What’s news this morning?

Let’s start with this. I’m amused and scared at the same time. Sure it’s funny now, but what happens when one gets behind the wheel to chase the mailman down the street? Then it’s scary, and hilarious!

From France24.com

“A pair of highly trained canines guided a modified car along a New Zealand race track Monday, passing their doggie driving tests with flying collars on live television, despite the odd off-road detour.

In a heartwarming project aimed at increasing pet adoptions from animal shelters, a group of cross-breed rescue dogs from Auckland were taught to drive a car — steering, pedals and all — to show the potential of unwanted canines.

Footage of the motorised mutts learning their skills has proved an Internet sensation but their ultimate test came on Monday, when the two best performers, Monty and Porter, were put through their paces on national television.”

And yes, there’s video!

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McCarthy? Really? Talk about irony.

From Breitbart

“A House GOP source has confirmed to Breitbart News that House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy was the one who drafted the secret criteria list House Speaker John Boehner used in his purge of conservatives from House committees.

The source, someone with inside knowledge of how Boehner conducted the purge, told Breitbart News that McCarthy crafted the list, which included a scorecard of where several conservative members stood on certain votes. According to the source, it’s unclear at this time whether McCarthy made the list of his own accord or if he did so at the request of somebody else in GOP leadership – like Boehner or House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

The source alleges that McCarthy brought the criteria list to the House GOP Steering Committee where it was used to purge four conservatives from their House committee spots.”

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Meanwhile, over in the Senate….

From SenatorTomCoburn

” U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) today released an oversight report, “Safety at Any Price: Assessing the Impact of Homeland Security Spending in U.S. Cities.” The report is based on a year-long investigation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant programs and the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI).

More than $35 billion has been spent on DHS grant programs since 2003 with the intent to make Americans safer from terrorist attacks. However, 10 years later, DHS has been unable to establish goals or metrics to ensure that funds were used to make Americans safe, and cannot accurately measure how much safer we are today after spending $35 billion.

“At a time when our $16 trillion national debt is our greatest national security threat, we must make sure that all programs, especially those meant to prevent terrorism, are achieving their mission. This report shows that too often so-called security spending is making our nation less secure by directing scarce dollars to low-priority projects and low-risk areas,” Dr. Coburn said.”

And no, still no budget.

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Now this one. C’mon, you didn’t really think they’d not do something like this, did you? They know what’s coming, so they’ll cash in now.

From Bloomberg

“The wealthy look set to enjoy a windfall in the closing weeks of the year as companies push money out the door to beat the higher tax rates advocated by President Barack Obama.

More than 150 companies, from Costco Wholesale Corp. to Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS), have declared special dividends totaling about $20 billion this quarter to avoid anticipated tax increases in 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Others, including law and private-equity firms, probably will pay bonuses, partnership distributions and commissions early for tax reasons, according to Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP LLC in Jersey City, New Jersey.”

“Much of that will go to upper-income Americans, the very people Obama has targeted to pay higher taxes, including Las Vegas Sands controlling shareholder and Chief Executive Officer Sheldon Adelson.”

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The Obama Phone Part II

From the SFGate

“Homeless and other poor people in California are on track to soon get  virtually free cell phones and service so they can keep in touch with family,  potential employers and others crucial to improving their lives.

The cell phones would be handed out through a federally funded Lifeline  program – already operated by service provider Assurance  Wireless in 36 other states – that is likely to win final approval in the next couple of weeks from the California  Public Utilities Commission.

State PUC officials have been reviewing the Lifeline proposal from Assurance  Wireless for three years. Word came Thursday that all but a minor detail had  been approved, ending years of effort by advocates for homeless people.”

Sure, what’s one more entitlement program gonna do? They’re already broke.

🙄

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.”

What’s news today?

I’m not even close to caught up on current events. So you guys keep the open thing going.

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But I did notice just a couple that jumped out at me.

From The Hill

“Some lawmakers are relieved that leadership is punishing members who had badmouthed the party and defected on high-profile votes. Boehner and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had attracted criticism for being too genial.

A veteran Republican lawmaker, speaking on background last year, told The Hill, “You can’t talk tough to somebody and there be no consequences … people need to be made an example in some way.”

The Mr. Nice Guy management style appears to be over. One lawmaker quipped that Boehner is now “almost DeLay-like.””

I got 5 bucks says Boehner’s gettin’ ready to roll over like a good dog, and he can’t have dissenters pointing out what a bad idea that would be. Oh well, debt limits and fiscal responsibility are only for us commoners anyway.  Just print some more worthless money, that should do the trick. It’s time Republicans in the House remove him as Speaker, before he does something stupid. Or should I say stupider.

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And this one, from ZeroHedge

“Why would President Obama willingly choose to go over the fiscal cliff?”

“The use of economic pain to expand governmental control of a nation is not a new concept. It has been a tool successfully used many times in history.  With an economy that is currently dependent on financial support from the government the only “bad guys” in this situation are those trying to take that support away.

The reality that “taxing the wealthy” does not increase revenue or promote economic growth is lost on the 80% of Americans that are economically uninformed and are just struggling to maintain their current standard of living.  In their world the cost of living keeps going up while the personal incomes have declined.  For the bulk of America it still remains “Bush’s” fault that their current situation is not as good as it was once, regardless of their personal irresponsibility, and the Democratic media machine will effectively point the finger of blame squarely at the Republicans.

The path over the “fiscal cliff” is bad for the economy, the average American family and the stock market.  However, for the White House, going over the “cliff” is the next move in this elaborate game of chess which will clear the path towards completing Obama’s long term objectives of complete socialization of the American economy.”

Once again, don’t blame me, I voted for Mitt.

What’s news today?

My media blackout ends today.

I will be back to my regular news posting tomorrow.

You’ve been warned!

😯

But we’ll continue the open thread part as well, since I kinda like that too.

🙂

What’s news today?

This is an open thread, so you decide.

What’s news today?

This is an open thread, so you decide.

This is an open thread for news items.

What’s news today?

This is the open news thread.

So you decide,

What’s news today?