U Of Chic To Let Reagan Home Be Demolished

From the American Spectator:

Historic Home or Grassy Strip?

By Peter Hannaford | December 11, 2012

The University of Chicago is about to demolish Ronald Reagan’s early childhood home. Can it be stopped?

All of Ronald Reagan’s formative years, from birth until he landed his first job across the Mississippi 21 years later, were lived in rural northwestern Illinois except for about ten months in Chicago.

In all but one case, his rural boyhood homes have been preserved. His birthplace in Tampico looks as it did when he was born and is open to the public. So is his teen years home in Dixon. The house the Reagans lived in for two years in Galesburg has been lovingly restored by its private owner. Their house in Monmouth is the only home that is closed.

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526K Farms Threatened By Tax, Where’s Streep?

From the Washington Examiner:

526,421 family farms threatened by new death tax

By Paul Bedard | December 11, 2012

New legislation that jumps the death tax to 55 percent of estates exceeding $1 million threatens 526,421 family farms, of about 25 percent of all farms in America, according to a Senate analysis.

According to the analysis from the Senate Republican Policy Committee, chaired by Wyoming’s John Barrasso:

If President Obama and Senate Democrats do not act, the federal government will begin taking more than half the value of family farm estates exceeding $1 million beginning next year. This summer, Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Democrats passed legislation (S.3412) on a party-line vote that allows Washington to take up to 55 percent, a huge increase over today’s top rate of 35 percent, and drop the tax’s exemption from $5.1 million to $1 million.

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Senate Dems Now Oppose Medical Device Tax

From the Washington Examiner:

Democrats urge delay for ‘job-killing’ Obamacare tax

By Byron York | December 11, 2012

Sixteen Democratic senators who voted for the Affordable Care Act are asking that one of its fundraising mechanisms, a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices scheduled to take effect January 1, be delayed. Echoing arguments made by Republicans against Obamacare, the Democratic senators say the levy will cost jobs — in a statement Monday, Sen. Al Franken called it a “job-killing tax” — and also impair American competitiveness in the medical device field.

The senators, who made the request in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, are Franken, Richard Durbin, Charles Schumer, Patty Murray, John Kerry, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Joseph Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Robert Casey, Debbie Stabenow, Barbara Mikulski, Kay Hagan, Herb Kohl, Jeanne Shaheen, and Richard Blumenthal.

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‘Unexpected’ $63 Fee ‘Found’ In Obama-Care

From an unfazed Associated Press:

Obamacare fee of $63 per person to begin in 2014

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar | December 10, 2012

Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It’s a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Obama’s health care overhaul.

The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to be passed on to workers.

None of this was "unexpected" or "buried." We have been talking about it for years. Like so many other parts of Obama-Care it was ignored by the mainstream media until after the 2010 midterms, and then the Supreme Court’s ruling, and then until after the November elections.

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Only 4% Detroit 8th Graders Proficient In Math

As we noted yesterday, many Michigan schools were closed yesterday to allow their teachers to protest the ‘right to work’ legislation. In fact, two state school districts had to close after hundreds of teachers called in sick in order to join the protests. In one district alone, 750 staff members had called in sick.

Meanwhile, we have this from CNS News:

Only 7% of Detroit Public-School 8th Graders Proficient in Reading

By Terence P. Jeffrey | December 11, 2012

(CNSNews.com) – In the public schools in Detroit, Mich., according to the U.S. Department of Education, only 7 percent of the eighth graders are grade-level proficient or better in reading…

Detroit public-school eighth graders do even worse in math than they do in reading, according to the Department of Education.

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White House Fails To Condemn MI Dem Threats

From the Washington Examiner:

Democrats threaten violence on Michigan House floor

By Conn Carroll | December 11, 2012

“There will be blood,” State Representative Douglas Geiss threatened from the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives today as the body debated legislation that would make Michigan the nation’s 24th right to work state.

Needless to say, Mr. Geiss is a Democrat.

“I really wish we had not gone here,” Geiss continued. “It is the leadership in this house that has led us here. The same leadership that tried to throw a bomb right on election day, leading to a member switching parties, and came in at the 11th hour with a gotcha bill. For that, I do not see solace, I do not see peace.” …

But do you remember how the news media and the rest of the Democrat Party attacked Republicans and talk radio for their violent language?

