Monday, June 30, 2008
Brave New World?
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But 2008 will also prove in part to be a decisive political contest between the Old America and the New America. Between the thing we were, and the thing we have been becoming for 40 years or so. (I'm not referring here to age. Some young Americans have Old America heads and souls; some old people are all for the New.)
Mr. McCain is the Old America, of course; Mr. Obama the New.
* * *
Roughly, broadly [select few]:
In the Old America, love of country was natural. You breathed it in. You either loved it or knew you should.
In the New America, love of country is a decision. It's one you make after weighing the pros and cons. What you breathe in is skepticism and a heightened appreciation of the global view.
Old America: Tradition is a guide in human affairs. New America: Tradition is a challenge, a barrier, or a lovely antique.
The Old: Smoke 'em if you got 'em. The New: I'll sue. [snip]
I weigh this in favor of the Old America. Hard not to, for I remember it, and its sterling virtues. Maybe if you are 25 years old, your sense of the Old and New is different. Fair enough. As to its implications for the race, we'll see.
America is always looking forward, not back, it is always in search of the fresh and leaving the tried. That's how we started: We left tired old Europe and came to the new place, we settled the east and pushed West to the new place. We like new. It's in our genes. Hope we know where we're going, though.
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Iraqi Army, Coalition Troops Provide Medical Care at School
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More than 200 adults and 80 children received medical care June 21 during a combined medical engagement at the Al Herea School in Farisiyah, Iraq.
“It always puts a smile on my face to see people in need receive proper care,” said Army Staff Sgt. Luke Henry, “I believe these combined medical engagements are what we need to keep doing, because it’s these children that we treat who will remember us when they’re older and in a position to make decisions.”
In addition to the medical care, the Iraqi medics provided preventive medical classes on the importance of washing hands, boiling water and personal hygiene. [snip]
Members of the civil affairs team from Forward Operating Base Iskan also handed out Beanie Babies to children and distributed more than 500 humanitarian aid packages to families.
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Progress in Asia in GWOT
.[HT:MD]
The most dangerous terrorist networks in Southeast Asia are on the run thanks to multinational cooperation, good police work, good intelligence, and well executed military operations:
Three years after the region's last major strike - the attacks on three restaurants in Bali that killed three suicide bombers and 19 other people - American and Asian intelligence analysts say financial and logistical support from Al Qaeda to other groups in the region has long dried up, and the most lethal are scrambling for survival. [snip]
It isn't necessarily a question of "military first" or last or when military action is appropriate. It is the willingness to use it against well armed networks that makes the difference. The school of thought that eschews the military as an anti-terrorist organization generally doesn't advocate attacking terrorists in their camps.
There's a long way to go yet. There have been Muslim guerillas in the Phillipines for a hundred years so they are not going away anytime soon. And Indonesia still must deal with a revolt that threatens its stability. But progress is progress. And considering where we were just a few short years ago, what progress has been made has been remarkable.
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US military shoots down separating missile in test
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Kapaa, Hawaii -- The military's ground-based missile defense system destroyed a missile launched from an airplane in the first successful test of the system's ability to destroy a warhead that separates from its booster, the Missile Defense Agency said. The interceptor missile launched off Kauai on Wednesday had to differentiate between the warhead and the body of the missile before destroying the warhead above the Pacific Ocean...
['waste of time', 'waste of money', 'like hitting a bullit with a bullit', 'it can't be done'.
Wrong again. The steps to success: 1) Try...]
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Rocket hits Israel, second violation of Gaza truce
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Jerusalem - Gaza militants fired two rockets into southern Israel on Thursday, further straining a shaky, week-old truce as Israel kept Gaza border crossings closed in response.
Palestinians charged that the continued closure of crossings violated terms of the cease-fire...
[typical]
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Russia's New World Order
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Traveling to Berlin early this month on one of his first trips as president, Medvedev stressed the need for "a new world order."
Leaders call for the founding of a new world order only when they are convinced that their nation will dominate it. [snip]
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a June 20 speech and a follow-up conversation I had with him here, outlined an ambitious agenda of change in a new era of "multipolar cooperation . . . and collective leadership" in international affairs.
A "new world order" cannot be based on "an Anglo-Saxon pattern that some have tried to establish for the rest of the world," Lavrov said. It would involve doing away with "the Cold War architecture for the security of Europe."
He proposed a European Security Conference to bring together the United States, Russia, the European Union and other regional organizations, such as NATO, to establish new controls on armies and alliances in the "Euro-Atlantic space." [snip]
But it does reflect a realization by Russian leaders that they are now seen by the rest of the world as a "veto power" to NATO... [snip]
[How did Russia get so influential?] Energy exports have earned Russia massive foreign reserves, and it is now intending an effort to bring other natural gas exporters into an international cartel similar to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Venezuela and Iran are also said to be pushing the cartel idea for an October unveiling...
[Europe will fold. Our energy insanity is handing influence to our enemies the world over.]
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"What will it take for Congress to enact comprehensive energy policy that includes increased domestic production of oil and gas, renewable and alternative energy, and conservation? It seems to us outside of the Capitol Beltway that virtually every effort to accomplish this is met with criticism and failure. In my opinion, the debate about energy policy is no longer theoretical and abstract. Our failure to enact an energy policy is having real consequences for every American in their daily lives and has begun to affect America's place in the world."
Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK), Writing to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in Support of ANWR and Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil Exploration and Development.
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State renews 'climate battle'
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California's next great experiment [in fleecing the public] starts today.
The state Air Resources Board will outline this morning a plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2020 and prepare the state for much deeper cuts in the years beyond.
The bottom line for consumers, according to the agency's analysis: Electricity and fuel prices will rise.
The cuts to climate-warming emissions are required under Assembly Bill 32, a state law passed in 2006 that committed California to the nation's most aggressive global warming strategy.
Industry groups say the plan will dramatically drive up the cost of doing business. [snip]
To get the last 20 percent of the emissions cuts, the board has called for the creation of a market that would put a price on the right to produce greenhouse gases.
The "cap and trade" system, set to begin in 2012, would allow firms to buy and sell emissions permits. The state would control the volume of permits available, and ratchet down the supply over time.
Industry groups argue the permits amount to a heavy tax that will hurt businesses and increase prices for consumers.
