EPA's 'unprecedented' power grab for private property

Two Republican House members have sent a letter to the EPA questioning new rules being formulated that would give the EPA sweeping authority over streams and wetlands on private property.

The EPA is justifying the rules by saying it's part of its mandate to enforce the Clean Water Act. But Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Chris Stewart (R-Utah), both ranking members of the Science and Technology Committee, doubt the EPA's science in justifying the regulations and want the agency to slow down and get other opinions.

The Hill:

In a letter to the agency on Friday, Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Chris Stewart (R-Utah) alleged that it is trying to initiate a "sweeping reinterpretation" of its jurisdiction in a potential new rule.

The regulation to expand the EPA's oversight would give it "unprecedented control over private property across the nation," they asserted.

In September, the EPA began the process of asserting that it can regulate streams, estuaries and other small bodies of water under authority granted by the Clean Water Act. The agency said that the new rule is necessary to clear up confusion caused by two recent Supreme Court cases.

The EPA said making sure that regulations protecting clean water apply to those smaller waters ends up protecting larger lakes and rivers downstream.

Via: American Thinker

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Hillary Clinton stumps for Terry McAuliffe

FALLS CHURCH, Va. – Hillary Clinton made her first campaign appearance in nearly five years on Saturday to support Terry McAuliffe, her old friend who’s running as the Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia.

But for the media and the majority of attendees packed into The State Theatre here for the event, it was all about her.

She laid out a case for him that rested strongly on women’s equality, gay marriage and rejecting the “scorched earth” politics that have defined Washington over the past several months. Though she didn’t directly call out Republicans, it was clear who she was talking about when she said some politicians have been operating in an “evidence-free zone”, “do not believe in America’s progress” and are trying to “hijack” the future.

(Also on POLITICO: McAuliffe's bid to be taken seriously)

“There are times when none of us can sit on the sidelines,” Clinton told the crowd of more than 700 people. “And right now, here in Virginia, is one of those times. … The whole country is watching this election. Watching to see whether the voters of Virginia lead the way of turning from divisive politics [and] getting back to common sense and common ground.”

Via: Politico

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PALIN: PRIMARY REPUBLICANS WHO WON'T FIGHT OBAMA'S TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA

On Thursday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said lawmakers in Congress who do not oppose the fundamental transformation of America need to be primaried. 

When asked on The Kelly File on Thursday if she would support primary challengers to Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Thad Cochran (R-MS), Palin noted they were part of the "status quo" and said she would be looking very closely at their challengers.

"I've been saying for years that robust competitive primaries make for a better political system," Palin said. "It makes people work harder and express more articulately what their record is and what their intentions for our country is."

Palin said that those like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) "and a whole lot of other Americans see that we are taxed enough already."

Palin noted that is the "acronym for the Tea Party movement, we are taxed enough already and we believe that the constitution, that's the blueprint that leads us towards a more perfect union and will fight very strong for that. "

"So if the GOP is standing strong on the planks and the platform that represent everything that I just mentioned, if we stand united, well, then we won't lose the House, and we could even win back the Senate," she continued.

Palin said the the enemy of "America's economic freedom is this fundamental transformation of America." She emphasized that those who do not intend to "stop this fundamental transformation and stripping away of our economic freedom" and those who "can't stand strong to defend our republic, to defend our constitution" needed to be primaried.

Via: Breitbart

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Union Power Prevents Public-Sector Union Reform

“Public employees have a private interest in taking more and more of the taxpayer-generated revenue for themselves. In other words, public employees have a private interest in diverting public funds from public services to their wages and pensions. In this sense, the increasing numbers of public employees and their increasing wages and benefits threaten to hollow out public services in our country.”

–  Roger Berkowitz, Executive Director, Hannah Arendt Center

The above quote explains quite well the intrinsic conflict of interest that accrues to public-sector unions. This conflict of interest is the primary distinction between public-sector unions and private-sector unions. It is the reason that private-sector unions can muster strong arguments for their continued relevance in society, whereas the very legitimacy of public-sector unions is questionable.

