Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Dear Patriotic American,
This Thanksgiving thousands of severely burned, blinded or paralyzed troops will be struggling to put food on the table.
By clicking here you can make a tax-deductible donation to the "Thanksgiving Thank You" meals project, sponsored by the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes. Our "Thanksgiving Thank You" project was created to provide meals for our wounded heroes and their families over Thanksgiving weekend.As long as we receive your donation by midnight on Tuesday, we'll be able to use it to help a severely wounded G.I. over Thanksgiving weekend.
And by clicking here you can send a special Thanksgiving THANK YOU and GET WELL card to a disabled serviceman or woman. A THANK YOU and GET WELL card from you can help in their healing and let them know you're thankful for the sacrifices they've made. (You can even type in a personal greeting if you like!)
[ and Thank You for your support ]
U.S. troop surge for Afghanistan to start January
Cornwallis, N.S. -- The United States will send about 20,000 more soldiers into Afghanistan next year in a bid to make the country secure enough for elections expected there in the fall, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Friday following a meeting with Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay and other allied governments. The troop surge -- one of the largest single reinforcements of coalition armies since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001 -- has already begun...
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China rejects sending troops to Afghanistan
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told New York's Council on Foreign Relations on Friday that China should send troops because there was a global consensus that Afghanistan is [now, due to the success in Iraq] the ''the front line'' in the battle against terrorism.
China said Tuesday it would not send any troops to Afghanistan.
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ElBaradei clashes with US over Syria's bid for nuclear power
Vienna, Austria - The chief UN nuclear inspector said Monday that Syria had a right to his agency's help in planning a power-producing atomic reactor, in what diplomats described as a rejection of US-led efforts to block the aid.
The clash reflected tensions between Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN nuclear agency, and key Western nations over whether Syria should be given potentially sensitive nuclear guidance...
[FLASHBACKS re: this imbecile:
[context: nowhere in the article does the AP remind readers that this is the person who seriously called for the West to destroy all in nukes as an example to others - and we're supposed to listen to his definitions of 'madness'?]
"Many countries in the Mideast have expressed interest in developing peaceful atomic energy programs in response to rising domestic energy consumption and possibly to counter Iran's nuclear activities. "["and possibly to counter Iran's nuclear activities. " - nobody's talking about peaceful uses - we're being insulted by the suggestion]
re: Syria:
"Moscow announced the Syrian port of Tartus would be renovated to provide Russia with its first Mediterranean naval base. Sources interpret Friday’s events as indicating that Russia’s leaders have determined to open a second anti-Western front in the Middle East..."
]
The Great Global Warming Swindle
[HT:JK]
CO2 is a very small gas in the atmosphere. It is vital of course – without it we wouldn’t be here. But it’s small. It’s not at all the most important greenhouse gas, and greenhouse gases themselves, and the ‘greenhouse effect’, form only one small part of the earth’s climate system (and not a very well understood part either). There is no correlation between CO2 and temperature on any significant timescale, except where you find, in ice core data, CO2 levels being influenced by temperature levels (there’s a time lag between the two phenomena). Even global warmers admit that, for CO2 to make any difference, there would need to be some mechanism to amplify its effect in the atmosphere. No such amplifier has been shown to exist. They haven’t even been able to demonstrate how one might work in theory (the trouble is the only conceivable amplifier would be water vapour, and water vapour makes clouds, which are rather famous for their cooling effect – at least the low level ones).
So what are we left with? Temperature has risen, slightly, falteringly and gradually for about 150 years or so (even ‘warmer’ scientists can’t claim that this started because of us). The period before this rise has long been known as a ‘Little Ice Age’, from which we are evidently making a welcome recovery. We only started pumping out CO2 properly in the postwar boom, but what did temperatures do? In the postwar period they fell, till about the mid-70s. Then they went up again (just like they did at the beginning of the 20th Century, and then for the past ten years they’ve more or less flat-lined, decreasing slightly.
Where is the evidence that humans are changing the climate? This is nothing but prejudice. It is not serious science.
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Green market risk
To the layers of confusion that now exist in our financial markets we are about to add another, as opaque and volatile as the others, and as unhinged from the real world — a carbon currency. President-elect Barack Obama wants it, Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants it and their European counterparts, to some extent, already have it.
Europe’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) is the world’s largest trading exchange for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. If ambitious Kyoto-style plans come to fruition, ETS will morph to account for, among other things, the carbon content of all industrial and biological processes, and the carbon carrying capacity of all the real estate on our planet.
Because carbon is a building block of life, and because we live in a carbon-based planet, carbon prices will become more ubiquitous than the U.S. dollar. It would become, in effect, a globally traded currency tied to gaseous commodities that until recently were nowhere traded.
Carbon offsets, credits, allowances sinks and other instruments attempt to create pricing for something that no one wants, can’t be seen, is entirely a creature of government and that may prove to benefit rather than harm the environment. They are obscure and opaque, instruments both green and toxic.
[so? it's a mechanism to government power and revenue - who's going to stop them - you?]
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NO CONFIDENCE IN CONGRESS
... How can we tell if Congress understands its role in causing the problem and what it must do to help solve it? Here are some signs:
- If Congress passes a stimulus package that simply gives people money, they don't get it; rebates will not stimulate the economy and will not solve the underlying problem.
