The Contemporary Conservative

Dennis Miller on Harry Reid

2009-11-24T19:46:00.002-05:00

Cowards cut and run, Marines never do

2009-11-24T19:42:00.002-05:00

Big Government » Blog Archive » ACORN Document Dump: Why Did ACORN Spend $9,000 at Fertility Clinic?

2009-11-24T19:33:00.000-05:00

From Big Governement:

Big Government’s first post about the San Diego Document Dump showed a bank authorization to automatically pay monthly membership dues. That particular individual committed to paying ACORN $10 a month. Thousands of California residents have made similar commitments, adding up to substantial monthly revenue for ACORN. How an organization chooses to spend its members money says alot about that organization"

Read Here: Big Government » Blog Archive » ACORN Document Dump: Why Did ACORN Spend $9,000 at Fertility Clinic?: "

Independent ethics board slams criticism from House ethics committee | Washington Examiner

2009-11-24T19:29:00.000-05:00

From the Washington Examiner:

The simmering animosity between the House ethics committee and the newly created Office of Congressional Ethics is on full display in a seven page letter issued publicly Tuesday by the latter panel, which seems a bit on the defensive about its role in policing House lawmakers...The trouble started on October 29, when the House ethics committee, which is made up of 10 House lawmakers appointed by the Speaker and Minority Leader, leveled "six criticisms" at the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), which is made up of appointed lay people and tasked as an independent overseer of the ethics process in the House. The OCE was formed in response to public anger over corruption in Congress and a lack of action by the House ethics panel, which almost never disciplines members...The House ethics committee accused the OCE of disclosing witness names, ignoring evidence, overstepping its authority and withholding exculpatory evidence from a lawmaker under investigation, among other things...The OCE, chaired by former congressmen David Skaggs (D) and Porter Goss (R), fired back on Tuesday, telling the House ethics panel it has properly followed the rules and to essentially butt out..."In conclusion, the Board believes the interests of the House and the public will be better served if both the [House ethics committee] and the OCE each focus on their own internal rules," the OCE letter states.

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Independent ethics board slams criticism from House ethics committee | Washington Examiner

Commentary: The New Rebellion - "I'm a rebel, I'm a Conservative."

2009-11-24T16:02:00.000-05:00

The new rebellion movement in the U.S. seems to be the re-emergence, for lack of a better work, of the defiant conservative voice into our national debate. Since the inception of this country, it has been drummed into American pop culture that the anti-establishment little man is the person we all should strive to become. The little man versus the big man is at the very core of our country and the rebel mentality part of the fiber of each and every American. With the election of Barrack Obama and the aging liberals controlling Congress this paradigm is beginning to change toward something unexpected, a conservative re-birth. With a recent Gallup poll showing self-identified conservatives hovering around 40%, it’s not so much that the belief that has changed (I always will assert that for more citizens in the U.S. are of a conservative mind than identify as such) but that the outward self-identifying has changed in reaction to the current state of Federal politics in our country. This change, as evident in the Tea party movement, is due to the rebellion factor as much as it is to the often used reasons of frustration, conviction and anger. The vocal revolt of the current administration through increased viewership of conservative leaning T.V., readership of conservative leaning articles and the listenership in conservative leaning radio is as much a reclaiming of one’s convictions as it is a response to fight against the establishment in charge. This is the problem facing a group, that has always defined themselves as “anti” establishment but have now have become the establishment in charge….how does a perceived underdog get support when they are in charge. I believe this vocal “underdog” opposition to the Obama administration by the Tea party movement and conservatives in general is the main problem the this administration and Congress will face going forward since they have rarely, if ever, have had to deal with being the “establishment.”

