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Thursday, April 07, 2011

John Robinson Says He's Buying $200,000.00 A Week In Gold


"Years ago we would buy maybe $2,000-$3,000 of gold a week. Now, we buy about $200,000 of gold a week," Robinson said

Well, at those kind of prices one would have to believe he has armed guards everywhere and security trucks on call daily.

This should be fun to watch, comment wise.

WE NEED TO FIGHT FOR THE SCHOOLS TO POST AN AFTER SCHOOL EMERGENCY NUMBER ON THEIR WEBSITE!!!

My son is involved w/ the SADD group after school on Wed's and is always home off the bus by 5:00. He wasn't home by 5:10, I started to worry. 5:20 i started to panic. 5:30, i had all the neighbors here. By 5:45, I had the cops here. I had called his school, the principal at home, vice principal at home, the superintendent of schools, all the neighbors, bus drivers, 911... NO ONE ANSWERED EXCEPT 911 (and eventually the principal). By 6:00... I was in hysterics, and the police were prepping for an amber alert and all-out manhunt. At around 6:15, the bus pulls up. They changed his bus route and didn't tell me. OVER AN HOUR LATE... AND DIDN'T CONTACT ME!! ... all that could have been avoided had they just called me or I had a way to notify them.

STATE POLICE INVESTIGATE BOMB THREAT AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

(Berlin, MD) Maryland State Police continue an investigation into an early morning bomb threat that led to the evacuation of an elementary school in Worcester County.

At approximately 8:40 a.m. this morning, state police at the Berlin Barrack were notified of a possible threat to the Showell Elementary School in Berlin. Troopers immediately notified the school. Subsequently, the school made the precautionary decision to immediately evacuate school personnel and approximately 550 students from pre-kindergarten through third grade.

Detectives from the Worcester County Bureau of Investigation along with troopers from the Maryland State Police and deputies from the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office responded to the elementary school. A thorough search and K-9 scan of the interior and exterior of the school was conducted.

The search of the school and the surrounding area did not reveal any evidence of a threat to the school. Students and personnel were permitted to return to class at approximately 11:00 a.m.

The investigation continues…

Somerset County Sheriff's Office Press Release

Sara Lee Margaret of Princess Anne, arrested 3-31-11 on a warrant regarding second degree assault. Lee was later released on personal recognizance.
 
James Franklin Leatherbury Jr. of Princess Anne, arrested 3-31-11 on two warrants regarding failure to appear in court. Leatherbury was later held on a $1,000 bond.
 
Antwane Dominique Holland of Hyattsville, arrested 3-31-11 on a warrant regarding violation of probation. Holland was later held on a $ 5,000 bond.
 
David Lee Anderson Jr. of Crisfield, arrested 3-31-11 on a warrant regarding violation of probation. Anderson was later held on a $ 10,000 bond.
 
Mark Wesley Pruitt of Crisfield, arrested 4-1-11 on two warrants regarding violation of probation. Pruitt was later held on a $ 150,000 bond.
 
Stephanie Michelle Lear of Hebron, arrested 4-1-11 regarding driving on a suspended drivers license, and driving without license. The arrest was the result of a traffic stop conducted by deputies on Deal Island Rd. Lear was released on citations pending District Court action.
 
Pamela Sue Fischer of Princess Anne, arrested 4-1-11 on a warrant regarding violation of probation. Fischer was later released after posting $ 5,000 bond.
 
William Frederick Martin Jr. of Eden, arrested 4-1-11 on a warrant regarding failing to appear in court. Martin was later held on a $ 5,000 bond.
 
Harold Timothy Howard 3rd. of Crisfield, arrested 4-1-11 on a warrant regarding failing to pay  court fees.. Howard was later held on a $ 1,057.50 bond.
 
Theodore Roosevelt Turner Sr. of Westover, arrested 4-4-11 on a warrant regarding violation of probation. Turner was later held on a $ 10,000 bond.
 
Susan Marie Boyd of Eden, arrested 4-4-11 on a warrant regarding failing to appear in court. Boyd was later released on personal recognizance.
 
Kevin Rashaan Horsey of Eden, arrested 4-4-11 on a fail to appear warrant regarding driving on a revoked drivers license, fraudulent identity, failing to display license, and failure to stop at a stop sign. Horsey was later held on a $ 5,000 bond.
 
Alexander Darryl DeJarnette of Marion Station, arrested 4-4-11 on a warrant regarding violation of probation. DeJarnette was later released on personal recognizance.
 
David Jerome Noble of Crisfield, arrested 4-5-11 on a warrant regarding failure to appear in court. Noble was later released after posting $ 500.00 bond.
 
Tashena Lavon Burton of Princess Anne, arrested 4-7-11 regarding driving on a suspended drivers license, and rental agreement violation. Burton was released on citations pending District Court actions.

