From Heritage: What IS the Fiscal Cliff?

Heritage   ..."There is no agreement right now on how to avoid it, however. When Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner presented the White House’s plan to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) last week, Boehner said, “You can’t be serious.” Thus far, President Obama’s answer to the fiscal cliff is a proposed $1.6 trillion in tax hikes plus new stimulus spending—and expanded power for himself to raise the debt ceiling without congressional approval. He suggests only magnifying the policies that brought us to the fiscal cliff in the first place.

"Heritage’s Romina Boccia, James Sherk, and Katie Tubb have explained “What’s in the Fiscal Cliff?” and recommended solutions to several of the immediate problems. They note that American individuals, families, businesses, and the military will all be harmed if the nation goes “off the cliff,” so to speak, or if a bad deal is done in Washington. Here are some of the major components of the fiscal cliff." Read more....

Rick Moran; Key to fiscal cliff negotiations: Holiday deadline
...."But for the 535 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, who need deadlines to force them to accomplish anything big, it is the threat of having to work through Christmas that is fueling the oncoming mad dash to a deal - or at least a deal to eventually get a deal."

Let Obama Be Obama

Victor Davis Hanson   ...."Republicans countered with arguments that higher taxes on the employer class hurt the economy in general. They assumed most voters knew that amnesties are euphemisms for undermining federal law and in the past have had the effect of promoting more illegal immigration. They tried to point out that there is no such thing as free universal healthcare, since Obamacare will only shift responsibility from healthcare practitioners and patients to inefficient government bureaucracies and hide the true costs with higher taxes.
"And they utterly failed to convince the American people of any of that.
"Why doesn't the Republican-controlled House of Representatives give both voters and President Obama what they wished for?"....

Obama says Stop Snitchin'

By Terresa Monroe-Hamilton  at GulagBound  "Those who know history, know that tyrants constantly ‘cleanse’ or ‘purge’ their ranks of those they perceive as disloyal to the powers that be. They rule with an iron fist and with total control, because not to is to expose their political jugular to their enemies. It truly is dog eat fascist dog. This is very true in the Obama sphere of influence and within the ranks of his court. So, in the true tradition of dumping earth shaking news before a holiday or on a Friday, the day before Thanksgiving, Obama published a memo laying out guidelines for executive agencies to establish “effective insider threat programs.” Though vague, the wording is noteworthy and very interesting:

For Immediate Release
November 21, 201?

Presidential Memorandum — National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs
MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES
SUBJECT: National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs

This Presidential Memorandum transmits the National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs (Minimum Standards) to provide direction and guidance to promote the development of effective insider threat programs within departments and agencies to deter, detect, and mitigate actions by employees who may represent a threat to national security. These threats encompass potential espionage, violent acts against the Government or the Nation, and unauthorized disclosure of classified information, including the vast amounts of classified data available on interconnected United States Government computer networks and systems.
The Minimum Standards provide departments and agencies with the minimum elements necessary to establish effective insider threat programs. These elements include the capability to gather, integrate, and centrally analyze and respond to key threat-related information; monitor employee use of classified networks; provide the workforce with insider threat awareness training; and protect the civil liberties and privacy of all personnel.
The resulting insider threat capabilities will strengthen the protection of classified information across the executive branch and reinforce our defenses against both adversaries and insiders who misuse their access and endanger our national security.

BARACK OBAMA

More here.
BeforeItsNews asks,"why now"?
Much of the speculation regarding this memo is a result of the brevity and ambiguous wording. For example, "what exactly defines an “insider threat” and why are “violent acts against the Government or the Nation” mentioned? Recent events raise even more questions. After a closer look at some of the theories regarding why Obama felt the need to write this now, readers can draw their own conclusions."
However the tone of this entire article is sympathetic to Bradley Manning, for whom I hold nothing but disgust because of the damage he has caused to allies and others who have supported America. We are much less secure in our struggle against terrorism because of him than before. 

Our ever-watchful press will protect us from creeping socialism

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/strips/mallard/2000/mallard.php3

Advocates want sexual orientation added to Clarksville's anti-discrimination policy

Via Mike Warner at Conservative Bloggers on Facebook  "The article by the Leaf Chronicle ... provided in the link below is bigoted to the extreme stating that if we are to attract the best and brightest workers we have to kowtow to their professed "preferences" as if the most talented and brightest among us must all be gay and lesbian. No one should have special status because they make any choice on any particular issue or life style. It is indeed a step backward to presume that anyone declaring anything about their personal life gives them some kind of special status."

CLARKSVILLE, TENN. — When the City Council meets for their voting session in two weeks, they’ll hear an argument for adding sexual orientation and gender identity protections to the city’s anti-discrimination policy. If added, Clarksville would be the fourth major city in Tennessee to include sexual orientation and gender identity in its non-discrimination policy. David Shelton, a local business owner who plans to speak to the City Council about the protections, said that including sexual orientation and gender identity in the discrimination policy is key for attracting the most talented workforce. “It’s a matter of making sure we are recruiting the best employees in each field,” Shelton said. “Especially since we are competing against Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville. If someone is LGBT, then they are going to look to the cities that have those policies.” Even though there haven’t been any reported incidents of discrimination based on sexual orientation against employees, Chris Sanders of the Tennessee Equality Project thinks the city should put its principles in writing.

