Friday, December 19, 2008
Face of Defense: Double Amputee Marine Wants to Stay in to Help Others
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Matthew Ryan Bradford lost his legs and vision in Iraq. And that, he says, makes him the perfect person to stay in uniform and help other injured Marines. Bradford said he knows he won’t be able to do every job in the Marine Corps, but he hopes to stay in uniform because he believes he has something to offer.
“I want to be a Marine. I don’t want to get out yet,” he said. “I’m trying to stay in so I can go back to Bethesda and work at the hospital in the liaison office so I can talk to the wounded.”The reactions he occasionally gets when he’s out in public bother him, though, he acknowledged. Some thank him, some buy meals for him, and some even apologize for what happened in the course of serving his country.
“I’m like, ‘Don’t be. It could’ve happened to anyone,” Bradford said. “[I have] no regrets. I’d go back if I could, but I can’t see.”
He lost his left eye when a piece of shrapnel went through it and lodged in his brain, and retina damage cost him sight in his right eye.
[you read that right, the blindness was in addition to his amputations. What unit of measurement do we use to describe such character?]
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Local woman organizes 'God packages' for U.S. troops
There’s something going around this season and it’s contagious.
Not to worry. This won’t make you feel “yucky” like the flu or the sniffles. More than likely, it’ll make a person feel good. It’s called gratitude.
And I didn’t realize just how catching it is until I met Jan Sass on our latest KTNW-TV In Steppe show. She’s the founder of U.S. Troop Care Package, a local effort that puts together care packages to show appreciation for deployed military.
It started with one box. Today, thousands of Care Packages are sent to troops in more than 30 countries...
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Typical items found in the care packages that we send to our deployed troops.
Gaza militants up rocket attacks as truce to expire
Gaza City/Tel Aviv - Palestinian militant factions in the Gaza Strip said Wednesday they were unlikely to extend an Egyptian- brokered six-month truce with Israel that expires on Friday. (Snip) Palestinian fighters in the strip fired 15 self-made rockets into southern Israel on Wednesday, in addition to one mortar shell, a military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said, adding they brought the total number launched since Tuesday to 25...
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The Sovereignty Dodge
"We don't think the world's great nations and countries can be held hostage by non-state actors," Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said yesterday. Fair enough. But what is the world to do when those non-state actors operate from the territory of a state and are the creation of that state's intelligence services? [snip]
... but nations should not be able to claim sovereign rights when they cannot control territory from which terrorist attacks are launched...
[moreover, Pakistan's complaining of US drone bombing is particularly hypocritical considering its only been done in regions the Pakistani government itself has labeled the 'ungoverned territories'.]
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Newsweek: Shoe Toss Was 'One Small Measure of Justice'
Newsweek correspondent Michael Hirsh said
"Bush is not going to end up in The Hague obviously, there’s not going to be any charges against him, and so, you know, a shoe shied at him by an Iraqi journalist might be the one small measure of justice that was achieved."
He suggested the Bush era was a time of "mass hallucination" and Obama’s rise put an end to the madness. Hirsh wished Bush good riddance:
"This guy’s about gone, and we can stop pretending that there was any kind of, you know, rational strategic motivation behind this act of war that he committed."
Hirsh said Bush and his team have "blood on their hands," but will never admit they were wrong. Hirsh’s interview was posted on YouTube on Monday
[what bias?]
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Durban II
.
Claudia Rosett wrote a sensible article about the coming Durban-2 summit in Forbes. For those unfamiliar with Durban-1, or the idea of Durban, what we’re talking about here is an infamous 2001 anti-racism-turned-anti-Israel UN conference, soon to be reconvened:
Durban II is not solely a mob move against Israel. It is a dishonor to real heroes of the war on prejudice, such as Martin Luther King. It is an assault on the genuine tolerance of free societies. It is an attempt to commandeer the U.N.–yet again–as a vehicle for the kind of hate that leads to such horrors as the slaughter in Mumbai, or for that matter, Sept. 11.The extent to which the Obama administration will be willing to compromise in order to participate in this dispensable event can serve as an indication from which to learn more about the new team in power. We know very little about the way this man is going to rule, one Israeli official has told me. Durban will give us some early sense of his real priorities.
Among the U.N.’s 192 member states, only two have had the backbone to announce that they will boycott the Durban Review: Canada, and for obvious reasons, Israel. In the U.S., President Bush has deferred any final decision to the next administration.
President-elect Obama, what will you do about Durban II?
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FLASHBACKs:
081208: Coming Soon: UN Racists to convene conference on racism
081112: ‘Apartheid’ Israel, Islamophobia on the Agenda for U.N. Racism Meeting
081007: The Pathology of Durban II
"Boycott Durban II"Obama transition http://www.change.gov/page/s/contact
.
GLOBAL WARMING FREEZE?
The last two years of global cooling have nearly erased 30 years of temperature increase. To the extent that global warming ever existed, it is now officially over, says David Deming, a geophysicist and adjunct scholar with the National Center for Policy Analysis.
In fact, there is worldwide evidence of the end of global warming, says Deming: [multiple multi-year cooling stats, snip]
These cold weather events are not abnormal or isolated incidents; global measures of climatic conditions indicate significant cooling. Moreover, NASA reports that oceans have been cooling for the last five years, sea level has stopped rising and Northern Hemisphere cyclone and hurricane activity is at a 24-year low.
But even though global warming is over, politicians are still trying to enact solutions to a non-existent problem. Instead, we must recognize that weather and climate change are natural processes beyond human control. To argue otherwise is to deny the factual evidence, says Deming.
[it's not about climate but power and money]
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The Plan to Create 'Green' Jobs
Just as the mainstream media are beginning to admit their bias during the election for Obama, the emboldened enviros are finally beginning to admit that the economics behind the green movement are bogus. In a nutshell, Obama says it cost $150 billion to create five million new jobs over the next decade, but the left wing San Franciso based Apollo Group says it will cost over three times as much - $500 billion.
