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WYLIE — As a disabled veteran, Jeff Gudgeon feels he has paid enough. He says spending money on highway tolls is a cost he shouldn’t have to pay. “It kind of gets to you,” Gudgeon said. Thousands of disabled veterans in Texas get to drive toll roads for free — but not in North Texas.

On a nightly basis, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann pompously presents himself as being the smartest guy in the room as he belittles every leading Republican in the nation. But on Tuesday, the "Countdown" host exhibited a staggering level of ignorance as he claimed "federal budget debt" -- whatever that is! -- as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product is "about the same as it was in 1970," and "far less than it was throughout the Reagan administration." To begin with, there is no "federal budget debt." There's a federal budget DEFICIT and federal DEBT. That this self-proclaimed genius doesn't know these...

There are no second acts in American lives. ---F. Scott Fitzgerald Apparently writers Nicole Allan and Niraj Chokshi of Atlantic Magazine wish to hold open the possibility of a second act for disgraced John Edwards as they speculate about Is John Edwards Done Forever? Yes, all Sarah Palin has to do is read a few notes from the palm of her hand and this is enough to set off MSM liberals into a group hate rant about the former vice-presidential candidate. However, if you are a liberal the door is always open to you for a possible political comeback even...

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Ford(F Quote) has finally found a major vulnerability in Toyota's(TM Quote) products -- and it clearly isn't willing to let the opportunity slip away. Following Toyota's two massive recalls, Ford is now attempting to grow sales with new commercials taking on Toyota. The commercials are part of Ford's "Spread the Word" campaign, which was launched on Jan. 12. Each of them feature Mike Rowe, host of Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs, speaking to ordinary people in various settings about Ford vehicles. Rowe "spreads the word" at a gas station, in a coffee shop and at a school....

I watched a Nova program last night called Extreme Cave Diving. Although I don't watch the left leaning PBS much, this program sparked my intrest. The body of the program is about cave divers exploring "Blue Holes" in the Bahamas. Blue Holes are devoid of oxygen and preserve bones that can't be found on the surface. The divers were finding bones of animals such as tortise and crocs that were not previously known to exist on the island. Towards the end of the show samples of stalagmites were taken from these flooded caves. They were bi-sected and studied. The scientist...

Paul Schiffer, Congressional Candidate in Ohio, has taken the pledge of the American Council for Immigration Reform to oppose amnesty in any form for illegal aliens, and to push for the enforcement of America’s laws, with the goal that trespassers in the United States will voluntarily return to the countries where they have a home and a place of their own. Paul Schiffer pledged: “I pledge to oppose amnesty or any other special path to citizenship for the millions of foreign nationals unlawfully present in the United States. As a member of Congress, I will support the full implementation of...

NEW ORLEANS - Angry, frustrated, and confused--those are just a few of the lingering emotions being felt by close to 100 United Airlines passengers still stranded in New Orleans Their packed flight to Los Angeles was supposed to leave at 7:18pm Tuesday evening, but after spending 3 hours on the plane, flight #263 never took off. “The flight that they rescheduled us to doesn’t leave until 2:30 or 3pm [Wednesday] afternoon,” said Dwight Webster, a passenger trying to get back home to Oakland, California. “So all in all it will be 24 hours before I get home.” Passengers say they...

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- This week, I posted a story on Fortune.com saying that a Value Added Tax is fast becoming the only option America has left to solve the current fiscal crisis. In the piece, I said that former Arkansas Governor and leading Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee favors a VAT to replace the income tax. I received numerous angry emails stating that the ex-governor advocates a solution called a "Fair Tax" that's quite different from a VAT.

Once a long time ago I was upgraded on a flight to Orlando and found myself next to a gray-haired German who had been visiting his family in Minnesota. Over drinks I learned that he had emigrated to the US after the 1939-45 war, and that during the war he had shot down a de Havilland Mosquito and a Messerschmitt Me262. He'd achieved this unusual, quite possibly unique distinction as the commander of a gun crew using the 88mm L71, the highest-performing version of the classic 88. The Luftwaffe had designated free-fire zones in which anything would be fired on,...

The number of illegal immigrants in the United States fell by seven percent last year to 10.8 million, coinciding with the country's financial crisis, a Department of Homeland Security report said Tuesday. The majority of the country's illegal immigrants come from Latin America, with 62 percent from Mexico (6.7 million), followed by those from El Salvador (530,000), Guatemala (480,000) and Honduras (320,000). Together with Filipinos (270,000), Latin Americans accounted for 85 percent of all illegal immigrants in the United States in 2009, the DHS report said. "The number of unauthorized residents declined by 1.0 million between 2007 and 2009, coincident...