America's divorce agreement

The following was a forward to me from a long-time friend, co-worker and supervisor. I have changed only his source since that is questionable:

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950's for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course.
Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.
Here is a our separation agreement:
--Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.
--We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them.
--You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU.
--Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.
--We'll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and the coal mines, and you can go with wind, solar and biodiesel.
--You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell. You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them.
--We'll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street.
--You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless, homeboys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens.
--We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks. --We'll keep Bill O'Reilly, and Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood .
--You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.
--You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.
--We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.
--You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill.
--We'll keep the SUV's, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Volt and Leaf you can find.
--You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors.
--We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right.
--We'll keep "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "The National Anthem."
--I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute "Imagine", "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", "Kum Ba Ya" or "We Are the World".
--We'll practice trickle-down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot.
--Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.
Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you might think about which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.
Sincerely,
Many Americans

P.S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Charlie Sheen, Barbara Streisand and( Hanoi ) Jane Fonda with you.
P.S.S. And you won't have to press 1 for English when you call our country.

Hat tip to Jack Hamner, Santa Maria, CA

Cleaning Up After Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Donkey Hotey

Prof. Mike Adams "Of all the sloppy and confused decisions rendered by the Supreme Court in recent years, few compare with CLS v. Martinez (2010). The decision was more than just poorly reasoned. It was also based upon willful blindness toward factual misrepresentations by the defendants in the case. Justice Ginsburg authored an opinion she knew she could arrive at only by pretending to believe facts she knew were not true."
...."Nearly every conflict between a religious organization and a public university begins with a refusal of the group to affirm sexual practices and lifestyles that the administrators endorse. That isn't always the case but it is too often the case. Surely, my libertarian and liberal friends agree that our public universities ought not to have official positions on such private matters. But, unfortunately, they do.
"To be clear, these administrators do not simply favor toleration of alternative lifestyles. Tolerance presupposes a moral judgment they, which they refuse to offer. Instead, they use their power to make sure no one else is offering these judgments either. If any organization goes against their beliefs about sex, they simply refuse to recognize the organization."
Mike Adams is a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and author of Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts "Womyn" On Campus.

Krauthammer; Cliff-jumping with Barack

Charles Krauthammer   "Why are Republicans playing the Democrats’ game that the “fiscal cliff” is all about taxation?

"House Speaker John Boehner already made the preemptive concession of agreeing to raise revenue. But the insistence on doing so by eliminating deductions without raising marginal rates is now the subject of fierce Republican infighting."
"Where is the other part of President Obama’s vaunted “balanced approach”? Where are the spending cuts, both discretionary and entitlement: Medicare, Medicaid and now Obamacare (the health-care trio) and Social Security?"

PAT CONDELL on ‘Islamophobia’ Awareness Month', says it's time to retire the word 'Islamophobia'

Bare Naked Islam
Classic Condell contends that “Islam is the problem and Islamphobia(sp) Awareness month should more accurately be called Islamic Cultural Terrorism Awareness Month…The concept of ‘Islamophobia’ comes from the imaginations of aggresssive(sp) Islamic supremacists who have paranoia on a permanent hair trigger and see violence as the solution to criticism.”

Of course, we mean all this in a nice way.

Part of the Problem: French Media Ducks Anti-Islam Protest  "There are numerous reasons the West is losing the war with Islam. They range from being bitten by the politically correct bug, to Muslim con artists exploiting naive and trusting infidels, to the malevolent mainstream media. Tonight we get a look at the malevolent media of France…."

Egypt Is Collapsing Thanks To Obama Foreign Policy

Investors.com   "The democratic "New Beginning" President Obama announced in Cairo in 2009 becomes a new, bold Egyptian tyranny. An imperfect ally was swept away by what has generated into an Islamist perfect storm.
"Apparently confident that an eloquent mea culpa would prompt an abundant supply of Islamic goodwill, Barack Obama in his first year as president appeared at Cairo University before an audience that included leaders of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and gave a speech meant to shake the world.
"He apologized for the "overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government" during the Cold War and sought "a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world" based on "common principles — principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."

More introspection: Learning from the Election

Victor Davis Hanson   "A final take on the election: Mitt Romney was a glittering Sir Galahad who, given his impressive horse, armor, and lance, along with his decency and piety, assumed that he could win a joust in a fair charge against the other team’s knight. Instead he waded into a sudden fray where he was swarmed, mobbed, cut off, pulled off his magnificent steed, had his matchless armor yanked away by a mob of foot soldiers, and then, once stripped clean, was clubbed and maced beyond recognition."


America passed up an excellent man for a mediocre political hack once again.

Let's pass it so we can find out what's in it!

http://legalinsurrection.com/

Kimberly Strassel; This Unserious White House  Read this Wall Street Journal column.