And lest anyone suggest that calls for reform — if not the abolition — of public-sector unions emanates solely from the “extreme right wing,” consider the provenance of the above quote. The highly regarded, intellectually elite Hannah Arendt Center boasts perhaps the most impeccable nonpartisan, anti-ideological credentials of any comparable institution in the world. It is named after famous political philosopher Hannah Arendt, the author of numerous books, the most famous being “The Origins of Totalitarianism.”

The reason Democrats don’t support public-sector union reform is obvious. There is no special interest in America that donates more money to the Democratic Party than public-sector unions. The data in the table below make this clear. If you go to the source of this data, OpenSecrets.org, you will see that the vast majority of the $535 million contributed to Democrats between 2000 and 2010 came from public-sector unions, whose membership in absolute numbers now exceeds that of private-sector unions.

In California, where public-sector union spending on state and local campaigns and lobbying exceeds $500 million per two-year cycle, the same percentages apply.

Via: California Political Review

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Alan Greenspan: What Went Wrong

Alan Greenspan Melissa Golden for The Wall Street Journal, Grooming by Melissa Schwartz Jones

Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, goes to a lot of parties. He and his wife, the TV journalist Andrea Mitchell, "sort of get invited everywhere," he says, sitting in front of the long bay window in his office on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C. Lately, though, cocktails and dinners seem to have guest lists drawn almost exclusively from one political party or the other. "It used to be a ritualistic 50-50 at parties—the doyennes of culture and partying were very strict about bipartisanship," he adds. "That doesn't exist anymore."

In his new book "The Map and the Territory," to be released on Tuesday, Mr. Greenspan, 87, goes on a hunt for what has gone wrong in American politics and in the U.S. economy. He doesn't blame the current administration for today's partisan divide. The culprit? "It's the benefits," he says, pointing to the disagreements between Republicans and Democrats over how to deal with the growth of entitlements.

In the book, he also ponders why the Fed failed to predict the financial crisis, where he himself went wrong and how that discovery has completely changed his worldview.

Mr. Greenspan's biggest revelation came one day about a year ago when he was playing with gross domestic savings numbers. What he found, to his surprise and initial skepticism, was that an increase in entitlements has closely corresponded to a decline in the country's savings. "We had this extraordinary increase in benefits, with each party trying to outbid the other," he says. "That practice has been eroding the country's flow of savings that's so critical in financing our capital investment." The decline in savings has been partly offset by borrowing from abroad, which brings us to our current foreign debt: "$5 trillion and counting," he says.

Via: WSJ

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How Much Extra Spending Did Lawmakers Sneak Into Bill That Ended Government Shutdown?

The stopgap bill to fund the government was only supposed to end the partial shutdown for a few months, no strings attached -- right?

 

Nope.

Despite the bill being tiny by Washington standards -- just 35 pages -- lawmakers still managed to tuck in billions of dollars in additional spending.

Already, one item has earned some degree of notoriety. Appropriators included a line increasing the budget for an Ohio River dam project from $775 million to $2.9 billion.

Costs for the project, approved in 1998, have soared above the original price tag. Supporters of the Olmsted Locks and Dam funding argue the additional money is necessary to reduce bottlenecking at the crossing of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who along with Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., supported the item, told Fox News that all barge traffic would be suspended if the dam wasn't funded.

She said the funding was included in the budget bill because it is the only spending bill moving. The House had earlier approved funding for the dam, though at a lower level.

But there are projects all over the country that could have made a similar case. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., earlier this week called the inclusion "disgraceful," saying many lawmakers didn't realize the bill contained additional spending like this until late in the process.

Government watchdogs argued that if lawmakers wanted to pursue this spending, they should have done so in the long-term appropriations bill or another more appropriate piece of legislation.

The language in the bill itself didn't exactly announce that the dam project was getting extra money, either.

The provision said: "SEC. 123. Section 3(a)(6) of Public Law 100-676 is amended by striking both occurrences of '$775,000,000' and inserting in lieu thereof, '$2,918,000,000'."

Via: Fox News

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Obama Weekly Address - Saturday October 19, 2013

In this week’s address, President Obama said that now that the Federal government is reopened and the threat of default is lifted from the economy, there are three places Washington can take action to serve the American people. First, it’s time for a balanced, responsible approach to the budget that grows the economy and shrinks our long term deficits. Second, we must fix our broken immigration system. And finally, Congress should pass a farm bill to give rural communities the opportunity to grow. The President said it’s time to put aside politics and work on behalf of the American people and the country we love.

