"... It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings."....I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
When Mayor Bloomberg came into office there was just one executive cook at Gracie Mansion to make the VIP feasts.
Today there are three - costing taxpayers a whopping $245,000 this year.
And despite the big spending cuts the mayor has ordered across every city agency, too many cooks won't be spoiling the broth at the city-owned mansion.
According to figures revealed by the New York Daily News, his longest-serving man in the kitchen, Feliberto Estevez, picks up $97,000.
His pastry chef Jerry Montanez who was hired in 2007 is paid $68,000 while Jose Velazquez is on $80,000 after getting a $10,000 pay rise last July.
WHEN IT'S NOT THEIR MONEY THEY SPEND WITH RECKLESS ABANDONED.
AMERICA IS BEING PLAYED LIKE A FOOL BY THIS ADMINISTRATION. THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN THIS COUNTRY AND THOSE IN POWER WHO STILL BELIEVES IN THIS COUNTRY'S EXCEPTIONAL-ISM BETTER CALL THEM OUT OUT FOR THE PLANNED DESTRUCTION THEY ARE DRIVING THIS COUNTRY TOWARDS. WHERE IS THE MEDIA? DOWN THE TOILET IS WHERE THEY NOW RESIDE BLINDED IN DARKNESS TO THE OBLIVIOUSLY OBVIOUS.
Gallup's U.S. employment measures report the percentage of U.S. adults in the workforce, ages 18 and older, who are underemployed and unemployed, without seasonal adjustment. "Underemployed" respondents are employed part time, but want to work full time, or they are unemployed. "Unemployed" respondents are those within the underemployed group who are not employed, even for one hour a week, but are available and looking for work. Results for each 30-day rolling average are based on telephone interviews with approximately 30,000 adults. Because results are not seasonally adjusted, they are not directly comparable to numbers reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which are based on workers 16 and older. Margin of error is ± 0.7 percentage points.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Shell Alaska has dropped plans to drill in the Arctic waters of the Beaufort Sea this year and will concentrate on obtaining permits for the 2012 season, company Vice President Pete Slaiby said Thursday.
The recent remand of air permits issued by the Environmental Protection Agency was the final driver behind the decision, Slaiby said at a news conference.
Alaska receives upward of 90 percent of its general fund revenue from the petroleum industry, and top state officials reacted strongly to the decision. U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, blamed the Obama administration and the EPA.
"Their foot dragging means the loss of another exploration season in Alaska, the loss of nearly 800 direct jobs and many more indirect jobs," Begich said. "That doesn't count the millions of dollars in contracting that won't happen either at a time when our economy needs the investment."
(THIS IS THE BLATANT ACTS OF THE DON'T CARE ADMINISTRATION ABOUT YOU.)
The subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC has invested more than $3 billion in exploration off Alaska's coast since 2005, Slaiby said. The company paid $2.2 billion for leases in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast that have been challenged.
(THE ADMINISTRATION NEVER HAD TO INVEST ANYTHING BUT TO ONLY COLLECT LEASED TAXES AND MORE TAXES YET THEY STAND ON THE WAY OF PROGRESS AND JOBS. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH).
THE DO NOTHING SIT ON YOUR ASS INTERIOR DEPARTMENT SOMEHOW GETS THE FINAL SAY ON LEASES. SO MUCH FOR FACILITATING AND MANAGING BUT INSTEAD BECOME THE AX KILLING JOB DEPARTMENT. OH HAIL KING SALAZAR.
The Tale of the Southwest Pilot with a Heart Goes Viral, Internationally
Grandfather Mark Dickinson was in Los Angeles on business when he received the tragic news that his 3-year old grandson had been the victim of an unspeakable murder, as the victim, a baby, was about to get taken off life-support. He rushed to LAX to catch a Southwest flight so he could be with the child a last time and comfort his daughter. But—because LAX is an aggravating mix of slow-moving security theater minus any security, where TSA agents quite literally have God complexes and often make a point of not making exceptions—two hours weren't enough. He begged to get rushed through the checkpoint but received no help from airport employees, and he only got through security after his plane was supposed to have taken off.
Then the strangest thing happened. A basic act of human decency, coupled with just a little bit of independent thought, ended with him making the flight after all.
