Gov. taps Cinnaminson attorney as next county Superior Court judge By Danielle Camilli

Source: http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/burlington_county_times_news/gov-taps-cinnaminson-attorney-as-next-county-superior-court-judge/article_559e1f68-5a48-11e0-a358-00127992bc8b.html

Mar 30, 2011

TRENTON — A former deputy assistant public defender from Cinnaminson is expected to be formally nominated as the next judge on the Superior Court bench in Mount Holly.

Gov. Chris Christie filed a letter of intent to nominate Janet Zoltanski Smith, a fellow Republican, on Monday with state Secretary of the Senate Kent M. Hicks. A formal nomination is expected to follow in about a week.

The Senate Judiciary Committee would then hold a hearing on the nomination and could then recommend approval to the full Senate.

Zoltanski Smith, who was admitted to the bar in 1976, has been in private practice with husband Brad with Smith & Smith in Cinnaminson since 1992. A former township mayor, Brad Smith also is a former state senator and served as a county freeholder from 1985 to 1992.

Zoltanski Smith said Tuesday they have a general practice firm, but that she does a lot of estate work and guardianships. The mother of four also is the solicitor forthe Riverton Zoning Board. She previously was the attorney for the Cinnaminson Sewerage Authority, the Palmyra Planning Board, and has been the attorney for other local governing bodies.

The Duquesne University graduate has also previously served as associate counsel for the Burlington County Board of Social Services, according to her resume provided by Christie’s office.

In addition, Zoltanski Smith has served as an appointed municipal prosecutor and public defender, and spent 12 years with the New Jersey Public Defender’s Office, including eight years in Superior Court in Burlington County. From 1979 to 1991, she serves as a deputy assistant public defender.

“Janet Zoltanski Smith is an outstanding trial lawyer. She has tried cases in my courtroom, and I have appointed her as a guardian many times because of her honesty and diligence,” Burlington County Assignment Judge Ronald E. Bookbinder said.

The native of the Yardville section of Hamilton Township said she was honored by the nomination.

“I’m pleased the governor has supported me, and I feel privileged that he has confidence in me for this position,” she said. “I am also excited at the prospects of the new challenges this role will bring.”

Danielle Camilli can be reach at 609-267-7586 or dcamilli@phillyBurbs.com
Follow Danielle on Twitter at twitter.com/dcamilli

'Baby' goes to the movies By Tirdad Derakhshani

The 1904 Wanamaker Organ puts the pedals to the "Metropolis" Saturday.



Source: http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/118286904.html

Mar. 19, 2011

On Saturday night in Center City, the world's greatest musical instrument will accompany the greatest silent film ever made.

Hyperbole? Perhaps.

The screening, at the Grand Court in Macy's at 13th and Market Streets, will feature Fritz Lang's 1927 feature Metropolis shown on a 15-by-20-foot screen to an improvised score performed on the Wanamaker Organ by chief organist Peter Richard Conte.

"It's the first time in [the organ's] history it'll be played with a film," says Ray Biswanger, executive director of the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, which is cosponsoring the evening with the Philadelphia Film Society.

The sold-out show is part of a months-long series of events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the organ's Philly debut on June 22, 1911.

Widely recognized to be the world's largest working organ, the Wanamaker Organ boasts 28,543 pipes stretching from the second to the seventh floor of the historic department store, founded by John Wanamaker and now owned by Macy's.

(The Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ in Atlantic City is in fact the largest organ in the world with 32,000 pipes, but it is nonfunctional.)

Biswanger is in his element when discussing the organ's history. He reels off facts, figures, and numbers with facility, and not a little pride.


The Wanamaker Organ was designed by architect George Ashdown Audsley for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, he recounts. Initially outfitted with 10,000 pipes, it was bought by John Wanamaker in 1909 and shipped east to his famed department store.

"It took a 13-car freight train to fit it all," says Biswanger, whose 1,000-member group helps with the organ's ongoing restoration.

In Biswanger's telling, John Wanamaker was unhappy with the organ's grandeur.

"It was grand-sounding but it wasn't really impressive once it was installed," he says. Over the next two decades, John and later his son, Rodman, expanded the organ to triple its original size.

