Insider Report
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Bachmann: 'Devastating' Miscarriage Changed My Life
2. New Jersey Democrat Curses Gov. Christie
3. Americans Ready for Natural Gas Vehicles
4. Congress Threatens to Suspend Palestinian Aid
5. Stimulus Scam: $7 Million per Home for Broadband
1. Bachmann: 'Devastating' Miscarriage Changed My Life
Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann declared that a previously undisclosed miscarriage she suffered more than two decades ago shaped her pro-life views and her outlook on the world.
The Minnesota congresswoman spoke of the miscarriage at a recent campaign stop in South Carolina.
"After our second child was born, we became pregnant with a third baby," Bachmann said.
"And it was an unexpected baby, but of course we were delighted to have this child. And the child was coming along, and we ended up losing that child. And it was devastating for both of us, as you can imagine if any of you have lost a child."
She told the gathering that the miscarriage led to her and her husband Marcus' decision to take in foster children, Politico reported. The couple has helped raise 23 foster children, in addition to five children of their own.
"At that moment we didn't think of ourselves as overly career minded or overly materialistic," she added. "When we lost that child, it changed us. And it changed us forever."
According to CNN, "even some of Bachmann's staffers were caught by surprise when she talked about the miscarriage" because they had not heard the story before.
Bachmann and several other GOP presidential candidates — Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum — recently signed a pledge put forward by the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life group, LifeNews.com reported.
Signers agree to support efforts to defund abortion and the Planned Parenthood abortion business, back a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks, and nominate judges who won't legislate from the bench
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2. New Jersey Democrat Curses Gov. Christie
The Democratic leader of the New Jersey Senate used profanity in describing Republican Gov. Chris Christie and said he wanted to "punch him" in a dispute over spending.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney's outburst came after Christie vetoed $900 million in spending added to the budget by Democrats, the New York Post reported.
"This is all about him being a bully and a punk," Sweeney told the Newark Star-Ledger. "I wanted to punch him in the head.
"He is a cruel man. He's mean-spirited. He's angry. If you don't do what he says, I liken it to being spoiled."
Sweeney also called Christie a "rotten p****," using a word that often refers to a part of the male anatomy.
Christie's spokeswoman Maria Comella issued a statement regarding Sweeney's tirade: "The governor believes the language used was inappropriate and disrespectful to the office. But he continues to stand ready to work with Senator Sweeney and the legislature in a bipartisan manner to get things done for the people of New Jersey."
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3. Americans Ready for Natural Gas Vehicles
Electric cars and hybrids have been capturing the headlines regarding the future of America's motor vehicles, but the next big thing could well be natural gas cars and trucks.
A recent poll by TechnoMetrica found that 70 percent of Americans are familiar with natural gas as a fuel for motor vehicles, and nearly half of those say they would consider buying a vehicle that runs on natural gas.
One compelling reason: Natural gas costs about $2 a gallon these days, compared to around $4 for gasoline.
Some 150,000 natural gas vehicles are already on the road in the U.S., mostly fleet autos and buses, and worldwide the number of those vehicles is expected to reach nearly 29 million by 2015, according to an editorial by Raghavan Mayur, president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, in Investor's Business Daily.
Mayur observes: "In the past, the industry slighted natural gas vehicles because the U.S. had a low supply of this fuel. Now, with the discovery of vast fields of natural gas deposits, which are estimated to last for the next 100 years, interest has ticked up. The automobile industry is starting to take notice of the merits of natural gas."
Not only is natural gas abundant in the U.S., but a natural gas vehicle has fewer emissions than a gasoline-powered car, with lower levels of harmful byproducts — an important consideration due to new federal and state regulations that will compel vehicle manufacturers to lower emissions levels.
Natural gas vehicles will also reduce American dependence on foreign oil.
Vehicles running on natural gas cost more than gasoline-powered vehicles, and there are currently few refueling stations.
But natural gas vehicles for personal use are already being sold in New York, California, Utah and Oklahoma. Honda plans to sell its Civic GX natural gas vehicle nationwide by the end of next year, and Chrysler has announced that it will make natural gas vehicles in 2017, according to Mayur, who adds:
"The automotive industry needs to embark on a major educational effort to further educate the public to the advantages of natural gas and natural gas cars."
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4. Congress Threatens to Suspend Palestinian Aid
The Anti-Defamation League is hailing a vote by the U.S. Congress urging President Barack Obama to suspend financial aid to the Palestinian Authority if its leaders push for United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state.
The resolution in the House, approved by 407 of the 435 representatives on Thursday, was introduced by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer. The Senate had already approved the resolution.
It calls for the renewal of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and states that "Palestinian efforts to gain recognition of a state outside direct negotiations demonstrates absence of a good faith commitment to peace negotiations, and will have implications for continued United States aid."
Members of Congress were commended "for mobilizing a resounding message that the Palestinians cannot reject direct negotiations with Israel and embrace Hamas," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, and Robert Sugarman, the ADL's chairman.
"Instead of reconciling with Israel, the Palestinian Authority has reconciled with Hamas, a terrorist, anti-Semitic organization sworn to Israel's destruction. The Palestinians need to take seriously the president's warning that 'symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September won't create an independent state.'"
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5. Stimulus Scam: $7 Million per Home for Broadband
First came the report that President Obama's stimulus package had cost taxpayers $278,000 for each job it created. Now comes the disclosure that the stimulus shelled out $7 million per home to bring broadband access to rural areas.
"President Obama campaigned on expanding access to broadband Internet, and the stimulus afforded him an occasion for doling out federal dollars to that end," Forbes.com columnist Nick Schulz observes.
He cites a report by Jeffrey Eisenach and Kevin Caves of Navigant Economics, a consulting firm, which examined the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's subsidizing of rural broadband, designed to bring broadband access to homes without it.
The two authors looked at three areas that received direct grants or loans from the stimulus package: southwestern Montana, northwestern Kansas, and northeastern Minnesota.
They calculated that it cost $349,234 to bring broadband to each previously unserved household!
But "it's actually much worse than that," according to Schulz, DeWitt Wallace fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
The Montana area included in the stimulus funding has as many as seven broadband providers, including wireless, and "there were only seven households in the Montana region that could be considered without access," Schulz writes.
"So the cost of extending access in the Montana case comes to about $7 million for each additional household served."
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