[the scam begins. What could we possibly do between now and 2012 - 4 years - to forestall this scam? We could elect non-Democrats...]
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HOW ABOUT A CAP-AND-TRADE DIVIDEND?
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... the real action on climate control commences on Jan. 20, 2009, when a new administration takes over. Both Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain are on record in favor of cap and trade; the main difference between their proposals is how the carbon permits would be allocated:
- McCain's proposal would initially give out most of the permits for free to the nation's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases; however, he has not completely ruled out a carbon auction.
- Obama has proposed allocating the permits through an auction; every company -- large or small -- would have to buy the rights to emit greenhouse gases.
- If the carbon auction yields $150 billion in the first year, for example, each of America's 150 million adult citizens should receive a Treasury check that year of $1,000.
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GENEROUS TO A FAULT
California
How can cities escape the crushing burden of overly-generous benefits packages for city workers and retirees? Declare bankruptcy...
Vallejo, a mid-sized California city home to nearly 120,000 people, can no longer afford the jaw-dropping salaries it has provided city workers. For example:
• Last year, 292 out of 411 Vallejo employees were paid more than $100,000.
• Vallejo's city manager earns nearly $317,000, more than even Vice President Cheney.
• A police captain earns $306,000 a year in pay and benefits (six times what the average Vallejo schoolteacher earns).
• A police lieutenant earns $240,146 a year.
• The average firefighter earns $171,000 a year.
• When public safety workers retire after age 50, they receive 90 percent of their top salary.
• Wages and benefits swallowed more than 75 percent of what was available in the city's general fund in 2007.
• Vallejo is currently facing a daunting deficit of nearly $17 million dollars.
Experts agree that other state and local governments may face a similar predicament in the future. Judging from the ominous mix of mounting costs for energy and food; declining property-tax and sales revenue, and astoundingly generous pension and health-care commitments to public workers.
[of course, they're all unionized]
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Inaction in boy's killing called justified
The town of Turlock and much of the rest of the nation was shocked when a 27-year-old man beat and stomped his 2-year-old son to death on a rural road. But what was nearly as stunning for many people was that none of the motorists and their passengers who stopped and saw the attack tried to tackle the man.
Police officers and psychologists familiar with violent emergencies, however, said they weren't surprised at all.
A volunteer firefighter and at least five others saw Sergio Casian Aguiar assaulting his son Saturday night on the road west of Turlock (Stanislaus County), but it wasn't until a police officer arrived in a helicopter that the attack finally ended.
Bystanders are justifiably scared and confused in such situations, the experts said Wednesday, and they lack the experience needed to respond with force...
[utter bullshit. this moral vacuum is a consequence of the government {like the moronic 'experts' above} telling us for so long that it's to take care us us and that we're helpless without 'professionals' that some people have come to believe it.
You don't wait, you run over there and do what you can. It's scary, you may get hurt. You accept that risk to minimize the harm being done a child. Any man that doesn't, isn't, period. You don't 'need' any experience to respond with force, you need courage.
we're becoming a nation of sheep]
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'I decided to die like a man',
says tycoon who took on 'armed gang who threatened to kill his daughter'
Armed gang learns; Don't mess with Dad
A millionaire yesterday told how he fought off three armed burglars who were holding a knife to his daughter's throat, saying he "would rather die like a man than a dog". Bernard Dwyer, 51, was convinced he and his family were about to be killed so he chose to take on the men - hours after they had allegedly killed a restaurant owner, a court heard.
[from January, but Recommended - one of those 'wow' stories > READ MORE ]
State offers free replacements for ''WTF'' license plates
Raleigh - Thanks to some text message-savvy grandchildren, North Carolina drivers whose license plates have the potentially offensive ''WTF'' letter combination can replace the tags for free. The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Tuesday the state Division of Motor Vehicles has notified nearly 10,000 holders of license plates with the letter combination. Officials learned last year the common acronym stands for a vulgar phrase in e-mail and cell phone text messages.
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Friday, June 27, 2008
Global Tax Bill Coming Soon
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The Global Poverty Act of 2007 (S.2433) is coming up for a Senate vote sometime after the July 4 recess, according the office of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Once Harry Reid and the Democrat leadership put it on the calendar, we could have as little as a week to prepare for the vote.
If passed, it will cost taxpayers $845,000,000,000 over the next 13 years, in addition to our current foreign aid expenditures.
And the best part is that it will be administered in conjunction with...brace yourselves...the United Nations. The same one of "Food-for-Oil" fame.
Here's an abstract of the proposed legislation:
"To require the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination [?] of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day."The House passed it (H.R. 1302) earlier this year by a unanimous voice vote.
It's about global income redistribution. Their distribution - our income.
Heard much debate about it? The bill is sponsored in the Senate by Barack Obama. Read about it here.
[heaven forbid the media inform us of it before it's passed into law]
READ MORE , Then >
Global Poverty Act of 2007 (S.2433)YOUR Senator > http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
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Why Do We Call Them 'Democrats'?
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Apparently, the camouflage is no longer needed. The masks are off. They now openly call for the nationalization of private business, the establishment of universal entitlements and increased taxation to pay for them. Why worry about socialist labels? The electorate is complacent, prosperity has numbed our senses and the left has worked diligently for many years to sap our national pride and deface our self-image.
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of "liberalism," they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948Eight years into the twenty-first century, Mr. Thomas' prediction is coming perilously close to fruition; the presidential elections of 2008 may well validate his faith in "liberalism" and its Trojan horse delivery of Socialism. After decades of slow yet persistent desensitization to Socialism in our schools, in our media and in government policy, [many] Americans are blind to its ramifications for our prosperity, our individual freedoms and our national identity. Political candidates and legislators espouse openly socialist policies without eliciting the slightest outrage or significant comment, so successfully have the philosophies of Marx and Lenin permeated the national psyche.
House Democrats, loudly shifting blame from the consequences of their energy policies, threaten nationalization of American oil companies. Mimicking Marxist Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, their answer to the energy crisis is eliminating free markets.