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Cave bears killed by Ice Age
Oslo - Giant cave bears froze to death during the last Ice Age in Europe about 28 000 years ago, according to a study on Wednesday that cleared human hunters of driving them to extinction thousands of years later. The largely vegetarian bears, weighing up to a tonne and bigger than modern polar bears or Kodiak bears, apparently died off as a sharp cooling of the climate led to a freeze that killed off the fruits, nuts and plants they ate.
[cooling is the much larger threat than warming to virtually all life on earth - especially man]
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The Great North American CO2 Sink
[not really readable to most of us humans - it's real science - but thought I'd post as future FLASHBACK when next I reference]
A Large Terrestrial Carbon Sink in North America Implied by Atmospheric and Oceanic Carbon Dioxide Data and Models
S. Fan, M. Gloor, J. Mahlman, S. Pacala, J. Sarmiento, T. Takahashi, P. Tans
Atmospheric carbon dioxide increased at a rate of 2.8 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year1) during 1988 to 1992 (1 Pg = 1015 grams). Given estimates of fossil carbon dioxide emissions, and net oceanic uptake, this implies a global terrestrial uptake of 1.0 to 2.2 Pg C year1. The spatial distribution of the terrestrial carbon dioxide uptake is estimated by means of the observed spatial patterns of the greatly increased atmospheric carbon dioxide data set available from 1988 onward, together with two atmospheric transport models, two estimates of the sea-air flux, and an estimate of the spatial distribution of fossil carbon dioxide emissions. North America is the best constrained continent, with a mean uptake of 1.7 ± 0.5 Pg C year1, mostly south of 51 degrees north. Eurasia-North Africa is relatively weakly constrained, with a mean uptake of 0.1 ± 0.6 Pg C year1. The rest of the world's land surface is poorly constrained, with a mean source of 0.2 ± 0.9 Pg C year1.
S. Fan and J. Sarmiento, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. M. Gloor and S. Pacala, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08542, USA. J. Mahlman, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Princeton University, Post Office Box 308, Princeton, NJ 08542, USA. T. Takahashi, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA. P. Tans, Climate Modeling and Diagnostics Laboratory, NOAA, Boulder, CO 80303, USA.
[point: the US has reforested an average of 1 million acres per year for ~40 years which, due to the order-of-magnitude increased consumption of CO2 by growing trees vs. mature ones (parents: think feeding a teenager) which results in North America 'uptaking' more CO2 than it 'emits' - and is unique in the world in doing so. That's why all UN conversation focuses solely on emissions - as the US's net CO2 contribution is negative. Easily handled: the IPCC's 'recommendations' simply don't count it, or the US would be lecturing the rest of the world instead of the other way around.]
Read the Full Text
Groups line up for share of huge stimulus package
As President-elect Barack Obama and congressional leaders construct a behemoth economic stimulus package, a parade of interest groups is seeking shares of the portion that will go to infrastructure construction projects. The "ready-to-go" project lists are longer than the supplicants' arms and for sums that would have seemed fantastic only months ago, before the depth of the recession became apparent.
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"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."..
California Democrats devise plan to hike taxes
By structuring them as fees, they would skirt GOP opponents and raise $9.3 billion. A court fight looms.
Reporting from Sacramento -- California's Democratic leaders were planning a vote today on a brazen proposal to raise gas, sales and income taxes through a series of legal maneuvers that would bypass the state's Constitutional requirement for a two-thirds vote to increase taxes.
The Democratic gambit, announced Wednesday, would raise $9.3 billion to ease the state's fiscal crisis by increasing sales taxes by three-fourths of a cent and gas taxes by 13 cents a gallon, starting in February. The plan would add a 'surcharge' of 2.5% to everyone's 2009 state income tax bill.
It would also require businesses to withhold taxes on payments above $600 made to independent contractors. Their package would total $18 billion and nearly halve the state's budget shortfall, projected to reach $41.8 billion in the next 18 months. [snip]
Republican legislators and antitax groups promised legal challenges to derail the Democrats' plan."Raising taxes on people and playing funny math and calling it fees is not governing," said Assembly GOP leader Michael Villines of Clovis. "That's trickery, is what that is."
The Democrats intend to do two things: eliminate some existing taxes, including those on gasoline, and substitute 'fee' increases that would include a 9.9% 'levy' on oil extraction and the income tax 'surcharge'. The Democrats will then reimpose the gas 'fees' at higher levels [but at 39 cents a gallon, hence the '13 cent' increase referred to]; fees can be raised with simple majority votes. The net effect would be billions of dollars in new revenue for the state.
Similar proposals have been considered in past budget crises but never acted on out of concern that they would unravel in court."If they proceed with this proposal to raise taxes with a simple majority vote, they will be sued and they will lose,"
[it's illegal, they know it, and they're going to do it anyway so they get the money while it's tied up in the courts. Still think this is a government representitive of the people or based on the rule of law?
If so, you need tell them ... >
CA State Legislature (Asy./Senate) = http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html
and pass on...]
U.S. Capitol Visitor Center Emphasizes Liberal Political Causes
The DC Capitol Visitor Center opened last week three years late and $360 million dollars over budget. The AP reported that James Billington, the librarian of Congress, said the new visitor’s center provides a splendidly presented civics lesson.” [snip]
... The exhibit hall display cases look like they were overrun by liberal interest groups. Environmentalism, healthcare, and public education groups must be pleased to have been deemed as important if not more important than our Constitution’s Bill of Rights... [snip]
S.203 38th Congress, Regarding Yosemite Valley, May 17, 1864
This bill signed into law ... to keep Yoesemite Valley from being ruined by increasing commerce and tourism...