Two George Soros Events Aim To Remake The Financial Order And The Media

Apparently, megalomaniacs need schedulers.

Just ask George Soros. The left-wing billionaire is helping fund two major conferences that start on the same day, in two different locations just a three hours apart by car. Two liberal events packed into one long weekend.
God created the world in six days. Apparently, Soros, who sees himself as “some kind of god,”needs just a long weekend to start remaking today's world in his image.

The emphasis of both conferences is a familiar one to American voters – change. Soros wants to begin changing the global economy in one event. In the other, his flunkies want to “Change the world. Change the media.”
Now that is change you can believe in. Sadly, those who actually report the news must believe in it because they sure as heck aren’t reporting on Soros or either event. And that’s even though staffers or even executives from Reuters, the Financial Times, NPR, PBS, The Washington Post and other major media outlets are speaking at one event or the other.
The first gathering i
n Bretton Woods, N.H., is an economic conference Soros once described as “a grand bargain that rearranges the entire financial order.” In October 2009, Soros committed $50 million to the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET). A week later, the glib lefty investor wrote a column calling for a new Bretton Woods event, to recreate the one that helped design the post-WWII economy. Only he wants this one to knock America down a peg or three.
Now, it's been a little over a year later and the group he funded is making King George’s wish come true – bringing together a whole slew of important people to discuss how to change the global economy. In Soros speak, that means “establish new international rules” and “reform the currency system.”

The announced speakers include a lot of prominent lefties, globalists and economists on the board of the organization he has throwing the event – more than two-thirds of the overall total have ties to Soros. To underscore their connection to history, INET is hosting the conference at the Mount Washington Resort, the very same hotel that held the first gathering.

INET Executive Robert Johnson defended his event in a March 31 interview with Lou Dobbs. Johnson, a former managing director at Soros Fund Management, who is on the Board of Directors for the Soros-funded Economic Policy Institute, avoided saying “Soros” despite Dobbs mentioning Johnson’s boss several times. In his last response, he tried to rationalize the Soros connection, by saying “I have a group of funders including George Soros.” With $50 million, Soros alone makes a pretty big group. Of course, Soros will also be speaking in Bretton Woods about The Emerging Economic and Political Order.”

Just down the road in Boston, a Soros-funded media conference is trying to manipulate that emerging order as well. Close to 350 left-wingers from a variety of organizations are gathering there for the National Conference for Media Reform.

That “change the world” conference includes two commissioners from the FCC, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Bernie Sanders, four Democratic representatives, the head of Columbia University, and assorted left-wing journalist types, from Salon’s Glenn Greenwald to disgraced former MSNBC host David Shuster, who now works for a Soros-funded investigative operation.

The rest of the list reads like a "Who’s Who" of left-wing organizations and talking heads, including the president of PBS, a senior vice president with American Public Media, an Al Jazeera English executive, the president of the Newspaper Guild – CWA and Washington Post columnist Rob Pegoraro.

Read on..

Childish Attacks On Paul Ryan's Budget Get House Nowhere

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R. Wis.) is treating Americans like grownups.  That’s all too rare.

Washington’s big spenders have responded with their usual tired clichés.

"Pulling the rug out from under seniors,” says Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D.-Mich.).

“Waging war on American workers,” says Rep. Xavier Becerra (D.-Calif.).

“A path to poverty for America’s seniors and children,” claims House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.).

"The Tea Party has hijacked the Republican caucus," says House Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D.-Md.)

Pee Wee Herman could have delivered more creative comebacks.  But treating the electorate like adults is uncommon in Washington, D.C.  Ryan’s plan should be rated at least R for Realism, while the dismissive comments are PG for Politically Guided.

Ryan’s plan is a big deal.  A very big deal.  Its proposed $6.2 trillion of savings over 10 years (measured against Obama’s budget) is literally 100 times larger than the $61 billion that the GOP hopes to cut this year—and is struggling against ferocious Democrat resistance.

Revising Medicare to a defined contribution plan is a good course to pursue, and of course a tough sell.  But that change makes a huge difference in controlling spending and reducing deficits.  The same with Ryan’s goal of giving states full flexibility over Medicaid, in exchange for limiting federal costs.

As noted by The Heritage Foundation’s annual Index of Dependency, people’s unhealthy dependence on government is skyrocketing.  Ryan would address that and more.

Spending limitations, rollbacks, and freezes.  Repeal of ObamaCare.  Cutting corporate welfare (including farm subsidies) as well as overly generous giveaways to individuals.  Structural reform for federal health care programs, which are the biggest runaway spending items.  Ryan’s plan gets serious in a way nobody else has.

But his “Path to Prosperity” is about economic growth, not just spending.  Tax simplification is one aspect, and so is lowering corporate taxes so businesses are not pushed overseas by what is now the world’s highest rate.  A Heritage Foundation analysis finds this would create a million jobs a year for starters, and double that rate in short order.

