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President Obama will nominate current White House chief of staff Jack Lew on Thursday to replace outgoing Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, according to several news reports. Republicans familiar with Lew, who was a key player in the debt-ceiling negotiations of 2011 as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), say his nomination makes progress on tax and entitlement reform all the more unlikely in Obama’s second term. “We’ve always viewed him as a classic big-government liberal, someone who has consistently stood in the way of efforts to deal with our debt and deficit,” a senior House GOP aide...

The 2012 elections showed that the American people don’t like clueless conservatism any better now than when they were getting it in massive doses from George W. Bush. If the electorate really favored progressivism, they would have given the Democrats control of the House of Representatives, and they did not. Instead, the voters used the election to deliver the biggest jolt to the Republicans that they could without giving the Democrats complete control of government. The 2012 election amounted to a desperate attempt by the electorate to purge the Republican Party of clueless conservatism. Clearly, the people are trying to...

When we talk about “economic freedom,” what do we mean—and why does it matter? Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property. In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, with that freedom both protected by the state and unconstrained by the state. Since reaching a global peak in 2008, sadly, economic freedom around the world has continued to stagnate. Today launches the 19th edition of the Index of Economic Freedom, produced by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall...

The Internal Revenue Service warned employers in a new regulatory proposal not to come up with clever schemes to avoid Obamacare’s employer health insurance mandate. The IRS said it would soon issue “anti-abuse rules” to discourage employers from taking advantage of any regulatory loopholes. “The Treasury Department and the IRS are aware of various structures being considered under which employers might use temporary staffing agencies (or other staffing agencies)… to evade application of section 4980H [the employer insurance mandate],” the IRS said in a proposed regulatory announcement issued December 28. …

Attorney General Eric Holder, a lightning rod of criticism from Republicans, is staying on in his job as President Barack Obama starts his second term. A White House official said on Wednesday that Holder is among the Cabinet members who will remain in their position. He has been working on Vice President Joe Biden’s task force on finding ways to reduce gun violence after last month's mass killing in Newtown, Connecticut. It is rare for an attorney general to serve more than four years. …

(Scroll down for video) A British judge called a Muslim mother who beat her son to death “a devoted and loving mother,” during a court sentencing, according to press reports in the United Kingdom. The woman was arrested and charged with murder after beating her child to death over not learning the Koran, according to court proceedings in England. A British judge on Monday sentenced the woman he called a "devoted and loving mother", to at least 17 years in prison for beating her son to death after he failed to memorize passages from the Koran.

The Tea Party was just for show. It was a demonstration. A dust up driven by the anger of people unhappy with arbitrary and vexing taxes. It made the news, it has passed into our heritage, but it didn’t mean that much. The Tea Party was only a milestone on the path to freedom. The rubber met the road at the Lexington green and the Concord bridge. In Lexington and Concord, it all got real. Pushed and pushed and pushed some more, at Lexington and Concord, the cause of American freedom stood up on its feet and fought. This was...

As Congress prepares to debate new bills aimed at curbing gun violence, many gun owners fear Washington regulations will actually limit their ability to stop crime. “The best empirical research on the matter finds that, where gun ownership levels are highest, in fact, homicide rates are far lower,” said University of Texas at Dallas criminologist Tomislav Kovandzic. … Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., proposes banning military-style assault weapons, though more than 5 million AK-47s and AR-15s are already in circulation, and the low-caliber rounds they fire are less deadly than those in many handguns. Among state and federal prison inmates convicted...

R'n'B-pop diva Beyonce Knowles, "American Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson and Grammy Award-winning artist James Taylor are just some of the artists tapped by re-elected U.S. president Barack Obama to perform the country's most patriotic songs during his upcoming inauguration ceremony on January 21. Beyonce is chosen to deliver the U.S. national anthem "The Star Spangled Banner", Kelly is selected to sing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and James is invited again to perform "America the Beautiful".