... The Medicare Act of 1965-Gauranteeing Healthcare for the elderly. The president’s uneven signature results from his using multiple pens--gifts to key sponsors of the bill...
The Northwest Ordinance, the nation’s first legislators laid down the principles for public education... Article 3 declared, “…education shall forever be encouraged,” ...
But don't bother looking for the history on the second amendment at the visitor’s center.
South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint has taken up the cause of exposing the “left leaning” displays(h/t salon.com) in the CVC. DeMint’s statement said the following...
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[and then there's the religious component - FLASHBACK:
081209: (God) Bless America
"The center identified "E. Pluribus Unum" (rather than "In God We Trust") as the official national motto.".
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Internet Attacks Are a Real and Growing Problem
A new report says cyberwar isn't science fiction
Last week's Center for Strategic and International Studies report disclosed that the departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security and Commerce all have had intrusions by unknown foreign entities.
The Pentagon's computers are probed "hundreds of thousands of times each day." An official at the State Department says terabytes of its information have been compromised. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security had to go offline for several months. NASA has stopped using email before shuttle launches. Jihadist hackers are trying to confuse military computers into mistaking the identities of friendly and unfriendly forces in Afghanistan and Iraq... [snip]
It's telling that the U.S. doesn't have a publicly stated doctrine on cyber defense that warns enemies and commits to taking action in response. Likening today's issues to the Cold War, the report says there should be clear rules about who will be punished how for what. It's in the nature of cyber attacks that it's hard to know exactly who's responsible, but some response must be made.
"These uncertainties limit the value of deterrence for cybersecurity," the report says. "The deterrent effect of an unknown doctrine is quite limited"
The report has recommendations for the Obama administration, including a new government structure for cyber protection and working more closely with the private sector on security research. The broader point is that it's about time that we knew the extent of the cyberwarring against us. The first step to fighting back is to admit that there's a fight...
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Secret Rocket Balls Target WMD Bunkers
The Pentagon has a new secret weapon to neutralize sites containing chemical or biological weapons: rocket balls. These are hollow spheres, made of rubberized rocket fuel; when ignited, they propel themselves around at random at high speed, bouncing off the walls and breaking through doors, turning the entire building into an inferno. The makers call them "kinetic fireball incendiaries."
The Pentagon doesn't want to talk about them, but published documents show that the fireballs have undergone tests on underground bunkers.
[correction: the Pentagon had a secret weapon]
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'Christmas is the pathway to hell'
A Muslim lawyer has launched an extraordinary rant against Christmas, branding the celebration 'evil'. Hate preacher Anjem Choudary claimed the festival was the 'pathway to hell' and urged his followers to boycott it. 'In the world today many Muslims, especially those residing in Western countries, are exposed to the evil celebration Christmas,'
'The very concept of Christmas contradicts and conflicts with the foundation of Islam.'
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How Canada's Little Mosque on the Prairie is aiming for our souls
Muslim integration in those early years was high (mostly through inter-marriage), and Muslim immigration was a bare minimum. In the 1930s, there were about 700 Muslims throughout Canada. Now, there are over 700,000. The original Al Rashid mosque attendees were never allowed to forget or ignore Canada's foundations and values.
Contemporary Muslims, their large numbers exempting them from assimilating into the dominant society, are not only ignoring these values, but are subtly using mainstream imagery and cultural symbols and trends as a strategy to assimilate Canadians into their Islamic culture.
They have no real attachment to Laura Ingalls' lovely family, the true pioneers and nation-builders of the Midwestern prairies. Instead, they are using her cultural influence surreptitiously as a way to get to the Canadian soul (and soil). And given the international popularity of Little Mosque on the Prairie, the agenda is to do the same world-wide.
REAAD MORE
Ctrl-Alt-Delete
[HT:RB]
"Barack Obama says his presidency is an opportunity for the United States to spread a message of tolerance," the Los Angeles Times reports in "Obama's first newspaper interview since his Nov. 4 election":
"I think we've got a unique opportunity to reboot America's image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular," Obama said Tuesday, promising an "unrelenting" desire to "create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership in countries and with peoples of goodwill who want their citizens and ours to prosper together."
The world, he said, "is ready for that message."
Sorry, what is that message again? He's promising an unrelenting desire to create a relationship with peoples of goodwill? What about peoples of badwill? What about peoples of goodwill who are ruled by corrupt and oppressive governments?
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twofer
.
Iran rejects Obama's carrot-and-stick approach
Iran has rejected a "carrot-and-stick" approach from president-elect Barack Obama that would combine economic incentives and threats of sanctions to try to change Tehran's plans for its nuclear program.
''The carrot-and-stick policy has no benefit,'' Qashqavi told reporters during his weekly press briefing. ''It is unacceptable and failed.''READ MORE
Iran accuses Barack Obama of 'cowboy talk'
Iran's conservative parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani has branded US President-Elect Barack Obama's comments on Tehran's nuclear activities as "cowboy" talk, the ISNA news agency reported. "These comments resemble those of old American cowboys. If you have something to say about (Iran's) nuclear issue, just say so. Why wave a stick," asked Mr Larijani, in a speech in Qazvin province.
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Blind man's guide dog barred from restaurant for offending Muslims
A blind man has been turned away from a fashionable Indian restaurant because his guide dog offended Muslim staff.
Alun Elder-Brown, a recruitment executive, said he was left feeling "like a piece of dirt" after being barred from bringing the animal into Kirthon Restaurant in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on religious grounds.
The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association said the decision was illegal under the Disability Discrimination Act.
