Is FCC Commissioner Michael Copps Trying to Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine?

Newsbusters  "What Copps fails to grasp is that "public value" is such a subjective term that it is almost unavoidable for political factors to play into a determination of whether or not certain content satisfies the definition. In other words, there is not official regulation of political speech, but such speech will almost surely be regulated indirectly."

Obama's Indian name: One Who Helps People Throughout the Land

USA Today  "The president also noted he signed a recent resolution acknowledging "broken promises and grave injustices against the First Americans.""

How to Fix Medicare: A New Vision for a Better Program

Heritage  "Medicare can be saved—but not by ever more burdensome government bureaucracy and micromanagement, such as prescribed by the misnamed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Patient choice and market competition, along with strong budget controls, are the keys to reforming Medicare so that it will be available to future generations. And for those looking for guarantees—this paper details five principles on which future Medicare enrollees should be able to count."

In Medicine, Money Matters: Real Health Care Reform Would Change Incentives  "...if you get the incentives right, most of the big problems will take care of themselves, leaving a far smaller and more tractable set of problems to be addressed through regulation, litigation, and benign neglect. But if you do not get the incentives right, no amount of speeches, op-eds, law review articles, whining and hectoring, moral preening, regulatory oversight, legislation, lawsuits, or lectures about fairness and justice can take their place."

Urgent - Call Your Senators Now on Don't Ask Don't Tell and DREAM Act votes

 Heritage   Just a few days ago, the Senate voted against beginning debate on a Defense Authorization bill that would repeal the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. The heads of the Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps disagreed with a Pentagon study that concludes that it would be just fine for Congress to repeal the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy.

Google images

Now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is at it again, having re-introduced the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell as a separate, stand alone bill.

Gen. James Amos, the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, has stated that the Marines he has talked to almost unanimously oppose repeal. General Amos says that this is about "unit cohesion, it's about combat effectiveness."
No policy change should be made that does not improve readiness, and it is clear that allowing open homosexuals to serve will have the opposite effect. It will weaken rather than strengthen our military.
With passage of the DREAM Act, Congress will grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, instead of insisting on the enforcement of immigration and border control laws already on the books.
Please call Senators Hutchison and Cornyn today and ask them to vote against the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and to vote against the DREAM Act.
Take Action!
Find your legislator's contact information here.

Conservative Blogs Central

Our “Pay No Attention to that Man Behind the Curtain” Moment

Victor Davis Hanson  "An Obama speech echoing boilerplate themes such as “there are no red states, there are no blue states” today simply could not be given — the laughing in the audience would be far too much. After Eric Holder’s “cowards” outburst, the beer summit, Van Jones, the slurs against Arizona, and the video appeals targeted at particular racial groups, the public takes for granted that a Rev. Wright, the clingers speech, “typical white person,” and Michelle’s angst ... were disturbing premonitions rather than rightwing racialist paranoias."

Oh my: No invite for Obama to British royal wedding

Hot Air  "Exit question: Deliberate omission by the royal family aimed at repaying Obama’s chilliness towards the UK, or simple pragmatism aimed at keeping this mega clusterfark of security concerns surrounding the wedding from becoming a super ultra mega clusterfark? Or could there be … another explanation?"

Royal Flush: Obamas Snubbed, Not invited to Prince William's wedding  "Uninvited: Royal sources have revealed that President Obama and his wife Michelle are not going to be invited to the Royal wedding as it is not classed as a state occasion.

"But the decision to exclude the American premier and his wife Michelle from the celebrations marks a break from tradition.

"Prince Charles and Princess Diana invited then-American president Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy to their 1981 ceremony – though she came alone because the president was too ill to travel following an assassination attempt on him."
"A senior courtier said: ‘It is certainly not the case that all foreign heads of state will be excluded. The guest list is still being drawn up and could change, but as things stand it’s right (to say Mr Obama will not be invited).’"  UK Daily Mail: Snub for Obamas as Royal sources reveal they will not be invited to Prince William's wedding


UK Daily Mail

  Maybe this is why:  Obama Disses Brits, Will Media Miss?  "It appears that President Obama is dissing the Brit's most famous and stalwart leader by quickly returning the most famous bust of the man loaned to this country by the United Kingdom in the aftermath of 9//11. The return of the bust of Churchill flustered the British government because they didn't ask for it to be returned. Our best ally was nonplussed and even quickly told Obama he could keep it in the Oval Office where Bush had displayed the piece of art. Obama told them no thanks which made the Brits even more amazed."

The Red Cross bans Christmas

UK Daily Mail  "Christmas has been banned by the Red Cross from its 430 fund-raising shops.
"Staff have been ordered to take down decorations and to remove any other signs of the Christian festival because they could offend Moslems.
"The charity's politically-correct move triggered an avalanche of criticism and mockery last night - from Christians and Moslems.
Via the California Chronicle, Santa Maria, Ca.

Cities May Not Ban Federal Military Recruitment Targeting Minors

The Volokh Conspiracy "The [Arcata, Cal. and Eureka. Cal.] ordinances purport to bar the federal government from “recruit[ing], initiat[ing] contact with for the purpose of recruiting, or promot[ing] the future enlistment of any person under the age of eighteen into any branch of the United States Armed Forces.” They also subject military recruiters to civil penalties for each infraction...."

Can Congress Force You to Be Healthy?

NY Times  "When the health care law makes it to the Supreme Court, the justices will ask, with varying degrees of concern, this age-old question: How do we define the limits, because limits there must be, on this federal power?
"Judge Hudson has presented a way for the court to finally answer this question. His opinion is the first prominent judgment to say that Congress can use its power over interstate commerce only to regulate “activity,” as opposed to a lack of action."
Jason Mazzone is a professor at Brooklyn Law School.

Ramirez on the Lame Ducks

http://townhall.com/cartoons/MichaelRamirez/

US eases military pressure on Iran, tries concessions

USS Truman is distanced from Iranian waters

DEBKAfile "Obama thus abandoned the military posture he adopted only six weeks ago to bring its rulers to heel by a buildup of naval strength opposite Iran's waters. It was then that he consigned the USS Abraham Lincoln to the Persian Gulf, raising the number of aircraft carriers deployed there to three, including the French Charles de Gaulle.
"But the US president decided to change tactics before the new round of nuclear negotiations between the six powers ((US, Russia, UK, France, China and Germany) and Iran took off."
In a related story, the British prime minister sent a conciliatory letter to Chancellor Hitler stressing his government's desire to reduce tensions.

Obama/Republican Tax Compromise Better for Low-Income Americans

Score: Tax bill: passed; spending bill: pulled. Two different bills, remember.

Tax Foundation " The current compromise tax proposal agreed to by President Obama and Republicans in Congress would be more generous to low-income workers than the competing proposal favored by Democrats in the House of Representatives, according to a new report by the Tax Foundation.
"Less affluent taxpayers would benefit in large part from the proposed one-year cut in the payroll tax, a key element of the White House compromise plan, but one that is lacking in the Democrat-supported tax bill passed earlier this year in the House. "

2011 TAX CALCULATOR "Last updated December 10th, 2010 - includes new compromise plan and payroll taxes.
"Fill out the left-hand column and click Calculate to estimate your 2011 tax bill under various scenarios: " mytaxburden.org

Congress Passes Tax Deal "In the bill's sweep, Congress signaled a return to tax cutting as a principal engine of driving economic growth, especially compared with Mr. Obama's 2009 stimulus bill, which put more emphasis on government spending. Coming after the Democratic losses in November's midterm elections the playbook this time was more in keeping with Republican orthodoxy."