The Senate’s Secret Santa Agenda

Heritage  "According to Gallup, only 31 percent of Americans believe the best approach for dealing with the economy is raising taxes. The vast majority of Americans (62 percent) believe that the best way to fix the economy is either through deficit reduction (39 percent) or lower taxes (23 percent). But neither of those items is on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D–NV) agenda.
"So what legislative gifts is Reid planning on giving the American people this Christmas? No one knows for sure, but Reid’s wish list is long."
Hat tip to Rush Limbaugh.

That Israeli Fire

First Foreign Planes Arrive in Israel to Help Put Out Fires That Killed 41  "Firefighters are still trying to contain the blaze, which police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said was the worst in Israel’s history. Most of the 41 confirmed dead were killed yesterday in a bus carrying prison guards on their way to help evacuate a prison endangered by the flames, Rosenfeld said."

Haaretz photo

Two arson suspects apprehended in Carmel forest     "The suspects were allegedly attempting to rekindle a fire in the forest with the use of Molotov cocktails." Jerusalem Post

Carmel inferno proves Israel can't afford war with Iran  "Just like Israel's army in the 1973 Yom Kippur war, the emergency services were wholly unprepared to handle a shock on this scale."
Article and photo from Haaretz

Scotland Yard Will Arrest Assange Friday

Verum Serum  "Scotland Yard detectives were last night preparing to detain the 39-year-old over claims of rape and sexual assault in Sweden."

http://townhall.com/cartoons/cartoonist/ChipBok
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Wikileaks, The Facts: Part I  "Israeli officials told American government officials:

•Israel is not in a position to underestimate Iran and be surprised like the United States was on 9/11.

•Israel and the United States need to do more to create regime change in Iran.

•IDF operations against Hamas in the West Bank are preventing the terrorist group from taking over the Fatah-controlled territory.

•Israel tried to coordinate Operation Cast Lead with Abu Mazen and Hosni Mubarak."

Wikileaks, The Responsibility: Part II  "Crazy? Maybe. Self-serving? Definitely. Manning says he is talking to Lamo because he "needs to try and figure out how I could get my side of the story out... before everything was twisted around to make me look like Nidal Hassan." He doesn't have to be Nidal Hassan; being Bradley Manning is damning enough.
There is so much more to this story. Who thinks the government will go after all of it - including the hardware, software and, most important, human lapses in the Department of Defense - and who thinks it will just try to hang Manning from the nearest tree?"
Parts 1 and 2 from The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs



Politico photo

Sen. Jim DeMint  "Many of us have been concerned that the START Treaty would weaken our national security, and recent revelations of previously undisclosed talks with Russia on missile defense and movement of Russian tactical nuclear warheads only raise more questions that must be answered. I’ve asked for the full negotiating records, as have been provided to the Senate on previous treaties, but the Obama administration has continually denied that request and promised that missile defense was never part of the negotiations with Russia. But we have now learned that the State Department did in fact meet with Russia to specifically discuss missile defense, after months of denying these discussions ever took place."

Obama & Co., Growing Up Fast

Victor Davis Hanson  "Obama and his EU counterparts are learning that high-minded adolescence makes for bad governance. But it’s an expensive lesson." Emphasis added because I love the term "high-minded" adolescent. Hail to our chief.
...."Behind the recent news of massive debt, looming defaults, WikiLeaks, the administration’s about-face in the war on terror, and the implosion of the European Union is a reminder that progressivism, at least as it operates today, is a sort of high-minded adolescence, as sophisticated in faculty-lounge repartee as it is near-suicidal in its actual implementation." And on most TV talk shows, I might add.

Wave goodbye to Internet freedom

Washington Times  "The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is poised to add the Internet to its portfolio of regulated industries. The agency's chairman, Julius Genachowski, announced Wednesday that he circulated draft rules he says will "preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet." No statement could better reflect the gulf between the rhetoric and the reality of Obama administration policies."  Via Drudge

Pray for Israel: Deadliest Fire in History, Netanyahu Describes as a “Catastrophe the likes of which we have never known”

Atlas Shrugs  "Northern Israel was in a state of emergency on Thursday night as the deadliest fire in Israel’s history, in the Carmel Forest near Haifa, brought life to a halt in communities near the blaze. As the blazing fire, which started running wild on Thursday (Dec. 2) afternoon, continued spreading in the Carmel Forest near Haifa (northern Israel) annihilating over 750 acres, a bus carrying as many as 50 passengers overturned en route between kibbutz Beit Oren and Damon Prison, allegedly after the driver lost control of the vehicle because of the fire and surrounding smoke. 40 people have been killed and ten were injured. There are reports that Carmel Hospital may have to be evacuated."
Fires started in three separate locations simultaneously. Jihadists will never let these people live in peace.

