Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Wed 6th Mar Todays News


Happy birthday and many happy returns Siev Gour. Your birthday, the same day Chavez passed, brings Venezuela hope.
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The Alamo

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Events

[edit]Births

[edit]Deaths

[edit]Holidays and observances


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Julia favours unions over the aged

Piers Akerman – Wednesday, March 06, 2013 (3:58am)

JULIA Gillard is using blatant stand-over tactics to ensure unions get their snouts deep into the aged-care industry.
Under a smelly deal she is trying to force on aged-care providers, she is demanding they agree to lock in union contracts to qualify for federal funding.
The move would enshrine union domination in the aged-care industry but would not guarantee any improvement in aged-care service.
Under the deal, private aged-care providers would have to agree to union deals in order to qualify for $1.2 billion Gillard is offering.
The money isn’t even new, it is coming from other aged-care programs.
The beneficiaries will be the rebadged Miscellaneous Workers Union now known as United Voice, the Australian Nurses Federation and the corruption-wracked Health Services Union.
The deal is part of Gillard’s strategy to win back support from blue-collar workers who have been scrambling to leave the union movement.
This is the most overt act of union feather-bedding the Gillard Labor minority government has engaged in.
Employers say it is designed to boost union membership and trigger wage claims without any substantial change in aged-care home operations.
Tying government funding to a sleazy union deal in such a serious area is possibly the most disgusting act the Gillard government has yet entertained – and that says a lot for the bullying, thuggish tactics this government has adopted.
Aged-care facilities are already stretched and under-resourced.
The Gillard government has shown no concern for the patients, only for those it hopes to lure back to the Labor fold.
There is no possible way such a deal would improve the lot of those in aged-care.
So much for Labor’s claimed compassion.
Another Gillard deal, another stinking mess.
As Coalition aged-care spokeswoman Concetta Fierravanti-Wells told The Australian: “This is a union-driven industrial process, dressed up as administrative change.”
“Many providers will be unable to pay the increase and meet the on costs. These cost pressures will further erode their viability.”
And the needy elderly will suffer even more.
Thanks Julia.

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Conservative blogs rule

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(5:37pm)

Meanwhile, Michael Smith’s blog is posting incredible figures, and not surprisingly.
The Daily Kos refuses to accept the consensus: 13 out of 17 potential finalists of the Web Blog Award’s science category are run by warming sceptics. Shows the mainstream media has failed to provide an outlet for an important debate.

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Baillieu on the brink

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(5:20pm)

CRISIS meetings of Liberal MPs are underway to determine the fate of Premier Ted Baillieu. 
The Herald Sun has learned that several meetings have been called to discuss the future of the Government.
Worse:
Mr Shaw will become an independent and sit on the cross-benches, which will leave the Coalition with 44 seats, the ALP with 43 and Mr Shaw with the remaining seat…
Last year, Shaw came under strife after being accused of using an obscene gesture in parliament and for using a tax-payer funded car for his private business, both of which he denied.
Police said on Wednesday that they were still investigating allegations of misconduct in public office by the Frankston MP and it ‘would be inappropriate to comment further.’
UPDATE
Ted Baillieu is still Premier. Geoff Shaw’s belated statement:
This morning I advised the Premier of Victoria of my resignation from the Parliamentary Liberal Party, effective immediately.
As always my focus is on how I can best represent the people of Frankston and at the moment I believe that is from the cross bench.
Labor left Victoria in a mess and Victorian’s elected a Coalition Government to fix the problems and build for the future. While the government has made significant progress in that direction, I believe my actions reflect the general loss of confidence Victorians are feeling in the leadership of the government. 
UPDATE
It is suggested that Shaw is telling Liberals he’d rejoin the party if they replaced Baillieu.
It would be suicidal if a new Premier was seen to be the pick of a man facing the allegations Shaw now confronts. 

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Liberals can’t cling as Gillard does

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(2:40pm)

Isobel Redmond in South Australia, Ted Baillieu (almost) in Victoria and now Terry Mills in the Northern Territory are making Julia Gillard’s feat of hanging on look even more impressive:
Sky News says Chief Minister Terry Mills will face a challenge in the morning, with Country Liberal MPs meeting on Tuesday night to decide which of them will be the challenger.
Former federal MP Dave Tollner is the tip.
But sad for Mills. Good enough to win a surprise victory, but not rated enough by his colleagues to actually govern,
UPDATE
Bad tip. Mills does a Gillard. He’s still Chief Minister.
UPDATE
Is the new Deputy Chief Minister - Willem Rudolf Westra van Holthe - the most exotically named politician in Australia, after, of course, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells?
This will split the NT’s ethnic Dutch vote in any future CLP leadership wrangle, with John Elferink also in the hunt. 
UPDATE
Reader John says the police spokesman of the South Australian Opposition, Dan van Holst Pellekaan, might run close for most exotically named. Another Dutchman is the Pelican.

