The cost of travel will take off if President Obama’s budget is approved out of hand because he plans to add fees to passengers and take away existing grants to airports in an effort to reduce the deficit.

In his budget put forth Monday, the President mapped out a way to accrue $32billion for the government over the next decade.

The Obama administration wants major carriers, their passengers, business jets and airports to pick up more of the costs of air travel and airport improvements that for years have been borne by taxpayers.

New fees are sure to trigger strong opposition from airlines and other aviation groups who argue that the industry is already over-taxed and over-regulated.

Ideas quietly floated and then discarded during congressional budget negotiations last summer re-emerged in the fiscal 2013 transportation and homeland security portions of the White House budget sent to Congress that outlines $4trillion in deficit reduction.

Both AT&T and Verizon switched their unlimited data offer to a tiered system, allowing users whose contracts were grandfathered in with the unlimited option to continue receiving service, but by slowing their access to push them into either using less data or to switch plans.

“They changed the rules. It’s like crack. It’s all you can eat crack, until you get hooked and then you’ve gotta pay more.”

Smith closed by saying “your system’s no good and you fibbed to me and I dont appreciate it” before slamming his phone onto his desk and introducing the next show about to start.

A driver in diabetic shock was kicked in the head several times in a shocking display of police brutality that won him $158,000 in a lawsuit.

Adam Greene, of Las Vegas, was pulled over at about 4am on October 29, 2010 after a Nevada State Trooper spotted him weaving in traffic.

Mr Greene claimed he was driving that way because he had fallen into diabetic shock.

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With student loan debt now topping U.S. credit card debt and few or no options available for distressed borrowers (including parents who co-signed and now face the loss of nest eggs, retirement homes and other assets), America faces the very real possibility of another major economic threat on par with the devastating home mortgage crisis, according to a new survey and report, Student Loan ‘Debt Bomb’:America’s Next Mortgage-Style Economic Crisis,  by the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA).

The stats are scary. More than four out of five bankruptcy attorneys say that potential clients with student loan debt have increased “significantly” or “somewhat” in the last three-four years. Overall, nearly 50% of bankruptcy attorneys reported significant increases in such potential clients.

Ninety five percent of bankruptcy attorneys polled said that few student loan debtors are seen as having any chance of obtaining a discharge as a result of undue hardship.

The bad news isn’t just about students, but their parents. Loans to parents for the college education of children have jumped 75% since the 2005-2006 academic year. Parents have an average of $34,000 in student loans and that figure rises to about $50,000 over a standard 10-year loan repayment period.

Community Colleges set to boom in popularity as a response?

A few days ago the The Century Foundation announced the creation of a taskforce that will come up with recommendations to make community colleges more mixed income.  Dubbed the “Task Force on Preventing Community Colleges from Becoming Separate and Unequal,” the group will include representatives from two-year and four-year schools, scholars of higher education, and members of the business, philanthropic, and civil rights communities.  One of the main areas that the task force will examine is why the racial and socioeconomic divide between two- and four-year institutions is growing.

 

 

Responding to a clip played on the Michael Medved Show John McCain mocks the Sarah Palin notion that Romney is the “establishment” Candidate, while avoiding any direct comment toward Palin herself other than to say that they were close and remain so.

Hugh Hewitt gives the following advice to Romney:

What should he do about his critics that call him the “Establishment’s choice?”

First, read them, like Kurt Schlicter, whose piece at Big Government nicely summarize the mindset of the GOP anti-Establishmentarians.

Second, say nothing about Newt.  Even his friends are writing in the past tense, and Saturday night’s presser was another disaster for the former Speaker.

Third, pick up the issue of the president’s assault on the Roman Catholic church, and use it not only to reaffirm your commitment to religious freedom but to demonstrate that you are aware of how much damage must be undone via executive order on day one.

Finally, everyone is aware of the president’s slashing of the Department of Defense, and now is the time to stay on message about your commitment to the military.  It won’t be long until MSM tries to trap you into refighting the Afghan and Iraq campaigns, but what is crucial is that you refuse that fight and insist on saying the obvious: That whatever arguments have occurred in the past, we can agree that these cuts imperil the nation’s security, that we need a 313 ship Navy and a robust Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, and that you will assure their budgets remain adequate to the tasks assigned them, which are difficult, many and increasing.