- If Congress tries to "help" the people who cannot afford the house they are in, be assured that we are wasting money and delaying the recovery; Banks can decide better whether to foreclose or make a deal far better than any governmental entity.
- If Congress forces the Treasury to provide cheap equity to companies which are solvent, or to automobile companies because of the debt owed unions in a politically important state, or if it continues with politically motivated spending, all of us will suffer a long and deep recession.
- If Congress raises marginal tax rates and erects trade barriers, and makes it easier for unions to organize without secret ballot through "card check" legislation, then the recession will be even longer and deeper.
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Colombia warns on US trade deal
Colombia's ties with the US could be severely damaged if Congress does not approve a planned free trade deal, the country's vice-president has warned. Francisco Santos-Calderon told the BBC that a US failure to sign the pact would be a "slap in the face" to a strong ally.
[it is, our congress is embarrassing us {ok, not exactly 'news' - but we've got to get off the dime here, like everyone else...}]
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Colombia’s Uribe, Canada’s Harper to Sign Free Trade Agreement
Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will sign a free trade accord today on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Lima, Uribe’s office said in a statement.
The accord, which eases access to markets for C$1.14 billion ($890 million) in annual bilateral trade, was announced in June after less than a year of negotiations.
President George W. Bush, who arrives to Lima today, has also made approving a free trade agreement with Colombia, a top ally in the fight against drugs, a priority before leaving office in January. U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, echoing concerns about Colombia’s human-rights record raised by labor unions, opposed the agreement during his campaign for president.
“This is another example of the hemisphere moving ahead without us,” Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the New York- based Council of the Americas, said in an interview in Lima.
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Mein Kampus
... The professor's written instructions harangue students to rely upon facts, not political opinions, in writing the paper and to use at least fifteen different sources. All sources, however, were not equal. Three of those fifteen sources were required to come out of the New York Times; five of those sources were required to come out of the Washington Post; two of those sources had to be the Guardian. Ten of the fifteen mandatory sources, in other words, had to come from periodicals rabidly hostile to President Bush. Three of the citations had to come from articles by Dana Priest of the Washington Post. But that was not all. No credit at all would be given for using sources that "have a reputation within the news industry for distributing their own political views at the expense of the facts, e.g. Fox News."
The shocking thing about all this is that no one reading it is probably shocked at all. The creeping Leftist totalitarianism in academia is so ubiquitous and so mundane that when it appears in a discipline not thought to be overflowing with nutty Leftists, like Criminal Justice, we yawn. We students are told to do a "research paper" which explicitly directs them to sources that they must use and sources that they must not use, we shrug in indifferent despair. [snip]
Is Mein Kampus a more descriptive term for many colleges in America today? Once politically correct thinking was limited to those disciplines which deal directly with politics. Today biologists must have politically correct views on Darwinism, geologists must have politically correct views on global warming, and criminal justice professors must have politically correct views on President Bush...
[we need an internet alternative to the indoctrination centers most of our colleges have become - Recommended > ]
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[see also:
Indoctrinate U is one of the most important documentaries of the year. But it might also be the most important documentary you aren't able to see this year...
See the trailer at their website:
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OK To Be Patriotic. Now.
For years, little would upset liberals more than the suggestion they were less patriotic than other Americans. The crowd spewing "Bush- Hitler- Genghis- Khan- baby-killers- AmeriKKKa- Ho-Ho-Ho-Chi-Minh"? Great patriots, all. Bill Ayers trampling a flag? Dissent is patriotic, dude.
But now that Barack Obama has been elected, comes an admission, unintended as it may be. Yeah, maybe we weren't so much before, but it's cool to be patriotic. Now. Such can be seen in Derrick Z. Jackson's Boston Globe column of today, "It's OK to be an American now." From Jackson's opening paragraph [emphasis added]:Before Obama's victory speech in Chicago, the crowd of 125,000 people said the Pledge of Allegiance. In my 53 years I have never heard such a multicultural throng recite the pledge with such determined enunciation, expelling it from the heart in a treble soaring to the skies and a bass drumming through the soil to vibrate my feet.
Jackson cites a University of Washington professor [what were the odds] who gave the columnist his headline, telling him "I guess it's OK to be an American now." So it wasn't before, apparently.
Are these folks inspired by patriotism, or are they akin to fans of the winning football team chanting "We Are The Champions"? If you only really love your country when your side is in power, what are you?
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Monday, November 24, 2008
American troops through a French infantryman's eyes
.
Shockingly positive views of our forces in Afghanistan are revealed in this translation of a post by a French OMLT (Operational Mentoring Liaison Teams) infantryman working with our troops there. A couple of brief excerpts:
Each man knows he can count on the support of a whole people who provides them through the mail all that an American could miss in such a remote front-line location : books, chewing gums, razorblades, Gatorade, toothpaste etc. in such way that every man is aware of how much the American people backs him in his difficult mission*. And that is a first shock to our preconceptions : the American soldier is no individualist. The team, the group, the combat team are the focus of all his attention.
And they are impressive warriors ! We have not come across bad ones, as strange at it may seem to you when you know how critical French people can be. All of them provide us everyday with lessons in infantry know-how. Beyond the wearing of a combat kit that never seem to discomfort them (helmet strap, helmet, combat goggles, rifles etc.) the long hours of watch at the outpost never seem to annoy them in the slightest. On the one square meter wooden tower above the perimeter wall they stand the five consecutive hours in full battle rattle and night vision goggles on top, their sight unmoving in the directions of likely danger. No distractions, no pauses, they are like statues nights and days. At night, all movements are performed in the dark [....]