"John Wanamaker loved music and felt [the organ] should be a part of Philadelphia's daily life," Biswanger says. True to his pledge, Wanamaker's organ "has played every business day," Mondays through Saturdays, "since 1911" at least once, usually twice a day.


"It's kind of the voice of Philadelphia, and the Grand Court is the meeting place of the city."

Conte has been Wanamaker's chief organist since 1989. ("It's one of the best gigs in the world for an organist to have," he says.)

He says Baby, as he and other insiders call the organ, is special because it has capacity to reproduce all the sounds, tones, and colors - strings, brass, percussion - of three symphony orchestras.

"It has 469 different voices, or 'ranks,' as we call them," he says. "Most organs will have up to 100 . . . usually church organs have 50 at the most."

It's the perfect instrument, he says, for an epic film as richly textured as Metropolis. Fritz Lang's sophisticated dystopian tale is about a city of the future so advanced and beautiful one almost forgets it is held aloft by near-destitute laborers tied, like cogs in a wheel, to industrial machines hidden beneath in a giant, ugly netherworld.


Saturday's screening will feature a new cut of Lang's film with 25 minutes of recently discovered material. It means Conte will have to improvise for more than 21/2 hours.

It's uniquely challenging, Conte says. His plan of attack is to weave his musical tale around recurring motifs from Gottfried Huppertz's original film score.

He says he realizes that Saturday's event will be a battle of titans of sorts: An expressive musical monster with 28,000 tentacles going up against an expressionist masterpiece filled with some of the most awe-inspiring and terrifying science-fiction imagery in cinema.

The "organ is a giant," Conte concedes, "but it has great subtleties as well."

It can evoke "incredibly tender moments of love and incredibly spooky moments," he says. "I can, with the push of a button, go from a faint whisper to a terrifying roar."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For more information on the Wanamaker Organ visit www.wanamakerorgan.com.

Contact staff writer Tirdad Derakhshani at 215-854-2736 or tirdad@phillynews.com.

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Stuart Davis aims for top prize at upcoming Manischewitz Cook-Off By Fredda Sacharow

Stuart Davis of Cherry Hill, a finalist in the Man-OManischewitz Cook-Off, displays Chicken and Egg Donburi, which will compete for honors later this month in New York. Photo by Steve Stern" title="Stuart Davis of Cherry Hill, a finalist in the Man-OManischewitz Cook-Off, displays Chicken and Egg Donburi, which will compete for honors later this month in New York.
Photo by Steve Stern

Source: http://www.jewishvoicesnj.org/news/2011-03-23/Home/Stuart_Davis_aims_for_top_prize_at_upcoming_Manisc.html

March 23, 2011

Two decades ago, Stuart Davis introduced chocolate cheesecake and rugelach to a bakery in Kobe, Japan, where he was living while teaching English as a Second Language at a Jesuit school for boys. The confections quickly won raves from palates unfamiliar with the Jewish-inflected goodies.

Now the Cherry Hill resident is hoping a dish inspired by his Asian sojourn will find favor with famed chef Jacques Pepin and fellow judges later this month, when he competes in the fifth Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-Off at the Jewish Community Center of the Upper West Side in Manhattan.

At stake are a $25,000 grand prize, including a set of GE kitchen appliances, and a year’s worth of kvelling rights.

Four of the finalists in the cutthroat competition were selected by a panel of judges; the fifth—Davis—won on the basis of an on-line vote on Manischewitz’s web site in polling that ran from Jan. 17 through Jan. 31.

He’s not sure how many votes he received, but Davis does know that ballots flooded the site from friends in Israel, Canada, Vienna and Japan, as well as from students at Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill, where he teaches, and Kellman Brown Academy, where his wife Sarina teaches.

It may take a village to raise a child, but for Davis it took a global effort to win a finalist’s slot in the live competition.

To qualify for the event, contestants were challenged to prepare kosher family-friendly recipes incorporating at least two of Manischewitz’s products, including the company’s line of broth. The dishes had to be easy to make and take no more than an hour; only original works created by the entrant were eligible.

Piece of cake—or rather, rice cake—for Davis, who says he splits the household cooking duties with Sarina and who loves trying out new and often daring concoctions on his four children. Reinterpreting the classics and experimenting with international flavors are among his favored cooking techniques.