This rebellious attitude is almost ingrained into the DNA of every Americans since we were founded on rebellion and look to those that go against the grain as heroes and icons. Tapping into the “maverick” lexicon (whether real or implied) has made more than one persons career (Rocky, Rambo, JLK, Reagan, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood to name a few.) We are seeing it now on the right as “conservatism” seems to be becoming a four letter word in the mainstream media and as the Obama administration takes on all that oppose them in ideology and policy. From Fox News to Rush Limbaugh to Glen Beck to the Tea parties; and locally with Doc Thompson, the Lee brothers and The Contemporary Conservative, all our audiences have grown exponentially due to the fact that we are now speaking out against the “establishment”…the funny thing is the “establishment” was once the “anti-establishment” and is failing in the leadership role they have so desperately rallied against for so many years. It is easy to criticize someone else when you have nothing to loose (Monday quarterback, backseat driver, movie critic.) We all do it to a degree but once the power shifts from the person being criticized to the critic, that critic better know what needs to be done, be effective in executive and not misjudge the support that they have less they be judge by their own past words.

But I digress, the point is that as long as there is a government that seems hell bent on dictating what the citizens should do, penalizing those that disagree and defining dissension as a matter of right and wrong then we, as American citizens, will revolt because that is who we are as Americans. Right now, there is a growing revolt against the uber liberal ideas of Congress and the Obama administration, last election it was a revolt against President Bush…the one thing that America can never loose is this rebellious spirit that is what moves us forward as a country….more to come on this in the future.

-Jody L. Wilcox

USDA: States struggling to administer food stamps

2009-11-24T14:13:00.000-05:00

From the AP:

With more Americans going hungry than ever before, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is concerned that dozens of states aren't adequately administering food stamp programs designed to provide food to low-income Americans....Several states have taken steps that have been "problematic and resulted in a more complex and difficult enrollment process," according to a letter from the USDA to state administrators, which was obtained by The Associated Press. The letter says practices in those states "have not served our clients or our taxpayers well."

Read Here: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/nov/24/usda-states-struggling-to-administer-food-stamps/

The final nail in the coffin of 'Anthropogenic Global Warming'?

2009-11-24T13:25:00.000-05:00

From the Telegraph:

If you own any shares in alternative energy companies I should start dumping them NOW. The conspiracy behind the Anthropogenic Global Warming myth (aka AGW; aka ManBearPig) has been suddenly, brutally and quite deliciously exposed after a hacker broke into the computers at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (aka Hadley CRU) and released 61 megabites of confidential files onto the internet. (Hat tip: Watts Up With That)...When you read some of those files – including 1079 emails and 72 documents – you realise just why the boffins at Hadley CRU might have preferred to keep them confidential. As Andrew Bolt puts it, this scandal could well be “the greatest in modern science”. These alleged emails – supposedly exchanged by some of the most prominent scientists pushing AGW theory – suggest:Conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more....One of the alleged emails has a gentle gloat over the death in 2004 of John L Daly (one of the first climate change sceptics, founder of the Still Waiting For Greenhouse site), commenting:“In an odd way this is cheering news.”...But perhaps the most damaging revelations – the scientific equivalent of the Telegraph’s MPs’ expenses scandal – are those concerning the way Warmist scientists may variously have manipulated or suppressed evidence in order to support their cause.

Read Here:http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/

IPCC Researchers Admit Global Warming Fraud

2009-11-24T09:47:00.000-05:00

From : Global

warming alarmists are scrambling to save face after hackers stole hundreds of incriminating e-mails from a British university and published them on the Internet....The messages were pirated from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia (UEA) and reveal correspondence between British and American researchers engaged in fraudulent reporting of data to favor their own climate change agenda. UEA officials confirmed one of their servers was hacked, and several of the scientists involved admitted the authenticity of the messages, according to the New York Times. The article opined, "The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument."...Climatologist Patrick J. Michaels challenged that position. "This is not a smoking gun, this is a mushroom cloud." The e-mails implicate scores of researchers, most of whom are associated with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an organization many skeptics believe was created exclusively to provide evidence of anthropogenic global warming (AGW)....Among the IPCC elite embarrassingly, if not criminally, compromised is Phillip D. Jones, a Ph.D. climatologist at the University of East Anglia whose work figured prominently in the IPCC Third Assessment Report of 2001. Jones also contributed significantly to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 (AR4), but he failed to follow through when skeptical investigators asked to review raw data associated with that report. They announced intent to use UK Freedom of Information laws to obtain the data, so Jones sent the following e-mail to one of his collaborators: "Mike, Can you delete any e-mails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise.... Can you also e-mail Gene and get him to do the same?... Will be getting Caspar to do likewise." The Mike in this message is Michael Mann, professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University, whose influential "hockey stick" graph warning of pending global warming eco-catastrophe was found by a congressional investigation to be fraudulent. In another correspondence about AR4 labeled HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL, Jones contacted Mann regarding research critical of their global warming platform. "I can't see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report," wrote Jones. "Kevin and I will keep them out somehow — even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!"

