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Latest Articles: United States News
Cooking the Books: The 2010 Deficit Was $2.1 trillion
Post Date: 2010-12-30 21:01:40 by Nebuchadnezzar
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When federal finances are discussed, it is almost always in terms of the difference between expenditures and revenues. Usually, the former exceed the latter and we have a deficit. The cumulative total of deficits less the occasional surpluses is what we call the national debt. When we analyze the debt in terms of its burden, it is usually by looking at it in terms of the gross domestic product. Presently, debt held by the public, the most common measure of federal debt, is $9.3 trillion, or about 60 percent of GDP. If the federal government was a corporation and one was contemplating buying shares of its stock, however, one would certainly want to know much more about its finances. One ...
Geraldine Doyle, 86, Dies; One-Time Factory Worker Inspired Rosie The Riveter And 'We Can Do It!' Poster
Post Date: 2010-12-30 19:30:30 by Brian S
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Geraldine Doyle, 86, who as a 17-year-old factory worker became the inspiration for a popular World War II recruitment poster that evoked female power and independence under the slogan "We Can Do It!," died Dec. 26 at a hospice in Lansing, Mich. Her daughter, Stephanie Gregg, said the cause of death was complications from severe arthritis. For millions of Americans throughout the decades since World War II, the stunning brunette in the red and white polka-dot bandanna was Rosie the Riveter. Rosie's rolled-up sleeves and flexed right arm came to represent the newfound strength of the 18 million women who worked during the war and later made her a figure of the feminist ...
House GOP Seeks 'Unprecedented' New Powers Over Budget
Post Date: 2010-12-30 19:07:09 by Brian S
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Democrats and non-partisan policy experts alike expressed outraged at new rules proposed by House Republicans that would allow the incoming House Budget Committee chairman to unilaterally set spending ceilings. Under one of the proposed rules (.pdf), Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who is expected to be the next House Budget Committee chairman, will be allowed to submit spending and revenue limits that "shall be considered as the completion of congressional action on a concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2011." Ryan is best known for his his radical plan to balance the budget by privatizing Social Security and Medicare. Robert Greenstein and James R. Horney of the Center on ...
State certifies Murkowski's election victory
Post Date: 2010-12-30 16:18:44 by Hondo68
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The State of Alaska certified the November general election results on Thursday, giving Sen. Lisa Murkowski her long-sought victory, a news release said. Murkowski won the election by a margin of 10,252 votes. The certification was signed by Gov. Sean Parnell and witnessed by Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell. The certification had been on hold by U.S. Superior Court Judge Ralph Beistline until the Alaska Supreme Court had decided on Republican candidate Joe Miller's claims. In a unanimous decision last week, the Alaska Supreme Court rejected each of Miller's claims and found the Alaska Division of Elections conducted the election according to state law. Judge Beistline on Tuesday also ...
$5 Gas Predicted Under Obama -- What, No Pitchforks?
Post Date: 2010-12-30 14:35:09 by no gnu taxes
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Five dollars per gallon of gas by 2012! A former president of Shell Oil considers this likely. The average price on Christmas Day for a gallon of regular gas reached $3.28 in Los Angeles County, the highest price since October 2008. In one month, the price rose 13 cents, up 35 cents year to year. Where are the calls to sic Obama's Justice Department on Big Oil to hold the oil companies accountable for "market manipulation"? Why aren't we hunting down the amoral "oil speculators" responsible for repealing the law of supply-and-demand in order to line their pockets? During President George W. Bush's administration, we constantly heard demands to hold the ...
Obama, Bush and the Surprising Truth about Gas Prices
Post Date: 2010-12-30 14:14:34 by no gnu taxes
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Did you know that retail gas prices fell by 9% in real terms under George W. Bush? Pretty darned surprising, but true. Of course, his legacy in this regard was "helped" by the financial collapse, which saw commodities prices plummet as a result. Still, it contradicts what was the ongoing narrative of the time that Bush was trying to help elevate gas prices in order to help his 'big oil' buddies. Well, well...where have those same voices gone since? Amazingly, they've fallen silent as prices at the pump have marched steadily higher under Barack Obama. And as the Heritage Foundation points out this morning, he continues to do literally everything in his power to ensure ...