When Dickinson got to the gate, still in his socks since he had sprinted across the terminal, he was shocked to see that the plane door was still open. He was then met by the pilot and the ticketing agent, who said that they had held the flight for him and were sorry for his loss. The pilot then explained a bit more, noting that he had simply declined to get on the plane and move it away from the gate, and expressed his regrets again.
Apparently Dickinson's wife had called Southwest and asked them to hold the plane, and their employees responded by acting like human beings. The final delay was only around 12 minutes, but as airline journalist Christopher Elliott noted when he broke the story, that's an eternity for any airline, especially for the hyper-efficient Southwest.
But the company is sticking by its pilot, saying they're proud of him for doing the right thing. Meanwhile the story has gone international, a trend to which we're only too happy to contribute. The pilot acted exactly the way we like all airline employees to act, mixing professional responsibilities with a bit of common sense and then acting appropriately. Southwest responded in exactly the way we want all airlines to act, backing that decision.
This fiscal year's budget deficit is expected to climb to nearly $1.5 trillion, which would be the biggest one-year deficit gap in American history, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
-- Spending projections are actually worse than CBO's numbers show, because of the "unrealistic assumptions" that Congress requires CBO to employ to make future deficits appear smaller, such as assuming all tax cuts will expire, the AMT (alternative minimum income tax) will never again be patched, and discretionary spending will remain frozen to inflation.
-- "The ten-year deficit is actually $13.6 trillion, and annual deficits never fall below $1 trillion."
-- Ten years from now, the budget deficit "is expected to reach $1.9 trillion, and the debt will hit nearly $25 trillion, or 104 percent" of the economy's entire gross domestic product (GDP) -- "and even that assumes a return to peace and prosperity."
-- "Long-term deficits are driven by spending. Tax revenues (historically 18.0 percent of GDP) are set to climb to 18.4 percent by 2021 -- even if all tax cuts are extended. Yet federal spending (historically 20.3 percent of GDP) is projected to soar to 26.4 percent by 2021. By that point, 100 percent of rising long-term deficits will result from above-average spending."
-- Spending under this administration is driving the ocean of red ink. "Since 2001, federal spending per household has expanded $21,510 to $31,206 (adjusted for inflation)."
-- "Entitlements are the problem: between 2008 and 2021, the annual cost of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is set to rise from $1.2 trillion to $2.2 trillion (adjusted for inflation)."
-- The so-called "tax cuts for the rich" are not the overriding deficit-driver. "Letting the tax cuts expire for those earning more than $250,000 would close just 5 percent of the budget deficit over the next decade. The $736 billion price tag is a fraction of the $21 trillion cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid" over the coming decade.
-- "Between 2009 and 2021, the national debt would increase by $150,000 per household." By 2021, net interest alone on the total debt would cost an astounding $1 trillion, or nearly one-half of all income tax revenues.
-- "Over what would be President Obama's eight years in office, baseline budget deficits are projected to total $9.9 trillion -- triple the $3.3 trillion in deficits" accumulated by President George W. Bush.
This is the grim fiscal picture that faces the Obama administration, which is nonetheless proposing big spending increases across a large swath of the federal government, from Obamacare to more stimulus spending, more green technology spending, more R&D spending, and more for job training, to name just a few.
(CNSNews.com) - Following a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the constitutionality of the new health care law, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told CNSNews.com that the Obama administration should continue enforcing the health care law despite federal judge Roger Vinson’s ruling that it is unconstitutional.
THE BLATANT DISRESPECT FOR LAW FROM DEMOCRATS IS DEAFENING.
In his Jan. 31 Final Summary Declaratory Judgment, Judge Vinson, in the district court for the Northern District of Florida, said “it is hereby DECLARED, ADJUDGED, and DECREED that The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119 (2010) … is unconstitutional.”
On radio Thursday, Glenn Beck responded to those accusing him of wild “conspiracy theories” connecting the extreme left and extreme Islam in the wake of the Egyptian unrest — and he used three simple, succinct sentences to do so.
“I want the left to know, I plant my flag in this soil. If I’m wrong, so be it,” he said before laying out his case. “And you can discredit me all you want for the end of time, but I’m telling you I’m not wrong on this one. And there are three points that I want to make sure are very clear.”
