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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (103700)4/27/2011 8:00:20 PM
From: TideGlider  Respond to of 224749
 
Oil supply determines the market price. OPEC does not. They determine how much they will increase or decrease their supply, but most members cheat and produce more.

If we produced more in the states the market price of oil would go down. You and you ilk have been saying for many years, that the supply wouldn't increase for years with new drilling. That is correct, but how many years have you and your pathetic ilk stalled new drilling? Much would be on line now.



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (103700)4/27/2011 8:24:11 PM
From: Hope Praytochange3 Recommendations  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 224749
 
Robert J. Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, said the union would fight the legislation “to the bitter end.” (M. McDonald for The Boston Globe

boston.com



House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly last night to strip police officers, teachers, and other municipal employees of most of their rights to bargain over health care, saying the change would save millions of dollars for financially strapped cities and towns. The 111-to-42 vote followed tougher measures to broadly eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees in Ohio, Wisconsin, and other states. But unlike those efforts, the push in Massachusetts was led by Democrats who have traditionally stood with labor to oppose any reduction in workers’ rights.

Unions fought hard to stop the bill, launching a radio ad that assailed the plan and warning legislators that if they voted for the measure, they could lose their union backing in the next election. After the vote, labor leaders accused House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and other Democrats of turning their backs on public employees.

“It’s pretty stunning,’’ said Robert J. Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. “These are the same Democrats that all these labor unions elected. The same Democrats who we contributed to in their campaigns. The same Democrats who tell us over and over again that they’re with us, that they believe in collective bargaining, that they believe in unions. . . . It’s a done deal for our relationship with the people inside that chamber.’’

“We are going to fight this thing to the bitter end,’’ he added. “Massachusetts is not the place that takes collective bargaining away from public employees.’’

The battle now turns to the Senate, where President Therese Murray has indicated that she is reluctant to strip workers of their right to bargain over their health care plans.

DeLeo said the House measure would save $100 million for cities and towns in the upcoming budget year, helping them avoid layoffs and reductions in services. He called his plan one of the most significant reforms the state can adopt to help control escalating health care costs.

“By spending less on the health care costs of municipal employees, our cities and towns will be able to retain jobs and allot more funding to necessary services like education and public safety,’’ he said in a statement.

Last night, as union leaders lobbied against the plan, DeLeo offered two concessions intended to shore up support from wavering legislators.

The first concession gives public employees 30 days to discuss changes to their health plans with local officials, instead of allowing the officials to act without any input from union members. But local officials would still, at the end of that period, be able to impose their changes unilaterally.

The second concession gives union members 20 percent of the savings from any health care changes for one year, if the unions object to changes imposed by local officials. The original bill gave the unions 10 percent of the savings for one year. The modifications bring the House bill closer to a plan introduced by Governor Deval Patrick in January. The governor, like Murray, has said he wants workers to have some say in altering their health plans, but does not want unions to have the power to block changes.

·House votes to limit
bargaining on health care

·Curb on use of
welfare cash OK’d

·On Lawrence streets,
frustration over mayor

·Khazei announces Senate run,
saying he’ll fight interest groups

But union leaders said that even with the last-minute concessions, the bill was an assault on workers’ rights, unthinkable in a state that has long been a bastion of union support. Some Democrats accused DeLeo of following the lead of Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and other Republicans who have targeted public employee benefits. “In the bigger world out there, this fits into a very bad movement to disempower labor unions,’’ said Representative Denise Provost, a Somerville Democrat who opposed the bill.

Under the legislation, mayors and other local officials would be given unfettered authority to set copayments and deductibles for their employees, after the 30-day discussion period with unions. Only the share of premiums paid by employees would remain on the health care bargaining table.

Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, said that, even if the bill becomes law, municipal workers would still have more bargaining power over their health care plans than state employees. “It’s a fair, balanced, strong, effective and meaningful reform,’’ he said.

Unions lobbied to derail the speaker’s plan in favor of a labor-backed proposal that would preserve collective bargaining, and would let an arbitrator decide changes to employee health plans if local officials and unions deadlock after 45 days. Labor leaders initially persuaded 50 lawmakers, including six members of DeLeo’s leadership team, to back their plan last week. But DeLeo peeled off some of the labor support in the final vote.

Representative Martin J. Walsh, a Dorchester Democrat who is secretary-treasurer of the Boston Building Trades Council, led the fight against the speaker’s plan. In a speech that was more wistful than angry, he recalled growing up in a union household that had health care benefits generous enough to help him overcome cancer in 1974. He said collective bargaining rights helped build the middle class.

“Municipal workers aren’t the bad guys here,’’ he said. “They’re not the ones who caused the financial crisis. Banks and investment companies got a slap on the wrist for their wrongdoing, but public employees are losing their benefits.’’

The timing of the vote was significant. Union leaders plan today to unleash a major lobbying blitz with police officers, firefighters, and other workers flooding the State House. Taking the vote last night at 11:30 allowed lawmakers to avoid a potentially tense confrontation with those workers, and vote when the marble halls of the House were all but empty.



