Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party |
- Payroll tax cut must pass before holidays, Pelosi says
- U.S. Stocks Little Changed; Health Firms Decline
- Parents Can Rent Toys At New Website
- Boston Bans E-Cigarettes in Workplaces, Just Because
- ‘Indefinite Detention’ Bill Passes Senate 93-7
- 15 Iowa tea party-related groups reject Christine O’Donnell’s meetup invitation
- Gary Johnson Flirts with Libertarian Party Presidential Run
| Payroll tax cut must pass before holidays, Pelosi says Posted: 02 Dec 2011 01:43 PM PST By Felicia Sonmez, WashingtonPost.com The way forward for Congress on a series of high-priority measures remained in flux on Friday, following the Senate's rejection of two competing proposals to extend a one-year payroll tax cut. Other issues still unresolved include an extension of unemployment insurance and the "doc fix," which affects the rate of reimbursement for doctors who see Medicare patients. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters at a news conference on jobs Friday that lawmakers must extend the payroll tax cut before returning home for the holidays, and leaders of both parties have said that the extension is a must-pass measure. But just how to pay for that measure remains a major sticking point between the parties, compounded by the fact that a majority of Senate Republicans voted against their party's own proposal late Thursday night. At a separate news conference Friday morning, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that House GOP leaders were planning on discussing their payroll-tax proposal with rank-and-file lawmakers at a closed-door conference meeting. "We're going to have that conversation with our members as soon as leave here, and you'll know more about it soon," he said as he headed into the meeting. To read more, visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/payroll-tax-cut-must-pass-before-holidays-pelosi-says/2011/12/02/gIQAFd4hLO_blog.html |
| U.S. Stocks Little Changed; Health Firms Decline Posted: 02 Dec 2011 01:40 PM PST By Jeff Sutherland, Bloomberg.com U.S. stocks were little changed, erasing an earlier rally, as losses in health-care and utility shares offset an unexpected drop in the unemployment rate. The S&P 500 dropped 0.1 percent to 1,243.76 at 3:50 p.m. New York time, after rising as much as 1.3 percent. The index has gained 7.8 this week, heading for its biggest weekly rally since March 2009. To read more, visit: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-02/stocks-in-u-s-little-changed-as-shares-of-health-care-companies-decline.html |
| Parents Can Rent Toys At New Website Posted: 02 Dec 2011 01:37 PM PST By Paula Ebben,, CBSBoston.com BOSTON (CBS) – When you are a kid on Christmas morning, it's all about volume. But when you are a parent, cruising the aisles of the toy-store in December, it's about trying to balance a happy holiday with a reasonable budget. Paul Reinsmith of Boston has found a great way to have plenty of toys under the tree, and all year, without breaking the bank. Paul and his wife Pam discovered what they call the 'Netflix' of toys. It's called Toygaroo, a website that lets parents rent toys for a fraction of what they would cost to buy. "It's the ideal situation for the holiday time," Paul said. "You can stuff toys under the tree for under 50 bucks. If you were out there buying them, there's just no way you could do that." Paul and Pam choose the toys that are best suited for their son Will and just like Netflix, they go into a queue. Depending on the service plan, every month or every other month, a box comes in the mail with a new set of toys from the queue. When the time is up, send the toys back and a new box will be on its way. To read more, visit: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/12/01/parents-can-rent-toys-at-new-website/ |
| Boston Bans E-Cigarettes in Workplaces, Just Because Posted: 02 Dec 2011 01:34 PM PST By: Jacob Sullum, Reason.com Yesterday the Boston Public Health Commission voted to ban the use of electronic cigarettes in workplaces, including outdoor areas such as restaurant patios. It says it is simply “clos[ing] a loophole” by “treat[ing] e-cigarettes like tobacco products.” But since e-cigarettes do not contain any tobacco and do not generate smoke (merely a propylene glycol vapor containing nicotine), that is a puzzling way to characterize the decision. The official justification for banning smoking in workplaces is protecting employees and other bystanders from the toxins and carcinogens generated when tobacco is burned. Let’s leave aside the questions of how dangerous secondhand smoke really is and whether the government has any business regulating it on private property. In the absence of evidence that e-cigarettes are a hazard to other people, what possible justification is there for treating them the same as conventional cigarettes? I mean, they look like cigarettes, but surely that superficial resemblance is not enough for a scientifically grounded agency like the Boston Public Health Commission. Or maybe it is. Here is the best the commission can do by way of justification: “The FDA found through laboratory testing that e-cigarettes contain toxic chemicals and carcinogens.” What “toxic chemicals”? The only one the commission mentions is nicotine, which is not toxic at the levels ingested by e-cigarette users, let alone the infinitesimal levels in the air surrounding them. The FDA also found “dectectable levels” of diethylene glycol in one out of 18 e-cigarette