When President Obama pitched his first stimulus, to the tune of $787,000,000,000.00, his administration famously claimed that such massive deficit spending was necessary to keep unemployment from reaching 8 percent and then to bring it below 7 percent by mid-2011. Yet for the past 28 months — since the recession ended in June 2009 and the “recovery” began — unemployment has been at or above 9 percent 26 times. (And in the two months that it didn’t hit 9 percent, when it was 8.9 in February and 8.8 percent in March, it rounded to 9 percent.) The Weekly Standard
Submitted 1 years 195 days ago

What if the two prominent grassroots movements of the day, the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, joined forces to support an agenda that would be good for America? Both groups are short on policy specifics. As popular movements, they lack organizers and spokesmen; both are to some extent expressions of mood. Nonetheless, there are several policies that reflect the concerns of at least a large part of both groups and that would be beneficial for the ordinary Americans whom both claim to represent. These policies would be a departure, however, from the current positions of the Democratic and Republican parties—whose shortcomings caused the two movements to spring up in the first place. So here it is, the Tea Party-Occupy Wall Street agenda. The Weekly Standard
Submitted 1 years 195 days ago

Georgia Power Company, which serves more than 2.3 million customers throughout the state, got a new president and CEO in January. Paul Bowers, a native of Pensacola, took over for Mike Garrett, who retired. Bowers started with the Southern Company, Georgia Power’s parent company, in 1979. His utility is the largest single stakeholder in Plant Vogtle, near Waynesboro, where two new nuclear reactors are under construction. Bowers talked to Georgia Trend’s editors at his Atlanta office in late August. Following are edited highlights of the interview. Georgia Trend
Submitted 1 years 195 days ago

Texas A&M’s decision to ditch the Big 12 (and those teasips in Austin) for the SEC set off a frenzy that seemed to touch everyone, from students and sportswriters to a certain former yell leader. But when the Aggies and Longhorns square off on Thanksgiving for the last time ever, a lot more than pride will be on the line. It will be the final chapter in a bitter rivalry that started with the constitution of 1876—and has defined the state of Texas for more than a century. Texas Monthly
Submitted 1 years 195 days ago

Tuesday’s legislative elections in Virginia appeared likely to add more evidence — as if national Democrats needed it — that the terrain of the political map will be significantly more rugged for President Obama next year. It is difficult to draw a bright trend line from an election in which fewer than one-third of those registered voted. When turnout is as light as it was on Tuesday, those who do show up tend to be the most dogged partisans. The Washington Post
Submitted 1 years 195 days ago

Republican Phil Bryant of Brandon won the Mississippi governor's race Tuesday, defeating Democrat Johnny DuPree of Hattiesburg. Bryant will take office Jan. 10 to succeed Republican Haley Barbour, who couldn't seek a third term as governor. The 56-year-old Bryant makes history as the first Republican to succeed another Republican as Mississippi governor in modern times. Barbour unseated a one-term Democrat in 2003. DuPree, 57, is the first black candidate to win a major-party nomination for the Mississippi governor. He's in his third term as mayor of Hattiesburg. Clarion-Ledger
Submitted 1 years 195 days ago

Gov. Steve Beshear won a landslide re-election victory Tuesday over Republican Senate President David Williams, sweeping Democrats in four other races into office with him and capping a remarkable four-decade career in Kentucky politics. With nearly 90 percent of the vote counted, Beshear led Williams 56 percent to 35 percent, with independent Gatewood Galbraith getting 9 percent. By midevening Williams had called Beshear, congratulated him and pledged to try to work with him during his second term. And in his concession speech, to supporters gathered at the Marriott Griffin Gate hotel in Lexington, Williams said he had put forward an agenda to protect the unborn and create jobs in Kentucky during a more than yearlong campaign. Louisville Courier-Journal
Submitted 1 years 195 days ago

Mississippi voters shot down a referendum Tuesday that would have effectively banned abortions in the state, rejecting an initiative that said life begins at conception. The so-called personhood initiative was rejected by more than 55 percent of voters. If it had passed, it was virtually assured of drawing legal challenges because it conflicts with the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a legal right to abortion. Supporters of the initiative wanted to provoke a lawsuit to challenge the landmark ruling. The measure divided the medical and religious communities in this Bible Belt state and caused some of the most ardent abortion opponents, including Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, to waver with their support. Clarion-Ledger
Submitted 1 years 195 days ago

JACKSON, Mississippi -- Mississippi voters Tuesday defeated a ballot initiative that would've declared life begins at conception, a proposal that supporters sought in the Bible Belt state as a way to prompt a legal challenge to abortion rights nationwide. The proposal was pushed by a Colorado-based group, Personhood USA. The group's co-founder, Keith Mason, says he intends to renew efforts in Mississippi, either through legislation or through another ballot initiative. Mobile Press-Register
Submitted 1 years 195 days ago

An uncertain future due to an expected U.S. Supreme Court review of health reform hasn’t stopped the administration from giving nearly half a billion dollars in U.S. taxpayer money to states to enact a key part of the new law. However, nearly half the states, 23 so far, have not established health insurance exchanges as mandated under health reform, and may blow past their federal deadlines to enact them. Reform experts caution that the states could spoil a smooth, timely roll-out of health reform. Fox News
Submitted 1 years 196 days ago