The Patriot Post Digest 11-4-2011

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-4-2011
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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The Foundation

"Newspapers ... serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke." --Thomas Jefferson

Government & Politics
Leftmedia Welcomes Cain to Prime Time

Leftmedia outfit Politico dropped a bomb on Herman Cain's presidential campaign Sunday night with a story1 about two women accusing him of sexual harassment in the 1990s. Politico's story was anonymously sourced, though they claimed to have spoken to both women, and reporters later hedged when pressed on the specifics of their information. Regardless, in a culture that gets so much of its news in 140-character Twitter soundbites, the damage was done.

"During Herman Cain's tenure as the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, at least two female employees complained to colleagues and senior association officials about inappropriate behavior by Cain, ultimately leaving their jobs at the trade group," Politico reported. "The women complained of sexually suggestive behavior by Cain that made them angry and uncomfortable, the sources said, and they signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them financial payouts to leave the association. The agreements also included language that bars the women from talking about their departures." Fifteen years later, that has come in handy.

Cain's initial response was not a good one. Politico claimed that it had contacted his campaign before publishing the story, and yet he seemed woefully unprepared to offer a counterpoint. When first asked directly if he had ever been accused of sexual harassment, he threw the question right back at the reporter. He denied any wrongdoing and said he didn't even remember a settlement, but later said that he did remember though it was a small one (there were two, of $35,000 and $45,000, respectively) and it didn't go through him. The fact that the settlements were small and it was the women, not Cain, who left the NRA lends credence to Cain's innocence (he certainly deserves that presumption), but it would help if he got his story straight.

As for the details, he described one incident2, saying, "She was in my office one day, and I made a gesture saying -- and I was standing close to her -- and I made a gesture saying you are the same height as my wife. And I brought my hand up to my chin saying, 'My wife comes up to my chin.'"

It wasn't long before the blame game started. Cain's campaign accused Curt Anderson, a former aide who now works for Rick Perry, of being the source of the story. To add confusion, the campaign later retracted that accusation before Cain himself reiterated it. The Perry camp denied any involvement, instead blaming the Romney campaign, thus completing the circular firing squad.

If this benefits anyone, it could be Newt Gingrich, who may well be the only candidate who understands Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment. We think he could be the next candidate to spike in the polls. Yet Cain's poll numbers are higher now than they were last week, particularly in the all-important early states of Iowa and South Carolina, and his fundraising is up as well. Perhaps that's indicative of conservatives rallying around one of their own who's under assault by the media juggernaut.

As for the Republican candidates, they need to cut the crap3, quit attacking each other, and focus on beating Barack Obama in the general election. Besides, "the real story here is the media -- and Politico in particular," as National Review's Andrew McCarthy writes4. "Politico's initial story was woven out of insufficient evidence, anonymous sources, and vague allegations that -- even if you construed every possible inference against Cain -- would amount to an impropriety that outfits like Politico would find too trivial to cover like this if the culprit were a left-leaning Democrat."

As if on cue, Bloomberg columnist Jonathan Alter wrote a column last Friday titled, The Obama Miracle, a White House Free of Scandal5. No, Mr. Alter. Just because the media don't report Obama's scandals doesn't mean there aren't any, or that they aren't far worse than a hand gesture that made a woman uncomfortable.

Open Query

"If you are running for president of the United States and have a sexual-harassment complaint or two in your background -- no matter how specious -- what possible excuse can you have for not knowing how those complaints were resolved, well before you announce that you are running for president? Especially if the resolution reflected well on you? How can you possibly justify your not being in command of basic facts about your own career -- the career that is the centerpiece of your campaign?" --National Review's Kevin Williamson

We Can't Wait: Suddenly, a Slew of Co-sponsors!

