Like I said in my previous post, get ready for another debt limit fight. Right on queue Matt Drudge has this up:
But what if Drudge wasn't some partisan hack? Even better, what if Drudge was operating from the left? Then we would maybe see a headline like this:
Yeah - that looks a lot better!
We just got over one of these, but here it comes again:
The White House plans to ask Congress for an increase in the debt limit before the end of the week, according to a senior Treasury Department official.
The debt limit is projected to fall within $100 billion of the current cap by December 30. President Barack Obama is expected to ask for additional borrowing authority to increase the limit by $1.2 trillion.
Under the new budget, Congress can only vote to block the debt-ceiling extension with a disapproval resolution. Lawmakers have 15 days within receiving the request to vote down the debt limit increase.
The debt limit currently stands at $15.194 trillion and would increase to $16.394 trillion with the request.
This time though Democrats have some strong ammo entering this fight. Our nation's credit downgrade in July was mostly due to the fighting over raising the debt limit that Republicans brought forth, but that has been the subject to much spin. Something that really can't be spun though is how investors feel about the U.S. right now:
The U.S. government received record demand for its bonds in 2011, pushing longer-maturity Treasuries to their best performance since 1995 in a sign that President Barack Obama may have little difficulty financing a fourth consecutive year of $1 trillion budget deficits.
We are one week from the Iowa caucuses and things don't look good for the GOP:
If I were running the Iowa Republican Party, I would be seeking to vastly increase the turnout at the Jan. 3 caucuses. After all, those who turn out can be recruited to help in future Iowa Republican campaigns. I would be especially interested in attracting new young voters; the median age of 2008 caucusgoers was nudging up toward 60.
Yet despite polls showing that Republicans are enthusiastic about the coming campaign and determined to defeat Barack Obama, Iowa Republican insiders are predicting that turnout will not exceed and may not even reach the 119,000 of 2008, when Republicans were dispirited about their party's chances. Puzzling.
Low turnout is indicative of an enthusiasm gap and also coincides with what recent polls have shown us - a Republican base that isn't that excited about the election. Sure Republicans want to see President Obama voted out of office, but the problem is who they are going to replace him with?
Can they stomach 4 or even 8 years of Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney?
Would it be better to suffer through another 4 years of President Obama, at least knowing what they got, then spend that 4 years regrouping to find a better candidate?
If I were a betting man I would place my money on the second option. 2016 doesn't seem that far off, but 2020 does. If the GOP ends up putting a Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich in the White House that means the Democrats could come out with Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden in 2016, then the Republicans may likely be screwed until 2024.
Sears Holdings Corp. plans to close between 100 and 120 Sears and Kmart stores after poor sales during the holidays, the most crucial time of year for retailers.
The closings are the latest and most visible in a long series of moves to try to fix a retailer that has struggled with falling sales and shabby stores.
In an internal memo Tuesday to employees, CEO and President Lou D'Ambrosio said that the retailer had not "generated the results we were seeking during the holiday."
Pretty much everyone knows that Sears has been a dying store, but that hasn't stopped Ohio Governor John Kasich from offering the once retail giant $400 million in incentives to move their operations from Chicago to Ohio. Even more troubling is that Kasich is willing to put such a big bet on a failing company, yet he wouldn't bet $20 million on a company that is already in Ohio and doing well - Chiquita.
Sounds like someone isn't doing their homework, or even checking the news. John Kasich is wanting to make very costly bets in our state and they don't appear that they will pay off. That makes me wonder what else could be driving his motivations behind this.
Newt has constantly denied that he once supported Mitt Romney's health insurance mandate in Massachusetts, but the wayback machine has something else to say about that. Here's a letter written by Newt in April of 2006:
The most exciting development of the past few weeks is what has been happening up in Massachusetts. The health bill that Governor Romney signed into law this month has tremendous potential to effect major change in the American health system.
We agree entirely with Governor Romney and Massachusetts legislators that our goal should be 100% insurance coverage for all Americans. Individuals without coverage often do not receive quality medical attention on par with those who do have insurance. We also believe strongly that personal responsibility is vital to creating a 21st Century Intelligent Health System. Individuals who can afford to purchase health insurance and simply choose not to place an unnecessary burden on a system that is on the verge of collapse; these free-riders undermine the entire health system by placing the onus of responsibility on taxpayers.