Via: White House

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Va AG Cuccinelli delivers weekly GOP address - Saturday October 19, 2013

Via: You Tube

Doctors' Dissatisfaction With EHRs May Be 'Early Warning of Deeper Quality Problems'

(CNSNews.com) - Electronic health records are a source of frustration to many physicians, according to a study on physician satisfaction sponsored by the American Medical Association.

The findings could serve as an "early warning of deeper quality problems developing in the health care system," the AMA said.

The study, conducted for AMA by the RAND Corporation, found that doctors who perceived themselves or their practices as providing high-quality care reported better professional satisfaction. 

Electronic health records (EHRs) were a source of both promise and frustration, the Rand study found.

Although physicians tend to like the concept of EHRs, those surveyed said that current EHR technology interferes with face-to-face discussions with patients; requires physicians to spend too much time performing clerical work; and degrades the accuracy of medical records by encouraging template-generated doctors' notes.

In addition, doctors worry that the technology has been more costly than expected; and different types of electronic health records are unable to "talk" to each other, preventing the transmission of patient medical information when it is needed.


Via: CNS News

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Lessons from the Shutdown

Well, the “government shutdown” is finally over.  If you were like me, you were probably wondering how the government can be considered “shut down” if the NSA is still spying on us, the IRS is still auditing us, and the President hadn’t been kicked out of HIS house (which, if you will remember, also sits on federal land).  All in all, the shutdown was not nearly as destructive as we had heard it would be.

The end of the world did not come.  Meteorites did not scour all life from the Earth’s surface.  Our nation did not fragment into a Mad Max-esque wasteland of biker gangs and apocalyptic warlords.  In many ways, you would never have known that there was even a shutdown going on, provided you didn’t try to visit a national park or expect a paycheck for your military service.

Nevertheless, there are a number of observations we can make about the shutdown, and lessons we can learn from it.

First, the Obama administration is not above shutting down the government and creating a huge amount of furor, if it will help distract attention away from the numerous scandals that have plagued this administration.  Let’s face it – the “shutdown” was pure political theater, and nothing more.  Obama actively worked to bring it to pass, pretending to want to “compromise” and “find solutions” while really refusing to negotiate with House Republicans and actively presenting them with “deals” so unpalatable that no reasonable person could have accepted them.  Then, when the “shutdown” actually happened, amazingly all the signs and barricades and other stage props were instantly rolled out, almost as if they’d been prepared and set aside for weeks in anticipation of the moment.  This “shutdown” was all about grandstanding and showmanship, and giving Obama and the news media the opportunity to furl their brows and worry about those evil Republicans who want less spending and more freedom for the individual.

Via: Canada Free Press

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Armed protest at Alamo ends quietly

SAN ANTONIO — Gun enthusiasts gathered at the Alamo Saturday to rally for the right to openly carry firearms, without state and local restrictions that are now in place.

Demonstrators, many carrying rifles, shotguns or 19th-century pistols, cheered speakers who urged them to hold tight to their firearms, as their protected Constitutional right.

Featured speaker Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a candidate for lieutenant governor whose General Land Office oversees the Alamo, approved the use of the Alamo grounds for the event. Until 2011 the Alamo was overseen by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, which limited demonstrations at one of the state's most recognized landmarks.

Police Chief William McManus said this week that police would oversee the protest, which he expected to be peaceful.

Update 3:05 p.m.

Police have threatened to cite remaining protesters who are armed for a violation of city ordinance that bans weapons in city parks. Police did not enforce the ordinance during the demonstration, but told a small group of armed protesters who declined to leave they would be cited if they stayed.

“How do you even sleep at night,” one protester asked an officer during a five-minute standoff that gained the attention of a small crowd.

The protester labeled the police “tyrants with badges.”

Via: MY SA

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Bozell Column: The New Broadcast Profanity, 'Redskins'?

Conservatives begin by revering tradition; liberals often by trashing it. In fact, it doesn’t bother liberals that something they found acceptable one day is declared -- by them -- repugnant the next. It’s taken only a few days of liberal media agitation for MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell to announce that Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder is “the George Wallace of the NFL.”