And combat ? If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all - always coming to the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the shortest delay. That is one of their tricks : they switch from T-shirt and sandals to combat ready in three minutes. Arriving in contact with the enemy, the way they fight is simple and disconcerting : they just charge ! [....]
Honor, motherland - everything here reminds of that : the American flag floating in the wind above the outpost, just like the one on the post parcels. Even if recruits often originate from the hearth of American cities and gang territory, no one here has any goal other than to hold high and proud the star spangled banner.
The superb Jules Crittenden brought this to our attention. Read the whole thing here or here.
[when next our media give our useful idiots primacy of coverage remember that this nation also produces the likes of these ]
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[*and about the people backing them in their mission - done so lately? ---> ]
[click, donate, pass it on, thank you]
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Iraqi 'killers' of British soldiers given legal aid to fight being tried at home because*
Two Iraqis accused of killing British prisoners of war have been awarded thousands in legal aid to fight being tried in their own country, it emerged today.
Faisal Al-Saadoon and Khalaf Mufdhi allegedly killed Sapper Luke Allsopp and Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth in cold blood in 2003, at the start of the Iraq war.
At the time, then Prime Minister Tony Blair described their deaths as an 'execution' and the two men have been held in British custody in Iraq ever since.
Now the Government want to hand them over to Iraq for trial but their lawyers have launched a High Court challenge, claiming this would breach their human rights. [snip]
'Would we have given legal aid to Nazis who committed war crimes? Of course not. This is arrant nonsense,' ...
'What the hell is the point in fighting a way to try and establish democracy in a tyranny and then show a complete lack of trust in the new regime by failing to deliver alleged killers for trial?
'If these men do not stand trial in Iraq it would make a mockery of the blood spilt by British troops in fighting this war.'
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'US foiled missile shipment to Iran'
A few weeks before dropping North Korea from the United States' list of countries that sponsor terrorism, the Bush administration thwarted a shipment of missile parts, possibly including gyroscopes for guidance systems, from the far eastern country to Iran, the weekly news magazine Newsweek reported Sunday, quoting US officials.
[thank goodness Bush is leaving; we certainly couldn't afford four more years of this kind of thing]
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Pirates 'working with Islamists'
Somali pirates have been accused of forming what is described as an "unholy high seas alliance" with some of the country's Islamist insurgents. Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor says certain insurgents are using pirates to smuggle weapons and supplies and help provide bases in return. The London-based newsletter says pirates are also training Somali hardliners in naval tactics.
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AP Strangely Cheers: 'Pirate Economy Is Thriving'
[HT:LG]
Comedians have been having fun this week with the idea of old-fashioned piracy re-emerging on the Somali coast (enough of the Johnny Depp jokes). But Associated Press reporter Mohamad Olan Hassan filed a story with a strangely cheering tone for how Somali pirates can take their ill-gotten gains and "transform villages into boomtowns."
You have to read it to believe it..
READ MORE
[HT:LG]
Comedians have been having fun this week with the idea of old-fashioned piracy re-emerging on the Somali coast (enough of the Johnny Depp jokes). But Associated Press reporter Mohamad Olan Hassan filed a story with a strangely cheering tone for how Somali pirates can take their ill-gotten gains and "transform villages into boomtowns."
You have to read it to believe it..
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Deep-Six Piracy
Energy: Piracy has always been a shipping hazard, but Somalia's buccaneers have taken it up a notch. Their hijacking of a supertanker Monday shows how vulnerable oil supplies are and how critical it is to stop them.
[if only we had our own oil resources]
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Obama Out-Gores Gore at Climate Summit
Barack Obama managed to say all the wrong things at this week's Governors Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles -- without even showing up. The President-elect appeared to the green faithful on Tuesday in the form of a mammoth video image, and opened his pre-recorded pledge to "take the lead" in addressing global warming with these eerily familiar words:
"Few challenges facing America -- and the world -- are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We've seen record drought, spreading famine and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season."
Of course, no science is beyond dispute. Furthermore, one in its infancy, as is climatology, literally depends upon disagreement to light its path to maturity. And considering the tens of thousands of media-ignored-or-demeaned scientists disputing AGW dogma each and every day, Obama diminishes any credibility he might have on the subject by uttering words lifted directly from Gore's devious playbook.
He is, on the other hand, quite correct in stating that the facts are clear. Although, not as he sees them. To name but a few of contextual note:
[as always, a point by point scientific refutation of every point made by Obama in his full address. We're being scammed - if you've any doubt you Must Read > ]
Somehow an atomic Iran seems the more imminent threat.
[and please pass on - this scam is going to cost us and our children Trillions of dollars and a sizable chunk of our liberties]
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Looming Energy Disaster
I subscribe to an Internet newsletter called Energy Central and the news is getting more depressing every week. Every time I scan the headlines I realize I'm looking at another piece of a gathering energy debacle.
Take last Thursday's edition. Right at the top of the page was the story, "Xcel Energy, eXco Join in Major Wind Farm Developments in Minnesota, North Dakota." It's like this every day. Wind farms of sprouting up all over the country like 65-story mushrooms. [snip]
Unfortunately, it admits, "only approximately 23,000 MW…is projected to be available on peak." That means these windmills will be idle most of the time. Never mind, we are forging ahead anyway... [snip]
Rather than heeding this example, however, the Obama Administration is much more likely to do exactly what California did during the 1980s and 1990s -- stall both coal and nuclear construction while adopting huge subsidies and mandates for "renewable energy."
Within a decade we could find ourselves where California was in 2000 -- saddled with huge quantities of expensive "alternate" energy while not having enough electricity to run its traffic lights...
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Problems Plague U.S. Flex-Fuel Fleet
The federal government has invested billions of dollars over the past 16 years, building a fleet of 112,000 alternative-fuel vehicles to serve as a model for a national movement away from fossil fuels. But the costly effort to put more workers into vehicles powered by ethanol and other fuel alternatives has been fraught with problems...
[surprise; a government program failure. Who could have seen that coming?]
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THE PUBLIC PAYROLL ALWAYS RISES
As the recession hits home, all across America businesses and families are having to make hard decisions about what not to buy this year, it's business as usual for New York's public payrolls. [snip]
- The city reached an estimated record this June 30 of 313,965 employees on the public dime, according to the Mayor's office.
- That's an increase of more than 40,000 public workers in a year when Wall Street has been enduring historic losses and laying off tens of thousands of people.
[labor unions are parasitical to our society - public sector unions doubly so as they don't even have the tempering aspect of competition {as Detroit's 'big three' automakers are in the process of learning}]
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A labor-union problem looms for Obama
Minneapolis -- Two months before Barack Obama is to be sworn in as president, opening salvos are being launched over what could become one of the thorniest issues his administration will face next year.
Organized labor, which spent more than $80 million to put Democrats in the White House and Congress, wants Obama to deliver on its priority: new rules to make it easier to unionize workplaces...
[i.e., the passage of EFCA, aka 'card check'... ]
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LESS GOVERNMENT, MUCH LESS GOVERNMENT
Social Security and Medicare alone currently have a combined unfunded liability of $101.7 trillion, according to the 2008 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report. The unfunded liability is the difference between total benefits to be paid, and the total projected collections in taxes.
That $101.7 trillion unfunded liability is more than seven times the size of the U.S. economy and 10 times more than the national debt. According to the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), without raising taxes or massive reform of entitlement spending programs:
• By 2010, the federal government will stop doing 1 in 10 things it's doing now.How should you prepare to deal with this possibility of life with much less government? Addison Wiggin, coauthor of the suddenly popular book-turned-movie I.O.U.S.A. suggests,
• By 2020, the federal government will stop doing 1 in 4 things it's doing now.
• By 2030, the federal government will stop performing half of the services it provides.
• By 2050, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will consume nearly the entire federal budget.
"For their part, individuals need to save more, invest wisely, expect less from the government, and be willing to pay for the services they do expect."READ MORE
[then...
Can "we the people" really save our economy?
[click for website/info.]
The answer is "YES" - there IS something each of us can do.Click here to add your signature to a letter we're publishing in the New York Times.
Best regards,
The I.O.U.S.A. team
Obama and Government Job Creation
Media sources seemed to be thrilled that Obama is promising to save or create millions of new jobs. The only problem is they seem to purposefully fail to mention that these will be government jobs. From Libertarian Republican:
A check of all the major mainstream media sources this morning, finds that not a single one of them are using either the phase "Government Jobs," or "Public Sector," in their reporting on Obama's 2.5 million Jobs Program.
The AP is typical of the style of reporting: [snip]
On Saturday, Obama announced his plan to save or create 2.5 million jobs by investing billions of dollars to rebuild roads and bridges, modernize schools and develop alternative energy sources and efficient cars.Nowhere in the 14 paragraph article, is it mentioned that the jobs Obama plans to create are entirely in the public sector...
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Season Of Hope, Legacy Of Harm
Sen. Ted Kennedy, recovering from cancer surgery, made a splash when he returned to Capitol Hill last week. Good for him — but maybe bad for the future of U.S. medical treatment (Snip) reportedly said he was ready to work on an economic-stimulus package — and health care reform. While the damage from the former is likely to be only temporary, the harm from the latter will have negative effects for generations...
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Exhibit A: How Tom Daschle Might Kill Limited Government
The GOP strategist had been joking about the upcoming presidential election and giving his humorous assessments of the candidates. Then he suddenly cut out the schtick and got scary serious.
"Let me tell you something, if Democrats pass a big-government healthcare plan, that's it. Game over. Government will dominate the economy like it does in Europe. Conservatives will spend the rest of their lives trying to turn things around and they will fail."And it turns out that the fearsome harbinger of free-market doom is the mild-mannered ex-U.S. senator with the little, red glasses, Tom Daschle. He'll be the guy shepherding President Barack Obama's healthcare plan through Congress via his role as secretary of health and human services...
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More Sarahs, Fewer Arnolds
At the recent Republican Governors Conference in Florida, one superstar (Sarah Palin of Alaska) was center stage, while another (Arnold Schwarzenkennedy of Caleefornia) was conspicuous by his absence. [snip]
In many ways, it is unfair to compare the task of governing California and Alaska. While they are two of the largest states physically, the former is the most populous state, while the latter is the most sparsely populated. But the principles of responsible governance remain the same.
For example, Sarah Palin has utilized the natural resources of Alaska for the benefit of the people of Alaska. Arnold Schwarzenegger has shackled the taxpayers of his state by embracing much of the silliness of the environmental movement: opposing offshore drilling; supporting the continuation of numerous designer grades of gasoline to conform to “clean air” standards, etc.
She, not he, is the future of the GOP.
[Recommended, more for the mis-management factoids of CA than Palin's future]
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The Party-Controlled Press
In the old Soviet Union, everything was controlled by the Party, the Communist Party. Even military units each had their own party commissar, to ensure no activities took place that were not in the interest of the Party.
This, of course, was true of the media as well. The only media allowed in the old Soviet Union were institutions controlled by and devoted to the Party, and to the government run by the Party. The Soviet media would consequently slavishly repeat the government party line.
The question is, how is the so-called Mainstream Media in America today, under the new Obama Administration, any different from the media in the old Soviet Union?
[silly stretch? read it >
BTW: history is made a 2nd time {in 10 years, but still}: this piece is from Media Matters
{somebody get smelling salts for TS}]
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Liberals upset to discover that turkeys don't grow in their freezer cases
Many liberals are planning to celebrate Thanksgiving once again, thankful they finally took back their country when their candidate won the presidential election. To demonstrate their gratitude they were even willing to eat turkey, although quite a few are vegetarian.
But wouldn't you know, former Republican vice presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin (Alaska) had to ruin the feast with reality...
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Friday, November 21, 2008
[Folks,
subsequent to sending in my unsolicited opinion re: the G-20 meeting last Friday (as I'm sure you all did...) I received a solicitation to do so again from Obama's transition site - on the topic of Energy and the Environment - at the end of which was an invitation to invite friends to do likewise (and undoubtedly be placed on the mailing list themselves).
This is a good idea, Mr. Obama deserves credit for pro-actively soliciting citizen opinion, and it's in our interest to participate, so... I invite you to go HERE and sign up and maybe influence our next President's thinking before he acts {and don't worry TS, it's free}
You can then send to 10 friends at the site {screenshot} or, as always, forward this - let's take advantage of our digital democracy and get viral...]
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Combat Medic Training Evolves to Save Lives
Little did they know that events the next day eventually would send the force to war in Afghanistan, or that now, seven years later, the new breed of combat medics, many fresh from their initial training, would be called upon on two fronts to save countless lives on the battlefields.
Though they still officially are called health care specialists, today’s medics bear little resemblance to those who were trained by nurses. In their place are medics trained by combat veterans with a battle-focused curriculum that has evolved alongside the fight.
Though they still officially are called health care specialists, today’s medics bear little resemblance to those who were trained by nurses. In their place are medics trained by combat veterans with a battle-focused curriculum that has evolved alongside the fight.
Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Haney delivers a review of the combat medics’ performance in the “blood lab” at the Department of Combat Medic Training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The medics must work through the lab using a combination of soldier and medic skills administering aid, b
ut watching for hidden dangers such as homemade bombs and enemy weapons.
ut watching for hidden dangers such as homemade bombs and enemy weapons.[as if it isn't challenging enough already
Time To Reassess the Iraq War?
[HT:RP]
President-elect Barack Obama, on "60 Minutes," defended the financial bailout package. Yes, said Obama, the economy continues to suffer, but "I think the part of the way to think about it is things could be worse. … So part of what we have to measure against is what didn't happen and not just what has happened."
Interesting. Why not apply the "what didn't happen" standard to the unpopular Iraq war? [snip]
- At the time of the invasion of Iraq, more than 70 percent of Americans supported the war. Intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom, Jordan and Egypt — just to name a few — believed that the dictator of Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction...
- After 9/11, polls show that between 80 and 90 percent of Americans expected another hit within six months to a year. It didn't happen...
- Kay found no stockpiles of WMD. He did, however, say that Saddam retained the intention and the capability of resuming his WMD program...
- But for the Iraq invasion, Libya's Moammar Gadhafi would not have renounced his WMD program - now under lock and key in Tennessee...
- Rasmussen poll released a week ago finds voter confidence in the War on Terror at 60 percent — its "highest level ever"...
So was the Iraq war, as Obama insisted, a mission that "never should have been authorized and never should have been waged"?
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Iraq War: Right Time, Right Place, Right War
It needs to be said: It was smart to go to war in Iraq; it was courageous to go to war; but most of all -- even though there are few things as horrific as war -- it was necessary to go to war against Iraq. Had we not gone to war against Iraq in 2003, we almost certainly would have done so there or in another Arab country at another time, and all in less advantageous circumstances.
Iraq was the right time, right place, right war.
We had to go to war, because the only sure way to ensure our national security is to drain the swamp of terrorism: to finally begin the process of wrenching the Arab world from a culture of backwardness, oppression and hatred toward the West. [snip]
And as the war seems finally to show some hope of success, it isn't time to leave. Now is the time to reap the benefits of the sacrifice of money, national prestige and most important of all, the lives of some of our best young people. It is not the time to retreat and reveal to all and sundry that we are a paper tiger.
We need to finish the job as we remind ourselves why we are there...