The New York Times has an in-depth look at the growing number of states allowing carry conceal permits as well as more lax gun permit regulations and how it correlates to crimes:
Mr. Simons, his 4-year-old son strapped in behind him, slowed to a halt. The driver, Charles Diez, an Asheville firefighter, stopped as well. When Mr. Simons walked over, he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.
“Go ahead, I’ll shoot you,” Mr. Diez said, according to Mr. Simons. “I’ll kill you.”
Mr. Simons turned to leave but heard a deafening bang. A bullet had passed through his bike helmet just above his left ear, barely missing him.
Mr. Diez, as it turned out, was one of more than 240,000 people in North Carolina with a permit to carry a concealed handgun. If not for that gun, Mr. Simons is convinced, the confrontation would have ended harmlessly. “I bet it would have been a bunch of mouthing,” he said.
I have made it well known before that I do believe in the second amendment. I believe Americans should have the right to own guns. Of course with that comes a common sense approach. Groups like the NRA argue that people should be allowed to have things like automatic weapons or high capacity magazines to "protect" themselves. I don't see that. Generally these type of items are used in killing sprees, like we saw earlier this year when Gabby Giffords was shot.
But we also must learn to be a responsible nation if we want to be an armed one. Proponents always point to decent checks, but many of these proponents also want to downsize government. With a rash of people applying for permits, how can they be issued in a timely fashion and still go through the checks? That's a problem the times article looks into:
President Obama has put out a statement honoring the start of Kawanza:
Michelle and I send our warmest wishes to all those celebrating Kwanzaa this holiday season.
Today marks the beginning of the week-long celebration honoring African American heritage and culture through the seven principles of Kwanzaa -- unity, self determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.
We celebrate Kwanzaa at a time when many African Americans and all Americans reflect on our many blessings and memories over the past year and our aspirations for the year to come.
You can continue reading the statement here.
Of course with this comes the right trying to tell African Americans what they can and can't celebrate. One right wing blog, Weasel Zippers has this to say:
Just because Kwanzaa was made up by a racist black nationalist who was convicted of torturing two women who were part of his group “United Slaves,” because he thought they were hiding nonexistent “crystals” of poison meant to kill him doesn’t mean it’s not a legitimate holiday, right? Or how about the fact that actual Africans have never heard of Kwanzaa? I could go on and on but I’m preaching to the choir.
Then you have Tea Party hate monger Tammy Bruce with this tweet:
Charles Johnson over at LGF has the details:
Andrew Kaczynski has dug up yet another buried video, a 1998 John Birch Society documentary starring none other than Ron Paul — a classic example of far right paranoia and conspiracy theorizing. Dr. Paul carefully explains that the United Nations is plotting to take over America, create a New World Order, confiscate every red-blooded patriot’s guns, disband all churches, and replace the US Constitution with the UN Charter.
Here's the actual video. Grab the popcorn and aluminum foil because we're going down the conspiracy hole!
The statement by Newt Gingrich's campaign equating his disqualification from the Virginia GOP primary ballot and Pearl Harbor wasn't the first time he has taken to exploiting that day of infamy. Last year on Pearl Harbor day Newt decided to use the day of remembrance to his own financial gains:
On a day when Americans remember the lives that were sacrificed during the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Gingrich reminded us all what this momentous occasion is really all about when he chirpily tweeted, “The 69th anniversary of the japanese attack is a good time to remind folks of our novels pearl harbor and days of infamy newt.”
Newt later decided to delete that tweet, but not before reminding the world that he views horrible days like that as a day to increase his personal wealth. Not very presidential if you ask me.
There are two stories currently appearing on Andrew Breitbart's Big Government talking about the Virginia GOP Primary fiasco. One of the stories, by Charles C. Johnson, gives this explanation to the cause of the problem that lead to the rule change:
Worse yet, Virginia’s House of Delegates complicated matters further when voters may not know which congressional district they live in thanks to an ongoing state-wide fight over redistricting. Virginia Republicans submitted a map in April 2011, but Virginia Democrats seemed insistent on pushing the matter to January 2012 and then to federal court if they don’t enough black–and therefore Democratic–congressional districts. They would sue the state under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and toss the matter of redistricting over to the federal courts.
So it's those damn Democrats fault? Well not if you read what Publius writes:
