Moose Blarney

Our pal Jay Nordlinger was on Irish radio yesterday, and several callers objected to Sarah Palin on the following grounds: The woman shoots moose, as did Teddy Roosevelt, a long time ago. Only in TR’s day, there were many more moose — Sarah endangers a species.

Absolutely backwards, but an interesting example of how the progressive mind prefers to obsess on entirely fictional crises...

There were far fewer moose in Teddy's day. Today there are more moose than a century ago, ...

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One retraction, but many smears

The New York Times has now retracted the outrageous fabrication it printed on the front-page of Tuesday’s edition: that Sarah Palin was a member of the Alaska Independence party for two years in the 1990s.

Other papers around the world continue to print this falsehood (in London, the Guardian’s front page had a banner headline which read “My fellow Alaskans”) and other lies generated by left-wing smear blogs continue to be lapped up by many in the mainstream media.

No, Sarah Palin didn’t support Pat Buchanan in the 1999-2000 campaign; she was an official on the campaign of Republican presidential contender Steve Forbes.

No, her eldest son Track (who is deploying to Iraq this week) didn’t join the National Guard because he was a drug addict.

No, her daughters Willow and Piper aren’t named after witches on TV.

No, she’s not anti-Semitic. In fact, she has an Israeli flag in her office, and quietly turned up for services at a newly opened Wasilla synagogue to pay her respects.

No, she didn’t cut funding for unwed mothers, but increased it by 354 percent (and no, the Washington Post doesn’t appear to have corrected its story about this despite being asked to do so).

But, yes, she did try to cut her own salary by $4,000 a year when she was mayor of Wasilla; and yes, she voted against the $4,000-a-year raise while on the city council..

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CNN: Palin Not ‘Able to Handle’ Foreign Policy

CNN’s State Department correspondent Zain Verjee insisted that Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin "just won't be able to handle" foreign crises like the conflict between Russia and Georgia during an interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

At the beginning of the short interview, Rice complimented the Alaska governor for her "terrific speech" at the Republican convention. ... Verjee pressed her on the experience question:

"...you can dispatch Vice President Cheney to deal with the Ukraine and Georgia. But Sarah Palin just won't be able to handle it."

In response to Verjee’s matter-of-fact statement, Rice replied, "There are different kinds of experiences in life that help one to deal with matters of foreign policy."

[foreign affairs wogs supply Presidents with more knowledge than they can handle about world affairs - it's character and conviction that Presidents use to make the tough calls.

What has Obama ever done to consider him more qualified in foreign affairs than Palin? When the above 'Truman factor' is considered, Palin's the more qualified to protect American interests given Obama's self-described world citizenship and demonstrated penchant to blame America for all ills]

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Palin Finalized 20-Year Quest for Pipeline Deal in First 20 Months

In her first 20 months as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin completed a deal for a natural gas pipeline that had been a top economic goal for the state for nearly two decades. After battling oil companies and leading lawmakers over the project, Palin signed the bill on Aug. 27, 2008.

(Snip) In early August, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama endorsed Palin’s bill, about one month before she was chosen to be the GOP vice presidential nominee...

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Energy Myths

[part 2]

Many in Congress seem either disconnected from reality or intentionally disingenuous about our energy crunch. They have well-honed negative responses to common-sense ideas about solving our energy crisis.

These responses are based on a number of widely held myths. Sadly, they've somehow [read: media] become the backbone of our energy 'policy'. They include:

• "Oil companies are sitting on 68 million acres of oil leases and refuse to drill."

This is yet another slander of "Big Oil" - it's completely dishonest.

Oil companies have spent billions of dollars for those leases. Drilling has increased by more than 66% since 2000. They are searching for oil even as you read this. Some parts of those 68 million acres will have oil, but many have proven not to.

That said, 68 million acres is in fact a minuscule amount. Some 94% of federal lands — 658 million acres — remains off-limits to exploration. Another 97% — or 1.7 billion acres — of federal offshore properties likewise remains off-limits.

These lands contain tens of billions of barrels of recoverable oil. It's there for the taking, now.

As such, it's the height of irresponsibility for Congress to leave these lands off the table. It ensures we remain vulnerable to pariah petrostates like Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iran and others who wish us ill...

[Recommended > ]

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[he forgot one...]