[Highly Recommended > ]
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UN nuclear agency criticises Iran
VIENNA — Iran is still defying UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment and not cooperating with investigations into claims that its nuclear programme has a military aspect,
the UN atomic watchdog said on Wednesday.
"Contrary to the decisions of the (UN) Security Council, Iran has not suspended its enrichment related activities, having continued ... the installation of new cascades and the operation of new generation centrifuges for test purposes"
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The Ultimate Ultimatum
This morning, the New York Times reported that Iran has accumulated enough uranium to make a single atomic weapon. “It’s a virtual milestone,” says Thomas Cochran, a nuclear analyst in Washington.
Tehran, of course, insists it has no intention of weaponizing its uranium, but the International Atomic Energy Agency notes that the Iranians have refused to answer its inquiries about suspicious activities.
“There is no communication whatsoever.”
No communication? Proponents of engagement take note, please. The Iranians have nothing to say to the U.N. organization to which they have a treaty obligation to speak. So will they really talk to you in good faith?
Now that the mullahs have clearly violated their obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the time for nuance is over. At this moment, we need to give to Iran the ultimate in ultimatums:
“Immediately talk to the IAEA and comply with your international obligations or we will destroy your nuclear facilities and your capability to wage war.”
And if we are not willing to say that, we had better be prepared to live in the worst possible of worlds.
[expecting the UN to do anything about anything, when it is now predominantly populated by despot nations, is childish naivety - yet we persist...]
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Arctic-Seabed Oil Claims by U.S. May Quicken Under New Senate
Toronto - Democratic party gains in the U.S. Senate may speed approval of a maritime treaty that allows signatories to stake claims to Arctic seabed containing oil and gas deposits. With President-elect Barack Obama supporting ratification of the Law of the Sea and Democrats unseating seven Republican senators in this month's elections, the U.S. moved a step closer to joining 157 nations including Russia that have endorsed the treaty,
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[hmm - I smell spin:
FLASHBACK: NNBrief September 30, 2008:
Why Americans Can’t Get U.S. Oil
It is instructive that, when President Bush began to talk about lifting the ban on offshore drilling, the global price of oil dropped precipitously. As of this writing, it has not begun to rise and, if U.S. oil companies are permitted to explore and drill, the purpose of those leases, it will not only remain at current levels, but it will drop even more.
It is the Democrat Party and radical environmental organizations that stand between the discovery and provision of new oil and natural gas. It is the Democrat Party that is trying to push through a bogus “energy” bill that would put billions in the hands of those involved in “clean energy” projects that would barely provide the electricity America needs now, nor future needs.
If Congress should ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty, the United States would lose its claim to the vast reserves that potentially exist in the Arctic and you don’t need three guesses to figure out which political party supports ratification. That would be high on the agenda if it remains in Democrat control and if Sen. Obama were to be elected.
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[also see >
The Law of the Sea Treaty: A Bad Deal for America
The Law of the Sea Treaty: Inconsistent With American Interests
Ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty: A Not-So-Innocent Passage
summary: suicidal idea that cedes our naval sovereignty to the UN.]
'Oppose LOST Treaty'
US President president@whitehouse.gov
Obama transition http://www.change.gov/page/s/contact
YOUR Senator http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
.
Court rules for Navy in dispute over sonar, whales
[HT:BN]
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted restrictions on the Navy's use of sonar in training exercises off the California coast, a defeat for environmental groups who say the sonar can harm whales.
The court, in its first decision of the term, voted 5-4 that the Navy needs to conduct realistic training exercises to respond to potential threats by enemy submarines.
[a win? - read it again; 4 of those idiots put the welfare of wales above our national defense.]
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Scalia: Foreign law isn't ours
Judges who use foreign laws to interpret the U.S. Constitution are rewriting it rather than respecting its founders, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told a roomful of judges and top lawyers in Houston on Monday night."I fear the courts' use of foreign law in interpreting the Constitution will continue at an accelerated pace,"
the 72-year-old conservative jurist said.
[the constitution is our rule book - as written - as evidenced by the fact it contains the mechanism to change it over time to remain relevant. Anyone arguing otherwise is looking to have their way without the 'trouble' of getting citizen approval to change it.]
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Recession Will Be Less Damaging Without Bailouts
The U.S. has always distinguished itself relative to its major trading partners by having a higher faith in free markets and a greater respect for the limits of big government. Sure, the U.S. passed a stimulus package now and then, but it also let failure run its course and refused to resort to excessive big- government intrusions into the private sector.
The risk is that we will forget this lesson. First we bailed out the financial companies; now President-elect Barack Obama is asking for $50 billion to bail out the auto companies, an effort backed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Next we will see a tax credit for people who buy General Motors Corp. cars at stores of bankrupt retailer Circuit City, provided they use the car to go to a Detroit Lions game.
A look at economic history suggests that the crazy policy intrusions have to stop...
[Recommended > ]
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WANTED: SMALL GOVERNMENT
Up until the 1930s, the United States maintained a small federal government that mostly focused on the limited number of things the Constitution authorized it to do. Americans were responsible for their own food, clothing and shelter, and believed in earning wealth. What changed?
• In 1930 the federal government spent only 3.4 percent of gross domestic product, federal tax receipts equaled 4.2 percent of GDP and there was a federal budget surplus of 0.8 percent of GDP.
