Burning Peace

On Tuesday, three bills that would gut the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill passed the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) in decisive fashion, with just six members of the 61-member committee voting against all of them.

The three bills passed over serious objections from the Obama administration. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew wrote a letter to Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), the chairman of the committee, urging "members to oppose these bills and others like [them] that would weaken the important regulatory changes that Wall Street Reform has made to the derivatives market." A year ago, former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made a similar statement against a slate of nearly identical bills.

Financial reform advocates say that the three bills would do serious damage to parts of Dodd-Frank that deal with derivatives, which are financial products with values based on underlying numbers, like crop prices or interest rates.

Only six of the 28 Democrats on the committee voted against all three of the bills.

Today the Heritage Foundation, under the leadership of conservative dreamboat (and former senator) Jim DeMint, released a study showing that immigration reform would cost taxpayers a gazillion dollars over the next 50 years. The actual number doesn't matter much, just the fact that it has a nice, shocking number of zeroes in it. The methodology of the report doesn't matter much either. You'll be unsurprised to learn that it's shoddy, but this isn't a PhD dissertation. It's not meant to be accurate, it's meant to provide cover for any member of Congress who wants to give a speech and have a few handy numbers to quote.

The Heritage immigration report, however, doesn't take into account the fact that undocumented immigrants are all dynamically creating extra wealth and increasing the size of the economy.

However the debate turns out, one hopes that real scholars at Heritage and its supporters reject the slovenly work in the Heritage report and reaffirm the conservative message that more workers create more wealth, higher incomes and upward mobility. For if they do not, then virtually all their criticism of the Obama administration has been wrong and free markets (for labor and goods) are a cruel farce.

Nationally known media personality Glenn Beck said the police response to the Boston Marathon bombing attacks reminded of Nazi Germany, with door-to-door searches to root out Jews during the Holocaust.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/30/gl...

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I don't know what the emergency of the week is.

So we have a net change of zero of guns on the street. Brewer is FN nuts so the residents of Arizona must be also. If you don't know, Brewer is making it law that turned in guns should be given to dealers to put them back on the street again.

The Republican Party has entered the Dark Side of humanity. #1 mission, get them out of office, all of them. Could you right wing loonies put a little pressure on Congress to close Guantanimo bay? They refuse to close it, half the population are innocent and they are making living conditions even toughers. The president is supposed to have complete control over military matters per Cheney's minority report legislation. They let your hero Ronald Reagan do whatever he wanted and if he didn't get permission to do it he did it anyway. He should be in jail. I'm disgusted with the right wingers, they are as close to zombies that you will see. The prisoners are so desperate they are engaging in a hunger strike now.

Just wondering.

The current leader of AlQaeda said this is the easiest country in the world to buy firearms. He followed with, "what are you waiting for?" "go to a gunshow and start the Jihad". I'm so glad the NRA is welcoming them with open arms (firearms).

Does it not bother you that any terrorist can fly into the country and purchase whatever they want at a gun show?

I mean they are so alike. Hateful and ignorant.

Despite no inkling of voter fraud in the state, Republicans introduced the following bills this week:

•HB 451 and SB 428: Cut a full week from the early voting period.

•HB 451 and SB 428: Repeal same-day voter registration during the early voting period.

•HB 451: Bans all early voting on Sundays.

•SB 666: Prohibits the child dependency tax deduction ($2,500) for parents if their child registers to vote at a different address, such as the town or city where they attend school.

•SB 666: Allows poll observers to move about more freely in the polling place, which creates more opportunities to intimidate poll workers and voters.

•SB 721: Requires strict government-issued photo ID to vote.

•SB 721: Enforces a 5-year waiting period, after a person convicted of a felony has served their time, before they can get their voting rights back (having their rights restored must also be approved unanimously by their county board of elections).

•SB 668: Amends the state constitution to disqualify voters deemed “mentally incompetent.”

http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/04/north_carol...

He's a comedian but yet gets the truth across in a way you can understand it.

He's a better news man than anyone on FOX.

This is him explaining how the Monsanto protection act got through (after commercial).

You are all blaming Obama about it but even though the issue was brought up on the House floor (by a Dem) no one, not even your F'd up Congress knew it was slipped into a non-related bill by an anonymous traitor.

Watch this to make sure you understand what happened.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/474976

So why is this Obama's fault? Is he the only one expected to read bills?

Lane entered the courtroom wearing a button-down shirt, but took it off early in the hearing to reveal a white T-shirt with the word “killer” written on it, according to CNN affiliate WJW. The attire was similar what he was wearing when arrested by police shortly after the killings.

