The Junior Achievement Administration

What would you expect from a man who's voted present his whole life.................

President Obama is coming home from his overseas trip pretty much empty-handed.

After watching his party take a beating in the midterm elections, Obama wasn't able to secure even a symbolic victory on a trip that was expected to give him plenty of opportunities to claim a win.

"This certainly was the worst 10 days of his political life," said Baruch College political scientist Doug Muzzio. "Given that he's not going to be able to get any domestic achievements with the Republicans in control of the House ... if he doesn't do it in foreign policy that's a big problem for him.

"He came back with bupkis [Yiddish for 'nothing']."

Obama's inauspicious 10-day, four-nation trip included a failure to land an anticipated slam dunk free trade agreement with South Korea.

It also included a botched effort to rally Western allies to press China to budge on a monetary policy that threatens to keep the U.S. economy in the tank.

Seriously, as any political nerd can tell you, the whole purpose of these overseas trips is to show up, sign documents and come home with goodies for your constituents. How these clowns bungled another is downright disgusting.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/11/12/2010-11-12_president_obama_returns_from_asia_trip_with_disappointing_results_amid_midterm_l.html#ixzz15D7s4HdG

more government budgetese

So Hamilton County decided to make up the pay to workers who had to take a five day unpaid furlough during the year......

Hamilton County Recorder Wayne Coates said Happy Thanksgiving to his 25 employees a little early this year when he ordered in a Bob Evans turkey lunch and then handed out checks equaling five days' pay.

Coates said the pay - totalling $19,505.98 - makes up for the five furlough days each employee had to take in the first half of the year to balance his $1.5 million budget. To do that, employees weren't compensated for holidays.

"These are not bonuses," Coates said, "It was their money, nothing that wasn't owed to them."

Coates, a Democrat elected in 2008, said he took the money from planned for - but unused -- unemployment benefits.

Now I'm going to translate this from governmenteese to English..........

The taxpayers ended up paying the same amount for five fewer days of work.

It's good to be the king.

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Stuff liberals run - The postal Service

The U.S. Postal Service on Friday reported more than $8 billion in losses for the 2010 fiscal year while noting that mail volume continues to drop.

The postal service's chief financial officer, Joe Corbett, said despite $9 billion in cost savings over the past two years and the elimination of more than 100,000 jobs, fundamental changes are needed in how the mail system works.

"We will continue our relentless efforts to innovate and improve efficiency," he said. "However, the need for changes to legislation, regulations and labor contracts has never been more obvious."

Among the changes the Postal Service is seeking is the ability to cut Saturday mail delivery.

Now that's innovative......... doing less for more

Fleecing America

If you ever needed proof that the excesses in this country start with the government, just read this............

The D.C. area makes plenty of Top 10 lists, and this one shows its residents make the big bucks.

According to a new report from Newsweek, seven of the nation's 10 richest counties are in this region.

Virginia's Loudoun County takes home the top spot, with its median household income exceeding $114,000 per year. Seventeen percent of Loudoun households make more than $200,000, while only 16 percent earn less than the national average household income of $50,000.

The survey, based on 2009 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, names Loudoun neighbor Fairfax County the No. 2 breadwinner in the country. The county was the first in America to hit six figures with its median household income, and more than half its homes make more than that number now.

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The party of corruption

Prince George’s County Jack Johnson and his wife were arrested Friday on corruption charges after a sting in which the head of the county government accepted $15,000 in cash from a developer.

Jack Johnson, 61, and his wife, Leslie Johnson — who was elected to the Prince George’s County Council earlier this month — were charged with tampering with evidence related to the commission of a federal offense, destruction of records in a federal investigation and aiding and abetting.

According to charging documents, as federal agents closed in, Johnson ordered his wife to destroy a check from a developer believed to be written in the amount of $100,000 by flushing down the toilet or stuffing into her underwear.

Authorities said the phone conversation between the couple was recorded.

