CQ Politics:"Congressional Democrats have spent the past eight years itching for a chance to undo their least favorite Bush-era policies.But it increasingly looks like one of the administration’s most unpopular initiatives among Democrats - tax cuts for top earners - won’t get touched by the 111th Congress.As President-elect Barack Obama worries about doing anything that could dampen his economic recovery efforts, he has been vague about repealing the tax cuts before they expire on Dec. ...

For the second time in less than a week, Democrats in Congress held an organizational vote with a secret ballot to determine chairmanship of a key committee.Meanwhile, the Democrat-Labor axis continues its push to strip workers of that right.Indefensible.Cowards

Democrats are challenging the validity of this ballot in the Minnesota Senate recount.As of this writing, Coleman's 215-vote Election Day advantage has been whittled to 174.

Parsippany Daily Record (NJ):"ATLANTIC CITY - After a month of fresh air inside Atlantic City's 11 casinos, smoking is once again allowed.A temporary smoking ban expires at 12:01 a.m. Sunday and gamblers will be able to light up again for at least the next year.In April of this year, the City Council enacted a total smoking ban on the gambling floor of all 11 casinos. It was cheered by many casino workers worried about their ...

Yahoo! News:"WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Saturday the House would provide aid to the ailing U.S. auto industry, requiring that the industry meet new fuel-efficiency standards, produce advanced vehicles and restructure 'to ensure their long-term economic viability.'Pelosi, D-Calif., did not disclose the amount of funding House leaders intend to seek for the industry — automakers have been seeking $25 billion in loans to stabilize their sinking companies. But she said the funding should ...

Christopher Booker:"A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.This was startling. Across the world there were reports of ...

Alaska's chief executive is so dumb, the Frontier State is one of only nine states not projected to be unable to pay its bills next year.Budget Shortfalls = Tax HikesEmail this post to a friend!Sign up for FREE E-mail updates!

Chicago Tribune:"In a new afterword to his memoir, 1960s radical William Ayers describes himself as a 'family friend' of President-elect Barack Obama and writes that the campaign controversy over their relationship was an effort by Obama's political enemies to 'deepen a dishonest narrative' about the candidate..."(HT: Gateway Pundit)Me: I'm not normally a person who would take the word of a terrorist over that of a U.S. Senator, but the record indicates Ayers is telling the ...

Some truly unbelievable questions/requests for personal information from the application for employment in the Obama administration (PDF):3.) Please provide the names of all corporations, firms, partnerships, trusts or other business enterprises, and all non-profit organizations and other such institutions with which you are now, or during the past ten years have been, affiliated with as an advisor, attorney or consultant.8.) Briefly describe the most controversial matters you have been involved with during the course of ...

KSLA-TV (Louisiana):"SHREVEPORT - 'We lost 2 billion dollars and like any other business we have to stay afloat.' And to keep from sinking, the United States Postal Service is considering cutting thousands of jobs nationwide. Lavelle Pepper with the post office in Shreveport says they too are feeling the affects of the same disease hitting the country...a struggling economy. 'We employ about 685,000 people. If we do layoffs it would include clerks, carriers, mail handlers ...

Wall Street Journal:"As Congress gears up to pass another spending 'stimulus' bill, there's one political silver lining: Democrats are being forced to abandon the pretense of fiscal conservatism known as 'pay as you go' budgeting.Late last week the leader of the House Blue Dog Coalition, Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper, announced that with Barack Obama about to enter the White House, 'I'm not sure the old rules are relevant anymore.' Why not? Because, Mr. Cooper said, ...

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AL***: 36.4 centsAK: 26.4 centsAZ: 36.4 centsAR: 39.9 centsCA***: 36.4 centsCO: 40.4 centsCT***: 43.4 centsDE: 41.4 centsFL***: 33.3 centsGA***: 25.9 centsHI***: 35.4 centsID: 43.4 centsIL***: 37.4 centsIN***: 36.4 centsIA***: 39.1 centsKS: 42.4 centsKY: 39.4 centsLA: 38.4 centsME: 46.0 centsMD: 41.9 centsMA: 39.4 centsMI***: 37.4 centsMN: 38.4 centsMS***: 36.8 centsMO***: 35.4 centsMT***: 45.4 centsNE: 45.4 centsNV***: 41.4 centsNH: 37.9 centsNJ***: 28.9 centsNM: 37.3 centsNY***: 42.3 centsNC: 48.1 centsND: 41.4 centsOH: 46.4 centsOK: 35.4 centsOR***: 42.4 centsPA: ...

"You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid."~Incoming White House Chief-of-Staff Rahm EmanuelMe: Can you imagine if Dick Cheney - or anyone in the Bush administration - had said anything remotely like this in the last eight years?

Henry Payne:"The change we need? President-elect Barack Obama has just named Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm to his 17-member economic advisory panel.[...]But Granholm has presided over the worst state economy in the United States since her election in 2003. Just last year, in the teeth of a gaping budget deficit and galloping unemployment now at 8.7 percent, she raised personal income taxes 17 percent. Her energy legislation passed this year further taxed Michigan ratepayers by hiking ...

Barack Obama raised and spent more in 2008 than George W. Bush and John Kerry combined four years ago, yet he received only a couple hundred thousand more votes yesterday than Bush did in 2004 - out of nearly 130 million cast. Hmm...Keep in mind, too, that John McCain was limited to spending $85 million between the end of the Republican convention and yesterday, while Barack Obama was free to raise and spend unlimited money ...

Democrats asked for complete control. They got it. And Americans will get what they deserve. I traded a few text messages tonight with a friend who thought this assessment was too harsh. I ask: What's harsh about it? Elections have consequences. They should; that's why we vote. And we live with the consequences of our decisions. The people who will be hurt most by Barack Obama's economic policies, assuming they are enacted, are the people ...

Jonah Goldberg:"If Democrats govern from the center, good for the country. If they govern from their instincts, good for the Republicans."

Financial Times:"China raised the price of its cooperation in the world's climate change talks yesterday by calling for developed countries to spend one percent of their domestic product helping poorer nations cut greenhouse gas emissions.[...]China's demand is the latest signal of developing countries flexing their muscles on climate change. At the Group of Eight industrialised nations meeting in July, China joined with India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa to demand G8 countries cut their emissions ...