Black Chicago Mayoral Candidates Tell First Black President to Mind His Own Business

I just love a good Democrat food fight over racial politics.Chicago Mayoral hopeful former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.) added her voice to a warning issued by mayoral rival Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.): Don't come to Chicago to campaign for Rahm Emanuel or risk his relationship with African Americans.On Tuesday, Davis got this ball rolling when he issued a statement telling Clinton to stay away

http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2010/12/black-chicago-mayoral-candidates-tell.html

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GREEN DISASTER: New Condensing Boilers Can’t Take the Cold – Thousands Freeze Up in UK

(Daily Mail)
The record freeze in Great Britain is causing tens of thousands of the new green condensing boilers to freeze up and shut down. Yorkshire alone experienced 60,000 call-outs to the plumber already.

The Daily Mail reported:

Five years ago, New Labour heralded them as the modern, clean and green way to heat your house. As a result, today there are already eight million 'condensing boilers' in homes across Britain. In fact, since 2005 it is illegal to fit any other kind.

At the time, John Prescott claimed they would massively reduce your carbon footprint and slash your fuel bills. As a result, every year some 1.2 million old-style 'dirty' boilers are scrapped in Britain and replaced by this wondrous new variety.

However, the recent cold snap has revealed a major problem with them. Tens of thousands of people found themselves shivering as their shiny new boilers cut out without warning.

British Gas is understood to have had 60,000 call-outs in Yorkshire alone. And the cost to call out a plumber? It can be between £200 to £300 on a bank holiday. And don't forget about VAT.

'We've had double the number of call-outs as in the same period last year,' says Charlie Mullins, MD of Pimlico Plumbers in London, the country's largest ­independent plumbing company.

'It is a massive problem. Some customers were ready to move out because their condensing boilers broke. If I had a choice, I'd put in a non-condensing boiler every time.'

It's all the more infuriating because the problem causing these breakdowns is so simple. In cold weather, the pipe that takes waste water from the back of the condensing boiler – which isn't there in a normal boiler – freezes solid, shutting down the system and in many cases causing permanent damage.

But this problem is just one of many that have plagued this boiler design since they became popular in the Nineties. Many plumbers consider them to be little more than a multi-billion-pound con-trick.

http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2010/12/green-disaster-new-condensing-boilers-cant-take-the-cold-thousands-freeze-up-in-uk/

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Video: Illinois now refusing to pay tax refunds

Last year California refused to pay tax refunds owed to residents, instead issuing IUOs. Illinois, fast on its way to insolvency after CA and NY, is one-upping California by simply refusing to pay refunds - no IOUs or anything. When you don't pay your taxes, they will take your home and throw you in jail. When they don't pay, not much happens. One business owner has been stiffed for 18 months running:

Never overpay taxes to the government, neither local, state or federal. That just gives them an interest-free loan. Adjust your withholding such that you are as close to zero as possible at the end of the year and slightly on the owe side.

http://theblogprof.blogspot.com/2010/12/video-illinois-now-refusing-to-pay-tax.html

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IRS ignores approval guidelines, audits taxpayers anyway

Group managers at the Internal Revenue Service surveyed tax returns without approval according to a report from the inspector general. The report outlined a number of instances in which the IRS inexplicably surveyed tax returns, potentially jeopardizing the rights of 196 taxpayers: IRS employees made decisions to survey tax...

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BeltwayConfidential/~3/UJkzk5ofEzs/irs-ignores-approval-guidelines-audits-taxpayers-anyway

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Morning Examiner: Silly liberals, the filibuster is not unconstitutional.

On Senate rules, from someone who actually knows them. Worth a quick read. Tonight, on Dateline: To Catch a Former UN Weapons Inspector. Hawaii's Gov. Abercrombie wants to get Obama's birth certificate out there, so that birthers can start denying its authenticity right away. Rep. Danny Davis warns Bill Clinton: Stay out of...

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BeltwayConfidential/~3/eX9nHNbu6N4/morning-examiner-silly-liberals-filibuster-not-unconstitutional

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Health Care Law Will Be Fought on Three Fronts

CNN poll found that six in ten Americans oppose being forced to purchase health insurance or face a stiff penalty. A majority still oppose the new law by a smaller margin than earlier this year.

The Americano

A poll released Monday by CNN opened the debate on what a strengthened and emboldened Republican Party will try to do to repeal or defund President Barack Obama's Healthcare Reform Act.