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Time For Obama And Hill Democrats To Grow Up

With his 2012 spending blueprint, House Budget chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has introduced the only comprehensive federal budget proposal that seriously addresses the nation's dire fiscal challenges, or to put it in terms President Obama seems to prefer, that deserves a place in an adult conversation about those challenges.

Ryan's "roadmap to prosperity" certainly is far more serious than the budget proposal Obama submitted to Congress earlier this year. The Obama plan not only nearly doubled the national debt by 2020, it totally ignored the recommendations of the president's own bipartisan fiscal commission and included nothing about reforming the entitlement programs that are the principal drivers behind our soaring national debt.

Ryan's plan cuts total spending during the coming decade by $6 trillion relative to Obama's proposal. That reductions of this magnitude are being considered shows the gravity of our debt problem. But even Ryan's plan fails to balance the budget by the end of the decade.

If America's fiscal condition is so dire that $6 trillion in spending reductions are not enough to remedy it by 2020, why are Obama and congressional Democrats now threatening to shut down the government in an effort to preserve a paltry $30 billion in unnecessary or otherwise questionable outlays in fiscal 2011?

If the federal government does shut down this weekend, voters should keep in mind how we got to this point in the first place. When the Democrats had large majorities in the Senate and House in the 111th Congress, as well as their own man in the White House, they were obsessed with forcing passage of left-wing ideological milestones like the economic stimulus program, Obamacare, and cap and trade.

As a result, they became the first Congress to fail to approve an annual budget since passage in 1974 of the Budget and Impoundment Control Act.

More from the Washington Examiner

Study: Many Illegal Immigrant Families Are On Welfare

More than half of the illegal immigrant families in many states are on welfare — as many as 62 percent in Arizona — and they’re getting the taxpayer-funded benefits through their American-born children, Judicial Watch reports.

What’s more, families headed by immigrants, both legal and illegal, use welfare programs at a consistently higher rate than native-born Americans, the conservative foundation contends.

Judicial Watch cited an analysis that the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies did of U.S. Census Bureau data. The study, which looked at eight publicly funded assistance programs, said the states where immigrant households with children have the highest welfare-use rates following Arizona’s 62 percent are Texas, California, and New York, at 61 percent each, and Pennsylvania, at 59 percent.

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Wisconsin City Caught Destroying Ballots

As if the situation in Wisconsin wasn't tense enough, it appears that one county in particular is going to a new extreme.

This comes after word that there may have been voter fraud in the nonpartisan State Supreme Court election Tuesday between incumbent David Prosser and JoAnne Kloppenburg.

For some reason one of the counties in the state is destroying ballots that 'were not counted' Tuesday.

There is now a call for an injunction to preserve the 'discarded' ballots.

This also comes as over 10,000 more ballots were cast for the Supreme Court race in Dane (Madison) than for the County Executive race there.


More details here

Wicomico Budget Hearing TONIGHT


Wicomico Budget Hearing tonight
7:00 pm
Civic Center
 
Please tell your family and friends about the meeting.
Please plan to attend.
If we loose parks we loose tourism dollars.
If we loose tourism dollars we loose hotel, resturant, gas station,
retail stores, etc., dollars.
We generate over $9,000,000.00.
We are just 1% of the budget. It only costs each resident of
Wicomico County a little over $11.00 to have and maintain our
parks and recreation facilities. That's the lowest in the state of Maryland.
We need your support.

Salisbury City Council Absentee Number's

Here is a list of the current numbers from the absentee ballots that have been counted so far...

Muir Boda -41 votes

Terry Cohen-74 votes

Bruce Ford-41 votes

Laura Mitchell-45 votes

Tim Spies-73 votes

Orville Dryden-43 votes

We have the final numbers as soon as they become available.

Showell Elementary School Evacuated Due To A Bomb Threat

Showell Elementary School has been evacuated due to a bomb threat. The police are on the scene at this time. We have any and all updates as they become available.

Northwestern Elementary School PTA Spaghetti Dinner

Click on image to enlarge.

GOP Fears Vote Grab As Dems Surge Ahead In Wisconsin

Republicans are voicing fears that a Minnesota-style vote grab could be underway in Wisconsin following reports that the union-backed Democratic challenger to incumbent conservative Wisconsin Justice David Prosser has surged ahead in next-day vote counting.

Early morning vote tallies showed Prosser clinging to a razor-thin lead of 598 votes with 99 percent of the votes counted. But the counting of additional votes on Wednesday morning propelled challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg into the lead by 235 votes.

The high level of concern over possible vote fraud was reflected in a request made by Milwaukee Election Commissioner Robert Spindell, who is active in GOP politics, that police be dispatched to guard ballots and voting machines overnight. The extent to which ballots were guarded statewide remains unclear.

