Category Archives: Miscellaneous

NCPA Policy Digest: For years, California could rely on its temperate climate and talented workforce to attract and keep businesses even as taxes and regulations increased. No more. In surveys, executives regularly express the view that California has one of the country’s most toxic business environments, and they say it is one of the least likely places they would open or expand a company.

The Hill: The bill, H.R. 2112, was approved in a 70-30 vote in which Senate conservatives and some moderate Republican opposed it. All fifty-seven Democrats and the two independents voted in favor of the bill.

The Washington Post (embeds Ron Paul video ad): Texas Rep. Ron Paul, long dismissed by the GOP establishment as a fringe candidate, has broadened his electoral appeal and emerged as a major player in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, according to several recent polls and conversations with a handful of longtime Hawkeye political operatives.

Rasmussen Reports.

The Hill: Congressional leaders said they have yet to take over deadlocked supercommittee discussions that are going nowhere fast.

Rasmussen Reports: As the Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the health care law, American voters overwhelming reject the notion that the federal government has the authority to force anyone to buy health insurance.

Daniel Henninger at WSJ.com: The decision by the Obama administration to “delay” building the Keystone XL pipeline is a watershed moment in American politics. The implication of a policy choice rarely gets more stark than this. Put simply: Why should any blue-collar worker who isn’t hooked for life to a public budget vote for Barack Obama next year?

Politico: Former Cornerstone Action executive director Kevin Smith tells John DiStaso he’s in the open seat race for governor.

Digital Trends: Google, eBAy, AOL, Facebook, Yahoo, Zynga, LinkedIn, Mozilla and Twitter — have placed a full-page ad in today’s New York Times as part of their efforts to fight back against the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and the “PROTECT IP Act.”

The Hill: Newt Gingrich said a Gingrich-Hermain Cain ticket would be “a real possibility” if he won the Republican presidential nomination.

The Hill: Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) on Wednesday night said Republican governors and legislatures are purposefully pressing for the enactment of voter identification laws in order to suppress Democratic voter turnout in the 2012 election.

Yahoo! News: But now the Fed is holding many of the same types of assets and is levered 51-to-1! If the value of their portfolio were to fall by just 2%, the Fed itself would be wiped out.”

Cheryl Gay Stolberg at NYTimes.com: As Barack Obama battled Hillary Rodham Clinton over health care during the Democratic presidential primaries of 2008, he was adamant about one thing: Americans, he insisted, should not be required to buy health insurance.

TheHill.com: House Republican leaders began preparing their members on Tuesday to accept a potential deficit deal that includes new tax revenues.

Boston.com: Massachusetts lawmakers on Tuesday passed a final version of a bill designed to license up to three resort-style casinos and a single slots parlor in the state.

JSOnline: The senators: Pam Galloway of Wausau, Terry Moulton of Chippewa Falls, Van Wanggaard of Racine and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau.

TheHill.com: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) met Tuesday, a sign they may take a larger role in deficit talks, say congressional aides.

The Hill: Priority will be given to sustainable projects that can get off the ground within six months and rapidly hire, train and deploy “new types” of healthcare workers.

Bloomberg: A Bloomberg News poll shows Cain at 20 percent, Paul at 19 percent, Romney at 18 percent and Gingrich at 17 percent among the likely attendees with the caucuses that start the nominating contests seven weeks away.

NBC New York: Hours later, a judge granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting the city from enforcing rules of the plaza — like a ban on tents and tarps — that she said were published “after the occupation began.”

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento County supervisors approved an emergency ordinance Wednesday prohibiting any new adult-related businesses in the county’s unincorporated areas.

Public Policy Polling: Newt Gingrich has taken the lead in PPP’s national polling. He’s at 28% to 25% for Herman Cain and 18% for Mitt Romney.

CNN Poll: According to a CNN/ORC International Poll released Monday, 24% of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say Romney is their most likely choice for their party’s presidential nominee with Gingrich at 22%. Romney’s two-point advantage is well within the survey’s sampling error.

The Hill: Advocates of the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules celebrated a major victory on Thursday as the Senate rejected a Republican bid to repeal the rules.

CBS Atlanta 46: Private investigator TJ Ward said presidential hopeful Herman Cain was not lying at a news conference on Tuesday in Phoenix.

NYTimes.com: The Obama administration is preparing to delay a decision on the contested Keystone XL pipeline while it studies an alternate route, effectively pushing any action past the 2012 election, officials and lobbyists who have been briefed on the matter said on Thursday. An announcement is expected as early as Thursday afternoon.

Los Angeles Times: The lawsuits, filed in California’s four federal judicial districts, are aimed at quickly winning court orders to stop the U.S. attorneys from shutting dispensaries.

The Hill: The group’s website, NotMittRomney.com, launched this week.