Sentence one: “Groups from the hardcore socialist left, and extreme Islam will work together because of the common enemy of Israel.”
Sentence two: “Groups from the hardcore socialist left and extreme Islam will work together because of the common enemy of capitalism.”
Sentence three: “Groups from the hardcore socialist left, and extreme Islam will work together to overturn relative stability, because in the status quo, they are both ostracized from power and the mainstream in most of the world.”
THIS ADMINISTRATION WHICH ARE FULL OF LEFTIST ARE NOW GLAD TO BACK THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AS EGYPT'S INTERIM GOVERNMENT IF MUBARAK LEAVES NOW. AND GUESS WHO IS ASKING FOR MUBARAK TO LEAVE NOW. YOU GUESSED IT THE LEFTIST IN THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT. THAT ONE.
AND MUBARAK IS WONDERING WHY HE'S BEING BACK STABBED. WELL IT'S THE CHICAGO WAY.
The Obama administration is secretly crafting a plan for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave office immediately – a plan that includes a place for the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood to be in an interim government, The New York Times reported Thursday night.
More importantly, though, the proposal calls for the transitional government to invite members from the banned Muslim Brotherhood to begin work to open up the country’s electoral system in an effort to bring about free and fair elections in September, the officials told the Times.
(THIS IS THE ULTIMATE LEFT COUP IN THE MAKING TO INSTALL A LEFTEST MARXIST TYPE OF GOVERNMENT. THE TORCH OF CARTER HAS BEEN PASSED TO LITTLE BHO)
Federal Judge to hold the Interior Department in contempt Wednesday (Feb 2 2011)
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman chided the department for its "dismissive conduct" after he overturned the agency's decision to halt any new permits for deepwater projects and suspend drilling on 33 exploratory wells after the Deepwater Horizon blast, which killed 11 workers and triggered the massive spill.
A magistrate will consider how much the companies' attorneys should get.
An Interior Department spokeswoman wouldn't comment. A lawyer for the companies hailed the ruling.
"We're obviously delighted with the court's recognition of the government's manipulation of the judicial review process," said Carl Rosenblum, an attorney for Hornbeck Offshore Services and other companies that sued over the first moratorium.
Rosenblum said the companies haven't asked for a specific amount and aren't trying to profit.
"The end game has always been to put people back to work," he said.
Last month, however, Feldman refused to order the government to move faster. The judge said it's unclear whether the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management must approve or reject drilling permit applications within a specific time.
(KNOWING HOW THIS ADMINISTRATION's FOOT DRAGGING CONTINUES AGAINST THE PEOPLE, THE INTERIOR LOVES TO GIVE THE PEOPLES MONEY AWAY AND KEEP PAYING FINES JUST FOR SPITE.)
On retirement watch, including
Sens. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), - $66,000
Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and NA
Jim Webb (D-Va.), $13,000
offered no indication they will run again in 2012.
(Those that are running have built up the war chest ready for battle.)
Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), who began this year with a $905,000 campaign chest.
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) making it clear with a $1 million campaign loan that he will seek re-election.
Polling continues to indicate that Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), another potential retiree, could be in trouble. But the second-term Democrat raised $81,000 in the fourth quarter and has almost $1.5 million in the bank.
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) maintains that he is running for re-election, but more legal fees and little fundraising left him with just $225,000 at the end of December
Sen. Jon Tester (D), who is among several from the class of 2006 that are facing top challenges next year. Both had just more than $550,000 in the bank
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) raised $416,000 last quarter and has more than $2.5 million in the bank.
If the plan for overhauling the nation’s health care system is such a good thing, why does the federal government need to dole out waivers?
Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., appeared on Fox News Wednesday morning to discuss efforts in the Senate to repeal the law when the conversation steered the question of waivers. As we’ve reported, 733 different organizations have applied and received temporary waivers from the law’s requirements from the Department of Health and Human Services. Assuring FNC’s Martha MacCallum that her characterization of the waivers was wrong, Weiner tried to explain why federal waivers to select companies and unions are a good thing:
Over the past month, several progressive activist blogs have waged an ugly war against Chick-fil-A. The company’s alleged atrocity: One of its independent outlets in Pennsylvania donated some sandwiches and brownies to a marriage seminar run by the Pennsylvania Family Institute, which happens to oppose same-sex marriage.
