House panel rejects EPA's greenhouse gas rules

With mostly GOP support, a U.S. House panel voted to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, a central tenet of President Obama's climate agenda.

By a vote of 34-19, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bill Tuesday that would strip the EPA of its authority under the Clean Air Act to limit the emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from power plants, oil refineries and other sources. All Republicans voted in favor, along with three Democrats: Reps. John Barrow of Georgia, Jim Matheson of Utah and Mike Ross of Arkansas.

GOP leaders said they'd seek approval from the full House before the Easter recess, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is adding his version of the measure to an unrelated small-business bill before the Senate.

"Make no mistake – if we allow the EPA to move forward unchecked, its actions will only drive gasoline and other energy prices higher," panel chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., said. He says EPA rules would raise gas prices by boosting costs for refineries that would be passed on to consumers.

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Read full article by Wendy Koch at USA Today here:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2011/03/house-panel-epa-greenhouse-gas/1

New Hampshire passes anti-UN and anti-NAFTA bills

One resolution urges Congress to withdraw the U.S. from the North American Free Trade Agreement. The other urges Congress to withdraw the U.S. from the United Nations "so that the United States may retain its sovereignty and control over its own funds and military."

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Both were sponsored by Rep. Norman Tregenza, a Silver Lake Republican and first-term representative who belongs to the John Birch Society.

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The NAFTA bill passed the House, 172-124.

The UN bill passed the House, 189-107.

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"Industry is leaving America because of a variety of reasons, of which NAFTA is a key reason," Tregenza said. He said NAFTA increased regulations on businesses, forcing companies to move manufacturing jobs overseas to remain competitive.

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Tregenza said withdrawing from the U.N. is an issue of sovereignty and money. The United States pays a large portion of U.N. costs to help other nations, and U.S. taxpayers pay diplomats' salaries.

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Read complete article by Shira Schoenberg in the Concord Monitor at:

http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/246608/john-birch-society-claims-legislation?page=0,0

Bailout Coming for the Postal Service?

The U.S. Postal Service is in financial trouble. Undermined by advances in electronic communication, weighed down by excessive labor costs and operationally straight-jacketed by Congress, the government’s mail monopoly is running on fumes and faces large unfunded liabilities. Socialism apparently has its limits.

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While the Europeans continue to shift away from government-run postal monopolies toward market liberalization, policymakers in the United States still have their heads stuck in the 20th century. That means looking for an easy way out, which in Washington usually means a bailout.

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Self-interested parties – including the postal unions, mailers, and postal management – have coalesced around the notion that the U.S. Treasury owes the USPS somewhere around $50-$75 billion. (Of course, “U.S. Treasury” is just another word for “taxpayers.”) Policymakers with responsibility for overseeing the USPS have introduced legislation that would require the Treasury to credit it with the money.

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Full article at:

http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/bailout-coming-postal-service

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Today, the House of Representatives voted 228-192 in favor of stripping federal funding from National Public Radio (NPR). The vote on the bill, which was introduced by Representative Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), took place after an hour of heated debate.

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The legislation bars any of NPR’s affiliate radio stations across the country from receiving federal funds. It was introduced by Lamborn as a stand-alone bill after he tried unsuccessfully to strip funding from NPR last year.

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“I want NPR to stand for National Private Radio,” observed Lamborn. “They can and should stand on their own two feet.”

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The CPB received $420 million in federal funding last year, and with the nation facing a $1.6 trillion budget deficit this year, Republicans turned their attention to NPR, which has been the subject of controversy in recent months.

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Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has introduced in the Senate similar legislation to today's House bill to defund NPR. However, it seems unlikely that the Senate would consider the measure, particularly because President Obama has long defended federal funding for NPR.

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Full article at:

http://thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/congress/6735-house-votes-to-defund-npr

Gaza residents celebrate terror attack in the West Bank

A Palestinian man offers sweets to Hamas policemen in the streets of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah to celebrate the terrorist attack which killed five Israelis in the town of Itamar

Israel hunted for the perpetrators of a grisly murder of a family of five in a remote West Bank settlement Saturday.

The knife attack, which killed two young children, a baby and their parents as they slept, was the deadliest in years.

In Gaza, a Hamas official applauded the attack and local residents celebrated the killing of the settlers.