How to Beat Customer Service Phone Support

Popular Mechanics  "Hate waiting on hold for tech support and customer service? Here are the essential tips for getting past those incredibly annoying delays—and talking to an actual person."....

...."Another trick: If you are asked to "press 1 for English" or "2 for Spanish," press "2." The wait for Spanish operators is usually far shorter, and they are almost always bilingual, in case somebody accidentally presses the wrong button."

THE ANTI-CHRISTMAS NONSENSE

Neal Boortz  "It really doesn't matter whether your impact is positive or negative ... just so you get noticed? Just so you can say to your friends "Hey! I did that! I'm the one that got "Christmas" replaced on that sign!" Just think ... after centuries of celebrating Christmas YOU come along and managed to get the word banned somewhere! Wow! You're really something, aren't you?

"Ignore these cretins. And don't give me that "Happy Holiday's" stuff. It's Christmas ... always has been, still is. "
Art from Watton.org

Putin bullies hapless Obama to force Senate to ratify new START treaty (Updated)

Phil Boehmke  "Mr. Putin explained to Larry King that ratifying the new START treaty would be in the United States best interest and that failing to do so would be “very dumb.” Maybe it’s just me, but hearing Vladimir Putin tell us that ratifying the treaty is in our best interests does not assuage any of my concerns. If the treaty was really in our best interests, why would Mr. Putin feel compelled to threaten us with a ramped-up arms race is we don’t accept it?"

Don’t Rush New START    "The Obama administration is desperate to secure Senate ratification while the GOP caucus has 42 members (its current size), as opposed to 47 (its size as of January 3). A more Republican Senate means more White House concessions to Jon Kyl and other skeptics of the nuclear deal. Hence the aggressive effort to cajole Republicans into passing the treaty before they leave town for Christmas*. And hence the media-assisted campaign to demonize New START critics as baleful obstructionists motivated by raw partisanship."  National Review
* TW apologizes for our failure to change the word C-------- to "holidays". That just slipped by us.

Will Comcast Destroy Net Neutrality?

Slate  "If you've followed this argument so far, you deserve a medal. For everyone else, don't worry: This is how network neutrality fights go. When you click to watch a streaming movie, you imagine that the path from Netflix to your home computer is relatively straightforward. What actually happens, though, involves a patchwork of regulation, custom, and long-standing formal and informal deals about how the Internet should work. The problem is that the Internet continues to evolve, and nobody—not content providers like Netflix, network companies like Level 3, ISPs like Comcast, or perhaps especially regulators and lawmakers—know what it's going to look like in the future.
"The upshot? Kiss network neutrality goodbye. Not the idea—just the push for tough regulation."

What is Net Neutrality? From the comments to this article: "The government regulated "leveled playing field" results in shared suffering. Such would be the case for neutrality - more control, less quality, less freedom, resulting in less access due to less competition. Same liberal philosophies, same results. "....
"I can understand where the enforcement of net neutrality may seem to be an attractive prospect, but it will be the FCC which is enforcing it. If you believe that the government will do what is ethically correct - go for it. But, if you believe that the web, as we know it, has survived this long, with freedom for us all - as far as we know - without government interference, then this probably isn't going to be in our best interests.
"I suspect the very motives for the government wanting to get involved."

FCC still flogging net neutrality  "Do we really want regulators in the name of neutrality determining which apps should be available on the iPad? How fair it is that Kindle has fast book downloads? Should the FCC decide how many Facebook friends are too many? It's not even clear what net neutrality means in the context of these services.
"U.S. politicians and regulators would be better off focusing on ways to increase competition on the Internet-not looking for new ways to regulate it.

'Permitorium' will restrict production, force gas prices up

Washington Examiner "Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell says he is “extremely disappointed” with the Obama administration for blocking development of significant oil and natural gas deposits off the coast of Virginia over the next seven years in the wake of the BP oil spill.
"The Eastern Gulf of Mexico and the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts were declared off-limits to drilling by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who said Wednesday that his department will delay two lease sales planned for next year in order to conduct environmental impact studies."