links for 2009-12-07

Has hell officially frozen over? Has that "peace on earth, good will toward men" seasonal thing actually kicked in? Because it's looking like Big Love has come to California GOP's famously fractious Big Tent.

The evidence: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — and his wife, Maria Shriver, no less — issued a special press release Friday carrying their official birthday wishes to one of the gov's most "passionate" GOP critics, Flashreport.org publisher and founder Jon Fleischman.
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Haha Arnold was Acting

Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings founded the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in 1990. In 2007 Kevin Jennings was paid $273,573.96 as the executive director of GLSEN. Recently he was appointed by the Obama administration to run the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools in the US Department of Education.
You just heard a public employee promote “fisting” to 14-year-olds. Kevin Jennings who ran GLSEN is now Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar.

To be clear, this post is not about supporting or not supporting gays or gay rights. This post is about the radical agenda of groups like GLSEN and activists like Kevin Jennings.

Senate Democrats are discussing the idea of expanding Medicare by lowering the age limit for the government-run insurance program, Democratic sources on the Hill tell the Huffington Post.

The proposal would lower the age of eligibility for Medicare by ten years. Those over 55 and under 65 (the current eligibility age) would be allowed to "buy-in" to the system. They would have to pay a premium for the coverage, which would alleviate the cost burden on the federal government, but would then receive the same benefits as other Medicare patients.

Crucial details — such as what that premium would be and the timing of the implementation — were not provided due to the sensitivity and ongoing nature of the deliberations. A high-ranking Democratic source off the Hill confirmed that such discussions are taking place.

DeVore all but gives away the game in the concluding line of his e-mail, “Any amount you can donate will go to support our conservative cause and defeat the establishment in Washington, D.C.” And I thought the goal was to defeat Barbara Boxer. She’s the one who’s liberal partisanship and big government ways have not helped the Golden State these past seventeen years.

In delivering the Weekly Republican Address on Saturday, Carly Fiorina made her conservative bona fides increasingly clear. And Chuck DeVore used that appearance to continue his war on the GOP establishment. But, unlike Marco Rubio in Florida, DeVore’s battle is not against an establishment candidate who backs big-government policies, but against a conservative Republican who shares Ronald Reagan’s vision.

And don’t we want to push the GOP establishment in the direction of that good man’s great ideas?

Three Republican senators on Monday condemned Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) comments that Republicans who oppose healthcare reform are akin to the opponents of abolition and women's suffrage.

"Folks tend to crack under pressure," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) at a press conference. "It is an indication of desperation."

In a three-way Generic Ballot test, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds Democrats attracting 36% of the vote. The Tea Party candidate picks up 23%, and Republicans finish third at 18%. Another 22% are undecided.

Among voters not affiliated with either major party, the Tea Party comes out on top. Thirty-three percent (33%) prefer the Tea Party candidate, and 30% are undecided. Twenty-five percent (25%) would vote for a Democrat, and just 12% prefer the GOP.

Officials gather in Copenhagen this week for an international climate summit, but business leaders are focusing even more on Washington, where the Obama administration is expected as early as Monday to formally declare carbon dioxide a dangerous pollutant.

An "endangerment" finding by the Environmental Protection Agency could pave the way for the government to require businesses that emit carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases to make costly changes in machinery to reduce emissions — even if Congress doesn't pass pending climate-change legislation. EPA action to regulate emissions could affect the U.S. economy more directly, and more quickly, than any global deal inked in the Danish capital, where no binding agreement is expected.

Many business groups are opposed to EPA efforts to curb a gas as ubiquitous as carbon dioxide.

The Obama administration formally declared Monday that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to the public's health and welfare, a move that lays the groundwork for an economy-wide carbon cap even if Congress fails to enact climate legislation.
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Cap and Trade Regulation whether you like it or not.

It is being hyped as the summit that will save the planet.

But according to critics, next week's climate change talks in Copenhagen are more likely to cost the earth.

Researchers have estimated that the bill for the 12-day jamboree will top £130million – and will generate as much greenhouse gas as an entire Africa country.

A pep talk by President Obama wasn't enough to give Senate Democrats the votes they needed to pass a massive health care overhaul, but a Monday vote on abortion funding could determine whether the legislation survives.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the chamber would take up an amendment by Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., that would strictly prohibit taxpayer money from being spent on abortion.

"I want to get it out of the way," Reid said. "I think we all do."

But the amendment could ultimately stand in the way of the bill's final passage, no matter what the outcome of the Monday vote.