Despite efforts by Senator Baucus (D-MT) and Senator Grassley (R-IA) to draft a broad and bi-partisan federal legislation as part of another round of federal “stimulus” Senator Reid (D-NV) has now derailed the endeavor. After eliminating most of the tax cuts in the bi-partisan effort put forward by Senators Baucus and Grassley, one of the few “tax cuts” Senator Reid has retained is the payroll tax holiday plan. What is the Payroll Tax Holiday? Sec. 101 of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act outlines a suspension during 2010 …
In the video to the right, BBC’s Andrew Neil grills Chief Scientist at the Department for the Environment, Professor Robert Watson on the many many mistakes in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change‘s 2007 report. As the Wall Street Journal has documented, in just the past year the IPCC’s 2007 report has been exposed for overstating the science on glacier loss in the Himalayas, crop loss in Africa, Amazon rain forest depletion and damage from weather catastrophes. No wonder the government of India it says they “cannot rely” on the …
The Drudge Report linked to a number of articles updating the public on Climategate including a number of concessions from Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia. In an interview with BBC Jones admitted that there was no statistically significant rise in temperature in the past fifteen years, that the Medieval Warming Period was as warm or warmer than today and that he had trouble keeping track of the information. In fact, “Colleagues have expressed concern that the reason he has refused …
This season’s snow falls and Snowpocalypse presents a great opportunity to remember our president who also suffered through the cold to save the Republic. Happy William Henry Harrison Day! No wait. That is not right. Failing to wear a coat in cold weather is not the same as defeating the British during a blizzard. The third Monday in February has come to be known—wrongly—as President’s Day. But, this is not a day to celebrate every president in our Nation’s history: like one who served only a month in office. This …
February 12th marks the 201st birthday of Abraham Lincoln. There is much that we can learn today from this great champion of the Constitution and of the principles of the American founding. This is especially true today, when our founding principles are under relentless attack. Even in Lincoln’s time, these principles were “denied, and evaded, with no small show of success,” as Lincoln himself put it . Lincoln dedicated all of his public life to the preservation of these principles, and we should aspire to live up to his example. …
Congress has become increasingly restive about the Obama Administration’s lack of leadership on supporting opposition forces that seek to advance freedom and human rights in Iran. On Thursday Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) sought to make up for the administration’s lack of initiative by introducing the “Iran Democratic Transition Act of 2010.” The bill details the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses, cites Iran as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and notes Iran’s troublesome pursuit of nuclear weapons. It states that U.S. policy should be to …
At its Executive Business Meeting on February 4, 2010, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent the nominations of Edward Chen, Louis Butler, Mary Smith, and Christopher Schroeder to the floor for consideration by the Senate. President Obama resubmitted those nominations in January after the Senate adjourned in December without acting on them. Chen, who has been nominated for a judgeship in the Northern District of California, was sent forward on a party line 12-7 vote. After three years in private practice, he worked as a staff attorney for the American Civil …
Utah is not the only Western state that is rejecting the left’s global warming regulation policies. This week Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed an executive order stating that Arizona will not endorse any emission-control plan that could raise costs for consumers and businesses. The Arizona Republic reports: Arizona will no longer participate in a groundbreaking attempt to limit greenhouse-gas emissions across the West, a change in policy by Gov. Jan Brewer that will include a review of all the state’s efforts to combat climate change. … State officials said …
Following the introduction of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, the European Parliament has claimed its first scalp thanks to the increased powers bestowed upon it by the Treaty; and it has a distinctly anti-American flavor. Voting in Strasbourg, Parliamentarians voted down an EU-US agreement on tracking terrorist financing which was agreed in November 2009, before the passage of the Lisbon Treaty. Top Administration officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are reportedly furious. The Terrorism Finance Tracking Project, introduced after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, is now in jeopardy. This comes in …
The Obama administration has been excoriated by Democrats, Republicans, and the media for their myopic, irresponsible, potentially dangerous, and amateur handling of Failed Flight 253 Bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Refusing to acknowledge the reality of their failure, the Obama administration has instead chosen to make a series of fantastic claims that have no basis in reality. In a letter dated February 3, 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder writes: “Across many Administrations, both before and after 9/11, the consistent, well-known, lawful, and publicly-stated policy of the FBI has been to provide …
