Manziel speaks to the media for the first time

UN meeting in Qatar to discuss new global limit on economic activity



United Nations bureaucrats are meeting in Doha, Qatar this week for a new global summit seeking to impose global taxes and caps on carbon dioxide emitted through economic activity.

The Obama administration has kicked off the event by promising aggressive new actions to limit economic activity in the United States.

The Guardian reports Obama representative to the conference Jonathan Pershing tells delegates "the Obama administration has taken a series of steps, including sharply increasing fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, and made good on promises of climate financing for poor countries."

The UN has taken past actions to limit carbon dioxide and curb economic activity, but none of these have affected global climate.

Rather than accept the scientific proof human activity is not altering the global climate, UN bureaucrats are using their failure to instead suggest they don't have enough power and are now pushing even more draconian restrictions on economic activity.

Supreme Court orders Fourth Circuit to hear challenge to ObamaCare

A key, and controversial, component of ObamaCare could soon be ruled upon by the Supreme Court.
The United States Supreme Court this morning ordered the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to hear a lawsuit brought by Liberty University challenging the constitutionality of ObamaCare's mandate forcing employers to finance their employees' birth control.

Liberty claims that mandate violates their constitutionally-guaranteeed right of free exercise of religion by forcing them to finance activities that conflict with their faith.  I agree.

When the Supreme Court last year ruled (incorrectly I believe) that ObamaCare's requirement all Americans buy health insurance or face a fine was constitutional under Congress' power to levy taxes, the court did not rule on whether the "contraception mandate" violated First Amendment protections of religious exercise.

Liberty's original case was dismissed by the Supreme Court when the Court ruled ObamaCare's insurance mandate was constitutional.  Liberty appealed to the Court to hear the case, citing the fact the employer and contraception mandates had not been ruled upon.  The Court agreed and this morning order the Fourth Circuit, based in Richmond, to hear the case.

The Fourth Circuit could hear the case next spring.  It has a reputation for ruling quickly, issuing a ruling in appeals cases in an average of just seven months.

Obama admin suggests stamping out alcohol consumption through 'calorie taxes'

The Taliban deemed alcohol a threat to public health.
As more cities and states seek to expand their control over what citizens eat and drink through 'soda taxes,' the federal government issued a study last week suggesting people who drink alcohol be subjected to the same controls.

The government study, conducted over four years through interviews with more than 11,000 American adults, claims that while soda and other sugary drinks are responsible for six percent of the average adult's calorie consumption, alcoholic beverages account for a nearly identical five percent.

"We've been focusing on sugar-sweetened beverages. This is something new,’" said Cynthia Ogden, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a study author, tells the Associated Press.

The "Center for Science in the Public Interest," a special interest group dedicated to expanding governemnt controls on food consumption and other private behavior, is already using the findings to agitate for new government controls on alcohol labeling.

Anti-calorie activists like the CSPI are already using the study to push for federal regulations mandating calorie labeling on alcohol, along with punitive taxes on those who drink an alcoholic beverage.

"Health officials should think about enacting policies to limit alcoholic intake...said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest," the AP reports.

‘‘In New York City, it was smart to start with sugary drinks. Let’s see how it goes and then think about next steps,’’ Wooten crowed.

The federal government outlawed alcohol entirely in 1919 through a constitutional amendment, but repealed it in 1933 after prohibition led to a violent and bloody black market. 

But as with most government prohibition efforts, bureaucrats are finding it easier to control behavior through punitive taxation than criminalization.

In 2009 the Obama administration proposed a federal tax on calorie-loaded beverages as part of an effort to socially engineer the nation's health.  It was dropped after heated citizen opposition.

See Gang Green get 'Axed'

You can help expose the radical agenda of Gang Green with just one click.

Filmmaker J.D. King is currently working on "Axed,"  a documentary detailing how, in the name of "being green," our liberties, our private property rights, and our standards of living are constantly being chopped at and splintered away.

This could be a very powerful weapon as we turn the tide of public opinion against Gang Green's central planners.

King will document stories of individual Americans and natural resource based companies who are being sacrificed on a green altar. We also plan to meet with historians and experts on the subject.

As you can imagine Hollywood isn't too happy about "Axed," so no studio will fund it.

But we are.

I need you to go here and chip in as little as $5 to help King get "Axed" produced.

