The Treasury Department released its monthly budget statement this afternoon and the results aren’t pretty. The federal government ran up its largest-ever monthly deficit in February at $220.9 billion, a 14 percent increase from a year ago.
Government Runs Up Record Deficit in February
March 10th, 2010Durbin Admits Premiums Will Go Up If Health Care Bill Is Passed
March 10th, 2010Cable Network Rankings: FNC #2, MSNBC #25, CNN #31, HLN #36 in Prime
March 10th, 2010Fox News was the #2 network in all of primetime cable last week in total viewers. MSNBC was #25, CNN was #31, and HLN was #36. In total day, FNC was #4, CNN was #27, MSNBC was #32, and HLN was #35. You can see the full rankings for the top 30 below.
via Cable Network Rankings: FNC #2, MSNBC #25, CNN #31, HLN #36 in Prime - mediabistro.com: TVNewser.
U.N. climate panel faces major review
March 10th, 2010The world’s biggest scientific guns are being called in to mop up after a trickle of unsettling errors in the reports written by the U.N. climate panel.
The United Nations and the beleaguered Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said Wednesday that a Netherlands-based group of 15 national academies of science will study how the warming panel does its job.
via U.N. climate panel faces major review - Climate Change- msnbc.com.
Obama moving to limit fishing access
March 9th, 2010The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation’s oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.
This announcement comes at the time when the situation supposedly still is “fluid” and the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force still hasn’t issued its final report on zoning uses of these waters.
Is this guy trying to get ever Senator and Representative booted from office.
Patients’ medical records go online without consent
March 9th, 2010Those who do not wish to have their details on the £11 billion computer system are supposed to be able to opt out by informing health authorities.
But doctors have accused the Government of rushing the project through, meaning that patients have had their details uploaded to the database before they have had a chance to object.
via Patients’ medical records go online without consent - Telegraph.
David Letterman Blackmailer Robert Halderman to Plead Guilty
March 9th, 2010The television news producer accused of trying to blackmail David Letterman for $2 million by exposing the talk show host’s extramarital affairs pleaded guilty today in a Manhattan court.
Robert Halderman apologizes for trying to extort $2M from the talk show host.
Robert “Joe” Halderman, an Emmy Award winning producer at CBS News, left the courtroom and apologized to Letterman.
via David Letterman Blackmailer Robert Halderman to Plead Guilty - ABC News.
Which Insurer Denies the Most Claims?
March 9th, 2010According to the 2008 Health Insurance Report Card (PDF) released by the American Medical Association, the “carrier” with the highest percentage of denials is . . . Medicare.
via Which Insurer Denies the Most Claims? | www.statehousecall.org.
2 of oldest people in US die: in NH 114, Mich. 113
March 9th, 2010Two of the oldest people in the world have died on the same day.
Mary Josephine Ray, who was certified as the oldest person living in the United States, died Sunday at age 114 years, 294 days. She died at a nursing home in Westmoreland but was active until about two weeks before her death, her granddaughter Katherine Ray said.
“She just enjoyed life. She never thought of dying at all,” Katherine Ray said. “She was planning for her birthday party.”
Ray died just hours before Daisey Bailey, who was 113 years, 342 days, said L. Stephen Coles, a director of the Gerontology Research Group, which tracks and studies old people and certifies those 110 or older, called supercentenarians.
“It’s very rare that two of our supercentenarians die on the same day,” Coles said.
via My Way News - 2 of oldest people in US die: in NH 114, Mich. 113.
Are unemployment benefits no longer temporary?
March 9th, 2010Millions of Americans have been forced to rely on unemployment payments for extended periods as the nation struggles through its longest period of high joblessness in a generation, and critics are taking aim, saying that the Depression-era program created as a temporary bridge for laid-off workers is turning into an expensive entitlement.
About 11.4 million out-of-work people now collect unemployment compensation, at a cost of $10 billion a month. Half of them have been receiving payments for more than six months, the usual insurance limit. But under multiple extensions enacted by the federal government in response to the downturn, workers can collect the payments for as long as 99 weeks in states with the highest unemployment rates — the longest period since the program’s inception.
Toyota Goes After ABC News Report
March 8th, 2010ABC News and investigative reporter Brian Ross have been delivering the most prominent television reports on Toyota’s recent electronic acceleration system issues. Today, Toyota put on a full demonstration and put out a press release criticizing a specific ABC News report involving professor David Gilbert:
via Toyota Goes After ABC News Report - mediabistro.com: TVNewser.