"Should the people of the United States own refineries? Maybe so. Frankly, I think that's a good idea. Then we could control the amount of refined product much more capably that gets out on the market..." Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) 18 June Press Conference with Democratic leadership.Representative Hinchey is on the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee and the Natural Resources Committee, committees with enormous influence on energy matters. He went on as he stood next to House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-IL):
"then maybe they'd be willing to have these refineries owned publicly[*], owned by the people of the United States, so that the people of the United States can determine how much of the product is refined and put out on the market. To me, that sounds like a very good idea."Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) once considered one of congress's fringe leftists apparently let the Democrat party policy slip during show hearings with oil company executives earlier in the month:
"This liberal will be all about socializing, uh, uh . . . would be about . . . basically taking over and the government running all of your companies."The Socialist Party of America has arrived, wearing Democrat clothing. Socialist control of the presidency and congress would knock America to its knees as nothing has before. What was inconceivable five years ago becomes a frightening possibility with Obama, Pelosi, Boxer and Reid.
If you think gas is expensive now, wait until the socialists in congress run the oil business.
"The past shows unvaryingly that when a people's freedom disappears, it goes not with a bang, but in silence amid the comfort of being cared for. That is the dire peril in the present trend toward statism. If freedom is not found accompanied by a willingness to resist, and to reject favors, rather than to give up what is intangible but precarious, it will not long be found at all." - Richard Weaver, 1962[oil companies already are owned by the people, publicly; they're called shareholders and 401K participants. What Democrats mean by 'the People' is government. Them. Socialist programs are doubly dangerous because, even more than most government programs {and that's saying something}, they're permanent: name a major government program that's ever been meaningfully reduced or eliminated. They only grow; witness all of our entitlement programs, known to be unsustainable, which receive ever greater funding regardless. Once enacted, we'll be yoked with these programs forever, and socialism begets more socialism. Think of our grandchildren...]
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We're winning this War on Terror
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In America, large swaths of the political class continues to insist Iraq is a lost cause. The consensus in much of the West is that the War on Terror is unwinnable.
And yet the evidence is now overwhelming that on all fronts, despite inevitable losses from time to time, it is we who are advancing and the enemy who is in retreat. The current mood on both sides of the Atlantic, in fact, represents a kind of curious inversion of the great French soldier's dictum: “Success against the Taleban. Enemy giving way in Iraq. Al-Qaeda on the run. Situation dire. Let's retreat!”
Since it is remarkable how pervasive this pessimism is, it's worth recapping what has been achieved in the past few years... [much, impressive, Recommended > snip]
Next time you hear someone say that the war in Afghanistan is an exercise in futility ask them this: do they seriously think that if the US and its allies had not ousted the Taleban and sustained an offensive against them for six years that there would have been no more terrorist attacks in the West? [snip]
The third and perhaps most significant advance of all in the War on Terror is the discrediting of the Islamist creed and its appeal.
This was first of all evident in Iraq, but it has spread way beyond Iraq. As Lawrence Wright described in an important piece in The New Yorker last month, there is growing disgust not just among moderate Muslims but even among other jihadists at the extremism of the terrorists... [snip]
The right response to the loss of brave souls is not an immediate call for retreat. It is, first of all, pride; a great, deep conviction that it is on such sacrifice that our own freedoms have always rested. Then, defiance. How foolish is the enemy that it might think our grief is really some prelude to their victory?
Finally, confidence. We are prevailing in this struggle. We know it. And everywhere: in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and among Muslims around the world, the enemy knows it too.
[ Recommended >]
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Know your enemy
.[HT:MD]
... For instance, based on the words and deeds of Muhammad, most schools of Islamic jurisprudence agree that the following are all legitimate during war against the infidel:
- the indiscriminate use of missile weaponry, even if women and children are present (catapults in Muhammad's 7th century, hijacked planes or rockets today);
- the need to always deceive the enemy and even break formal treatises whenever possible [see Sahih Muslim 15: 4057];
- and that the only function of the peace treaty, or "hudna," is to give the Islamic armies time to regroup for a renewed offensive, and should, in theory, last no more than ten years.
- the most notorious among them being the doctrine of "Taqiyya," which permits Muslims to lie and dissemble to infidels.
Deception has such a prominent role that renowned Muslim scholar Ibn al-Arabi declares: "[I]n the Hadith, practicing deceit in war is well demonstrated. Indeed, its need is more stressed than [the need for] courage" (The Al Qaeda Reader, 142).
Then there's Islam's more "eternal" doctrines, such as the Abode of War versus the Abode of Islam dichotomy, which in essence maintains that Islam must always be in a state of animosity vis-Ã -vis the infidel world and, whenever possible, must wage wars until all infidel territory has been brought under Islamic rule.
In fact, this dichotomy of hostility is unambiguously codified under Islam's worldview and is deemed a fard kifaya-that is, an obligation on the entire Muslim body that can only be fulfilled as long as some Muslims actively uphold it... [snip]
Alas, far from taking the most basic and simple advice regarding warfare-Sun Tzu's ancient dictum, "Know thy enemy"- the U.S. government is having difficulties even acknowledging its enemy.
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Protecting the Oil Supply
What if the Chinese were to apply the Carter Doctrine?
"Let our position be absolutely clear," Jimmy Carter declared. It was January 1980, and a year later he would no longer be president. But the doctrine he espoused in his final State of the Union address was, arguably, one of the few policies that outlasted his tenure. The Carter Doctrine:
"An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America." [snip]Every couple of years, oil becomes Topic 1 for a while. Every couple of years, attention is paid—and then it fades. The 1970s brought the Arab embargo and the energy crisis. The early 1980s brought the Carter Doctrine and the Iran-Iraq War. In the early 1990s, Iraq invaded oil-rich Kuwait. In 2003, some claimed the United States had launched a war in Iraq because of oil. [snip]
As its needs and dependence on Middle East oil grow, China is more likely to challenge some of the policies the United States is pursuing in oil-rich regions. Using sanctions to help stop the genocide in Darfur appeals to Washington but is disruptive to relations between China and Sudan. Preventing Iran from interfering in Iraq or from building nuclear capabilities is crucial for the United States, but China is becoming more and more nervous that a confrontation will upset its access to oil.
In 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate foreign relations committee:
"We do have to do something about the energy problem. … It has given extraordinary power to some states that are using that power in not very good ways."She was talking about Iran, Venezuela, and Sudan. But from Beijing, the picture might look much different: Iran, Venezuela, and Sudan are all more than willing to supply China—but the U.S. is making oil more expensive and less available.
We have to do something about our energy problem.