Newtown, Conn.’s schools superintendent is urging an indefinite police presence at the district’s schools to allay fears among parents and children about gun violence. The News Times reports that Superintendent Janet Robinson says children have not ventured outside school for recess because of anxiety. …

F A Mafia crime boss’ home is his castle, this Colombo crime family poorfella lives on the wrong side of the train tracks. Reputed underboss Benjamin (The Claw) Castellazzo made a shocking disclosure in court papers that he lives in a New Jersey trailer park and his wife receives food stamps. Castellazzo, 75, is making a pitiful pitch to avoid a lengthy jail term when he’s sentenced later this month.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is planning a Thursday morning announcement of new lending rules that it hopes will move the mortgage market toward a sustainable middle ground, somewhere in between the free-wheeling days of no-documentation loans and the current, restrictive environment. For most borrowers, the rules will mean no more interest-only mortgages, no more loans where the principal due increases over time, no more loans that carry a balloon payment and no more loan terms of more than 30 years. In addition, would-be borrowers will be less likely to qualify for a mortgage unless their total debts account for...

Israel’s president has warned that the Palestinians are liable to launch a new uprising if the Jewish state doesn’t do more to try to reach a peace accord, stepping up his criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Jan. 22 elections. … “If there is no diplomatic decision, the Palestinians will go back to terror. Knives, mines, suicide attacks,” Peres was quoted as saying in Wednesday’s edition of the New York Times magazine. “Even if the local inhabitants do not want to resume the violence, they will be under the pressure of the Arab world,” he said, adding that...

We have junk food, junk mail and junk bonds. Now, thanks to our dysfunctional and devious Congress, we have junk laws like the “Taxpayer Relief Act.” Junk laws are really nothing new. The people we send to Washington to represent us have been passing legislation larded with pork or special privileges for their friends in business, agriculture and labor since the country was born. Insiders have always known how this cynical bipartisan game is played. But now, thanks to the failure of Congress to deal with the government debt crisis it in large part created, the average American is starting...

Striking farm workers in South Africa have clashed with police for a second day during protests for higher wages. … The protesters want their daily wages to be more than doubled to 150 South African rand ($17.50). Vineyards in the province are key to South Africa’s wine industry; laborers also work on apple and other fruit farms. …

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Jack Lew: Architect of Obama’s Trillion-Dollar-Deficit BudgetsPosted By Tom Blumer On January 10, 2013 @ 12:50 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 3 Comments On Wednesday, Julie Pace and Martin Crutsinger, two of the usual suspects at the Associated Press, began paving the way for what they clearly hope will be a worry-free Senate confirmation of current Obama administration Chief of Staff Jack Lew to become the nation’s next Treasury Secretary.Towards that end, the AP pair larded on the compliments and historical revisionism with reckless abandon. Among other things, their report lauded Lew as ”one of Washington’s most...

Leftists and their media advocates, well aware that the tragedy of Newtown must be exploited before Americans regain their emotional balance, are pulling out all the stops. Almost a dozen new gun control bills were introduced on the first day of the new congressional session. Joe Biden’s task force continues its frenzied pace of activity, even as it broadens its scope far beyond the reinstatement of the ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, moving into such arenas as universal background checks for gun buyers, a national database tracking the movement and sale of weapons and measures that Obama could...

ConocoPhillips is splitting its vast mid-continent business in two and moving managers from Midland to Houston, as part of an internal reorganization, according to spokesman Daren Beaudo. ConocoPhillips, the nation’s largest independent oil producer, will shut down its Odessa office in the shuffle, an effort to improve operational efficiency, Beaudo said in an e-mail. Currently, the mid-continent unit is based in Midland and stretches from Texas to the Canadian border. It includes several prolific oil plays, including the Permian Basin in West Texas and the Bakken shale in North Dakota. Beaudo did not disclose how the company’s assets will be...

Chicago is known for good steaks, expensive stores and beautiful architecture. Unfortunately, the Windy City also enjoys a reputation for corrupt politics, violent crime, and some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere in the country. To rational people, the inverse relationship between the last two is obvious. Unfortunately for residents of and visitors to Chicago, the city is governed by officials who operate not in the real world, but in a virtual “Bizarro World,” where up is down, black is white, and good guys are to be punished. In this strange environment, current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (who...

The University of Texas women's track coach who resigned under fire after the disclosure of an affair with a female student a decade ago doesn't understand why she was targeted for punishment and questions whether she's being treated fairly. "Is it because I have a disability? Is it because I'm black? Is it because I'm female? Is it because I'm successful? Is it now because of my sexual preference?" Coach Bev Kearney asked on CNN's "Starting Point" Tuesday.