Why build furniture in the US?

So let's assume you own a high end furniture business. Does the raid on Gibson related to importing certain woods make you more or less interested in expanding a plant in the US.........................

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, last year said that it would begin enforcement for other furniture items sometime after September 2010. But a year later, it still hasn't announced when it will start the broader enforcement.

The amendments created a requirement for importers to declare the species and country of origin of plant or plant products, including wood. The recent raid has some industry experts wondering if warehouses used by furniture importers might be the next target.

American Home Furnishings Alliance Vice President Bill Perdue said the Lacey Act is something furniture importers should be worried about and that the organization has been working on helping companies learn compliance, even with the current limited scope of the rule.

"We've told our guys almost ad nauseam that if you are importing lumber into the United States you've got to comply with the Lacey Act. Really it's not where you manufacture the goods, it's where the tree was harvested," Perdue said.

"You just can't say pine. You've got to be able to identify the genus and the species of the wood and the point of harvest. So it's sort of a two-edged sword. Both of those are required in the certificate that comes over with the furniture and it's by article so it gets pretty tedious."

Or maybe you can just open your plant in Mexico and not worry about it.

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But another speech should do the trick

So Obama doesn't want to meet with republicans in order to come up with a bipartisan plan to create jobs............

The White House suggested Wednesday that President Obama will not meet with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) before he delivers his jobs speech to Congress on Thursday night.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said he did not have any meetings to announce when asked if Obama would honor the request for consultation made by the Republican leaders.

"I do not believe that anyone out there in the country thinks that the answer to getting Washington out of gridlock is having another round, before this speech, of meetings in the Cabinet Room," Carney said.

Seriously? Exactly how is spending more energy on another speech more productive than meeting with the opposition party?

This guy is a big top circus clown?

WE NEED MORE COWBELL



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Where have I heard that before..........

From NRO..............

Dowd’s piece employs many of the criticisms that the Right has made of Obama from the outset. Most notably, it echoes the notion that he is an empty suit, is obsessed with speech-making, and remains convinced that the sole role of the president is to make endless use of the bully pulpit. Dowd accuses Obama — who she sarcastically refers to as “The One” — of suffering from “Speech Illusion,” which she defines as:

[T]he idea that he can come down from the mountain, read from a Teleprompter, cast a magic spell with his words and climb back up the mountain, while we scurry around and do what he proclaimed.

It seems to me that I had heard this before. But I was wrong. I said it back on December 31, 2007..................

I've had friends ask me why I haven't beat on Obama like I have Hillary or The Breck Girl. Well, if you've noticed, you haven't read any posts on the empty suits in my closet either and that's exactly the same feelings I have for Obama.

But I'm sure I'm not nearly as schooled as Maureen Dowd.

Bill Cunningham Scared of Barack Obama

Boy, somehow John McCain condemned this introduction by Bill Cunningham for simply calling our the future president "Barack Hussein Obama" but The One can't seem to condemn Jame Hoffa for incendiary comments.

Life in "Progress" State - California edition

The recent announcement that California's unemployment again nudged up to 12 percent—second worst in the nation behind its evil twin, Nevada—should have come as a surprise but frankly did not. From the beginning of the recession, the Golden State has been stuck bringing up a humbled nation's rear and seems mired in that less-than-illustrious position.

What has happened to my adopted home state of over last decade is a tragedy, both for Californians and for America. For most of the past century, California has been "golden" not only in name but in every kind of superlative—a global leader in agriculture, energy, entertainment, technology, and most important of all, human aspiration.

In its modern origins California was paean to progress in the best sense of the word. In 1872, the second president of the University of California, Daniel Coit Gilman, said science was "the mother of California." Today, California may worship at the altar of science, but increasingly in the most regressive, hysterical, and reactionary way.

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18 mil a job is a good deal..... right?

Last week, the Obama administration’s Department of Energy announced it is extending an $852 million loan guarantee to something called the Genesis Solar Project in California.

Genesis, according to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, will be built on federal land and ultimately employ perhaps 800 people during its construction and 47 people once it is up and running. This would seem to be a lot of money to generate very few jobs at a time when the nation is on the verge of bankruptcy, but the project really isn’t about jobs.

It’s the latest in the administration’s attempt to turn us away from dependence on fossil fuels regardless of cost and reality. This project, according to Mr. Chu, “will enable the deployment of clean, renewable sources at scale, which will help bring down the cost of solar power in the years to come.”

Maybe, but one has to remember that this man is part of an administration with neither a learning curve nor much regard for the intelligence of the people who elected the president.

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Life in "Progress" State - Rhode Island edition

The analysis from a liberal...............

Rhode Island is one of the bluest states in the country, and one where public sector unions have long worked with sympathetic politicians to create a true blue system of well paid public employees retiring comfortably on generous pensions with cost of living raises automatically thrown in.

