On his first full day on the job, Gov. Jerry Brown walked right up to the third rail of California politics. As he headed into a meeting with local government officials, he talked about how the state response to Proposition 13's limitations on property-tax rates have contributed to the state's financial dysfunction.

Brown's remarks come as he prepares to unveil a budget plan next week that will include proposals for unwinding the consolidation of government power in Sacramento that has taken place since voters approved the ballot measure in 1978, when Brown was first governor.

Brown's goal is to work with cities and counties to return many state government functions back to local governments.

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Of course, he wants to repeal it and further grow the government —> city and county level

The problem will be a real estate price crash and a split roll which will be anti-business

The Ninth Circuit panel in the primary Prop 8 appeal has just issued an order certifying to the California supreme court a question of state law relating to the standing issue in the case.

The panel has stayed further proceedings in the case pending final action by the California supreme court on the certified question.

In addition, the panel has issued an opinion affirming in part and dismissing in part Imperial County’s separate appeal. Judge Reinhardt has also filed a concurring opinion that applies to both cases. And he’s issued his promised memorandum setting forth his reasons for not disqualifying himself.

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There are a number of scenarios depending upon how the California supreme rules but all in all it is SCOTUS who will ultimately decide the case.

Unemployment rates rose in more than two-thirds of the nation's largest metro areas in November, a sharp reversal from the previous month and the most since June.

The Labor Department says unemployment rates rose in 258 of the 372 largest cities, fell in 88 and remained the same in 26. That's worse than the previous month, when the rate fell in 200 areas and rose in 108.

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The Obama PORKULUS has failed and now the Congress must address the debt and regulation of business which is stifling job creation.

With Republican leaders anxious to set an austere tone for their ascendance into the House majority this week, the lavish fundraiser scheduled for Tuesday night at a trendy Washington hotel to benefit a dozen GOP freshmen is not exactly the populist image leaders are anxious to project.

House Speaker-elect John Boehner, whose name was featured on the invitation, is nonetheless skipping the event at the W Hotel, where lobbyists, political action committee managers and others paying the $2,500 ticket price will be treated to a performance by country music star LeAnn Rimes

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Red it all.

Not a smart move by Rep Jeff Denham.

Appearance is everything and this stinks

Gov. Jerry Brown will spare K-12 schools from further drastic cuts in his budget – so long as voters extend higher income taxes in a special election, according to sources familiar with his proposal.

The tradeoff wouldn't cure education ills, and many districts would still face another year of fewer school days and larger class sizes. But it could avert even deeper cuts after years of school rollbacks and help Brown galvanize powerful education support for tax hikes in a June special election
.
Brown plans to ask voters to extend higher tax rates on sales, vehicles and income. His proposal would send additional sales and vehicle tax money to counties as part of his plan to shift more responsibilities to local governments.

But Brown would keep the extra income tax revenue for the state, with a substantial portion going to education to offset that $2 billion cut. In his inaugural speech Monday, Brown singled out public schools as an area he wants to bolster in his return as governor.

John G. Roberts Jr., the chief justice of the Supreme Court, swore in President Obama – twice.

But Chief Justice Roberts is apparently bipartisan in his willingness to swear in federal employees.

On Tuesday morning, he presided over a closed-door ceremony in the offices of the soon-to-be House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, to swear in the lawmaker’s staff a day before Republicans are scheduled to take control of the House chamber.

Employees of the federal government are all required to sign an oath as part of the paperwork they fill out when they are hired, according to Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner.

Often, though, it’s a fairly routine signature, without the pomp and circumstance of a swearing-in ceremony. And even then, not all employees have the chief justice present. But it’s not entirely unheard of, either.

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Nice of the Chief Justice to swear them in.

By organizing, filtering, selecting and picking the best and most relevant information for a target community of fans / readers / customers, an online publisher can provide his audience with high-quality, unique value that will be hard to find elsewhere.

So, as I wrote six years ago, it did and it still does look to me as a renaissance of sorts is truly taking place. Understanding what this renaissance is all about and how you or your organization can best leverage it, is what this guide on real-time news curation is all about.

Here, in Part 2 of this guide, find out what are the key differences between aggregation and curation and why real-time news curation is so much better than automated aggregation when it comes to provide high-quality news and information on a specific topic.

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Read it all

The 112th Congress doesn't begin until Wednesday, but Senate Democrats are already vowing to block any attempts by the new GOP-led House to repeal the healthcare reform law.