Even as one of the most crucial components of the new law, the part that requires all Americans to buy health insurance, almost certainly will be decided by the federal court system, if not the Supreme Court itself, the CNN poll found that six in ten Americans oppose being forced to purchase health insurance or face a stiff penalty.

According to the poll, a majority of those questioned in the survey still oppose the new law, albeit by a smaller margin than earlier this year.

Starting with the new year, however, the bill will move in three distinct roads.

Already the administration has issued new Medicare regulations that go into effect Jan. 1 that allows doctors to have – end-of-life – conversations as part of their annual wellness check up, even though Congress specifically withdrew that provision from the law because of the uproar it caused when first brought up in 2009.

Opponents of the provision said this was the first step towards rationing health care to the aging as budget constraints force the government to cut back on what it can afford to pay for individual healthcare amidst a growing national deficit.

Meanwhile, the Health Care Reform Act itself will continue to be challenged in court, in hopes of determining if requiring all American to purchase health insurance or face a stiff penalty is a violation of the Constitution's commerce clause. One Federal judge in Virginia ruled against the administration, while two other federal judges have found the in favor of the government.

The biggest case, however, in Pensacola, Florida, had the attorney generals of 20 states challenge the law on similar grounds. The judge in Pensacola, still has not ruled.

Still, this is but the start of the judicial process. If the government loses it will appeal, and if it wins, the opponents of the law will appeal. Many legal observers believe the issue in the end will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

And starting on January 5, when the 112th Congress is sworn in, the Republican majority in the House has vowed to try to repeal the law. If its efforts to repeal the legislation fail to pass the Senate, where Democrats still have a majority, or if it clears the Senate and the president vetoes the bill, House Republicans have vowed to cut off the funds to prevent the law from going into effect or at least diminishing its impact.

It is a war where certain battles will be easy, while others will be an all-out fight.

It is likely that some parts of the law will win bipartisan support and be amended, like the requirement for all small businesses to file a 1090 form with the Internal Revenue Service for each person that earns more than $600 a year. Even the president has said that requirement would put an enormous and unwarranted burden on small businesses, and thus probably will be eliminated.

But, for the most part, the fight in Congress will test the strength of both sides.

And polling, like the one released Monday by CNN will provide the ammunition for both conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats in an ideological battle on the role government should have in making health care decisions for all Americans.

For the non-ideological center, it may be a question of what provisions of the law the public likes, and which ones it doesn't.

The center, however, will soon realize that their choices are limited. Either they agree to a law that requires all Americans to buy health insurance, or the government will not be able to force insurance companies to sell affordable policies to people with pre-existing conditions, or dropping coverage for those who are seriously ill. They cannot have one without the other.

On all three fronts the battle will begin in January. That we know. When will it end? That still is uncertain.

TheAmericano/agencies

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http://usactionnews.com/2010/12/health-care-law-will-be-fought-on-three-fronts/

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Morning Bell: Obama Will Make You Pay More at the Pump

"What do you say to people who are losing patience with gas prices at $3 a gallon? And how much of a political price do you think you're paying for that, right now?" This was a question asked of the president at a press conference in August…of 2006. The president was George W. Bush. In fact, it was a question that was asked in one way or another regularly during the entire eight years of the Bush presidency, regardless of where energy prices stood at that moment.

In May 2004, The New York Times reported that congressional Democrats "were stepping up pressure on the Bush Administration to ease gasoline prices," when prices were still under $2/gallon. In April 2005, at another press conference, a journalist stated: "Mr. President a majority of Americans disapprove of your handling of social security, gas prices…" In 2006, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) exclaimed: "Since George Bush and Dick Cheney took over as president and vice president, gas prices have doubled…They are too cozy with the oil industry" after she drove one less-than-energy-efficient block to a press conference at a local Exxon station.

In 2008, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) "blasted" the president for rising gas prices on his (and her) watch. In July 2008, ABC News asked the president what was his "short term advice for Americans about gas prices?" repeating a nearly identical question asked at a February 2008 press conference. In April 2008, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said gas prices were "the number one issue facing America today."

You get the point. Yet, at the end of President Bush's presidency, gas prices were 9% lower than when he took office (adjusted for inflation). So where have these outspoken critics been since Bush left office?

Since President Barack Obama was inaugurated, gas prices have been on the steady rise, as have home energy prices. During his tenure, he presided over arguably the worst federal response to an oil spill in our nation's history, and has pressed legislation on Capitol Hill that would, in his own words, cause electricity prices to "skyrocket." Yet there has been almost nothing said by the media as consumers face $3/gallon gasoline at the pump in December for the first time in U.S. history and see their home heating bills soar in the winter months.

