What’s news today?

Let’s start with something less depressing today.

🙂

From Rasmussen

“Should Christmas be more about Jesus Christ or Santa Claus? It may seem hard to tell looking at the popular culture, but Americans overwhelmingly think the emphasis should be on Jesus.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 76% of American Adults believe Christmas should be more about Jesus. Only 14% think it should be more about Santa, but another 10% are not sure.”

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Here’s some more good news, but sadly one of these brave men died.

From NBCWorldNews

“A U.S. Navy SEAL was killed early Sunday in the rescue of an American doctor who was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, defense officials tell NBC News.

The Navy SEAL was wounded in the rescue operation and later died, according to a senior defense official.

The rescue operation was launched when coalition forces reported that Dr. Dilip Joseph was in imminent danger. Joseph, who worked with the non-profit Morning Star Development of Colorado Springs, was kidnapped Wednesday along with two Afghan staff members — one is part of the medical team, the other part of the support team. Joseph has been the non-profit’s medical adviser for three years.”

More here from Google

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And then things go downhill.

From CNSNews

“The federal government ran a deficit of $292 billion for the first two months of fiscal year 2013 – October and November 2012 – amounting to $4.8 billion of borrowed money each day.

“The federal budget deficit was $292 billion for the first two months of fiscal year 2013, $57 billion more than the shortfall recorded in October and November of last year,” CBO said in its Monthly Budget Review Friday.

This means that the government borrowed $4.8 billion for each calendar day so far in 2013. If the Treasury Department restricted its borrowing to only weekdays, its per day average would jump to $6.5 billion per day thus far in fiscal year 2013.”

Told ya’.

😦

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Here’s a look at liberal fantasies and stark cold reality meeting in a dark alley. Hint, reality is not as they would have you believe, and slaps around their ideas.

From the DailyBeast

“Obama and the Democrats would have us believe that tax cuts for the wealthy are to blame for all our problems. Michael Medved on on an insidious new video demonizing the rich—and the failure of liberal reasoning.”

“The Obama administration and its allies are so desperate to portray tax hikes on the rich as the solution to all our problems that they’re trying to persuade the public that tax cuts for the rich caused all those problems.”

“Perhaps the most outrageous expression of this argument comes in “Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale,”  a new video from the California Federation of Teachers.”

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Oh wait, more good news, or not. I guess it depends on your ability to make the best of a bad situation.

Obama’s second term agenda will be limited by budget concerns. See that, being flat broke has it’s benefits.

😯

From TheWashingtonPost

“Even if President Obama succeeds in getting Republicans to agree to tax hikes on the wealthy as part of a “fiscal cliff” deal, the country’s grim budget realities will still cast a long shadow — limiting his ambitions as he begins plotting a second-term agenda.

Any agreement is likely to result in less than the $1.6 trillion in new taxes over the next decade that Obama requested in his initial offer to House Republicans, and White House aides are signaling to allies that any new money from taxes would be used almost entirely for deficit reduction — not for ambitious, new spending programs or government expansions.”

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What’s news today?

I gotta bunch this morning.

Let’s start with some economic/jobs stories.

Rick Santelli loses his mind on the new Unemployment numbers. Again.

Here’s the video, from CNBC

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Then this from Bloomberg.

“A decision by the Federal Reserve to expand its bond buying next week is likely to prompt policy makers to rewrite their 18-month-old blueprint for an exit from record monetary stimulus.

Under the exit strategy, the Fed would start selling bonds in mid-2015 in a bid to return its holdings to pre-crisis proportions in two to three years. An accelerated buildup of assets would also mean a faster pace of sales when the time comes to exit — increasing the risk that a jump in interest rates would crush the economic recovery.”

“The Fed is already buying $40 billion a month in mortgage- backed securities to boost the economy, and policy makers meeting Dec. 11-12 will consider whether to purchase more assets. John Williams, president of the San Francisco Fed, has proposed adding $45 billion of Treasury securities a month.”

Sure, why not, it’s only money.

