2011 OSCARS: The weakest field in recent history?

The fact they could only get nine films for best picture Oscar instead of the bloated 10 says a lot about the quality of the movies over the last year. I like the Artist but come on, this is Hollywood loving Hollywood and going gaga over a film that went back in history to seem "cool" to baby boomers and hipsters. Nothing about the nominations make this show a must watch event.

Obama lying about boosting domestic energy production.

Via Instapundit the detailed rebuttal even though the casual observer had to do a double take considering how Obama and his EPA have done everything they can to destroy domestic production of gas and oil, Obama stopping the Keystone pipeline, banning drilling off the coasts and damaging oil production in the gulf.


But that is Obama's MO which is to throw out number, depend on the media not to call him on it while making people thinking he is actually doing the opposite.

Indiana becoming a right to work state, Dems and union thugs protest and flee

If the unions were so confident in their awesomeness of being unions, why protest the right of people to not join a union?

With Republican-controlled Indiana on the verge of becoming a “right to work” state, Democrats in the State House on Tuesday took the only step they have left to prevent it, if only for a bit longer. They disappeared. Again.

A final vote on the measure, which would ban union contracts from requiring nonunion members to pay fees for representation, had been expected on Tuesday in the House, which Republicans dominate 60 to 40. But with scores of union members and supporters filling the Statehouse halls in Indianapolis in protest, most Democrats refused to turn up for floor sessions — not once but twice on Tuesday afternoon.

The absences, only the latest in a series of absences and fierce partisan debate over the issue during the state’s legislative session, meant Republicans did not have enough members on the floor to do business; 67 representatives are required.

And so, with the national spotlight soon to descend on Indianapolis for the Super Bowl and with the tense standoff only rising among lawmakers and protesters, Indiana finds itself at the center of a fight over the role of unions and their power, not unlike the issues that boiled over last year in Ohio and Wisconsin.

Republicans say the right to work legislation would allow workers who do not wish to support unions not to be forced to and would entice new businesses to move to Indiana, which would be the first state in more than a decade to approve such a provision. Democrats say the measure, more common in states outside the traditional Midwestern manufacturing belt, would weaken unions and lead to lower pay and benefits for workers.

Obama's big government interference is here and Margaret Thatcher's reponse

Typical Obama big liberal government to "bridge" the wealth gap nonsense by dragging down those who he deems successful to give to those he feels had a life that is just not fair.

President Obama pledged on Tuesday night to use government power to balance the scale between America’s rich and the rest of the public, trying to present an election-year choice between continued leadership toward an economy “built to last” and what he called irresponsible policies of the past that caused an economic collapse.

Declaring that “we’ve come too far to turn back now,” the president used his final State of the Union address before he faces the voters to showcase the extent to which he will try to contrast his core economic principles with those of his Republican rivals in a time of deep economic uncertainty. While many Americans remain disappointed with the state of the economy and the president’s handling of it, Mr. Obama nonetheless tried to bring into relief the difference between where the country was when he took over and where it is now.

“The state of our union is getting stronger,” he declared in time-honored tradition. “In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs.” He pointed to renewed hiring by American manufacturers and — borrowing the “built to last” phrase from the auto industry he helped save — he sketched out, albeit vaguely, what he called a blueprint for economic growth in which the wealthy play by the same rules as ordinary Americans.

Republicans challenged Mr. Obama’s assessment of the economy, and asserted that his policies had made the situation worse. But with their own poll numbers diving, Congressional Republicans were subdued in their response to the speech, careful not to boo or seem disrespectful. And the president disputed their claim that he was practicing the politics of division.

“You can call this class warfare all you want,” Mr. Obama said of his call to create a more even economic playing field. “Most Americans would call that common sense.” He characterized the choice as one between whether “a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number of Americans barely get by” or his own vision — “where everyone gets a fair shot.”

Thatcher's response ;)

Jon Stewart disingenuous bullshit "rage" over Mitt Romney's tax return.

Jon Stewart makes about $15 million a year and worth about $80 million, he has to have investments and he gets money from those investments at the same sort of rate that Romney who is making his income from investments.

So to be "outraged" by comparing the tax rate of a guy working at TSA on his income means Jon Stewart is a liar or just stupid.

Obama admin call to stop deportations to Haiti leads to three murders in Miami.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are more cases like this in America where good intentions leads to scum like this to stay here.

When burglar Kesler Dufrene became a twice-convicted felon in 2006, a Bradenton judge shipped him to prison for five years. And because of his convictions, an immigration judge ordered Dufrene deported to his native Haiti.

That never happened.

Instead, when Dufrene’s state prison term was up, Miami immigration authorities in October 2010 released him from custody. Two months later, North Miami police say, he slaughtered three people, including a 15-year-old girl in a murder case that remains as baffling today as it did the afternoon the bodies were discovered.