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Study finds Arctic seabed afire with lava-spewing volcanoes
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The Arctic seabed is as explosive geologically as it is politically judging by the "fountains" of gas and molten lava that have been blasting out of underwater volcanoes near the North Pole.
"Explosive volatile discharge has clearly been a widespread, and ongoing, process,"according to an international team that sent unmanned probes to the strange fiery world beneath the Arctic ice.
They returned with images and data showing that red-hot magma has been rising from deep inside the earth and blown the tops off dozens of submarine volcanoes, four kilometres below the ice.
"Jets or fountains of material were probably blasted one, maybe even two, kilometres up into the water,"says geophysicist Robert Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who led the expedition.
"The scale and magnitude of the explosive activity that we're seeing here dwarfs anything we've seen on other mid-ocean ridges,"says Sohn, who studies ridges around the world. The volume of gas and lava that appears to have blasted out of the Gakkel volcanoes is "much, much higher" than that seen at other ridges.
The scientists say they have explored just one small stretch of the Gakkel Ridge and hope to return in a few years.
[widespread, ongoing process of dozens of submarine volcanoes discharging magma on a scale that dwarfs anything else they've seen, under the ice near the North Pole - and that from the one small stretch they visited. -- So when the Arctic enters its next melt cycle, remember: it's because of your light bulbs.]
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Massachusetts Lawmaker's Pledge to 'Rip Apart' Child Rape Victims
A Massachusetts politician and defense attorney has touched off a firestorm with his shocking public vow to torment and "rip apart" child rape victims who take the witness stand if the state legislature passed stiff mandatory sentences for child sex offenders. Rep. James Fagan, a Democrat, made the comments during debate last month on the state House floor...
[criminals before victims]
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THE AMERICAN DREAM GOES ON
Mortimer Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S. News and World Report, says income inequality has had little traction thus far as a political issue, partly because many middle-class Americans have moved up:
- There are 12 percent more households earning in excess of $100,000 than 20 or so years ago.
- Those making less than $30,000 have not increased.
- So virtually the entire "decline" of the middle-class group has come from people moving up the income ladder, not down.
- Some 82 percent of those born into poverty are much better off than their parents and more than a third of them have made it into the middle class - or higher.
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Thursday, June 26, 2008
AN ECONOMIST WHO MATTERS
Robert Mundell, the father of the euro, isn't in the habit of making fruitless policy recommendations, though some take a long time ripening, says the Wall Street Journal. Nearly four decades passed between his early work on optimal currency areas and the birth of the euro in 1999 -- the same year he received the Nobel Prize for economics.
At the Copenhagen Consensus summit in May, Mundell said the big issue economically in the upcoming U.S. presidential election is what's going to happen to taxes. One of the original "supply-side" economists, Mundell has long preached the link between tax rates and economic growth. Mundell says it would be "lethal" to suddenly raise taxes, and that rescinding the Bush tax cuts would be "devastating" to the world economy. Mundell recommends:
- A ceiling of 30 percent on marginal rates (the current top rate is 35 percent).
- Cutting the corporate tax rate to 25 percent, a proposal he first made back in the 1970s.
According to Mundell, the most important thing that could be done with respect to tax rates now is to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. Eliminating that uncertainty would be more important than pushing for a further cut -- in the income tax rates, anyway.
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On TSA Attitude and Attitude-Detecting Policies:
“Someone who wishes to hijack or destroy a plane will spend considerable time and effort to get around the TSA's attitude-detecting policies. The bulk of the people hassled by these and other TSA procedures are law-abiding Americans who have no malicious intentions, along with a few people traveling with drugs and other contraband. The TSA routinely confiscates about 15,000 items a day from passengers, in addition to the hassle, rudeness and arrogance.
With these kind of costs imposed on the traveling public, I'd like TSA to give an account of themselves, namely just how many hijackings or bombings they have prevented, along with the evidence. Americans have been far too compliant and that has given the TSA carte blanche to treat travelers any way they wish."
Walter E. Williams, Author, Economist and Professor of Economics
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US army to hand over security in Iraq's Anbar province
Baghdad - Iraqi troops are expected to take over security tasks in the once volatile western Anbar province from the US military on Saturday, making it the first Sunni Arab area to be handed back to Iraq. 'Preparations are underway for the transfer of security responsibilities by US troops in Anbar,' General Murdi Nayyif al-Hardan, the commander of the Iraqi army in the province.
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Insulting our troops: Moveon.org strikes again
Does Moveon.org despise all military personnel or just think Americans are stupid? Or both? Following its disgusting "General Betray us" ad from last year, the leftist group has a new one depicting a mother and a newborn. (Snip) Moveon.org might find this hard to believe, but America's military men and women are adults who choose to defend the country. They are neither children, nor victims. Depicting them as such is despicable. But that is what we've come to expect from this anti-military outfit.
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[we've an all volunteer force]Muslims should be free to convert, says cardinal
Rome - A leading cardinal has called on the Islamic world to allow individual Muslims "the freedom to convert" to Christianity, arguing that this does not threaten Islamic identity.
This week death threats to Mr Allam and Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, were posted...
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[evidently anything threatens their identity, to wit... {next}]
Free Speech Dies at the UN
[HT:SN]
The war against free speech is advancing rapidly: Associated Press reported Thursday that “Muslim countries have won a battle to prevent Islam from being criticised during debates by the UN Human Rights Council.” Council President Doru-Romulus Costea explained that religious issues can be “very complex, very sensitive and very intense…This council is not prepared to discuss religious matters in depth, consequently we should not do it.” Henceforth only religious scholars would be permitted to broach them. [snip]
Yet as of September 2007, eight women in Iran were awaiting stoning for adultery charges.
In sum, then, what Littman was saying was accurate, and the Egyptian, Pakistani and Iranian representatives consistently characterized these truthful statements as insults to Islam, and moved to have them suppressed. Not only does this shameful episode bode ill for the human rights of women in the Islamic world; it also represents another victory in the war against free speech that Islamic supremacists have been pursuing with particular energy lately, calling on Western authorities to prosecute Dutch politician Geert Wilders for his film Fitna and Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard for his drawing of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, and in general to outlaw what they perceive as insults to Islam.
They have won at the UN Human Rights Council. That will not be the only battle of this war. But it remains to be seen whether any governing official in the West has the courage and the clear-sightedness to stand up to this challenge before it’s too late -- before we are required by law to stand by as mute witnesses to our own conquest and Islamization.