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AP: MI Passes Right To Work, Despite Protests

From an outraged Associated Press:

Mich. becomes right-to-work state despite protests

By JOHN FLESHER and JEFF KAROUB | December 12, 2012

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — In a dizzyingly short time span, Republicans have converted Michigan from a seemingly impregnable fortress of organized labor into a right-to-work state, leaving outgunned Democrats and union activists with little recourse but to shake their fists and seek retribution at the ballot box.

What a biased headline and lead. You would never know that just last month Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved this exact move in a ballot initiative.

The state House swiftly approved two bills reducing unions’ strength Tuesday, one dealing with private-sector workers and the other with public employees, as thousands of furious protesters at the state Capitol roared in vain.

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French Continue To Attack ‘The Greedy Rich’

From the UK’s Telegraph:

France’s Jean-Marc Ayrault slams flight of the ‘greedy rich’

By Henry Samuel | 11 Dec 2012

Paris – Jean-Marc Ayrault’s outburst came after France’s best-known actor, Gerard Dépardieu, took up legal residence in a small village just over the border in Belgium, alongside hundreds of other wealthy French nationals seeking lower taxes.

"Those who are seeking exile abroad are not those who are scared of becoming poor," the prime minister declared after unveiling sweeping anti-poverty measures to help those hit by the economic crisis.

These individuals are leaving "because they want to get even richer," he said. "We cannot fight poverty if those with the most, and sometimes with a lot, do not show solidarity and a bit of generosity," he added.

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French Industrial Output Declines Unexpectedly

From Bloomberg News:

French Business Confidence, Industrial Output Decline

By Mark Deen | Dec 10, 2012

French business confidence and industrial production unexpectedly declined as President Francois Hollande grapples with a budget deficit and an economy that is on the verge of recession.

What is "unexpected" about it?

Sentiment among manufacturing executives fell to 91 in November from 92 the previous month, suggesting gross domestic product may fall 0.1 percent this quarter, the Bank of France said today. Industrial output dropped 0.7 percent in October, leaving it down 3.6 percent from a year earlier, national statistics office Insee said in a separate release.

The declines show the economy is on the edge of its second recession in three years as Hollande struggles to cut the deficit and improve competitiveness…

And never mind that he has also increased the taxes on the so-called wealthy to 75%.

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Schools Closed So Teachers Can Protest In Mich

From the Daily Caller:

School district cancels class so teachers can protest ‘right-to-work’

By Robby Soave | December 11, 2012

A Michigan public school district has canceled classes for all students on Tuesday, freeing teachers to protest the scheduled approval of a right-to-work bill at the state capitol.

This is even worse than in Madison, where the teachers at least turned in bogus ‘sick notes’ from doctors who were sympathetic to their noble cause.

The final version of the bill — which would make it legal for workers to buck joining a union — is expected to be signed into law by Rick Snyder, the state’s Republican governor, on Tuesday. While teachers all over the state are expected to skip work to protest the bill, a school district in southeast Michigan preemptively cancelled classes to aid its teachers’ actions.

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WSJ Editorial: Worker Liberation In Michigan

From opinion section of the Wall Street Journal:

Worker Liberation in Michigan

Another state gives individuals the right not to join a union.

December 10, 2012

… Union activists plan to descend on Lansing Tuesday to protest, including many from out of state. State police will have to be on duty to ensure that legislators can get through what is likely to be a loud and abusive cordon of activists who want to block the vote.

This thuggishness is a deliberate and familiar union political strategy: Cause as big a ruckus as possible in hopes of making right to work seem radical when it’s already the law in nearly half the country.

We hope Republicans and Governor Rick Snyder aren’t intimidated, because they have the moral and policy high ground.

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Obama: ‘These So Called Right To Work Laws’

From the New York Times:

Obama, With Blue-Collar Backdrop, Pushes for Higher Taxes on the Richest

By MARK LANDLER | December 10, 2012

REDFORD, Mich. — Using a German-owned truck factory as a grease-stained backdrop, President Obama on Monday pressed his case for higher tax rates for the richest Americans, declaring that his economic program would cut the deficit without crimping the job market.

“Our economic success has never come from the top down,” Mr. Obama said to a few hundred cheering autoworkers. “It comes from the middle out; it comes from the bottom up.” …

This time, he chose a nearly 75-year-old truck engine maker, where the owner, the German company Daimler, announced $120 million in investments in new production that will create 115 jobs.

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