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Tampa Mayor Honors Extremism
In April of 2007, Pam Iorio was sworn into office for her second term as Mayor of Tampa Bay, Florida, given the confidence of Tampa’s citizens that she will help protect them from harm. Yet every year for at least the last four years of the six-plus years she has served, Mayor Iorio has honored CAIR, a radical Muslim organization, with a Proclamation naming a day for the group...
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[See:
Jihad Watch: CAIR and terrorism
CAIR: 'Moderate' friends of terror - article by Daniel Pipes
CAIR: Islamists Fooling the Establishment - Middle East Quarterly
CAIR called 'turnstile' for terrorist suspects
CAIR and Terrorism: Blanket Opposition to U.S. Investigations ...
ad infinitum - but I guess if they make political contributions...]
Russia in talks with Iran over sale of anti-aircraft missiles, despite Israeli objections
Earlier this year, Russia said it would not move forward with the transaction. In October, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Russia, where he met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (Snip) in spite of these statements, Israeli officials say Russia and Iran renewed negotiations on the purchase of the missile system several weeks ago. The sources confirmed a report that appeared in the foreign press on the matter two weeks ago.
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Iran raises profile in Latin America
CALABOZO, Venezuela — The foremen bark out instructions in broken Spanish, saying "aqui" and "mas" as they direct crews to lay water pipes and smooth out cement. But on their lunch break, they switch into Farsi — the language of Iran...
Their Iranian company is building thousands of apartments for Venezuela's poor. Iran is also helping to build cars, tractors and bicycles in Venezuela and has opened new embassies in Bolivia and Nicaragua.
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U.S. Hits Alleged Iranian Terror Front
The Bush administration moved Wednesday to clamp down financially on a New York City business suspected of acting as a front company for Iran's Bank Melli, which has been accused of providing support to Iran's nuclear program.
"This scheme to use a front company set up by Bank Melli - a known proliferator - to funnel money from the United States to Iran is yet another example of Iran's duplicity," said Stuart Levey, the Treasury Department's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
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'Iran could attack US with nuclear bomb'
Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Wednesday that if Iran acquires a nuclear weapon, it could try to attack the United States. Barak said the world should press Iran to stop it from building nuclear weapons.
"If it built even a primitive nuclear weapon like the type that destroyed Hiroshima, Iran would not hesitate to load it on a ship, arm it with a detonator operated by GPS and sail it into a vital port on the east coast of North America."Indicating the possibility of a military strike, Barak said,
"We are not taking any option off the table, and we recommend to the world not to take any option off the table, and we mean what we say."[this is where Russia's sale of anti-aircraft systems to Iran is particularly 'helpful'...]
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Scientists Denounce AP For Hysterical Global Warming Article
Scientists from around the world are denouncing an Associated Press article hysterically claiming that global warming is "a ticking time bomb" about to explode, and that we're "running out of time" to do anything about it.
As reported by NewsBusters, Seth Borenstein, the AP's "national science writer," published a piece Sunday entitled "Obama Left With Little Time to Curb Global Warming."
Scientists from all over the world have responded to share their view of this alarmist propaganda:
- How can this guy call himself a "science reporter?"
- He is perhaps the worst propagandist in all the media, and that's stating something.
- In his latest screed, he screams: "global warming is accelerating"
- How then does he explain the fact that the mean global temperature (as measured by satellite) is the same as it was in 1980?
- How can global warming be "accelerating" when the last two years have seen dramatic cooling? Is this guy totally removed from all reality?????
- He completely ignores any evidence contrary to his personal beliefs, and twists everything to meet his preconceived notions.
- How can anyone so ignorant be a reporter for AP? Seriously?
-- David Deming, University of Oklahoma
[the problem is that the AP piece will be repeated thousands of times world wide. The response from the scientific community? This is probably it.
Again, time is not on the alarmists side; they need get legislation on the books before the evidence of their maleficence breaks]
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Meanwhile, Back on Earth
[HT:WT]
Here’s a bailout we should welcome:
Some rich countries are planning a “great escape” - from promises to fight climate change as recession bites and a deadline nears to agree a new treaty, China’s climate ambassador Yu Qingtai told Reuters on Wednesday.
“The only conclusion many people like me are drawing is that countries are preparing for the great escape from Copenhagen,”His comments underlined concerns that U.N.-led climate global negotiations in Poznan, Poland, are treading water as many delegates and observers question agreeing to a comprehensive treaty as planned in Copenhagen next year.
It’s time to stop treading water and get out of the pool altogether. After an endless election season of myth and fantasy, it feels as if we’re finally entering the season of long-awaited truths...
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Opec agrees record oil output cut
The oil producers' cartel Opec has agreed to make a record cut in output, slashing 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) from its current supply. Opec has made two other cuts since September, meaning it has cut a total of 4.2 million bpd in four months. (Snip) Opec said that it hoped the record cut would boost prices but that it had no formal price target...
[if only we had our own oil reserves to develop]
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Another oil firm puts base overseas
The chief executive of Weatherford International said Thursday he and his company headquarters will move from Houston to Switzerland, joining at least two other top Houston oil services executives in seeking closer proximity to emerging oil producing regions overseas.
Halliburton Co. relocated its top executives to a Dubai headquarters in 2007 and offshore driller Transocean has announced plans to move to Geneva.
[while we sit atop the largest known-recoverable reserves on the planet. Why leave the US? Next...> ]
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Energy squad to wean US off oil 'addiction'
Washington - Barack Obama intends to round out his environmental and natural resources team with three former Environmental Protection Agency officials from the Clinton administration. The president-elect's energy policy team will be responsible for implementing a far-reaching plan to wean the US off oil and bolster the economy by increasing energy efficiency and building renewable energy plants. [anyone believe that last bit about 'bolstering' the economy?]