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North Korea nuclear accounting won't include bombs
Seoul, South Korea - North Korea is expected this week to turn over its long-delayed accounting of its nuclear weapons activities, part of a chain of events leading to a unique photo opportunity: the destruction of the cooling tower at Pyongyang's main reactor.
One item that won't make the declaration, which the White House says is due Thursday, will be North Korea's nuclear bombs. The omission means the world will have to wait for an answer to the question at the heart of the nearly six-year-old standoff: Is the North ready to give up its nuclear weapons?
[well at least we're making progress: we're getting an accounting of their nuclear weapons program that includes everything but their nuclear weapons]
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James Hansen: Abusing the Public Trust
Monday, James Hansen, Director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), addressed Congress and brought a new twist to his tired global warming song and dance routine. Hansen now seems to be calling for the chief executives of Big Oil to be tried for high crimes against humanity. Their crime? Spreading doubt about global warming.
Actually, it is Hansen who is guilty. Guilty of abusing the public trust.
James Hansen is the recognized international arbiter of the global temperature record-past, present and future. Armed with a network of thermometers, state-of-the-art satellites, computers and a huge chunk of NASA's near $18 billion budget, Hansen is the man who is deemed the final authority on Al Gore's constant claim that "the earth has a fever."
All this despite the fact that GISS' own data clearly illustrates that the Earth's temperature has been flat since 1998 and recently has been dipping downward. Hansen's shenanigans [!] on Capital Hill are not about climate-they are about money... [snip]
As a NASA Director, his role should be collecting data and truthfully sharing results, not trying to influence policy and legislation.
Congressman Darryl Issa (R-San Diego) called Hansen on his continual talking out of turn. During a hearing on Capitol Hill regarding his abuse of his government status, Issa said, "You're speaking on federal paid time. Your employer happens to be the American taxpayer." Issa went on to say that an internet search showed Hansen had had stated on more than 1,400 occasions in over a year's worth of interviews and appearances (15 interviews alone in the month that the congressional hearings were taking place - and the same month Hansen complained that the Bush Administration was censoring him). [snip]
Examine the largess culled by Hansen: In 2001, the Heinz Foundation "awarded" James Hansen with a payment of $250,000 for his work on global warming. According to Investors Business Daily, Hansen has also received as much as $720,000 from [George] Soros' [born Gyorgy Schwarz] Open Society Institute (OSI), which also gave him ‘legal and media advice'... [snip]
With that kind of cash allegedly lining his pockets, do you think that Hansen will ever allow the data that he is charged with maintaining to point to anything but disaster?
[ ! = hey I coined the 'shenanigans' shtick yesterday... fair use? ;^) > http://netizennewsbrief.blogspot.com/2008/06/oil-execs-should-be-tried-for-crimes.html ]
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Obama's Corn Fake
Barack Obama says he represents change. He also criticizes John McCain for trying to drill our way to energy independence to add to the profits of Big Oil.
But it's Obama who's playing politics by trying to plant our way to energy independence, buying votes with alternative fuel subsidies that benefit ethanol producers such as Archer Daniels Midland.
ADM is based in Illinois, the second-largest corn-producing state...
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Tories promise NHS targets revamp
"And it's awful that you're more likely to die from a stroke in England than you are in any other country in western Europe."
"So we've got a situation where we pump the same money into our health system as other countries, but on the thing that actually matters - a patient's health and the results of their actual treatment - we're doing worse." [snip]
Focusing on survival rates instead of waiting times would save thousands of lives, Conservative leader David Cameron says.
He said his party would scrap the government's "top-down" approach to NHS targets and instead focus on major diseases such as cancer and stroke...
[get that? Their wait time are 5 to 10 times what ours are - and that's what they have been focusing on. Government + health care = frightening.]
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High court: Don't execute child rapists
The Supreme Court on Wednesday outlawed executions of people convicted of raping a child. (Snip) In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana law allowing the death penalty to be imposed for raping a child violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
"The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. His four liberal colleagues joined him, while the four more conservative justices dissented.
[- have we devised a special punishment for them alone that's particularly cruel?
- what is unusual about exterminating predators of our children?
-- this year's election is very important]
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEGISLATION GATHERS STEAM
Thirty states now have laws specifying that official government communications be in English, this year such bills are under consideration in 19 legislatures.
Typically the proposed laws require that documents, ballots and other communications be published in English. Exempt are communications to protect public health and safety or efforts to promote tourism. [snip]
Requiring English for official business encourages immigrants to learn English. That will help them to assimilate into U.S. society and prosper in its economy, says Mauro Mujica, a Chilean immigrant and chairman and CEO of U.S. English.
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Plans to disrupt GOP convention
Elaborate plans are underway to encircle and "shut down" the Republican National Convention at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center in September. The strategies and tactics involved could come straight from a guerrilla warfare manual.
Anarchist groups with ominous names -- the RNC Welcoming Committee, Unconventional Action -- have announced a "three-tier strategy" to cut off the Xcel Center. The steps include "blockading" streets and freeways, "immobilizing" delegates' transportation and "blocking" bridges ...
[progressive political discourse]
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'Just Drill, Baby'
Alaska's governor Sarah Palin - mentioned as a possible running mate for John McCain sent a letter to Harry Reid telling him what needed to be done as far as helping to solve the energy crisis. In effect, she told the senator - "Just Drill, Baby:"
Governor Sarah Palin today urged members of Congress to enact legislation that would allow oil and gas development in a small portion* of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Snip) Governor Palin stressed the need to enact an energy policy that includes oil and gas production from domestic sources...
[* = 1/10 of 1% of ANWR's area - only a fraction of it in turn actually involved in oil extraction]
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Democrats Gear Up for Denver
As the Mile High City gears up to host a Democratic bash for 50,000, organizers are discovering the perils of trying to stage a political spectacle that's also politically correct.
Consider the fanny packs.
The host committee for the Democratic National Convention wanted 15,000 fanny packs for volunteers. But they had to be made of organic cotton. By unionized labor. In the USA.
Official merchandiser Bob DeMasse scoured the country. His weary
conclusion: "That just doesn't exist." Ditto for the baseball caps. "We
have a union cap or an organic cap," Mr. DeMasse says. "But we don't
have a union-organic offering."