Read Here: http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/tech-mainmenu-30/environment/2377-ipcc-researchers-admit-global-warming-fraud

Fall of the Republic HQ full length version

2009-11-24T09:41:00.000-05:00

More here: Fall Of The Republic documents how an offshore corporate cartel is bankrupting the US economy by design. Leaders are now declaring that world govern... Order the DVD at: http://infowars-shop.stores...

Ex-ACORN official gets probation for voter registration scheme

2009-11-24T09:35:00.000-05:00

From the Las Vegas Sun:

A former field director for the political advocacy organization ACORN was sentenced today in district court to up to three years of probation....Christopher Edwards, who in August pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit a crime of compensation for registration of voters, a gross misdemeanor, received a suspended jail sentence and a $500 fine. He has agreed to testify against ACORN and one of its former regional directors, Amy Busefink....The Nevada attorney general’s office has accused ACORN and Busefink of operating an illegal bonus system. Tying money to or setting quotas for collecting voter registration cards is illegal under Nevada law.

Read Here: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/nov/23/ex-acorn-official-gets-probation-voter-registratio/

EDITORIAL: Hiding evidence of global cooling - Washington Times

2009-11-24T09:27:00.000-05:00

From the Washington Times:

Scientific progress depends on accurate and complete data. It also relies on replication. The past couple of days have uncovered some shocking revelations about the baloney practices that pass as sound science about climate change....It was announced Thursday afternoon that computer hackers had obtained 160 megabytes of e-mails from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in England. Those e-mails involved communication among many scientific researchers and policy advocates with similar ideological positions all across the world. Those purported authorities were brazenly discussing the destruction and hiding of data that did not support global-warming claims....Professor Phil Jones, the head of the Climate Research Unit, and professor Michael E. Mann at Pennsylvania State University, who has been an important scientist in the climate debate, have come under particular scrutiny. Among his e-mails, Mr. Jones talked to Mr. Mann about the "trick of adding in the real temps to each series ... to hide the decline [in temperature]."

Read Here: EDITORIAL: Hiding evidence of global cooling - Washington Times

The American Spectator : The Evening Keynote

2009-11-23T21:48:00.000-05:00

From the American Spectator:

U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, delivered the following remarks last Thursday night at The American Spectator's Robert L. Bartley Dinner:
(Remarks as delivered)
I stand before you today at an historic moment for the conservative movement and for this great country. The coming weeks and months may well set the course for this nation for a generation and beyond. How we as conservatives respond could well determine whether America retains her place as a beacon of hope in the world, or whether we slip into the abyss that has swallowed much of Europe in an avalanche of Socialism.‪
While some are prepared to write the obituary on capitalism and conservative values, I believe we are in the midst of a great American awakening. And it is breaking out all across this land, in townhalls and tea parties, coffee shops and church halls, in New Jersey and Virginia, and in the hearts and minds of everyday Americans, who are fed up with runaway federal spending, bailouts and takeovers by both parties and are saying with one voice: enough is enough.‪
The American people know what makes sense and what doesn't.
On the foreign stage, the American people know that weakness arouses evil. They know that bowing and kowtowing to foreign dictators only diminishes our standing in the world. And they know that standing idly by while the Ayatollahs in Iran crush innocent civilians, clamoring for free elections, is totally inconsistent with our history of standing with those who stand for freedom around the world. Ronald Reagan didn't stand before the Brandenburg Gate and say, 'Mr. Gorbachev, that wall is none of our business.' The American cause is freedom and in that cause we must never be silent again."

