Saturday, May 7, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Oversight rep. demands answers on TSA pat-down of 6-year old

Posted: 06 May 2011 03:55 PM PDT

By: Jonathan Strong, Dailycaller.com

A leading Republican on the House oversight committee is demanding answers from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on why a 6-year-old girl was given an "enhanced" pat-down at an airport by TSA agents, an incident Napolitano defended as conducted "professionally and according to the protocols."

A video of the incident was posted on YouTube April 9 by the 6-year-old Anna Drexel's parents, provoking outrage. Napolitano backed the procedure, and a blog post by the TSA said, "TSA has reviewed the incident and the security officer in the video followed the current standard operating procedures."

But Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations Subcommittee on the oversight panel, says TSA has publicly stated that children younger than 13 years old are exempt from enhanced pat-downs.

"I am still failing to see how the [officer's] actions followed TSA's publicly stated policy that children under the age of 13 are exempt from enhanced pat-downs and are to receive modified treatment. If the department has indeed conducted a thorough review of the incident, then I ask that it immediately produce its step-by-step analysis and findings to this subcommittee," Chaffetz says in a May 5 letter to Napolitano.

"On a related matter, I am also concerned that the department's process and criteria for hiring personnel stationed at airports are substandard. For example, federal agents recently arrested Philadelphia International Airport screener Thomas Gordon Jr. for distributing child pornography via Facebook," Chaffetz says, "The fact that Mr. Gordon had an opportunity to conduct invasive pat-downs of young children is sickening."

Chaffetz also asks for explanations, to be answered by May 20, including:

TSA's current policy on enhanced pat-downs for children under 13, and its policy the day Drexel was given an enhanced pat-down

What a "modified" enhanced pat-down consists of, since on the video of Drexel's pat-down appears the same as a normal enhanced pat-down

A complete description of TSA's hiring process

A list of all TSA employees who have been arrested for, and convicted of, crimes, including sexual crimes

To read more, visit: http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/06/oversight-rep-demands-answers-on-tsa-pat-down-of-6-year-old/

G.O.P. Medicare Plan Shakes Up Race for House Seat

Posted: 06 May 2011 03:51 PM PDT

By: Raymond Hernandez, NewYorkTimes.com

Only weeks ago, top Democrats appeared to have all but written off a special election for a Congressional seat in the suburbs of Buffalo. After all, Republican voters vastly outnumber Democrats in the district, and the Republican candidate, Jane L. Corwin, a well-liked state assemblywoman, seemed to be a shoo-in.

Then along came Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin. Mr. Ryan, a top House Republican, released a plan calling for the most extensive overhaul of Medicare since it was created.

That, it seems, has significantly changed the contest in New York's 26th Congressional District.

After leveling a barrage of attacks against the proposal put forth by Mr. Ryan, the Democratic candidate, Kathy Hochul, has tightened the race considerably, even as her Republican opponent remained supportive of the plan, perhaps out of concern that distancing herself from it would alienate conservatives.

The shifting dynamics of the race, which have emboldened top Democrats and their allies, underscore the intense reaction to Mr. Ryan's proposal, the centerpiece of a budget that House Republicans voted to approve in April to address the nation's long-term financial problems.

More than that, though, the May 24 special election is suddenly shaping up as the first electoral test of the Republican agenda — and of the likely themes in the battle next year between both major parties for control of the House.

"The Republican vote to end Medicare has moved the needle in this race," said Representative Steve Israel of Long Island, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "The Republican should be running away with this. Instead, she is clinging to a minuscule lead."

To read more, visit:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/nyregion/medicare-heats-up-house-race-in-upstate-new-york.html?_r=1

Food Allergies Cost $500 Million Annually

Posted: 06 May 2011 03:44 PM PDT

By: Newsmaxhealth.com

Doctor visits, hospital care, and lost work days due to food allergies come with an annual $500 million price tag, according to a new U.S. study.

Visits to the doctor’s office make up the bulk of the medical costs, researchers estimate, amounting to at least $118 million.

Food allergies among children have climbed 18 percent from 1997 to 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Today, about four of every 100 Americans suffer from the exaggerated immune response, which can be triggered by peanuts, milk, eggs, and other products.