When FBI agents met Leslie Johnson at the front door of the couple’s mansion, authorities found $79,600 in cash in her underwear.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/blogs/capital-land/feds-jack-johnsons-wife-flushed-100k-check-as-agents-closed-in-107565938.html#ixzz157i41sFc

If you have to say it.............

Margaret Thatcher once said that being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't. At the Group of 20 summit in Seoul, President Obama asserted that the results of the midterm elections have not diminished his power internationally and that in some ways, he is even stronger, thanks to the friendships he allegedly has developed with world leaders.

World leaders may indeed like Mr. Obama on a personal level, but that has little to do with his stature as a national leader. Machiavelli's dictum that it is better for a head of state to be feared than loved still applies, and it is clear that there is no reason for any country to fear the affable Mr. Obama.

The president again casually confirmed his belief in the decline of America's "outsized" influence in world affairs, noting, "We are now seeing a situation where a whole host of other countries are doing well and coming into their own and naturally they're going to be more assertive." The president thinks this greater assertiveness is "a healthy thing" but did not elaborate for whom it was healthy - certainly not the United States. For some inexplicable reason, Mr. Obama welcomes the decline of America's role on the international stage. It is his most notable accomplishment.

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Who Are The Scarborough Seven?

What party are they?

Read this and ask yourself the question......... What party runs this town?

You get what you pay for, and that applies even in the world of public safety.

The Broward Sheriff's Office has decided to drastically cut services to Lauderdale Lakes because the city has fallen behind in its monthly payments, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

"Let me be clear, we are not abandoning the residents of Lauderdale Lakes, but during these strained economic times, I have an obligation to the taxpayers of Broward County to ensure that services are provided based on allocated funding," Sheriff Al Lamberti wrote in a Nov. 5 e-mail notifying city leaders of the pending change.

The city owes about $6 million, which in these economic times isn't pocket change for a small city. Just last week, the City Commission approved another one-year deal with BSO.

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Quantitative Easing: At a Certain Point You've Made Enough Money

Who did he vote for? #984

Meet Phillip Greaves. Why is Phil here in the news?

Police in Colorado are investigating the author of a guide for pedophiles, even as they try to make sure no one hurts him.

Phillip Ray Greaves II of Pueblo has drawn national attention because his self-published book was for sale on Amazon but later removed.

Police in Pueblo heard news reports about the book and went to Greaves' home Thursday morning to interview him. Detective Dustin Taylor described the 47-year-old as cooperative and said he agreed to give detectives a copy of the book.

So in this past senatorial election, did Phil here pull the chain for Ken Buck or Michael Bennet?

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A business proposition

I am currently putting together a business plan that will upgrade our current transportation systems.

Why?

Because I'm sure that there's a big market segment who are fed up with traveling by air.

With the busiest holiday travel season nearing, fliers face long security lines and new rigorous patdown checks begun in recent weeks aimed at discovering hidden explosives. As a result, some travelers are questioning whether to fly at all.

The Transportation Security Administration has ramped up airport security after two plots by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. A Nigerian man hid a bomb in his underwear last Christmas and the group tried to send package bombs via U.S. cargo carriers but none of the explosives detonated.

To thwart such attacks, TSA is deploying body scanning machines to U.S. airports but travelers and pilots have complained about potential health risks and that they are too intrusive. The alternative is a physical patdown by a TSA officer.

"Pilots are not the terrorist threat," said John Prater, president of the Air Line Pilots Association and a veteran pilot for United Continental. "Seeing scarce security resources being used on pilots makes absolutely no sense."

Here's my idea. We buy up a whole bunch of used cattle semi trailers, retro fit them to haul people and move people that way.

You may be asking yourself "wouldn't those be a little stinky"? Of course they would, but it couldn't be worse than the last two passengers I've sat next to on a plane.

You may be also asking yourself "what about the speed"? The last time I flew to Orlando with the Lovely Mrs. Gekko, we left our home at 4:30 in the morning to be in Ocala by 4:00 in the afternoon. I've driven it faster plus I got to have my gun at my side & eat/drink when we wanted,.

