The Obama administration recently proposed raising corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards affecting cars and light trucks sold in America to 56.2 miles per gallon by 2025.  However, in a surprising development, the administration is now taking heat from Democratic legislators from Michigan including liberal Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who is up for re-election in 2012, in addition to congressmen representing districts in which German automakers operate in the South.

Last week, 14 of Michigan’s 15 congressmen plus both its senators penned a letter calling the 56.2 miles per gallon standard “overly aggressive” and “not reasonably feasible.”  (Rep. John Conyers was the lone non-signatory among the delegation). The letter further indicates that the standard would have a negative impact on jobs and promotion of U.S. manufacturing.  Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder had previously signed a letter urging a sensible approach on CAFE.

But less reported on was a letter sent the day before by South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy and Tennessee Rep. Charles Fleischmann expressing concern about the administration’s approach.  Gowdy and Fleischmann appear concerned that German automakers who manufacture vehicles in their districts—Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen—could be unfairly hammered by the rules, with attendant negative consequences for employees and their communities.  Reads the letter:

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It’s great to be a prisoner in Obama’s America: you get stimulus dollars, preferential job placement, and a place in AmeriCorps. But if you’re a child in public school, watch out.

Obama said he was going to build a civilian army — and he is using our children. He is recruiting in public school classrooms: I exclusively broke the story about how his group Organizing for America is recruiting in the classroom. But AmeriCorps (can Obama pronounce the second syllable?) is the primary machinery for his youth army. And there is huge dough behind it — yours and mine. And that money is now being used to mandate service programs that indoctrinate our children to work for “the common good.”

America is the most beneficent nation in the world. We give the most to charity (though Republicans far out-give Democrats), and whenever there is a disaster in the world, we are there. On a local level, we donate a ton of money to community programs.

So why is service being mandated? Mandated service is slavery. Voluntary service is empathy. Empathy is the positive result of a moral value system, as taught in a proper educational curriculum.

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Apparently Congressional Research Service employees are as good at research as ACORN employees are at registering voters.

Not surprisingly, the new Congressional Research Service report on ACORN continues the Democrats’ coverup of President Obama’s favorite advocacy group.

The CRS report commissioned by House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) –both longtime ACORN allies– is a whitewash.

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Washington has long been a place where ethics are flexible. If mainstream media outlets are snoozing, it’s easy to get away with a lot.

The mainstream media has paid very little attention to the ties between Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who chairs a House Judiciary subcommittee that might be called upon to investigate ACORN, and Nadler’s close working relationship with ACORN.

Nadler a longtime ACORN ally who has run for Congress on the ticket of ACORN’s political party, the Working Families Party of New York, is now offering advice to ACORN on how it should try to weather the controversies currently embroiling it.

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From the desk of Congressman Steve King (R-IA):

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Steve King today reacted to a tape released by an independent filmmaker showing Baltimore-based ACORN workers assisting a man and a woman claiming to be involved in a prostitution ring. According to FOXNEWS, “Officials with the controversial community organizing group ACORN were secretly videotaped offering to assist two individuals posing as a pimp and a prostitute, encouraging them to lie to the Internal Revenue Service and providing guidance on how to claim underage girls from South America as dependents.”

“Taxpayers should be outraged that their money has gone to an organization that, in addition to facing charges of voter fraud and tax violations, is willing to facilitate prostitution,” King said. “As this video confirms, ACORN continues to operate as a criminal enterprise. Nancy Pelosi, John Conyers, Barney Frank and other Democrats on Capitol Hill continue to protect and fund ACORN while blocking Congressional hearings on ACORN’s operations and finances. Shielding ACORN from oversight ensures that this partisan criminal enterprise will continue its shady practices while collecting taxpayer funds.”

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