You may give more if you like, and I strongly recommend it.

ATP has no association or relationship with J.D. King or "Axed."  I just want to see Gang Green exposed for millions to see.

Do it now.  King only has three more days to get the film funded.

So go here to chip in $5 or more.


Sincerely,

Donald Ferguson
Executive Director
American Tradition Partnership

Obama spent $29 million digging 'just a big hole in the ground'

In a mad rush to churn out "shovel ready" projects for his "stimulus" bill before voters decided on his re-election, President Barack Obama spent $29 million building an Alaskan port that was missing something simple.

Electricity, running water and a road allowing people to reach it.

For $29 million dollars the American people got "mostly just a big hole in the ground, local radio station KUCB reports.

Usually the federal government will not fund port construction if there is no infrastructure to support the port, the Army Corps of Engineers tells KUCB.

“Yes. It’s not normal. And it has prevented the construction of harbors in the past, when that supporting infrastructure is not there," says Steve Boardman, head of the Corps’ civil projects division.

Building a road to reach the port won't happen for at least another two years, and that will come at a cost of $11 million per mile.  So far no one is willing to offer any money to build a road to reach "Port Obama."

Even if "Port Obama" is ever connected to a road, or to electricity, or to running water, there's no guarantee anyone will even want to use it.  The harbor will have 58 slips.  But locals only own five boats.

Originally posted at the Libertarian National Campaign Committee.

Postal Service posts $15.9 billion loss, and growing

The U.S. Postal Service will post a $15.9 billion net loss for the 2012 fiscal year, more than the $15 billion they had predicted.

“If Congress fails to act, there could be postal slowdowns or shutdowns that would have catastrophic consequences for the 8 million private sector workers whose jobs depend on the mail,” Art Sackler, co-coordinator of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, told Bloomberg News.

The Postal Service’s financial losses stand to grow even worse.  Revenue is shrinking as mail volume continues to drop, but employee costs are growing.  The USPS retirement account, previously estimated to hold a surplus that could cover losses, has come up $17.8 billion short.  The USPS has been defaulting on annual payments into the fund of around $5 billion.

USPS proposals to grow revenue and cut losses consist mainly of ending Saturday delivery and eliminating offices and branches, which will not stop the bleeding and could have a detrimental effect on the economy.

But not everyone in the USPS is seeing a loss. “(A)ll but one of the top five executives for the nation’s mail service had an overall compensation increase this year,” The Washington Times reports.
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe saw his overall compensation grow from $384,229 in 2011 to $512,093 in 2012.  Chief Information Office Ellis Burgoyne’s total compensation exploded more than $270,000 last year to $510,505 in 2012.

Making matters worse is the fact you stop the wasteful spending by getting rid of mail delivery.  The economy depends on it.

Here's a better idea: Repeal federal laws granting the Postal Service a monopoly on first class, or “non-urgent” mail delivery.

Force the USPS to compete with FedEx, UPS and other parcel delivery companies.  Not only will it make the USPS undergo needed employee compensation reforms, it gives Americans an “escape hatch” should the Postal Service harshly cut back on service and/or increase rates.

Originally posted at the LNCC.

Pew study finds media practially campaigned for Obama



A study by the highly-respected Pew Research Center finds in the final days of the presidential election the mainstream media gave glowing coverage to Democrat nominee Barack Obama, and harshly negative coverage to Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

“During this final week, from October 29 to November 5, positive stories about Obama (29%) outnumbered negative ones (19%) by 10 points,” Pew reports. “Only during the week of his nominating convention was the treatment in the press more favorable.”

The mainstream media did not extend that courtesy to Romney.  “For Mitt Romney in the final week, the tone of coverage remained largely unchanged from the previous two weeks. Negative stories in the press outnumbered positive ones 33% to 16%,” Pew reports.

Not only did the mainstream media focus its Romney stories on the negative, they focused their attention on burying voters in positive stories on Obama at a level nearly unseen in previous elections.

“After receiving roughly identical levels of coverage for most of October, in the last week of campaigning Obama was a significant presence in eight out of 10 campaign stories compared with six in 10 for Romney – one of the biggest disparities in any week after Labor Day,” Pew finds.

Originally blogged at Congressman Steve Stockman.

Obama administration proposes scrapping limits on national debt

The Obama administration Friday proposed eliminating the "debt ceiling," allowing the federal government to increase spending and borrowing without limit.

