“Today’s vote by Senators Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and their liberal allies against the McConnell-Inhofe amendment to prohibit the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases is a vote against American economic growth and job creation. The Democrat-controlled Senate has decided to abdicate its Constitutional legislative responsibilities and outsource our energy and economic future to an unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy.George Allen for U.S. Senate
The consequence of this decision is that American families, farmers and manufacturers will now be seriously threatened with the increased cost of electricity, gasoline and food. By failing to permanently bar the EPA from regulating carbon emissions, Senate Democrats have passed what amounts to a massive tax increase on American consumers that will cost us American jobs, harm employers and hurt Virginia families already struggling with high gasoline prices. Can we expect other countries to impose similar burdens on their citizens? If not, this amounts to American economic unilateral disarmament.”
In the fight to provide a national energy policy that secures America's future, we need to maximize development of our resources to win. Yet many in Washington remain intent on a policy that closes off vast sources of domestic energy while increasing costs for families and businesses that are already tightening their belts.Read more at the Times-Dispatch.
By enforcing a regulatory blockade on domestic drilling for oil and gas, the Obama administration is imposing what amounts to an enormous tax on all Americans. But that higher sum of money we pay for gasoline, instead of staying at home, is sent to other countries in one of the greatest transfers of wealth in history. It amounts to playing roulette with our economic and national security, while sacrificing hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The timing couldn't be worse. Crawling out of the worst recession in generations, the U.S. economy is just beginning to show long-overdue signs of recovery. But any momentum that has been generated is suddenly endangered by the abrupt spike in gasoline costs. Over the past month, gasoline has surged to about $3.65 per gallon, contributing to a roughly 33 percent rise over the past year. The pain isn't just confined to the gas pumps. Higher transportation costs cripple small businesses and lead to higher costs for families and consumers on everything from groceries to consumer goods to airline tickets.
Several economists predict that our economy could slip back into recession should oil — now around $108 per barrel — come close to retracing its 2008 highs of $147. As millions of Americans remain out of work, the stakes couldn't be higher.
The rule provides for one hour of general debate and makes in order the following amendments:
Special Order SpeechesRep. Sheila Jackson Lee Amendment #36 (10 minutes of debate)
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Amendment #37 (10 minutes of debate)
Rep. Jerry McNerney Amendment (10 minutes of debate)
Rep. Henry Cuellar Amendment (10 minutes of debate)
Rep. Christopher Murphy Amendment (10 minutes of debate)
Reps. Waxman / DeGette / Inslee Amendment (10 minutes of debate)
Rep. Mike Quigley Amendment (10 minutes of debate)
Rep. Jared Polis Amendment (10 minutes of debate)
Rep. Edward Markey Amendment (10 minutes of debate)
Rep. Bobby Rush Amendment (10 minutes of debate)
Reps. Doyle / Ryan (OH) Amendment (10 minutes of debate)
Reps. Kind / Owens Amendment (10 minutes of debate)
“After being convinced by his liberal allies in Washington to run, Chairman Kaine’s announcement today sets up a clear contrast for the families of Virginia. Whether comparing records and ideas for the future on job creation and innovation, tax and regulatory policy, energy, or protecting Virginia’s right to work laws, the differences are clear.George Allen for U.S. Senate
“George Allen stands for responsible, smarter government and helping families keep more of what they earn. Allen made job creation his number one priority, resulting in a record number of private sector jobs and investment in Virginia. He also worked to keep the Internet free of taxation while sponsoring meaningful reforms for Washington like the balanced budget amendment, line-item veto authority and paycheck penalty for Congress.
“While Chairman Kaine may try to paint a different picture of his tenure as Governor, it was marked by his proposals calling for staggering tax increases and by substantial job losses for Virginians. As Chairman, Kaine stood with his liberal Washington allies like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi as they imposed their harmful agenda on Virginia and America, making trillion dollar deficits the norm and loading our children with the burden of an unprecedented national debt.
“Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid may be friends of Chairman Kaine, but they are no friends of Virginia families and job-creating business owners. While we know he will look to his Washington allies for help and guidance in his campaign, George Allen will continue to listen to the families of Virginia and work hard to earn the right to represent their voices, views and values in the U.S. Senate.”
For many who follow Augusta County politics fairly closely, this week's disclosure of plans to build a traffic circle, referred to these days as a roundabout, at the Wilson Complex in Fishersville at the cost of almost $300,000 raised some eyebrows. After all, Augusta County has been dealing with serious fire coverage issues the past year in addition to school board cuts so the sudden appearance of so much money for an issue that had not been on the public radar was surprising.Now F.P. at the Staunton News Leader has also voiced objection to the darn thing. He grew up in New Jersey and knows the negatives of traffic circles. He wrote:
At Wednesday night's supervisor meeting, it was obviously a done deal presented by Supervisor Wendell Coleman, who works in the Wilson Complex, as it was agreed and voted on by the board, and sent to be built during the summer 2011 before school begins.