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ABC: once “rather a lot” of “successful communist” countries

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(12:24pm)

How many exactly? Which?
MARK COLVIN [host of ABC’s PM]: Anybody who’s covered politics in a successful communist country, as there used to be rather a lot of them, would know that speeches can be quite long.
ABC host Jon Faine today announced “very sad news”: Hugo Chavez is dead.
UPDATE
Other ABC stars, such as Phillip Adams, will mourn for their ”inspiration”..

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Growth up slightly

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(12:16pm)

Some modest good news for the economy:
AUSTRALIA’S resource-rich economy grew in the fourth quarter of 2012, supported in part by a recovery in commodity exports amid early signs that hefty interest-rate cuts through the year were starting to spur activity.
The government statistician said Wednesday that gross domestic product rose 0.6 per cent in the fourth quarter from the third, and gained 3.1 per cent from the year-earlier period. Economists expected growth of 0.6 per cent on quarter and 3.0 per cent from a year earlier. Third-quarter growth was revised upwards to 0.7 per cent from 0.5 per cent.

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How dare these needed workers come here and pay their own way

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(11:54am)

UPDATE: A News Ltd cameraman managed to sneak a camera into Labor’s Caucus as it discussed Gillard’s new campaign against foreign workers.
(Thanks to reader James.)
I agree. It’s a bizarre priority if you want to demonise foreigners:
In the wake of the Prime Minister’s announcement of a crackdown on 457 temporary working visas, opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the move showed Ms Gillard and Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor didn’t understand the importance of skilled migration.
And where’s the evidence that the 457 program - administered by Labor itself for more than five years - isn’t working?
Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott also called on the government to produce evidence the 457 regime was not working properly, warning against hitting employers with further red tape.
Ms Gillard said there was “community concern” about the level of 457 visas and [Immigration Minister Brendan] O’Connor said there was evidence of rorting but his department could not act on it.
Pathetic.

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Gillard goes to Rooty Hill with BYO friends

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(7:34am)

Farcical. Julia Gillard moves to Rooty Hill, allegedly to meet the locals. Instead:
On Monday night, Sky presenter Paul Murray captured a fleeting 23 seconds of footage on his mobile phone of Gillard and her entourage speed-walking through the RSL’s Zest Wok n’ Grill and disappearing into a private dining room.
Murray pointed out the prime minister had bypassed the opportunity to mingle with a couple of dozen locals dining in the bistro. Instead she chose a closed-door private dining room with a group of women he said looked just like her and were wearing the same glasses.
He wasn’t far wrong. The five women handpicked by Gillard to feast on “vegetable tarte tatin” and Alaskan king crab were “mummy bloggers” who had previously dined with the PM at Kirribilli house in December, and none of whom appears to live anywhere near Rooty Hill.
Gillard wants to win the votes of people she’s too scared to meet.
UPDATE
Woogsworld, one of Gillard’s mummyblogger guests, dares what Gillard doesn’t and ducks out of their dinner to see what the cute locals eat out West:
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But she quickly scoots back to dine in Gillard’s hidey-hole: 
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Says it all about Gillard’s visit, really.

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Kelly on when Labor leaders were great

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(7:12am)

Blessed by a cabinet of remarkable talent, [Bob] Hawke devised an effective governing strategy for Labor…
It is commonplace these days to say the main difference between the Hawke-Keating era and the Rudd-Gillard era lies in economic reform, with contemporary Labor having lost the pro-market reformism of Hawke and Keating. Yet this is not the main difference.
The real difference is more fundamental - it lies in governing strategy and core mission. Hawke knew that running his government properly was essential in order to run the country properly and both were inexorably linked.
He implemented an orthodox system of cabinet government and decision-making. As PM he set the direction and delegated to his ministers… They ran an accord with the trade unions based on trade-offs that assisted economic policy and made the unions an electoral plus rather than a negative for Labor.
All such conditions have been either non-existent or extremely rare in the Rudd-Gillard period.
The Hawke government was firmly pro-business and pro-finance to drive economic growth… He ... sought to bring the nation together and diminish union-business conflict, shunned old-fashioned class rhetoric, ditched the entire Labor toolbox of protection, regulation and government ownership, promoted share ownership…
Hawke and Keating won elections not because of populist gimmicks about putting foreign workers at the back of the queue but because they proved they were best able to manage the difficult economic challenges of the 1980s....
By contrast, the current Labor generation, both before and after its 2007 election victory, was intellectually and politically weak....
Like Hawke, it was focused on winning; unlike Hawke, it was inept at governing. Rudd-Gillard Labor was too complacent about its ability, too blind to its defects, too fixated on its alleged superiority at short-run, media-driven daily tactics while unable to decide its priorities or grasp what really mattered.