He calls it “going beyond brisket and potatoes.”

“I grew up in a house where food was certainly important. To this day, my mother makes a seder for 50 every year,” Davis said.

Mom is attorney and Jewish communal leader Debbie Davis, who among other achievements edited a Hadassah cookbook that her son still keeps in his well-appointed gourmet kitchen.

Stuart Davis faces hefty competition in the March 31 event.

Fellow finalist Naylet LaRochelle of Miami, who previously won a “Build A Burger” cook-off and a Cozy Shack Pudding competition, is bringing her Moroccan Chicken Bowl; and Jeanette Nelson of Sophia, West Virginia, a semifinalist in the second Manischewitz contest, will be there with her Golden Sweet Potato Tagine.

Other contestants, also winners of previous competitions, will prepare such main courses as Shallot Smothered Chicken and Simple Fisherman’s Stew.

It’s the maiden voyage for Davis, who heard about the cook-off from his mother’s friend, Shirley Tannenbaum.

He’s looking to bring home the honors with his Chicken and Egg Donburi. Adapted from a rice-based Japanese dish— “Every family has its own donburi recipe,” he noted—the concoction takes a half hour from start to table and incorporates as many vegetables as the individual cook desires.

Japanese children love the one-dish meal with its velvety sauce and bite-sized pieces of chicken, Davis said.

Tweaking the traditional approach to donburi, Davis replaced the stock usually made with bonita, kelp and seaweed with Manischewitz’s low-sodium broth, adding a dollop of the company’s Wasabi sauce as an accompanying dip.

CHICKEN AND EGG DONBURI

1/4 cup creamy wasabi sauce
5 Tbs. soy sauce/broth ingredient
2 1/2 Tbs. sugar/broth ingredient
2 1/2 tsp. mirin/broth ingredient
16 oz. boneless breast of chicken
1 cup green onions cut on diagonal
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups Japanese
Sticky rice
1 cup Manischewitz® Reduced-Sodium Chicken Broth
Salt
Pepper
Water

Heat the broth ingredients in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Into a small frying pan over low heat, pour about a 1/4 cup of the heated broth. Add four ounces of chicken and 1/4 cup of the green onions. Cook the chicken pieces, turning them over for about three minutes, then beat an egg and stir in. In the meantime, have ready one portion of steamed rice in a deep bowl. When the egg has set, in about 50 seconds, slip the mixture over one serving of rice. Repeat this process for the remaining servings. The creamy wasabi sauce is used as a dipping sauce for the chicken. This recipe serves four.

The goal for Davis was to make the staple of Asian cuisine not only kosher, but also Western-friendly.

“A lot of Japanese food is popular in America—think sushi and teriyaki—but the rest is more obscure,” Davis observed. “I had made this version for my family before, and I remembered they liked it—and I liked it.

“I didn’t enter the cook-off for the money, but for the fun and to see where it will take me,” said Davis, a veteran of 10 years in the mortgage world who now teaches a course called (what else?) “Digesting Hebrew” at TBS.

The self-described foodie is also looking forward to meeting the legendary Pepin, now in his second year as celebrity guest of honor for the contest.

A graduate of Kellman Academy (now Kellman Brown) and the Columbia University/Jewish Theological Seminary Joint Program, Davis received a degree in international marketing from St. Joseph’s University. He’s hoping his extensive post-graduate travels throughout Asia, including the four-year stay in Japan, will add to his edge in the competition.

If it’s any encouragement, last year’s Grand-Prize winning dish represented a similar corner of the world: Mandarin Dumpling Soup, featuring turkey-stuffed wontons simmered in a ginger-sherry broth, brought national acclaim to its creator, Sarah Freedman- Izquierdo of Miami Beach.

Support for Japan Crosses Ethnic Lines, Historical Divides

Source: http://newamericamedia.org/2011/03/support-for-japan-crosses-ethnic-lines-historical-divides.php

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- The devastation wrought by last week’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region of northeastern Japan, and the subsequent nuclear threat, has sparked an equally massive outpouring of support and community fundraising both here in the United States and overseas. Recent headlines from the ethnic media convey the extent to which these efforts have cut across ethnic lines and in some cases, deep historical divides.