[this is how they handle their own money. Think how they'd handle yours]
.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Naval Academy Graduates: They Signed Up to Serve
Whether headed to the Marine Corps, to flight school or to the fleet to serve as surface warriors, submariners or in other capacities, today’s graduates said they brought a common drive to the Naval Academy: a desire to serve their country.
As they gathered inside the fence line at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in preparation for today’s graduation and commissioning ceremony, the midshipmen reflected on why they chose to serve and on the leadership qualities they hope to bring to the calling...
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U.S. trains Iraqi women to find female suicide bombers
YUSUFIYA, Iraq - Female suicide bombers, who often slip through security checkpoints untouched because of cultural norms, are taking a more deadly toll than ever across Iraq. But the U.S. Army has created a solution with "Daughters of Iraq," a program that trains Iraqi women to find female suicide bombers.
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More Americans to be Killed
The Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling last week means that terrorism detainees captured overseas have the same rights as U.S. citizens facing shoplifting trials at home. This unprecedented expansion of habeas was not a victory over the President. It was a judicial nullification of procedures carefully crafted by both elected branches of Government of procedures carefully tailored to allow review of detentions while remaining mindful of the terrorist threat.
The smallest of majorities is disregarding judicial history and pretending we live in a world where captured deadly enemies can be granted an advantage, without it affecting the likelihood of victory. The Court invalidated the law because it found:
"…no credible arguments that the military mission would be compromised if habeas courts had jurisdiction to hear detainees' claims."It is difficult to fault Scalia's riposte:
"What competence does the Court have to second-guess the judgment of Congress and President on such a point?"Scalia detailed how prisoners released from Guantanamo had returned to murder Americans and our allies. Scalia is foreseeably correct in concluding that the decision"will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed."
The Court is basing its decision -- disregarding two centuries of decisions holding that habeas is unavailable to aliens captured abroad -- on the fact that Gitmo is "functionally" under U.S. control. But so are U.S. bases in Afghanistan and Iraq... [snip]
If you do not comprehend that the ACLU and its fellow revelers are preparing petitions in blank -- on behalf of every terrorist captured overseas -- to compel the Government immediately to disclose its evidence, then you understand nothing.
Chief Justice Roberts pointed out in his dissent what the Court is opening the door to:
"free access to classified information ignores the risk the prisoner may convey what he learns to parties hostile to this country, with deadly consequences for those who helped apprehend the detainee."Roberts noted that our troops are not equipped to handle subpoenas on the battlefield. Information given to defense lawyers in the first World Trade Towers trial on a restricted basis quickly appeared on al-Jazeera... [snip]
"If the Court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the Bill of Rights into a suicide pact."READ MORE
Countrywide Story ‘Has Everything,’ but Networks Ignore It
"This story has everything," Menefee said. "It has a former presidential candidate, Chris Dodd. It has two senators who are getting, like you said, sweetheart loans. It has Kent Conrad, another senator, who called the CEO of the lender to get his loan, which is not what we normally do, and then said, ‘Oh, I didn't get any preferential treatment and I didn't do anything wrong, but I'm going to give a charitable donation to remedy the fact that I didn't do anything wrong.'"Menefee said it was "very sad" that the networks failed to report the scandal - not just because they refused to go after two Democrats, but because they missed an opportunity to expose the bailout plan Dodd has been defending.
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Columbia University MidEast Studies professor blames West for gays in Muslim lands
[HT:PG]
Columbia University professor Joseph Massad numbers one more mark against the West. This professor hails from the same department that hosted Edward Said and now hosts, in the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies chair, Barack Obama friend and fierce critic of Israel Rashid Khalidi.
Jamie Sneider of the Weekly Standard captures the madness:
...Massad belongs on a psychiatrist's couch, not behind a podium. In Desiring Arabs, Massad asserts that the West "produces homosexuals as well as gays and lesbians, where they do not exist." But for colonialism, Massad contends, there would be no gay people in the Middle East for the tyrannical governments of Egypt and Iran to persecute. Although Massad says he opposes hanging gay people, he shifts the blame from the hooded executioners to the United States.[this isn't just another nut case - he's a nut case with the captive audience of our children]
When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Columbia last fall and made a similar claim ("In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country."), students laughed and booed. They recently, however, elected to award Massad the Lionel Trilling Book Award for making the nearly identical claim.
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Iran Could Make Nuke In 6 Months
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei spoke on Al-Arabiya television on June 20, discussing Iran's nuclear program, and the potential for the Middle Eastern country to produce a nuclear weapon.
"If Iran wants to turn to the production of nuclear weapons, it would need at least, considering the number of centrifuges and the quantity of uranium Iran has...It would need at least six months to one year,"
ElBaradei also warned that he will resign as chief of the UN nuclear agency if Iran is attacked by any country.
The reports this week of Israeli military maneuvers, which took place in early June, provoked the IAEA warning, said CBS News Foreign Affairs Pamela Falk, who is based at the UN.
Ironically [predictably], Israel felt compelled to action by the last IAEA report, which concluded that there are unanswered questions about Iran's ability to eventually develop nuclear weapons - so it is elBaradei himself who produced the report that is making Israel nervous.
Meanwhile, Iran is reiterating its decision to continue enriching uranium...
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UNRWA: Barrier to Peace
The United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) was created under the jurisdiction of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with the unique responsibility of solely aiding the Palestinians. Due to this special status, the UNRWA perpetuates, rather than resolves, the Palestinian refugee issue, and therefore serves as a major obstacle toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Like no other UN body, UNRWA's definition of refugees includes not only the refugees themselves, but also their descendents. Moreover, refugees keep their status even if they have gained citizenship. UNRWA employs teachers affiliated with Hamas and allows the dissemination of Hamas messages in its schools. The Hamas coup in Gaza of July 2007 has resulted in a Hamas takeover of UNRWA facilities there.
Therefore, UNRWA should be dissolved and its services transferred to more appropriate administering organizations...
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GLOBAL WARMING -- FROG DECLINE LINK IS DISPROVEN
A new study in the peer-reviewed PLoS Biology, a journal of the Public Library of Science, has disproven sensationalist media reports of global warming causing a mass die-off of tropical frogs.