Cleanup Of Oil-Tainted Gulf Coast Nears End
Post Date: 2010-12-30 12:51:12 by Brian S
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(12-30) 09:13 PST EAST GRAND TERRE ISLAND, La. (AP) -- Dig 2 feet into the sand on the wind-swept beach at East Grand Terre (TAIR') Island in Louisiana and up comes the foul smell of oil. The unmistakable whiff of crude eight months after the BP spill is one of the last in-your-face reminders of the long, tainted summer on the Gulf Coast. For months, in what BP calls Operation Deep Clean, crews have been scouring the Gulf Coast's sandy shores for oil — digging, scraping, tilling and sifting beach after beach. But it's unlikely they will get all of it by the time college students begin flocking to the Gulf Coast for spring break at the end of February. There is so much ...
Add It Up: What Workers Pay For Medicare Is Just A Fraction Of What Their Care Will Cost
Post Date: 2010-12-30 12:13:13 by Brian S
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You paid your Medicare taxes all those years and think you deserve your money's worth: full benefits after you retire. Nearly three out of five people say in a recent Associated Press-GfK poll that they paid into the system so their benefits shouldn't be cut. But a newly updated financial analysis shows that what people paid into the system doesn't come close to covering the full value of the medical care they can expect to receive as retirees. Consider an average-wage, two-earner couple together earning $89,000 a year. Upon retiring in 2011, they would have paid $114,000 in Medicare payroll taxes during their careers. But they can expect to receive medical services _ from ...
NJ Senate President Stephen Sweeney was 'in shock' over Christie, Guadagno's absences during storm
Post Date: 2010-12-29 22:30:26 by go65
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For the second time this year, Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney is in charge of running the state. Gov. Chris Christie's office Sunday announced Sweeney would be acting governor until the end of the year. It was Sweeney -- not Christie or Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno -- who declared a weather emergency Sunday and ordered state offices closed Monday. Christie is at Disney World in Florida with his family this week; Guadagno is vacationing with her family in Mexico. Sweeney signed more than 50 bills in the lame-duck period preceding Christie's inauguration. The Christie administration is the first to have both a governor and a lieutenant governor, following a 2005 voter-approved ...
Unprecedented flooding hits Australia's Queensland
Post Date: 2010-12-29 20:34:17 by go65
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Unprecedented flooding has hit the northeast Australian state of Queensland, thanks to a week and a half of torrential rains and the landfall of Tropical Cyclone Tasha on Christmas Day. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stated yesterday, "Some communities are seeing flood waters higher than they've seen in decades, and for some communities flood waters have never reached these levels before [in] the time that we have been recording floods." The worst flooding occurred where Tropical Cyclone Tasha made landfall on Christmas Day. Though Tasha was a minimal tropical storm with 40 mph winds and lasted less than a day, the cyclone dumped very heavy rains of 8 - 16 inches ...
Colorado Man Suspected Of Stomping Girlfriend's Puppy To Death Because Of Ignored Calls
Post Date: 2010-12-29 17:18:16 by Brian S
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Police say a Colorado man is suspected of stomping his girlfriend's puppy to death because she wouldn't answer her phone. Colorado Springs police arrested 25-year-old Christopher Blackstone on suspicion of felony cruelty to animals after his girlfriend discovered her dog wrapped in a garbage bag in a trash bin outside her apartment on Dec. 24. The Colorado Springs Gazette newspaper reported Wednesday that police say Blackstone argued with his girlfriend at their apartment and ignored his calls after she left. She told police that she later got a text message telling her that if she had answered her phone her "dog would still be alive." The dog ...
Obama Bypasses Senate To Name New Envoys Whose Nominations Had Been Stalled Or Blocked By Lawmakers For Months
Post Date: 2010-12-29 17:13:44 by Brian S
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(12-29) 13:57 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) -- President Barak Obama has bypassed the Senate and directly appointed four new U.S. ambassadors whose nominations had been stalled or blocked by lawmakers for months. The White House announced Wednesday that Obama would use his power to make recess appointments to fill envoy posts to Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Syria and Turkey. Recess appointments are made when the Senate is not in session and last only until the end of the next session of Congress. Senators had not acted to confirm the nominees for various reasons, including questions about their qualifications. In the case of the new envoy to Syria, Robert Ford, some senators said they believed ...