Shameless Editorializing

The Associated Press injected an editorial comment into the news... again. A few days ago, the AP issued a piece headlined Senate Republicans block heating aid bill, in which the AP made it seem as if Republicans don't care about "the poor" and are only interested in mere political partisanship [snip]

"Although a dozen Senate Republicans support the measure, most voted with GOP leaders who would rather spend the time trumpeting their call to expand offshore oil drilling before Congress takes six weeks off for vacation and the presidential nominating conventions."

And the GOP response to all this populist moralizing? How did the AP explain the GOP position in a fair and balanced way?

Well... they didn't. While the report featured several Democratic quotes showing how wonderful and caring they are not a single quote from any Republican explaining their stance was provided.

[what bias?]

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MEDICAID MONEY LAUNDERING

The scene of this crime is Medicaid; it turns out that states have been goosing their financing arrangements to maximize their federal payouts and dump more of their costs onto taxpayers nationwide. The swindle works like this, says the Journal:

• A state overpays state-run health-care providers, such as county hospitals or nursing homes, for Medicaid benefits far in excess of its typical rates.
• Then the federal government reimburses the state for "half" of the inflated bills.
• Once the state bags the extra matching funds, the hospital is required to rebate the extra money it received at the scam's outset.

In fact, a new industry of contingency-fee consultants has sprung up to help states find and exploit the "ambiguities" in Medicaid's regulatory wasteland. All the feds can do is notice loopholes when they get too expensive and close them, whereupon the cycle starts over.

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USE OF HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS UP 35 PERCENT

The number of Americans with insurance plans tied to health savings accounts has passed the 6 million mark, according to America's Health Insurance Plans. HSAs are tax-favored, individually owned savings accounts that can be used to pay for medical expenses in conjunction with a high-deductible insurance plan. About 6.1 million Americans were covered through HSA plans in January 2008, up 35 percent over the same period a year earlier.

The increasing popularity of HSAs is a result of managed care's failure, says John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis. adding that the best way to control health care costs is to put patients in control of more of their health care dollars.

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Bar Association and Sen. Joseph Biden Enlist in War on Dads

The ABA represents lawyers who seek to win their cases, especially if they are profitable and result in verdicts that order transfers of money. A good example of a special-interest publication is called "10 Myths About Custody and Domestic Violence and How to Counter Them," which was produced "for use in litigation" by the ABA.

"10 Myths" is designed to teach lawyers how to win money verdicts against fathers by using false or misleading arguments masquerading as objective research.

The commission's Web site notes this disclaimer: "The ABA Commission on Domestic Violence does not engage in research, and cannot vouch for the quality or accuracy of any of the data excerpted here." Too bad the "10 Myths" flier doesn't include this disclaimer, too, because most of it lacks both quality and accuracy. [snip]

"10 Myths" denies the big problem that false allegations of domestic violence and child abuse are frequently used by women to win child custody, and that children can be coached to betray their fathers. "10 Myths" ignores the problem that family courts regularly deny custody and issue restraining orders against men based on a woman's unsubstantiated say-so and without giving the man fundamental due process rights.

Dr. Stephen Baskerville's landmark 2007 book, "Taken into Custody: The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family" (Cumberland House), poignantly describes how attorneys advise divorced wives seeking child custody to accuse the father of abuse and obtain a restraining order barring him from the family home, knowing that she will never be punished for false accusations. [snip]

Senator Joe Biden, D-Del., has rushed to the aid of women who want free lawyers to help them make domestic violence accusations, and of lawyers seeking income from those cases. He is the lead sponsor of an extravagant new boondoggle called the National Domestic Violence Volunteer Attorney Network Act (S.1515)...

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A NEW LIFE FOR FANNIE AND FREDDIE
By "federalizing" Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson wants to prop up the two mortgage giants -- albeit at great expense to taxpayers -- so the world keeps buying their mortgaged-backed securities (MBSs).

However, the biggest risk is that the companies could still emerge with their business model intact. That model is the perverse mix of private profit and public risk, which gave them an incentive to make irresponsible mortgage bets in the first place...

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Politicians Did This
THE Democrats will blame the Republicans. And the Republi cans will blame the Democrats. And this time, they will both be right. Each of the political parties shares responsibility for the troubles at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-sponsored organizations that needed to be bailed out this weekend by - who else? - the taxpayers.
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“Media ‘Talking Down’ the Economy to Get a Dem Elected?”