In January 2006, a Nature magazine article argued global warming was behind the spread of a fungus, amphibian chytridiomycosis, in Central America that was decimating tree frog populations. Ignoring the researchers' clear bias and predisposition toward finding global warming as the cause, many prominent media outlets including MSNBC, BBC, the Washington Post and the New York Times were quick to cover the Nature report and point the finger at global warming.
However, this new study by a team of scientists specializing in zoology and animal health provides strong counterevidence to disprove the Nature magazine article, According to the study: [snip] The scientists also found that the preliminary Nature study used flawed methodology and overlooked very basic real-world information. [snip]
"This is just one more example of how alarmists, including scientists on a mission, jump the gun, touting any environmental harm as being caused by 'global warming', regardless of the counterevidence," said Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow for the National Center for Policy Analysis. "Thankfully, more thoughtful and honest researchers have debunked the myth that 'global warming' is behind the frogs' unfortunate demise."
[as go them all, one after the other, when credible science is applied]
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Heating, Electricity Rates Rising As Prices For Natural Gas Surge
Consumers struggling with $4 gasoline face ballooning costs for another energy source: natural gas. Natural gas futures have vaulted 154% since Aug. 27 to $13.203 per million British thermal units on Monday. The run-up has outpaced the rise in crude oil, which has doubled. Consumers may not feel the full impact immediately, but continued high prices will push up monthly utility bills, if they haven't already done so. Americans often use natural gas for heating stove tops and water, but they see a bigger hit when they fire up gas furnaces...
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Gas could fall to $2 if Congress acts, analysts say
WASHINGTON - The price of retail gasoline would fall by half, to around $2 a gallon, within 30 days of passage of a law to limit speculation in energy futures markets, four energy analysts told Congress on Monday. Testifying to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Michael Masters of Masters Capital Management said the price of crude oil would quickly drop closer to its marginal cost of around $65 to $75 a barrel, about half the current $135.
[perhaps short term - it would retard the speculation aspect which, ironically, is based predominantly on Congress' continued obstinacy re: supply. But I think the larger point is that demand will not only continue to increase vis-a-vis China & India, but that increase is accelerating - we need begin developing greater supply now to forestall double-digit fuel costs in the not too distant future - by one estimate, 15$ a gallon in 7 years if supply isn't meaningfully increased.]
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Obama To Hammer McCain On Offshore Drilling "Gimmick"
LAS VEGAS - Offshore drilling continues to be a major sticking point between Barack Obama and John McCain, and the two candidates are still jabbing at each other’s position for the second week.
Obama, who has argued that drilling will not immediately lower gas prices, is expected today to condemn McCain’s recent comments about the “psychological” benefits of offshore drilling. (Snip)
Obama, who wants to keep a moratorium on offshore drilling, will argue that McCain is offering a “gimmick”...
[the 'psychological' benefits, Mr. Senator, have to do with how OPEC {and some speculators} interpret our intentions - as they have every other time we've moved toward reduced reliance...]
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What the NHS considers 'fair'
The United Kingdom's government-run health care system faces a terrible dilemma: how to balance the freedom of the individual wanting to do everything possible to prolong life against a system which has to set limits on behalf of everyone in order the preserve the principle of free care for all irrespective of their ability to pay, says the Guardian. Under the current system:
- The National Health Service (NHS) will withdraw a sick person's free care merely because they chose to fund an additional element, such as a special drug, of their treatment themselves. [i.e., buy any supplemental care and you're out of the system {forget the taxes you've been paying into it forever}]
[i.e., it's government]
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Making Government the Biggest Insurer
The bipartisan possibilities of allowing health insurance to be purchased across state lines appear to be growing more unlikely, says U.S. News and World Report. John McCain and Barack Obama have offered very different proposals to reform the health insurance industry:
• Obama would allow the national sale of only private insurance plans that go through his "National Health Insurance Exchange," which means that the insurance plans would have to accept federal government controls on what to cover and how much to charge.
• McCain says he would allow the nationwide sale of private health insurance without that kind of government oversight.
Obama's plan for a National Health Insurance Exchange means less competition. Paul Edattel, healthcare policy analyst for Shadegg, says if you undercut private insurers and place price controls on them, government is going to become the biggest insurance company in the country...
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Economy on brink of recession, Greenspan says
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned on Tuesday the U.S. economy was on the brink of a recession, with the chances of that happening at more than 50 percent
"The problem that you have here is that ... significant pressures are coming from oil and food, but they are none the less real. The price increases are real and unless the central bank leans against them ... you will get a highly unstable inflation environment..."
[i.e., it's the energy, stupid. By doing nothing about it we should be officially in recession by, say, November...]
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San Francisco to vote on George W Bush sewage works
Los Angeles - San Francisco is to hold a vote on whether to rename one of its largest sewage treatment facilities after George W. Bush, in what supporters describe as “a fitting monument to the President’s work”.
[so proud]
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U.S. Charitable Giving Hits Record Despite Slowing Growth
Mounting economic worries haven't stopped Americans from donating to charities. Charitable giving hit a record in 2007, topping $300 billion...
[actually I believe US private philanthropy has topped 300B$ several times before now, per an article by Thomas Brewton I've noted from Feb. this year (but can't find - apologies), and approached 500B$ after the global tsunami a few years ago. Point: when [it's coming, again] some mealy mouthed European spouts off about American selfishness, remember: they're talking about government charity - and that's not our model.]
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Iraq starts to fix itself
AFTER all the blood and blunders, people are right to be sceptical when good news is announced from Iraq. Yet it is now plain that over the past several months, while Americans have been distracted by their presidential primaries, many things in Iraq have at long last started to go right. [snip]
In September 2007 this newspaper supported the surge not because we had faith in Iraq but only in the desperate hope that the surge might stop what was already a bloodbath from becoming even worse (see article). The situation now is different: Iraq is still a mess, but something approaching a normal future for its people is beginning to look achievable...
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[From Glenn Beck blog re: the above piece:]
Strange how when things are going wrong in Iraq, I rarely see articles about how Iraqis are doing it to "themselves". But when things go right, it must be some mystical magical self-healing process.
Amazing, but I guess this is the "good" coverage of the war we've been asking for. Or at least the "as good as it gets" coverage.
Roadside bombs decline in Iraq
Bomb attacks and fatalities in Iraq are down by almost
90% over the last year. Story missing from the NY Times.
.