DNA on a rifle found inside the house and cellphone tracking technology later linked Dufrene to the Jan. 2, 2011, slayings.

But North Miami detectives never got to interrogate him. Just 18 days after the murders, Dufrene shot and killed himself when he was cornered by Manatee County sheriff’s deputies in Bradenton after an unrelated break-in and shooting there.

The episode is a black eye for U.S. authorities, who by law could not detain Dufrene indefinitely after the Obama administration ordered a temporary halt of deportations to the island nation. The deportations were halted because of the carnage wrought by Haiti’s January 2010 earthquake.

“Because of the moratorium on removals to Haiti in effect when Dufrene came into ICE custody, his removal to Haiti was not likely in the reasonably foreseeable future,” an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman said in a statement Friday.

Obama to push for big government intervention into America's lives

Just say you want full on socialism and get it over with already.

President Obama will use his election-year State of the Union address on Tuesday to argue that it is government’s role to promote a prosperous and equitable society, drawing a stark contrast between the parties in a time of deep economic uncertainty.

In a video preview e-mailed to millions of supporters on Saturday, as South Carolina Republicans went to the polls to help pick an alternative to him, Mr. Obama promised a populist “blueprint for an American economy that’s built to last,” with the government assisting the private sector and individuals to ensure “an America where everybody gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everybody plays by the same set of rules.”

Mr. Obama has honed that message for months as he has attacked Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail, contrasting it with what he has described as Republicans’ “go it alone” free-market views.

Last week at fund-raisers in New York, he told supporters that his push for a government hand had a precedent dating to the construction of canals and interstate highways, and the creation of land-grant colleges and the G.I. Bill. He said that Republicans had moved so far to the right that 2012 will be a “hugely consequential election.”

Notably, Mr. Obama will again propose changes to the tax code so the wealthy pay more, despite Republicans’ consistent opposition. Americans overwhelmingly support the idea, polls show, and the White House hopes that it gains traction with voters, given last week’s acknowledgment by the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney that he pays taxes at a lower rate than many middle-class Americans because most of his income comes from investments.

With most Americans registering disapproval of the president’s economic record after three years, it is all the more imperative for Mr. Obama to define the election not as a referendum on him but as a choice between his vision and that of his eventual Republican rival.

Obama orders free birth control for all.

It means everyone will pay more to cover birth control for everyone else and paying for those who are already getting free healthcare paid by taxpayers.

Most healthcare plans will be required to cover birth control without charging co-pays or deductibles starting Aug. 1, the Obama administration announced Friday.

The final regulation retains the approach federal health officials proposed last summer, despite the deluge of complaints from religious groups and congressional Republicans that has poured in since then. Churches, synagogues and other houses of worship are exempt from the requirement, but religious-affiliated hospitals and universities only get a one-year delay and must comply by Aug. 1, 2013.

Jay-Z’s 40/40 club shut down for hours just after opening by health inspectors.

Not the best reopening day ever.

Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club was shut down for a slew of health-code violations just a day after its celebrity-drenched $10 million relaunch — and now it faces a dreaded “C” grade, The Post has learned.

An inspector found perishable food at dangerously warm temperatures inside the walk-in refrigerator and discovered “hot” food left out on the counter on Thursday, Health Department sources said.

A worker was also seen mixing salsa with his bare hands.

The refrigerator was at a rancid 60 degrees instead of 41 — jeopardizing the safety of 50 pounds of raw chicken wings, five pounds of raw shrimp and 100 turkey burgers, the sources said.

Five pounds of cooked mashed potatoes, meanwhile, were left out at a temperature of 89 degrees, while 10 pounds of cooked rice and 50 turkey burgers were kept at 67 degrees.

All the hot foods should be at least 140 degrees, the sources said.

The club’s restaurant was immediately closed, and new patrons were barred from entering. Those already inside were allowed to remain.

“If you have a walk-in place with food like this, you put a hell of a lot of people at risk,” said the source. “A night of dinner and dancing should not include the risk of contracting food-borne illness.”

The nightspot corrected the problem and was cleared for business last night.

Illinois now the lowest graded state in the nation by Moody.

Good to see all those tax hikes work wonders.

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Illinois had its general-obligation bond rating reduced by Moody's Investors Service to A2 from A1, making it the company's lowest-graded U.S. state.

The downgrade to the sixth-highest level came after a legislative session that "took no steps to implement lasting solutions to its severe pension under-funding or to its chronic bill payment delays," Moody's said in a report. Illinois, it said, has "weak management practices."

Moody's revised its outlook on the debt to stable from negative, citing the state's power over revenue and spending, and laws that establish the priority of payment for general- obligation bonds. The downgrade affects $32 billion of debt, according to the statement.