The Senate's top Democrats, led by Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), wrote incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Monday warning the new GOP House against advancing legislation that would undo the sweeping healthcare overhaul.

"The incoming House Republican majority that you lead has made the repeal of the federal health care law one of its chief goals. We urge you to consider the unintended consequences that the law’s repeal would have on a number of popular consumer protections that help middle class Americans," the Democrats said.

Democrats said repeal would threaten the consumer protections included in the healthcare package, including the provision that eliminates the so-called "doughnut hole" in seniors' Medicare drug coverage.

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Yeah Yeah – make them vote on how they will fund it

The time it takes to follow and go through multiple web sites and blogs takes tangible time, and since most sources publish or give coverage to more than one topic, one gets to browse and scan through lots of useless content just for the sake of finding what is relevant to his specific interest. Even in the case of power-users utilizing RSS feed readers, aggregators and filters, the amount of junk we have to sift through daily is nothing but impressive, so much so, that those who have enough time and skills to pick the gems from that ocean of tweets, social media posts and blog posts, enjoy a fast increasing reputation and visibility online.

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Read it all

Every hour thousands of new videos are uploaded online. Blog posts are written and published. Millions of tweets and other short messages are shared.

To say there is a flood of content being created online now seems like a serious understatement.

Until now, the interesting thing is that there are relatively few technologies or tools that have been adopted in a widespread way to manage this deluge. We pretty much just have  algorithmic search, with Google (and other search engines) as the most obvious example.

Social bookmarking and  social news have been around for some time (ie – sites like Digg or delicious), and new models of aggregation like Alltop are springing up to help us navigate all this content as well. The real question is whether solutions like these will be enough.

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Read it all

CNN has learned that Republicans plan to try to repeal the health care law almost immediately after taking control of the House, setting the stage for an early confrontation with President Obama.
House GOP sources tell CNN that they will unveil repeal legislation Monday night, even before they claim the majority Wednesday. Then, on Friday, Republicans will hold a critical procedural vote – the first step towards passing the repeal. A final House vote will likely take place next Wednesday.

Republicans have said for some time the House would take up repealing health care, a top GOP campaign issue, during the first month of the new Congress, but up to now have not revealed exactly when. Regardless, the repeal has little chance of passing the Senate.

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The overall repeal will fail in the Senate but Dems in the House/Senate will be forced to vote for it placing them at risk when ObamaCare sours with its increased costs.

Next, the GOP will be able to defund it

Former Rep. Heather Wilson is considering running for Senate in New Mexico, giving the GOP a potential top-flight challenger to Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman.

“I am considering running for the Senate, as well as other opportunities,” Wilson told Roll Call on Monday. “A number of factors go into that. Ultimately it’s a decision about what is the best use of my talents and gifts.”

Bingaman has yet to announce whether he will seek a sixth term. First elected in 1982 after a term as state attorney general, Bingaman will be 69 by Election Day in 2012.

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Another Dem Senate seat under contention in 2012. Bingaman deserves a good challenge from Heather Wilson.

Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton today endorsed Ken Paxton for Texas House speaker. Bolton, who doesn't have a say in the matter, said Paxton's bid to oust incumbent Joe Straus has national implications because of redistricting and border security.

With Texas gaining four more U.S. House seats, Bolton said, the Texas Legislature needs GOP leaders who will "rectify literally decades of skewed redistricting decisions." Bolton (right, AFP/Getty Images photo) also said that Texas needs to signal grave concern about drug-related violence across the border in Mexico.

Bolton caps an impressive list of non-House members who've endorsed Paxton, R-McKinney. Others included former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

“What It Takes” is now widely considered the greatest modern presidential campaign book. But the judgments of Washington’s elite come late to Maryland’s remote Eastern Shore, and the book’s place in political writing has dawned only very late on its author. When it came out in the heat of the 1992 campaign, the tome dropped with a heavy thud. It was viewed as eccentric, affected, too long for its boring subject. Who, four years after he lost, wanted to read 100 pages on Dick Gephardt’s childhood?

“What It Takes” received mediocre reviews and sales fizzled. Cramer, after a low period, turned to writing about baseball. The best interpreter of American politicians never wrote another word about politics. He still owes Random House more than $200,000 of his advance.
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Looks like an interesting read

Colman McCarthy has a really exasperating op-ed in the Post today arguing that ROTC must remain banned from campuses, even after the DADT repeal. As I briefly mentioned in my column yesterday, the lifting of DADT is really inconvenient for peaceniks and other folks who hold anti-military views because it lends credibility to the military (among liberals and leftists).