Here’s a modest proposal for liberals who say they support job creation: Stop smearing successful, law-abiding private companies whose values don’t comport with yours. I’m looking at you, New York Times.
Chick-fil-A is an American success story. Founded by Georgian entrepreneur Truett Cathy in 1946, the family-owned chicken-sandwich chain is one of the country’s largest fast-food businesses. It employs some 50,000 workers across the country at 1,500 outlets in nearly 40 states and the District of Columbia. The company generates more than $2 billion in revenue and serves millions of happy customers with trademark Southern hospitality.
So, what’s the problem? Well, Chick-fil-A is run by devout Christians who believe in strong marriages, devoted families and the highest standards of character for their workers. The restaurant chain’s official corporate mission is to “glorify God” and “enrich the lives of everyone we touch.” The company’s community service initiatives, funded through its WinShape Foundation, support foster care, scholarship, summer camp and marriage enrichment programs. On Sunday, all Chick-fil-A stores close so workers can spend the day at worship and rest.
For the left, these Biblically based corporate principles constitute high social justice crimes and misdemeanors. Democrats are always ready to invoke religion to support their big government, taxpayer-funded initiatives (Obamacare, illegal alien amnesty, increased education spending and FCC regulatory expansion, for starters).
Glenn Beck and the Muslim Brotherhood
Posted By David Horowitz On February 2, 2011 @ 3:16 pm In FrontPage
Those of you who have been watching Glenn Beck, and particularly those who watched last night’s show will see that he is bringing before an audience of millions the message we have been sending from these sites for nearly a decade — that the global Islamic jihad against the West has formed a working alliance with the secular socialist left both at home and abroad. This “unholy alliance” as we called it was first clearly visible in the anti-American demonstrations opposing the Iraq War. These were mislabled “anti-war” demonstrations by the general media. If they were truly anti-war demonstrations there would have been protests at the Iraq embassy calling on Saddam Hussein to honor the Gulf War truce agreement he had signed and the seventeen UN resolutions that attempted to enforce those agreements. But there was not one such demonstration. Not one.
We pointed out at the time that the steering committee of the largest coalition against the Iraq War — that is against toppling Saddam Hussein — included on its steering committee the Muslim Students Association, an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2003, we laid out the facts in an 80 page booklet edited by John Perazzo and me, called Who Is The Peace Movement? We have updated the information in our online encyclopedia of the left at www.discoverthenetworks.org
Everything we know about the collaborations of the Communist left with the Soviet police state, about the collaborations of the New Left with the Vietnamese and Cuban Communists, and about the committees of leftists in solidarity with the communist dictatorship in Nicaragua and the Communist guerillas in El Salvador told us that the current left would be in bed with the Islamic Nazis who now confront us. In 2005 I published a book — Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left — which described this uniting of domestic forces with the external threat, and four years later our Frontpage editor, Jamie Glazov followed it with United in Hate: The Left’s Romance With Tyranny and Terror. We have devoted a section of our online encyclopedia of the left to “Radical Islam’s Alliance With the Socialist Left.” The unholy alliance between Islamo-Nazis and the American left described in these pages is the gravest threat our country has ever faced.
Now Glenn Beck is bringing our warning and the facts on which it is based to millions of Americans in a series of radio and television shows that you don’t want to miss. They are readily available on the web here. Please copy the urls of his shows into your emails and send them to as many people as possible. The time to wake up America is now; the hour is late.
((((MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD EQUATES MARXIST
CALIPHATE
SOCIAL JUSTICE - MASKED AN AGENDA EX VAN JONES AGENDA
THE ties that bind them all
MUSLIM STUDENTS ASSOCIATION
NORTH AMERICAN ISLAMIC TRUST
ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA
AMERICAN MUSLIM COUNCIL
MUSLIM AMERICAN SOCIETY)))
Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com
THE BATTLE FOR THE SENATE IN 2012 IS SET. ALL DEMOCRATS VOTED
AGAINST THE REPEAL. SEE THE ROLL CALL BELOW. SAY BYE BYE IN 2012.
SEE ALSO ALL THE CLASS I SENATORS
UP FOR 2012 ELECTION BELOW.