[energy policy - from environmental protection advocates]
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Biodiesal tax break fackfires
Federal subsidies to the U.S. biodiesel industry were supposed to help wean the nation from foreign oil, and a new law in 2009 will bolster the effort, but the money has fueled a controversial side business. Domestic producers of the renewable fuel have been selling huge quantities of biodiesel in Europe and in other foreign markets, where prices are often better, and then receiving a $1-per-gallon tax credit from Uncle Sam...
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Who's Losing the U.S. Car Business?
Right after the UAW vetoed a compromise, bankruptcy-lite, Detroit-little-three rescue plan put together by Tennessee Republican Bob Corker, UAW president Ron Gettelfinger played the blame game by blasting Corker and the Republican party for “singling out” union workers to shoulder the burden of reviving the U.S. car business.
In truth, the UAW is to blame. [snip]
All Corker asked was a 2009 date for union pay restructuring. Sen. Corker never specified his date. He asked the UAW to name its date for a new pay package. But it had to be in 2009. In return, union members would get a lot of stock in this deal -- up to $10.5 billion of new equity as GM’s heavy debt burden would be converted into common shares.
But the UAW refused to make concessions. Instead, it insisted it would only renegotiate its current contract when it ends in 2011. That was the sticking point that killed the deal.
You have to ask this question: If the Detroit carmakers are in dire straits, going broke in two weeks, right now in late 2008, how can the UAW wait until 2011 to make its concessions?
[A: scream that the world will end, rely on the old media to dupe TV watchers into believing that fallacy, and wait for Bush to cave.
Worked like a charm.]
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MEDIA MISTAKES ON DETROIT'S DIVE
Take this line from David Leonhart's article on Page One of Wednesday's New York Times:
"The real problem is many people don't want to buy the cars that Detroit makes."
Fact: For the past several years, GM sold one out of every four cars bought in America. Add the rest of Detroit, and it's close to one out of every two. Last I counted, that's a lot of people.
Then there's Times columnist Tom Friedman - who referred to GM as terrorists for marketing a campaign that provided gas relief and praising "green" Toyota.
Fact: Auto insiders know that Toyota's pose as "the green car company" is a brilliant marketing ploy - and deflected attention away from Toyota's own bid to get a bigger share of the highly profitable "truck" market with the launch of the eight-cylinder Tundra. Yet Friedman failed to even mention Toyota's gas-guzzling trucks... [snip]
The truth is, most Americans don't want to drive a Prius - especially not Americans with large families and lots to transport. And, while they want cars and trucks that are more fuel-efficient, they also want ones that are functional and safe - and the answer isn't just "hybrids, hybrids, hybrids,"
[which is why the Ford F-150 continues to be Ford's sales leader to this day. The cars are fine - quality wise and particularly design wise as the Big 3 are better a making the bigger vehicles most Americans (away from the coasts) want. I.e., it's not the cars...
It's the unions, period. Last year Toyota and GM both sold 9.3 Millions vehicles in the US (a bad year, it's usually double that). Toyota made ~17 billion doing it, GM lost 38 billion doing it. You figure it out.]
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PROGRESSIVE' POLICIES WOULD CAUSE ECONOMIC REGRESSION
The governmental takeovers of the banking and auto industries have raised important questions concerning the future course of our country. Should America become a Europeanized sort of a nanny state in which the government manages our industries, their boards of directors, their products and their finances?
It shouldn't, but it is clear that the incoming administration believes strongly in governmental control of a great many parts of our economy:
- During the campaign, Barack Obama called for a 10 percent to 12 percent annual increase in government spending, on top of our current congressional spending surge.
- According to USA Today, this "is increasing the federal share of the nation's economic activity close to $1 out of every $4, the highest level since World War II," and will give us "a budget deficit headed towards a record $1 trillion."
- Government run health care: a federal statute regulating the price, content and supervision of health care, and a government council to significantly regulate the content and cost of health care policies.
- Downsizing of trade: trade creates jobs -- some five million Americans work for overseas companies; the export of American products support some six million domestic jobs, the export of services another five million, and U.S. trade as a share of gross domestic product reached 29 percent in 2007.
- From his previously stated opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement, to his dislike of other regional trade agreements, Obama's intentions will clearly shrink our economy to the degree he acts on them.
In short, bigger and more intrusive government is rolling down the tracks toward us, says du Pont. Taxes will be higher, government spending will be larger, and matters from automobile manufacturing to health care and trade will be Europeanized. The government will be in charge.
[OR - we could inform our representatives that these things will not transpire - ready? Silence will be taken as consent...]
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WHAT CAN A HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNT DO FOR YOU?
Health savings accounts (HSAs) were introduced in 2004 and allow individuals to pay for medical services upfront through funds they deposit tax-free into a personal account. A required insurance policy then kicks in for catastrophic expenses. Any unused funds build up from year-to-year and collect interest in the process. [snip]
"Put simply, no other account has the tax advantages that HSAs do," "Throughout the life of an HSA its owners can withdraw funds for medical care tax-free. Because of this, taxpayers should consider fully funding their HSAs first, before other types of retirement accounts."
"With health care costs continuing to outpace wage increases and companies trimming retiree health benefits," said Fidelity Executive Vice President Brad Kimler in a recent release, "financing health care has to be central to retirement planning."
The beauty of HSAs is that they can be used to pay Medicare premiums, out-of-pocket expenses, long-term care insurance premiums, and many long-term care expenses, say researchers. Even better, HSAs can do all of this tax-free.
However, if you don't end up incurring these types of expenses, you can still use your HSA funds for other purposes and pay only regular income tax on your withdrawals after age 65.
[this is how we allow our children to avoid the coming bankruptcy re: medicare, and (finally) begin reducing the run away costs of medical treatment by spending our own money {the missing component that's allowed this asinine situation to grow in the first place}]
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Marking in red pen 'can damage students'
Teachers who mark work in red pen could be inflicting psychological damage on their students, according to new guidelines. Australian educators are being urged to correct homework in less aggressive colours like green and blue, in an attempt to improve mental health in the classroom.