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (103700)4/27/2011 8:47:31 PM
From: TimF2 Recommendations  Respond to of 224749
 
1 - Energy goes beyond just oil.

2 - I said it is best left to the free market, not that it was.

3 - OPEC has less control over oil prices than most people think. In a few cases it has seriously jacked up the price, but that tends to result in a lower price later. If it tried to do the same now, it likely would not be able to, countries would cheat at their quotas, they rely on the income from oil sales too much to want to produce much less of it.

4 - Even if OPEC was a pure and total monopoly (which its not, it doesn't even in theory control all supply, and the individual OPEC members control the supply from the OPEC countries), there is still the issue of whether or not to leave purchases up to the free market. Trying to impose some heavy handed central government control of the oil market, or the markets for energy in general isn't justified by the existence of OPEC.



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (103700)4/28/2011 8:25:39 AM
From: JakeStraw5 Recommendations  Respond to of 224749
 
Obama's Millionaire Obsession
online.wsj.com

The president has no understanding of the unique role wealth plays in American life.

It suggests that Mr. Obama has not much more understanding beyond an undergraduate seminar on "Class in America" of the complex and unique role wealth has played in American life. Since the Pilgrims, no nation has seen more wealth flow back from those who earned it into the welfare of the nation they inhabit.

It becomes clearer by the day that Barack Obama's worldview is that if money isn't spent by the federal government, it's somehow irrelevant.



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (103700)4/28/2011 8:36:07 AM
From: TideGlider2 Recommendations  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 224749
 
DATA SNAP:US Jobless Claims +25K To 429K Last Wk; Survey -8KLast update: 4/28/2011 8:30:00 AM
By Jeffrey Sparshott and Andrew Ackerman
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The number of idled U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly jumped last week, the latest sign that the labor market remains weak. Initial jobless claims increased by 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 429,000 in the week ended April 23, the Labor Department said Thursday in its weekly report. The prior week's figure was revised to 404,000 from an originally reported 403,000. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast claims would fall by 8,000 in the latest week. The four-week moving average of new claims, considered a more reliable indicator because it smoothes out volatile weekly data, rose by 9,250 to 408,500 in the week ending April 23. That is the first time the average has risen above 400,000 since the week ending Feb. 19. Economists generally estimate that the economy is adding more jobs than it is shedding once the weekly claims figure falls below 400,000. So far this year, new claims have hovered around that number. The unemployment rate, while down markedly from last year, remained elevated at 8.8% in March. A weak jobs market undermines consumer confidence and consumer spending--a main driver of the U.S. economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Wednesday said recent improvement in the labor market is encouraging and appears sustainable, though the pace of job creation "is still quite slow and we are digging ourselves out of a very, very deep hole." Total non-farm employment last month was about 7.26 million less than the January 2008 peak, according to Labor Department data. "So clearly, the fact that we are moving in the right direction even though that's encouraging doesn't mean that the labor market is in good shape," Bernanke added. The Labor Department said in Thursday's report that the number of continuing claims--those drawn by workers for more than a week--fell by 68,000 to 3,641,000 in the week ended April 16. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag. The unemployment rate for workers with unemployment insurance was 2.9% in the week ending April 16, compared to 3.0% a week earlier. The state-by-state breakdown of new claims, which is also reported with a one-week lag, showed California with 18,017 fewer jobless claims due to a drop in layoffs in the service industry, the largest decrease among all states. Florida had the biggest increase, 2,753, due to layoffs in the construction, trade and service industries, as well as adjustments related to the new fiscal quarter. The Labor Department report on jobless claims can be accessed at: dol.gov -By Jeffrey Sparshott and Andrew Ackerman; Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9291; jeffrey.sparshott@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones NewswiresApril 28, 2011 08:30 ET (12:30 GMT)



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (103700)4/28/2011 9:37:02 AM
From: TideGlider  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 224749
 
Price Change
EUR/USD 1.4800 + 0.0027



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (103700)4/28/2011 10:02:42 AM
From: lorne9 Recommendations  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 224749
 
Obama challengers: Doc proves president ineligible
'They are going to have to face the music on this at some point'
April 27, 2011
By Bob Unruh
© 2011 WorldNetDaily
wnd.com


The "Certificate of Live Birth" document released by the White House today, if authentic, assures Americans that their president was born in Hawaii as he has said, according to two participants in a lawsuit who challenged the president's tenure in the Oval Office.

But they say it also proves he's ineligible under the Constitution's requirements to be president.


According to Mario Apuzzo, the attorney who argued the Kerchner vs. Obama case, and the lead plaintiff, retired Navy Cmdr. Charles Kerchner, the documentation reveals that Barack Obama Sr., a Kenyan national subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom, was the father when Barack Obama Jr. was born.

That, they say, would disqualify Obama because of the Founders' requirement in the Constitution that a president be a "natural born Citizen," commonly understood during the era of the beginnings of the United States to mean a citizen offspring of two citizen parents.