If you think that you'd be missing the whole flight experience we can add amenities like cavity searches, stolen items from your luggage, a 1 ounce bag of trail mix (no peanuts of course), long stays on tarmacs, background checks, etc.

I think it's a no doubter. If you want to invest, just let me know.

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Life in "Progress" City - San Francisco edition

So your city is on the verge of bankruptcy, what can you do to turn things around?

Just follow what the "progressives" of San Francisco would do............ban circumcisions........

The city that will soon outlaw toys in McDonald’s Happy Meals could have a measure banning circumcision on next November’s ballot, reports CBS San Francisco.

“It’s genital mutilation,” said Lloyd Schofield, the author of a San Francisco ballot measure that would make it a “misdemeanor to circumcise, excise, cut or mutilate the…genitals” of a person under 18.

Baby boys in San Francisco may be relieved but not everybody agrees with a proposed ban.

“I just had him circumcised 3 weeks ago,” said Heather Wisnicky of Sacramento, mother of Tyler, a 6-week-old baby boy. “It’s a health issue. It’s cleaner,” she said.

Scientists with the Centers for Disease Control are still studying whether circumcisions are healthier, and have promised recommendations to the public. Meanwhile, according to the New York Times, a CDC researcher reported a sharp drop in the number of American parents choosing circumcision in hospitals - from 56 percent in 2006 to less than 33 percent last year.

How is it that the people most inclined to repeat the mantra of choice as it pertains to chopping up babies, seem to forget about it when it comes to happy meals, salt in our diets, trans fats, and now circumcisions?

Eliminating foreskins?

Now that's "progressive"!!!!!!!!!


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Paycheck Fairness Act aka Another Job Killer Act

Here's an excellent study done by Diana Furchgott-Roth on how passing the Paycheck Fairness Act (passed by the House) will result in even more jobs being exported out of the country.

President Obama has frequently called for passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act. For example, on July 20, 2010, he declared, “Yet, even in 2010, women make only 77 cents for every dollar that men earn…So today, I thank the House for its work on this issue and encourage the Senate to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, a common-sense bill that will help ensure that men and women who do equal work receive the equal pay that they and their families deserve.”

But the Paycheck Fairness Act is not a common-sense bill. Rather, it would lower hiring in America and increase hiring abroad. Further, it would hurt women, the very group it is designed to help, by depriving them of jobs. Within groups of women, the lowest-skilled might be hit the hardest, because it might be harder for employers to justify their salaries in lawsuits.

Lower levels of employment are never justified. But at a time when the unemployment rate is 9.6 percent, when 14.8 million Americans are out of work, when 42 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or longer, it makes no sense to discourage employers from hiring workers.

Furthermore, the bill is misnamed because it responds to a false problem. As will be discussed below, there is far less pay discrimination against women than is alleged by professional feminists. With numerous anti-discrimination laws, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Pay Act, and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (signed into law by President Obama in January 2009), women do not need more remedies for discrimination. Courts have sufficient tools, and use them. The pending bill would only burden employers with more regulations and paperwork, further discouraging hiring.

I decided that I would check the disparity between men and women's income within my own accounting/tax practice.

See, in Ohio, when both spouses work it is often advantageous for the taxpayer to file separate returns (tax tip for those of you who do your own returns). Out of 446 married couples, I filed 58 separate returns indicating that both spouses were probably employed.

In that scenario, men earned an average of $56,566. The wives earned $55,593 Meaning that women earned a disgusting 98.3% of the men's income. They're so hosed.

The PFA is attempting to equalize income based on skills sets. For instance, it doesn't take a high school education to be a roofer but it probably does to be a clerical person. Under PFA that clerical person should be paid more than the roofer. Nevermind, that no one wants to be on top of a blistering roof in July the nice cushy indoor job should pay more.

But hey, let's go ahead and pass the law and Obama can just take up job orders the next time he makes a run to India, Indonesia and South Korea.