That reversal conjured unhappy memories for Republicans of the bitterly contested 2008 recount battle between incumbent GOP Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken in Minnesota. Coleman had a 775 vote lead on Election Day. But as additional votes were counted in the days that followed, Franken surged to a 251 vote lead that he never relinquished despite a long legal battle over absentee ballots.

Already, both sides in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race are predicting a drawn out recount. Wall Street Journal election expert John Fund, author of Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy, tells Newsmax the concerns of a repeat of political intrigue in Wisconsin similar to the GOP experience in Minnesota are well founded, given the lax voter registration standards Wisconsin has enacted.

“Like Wisconsin,” Fund tells Newsmax, “Al Franken's race in Minnesota in 2008 featured a same-day voter law which allowed people to register and vote at the same time on Election Day -- an open, engraved invitation to fraud.

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Budget Games: 'I Don't Want To Pinpoint' Any Spending Cuts

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday he would not "pinpoint" any cuts that Democrats would be willing to make in federal spending, offering only broad figures on an overall reduction.

At Hoyer’s weekly Capitol Hill press briefing on Tuesday, CNSNews.com noted the Democrats’ criticism of the GOP’s proposed cuts and asked Hoyer, “Where specifically would Democrats cut spending? If these cuts that the Republicans are proposing are unacceptable, where specifically are Democrats willing to cut spending?”

Hoyer said, “In point of fact, when Vice President Biden came down – in fact Democrats had been working within the appropriations framework to respond exactly to that question.

When asked again for specifics on what Democrats were willing to cut, Hoyer criticized the Republicans for limiting cuts to non-defense discretionary spending, saying “everything” needed to be on the table.

The second-ranking House Democrat did not say, however, which parts of the rest of the federal budget – defense and entitlement spending – Democrats would consider cutting.

“We have in fact made some accommodations on cutting spending but I don’t want to pinpoint those until – if the deal is possible – that that deal is then struck,” said Hoyer.

“From my standpoint, obviously as I’ve told you, looking at the small sliver of the budget is not how you will get from where we are to where we need to be,” he said.

Thus far, neither House Democrats nor Senate Democrats have said where they would be willing to cut spending.

Both House and Senate Republicans have endorsed the House-passed H.R. 1, which would cut $61 billion over the remaining fiscal year but which died in the Senate despite receiving the vote of every Republican senator.

More here

Two Years Ago Today


Two years ago today the President of SAPOA was clearly supporting their candidate Muir Boda, (center). History repeats itself.

Boonies, Buy One Get One For A Penny

Late-Night Talks Yield No Results

Following a late-night budget meeting, President Obama, Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Reid all announce that while they made progress, there is no agreement yet to avoid federal shutdown.

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Radiation Protection Tablets Distributed In Delaware

MIDDLETOWN, Del. (AP) -- Emergency management officials in Delaware say about 1,500 doses of potassium iodide have been distributed to residents who live within 10 miles of the Salem/Hope Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey.

The pills were distributed Wednesday at the volunteer fire department in Middletown. They can protect the thyroid gland from radioactive iodine, which a plant may release in an emergency.

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Downtown Plan Urges Conversion Of Vacant Office Space

Nonprofit issues call to action to strengthen the city center

Warning that downtown Baltimore is at a critical juncture, a plan to be released Thursday by the Downtown Partnership recommends that some vacant office space in the city center be converted to apartments.

"New uses must be found for older towers that no longer work as office space," the group says.

That is just one of several suggestions from the nonprofit, which seeks to promote and revitalize Baltimore's central business district. With the commercial vacancy rate downtown about 19 percent — and with plans for office districts on its periphery raising fears that even more commerce could be siphoned off — the Downtown Partnership's new strategic plan recommends several steps to keep downtown from stagnating further.

Among them: The city should create a Tax Increment Finance, or TIF, district in the oldest parts of downtown to pay for capital improvements and encourage new development.
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Highest Paid Va. Employees Work At Schools

A university administrator tops the list of the highest-paid state employees in Virginia.

That's according to information obtained by the Washington Business Journal which filed a Freedom of Information Act request.

Number one on the list is the Executive Vice President and Provost of the University of Virginia, Dr. Arthur Garson, Jr.

He is paid $706,800 a year.

Stopgap Prescription Contract Extension Approved

The Board of Public Works on Wednesday approved a one-year extension of a disputed contract providing prescription drug coverage to state employees so the coverage doesn’t lapse while the Board of Contract Appeals considers the protest. According to state campaign finance records, executives and family members involved with the company, which state officials wants to drop, gave campaign contributions of more than $70,000 to Gov. Martin O’Malley and Comptroller Peter Franchot in the last 12 months.

Continue Reading...

Gas Prices Edge Up To $3.82 A Gallon

WASHINGTON - Gas prices have gone up a dime in the last week and 27 cents since March 9, according to the WTOP Price at the Pump survey.
 
