The Stimulus Chart Obama Doesn’t Want You to See

/5 Comments/in /by

Believe it or not, the stimulus turned 3 years old last week. In exchange for $1.2 trillion (including interest), liberals said their plan would reduce unemployment to about 6% today. It hasn’t fallen below 8% at any point in the last 36 months. And as more and more people are becoming aware, the official unemployment rate actually excludes unemployed people who have not looked for work in the last month.

The above chart presents another view of the economy, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The “labor force participation rate” represents the share of working-age Americans who are currently in the workforce – employed full-time, part-time, or unemployed but actively looking for work.

At just 63.7%, labor force participation has not been this low in 29 years! To put it another way, more than one-third of working-age Americans do not have a job and are not even looking. (Watch Megyn Kelly and Lou Dobbs discuss our chart here.)

We’re told the recession officially ended in 2009. But for far too many people, the recession never really ended at all. That’s why conservatives in the Republican Study Committee are getting behind H.R. 3400, the Jobs Through Growth Act. It ramps up energy production. It fights back against regulation-gone-wild. And it allows you to throw out the old tax code for one that’s simpler, flatter, and fairer.

The past three years have made clear what doesn’t work. Let’s go with what does.

Follow Joe Miller at Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Sex change treatments for children & teens on the rise in US

/1 Comment/in /by

A GROWING number of teens and even younger children who think they were born the wrong sex are getting support from parents and from doctors who give them sex-changing treatments.

It’s an issue that raises ethical questions, and some experts urge caution in treating children with puberty-blocking drugs and hormones.

An eight-year-old in Los Angeles is a typical patient. Born a girl, the child announced at 18 months, “I a boy” and has stuck with that belief. The family was shocked but now refers to the child as a boy and is watching for the first signs of puberty to begin treatment, his mother told The Associated Press.

Pediatricians need to know these kids exist and deserve treatment, said Dr Norman Spack, author of one of three reports published this week and director of one of the US’s first gender identity medical clinics, at Children’s Hospital Boston.

“If you open the doors, these are the kids who come. They’re out there. They’re in your practices,” Dr Spack said.

Read more at News.com HERE.

Report: Chinese hackers caused billion-dollar Nortel collapse

/0 Comments/in /by

A former systems security adviser to Nortel Networks says he has no doubt that extensive cyberattacks on the technology company contributed to its downfall.

In an interview with the CBC’s As It Happens, Brian Shields, the former senior systems security adviser at Nortel, said spying by hackers allegedly based in China “absolutely” was a “considerable factor.”

“When they see what your business plans are, that’s a huge advantage. It’s unfair business practices that really bring down a company of this size,” Shields said.

Nortel is currently selling off assets in the wake of a 2009 bankruptcy filing.

Shields said both the Canadian and Chinese governments should investigate.

Read more at CBC News HERE.

Obama’s War on Religious Liberty

/11 Comments/in /by

Welcome to the real ObamaCare, whereby a handful of leftists in Washington, D.C., impose the views of their big-money donors on more than 300 million Americans. If the Obama mandate for contraception remains intact, then liberals will next demand that Americans pay for other objectionable items that are not really medical care.

We can expect future mandates, under the guise of “health care,” to include sex-change operations, late-term abortions, embryonic stem-cell use and a variety of other procedures that many Americans do not support and certainly do not want to be compelled to foot the bill for. Obama’s directive for abortifacient drugs opens a slippery slope that would erode the moral authority of religious institutions in America.

Obama and the liberals have overplayed their hand. By baring their teeth, these lackeys for the Left have awakened Democratic voters to the real contempt that liberals hold for religious values.

All 181 U.S. Catholic bishops oppose Obama’s mandate, and Rasmussen polling estimates that 65 percent of Catholic Americans also oppose it. There are about 75 million American Catholics, most of whom have traditionally been Democratic voters but wouldn’t hesitate to cross party lines to defend their church leaders.

It will be fascinating to see how many Democratic politicians up for re-election this November side with Obama and against religious organizations. Liberals are just fine with throwing some Democratic incumbents overboard to advance far-left goals, just as the enactment of ObamaCare in 2010 cost many Democrats their congressional seats.