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Read all of Jonah Goldberg's piece at National Review

Somehow Colman McCarthy included almost every leftist trope possible in his Washington Post op-ed opposing ROTC on campuses in the post–“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era. Jonah has covered the main points, but the essay should be taught in schools as an example of the methodology of much of contemporary liberal argumentation.

1. Self-referencing narcissism
2.Timing
3.Historical ignorance
4.Moral Equivalence
5.Special Pleading
6.Infantilism
7.Self-serving selfrighteousness
8.Self-congratulation

Victor Davis Hanson at his best.

So, read it all.

Thank you for your interest in the Washington Post's Young Pundit Essay Contest. As the leading newspaper in our nation's capital, we are always looking for budding journalistic talent to bring a fresh point of view our editorial pages, as well as our online site and sister publications like Newsweek and Slate. While competition for this prestigious prize is expected to be fierce, we will give each entry personal attention. Please provide background information about yourself, followed by your essay. This year's theme is "What the Constitution Means to Me." Please write or type legibly.
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Read it all = hilarious

What, if anything, can be done by the imperious recess appointments of such controversial nominees? Todd Gaziano of the Heritage Foundation emails me, "The real threat (which Robert C. Byrd famously did once) is for the entire GOP caucus" to refuse to consent to any further nominees unless Obama agrees to refrain from issuing more recess appointments. Gaziano says that Republicans "could refuse to confirm another judge, diplomat, etc. until they extract their promise." There is also the power of oversight (to grill appointees on how they intend to perform their jobs) and of the bully pulpit (to publicize the records of these nominees). But the lesson for the GOP here may be to refrain from offering too many open hands to an administration only too eager to slap them and demonstrate disdain for a co-equal branch of government.

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A warning to the GOP about making nice with the Far Left Obama

The Nielsen numbers are in for 2010, and in the battle for cable news ratings supremacy, Fox News took the title for the ninth year in a row — bludgeoning the competition for another year.

The blowout comes on the heels on Fox News’ surging 2009, when the News Corp.-owned channel posted its highest-rated year in the network’s 13-year history. (Overall, cable news audiences were down across the board — though FNC's decline was from a high-water mark.)

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Roger Ailes has left a permanent legacy in Fox News

An issue of interest to two or more states can lead to a compact. It works this way: State legislatures approve a proposal, the states agree on the parts of mutual concern (such as buying insurance across state lines), then the compact is dispatched to Washington for ratification by Congress and the president (though the need for White House assent isn’t spelled out in the Constitution). Ratification turns the compact into federal law.

However, there’s a bigger reason for forming a compact against Obamacare. By banding together, states would have far more political clout in Washington. Backers of the health care compact figure they need more than 20 states to pressure Washington to go along. Their assumption is members of Congress (even Democrats who support Obamacare) would be inclined to vote for a formal request from their home state. Members who oppose Obama-care would vote for it as well.

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This sounds like a feasible idea. The states need to get crackin'

U.S. home foreclosures jumped in the third quarter and banks' efforts to keep borrowers in their homes dropped as the housing market continues to struggle, U.S. bank regulators said on Wednesday.

The regulators said one reason for the increase in foreclosures is that banks have "exhausted" options for keeping many delinquent borrowers in their homes through programs such as loan modifications.

Newly initiated foreclosures increased to 382,000 in the third quarter, a 31.2 percent jump over the previous quarter and a 3.7 percent rise from a year ago, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision said in their quarterly mortgage report.

The number of foreclosures in process increased to 1.2 million, a 4.5 percent increase from the second quarter and a 10.1 percent increase from a year ago, according to the regulators.
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Obama concentrated on the disastrous ObamaCare while America burned jobs and now foreclosures.

It is the economy, stupid.

In October, Gary Shilling of A. Gary Shilling & Co., predicted that house prices would fall another 20%.

In the two months since, house prices have resumed their decline. Below, Gary outlines why he thinks the recent drops are just the beginning.

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In California, if Democrats push a repeal or revision of Prop 13, housing prices will go into a free fall.

President Barack Obama enters the new year with a growing number of Americans pessimistic about his policies and a growing number rooting for him to fail, according to a new national poll.