Now this week, analysts including former president of Shell Oil, John Hofmeister, say Americans could be paying $5/gallon of gasoline by 2012. Investment banks are predicting a return to $100/barrel oil, and OPEC is refusing to raise production. All of this news would be less frightening if the White House were focusing on potential ways to lower energy prices. Instead, President Obama is admittedly fixated with raising them.

Just last week (as frigid temperatures and blizzards blasted Europe and the U.S.), the EPA announced that it will begin regulating power plants and oil refineries in an attempt to curb global warming. The new regulations will seek to cut greenhouse gas emissions by making it more expensive to turn fossil fuels into energy. And Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the Bureau of Land Management would issue new rules making it harder to develop natural resources on government-owned land. These measures will not only drive up the cost of electricity and gasoline but will also make us more dependent on foreign sources of energy.

But none of these actions compare to the brazen way President Obama has unilaterally declared the U.S. oil industry dead. During the BP oil spill, Obama needlessly declared a moratorium on deepwater and shallow water drilling, since no White House advisers apparently could draw a distinction between the two. After two federal courts said the moratorium was illegal, the Obama administration instead moved to a de facto moratorium, by issuing no permits, while speeding up the permitting process for wind farms.

In October, President Obama "lifted" the moratorium, but since then has issued almost no new permits. In late November, his administration effectively issued a seven-year ban on drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and across the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. We're not even talking about ANWR anymore; these are publicly and politically accepted areas of drilling. These actions, of course, increase our reliance on foreign oil, which as OPEC points out, will only become more expensive in the near future.

Finally, this all spells disaster for the jobs market. Higher energy prices translate into higher costs for small businesses, which cause less hiring. Energy producers are moving platforms out of U.S. waters rather than have multi-million dollar assets sit idle as the president destroys an industry. And local businesses and retailers who service this industry along the coast are losing money and employees, if not entirely shutting down.

President Obama knows energy prices are skyrocketing. The liberal mantra has long been to disincentive Americans from purchasing cheap fossil fuels, by driving costs up. Because the only way consumers will choose the vastly-more-expensive wind and solar alternatives is if all prices are high, rather than wait for the market to bring alternative prices down. This is a reckless and devastating way to make a point about global warming at the expense of American families.

Nearly no questions have been asked of President Obama by the media regarding: 1) his bungled response to the oil spill; 2) his unilateral policies that are creating higher home energy prices; 3) rising gas and oil prices; or 4) the de facto moratorium on domestic oil exploration. It's time to start asking the White House some tough questions. A two year moratorium on accountability is long enough.

Quick Hits:

• Home prices across 20 major metropolitan areas fell 1.3% in October from September, the third straight month-over-month drop.
• Japan has abandoned their global warming regulation scheme due to expected job losses.
• On January 2nd, the Obama administration will officially start regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
• The Chamber of Commerce is allying with Big Labor to oppose a House Republican rule change designed to cut federal government spending.
• According to Rasmussen Reports, only 21% of voters support the FCC's push to begin regulating the internet.

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/12/29/morning-bell-obama-wants-you-to-pay-more-at-the-pump/

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Even Afghan Leader Karzai Longs For “Golden Age” of US Relations Like During Bush Years

It's not just the American people who are sick of the Obama-Pelosi regime.
Afghan leader Harmid Karzai wrote in 2009 that he longed for the "golden age" of US-Afghan relations like during the Bush years.

(Politics Daily)

The Huffington Post reported:

Longing for the early years of the Bush administration, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been consumed by anti-U.S. conspiracy theories, convinced American officials are now working against him, according to a diplomatic cable from the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.

The cable was sent in July 2009, which would become the deadliest month for foreign troops since the 2001 invasion. The surge in casualties resulted from an offensive to oust the Taliban in opium-rich Helmand Province, as well as the increasing power of roadside bombs. On July 7, when Amb. Karl Eikenberry met with Karzai, the Afghan president was looking backward rather than forward, wistfully longing for the early days of the Bush administration, which he referred to as a "golden age."

"Karzai then returned to a familiar theme, his wish for Afghan-U.S. relations to recover the spirit of 2002-04 — a period Karzai sees as a 'golden age' in the relationship," wrote Eikenberry in a July 16 cable obtained by WikiLeaks and published by The New York Times. "He would like for U.S. forces to again be able to drive their humvees through villages, greeted warmly by villagers who would shout, 'Good morning, Sergeant Thompson.' Karzai claimed, as he has many times, that his concern over the erosion of public trust in the U.S. was a driving factor in his increasingly strident criticism regarding civilian casualties, night raids and detentions."