Darfur Is Part of The War on Terror
[HT:MD]
For years now, Sudan has not only been the locale of the planet’s bloodiest exercise in mass violence, but also the West’s most neglected front in the War on Terror. We have resisted understanding the ongoing massacre in Darfur for what it is — not some impenetrable tribal rivalry, but rather a prolonged irruption of Islamist terrorism in its most unapologetic form.
In 1989 Gen. Omar al-Bashir’s National Islamic Front seized power in a military coup, established Islamic law and went about prosecuting a “brutal jihad against the African population...
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Justice Kennedy: American Idle
After reading Justice Anthony Kennedy's recent majority opinion in Boumediene v. Bush, I feel like I need to install a "1984"-style Big Brother camera in my home so Justice Kennedy can keep an eye on everything I do.
Until last week, the law had been that there were some places in the world where American courts had no jurisdiction. For example, U.S. courts had no jurisdiction over non-citizens who have never set foot in the United States.
If Justice Kennedy can review the procedures for detaining enemy combatants trying to kill Americans in the middle of a war, no place is safe...
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Israel 'will attack Iran' before new US president sworn in, John Bolton predicts
Daily Telegraph [UK], by Toby Harnden
John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, has predicted that Israel could attack Iran after the November presidential election but before George W Bush's successor is sworn in. The Arab world would be "pleased" by Israeli strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. "It [the reaction] will be positive privately. I think there'll be public denunciations but no action," he said.
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[nowhere in the entire article is Bolton quoted as saying Israel "will" attack Iran - only that it could. Yet the headline (in single quotes so as not to be technically inaccurate). Daily Telegraph: a professional news organization]
Dots...
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Ruling may cause 'Islamophobia'
Riyadh - The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a league of 57 Muslim nations, said on Monday a Danish court's rejection of a suit against a paper for printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad could provoke "Islamophobia".
The High Court for western Denmark on Thursday rejected a suit against Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that first published cartoons of Islam's prophet... [snip]
The Saudi-based OIC, the largest grouping of Muslim countries, said the ruling could encourage "Islamophobia", which the group has identified as existing in the West.
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Islamic Bloc Passes Up Criticism of Sudan, Again
The world's Islamic nations have ended a conference without condemning the Sudanese government's actions in Darfur despite growing calls from Arab human rights groups for the Islamic bloc to ''end its silence'' over a conflict affecting millions of Muslims. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) ended a two-day meeting of foreign ministers in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on Friday with a host of resolutions ranging from reinforcing the Islamic boycott of Israel to criticizing U.S. sanctions against Syria.
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Radical Islamists' ''Fair Share'' of the Security Council
The Security Council is the United Nations’ most powerful body. It is the one body in the United Nations system with the power under the UN Charter to dispatch military and peacekeeping operations, impose economic sanctions, mandate arms inspections, and enforce resolutions against international human rights violations. In short, it is charged with the guardianship of international peace and security.
(Snip) however, the 57 member Organization of Islamic Conference also wants a permanent, veto-bearing Islamic seat on the Security Council...
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[we must reduce the influence of middle eastern oil]
Oil Execs Should Be Tried For Crimes Against Humanity
Although it seems like just yesterday, Monday marks the 20th anniversary of the day James Hansen, the head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told members of Congress the world was doomed if the burning of fossil fuels didn't immediately cease. [and somehow we're still here]
To commemorate this inauspicious occasion, Hansen is going back to Capitol Hill to call for oil company executives to be put on trial for crimes against humanity and nature.
Can you imagine the media firestorm this is going to create? [snip]
Will the press outlets that cover Hansen's testimony address any of the criticism directed at the GISS chief concerning errors in how his organization measures and determines average global temperatures?
Might there be any reference to a June 5 article in the British Guardian accusing NASA of literally cooking the books on this matter?
Or how about former Director of Meteorology at the Weather Channel Joseph D'Aleo's response to Hansen posted at ICECAP Sunday:
Instead of suing big oil, I think the American people ought to seriously consider going after Hansen and Gore who are as much responsible for the energy and food crises by turning a minor largely natural, cyclical change into an earth- threatening, man-made disaster by manipulating both science and data. Environmental groups and some politicians share the blame and if we can't sue them, we can stop donating to their causes and/or kick the bums out of office. Maybe we can put Boxer's picture on Unleaded, Gore on high test and Hansen on Deisel pumps to remind folks where the blame really lies.Readers are strongly advised to review all of the articles NewsBusters has published concerning the junk science being advanced by Hansen the last two decades. [ long list - and that just re: Hansens' shenanigans]
In this Washington Post story, Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) said the bill's failure was proof that Hansen's message had not caught on. "Hansen, Gore, and the media have been trumpeting man-made climate doom since the 1980s. But Americans are not buying it," Inhofe said. "It's back to the drawing board for Hansen and company as the alleged ‘consensus' over man-made climate fears continues to wane and more and more scientists declare their dissent."
*****Update: Please don't miss fabulous posts concerning this matter by CEI's Chris Horner published at NRO's Planet Gore such as this, this, and this. In particular, don't miss Horner exposing Hansen for staging his June 1988 Congressional appearance by timing it for the hottest day of the year, and having the air conditioning turned off in the hearing room to make it especially toasty. Also, D'Aleo has more here.
[a lot of unconcensus'd reading above - just note what, if any, mention any of it gets when Hansen's tripe is trumpeted around the nets]
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Anyone care about free speech?
The tragedy of the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal's case against Mark Steyn and Maclean's magazine over alleged "hate" mongering because of Steyn's views on Islam, is that most people don't give a damn. Oh, many sympathize with Steyn because the issue seems so silly, but most don't see the destructive effect of hate legislation, or how it threatens our freedom. Of all the benefits embodied in our county, free speech is -- or should be -- among the most precious. Without the freedom to express opinions on any matter, we cease being a free society.
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Petition To Stop The Fairness DoctrineThe Petition States:
I am signing this petition to urge members of Congress to bring the Broadcaster Freedom Act (HR. 2905) to a floor vote.
In addition, I am joining with other Americans who are standing against any and all efforts to censor, limit, or restrain the right of conservatives to participate freely in the marketplace of ideas through the “Fairness Doctrine” or similar legislative and bureaucratic efforts. I also call on the media to provide fair and balanced reporting on this issue. Our nation was built upon free and open discourse.
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