Nichi Bei Weekly, one of the country’s first non-profit ethnic newspapers, responded to the tragedy by publishing a special edition, in which managing editor Heather Horiuchi observes that the “nikkei”, or people of Japanese descent living outside of Japan, including U.S. immigrants, are again showing solidarity with the Japanese people, as has been the case historically.

“The Japanese-American and Japanese communities have come to one another’s aid for more than a century,” writes Horiuchi, in reference to the Japanese Americans who came together to provide help for war-torn Japan after World War II. Editor-in-Chief Kenji Taguma also points out that one of the founders of Nichi Bei Weekly’s predecessor, Nichi Bei Times, used the newspaper to raise awareness, funds and much needed aid, after being established in 1946.

Forty years earlier, when Japanese Americans needed help after the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, Japan provided the largest amount of foreign contributions to the city, according to Paul Osaki, Executive Director of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC), a group that is now at the forefront of fundraising for the Tohoku quake & tsunami victims. JCCCNC has already received more than $150,000 in donations, just days after launching their Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund on March 11, the day the earthquake struck. The fund drive was also reported by the Pan-Asian news site, AsianWeek.

Aside from the multitude of community-based and civic organizations that are either collaborating with this relief fund or doing their own donation drives, small local churches, some in Sacramento, and a host of Facebook causes and community events are providing ways for everyone to give help. Nichi Bei Weekly’s partial list of aid groups across the country primarily within to the Japanese-American community include the Minami Tamaki LLP law firm, who together with other non-profits is aiming to raise $50,000 by this weekend. This year’s Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival to be held on April 9-10 & 16-17 in San Francisco’s Japantown will also keep the focus on supporting the quake & tsunami victims.

Japanese-American community figures have also stepped up, including Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi who pledged $10,000 while actor and community leader George Takei conveyed a message of sympathy on his website saying, “Today, we are all Japanese.”

In Los Angeles, The Rafu Shimpo daily newspaper reported on a relief drive for Japan held outside L.A. City Hall on March 17, a photo showing one of the volunteers clad in full samurai armor. The fundraising effort for the Red Cross was organized by Councilmembers Bernard Parks and Jan Perry, whose district includes Little Tokyo. Consul General Junichi Ihara and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stopped by to express support.

The paper also reported that the Southern California town of Riverside is reaching out to its sister city of Sendai, considered ground zero of the quake. Mayor Ron Loveridge says that Riverside “sends its prayers and thoughts to Japan…and it stands ready to provide any assistance requested by the federal agencies coordinating the earthquake relief and support efforts.”

Another southern California fundraising event is being spearheaded by the Indian American Associations of Southern California, and is scheduled for Saturday, March 19, at the Sanatan Dharma Temple in Norwalk. The event ad is running on the India West news website serving the South Asian community, and aims to discuss a collective effort to help the victims.

Widely reported in the Korean and Korean-American media outlets - such as Korea Times, Korea Daily, Paran and KBS - as well as in Japanese media, was one of the biggest individual donations to date, given by Korean movie actor Bae Yong-joon. The actor’s donation was reportedly in the ballpark of one million dollars. According to the Chosun Ilbo website, the 39-year old actor, who became hugely popular in Japan via the soap opera, “Winter Sonata,” made the decision when he heard there was a shortage of relief and recovery supplies. He says he will continue to look for more ways to help. Aptly, he is considered one of the first “Korean Wave” stars, and now he has inspired a wave of support from his peers. JoonAng Daily reports that other Korean celebrities have followed Bae’s example and are also pledging their own donations.

NAM writer and Korean media monitor, Aruna Lee believes Bae Yong-joon’s contribution is a significant symbol of what many perceive as the setting aside of hostilities between Korea and Japan. The two countries have been locked in bitter disputes for more than 6 decades over history and territory, but those seem to be taking a back seat in the face of this tragedy. Lee cites that Seoul dispatched 100 rescue workers to the disaster area, while civic organizations in Korea have rallied for donations.

Behrouz Saba believes that the same can be said for China – that despite being “Japan's fiercest detractor since it was occupied by Japanese forces from 1937 to 1945 with a human toll of 20 million, the Chinese government has offered its formal condolences as well as a variety of aid.” Chinese media report that in total, the Chinese government, China’s Red Cross and various groups have pledged millions of dollars in cash and emergency supplies.

