“U.S. Supreme Court justices hinted they might strike down President Barack Obama’s health-care law as the court’s Republican appointees suggested Congress went too far by requiring Americans to obtain insurance.

On the second of three days of arguments in the historic case, justices’ questions indicated they might split 5-to-4, with the court’s five Republican appointees banding together to topple the law.

Justice Anthony Kennedy said the measure is unlike others the court upheld previously because it tells individuals they “must act.” Kennedy, who most often occupies the court’s ideological middle ground, said, “That changes the relationship of the government to the individual in the very fundamental way.”

The law would extend coverage to 32 million people and revamp an industry that accounts for 18 percent of the U.S. economy. The court hasn’t overturned a measure with such sweeping impact since the 1930s, when it voided parts ofFranklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the package of economic programs enacted in the 1930s in response to the Great Depression.

The court probably would rule in late June, months before the November election. A ruling against the measure would give ammunition to Obama’s Republican challengers, who have said the law should be repealed….”

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“House Democrats on Monday night introduced their 2013 budget plan to compete with the Republicans’ proposal on the chamber floor this week.

Sponsored by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee, the $3.6 trillion proposal is not expected to pass, but nonetheless provides the Democrats with a comprehensive plan from which to distinguish their policy priorities from those of Republicans this election year.

The proposal adopts much of President Obama’s job-creation agenda, including tens of billions of dollars for near-term stimulus spending on infrastructure and other federal programs, while keeping Medicare and other entitlement benefits largely intact. The budget adds $6 trillion to deficits over 10 years, compared to $6.4 trillion for the president. It contains $643 billion less in spending, and $219 billion less in revenue.

Van Hollen said his proposal “stands in clear contrast” to the GOP bill, which the Democrats have attacked as a giveaway to the wealthy at the expense of seniors and the middle class.

“This budget will reduce the deficit in a balanced and credible way, making difficult choices while providing investments that help create jobs now and build an even stronger economy for the future,” Van Hollen said in a statement. “But unlike the Republican budget — which ends the Medicare guarantee while providing tax breaks to millionaires — we ask the very wealthy and special interests to share responsibility for reducing the deficit.”

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“The Environmental Protection Agency is close to issuing the first limits to cut U.S. greenhouse gases from power plants, with an announcement possible as soon as today, according to people familiar with the matter.

The rules from President Barack Obama’s administration would set emissions for all power plants at the level established for a natural-gas plant, or about half what is released from a coal-burning facility. Any new coal plants would need expensive carbon-capture equipment, according to the people, who declined to be identified before an announcement.

The proposed nationwide standards would be the first by the EPA for carbon-dioxide from power plants, the largest source of those emissions in the U.S. Environmental groups such as the Sierra Club are pressing the Obama administration to issue tight standards to head off an increase in global warming that they warn could be catastrophic.

“It will make it nearly impossible to build a new coal plant,”Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, said in an interview. “The market has been moving in this direction already” so the rule “captures the end of an era.”

While the initial impact would be minimal because utilities are not building coal plants as naturalgas prices fall to 10- year lows, adopting the EPA proposal would fuel industry complaints in coal-dependent states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania. The rule would only apply to new plants.

Coal Versus Gas…”

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You can skip to 5 minutes 15 seconds for the crux of the matter….

Talk about flip flopping

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UmIwhUIpeQ&feature=g-all-u&context=G2b831d6FAAAAAAAAIAA

via hotair.com  Hat Tip @Woodshedder for the lead

A good catch by The Daily Caller’s Caroline May: As of this morning, two provocative web addresses — Socialists.com and Communists.com — redirect to the Barack Obama campaign website. Type “Socialists.com” into your browser and you’ll swiftly be greeted with an invitation to “like” Obamacare. (Yes, that is the current landing page for Obama’s campaign site — an invitation to express support for Obamacare!) May reports:

It is unknown who the responsible party is.

While it’s unclear if the campaign can come up with a solution for this, Twitter users have already begun to take notice.

“Someone is being cheeky: go to http://communists.com or http://socialists.com” tweeted @zaijian.

“So http://Socialists.com and http://Communists.com redirect to Obama’s website. Yeah, this is going to be a fun campaign,” added @DavidKenner.

The prankster behind this actually betrays uncommon insight into the conflict of visions that exists in this country. In one corner, free marketeers. In the other, collectivists and statists. Individuals range along the spectrum, but it doesn’t change the nature of the conflict, which was introduced in the twentieth century but, surprisingly, was still not settled by the outset of the twenty-first, despite the evidence of numerous failed centrally planned economies.

It serves no point to try to rename “socialism” or “communism” or to eliminate the words from our lexicon. The terms refer to theories of social and economic organization in the same way that “capitalism” does — and the theories continue to attract adherents to greater and lesser degrees. The president has openly stated his approval of wealth redistribution and has also displayed a marked tendency toward central planning, particularly in the area of energy policy. Why he should balk at being called either a “socialist” or a “communist” puzzles me. Why not attempt to defend his ideas instead of hiding behind conservative rhetoric as he pushes a progressive agenda? I’d never recoil from the label of “capitalist”even though “the 99 percent” thinks capitalism is evil. What does it matter to the president if half the country doesn’t like his ideas? Oh, right. That’s why it matters. He has an agenda to push, yes, but he has to win reelection to push it. That’s why this prank is so brilliant. I’d love to hear the president explain why he doesn’t want those links to redirect to his website. Or, better yet, I’d love to hear him explain why he does.

Source

NEW DELHI — A Tibetan exile lit himself on fire and ran shouting through a demonstration in the Indian capital Monday, just ahead of a visit by China’s president and amid a series of self-immolations done inside Tibet to protest Beijing’s rule.

Indian police, who had already tightened security in New Delhi for President Hu Jintao’s visit, swept through the protest a few hours later, detaining scores of Tibetans.

The man apparently had doused himself with something highly flammable and was engulfed in flames when he ran past the podium where speakers were criticizing China and Hu’s visit.

Read more

Source

“(FOX News) – The Green Climate Fund, which is supposed to help mobilize as much as $100 billion a year to lower global greenhouse gases, is seeking a broad blanket of UN-style immunity that would shield its operations from any kind of legal process, including civil and criminal prosecution, in the countries where it operates.

There is just one problem: it is not part of the United Nations.

Whether the fund, which was formally created at a UN climate conference in Durban, South Africa last December, will get all the money it wants to spend is open to question in an era of economic slowdown and fiscal austerity.

Its spending goal comes atop some $30 billion in “fast start-up” money that has been pledged by UN member states to such climate change activities.

A 24-nation interim board of trustees for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) is slated to hold its first meeting next month in Switzerland to organize the fund’s secretariat and to get it running by November, as well as find a permanent home for the GCF’s operations.

The board expects to spend about $6.7 million between now and June of next year.

But before it is fully operational, the GCF’s creators — 194 countries that belong to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) — want it to be immune from legal challenges and lawsuits, not to mention outside inspections, much like the United Nations itself cannot be affected by decisions rendered by a sovereign nation’s government or judicial system.

Despite its name, the UNFCCC was informed in 2006 by the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs that it was not considered a UN “organ,” and therefore could not claim immunity for its subordinate bodies or personnel under the General Convention that has authorized UN immunity since the end of World War II.

A UNFCCC resolution granting similar immunities would need to be “accepted, approved or ratified” by each individual member of the Kyoto Protocol before it took effect, the UN legal office advised.

Even if UNFCCC members decided to ask the UN General Assembly to grant them similar immunity it would require each UN member state to make changes in domestic legislation, the opinion declared.

According to an official of the US Treasury, which strongly supports the existence of the GCF, the full extent of the immunities still remains to be worked out by the fund board, although the wording of various UNFCCC resolutions indicate that immunities like those held by the UN are clearly envisaged.”

A little hand washing…

“Nearly 40 members of the House of Representatives earmarked $150 million to organizations affiliated with themselves and their family members from 2008 to 2010, according to a government watchdog organization.

If we are to remain a country that respects honor, the rule of law, and justice then everyone must follow the rules or suffer the consequences….

Dan Hart

The value of U.S. tax breaks exceeds $1 trillion, which may give both parties potential areas to cut costs and alleviate the cost of changing the tax code, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a study.

The Congressional Research Service report found the biggest tax break is likely to be valued at $164 billion annually in 2014 and is on employer-provided health insurance, while employer-provided pensions are the second-biggest exclusion at about $163 billion, the newspaper said.

The study said the most that might be gained in additional tax revenue from eliminating tax breaks was $150 billion, because of political opposition and technical hurdles, the newspaper said.

Lawmakers might only be able to reduce tax rates by one or two percentage points for the top individual rate, the Journal said, citing the report.

Source

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — President Barack Obama travels to South Korea Saturday on a three-day trip centered on an international nuclear security summit in Seoul.

He is due to arrive in Seoul early Sunday, where he will later hold a bilateral meeting with his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak.

Top officials from 54 countries, including China and Russia, will attend the summit meeting on Monday and Tuesday.

But its message of international cooperation has been overshadowed by North Korea’s announcement last week that it is planning to carry out a rocket-powered satellite launch in April.

South Korea has said it considers the satellite launch an attempt to develop a nuclear-armed missile, while the United States has warned the move would jeopardize a food-aid agreement reached with Pyongyang in early March.

President Lee has already said he will use the summit to drum up international support against the actions of his northern neighbor.

Always ask questions !

Complicit behavior, being spun, or acting indifferent has only allowed the best of us to have blood on our hands.

Keep in mind 90% when you watch this……

Cheers on your weekend!

Source

WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. intelligence community will now be able to store information about Americans with no ties to terrorism for up to five years under new Obama administration guidelines.

Until now, the National Counterterrorism Center had to immediately destroy information about Americans that was already stored in other government databases when there were no clear ties to terrorism.

Giving the NCTC expanded record-retention authority had been called for by members of Congress who said the intelligence community did not connect strands of intelligence held by multiple agencies leading up to the failed bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas 2009.

“Following the failed terrorist attack in December 2009, representatives of the counterterrorism community concluded it is vital for NCTC to be provided with a variety of datasets from various agencies that contain terrorism information,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in a statement late Thursday. “The ability to search against these datasets for up to five years on a continuing basis as these updated guidelines permit will enable NCTC to accomplish its mission more practically and effectively.”

The new rules replace guidelines issued in 2008 and have privacy advocates concerned about the potential for data-mining information on innocent Americans.

“It is a vast expansion of the government’s surveillance authority,” Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said of the five-year retention period….”

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“(Reuters) – The United States, European allies and even Israel generally agree on three things about Iran’s nuclear program: Tehran does not have a bomb, has not decided to build one, and is probably years away from having a deliverable nuclear warhead.

Those conclusions, drawn from extensive interviews with current and former U.S. and European officials with access to intelligence on Iran, contrast starkly with the heated debate surrounding a possible Israeli strike on Tehran’s nuclear facilities.

“They’re keeping the soup warm but they are not cooking it,” a U.S. administration official said.

Reuters has learned that in late 2006 or early 2007, U.S. intelligence intercepted telephone and email communications in which Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a leading figure in Iran’s nuclear program, and other scientists complained that the weaponization program had been stopped.

That led to a bombshell conclusion in a controversial 2007 National Intelligence Estimate: American spy agencies had “high confidence” that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003.

Current and former U.S. officials say they are confident that Iran has no secret uranium-enrichment site outside the purview of U.N. nuclear inspections.

They also have confidence that any Iranian move toward building a functional nuclear weapon would be detected long before a bomb was made….”

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“The prospect of the World Bank being led by someone from outside the U.S. for the first time seemed nearer on Friday, as several African nations backed Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the job.

Per-Anders Pettersson | Getty Images World Bank building in Washington, DC.

“The endorsement is in line with the belief that the appointment of the leadership of the World Bank and its sister institution, theInternational Monetary Fund , should be merit-based, open and transparent,” the leaders of South Africa, Nigeria and Angola said in a statement.

If Okonjo-Iweala defies expectations and gets the job, she will be the first African to lead the organization, as well as the first woman.

The process of deciding who will be the next World Bank president will be — like the election of the next Pope — difficult to follow unless you’re one of the privileged few in the room.

In every previous election, the U.S. president’s nominee has been a shoo-in, but this time around the emerging economies are mounting a determined challenge. Given that the Bank’s remit is to lend to developing economies, an appointment from the emerging markets might make sense. However, the U.S., as the largest contributor to the Bank, controls 16.41 percent of the votes, and the winning candidate needs 85 percent.

Nominations for the presidency close on Friday, with growing rumblings that this may be the first time a woman, or someone from outside the U.S., leads the fund….”

Full article

One wonders how this was all missed by the media during his presidential campaign…

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By Murray Weiss

Disgusting…..

In light of the president’s speech it behooves us all to get to the bottom of two whistlblower claims over safety issue on the XL Pipeline.