House Democrats rallied around Obama's "jobs" bill this week, with 90 members signing on as co-sponsors. The bill sat with only one sponsor, Rep. John Larson (D-CT), for three weeks after he introduced it in September. The sudden surge of support came at the direction of the House Democrat leadership, attempting to combat Republican criticism of the bill. The plan calls for tax hikes and promises to public unions, but it will only end up adding to the deficit with no net gain in jobs. If an $862 billion stimulus couldn't trim unemployment, a $447 billion stimulus won't do any better. In truth, this bill proposes nothing more than a pre-election payoff to Obama's Democrat constituencies.

Other Democrats seem to understand this. The Blue Dog Coalition has kept its distance, as have other Democrats facing tough races next year. The recent rush of support by other Democrats is most likely the result of good old-fashioned arm-twisting by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (such as threats to withhold campaign funds). There can't be many other believable explanations for 90 co-sponsors suddenly signing onto the bill after it languished without support for so long.

The Democrat Senate failed again Thursday on two separate votes to pass anything related to Obama's bill, but the Republican House has passed some 17 bills related to job creation. Here are some of them: March 31 they passed H.R. 872, The Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act, joined by 57 Democrats; May 5 they passed H.R. 1230, the Restating American Offshore Leasing Now Act, with 33 Democrats; May 11 they passed H.R. 1229, the Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act, supported by 28 Democrats; May 12 they passed H.R. 1231, the Reversing President Obama's Offshore Moratorium Act, along with 21 Democrats; June 22 they passed H.R. 2021, The Jobs and Energy Permitting Act, and 23 Democrats voted for it; July 26 they passed H.R. 1938, The North American Made Energy Security Act, with 47 Democrat votes; October 6 they passed H.R. 2681, The Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act, joined by 25 Democrats; October 13 they passed H.R. 2250, The EPA Regulatory Relief Act, H.R. 2250, with 41 Democrats; and finally, October 14 they passed H.R. 2273, The Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act, H.R. 2273, along with 37 Democrats. In other words, Senate Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is full of it when he blames Republicans.

This Week's 'Alpha Jackass' Award

"God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work." --Barack Obama

Note: This is not satire from The Onion. Apparently, Barry has actually conferred with the Almighty and determined that He approves of the so-called jobs bill. And here we thought that Leftists were the great defenders of that mythical "Wall of Separation6."

Regarding Obama's assertion, White House spokesman Jay Carney later claimed, "Well, I believe the phrase from the Bible is, 'The Lord helps those who help themselves.'"

Hilariously, an official notation at the bottom of the White House's own transcript notes: "This common phrase does not appear in the Bible." Not only did Carney flub the defense, he ended up making an argument for the opposition. In other words, the supposed biblical principle isn't, "God helps those who get help from government first." Way to go, Jay.

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-4-2011
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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The BIG Lie

"I'll tell you this: If President Obama and the House congressional Democrats had not acted [with the 2009 stimulus], we would be at 15 percent unemployment." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), repeating her unprovable claim

Meanwhile, the economy added 80,000 jobs in October and headline unemployment fell from 9.1 percent to 9.0 percent. That, of course, doesn't take into account those who have simply quit looking for work, meaning the real unemployment rate may be twice the reported number -- and that's with the stimulus.

New & Notable Legislation

The minibus spending bill the Senate passed this week to fund agriculture, the FDA, and other agencies is apparently not all it's cracked up to be, according to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the ranking member of the Budget Committee. Democrats claim that the bill cuts $1 billion compared to Fiscal 2011, which is a pitiful amount on its own, but Sessions argues that it will actually increase spending by $9 billion thanks to an accounting gimmick that doesn't factor in mandatory appropriations. No wonder the government has budget problems.

Several Senate Democrats proposed a constitutional amendment to give Congress power to regulate political campaign spending, specifically to prevent corporate donations. In a public statement announcing the proposal, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island credited the Occupy Wall Street movement with the background research: "The extent to which money and corporations have taken over the process is something that is reflected across our cities in the Occupy movement." So not only do Democrats propose to regulate how campaigns are funded, but they took courage from a bunch of 20-something street-dwelling socialist malcontents.