The Hill: Rick Perry struggled to remember which federal agencies he would cut, Herman Cain had the crowd’s support in dealing with sexual harassment allegations, and Mitt Romney sailed through Wednesday night’s GOP presidential debate.

The Hill: Those in the crowd at the CNBC debate booed moderator Maria Bartiromo when she asked Cain about whether he had the character needed for the nation’s highest office.

The Washington Post: Most coverage of Tuesday’s night’s recall of state Senate President Russell Pearce (R) in Mesa, Arizona has focused on the fact that Russell authored the state’s controversial immigration legislation.

The Sean Hannity Show: Senator Rand Paul exclusively has JUST told Sean that not only are Democrats rejecting offers put on the table, but now they won’t even continue to negotiate and have “walked away from the table…refusing to talk to the Republicans.”
Paul warns the American people that this is all about Obama’s reelection, and the taxpayers livelihood is of no concern to Obama and the Democrats.

News from The Associated Press: Washington voters have approved a plan to privatize liquor sales, siding with Costco in the costliest initiative campaign in state history.

News from The Associated Press: Voters in dozens of cities and towns across Georgia have struck down long-standing rules against Sunday alcohol sales, leaving just two other states in the nation with similar bans intact.

Dorothy Rabinowitz at WSJ.com: Newt Gingrich’s rise in the polls—from near zero to the third slot in several polls—should come as no surprise to people who have been watching the Republican debates, now drawing television viewers as never before. The former speaker has stood out at these forums, the debater whose audiences seem to hang on his words and on a flow of thought rich in substance, a world apart from the usual that the political season brings.

PilotOnline.com: Virginia Republicans early Wednesday claimed victory in their quest to take the state Senate – if not with an outright majority, with a 20-20 split that gives the Republican lieutenant governor, Bill Bolling, the tie-breaking vote.

Northwest Herald: Just to be clear, no speakeasies, dance halls or more-than-massage parlors have voiced interest in calling Johnsburg home. Despite this lack of interest, Johnsburg’s Village Board has taken the opportunity to freshen up its adult entertainment ordinance . . .

Rasmussen Reports™: There’s a lot of anger in America today, but voters seem to reserve a special place in hell for Congress and the large banks bailed out by the federal government.

CNSnews.com: A majority of Democrats—52 percent—say they seldom or never go to church, according to Gallup data published Monday.

News from The Associated Press: GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann says too many Republicans aspire to be “frugal socialists” and the party can’t afford a nominee who isn’t a rock-solid conservative.

TheHill.com: Unions are feeling confident heading into a crucial vote next Tuesday on an Ohio state referendum dealing with collective bargaining rights.

SCOTUSblog: The Obama Administration has filed the last key document in the constitutional cases in the Supreme Court on the new federal health care law, urging the Justices not to grant review of Virginia’s attempt to get back into the controversy. The Court, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., suggested in a filing Thursday, should simply hold Virginia’s petition until after it rules on other pending cases that the government wants reviewed.

ABC News: It will be the latest sobering economic milestone that few were hoping to see: The U.S. national debt – any day now – will soar above the $15 trillion mark.

Businessweek: For insurance companies nervously watching the legal fight over the constitutionality of the President’s health-care law, it would be the unthinkable: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the law’s so-called individual mandate, which requires millions of young, healthy people to buy coverage—but leaves intact rules compelling insurers to cover sick people, who are likely to cost far more in benefits than they pay in premiums. Congress is then left to fix the problem.

Politico: If the Supreme Court next year gets rid of the health reform law’s requirement to buy insurance, Republicans could gain momentum to get rid of the rest of the law — and President Barack Obama would suffer a huge embarrassment at the height of an election year.

The Hill: Lawmakers in Arizona’s Republican-controlled Senate voted Tuesday night to oust the head of Arizona’s bipartisan redistricting commission, leaving the state’s congressional map uncertain and prompting Democrats to turn to the courts for relief.

NPR: Chantell and Mike Sackett say the EPA violated their right to due process when it said they were building a house on a wetland and ordered them to restore the land.

LaTimes.com: n what could be a harbinger of the 2012 election, Colorado voters Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have raised nearly $3 billion for education by temporarily increasing state income, sales and use taxes.

CSMonitor.com: One of the most hidden and hideous crimes in America is the sex trafficking of children. But this selling of minors quickly becomes less hidden when Internet sites for community advertising become giant magnets for the sex trade.

Michael LeGault at The Detroit News: In a 2010 NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, 63 percent of respondents said the standard of living will not get better for average families. Hope has been replaced by despair for tens of millions of Americans, the notable exceptions being those lucky enough to reside in Hollywood, academia, Silicon Valley, lawyer-ville or Washington, D.C. — the hotbeds of American liberalism.