Who did she vote for? #1900

An Ohio school board is firing a longtime teacher after an investigation concluded she slept in class and repeatedly arrived late.

A referee in the matter had called 71-year-old Carol Smith "totally unprofessional" and reported to Perkins district officials in northwest Ohio that Smith's actions threatened the safety of her middle and high school students.

School board president Steve Schuster said Wednesday's vote to terminate the 34-year veteran teacher followed lengthy deliberations.

The Sandusky Register reports students had testified class was "unruly" when Smith was late and that they played games when she slept.

Smith said she was late a handful of times and denied falling asleep. She testified a condition required her to rest her eyes.

Now in the past election, did Carol here fill in the dot for John Kasich or Ted Strickland?

For the record, I had that same "resting my eyes" condition when my tax instructor threw me out of class 25 years ago. He didn't seem to buy it either.

Thank a vet today

If I were king the only people eligible to celebrate this day would be vets only.

None the less, everyone in this country owes some level of gratitude to the people who defend the liberty we have today.

Thank You!

London Tea Partiers

Lefties trash London

VID00017

After they get the first thing, they'll come back for the rest

I don't believe in "moderates".

In the political realm I believe there are only libertarians and socialists. Why? Because as soon as society condones the seizing of one's wealth to give to another for (name the most benevolent idea you can think of), you've create a new moral code where it's OK to take from someone if you can justify the reason.

This spills over into the social politics as well. You hear many people say they are fiscal conservative/social liberals. But again, as soon as someone can take money from one person to fund another's education they feel as though is perfectly fine to incorporate the rest of these numb nut ideas...........

They first came for the light bulbs, and I didn't speak up because I'm okay with fluorescents.

Then they came for the salt, and I didn't speak up because I have high cholesterol.

Then they came for the air conditioners, and I didn't speak up because I live up north.

Then they came for the Happy Meals, and I didn't speak up because I'm a Wendy's guy.

Then they came for the Oreos at school parties, and I didn't speak up because I'd already graduated.

Tyranny is timeless. Whether it is born of good intentions or not, seeking to deprive citizens of their autonomy and independence is not a recipe for human happiness, but rather misery.

read the rest............

"The most ethical congress evah"

Politics, it's where the money is...........

Two Illinois congressmen have paid their wives hundreds of thousands of dollars out of their campaign funds in the last decade, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The campaign to re-elect Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has given wife Sandi Jackson's company at least $315,000 for her work. Rep. Bobby Rush's campaign has paid his wife, Carolyn Rush, more than $240,000 to serve as a consultant.

Two other Chicago-area congressmen, Danny Davis and Luis Gutierrez, have given their wives smaller amounts for doing campaign work. The four lawmakers, all Democrats, were re-elected last week.

The campaign payments to spouses did not involve any taxpayer money, and the practice has been declared legal if certain requirements are met. Nevertheless, some watchdog groups see the potential for abuse when a lawmaker's family receives financial support from his political backers.

"Is there anything patently wrong with having a family member work on a campaign?" said Dave Levinthal, communications director at the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. "Arguably not. But it gets into sticky territory when the candidate, him or herself, stands to benefit personally in a significant way from political donations that are being made to fuel political efforts."

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When liberals run stuff - The EPA

Before you read this you might ask yourself. How can the EPA influence food prices?

The Grocery Manufacturers Association, the American Petroleum Institute and other groups filed a lawsuit challenging the EPA’s decision to allow more corn-based ethanol in gasoline.

Lobbying organizations representing companies that include Tyson Foods Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. are part of the lawsuit filed today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The groups, including the American Meat Institute and the Snack Food Association, said the EPA lacked the authority to make the decision and will result in higher food costs.

The EPA’s decision “will increase the amount of corn being diverted to our gas tanks and away from meat and poultry production,” J. Patrick Boyle, the Meat Institute’s chief executive officer, said in an-mailed statement. The AMI includes Tyson, Smithfield Foods Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc. among its members.