Using several databases, the researchers tallied up the cost of emergency room care, hospitalizations, and visits to the physician’s office for allergic reactions. They then used those numbers to estimate the nationwide cost of treatment and reported their results in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Total medical costs ranged from $225 million to $307 million, depending on the type of calculation the researchers performed.

Visits to the emergency department cost $45 million, about 20 percent of the total medical fees.

David Holdford, a pharmacist at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond who worked on the study, told Reuters Health he had expected emergency room visits to make up a bigger chunk of the medical costs.

To read more, visit:  http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/health_stories/Food_Allergies_Costs/2011/05/06/387721.html

Bill presented in the US House to stop Pakistan aid

Posted: 06 May 2011 03:39 PM PDT

By: Dawn.com

No US assistance can be provided to Pakistan unless the Obama administration certifies to Congress that Pakistan did not have any information about Osama bin Laden's whereabouts, says a bill introduced in the House of Representatives.

The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs but a growing number of both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are urging their colleagues not to take decisions that may hurt US interests.

"Congress has already appropriated $3 billion in aid to Pakistan for this year," said Congressman Ted Poe, a Texas Republican, while introducing the bill. "Unless Pakistan can prove that they were not providing sanctuary for America 's number one enemy, they should not receive any American aid."

Co-sponsors – Congressmen Vern Buchanan, John Culberson, and Allen West, all Republicans – also want to "punish" Pakistan but many see it as a hasty move.

"It is not the time to back away from Pakistan but rather a time to strengthen ties," said House Speaker John Boehner. "It's premature' to talk of cutting aid, we both benefit from having a strong bilateral relationship."

At a hearing on Pakistan in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Thursday, Senator John Kerry urged lawmakers to think what impact their move to stop aid will have.

"Will the forces of violent extremism grow more dominant, eventually overpowering the moderate majority?" he asked. "Or will Pakistanis recommit to building a stable, moderate democracy?"

John McCain, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned: "There is a lot at stake there we need to do what we can to help that country."

To read more, visit:  http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/06/bill-presented-in-the-us-house-to-stop-pakistan-aid.html

Corrupt Governments, Terror Groups Rely on US Technology

Posted: 06 May 2011 03:35 PM PDT

By: John Brandon, FOXNews.com

Jihadist groups, corrupt Middle Eastern governments, Al-Qaeda and even the anti-American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan regularly use U.S. technology to repress citizens and conduct terror campaigns — and there’s little we can do about it.

Californian company Internet Brands makes the group-discussion service vBulletin. Security consult Jeff Bardin told FoxNews.com that over 10,000 jihad groups around the world use it to plan strategies and recruit members.

Web-filtering technology from Websense is used in Yemen to monitor citizens. And Bahrain, which uses McAfee’s SmartFilter product, plans to switch to Palo Alto Networks’ software to prevent freedom-seekers from bypassing censorship, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.

None of these U.S. companies are specifically to blame — once a program is in the wild, anyone can buy it and use it. However, there are few (if any) safeguards to monitor how U.S.-made technology is used.

"We are putting virtual weapons out there with the source code — and we make it widely available," Bardin told FoxNews.com. Formerly an Arabic linguist for the U.S. Air Force and currently a consultant for security analysis group Treadstone 71, Bardin said rogue groups use software from such well-known American companies as Kaspersky Labs, Microsoft, Adobe, Google, and others.

nternet Brands is aware of the misuse of its products, of course. The company told FoxNews.com that its license agreement clearly forbids such activity — yet the company’s hands are tied.

“As software providers, vBulletin’s capacity to monitor content on the Internet is limited, particularly on websites using illegal, unlicensed copies of vBulletin,” a spokesman said. “vBulletin — along with our parent company Internet Brands — in no way condones terrorist activity and cooperates fully with law enforcement agencies on any investigation it can be of help on.”

Kaspersky Lab said there is a global marketplace for software, piracy is rampant, and Internet downloads make it easy for anyone to obtain the company’s security wares. Symantec, Microsoft, Facebook, and other U.S. technology companies did not respond in time for this report or said "no comment" about foreign use of their code.