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Pushing for Abbott’s selection

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(6:52am)

Janet Albrechtsen nominates five Liberals deserving of promotion in an Abbott Government. Tony Abbott has depth in his backbench. He would be wise to use it after the election.
Overlooked by Albrechtsen is Mal Brough, the former Indigenous Affairs Minister who is very likely to replace Peter Slipper. She may have undersold Christian Porter, too.

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Kelty warns Labor: hands off people’s super

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(6:00am)

A Labor giant cannot believe this Labor government could be so reckless and desperate in its search for more billions to spend:
A KEY architect of Australia’s $1.4 trillion superannuation system has vowed to fight any moves to increase taxes on the nation’s retirement savings…
Former ACTU national secretary Bill Kelty ... warned the retrospective tax changes would revoke a “covenant” with people who had been encouraged by government to set aside funds for their retirement…
“That will destroy the integrity of superannuation, undermine this nation (as) in no other way,” he told the congress of the Urban Development Institute of Australia yesterday.
[Gary] Weaven, a former ACTU leader who chairs Industry Funds Management, told The Australian last month it was “time for a pause” in the constant changes to super tax rules…
[Nick] Sherry, superannuation minister during the Rudd government, said last month the “appropriate” tax regime was already in place, while former Labor finance minister Peter Walsh likened a tax hit on super to “class warfare”.

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Money gone, and nothing to show for it

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(5:50am)

 Politics - federal
That the government should have run out of money even in a mining boom is a disgrace:
The Business Council of Australia wants the federal government, which has delivered $170 billion in budget deficits over the past four years, to generate surpluses of about 1 to 2 per cent of gross domestic product, or more than $30 billion a year…
Deloitte Access Economics research commissioned by the Business Council predicts that without cutting spending as the population ages, federal and state budget deficits will rise above 5 per cent of GDP by 2050, or $70 billion a year in today’s terms… The Deloitte Access research calculates the government has spending plans of about $49 billion over the four-year budget forecasts that aren’t covered by new revenue or savings.
UPDATE
image
Spending in the general government sector (across all levels of government) has been growing at an average of more than 4% per year (inflation adjusted) since 1972 and is now at nearly 35% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). 
The problems - exacerbated by this recklessly spendthrift government:
First, ... Australia’s ageing population will result in slower rates of economic growth as the proportion of the overall population participating in the workforce falls.
Second, our expectations for government-provided goods and services are growing. Over the next 40 years, health and aged care costs are expected to grow faster than GDP… Compounding these pressures are community expectations that government will provide new services (National Broadband Network, National Disability Insurance Scheme, etc.) or substantially reform existing services with more spending (Gonski education reform).
Third… The boom in government revenue up to 2007–08 has not resumed following the abatement of the global financial crisis, with revenue growth averaging just 1% a year over the three years to 2010–11. Slow revenue growth is likely to continue for some years, particularly if the prices of Australia’s commodity exports fall.
The scale of the fix needed:
To reduce government expenditure to 30% of GDP, a reduction in government spending of about 4.5% of GDP would be needed (approximately $63 billion per year in savings based on 2011 data)
That’s almost two NBNs a year in savings needed. Think any party going into this election dare talk about a cure that painful?
(Thanks to reader Peter.)

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The models are broken, by the standards warmists set

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(5:11am)