But a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday also indicates that while a majority of the public says Republican control of the House of Representatives is good for the country, only one in four say the GOP will do a better job running things than the Democrats did when they controlled the chamber.

Sixty-one percent of people questioned in the poll say they hope the president's policies will succeed.

"That's a fairly robust number but it's down 10 points since last December," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Twelve months ago a majority of the public said that they thought Obama's policies would succeed; now that number has dropped to 44 percent, with a plurality predicting that his policies will likely fail."
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Obama either improves or he is looking at one term

Tucker Carlson again filled in for Sean Hannity on Hannity tonight, and couldn’t resist, as others already had, delving into the issue of President Obama praising Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie for giving quarterback Michael Vick a second chance following Vick’s prison sentence for dog fighting. And while Carlson said he “believe[s] fervently in second chances,” he didn’t in Vick’s case. At all.

Carlson differentiated between Vick and others because Vick “killed dogs…in a heartless and cruel way.” This is true. But what Carlson believed to be the proper punishment for Vick is sure to get some attention:

“I think, personally, he should have been executed for that.”

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Guess Tucker never watches LOCKUP on MSNBC – there even more characters there which should be considered before Vick

Tea party activists are targeting GOP Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana. A longtime lawmaker and former presidential candidate, he has irritated some conservatives of late with his more liberal voting record.

Recently, he voted against an earmark ban that was championed by conservatives and tea party activists and even supported by Indiana's other senator, Democrat Evan Bayh. According to the Evansville Courier, Mr. Lugar defended his vote on the grounds that restricting Congress's ability to finance pet projects back home would give "too much power" to the Obama administration. Last week, Mr. Lugar bucked the party yet again and voted for the Dream Act, which was defeated but would have allowed the children of illegal immigrants to gain citizenship if they attend college or join the military.

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Time to retire Sen. Lugar

Mrs. Obama’s “eat your veggies” crusade is at once a remarkably shallow response and a remarkably ambitious one: She may know next to nothing about the deeper issues, but she has adamant faith that the transformative quality of political power will allow even the most ignorant politician — or politician’s wife — to ameliorate any problem, even one that has thus far proved “impervious to clinical treatment.” By the same token, Mrs. Palin’s dismissal of that conceit contains more wisdom than is understood by political entrepreneurs of the Obama variety or by their factota in the media. Advantage: Palin.

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Indeed Sarah Palin is correct but a smart POL must pick and choose important issues.

This is probably not a wise choice – even though Palin is correct.

So as California outlaws the traditional incandescent next week, and the U.S. begins its move down this road a year later, we should ask, will forcing fluorescents on people deter them from getting timed or motion-sensor lights? If so, will the energy savings of this legislation be wiped out?

There are plenty of other unintended consequences related to the lightbulb law that will offset the gains in energy efficiency.

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Of course and to think that government is efficient.

One key reason for the Tea Party movement is that there has been no real public debate on this most fundamental of topics for at least 30 years. I believe we do not have a common understanding today of where federal intervention in school vending machines stands in relation to political liberty. It’s true Sarah Palin often expresses the more libertarian side of this question with a populist inelegance that may be unhelpful, but that doesn’t mean that the debate is over regarding how much we should let government manage our life choices. That debate must form part of the discussion on conservative economics and morality as we advance toward 2012.

All that said, I concur with Peter’s gentle and well-considered point on mocking Michelle Obama. That’s not the way to introduce this topic. Contrarianism only goes so far: it is generosity of spirit, good humor, and courtesy that will win the day for the aspiring political leader who reclaims these fundamental issues for conservatives.
++
Yep

An index of U.S. consumer confidence declined to 52.5 in December on concerns about jobs in the present and future, the Conference Board reported Tuesday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected confidence to rise to 56.9. "Consumers' assessment of the current state of the economy and labor market remains tepid, and their outlook remains cautious," said Lynn Franco, director of Conference Board's consumer research center, in a statement. However, she added that signs suggest a continuation next year of the economy's expansion, "but that the pace of growth will remain moderate."

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Until the Congress reins in Obama's anti-business regulations and attitude, the economy will NOT measurably improve.

For one thing, nearly one out of three children are overweight or obese. The annual cost of treating obesity and related preventable chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and orthopedic issues constitutes fully 16.5 percent of all U.S. spending on medical care ($168 billion). And if a child is overweight between ages 10 and 15, he or she has a 70 percent chance of still being overweight/obese at 25. Obesity is a leading cause of preventable death in America, second only to smoking. So the problem of childhood obesity is real. And there are entirely reasonable steps that can be taken to address it, including (to name just one) banning vending machines from schools. Does that constitute the “nanny state run amok”?