President Obama and congressional Dems are planning two big “rope-a-dope” plays worthy of Muhammad Ali to get Obama’s nationalization of healthcare passed. First, there’s a strategy to pass amendments -- making the current Senate bill more palatable to liberals -- and have the president wait to sign it until the House passes the Senate bill. Second, having scored heavily against the Republicans in his visit to the Republican retreat in Baltimore a few weeks ago, Obama is inviting Republican House and Senate leaders to the White House for a healthcare “summit” on February 25. But that meeting is being planned...

Senator Brian Frosh (D), District 16 Montgomery County and Chairman of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, and Delegate Sandy Rosenberg (D), District 41, Baltimore City have introduced the Gun Safety Act of 2010. This proposed legislation would fundamentally change the face of gun ownership in the State of Maryland as no bill has in the last 10 years. Now that the text of the bills have been released, we can give you our full response. HELP KILL THIS BILL-CONTACT MD REPS EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT FROM MD!!!!!!!!!!! CLICK THRU TO SITE FOR MORE INFO AND TOOLS!!!!

Critics of Michael Steele's tenure as Republican National Committee chairman are motivated by racism, Steele suggested in an interview published on Tuesday. Speaking to Washingtonian magazine (no online version), Steele wondered why his Democratic National Committee counterpart doesn't get the same criticism he does. "I don’t see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation," Steele said. "Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?”

Raleigh, N.C. — A new proposal for the history curriculum in North Carolina public schools is causing uproar. Among the biggest concerns is covering U.S. history only from 1877 to the present in the 11th grade. “There's nothing on the Confederacy, nothing on Robert E. Lee, nothing on Abraham Lincoln, nothing on any battle, nothing on reconstruction, nothing on the causes of the war, nothing on slavery. Nothing on slavery anywhere in the curriculum,” said Dr. Holly Brewer, associate professor of Early American History at North Carolina State University. Brewer opposes the curriculum change and says students would not learn...

The Anglican Church in Canada – once as powerful in the nation's secular life as it was in its soul – may be only a generation away from extinction, says a just-published assessment of the church's future. The report, prepared for the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia, calls Canada a post-Christian society in which Anglicanism is declining faster than any other denomination. It says the church has been “moved to the far margins of public life.” According to the report, the diocese – “like most across Canada” – is in crisis. The report repeats, without qualification or question, the results...

I've been trying, because I'd truly like to see health reform pass, to find something nice to say about President Obama's plans for a summit. Another summit, that is, nearly a year after the first one. Here's the best I could come up with: It can't hurt. Consider it Chicken Soup for the Legislative Soul.When the president used his Super Bowl Sunday interview with CBS News' Katie Couric to launch this Hail Mary summit pass, he explained that "what I want to do is to look at the Republican ideas that are out there. . . . 'How do you...

If you've been watching the daily scandals destroy the credibility of the U.N. IPCC, then you might not realize that Cambridge, Massachusetts is in a state of climate emergency. This is not hyperbole, but an official policy order, passed by the City Council in May 2009, "recogniz[ing] that there is a climate emergency" and requesting the City Manager "to direct the appropriate city departments to increase the City's responses to a scale proportionate to the emergency."

For American labor, year one of Barack Obama's presidency has been close to an unmitigated disaster. Labor's primary priority -- the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) -- died when the Democrats lost their 60-vote majority in the Senate. Labor's normal priority -- a functioning National Labor Relations Board -- also seems out of reach, with Republicans on Tuesday blocking the appointment of Obama nominee Craig Becker (that's why Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown scurried down to Washington last week to take his seat). Other key legislation for which labor has lobbied, including health-care reform and financial regulations, languishes in the Senate....

A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror (Paperback)~ Larry Schweikart Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1 in Books  Product Details Paperback: 944 pagesPublisher: Sentinel Trade (February 27, 2007)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 1595230327ISBN-13: 978-1595230324Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 2.1 inchesShipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)Average Customer Review:3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (111 customer reviews) 111 Reviews 5 star:  (51) 4 star:  (11) 3 star:  (13) 2 star:  (10) 1 star:  (26) › See all 111 customer reviews... Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

"There definitely aren't a lot of laughs around the briefing room these days," says Washington Examiner White House correspondent Julie Mason. "Robert's little digs and evasions have lost their power to amuse — particularly since we haven't had a presser since July."