The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded is $3.82 a gallon. Mid-grade is up 14 cents to $4.02 a gallon. Premium rose 11 cents to $4.12 a gallon.
 
Diesel is up 3 cents coming in at $4.08 a gallon.

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Mikulski Calls On House Republicans To End Hypocrisy, Pass Real Bill That Stops Pay To Members Of Congress If Goverment Shuts Down

Republicans 'want to cut spending, but they're unwilling to cut their own pay,' Senator says

April 5, 2011
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), today in a speech on the Senate floor called on House Republicans to pass a stand-alone bill equivalent to the Boxer-Casey Bill, passed by the Senate last month, which says if there’s a shutdown, Members of Congress and the President don’t get paid.
House Republicans voted against the Boxer-Casey Bill twice last Friday. Instead, they attached a weaker provision to a bill they knew would never become law.
“They want to cut spending, but they’re unwilling to cut their own pay,” Senator Mikulski said. “If there is a government shutdown, I don’t think members of Congress should be paid. If there is a government shutdown and we tell dedicated federal employees that they’re not going to get paid, that they’re nonessential, well the fact that we couldn’t stop a shutdown shows we’re nonessential.”

Audio of the Senator’s floor statement is available at http://demradio.senate.gov/actualities/mikulski/040511_MIKULSKI.mp3

The full text of Senator Mikulski’s floor statement follows:
Mr. President, my colleague has talked about one disease in Washington, but I’m going to talk about another disease that seems to be running rampant over in the House Republican caucus and that is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. And the reason I say that is that they say one thing and they mean another. They say one thing and they deceive the American public.

The reason I call it “hypocrisy” is this: What they say they want to do, which is reduce government spending, is not what they are doing. Sure, I’m for a government that’s more frugal. I’m for cuts. But I’m not for their cuts. What they propose is reckless and radical. And when they don’t get their own way, they say, ‘Cut it or shut it.’

However, if there is a government shutdown, I don’t think members of Congress should be paid. If there is a government shutdown and we tell dedicated federal employees that they’re not going to get paid, that they’re nonessential, well the fact that we couldn’t stop a shutdown shows we’re nonessential. And I believe if there is a shutdown, members of Congress should not get paid.

I not only want to express that as a sentiment. I did that backing Senator Barbara Boxer’s bill, which passed the Senate, that said if there is a shutdown, members of Congress don’t get paid. Now, what did the House Republicans do? They passed a bill that allows Members of Congress and the President to receive retroactive payment. Now, the Senate bill doesn’t do that. So they would be the only ones in shutdown that can come back and pick up their paycheck. You talk about hypocrisy. That’s called bait-and-switch.

Even the title of their bill is wrong. Their bill says, ‘The Government Shutdown Prevention Act.’ Well, their bill doesn’t stop a shutdown. It doesn’t even help with the sitdown. What is a sitdown? Where we would come to the table and, as grownup Americans, we would try to arrive at how to pass a Continuing Resolution to fund the government that recognizes not only debt, but that there are certain aspects of the government program we need to be able to fund.

My constituents were outraged when Wall Street executives got hundreds of millions of dollars of bonuses. Well, they should be outraged when, as members of Congress, we’re going to get paid when they don’t. Here’s what I don’t get: In my home state of Maryland, we have the National Institutes of Health. Right now thousands of people are working as a team to find the cure for Alzheimer’s, for AIDS, for autism, for cancer and for other terrible diseases. They are racing for the cure. But Congress is going to tell those researchers that they’re nonessential.
I represent the headquarters for the Social Security Administration. Right now there are thousands of federal employees processing Social Security claims to make sure someone who’s disabled qualifies for their benefit.

They’re going to be told they’re nonessential.
      
Let me tell you this. On any given day, if somebody would go to their Social Security office and find it shuttered. It they found they cannot apply for a benefit they believe they’re eligible for, I believe they would rather shut Congress down than shut down their Social Security office. And if you ask anybody in the United States of America, who do you think is more essential, members of Congress or the researchers working on a cure for cancer or people working to defend our borders? They would not say members of Congress.
It’s very clear that people know they depend on the functioning of a federal government. They depend on civil servants who are honest and have integrity. And they count on Congress to make sure we keep government doors open.
I’m ready to come to the table. I believe all Democrats are ready to come to the table. But we will not come to the table to engage in meaningless discussions and pursuing a reckless path.
Senate Democrats passed a bill that said if there is a shutdown, we don’t get paid. No way, no day, and no back pay. The House does the sham scam that says, ‘We’ll pretend that we’re not getting paid, but we’re going to pick up a back payment.’
You know, I just don’t get these guys. They want to take away Medicare and turn it into a voucher program, but they sure are happy picking up their government health care. They love to get federally subsidized health care. They want to take away other people’s pension, but they sure like getting their federal employee pensions.
I want to put an end to the hypocrisy and I want to put an end to the C.R. dangling. I think we need to come to the table. I think we need to pass a responsible budget that recognizes we are in a frugal era, but we want to make sure that people know that we are on their side.
And at the same time, the American people need to know that many of us are willing to say if a shutdown comes and federal employees get no pay, if contractors get no pay, we get no pay and no back pay. I’ll have more to say on this as this week unfolds. But before I sit down, I would say, please, let’s sit down rather than have a shutdown.