[ok, UK needs vouchers as bad as we do]
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HOME SWEET HOME SCHOOL
The National Center for Education Statistics estimates that from 1999 to 2003 the number of home-schooled children increased from around 850,000 to roughly 2.5 million, a 29 percent jump in four years.
Some states keep their own figures: Virginia had 3,816 registered home schoolers in 1990; by 2007 the number had grown to 20,694; Maryland saw similar growth, from 2,296 in 1990 to 24,227 in 2006.
Survey research has revealed a heterogeneous population of home schoolers and higher rates of minority home schooling than expected, with the Black homeschool movement growing at a faster rate than the general homeschool population.
"Families are running out of options," says Jennifer James, National African-American Homeschoolers Alliance. "There's this persistent achievement gap, and a lot of black children are doing so poorly in traditional schools that parents are looking for alternatives."
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History twofer...
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They Won't Give Him Credit
From the beginning of his administration, President Bush has pushed for more aid to Africa. The president has pressed for greater aid to Africa across the board. The original PEPFAR legislation (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), which passed in 2003, was the largest single health investment by any government ever ($15 billion).
At the time the initiative was launched, only about 50,000 sub-Saharan Africans were receiving antiretroviral treatment for AIDS. Today, 1.7 million people in the region are receiving such treatment.
In July of this year, the president requested that funding for PEPFAR be doubled to $30 billion. The new funding will be used to train 140,000 new health care workers. It would also address other illnesses, like tuberculosis, that often complicate AIDS. [snip]
But for the beautiful people in America -- the Hollywood and university types, the book and magazine publishers, and of course, the major media -- have shown complete indifference to George W. Bush's dedication to a cause they purport to value. In fact, they've pointedly ignored it...
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WaPo Recycles Myth of Reagan Inaction on AIDS
On the front page of Tuesday’s Washington Post, reporter Anne Hull recalled the devastating trail of the AIDS epidemic as marked by the moving of the D.C.-based Whitman-Walker AIDS clinic. But deep in the piece, in the 35th paragraph, Hull unearthed an old anti-Reagan myth:
Several blocks from the clinic was the White House, where President Ronald Reagan had barely uttered the word "AIDS" in his eight years in office. In 1989, the Centers for Disease Control reported 22,082 deaths from AIDS.
The real Reagan record on AIDS is different. AIDS funding skyrocketed in the 1980s, almost doubling each year from 1983 – when the media started blaring headlines – from $44 million to $103 million, $205 million, $508 million, $922 million, and then $1.6 billion in 1988. Reagan’s secretary of Health and Human Services in 1983, Margaret Heckler, declared AIDS her department’s "number one priority."READ MORE
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Putting the Boot In: NYT's Front-Page Mockery of Bush
.
The New York Times and the rest of the media can't get enough of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, with a front-page story calling the potentially dangerous action a "defiant act" and a "mythic moment" and commenting on shoe-hurling Muntader al-Zaidi's "hero status" in the Arab world.
The Times's editorial board blog joined in on the irresponsible fun with a lame headline, "If the (Thrown) Shoe Fits...." [snip]
Yet the Times, casting its own rhetorical shoe in its eagerness to draw a picture of Bush's unpopularity and the "glee" felt in the Arab world, sailed right by an idea raised by columnist Ralph Peters in the New York Post; THE SHOE 'NUF TRUTH - AN IRAQI FREEDOM MILESTONE:
"Bush won. Even if shoe-thrower Muntadar al-Zaidi (who works for an Egypt -based media outfit) walks out in his stocking feet and becomes a hero to dead-enders, he unwittingly showed what a great thing has been accomplished in Iraq.READ MORE
"Other than Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, what Arab head of government holds free-wheeling press conferences? President" Mubarak of Egypt? Assad of Syria? The Saudi king? Qaddafi? If an Arab reporter had "shoed" any other leading Arab ruler during one of their staged events, he would've been fortunate to escape with his life."
Newsweek Still Dancing for Joy Over Anti-Bush Shoe-throwing Incident
Yesterday, Newsweek's daily Conventional Wisdom feature assigned a down-arrow to President Bush over Sunday's now-infamous shoe-throwing incident,
Today Newsweek continued to try to milk the incident for maximum Bush-bashing potential by assigning an up-arrow - to al-Zaidi:
Shoe-thrower: Iraqis rally to support Bush's assailant, Libyan first daughter awards him a medal.
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Face of Defense: Refugee Becomes Marine to Repay Debt to Nation
When Bosnia erupted into civil war in the early 1990s, Buzaljko’s mixed Muslim-Catholic family’s life in Stolac was shattered. The Croatian military placed his father and uncle into a concentration camp, leaving his mother alone to care for Buzaljko and his baby brother [snip]
Despite the hardships Buzaljko’s family endured to leave their war-torn home, they remain supportive of their son and his service to their new country.“I am very proud; you can’t even imagine,” his mother, Vesna Buzaljko, said. “He joined to say ‘thank you’ to the [United States] for welcoming us with open arms. It was a tough time when we left, but America took us in and saved our family. Now he has a purpose to help others like we were helped when we needed it, and we are so proud.”
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A Christmas Letter From the Front Lines in Iraq
There's no better feeling for American military personnel in faraway lands than the one they get when they receive letters from loved ones. But this is close competition. It's an "insider" letter to you, me and all Americans from a senior officer in our armed forces on the front lines in Mosul -- his third tour in Iraq.