There’s a slice of the anti-Establishmentarians who are isolationists, but it is a very small slice.  A focus on national security brings the party back together and quickly.

Tyree Lincoln Smith, 35, stared blankly as he stood with his hands chained behind his back as he was charged with murder in a Connecticut court.

Smith is charged in the December 15 killing of Angel Gonzalez, whose body was found on the third floor of an abandoned home. Prosecutor Donal Collimore urged the judge to set a high figure for a bail bond, describing the crime as “extremely heinous.”

Talitcha Frazier, a sister-in-law of the victim, said she remembered seeing Smith asking for change on the street. “I think at the time I told him to get a job. I had no idea then that he had killed my brother-in-law,” Frasier said on the courthouse steps after the hearing.

This picture of what appears to be a pink boa constrictor has been making the rounds on the internet for about a decade because the pink stuff is actually meat and it’s actually in most of the meat products any meat eater enjoys.

Mechanically Separated Chicken, from Fooducate, via Early Onset of Night

The “pink slime” is mechanically separated meat that has been blended and washed with ammonium hydroxide – an ingredient in fertilizers and household cleaners that acts as as an anti-microbial agent, killing potentially harmful bacteria in the meat.

In an action credited to UK television chef and activist Jamie Oliver, McDonalds has announced that it will remove the pink slime from their ingredients.

The filler product made headlines after he denounced it on his show, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

‘Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold at the cheapest form for dogs and after this process we can give it to humans’ said the TV chef.
Jamie showed American audiences the raw ‘pink slime’ produced in the ammonium hydroxide process used by producers named Beef Products Inc (BPI).
‘Pink slime’ has never been used in McDonald’s beef patties in the UK and Ireland which source their meat from farmers within the two countries.

Now after months of campaigning on his hit US television show McDonald’s have admitted defeat and the fast food giant has abandoned the beef filler from its burger patties.

US Department of Agriculture microbiologist Geral Zirnstein agreed with Jamie that ammonium hydroxide agent should be banned.

Just like any corporation that bends to public outcry, McDonalds says this move had nothing to do with anything except what they feel like doing right now. Previously they quietly deleted the Supersize option from their menu after the Morgan Spurlock documentary Super-Size me gained attention.

Todd Bacon, McDonald’s senior supply chain officer, told the Daily Mail that the decision “was not related to any particular event, but rather to support our effort to align our global beef raw material standards.”

In a statement, McDonald’s clarified that it stopped using “select lean beef trimmings” — its preferred term for scrap meat soaked in ammonium hydroxide and ground into a pink meatlike paste — at the beginning of last year.

“This product has been out of our supply chain since August of last year,” it said.

Sarah Prochaska, a registered dietitian at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, said that ammonium hydroxide is widely used in the U.S. food industry but that consumers may not be able to know what products include it because the USDA considers it a component in a production procedure — separating scrap meat — and not an ingredient that must be listed on food labels.

Other food additives used by man food producers include the following…

food additives that we get to consume! God bless the future!

carmine: red food coloring chemical that comes from small red insects called Cochineals. The bug’s shells are ground up form the basis chemical composition for red food dye. Female Lac beetle secretions are used to make shellac (wood varnish), and also as the glaze on shiny candies, like skittles or the sprinkles on your cup-cake

propylene glycol: chemically similar to some anti-freeze; prevents frozen foods from freezing too solid; in ice-creams and similar treats

L-cysteine or cystine: dough enhancer that comes from hair, feathers, hooves

silicon dioxide: sand. used as anti-caking agent, in salts, spices, anything powdery; also in Wendy’s chili as an anti-caking agent.

beaver anal glands: used to enhance sweet flavors; listed in vanilla and other ice-creams as castoreum, also in raspberry candies; small amounts do not have to be listed in ingredients

methylparaben: in wines, soft drinks, juice concentrates; this additive originates in the vaginas of female dogs in heat.

ammonium sulfate: provides nitrogen for the yeast in breads to help them rise and for a more consistent product; also a chemical fertilizer

beef fat: in just about all Hostess products

coal tar: #199 on the U.N. list of dangerous goods. used to make Allura Red AC iused in red candies, red sodas, pretty much anything sweet and red. red gummy bears ftw.