I guess it's a "progressive" thing to turn food into fuel. Ask yourself this question, who does this hurt more. Rich people who can absorb higher food prices or poor people who will spend more of their disposable income on food?

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We report. You decide

Which one is our first lady?

When the government pays more than the private sector

Would you pay someone to mow your lawn if the cost was more than you could make doing your existing job?

Most sane people would say no. See, you farm out services to people when you can make more doing your trade than the service being farmed out.

That's the way the world use to work. See, I can make more money doing my work as an accountant than I can save by butchering my own meat, changing my oil (actually anything mechanical), and framing my basement.

So I farm out those services and pay for them from the wages I earn doing things for people that is cheaper than they can do for themselves.

It works over an over again. It's how economies work.

It's also how governments are supposed to work. See governments do the work for the people that is collectively cheaper than they can do it for themselves.

It's also used to be that government workers made less but had more job security. Now they get more pay, more benefits and more security than the workforce at large and it's crushing our economy..........

The number of federal workers earning $150,000 or more a year has soared tenfold in the past five years and doubled since President Obama took office, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

The fast-growing pay of federal employees has captured the attention of fiscally conservative Republicans who won control of the U.S. House of Representatives in last week's elections. Already, some lawmakers are planning to use the lame-duck session that starts Monday to challenge the president's plan to give a 1.4% across-the-board pay raise to 2.1 million federal workers.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who will head the panel overseeing federal pay, says he wants a pay freeze and prefers a 10% pay cut. "It's stunning when you see what's happened to federal compensation," he says. "Every metric shows we're heading in the wrong direction."

National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley counters that the proposed raise "is a modest amount and should be implemented" to help make salaries more comparable with those in the private sector.

Federal salaries have grown robustly in recent years, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Office of Personnel Management data. Key findings:

But hey someone has to go out in the field to count zebra mussels in the great lakes. Shouldn't they be paid big bucks for that?

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Who did he vote for? #14

This one is "R" rated based on content.

Why is Noah Smith in the news?

A CBS News affiliate reports a man was found naked by Oconee County Deputies, apparently drugged and with a mouse in his rectum during a burglary call.

The affiliate, WCSC, reports deputies responded to Bernwood Cricle after a resident complained of a burglar. They found Noah Smith, 31, face down and naked in the doorway of the victim’s home, WCSC reports.

WCSC reports deputies roused Smith, who slapped one of them. Deputies shot Smith with a TASER which had no impact on the naked man.

Smith ran into the victim’s bedroom while backup arrived, according to the affiliate’s reports.

Smith fought with the deputies even after being pepper sprayed and hit with a police baton, WCSC reports. They say his head had to be covered with a blanket to prevent him from biting officers and had to be hog-tied, shackled and tied to a stretcher when EMS arrived.

WCSC says EMS took Smith to the hospital where medical professionals found a mouse tail hanging out of his anus. An X-ray showed an entire mouse in his rectum.

He told the doctors and nurses he couldn’t remember what happened to him, WSCS reports.

Now this one may be more difficult because if Noah can't remember how a mouse got into his anus he probably doesn't remember who he voted for this past SC gubernatorial election.

But give it a try. Did Noah vote for Nikki Haley or Vincent Sheheen?

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What is a "progressive"?

How the hell can we know when the people who call themselves that don't know...............

For House Democrats, 2011 is likely to be the year of the progressives.

The midterm elections largely purged the party of moderate Blue Dogs, meaning that for the first time the Congressional Progressive Caucus will represent more than forty percent of Democrats in the House. There’s no question Democrats are now a progressive party. The only problem: nobody can agree on what the word “progressive” actually means.

And not for lack of trying. While many have tried to define the term — John Podesta of the Center for American Progress wrote an entire book on the subject – no consensus has emerged. Call a dozen different self-described progressives, and you’re likely to get as many different explanations of what a “progressive” is.