The Journal rightly compares Mrs. Obama’s effort to President Kennedy’s Presidential Fitness Award and Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign on drugs, both of which were successes.

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But, Palin does herself a disservice for attacking everything Obama.

Gottemeoller admitted that this block of GOP senators, which included Senate leaders Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), John McCain (R-AZ), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), could stay intact if the administration decides to enter into another congressional arms control debate.

"Now, clearly, there are members of the Senate who are not keen on further arms control measures. That's always been the case," she said. "There has always been a block of opponents, historically, to nuclear arms reduction and control in the Senate. That's part of a healthy debate; it's part of a healthy process. I don't see that as a major, major issue."

But it certainly could be a major issue as the 2012 presidential race approaches. The Heritage e-mail notes correctly that prospective GOP candidates Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, John Thune, Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin all were opposed to New START.

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A victory for Obama?

All spin

So long 100-watt incandescent light bulbs — California is ordering them off store shelves starting Jan. 1 in an energy-saving move.
For now at the Home Depot in Redding, Calif., the bright orange shelves carry a wide selection of light bulbs. Compact fluorescent (CFL), halogen and light-emitting diode (LED) light bulbs — the energy-efficient choices — dominate the aisle, but some incandescent light bulbs still linger.
On Jan. 1, the 100-watt incandescent light bulb will start to be phased out in California. By the beginning of 2012, they will be gone from store shelves.
Three years ago, the federal Energy Independence and Security Act was enacted to phase out the incandescent light bulb by 2014. Australia, Ireland and Cuba have banned the bulb while many other countries are phasing them out

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More Big Government telling us what is good for us..

The Obama administration confirmed on Monday afternoon that the president, in a call with the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, expressed gratitude for the team's decision to give a second chance to quarterback Michael Vick.

But the nexus of the call, spokesman Bill Burton told The Huffington Post, was on the team's plans to use alternative energy sources at their stadium. And while the president was thankful that Vick was given a career do-over, he still thought that the actions committed by the QB — the orchestration of an illegal dog-fighting ring, the killing of animals and the deceiving of investigators looking into the matter — were condemnable.

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Another Gaffe: And, then the triangulation

Good Grief.

Now that Bristol Palin has left Alaska for Arizona, where she has just purchased a $172.000 five-bedroom home for cash, friends of the family are asking how much longer momma Sarah will call the great state home?

"Sarah has been looking at homes in Arizona, too," an insider tells me. "She wants to be close to her daughter and only grandchild."

Bristol was working as a receptionist in a doctor's office before her mother ran for vice President and Bristol was cast on 'Dancing With The Stars.' Now they have both made so much money they can live anywhere they want to.

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Doubtful…..but why not have a winter home in Arizona?

TPM reports congressional Republicans plan to use an obscure authority provided by a 1996 law called the Congressional Review Act to evaluate executive branch regulations.

"House Republicans will have carte blanche next year, and will be able to pass as many of these 'resolutions of disapproval' as they want. The key is that a small minority in the Senate can force votes on them as well, and they require only simple-majority support to pass. If they can find four conservative Democrats to vote with them on these resolutions, they can force Obama to serially veto politically potent measures to block unpopular regulations, and create a chilling effect on the federal agencies charged with writing them."

Said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): "I think that's one of many tactics that will be used."

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the GOP will force Obama to make very unpopular vetoes – setting him up for defeat in 2012

The intuitive argument is that Congressional redistricting will benefit Republicans, since it will shift the allocation of representatives into G.O.P.-friendly states.

The counterintuitive argument, which some very smart people are making, is that this isn’t necessarily the case. Instead, the argument goes, redistricting will help the Democrats in some cases because of the creation of new majority-minority districts, which will be required in some states according to most interpretations of the Voting Rights Act. In Texas, for instance, which is subject to the Voting Rights Act’s preclearance process, as many as three of the state’s four new districts could be Hispanic-majority ones, according to former Representative Martin Frost.

Time for the counter-counterintuitive argument.

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Read it all.

Advantage GOP despite the arguments contrary

Hispanic Leaders for Saul, a group of leaders who are proud Americans, proud Republicans, and proud of their Hispanic heritage, realize that the Republican Party needs a Chairman who can not only provide visionary leadership and strong day-to-day management, but who will also strengthen relationships with the Hispanic community. 

