Coach Roy's Reading List for 1/4/2012

Cold day in Delaware -

[As usual my comments are in bold type surrounded by square brackets].

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Politics as usual Department:

Probe reveals feds pressuring agents to rush immigrant visas – even if fraud is feared

(Sarah Tyley The Daily) Higher-ups within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are pressuring rank-and-file officers to rubber-stamp immigrants’ visa applications, sometimes against the officers’ will, according to a Homeland Security report and internal documents exclusively obtained by The Daily.

Holder Math Part 2: DOJ Lays Trap to Misrepresent South Carolina Voter Data

(Lee Stranahan - Big Government.com) To understand the truly obscene nature of the fraud perpetrated by Obama’s Justice Department on the state of South Carolina, you need to see the statistical trap that they’ve laid out. The DOJ is well aware that the numbers they are basing their decision about South Carolina’s voter ID laws on are incorrect. By establishing the “Holder Math” standard that I described in part one of this series, when the correct numbers are acknowledged, the DOJ will be able to dishonestly claim the situation is actually even worse than before.

WOLF: Cronyism doesn't sell in corn country

(Milton Wolf - Wash Times) One of the most encouraging, if underreported, developments of our times is the collapsed career of Nebraska’s soon-to-be former Democratic senator, Ben Nelson. His crucial 60th vote for Obamacare was secured with the infamous “Cornhusker Kickback” deal that ultimately sealed his own demise.

RITTGERS: Pistol packin’ mamas

(Anna Rittgers - Wash Times) Some states would like to remove the words “bear arms” from the right to “keep and bear arms,” but the plain fact is that self-defense - and the right to have access to an effective means of self-defense - is protected by the Constitution, and that protection does not end at your front door. The good news is that the House recently passed a bill, H.R. 822, that would require the 49 states that issue concealed-carry permits to honor all state permits. If this bill becomes law, it would be an important step in the right direction and would help women protect themselves against violence while traveling.

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Presidential Election Department:

Romney edges Santorum in Iowa photo finish

(Wash Examiner) DES MOINES, Iowa — Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum validated his sudden, 11th-hour surge in Iowa on Tuesday with a strong showing in the caucuses that at least temporarily position him as conservatives' No. 1 alternative to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ahead of the New Hampshire primary.

Klein: Iowa results should worry Republicans

(Philip Klein - Wash Examiner) - There are two main points to come out of the Iowa caucuses.

NORQUIST: Post-Iowa, GOP prospects promising

(Grover Norquist - Wash Times As ancient Greeks anxiously waited for a pronouncement from the Oracle of Delphi, we have awaited the results from the Iowa caucuses. We now know who got the most votes and won, and who outperformed expectations and therefore “really” won. And of those who “lost” in Iowa, some will accept the decision of the Fates, and some will continue onto other primary states as zombies apparently unaware of their lack of pulse.

Closing Read: Tied and spun

(Dylan Byers - Politico) Despite the intense focus on just how many votes seperated Romney and Santorum (at one point, with 98.6 percent reporting, it was just five), what matters now is how the two candidates spin it.

The GOP must welcome fence-sitting party-switchers

(Reihan Salam - The Daily) The Iowa caucuses won’t settle much of anything regarding the future of the Republican Party. What really matters is candidate recruitment. The women and men who are signing up to run for state legislative seats, for Congress and for governor are determining whether the party will grow or whether it will shrivel into irrelevance. The central problem facing the GOP is that it is drawing on too narrow a pool.

Obama camp amends finance reports

(By DAVE LEVINTHAL Politico) The campaign picks tonight's GOP-fest to amend its second- and third-quarter campaign finance reports.
[So it will get lost in the coverage]

Obama’s Top Ten New Year’s Resolutions

(Keith Koffler - WhiteHouseDossier.com) Well, we’ve done it. The chief of the White House Dossier investigative unit, Bob Woodboard, has obtained a the original copy of President Obama’s 2012 New Year’s resolutions.

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The Media

All You Jewish Republicans? You're In Trouble With Leslie Stahl, Apparently.

(Daisy - Chicks on the Right) God forbid you be a Jew AND a Republican. It’s just not right. It’s not NATURAL, according to “journalist” lady in the clip below. You see, Jewish folks are supposed to be DEMOCRATS, and if you’re Jewish and if you’ve ever read this site and felt some sort of strange, unnatural alignment with the things we write out here, then SHAME ON YOU, you terrible, awful, non-stereotype-abiding Jews.