 Global warming - dud predictions
In 2008, Britian’s Met Office noted a 10-year pause, or sharp slowing, in the warming trend and asked this question in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’ annualState of the Climate:
No, it decided.  Global warming models wouldn’t be clearly wrong until the pause lasted 15 years: 
Observations indicate that global temperature rise has slowed in the last decade… The simulations rule out (at the 95% level) zero trends for intervals of 15 yr or more, suggesting that an observed absence of warming of this duration is needed to create a discrepancy with the expected present-day warming rate.
On all data sets below, the different times for a slope that is at least very slightly negative ranges from 4 years and 7 months to 16 years and 1 month.
1. For GISS, the slope is flat since May 2001 or 11 years, 9 months. (goes to January)
2. For Hadcrut3, the slope is flat since March 1997 or 15 years, 11 months. (goes to January)
3. For a combination of GISS, Hadcrut3, UAH and RSS, the slope is flat since December 2000 or an even 12 years. (goes to November)
4. For Hadcrut4, the slope is flat since November 2000 or 12 years, 3 months. (goes to January)
5. For Hadsst2, the slope is flat since March 1997 or 15 years, 11 months. (goes to January)
6. For UAH, the slope is flat since July 2008 or 4 years, 7 months. (goes to January)
7. For RSS, the slope is flat since January 1997 or 16 years and 1 month. (goes to January) RSS is 193/204 or 94.6% of the way to Ben Santer’s 17 years.
But when Brozek checks for statistically significant warming, the warming pause extends by every measure to more than 15 years:
For RSS the warming is not significant for over 23 years…
For UAH the warming is not significant for over 19 years…
For Hadcrut3 the warming is not significant for over 19 years…
For Hadcrut4 the warming is not significant for over 18 years…
For GISS the warming is not significant for over 17 years...
Once warmists said 15 years of no statistically significant warming invalidated their models. Draw your own conclusions.
UPDATE
When will the ABC demand its science presenter stop giving ABC listeners false information? Why is Dr Karl not punished for errors as Alan Jones was? 

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No one pays $10,000 just for the Planning Minister’s food

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(4:58am)

Mathew Guy insists he did the developers no favors, and no one can show otherwise. Trouble is, no businessman pays $10,000 for nothing, which makes this kind of thing so potentially dangerous: 
Premier Ted Baillieu was promoted as the special guest at a boardroom lunch organised by the Liberal Party fund-raisers responsible for Planning Minister Matthew Guy’s secret dinners with property developers.

Sources said developers and business figures were offered attendance at an August 30, 2012, lunch with Mr Baillieu if they agreed to pay $10,000 a year to become a member of the Team 200 Patrons’ Panel fund-raising club…
Controversy over the Liberal Party’s fund-raising activities has emerged after Mr Guy’s dinners with developers - who had paid Team 200 $10,000-a-year and, in some cases, had projects requiring his direct intervention or approval - was revealed on Tuesday.
One fascinating thought. This news broke just when Premier Ted Baillieu was deep in strife over a messy cover-up of few know quite what. Guy is the Premier’s chief rival. Is retaliatory leaking going on?

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Dishonest? Labor?

Andrew BoltMARCH062013(4:50am)

When even Ross Gittins says Labor is ”quite dishonest” you can be certain it is. His evidence: the scare-mongering over the cost of Tony Abbott’s policies. Just for instance:
The most glaring omission from Labor’s calculation of the hip-pocket effect of all this is its failure to acknowledge the saving households would make from the abolition of the carbon tax.

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The end of day descends upon Yosemite Valley on a cold winter's eve sunset. Valley View, winter style. I took this shot between instructing while with the Aperture Academy a week ago. — atYosemite - Valley View.
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At 2RPH Digital Radio reading service in Glebe with Jono Coleman , while we both warm up to help support the stations 30th Birthday in April. Providing reading services to the blind and vision impaired, 2RPH is very worthy of all our support.Bruce Goldberg you should get the australian radio forum to help spread the good word on these guys!...:) — with JONO COLEMAN doing his bit in the studio.
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Satan (played by comedien & actor Mehdi Ouazzani) in The Bible Series. He's been seen so far in the background but will make a more official appearance on the 3rd Sunday episodes airing of mini-series and continues to be in the 4th and 5th Sundays. But keep watching close, you may still see him in the background and shadows next Sunday...you never know...just like in real life, he shows up, sometimes a blurred image in the background or among the crowd, hooded and partly hidden, and then shows himself outright, like he does in episodes with Jesus.
Mehdi Quazzani was born in Ouazzane, Morocco and now lives in Casablanca, Morocco. -- Anna Kasper
 — with Mehdi Ouazzani in Ouarzazate, Morocco.
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SPECIAL INVITATION - OUR MATES, OUR FAMILIES\

You are invited to join with us in respect of the NSW Police Force and to raise vital funds for the Rixon family and NSW Police Legacy.