Barack Obama's Middle East Miscalculation

Less a miscalculation than being naive about the mideast. Egypt has gone from a dictatorship to a fundi Islam elected dictatorship.

The White House completely miscalculated in Egypt, as it did in Gaza. It seemed only to care for the mechanics of the electoral process rather than the meaning of the results. Washington vacillated on who its Egyptian allies really are. We had long shared with the Egyptian military understandings on national security, ours with an eye to maintaining peace in the region. That relationship is now pretty much lost.

Americans, in their perennial innocence, have demanded that the generals turn over power to the civilians whomever they may be, just as they did to the Persian shah, just as they did after Israel's pullout from Gaza when they hadn't a clue about the danger posed by Hamas. Our ingenuous attitude has been tantamount to handing over Egypt on a silver platter to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists, who ironically are coming into power as democrats.

Their new foreign policy will include opening the blockaded border with Gaza, ending normal relations with Israel, and opening them with Hamas and Iran in such a way as to alter the balance of power in the region against U.S. interests. Indeed, one of the few things that unites the political parties in Egypt is an anti-Western foreign policy. Cairo has already allowed Iran's warships to transit the Suez Canal; failed to protect pipelines supplying energy to Israel and Jordan; endorsed the union of Hamas and Fatah; and hosted conferences in support of "the resistance," that is, terrorism.

Greece creditors leave Athens without debt deal

Just let Greece default, its over for them. The longer this drags out the worse it is for everyone else.

Chief negotiators for Greece's private creditors left Athens unexpectedly on Saturday without a deal on a debt swap plan that is vital to avert a chaotic default, sources close to the negotiations told Reuters.

A technical team stayed in the Greek capital to work on details and negotiations will continue over the phone but it is unlikely that a deal can be clinched before a crucial meeting Monday of euro zone finance ministers, the sources said.

Following several rounds of talks from Wednesday to Friday, Greece and its private creditors, represented by Institute of International Finance chief Charles Dallara, are converging towards a deal in which private creditors will take a real loss of 65 to 70 percent.

The new bonds would feature 30-year maturity and a progressive interest rate averaging out at 4 percent, a banking official close to the talks told Reuters.

Confidence in eurozone improves despite downgrades

I don't know what confidence would improve when the problems are still there. I think they are in the denial stage.

France and Spain on Thursday sailed through their first bond market tests since Standard & Poor's downgraded their credit ratings last week, a sign that politicians and central bankers have at least temporarily stemmed the spread of Europe's debt crisis.

Worries about the 17-nation eurozone have receded since the start of the year, with stocks rallying consistently and bond yields — the rate countries pay to borrow — sliding.

Analysts warn, however, that those gains may simply be riding an absence of bad news — a looming recession could hinder efforts to slash deficits while Greece depends on a deal with banks to avoid a disastrous default this spring.

Spain and France held successful short-term debt auctions earlier in the week. Spain's success is at least partially thanks to the European Central Bank's massive injection of cheap money into the financial sector in December and its regular purchases of Spanish and Italian debt.

Microsoft "Avoid Ghetto" patent called racist! I call it awesome.

Only the truly stupid people like NAACP Dallas members are calling it racist because they say it stereotypes black people. Color and Crime are not joined at the hip. Just pointing out high crimes area where the majority happen to be black is not racist.

The fact the NAACP head Juanita Wallace equates this app to black areas she represents is racist because instead of acknowledging high crime problems and helping to fix it, she blames the app for future racism.

Everyone would love an app that help you avoid bad areas.

7 students charged for beating up 13 year old on Ocala school bus

Many angles to get at this story such as the media except for this site is not reporting on the racial angle since it was 7 black students beating up a white student. If it was reversed all hell would break loose.

Seven Marion County students face felony charges after a severe beating on a school bus that sent a 13-year-old girl to the hospital.

Zantavia Williams, 14, was among the students charged. The five girls and two boys all attended Liberty Middle School.

She said the beating happened Friday after a student got on the bus for the first time and was unfamiliar with the way students seated themselves. Black students normally sit in the back, white students in front. Williams said the student couldn't find a seat on the 16-row bus.

Marion County deputies said there were 74 students on board when the fight erupted. School officials said the bus has capacity for 89 students, if students sit three to a seat.

Williams said the victim, a white female, entered the back of the bus, and was told she would have to stand. Deputies said she was then hit by a shoe.

Williams said that's when the victim uttered a racial slur, and several black students began beating her.

Marion County Schools spokesman Kevin Christian said the bus driver did all he could to restore control on the bus.

He pulled over once, got the students to stop fighting, and then continued on his route. The fight then started again.

By the time authorities were called, the girl needed to be rushed to the hospital.