• By 1940, with the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his modern American welfare state, federal spending was 9.8 percent of GDP, federal tax receipts were 6.8 percent and the Treasury borrowed 3 percent of GDP to make up the difference.
• In 2009, it is estimated that the federal government will spend 20.7 percent of GDP while taking in 18 percent of GDP in taxes, and the Treasury will borrow 2.7 percent of GDP, much of it from foreign creditors, to make up the difference.
Today, the federal government eats up more than twice as much of our national wealth as it did in 1940 and more than six times as much as it did in 1930.
For the government to cover the gap every American household will need to put up about $455,000; the size of the mortgage the federal government has already taken out in the name of every American family.
So what have Americans gotten for this massive increase in government? More of their life is mortgaged to the government, and they are more dependent on government*...
[*everything becomes clear]
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The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, the public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt..
People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.Cicero - 55 B.C.
PAY ATTENTION AMERICA
Explosion of private clinics raising red flags
Since the first private MRI clinics opened their doors in Canada 10 years ago, there has been a national explosion of private health facilities across Canada: there are 42 for-profit magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) clinics, 72 private surgical hospitals (excluding cosmetic surgery facilities) and 16 "boutique" physician clinics, the Ontario Health Coalition says in a report, entitled Eroding Public Medicare: Lessons and Consequences for For-Profit Health Care Across Canada, being released today. [and as they must be paid for 100% by patients, they must really, really want them. But there's a problem... [snip]
"The contention that for-profit health care can exist along with a public system is not true," said Natalie Mehra, the report's author and director of the coalition. "It is a take-away from the public health-care system."
Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario, said the federal government has simply "turned a blind eye" and not enforced the Canada Health Act. [which prohibits private competition]
"Governments have fallen down on it. The Harper government definitely has, but the Liberals did too. This trend needs to be reversed.[?!] They need to catch up to the reality that the for-profit clinics are moving into this country and we need to get ahead of them."
[so, the wait times and capabilities of the government system are so bad that an entirely separate industry has sprung up to serve it without a penny from the government, and the government response? Kill it. This is crossing the (fine) line between socialism and communism. More to the point, it is the inevitable evolution of self-serving/protecting governments once allowed into markets: legislatively kill all competition. We've been warned...]
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Dallas Morning News Virtually Ignores Criminal Nature of School District's Persistent Social Security ID Fraud
Those who don't understand why paid circulation at major metro newspapers has been declining steeply for at least the past five years need look no further than yesterday's disgraceful reporting by Tawnell D. Hobbs in the Dallas Morning News (DMN).
The Dallas Independent School District (DISD) has been committing crimes that would cause private companies performing similar acts to be raided and/or shut down: issuing fake Social Security numbers to foreigner with visas and/or illegal immigrants to get them on the payroll.
This is serious stuff. Yet Hobbs and her paper did everything they could to minimize the impact of the story, as seen in these excerpts: [snip]
Hobbs is following what has apparently become a key commandment of metro reporting: Thou shalt avoid or minimize the significance of any news that might put the city's school district in a bad light -- no matter now shocking, negligent, or criminal.
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Media and Academia, Historical Illiterates du Jour
To show how foolishly hyperbolic the Old Media and the ignorati in our universities are, the Associated Press issued a dire report that breathlessly informed us all that Barack Obama is facing a "nation in crisis" and it's all "just like Lincoln and FDR." The AP even gets an historically illiterate university professor to sonorously declare how Obama is "one step away" from Lincoln and FDR.
But a review of our nation's real history shows that the America Obama will inherit is in nowhere near the state of crisis that Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt had to deal with. But, in the end, this isn't about real reporting or true historiography but about pumping Obama up and trying to shoehorn him in among what are considered by many our greatest presidents before he's even taken office.
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Unions plan organization push in Texas
Emboldened by their role in electing Barack Obama, labor unions are pushing to make it easier to organize workers in states with historically low levels of union penetration, including Texas. The unions, which include the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win coalition, enhanced their political muscle by campaigning heavily for Mr. Obama, who sponsored several labor-friendly bills during his brief career in the Senate.
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Meet the union organizers
One of the Obama administration's first legislative priorities will be the passage of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Once EFCA becomes law, (Snip) unionization will be thrust upon right-to-work states such as Texas. EFCA is not just bad policy. It will end this state's competitive advantage as a low-tax, union-free environment that encourages businesses to locate here and provide jobs for Texans...
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NBC News Sells Commemorative Obama 'Yes We Can!' DVD
Right before the 9:35am segment, on Monday's "Today" show, a commercial from NBC News was aired announcing a special DVD on Barack Obama's life story was for sale on its Web site.
ANNOUNCER: NBC News Presents, "Yes We Can! The Barack Obama Story!" A DVD of his life and road to the White House. Pre-order now at NBCSTORE.COM.
If memory serves there was no special DVD offered for George W. Bush's inauguration.
The question has to be asked how much time will the DVD devote to such gaffes as Barack's "bitter" quote or Michelle's "For the first time...I'm proud to be an American," quote as well as any Jeremiah Wright/Bill Ayers mentions compared to any time given to NBC's own Chris Matthews and Lee Cowan "thrill" moments...
[just when you think they can't embarrass themselves further. is their any question as to their metamorphosis to a 527 advocacy group?]