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Not necessarily a reason to vote for Saul Anuzis

The nation's menu of crises caused by governmental malpractice may soon include states coming to Congress as mendicants, seeking relief from the consequences of their choices. Congress should forestall this by passing a bill with a bland title but explosive potential.

Principal author of the Public Employee Pension Transparency Act is Rep. Devin Nunes, a Republican from California, where about 80 cents of every government dollar goes for government employees' pay and benefits. His bill would define the scale of the problem of underfunded state and local government pensions and would notify states not to approach Congress like Oliver Twists, holding out porridge bowls and asking for more.
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The states will go hat in hand to the feds but there is NO money. There needs to be public pension reform and the states must cut their spending.

There is, however, something at least vaguely disturbing about a government incentivizing doctors to do so as part of an expansive regulatory program that has, as one of its primary goals, cost reduction. The process used by Obama and Kathleen Sebelius to get this into ObamaCare is more disturbing, and in a very specific way. Congress made it clear that it didn’t want this incentive as part of the new law. However, thanks to the miles and miles of ambiguity in the final version of ObamaCare, with its repetitive the Secretary shall determine language, Congress has more or less passed a blank check for regulatory growth to Obama and Sebelius.

This is just the opening gambit of a strategy Obama will use throughout the coming year in order to achieve through regulation what a Democrat-run Congress could not deliver through legislation. The new Republican House will have to use its power of the purse to stop this autocratic imposition of regulation,
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An Obama end around

When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan. 1
Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the government will pay doctors who advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment.

Congressional supporters of the new policy, though pleased, have kept quiet. They fear provoking another furor like the one in 2009 when Republicans seized on the idea of end-of-life counseling to argue that the Democrats’ bill would allow the government to cut off care for the critically ill.
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Another reason why the GOP should push for repeal of ObamaCare and make Obama own this and other provisions before the 2012 elections

Neither Republicans nor Democrats are saying much about the defeat of the DREAM Act. It seems most Democrats would rather not bring up one of the Obama "losses" during the lame-duck session of Congress; Republicans are too busy grousing that START opposition melted like butter. The reactions of both sides suggest that keeping the immigration issue alive rather than solving the problem is uppermost in the minds of politicians.
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E-Verify for Employers

Secure the border

No free ride visas for lefty technology companies who don't want to hire Americans who make too much

An America first immigration policy and hell to the corporations and unions that have screwed the American worker

Senate Democrats spent the lame-duck session slogging through endless motions to break filibusters, but they’re quietly maneuvering to curtail these Senate stall tactics — even though they’ll have a weaker caucus next year.

After weeks of closed-door meetings, Democratic reformers are pushing a handful of rules changes, including a simple majority to change Senate rules at the start of a Congress, a requirement for senators to actually filibuster when they’re filibustering and a push to get rid of anonymous holds.

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Please do since the GOP will take back the Senate in 2012 and Dems will be in the minority.

Lisa Murkowski isn’t gunning down caribou on national TV like that other famous Alaskan, but the Republican lawmaker is going rogue in the Senate just weeks after staging the most stunning back-from-the-dead political win of the 2010 cycle.

Murkowski is already showing a fierce independent streak, becoming the only Republican to cast votes on all four items on President Barack Obama’s wish list: a repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a tax-cut compromise, the START deal and cloture for the DREAM Act.

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Murkowski is a Big Government RINO anyway. Shame she was re-elected.

But, when GOP takes over the Sente in 2012 she should have no plum committee assignments.

Uncertainty reigns in the race for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee despite the fact that the election to pick a new head for the party is now less than a month away.

Conversations with a number of strategists close to the RNC — and its 168 voting members — suggest that none of the six candidates in the running are anywhere close to securing the 85 votes they need to claim the chairmanship in January.

But, two tiers of candidates have begun to emerge with the top three seen as potential winners and the bottom three regarded as longer shots although, given the number of undecided voters and the unpredictability of the ballot process, it's hard to count anyone totally out at the moment.
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Anybody but Michael Steele is how I see it.

As the treaty speeds toward ratification, the biggest question that remains is: If the treaty ratification had been delayed until next year, would Kyl then have supported it? Was he ultimately trying to delay forever or was there really some amount of consultation and concessions that would have gotten him to vote yes?