The Kerchner vs. Obama case, as have some others, challenged Obama on two grounds: that he had not proven his U.S. birth and that even if that was documented, he stilled needed to meet the requirements of being a "natural born Citizen."

Be the first to get the new eligibility book signed by Jerome Corsi and help get TV commercials on the air to bust this issue wide open!

That's in Article 2, Section,1, which states, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."

"They are going to have to face the music on this at some point," said Kerchner, whose allegations never were decided on their merits after the courts created a roadblock by determining Americans don't have "standing" to demand the Constitution's requirements be followed.

Attorney Mario Apuzzo agreed.

"Assuming that it's valid, that he's born in Hawaii," he said, "It confirms who his father was. His father was not a citizen."

What the president released:

Image released by the White House April 27, 2011

He said in American jurisprudence "there is not one case that says being born to an alien parent creates a natural born citizen."

But Apuzzo said the White House simply wants to ignore the Constitution's demand.

"It doesn't say born," he said. "They want to steamroll over 'natural born.'"

He said the problem, however, is getting a court to decide the dispute he raised. The seven or eight dozen cases brought so far largely have been turned back without a review of their actual merits.

Courts decided that plaintiffs don't have "standing," or an injury or possible injury from a violation of the U.S. Constitution, so the cases are thrown out.

Apuzzo said, however, with the flood of state proposals being considered at the legislative level, at some point a law specifically will give a plaintiff standing, and then a dispute could be argued in the state courts.

Kerchner also said it is inevitable that the courts will have to make a ruling on the arguments.

"The legal definition of the legal term of art will have to be litigated because of all the confusion that Obama and the Progressive/Socialists have introduced into that term," he told WND. "It will take a Supreme Court decision, a congressional investigation and hearing under oath, or both, to settle it. I gave the Congress the chance and asked for congressional investigations. They ignored me. I sue[d] Obama and the Congress and the courts ducked the issue. But they are going to have to face the music on this at some point."

He's been involved in a series of ads that have run over the dispute:

They quote Vattel's 1758 "The Law of Nations," a document used widely by the American Founders, where it states in Vol. 1, Ch. 19, Section 212: "natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens."

His organization, ProtectOurLiberty.org, also explains that under the British Nationality Act of 1948, when Obama was born in 1961 he was a British subject.

The goal, according to Apuzzo, was to avoid a president with divided loyalties – to America and to another nation to which his father or mother owed loyalty.

"This unity of jus soli (soil) and jus sanguinis (descent) at the time of birth assure that one is born with sole natural allegiance (obligation of fidelity and obedience to government in consideration for protection that government gives)," the organization explains.

"Our Constitution requires unity of U.S. citizenship and sole natural allegiance from birth only for the president and commander in chief of the military, given the unique nature of the position, a position that empowers one person to make decisions for our national survival. It is required of the president because such a status gives the American people the best chance that a would-be president will not have any foreign influences which because of conflict of conscience can most certainly taint his/her critical decisions made when leading the nation.

"The Founding Fathers emphasized that, for the sake of the survival of the constitutional Republic, the office of president and commander in chief of the military be free of foreign influence and intrigue. It is the 'natural born Citizen' clause that gives the American people the best chance to keep it that way."

The U.S. Supreme Court effectively killed the Kerchner case when it was before the justices with one terse statement: "The motion of Western Center for Journalism for leave to file a brief as amicus curiae is granted. The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied."

Apuzzo said his clients were hurt by the court's ruling, as was Obama.

"This decision did not help Mr. Obama," Apuzzo said at the time. "It did not bring legitimacy to his office. Mr. Obama does not have legitimacy of office by the court or by the consensus of the nation, because many people question whether he is a natural born citizen. How does our nation go forward with this kind of result?"

"This matter should have been addressed by the media and political parties early in the spring of 2008 during the primaries. It wasn't," wrote Kerchner when the case was developing. "Congress should have addressed this when asked and when constitutionally it was required to. It didn't. The courts should have addressed the merits of the questions when appealed to early on. They didn't. Everyone in our system of government chose appeasement over confrontation and punted the ball to someone else."

"Now it is far worse," Kerchner continued. "The Supreme Court has chosen appeasement and inaction over action and dealing with the issue and questions openly in a court of law under the rules of evidence and law. Our constitutional republic and legal system is now compromised and broken."

Apuzzo's commented that the new release from Obama proves his ineligibility because before that, there had been assumptions about the identity of his father. There had been statements that Barack Obama Sr., who returned to Kenya to his first wife after abandoning Obama's mother and his son, was the father, but no documentation to affirm that.

At the time the case was rejected, Apuzzo warned, "If he runs again in 2012, people will want to know. … The issue is not going away. … You're going to have a lot of states that are going to be on this, they will want to see that birth certificate."

In fact, lawmakers in Oklahoma are scheduled to vote within a day or two on a proposal that would require verification of eligibility for candidates on the state's ballot.

Lawmakers in Arizona earlier adopted a requirement, but it was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer. Other states with pending plans include Pennsylvania and Louisiana.