Most voters think the country would be better off if the majority of the current Congress wasn’t reelected this November, and their confidence in their own congressman continues to fall. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 63% of likely voters believe, generally speaking, that it would be better for the country if most incumbents in Congress were defeated this November. Just 19% disagree and say it would be better if most congressional incumbents were reelected. Another 18% aren’t sure. The Political Class strongly rejects these views, however. While 78% of Mainstream voters say it would be better...

President Obama brought Republicans to the negotiating table on Tuesday, hoping to stem a steady deterioration in relations between the two parties that has brought business in Washington to a standstill, left the Democratic agenda in tatters and angered voters who are eager to have lawmakers address their concerns. The two-hour session was part of a renewed drive by the White House to create legislation by consensus, regardless of party label. Obama tried the approach after he took office, but it did not take hold. After the meeting, the president paid a surprise visit to the White House press room...

If you've been paying attention to the left-wing punditry these days, you may be under the impression that the nation's institutions are on the verge of collapse. Or that the rule of law is unraveling. Or maybe that this once-great nation is crippled and nearly beyond repair. You know why? Because the 40 percent (or so) political minority has far too much influence in Washington. Don't you know? This minority, egged on by a howling mob of nitwits, is holding progress hostage using its revolting politics and parliamentary trickery. Leading the charge to fix this dire problem is New York...

President Obama and leading lawmakers from both parties met at the White House Tuesday to showcase potential areas of cooperation, especially on an initiative to spur hiring, but the gathering also highlighted divisions that have stalled much of the president's domestic agenda. Obama reiterated his hopes for bipartisan compromise during a surprise appearance later...his first news conference since the summer. One of Obama's priorities is a bill aimed at creating jobs. In the meeting with top congressional Democrats and Republicans, the president pitched ideas for boosting small-business hiring, including tax breaks. "We should be able to come together and help...

Remember that the schools in New Orleans were a tragedy long before Katrina. ...In the 1970s, Mickey Landry and his wife both taught in New Orleans. “We used to come home and joke that the best thing that could happen to the Orleans Parish school system would be for someone to blow it up and start all over again.” Frustrated, Landry left New Orleans, but stayed in education, eventually running a prestigious private school in Colorado. Landry was lured back to post-Katrina New Orleans by the opportunity to run a school without the bureaucratic constraints of the old Orleans Parish...

Everyone seems to be wondering why Muslim terrorists are so quick to commit suicide. Let's see now.... 1) No Christmas 2) No television 3) No cheerleaders 4) No naked women 5) No NASCAR 6) No football 7) No pork BBQ 8) No hot dogs 9) No burgers 10) No chocolate chip cookies 11) No lobster 12) No nachos 13) No beer 14) Rags for clothes and towels for hats 15) Constant wailing from the guy next-door because he's sick and there are no doctors 16) Constant wailing 6 times a day from the guy in the tower 17) More than...

Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) called for the removal of the White House's top counterterrorism official Tuesday, intensifying Republican criticism of the administration's handling of the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day. Bond said John Brennan, a special assistant to the president for counterterrorism, needs to resign because of the politcal role he has played. Brennan "needs to go," Bond told the National Review Online, a position spokeswoman Shana Marchio confirmed. "Our problem now is that we have to wonder whether we can trust Brennan after he has been a mouthpiece for the political arm that I thought only came out...

The House adopted a sternly worded resolution declaring the body's deep skepticism over current climate science and called for the federal government to halt carbon dioxide reduction programs. Rep. Kerry Gibson said that by pursuing cap-and-trade policies, Washington is engaging on a path that could destroy Utah's way of life. "I'm afraid of what could happen to our economy, to our rural life, to our agriculture, if such a detrimental policy continues to be pursued for political reasons," said the Ogden Republican. He said there is mounting evidence that humans can't influence their environment and the costs of enacting climate...

[...] The inevitable coming of the sovereign debt panic finally engulfed Europe this week as the derisively (or perhaps affectionately) named PIGS spilled their slop on the continent. But Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain are hardly worthy of so much attention. In truth, they are little more than the currently favored proxies among the leveraged speculator community (cough) for the larger problem of all sovereign debt. Indeed, the credit default swaps on these smaller European satellite states were not alone this week in making large moves higher. UK sovereign risk rose strongly, and so did US sovereign risk. With a...

The past 10 days have seen several developments connected to Iran's nuclear program. In a January 31, 2010 television interview, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced out of the blue that Iran had agreed to the uranium exchange deal that it had rejected repeatedly since October 2009. This announcement came several days after it was reported that the U.S. was deploying missile defense systems in the Gulf. However, on February 7, 2010, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran would begin to enrich uranium by itself, to a level of 20%, and that it had attained laser technology for uranium enrichment. The Iranian daily...