Police Fatalities Increase 37 Percent In 2010
Post Date: 2010-12-29 13:29:20 by Brian S
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(NewsCore) - The number of US law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty spiked 37 percent -- from 117 to 160 -- in 2010, according to a preliminary report released Tuesday tracking police deaths. There was also a 20 percent increase in shooting deaths among federal, state, and local police. A total of 59 officers were killed by gunfire this year, up from last year’s figure of 49, according to data compiled by the nonprofit National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Ten of those officers shot to death were killed in five separate cluster killings, including a shooting in August that saw Hoonah, Alaska’s police force cut in half when two of its officers were gunned ...
AP-GfK Poll: Baby Boomers Fear Outliving Medicare
Post Date: 2010-12-29 13:24:21 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The first baby boomers will be old enough to qualify for Medicare Jan. 1, and many fear the program's obituary will be written before their own. A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds that baby boomers believe by a ratio of 2-to-1 they won't be able to rely on the giant health insurance plan throughout their retirement. The boomers took a running dive into adolescence and went on to redefine work and family, but getting old is making them nervous. Now, forty-three percent say they don't expect to be able to depend on Medicare forever, while only 20 percent think their Medicare is secure. The rest have mixed feelings. Yet the survey also shows a surprising ...
Number Of Uninsured Americans Soars To Over 50 Million
Post Date: 2010-12-29 00:57:42 by Brian S
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Less than a year ago, Francis Campos-Dunn was still working at a county hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area, helping patients navigate the often-maddening bureaucracy required to draw on their health insurance. These days, she has a new set of problems to navigate: how to manage her own care without any insurance of her own, having slipped into an unfortunate but fast-growing slice of the population--Americans who have lost their jobs and now lack health coverage. Back when she was still working, Campos-Dunn, 42, earned $4,000 a month, enough to make her co-payments for regular medical care. These days, she depends on $300 a month contributions from her 16-year-old son--money he earns ...
Northeast U.S. digs out from yet another history-making snowstorm
Post Date: 2010-12-28 21:52:49 by go65
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The remarkable Post-Christmas blizzard of 2010 has ended for the United States, as the storm has trekked northeastward into Canada. The blizzard dropped epic amounts of snow during its rampage up the U.S. Northeast coast Sunday and Monday, with an incredible 32" falling in Rahway, New Jersey, about 15 miles southwest of New York City. The highest populated areas of New Jersey received over two feet of snow, including the Newark Airport, which received 24.1". Snowfall amounts were slightly lower across New York City. The blizzard of 2010 dumped 20.0" inches on New York City's Central Park, making it the 6th largest snowstorm for the city in recorded history, and the second ...
New 2012 Presidential Campaign Poll: Obama Rising, Palin Falling
Post Date: 2010-12-28 20:22:19 by Ferret Mike
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The newest congressmen from the contentious 2010 mid-term elections haven't even been sworn in yet, but the race for the White House in 2012 is already taking center stage for many in Washington. Recently, as Republicans of many stripes start publicly flirting with a presidential run, President Obama's advisers hinted that they will be campaigning from Chicago, ending a 40-year tradition for incumbents. Now, a new CNN poll provides some fresh data on the standing for candidates on both sides of the aisle. The poll finds that Mr. Obama's standing with Democrats for their 2012 nomination is improving, while Tea Party champion Sarah Palin has lost ground to fellow potential ...
New GOP House Rules Pave The Way For More Tax Cuts, Deficits
Post Date: 2010-12-28 16:05:30 by go65
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In 2007, just weeks after Republicans lost control of the House and Senate and six years after the first passel of Bush tax cuts were signed into law, Democrats made a key change to the budget rules to prevent that episode from repeating itself. Republicans had used the budget reconciliation process -- immune from a filibuster -- to pass the cuts and explode the deficit: two things the reconciliation process was never meant to allow. To get away with it, Republicans were forced to include a 10-year sunset in package -- planting the seeds for the tax cut fight we just saw on Capitol Hill. After Dems wrested control of Congress, they banned the reconciliation loopholes used by the GOP ...
Haley Barbour takes heat for jet trips
Post Date: 2010-12-27 12:49:04 by go65
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Just a week after coming under fire for saying he didn't remember the civil-rights era being that bad, Politico reports that Mississippi governor and potential 2012 presidential candidate Haley Barbour (R) has been flying lavishly on the taxpayer's dime. According to records, Mississippi has spent $500,000 over the past three years on Barbour's air travel in a private Cessna jet. He has used the plane "to go to fundraisers for himself and other Republican candidates and committees, to football games and to at least one boxing match," Politico reports. >>On the afternoon of March 7, 2010, for instance, Barbour's state-owned plane arrived in Las Vegas to pick ...