For Filipinos, their history with Japan is long and complex, writes columnist Benjamin Pimentel on Filipino news wire Inquirer.net. Pimental hopes this tragedy expands the lens by which Filipinos view the Japanese, which was defined by their experiences during World War II. Filipinos came to see the Japanese primarily as brutal soldiers, but Pimentel also points out that “Filipino war-era bitterness later turned to admiration for the way Japan not only recovered from the devastation of World War II, but also thrived and emerged as an economic powerhouse in the 70s and 80s.”

The Filipino-American community feels deeply for the victims, as they also remember with gratitude the outpouring of international aid in the wake of the devastating Typhoon Ketsana [Ondoy] in the Philippines in 2009, and are exploring various ways to help. Filipino Channel news reporter Henni Espinosa confirmed with NAM that Philippine Consul General to San Francisco, Marciano Paynor Jr. recently met with officials at the Japanese consulate to discuss the most effective ways of extending support. The National Federation of Filipino-American Associations [NaFFAA] is also asking Filipinos to donate to the Red Cross.

Sing Tao Daily reports that the Tzu Chi Foundation, based in Taiwan and with offices in San Francisco and San Jose, held a street fundraiser last weekend. Hundreds of volunteers stood outside Chinese supermarkets and restaurants all over the Bay Area, asking for donations. The foundation also raised awareness of disaster preparedness by holding an earthquake drill at Martin Luther King School in San Francisco’s Portola District.

This concern for California’s vulnerability to earthquakes was echoed in La Opinion’s editorial column last Monday, which called on Californians to prepare for disasters, while also encouraging solidarity and international assistance for Japan.

Meantime, the Arab-American community in Dearborn, Michigan is also organizing relief efforts for Japan led by the Center for Arab American Philanthropy [CAAP], which is encouraging community members to collectively help through CAAP’s donor site. The Anti Arab Discrimination Committee [ADC] also expressed condolences and support for the people of Japan.

Pacific Islander groups are also reaching out to Japan. SF SAMOA founder Manufou Anoai says Bay Area Benefit is planning to partner with Japan Center to hold a fundraiser. At a rally in San Francisco on March 16, speaking out against injustices against the Rapa Nui or native people of Easter Island, demonstrators also took time to remember the victims in Japan. Anoai explains that the ties between Japan and the Pacific Islander community are deeply intertwined: “We are all people of the Ocean…we share the same waves.”

- With reporting inputs from Summer Chiang, Vivian Po, Jin Kim, Andrew Lam, Elena Shore, Viji Sundaram, Suzanne Manneh

Bachmann Exclusive: Obama, Reid and Pelosi 'Deceitfully' Hid $105 Billion in Obamacare By Jim Meyers and Ashley Martella

Source: http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/michele-bachmann-obama-health/2011/03/05/id/388453

March 5, 2011

Rep. Michele Bachmann tells Newsmax that President Barack Obama, Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi should apologize to the American people for the $105 billion appropriation they “deceitfully” hid in the healthcare reform legislation.

The Minnesota Republican declares that the “stunning revelation” of the expenditure points to “one of the biggest lies we have ever seen.”

Bachmann, founder of the House Tea Party Caucus, also asserts that Obama wants $8-a-gallon gasoline to drive America toward green energy, says Republicans should hire their own lawyer to represent the Defense of Marriage Act in court, and warns that a second Obama term would be “even worse” than a second Jimmy Carter term would have been.

In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, Bachmann expressed her anger over the $105 billion appropriation that has only now come to light in an updated Congressional Research Service report on the Obamacare legislation.

“What we need to do is defund Obamacare,” she says. “The House has the power of the purse.

“But we’ve just found out startling information, and I am calling on President Obama, Majority Leader Harry Reid and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to apologize to the American people and explain why in the bill known as Obamacare they put in over $105 billion in appropriations.

“The funny thing is, they forgot to tell the members of the Senate that there was $105 billion in spending in that bill. They forgot to tell members of the House.