Amendment Number:
S.Amdt. 13 to S. 223 (FAA Air Transportation Modernization and
Safety Improvement Act)
Statement of Purpose:
To repeal the job-killing health care law and health care-related
provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act
of 2010.
Class I - Senators Whose Term of Service Expire in 2013
Class I terms run from the beginning of the 110th Congress on January 3, 2007, to the end of the 112th Congress on January 3, 2013. Senators in Class I were elected to office in the November 2006 general election, unless they took their seat through appointment or special election.
Democrats
Akaka, Daniel K. (D-HI) - ON THE FENCE MAY RETIRE
Bingaman, Jeff (D-NM)
Brown, Sherrod (D-OH)
Cantwell, Maria (D-WA)
Cardin, Benjamin L. (D-MD)
Carper, Thomas R. (D-DE)
Casey, Robert P., Jr. (D-PA)
Conrad, Kent (D-ND) - RETIRING
Feinstein, Dianne (D-CA)
Gillibrand, Kirsten E. (D-NY)
Klobuchar, Amy (D-MN)
Kohl, Herb (D-WI)
Manchin, Joe, III (D-WV) - Campaign LIAR to repeal health care - LIBERAL SLIPS now SHOWS
McCaskill, Claire (D-MO)
Menendez, Robert (D-NJ)
Nelson, Ben (D-NE)
Nelson, Bill (D-FL)
Stabenow, Debbie (D-MI)
Tester, Jon (D-MT)
Webb, Jim (D-VA) -ON THE FENCE MAY RETIRE
Whitehouse, Sheldon (D-RI)
REPUBLICANS
Barrasso, John (R-WY)
Brown, Scott P. (R-MA)
Corker, Bob (R-TN)
Ensign, John (R-NV)
Hatch, Orrin G. (R-UT)
Hutchison, Kay Bailey (R-TX) - RETIRING
Kyl, Jon (R-AZ) - ON THE FENCE MAY RETIRE
Lugar, Richard G. (R-IN)
Snowe, Olympia J. (R-ME)
Wicker, Roger F. (R-MS)
Independents
Lieberman, Joseph I. (ID-CT) - RETIRING
Sanders, Bernard (I-VT)
The decision of the Florida District Court may or may not prevail in the circuit court. But who can doubt that the Supreme Court, as currently constituted, will strike it down?
So where does this leave President Obama? His stimulus package was a disaster, conceded by all to have failed. Democrats, of course, ascribe its failure to its puny size (only $800 billion)! Republicans understand that when the government spends and borrows it destroys jobs rather than create them. But, obviously, the stimulus bill didn't work.
And now his health care bill is unconstitutional.
What happens to an arch when it loses its cornerstone? It collapses. The same fate awaits Obama in 2012.
Meanwhile, he continues to peddle the fiction that "we have broken the back of the recession." His bureaucracy puts out a GDP growth rate of 3.4 percent for the fourth quarter. Baloney. The price deflator he used to discount the impact of inflation on the supposed GDP growth was a ridiculous 0.3 percent for the fourth quarter. But the Consumer Price Index rose by 2.6 percent in the same quarter. Almost all of the GDP growth is just rising prices, not a recovering economy.
And half of the new economic activity is just the build-up of inventories. We are now a nation of inventories. Businesses are sitting on close to a trillion dollars of cash they are afraid to invest. Banks are awash in capital handed out by the Fed as it tries to force-feed the economy by printing money. And consumers have taken the stimulus money and put it into reducing their debt load - good for them but not for the economy. Household debt has dropped by $200 billion in the past two years.
But nobody is spending. Nobody is buying.
Obama's economic program is in ruins. His healthcare bill is unconstitutional. His financial regulation bill (Dodd-Frank) has so harassed small and community banks that they have stopped lending to small businesses. And, on top of all that, he is losing Egypt to radical Muslim fundamentalists.
WITH THE TSA RUNNING THE AIRPORTS LOOKING AT ITS NUDE PASSENGER AND GROPING THEM - HONORABLE SEN REID NOW WANTS MORE MONEY FOR AIRPORTS. AS THIS ADMINISTRATION IS DESTROYING THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY THEY NOW WANT TO BUILD AND EXPAND THE AIRPORTS WHILE PASSENGERS ARE SCRAMBLING AWAY FROM BEING HARASSED FROM ITS OWN COUNTRY.