Eikenberry took issue with Karzai's characterization of that period being a "golden age" — and reminded him that he should be looking forward to the future rather than back to the past. Even in 2002-2004, Eikenberry told Karzai, it was clear that "trouble was brewing as the focus on security and reconstruction drifted and declined due to lack of resources and a comprehensive strategy."

Barack Obama has been accused of having no strategy, no benchmarks and no end point when it comes to Afghanistan.

http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2010/12/even-afghan-leader-karzai-longs-for-golden-age-of-us-relations-like-during-bush-years/

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Good news: Detroit pension fund spends $30 million to fix $1-million building

Detroit is - as I have mentioned many times on this blog - a pension and healthcare management entity that performs shoddy services on the side. The taxpayers now work for the public sector unions, not the other way around. No taxpayer should be on the hook for a public employee that no longer works for them. Yet pensions do just that. It's high time to bury the pension fossil and do what the private sector does - give out defined contributions. Of course, that would eliminate the graft and the corruptocrats that run the D won't have any of it. I can't even begin to count the stories of corruption coming out of Detroit in regards to just the pension follies. This latest one from the Detroit Free Press is just another straw of hay in a big stack: Detroit pension fund spends $30 million to fix $1-million building. It's a follow-up piece to another that I had recently: Alabama Town's Failed Pension Is a Warning. Detroit Isn't Listening. From the current piece:

Detroit's police and fire retirement fund has spent at least $30 million to renovate an office building overlooking Grand Circus Park that's now worth just more than $1 million, pension and city assessor's office records show.

A pension adviser managing the building at 28 W. Adams says it plans to sink another $1.4 million into the property next year.

Steve Morris, assistant professor of real estate finance at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, says the deal doesn't add up.

"I can't fathom how they could have spent that amount of money," Morris said. For what the pension fund paid, per square foot, to renovate the 1921 building, it could have built a "luxury marble high-rise with the latest technology."

The pension fund bought the building as an investment property, but operates its own offices out of City Hall. The investment is among a slew of deals that have led Detroit's two public pensions to report losses of more than $480 million since 2008.

Emery Matthews, chief investment officer for MayfieldGentry Realty Advisors, which the police and fire fund hired to manage the property in 2003, defended the renovations, saying it is "basically a brand-new building with historic character."

Despite a brutally competitive environment and tough economy, Matthews said he is optimistic the building has the potential to be a home run and make money for retirees. He declined to give a timetable.

Of course he did - a timetable doesn't exist to recoup 3000% of the stated value. Other recent freep pieces on the scandal:

• Risky bets cost Detroit pension funds $480 million since 2008
• Where the Detroit pension funds went wrong
• Earlier findings on Detroit's two public pensions
• Investigating Detroit's public pension boards

It is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. These people would never be so careless with their own money. But put them in charge of someone else's and they turn into this:

Glenn Reynolds stated yesterday that "Politicians will, whenever allowed, play and gamble with and just plain piss away other people's money because . . . that's what they do." Bureaucrats and even private-sector minions of politicians are infected with the exact same disease.

http://theblogprof.blogspot.com/2010/12/good-news-detroit-pension-fund-spends.html

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London is home to organizational arm of Hamas in Europe

from Atlas Shrugs by Pamela Geller


London is home to organizational arm of Hamas in Europe: "

London is home to organizational arm of Hamas in Europe Jihadwatch hat tip Roy B

Hamas is a jihad terrorist group, but to disallow it a presence in London would be "Islamophobic," now, wouldn't it? "London is home to Hamas hub, says Israel," from AFP

JERUSALEM -- Israel's defence ministry has accused a London-based Palestinian centre of "terror-affiliated activities" and being the organisational arm of the militant Islamic Hamas movement in Europe.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and advocates violent opposition to the Jewish state, is designated by the European Union as a terrorist organisation.

An Israeli defence ministry statement issued on Tuesday said that the Palestinian Return Centre in Ealing, north London, organises conferences in Europe at which it plays taped speeches by Hamas leaders who are banned from entering the EU.

"The centre is involved in initiating and organising radical and violent activity against Israel in Europe, while delegitimising Israel's status as a nation among the European community," the statement said.

"Among other terror-affiliated activities, the centre organises many conferences in various European countries for Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood activists from all around the world," it added.

On its website, the centre describes itself as "an independent consultancy focusing on the historical, political and legal aspects of the Palestinian Refugees."