Listen Live: Sound Off Connecticut with Jim Vicevich 9 a.m. to noon ET (Daily Thread)Sound Off Connecticut is a popular conservative/libertarian call in talk show hosted by Jim Vicevich weekday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon ET. Although based in Connecticut, the show welcomes callers from all over the United States! This is your chance to sound off America! Call into the show toll free (800) 966-9842! Listen to the LIVE AUDIO STREAM at http://wtic.com - it's free and NO registration is required! If you're in southern New England listen over the air to WTIC 1080 AM, the 50,000 watt...

Andy Xie: China Better Open Up Its Economy Fast, Else An Obama Trade War Will Crush It Vincent Fernando Feb. 10, 2010, 5:12 AM Andy Xie issues a stark warning for China in a latest Caing opinion piece. Essentially, America's major hope for recovery and job growth right now lies in growing its exports since the Fed can't slash rates much lower, and American government is completely grid-locked by politics (thus can't do much for the domestic economy). Thus he expects an increasingly aggressive stance from the Obama administration on U.S. - China trade. While China has gotten away with...

Air quality in the United States has improved dramatically over the past 40 years, yet Moveon.Org wants you to believe that breathing the air is like being a pack-a-day smoker.

GLENN BECK, the most listened to Talk Show Host among White House Peeps (4 out of 5 Marxists agree)! Welcome Sick Twisted Freaks! It’s a morning thread, so bring your coffee and doughnuts! FRink Phrases: "Cloward and Piven" “Blow your mind” “Fatty fat fatso” “Having an ADD moment” “That’s FANSTASTIC!” And of course anytime Pat does his Arlen Specter voice is cause to FRink! Feel free to FReepmail any suggestions to add to the list! ENJOY!

Jim Tisch, the leader of Loews Corp., said the U.S. did a “good job of killing” the hotel business by lambasting corporate travel and hurt American International Group Inc.’s ability to return bailout funds by curbing pay. “The criticism that took place of group travel was really a death knell for the industry,” Tisch said yesterday in an interview at an office of the New York-based holding company, which owns hotels. “It’s easy for the politician to get the sound bite. What they are doing with those sound bites is putting maids and bellmen out of work.” Loews’s hotel unit...

In him and through faith in him we may approach God with FREEDOM and confidence. Eph 3:12 This most recent market tumble was caused by obozo going on a crazy rant how the Banks are to blame for the jobless. Sure, run a thoroughbred in the Kentucky Derby w/a 400 lb jockey then shoot it when it doesn’t win. He told the markets he was going to punish the banks and their officers again causing more angst. The big question is when will the Bankers and America be punished enough in his Marxist mind? They have watched their banks get...

Unveiling his latest budget proposal, President Barack Obama announced: “The bottom line is this: We simply cannot continue to spend as if deficits don’t have consequences; as if waste doesn’t matter; as if the hard-earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like Monopoly money; as if we can ignore this challenge for another generation.” Unfortunately, few in Washington are listening -- including the president himself. His budget would boost spending to $3.8 trillion in the next fiscal year. It would generate a $1.5 trillion deficit for next year alone, on top of the trillions American taxpayers already...

The “Second Round Of Pain” By Dan Denning 02/09/10 Melbourne, Australia – If you’ve been thinking about reducing exposure to stocks, now might be a good time. And if you’ve been thinking about increasing your exposure to precious metals, now might be a good time. According to Morgan Stanley economist Gerard Minack, the stock market is in for a correction after its 9-month “relief rally.” In a note to clients Minack wrote, “We see the rise from March 2009 as a typical relief rally that follows major bear markets. Those relief rallies can occur regardless of underlying macro conditions, regardless...

A 63 percent majority of Americans, notably Democratic and Independent voters, want Congress to "Keep Trying" to pass a comprehensive health care reform plan, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll. The survey, conducted Thursday through Monday, queried more than 1,000 voters across the country, and also asked which party is responsible for lack of cooperation in Washington, D.C. The margin of error was 3.5 percent. The key question: "Do you think lawmakers in Washington should keep trying to pass a comprehensive health care reform plan, or should they give up on comprehensive health care reform? Sixty-three percent said...

INTERNATIONAL scientists have called for the world's peak climate change body to be revamped or scrapped after damaging controversies that have dogged the expert panel in recent months. The scientists suggest a range of options, from tightening the selection of lead authors and contributors to the International Panel on Climate Change, to dumping it in favour of a small permanent body, or even turning the whole climate science assessment process into a moderated "living" Wikipedia-IPCC. Writing today in the journal Nature, five US, British, German and Swiss climate scientists - all contributing or lead IPCC report authors - agreed a...