Whether or not Kyl's vote was ultimately winnable will simply never be known for sure. But in the end, Kyl's efforts resulted in the administration promising over $84 billion for modernization of the nuclear stockpile and nuclear labs. "At least Jon Kyl was able to get more money for modernization and that letter from President Obama making assurances on missile defense," Lowry wrote.

And why did the argument to delay — made by McConnell, Kyl, Inhofe, McCain, Graham, and others — fail to convince the almost dozen Senate Republicans who will vote for New START?
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GOP Senators who voted for START will pay the price in a primary election especially Lugar

As the White House scrambles to secure enough GOP Senate votes to ratify the New START treaty with Russia, there's a lot of overt political grandstanding — and a lot of horse trading going on behind the scenes.

In a long floor speech on Wednesday Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) declared, "I am deeply concerned the New START treaty may once again undermine the confidence of our friends and allies in Central and Eastern Europe." Then, quietly, he offered his support to the Obama administration in exchange for waiving visa requirements for Polish citizens.

Various GOP senators have submitted demands in exchange for their support of the treaty, but they are usually related to concerns over the treaty itself. For example, the administration has offered Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) over $84 billion for nuclear modernization, under the premise that shoring up the safety of the stockpile is needed to ensure national security.

Too Many

If conservatives are feeling bad about START, they should be really happy about this. With the new Congress in January, the GOP will be in a strong position on fighting ObamaCare."

In other words, the loss of funding is directly attributable to the slothful behavior of House and Senate leaders who passed no budget or appropriations bills before the lame-duck session. They assumed, I guess, that Republicans would roll over and pass an omnibus spending bill after an election, one that everyone had assumed was going to go badly for the Democrats. Well, that was poor planning. The failure was then compounded by Reid, who dramatically overreached on the omnibus, making it impossible to round up votes for cloture.

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ObamaCare will die a slow funding death – if not outright repeal in 2013 when Obama leaves office

Mike Huckabee recently publicly expressed his disagreement with Sarah Palin's attacks on Michelle Obama's heavy-handed approach to childhood obesity:

“With all due respect to my colleague and friend Sarah Palin, I think she's misunderstood what Michelle Obama is trying to do,” the former Arkansas governor said Tuesday on the “Curtis Sliwa Show.” …

“Michelle Obama's not trying to tell people what to eat or not trying to force the government's desires on people,” Huckabee said. “She’s stating the obvious, that we do have an obesity problem in this country.”

He added: “The first lady's campaign is on target.”

Just as a reminder, Mike Huckabee is no conservative when it comes to using the federal government to regulate what we eat.

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And, why Sarah Palin will have him for lunch if he dares to run against her

Strategy: The heirs of Ronald Reagan abandon his legacy and dream of defending America from nuclear attack. Our security will rest on ambiguous language and vague assurances, not on the genius of U.S. technology.

Peace in our time, or should we say appeasement in our time, as a sufficient number of GOP senators signed on the New START treaty to give the Democrats and President Obama the 67 votes needed for ratification.

The Hill reported that Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., became the 10th Republican to support the treaty on Monday. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., was No. 9, saying on Monday afternoon, "I believe it's something important for our country and I believe it's a good move forward."
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Those GOP Senators who have caved into Obama on New START will regret their vote

Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley are among the top 10 safest cities in the United States with populations of at least 100,000, according to 2009 FBI crime data analyzed by the two Ventura County cities.

Although the FBI advises against using the data for making such rankings because there are many variables that should be factored in before making valid comparisons of crime among different cities, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley each conducted their own analysis based on crimes per 1,000 residents.

They both came to the same conclusion: Thousand Oaks is the fifth safest city in the country with a rate of 15.8 crimes per 1,000 residents, while Simi Valley is the eighth safest city with a rate of 17.7 crimes per 1,000 residents.
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Good to hear!

Blue States = 242 EV
Red States = 253 EV
Swing Purple States = 43 EV

She's back … 'Sarah Palin's Alaska' is such a huge hit for TLC that the network is busy trying to get the former governor to sign up for season two.

"3.066 million people turned in last week to see her episode with Kate Gosselin," a TLC insider tells me. "That is more people than are watching Bravo's 'Housewives' series or most other cable shows. For sure the network is doing everything it possibly can to convince Sarah to do another season, but at the end of the day it looks like it will all come down to money."