Another Foreign Policy Triumph For The O-Man

Reporting from Baghdad, Iraq, NBC’s Tom Brokaw said the Saudi Arabian monarchy is “so unhappy with the Obama administration for the way it pushed out President Mubarak of Egypt” that it has sent senior officials to the Peoples' Republic of China and Russia to seek expanded business opportunities with those countries.

After remarking on the difficulty of establishing democracy in the Middle East, Brokaw said that Defense Secretary Robert Gates “will face some tough questions in this region about the American intentions going on now with all this new turmoil, especially in an area where the United States has such big stakes politically and economically.”


More here

Hannity: Let Dems Shut Govt Down If Necessary

Conservative commentator Sean Hannity said Tuesday that Republicans should not yield any ground to Democrats on the budget, and if that means a goverment shutdown, then let it happen.

During a panel discussion on his Fox News show, Hannity said Republicans "have to be willing to let the Democrats shut it down because, otherwise, they are going to be held hostage as we debate real cuts."

His remarks are the latest example of how the GOP is under pressure from its base not to compromise on its $61 billion in cuts for fiscal 2011.

While former White House press secretary Dana Perino and Fox Business Network's Stuart Varney suggested Republicans should focus on Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) new budget for fiscal 2012, Hannity disagreed.

"If the Republicans don't hold the line on [$61 billion] ... how are they going to stand firm on $6.2 trillion?" he said.

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What Is A “Pregnant Arab Woman” Doing In A Terrorist Tunnel?

The IDF bombed two terrorist tunnels in Gaza overnight, but foreign media rely on Hamas sources that two women, one of them pregnant, were wounded.

An army spokeswoman told Israel National News that Israeli aircraft scored direct hits on the tunnels in northern Gaza following another Kassam rocket attack on the western Negev Tuesday night. No one was injured.

Terror tunnels in northern Gaza are often built to allow terrorists to enter a Jewish community and either kill or kidnap civilians and soldiers.

However, the French news agency AFP, in its lead paragraph, reported on the alleged wounded women, quoting ”Palestinian medics and witnesses” who also said the targets were a “group of militants and a plastics factory.”

Hamas routinely claims that pregnant women, handicapped people, mentally retarded civilians and elderly men are the victims of Israeli counterterrorist operations. Confirmation rarely is provided, but foreign agencies report the claims as fact.

More from INN

Washington Post And CBS Receiving Money From Obamacare Slush Fund

Two mainstream news organizations are receiving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from Obamacare’s Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP) — a $5 billion grant program that’s doling out cash to companies, states and labor unions in what the Obama administration considers an effort to pay for health insurance for early retirees. The Washington Post Company raked in $573,217 in taxpayer subsidies and CBS Corporation secured $722,388 worth of Americans’ money.

“It is fine with me if they continue covering the ObamaCare debate,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, in an e-mail to The Daily Caller. “When NBC used to cover energy issues, they identified themselves as a subsidiary of General Electric. CBS and Washington Post just have to disclose that they are subsidiaries of the Obama Administration.”

The ERRP, which Republicans call a slush fund, provides taxpayer money to Obama administration-selected states, companies and labor unions with already-in-place early retiree health insurance programs, and aims to make certain that their employees who retire early still have health insurance coverage before they reach Medicare eligibility age. Almost $2 billion of the $5 billion fund, which was supposed to last until 2014, has already been distributed to corporations. New projections expect the funding to run out before the end of 2012, if not sooner.

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Hard-Core REALITY

The debt is on track to hit 800 percent of GDP.

The CBO can't conceive of any way our economy can continue past 2037.

House Budget Chairman Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said President Barack Obama’s budget strategy is to “do nothing, punt, duck, kick the can down the road” while the debt remains on track to eventually hit 800 percent of GDP. Ryan added that the CBO is saying it "can't conceive of any way" that the economy can continue past 2037 given its current trajectory.

Ryan also said that the House Republicans’ FY2012 budget, which he unveiled Tuesday, would save Medicare and help the United States avoid a debt crisis.

“It all comes down to this: Either you fix this problem now where we, you can guarantee people who’ve already organized their lives around these programs get what they have coming to them, or you pick the president’s path, which is do nothing, punt, duck, kick the can down the road, and then we have a debt crisis and then it's pain for everybody,” said Ryan.