Read More Here: The American Spectator : The Evening Keynote: "

News From AP - 842 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan

2009-11-23T21:35:00.000-05:00

From the AP:

"As of Monday, Nov. 23, 2009, at least 842 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Monday at 10 a.m. EST....Of those, the military reports 650 were killed by hostile action."

Read Here: TBO.com - News From AP:

Dimon seen as successor to Geithner: report | Politics | Reuters

2009-11-23T21:27:00.000-05:00

From Reuters:

Several U.S. policy makers consider JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon as a potential successor to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the New York Post said, citing sources.Dimon 'would love to serve his country,' the paper quoted people familiar with his thinking as saying."

Read Here: Dimon seen as successor to Geithner: report | Politics | Reuters: "

Clinton to miss 2nd OSCE ministerial in a row: Greece | Politics | Reuters

2009-11-23T21:24:00.000-05:00

From Reuters:

Clinton to miss 2nd OSCE ministerial in a row: Greece | Politics | Reuters: "U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will not attend an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) foreign ministers' meeting in early December in Athens, a Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman said.'Today the U.S. ambassador informed us that Secretary Clinton will not be able to attend the OSCE meeting,' spokesman Gregory Delavekouras said Monday, without giving a reason.
This will be the second time in a row that Clinton has missed a meeting of foreign ministers from the OSCE, a regional security organization that includes both the United States and Russia amongst its 56 member states...She canceled a trip to an OSCE meeting in Greece in June because of an arm injury. At that gathering, the West assessed Russia's pan-Europe security pact."

Read Here:

US Foreign Policy: Obama's Nice Guy Act Gets Him Nowhere on the World Stage - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

2009-11-23T21:21:00.000-05:00

From Spiegel:

"When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy. His recent trip to Asia, however, showed that it's not working. A shift to Bush-style bluntness may be coming....There were only a few hours left before Air Force One was scheduled to depart for the flight home. US President Barack Obama trip through Asia had already seen him travel 24,000 kilometers, sit through a dozen state banquets, climb the Great Wall of China and shake hands with Korean children. It was high time to take stock of the trip.
Barack Obama looked tired on Thursday, as he stood in the Blue House in Seoul, the official residence of the South Korean president. He also seemed irritable and even slightly forlorn. The CNN cameras had already been set up. But then Obama decided not to play along, and not to answer the question he had already been asked several times on his trip: what did he plan to take home with him? Instead, he simply said 'thank you, guys,' and disappeared. David Axelrod, senior advisor to the president, fielded the journalists' questions in the hallway of the Blue House instead, telling them that the public's expectations had been 'too high.'"

Read Here US Foreign Policy: Obama's Nice Guy Act Gets Him Nowhere on the World Stage - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International:

Wave of Debt Payments Facing US Government - General * US * News * Story - CNBC.com

2009-11-23T21:20:00.000-05:00

From CNBC:

"The United States government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with i.o.u.’s on terms that seem too good to be true...But that happy situation, aided by ultralow interest rates, may not last much longer....Treasury officials now face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed.
Even as Treasury officials are racing to lock in today’s low rates by exchanging short-term borrowings for long-term bonds, the government faces a payment shock similar to those that sent legions of overstretched homeowners into default on their mortgages."

Read Here: Wave of Debt Payments Facing US Government - General * US * News * Story - CNBC.com:

Lieberman no on public option

2009-11-23T21:17:00.000-05:00

From the Wall Street Journal:

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, speaking in that trademark sonorous baritone, utters a simple statement that translates into real trouble for Democratic leaders: "I'm going to be stubborn on this."..Stubborn, he means, in opposing any health-care overhaul that includes a "public option," or government-run health-insurance plan, as the current bill does. His opposition is strong enough that Mr. Lieberman says he won't vote to let a bill come to a final vote if a public option is included....Probe for a catch or caveat in that opposition, and none is visible. Can he support a public option if states could opt out of the plan, as the current bill provides? "The answer is no," he says in an interview from his Senate office. "I feel very strongly about this." How about a trigger, a mechanism for including a public option along with a provision saying it won't be used unless private insurance plans aren't spreading coverage far and fast enough? No again.