“Since when do we pass a transformative piece of legislation like the government takeover of healthcare and just happen to drop in $105 billion in appropriations, the purpose of which will be to implement this massive new bill? No one knew. We have just found out in the last week or so.

“This is a stunning revelation. It’s shocking. We’ve been fighting to cut $100 billion out of the budget and then we find out that the Democrats led by President Obama have already spent $105 billion and didn’t bother to tell Congress.

“This is unbelievable. I don’t think anyone has ever heard of anything like this before. That’s why the president needs to answer to the American people. What an insult to the American people to not tell us this was in the bill. That amount of money could fund the whole state government in Minnesota for over three years.

“And I think the reason President Obama and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi did this is because they knew this bill would be unpopular and they wanted to make sure that the whole bill could be implemented because they provided the implementation money through 2019.

“So unless we rescind this money, it will be spent.”

Bachmann proposes this course of action to deal with the appropriation: “The government runs out of money on March 18 of 2011. Before we Republicans agree to fund the government one day further, we need to get an agreement from Barack Obama and Harry Reid that they will give back the $105 billion that they deceitfully put into that bill. They need to give that money back and then we need to defund Obamacare after the next election.

“No Republican voted for Obamacare. If I was a Democrat who voted for this bill, I would be furious at Nancy Pelosi, President Obama and Harry Reid. This is one of the biggest lies we have ever seen.

“This is why Speaker Pelosi said we need to pass the bill to know what’s in it. Truer words were never spoken. But this shows why it’s absolutely wrong. They wouldn’t let us read the bill. They put it on our desks and said, vote. Harry Reid did the same thing in the Senate on Christmas Eve 2009.

“It’s reprehensible. Republicans have to draw a line in the sand and say we will refuse to give you one red cent to fund this government until you give back the $105 billion that you deceitfully spent and put in the Obamacare bill.”

With gasoline prices skyrocketing, Bachmann was asked her view of President Obama’s handling of the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East.

“I don’t think the president has handled this well at all,” she responds.

“There is incredible instability in the Middle East. President Obama’s policies have made us more vulnerable than ever due to our dependence on foreign oil. And what is he doing? He’s approved only one [oil drilling] lease — and that one was in the last week — since he’s come into office.

“As soon as he took office his new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar canceled 77 leases. And now that oil is trading at over $100 a barrel, it is time that we open up American energy interests. We need to go for shale oil or natural gas. We have 25 percent of the world’s coal. So we need to access our own energy so we can become less dependent on these unstable regions.

“Remember the president’s current energy secretary, Steven Chu, said that we want the United States to have the same price of gasoline as Europe has. When he made that comment, Europe had gas at $8 a gallon. This is exactly what the ambition of the Obama administration is, because they want to move people toward green energy.

“Well, I’m for all energy. Let’s access all energy in the United States. No one is helped by having gasoline at $8 a gallon. I think that’s a very unwise strategy on the part of the Obama administration.”

Bachmann is sharply critical of Obama’s decision not to defend in court the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage.

“I think what Congress should do is defend the law that it passed,” she tells Newsmax.

“We need to hire a super lawyer and if the president of the United States won’t defend our laws, then the House of Representatives should defend our laws. So we need to hire a lawyer to represent DOMA in court.”

Bachmann opposes raising debt ceiling, noting that the federal government has raised the ceiling 10 times in the last 10 years and equating that with people continually having their credit card maximum raised even though they can’t afford to pay the bills.

“I think we need to put pressure on Congress to actually do some real cutting because we cannot continue to spend this money,” she adds. “We’re absolutely broke, and we can’t just run the printing presses because that will induce inflation.”

Turning to Iran, Bachmann says the Obama administration should have gotten involved in the Green movement back in 2009 “when there was more of a chance for the United States to have a positive involvement.

“Now with the instability we’re seeing across the Middle East region, we see a rise in the influence of Iran in that area,” she observes, warning that the Middle East turmoil could ultimately lead to Islamic fundamentalist regimes.

Bachmann says she has not decided whether or not she will run for president in 2012.

“Right now I’m involved in the narrative of why we cannot have a second term for Barack Obama. Your viewers remember Jimmy Carter and they remember that was not a good time for our country. Imagine if we’d had a second term for Jimmy Carter. A second Barack Obama term would be even worse.