News From the Swamp: Social Security's Future

The inevitable Social Security default is coming at a quickening pace, according to analysts who have been studying the program. Even The Washington Post took notice7. In 2010, America's favorite government program went cash negative, meaning that it paid out more in benefits than it took in through payroll taxes. This unfortunate milestone came years earlier than originally anticipated because of the hit that government revenues took due to the recession and the ensuing payroll tax cut gimmick of the first "stimulus." If Obama's plan to extend that cut becomes reality, Social Security will face a $267 billion shortfall next year.

Politicians on both left and right for years have feared taking on the coming Social Security funding crisis. Yet the figures don't lie. The number of people receiving Social Security checks will nearly double by 2035, at which point there will be only two workers paying into the program for every retiree drawing benefits. The steady rise in life expectancy bodes even more trouble, since people will draw from the system for increasingly longer periods of time. Yet leftists, employing their powerful mouthpiece, the AARP, to frighten seniors, reject the idea of raising the retirement age to save the program. A dangerous combination of arrogance and ignorance is standing in the way of reforming Social Security to reflect new demographic and economic realities. Its survival is not guaranteed just because it's popular; it also has to function.

From the Left: Government Gifts

The State Department recently spent $70,000 on some unusual Christmas gifts for U.S. embassies to hand out: Copies of Barack Obama's three books, "Dreams from My Father," "The Audacity of Hope" and his children's book, "Of Thee I Sing." The White House claims it had no knowledge of the State Department's purchase, which puts money directly into Obama's pocket. Granted, $70,000 isn't much money in federal budget terms, and Obama's royalties represent but a fraction of the total, but such activities do not reflect the upright principles and ethics that Obama was supposed to bring to Washington.

National Security
Warfront With Jihadistan: The New Look of U.S. Middle East Policy

As the remaining U.S. combat forces prepare to withdraw from Iraq by year's end, the Pentagon has been planning for a realignment of other U.S. forces in the region to be ready for whatever may come in the new year. Negotiations continue with Kuwait on maintaining U.S. forces there and the Navy is considering sailing more warships through the region's international waters. Additionally, expanded military ties with the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council -- Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman -- are also on the table. While the U.S. already has close military ties with each nation, the Pentagon wants a new overall "security architecture" for the Persian Gulf that would integrate air and naval operations as well as missile defense, always with a wary eye toward a menacing Iran.

In related news, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the Obama regime is prepared to negotiate with Taliban leader Mullah Omar, whom the White House regards as crucial to negotiations over Afghanistan's future. This break (or surrender) from the administration's previous strategy of trying to isolate Omar from the rest of the Taliban marks a significant reversal in "strategy." It also comes after American officials met with the powerful Haqqani Network, which warned that only the Quetta Shura, led by Mullah Omar, could negotiate a peace deal. Once again Obama gives them what they want, this time to the man who protected Osama bin Laden as he planned 9/11.

Immigration Front: Border Battle Over Drugs

Mexico's massive drug war has brought drugs, thousands of violent criminals, rising violence and official corruption10 into the United States. Last Monday, federal authorities and Arizona's Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu announced the arrest of over 70 drug smugglers in the third and largest such round-up since August, part of the 17-month-old "Operation Pipeline Express." Officials continue searching for scores of others who escaped. The haul, described as "jaw dropping" by one officer, included over two tons of marijuana, $200,000 in cash, bullet-proof vests and dozens of weapons -- at least two of which Sheriff Babeu identified as Operation Fast and Furious guns.

Arrests included Mexican and American nationals working with the Sinaloa cartel, headquartered on Mexico's Pacific coast, where marijuana and opium poppy plantations have thrived since the 1960s. According to officials, the Sinaloa mob imports 65 percent of all illegal drugs into the U.S. "It's a body blow, but it doesn't knock them out," said Sheriff Babeu. "This literally is just a fraction of what's going on."

