timeline Photos
"Obamacare is a mortal wound to the American economy, and further evidence of why we must repeal this "disincentive to work." 
We need economic growth to create jobs. Jobs generate tax revenues to fund vital programs. 
How is Obama going to fund Social Security and Medicare if he is providing disincentives for people to work and pay taxes? 
Oh, I'm sure he'll try to raise taxes on the rich again, but that's a dead end. 
Go ahead -- take it all. 
Confiscating the wealth of the top 1% would fund the government for about five months. Eventually they will come for the middle class too, many of whom are finding that Obamacare is already taxing them by forcing them to pay higher premiums. 
As Margaret Thatcher famously said, "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

24 "No Kidding!" Photos

24 "No Kidding!" Photos: