The last time the federal government had a budget in place and signed by the president was Sept of 2007 for fiscal year 2008, and it was signed by George Bush.  President Obama has NEVER had a day in office with a budget in place to restrict or guide spending proposals.  Not.One.Day.

WASHINGTON DC – Senate Democrats will not write a budget for the next fiscal year.

One year after writing and passing the first Senate Democratic budget  resolution in four years, Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray  (D-Wash.) said her conference will not make an effort in the 2014 midterm  election year.

In a statement, Murray said there was no reason to do a fiscal 2015 budget after  the two-year deal struck in December with House Budget Committee Chairman Paul  Ryan (R-Wis.).

That deal set budget ceilings for the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years. The 2015  fiscal year begins on Oct. 1. (more…)

USA TODAY – America’s ruling class has been experiencing more pushback than usual lately. It just might be a harbinger of things to come.

First, in response to widespread protests last week, the Department of Homeland Security canceled plans to build a nationwide license plate database. Many local police departments already use license-plate readers that track every car as it passes traffic signals or pole-mounted cameras. Specially equipped police cars even track cars parked on the street or even in driveways.

The DHS put out a bid request for a system that would have gone national, letting the federal government track millions of people’s comings and goings just as it tracks data about every phone call we make. But the proposal was suddenly withdrawn last week, with the unconvincing explanation that it was all a mistake. I’m inclined to agree with TechDirt’s Tim Cushing, who wrote: “The most plausible explanation is that someone up top at the DHS or ICE suddenly realized that publicly calling for bids on a nationwide surveillance system while nationwide surveillance systems are being hotly debated was … a horrible idea.” (more…)

The race to replace disgraced former mayor Bob Filner between Democrat David Alvarez and Republican candidate Kevin Faulconer, both former city council members and local government colleagues, ended with a decisive victory for Faulconer.

Faulconer promises to work to heal a city that is reeling from the second resignation of a Mayor in a decade, winning February’s special election in a decisive victory which will allow him to remain in office for the remainder of the disgraced former Mayor’s term, which ends in 2016 (coincidentally).

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Somewhere Moonbat Sean Penn is sobbing with dramatic tears…..

VENEZUELA –  “I want to get out of here. I want to leave this country as soon as possible and never come back.”

The text from my friend Luis surprised me. A lawyer by training, he got his masters in urban planning from an elite Manhattan university, and had returned to Venezuela full of hope. He was hired by a local NGO working on poverty abatement issues. But now, he’s fed up.

“Nothing works. There are lines to buy everything. Prices have gone through the roof. You can’t go out at night for fear of getting shot. If you want to get married, finding a place to live is impossible. The country has become unlivable.” (more…)

(Via Breitbart) […]  According to Fox News, de Blasio’s proposed plan to increase the minimum wage is getting as negative a reception as the plan to fund universal pre-K. Author Barnini Chakraborty notes that the latter has run into significant problems as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a state-wide universal pre-K plan that would make de Blasio’s tax hike unnecessary–something de Blasio flatly rejected.

Fox News notes that Cuomo called the idea of making rich neighborhoods fund themselves separately from the rest of the state “repugnant.”

The minimum wage plan might meet a similar fate in Albany.

In his State of the City address, de Blasio’s minimum wage increase plan featured prominently along the universal pre-K idea and new proposition to give government identification to illegal immigrants, which would allow them to open bank accounts and access other resources in the city. (more…)

Volkswagen workers at Tennessee factory reject United Auto Workers union by a vote of 712 to 626. http://t.co/hNaBnT26jX

— WSJ Live Journalism (@WSJLive) February 15, 2014

TENNESSEE – President Barack Obama on Friday waded into a high-stakes union vote at Volkswagen AG’s plant in Tennessee, accusing Republican politicians who oppose unionization of being more concerned about German shareholders than U.S. workers.