Paul.Hous.gov: While I applaud the spirit of this announcement – since all our troops should come home from overseas – I have strong reservations about any actual improvements in the situation in Iraq, since plans are already being made to increase the number of troops in surrounding regions. What we really need is a new foreign policy and there is no indication that that is what we have gotten.

The Hill : Despite these dire circumstances, those responsible for these pressing national concerns, the United States Congress, still receive pay and benefits totaling $285,000 per year. This makes members of Congress among the highest-paid five percent of American workers.

The AP reports.

The Hill: Three government contractors have filed a complaint against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) arguing a federal law that bars them from donating to political candidates is unconstitutional.

Wall Street Journal (via Google): According to Mr. Isaacson, Jobs “stressed the need for more trained engineers and suggested that any foreign students who earned an engineering degree in the U.S. should be given a visa to stay in the country.” The president reportedly replied that this would have to await broader immigration reform, which he said he was unable to accomplish. Apple’s founder on Obama: “The president is very smart, but he kept explaining to us reasons why things can’t get done. It infuriates me.”

News from The Associated Press: Johannes and other farmers took notice last year when The Humane Society of the United States pushed a ballot proposal to abolish fenced hunting preserves. They’ve also followed efforts to pass animal welfare laws in other states, and they don’t want any unreasonable rules in North Dakota.

News from The Associated Press: The mother of a Connecticut man facing a possible death sentence for killing a woman and her two daughters in a home invasion testified Monday she suspected he was visiting hundreds of pornographic adult websites days before the crime.

Connecticut Post: The item, introduced by Councilman Robert Walsh, D-132, in May, would have required “sexually oriented” establishments to obtain annual licenses.

Domain Name Wire: Companies that don’t want their trademark attached to a .xxx domain name have until the end of the day to take action.

Businessweek: It’s a killer applause line for Republican audiences, but scrapping the Affordable Care Act would not be nearly as straightforward as Romney and his White House rivals make it sound.

Jack Hunter at the Daily Caller: Many conservatives say, “I like Ron Paul, except on foreign policy.” Perhaps thinking they’re going for the jugular, Paul’s critics like to first cite his contention that our foreign interventions breed more Islamic terrorism than they quell, often saying the congressman somehow “blames America” for our troubles. Yet, according to the Pew poll, a majority of our soldiers — who you might think know a thing or two about what causes Islamic terrorism — actually agree with Paul on this point. More significantly, Paul’s overall foreign policy of avoiding going to war where there is no clear national interest is where the congressman is most in line with public sentiment.

The Hill: The Obama administration on Thursday approved hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to California’s Medicaid program that the state had requested to shore up its dismal finances.

TheHill.com: House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday rejected a proposal by the Democratic members of the congressional supercommittee on deficit reduction, declaring its $1.3 trillion in tax increases unacceptable.

CBS Washington: Richmond Tea Party spokeswoman Colleen Owens told CBS Washington that the protesters have been given special treatment and free reign of the park and have not had to comply with the strict liability and security provisions that the city required of a Tea Party Tax Day in 2009.

Boston.com: Medical marijuana advocates in California sued the federal government Thursday in an effort to quash a recent crackdown on the state’s storefront pot dispensaries, claiming government officials have overstepped their constitutional authority by not respecting how local officials have chosen to regulate pot stores and growers.

Fox News: Supporters admit that a victory for “Issue 3” would be mostly symbolic – but powerfully so. “Sometimes symbols matter,” said Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich. “The problem with Obamacare is you stick all these people on, and you have no way to pay for it.”

LaTimes.com: The legal challenges were brought by Republicans seeking to overturn congressional and state Senate voting district maps drawn by a citizens commission.

TheHill.com: President Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill are increasingly referring to the Congress as “Republican” even though their party controls one-half of the unpopular institution.

The Orange County Register: The city plans to remove churches from the types of uses that would bar an adult business from one of three zones in the city.

NCPA Policy Digest: The trend is also being driven by the growing albatross that is health care reform, as many employers are worried about the coverage costs associated with adding full-time workers.

The Hill: The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade will hold a hearing Tuesday to discuss the issue of Internet gambling, which became a hot-button topic in April after the Obama administration cracked down on online poker and other betting sites.

TheHill.com: A resounding 69 percent of respondents said the country is “in decline,” the survey found, while 57 percent predict today’s kids won’t live better lives than their parents.

Adam J. MacLeod at Public Discourse: Private property should be preserved and protected because of its deep contribution to human well-being.

Pat Buchanan at Townhall: In order to love one’s country, said Edmund Burke, one’s country ought to be lovely. Is it still? Reid Buckley, brother of Bill, replies, “I am obliged to make a public declaration that I cannot love my country. … We are Vile.” And so what is the conservative’s role in an America many believe has not only lost its way but seems to be losing its mind? What is it now that conservatives must conserve?