... This aforementioned success was obviously not something that happened overnight. This success is the result of many man-hours and sacrifices made by not only our coalition force soldiers but also all Iraqi security forces. We have spent countless hours helping them and have developed relationships with not only the ISF leaders but also the local leaders and civilians. They have our trust and know that the ISF will prevail in the overall mission, even after coalition forces pull out of Iraq.
This success is what I wish that everyone could see. It is not nearly as enticing as violence, which leads in the media, but it is the real story here in Iraq. I just hope that you spread the word of what the real story is here in Iraq, and that is that the Iraqi army and police are doing a tremendous job, and it is not without the hard work and dedication of our soldiers. Our soldiers are dedicated to the mission and their duty. They understand that the harder they work now the more likely they will not have to come back to Iraq in years to come...
God bless you, Capt. Bowers, and all who serve this Christmas season!
[there more - Recommended >]
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[then, our turn...]
Dear Patriotic American,
Thousands of our financially struggling wounded troops will have to make an agonizing decision this Christmas: Should I pay for groceries and utilities OR provide my children with presents from Santa Claus?I don't want our disabled heroes to have to make that choice, and I know you don't either. That's why the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes has just kicked off its 4th annual Emergency Secret Santa Project.
Brigadier Gen. Arthur F. "Chip" Diehl III
U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Please click here to make your tax-deductible donation, which will help provide a $500 Christmas gift check to a disabled serviceman or woman.
And click here to send a Christmas THANK YOU and GET WELL card to a severely wounded young Marine
[and as always, strength in numbers: please pass on...]
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CBS: Gitmo Ruling ‘A Big Legal Setback for the President's War on Terror’
At the top of Thursday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric referred to a recent court ruling to release five Guantanamo Bay detainees as: "A big legal setback for the president's war on terror."
Couric later introduced a report on the ruling and reiterated the idea of the ruling being a defeat solely for President Bush: "...a federal judge ruled today that five suspects held at Guantanamo Bay must be released...it's a major defeat for the Bush administration in its final days."
In the report, correspondent Wyatt Andrews described how: "...the ruling starts a nightmare for the Pentagon. The military now faces an oncoming rush of 200 Guantanamo appeals, not to mention an incoming president who wants to close the camp altogether."
One wonders if CBS will be using the phrase "president’s war on terror" with President Obama...
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Gitmo Lawyers Are the Latest in Radical Chic
How about some pro bono work for the government?
Within the ranks of our leading law schools, law firms and legal centers, it would be hard to find a cause more popular than the detainees of Guantanamo Bay. Every lawyer wants his own detainee or detainee group. The result is that dozens of the world's most dangerous men now have their own legal Dream Teams.
In this context, wouldn't it be refreshing to hear the dean of some Ivy League law school, or a partner in a white-shoe law firm, stand up and say these words: "As part of our pro bono commitments, we hereby offer our services to the overworked men and women trying to keep our nation safe from terrorist attack."
You can imagine the reaction. Back in 2007, we had a taste when a Defense Department official suggested that corporate America might look askance at the high-priced law firms devoting their time and talents to those held at Gitmo. In accord with long-established Beltway rituals of public penance, this official soon published "An Apology to Detainees' Attorneys" in the Washington Post -- and soon after resigned.
[what do you call 200 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?
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a good start.]
'Iran rocket arsenal tripled in 2008'
In a sign that Iran is taking military measures to ward off the threat of an attack on its nuclear facilities, the country has tripled the number of long-range rockets in its arsenal, Channel 10 reported on Monday.
According to the report, Iran possessed 30 Shihab-3 missiles at the beginning of 2008. Currently, the country claims to have over 100 over long-range missiles capable of hitting Israel.
[so how are those China-Russia-vetoed UN sanctions working? {tic-tok, tic-tok...}]
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Iran's growing influence at the UN
[HT:GP]
The Obama administration has promised to give the United Nations a far bigger role in American policy, Claudia Rosett reminds us in her superb new column in Forbes magazine.
We can see this from campaign statements he has made, his lineup of foreign policy advisers, his article in Foreign Affairs magazine (America needs to "rededicate itself to the United Nations"), his Global Poverty Act that would lead to higher taxes on Americans to feed UN programs, his elevation of the US Ambassador to the United Nations to be a Cabinet position, and myriad of other steps he intends to take when he assumes office.
Rossett lays out the perils of becoming to intertwined with the United Nations. Iran has all but infiltrated the UN; its emissaries occupy key roles in a raft of subgroups within the UN. The Iranians will be able to exert outsized influence on what the UN agenda is, how money is spent, and what actions will be taken. America gives the United Nations over 20 billion dollars a year (Iran's contribution is paltry) and Iran will play an important role in how our money is spent.
Rossett's recommendation: try to kick Iran out of the United Nations or bypass the organization entirely when American interests are at stake. She provides the details...
[Highly Recommended {good shooting GP} > ]
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The EU-constitution & Lisbon Treaty
[meanwhile, at the other one-world-government...]
Under EU laws, if one of its member states rejects a treaty, the EU is mandated to scrap the bill. But the European Union's contempt for direct democracy is likely to lead them to ignore the Irish referendum and pursue the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty anyway - underscoring the fact that the EU is nothing more than an illegitimate autocracy of manufactured consent.
75% of people in the EU want a referendum on any new treaty which gives more powers to the EU. In the UK, 83% would want a vote to be held. A majority in all 27 countries would want a referendum."If a new treaty is drawn up which gives more powers to the EU do you think that people should be given a say on this in a referendum or citizen consultation or do you think that it should just be up to the national parliament to ratify this treaty? "
Across the EU as a whole, 28% think the EU should have more powers than it has now and that more decisions should be taken at the European level. 23% think the EU should keep the powers it has now, but should not be given any more. 41% think the EU should have less powers than it has now and that more decisions should be taken at a national or local level. In the UK the equivalent figures were 11%, 27%, and 58% - a clear majority for taking powers back. [snip]
"If the Eurocrats continue to ignore the will of the people
as expressed in the NO-votes in three referenda in a row,
the EU looses all legitimacy and eurocrats therby underscore
that the EU is nothing more than an illegitimate
autocracy of manufactured consent."
as expressed in the NO-votes in three referenda in a row,
the EU looses all legitimacy and eurocrats therby underscore
that the EU is nothing more than an illegitimate
autocracy of manufactured consent."