Juan Williams: Palin not on same 'intellectual stage' as Obama
Post Date: 2010-12-27 12:47:37 by go65
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Fox News contributor Juan Williams said Sunday that Sarah Palin "can't stand on the intellectual stage" with President Obama. Williams, in his role as an analyst on Fox News Sunday, was breaking down the Republican presidential field, which he saw as weak. "There's nobody out there, except for Sarah Palin, who can absolutely dominate the stage, and she can't stand on the intellectual stage with Obama," Williams said. Palin, like Williams, is a Fox News contributor. And when Williams was fired by National Public Radio this year after saying he felt nervous when he sees Muslims on an airplane, Palin was among the conservative voices defending him. At the ...
Global Warming Hysteria: We Knew Arctic Cold Would be Caused by Global Warming! Sunday, December 2
Post Date: 2010-12-27 09:25:16 by no gnu taxes
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This is becoming a parody. I noted here recently that ten years ago, an East Anglia climate scientist and others warned that that because of global warming, “within a few years” there would be NO SNOW IN ENGLAND! Poor UK kids would soon only know virtual snow. That didn’t work out very well. But our GWHs are undaunted. Comes now the Arctic Express bringing Western Europe to a screeching halt with blizzards and freezing weather, and by golly, we knew that is exactly what we would expect from global warming! From the story: -- Scientists have established a link between the cold, snowy winters in Britain and melting sea ice in the Arctic and have warned that long periods of ...
NYT: “Bundle Up, It’s Global Warming”
Post Date: 2010-12-27 09:06:19 by no gnu taxes
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Manhattan seems to be filled with foolish people who bitterly cling to their pagan religion. From the New York Times: “Bundle Up, It’s Global Warming.” The headline is attached to a bizarre article by Judah Cohen. Since he is the director of seasonal forecasting at an atmospheric and environmental research firm, I guess he has to come up with some plausible explanation for why the global warming doomsday has been proved wrong. From Judah Cohen: -- As global temperatures have warmed and as Arctic sea ice has melted over the past two and a half decades, more moisture has become available to fall as snow over the continents. So the snow cover across Siberia in the fall has ...
That asshole Kenyan White House Resident brings back death panels
Post Date: 2010-12-27 08:58:23 by no gnu taxes
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It's not enough that death panels remained in ObamaCare and are now reaping havoc: ObamaCare Death Panels begin early: FDA pulls Avastin approval for breast cancer OVER COST CONCERNS. Obama wants a provision that was stripped out of ObamaCare to "end of life counseling" in which doctors are incentivized to get patients to basically kill themselves via medical neglect. Essentially Obama's "take a pain pill and die" strategy. To save costs of course. As you might suspect, Obama can;t get this legislation through Congress so he is instead going to push it through regulation just like so many other priorities: From the New York Times via memeorandum: Obama Returns ...
Record-Setting Southern Christmas Snow
Post Date: 2010-12-26 21:48:29 by go65
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6 PM Update: Washington National has had a total snowfall of a trace as of 6 pm, despite reporting light snow almost continuously since 11 am this morning and also despite rampant hype-ocracy for days from the commercial media. As the storm moves away toward the northeast, as shown in the radar image from The Weather Channel, the highest snowfall amounts reported in the region are around 5" at 2 locations in St. Marys County in southern Maryland. The daily total for Richmond has been corrected to 3.8" (0.7" of the storm total fell before midnight last night). The Norfolk total has increased to 12.5". 5 PM Update: The 12.0" of snow reported at Norfolk as of 3 pm ...
Bush bio outsells Clinton's
Post Date: 2010-12-26 14:11:27 by no gnu taxes
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President George W. Bush's recently released memoir,"Decision Points" ...has sold an astonishing two million copies since it was released in early November-and it's not even in paperback yet....published in both hardcover and e-book form, (the book) is flying off the shelves, the Crown Publishing Group says. By contrast, former president Bill Clinton;s memoir, "My Life," has logged sales of 2.2 million copies since it was first published in 2004. President Bush remains nearly universally vilified by the nattering nabobs of our liberal media intelligentsia: what could explain the public snapping up more copies of W's memoirs in a month than Bill Clinton ...
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