Saturday, August 6, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Airline Taxes, Job Cuts Tied to Fights Over Subsidies and Unions

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 11:19 AM PDT


By:  Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes.com

Congress learned a lesson this week: it's hard to talk job creation when you're directly responsible for thousands of employees being out of work.

In July, Congress failed to reach a compromise on the budget for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The immediate result was that airlines were not authorized to collect federal ticket taxes, a move thought to mean the loss of $1.2 billion in revenue. It also meant that, without funding, thousands of federal employees were out of work.

And with that, your Senators went on vacation.

Or maybe not.

Late yesterday, Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Mark Warner (D-VA) and Jim Webb (D-VA) wrote a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), urging the use a pro forma session of Congress in order to offer a solution.

A pro forma session is a brief meeting of the Senate. It is held usually to satisfy a constitutional obligation. The Constitutions says, at Article 1, Section 5:

Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

It's all procedural. The Senators want to use the move to keep the FAA measure alive even as members of Congress are packing up their bags to leave town. At the pro forma session, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), presumably standing alone, will call for unanimous consent to pass the bill.

To read more, visit:  http://blogs.forbes.com/kellyphillipserb/2011/08/05/airline-taxes-job-cuts-tied-to-fights-over-subsidies-and-unions/

July payrolls rise soothes recession fears

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 11:08 AM PDT

By Lucia Mutikani, Yahoo News Canada

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. job growth accelerated more than expected in July, tamping down fears the economy was sliding into a fresh recession and giving the Federal Reserve some breathing room.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 117,000 after slowing abruptly in the past two months, Labor Department data showed on Friday. The rise beat economists’ expectations for an 85,000 gain.

The unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent from 9.2 percent in June, but that was because discouraged job-seekers gave up the hunt. Still, the report was heartening after a rush of disappointing data over the past week.

“This shows that the U.S. economy is not dead yet. We have potential to get back on track with moderate growth to a strong recovery next year,” said Kurt Karl, head of economic research and consulting at Swiss Re in New York.

The payrolls count for May and June was revised to show 56,000 more jobs were added in those months than previously reported, helping to improve the tenor of the report.

High commodity prices and supply chain disruptions from Japan knocked the recovery off course in the first half of year and left the economy vulnerable to another downturn just two years after the worst U.S. recession since the 1930s ended.

To read more, visit:  http://ca.news.yahoo.com/payrolls-awaited-markets-fear-recession-041036073.html

Satirical mints poking fun at Obama pulled from UT bookstore

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 11:03 AM PDT

By Megan Boehnke, KnoxNews.com

Breath mints are usually refreshing, but a Knoxville legislator believes a University of Tennessee bookstore’s selling of novelty candies mocking President Barack Obama stinks.

UT officials pulled the mints poking fun at Obama from store shelves after state Rep. Joe Armstrong, a Democrat, visited the bookstore and told the director he found the satirical mints offensive.

“When you operate on state and federal dollars, you ought to be sensitive to those type of politically specific products,” Armstrong said. “If it was a private entity or corporation or store, (that’s different), but this is a state university. We certainly don’t want in any way to put the university in a bad light by having those political (products), particularly aimed at defaming the president.”

The tin can of mints has a blue and red image of the president with the words: “This is change? Disappointmints.”

Armstrong said he got a call from a student who was bothered by the depiction of the president, and the legislator followed up Tuesday with a visit to the bookstore in the basement of the University Center. There, he purchased a box of the $2.99 mints and had a conversation with director David Kent, who ultimately removed product from the shelves. About 30 tins were removed.

Kent, who has run the bookstore since 2009, said the university and the store had no intention of offending anyone with the mints. The store previously carried satirical mints aimed at former President George W. Bush when he was in office.

To read more, visit:  http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/aug/04/other-products-poke-fun-at-variety-of-targets/

Pentagon’s Lightning Gun Sold for Scraps on eBay

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:59 AM PDT

By Noah Shachtman, Wired.com

There was a time, not all that long ago, when the Pentagon sank tens of millions of dollars into remote-controlled lightning guns that it hoped would fry insurgent bombs before they killed any more troops. Now, disassembled parts from the one-time wonder-weapons are being sold on eBay. At least one buyer snatched up the gear, hoping to use it in his latest art project for Burning Man.

All of which would make for a funny little story, if that buyer didn't discover that the multimillion dollar "Joint Improvised Explosive Device Neutralizers," or JINs, were kluged together from third-rate commercial electronics, and controlled by open Wi-Fi signals. In other words, the Pentagon didn't just overpay for a flawed weapon. On the off-chance the JIN ever worked, the insurgents could control it, too.

"This is the hack of all hacks," says Cody Oliver, a freelance technologist in San Francisco. "And this is what they were selling to the government? Holy shit."

OK, that story is kind of funny, too. In its own dark way.

It started one day last April, Oliver says. He was brainstorming with sometime-employer, Elon Musk, about their next project for Burning Man. For the last three years, Oliver had built for Musk "art cars" — tricked-out jalopies — in the shape of rocket ships that Musk then drove around the festival. (Musk is the founder of the rocket-maker SpaceX, among other firms.) This year, Oliver suggested something different — a remote-controlled art car. Musk liked the idea. So Oliver started trolling eBay for robotic control systems.

He figured he'd get something industrial grade, that already had all the safety and interference issues sorted out. Oliver quickly found a pair of Omnitech Robotics NGCM1 controllers — the kind of high-end electronics that ordinarily sold for tens, if not, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Oliver bought a pair for a thousand bucks. He sent his dad down to a nondescript warehouse in Tucson, Arizona to pick the stuff up.