To read more, visit:  http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/05/06/corrupt-governments-terror-groups-rely-technology/

Unemployment at 9%

Posted: 06 May 2011 03:30 PM PDT

By: Timothy R. Homan, Bloomberg.com

American employers in April added more jobs than forecast and the labor market in the prior two months was stronger than initially estimated, indicating the world's largest economy is weathering the impact of higher fuel prices.

Payrolls expanded by 244,000 last month, the biggest gain since May 2010, after a revised 221,000 increase the prior month, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The jobless rate climbed to 9 percent, the first increase since November, a separate survey of households showed. Employment was forecast to grow by 185,000 last month, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Stocks jumped after four days of losses and the dollar rallied as the report eased concern that the economic recovery is cooling. The figures bolster Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's forecast for a labor market that is "improving gradually."

"This is good news, and it's getting better," James Glassman, senior economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, said in a radio interview on "Bloomberg Surveillance" with Tom Keene. "People increasingly are becoming more confident that we are on a recovery track."

March payrolls were revised up from a previously reported gain of 216,000, and February employment increased 235,000 after a prior estimate of 194,000. April payroll projections in the Bloomberg survey of 86 economists ranged from gains of 118,000 to 325,000, while the jobless rate was projected to hold at 8.8 percent.

Shares Rally

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index advanced 0.4 percent to 1,340.2 at the 4 p.m. close in New York. IntercontinentalExchange Inc.'s Dollar Index, used to track the greenback against the currencies of trading partners including the euro and yen, rose 0.8 percent to 74.785.

The economy has generated 760,000 private jobs in the past three months, the report showed. Overall, companies added 2.1 million jobs since last February, after the loss of 8.8 million as a result of the 18-month recession that ended in June 2009.

To read more, visit:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-06/u-s-payrolls-increased-244-000-in-april-unemployment-rate-climbs-to-9-.html

Dollar Bounce, Demand Risk, Send Oil Below $100

Posted: 06 May 2011 03:27 PM PDT

By: Eric Rosenbaum, Thestreet.com

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Oil prices rebounded on Friday morning, but it was a momentary respite from the weeklong rout that saw U.S. crude settle below $98 on the week’s last day of trading. After the Thursday sell off that sent crude oil down by 10%, the second-straight day of euro weakness kept oil from clawing its way back above $100, even as U.S. government said more jobs were added than expected in April.

If the Thursday correction was an overdue event for commodity investments like crude, by Friday market experts and traders were saying that the long-term bull thesis on commodity prices hadn’t changed, but maybe a new pricing reality had set in. The same case was made by Goldman Sachs last month when it exited the commodities trade and called for a $105 average price in Brent crude, saying the commodity run was overextended and over-speculated. If so, what exactly is the new normal for U.S. crude?

A range of $85 to $100? Or $90 to $105? Or could one event in the Middle East or the slightest hint that the Federal Reserve is considering Quantitative Easing 3 send oil right back where it was before this week’s freefall? The weakness in the U.S. dollar has been one of the main ballasts for the oil and commodity trading rally, with the weak currency leveraged in buying up of global commodity assets. The euro continued down on Friday, shedding another 1.5%.

After settling below $98 on Friday, U.S. crude kept declining on Friday afternoon, down 2.5%, recently trading just above the $101 mark, after having settled at $99.80 on Thursday. Brent crude was rising by 2% to 3%, recently trading just below $113.

Crude oil prices plummeted on Thursday below the $100 mark after a surprise decision by the European Central Bank to not raise interest rates, which resulted in a dollar bounce, took more life out of the commodities trade. Unsubstantiated reports that Greece was seeking to leave the European Union added to euro pressure on Friday.

“The ECB seemed to back off of a promise to raise interest rates and, in doing so, instantly changed one of the major fundamental drivers that has caused oil and gasoline prices to rise,” noted PFG Best market strategist Phil Flynn on Friday morning. However, Flynn added, “As the commodities melt down, remember the long-term bull story has not ended. The parabolic bull market has ended but now the commodity markets will have to rise on demand that will be inspired in part by more reasonable prices that are not pumped up by out of whack central bank policy…. Weaker commodity prices are just the stimulus that the economy needs right now.”