“We need to have a candidate who understands the times that we live in and who has the political courage to make really tough decisions, even if that means they will serve only one term. We are at a turning point in our nation’s history.”

Finally, Bachmann — who has five children and has raised 23 foster children in her home — says she is “very concerned that they have a vital future available for them.

“We are the indispensable nation of the world and it’s important that we maintain not only our economic might, our military might, but also remain a force for good in the world.”

Bachmann Exposes $105 Billion Secret By Phyllis Schlafly

Source: http://townhall.com/columnists/phyllisschlafly/2011/03/15/bachmann_exposes_$105_billion_secret/page/full/

March 15, 2011

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has again demonstrated her extraordinary leadership in the U.S. House. She discovered $105 billion of taxpayers' money that Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi had hidden in ObamaCare.

Now, Bachmann wants her colleagues to refuse to pass must-pass bills, such as the Continuing Resolution or raising the debt limit, unless they include recapturing that secret money. What a great idea!

After all, the new Congress was elected last November to cut spending and put the federal government back within the bounds of the Constitution. The new members of Congress promised not only to cut overall spending but specifically to repeal and defund ObamaCare, so thank you, Michele, for showing the new Congress where to start.

When ObamaCare was passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve of 2009, senators had less than 72 hours to compare a 383-page package of amendments to the 2,074-page bill. Public outrage over backroom deals (such as the Cornhusker Kickback and the Louisiana Purchase) led to the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts.

Democrats then cooked up a plan to link the now-2,409-page Senate-passed ObamaCare bill to dozens of amendments contained in a separate 150-page Budget Reconciliation bill that could pass both houses by a simple majority. That's when then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously told the then-Democratic majority, "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it."

When President Obama signed ObamaCare into law, that set in motion a series of funding triggers and money transfers that add up to $105,464,000,000 in pre-authorized appropriations that are scheduled to be paid up through FY2019. In laymen's language, that means writing postdated checks that are guaranteed to be paid out over the next eight years.

This money was divided into dozens of smaller amounts so the big total would not be apparent. For example, Section 2953 of ObamaCare included a pre-funded appropriation of $75 million a year for five years to "educate adolescents" in "adult preparation subjects" such as "stress management" and "the development of healthy attitudes and values about adolescent growth and development, body image, racial and ethnic diversity, and other related subjects."

Section 4101(a) of ObamaCare prefunded $200 million a year over four years for the construction of school-based health centers. In Section 4002, a total of $17,750,000,000 will be deposited over 10 years to a discretionary account controlled by the HHS secretary (currently Kathleen Sebelius), who may spend that money "to provide for expanded and sustained national investment in prevention" and to "help restrain the rate of growth in private and public sector health care costs."

At a hearing last week before the House Health Subcommittee, former Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., likened ObamaCare to a 2,700-page haystack in which a lot of needles are still being discovered. He urged Congress to place a stop-payment order on the massive postdated checks hidden in ObamaCare.

The Pelosi bunch's strategy was devious and highhanded. They bypassed the customary appropriations process and prefunded ObamaCare on passage, knowing that House Rules would restrict a future Congress from defunding an already enacted law.

This makes it more difficult for Congress to deal with, but not impossible. Congress will both have to include the defunding language in the FY2011 Continuing Resolution and also pass a rule that makes this defunding language OK under House Rules.

There is not only adequate precedent for this procedure, but it also is common sense. Congress, in its constitutional role, can completely stop this secret funding of discretionary funds.

What Pelosi did was like setting up online a way to pay your monthly utility bills out of your bank checking account. Each new date triggers the bank to pay the bill out of your bank account.

ObamaCare is very similar. The law Congress passed without reading it lists the dates up to 2019 on which payments totaling $105 billion are to be paid out of the U.S. Treasury.

Bachmann and Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. are asking their colleagues to join them in signing a letter to the House leadership stating that the $105 billion in postdated checks drawn on the U.S. Treasury must be stopped, and stopped now, by including the necessary language in the continuing resolution.

It is an insult to the U.S. Constitution, which gives the House the power to originate all revenue bills, and to current and future Congresses, for ObamaCare to try to handcuff Congress in regard to future appropriations up through 2019.