To read more, visit:  http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/pentagons-lightning-gun/

Living to see 100 is just luck, not lifestyle

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:55 AM PDT

By Stephen Adams, Telegraph.co.uk

Those who are lucky enough to qualify for a telegram from the Queen have simply been dealt a good genetic hand at birth, the study indicates.

Academics studied almost 500 people between 95 and 109 and compared them with over 3,000 others born during the same period.

They found those who lived extremely long lives ate just as badly, drank and smoked just as much, took just as little exercise and were just as likely to be overweight as their long-gone friends.

The study was carried out by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who interviewed 477 very long lived Ashkenazi Jews.

Prof Nir Barzilai, director of the college’s Institute of Ageing Research, said previous studies of this group had identified certain genes which protected them from the effects of a normal Western lifestyle.

But critics argued the individuals themselves had lived healthier lives than others, and it was this that was more important for longevity.

This research, published today (Wednesday) in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, indicates it really is the genes that matter.

To read more, visit:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8676935/Living-to-see-100-is-just-luck-not-lifestyle.html

With Mitt Romney Holding Back, Other Republican Hopefuls Barnstorm Iowa

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:44 AM PDT

BY: KEVIN DERBY, SunshineStateNews.com

With little more than a week to go until the Iowa straw poll in Ames, some of the Republican presidential candidates continued to beef up their operations in the Hawkeye State, which holds the first presidential caucus.

Having won a number of straw polls — including two held at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2010 and earlier this year — U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas looked to continue his success in the events.

Supporters of the maverick libertarian congressman's presidential campaign announced this week that they were forming a coalition of farmers to help build support for Paul, and they would focus on Iowa.

"As a farmer, I have seen the waste and unintended consequences of government programs that are outside the federal government’s mandate," said Iowa state Rep. Jason Schultz, a Republican from Schleswig. Schultz, who raises corn and soybeans on his farm, will help lead "Farmers for Paul."

"Ron Paul’s record spanning 30 years of constitutional conservatism proves that he doesn’t say one thing and then do another," added Schultz. "He's the one candidate who will steer our country back toward the liberty and prosperity that comes with true, limited government.”

The Paul campaign also announced that the congressman would be hitting Iowa next week with his son — freshman U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who is a favorite of the tea party movement.

To read more, visit:  http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/mitt-romney-holding-back-other-republican-hopefuls-barnstorm-iowa

Tea Party group: LaHood can’t legally waive airport subsidy cuts

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:39 AM PDT

By Keith Laing, TheHill.com

The deal to end the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by having Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood eliminate controversial subsidies for rural flight service in a funding bill for the agency is unconstitutional, a right-leaning group in Washington said this week.

Americans for Prosperity Vice President Phil Kerpen said that the deal, which will end almost two weeks of furloughs for 4,000 FAA workers if it is approved as expected Friday morning, is “in plain violation of what the law says and the basic constitutional principle of separation of powers.

“Senate Democrats shut down the FAA to block a House-passed long-term extension over special-interest union provisions,” Kerpen said in a statement. “They blocked a short-term extension to protect egregious pork-barrel spending for 13 rural airports with almost no passengers under the Essential Air Service.

“Now a ‘deal’ has been announced under which the Senate will pass the House’s short-term extension, but the president will somehow keep the pork dollars flowing,” he continued. “President Obama cannot unilaterally fund pork. This is unacceptable, and we urge Obama to instead follow the law and allow this wasteful pork spending to end.”

The House and Senate agreed on Thursday that the Senate would pass the short-term FAA bill that was approved by the House in July, which included cuts to subsidies for flights to rural airports in Nevada, Montana and West Virginia. But LaHood will use his executive branch authority to exempt the airports from the cuts.

The partial shutdown of the FAA was estimated to have cost the federal government $30 million per day because the agency was not authorized to collect taxes that would normally be paid on airline ticket sales.

To read more, visit:  http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/aviation/175607-tea-party-group-lahood-cant-legally-waive-airport-subsidy-cuts

San Francisco seeks to censor the Internet

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 09:48 AM PDT

By Matt Bowman, The Examiner

Every September, my library—and probably yours—celebrates "Banned Books Week," during which liberals croon about their dedication to free speech.

But America's most "liberal" cities have recently piled up their own bonfires for speech: when pro-life advocates are speaking to women about abortion.

This week, San Francisco claimed that it could punish pro-life centers that offer real help to women because a Google search for the term "abortion" yields pro-life centers in the results.

San Francisco is working with the National Abortion Rights Action League, whose ill-fated attacks on pro-life speech have resulted in three federal court injunctions this year alone.

I thought liberals were supposed to be technologically savvy, but apparently when San Francisco and NARAL ventured onto the Interwebs, they didn't learn how a search works.

Ads in printed Yellow Pages directories (do those exist anymore?) are personally placed in categories that only list providers of that service, like "restaurants."

So it makes sense that abortionists can't be listed under "abortion alternatives," nor pro-life centers under "abortion providers."

But Google is not like your grandfather's old Yellow Pages. Google is more akin to the library.

The Internet contains everything, so a search, without quotation marks, for "abortion in San Francisco" is not like flipping to a printed directory of abortion providers.

The person searching might want to explore local laws or public discussions about abortion, prominent abortion providers or pro-life leaders in the Bay Area, the history of clashes between Operation Rescue and B.A.C.A.O.R., or even facts about abortion itself.

The term "abortion" should produce websites from both pro-life and pro-abortion viewpoints. That's what free speech means.

Yet San Francisco and NARAL want to define it as "deceptive" and punishable if pro-life sources turn up in a search for "abortion." This is no different than banning all pro-life books from the library if they mention abortion. In such a "liberal" mindset, only one side can talk freely about abortion; the rest get fined.

To read more, visit:  http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/2011/08/san-francisco-seeks-censor-internet
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