Read more at Townhall.com HERE.

“Reckless lunacy”: In latest anti-American move, Obama considers cutting nuke stockpile to 300

/5 Comments/in /by

Congressional Republicans on Wednesday vowed to block the Obama administration from sharply cutting the U.S. nuclear force, calling potential reductions of as much as 80 percent in the number of deployed weapons “reckless lunacy.”

Pointing to the growing number of trouble spots, from Iran to Syria to Egypt, members of the House Armed Services Committee said any significant cuts would undermine the U.S. ability to deter aggression. The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that the administration is weighing several options for new reductions from the current treaty limit of 1,550 deployed strategic warheads.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the committee that no decision has been made and maintaining the current level is one of the options. But that did little to assuage GOP lawmakers.

“I just want to go on record as saying that there are many of us that are going to do everything we possibly can to make sure that this preposterous notion does not gain any real traction,” said Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz.

The most modest option under discussion would return the United States to a level not seen in more than half a century, when the Soviet Union and the U.S. pushed ahead in a Cold War nuclear arms race. The administration is weighing at least three options for lower total numbers, cutting to around 1,000 to 1,100, 700 to 800, or 300 to 400.

Read more HERE at Yahoo.com.

Follow Joe Miller at Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Ron Paul campaign alleges vote shenanigans in Maine

/3 Comments/in /by

Tonight the campaign of 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul sent an email to supporters regarding today’s caucus results from the state of Maine. See below for a portion of comments from Ron Paul 2012 Campaign Manager John Tate.

“Ron Paul will win the most delegates out of Maine tonight.

“In fact, he will probably even win the ‘beauty contest’ straw poll the media has already called for Mitt Romney – even before all the votes have been tallied.

“In Washington County – where Ron Paul was incredibly strong – the caucus was delayed until next week just so the votes wouldn’t be reported by the national media today.

“Of course, their excuse for the delay was ‘snow.’

“That’s right. A prediction of 3-4 inches – that turned into nothing more than a dusting – was enough for a local GOP official to postpone the caucuses just so the results wouldn’t be reported tonight.

“This is MAINE we’re talking about. The GIRL SCOUTS had an event today in Washington County that wasn’t cancelled!

“And just the votes of Washington County would have been enough to put us over the top.

“This is an outrage. But our campaign is in this race to win, and will stay in it to the very end.”

Follow Joe Miller at Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Read more at RonPaul2012.com HERE.

Romney & Birth Control: Flip Flopping Again?

/4 Comments/in /by

Mitt Romney has said the Obama administration is intruding on religious freedom by moving to require religious–affiliated employers to cover contraception services in their health insurance plans.

When confronted with a similar law as governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Romney didn’t raise objections on religious or moral grounds, say people who worked in his administration or in health care interest groups there.

Rather, he viewed the contraception requirement more in economic terms, as only one of many costly “mandates” that some believed were driving up the price of insurance and suppressing competition, according to these people.

Now a Republican presidential candidate, …

Read more at Wall Street Journal Online HERE.

Extremist Ninth Circuit Strikes Down Californians’ Proposition 8

/2 Comments/in /by

A federal appeals court ruled against California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage Tuesday, arguing the ban unconstitutionally singles out gays and lesbians for discrimination.

In a split decision, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the state’s Proposition 8 “works a meaningful harm to gays and lesbians” by denying their right to civil marriage in violation of the 14th Amendment.

“Very soon, Proposition 8 will be gone forever,” said Kristin Perry, one of two women who challenged the ban in federal courts along with a male same-sex couple. “Today marks the culmination of what has been a transformational year.”

Supporters of Proposition 8, which passed with 52% of the vote in 2008, said they were willing to take the issue all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And a stay halting same-sex marriages remains in place as the appeals continue.

The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal foundation that backed Proposition 8, said it was not surprised that “this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way.” But it said it was confident the Supreme Court would uphold “the expressed will of the American people.”

Follow Joe Miller at Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Read more at CNN.com HERE.