CNS News reports journalist Al Hunt, host of Bloomberg TV's “Political Capital,” asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner if he believes “we ought to just eliminate the debt ceiling.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Geithner chimed.

It would be up to Congress to eliminate the debt ceiling.  Republicans and Democrats agreed last year to raise the debt limit by $2.4 trillion to a record $16.394 trillion.  "As of the close of business on Thursday, the Treasury had only $154.3 billion of that $2.4 trillion in new borrowing authority left," CNS reports.

Spending cuts the cure for budget, economic woes

The only way to avoid a “fiscal cliff” and relieve budget pressures in a way that grows the economy is to make serious spending cuts, says Washington Examiner writer Veronique DeRugy.

“(S)uccessful debt reduction measures are mostly made of spending cuts rather than a mix of spending cuts and tax increases,” writes DeRugy.

DeRugy points to two budget sectors that are driving deficits and in need of deep reform, entitlements and government workforce costs.

DeRugy also argues for spending cuts over tax hikes, citing research by Obama advisers showing a tax hike equaling one percent of GDP reduces GDP by three percent and the fact private investment have more confidence in spending curbs over tax hikes — giving the economy a shot of badly-needed confidence.

You may read DeRugy’s full column at http://washingtonexaminer.com/give-spending-cuts-a-chance/article/2513583#.UKf-GYWXKGg.

Originally posted at the Libertarian National Campaign Committee.

The United States are 'center-libertarian'

The conventional wisdom has long held the United States are a “center-right” nation.
But the results of last weeks elections are challenging that notion.

“After 32 straight losses for same-sex wedding laws, four states approved marriage-equality proposals last week. Two other states legalized marijuana for recreational purposes. Wisconsin elected the first openly homosexual U.S. senator in history, Tammy Baldwin,” The Los Angeles Times reports.

“But Americans appear to remain more receptive to conservative viewpoints on spending, debt and the size of government. A bare majority, 51%, of voters last Tuesday told exit pollsters that government should do less, with 43% saying it should do more.”

The Times comes to a promising conclusion:

“A more precise verdict would be that the majority of the country remains slightly right of center when it comes to supporting lower spending, decreased debt and smaller government.  But America appears to have shifted left of center in allowing more liberal policies on drugs and the institution of marriage. So, left on social issues and right on economics. If you eliminated the desire to tax the rich, it would sound like we had a center-libertarian nation.”

Obama announces new environmentalist attacks on the economy



President Barack Obama is so committed to the Gang Green agenda he held his first press conference in eight months to announce he would seek new job-killing limits on the amount of harmless carbon dioxide power plants produce.

"(E)nvironmentalists are hopeful that Obama will fashion a muscular agenda through existing administrative powers, such as expanding on rules that the Environmental Protection Agency has begun rolling out," The Hill reports.

"EPA has already floated draft carbon standards for new power plants, and a second-term agenda could include standards for existing plants, and regulations that address other large emitters."

Obama's dangerous anti-prosperity agenda is why American Tradition Partnership is seeking a roll call vote on the REINS Act, a common sense reform requiring any proposed federal regulation costing more than $100 million to be approved by Congress and signed by the President before it may be enacted.

Attack your opponent early - and often


This spring the Obama campaign was at a crossroads.

They had expected to be flush with cash pumped in by the online fundraising machine that helped Obama shatter fundraising records in 2008.

They had expected Mitt Romney to emerge from the Republican primaries irreparably damaged — defined in the minds of voters as an out-of-touch “vulture capitalist” who couldn’t relate to average voters.

Instead the Obama campaign was nearly broke, and most voters still hadn’t made up their mind just who Mitt Romney was.

Rather than wait, Obama and adviser David Axelrod went all in, gambling the campaign’s money on an early onslaught of attack ads that caught the Romney campaign by surprise.

Romney failed to react, eventually costing him the election as he was unable to shake the caricature the Obama campaign had painted of him.

You should do the same.

Don’t hesitate to attack your opponent.

In fact, relish it.

Voters may say they hate “negative advertising” but consultants keep doing it for one reason — it works.

And if your opponent has voted to raise taxes, explode spending, waste public funds, engage in unethical official behavior or other things that disqualify him in your mind, voters have a right it know that.