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More on those job numbers here, from CNSNews.

“Seventy-three percent of the new civilian jobs created in the United  States over the last five months are in government, according to official  data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In June, a total of 142,415,000 people were employed in the U.S,  according to the BLS, including 19,938,000 who were employed by federal,  state and local governments.”

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How will The Cliff impact your family? I’m willing to bet badly. But if a deal is made to make the lower/middle tax cuts permanent, the deficit will continue. It just looks like a pay now or later deal. I can’t help but think later it’ll just be worse.

Look at the chart. You know they won’t make cutbacks to education, police, unemployment benefits, and the like, so even if they make a deal preventing increases on the middle and lower classes, what’s left? Not much, the new taxes on “the rich” and military cuts won’t even make a dent.

From MSNMoney

“The fiscal cliff started to affect business decisions this fall. That’s why you saw small declines in manufacturing in Friday’s jobs report, for example.

It appears to be a worry for consumers now. The University of Michigan’s latest consumer sentiment survey shows confidence dropping to a four-month low. That suggests households are concerned about a potentially sharp fall in their after-tax incomes.

The CBO data suggests they might want to be concerned.”

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But, but, but…… Obama said Al-Qaida was on the run, and dwindling in numbers. I’m shocked at this new development.

🙄

From TheJerusalemPost

“The top US envoy to Syria warned on Thursday that extremists were  gaining influence in the Syrian opposition and that this influence would only  increase the longer fighting dragged on in the Levant country.

US  Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, speaking to the Foundation for Defense of  Democracies, described extremist groups that had “little by little been gaining  influence among the armed opposition.” He pointed particularly to an al-Qaida  affiliate in Iraq that is now operating in Syria.”

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A judge has mocked the Obama admins so-called “Religious Accomodations” proposal for contraceptives.

From the WashingtonExaminer

“Judge Brian Cogan mocked the “accommodation” on religion liberty outlined by President Obama in regards to his health care law’s contraception mandate while ruling against a Justice Department motion to dismiss the Archdiocese of New York’s lawsuit against the regulation.

“There is no, ‘Trust us, changes are coming’ clause in the Constitution,” Cogan wrote in his ruling against DOJ. “To the contrary, the Bill of Rights itself, and the First Amendment in particular, reflect a degree of skepticism towards governmental self-restraint and self-correction.”

Cogan was referring to the fact that Obama’s promise to accommodate the concerns of religiously affiliated institutions that would have provide free contraception.”

More here from CatholicCulture.org

“A US district court judge has ruled that the Archdiocese of New York’s lawsuit against the HHS mandate may proceed. Other courts have dismissed similar lawsuits on the grounds that the Catholic plaintiffs had not yet suffered injury from the mandate.”

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And lastly, remember, they had to pass it first, before they could tell us what was in it.

From Heritage.org

“American health care consumers aren’t the only ones who will be hit by slated Obamacare tax hikes. Medical bills for their pets may go up as well.

According to a rule published Friday by the Internal Revenue Service, some medical devices used in veterinary practices will be hit by Obamacare’s 2.3 percent device tax. Many of their manufacturers are expected to hike prices, meaning higher veterinary costs for the nation’s pet owners.”

“The IRS rule states:

Section 4191 [of the Internal Revenue Code] limits the definition of a taxable medical device to devices described in section 201(h) of the [Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act] that are intended for humans, but does not provide that the device must be intended exclusively for humans. Under existing [Food and Drug Administration] regulations, a device intended for use exclusively in veterinary medicine is not required to be listed as a device with the FDA, whereas a device intended for use in human medicine is required to be listed as a device with the FDA even if the device may also be used in veterinary medicine.”

Nice.

So how many will just say “He was a good pet, and I’m gonna miss ’em” now do to higher costs?

What’s news today?

How about this from the MidEast?

I actually found something I agree with President Obama on.

From CNN

“The United States warned Syria in no uncertain terms Monday not to use chemical weapons amid intelligence reports indicating President Bashar al-Assad‘s regime could be preparing to take that step as it escalates its fight against rebel forces.