“I’m not sure what the definition is,” conceded James Rucker, executive director of Color of Change. “I don’t love the term.” Rucker co-founded his organization with former White House “green jobs czar” Van Jones, so there isn’t much question about where he stands politically. But the term still strikes him as opaque. “I think it’s kind of the new ‘liberal,’” he said.

Ambiguous? That may be the point. “People use the word ‘progressive’ these days in part because the word liberal has been discredited by the right,” said Roger Hickey, co-director of Campaign for America’s Future, a Washington-based non-profit that touts itself as “the strategy center for the progressive movement.”

For the record, liberals discredited themselves when liberal policies never worked or in most cases were counter productive. So they felt a need to rename the brand because the old brand translated to "dysfunctional". As a result, they had the need to rename their dysfunction to something coll and trendy so they came up with "progressive".

Take the case of liberal policies on poverty. We've spent how many trillions of dollars on poor people so they won't be poor anymore. The result? We've got more poverty now than we ever had in the past with the extra amenity of poverty of the collective soul.

I can tell you what "progressive" isn't. "Progressive" isn't anything about progress. Take energy. Now you would think that "progressive" policies would mean more "progressive" man made production like nukes. But they actually want to take us back to baking bread with the sun or knit with wind powered sowing machines.

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Solomons in robes

Let me make sure I have this right.

1) Citizens are upset because judges are using all sorts of rationales to support their agendas so they place a ballot issue saying that judges cannot use international or Sharia law in their decision making.

2) Law passes 70% - 30%.

3) Judge strikes down law.

Voters in the state backed a measure to bar the use of Islamic and international law by 70 per cent to 30 per cent, in a referendum held on the same day as the US midterm elections.

However Muneer Awad, the head of the regional branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, promptly filed a lawsuit against it.

Mr Awad argued that the measure violated the right to religious freedom as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

"Islam was the target of this amendment," Mr Awad said. "This amendment does not have a secular purpose."

Judge Vicki Miles LaGrange granted a temporary restraining order against the measure, in advance of a hearing on November 22.

The original measure was proposed by Rex Duncan, a Republican state representative, who has said it is necessary to protect the "children and grandchildren" of present-day Oklahomans.

Mr Duncan said that Judge LaGrange's verdict "thwarts the will of the people".

However legal experts have questioned whether the measure is necessary, given that there is no apparent danger of foreign law becoming binding on the state. Joseph Thai, a professor at the University of Oklahoma's College of Law, described it as "an answer in search of a problem".

Hell no it's not necessary when judges have the will to do anything as they damn well please.

Let's go back to the original set up of our republic. We're supposed to have three equal branches of government an executive, a legislative and a judicial.

The judicial branch is supposed to rule on cases based on the laws the legislative branch approves.

Why exactly do we even have a legislative branch when judges can simply overrule anything, and I do mean anything, they don't like for whatever reason.

Why don't we simply kill our legislative process and let all the Solomons in robes decide each and every bitch people have in society. They seem to have no problem taking the responsibility as it is so let's just formalize it.

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Licensing Gone Wild: Armed Government Agents Raiding Barber Shops

Fed easing not enough?

Paul Krugman must have investments in commodities given his criticism of the fed's latest acts as being too conservative....................

It’s true that things aren’t as bad as they were during the worst of the Depression. But that’s not saying much. And as in the 1930s, every proposal to do something to improve the situation is met with a firestorm of opposition and criticism. As a result, by the time the actual policy emerges, it’s watered down to such an extent that it’s almost guaranteed to fail.

We’ve already seen this happen with fiscal policy: fearing opposition in Congress, the Obama administration offered an inadequate plan, only to see the plan weakened further in the Senate. In the end, the small rise in federal spending was effectively offset by cuts at the state and local level, so that there was no real stimulus to the economy.

Now the same thing is happening to monetary policy.

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Today's CPUSA - YOUR Party, YOUR Voice!

Pelosi's Last Lame Duck- What Could Go Wrong?