“Let’s really examine this,” Carolla told Sean. “If 10 people all go out to dinner together and the bill came and it was $500 and we decided to split it up 10 ways, then your share is $50. Unless you had 26 Heineken’s that I don’t know about, your fair share with the other 9 strangers your sitting with, considering you’ve all ordered the same thing off of the same menu is $50! I paid the equivalent of $450 in taxes last year! And I’ve got the 2 guys who paid nothing pointing at me and telling me to pay my fair share?! You’ve got to be kidding me,” Carolla exclaimed. 

Adam also discussed his new book, “Rich Man Poor Man” in which he exposes the phenomena that are embraced by the really rich and the really poor – but never the middle class – like having an outdoor shower, wearing your pajamas all day, or always having your dog with you. Carolla’s new book is a hilariously accurate look at what the people born with silver spoons in their mouths have in common with the people whose only utensils are plastic sporks stolen from a Shakey’s.

Newt Gingrich repeated his previous attacks against Mitt Romneys career in the private sector, one that he in previous debates had noted was one of creating jobs (in the context of that being possible due to Gingrich’s reforms made as House Speaker) and a group associated with Gingrich plans to release a 28-minute documentary savaging Mr. Romney’s Bain tenure as one of ruthless corruption, system gaming and life destroying.

The attack of Romney as an Evil CEO caricature from a movie script is catching on as the GOP frontrunner gains more and more traction in the polls. Jon Huntsman said “What’s clear is [Romney] likes firing people, I like creating jobs.” This was in response to Romney speaking about insurrance companies saying ”It also means if you don’t like what they do, you can fire them.” Romney said, “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. If someone doesn’t give me the good service I need, I’m going to go get somebody else to provide that service to me.”

On ABC on Sunday, Obama strategist David Axelrod criticized Mr. Romney as “a corporate raider.”

Mr. Romney describes job losses and bankruptcies as an inevitable byproduct of the capitalist system, and has said that in some cases, eliminating some jobs may save the rest of the company. In response to Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Romney said: “Doesn’t he understand how the economy works? In the real economy, some businesses succeed and some fail.”

Gingrich in particular is taking a huge risk in focussing the most attacks on Romneys record at Bain Capital:

With just hours to go before voting begins in the New Hampshire primary, Newt Gingrich is taking an extraordinary gamble, betting that Republican voters who once rejected his critique of Mitt Romney’s business record will change their minds when they learn more about what Romney actually did in the 1980s and 1990s as head of Bain Capital.

“I don’t think a Milton Friedman or a Hayek would say to you, rich guys have to go and rip off companies and leave a wreckage behind,” Gingrich said in an interview after a town hall appearance here Sunday night.  “I think that’s plundering.  I don’t think that’s capitalism.”

Gingrich has staked his hopes in large part on the story of struggling steel companies taken over by Bain in the ’90s.  The industry was suffering devastating losses to foreign competition at the time, and after buying the companies Romney and Bain tried to refocus their strategy and institute new efficiencies.  They also greatly increased the companies’ debt and paid themselves tens of millions of dollars in dividends.  Their efforts failed amid bitter conflict with the companies’ unions, and the companies declared bankruptcy in 2001.  Hundreds of workers lost their jobs, retirees lost benefits, and the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation had to cover some of the failed companies’ pension costs.  (The story was told a few days ago in a detailed article by Reuters, which Gingrich has repeatedly mis-identified as the New York Times.)

More details on why exactly this is a risky strategy:

Targeting Romney’s business record is an enormous risk for Gingrich because in the past Republicans have approved of Romney’s success in the marketplace.  Back in December, when Romney criticized payments Gingrich received from Freddie Mac, Gingrich shot back, “If Gov. Romney would like to give back all of the money he’s earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years at Bain, then I would be glad to listen to him.” Gingrich ran into a buzzsaw of criticism from Republicans, who saw his remarks as questioning the very risk-and-reward foundation of capitalism.  Gingrich had to beat a quick retreat. “There was a very brief moment where, frankly, he got under my skin and I responded in a way that made no sense,” Gingrich told Fox News.  “I’ve said publicly he is a good manager, he is a good business manager. He got that round. If you are scoring rounds in boxing I will give that round to Mitt.”