To my knowledge, there was no previous public input on the issue, and there was certainly no public discussion Wednesday night. Supervisor Jeremy Shifflett rubber-stamped the project and took money out of his own district to support this questionable project.
Traffic circles were fairly common in Richmond at one time. However, VDOT did away with them thirty or forty years ago and replaced them with regular intersections to decrease the number of traffic accidents. There's confusion by some when they enter a roundabout ... do they slow down, speed up -- oops, missed the exit so slam on brakes? The result was banged-up cars.
Add to the mix students from the high school and vocational school plus large, bulky school buses and visitors from out of the area.
What has been needed for years is another roadway out of the complex. That area is a ticking time bomb waiting for a major emergency when everyone would need to exit at the same time out the one, narrow road leading to Rt. 250 -- students, employees of Woodrow Wilson Rehab Center and the school board offices, as well as private homes in the area. Add a roundabout to the mix and one has to wonder if traffic would move faster or bog down.
The timing just doesn't seem right for a traffic circle in light of all the other pressing financial issues on the table. The Staunton News Leader weighed in on the issue in a recent editorial, opining that a traffic circle would not solve the problem. NBC-29 has a diagram of the proposed roundabout.
Not again. That terrible idea that won't die.There's more ... be sure to read more of what he had to say about this folly of an idea.
A while back, Staunton considered building a roundabout to ease future traffic
congestion at Richmond and Greenville avenues, and now Augusta County is eyeing
a roundabout to solve congestion at the Woodrow Wilson Education Complex.
They just don't work.
I'm from New Jersey, where traffic is much worse than around here and where
roundabouts were a total disaster.
Like so many others in America, I am the grandson of immigrants. My grandmother and her family fled religious persecution to come here at the turn of the last century. Like so many of her generation in Eastern Europe, my grandmother faced a future where no matter how hard she worked, no matter how much she studied or learned, no matter how smart she was, there were limits.The initiative that was passed on by previous generations, the work ethic, the dream is still alive in Eric Cantor and millions of other Americans. Republicans are working to make sure that dream doesn't die.
Just because of who she was, who her parents were and where she was born, there was only so far she could go, only so much she could do.
But America wasn’t like that. My grandmother eventually made her home in a working class section of Richmond, Virginia.
Widowed at a very young age, she raised my father and my uncle in tight quarters above a tiny grocery store that she ran.
She worked day and night and sacrificed tremendously to secure a better future for her children.
And sure enough, this young woman – who had the courage to journey to a distant land with hope as her only possession – lifted herself into the ranks of the middle class.
Through hard work, thrift and faith, she was even able to send her two children to college.
All she wanted was a chance – a fair shot. And if she were still alive today, she would be blown away by the fact that her grandson was not only a Member of the U.S. Congress, but the Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives.
In America, you may be talking to the union worker in Philadelphia, the retired state employee in Sacramento or the working Mom in a small town in Kansas. All of them come from different places and different backgrounds. But each of them rely upon a simple and implicit guarantee – that the deck won’t be stacked against them in America. That they’ll have a fair shot and the opportunity to succeed.
The true grit of Americans passes from one generation to the next, as long as government remains limited and opportunity remains unlimited, through free markets and a fair playing field.
Americans will out-work, out-hustle and, yes, out-innovate the rest of the world.
Individual initiative in the private sector has been and always will be the wellspring of America’s prosperity provided we don’t stifle it.
“Conservative voters like Chris Christie,” pollster John Zogby tells Newsmax, “because he offers an actual governing model that’s consistent with his and their philosophy.With those kinds of numbers for Christie, perhaps other polls should begin to include him in their list of names.
“Essentially, he has been fearless in terms of tackling unions, tackling budget cuts, and so on,” Zogby says. “But they also know that he’s an affable personality, that he does not come off as this angry radical, but as a credible fellow.
“And at the same time,” says Zogby, “he’s portly, he’s real, he’s not out of central casting. And in many ways, for Republicans, he’s the un-Obama.”
Maj. Gen. John F. Campbell, Commander of the 101st Airborne Division, announced Thursday the deaths of six 1st Brigade Combat Team soldiers killed March 29 during a battalion-sized operation in Kunar Province, Afghanistan.Our prayers and thoughts go out to the families of these American heroes. Freedom is not free.
...
The names of two soldiers were released Wednesday — Staff Sgt. Bryan A. Burgess, 29, of Cleburne, Texas, and Pfc. Dustin J. Feldhaus, 20, of Glendale, Ariz.
On Thursday, the Department of Defense released the names of the other four — Sergeant 1st Class Ofren Arrechaga, 28, of Hialeah, Fla.; Staff Sgt. Frank E. Adamski, 26, of Moosup, Conn.; Specialist Jameson L. Lindskog, 23, of Pleasanton, Calif.; and Private Jeremy P. Faulkner, 23, of Griffin, Ga.
All six were assigned to 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team.