Jumping When Unions Holler
March 8th, 2010Obama’s promise of a better, cleaner, and more transparent brand of politics has not been fulfilled. Not by a long shot. The president appoints the SEIU boss to the deficit commission. Congress behind closed doors churns out colorfully named sweetheart deals on ObamaCare. And then they really reveal the depths of their dependence on special-interest patrons.
Northrop Grumman, citing unfairness, declines to compete in $40 billion tanker contract
March 8th, 2010Northrop Grumman, which in 2008 was named the victor in the Pentagon’s $40 billion KC-X tanker competition only to have the win taken away, announced on Monday that it will not re-submit its bid, citing unfairness in the contest with Boeing.
Wes Bush, chief executive of Northrop Grumman Corporation, said in a statement that the company opted not to submit a bid to the Department of Defense after reaching the conclusion that proposal “clearly favors Boeing’s smaller refueling tanker and does not provide adequate value recognition of the added capability of a larger tanker, precluding us from any competitive opportunity.”
ACORN Registration Workers Charged With Felony Voter Fraud
March 8th, 2010Five Wisconsin residents, including two who worked for community organizing group ACORN, were charged Monday with election fraud relating to the 2008 presidential election.
State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced felony charges against Maria Miles, Kevin Clancy, Michael Henderson, Herbert Gunka and Suzanne Gunka.
via FOXNews.com - ACORN Registration Workers Charged With Felony Voter Fraud.
Rahm is… “the devil’s spawn”
March 8th, 2010Whatever he has done or not done, I will miss Eric Massa, for no other reason than his gift with a phrase.
In an amazing, far-ranging interview/monologue with a Rochester-area radio station, Massa admits making an off-color, sexual comment to a young staffer — but still claims Democratic leadership ratted him out to kill a health care “no” vote.
That brought him to the subject of Rahm Emanuel and arm-twisting:
“Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil’s spawn,” Massa said, according to City Hall. “He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive.”
via Rahm is… “the devil’s spawn” - Glenn Thrush - POLITICO.com.
Democrat-Media Complex Accuses Tea Partiers of Being On… the Other Side
March 7th, 2010The Mainstream Media’s (MSM’s) latest sport is to try to accuse the Tea Party activists of being Republican hacks. The reality is that their spin is demonstrative again, of their Pavlovian simplicity and lack of vision for their own agenda.
via » Democrat-Media Complex Accuses Tea Partiers of Being On… the Other Side - Big Journalism.
Low-tax Texas beats big-government California
March 7th, 2010They are lessons that are particularly vivid when you contrast Texas, the nation’s second most populous state, with the most populous, California. Both were once Mexican territory, secured for the United States in the 1840s. Both have grown prodigiously over the past half-century. Both have populations that today are about one-third Hispanic.
But they differ vividly in public policy and in their economic progress — or lack of it — over the last decade. California has gone in for big government in a big way. Democrats hold big margins in the legislature largely because affluent voters in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area favor their liberal positions on cultural issues.
via Low-tax Texas beats big-government California | Washington Examiner.
Officers: Pakistan arrests American-born al-Qaida
March 7th, 2010The American-born spokesman for al-Qaida has been arrested by Pakistani intelligence officers in the southern city of Karachi, two officers and a government official said Sunday, the same day Adam Gadahn appeared in a video urging U.S. Muslims to attack their own country.
The arrest of Gadahn is a major victory in the U.S.-led battle against al-Qaida and will be taken as a sign that Pakistan, criticized in the past for being an untrustworthy ally, is cooperating more fully with Washington. It follows the recent detentions of several Afghan Taliban commanders in Karachi, including the movement’s No. 2 commander.
May this traitor never live another day with peace in his evil heart.
via Officers: Pakistan arrests American-born al-Qaida - Yahoo! News.
Neglected by ‘lazy’ nurses, Kane Gorny, 22, dying of thirst rang the police to beg for water
March 7th, 2010A man of 22 died in agony of dehydration after three days in a leading teaching hospital.
Kane Gorny was so desperate for a drink that he rang police to beg for their help.
They arrived on the ward only to be told by doctors that everything was under control.
The next day his mother Rita Cronin found him delirious and he died within hours.
She said nurses had failed to give him vital drugs which controlled fluid levels in his body. ‘He was totally dependent on the nurses to help him and they totally betrayed him.’
Consent of the governed - and the lack thereof
March 7th, 2010But now things are looking a bit dicey. According to a recent Rasmussen Poll , only 21 percent of American voters believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed. On the other hand, Rasmussen notes, a full 63 percent of the “political class” believe that the government enjoys the consent of the governed.