The oil market and macroeconomic data throughout the week increased the panic mode, with a key U.S. non-manufacturing survey and German industrial index declining, U.S. government crude inventory report showing higher inventory and lower gasoline demand, and a mid-week U.S. private job market disappointment contributing to a weaker view of economic recovery. On Friday morning, though, the closely watched U.S. government nonfarm payroll report came in better than expected.

To read more, visit:  http://www.thestreet.com/story/11108336/1/dollar-bounce-demand-fears-sink-oil-prices.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN

CNN Poll: Still no front-runner in the battle for the GOP nomination

Posted: 06 May 2011 03:21 PM PDT

By: By: CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser, Politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

Greenville, South Carolina (CNN) – A new national poll indicates the race for the Republican presidential nomination remains wide-open, with none of the probable or potential GOP White House contenders above 20 percent, according to a new national poll.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey’s Thursday release comes hours before the first Republican presidential debate of the 2012 election cycle. The debate is being held in South Carolina, which holds the first southern primary on the road to the White House.

The poll also indicates President Barack Obama is ahead of all probable and possible GOP candidates tested in hypothetical general election matchups, but the person who comes closest to Obama may surprise you.

According to the survey, conducted just before the news of the death of Osama bin Laden, 16 percent of Republicans and independents who lean Republican say they would be likely to support Mike Huckabee for the Republican presidential nomination. The former Arkansas governor ran for the White House in 2008, and while to date he hasn’t taken many steps towards launching another campaign, he has definitely not ruled out another bid for his party’s nomination.

Fourteen percent say they’d back Donald Trump. The billionaire businessman, real estate mogul and reality TV star says he will announce by June if he’s going to run for the White House.

One point back is Mitt Romney, at 13 percent. The former Massachusetts governor and 2008 GOP White House candidate has been adding to his campaign team in recent months and last month launched a presidential exploratory committee.

The poll indicates that 11 percent support Sarah Palin. The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee has not made any serious moves towards launching a campaign, but says she isn’t closing any doors.

To read more, visit:  http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/05/cnn-poll-still-no-front-runner-in-the-battle-for-the-gop-nomination/

Ron Paul hauls more than $1 million

Posted: 06 May 2011 08:39 AM PDT

By ANDY BARR, POLITICO

Ron Paul hauled more than $1 million just on Thursday via a debate-day money bomb.

Paul's presidential exploratory committee alerted his supporters to the 24-hour online fundraising via email and social networks and were able to sit back and watch $1,028,436.56 roll in.

The successful money bomb capped off a big day for Paul's camp, as he attended a tea party rally ahead of the presidential debate and was shown to run stronger against Barack Obama than any other candidate in an new CNN/Opinion Research poll.

Thursday's money bomb is already Paul's second major one-day fundraiser of the 2012 campaign. Paul brought in more than $700,000 for his PAC in February, helping jack his fundraising stats for the first quarter in which he hauled $3 million for his various political organizations.

Paul pioneered the money bomb fundraising technique during the 2008 campaign and still clearly has an organization capable of bringing in serious cash.

To read more, visit:  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54451.html

GOP Rivals Hit Obama on Foreign Policy Despite Bin Laden Killing, Hit Harder on Economy

Posted: 06 May 2011 08:35 AM PDT

By FOXNews.com

Republican presidential hopefuls on Thursday night didn’t allow President Obama’s widely-praised operation that killed Usama bin Laden this week to deter them from attacking his foreign policy or blaming his domestic policies for high gas prices and the fragile economy recovery.

During the first debate of the 2012 election season, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty congratulated Obama for capturing the world’s most wanted terrorist nearly 10 years after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“I tip my cap to him in that moment,” he said. “But that moment is not the sum total of America’s foreign policy. He’s made a number of other decisions relating to our security here and around the world that I don’t agree with.”

Pawlenty cited Libya as one example, saying he didn’t agree with Obama’s decision to defer to the United Nations on how to deal with Muammar Qaddafi’s violent crackdown on rebels.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said the only thing Obama has done right in his foreign policy is continue President George W. Bush’s policies.

To read more, visit:  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05/05/gop-contenders-look-seize-moment-presidential-debate/
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