Can the government control health care inflation through subsidies? First President Obama said critics of his health care plan had no ideas worth considering. Then he said he never said that. Now he says he is eager to hear those previously unacknowledged ideas. Taking Obama at his word (always a risky thing to do), is there any realistic prospect that the meeting he plans with legislators from both parties later this month will, as he suggests, produce "some agreements" on how to proceed with health care reform? Not if he continues to ignore the conflict between his approach to expanding...

Andy Xie: China Better Open Up Its Economy Fast, Else An Obama Trade War Will Crush It Vincent Fernando | Feb. 10, 2010, 5:12 AM | 531 | comment 4 Andy Xie issues a stark warning for China in a latest Caing opinion piece. Essentially, America's major hope for recovery and job growth right now lies in growing its exports since the Fed can't slash rates much lower, and American government is completely grid-locked by politics (thus can't do much for the domestic economy). Thus he expects an increasingly aggressive stance from the Obama administration on U.S. - China trade....

Worthy Investments During Deflationary Collapse by: Nikhil Raheja February 10, 2010 As outlined before, we expect a huge crash in the market in the coming months. The nature of the collapse in the market should be deflationary, resulting in a severe downfall, the likes of which have not been witnessed since the Great Depression. The best investment philosophy for this recession is extreme safety. The downtrend should mimic the events of late 2008, where anyone caught with risk assets such as stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate, currencies and municipal debt suffered a large capital loss. Again, the key prelude to...

Sociologists have developed elaborate theories of who spreads gossip and news — who tells whom, who matters most in social networks — but they’ve had less success measuring what kind of information travels fastest. Do people prefer to spread good news or bad news? Would we rather scandalize or enlighten? Which stories do social creatures want to share, and why? Now some answers are emerging thanks to a rich new source of data: you, Dear Reader. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have intensively studied the New York Times list of most-e-mailed articles...analyzing the content of thousands of articles and...

File this under: Unintended irony. The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) today released a report entitled “Stand and Deliver: Sex, health and young people in the 21st Century.” I’m guessing the title eludes to the critically acclaimed film “Stand and Deliver” starring Edward James Olmos in which he played a dedicated math teacher who challenges his erstwhile high school dropouts to learn calculus. In the movie, these misunderstood yet courageous young people come of age, metaphorically, as they realize their true potential. As it happens, according to the Web site phrases.org, the phrase “stand and deliver… was used by 17th...

Wimpy Bond Investors Are About To Miss The Boat: Stocks Are Going To Have An Excellent Year Bill Miller Feb. 10, 2010, 7:56 AM From Bill Miller's op-ed in the FT: [M]oney continues to be redeemed from US-oriented equity mutual funds, while flows into bond funds are running at record levels. This affinity for bonds over stocks is understandable when looking at the past 10 years, but perverse, we believe, when looking at the likely course of the next 10... I think 2010 will be a good year for stocks, and a challenging one for bonds. Low inflation, good economic...

The rebellious former allies – Deborah Courtney, Barbara Coe and Marvin Stewart – improperly ousted Gilchrist as president of the organization he founded, Judge Randell Wilkinson said. The issue now is whether Gilchrist can prove damages. In the past, Gilchrist has claimed $3 million in damages on behalf of the MMP. Presumably he'll try to show the drop off in fundraising since the dissidents started agitating. Trial resumes today. Coe has settled, so she's not on the hook. Courtney has told me she's already lost everything – including her house and car – fighting Gilchrist in court. She and Stewart...

David Goldman: China's Dumping Of US Assets Means A Coming Spike In Borrowing Costs Joe Weisenthal Feb. 10, 2010, 8:14 AM Last night on Kudlow, credit analyst David Goldman discussed the news that China is dumping any US fixed-income assets that aren't explicitly backed by the government. What does this mean? Trouble for banks and big increases in borrowing costs for businesses. His comments come around the 11:00 mark. Before that Greece is discussed, which is also worthwhile.[snip]

Military leaders in China called for the sale of U.S. debt securities on Monday, February 8, 2010 in response to arms sales recently made to Taiwan.

Dollar-denominated risk assets, including asset-backed securities and corporates, are no longer wanted at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), nor at China’s large commercial banks. The Chinese government has ordered its reserve managers to divest itself of riskier securities and hold only Treasuries and US agency debt with an implicit or explicit government guarantee. This already has been communicated to American securities dealers, according to market participants with direct knowledge of the events. It is not clear whether China’s motive is simple risk aversion in the wake of a sharp widening of corporate and mortgage spreads during the past...