Given the opportunity to speak to the court, Lane made an obscene gesture at the victims’ families and spoke to them using explicit language, the station reported.

He smiled and smirked during much of the hearing, WJW reported, laughing when the prosecutor described him as an “evil person.”

Lane declined to allow his attorneys to present evidence on his behalf at the sentencing hearing before Geauga County Common Pleas Judge David L. Fuhry.

Lane pleaded guilty last month to three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder and weapons-related charges in the February 27, 2012, shooting at Chardon High School in northeastern Ohio.

I remember, guess it's because I'm a Chardon resident.

I just had to say this monster has the devil in him and what he said to the families was more than despicable.

I encourage you to see the video of him making these comments.

http://myfox8.com/2013/03/19/ohio-teen-tj-lane-wea...

It scares me that this thing was the offspring of neighbors.

Will there be more like him?

I know there will. More psychiatric screening might have saved the lives of the three vistims.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Amnesty International has condemned a reported Saudi Arabian court ruling that a young man should be paralyzed as punishment for a crime he committed 10 years ago which resulted in the victim being confined to a wheelchair.

The London-based human rights group said Ali al-Khawaher, 24, was reported to have spent 10 years in jail waiting to be paralyzed surgically unless his family pays one million Saudi riyals ($270,000) to the victim.

The Saudi Gazette newspaper reported last week that Khawaher had stabbed a childhood friend in the spine during a dispute a decade ago, paralyzing him from the waist down.

Saudi Arabia applies Islamic sharia law, which allows eye-for-an-eye punishment for crimes but allows victims to pardon convicts in exchange for so-called blood money.

if Cons erase the questions as fast as I write them?

Righties are disgusting, lying, bullies.

Hey, how about all the shootings lately?

McLelland had told The Associated Press that after Hasse's killing, he carried a gun with him wherever he went and took precautions when answering the door at his home.

"I'm ahead of everybody else because, basically, I'm a soldier," McLelland, a 23-year Army veteran, told the AP in an interview less than two weeks ago.

I guess the good guy with a gun didn't do so well here.

Say inflation hit the country so hard you blew through your wealth in a year?

Your options are, you become poor and look for help. maybe even beg.

Or you join an anti-government government group perhaps like the SS and you spread hate, fear and harm on fellow citizens.

What would you do?

Cons can't win an arguement, they delete the question.

Just like their voting practices.

Additional Details

It’s worth mentioning that President Obama has also made 11 trips — all or part of 27 days — to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Frederick County, Md. Knoller, however, says he doesn’t count trips to Camp David as part of any presidents’ "vacation" time. But for the sake of comparison, President George W. Bush, made more trips to that country residence than Obama. According to Knoller, Bush made 25 trips — a total of 78 days — to Camp David in 2001.

Mark Knoller of CBS, the unofficial keeper of presidential work schedules, reported that President George W. Bush had taken more time off than Obama at this point in his first term.

Obama’s upcoming vacation is his ninth vacation since taking office. Obama has spent all or part of 38 days on vacation away from the White House. He has also made 14 visits to Camp David spanning all or part of 32 days, for a total of 70 days, Knoller said.

Bush, at this point in his first term, had made 14 visits to his Texas ranch spanning all or part of 102 days, Knoller said. He also made 40 visits to Camp David spanning all or part of 123 days. His vacation total at this point in his presidency was all or part of 225 days away.

How much have the Obamas spent on vacations?

No more than other modern presidents, and a lot less than some. Contrary to internet myths, usually spread on conservative or Republican websites, there is no evidence that President Obama is in fact spending unusual amounts of money; nor is there credible evidence that he has spent more time on vacation that other presidents. It should be noted that no matter which party is in office, the other side always claims the president and his wife are wasteful, and this president has received the same criticism that his immediate predecessor, George W. Bush did.

While we do not have exact dollar amounts, it is a fact that President Obama has spent fewer days on vacation that President Bush did up to this point in his presidency. On the other hand, at least one of the president's vacations was controversial: it involved the expense of taking his family to Hawaii, and some websites claimed this would cost as much as $4 million. But this amount included flying not only the First Family but also members of the White House Press Corps, the Secret Service, and several top presidential advisers (a president is never really on vacation). It should also be noted that all presidents receive a salary that is paid by the taxpayers, and included is an additional sum for travel expenses, money for entertaining, etc. Again, there is no evidence Mr. Obama has spent more than he was allotted; further, fact-checking websites analyzed his use of Air Force One, and found no evidence that he used it as much as President Bush did.