Watch The Entire CNN Team Lose It At 1:30 AM Waiting For Iowa Results

(MediaIte) Do you remember those all-nighters in college, during finals period, where everyone would mellow out for a bit before heading out for a cup of coffee and then have a collective caffeine-induced laughing fit over nothing in particular? Prepare to get nostalgic, because that is apparently what happened to the CNN Election Center crew around 1:30 AM tonight as they waited for election results, and a Magic Wall mishap sent the show spiraling out of control.

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World View

Murder at Queen Elizabeth's country estate in England?

(CSMonitor) It's a case that Sherlock Holmes would have loved to unravel: British police say a woman's body has been found at the vast rural estate where Queen Elizabeth II and her family celebrated New Year's.

[But is W still at fault?]

Will Europe's Tax Hikes Deter Tourism?

(Kelli B. Grant - WSJ) Travelers heading to Europe may have another expense to budget for: higher taxes on their purchases.

Quote: US Mission Iraq - Off the Radar Screen Until ...

"What is going to be the will of our country and our Congress to support our activities there in the out years? [...] Once the troops are really gone completely, other than security cooperation folks, but once they are completely gone, this turns into just another diplomatic post. And until there are some tragic events there, I think it is off the radar screen." — Grant Green

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Global What?

[The Environmental Wackos]

ECONOMY: End of ethanol subsidy will raise the price of gas

(USA Today) Gasoline could cost 4.5 cents a gallon more starting as early as this week, and it's not because of rising oil prices.

Md. set to enter second phase of energy use reduction plan

(Daily Times) SALISBURY — Encouraging people to lower their thermostats when leaving home and turning off lights when not in the room is just the beginning of fulfilling Maryland's goal of reducing energy consumption by 2015.

ENVIRONMENT: Ohio quakes linked to oil-drilling waste pumped into wells

(USA Today) Oil-drilling wastewater pumped into a northeast Ohio well "almost certainly" triggered 11 minor earthquakes around Youngstown since last spring, including one Saturday, a seismologist tells the Associated Press.

How fracking might have led to an Ohio earthquake

(Christian Science Monitor) The link between "fracking"-related activities and earthquakes was thrown into stark relief over the weekend when a magnitude 4.0 quake struck Youngstown, Ohio – typically not a hot bed of noticeable seismic activity. The quake triggered shaking reportedly felt as as far away as Buffalo, N.Y., and Toronto.

Earthquakes in Oklahoma? Is 'fracking' to blame, or something else?

(CSMonitor) Indeed, this week's temblors in the Sooner State highlight the challenge scientists face as they try to improve earthquake-hazard assessments in the central and eastern United States, particularly across the lower half of the country.

Interior secretary: 'Fracking' can be safe and responsible (VIDEO)

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Popular Culture, etc.:

Andy Kessler: The Rise of Consumption Equality

By ANDY KESSLER (WSJ) It used to be so cool to be wealthy—an elite education, exclusive mobile communications, a private screening room, a table at Annabel's on London's Berkeley Square. Now it's hard to swing a cat without hitting yet another diatribe against income inequality. People sleep in tents to protest that others are too damn wealthy.

Secrets of the Operating Room

By PAUL A. RUGGIERI (WSJ) "Get this thing out of my operating room!" The colon stapling device exploded into pieces when I hurled it against the operating room wall. I was fed up with its failure to work as advertised by the manufacturer. The stapler had probably cost less than $100 to make. The hospital paid $300 for it (and then billed the patient, or insurance company, $1,200). Now the thing didn't even work.

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Business

Woman takes unique road to sue Honda over mileage

TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) — A woman who expected her 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid to be her dream car wants Honda to pay for not delivering the high mileage it promised. But rather than joining other owners in a class-action lawsuit, she is going solo in small claims court, an unusual move that could offer a bigger payout if it doesn't backfire.

Indiana House Speaker Plans Quick Push for ‘Right to Work’ Law

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Indiana’s Republican House leader on Tuesday promised swift movement on a push to make his state the first in more than a decade to ban labor contracts that require employees to pay union fees.

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Military Stuff

Pentagon to abandon two-war strategy, but at what cost to US security?

As budget cuts loom, questions arise about U.S. forces in Europe

(Stars & Stripes) When a task force of Marines deployed to eastern Europe on a five-month mission to train partner militaries, it did not come from U.S. bases in nearby Germany. The 185 reservists flew over from a base in the States.

Navy testing long-range drone that tracks suspicious vessels

(Stars & Stripes) The Navy is testing a long-range drone that hovers 70,000 feet above aircraft carriers and allows fleet commanders to track suspicious vessels across vast expanses of sea.

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And the rest of the stuff:

The Weather in Lower Slower Delaware

U.S. Retail Gasoline Prices

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