Yes, the Greatest Country Ever

◼ Our greatness is simply a fact. Rich Lowry at National Review
...We got constitutional government to work on a scale no one had thought possible; made ourselves a haven of liberty for the world’s peoples; and created a fluid, open society. We amassed unbelievable wealth, and spread it widely. Internationally, we wielded our overwhelming military and industrial power as a benevolent hegemon. We led the coalitions against the ideological empires of the 20th century and protected the global commons. We remain the world’s sole superpower, looked to by most of the world as a leader distinctly better than any of the alternatives....

Californians Getting 725 New Laws for 2011

◼ There Outta Be a Law: Californians Getting 725 New Ones in 2011
◼ Big Health-Care Changes Arrive in New Year

Kenneth Zanzi appointed to the California Coastal Commission

Kenneth Zanzi, 67, of Fortuna, has been appointed to the California Coastal Commission representing the north coast region. He has been mayor pro tem of the city of Fortuna since 2010 and where he served as city councilmember from 2008 to 2010. Zanzi has owned Mad River Parkway Business Center since 1983. He worked for the Department of Fish and Game from 1965 to 1998 retiring as the deputy chief of the Wildlife Management Division. Zanzi is a member of the Fortuna Chamber of Commerce. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no salary. Zanzi is a Republican.
◼ GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER APPOINTMENTS DECEMBER 31 2010

New Year's Eve

◼ Days of Auld Lang What? The origin of the New Year's anthem—and what it means to us. Peggy Noonan WSJ
..."Auld Lang Syne"—the phrase can be translated as "long, long ago," or "old long since," but I like "old times past"—is a song that asks a question, a tender little question that has to do with the nature of being alive, of being a person on a journey in the world. It not only asks, it gives an answer...

President Obama has outraged Republicans by directly appointing six officials this week without the consent of Congress

◼ GOP Fuming Over Recess Appointment of Lawyer Who Compared 9/11 to Drug Trade
◼ Obama bypasses Senate, appoints envoy to Syria
◼ The Administration's Administrative Tyranny Marches On
...When Congress denied Obama authority to transfer money to the International Monetary Fund, he did so anyway, issuing an executive order promising to give that body $140 billion for redistribution to Third World countries.

Now he's made another mockery of bipartisanship and the Constitution in making six recess appointments, including two people so objectionable that a near supermajority of Democratic senators wouldn't confirm them: James Cole as deputy attorney general, whose lax position in the war on terror is disturbing, and Francis J. Ricciardone Jr. as ambassador to Turkey.

Meanwhile, Obama's Environmental Protection Agency is gearing up to engage in a defiant end run around Congress by attempting to impose cap-and-trade-type regulations by administrative fiat after Obama's failed attempt to shove this nightmarish disaster through Congress....

The Five Best Arguments Against Sharia in the United States

◼ The Five Best Arguments Against Sharia in the United States at zombietime
1. U.S. law is the “supreme law of the land,” no exceptions.
2. Sharia, as “divine revelation,” is inherently undemocratic.
3. Many aspects of Sharia are flagrantly unconstitutional.
4. Sharia is fundamentally religious law, and should be inapplicable to U.S. criminal or civil law.
5. Subjectively, Sharia is a discriminatory and cruel legal system.
read the rest

Reid schemes to change Senate rules

◼ The Democrats are trying to change the Senate rules so that they can ram through their agenda when their majority shrinks next week from 59 to 53 seats...

"Changing the rules in this extraordinary process has the effect of election nullification," said Gold. "It allows a smaller majority to write for itself new rules, which permit it to govern the way it wishes, even though the voters said something contrary last November."

The Senate GOP leadership is counting on outraged Americans voicing their opposition to Reid’s power-grab in the wake of the Midterm Elections.

"Public pressure will be a big part of any effort to stop this. People need to speak out and demand that Democrats don't act as if the election never happened," said a GOP aide. "They need to call their Democrat Senators and tell them not to vote to make the Senate some sort of rubber stamp for the Obama administration."

Did you know?

