Tired of the Obama administration’s “slow-walking” documents related to the Solyndra scandal, Republicans on a House panel voted today to subpoena all documents related to Solyndra. The motion to hold the Obama administration accountable passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee on a 14-9, party-line vote.

The measure authorizes committee chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-MI, to issue a subpoena against leading figures in the administration, whom Republicans say have withheld pivotal documents that would allow them to understand how the government loaned and lost half-a-billion dollars to a Green energy firm known to be a credit risk.

Congressman Upton greeted the vote by saying the subpoena power “is a tool we use sparingly and only as a last resort. Today, it is our last resort.” Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-FL, who is also on the committee, added frankly, “I am not confident that we will have a good faith response from the White House without issuing a subpoena.” The White House, Stearns said, has been “slow-walking” its response.

Upton was more graphic, stating that prying these documents from the administration’s grip has been like “extracting a tooth without anesthesia.”

Although officials boast they have released 80,000 pages of material, Republicans reveal that much of the material has been irrelevant. The Obama administration has proven its bad faith by releasing reams of Solyndra documents to the press before handing them over to Congress — to allow friendly hands to frame the narrative before researchers have finished combing through the document dump.

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Read More at Floyd Reports By Ben Johnson, The White House Watch

An organization that monitors the U.S. government’s influence on education, and specifically on parents who choose to school their own children, is warning of a pending move in Washington that would result in “de facto national education standards.”

The measure could not only require parents who homeschool their children to teach certain government agenda issues but also effectively remove much of the decision-making authority of local school boards and districts, warns the Home School Legal Defense Association.

The organization focuses on issues affecting homeschool students and their parents in the United States and overseas but also keeps an eye on the larger picture of education policy

The concern is about Democrat-driven plans in the U.S. Senate to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, a massive federal program last reauthorized in 2001 as the No Child Left Behind Act.

“HSLDA’s federal relations staff have read this 868-page bill, and we believe that while it does not directly impact homeschool freedom, the bill will 1) increase the federal role in education at the expense of state, local and parental control, and 2) will greatly increase the pressure on states to align their curriculum and standards, resulting in de facto national education standards,” said the report compiled by Melanie P. Palazzo, the organization’s congressional action program director, and William A. Estrada of the organization’s federal relations office.

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 Read More at WND By Bob Unruh, WorldNetDaily

Nearly 15% of the U.S. population relied on food stamps in August, as the number of recipients hit 45.8 million.

Food stamp rolls have risen 8.1% in the past year, the Department of Agriculture reported, though the pace of growth has slowed from the depths of the recession.

The number of recipients in the food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), may continue to rise in coming months as families continue to struggle with high unemployment and September’s data will likely include disaster assistance tied to the destruction and flooding caused by Hurricane Irene.

Mississippi reported the largest share of its population relying on food stamps, more than 21%. One in five residents in New Mexico, Tennessee, Oregon and Louisiana also were food stamp recipients.

Food stamp rolls exploded during the downturn, which began in late 2007. Even after the recession came to its official end in June 2009, families continued to tap into food assistance as unemployment remained high and those lucky enough to find jobs were often met with lower wages.

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 Read More at The Wall Street Journal By Phil Izzo, The Wall Street Journal

NEW YORK – The media buzz claiming Israel is preparing an attack on Iran’s suspected nuclear installations has reached a fevered pitch. My information, however, indicates the Jewish state is prepping for a different war, an international effort that could potentially escalate into a direct confrontation with Iran.

If Israel were indeed on the brink of launching air raids on the mullahs, it would not first hold such a public discussion on the matter or leak to the news media the debate about the subject from within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet.

The visible Israeli military preparations, including this week’s missile tests, most likely are related to the strong possibility of a U.S.-NATO-led campaign against Israel’s Syrian neighbor to the north. The regime of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad – a key partner to Iran – has been accused of major human rights violations, including “crimes against humanity,” in clamping down on a violent insurgency targeting Assad’s rule. That uprising is in large part led by Muslim Brotherhood-oriented militants, some reportedly armed by Turkey.

The same “Responsibility to Protect” global doctrine used to justify the U.S.-NATO airstrikes in Libya could be applied to Assad. Responsibility to Protect, or Responsibility to Act, as cited by President Obama, is a set of principles, now backed by the United Nations, based on the idea that sovereignty is not a privilege but a responsibility that can be revoked if a country is accused of “war crimes,” “genocide,” “crimes against humanity” or “ethnic cleansing.”

Mass demonstrations were held last week in Syrian insurgent strongholds calling for the international coalition in Libya to deploy in Syria. Damascus officials claimed to me that NATO troops are currently training in Turkey for a Turkish-led NATO invasion of Syria. Separately, informed Middle East security officials said Iran has been inspecting Syrian forces and has been advising Syria about possible Syrian military responses should NATO attack Assad’s regime.

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 Read More at WND By Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily

Why We Should Occupy the EPA

We are not in good shape. Economic growth has stagnated. Unemployment is at an unacceptable rate. Debt is wreaking havoc on economic stability.

Although every possible scapegoat has been indicted for our current economic catastrophe — China, “the rich,” corporations in general, the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, the list could go on — there are clear, tangible reasons to focus on one regulatory body alone: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

What the president and his administration do not seem to understand is that the last thing we need is more hands-on; we need some hands-off.

Just the fact that a “jobs bill” was up for consideration indicates that continuing or increasing regulations from the EPA on some of the most vital, productive sectors of our economy will plunge us disastrously further into recession and unemployment. And more importantly, threatening reliable and affordable electricity will further inhibit long-term economic development.

Despite continuous improvement in air quality, in 2010 the EPA embarked on the greatest expansion of regulatory authority the country has ever seen, cutting what will add up to millions of jobs over the next decade.

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 Read More at epaabuse. com By Todd Wynn, epaabuse.com