... Neil's guests which not only included regular assertions that this is clearly about getting a Democrat in the White House, but also that media are

"committing a crime against the general public" by creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that will end up costing people their jobs in the long run. [snip]

"if we have a serious recession, a great deal will lie at the media's feet."

Cavuto marvelously began the segment...

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Well, is the economy slowing? Well, yeah it is. But call me crazy, is it as bad as this? This week, the Associated Press claiming Americans are being subjected to, and I quote "economic water torture." And then this little ditty item on the GDP, "The economy nearly sputtered out at the end of the year."

We were up at the end of the year...

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For US, a terror threat lurks in drug smuggling subs

KEY WEST, Fla. - Skimming just below the surface, they are extremely difficult to detect from surveillance aircraft or patrol boats. Their sleek design, up to 80 feet in length, can secretly carry several tons of cargo thousands of miles.

These "semi-submersibles," which exhibit some of the same characteristics as military submarines, mark a significant advancement in the ability of drug smugglers to slip past coastal defenses.

So far this year, the Coast Guard says it has encountered at least 27 such vessels headed toward the southern and western United States, more than in the previous six years combined, while far more are believed to have gone undetected, according to US military and law enforcement officials.

The growing number and increased sophistication of the vessels, officially designated "self-propelled semi-submersibles," has set off alarms at the highest levels of the US military and the federal Department of Homeland Security. Counterterrorism officials fear that what drug runners now use to deliver cocaine, terrorists could one day use to sneak personnel or massive weapons into the United States...

[ya think? How do we know they haven't already? We need control our borders]

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ACLU sues to halt RI governor's immigration order

Providence, R. I. - A civil rights group filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to block Gov. Don Carcieri from enforcing an executive order requiring private employers to electronically check the immigration status of new hires. The lawsuit, filed by the state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, challenges an executive order that Carcieri signed in March to clamp down on illegal immigration.

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PROTECT OUR KIDS FROM PRESCHOOL

Is strapping a backpack on all 4-year-olds and sending them to preschool good for them? Not according to available evidence, say Shikha Dalmia, a senior analyst, and Lisa Snell, director of education policy at the Reason Foundation.

• In the last half-century, U.S. preschool attendance has gone up to nearly 70 percent from 16 percent.
• But fourth-grade reading, science, and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) -- the nation's report card -- have remained virtually stagnant since the early 1970s.

The results from Oklahoma and Georgia -- both of which implemented universal preschool a decade or more ago -- paint an equally dismal picture.

• A 2005 analysis by researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, found that kindergartners with 15 or more hours of preschool every week were less motivated and more aggressive in class.
• Likewise, Canada's C.D. Howe Institute found a higher incidence of anxiety, hyperactivity and poor social skills among kids in Quebec after universal preschool.

If anything, preschool may do lasting damage to many children, say Dalmia and Snell...

[yeah but social indoctrination takes root just fine (think: global warming, 'alternative' families - ad nauseam]

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Race War?

At the Philadelphia Daily News, Fatimah Ali warns: If McCain wins, look for a full-fledged race and class war, fueled by a deflated and depressed country, soaring crime, homelessness - and hopelessness!

Sounds like a pretty enfeebled bunch of warriors to me. Deflated, depressed, homeless, and hopeless. What makes Ali so sure this gloomy mob will be able to rally themselves and rise up against the rest of the country?

Oh yeah, that’s right: hope.

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Sarah Scares Them Because They Don't Scare Her -

Liberals fear what they can't control, and subsequently seek the elimination of what they fear. (Snip)It also explains why they're currently pulling out all stops in their effort to destroy Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

(Snip)Sarah Palin is beyond their categorization and refuses to be limited by the mold into which they force all women. She doesn’t want their praise.

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Extra...

.
Democrats must learn some respect

Democrats regard their policies as self-evidently in the interests of the US working and middle classes. Yet those wide segments of US society keep helping to elect Republican presidents. How is one to account for this? Are those people idiots?

Frankly, yes – or so many liberals are driven to conclude. If they only had the brains to vote in their interests, Democrats think, the party would never be out of power. But again and again, the Republicans tell their lies, and those stupid damned voters buy it.

It is an attitude that nearly all of the US media share. Curiously, whereas the conservative media {talk radio} know they are conservative, much of the liberal media believe themselves to be neutral.

Their constant support for Democratic views has nothing to do with bias, in their minds, but reflects the fact that Democrats just happen to be right about everything...

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