Senate Democrats are touting a long-delayed Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill as the first item on their jobs agenda for 2011.
The bill, sponsored by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), would invest $8.1 billion in capital improvement projects at airports around the country.
The American Association of Airport Executives estimates the multi-year reauthorization would create or save 280,000 jobs, including 90,000 jobs in the construction and construction supplies industries.
“This is a bill we wanted to complete for years,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in a conference call with reporters.
The Washington Post is reporting that current U.S. Ambassador to China John Huntsman, Jr. will resign his post in order to possibly run against President Obama in 2012. Huntsman is the former Republican governor of Utah:
U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman (R) is expected to resign in possible preparation for a 2012 presidential campaign, White House officials say.
We do have to stop listening to lying liars such as Timothy Geithner and Austan Goolsbee. And the sooner the better.
Geithner then goes on to list all of the horrendous consequences such a lapse would bring — no Medicaid payments to the states, no student loans, no salaries and retirement benefits for our military, no income-tax refunds, no veterans’ benefits. And just in case you aren’t already shaking in your boots, no Social Security or Medicare benefits.
But this gem from goofy Goolsbee really got my goat: “If we get to the point where we damage the full faith and credit of the United States, that would surely be the first default in history caused purely by insanity.”
There’s just one thing wrong with Geithner’s and Goolsbee’s horrifying scenario: It isn’t true. In fact, it’s a total, 100 percent fabrication. Or to be blunt, it’s a lie. And both distinguished public servants know it.
Here’s the truth: “If Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling, the Federal government will still have far more than enough money to fully service our debt.” I put that statement in quotation marks because it wasn’t me who said it; it was Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).
It’s true that interest payments on our national debt cost a hefty amount — around $1.3 billion a day, in fact. But that sum, staggering as it is, represents only 6.5 percent of all projected Federal expenditures. Uncle Sam receives more than 10 times that amount in tax revenue. So Toomey wants Congress to pass a bill that will require the Treasury to make interest payments on our debt its first priority.
How about doing what every responsible family in America learned long ago to do: Match expenditures to income. Don’t borrow more than you can afford, just because you want some shiny new toys.
How can we possibly reduce spending enough to live within our means? For one possible answer, please go to www.DownsizingGovernment.org. This is where you’ll find a page-by-page, line-by-line review of the Federal budget by one of my favorite Washington organizations, the Cato Institute. They provide a detailed and convincing analysis of how to reduce spending by $1.375 trillion.
THIS ADMINISTRATION WANTS TO BYPASS CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION. AND HAVE THE ULTIMATE EXECUTIVE (PRESIDENT) BE THE FINAL LAW MAKER. THE ENERGY DEPARTMENT UNDER THE EXECUTIVE CONTROL HAS NO POWER TO EFFECTIVELY CHANGE LEGISLATION OUTSIDE OF CONGRESS (LIKE MAYBE FOLLOWING ARTICLE 1 SECTION 1). THIS IS OUTRIGHT UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
THE ENERGY DEPT IS TO FACILITATE/REPORT ITS USE OF ENERGY AND REPORT ITS SAFE GUARD, NOT TO HINDER THE CREATION OF IT OR MAKE LAWS.
THIS HAS BEEN THE POWER STRUGGLE IN THIS ADMINISTRATION. CONGRESS NEEDS TO PUT THESE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES BACK IN ITS PLACE. AND TRULLY PROCLAIM THAT CONGRESS ALONE AS APPOINTED BY THE PEOPLE CAN MAKE LAWS. THESE GOV. AGENCIES ARE NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PEOPLE AND CERTAINLY HAVE NOT BEEN APPOINTED BY THEM. IF IT WAS SO THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN BOOTED OUT ALREADY.
BUT INSTEAD THEY ACT OUTSIDE THE EYES OF THE PEOPLE AND DON'T DEBATE THE ACTION THEY INACT.
Mr. Hastings, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, says the administration "has zero authority to withdraw the [Yucca Mountain] license application."
They argue that a 1982 law prohibits the administration from abandoning the Yucca Mountain project, which Congress designated as the nation's first nuclear-waste repository.
The Energy Department moved to terminate Yucca Mountain in March 2010 when it asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to withdraw a two-year-old application to build a repository. Calling Yucca Mountain "not a workable option," the Energy Department said the science on nuclear-waste storage had evolved since the project was first proposed.