We are fortunate that Bachmann is smart enough to figure out the cost of the secret money in ObamaCare. One of the smartest members of Congess, she was a tax attorney before being elected to Congress.

Phyllis Schlafly is a national leader of the pro-family movement, a nationally syndicated columnist and author of Feminist Fantasies.

Why I'm Fighting in Wisconsin: We can avoid mass teacher layoffs and reward our best performers. But we have to act now. By Scott Walker

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704132204576190260787805984.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_opinion

MARCH 10, 2011

In 2010, Megan Sampson was named an Outstanding First Year Teacher in Wisconsin. A week later, she got a layoff notice from the Milwaukee Public Schools. Why would one of the best new teachers in the state be one of the first let go? Because her collective-bargaining contract requires staffing decisions to be made based on seniority.

Ms. Sampson got a layoff notice because the union leadership would not accept reasonable changes to their contract. Instead, they hid behind a collective-bargaining agreement that costs the taxpayers $101,091 per year for each teacher, protects a 0% contribution for health-insurance premiums, and forces schools to hire and fire based on seniority and union rules.

My state's budget-repair bill, which passed the Assembly on Feb. 25 and awaits a vote in the Senate, reforms this union-controlled hiring and firing process by allowing school districts to assign staff based on merit and performance. That keeps great teachers like Ms. Sampson in the classroom.

Most states in the country are facing a major budget deficit. Many are cutting billions of dollars of aid to schools and local governments. These cuts lead to massive layoffs or increases in property taxes—or both.

In Wisconsin, we have a better approach to tackling our $3.6 billion deficit. We are reforming the way government works, as well as balancing our budget. Our reform plan gives state and local governments the tools to balance the budget through reasonable benefit contributions. In total, our budget-repair bill saves local governments almost $1.5 billion, outweighing the reductions in state aid in our budget.

While it might be a bold political move, the changes are modest. We ask government workers to make a 5.8% contribution to their pensions and a 12.6% contribution to their health-insurance premium, both of which are well below what other workers pay for benefits. Our plan calls for Wisconsin state workers to contribute half of what federal employees pay for their health-insurance premiums. (It's also worth noting that most federal workers don't have collective bargaining for wages and benefits.)

For example, my brother works as a banquet manager at a hotel and occasionally works as a bartender. My sister-in-law works at a department store. They have two beautiful kids. They are a typical middle-class Wisconsin family. At the start of this debate, David reminded me that he pays nearly $800 per month for his family's health-insurance premium and a modest 401(k) contribution. He said most workers in Wisconsin would love a deal like the one we are proposing.

The unions say they are ready to accept concessions, yet their actions speak louder than words. Over the past three weeks, local unions across the state have pursued contracts without new pension or health-insurance contributions. Their rhetoric does not match their record on this issue.

Local governments can't pass budgets on a hope and a prayer. Beyond balancing budgets, our reforms give schools—as well as state and local governments—the tools to reward productive workers and improve their operations. Most crucially, our reforms confront the barriers of collective bargaining that currently block innovation and reform.

When Gov. Mitch Daniels repealed collective bargaining in Indiana six years ago, it helped government become more efficient and responsive. The average pay for Indiana state employees has actually increased, and high-performing employees are rewarded with pay increases or bonuses when they do something exceptional.

Passing our budget-repair bill will help put similar reforms into place in Wisconsin. This will be good for the Badger State's hard-working taxpayers. It will also be good for state and local government employees who overwhelmingly want to do their jobs well.

In Wisconsin, we can avoid the massive teacher layoffs that schools are facing across America. Our budget-repair bill is a commitment to the future so our children won't face even more dire consequences than we face today, and teachers like Ms. Sampson are rewarded—not laid off.

Taking on the status quo is no easy task. Each day, there are protesters in and around our state Capitol. They have every right to be heard. But their voices cannot drown out the voices of the countless taxpayers who want us to balance our budgets and, more importantly, to make government work for each of them.

Mr. Walker, a Republican, is the governor of Wisconsin.

Democrats In The Pocket Of Big Labor

Source: http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/2011/03/democrats-in-pocket-of-big-labor.html



There is nothing like using their own words to condemn them.