Israel however, says it is is "part of the broader Hamas activism and support network within Europe, which is especially strong in England."...

Brit reader Roy B. advises:

The Hamas office is at: http://www.prc.org.uk/newsite/en/contact-us.html

Crown House
N Circular Rd, London NW10 7PN, United Kingdom
020 8453 0919

Home Page here.

There they are right on our doorstep.

What a situation we are all in. It is happening very, very fast."

The following is from the Hamas Charter:

Hamas Principles

The principles of the Hamas are stated in their Covenant or Charter, given in full below. Following are highlights.

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).

"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. "

"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."

"After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying."

The charter is a rather classical Islamist document, applied to the local issues. It declares that Jihad (in the sense of armed battle) is the only solution. It cites the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a ludicrous anti-Semitic forgery.

The "Zionists" and the freemasons and others are blamed for what Hamas and radical Islamists see as the major calamities of the world, especially the French Revolution.

One of the most ominous aspects of the Charter however, is this Hadith:

Moreover, if the links have been distant from each other and if obstacles, placed by those who are the lackeys of Zionism in the way of the fighters obstructed the continuation of the struggle, the Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realisation of Allah's promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Muslim).

The implication is clear: Allah promised that the Jews will be murdered, and the Hamas "aspires to the realisation of Allah's promise, no matter how long that should take."

That is Hamas.

UPDATE: From Londoner:

The Hamas base is the Hamas mosque, in Finsbury Park, in addition to the previous main brotherhood centre round the corner -- 'muslim welfare house'.

PRC is one of a very long list of Hamas promoters, advocates and fund-raisers, all of which are directly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood -- of which Hamas is the Pali branch. This is confirmed in the Hamas charter. Read how the mosque was knowingly gifted to hamas by the British authorities.


Nick Fielding and Abul Taher, Hamas link to London mosque, Sunday Times, 13 February 2005.

A MUSLIM leader appointed to help to run the recently reopened Finsbury Park mosque in north London is a former military commander of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organisation. Mohammed Kassem Sawalha is one of five trustees appointed to give the mosque a fresh start.

The mosque was closed last year after becoming a centre of Islamic militancy under Abu Hamza al-Masri, the radical cleric facing charges in Britain and America.

Sawalha's link with Hamas emerged after he was named as a co-conspirator in an American court case involving racketeering and conspiracy. Last week the cleric, who arrived in Britain 15 years ago and has been given indefinite leave to remain, said that he still supported Hamas, notorious for its suicide attacks in Israel.

However, he said he was committed to peace in Britain and would help to run the mosque in an open and inclusive way. "I am supported by the Muslim community and have been working ever since I arrived for that community," he said.

Asked whether he supported the military activities of Hamas, he replied: "I have no comment on the question of military activity. I am working here to give a new direction to this mosque and break with the past."

According to US court documents, Sawalha was a leading militant in the early 1990s "in charge of Hamas terrorist operations within the West Bank". The documents, from the federal court in Chicago, claim he met two of the three "conspirators" accused of laundering millions of dollars to finance Hamas activities, including the purchase of weapons.

The purpose of the first meeting with the men was alleged to have been to discuss revitalising Hamas's operations. He met one of the men a second time in London in January 1993. Sawalha allegedly directed him "to provide money to various Hamas members and provided him with contact information".

Although Sawalha is named as a co-conspirator, he has not been charged. Asked last week if he faced arrest in the United States, Sawalha said: "I have not tried to travel there."

Sawalha was president of the Muslim Association of Britain which is believed to have links to the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the oldest radical Islamic groups.

Abu Hamza is in prison facing trial in Britain on 16 charges, including incitement to murder, intending to stir up racial hatred and being in possession of a document "likely to be useful" to someone plotting terrorism. He is also awaiting extradition hearings on a warrant issued by the US Department of Justice.

Following his arrest a group of his supporters tried to take over the mosque, but after extensive discussion between the surviving trustees of the charity that runs the mosque — including Mohammed Sarwar, the Labour MP, the police and the Charity Commission, which had closed it — five new trustees were appointed.

Last night Sarwar, MP for Glasgow Govan, said he would remain a trustee despite being told of Sawalha's links to Hamas. He was happy with the way the mosque was being run by the new trustees: "The Muslim community is delighted that the Abu Hamza regime is gone and the mosque is open."

Barry Norman, the Metropolitan police chief superintendent who has been working closely with the trustees, said: "I am aware of the background, but if I took the view that I'm not working with this or that person I'd end up spending my whole life in my office."

Additional reporting: Jessica Berry

"