The symbol of the Republican Party is the elephant. During the mid term elections in 1874, Democrats tried to scare voters into thinking President Ulysses S. Grant would seek to run for an unprecedented third term. Thomas Nast, a cartoonist for Harper's Weekly, depicted a Democratic donkey trying to scare a Republican elephant - and both symbols stuck.

◼ Who we are gop.com

Immigration laws - Arizona and Missouri

◼ Missouri Ahead of the Game in Dealing with Illegal Immigrants ozarkssentinel.com h/t: TR
you’ve seen the headlines about Arizona’s new law aimed at dealing with those who enter our country illegally. It has been called the strictest immigration law in generations. While Missouri hasn’t gone to the same lengths as Arizona, our state has made significant policy changes that effectively deal with illegal immigrants who enter our state. Because of those changes, Missouri is ahead of the game when compared to many other states that are now dealing with this issue.

Frank Jager to recommend Melinda Ciarabellini

◼ Eureka mayor to recommend Melinda Ciarabellini to Ward 4 seat
...Ciarabellini recently retired from her 33-year career in law enforcement and corrections -- working as a correctional captain and jail commander for the Humboldt County jail and also working for the California Corrections Standards Authority. The big ticket items for the city are the budget, education and encouraging economic development, she said...
Update:
◼ Eureka Council to consider Ward 4 appointment: Melinda Ciarabellini likely to be sworn in Tuesday (1/4/10)

Closing the books on the worst Congress

◼ Americans can give thanks in this Christmas season for an end to the reckless and destructive 111th Congress. This is the Congress that passed Obamacare, against the wishes of a substantial majority of the public, on Christmas Eve of last year.... washington examiner editorial
As we have learned since, most members were still ignorant of the bill's contents three months later, when it gained final passage in the House. Columbia University historian Alan Brinkley told Bloomberg News recently that "this is probably the most productive session of Congress since at least the '60s." When Congress votes on bills that no one reads or understands, it can be quite "productive." Americans have already rendered a verdict on such productivity and elected a new Congress with orders to clean up the mess in Washington.

◼ Worst. Congress. EVAH! Also Turns Out to Have Been Breathtakingly Unethical

The Pigford Report - What you need to know

“It [Pigford] is a fair settlement, it is a just settlement, we think it’s important for congress to fund that settlement. We’re going to continue to make it a priority.” —President Obama, September 10, 2010 press conference
“[Pigford is] the largest scam against the federal taxpayers in the history of the United States.” - USDA Employee John Stringfellow
◼ http://biggovernment.com/pigford-investigation-resources/ at Breitbart's Big Government
At The Link:
◼ The Pigford Shakedown: How the Black Farmers’ Cause Was Hijacked by Politicians, Trial Lawyers & Community Organizers — Leaving Us With a Billion Dollar Tab
◼ Me & Mrs. Sherrod — And The $1.25 Billion Pigford II Black Farmers’ Settlement
◼ Pigford: Obama’s Down Payment on the 2012 Rural South Vote
◼ Pigford: It’s the Fraud, Stupid (Not Race)
◼ Obama Using Pigford Cash to Pay Campaign Debts?
◼ The Pigford Killings: Double-Murder, Double-Cross, and Decapitation in the Delta
◼ Pigford Whistle-Blowers - ‘If You’ve Got a Potted Plant, That Makes You a Farmer’
◼ A Black Farmer Blows the Whistle on the Black Farmer Settlement
◼ Pigford Witness Report: Applicant Claimed Discrimination by Nonexistent Chicago USDA Office, Was Paid Anyway
◼ Pigford Whistle-Blower: Despite USDA Denials, Fraud Is ‘FBI Documented’
◼ Pigford Witness Report: Black Applicants Claim Racial Discrimination Against Black USDA Officials
◼ Pigford Witness Report: 700 Claims Filed with My Name on Them, Many From Hundreds of Miles Away
◼ Pigileaks: Documents Suggest Pigford Lawyer Sabotaged Mediation That Would Have Saved Tax Payers Billions
◼ Pigileaks: The Pigford Applications
◼ The Big Government Feed Featuring All Stories Related to Pigford
◼ Former Agriculture Secretary Confirms FBI Investigations Into USDA Inside-Job Pigford Fraud... lots more.

This little known story hasn't yet received much press. That is about to change.