Unfortunately, as Matthew Allen, an ICE special agent, predicted, another will soon fill the void: "Command and control in Mexico is working to re-establish their presence." Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne stressed how this demonstrates the importance of gaining control over the border. "I find it completely unacceptable that Arizona neighborhoods are treated as a trading floor for narcotics. Children are not safe," he said. "Our highways are not safe when criminal organizations battle each other, sometimes violently and at risk to innocent bystanders, for control of loads of drugs being transported in vehicles."

Sheriff Babeu says we must take the fight to the cartels. Tell them, "This is America. You're not bringing your violence ... your drugs and your trash to our country. We're going to stop you."

We're not sure if this is related, but Barack Obama, as part of his new "We Can't Wait" campaign, signed an executive order this week in an effort to alleviate a national drug shortage11.

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-4-2011
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Business & Economy
A Pattern of Bankruptcy

It's bad enough when the government picks winners and losers with our tax money, but lately they have been on a streak that suggests they should stay far away from any casino. Hot on the heels of losing more than half a billion dollars with Solyndra, two more companies targeted for an Energy Department loan guarantee and a stimulus grant are in jeopardy. Both Beacon Power, which is on the hook for a $43 million loan guarantee, and EnerDel, a subsidiary of Ener1 that received a $118 million stimulus grant, were once listed on NASDAQ. Over time, however, both share prices fell below $1, the minimum threshold for NASDAQ listing. Both received government funding anyway.

The EnerDel story is particularly compelling because the company has somehow managed to burn through $53 million of the $118 million grant. Despite all that capital investment, its stock price has plummeted from about $4 a share when it received the grant to 11 cents a share last week. Ominously, the company says the information in two of its financial statements "should no longer be relied upon." EnerDel has used the grant money to create some 33 jobs, all of which may be lost if the company shuts down. Beacon Power's record is even more dubious, as the $43 million created all of 14 jobs before the company filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week.

As for Solyndra, the House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative subcommittee authorized subpoenas for any White House documents relating to federal money given to the now-bankrupt solar company. Notably, the Energy Department considered a bailout of Solyndra in its last days. In this case, better political sense prevailed.

If you're keeping score, the tab on wasted DOE money -- at least that which we know about -- is nearly $700 million and climbing. Green jobs sure cost taxpayers a lot of green.

Regulatory Commissars: Banks Abandon Debit Card Fees

Bank of America has officially called off its plan to charge customers for using their debit cards. Several other banking giants, including JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Regions and SunTrust, had already scrapped the plan after a wave of customer fury. To the casual observer (or Wall Street Occupier), this may look like run-of-the-mill corporate greed. As lousy as the idea was, however, its seeds were sown not on Wall Street but on K Street. Last year, the Durbin amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill chopped by nearly half the transaction fees banks could charge retailers. Given a projected $8 billion in losses the banks are now due to incur, it was no surprise that they tried (and probably will try in other, less visible ways) to pass this along to their account holders. Consumer reaction was predictable, too.

Barack Obama and Senate buddy Dick Durbin (D-IL), author of the aforementioned amendment, slammed the fee plan. Durbin even took the opportunity to rip off Ronald Reagan, telling consumers to "vote with their feet" and choose another bank. Of course, Durbin is hoping nobody will notice that it was his amendment that prodded the banks to raise their fees. The Leftmedia are glad to oblige in keeping it quiet.

Another Notorious Wall Street Bad Guy Under FBI Investigation

Wall Street Journal headlines this week focused on the worst of the worst of Wall Street "1 Percenters," Jon Corzine. As readers recall, he was booted from Goldman Sachs in 1999, but not before pocketing a cool $400 million. The following year he used $62 million of that haul to buy a Democrat seat in the Senate -- the most expensive Senate campaign in history. At the end of his first term, he spent $38 million to buy the New Jersey governorship, which he then lost in November 2009 to Republican Chris Christie. He made his way back to Wall Street, where, this week, he presided over the $41 billion bankruptcy of MF Global Holdings, the eighth largest corporate bankruptcy on record. He resigned Friday morning.

By the way, Corzine is an Obama benefactor. That's right, this "man of the people" was said to have been so liberal that he single-handedly drove the Senate to the Left with his support for big government programs such as universal health care and issues such as gun registration, affirmative action and same-sex marriage. He's an alumnus of the Chicago mafia, too, having earned his MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and he was on Obama's short list for treasury secretary. We wonder if Obama's red brigade of street urchins know him.

Income Redistribution: Food Stamps Reach Record

The Wall Street Occupiers might hate the top 1 percent, but the "rich" sure do fund their "fair share" of wealth redistribution programs. Try food stamps. According to the Department of Agriculture, the number of recipients of food stamps in August reached a record of 45.8 million people, or some 15 percent of the population. That's up 8 percent over August 2010, and the number has reached record highs in all but one month since December 2008. Coincidence?

Around the Nation: California Rail Line Triples in Cost

The first shovelful of dirt hasn't even been turned yet, but cost estimates for a high-speed rail project proposed to connect Anaheim and San Francisco by a three-hour train ride are now almost triple what they were when the project was sold to California voters in 2008. The proposed completion date was also pushed back from 2020 to 2033 in a business plan prepared by the state's high-speed rail authority.

A $2.25 billion piece of the $53 billion in stimulus money earmarked for rail improvements and construction nationwide was sent to California to assist in building this line, but that would only be a small percentage of the $98.5 billion overall projected cost of the 520-mile line. In 2008, voters were told the project would cost $33.6 billion.

Since voters spoke and approved the funding, however, it looks as if California will undertake the costliest public works project in the nation's history. That is, unless the state assembly decides to pull the plug, which won't happen unless voters somehow decide to dump most of the current Democrat majority in both houses. When their state is staring at what could be a $600 billion long-term deficit, embarking on this huge project with subsidies as far as the eye can see wouldn't be in the state's best interest. But when have economic realities ever stopped Leftists?

Culture & Policy
Welcome to Planet Earth, Population 7 Billion

The human race has now surpassed seven billion people, and, not surprisingly, population-control crusaders are aghast. "The thing about rapid population growth," said Rockefeller University demographer Joel Cohen, "is that it makes almost every other problem more difficult to solve, and if we could slow our growth rate, we [would] have an easier job in dealing with all the other things like education, health, employment, housing, food, the environment and so on." Another alarmist panicked about "overproducers and overpopulaters on a finite and frangible planet where resources are dissipating and environs degrading rapidly," adding that steps must be taken "to humanely limit population growth." Such fears, however, have always proven baseless. Consider, for example, that Paul R. Ehrlich, author of the now 43-year-old best-selling book "The Population Bomb," all but guaranteed mass global starvation in the 1970s.

More disturbing than predictions of mass catastrophe however, is the view that human life is of minimal value. As Wall Street Journal columnist Bill McGurn explains12, "Malthusian fears about population follow from the Malthusian view that human beings are primarily mouths to be fed rather than minds to be unlocked." The difference between welcoming the seven billionth baby and seeking to abort him lies in whether one views individuals as being a problem or a solution. Perhaps Investor's Business Daily put it best13: "Humans are in fact a resource, an infinite form of capital. We have had an uncanny way of using our minds to overcome all of the environmental challenges we've faced. ... Population growth is no plague. It is an opportunity." Indeed it is, the naysayers of the world notwithstanding.

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-4-2011
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Climate Change This Week: Trying to Set the Record Straight

A team of researchers at the University of California-Berkeley released their compilation of climate data based upon a study of global temperatures over the last two centuries. It was a seminal event for defenders of the notion that mankind is warming the earth. As a group, they declared (again) that the science is now settled and global warming deniers should shut up.

The graph showing the data made it appear that, based on an average climate defined as the mean temperature between 1950 and 1980, global temperatures had steadily risen from 1975 onward. Unfortunately for them, a sampling of their own data taken from the last 10 years shows the temperatures holding more or less steady despite ever-expanding development during that time, particularly in Asia.

The period used as an "average" omits the notably warmer years of the Dust Bowl 1930s and includes Newsweek magazine's "global cooling" decade of the 1970s. This not-so-subtle stacking of the deck made the warming seem even more pronounced, and none of the data proves the exact cause of the alleged temperature rise. Obviously, believers of anthropogenic climate change jump to the conclusion that it's the industrialized West at fault, with the victims concentrated in poorer countries. Yet we also know that certain time periods in Earth's history have featured very warm conditions with nary an SUV in sight, so the weather could well be in a natural cycle of change.

Of course, one can't score a government grant with the promise of concluding that weather is a natural phenomenon, so the scientific community will continue to blame the rich industrial fat cat one percenters. Good research isn't free, you know.

Finally, climatologists warn that we're in for more ... weather. The CBS headline14 says it all: "Climate experts: Expect more weather disasters."

From the 'Non Compos Mentis' File

Girl Scouts of the USA has taken a bold step into the brave new world of transgender children. A troop in Colorado recently prevented a seven-year-old boy from joining because, well, it's the Girl Scouts. The organization quickly backtracked, however, saying that he and other boys could join as long as any boy was "living life as a girl." The national organization soon issued a statement: "Girl Scouts of the USA is an inclusive organization, and we welcome all girls in kindergarten through 12th grade as members. Acceptance of transgender youth is handled on a case-by-case basis, with the welfare and best interests of the child in question as a top priority."

Aside from enabling those dealing with gender-disorientation pathology, what about the actual girls who will soon be in a girls' troop with boys? What about parents who now have to explain this aberration to their young girls? As we have said before, the homosexual agenda won't stop with same-sex marriage; it will continue until our culture succumbs completely.

And Last...

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) have introduced legislation offering government-provided diapers in daycare centers. According to The Hill15, "The federal program, called the Child Care and Development Fund, received $5 billion in fiscal 2011, which it distributed to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and scores of tribal governments. The program now helps to provide for an estimated 1.8 million children each month. The program also received an extra $2 billion under the 2009 stimulus bill."

For some reason, this ridiculous story caused us to recall the clever witticisms of Ronald Reagan: "Government is like a baby -- an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other." And then there was this classic: "I think politicians and diapers have one thing in common -- they should both be changed regularly and for the same reason."

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team

(Please pray for our Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families -- especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)

Links

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/67194.html
    http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/cain-details-gesture-led-sex-charge
    http://patriotpost.us/alexander/2011/10/20/memo-to-gop-contenders-cut-the-crap/
    http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/282165/politico-tawdry-andrew-c-mccarthy
    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/10/28/bloomberg_articlesLTQZU10D9L35.DTL
    http://patriotpost.us/alexander/2005/05/06/the-wall-of-separation-myth/
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-debt-fallout-how-social-security-went-cash-negative-earlier-than-expected/2011/10/27/gIQACm1QTM_print.html
    https://patriotpost.us/donate/
    https://patriotpost.us/donate/mail/
    http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/10/ice-officer-arrested-for-pot-smuggling.html
    http://thehill.com/video/administration/190943-obama-on-signing-executive-order-we-cant-wait-for-action-on-the-hill-
    http://blog.heritage.org/2011/10/31/welcoming-the-7-billionth-baby/
    http://news.investors.com/Article/590346/201111021859/We-Need-More-People.htm?
    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-20128315/climate-experts-expect-more-weather-disasters/
    http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/191371-senate-dem-seeks-federal-funding-for-diapers