“We’re on a debt crisis path. We are on a path where the government goes from 20 percent of GDP, to 40 percent then 60 percent of GDP. We’re on a path where our debt goes from about 68 percent of GDP to 800 percent of GDP over the three-generation window,” Ryan said.

“I asked CBO to run the model going out and they told me that their computer simulation crashes in 2037 because CBO can’t conceive of any way in which the economy can continue past the year 2037 because of debt burdens,” said Ryan.

CNS News

Amid Budget Impasse, Obama Leaves For Meeting With Al Sharpton’s Group

Despite the budget impasse that could lead to a government shutdown – and despite his call for another White House meeting Wednesday to discuss that impasse – President Barack Obama is leaving town around noon today.

First he’s going to a wind turbine plant in Philadelphia to discuss his energy agenda; and then he’s going to New York City to mark the 20th anniversary of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.

In an unexpected appearance before White House reporters Tuesday, President Obama said he wanted another meeting with congressional leaders at the White House on Wednesday. He said he would “have my entire team available” to get a budget deal done -- the entire team, apparently, except for Obama himself – the head of the team.

Obama told reporters on Tuesday, “I think what they’re looking from me is the same thing that they’re looking from Speaker Boehner and Harry Reid and everybody else, and that is…that we act like grownups, and when we are in negotiations like this, that everybody gives a little bit, compromises a little bit in order to do the people’s business.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) reportedly declined the president’s invitation to appear at the White House again Wednesday.

In remarks on his Web site Wednesday morning, Boehner said he was “disappointed but not surprised” that the White House is “attacking” the Republicans’ budget-cutting proposal.

“The president is certainly entitled to disagree with our budget, but what exactly is his alternative?” Boehner asked. “If he wants to have an ‘adult conversation’ about solving our fiscal challenges, he needs to lead instead of sitting on the sidelines.”

Boehner also referred to the co-chairs of the president’s own deficit commission, who have described Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget blueprint as a “serious, honest, and straightforward approach” to addressing the nation’s fiscal challenges.

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Congratulations On 'Our' New Baby

Last week in Nevada, Lincoln and Cecilia Rogers found out the hard way just how little “parental rights” can mean in some situations. Their newborn daughter Lilia was slightly jaundiced, so the staff at Summerlin Hospital recommended she be kept overnight. The couple received a second opinion from a pediatrician at the hospital, who agreed with the couple that they could care for little Lilia at home. “We really wanted to take the natural approach if we could,” Cecilia is quoted as saying in a KTNV report.

But their original nurse disagreed – and called Child Protective Services (CPS). When CPS arrived with a police officer, they made it clear that baby Lilia would not be going anywhere. “If you leave the hospital,” the officer told Cecilia, “I will have to arrest you and your husband.”

While there are times when a medical worker needs to step in to prevent abuse or neglect, this was not such a case. The fact that the couple could readily secure a second opinion permitting the child’s release demonstrates that the child’s life was not obviously in danger. The parents also were clearly mindful of the child’s condition and concerned for her needs. They simply disagreed with the nurse that her hospital was the only way those needs could be met.

Thankfully, Lilia is now at home with her parents, where she is doing just fine. The hospital, meanwhile, maintains that they have not violated any patient’s rights.

Sadly, stories like this happen far too often, as the extent of parental rights in America remains vague. A proposed Parental Rights Amendment offers to lend much-needed clarity, and protection for our children and families.

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Sudan Blames Israel For Missile Attack

Sudan says it is absolutely sure that Israel carried out a missile attack that killed two occupants of a vehicle as they drove from an airport near Port Sudan early Wednesday. The identity of the presumed terrorists was not revealed.

The Israeli government declined to comment on the missile strike, which may have targeted smugglers of Iranian weapons for the Hamas terrorist organization.

"A missile from an unknown source probably bombed the car," police spokesman Ahmed Al-Tahmi told Reuters. He earlier said that the missile probably was fired from the Red Sea, and government media initially blamed the attack on foreign aircraft before singling out Israel.

The news agency also quoted sources as sayng that eyewitnesses at the Sudanese airport saw what appeared to be two Apache helicopters.


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Breaking The Silence: Rights Group Cites PA Attacks On Reporters

The Palestinian Authority is “becoming notorious for assaulting and intimidating journalists” and causing some self-censorship by local reporters, according to the Human Rights Watch organization.

The report may partially explain media bias against Israel.

Human Rights Watch, which traditionally has focused on allegation of rights abuses in Israel, stated that Palestinian Authority intimidation has caused many reporters not to write all of what they know.

Hamas has frequently been cited for violence against reporters, most notably the kidnapping of BBC journalist Alan Johnston four years ago. He was released after more than three months in captivity.

The report on abuses in the Palestinian Authority, heavily backed financially and diplomatically by the United States and European Union, includes seven cases. Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, urged Western countries to condition aid to the PA on the halt to interference with press freedom.