The only problem is that the state could never afford the beautiful utopia it was crafting, and so politicians and union leaders chose the path of systemic deceit. Taxpayers weren’t told what the bill for the system would be; public service workers weren’t told that the pension guarantees they’d been sold were worthless because taxpayers would not and could not foot the bill.

An economic crisis is nature’s revenge on those who make and those who accept false promises; it is a holocaust of lies when the dross is burned away and only what is real and true remains. Think of cotton candy melting and charring in the flame of a blowtorch; that is what is happening to the secure retirements that “caring” blue politicians and “committed” blue union leaders promised gullible state workers. From the Washington Post:

An ongoing pension reform effort is likely to result in reduced benefits for 51,000 public workers and retirees. Officials are pondering lowering retirement payments, replacing part of the guaranteed pensions with 401(k)-type accounts, and sharply reducing generous cost-of-living increases enjoyed by retirees. The Rhode Island legislature is expected to consider changes next month during a special session.

Rhode Island turned its pension program into a Ponzi scheme with the same basic technique that is being used in cities and states all over the country to bamboozle workers and taxpayers alike.........

Read the rest........................

Who's the intelligent one here?

Here's a writer comparing the intelligence of The One and Rick Perry......

Similarly, pundits make vicious jokes about Perry’s supposed low-wattage, and while it’s true he’s probably never recited lines from Yeats or Browning in conversation at a collegiate cocktail party, the man has won three gubernatorial elections in Texas, defying the Republican establishment in that state again and again, so there’s something going on above his neck.

Out of curiosity, where is any, and I mean any, evidence that Obama could recite Yeats or Browning in college. In fact, where's any evidence of his incredible intellect. His transcripts? His Harvard Law writings?

None the less, these east coast uppercrusts can't seem to make the comparison between aptitude and recital of say a teleprompter.

You'd think that maybe most of them have watched Good Will Hunting..

Mad TV Bob Newhart Skit - Mo Collins - Stop it

For those media members who complain that Sarah Palin is a media whore while they keep covering her..................

Shouldn't the poor be allowed to eat a Burrito on the taxpayer

Would you like to pay for that Big Mac with your SNAP card?

The number of businesses approved to accept food stamps grew by a third from 2005 to 2010, U.S. Department of Agriculture records show, as vendors from convenience and dollar discount stores to gas stations and pharmacies increasingly joined the growing entitlement program.

Now, restaurants, which typically have not participated in the program, are lobbying for a piece of the action.

Louisville-based Yum! Brands, whose restaurants include Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silver's and Pizza Hut, is trying to get restaurants more involved, federal lobbying records show.

• STORY: More retailers say yes to food stamps

That's a prospect that anti-hunger advocates welcome, but one that worries some current food stamp vendors and public health advocates.

Federal rules generally prohibit food stamp benefits, which are distributed under the USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), from being exchanged for prepared foods. Yet a provision dating to the 1970s allows states to allow restaurants to serve disabled, elderly and homeless people, USDA spokeswoman Jean Daniel said.

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The man with the golden touch

Hey, Obama's charms even work on NBA basketball players.................

Shaquille O'Neal provided a very strange culprit for his former teammate's shooting woes: President Barack Obama. According to an excerpt from his new book, Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo's ongoing reluctancy to shoot stems from a light jeering he got from the President during a visit with the team.

As O'Neal writes, (excerpt via CSNNE.com, from Shaq Uncut):

In early March some of the guys went to the museum of Fine Arts for a fund-raiser and got to hang with President Barack Obama. Everyone was a little bit in awe. The President turns to Ray, points at Rondo, and says, “Hey, Ray, why don’t you teach this kid how to shoot?” Everyone starts laughing.

KG told me he saw the look on Rondo’s face and the kid was devastated, embarrassed. Dissed by the President, even though I’m sure Obama didn’t mean any harm. Rondo smiled and went along with all of it, but KG told me he could see it in his eyes. It bothered Rondo. It killed him.

Shaq went on to write that Rondo "shot the ball horribly" the next day and he "stopped taking shots after that."

Basketball is very much a mental sport, which is why it doesn't seem completely outside the realm of possibility that a well-timed insult could stick with a player for the long-term. But the idea that Barack Obama is responsible for Rondo's well-documented shooting woes seems just a tad over the top.

But even if the claims are true, Rondo can solace in the fact that his career shooting percentage is almost 10 percentage points higher than Obama's current approval rating.

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Life in "Progress" City - NY edition

In one of the bloodiest weekends in recent city history, 31 people were brutally shot in roughly 48 hours this weekend -- including three kids at a house party-turned-shooting gallery in The Bronx.

25 people had been shot as of Sunday night, but by early Monday morning, six more people were shot in three separate incidents in Brooklyn.

Four people were shot at 12:45 a.m. at what appeared to be a barbecue on East 54th Street. One of the victims, 18-year-old Tyrief Gary, has died. The other three are in stable condition.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/bulletfest_in_big_apple_byw44m9cllNj7rhDXYEDXK#ixzz1X7q3uxTQ

Obama Rally James Hoffa 'Army is Ready' 'Let's Take These Son of a Bitch...