A few months later, in June, a quasi-independent NRC panel dealt a blow to the administration and denied its request, saying the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act "does not give the secretary the discretion to substitute his policy for the one established by Congress."
Mr. Hastings and other lawmakers say Mr. Jaczko and the NRC lack the authority to suspend a safety review of Yucca Mountain. Mr. Jaczko halted this review last year.
An NRC spokesman defended the chairman's decision. "It is the chairman's responsibility and authority to ensure that agency resources are used properly. He acted properly, and not unilaterally, after consulting with the chief financial officer, the executive director for operations, and the general counsel."
None of NRC commissioners has disclosed their votes on Yucca Mountain, so it's unclear how many would support or oppose the project.
THIS HONORABLE SENATOR HAS BEEN IN OFFICE 3 DECADES SINCE 1998. AND YET HE KNOWS NOT THE THREE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT. FIGURES WHY HE DOES NOT EVEN KNOW THAT WE HAVE A CONSTITUTION FOR THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE AND NOT BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE GOVERNMENT.
DURING AN INTERVIEW ON CNN MR SCHUMER STATES "THE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT IS HOUSE, SENATE, & PRESIDENT.
THIS IS WHY DURING HIS TENURE OUR DEBT IS OUT OF CONTROL AND NOW HE BLAMES OTHERS FOR WHAT HE HIMSELF HAS DESTROYED. HOW ABOUT FOLLOWING ARTICLE 1 SECTION 8 TO BALANCE THE BUDGET. YET HE FOLLOWS ANOTHER CONSTITUTION IT SEEMS. HMMM MAYBE THE MARXIST WAY.
While sitting in on CNN’s “State of the Union” this morning, New York’s Senator Chuck Schumer was ringing alarm bells on what he perceives as a GOP threat to shut down the government this Spring during the upcoming Debt Ceiling debate and the Congressional battle over various elements of government funding. This tactic was nothing new as both sides traditionally use extreme examples to make their point. What surprised me was Sen. Schumer’s explanation of the three branches of our American system of government.
POLICE KILLINGS SPUR SENATOR TO ASK DOJ TO CONSIDER ‘THROUGH-THE-WALL’ TECHNOLOGY FOR FUGITIVE TASK FORCES
Bill Nelson’s request comes after four officers are murdered while on manhunts in Florida
January 27, 2011
WASHINGTON – A U.S. senator from the state where four law enforcement officers were killed within the past week while trying to capture wanted fugitives is asking the Justice Department to consider giving hand-held radar or heat-detecting devices that can penetrate walls to deputized federal agents when they have warrants and are on dangerous manhunts.
In a letter today to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) asked whether such new technologies - including so-called “sense-through-the-wall” devices, developed for use by the U.S. military - should be among the tools provided to agents of federal task forces when they have warrants to apprehend felons considered armed and dangerous.
In his letter to Holder, Nelson suggested he’d be willing to sponsor legislation in the Senate that would create a pilot program. New technologies “could greatly shift the odds in favor of the good guys, before they have to enter a building where a fugitive is hiding out,” Nelson wrote in his letter to Holder, in which he asked the Justice Department to consider the matter during a review of the recent attacks on law enforcement officers around the country.
Just since Sunday, 11 police officers reportedly have been shot in five separate on-the-job incidents across the country.
Nelson’s request, and the Justice Department’s review, come after the shootings of two police officers in Miami, and two in St. Petersburg. All four were killed while trying to arrest fugitives who didn't want to be taken quietly. The two officers in Miami were deputized by a fugitives task force created the U.S. Marshals Service; and, the two in St. Petersburg were assisting the task force. A deputy U.S. marshal was wounded in the gunfight in St. Petersburg. The suspect there, who was also killed, had been hiding in an attic.
Nelson noted the limited use of the new technology should pose no privacy concerns, because the Supreme Court already has ruled such devices can’t be employed without a warrant. [Kyllo v. United States.]
To help in the hunt for dangerous felons, the Marshals Service set up fugitive task forces in Florida and six other regions nationwide. The task forces were began in 2000 with the purpose of combining the efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to find and arrest the most dangerous fugitives and assist in high profile investigations.