Read Here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125900412679261049.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

More Controversy in anti-Obama Dissent

2009-11-23T13:33:00.001-05:00

BREAKING: San Diego ACORN Document Dump Scandal

2009-11-23T12:41:00.000-05:00

From Big Government:

On October 1st, 2009 California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced that an investigation had been opened into ACORN’s activities in California, resulting from undercover videos showing employees seemingly offering to assist the undercover film makers with human smuggling, child prostitution and even tax advice to boot...Although ACORN has denied any wrongdoing, some of the employees involved were terminated, and ACORN has publicly stated that they would fully cooperate with any investigations that followed.

Read Here: BREAKING: San Diego ACORN Document Dump Scandal

CNBC: The Real Unemployment Rate

2009-11-23T12:38:00.000-05:00

From CNBC:

As experts debate the potential speed of the US recovery, one figure looms large but is often overlooked: nearly 1 in 5 Americans is either out of work or under-employed....According to the government's broadest measure of unemployment, some 17.5 percent are either without a job entirely or underemployed. The so-called U-6 number is at the highest rate since becoming an official labor statistic in 1994....The number dwarfs the statistic most people pay attention to—the U-3 rate—which most recently showed unemployment at 10.2 percent for October, the highest it has been since June 1983

Read Here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/34040009

Support for Health Care Plan Falls to New Low

2009-11-23T12:36:00.000-05:00

From Rassmussen:

Just 38% of voters now favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the lowest level of support measured for the plan in nearly two dozen tracking polls conducted since June...The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% now oppose the plan.

Read Here: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/september_2009/health_care_reform

Hackers steal electronic data from top climate research center

2009-11-21T20:27:00.001-05:00

From the Washington Post:

Hackers broke into the electronic files of one of the world's foremost climate research centers this week and posted an array of e-mails in which prominent scientists engaged in a blunt discussion of global warming research and disparaged climate-change skeptics.
The skeptics have seized upon e-mails stolen from the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in Britain as evidence that scientific data have been rigged to make it appear as if humans are causing global warming. The researchers, however, say the e-mails have been taken out of context and merely reflect an honest exchange of ideas.
University officials confirmed the data breach, which involves more than 1,000 e-mails and 3,000 documents, but said they could not say how many of the stolen items were authentic."

Read Here:Hackers steal electronic data from top climate research center: "

Upper-Bracket Tax May Be Needed for Afghan War Cost, Levin Says - Bloomberg.com

2009-11-21T20:26:00.002-05:00

From Bloomberg:

"Higher-income Americans should be taxed to pay for more troops sent to Afghanistan and NATO should provide half of the new soldiers, said Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
An “additional income tax to the upper brackets, folks earning more than $200,000 or $250,000” a year, could fund more troops, Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said in an interview for Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt,” airing this weekend."

Read Here: Upper-Bracket Tax May Be Needed for Afghan War Cost, Levin Says - Bloomberg.com:

Tea partiers turn on each other - Kenneth P. Vogel - POLITICO.com

2009-11-21T11:07:00.001-05:00

Politico:

"After emerging out of nowhere over the summer as a seemingly potent and growing political force, the tea party movement has become embroiled in internal feuding over philosophy, strategy and money and is at risk of losing its momentum....The grass-roots activists driving the movement have become increasingly divided on such core questions as whether to focus their efforts on shaping policy debates or elections, work on a local, regional, state or national level or closely align themselves with the Republican Party, POLITICO found in interviews with tea party organizers in Washington and across the country....Many of these differences date to the movement’s beginnings last winter in an outpouring of anger about the huge increases in government spending enacted by President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress. But they were overshadowed by the initial explosion of activism that culminated during the congressional town hall meetings in August...Now the disagreements and the sense of frustration they have engendered could diminish the movement’s potential influence in state and national politics"

Read Here: Tea partiers turn on each other - Kenneth P. Vogel - POLITICO.com