Special Guest - Ray Hadley OAM
2GB Radio Host and Channel 9 Rugby League Commentator

Date – Saturday 9 March

Venue – Mingara Recreation Club, Tumbi Umbi

Time – 6.30pm for 7.00pm - 3 Course Dinner

Cost - $100 per head ($950 Corporate Rate for Tables of 10)

Dress – Smart casual (No Jeans)

(All proceeds from this function will be allocated to the Rixon Family and NSW Police Legacy)

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Camels are the poster animals for the desert, but researchers now have evidence that these shaggy beasts once lived in the Canadian High Arctic, after finding the fossil remains of a 3.5-million-year-old camel on Ellesmere Island in Canada's northernmost territory, Nanavut.http://oak.ctx.ly/r/2rsj
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A promising, blessed life cut short by drugs and related tragedy .. no wonder she was begging for it to be better .. but *anything* looks bad and no one was born who wasn't loved by God. We shouldn't ask for a little. Want it all. Carpe Diem. It is better to thank God for his blessings than lament what wasn't asked for. - ed
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Have a read of this week's blog on the increasingly blurry line between safety and surveillance: http://www.corybernardi.com/2013/03/big-brother-is-closer-than-you-think.html
I distrust the civil liberties lobby. I accept there is truth that invasion of privacy can lead to bad things, like abuse of power. Instead, what I see more often is that bad people are excused bad things because it is too hard to collect evidence. There is no excuse for speeding. It is true that speeding is not as bad as drink driving or drug driving. Or suicidal driving. But in terms of fining a speeder .. it is a victimless crime .. those that can't afford it won't speed. - ed
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Caution, in order to protect any remaining cache, remove this virus quickly. Independent and Green programs will no longer be protected after this virus is uninstalled. They may claim to be aligned conservative, but that is merely their programming, and a quick test will show they are cache hungry.
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As reported earlier, Israeli sources report says Obama wants a detailed Israeli withdrawal plan from Netanyahu during his upcoming visit to Israel.

Well, Bibi is ready:
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A good congressman is worth any price. A bad congressman is paid too much with minimum wage. It isn't solely a GOP/Dem thing. You'd think you'd know who is good and who is bad .. and you do, but not by examining their promises. It is too late when you judge their performance .. and anyway, the length of time Kennedy's get in office you have to assume that judging peoples time in office isn't happening. I think it is a mistake to give high office to someone who obtains it through corruption, whose friends are shadowy figures and who has no track record to point to. - ed
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Praying in tongues is a weapon that God has given us to break down every barrier preventing us from living the victorious life. 

When you don’t know what to pray any more, pray in the Holy Spirit and allow Him to intercede for you (Rom 8:26). He knows exactly what the problem is and what the best solution is. He will not just plead for you in harmony with God’s will, but He will also rest your weary soul (Isa 28:11–12)! 

My friend, allow the Holy Spirit to intercede for you, and see God cause everything to work together for good in every area of your life (Rom 8:28)!
http://josephprince.com/
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Friend,
Atheist BillboardLast week, my picture was put up on a billboard in Austin, Texas to "shame" me for a statement I had made. Here is that statement:
"Our Civil laws have to comport with a higher law. God's law."
I know, it is shocking. And you know what I said back to the American Atheists who purchased that billboard?
Thank you.
Thank you for helping me publicly express my strong belief that we need to continue to be one nation under God.  And I think you would agree with that statement.
This is also a reminder that there are strong forces against the fundamental beliefs that you and I hold so dear. They are organizing with determination to transform the very fabric of our country. The stakes are simply too high for us to sit back and ignore the progress they are making.
Karen and I started Patriot Voices so that we could join with you, to stand up together, and have such a loud voice that we could not be ignored.
As I travel around this great country, I am encouraged by the amazing patriots, like you, that I meet every day.
You are refusing to sit by and let our President, our elected officials, or any other organization challenge those core beliefs that made our country great.
May God continue to bless America!

   Rick Santorum signature 
Rick Santorum
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Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for March 5th. Enjoy!

From the Blog

Two years later: Marizela is still missing

Exactly two years ago, my 18-year-old cousin Marizela (known affectionately to her family and friends as “Emem” or “Mei”) Perez disappeared from the University of Washington campus in Seattle...

Oberlin College: Still manufacturing hate crimes hoaxes after all these years

My crazy alma mater is at it again...

J-Nap: Sequester already causing airport delays

Remember last week before the sequester hit how getting through check-in and security at O’Hare and LAX was a delay-free breeze?

More From the Right Side of the Web

Featured Video

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Sequesterpocalygeddon is underway! Yesterday, Michelle and Neil Cavuto discussed how the end of the world is going so far.

Michelle's Top Tweets

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And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

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America may be on the verge of an apocalypse, but it's nice to know that chivalry's not dead yet.


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