Sarah, who is reportedly making more than $250,000 per episode for the eight-week series, is no fool — when the show debuted to over 4.96 million viewers, insiders tell me she started talking about a new deal right away.
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I would say very likely, especially if Obama's poll numbers improve by April.

So that leaves us with a top tier of five front-runners: Romney, Palin, Gingrich, Pawlenty and Daniels. Romney is the organizational front-runner; Daniels is the first pick of wonks and D.C. eggheads; Palin probably has the most devoted following among actual voters. Gingrich will dominate the debates, and Pawlenty (vying with Daniels) is the least disliked.
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A fair assessment and it is Sarah Palin's to decline.

Otherwise it looks like Mitt Romney Vs. Mitch Daniels or Newt Gingrich

Census 2010: Gains and Losses in Congress

The Census Bureau rearranged the country’s political map on Tuesday, giving more Congressional seats to the South and the West, and taking away from the Northeast and the Midwest. The state population counts are the first results released from the 2010 Census, and are used to reapportion seats in Congress, and, in turn, the Electoral College.

The United State population grew to 308,745,538 over the last decade, an increase of 9.7 percent, the slowest rate of growth since 1940.
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Nice graphs of censis data

Apportionment after each decennial Census is required by the United States Constitution. Article 1 Section 2 says “the actual Enumeration shall be made…within every subsequent Term of ten years.” Over time, America’s population shifts, and Congress adjusts by apportioning its members according to each new set of Census results. For each House seat shifted, one Electoral College vote shifts.

The 2010 apportionment of Congressional districts among the 50 states is brings Western states’ gains to 26 Congressional seats since the 1970s, with the South picking up 27. The Northeast has now lost 26 seats and the Midwest 27 over the same period. The disparity in population growth will significantly alter the makeup of the House of Representatives. In the 1970s, the Midwest and Northeast together made up 52% of Congress. After 2010, they will hold only 40% of the seats. The Northeast alone held 104 seats in the 1970s, but that number is now down to 78.
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Read it all

And yet Republican opposition to the deal has essentially crumbled. I think the Republicans are foolish to have gone ahead rather than hold out for full consideration in the new Congress. But I understand that it is hard to resist the entreaties of the entire foreign policy establishment and to set up the president to fail.

We should also keep this all in perspective. The treaty, as I and others have argued, is not an earth-shaking matter, especially compared to the real nuclear threats we face from North Korea and Iran. But through the hard bargaining of Sen. Jon Kyl (R.-Ariz.) the administration ponied up for weapon modernization and showed some commitment to missile defense programs. In sum, Kyl got more from Obama than the U.S. is getting from Russia.

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Read it all.

Would have been better to rethink this treaty in the next Congress

Most of the media coverage of the 2010 Census will likely focus on the country's changing racial composition and the redistribution of seats in Congress. But neither of these is the most important finding. Rather, it is the dramatic increase in the size of the U.S. population itself that has profound implications for our nation's quality of life and environment. Most of the increase has been, and will continue to be, a result of one federal policy: immigration. Projections into the future from the Census Bureau show we are on track to add 130 million more people to the U.S. population in the just the next 40 years, primarily due to future immigration.
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Read it all.

The impacts are pretty dramatic.

Immigration policy needs a redo.

The Sun Belt will gain new seats in Congress as the U.S. population continued to shift south and west, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau and its director, Dr. Robert Groves.

The new data show the country grew at a slower pace than it has in earlier decades. But states in the south grew at a faster rate than states in the Rust Belt. Those states will give up some representation in Congress, while southern states will grow in influence.

Texas, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, South Carolina, Georgia, Utah and Washington State will all gain members of Congress. Texas's delegation will grow the most, adding four seats. Florida gained two seats, while Arizona gained one seat.

Meanwhile, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey and Louisiana will each lose House seats. New York and Ohio, two states hard hit by generations of migration and more recent industrial stagnation, will lose two seats each.

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GOP Gains

In sum, when Republicans misstep on the issue of race, they are rightly and roundly lambasted. Some complain about a double standard (Harry Reid said dumb things, too!), but the fact remains that the vast majority of modern conservatives don't tolerate this sort of thing, and it can be fatal to one's political aspirations.

And finally, this is a reminder that candidates who look promising in 2010 may not be around for long, and those who stay out of the fray for as long as possible may be the savviest contenders.

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This is why Sarah Palin will keep her powder dry and assess her ability to beat Obama as late in the Spring 2011 as she can.