It’s tempting to stress the disconnect here, and that disconnect is certainly huge. Unsurprisingly, the political class — which talks mostly to itself — thinks that it is far more popular, and legitimate, in the eyes of the country than is in fact the case. In this, as in so many things, America’s political class is out of touch with reality.
via Glenn Harlan Reynolds: Consent of the governed - and the lack thereof | Washington Examiner.
YouTube - How to Stop Sudden Unintended Acceleration
March 7th, 2010Terminator Salvation Movie
March 6th, 2010I enjoyed it.
In the highly anticipated new installment of The Terminator film franchise, set in post-apocalyptic 2018, Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against… In the highly anticipated new installment of The Terminator film franchise, set in post-apocalyptic 2018, Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.
via Terminator Salvation Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes.
Obama Draws Fire for Appointing SEIU’s Stern to Deficit Panel
March 6th, 2010President Obama’s decision to appoint his close political ally, union leader Andrew Stern, to the newly created National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has set off a firestorm of criticism from business and conservative groups who charge he is a political radical who should be investigated for failure to register as a lobbyist.
The prestigious 18-member commission will study and recommend ways to whittle down the $12 trillion debt the federal government has amassed. Stern is one of six panelists Obama has named; the House of Representatives and the Senate will each appoint six others.
Stern, the 59-year-old president of the 2.2 million-member Service Employees International Union, has angered business groups and political conservatives because of his support for health care reform and controversial “Card Check” legislation, which would make it easier for unions to organize in workplaces.
via FOXNews.com - Obama Draws Fire for Appointing SEIU’s Stern to Deficit Panel.
Congressional estimates show grim deficit picture
March 6th, 2010A new congressional report released Friday says the United States’ long-term fiscal woes are even worse than predicted by President Barack Obama’s grim budget submission last month.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that Obama’s budget plans would generate deficits over the upcoming decade that would total $9.8 trillion. That’s $1.2 trillion more than predicted by the administration.
via Congressional estimates show grim deficit picture - Yahoo! News.
Rash of Scandals Tests Democrats at Sensitive Time
March 6th, 2010The ethical woes facing Democrats are piling up, with barely a day passing in recent weeks without headlines from Washington to New York and beyond filled with word of scandal or allegations of wrongdoing.
The troubles of Gov. David A. Paterson of New York, followed by those of two of the state’s congressmen, Charles B. Rangel and Eric J. Massa, have added to the ranks of episodes involving prominent Democrats like Eliot Spitzer, Rod R. Blagojevich and John Edwards.
via Political Memo - Rash of Scandals Tests Democrats at Sensitive Time - NYTimes.com.
States Facing Financial Doomsday as Debts Mount
March 5th, 2010Doomsday may be just around the corner.
That’s not some apocalyptic bumper sticker. It’s the learned opinion of numerous financial experts when describing the budget crises facing a number of U.S. states, notably Illinois, California and New Jersey.
“This is an unprecedented crisis,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, an influential Illinois-based tax and fiscal policy research group.
via States Facing Financial Doomsday as Debts Mount - FOXBusiness.com.
Obama policies projected to add $9.7 trillion to U.S. debt by 2020
March 5th, 2010President Obama’s policies would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, congressional budget analysts said Friday, including more than $2 trillion that Obama proposes to devote to extending a variety of tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration.
The 10-year outlook by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is somewhat gloomier than White House projections, which found that Obama’s policies would add $8.5 trillion to the debt by 2020. While the two agencies are in relative agreement about the short-term budget picture, with both predicting a deficit of about $1.5 trillion this year and $1.3 trillion in 2011, the CBO is less optimistic about future years, predicting that deficits will grow rapidly after 2015.
via Obama policies projected to add $9.7 trillion to U.S. debt by 2020 - washingtonpost.com.
Harry Reid: Only 36,000 Lost Their Jobs Today
March 5th, 2010YouTube - Harry Reid: Only 36,000 Lost Their Jobs Today.
What an idiot…
Federal pay ahead of private industry
March 5th, 2010Federal employees earn higher average salaries than private-sector workers in more than eight out of 10 occupations, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data finds.
Accountants, nurses, chemists, surveyors, cooks, clerks and janitors are among the wide range of jobs that get paid more on average in the federal government than in the private sector.
Money worries curb GOP optimism
March 4th, 2010Republicans are feeling pretty good about the midterms. Prognosticators don’t laugh anymore when they talk about taking back Congress.
But while wind at one’s back is a good thing, cash in the bank would be better, and on that score Republicans are lagging behind. Their candidates have raised less than half the $84 million that experts estimate it will take to seriously threaten the Democratic majority in the House. The situation at the National Republican Congressional Committee is even bleaker.
via Money worries curb GOP optimism - Jeanne Cummings - POLITICO.com.