Hamas also was cited for two cases of abuse, but an official of the terrorist organization said the incidents were “mistakes,” according to the Associated Press.

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Colorado Police Use Pepper Spray on Second Grader

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

The Lakewood police department has been on the defensive since the incident, but remain supportive of the officer's decision

Foundation Gives Bristol Palin More Money Than Its Own Cause

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Tax documents show a teen pregnancy prevention foundation paid Bristol Palin $262,500 for her work, but only gave $35,000 to charity.

Better Leave Your Blackberry And Laptop At Work On Friday

If you are a federal worker, and there's a shutdown, you could still have to go into work on Monday, if only for a few minutes. An administration official tells The Wall Street Journal that non-essential workers would have to come in to hand over any government issued Blackberrys, and laptops. However, the Washington Post reports a top aide at the Office of Management and Budget said that agency has no idea how many personal digital assistants, or PDAs, are even out there. For staffers on Capitol Hill, it's less clear if they could hold on to their electronics, but they're still not supposed to respond to e-mail if there is a shutdown. That's if government-run e-mail even stays up and running.

Compromise

House, Senate and White House staffers worked all night to reach a budget compromise. Yesterday's meetings with House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid failed to reach agreement. Still, both sides report progress. President Obama says they're going to keep pounding away at this thing. Deadline pressure is increasing. Without a budget, the government would partially shut down Friday night. That would cause the furlough of nearly a million federal employees. Meanwhile, the Republican-led House moves to pass a very short continuing resolution that also funds the Defense Department for the rest of the fiscal year. Democrats, including the President, resist that idea. Complicating prospects for a final budget: Negotiators have yet to discuss policy riders Republicans want attached to any full-year budget bill.

1-Week CR Prepped As Shutdown Looms

Republicans battling with President Barack Obama over budget cuts are moving one-week legislation Thursday to avoid a government shutdown, despite opposition from the White House and Senate Democrats pressing for a longer-term solution.  

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Florida Pastor Terry Jones Says No More Quran Burning - For Now

Controversial Florida pastor Terry Jones says he will not be burning any more Qurans - for now,reports NPR. While "Jones has said that before," he has drawn criticism recently for his recent burning of the Muslim holy book. The book burning was put on the web site of the church's he leads and in turn led "to a series of protests in Afghanistan that have claimed more than 20 lives, including those of seven U.N. employees." Jones claims no responsibility.

Yard & Craft Sale Fundraiser

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If US Government Shuts Down, Some Services Would Continue

Washington - Social Security checks would still go out. So would tax payments and refunds for e-filed returns. Soldiers would remain on duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, and sailors off the coast of Libya. FBI agents would still work. Mail would be delivered.

Those are some of the services that would continue even if the federal government runs out of money at 12:01 am Saturday with no agreement to extend the budget.

But much of the government would shut down.

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Wholesale Meat Prices Up 25 Percent From A Year Ago

It's gotten tougher over the last year to bring home the bacon, as well as the rib eye, hamburger and rump roast.

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Dish Network Wins Blockbuster For $320 Million At Auction, Swears It Was Just Raising Its Hand To Wave To A Friend

Blockbuster Video — or rather the assets of Blockbuster — now have a new owner after Dish Network won what's left of the beleaguered video rental company for around $320 million at auction.

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Would You Turn Your House Into A Billboard If The Advertiser Paid Your Mortgage?


Having trouble making your mortgage payment? Think the paint job on your house could use some splash, color and branding? Then there's an ad agency you might want to talk to.

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SUSPICIOUS LETTER IN STATE MAILROOM INVESTIGATED

(ANNAPOLIS, MD) -- Maryland State Police and fire department personnel responded to investigate a suspicious letter received in the state mailroom in the Jeffrey Building in Annapolis at about 1:00 p.m. today.

The letter reportedly contained a small packet inside that appeared to hold a powdery substance. The Annapolis Fire Department and Anne Arundel County Fire Department were called and responded as a precaution. Fire department personnel followed protocol to clear the envelope and ensure the safety of the area.

The Anne Arundel County Fire Department HazMat Unit examined the package and determined the substance appeared to be a baby powder. They have cleared the scene. The state mail room operation has returned to normal.

Investigators from the Maryland State Police Criminal Investigation Section will continue to investigate. The Maryland Capital Police Department took custody of the letter and will transport it for laboratory examination.

Lowering of the United States Flag and Maryland State Flag to Half Staff

                        Marine Staff Sgt. James M. Malachowski

            This is to advise you that Governor Martin O’Malley has ordered the United States Flag and Maryland State Flag flown at half staff on Thursday, April 7, 2011, from sunrise to sunset.   This is in memory of Marine Staff Sgt. James M. Malachowski, of Westminster, Maryland, who died on March 20, 2011 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.