Read more at:
http://www.newser.com/article/d9ltsibo0/israel-hunts-suspected-palestinian-militants-after-5-members-of-settler-family-killed-in-sleep.html

Horror in Samaria: A terrorist infiltrated the West Bank settlement of Itamar, southeast of Nablus, early Saturday and stabbed five family members to death.

The terrorist who carried out the massacre cut the fence surrounding Itamar and entered the home of the victims through the window, an initial probe of the murder showed.

Read more at:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/03/israel-muslim-murders-family-of-five-including-children-aged-11-3-and-a-baby-girl.html

Media reports said a baby girl of three months, two children aged three and 11, and their parents Ehud and Ruth Vogel were all stabbed to death in the Friday night attack in Itamar near the Palestinian town of Nablus.

The radio said the killer or killers had managed to get past an electric fence surrounding the settlement, which was targeted in a 2002 attack by Palestinian assailants when a woman and three children were killed.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Brigades, the armed wing of the hardline Islamic Jihad, condoned the attack as an act of resistance against Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

Read more at:
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/israeli-settler-family-slain-in-their-beds-20110313-1bsmx.html

Rafah residents hand out candy following murder of parents, three children in West Bank settlement of Itamar.

Gaza residents from the southern city of Rafah hit the streets Saturday to celebrate the terror attack in the West Bank settlement of Itamar where five family members were murdered in their sleep, including three children.

Residents handed out candy and sweets, one resident saying the joy "is a natural response to the harm settlers inflict on the Palestinian residents in the West Bank."

Read more at:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4041106,00.html

Islamists to March in Washington: Muslim Cleric in Favor of Sharia Law Plans White House Protest

A Muslim cleric who called Americans “the biggest criminals” during a recent interview has announced he will hold a protest outside the White House, according to the Daily Mail.
Anjem Choudary, who once said “the flag of Islam will fly over the White House,” says he will lead a demonstration rallying Muslims to establish Sharia law across the United States.
Choudary, 43, called Americans “the biggest criminals in the world today” during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity this month.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/02/20/muslim-cleric-plans-protest-outside-white-house-attempt-spread-sharia-law/#

As expected, Muslims across the world have started to lock arms in their quest to impose Shariah Law (Islamic Law) on all. For the most part, Muslims in America had confined this call to their barracks.... errr, I mean Mosques and Islamic conferences. Now, in a brazen display of united force, Muslims calling for the adoption of Shariah in this country plan to march near the White House on March 3rd. The leader of the pack is the U.K.'s Anjem Choudary, a Muslim cleric.
Read more: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.8853/pub_detail.asp

Hardline Muslim leader, Anjem Choudary, is calling for a protest, a call for Revolution, here in the United States on March 3, in front of the White House. He is rallying thousands of Muslims together to proclaim that Sharia Law be instituted in the United States of America.

Choudary says:
"We hereby call upon the Muslims in the US, particularly in New York, Michigan, Chicago and Washington DC to take lessons from their Muslim brothers and sisters in North Africa and the Middle East and rise to implement the Shari’ah in America.
On 3rd March 2011, at Pennsylvania Avenue, outside the White House, the Muslims will let the tyrant Barack Obama and the American people know that a new constitution beckons the US called the Shari’ah, and that this worldwide revolution will see it implemented inshaa’allah (God willing) very very soon."
Read more: http://www.standupamericanow.org/counter-protest-to-anjem-choudary-sharia-rally-in-washington-dc

A U.S. Muslim group is planning a demonstration featuring controversial British imams who are advocating for the implementation of Sharia law in the United States. Rather than simply banning or protesting the event, it should not only be permitted, but become a prime-time television broadcast.

“The event is a rally, a call for the Sharia, a call for the Muslims to rise up and establish the Islamic state in America,” said Imam Anjem Choudary, one of the proposed speakers. The Islamic Thinker's Society has scheduled the event for March 3 and organizers claim it will be held in front of the White House.
Read more: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=42010#

Indeed, Choudary, who is slated to travel to the United States this week for a rally in front of the White House, led the now-banned British organization al-Muhajiroun, an organization associated with 15 percent of those who have been arrested for terrorism related offenses in the U.K. in the last decade. Al-Muhajiroun founder Omar Bakri, incidentally, was recently convicted in Lebanon of training al-Qaeda recruits.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/01/thedc-analysis-radical-muslim-cleric-anjem-choudary-may-be-a-fraud-and-a-clown-but-he-is-still-dangerous/#ixzz1FMY1gr23