“I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command — the world is watching,” President Barack Obama said during a speech at the National Defense University in Washington.

“The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. And if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable,” he said.

Obama has previously warned that any use of chemical weapons by Syria in its civil war would be crossing a “red line” that would prompt a swift U.S. response.”

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I just hope his response to the Islamic rebels possibly using them would be the same.

CONTENT WARNING FOR THE VIDEO!

From the SyriaTribune

“While President Obama is busy talking about Syria’s chemical weapons, a troubling video appears on YouTube yesterday showing what appears to be a rebel group testing chemical weapons on lab rabbits, and threatening to use them against Syrian civilians on a sectarian basis.”

“The video (see here) starts with several scenes showing chemical containers with Tekkim labels (Tekkim is a Turkish chemicals company) and some lab equipment, while playing Jihadists chants in the background. A glass box then appears with two rabbits inside, with a poster on the wall behind it reading The Almighty Wind Brigade (Kateebat A Reeh Al Sarsar). A person wearing a lab mask then mixes chemicals in a beaker in the glass box, and we see some gas emitting from the beaker. About a minute later, the rabbits start to have random convulsions and then die. The person says: You saw what happened? This will be your fate, you infidel Alawites, I swear by ALLAH to make you die like these rabbits, one minute only after you inhale the gas.”

I just hope they blame the right party if they are used by either.

These are scary times indeed.

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Meanwhile in Israel, we have a pot, meet kettle thing going.

From YNetNews

“Hamas official Ismail al-Ashqar said Thursday that the terrorist group is seeking a lawsuit at the International Criminal Court against Major-General Eitan Dangot, coordinator of government activities in the territories, for what it sees as his responsibility for the Gaza blockade.

“The blockade is a crime against humanity,” al-Ashqar said. “The crime is directed against women and children and that is why there is no other choice but to sue him as a war criminal.”

“Dangot’s office said in response that it does not respond to claims by a terrorist organization that hurts its own population and uses it as a human shield.”

So how is firing hundreds of rockets a day at civilian areas, targeting innocent civilians, not one as well Mr. Terrorist?

🙄

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It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

From Politico

“George Zimmerman is suing NBC, claiming he was defamed when the network edited his 911 call to police after the shooting of Trayvon Martin to make it sound like he was racist.

The former neighborhood watch volunteer filed the lawsuit seeking an undisclosed amount of money on Thursday in Seminole County, outside Orlando.”

More on Zimmerman’s suit here from TheWashingtonPost

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So what do you think of this idea from Senator Rand Paul?

From RealClearPolitics

“SEN. RAND PAUL: I have yet another thought on how we can fix this. Why don’t we let the Democrats pass whatever they want? If they are the party of higher taxes, all the Republicans vote present and let the Democrats raise taxes as high as they want to raise them, let Democrats in the Senate raise taxes, let the president sign it and then make them own the tax increase. And when the economy stalls, when the economy sputters, when people lose their jobs, they know which party to blame, the party of high taxes. Let’s don’t be the party of just almost as high taxes.”

He kinda has a point.

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And this last one is just really sad.

From TampaBay.com

“Even after Marie Freyre died alone in a nursing home 250 miles from the family in North Tampa that loved her, Marie’s mother had to fight to bring her home.

In March 2011, state child protection investigators took 14-year-old Marie from her mother, Doris Freyre, claiming Doris’ own disabilities made it almost impossible for her to care for Marie, who suffered from seizures and severe cerebral palsy. But a Tampa judge signed an order that Marie be returned to her mother, with in-home nursing care around the clock.

Florida health care administrators refused to pay for it, although in-home care can be demonstrably cheaper than care in an institution. Child welfare workers ignored the order completely.

Two months later, Marie was strapped into an ambulance for a five-hour trip to a Miami Gardens nursing home, as her mother begged futilely to go with her.

Marie died 12 hours after she arrived.”