Snyder saying he’ll never change his team's name has somehow become historically comparable to George Wallace’s “segregation forever.” It’s suddenly so offensive, apparently, that the leftists who have gone to court to make the airwaves safe for every profanity imaginable, in the name of free speech and tolerance, are now petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to ban “the R-word” from television.

They’re urging the broadcasters to “self-regulate” the team name out of existence. But why would you petition the FCC to urge the media to “self-regulate”? It's non-sensical -- unless  “self-regulation” is merely a first step. The “anti-censorship” Left is just getting started.

Reed Hundt, an FCC chairman under Bill Clinton, led a number of former FCC officials in a letter to FCC acting chairwoman Mignon Clyburn (the daughter of Rep. Jim Clyburn) asking the FCC to use its muscle to force Snyder to surrender. They demand Clyburn apply the agency’s “unquestioned authority to convene an open forum with broadcasters to determine whether they should self-regulate their use of the term ‘XXXskins’ when referring to the Washington D.C football team.”  

The word “Redskins” is so apparently offensive they’ve made the team sound like a porn film. Here is the insanity: They'd be less offended -- and in some circles of the libertine community,  openly supportive – if Snyder renamed the team the “Foreskins.”

These liberals are not reflecting a nation's outrage. They are attempting to create it.

Only 11 percent of Americans (and ten percent of “native Americans”) are offended by “Redskins,” so Hundt & Co. are left with the weak argument of championing American apathy: “63% of those surveyed either would approve of broadcast TV stations not using the current name or do not care if broadcasters stop using that name. Only 37% would disapprove of broadcasters if they no longer used the name. Several media leaders, including Peter King (Sports Illustrated) and Mike Wise (Washington Post), have already recognized this shift and agreed to abandon use of the term ‘XXXskins.’”

Via: Newsbusters

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Dem: GOP eyes 'impeachment circus' to thwart Obama agenda

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) says congressional Republicans are planning an "impeachment circus" to thwart President Obama's legislative goals on the economy and immigration reform.

"It's like a magician who snaps his fingers in one place so you won`t see what he`s doing with his other hand," McDermott said Friday during an appearance on MSNBC. "They are basically trying to keep the president from doing anything on jobs or on immigration or on climate change or any other issue that the American people are facing or pensions or anything."

The former House Ethics Committee chairman said that Republicans would turn to the impeachment strategy after they were unsuccessful in using the debt ceiling and government shutdown as leverage to dismantle ObamaCare.

"They've run the let's run the country over the cliff strategy and that didn't work. And so now back at the second one of the Republican strategies. That is let`s impeach the president," McDermott said.

The Washington Democrat warned that "as long as they can keep this impeachment circus going, nobody will pay any attention" to more substantive policy issues.

Via: The Hill

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Americans Plan To ObamaCare Fine

Selling the American people on ObamaCare was always going to be a big challenge. That's why it was passed all but in the middle of the night. Now, with the number of people who say they will opt out of ObamaCare and pay the fine instead growing - the selling of ObamaCare is only going to become more difficult, not less.

That could easily have major ramifications to the success of the program overall.
Obstacles to its success have only grown in recent days and the fight is far from over. According to Gallup, more people than ever are now saying they will pay the fine, as opposed to enrolling.

Click Here To See The Gallup Poll

Via Breitbart

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[CARTOON] California Prisons

Via California Political Review

ACTUALLY, OBAMA 'MANUFACTURED' THE CRISIS

The White House and its press corps have come to a consensus that the recent shutdown/debt limit debate was a "manufactured crisis"--the implication being that it was manufactured by Republicans. That is untrue--first because President Barack Obama and the Democrats could easily have averted a crisis if they had been willing to compromise, and second because forcing such confrontations has been their strategy since 2011. 

The debt limit was not a priority for the Tea Party until the Democrats made it one. In the 2010 elections, the subject almost never came up. There was certainly no plan to shut down the government if the Republicans did not get their way. Rather, interest in these confrontations came from the Democrats and the Obama administration, who saw the 1995-6 crises as models for how to defeat congressional Republicans.