[How 'manufactured'? Simple-summary: The people don't want an EU constitution, so, call it a 'treaty' instead which moves its acceptance into the realm of bureaucrats, then load up said treaty with employment-for-life provisions for those same bureaucrats and voila: 'governments' vote for it in direct opposition to the will of their constituents.
Actually not much different from our so-called 'representatives', except in scope: passage of this 'treaty' will permanently strip Europeans of self determined government.
Object lesson: You'd think there would be rioting in the streets - but their dependence on their governments for their social programs have stripped them of all independence, and so the loss of liberty marches forward...]
Good luck cousins, and pay attention Americans - this is how government tyrannies start: 'for our own good' ]
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Ice Skating Down the Bayou
The President-elect is unable to join the 11,000 politicians, business big-wigs, and environmentalists meeting in Poznan, Poland right now for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). But at least some politicians in the southern states are free to catch up on the proceedings via TV, radio, and Internet - seeing as government offices in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi have been closed due to crippling snowstorms.
The snow is expected to reach about 8 inches later in the day, which should be right around the time some statesman in Poznan gets behind a podium to decry America’s indifference to the earth’s certain infernal demise. Oops, that happened already:
“We are looking to the United States to step out of the dark ages of inaction and become a leading light on climate change,” said Apilsai Ielemia, the prime minister of Tuvalu, a small island-state.
“For years, people have been saying that the United States of America has to lead. They soon will,” said President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana.
Sure - as soon as we dig ourselves out from under the Dixie blizzard. I know, I know: Extreme winters are a sign of “climate change.” Except mild winters are also a sign of climate change. Whatever truth there is to global warming, it isn’t inconvenient. It’s the most easily adaptable “crisis” ever discovered.
Not only is it supported by the only scientific theory to be confirmed by contradictory data, but its adherents don’t have to worry about defending themselves, because as Barack Obama recently said, “The science is beyond dispute.” And the solution fits into a wildly popular pre-existing paradigm: blame America, then ask it for things...
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Realizing Reality
In Europe, the financial turmoil has broken the stride of the EU’s lockstep approach to climate issues. Those with greater economic vulnerability — Italy, Poland, and much of Eastern Europe — refuse to accept a new climate deal, crafted by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, on the grounds that it will further damage their already fragile economies. German Chancellor Angela Merkel seeks exemptions for her country’s heavy industries. Italian environment minister Stefania Presciagiacomo pooh-poohs the idea that “green jobs” will transform advanced economies, scoffing, “Some people claim environmental measures are a way to re-launch industry. But let’s be realistic: Resources are limited, and they will be even more so because of the economic crisis.”
Meanwhile, developing countries remain adamant that they will not accept any new limits on their emissions in Kyoto II. This is a fact of no little salience, given that China is today the world’s No. 1 emitter of greenhouse gases, followed by the United States, Indonesia, and India.
(It’s worth keeping in mind what the U.S. gives the world along with those emissions: the United States is the best performer by a very wide margin, producing $2,000 in economic value per ton of greenhouse emissions to China’s $450, India’s $497, and Indonesia’s $679. A ton of emissions from the United States brings the world 4.5 times as much economic good as a ton of emissions from China.) [and that not factoring the North American CO2 Sink which literally absorbs emissions to below zero {.2%} - but the UN 'doesn't count' that][snip]
For eight years, the United States has been the object of criticism, harsh and unfair, for its unwillingness to be afflicted with sweeping emissions limits and the punitive economic consequences that will go along with them. And now, the very same international parties that censured the United States for looking to its own interests have themselves become the agents of delay...
[ Recommended > ]
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Majority of Public Opposes Auto Rescue
Most Americans continue to oppose a government-backed rescue plan for Detroit's Big Three automakers as majorities blame the industry for its own problems and are unconvinced failure would hurt the economy, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. [snip]
Opposition to the automaker bailout is fueled by the widespread perception that the companies themselves are responsible for their predicament, not the faltering economy. In the new poll, three-quarters of Americans said Detroit's woes are mainly the fault of its own management decisions, and a sizable majority of those who blame the front office object to government help. [snip]
Union households are no more apt than those without a union member to favor the plan, 44 percent compared with 42 percent. However, the union householders who support the plan are more likely to be strongly behind the bailout.
[that's it: 13 paragraph article that makes repeated references to management failures - but the above three 'unions' are the only references to unions - and "UAW" isn't mentioned once.
our 'professional' media]
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[NNBrief FLASHBACKs:
081216: UAW Gave $1 Million+ to Pro-Bailout Congressmen; Media Focus on Anti-Bailout Interests"It's the unions that have brought them to the brink. So definitely, I think the reason they want a political solution and a car czar is because a car czar can protect the unions through this whole process at the expense of the taxpayer."
081117: AP's Auto Bailout coverage journalistically negligent"The Big 3 has a cancer that needs to be removed. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why they cannot compete profitability (sic). They have parity on supply costs, materials, and energy with Honda and Toyota. So why can’t they compete? It is clearly the cost of unions."
080612: CBS Blames Gas Prices In GM Closures, Disregards Expensive Union Labor"But Bowers omitted one detail: GM (NYSE:GM), Ford (NYSE:F) and Chrysler all have ties to the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, which forces those manufacturers into collective bargaining agreements with very expensive labor costs."
more...]
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