The earlier you bring it up, the better your odds will be of knocking him back on his heels.

That’s not to say you should call your opponent names, mock his or her physical appearance or bring up issues about his or her marriage or family.

Those are personal attacks.  And they often end up damaging you and helping your opponent.

Voters have a right to know why you are the best candidate, as well as why your opponent does not deserve to be in public office.

Attack your opponent early.

Attack your opponent often.

Attack your opponent with enthusiasm.

Most importantly, stick to the issues and make your attacks credible, believable and fully researched and documented.

My rule is “if Grandma would hate what I said more than what he did, don’t do it.”

Our freedom wasn’t won by people playing nice and sitting around a table “debating” each other.

Freedom must be fought for, and that’s how we will win it back.

How Obama did it

No President had ever won re-election with unemployment over eight percent.

But Obama coasted to a re-election victory last week.

How did he do it?

Simple.  As a former community organizer the Obama White House understands voter identification and mobilization like no other.

They understand you don’t need a majority of the people behind you to win — all you need is to get more people to the polls than the other guy.

That starts with identifying everyone who supports you.  The Obama campaign made that priority number one.

“Obama’s campaign probably spent $200 million to $250 million — a quarter of every dollar collected — to create a state-of-the-art voting profiling operation that allowed it to more accurately assess the electorate than standard polling,” POLITICO reports.

“Like generals with good intelligence, Obama campaign officials could move resources quickly around the battlefield — like the late deployment of volunteers to critical Cuyahoga County in Ohio.”

As he laid out in his 2005 book, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe took simple neighborhood-level political organizing and replicated it by an exponent of thousands to carry Obama to two historic election wins.

According to Obama adviser Jim Messina one Columbus, Ohio woman told him: “I know everybody in my neighborhood — the ones that will always vote, the ones who don’t — and what it takes to get them to vote,” the woman, a committed Obama volunteer since 2007, told him. She added, with a chuckle: “They just shipped in a Romney staffer a couple of weeks ago. … Who do you think is going to win around here?”

Do you know your neighborhood?

House will vote on overturning environmentalist ban on inhalers for sick kids



“Republicans are expected to call up H.R. 6190, the Asthma Inhalers Relief Act, on Tuesday. The bill would allow the sale of about 1 million remaining Primatene Mist inhalers, despite a ban on the sale of this product since the end of 2011,” The Hill reports.

“Primatene Mist had been used by asthma sufferers for decades, but it was banned under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, and also the Clean Air Act…The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the bill by voice vote in August and said passage would allow the remaining 1 million inhalers to be sold.”

Since House rules must be suspended to bring up the bill, a two-thirds majority is needed to pass.

According to the Asthma and Allergy foundation asthma accounts for one-quarter of all emergency room visits in the U.S. each year, with 1.75 million emergency room visits.

There are more than 3,300 deaths due to asthma each year and asthma is indicated as “contributing factor” for nearly 7,000 other deaths each year.  Environmentalists still banned inhalers to treat attacks.

Democrat congressman whacks reporter in face during lecture on civility

Be sure to "like" this video on YouTube.  Democrats are trying to get YouTube to censor it.

In this video former Congressman Nick Lampson, the Democrat nominee for Congress in Texas' Fourteenth District, fields a question from a reporter on civility and tolerance. 

When the reporter asks Lampson if Democrats hold any responsibility for uncivil behavior Lampson says no, then slaps the camera back into the reporter's face.


Environmentalists illegally electioneering in Montana



Three "Gang Green" organizations, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), Montana Conservation Voters and the political action committee "Montana Hunters and Anglers Leadership Fund" are illegally electioneering for the Libertarian candidate in the state's U.S. Senate race, hoping to throw the election in favor of unpopular Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.)

“Jon Tester and his liberal allies realize that Tester cannot win this election on his own, so they have engaged in illegal, deceptive practices in a desperate attempt to trick conservative voters,” Montana Republican Party spokesman Chris Shipp said Wednesday as the group filed suit in federal court alleging the groups failed to disclose their activities.

As pretty much the only group in Montana that obeys the law, ATP offers cash rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Montana officials.

"The Montana GOP cited the PAC’s recent $146,358 mailing expense and a previous $410,000 contribution from LCV to the PAC as the basis for its complaint. It also noted the Hunters and Anglers PAC has ties to Tester and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.)," The Hill reports.