That is why, as the 112th Congress took office, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner sent new Speaker John Boehner a letter warning of the consequences of failing to raise the debt limit. The new Congress had no plans to block an increase. But like George Stephanopoulos's infamous question about contraception early in the 2012 Republican presidential debates, Geithner's letter intended to make the debt limit an issue.

At the same time that Geithner was highlighting the debt ceiling, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was doing all he could to goad Republicans into shutting down the government. The new Congress had barely taken their seats when he accused them of trying to force a confrontation over the continuing resolution to fund the government--a measure necessary only because the last Congress had not resolved the federal budget.

Via: Breitbart

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Premiums for young healthy people will jump in 45 states under Obamacare

Young people in 45 states will see their health insurance premiums increase under Obamacare because the law relies on the money they pay into the system to offset the cost of caring for older enrollees, according to a new study.

Virginia leads the pack, as individuals aged 27 and under will see their health insurance premiums jump by 252.5 percent -- $416.55 -- according to the Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis.

Virginians under the age of 50 will see their premiums jump by an even greater percentage, rising from $228 to $991.03.

Such increases are not a surprise to the law's architects. “I have always said when looking at this bill, that if I were a young person, I can see elements of this bill that I wouldn't like in the short run,” Henry Aaron, vice chairman of the D.C. health exchange, told the Washington Examinerlast November.

Heritage expects monthly premiums for young people to drop in Colorado, Ohio, New York, Rhode Island, and New Jersey, "because those states had already over-regulated insurance markets that led to sharply higher premiums through adverse selection," according to study author Drew Gonshorowski.

The Heritage Foundation's Chairman Jim Demint cited the premium increases as one of the chief reasons his organization pushed for lawmakers to defund Obamacare most recent continuing resolution to fund government in the absence of a proper budget.

Demint argued that the defund push preserved one policy victory on spending. "If the Republicans had not fought on Obamacare, the compromise would have been over the budget sequester," he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Thursday.

Via Washington Post

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Profs: Fox News viewers are ignorant, conservatives are terrorists

Students in college classrooms around the country are accustomed to hearing from their professors that conservative ideas are the cause of the country’s woes. But the three-week government shutdown incited some especially colorful commentary from liberal teachers.

Amy Rosemond, an ecology professor at the University of Georgia, called House Republicans “terrorists” who were holding the government hostage.

In an interview with Campus Reform, Rosemond expressed regret for using the word “terrorist,” but said her point was still valid.

While Rosemond’s comments came during a rally she organized outside of Georgia Republican Rep. Paul Broun’s office, not all liberal professors kept their views outside the classroom.

Pat Willerton, an associate professor of politics at the University of Arizona, told his class that Republicans had single-handedly caused the shutdown, and were only in control of the House of Representatives because they had used gerrymandering to rig the elections.

Willerton regularly launches tirades against Republicans before class begins, according to The College Fix.

“It’s maddening,” said one of his students, in a statement to The College Fix. “No one in the class challenges his ideas or questions what he has to say, which is what I find the most discouraging.”

The university disagreed with the student, and stood by its professor.

Via: Daily Caller

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Obamacare ‘navigator’ stormed GOP official’s property

A Kansas Obamacare “navigator” stormed the property of the Republican secretary of state earlier this year, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

“It is shocking that the Obama administration has hired as a navigator a person who has been caught trespassing and attempting to intimidate a public official,” Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach told The DCNF.

“This kind of thug activity is bad enough, but giving this person federal tax dollars is sickening,” he added.

Under the Affordable Care Act, 105 organizations have received $67 million in federal funding to help guide Obamacare enrollees through the process of obtaining health insurance under the new system. Veronica Miranda was one of four people, called navigators, filling this role in the Wichita area.

Miranda is also a member of Sunflower Community Action, which organized the invasion of Kobach’s property back in June.

Miranda is shown on the organization’s social media sites taking part in rallies and various other campaigns, mostly in support of immigrant rights. (RELATED: Report: Illegal immigrant hired as Obamacare ‘navigator’)

In 2012, Kobach said that Sunflower Community Action had “taken up ACORN’s mantle here in Kansas.”

Like the now-defunct ACORN, Sunflower Community Action is a non-profit grassroots community organizer. Sunflower Community Action is affiliated with the Chicago-based National People’s Action.

Via: Daily Caller

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