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Employees sue for unpaid Windows Vista overtime
Windows Vista is in more legal hot water and this time the ones getting wet are the companies who've rolled out the operating system, not Microsoft. A series of lawsuits have been brought against major US companies by staff claiming unpaid overtime based on the time it takes Windows Vista to start up and shut down. Mark Thierman, a solo legal practitioner based in Reno, Nevada, told The Reg employees are losing up to two hours of pay a week thanks to Windows Vista.
[? why would they ever turn it on or off? {said the smug Mac driver}]
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Thursday, November 20, 2008
Barney Worries Bankruptcy Would Bust Unions
Barney Frank favors bailing out the Detroit automakers over letting them go into bankruptcy. Chief among his concerns is that bankruptcy might "bust" the unions. You know, those organizations whose contract demands have put Detroit on the brink of extinction:
There is also an assumption that if you do bankruptcy, you could undo labor contracts. Now the unions to their credit have negotiated some concessions. But you know, we already have too much union-busting and too much income inequality for the average worker in this country for us to now say by the way, if you're a company and you haven't been able to totally get rid of the unions, then go bankrupt and rewrite, write down the contracts.As our sister organization CNS has reported, "it costs over $73 per hour on average to employ a union auto worker." That compares to an average of about $43/hour for the non-union workers of the Japanese automakers with operations in the US.Some "concessions." Will the MSM highlight that disparity?
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China denies attempting to get US space data
China on Tuesday denied it had illicitly sought technical data for space launch vehicles from the US, after a physicist from Virginia pleaded guilty to illegally exporting the information to China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang dismissed the case. ''The so-called (allegation) of China stealing space technology from the United States is sheer nonsense,'' Qin told a regular news briefing.
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Port of Los Angeles security under control of Chinese President’s son
The Port of Los Angeles--the nation’s largest--has purchased with $1.7 million American tax dollars via a “port security grant” awarded by the U.S. Department of Homeland security, a mobile X-ray scanning system made by Nuctech Company Limited, owned outright by Hu Haifeng, the son of Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Critics of the transaction raise the specter of sensitive X-ray images and cargo manifests being archived on the X-ray scanning system and transmitted via the Internet back to Nuctech in China, or to the Chinese government. Indeed, the mobile system was required to offer that technical capability from the get-go.
“The bid that included the Nuctech scanner, which was cheaper than rival bids submitted by Smiths Detection in New Jersey, and Rapiscan Systems, of Torrance, CA, was formally submitted to the port by a small U.S.-based business headquartered in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, known as DULY Research Inc.” “We were cognizant of the fact that we were the first port to acquire this Chinese system,” said George Cummings, the port’s director of homeland security. “They were the low bidder and they complied with all the technical requirements.”
It’s been two years since the Dubai Ports fiasco was last on the public radar screen. During the high profile Dubai Ports debacle, those who opposed the sale of American ports to Dubai, vowed that no foreign government would be permitted to acquire such strategic targets in future.
The Port of Los Angeles is not only one of them, it’s the biggest of the lot.
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8 Muslims settle skirt dispute with UPS
Eight Muslim women who filed a human rights complaint against the United Parcel Service (UPS) over a dress code dispute, settled with the company yesterday. But it is unclear whether the company will change its policy, since neither party would discuss the terms of the agreement.
The women, all devout Muslims, lost their jobs in 2005 because they refused to hike their skirts above the knee over their long pants.
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Phoenix Imam Tells Muslims To Disregard U.S. Laws
“A Muslim must try his best to abide by the rulings of Sharia [Islamic law] whenever possible as much as he can. He should not allow himself to be liable to those western laws that contradict the clear-cut Islamic rulings.”
But the speaker was not some fanatic Wahhabi in Saudi Arabia; it was the Phoenix-based imam Omar Shahin, president of the North American Imams Foundation...
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Farrakhan says 'new beginning' for Nation of Islam
CHICAGO – The Nation of Islam, a secretive movement generally closed to outsiders, has planned a rare open-to-the public event at its Chicago-based headquarters in what the Minister Louis Farrakhan deemed a "new beginning" for the group. Hundreds of religious leaders have been invited to the event planned for Sunday, a rededication of the group's historic Mosque Maryam on the city's South Side.
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Moscow flexes muscle in Ukraine
KIEV — Armed with petrodollars and success in restoring control over two enclaves in the Caucasus, Russia is increasing political pressure on Ukraine and trying to dampen its aspirations for NATO membership and closer ties with the West.
Moscow has tried to raise the stakes by having state-run Russian media accuse Mr. Yushchenko of selling arms to Georgia, which in August lost its provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to Russian troops in a brief war.
Mr. Yushchenko and his supporters say Moscow has distributed Russian passports to ethnic Russians in the Crimea and has sought an alliance with Yushchenko rival Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
"Russia will do whatever it can to destabilize Ukraine," said Danylo Yanevsky, director of research at Kiev´s Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy. "It needs to ruin Ukraine for its own survival."
If Russia succeeds in boosting the number of Russian citizens in Crimea, it will have achieved the geopolitical equivalent of ballot-stuffing," Peter Dickinson, editor of Kiev-based Business Ukraine magazine, wrote recently.
[same play book as Georgia. same ending? Believe me, we've a vested interest...]
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