Obama’s comments, made at a closed-door meeting of Democratic lawmakers in Maryland, came as the vote to allow union representation at the Chattanooga plant drew to a close.

The vote will have wide-reaching implications for the auto industry in the South, where all foreign-owned assembly plants employ nonunion labor, and for the United Auto Workers union, which could use a victory to reverse a decades-long downward spiral.

The vote has faced fierce resistance from local Republican politicians and national conservative groups who have warned that a UAW victory could hurt economic growth in Tennessee. While voting was under way on Wednesday, Republican U.S. Senator Bob Corker said VW could announce new investment in the plant if the UAW lost the secret ballot.  (read more)

Hiring Someone Because They Are Black is Just As Racist As Not Hiring Someone Because They Are Black

Former Community Relations Service Director, Ondray Harris, quit last year because he was under pressure in Washington DC to only hire black people.   Mr. Harris saw this as discrimination.   President Obama signed an executive order in 2010 to change school disciplinary standards for only black males.  Now this….. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is obtaining commitments from foundations, businesses and community groups to help young minority men improve their employment opportunities and to intervene before some of them get sucked into the criminal justice system.

Obama is launching the “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative Thursday, matching his State of the Union pledge to “help more young men of color … stay on track and reach their full potential.”

The president has invited business, foundation and community leaders to the White House Thursday to announce the effort.

The unemployment rate last month for African-American men over the age of 20 was 12 percent, compared with 5.4 percent for white men. Hispanic men over the age of 20 faced an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent.  (read more)

The White House will turn a heated tent on its frigid South Lawn into a Monet-inspired gala fit for a French president on Tuesday, the highlight of a two-day state visit to Washington by Francois Hollande.

Bone appétit! pic.twitter.com/vuXRoKEnGY

— First Lady- Archived (@FLOTUS44) February 11, 2014

President Barack Obama invited Hollande for the state visit to highlight the long relationship between the two countries. The two leaders have worked together on responding to Iran’s nuclear program, Syria’s civil war and insurgent attacks in Mali. (continue reading)

David Simon, a former police beat reporter in Baltimore, MD and creator of the popular television series, “The Wire” implies that Libertarians in America are “greedy” and decries Libertarianism as a “juvenile” idea that he “just can’t get past….”  

Clearly upset that Fabian ideology is not taking root in the 20-somethings community, while the Libertarian movement is growing as an identified political affiliation in the cohort,  he gave a speech in Australia in November, 2013 at the “Dangerous Ideas” conference declaring “Libertarianism in my country is now being taken seriously as an intelligent mode of political thought… it’s astonishing to me… ” (around the 8:00 – 10:00 mark) and then goes on a screed to deliberately disparage and attempt to dismiss the Libertarian school of thought – including the assertion that Libertarians are “anti-government” (as Moyers chuckles along in agreement…)  Fraidy cat!

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2.5 Million Full Time Equivalent Jobs = 100 million hours of productivity removed from the economy.  

EVERY WEEK. 

As a consequence, @ $15/hr, that’s a $1.5 billion removal of positive production value from the economy and replaced with $1.5 billion dependency entitlement under the guise of a subsidy.  EVERY WEEK.

In very direct essence – This shifts $1.5 billion in additional taxation to the remaining productive class every week.   Or $78,000,000,000.00 ($78 Billion) per year. 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s healthcare law will reduce American workforce participation by the equivalent of 2 million full-time jobs in 2017, the Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday in a report that could fuel Republican efforts to paint the law as a job killer.

In its latest U.S. fiscal outlook, the nonpartisan CBO said the health law would prompt some lower-income workers to limit their hours to avoid losing federal subsidies that are available under the law to help pay for health insurance.

The CBO said the biggest impact on work hours from the health law would begin in 2017 because major provisions of the law will be well under way by then. The CBO said there would be smaller declines in work hours that would occur before then.

Work hours would be reduced by the equivalent of 2.5 million jobs in 2024, the agency said. (more…)