Hey James.

Just in case you didn't notice, many of the people who sign the paychecks for all the jobs you want...... are the very republicans you want to take out.

No wonder John Galt would just rather take his jobs to the Phillipines or Vietnam, or Mexico or Indonesia................

Obama Stimulus-Funded Solar Power Company Solyndra Goes Bankrupt

Obama Is "Clueless And, For Now, Irrelevant"

3 Years Of Obama's Job Promises, Promises

Why not invest in time machines?

The Obamunists list of failures continue to mount. I don't want this guy anywhere near me, I'll probably go blind.

None the less, I decided to keep score of the failed "green" companies that Obamunists feel are so crucial to our future.

Solyndra
Evergreen Solar
Elephant Pharmacy
Think Global AS
VeraSun Electric
SpectraWatt

For those who believe that solar and wind power are our future let me introduce you to this concept called "reality".

See, there have been TRILLIONS invested in these technologies. From private companies to governments worldwide, people have been trying to make this work. How much more money will it take to make these technologies work?

If were only a factor of money, we could invent a time machine using the same business model.

There are venture capital groups (rich people) out there sitting on GABILLIONS of dollars to invest in something that would yield the kinds of returns green energy could yield yet they're not investing. Why? Unlike the government, that's their money. One of the reasons rich people are rich is that they don't like to throw money around on boondoggles.

As an aside, how did Daryl Hannah get her rear end to Washington to get arrested for protesting against the Keystone Pipeline? I'd bet my life savings that she used fossil fuels.

So, in her mind, it is environmentally more friendly to purchase oil from a middle eastern dictatorship, ship that oil via tankers halfway across the world, and use existing pipelines to move that oil from port to refinery?

And these people proclaim that they're so much smarter than those knuckle dragging conservatives?

Probably includes some of Obama's relatives

The Internal Revenue Service allowed undocumented workers to collect $4.2 billion in refundable tax credits last year, a new audit says, almost quadruple the sum five years ago.

Although undocumented workers are not eligible for federal benefits, the report released Thursday by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration concludes that federal law is ambiguous on whether these workers qualify for a tax break based on earned income called the additional child tax credit.

Taxpayers can claim this credit to reduce what they owe in taxes, often getting refunds from the government. The vagueness of federal law may have contributed to the $4.2 billion in credits, the report said.

The IRS said it lacks the authority to disallow the claims.

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Life in "Progress" City - Chicago edition

Every month, Thomas Villanova gets a $9,000 reminder of how lucrative it can be to serve as a union leader in Chicago.

The sum is part of a city pension that comes on top of the $198,000 annual salary he is paid to represent the interests of thousands of city workers.

Villanova last worked for the city in 1989 as an electrical mechanic with the Department of Streets and Sanitation, making about $40,000 a year. Yet in 2008 he was allowed to retire at age 56 with a $108,000 city pension. That's because, under a little-known state law, his pension was based not on his city paycheck but on his much higher union salary.

This kind of deal is available only to union officials who meet certain requirements, but a Tribune/WGN-TV investigation has uncovered documents that show Villanova violated state law when he applied for the pension and cast doubt on whether he truly qualifies for all that money.

Any wonder cities are going broke?

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Not good enough

Apparently, the Obamunists only care about backing off of regulations when it hurts a job prospect.............

President Obama told the EPA today to withdraw proposed air quality legislation, citing the need to reduce regulatory burdens on businesses as the economy continues to recover. The new ozone standards were favored by environmentalists but criticized by business groups and Republicans.

In the House of Representatives, Republicans had made standing in the way of the regulation a top legislative priority and billed it as a cornerstone of their jobs plan.

“I have continued to underscore the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our economy continues to recover,” President Obama said in a statement. “With that in mind, and after careful consideration, I have requested that Administrator Jackson withdraw the draft Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards at this time. Work is already underway to update a 2006 review of the science that will result in the reconsideration of the ozone standard in 2013. Ultimately, I did not support asking state and local governments to begin implementing a new standard that will soon be reconsidered.”

While this sounds good it doesn't address the main points.

1) If this is a good idea then it should be implemented immediately.

2) If this is a bad idea then it should never be implemented.

3) This doesn't help the business climate at all in this country if this is only a temporary moratorium. No company in their right mind is going to spend millions upon millions of dollars on a manufacturing entity in this country if they know these regs are coming down the pike about two days after the Obamunists are reelected.

Nice try O. But it's not good enough.

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Scholastic News Kid Reporters Interview the President (3/7): Challenges ...

How about telling these kids their greatest challenge will be how to pay for my social security benefit.

Questions the media won't ask

Unless you're 10 years old

Rep. Carson catches heat for Tea Party remarks

Chris Daniel Interviews Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz