Sarkozy's PATCO?

[Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization]
As the transportation strike enters its second week, it's impressive to see President Nicolas Sarkozy stand firm as Ronald Reagan did in 1981. But he might need a little more resolve than was required of Reagan. Sarkozy vowed to make France globally competitive when he won the presidency this year. He was fully open about his plans if elected and explicitly said he would end featherbedding in public-sector unions, from bloated pensions for little work to permanent security regardless of performance.

[Reminder: while US private-sector labor unions continue to shrink (~18% I believe), public-sector {that would be government} unions continue to mushroom, now surpassing 60% - it looks like we'll need look to {give me a second... ok... ready...} FRANCE... for leadership in this regard. marvelous]

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=280367612364273

Freedom of speech and mob rule on campus

Cinnamon Stillwell, an AT contributor, describes the serous problems with freedom of speech on college campuses in a San Francisco Chronicle column.

"...it's the students who have become the bullies as of late. A disturbing number seem to feel that theirs is an inviolate world to which no one of differing opinion need apply. As a result, everything from pie throwing to disrupting speeches to attacks on speakers has become commonplace."

She goes on to describe a number of notable incidents of mobs shutting down speakers because of politically incorrect views being expressed. The article makes a great companion piece for Selwyn Duke’s article today on the process by which free speech rights are being lost.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/a/2006/11/29/cstillwell.DTL

When Will They Ever Learn?

An agreement is rumored to be near for adoption of a $9 billion general obligation water bond. The bond will cost the general fund roughly $18 billion, including interest (or $600 million a year EVERY year for the next 30 years) and is being pushed at a time when the state is running an unprecedented deficit due to unsustainable increases in spending.

The measure is being touted as a response to increasingly tight water supplies, although only $3 billion – at most – will be used for surface water storage. This despite SIX other bond acts over the last 11 years that have totaled $17 billion, ALL promising to solve our water shortages.

Two other notes. First, nearly half of our water is now being used to meet various environmental mandates. Although additional facilities are certainly needed, our current "crisis" is largely the product of environmental extremism. And second, $7.1 billion from the two water bonds approved by voters last November still has not been appropriated.

http://www.carepublic.com/blog.html?blog_id=204&frompage=latestblog&domain=tom_mcclintock

When Will They Ever Learn?

California
An agreement is rumored to be near for adoption of a $9 billion general obligation water bond. The bond will cost the general fund roughly $18 billion, including interest (or $600 million a year EVERY year for the next 30 years) and is being pushed at a time when the state is running an unprecedented deficit due to unsustainable increases in spending.

The measure is being touted as a response to increasingly tight water supplies, although only $3 billion – at most – will be used for surface water storage. This despite SIX other bond acts over the last 11 years that have totaled $17 billion, ALL promising to solve our water shortages.

Two other notes. First, nearly half of our water is now being used to meet various environmental mandates. Although additional facilities are certainly needed, our current "crisis" is largely the product of environmental extremism. And second, $7.1 billion from the two water bonds approved by voters last November still has not been appropriated.

http://www.carepublic.com/blog.html?blog_id=204&frompage=latestblog&domain=tom_mcclintock

‘Politics of Parsing’ Web ad a hit, survey says

Former Sen. John Edwards’s (D-N.C.) attempt to label Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as a parser was a hit across the board, according to a survey of political insiders by Wilson Research Strategies. Edwards’s Web video, titled “The Politics of Parsing,” features clips of Clinton saying apparently contradictory things at a presidential debate in Philadelphia in late October.
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/politics-of-parsing-web-ad-a-hit-survey-says-2007-11-28.html

‘Politics of Parsing’ Web ad a hit, survey says

Former Sen. John Edwards’s (D-N.C.) attempt to label Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as a parser was a hit across the board, according to a survey of political insiders by Wilson Research Strategies. Edwards’s Web video, titled “The Politics of Parsing,” features clips of Clinton saying apparently contradictory things at a presidential debate in Philadelphia in late October.

http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/politics-of-parsing-web-ad-a-hit-survey-says-2007-11-28.html

Regulatory affairs profiled in The Scientist

The regulatory profession was profiled in The Scientist magazine. With the cooperation of RAPS, The Scientist highlights the growth and promise of the RA profession. Read the article

Russia’s clinical trials industry recovers from biologics ban

Russia’s clinical trials industry shows signs of recovery following a significant downturn linked to an unexpected ban placed on biologic exports by the government there.
http://www.raps.org/inthenews/home#feature1home
http://www.raps.org/s_raps/sec.asp?TRACKID=&CID=3290&DID=26713

2 America Supports You: 130,000-Plus Send Troops Text Messages of Thanks

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23, 2007 – More than 130,000 Americans sent messages of gratitude this week to the nation's troops through the "Giving Thanks" text messaging initiative. The initiative is part of America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and corporations with military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad.

"The 'Giving Thanks' text message campaign has been a wonderful example of how Americans are still passionate about supporting the troops and saying thank you for their service," said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communication and public liaison. "Hopefully, our troops serving in 177 countries will have a renewed sense of just how much the folks back home support them."

Major mobile wireless providers, including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile, will provide access to the Giving Thanks program. And, while carriers' regular text messaging rates apply to every message sent through the Defense Department program, there are no additional costs to send a message of thanks. The text messaging initiative officially began at on Nov. 17 and has received more than 130,000 messages of thanks, according to the tally board on the America Supports You Web site -- www.americasupportsyou.mil.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48182

America Supports You: 130,000-Plus Send Troops Text Messages of Thanks

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23, 2007 – More than 130,000 Americans sent messages of gratitude this week to the nation's troops through the "Giving Thanks" text messaging initiative. The initiative is part of America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and corporations with military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad.

"The 'Giving Thanks' text message campaign has been a wonderful example of how Americans are still passionate about supporting the troops and saying thank you for their service," said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communication and public liaison. "Hopefully, our troops serving in 177 countries will have a renewed sense of just how much the folks back home support them."

Major mobile wireless providers, including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile, will provide access to the Giving Thanks program. And, while carriers' regular text messaging rates apply to every message sent through the Defense Department program, there are no additional costs to send a message of thanks. The text messaging initiative officially began at on Nov. 17 and has received more than 130,000 messages of thanks, according to the tally board on the America Supports You Web site -- www.americasupportsyou.mil.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48182

Attacks in Iraq down 55%

The Washington Post is reporting that attacks in Iraq against civilians and the US military have declined 55% over the last nine months:
[snip]
Make no mistake. Iraq is still not a garden spot of peace and tranquility.
But by now, even the press can't ignore the huge turnaround in the security situation not to mention the continuing improvement in the effectiveness of Iraqi police and army units.
[snip]
It remains to be seen whether the Democrats will recognize what is going on in Iraq and stop being obstructionists over funding for the war and give the military what it needs to continue its successful operations.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/11/attacks_in_iraq_down_55.html

As Col. Roberts put it, "Micro-everything is good." Our troopers have backed micro-projects, such as community generators, awarded micro-grants to jump-start street-level commerce, and favored a ground-up version of capitalism, rather than the administration's dysfunctional marriage of profits at home and socialism in Iraq.

The Iraqis get their batteries charged. Once. Then it's up to them to make their neighborhood - and their country - work. Lt. Col. Jeff Peterson, 1-14's commander, adds that the "spontaneous economic development" that followed the establishment of security and face-to-face engagement with the population has been inspiring.
[snip]
So why don't you hear more about our military's successes? It goes beyond the old media dictum that "if it bleeds, it leads."

Plenty of journalists have staked their reps on our predicted failure in Iraq - and they hate the reversal of fortune the surge is achieving.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08312007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/back_from_hell.htm?page=0

Somali Islamists vow to fight peacekeepers

.
Islamist gunmen patrolled Kismayo, a key southern port, on Monday, vowing to impose strict sharia law just hours after they seized the town in a new threat to Somalia's weak government. Hundreds of turbaned, heavily armed fighters on "battlewagons" -- machine-gun mounted pick-ups -- took up positions in and around Kismayo as the country's powerful Islamist movement hailed the overnight takeover, witnesses said.

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=284861&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

Flight 93 Memorial: Screw You, America

Michell Malkin is outraged (rightly) that the Red Crescent is back on the Flight 93 memorial to the Americans on that flight who were murdered by the 9/11 hijackers. It is an outrage.

Writes Michelle,

"Tons of you are stunned, outraged, and sickened by the new Flight 93 Memorial, the "Crescent of Embrace." I called the architect responsible for the redesign, Paul Murdoch of Los Angeles, yesterday for comment. He did not return my call..."

Take a look at Michelle's site. And call up your Congress critters, the sleazoid architect, and the President. [president@whitehouse.gov and comments@whitehouse.gov ]

This is a slap in the face, and no one can doubt that it's deliberate. Our enemies take Muslim symbols with deadly seriousness. They will see this as a triumph for jihad, and a surrender by America.

[it's not the simple 'c' it first appears, it's a tapering crescent immediately reminiscent of only one symbol. of the infinite number of shapes available, how could its choice be a coincidence?]

http://michellemalkin.com/2005/09/10/flight-93-memorial-seeing-is-believing/

'Changing border will be dangerous'

The defense establishment is fiercely opposed to a United Nations initiative to redraw Israel's border with Lebanon and ultimately revoke Israeli sovereignty over the Shaba Farms. A UN cartographer is expected to visit the Shaba Farms, also known as Mount Dov, in the coming weeks, sent by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to review the current border route along the 25-square-kilometer area located between Lebanon and the Golan Heights.

[betrayed again: it's elevated land, previously used to shell Israel]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1187502427231&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Obstacles to 21st Century socialism in Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez's ambitious project to bring "21st Century socialism" to Venezuela is running into obstacles -- easy cash, corruption and an expanding class of citizens who are growing rich by exploiting economic distortions. Chavez promised a revolution when he won his first election in 1998. Since his third election victory in December, he has pledged to accelerate Venezuela's transformation into a society where a "new man" is free of selfish urges and devoted to the common good.

[advanced warning: expect a rash of articles exalting how well socialism is working in Venezuela. It always does - for the first decade or so while past spoils of private industry are consumed by the populace. It's the 2nd decade where the lack of investment starts showing signs of decay - by the third decade, full decline. History's ran this movie time and again - that's why it's called 'unsustainable']

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=964842007

UK cancer survival rate lowest in Europe

Cancer survival rates in Britain are among the lowest in Europe, according to the most comprehensive analysis of the issue yet produced. England is on a par with Poland despite the NHS spending three times more on health care. Survival rates are based on the number of patients who are alive five years after diagnosis and researchers found that England was the fifth worst in a league of 22 countries. Experts blamed late diagnosis and long waiting lists.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=ALDQAFHLW3BERQFIQMFCFGGAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/08/21/ncancer121.xml

Katrina collects a bundle

The flow of federal dollars to the Gulf Coast two years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the region already exceeds what the U.S. spent on the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II. President Bush and Congress have committed more than $127 billion in resources and tax relief for the region — significantly more than inflation-adjusted $107.6 billion directed to 16 countries in Europe between 1947 and 1951.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070830/NATION/108300092/1001

Fatal alliance

A recent article in The Washington Times by Sara A. Carter show the frightening importance of the alliance between Arabic terrorists and Mexican drug cartels. It documents how well known this dangerous situation has been for several years, for which no effective action had been taken by the Department of Homeland Security or local officials.

As an old drug-policy hand, I thought I had heard everything about it. But parts of the story were news to me and terribly disturbing. One example was the report that "approximately 20 Arab persons a week were utilizing the Travis County Court in Austin to change their names and driver's licenses from Arabic to Hispanic surnames." I do not claim that this horrendous problem is easy to deal with; it is not.

However, I do claim that some obvious first steps come to mind. . . [recommended...>] http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070820/EDITORIAL/108200006/1013/editorial

Blaming Americans again

Liberals are using the concept of Anthropogenic Global Warming to advance their favorite causes, and that the whole War of the Worlds AGW scare is a tool to that end. This piece in LiveScience.com certainly buttresses that opinion. The Left has traditionally hated Americans eating red meat and driving their cars, and now we are told that, in order to ``save the planet`` we should eschew both.
[snip]
As for fighting obesity and global warming by walking and cycling, don't expect people to do it easily, said Kristie Ebi. She's a Virginia public health consultant and one of the lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
[snip]
Now, why did the IPCC [International Panel on Climate Change] need a public health consultant, and why was she one of the "leading authors" of the IPCC? Does it not seem obvious that transforming our way of life is the critical point of all this? Can any informed person continue to doubt that this issue is primarily a political power grab?

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/11/blaming_americans_again.html

Medved on 'Redacted': 'It Could Be the Worst Movie I've Ever Seen'

"It could be the worst movie I've ever seen" ... "[T]he out and out worst, most disgusting, most hateful, most incompetent, most revolting, most loathsome, most reprehensible cinematic work I have ever encountered." ... "It portrays the members of our Marine Corps in the most disgusting way imaginable." ... "This film is an atrocity. It is zero stars." ... "I honestly was close to vomiting when I saw the film." ... "It is a slander on the United States of America." ... "Everyone associated with this film ought to be ashamed." ... "Will it inspire future terrorists? Of course it will!"

That's prominent movie critic Michael Medved on the new film "Redacted." Lest anyone think that Bill O'Reilly's recent outrage over the film is an overreaction, Medved tells Bill, "It's worse than you think."

Johnny Dollar's Place has the must-hear audio.

http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/dave-pierre/2007/11/18/medved-redacted-it-could-be-worst-movie-ive-ever-seen

Burping moose bad for the environment

Amidst all the talk about carbon dioxide emissions and global warming comes news that Norway's national mascot may be contributing to the destruction of the environment, through burping and other bodily functions. (Snip) But now some researchers linked to Norway's technical university (NTNU) in Trondheim contend that moose are responsible for tons of gas emissions a year through their frequent burping and, well, farting. ''Shoot a moose and save yourself a climate quota,'' joked moose researcher

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1949645.ece

action template act-temp

"Support/Oppose..."
US President mailto:president@whitehouse.gov
Obama transition http://www.change.gov/page/s/contact
Your Senator http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Your Congressman https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml


CA Governor: http://gov.ca.gov/interact governor@governor.ca.gov

Barbara Boxer web mail http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfm?CFID=9716973&CFTOKEN=89336911
Dianne Feinstein webmail http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMe


CA Fed. Congressman: Jerry McNerny (D) http://mcnerney.house.gov/contact.shtml
CA State Senator: Don Perata (D) senator.Perata@sen.ca.gov
CA Assembly: Mary Hayashi (D) assemblymember.Hayashi@assembly.ca.gov

.

Iraqi Government Assumes Control of Country’s 7th Division

.
The Iraqi government has assumed command of a major unit from the country’s army, a sign of continued improvement in Iraq’s armed force. The 7th Iraqi Army Division is responsible for security along the western Euphrates River Valley, with three brigades operating across the region.
[snip]
The 7th Division is the newest Iraqi army division and the last of 10 to transfer to command and control by Iraqi Ground Forces Command. The 1st Division, responsible for security in the greater Fallujah area and one of Iraq's most seasoned units, transitioned to the command’s control in February.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48027

Troop Surge, Iraqis’ Anger Puts al Qaeda ‘On the Run’

.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2007 – A combination of unceasing pressure by U.S. and Iraqi security forces and citizens’ anger at al Qaeda in Iraq’s brutal tactics have put the terror group “on the run,” a senior U.S. military officer said today. “The targeting of (al Qaeda in Iraq) leadership and their networks has contributed to the downward trend in violence we are seeing across Iraq,” the admiral said.
<>
Iraqi security forces are gaining in numbers and effectiveness and are increasingly taking the lead during anti-insurgent operations, Smith said. Iraqi commandos recently captured an entire group of terrorists during a raid west of Ramadi, he said. “The precision operation captured all four primary targets in this cell and four other suspects.”
<>
More than 67,000 concerned Iraqi citizen-volunteers also are contributing in the fight against the terrorists, Smith said. As a result, al Qaeda operatives in Iraq are “on the run,” Smith observed. The insurgents realize they have dwindling maneuvering room, he said, and “the Iraqi people are just not going to put up” with them.

(Video) http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48074

Democrats Set for Next Effort To Block Surge

.
Democrats in Congress will begin on Wednesday the next phase in the battle for Iraq by unveiling the latest challenge to the military's contention that the surge in Iraq has brought some success. On September 5, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing to discuss a report from the Government Accountability Office that contends Iraqi security services have not improved and key political benchmarks have not been met.

[as opposed to the plethora of political benchmarks achieved by our legislature...]

http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=61665&v=3886558811

Suppressing the Good News from Iraq

.
Last month, Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack, who have in the past been critical of the President’s handling of the mission in Iraq, wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times in which they stated, “Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms."

The reaction to the O’Hanlon and Pollack piece from liberal bloggers was fierce. It is healthy to question opposing opinions, but many on the left did not seem interested in giving the claims of O’Hanlon and Pollack any serious consideration whatsoever.

A fellow blogger at Wizbang said of the reaction, “Forgetting for a moment the value of the assessment by the two authors, the value of the piece as a way of outing defeatist liberals remains unrivaled. The [extreme among] liberals in this country are so deranged that good news in Iraq is now considered bad news. Rather than being pleased that we might be making progress and hopeful for American success, the liberals in this country are actively -and near openly- hoping for defeat. But don't question their patriotism. They support the troops.”
[snip]
If the report contains any reference to progress or any glimmer of hope for the mission in Iraq, expect it to be attacked viciously by those on the anti-war Left. Good news in Iraq is bad news for those opposed to the war and there will be an all-out effort to deny or diminish any news that does not support their demands for immediate withdrawal and no consideration will be made to the consequences of ignoring the latest reports from the region. Can I question their patriotism yet?

http://townhall.com/columnists/LorieByrd/2007/08/31/suppressing_the_good_news_from_iraq

Somali Islamists vow to fight peacekeepers

.
Islamist gunmen patrolled Kismayo, a key southern port, on Monday, vowing to impose strict sharia law just hours after they seized the town in a new threat to Somalia's weak government. Hundreds of turbaned, heavily armed fighters on "battlewagons" -- machine-gun mounted pick-ups -- took up positions in and around Kismayo as the country's powerful Islamist movement hailed the overnight takeover, witnesses said.

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=284861&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

"Redacted" stuns Venice

.
A new film about the real-life rape and killing of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl by U.S. soldiers who also murdered her family stunned the Venice festival, with shocking images that left some viewers in tears. "Redacted", by U.S. director Brian De Palma, is one of at least eight American films on the war in Iraq due for release in the next few months.

[yet if you draw a cartoon misrepresenting Mohamed or Islam in any way the world is outraged]

http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSL3190384420070831?feedType=RSS&feedName=entertainmentNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Chinese see [US] military dependence on computers as weakness

.
Beijing - Diplomatic tension this week over reported Chinese computer attacks on German government networks comes as security experts warn that China is expanding its capacity to wage cyberwar as part of its rapid military buildup. U.S. and other foreign military analysts say that Chinese defense planners have identified the heavy dependence on computers of most modern military forces as a potential weakness that could be exploited in a conflict.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/29/news/cyber.php

Royal Air Force Jets Shadow Russian Bombers Near British Air Space

.
London - Two Royal Air Force jets shadowed a Russian military plane that approached British air space, Britain's Ministry of Defense said Tuesday. The incident occurred Friday, the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin placed strategic bombers back on long-range patrol for the first time since the Soviet breakup. Britain's defense ministry issued two photographs on its Web site showing one of the two RAF Typhoon F2s flying near the Russian Bear-H military aircraft over the North Atlantic Ocean.

[Lord, they're still flying Bears]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293958,00.html

Chávez tries mind control

.
Venezuela's Hugo Chávez is nearing the end of his campaign to stifle independent media -- not due to a change of heart, but because through the years he has been singularly successful at cutting off dissenting voices in Venezuela. If he succeeds in his latest ploy, another will fall silent in the coming days. Chávez intends to pull the plug on the country's oldest and most popular station, Radio Caracas TV (RCTV), a source of radio programming for 76 years and television for 53.

http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/118062.html

North Korea wants bank accounts unfrozen

South Korea - North Korea said Wednesday it would return to nuclear disarmament talks in an effort to get access to frozen overseas bank accounts, a vital source of hard currency for the isolated communist nation.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061101/ap_on_re_as/koreas_nuclear_32

DITHERING DIPLOMATS

SENIOR officials of the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members plus Germany met last Friday in London to discuss Iran's nuclear-weapons program. Once again, they failed to agree on meaningful sanctions against Iran, leaving the mullahs free to pursue their deadly policy.
[snip]
This pattern of failed diplomacy has gone on for over four years, starting with the efforts of Britain, France and Germany ("the EU-3") to talk Iran out of its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, the EU-3's fascination with negotiations lost sight of the ultimate objective - preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons - and became an end in itself.

For the EU-3, the process became more important than the substance, especially the unstated but obvious EU-3 agenda of dealing with a proliferation threat their way, rather than the 'American way'.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11062007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/dithering_diplomats_959824.htm?page=0

Editorial: Ditch government planners

- Centralized government planning is almost always a disaster, says Cato Institute Senior Fellow Randal O’Toole, who warns of the dangers of letting government bureaucrats take more and more control over Americans’ lives.

A generation ago, we laughed at the hilariously predictable failures of the Soviet Union’s five-year plans. Now we’re allowing our own public planners, two-thirds of whom work for state and local governments, to design our communities, manage our land and natural resources, design our transportation and energy grids, run our health care system and oversee much else.

Big mistake.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1029199~Ditch_government_planners.html

Nunez: $2-a-pack cigarette tax to pay for health care

CALIFORNIA

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, also conceded a major point to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger by endorsing a mandate that all Californians have health insurance. The Democratic leader of the state Assembly announced a final effort Monday to pass a health care overhaul before the end of the year, proposing a $2-a-pack tax on cigarettes to help expand coverage to all 6.8 million uninsured Californians.
[Q: so when cigarette revenue drops as it eventually will, where will the money then come from?]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/11/06/BAPKT6U00.DTL&type=politics

ABC Fails to Wonder Why Canadian Mom Forced to U.S. to Give Birth

On Wednesday's Good Morning America, co-host Chris Cuomo completely glossed over the health care implications of a Canadian mother forced to give birth in the United States, not her own nation, to identical quadruplets. According to Cuomo, Karen Jepp and her husband, the new parents of four girls, had to be flown 300 miles from Calgary to Montana on August 16 because "every neo-natal unit in their country was too crowded to handle four preemie births." Apparently, it didn't occur to Cuomo to wonder why.

http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2007/cyb20070823.asp#6

Economy Grows at Fastest Pace in a Year

The economy grew at its strongest pace in more than a year during the spring as solid improvements in international trade and business investment helped offset weakness in housing.The gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic health, expanded at an annual rate of 4 percent in the April-June quarter, significantly higher than the 3.4 percent rate the government had initially estimated a month ago, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070830/D8RBBNS80.html

Nets Lead w/ 'Awful' Economic News, Not So Excited About Job Gains

When the Labor Department reported a net loss of 4,000 jobs for August, the September 7 ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts highlighted the bad news as evidence of an impending recession, but on Friday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced a strong gain of 166,000 jobs during October, double expectations, ABC and CBS gave it a few seconds while NBC ignored the good news entirely. What all three did lede with was how bad a day it was on Wall Street and painting it as a harbinger of impending economic doom. NBC anchor Brian Williams piled on the bad news as he insisted he took “no pleasure” in highlighting it. With “DANGER SIGNS” on screen, Williams announced: “Good evening. The following sounds pretty awful -- and we take no pleasure in reporting it -- but today Wall Street fell, the U.S. dollar fell, GM is in bad shape and the housing market continues to be in big trouble.”...
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2007/11/08/nets-lead-w-awful-economic-news-not-so-excited-about-job-gains

CA Paper: Want a New Gas Tax? Call it a 'Fee' to Fool Voters

CALIFORNIA
The Contra Costa Times has given us an interesting new angle to fool the voters into voting for a new gasoline tax in an article titled, "Calling gas tax a 'fee' may help at ballot." The CCTimes is advising politicians to call the tax hike a "fee" instead of a tax to fool the voters into accepting it at the ballot box.

Throughout this piece is the obvious assumption that the county governments in and around San Francisco are "cash-starved" and that these taxes are needed because it is important that the governments "look for new funding" for roads and to "curb global warming."

Not a hint that these governments have wasted the money they are already confiscating from the citizens, nor any investigation why some of the highest taxes in the country have not been able to satisfy the needs there. Instead of an investigation into government mismanagement and waste, the CCTimes is trying to find sneakier ways to steal the taxpayer's income by "semantics" and wordplay.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2007/11/08/ca-paper-want-new-gas-tax-call-it-fee-fool-voters

Farmworker Farce

The shortage simply doesn’t exist.

Time and again we hear from the agribusiness lobbyists about the pressing need for a continuous flow of foreign peasants to pick vegetables. The most sweeping claim was from lobbyist Sharon Hughes: “We are either going to have our food produced by foreign workers here in the United States, or the farming process will move to foreign countries.”
[snip]
Since only two percent of Americans still work in agriculture, many of the rest of us fall for this baloney. The research in this area, however, paints a very different picture. In a new paper, published by the Center for Immigration Studies, agricultural economist Philip Martin of the University of California, Davis, finds “little evidence” to support claims of a labor shortage on America’s farms.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjEwM2RmZTBmZDU2MzI1YTEyOTRkZjk4MWE2NDE0NjE=

Pricing oil in dollars

Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, neither of whom has ever demonstrated much economic sophistication, contended at the recent OPEC Summit that the weak dollar is at the root of high oil prices.
[snip]
While it is true that when the dollar declines relative to the euro and other currencies oil prices in dollars rise faster than in those other currencies, prices are determined by supply and demand. A move to price oil in terms of a market basket of other currencies or in euros would not in itself affect the price of oil.
[snip]
The recent decline in the value of the dollar seems to have unnerved some Americans and emboldened less economically sophisticated enemies, but it is a boon for American exporters, and underlies our continuing economic strength.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/11/pricing_oil_in_dollars.html

UN Discusses Global Warming in Spain as Snow Pummels Switzerland

Remember when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) traveled to Germany to discuss global warming with Chancellor Angela Merkel and was hysterically greeted with a late-season snowstorm that rocked Europe?
Well, as the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change met in Valencia, Spain, last week to contemplate the supposedly catastrophic warming of the planet, Switzerland to the east received the most snow for this early in the season since 1952.

According to the report, Switzerland has not received such a strong start to its winter ski season since 1952, with the amount of snow being swept to the southern areas by the wind cited as a particularly interesting feature of the weather.

You really can't make this stuff up.

http://www.fasttrackski.co.uk/ski-news/switzerland/swiss-snow-makes-50-year-record-200711151407.php

School suspends boy for sketching gun

Chandler school officials have suspended a 13-year-old boy for sketching a picture that resembled a gun, saying it posed a threat to classmates. But parents of the Payne Junior High School student said the drawing was a harmless doodle of a fake laser, and school officials overreacted.

"I just can't believe that there wasn't another way to resolve this," said Paula Mosteller, the boy's mother. "He's so upset. The school made him feel like he committed a crime."

But Payne Junior High administrators thought the sketch was enough of a threat and gave the boy a five-day suspension, later reduced to three days.

Chandler district spokesman Terry Locke said the sketch was "absolutely considered a threat," and threatening words or pictures are punishable.


[They're irreparable, we need universal school vouchers.]


http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/0822gunsketch22-on.html

Bush Fortunes Improving? Blame 'Absence of Bad News'

In Monday’s Washington Post, reporter Peter Baker’s front-page political analysis on President Bush’s improving fortunes carries a strong whiff of Hate to Admit It:
In many ways, the shifting political fortunes may owe as much to the absence of bad news as to any particular good news. No one lately has been indicted, botched a hurricane relief effort or shot someone in a hunting accident. Instead, pictures from Iraq show people returning to the streets as often as they show a new suicide bombing.


That’s just wrong. The Big Kahuna of bad news has always been Iraq, which has always cast a dark cloud over other news. Left out of Baker’s analysis: how much the media spin has affected most of these stories (leave out Iraq for the moment).

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2007/11/19/bush-fortunes-improving-blame-absence-bad-news

Home Depot employee looking for job after stopping alleged thief

Dustin Chester is job hunting this week, after The Home Depot fired him and the general manager for thwarting a thief from running away with a pocket full of stolen cash. Last week, the 24-year-old department manager confronted a man who was standing by a soda machine in front of the Murfreesboro store off Old Fort Parkway holding a crowbar and a wad of cash.

[society cannot survive if the citizenry is turned into hapless sheep]

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070829/NEWS01/70829023

Sarkozy's PATCO?

[Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization]
As the transportation strike enters its second week, it's impressive to see President Nicolas Sarkozy stand firm as Ronald Reagan did in 1981. But he might need a little more resolve than was required of Reagan. Sarkozy vowed to make France globally competitive when he won the presidency this year. He was fully open about his plans if elected and explicitly said he would end featherbedding in public-sector unions, from bloated pensions for little work to permanent security regardless of performance.
[Reminder: while US private-sector labor unions continue to shrink (~18% I believe), public-sector {that would be government} unions continue to mushroom, now surpassing 60% - it looks like we'll need look to {give me a second... ok... ready...} FRANCE... for leadership in this regard. marvelous]
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=280367612364273

California budget stand-off ends

CALIFORNIA

Sacramento, California - The California state legislature has passed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's 145-billion-dollar spending plan after one of the longest budget stalemates in recent state history. The Senate passed the budget late Tuesday with a vote of 27 to 12 after two of 14 holdout Republican senators agreed to end their opposition to the proposal.

The budget raises spending for schools, reduces aid to the elderly and disabled, increases student fees at state universities and cuts 1 billion dollars in transportation work to transfer the money to reduce the multibillion-dollar deficit the state has been carrying for years. Schwarzenegger said he welcomed the vote and would press on with other initiatives.:

'We now will move forward together on the issues we've been elected to address such as health care, a comprehensive water plan and redistricting reform,' he said in a statement.

[a one billion dollar cut to transportation work? does that me we should expect a reduction in the 48-cents a gallon tax supposedly collected for 'transportation' projects? with regard to the 'health care issue', I prefer Tom McClintock's take:

A Long Trip to the Hospital…

With the state budget adopted and California now on a collision course with another Gray-Davis sized fiscal crisis, what’s next on the Left’s agenda? Government health care, of course, modeled on Canada’s socialist system. Soon every Californian can expect their local hospital to operate with the same courteous, competent, efficient service for which our government is renowned.

http://www.carepublic.com/blog.html?blog_id=171&frompage=latestblog&domain=tom_mcclintock

UK chooses 'most ludicrous laws'
A little-known law which prohibits people dying while in the Houses of Parliament has been voted the UK's most ludicrous piece of legislation. The most absurd international law was judged to be in the US state of Ohio, where it is illegal to get fish drunk. (Snip) the list included legislation against naming a pig Napoleon in France, driving while wearing a blindfold in Alabama and unmarried women parachuting on a Sunday.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7081038.stm

Coalition Forces See Iraqi Neighborhood’s Markets Flourish

Just a few months ago, Operation Rogue Thunder began to reclaim the streets of Jamia and Adel, Iraq, from the grip of violence. Today, the streets not only are peaceful, they’re also thriving.
<>
"People are very happy now that the neighborhoods have gotten better," she said. "We feel safe enough to travel and come to work. We all just want life to go back to normal, and the past two months have been a good sign that life is allowing that to happen."
<>
Among other successes in the community were the allocations of micro grants to people interested in opening, re-opening or refurbishing their small businesses.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48076

Baghdad Comes Alive

For someone who has returned periodically to Baghdad during these past four and a half years of war, there has been one constant: it only gets worse. (snip) For the first time, however, returning to Baghdad after an absence of four months, I can actually say that things do seem to have gotten better, and in ways that may even be durable.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/70990/page/1

Conflict besets Andover High

The social studies teachers say they merely wanted to provide their students different perspectives about conflict in the Middle East when they invited [only] a group with a history of condemning Israel's treatment of Palestinians to speak at Andover High School. The teachers never expected that their invitation to the group Wheels of Justice would set off the firestorm that has ensued ... /snip/

Jake Lebowitz, 14, a freshman who attended the evening forum, said the controversial subject should not have been featured in school without an opposing group at the same time to strike a balance.

[only two possible explanations: 1) just another case of liberal academia run rampant, or 2) these 'teachers' were literally to dumb to realize what the fourteen year old does. you pick]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/01/08/conflict_besets_andover_high/

Mums with guns

Monday is Ladies Night, and Lorrie McNally is a regular here. So is her 62-year-old mum. The air is thick and smoky, and the place is packed. People are forced to shout over the boom, boom, boom. But these women aren't clutching cocktails - they're gripping guns. /snip/ ''Women are the largest-growing demographic in the gun industry,'' NRA spokeswoman Ashley Varner says.

[and for good reason; there's a reason guns are called the 'great equalizer']

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21754148-5006007,00.html
-

Nation of Islam Allowed to Review PBS Documentary on Moderate Muslims

A conflict of interest involving the radical Nation of Islam and the Washington, D.C., affiliate of the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) is an example of unethical journalism that benefits extremist Muslims, according to a national security expert and a Hollywood filmmaker. Martyn Burke, director of documentary films at ABG Films, and Frank Gaffney, president of the conservative Center for Security Policy, produced a documentary for a PBS series - "America at a Crossroads" -

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200708/CUL20070830a.html

The Left fakes Right

After six long years of pandering to the primates of Kos and Huffpo, the Democrats have suddenly discovered the War on Terror. Didn't you notice? That's because they didn't tell anybody. It's a stealthy flip, right in the middle of the dog days of August when nobody is paying attention. The Party Line just flipped.

Suddenly Demcrats are sounding responsible.

"We've begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas, particularly in Al Anbar province, it's working. We're just years too late changing our tactics. We can't ever let that happen again. We can't be fighting the last war. We have to be preparing to fight the new war.And this new war requires different tactics and strategies. We've got to be prepared to maintain the best fighting force in the world."

That may not sound like the real Hillary Clinton, but it is. Sure she's still blaming Bush, but the tone is very different.

/snip/


The funny thing is that the media are pretending nothing has changed. But on Iraq and national security, the whole top Democrat apparatus has suddenly moved from the Far Left to the Middle Right. The biggest question, of course is: Are the Dems realizing the error of their ways? Or are they just Faking Right, like Meadowlark Lemon and the Harlem Globetrotters?


[nice to see that despite Bush's unilaterally, single-handedly screwing everything up, 'we' are now beginning to make progress]


http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/08/the_left_fakes_right.html

Patterico on the LA Times

It made waves yesterday when Andres Martinez ,the editor of the Los Angeles Times resigned, and accused his own paper of having an "agenda", but Patterico, who's been watching the paper for a long time, says here are some real improprieties the paper has been involved in in recent days:

"It creates an appearance of impropriety when one of the fired U.S. Attorneys directly contradicts the major premise of an L.A. Times article published about him - and five days later, there is still no correction.

It creates an appearance of impropriety when the paper splashes on the front page the fact that rationales for firing the U.S. Attorneys were "detailed after the fact" - and saves for the 27th paragraph the fact that they were detailed before the fact as well.

It creates an appearance of impropriety when the paper tells readers that Carol Lam was targeted after she prosecuted Randy "Duke" Cunningham - and fails to tell readers that she was initially targeted several months before the Cunningham scandal saw the light of day.

These distortions, taken together, form a pattern. Misleading stories like these constitute a real appearance of impropriety on the part of the Los Angeles Times - one far worse than any "appearance of impropriety" caused by today's non-scandal. Such stories create the overwhelming impression that (to use former editor Martinez's words) the newsroom's "ostensibly objective news reporters and editors" have an "agenda" - namely, to keep the U.S. Attorney "scandal" alive for as long as possible.

And the facts, and basic concepts of fundamental fairness, can go to hell."

http://patterico.com/2007/03/22/6014/martinez-blasts-la-times-newsrooms-agenda-and-ostensibly-objective-news-reporters-and-editors/

Stripper visits school in booking mix-up
A stripper performed for a classroom full of British teenagers, spanked a birthday boy and asked him to rub cream all over her after a booking error by the teen's mother. It is believed the mother thought she had booked a gorillagram to rush into her 16-year-old son’s classroom for a birthday surprise - but a stripper turned up instead. (Snip) The newspaper quoted the student as saying that it was when the stripper pulled some cream out of her bag that the teacher took action.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22723210-5001028,00.html

New Report to Show U.N. Overestimated AIDS Epidemic

The United Nation's top AIDS scientists this week plan to acknowledge that they long have overestimated both the size and course of the epidemic, which they now believe has been ebbing for nearly a decade, according to U.N. documents prepared for the announcement. AIDS remains a devastating public health crisis in the most heavily impacted areas of sub-Saharan Africa. But the sweeping revisions amount to at least a partial acknowledgment of criticisms long leveled by outside researchers...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/19/AR2007111900978.html?hpid=topnews

U.N. official says Iraq showing progress

UNITED NATIONS -- A top U.N. official reported to the U.N. Security Council Monday that recent developments in Iraq have opened an opportunity for progress. U.N. Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe briefed the U.N. Security Council that sectarian tensions are still problematic in Iraq but that recent trends including recently released figures that show September having the lowest number of causalities in 2006, are reason to believe that there is an opportunity for progress.
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Emerging_Threats/Briefing/2007/11/19/un_official_says_iraq_showing_progress/7541/

Russia warns Czechs over 'big mistake'

Moscow - Russia's military chief has told the Czech Republic that hosting a US missile defence shield would be a ''big mistake'' and urged Prague to delay a decision until a new US president was elected. The Czech Republic is considering whether to accept a radar station that would form part of a US missile shield - a system designed to intercept and destroy missiles from “rogue states” but which Moscow sees as a threat to its security.

[they're pushing to delay any finalization in the knowledge that should a democrat be elected president the shield will be killed in Washington]

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22287077-38200,00.html

Russia to resume Cold War bomber flights

Russia will immediately resume long-range strategic bomber flights on a "permanent" basis, ending a 15-year suspension of the missions, President Vladimir Putin has said. Mr Putin said a halt in long-range bombers' flights after the Soviet collapse had affected Russia's security as other nations had continued such missions
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/17/wputin217.xml

'Too late' to stop N Korea's bomb

The Australian, by Peter Alford Original Article Posted By: Photoonist - 10/4/2006 3:31:49 PM Post Reply Tokyo - While the rest of the world looks to Beijing to stop North Korea from exploding a nuclear bomb, a leading Chinese analyst says it is too late -- China cannot act without doing worse harm to its own interests. ''Basically, our country's work of persuasion with the (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) in the 12 years that the DPRK developed its nuclear program had been a failure,''

la dir post = no url...

Atomic Numbers

At 3,000 centrifuges, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran's nuclear program is "irreversible." Why do we pretend that the Islamofascists in Tehran do not mean what they say?

To become a European or United Nations diplomat is it required that you know nothing about 20th-century history?

Hitler made his goals plain in "Mein Kampf" more than a decade before Neville Chamberlain deluded himself into thinking he was not bent on world domination.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=279331377204364

Mosque leaders blame UK foreign policy for extremism

The majority of Scotland's Islamic leaders believe UK foreign policy is to blame for members turning to extremism, according to a new report. A study by the Council of British Pakistanis in Scotland found nearly half of the country's 31 mosque leaders thought extremist behavior existed in Scotland. The "vast majority" cited the UK government's foreign policy as the reason, it found. A lack of parental guidance and the misinterpretation of the Islamic religion were also given as factors.

[these are community leaders who's primary function is to preach their views to others]

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/other/display.var.1631153.0.0.php

Italy Breaks Up European Terror Cell

MILAN, Italy - A Europe-wide sweep disrupted an Islamic cell that was recruiting potential suicide bombers for attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, Italian police said Tuesday, announcing the arrests of 20 terror suspects. Police said the suspects, mostly Tunisians, were arrested across Europe as part of the sweep against a cell based in the northern Italian region of Lombardy.
[bumber stickers in Italy]
http://breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8SO863O3&show_article=1&catnum=0

Terrorism: Jihad has failed, former Libyan Islamist tells al-Qaeda

Tripoli - A former leader of an armed Islamic group in Libya, Numan Bin Uthman, has written a letter to al-Qaeda second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri telling him that Jihadi groups in Arab countries have failed. (Snip)

"I aks you to stop the armed operations in the Arab countries, to guarantee the security of Muslims and to retract your threats toward the West, to take away from them the terrorism card used by some Western governments to hate Islam and Muslims,"

he said.
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1524980329

Judge upholds Arizona voting law requiring proof of citizenship

A federal judge ruled today that key parts of an Arizona law requiring proof of citizenship to vote are constitutional and don't violate federal or state law.

U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver issued a summary judgment against nine of the plaintiffs' claims,

• including cornerstone c
• omplaints that the law known as
  
• Proposition 200 violates the National Voter Registration Act and constitutes a poll tax.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0829votinglawsuit0830.html

Home Depot employee looking for job after stopping alleged thief

Dustin Chester is job hunting this week, after The Home Depot

fired him and the general manager for thwarting a thief from running away with a pocket full of stolen cash.

Last week, the 24-year-old department manager confronted a man who was standing by a soda machine in front of the Murfreesboro store off Old Fort Parkway holding a crowbar and a wad of cash.
[society cannot survive if the citizenry is turned into hapless sheep]
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070829/NEWS01/70829023

Chinese see [US] military dependence on computers as weakness

Beijing - Diplomatic tension this week over reported Chinese computer attacks on German government networks comes as security experts warn that China is expanding its capacity to wage cyberwar as part of its rapid military buildup. U.S. and other foreign military analysts say that Chinese defense planners have identified the heavy dependence on computers of most modern military forces as a potential weakness that could be exploited in a conflict.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/29/news/cyber.php

Weather Channel Founder: Global Warming ‘Greatest Scam in History’

If the founder of The Weather Channel spoke out strongly against the manmade global warming myth, might media members notice?

John Coleman wrote an article published at ICECAP Wednesday that should certainly garner attention from press members -- assuming journalism hasn't been completely replaced by propagandist activism, that is. Coleman began:

It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create the allusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental activist type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the "research" to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.

Environmental extremists, notable politicians among them, then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild "scientific" scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda. Now their ridiculous manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmental conscientious citizens.

Only one reporter at ABC has been allowed to counter the Global Warming frenzy with one 15 minutes documentary segment.

There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismissal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming.
Related articles:

Harvard Paper Calls Al Gore a Hypocrite

Renowned Environmentalist Calls Biofuels‘Crime Against Humanity’

John Stossel: ‘Don’t Look to Government to Cool Down the Planet’

UN Climate Panel to Discuss Global Warming at Tropical Resort

Global Warming Tutorial Media Should be Required to Watch
Vote for Stephen McIntyre's Climate Audit as Best Science Blog

http://media.newsbusters.org/stories/weather-channel-founder-global-warming-greatest-scam-history.html?q=blogs/noel-sheppard/2007/11/07/weather-channel-founder-global-warming-greatest-scam-history

Japan to commence whaling mission

Japanese whaling ship Nisshin Maru leaves the port of Shimonoseki, south west Japan (file photo)
Environmentalists have clashed with the crew of Nisshin Maru before
Japan has confirmed that it will carry out its largest whaling programme in the

The mission, expected to draw strong protests from environmentalists, will depart on Sunday and breaks a 44-year moratorium on hunting humpback whales.

French strike extended even as it sputters

Paris - France's transport strike eased but did not end Thursday, after President Nicolas Sarkozy accepted negotiations while refusing to budge on his campaign-trail promise that cushy retirement benefits must go. Frustrated commuters, many of whom had to walk, pedal or rollerblade to work, urged Sarkozy to hang tough, saying France needs economic reforms to thrive. Rail and transport workers' unions vowed to press the walkout into a fourth day Friday, as the government sought to trumpet figures showing that support was fading.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21823872/

Small left-side toon with article text

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Long aricle test...

In case any doubt remains as to who deserves the title of undisputed Globaloney Champion of the World, Al Gore's Rolling Stone interview should put the question to rest.

Interviewed in the magazine's third 40th Anniversary Issue of the year, self-proclaimed planet savior Al Gore warns that:
"It is a mistake to think of the Climate Crisis as one in a list of issues that will define our future. It is the issue. Everything else must be viewed through that lense."
That's right -- The issue. Not the all too real, ongoing struggle against radical Islamic madmen. Not nuclear proliferation. Not even the truly apocalyptic potential fusion of the two, a prospect which recent events in Pakistan have chillingly served to advance.

No - the issue, insists Gore, is his completely conjectural Climate Crisis.

As though to support such an absurd declaration, he then offered these keen observations:
"The north polar ice cap is melting, the fires are burning, the sea level is rising, living species are going extinct. These and many other manifestations, including half the U.S. being in drought last year, are visible to the naked eye. We have got to recognize that even though it's never happened before, it is happening right now." [my emphasis]
Now, virtually every claim in his first two sentences is technically truthful. Until, that is, augmented by the catastrophe-implying qualification of the third. And it is just that dishonest inference -- that these occurrences are without precedent -- that exposes the true measure of this man in oh so many ways.

So, with apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, let me count the ways.

Yes, the northern polar ice cap is melting. For the most part, it's been alternately retreating and advancing in reaction to seasonal changes for as long as there have existed seasons. And, while it's true that its dimensions may now be at a record low, Gore somehow failed to mention that the southern polar ice cap recently reached ice levels higher than we've encountered in 30 years. If global warming is alleged, you have to look at the Southern Hemisphere too when talking about polar ice caps.

Nothing new here -- 1 down.

Next up -- fires are burning? Might the Goreacle be alluding to the recent arson, environmental-case-backlash- and Santa Ana wind-induced southern California blazes? Nice try, but wildfires have raged there for hundreds of years. Even the true believers at the LA Times reported that "global warming was not a factor" in the infernos, citing a Science journal study which found that the region suffered "no increase in the frequency of fire as temperatures rose."

Strike 2.

But sea levels are rising, cautions Gore. And that's quite accurate, although not by measures even remotely approaching the map-redrawing 20 feet by the year 2100 he repeatedly portends. Indeed, even his overly hysterical co-awardees at the IPCC have projected a far less catastrophic global mean sea level rise of between 0.09 and 0.88 meters from 1990 to 2100. And once again, it has happened before -- oceans have been ascending at varying rates since the end of the last ice age -- over 10,000 years ago.

That's 0 for 3.

And, what of these alleged extinctions? Are "living species" truly "going extinct," as Al maintains? Of course they are, just as they have throughout history. The cold truth is that The World Conservation Union lists 698 animal species extinctions since 1500 A.D. And, at Peter Maas's Extinction site, he lists 62 extinctions in the 19th century and 86 in the 20th which he attributes primarily to invasive alien species, habitat loss and overexploitation. Implying that this unfortunate yet essential component of natural selection is somehow unprecedented is nothing short of imbecilic. Surely Gore believes in evolution, of which natural selection is the driving force.

Four deeply deceptive assertions in a single sentence certainly do nothing to smooth Gore's reputation for exaggerating. Bu implying in the very next breath that last year's drought was an unparalleled prognosticator of doom verges on incitement to panic.

According to the National Climatic Data Center's U.S. National Percent Area Moderately to Extremely Dry and Moderately to Extremely Wet chart, nascent dryness is far from unprecedented. True - 2000, 2002, and 2006 each had at least one month with over 50% of the country experiencing drought conditions. But the same can be said of 1977, 1981, and 1988. And beginning in 1954 there were 4 such consecutive drought years.

Furthermore, the 1930's were a truly devastating period, enveloped in what the NCDC declares the "most widespread national drought in the last 300 years." For 5 of those years, over 50% of the country was hit, and for 5 months during 1934 that figure climbed to almost 80%. The misery these conditions brought to the Great Plains region -- parched for virtually the entire decade -- made refugees of large numbers of Americans, as chronicled in the classic American tale of dispossessed dust bowl migrants, The Grapes of Wrath.

Ironically, getting reacquainted with Steinbeck's patently pro-socialist masterpiece might afford the alarmist-in-chief a valuable perspective on demagoguery. Casy the Preacher man vowed never to sermonize again until he learned the truth himself: "Preachers gotta know [what they're preaching about]," he confided to Tom Joad, confessing that he did not.

Not a single one of Gore's five examples of what's "happening right now" has, as he persists, "never happened before."

Not one.

So in how many ways does Gore deceive?

Given five deceptions in three sentences in one paragraph in just one interview, who can possibly keep count?

Marc Sheppard is a technology consultant, software engineer, writer, and political and systems analyst. He is a regular contributor to American Thinker and welcomes your feedback.

Network Morning TV Helps '08 Democrats

A Pew Research Center poll released late last month found that faar more American adults could name one of the Democratic presidential candidates than could recall any of the GOP candidates, sighting the fact that the big broadcast networks have treated the Democratic frontrunners like celebrities worthy of intense coverage while the Republican candidates have received far less TV time.
A new Media Research Center study of the ABC, CBS and NBC morning news shows has found that in the first 10 months of 2007, the networks spent significantly more time covering the Democratic race and interviewing Democratic candidates than Republican. And those interviews were much friendlier to the Democrats, with the morning show anchors emphasizing a predominantly liberal agenda...

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/rich-noyes/2007/11/08/mrc-study-network-morning-tv-helps-08-democrats

CA Paper: Want a New Gas Tax? Call it a 'Fee' to Fool Voters

CALIFORNIA
The Contra Costa Times has given us an interesting new angle to fool the voters into voting for a new gasoline tax in an article titled, "Calling gas tax a 'fee' may help at ballot." The CCTimes is advising politicians to call the tax hike a "fee" instead of a tax to fool the voters into accepting it at the ballot box. Throughout this piece is the obvious assumption that the county governments in and around San Francisco are "cash-starved" and that these taxes are needed because it is important that the governments "look for new funding" for roads and to "curb global warming." Not a hint that these governments have wasted the money they are already confiscating from the citizens, nor any investigation why some of the highest taxes in the country have not been able to satisfy the needs there. Instead of an investigation into government mismanagement and waste, the CCTimes is trying to find sneakier ways to steal the taxpayer's income by "semantics" and wordplay.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2007/11/08/ca-paper-want-new-gas-tax-call-it-fee-fool-voters

Nets Lead w/ 'Awful' Economic News, Not So Excited About Job Gains

When the Labor Department reported a net loss of 4,000 jobs for August, the September 7 ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts highlighted the bad news as evidence of an impending recession, but on Friday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced a strong gain of 166,000 jobs during October, double expectations, ABC and CBS gave it a few seconds while NBC ignored the good news entirely. What all three did lede with was how bad a day it was on Wall Street and painting it as a harbinger of impending economic doom. NBC anchor Brian Williams piled on the bad news as he insisted he took “no pleasure” in highlighting it. With “DANGER SIGNS” on screen, Williams announced: “Good evening. The following sounds pretty awful -- and we take no pleasure in reporting it -- but today Wall Street fell, the U.S. dollar fell, GM is in bad shape and the housing market continues to be in big trouble.”...

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2007/11/08/nets-lead-w-awful-economic-news-not-so-excited-about-job-gains

Word-web page cut-paste

Weather Channel Founder: Global Warming ‘Greatest Scam in History’
If the founder of The Weather Channel spoke out strongly against the manmade global warming myth, might media members notice?
John Coleman wrote an article published at ICECAP Wednesday that should certainly garner attention from press members -- assuming journalism hasn't been completely replaced by propagandist activism, that is. Coleman began:
It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create the allusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental activist type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the "research" to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.

Environmental extremists, notable politicians among them, then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild "scientific" scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda. Now their ridiculous manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmental conscientious citizens.

Only one reporter at ABC has been allowed to counter the Global Warming frenzy with one 15 minutes documentary segment.

There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismissal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming.
Related articles:
Harvard Paper Calls Al Gore a Hypocrite
Renowned Environmentalist Calls Biofuels‘Crime Against Humanity’
John Stossel: ‘Don’t Look to Government to Cool Down the Planet’
UN Climate Panel to Discuss Global Warming at Tropical Resort
Global Warming Tutorial Media Should be Required to Watch
Vote for Stephen McIntyre's Climate Audit as Best Science Blog
http://media.newsbusters.org/stories/weather-channel-founder-global-warming-greatest-scam-history.html?q=blogs/noel-sheppard/2007/11/07/weather-channel-founder-global-warming-greatest-scam-history

GOP finds solid ground on Iraq war

RICHMOND, Va. - Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has cut off state funding for abstinence-only sex education programs, making Virginia the 14th state to refuse to support abstinence-only education. As part of a cost-cutting plan, Kaine submitted plans last month to eliminate a $275,000 matching grant for a federal program that provided funds for 14 nonprofit groups that taught abstinence only. (Snip) but the governor wants to see us funding programs that are evidenced-based,"
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1291460

Investors ride cheerful news to 320-point Dow gain

NEW YORK — Wall Street shot higher Tuesday, lifting the Dow Jones industrials nearly 320 points after reassuring news from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. quelled some of the market's worst fears about the credit crisis and the economy. A plunge in the price of oil gave investors further incentive to buy.Goldman Sachs heartened investors with word that it didn't expect a significant hit from the subprime mortgage turmoil.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/5298838.html

What's with the title slot?

[toon insert below]

[toon insert above]

UC weighs raises of 33% for all 10 chancellors
University of California regents are weighing a proposal to increase their top executives' pay by an average of 33 percent over the next four years, beginning with salary hikes this year of between 13 and 17 percent. The plan, which will be discussed in a >closed< committee meeting today, is drawing fire from critics who question the propriety of such increases in a tight budget year for the state. The full Board of Regents is expected to vote on the proposed raises Thursday at their meeting in Los Angeles.
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/487389.html

Breaking News: Lee Hughes doesn't like any of the naming suggestions from SAH

In a case of extreme brevity, Mr. Huges replied to SAH's ongoing efforts to find the perfect nmn-jtg news letter title by respond with the message of

'uck'

No further 'advice' or ideas were forthcoming. SAH was overheard to mention something about good help being hard to find...

State Dept. Bringing 'Worst of America' to Iraq

One of Washington's most prominent lawyers, sent to Iraq to help the fledgling democracy develop its legal and judicial institutions, has charged in a blistering memo to U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker that the State Department and Foreign Service have "brought to Iraq the worst of America — our bureaucrats" and become "an albatross around the neck of the Coalition command."

"The American people would be scandalized to know," Miranda continued, "that, throughout the Winter, Spring and Summer of 2007, even while our Congress debated the Iraq question and whether to commit more troops and more funds, the Embassy [in Baghdad] was largely consumed in successive internal reorganizations with contradictory management and policy goals....The fact that over 80 people sit in Washington, second-guessing and delaying the work of the Embassy, many who have been to Baghdad, is an embarrassment alone."

While lamenting the absence of a central information system that could prevent redundancy in the projects the Embassy undertakes, Miranda also accused Embassy leaders of "intentionally" withholding vital information from the White House, Petraeus, key State Department officials in Washington, allied nations and relevant international organizations.

"The dysfunctional failure to communicate and share information is beyond anything that can be imagined,"

Miranda wrote.

[there's a reason it's called Foggy Bottom]

READ MORE

Strategic Reserves That Go Undrilled
Hillary Clinton wants to tap the U.S. petroleum stockpile to increase supply and lower the price. >> Brazil has found a better way — drill for more.<< And what about that strategic reserve her husband vetoed — ANWR? On the night last week that light sweet crude and home heating oil set records of $98.62 a barrel and $3.11 a gallon on the New York Merc, Mrs. Clinton urged the president .....
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=279763537659333

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