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Today, as I methodically break New Year's resolutions the way politicians break their promises of reform, readers get their writes. Because I am supposed to be on vacation this week, it's about time you readers did your fair share of the work around here, allowing me to recline on a couch, watch football and gulp down buckets of aspirin. OK, Kass, what are you paying Gov. Rod Blagojevich to give you material for your columns? Or is he the gift that keeps on giving? —Sue S. Dear Sue: As our esteemed governor has famously said, this thing is "bleeping golden."...

Corrupt, Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich last week appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the vacant U.S. Senate seat once held by President-elect Barack Hussein Obama Jr. The move caused an outcry in the media, and among Democrats on Capitol Hill, as Blagojevich is facing criminal charges for allegedly trying to sell the seat to the highest bidder. But in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, published today, Burris, whose aides are now calling him “Senator,” is planning to go to Washington D.C. next week and be sworn in as Senator, even though Sen. Majority Leader “Dirty”...

With a Democratic president soon taking office and a larger Democratic majority in the Senate, it's likely the use of pro forma sessions to prevent Executive Branch action will cease. The Senate has been meeting in pro forma sessions every fourth day for the past couple years as part of a tug-of-war with President Bush. "Pro forma" is Latin for "a formality," and in Senate parlance, "pro forma sessions" are a way the Senate can legally meet without really doing anything. No legislative business is allowed. They don't vote. They don't speechify. It's just gavel in, gavel out. Abandoning pro...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 1, 2009 – The United States formally transferred the Republican Palace back to the Iraqi government today, a concrete symbol of the continuing improvement in the country. The transfer came about as the status of forces agreement between the United States and Iraq took effect. The agreement replaces the United Nations mandate under which the coalition went into Iraq and has conducted operations there since. Under the agreement, Iraqi forces are now in the lead with U.S. forces in a supporting role or in overwatch. Officials said that American troops are still on duty at some of the...

Since this is the moment in the year when forecasts are demanded, I shall pick a sad certainty. Parliament will create more offences, lots of them. The Government, astonishingly, has apparently created a new imprisonable offence every four days for the past decade. Curiously little row has been made about this, least of all by what passes for the parliamentary Opposition. Many of the new offences in the coming year are sure to stem from the new religion: global warming. Its extent and scale may still be an issue among scientists, but politicians have latched on to this crusade fervently....

.... Ed Rollins, Republican strategist The biggest story will be the continued violence in the Middle East -- the Israel/Hamas war and the uncertainty of whether we can pull our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. While most Americans and our new president will be focused on the ongoing economic crises, the national security team of Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates and retired Gen. James Jones will be in a crisis-a-day mode for the foreseeable future. The secondary story will be who plays the role of the the loyal opposition to the new president. With the diminished role of the Republican...

You cannot defeat tyranny with traditional methods. The democratic process does not work because those in the “Legal Class” have monopolized the government for their own wants. The only way to defeat tyranny is with mega people/financial muscle. Traditional methods do not work because the lawyers have created a "Legal Class." The "Legal Class" has monopolized our governments. This class is manipulating the democratic process including only those that are in their class. We, the people of the Lower & Middleclass are excluded. No matter what your issue or cause is you'll never succeed because the "Legal Class" will stymie...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090102/ap_on_bi_ge/gas_tax_10 WASHINGTON – Motorists are driving less and buying less gasoline, which means fuel taxes aren't raising enough money to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs. That has the federal commission that oversees financing for transportation talking about increasing the federal fuel tax. A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by the commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.

On the eve of the New Year, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, charged with conspiring to sell the Senate seat of Barack Obama, put the ball back squarely in the court of a Democratic Party that had disowned him. Blago named Roland Burris, former attorney general of Illinois and first African-American ever to win statewide office, to fill the vacated seat. National Democrats and their media auxiliaries went berserk. This governor, thundered The New York Times, "has taken his hubris to new heights and the misery of Illinois citizens to new lows." This appointment "will not stand," raged Majority Leader Harry Reid....

Within the Article: One member of the party said that at some point health care rationing will have to occur. The largest share of today’s health care dollars are consumed by people over 65, she argued. Not everybody should get every procedure or every technology they want, just because it’s available, she said.

EDITOR: I always have urged the city to concentrate on basic services for health and safety. When a lack of money compromises health and safety, and we spend millions on non-essentials, the voters should hold us accountable. Local governments continue to rely on volatile sales tax revenues to pay for basic services. Excessive impact fees, building codes and, zoning rules that go beyond health and safety obstruct the free market. Not only do we buy open space using taxpayers' money, but we also order developers to forfeit 25 percent their private property for open space in order to develop it....

Takings cases linger Appeals opinion could cost $15M By TIMOTHY O'HARA AND ROB BUSWEILER Citizen Staff Monroe County may have to spend at least $15 million to buy nearly a dozen pieces of Florida Keys properties because the government's land-use regulations rendered them undevelopable, according to a court opinion issued Wednesday. The 3rd District Court of Appeals decision overturns two property-rights cases, one that favored Monroe County and one that favored the city of Marathon, both rendered by 16th Judicial Circuit Judge David Audlin. In the former, Audlin ruled against Thomas Collins and 10 other property owners who sued the...

To some staunch conservatives watching President Bush relinquish the reins of power to President-elect Barack Obama, a few too many ardent liberals are now crashing the gates. Some well-known Democratic activists are advising Obama on how to steer federal agencies, including a few whom conservative Republicans fought hard to keep out of power in the Clinton administration. They include Roberta Achtenberg, a gay activist whose confirmation as an assistant housing secretary was famously held up by then-Sen. Jesse Helms (N.C.), and Bill Lann Lee, who was hotly opposed by foes of affirmative action and temporarily blocked from the government's top...

Talk of impending inflation has been everywhere - CNBC, in the print media, on the internet and on Seeking Alpha. But in the past months, there has also been discussion of deflation. Do we know what is going on? Is there no clear direction for the economy?Each of the above questions has the same answer: Yes, we are getting an understanding of what is going on, but, also yes, we don’t have a road map for where we are going. I call the nexus of this conundrum, “The Banker’s Dilemma”.The Fed and the U.S. Treasury have increased the money supply...

John Maynard Keynes died in 1946, but to hear President elect Obama speak you would think he was going to be heading the treasury department. What does Obama propose to do when he takes office in January? Well other than raise taxes, and increase spending he believes in public works. That’s right, that’s his big plan. The same plan that didn’t help us during the Great Depression, or didn’t help the Japanese during their recession in the 1990’s, and they basically paved over everything they could.

Congress has so few moderate Republicans that at least in the Senate they could squeeze into a Volkswagen Beetle. Their ranks have dwindled in recent elections. Those who remain in politics have been marginalized by their own party, which has inexorably veered to the right over the last generation. But this beleaguered minority has an opportunity to wield outsized influence on what President-elect Barack Obama can accomplish in Congress.

"The strain of a once-innocuous staph infection that has become invulnerable to first-line antibiotics kills more people each year than the AIDS virus and in most cases is contracted in hospitals. ...SB 1058 will require hospitals to report infections such as MRSA to the Department of Health Services, effective Jan. 1."

Couples with children can become more than £5,000 a year better off if they split up or choose to live apart... The study by the Civitas think-tank shows how millions of working families are missing out on the benefits paid to single parents. It led to calls for drastic reforms of Labour's 'insane' welfare policies to bolster, rather than undermine, family life. For those who do decide to wed or live together the decision is 'a triumph of romance over economics', the report claims, and many more are put off by the 'powerful economic incentives to live separately.' Gordon Brown's...

When Michelle Obama moves into the White House, she will inherit a title with no job description as the world watches to see how she performs...Surely the person in one of the most visible roles on the planet deserves a proper title and salary to go along with the intense demands of this most nebulous position, which is, in essence, a job.

Veterans In Politics Talk Show Introduces Wes Brummit LIVE on www.AllTalkRadio.net January 3: Wes Brummit Vice President of Membership for the Republican Toastmaster: "Veterans In Politics" is a weekly radio show produced by the Veterans In Politics International and hosted by Steve Sanson and Co-Hosted by Jilrean "Sage" Bocook. The "Veterans In Politics" show is live every Saturday 2:05 PM Pacific Time you can call in and speak to the guest or/and hosts at (702) 942-7371.