cartridges it tested, probably due to a manufacturing defect that does not appear to be common. Condemning all e-cigarettes based on that one finding is like condemning all fruits and vegetables because they sometimes harbor pathogens. As for “carcinogens,” the commission is referring to trace amounts of tobacco-specific nitrosamines, which are also found in nicotine replacement products that the FDA has approved as safe and effective. So much for the bystander protection rationale. Even if we assume that the commission’s real aim is to protect smokers from their own unhealthy choices by encouraging them to quit, its decision is perverse, since e-cigarettes can help them do that. Switching to e-cigarettes virtually eliminates the hazards posed by smoking. By making e-cigarettes less convenient to use, the commission makes them less appealing as an alternative to conventional cigarettes, thereby making it more likely that people will continue to smoke. Even by the collectivist, paternalistic standards of “public health” as it is currently understood, the e-cigarette ban is utterly irrational, driven by aesthetic and/or moralistic impulses that have nothing to do with science or with health. Addendum: Bill Godshall of Smokefree Pennsylvania notes that Alameda, California, and Boise, Idaho, recently rejected proposals to cover e-cigarettes under municipal smoking bans. To read more, visit: http://reason.com/blog/2011/12/02/boston-bans-e-cigarettes-in-workplaces-f |
| ‘Indefinite Detention’ Bill Passes Senate 93-7 Posted: 02 Dec 2011 12:03 PM PST By Paul Joseph Watson, Infowars.com The Senate last night codified into law the power of the U.S. military to indefinitely detain an American citizen with no charge, no trial and no oversight whatsoever with the passage of S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act. One amendment that would have specifically blocked the measures from being used against U.S. citizens was voted down and the final bill was passed 93-7. Another amendment introduced by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein that attempted to bar the provision from being used on American soil, an effort to ensure "the military won't be roaming our streets looking for suspected terrorists," also failed, although Feinstein voted in favor of the bill anyway. Feinstein was able to include a largely symbolic amendment which states that "nothing in the bill changes current law relating to the detention of U.S. citizens and legal aliens," but this measure is meaningless according to Republican Congressman Justin Amash, a fierce critic of the bill. "Some have asserted that Sen. Feinstein's amendment, S Amdt 1456, protects the rights of American citizens and preserves constitutional due process. Unfortunately, it does not. It's just more cleverly worded nonsense," Amash wrote on his Facebook page. To read more, visit: http://www.infowars.com/indefinite-detention-bill-passes-senate-93-7/ |
| 15 Iowa tea party-related groups reject Christine O’Donnell’s meetup invitation Posted: 02 Dec 2011 11:57 AM PST
Fifteen tea party-related groups in Iowa today rejected an invitation from Delaware Republican Christine O'Donnell to meet to talk about which GOP candidate most deserves an endorsement. The independent tea party groups, 912 groups and patriot groups in a letter today expressed "deep concern regarding the event." "Specifically of concern, Ms. O'Donnell's statements that tea partiers should unite regardless of which candidate wins, statements expressing her personal leanings to be 70 percent in support of Mitt Romney, and statements regarding her personal donations to his campaign," the letter says. O'Donnell scheduled a meeting in Iowa tomorrow, and told The Des Moines Register last month that she would hold similar meetings in Florida and South Carolina to encourage tea partiers to unite behind the eventual nominee, "no matter who that is." To read more, visit: http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/12/02/15-iowa-tea-party-related-groups-reject-christine-odonnells-meetup-invitation/ |
| Gary Johnson Flirts with Libertarian Party Presidential Run Posted: 02 Dec 2011 11:50 AM PST
Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson recently suggested that if the Republican Party won’t nominate him, then he might continue his quest for the presidency under the banner of the Libertarian Party. “I feel abandoned by the Republican Party,” Johnson told the Santa Fe New Mexican last week. “The Republican Party has left me by the wayside.” Considered by many to be a long-shot candidate in the GOP presidential race, Johnson ended the month of September with just $10,880 cash on hand, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics. Since Johnson announced his presidential bid in April, he’s raised $416,400. That only about one percent of the total amount raised by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has pulled in more than $32 million. Even former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s modest $2.9 million haul is about seven times larger than Johnson’s. With that sort of record, it’s questionable whether Johnson’s fund-raising chops are enough to catapult him as a Libertarian candidate. Many recent candidates who sought the presidency as Libertarians have raised hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. To read more, visit: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/12/gary-johnson-libertarian-presidential-money.html |
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