In the interview Sunday, I asked Gingrich why, after that failure, he would try again to criticize Romney’s business record.  This time, Gingrich was careful to try to distinguish between the kind of risk-taking capitalism that Republicans admire and what he called “looting” of companies.  “There is a huge difference between free-market capitalism that goes out and creates companies, grows jobs, and takes an appropriate profit, which can be quite large — I mean, Bill Gates has done fine,” Gingrich said.  “It even makes sense to have companies that go out and re-organize inefficient companies and end up making very substantial profits out of doing it…What you have to question is if somebody went out and looted a company, leaving behind a shell.”  If the Reuters report is accurate, Gingrich said, “Bain Capital actually makes a huge amount of money while cratering the company — I think you have to question whether that’s a very defensible form of capitalism.”

James Pethokoukis wonders why Romney is doing such a “lousy job” at defending his record, which Pethokoukis contends is very good.

But what about Romney’s job creation record? During his time as governor, Massachusetts had net job growth of 1.4 percent, as USA Today has noted. That was slower than the national average of 5.3 percent with only Louisiana, Michigan and Ohio notching slower gains. That’s bad.

Yet the unemployment rate also fell sharply to 4.5 percent from 5.8 percent. That’s good.

“When Mitt came into office, the state was losing jobs every month. When he left office, the economy was generating new jobs by the thousands,” is how Romney’s website vaguely describes his jobs record as governor. But you can go to the U.S. Labor Department and see the data for yourself.  From January 2003 when Romney took office through December 2007, the Massachusetts economy added 61,042 jobs.

Then there’s Romney’s job creation record at Bain Capital. What was the net affect of his firm’s venture capital and private equity investments? Romney likes the nice, round number of “over 100,000″  jobs created. This is what he toldTime magazine in December: ”And so I’ll compare my experience in the private sector where, net-net, we created over 100,000 jobs. We created over 100,000 jobs.” And this is what Romney told Fox last month: “And I’m very happy in my former life; we helped create over 100,000 new jobs.”

Some numbers from Bain:

The Wall Street Journal investigated Bains record.

A spokesman for Bain Capital said its “success rate in growing and turning around businesses in both strong and weak economic periods is very high…” The company called the Journal’s analysis “inaccurate and misleading” and said it unfairly put the onus on Bain for events at companies after it no longer owned them.

Seeking the protection of a bankruptcy court isn’t necessarily a sign of long-term business failure. Many of the Bain companies emerged from reorganization healthier, just as, for instance, General Motors did a few years ago. But while bankruptcy filings aren’t a perfect measure of performance, they provide a way to assess a disparate array of target businesses that in many cases weren’t required to make public financial filings.

James Pethokoukis says that Romney has nothing to apologize for in his Bain record, noting:

– 22 percent either filed for bankruptcy reorganization or closed their doors by the end of the eighth year after Bain first invested, sometimes with substantial job losses.

– An additional 8 percent ran into so much trouble that all of the money Bain invested was lost.

– Ten deals produced more than 70 percent of the dollar gains.

– Bain produced about $2.5 billion in gains for its investors in the 77 deals, on about $1.1 billion invested.

– Overall, Bain recorded roughly 50 percent to 80 percent annual gains in this period, which experts said was among the best track records for buyout firms in that era.

– Academic research has shown that buyout firms during this era exited their deals on average after 5½ years, but in a large percentage of cases were still involved beyond seven years. … If the Journal analysis were limited to bankruptcies and closures occurring by the end of the fifth year after Bain first invested, the rate would move down to 12 percent. That measure would exclude several cases that have brought Mr. Romney political criticism, where businesses filed for bankruptcy seven or eight years after Bain’s investment.

Rick Perry confronts Politico’s Mike Allen in person over the publication’s report that unnamed members of his senior staff are blaming the way the campaign was handled for what has resulted thus far.