Tuesday, September 30, 2008
That $700-billion bailout figure
You know where that very important $700-billion figure came from?
Here's a quote from that Forbes story:
"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."They made it up to be sufficiently ginormous to frighten everyone into rapid action.
And it worked.
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House members rejected bailout because voters back home hated it
[HT:WR]
WASHINGTON — Almost until the early afternoon vote Monday on the financial rescue plan, voters bombarded congressional offices, protesting almost in unison: Don't bail out renegade financial executives and companies.
The 228 votes against the plan included 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans, a mix of conservatives, liberals and members in tough re-election fights.
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Despicable Politicians Most Outrageous Demand Yet
MEMPHIS - Here's why Americans are revolting over the Wall Street rescue plan.
It's not that taxpayers refuse to dig deeper to avoid an even bigger catastrophe. It's that they're all puking over the notion that it's the same bums in Washington who caused the mess by allowing it to fester who are now demanding their money to fix it.
[click image to enlarge]It's like the criminal who breaks into your house, hurts himself, then sues you for damages...
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Saddest Thing About This Mess: Congress Had Chance To Stop It
Could the crisis at Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac and the subprime meltdown have been avoided? The answer is yes.
As early as 1992, alarm bells were going off on the threat Fannie and Freddie posed to our financial system and our economy. Intervention at any point could have staved off today's crisis. But Democrats in Congress stood in the way.
As the president recently said, Democrats have been: "resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me . . . to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."
No, it wasn't President Bush who said that; it was President Clinton, Democrat, speaking just last week... [snip]
This year, the media have repeated Democrats' talking points about this being a "Republican" disaster. Well, McCain has repeatedly called for reforming the mortgage giants. The White House has repeatedly warned Congress. This year alone, Bush urged reform 17 times.
Some GOP members are complicit. But Fannie and Freddie were created by Democrats, regulated by Democrats, largely run by Democrats and protected by Democrats.
That's why taxpayers are now being asked for $700 billion
[Recommended > ]
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Iraqi insurgents forced underground
Karma, Iraq - When the Iraqi Army caught Abdul al-Wasit, a mid-level operative for Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), he was working undercover as a shepherd in a rural area. It was a far cry from his earlier days in a village 65 miles south, where he used to extort locals and openly execute rivals. The once seemingly untouchable insurgent had been reduced to hiding on the fringes of society.
[but they're not gone yet]
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Pentagon Honors Exceptional Employers of Citizen-Servicemembers
WASHINGTON, Fifteen employers accepted a Defense Department award last night for their exceptional financial and emotional support of National Guard and Reserve members on their payrolls.
The recipients were selected from the nearly 2,200 employers nominated for the Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award, the U.S. government’s highest recognition for efforts made in the civilian lives of America’s citizen-servicemembers, which make up roughly half of the nation’s armed forces.
Thomas F. Hall, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, said 650,000 National Guard and reserve members have mobilized since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Currently, 110,000 are on active duty around the world.
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Obama and the Reagan Doctrine Obama and the Reagan Doctrine
In his debate with John McCain, Barack Obama's attempted to portray the Bush administration as a complete failure both in domestic and foreign policy. This argument, however, is running into one big problem: Bush's Iraq policy appears to be succeeding.
Obama attempted to change the subject by saying that Afghanistan, not Iraq, is the central front of the war on terror. But none of the hijackers or their planners actually came from Afghanistan. Every single one of them was from the Middle East, mostly Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Moreover, Afghanistan has only minor strategic significance compared to Iraq. Iraq’s neighbors include Turkey, Jordan, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. No wonder Bin Laden and his associates have declared Iraq the central front of the war on terror, the launching pad for a new world war.
Obama, by contrast, still regards the Taliban as the vanguard of global jihad. This shows Obama as being both naïve and out of date...
[not really: more like political - assuming most folk don't realize the above]
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.The Democrats' Big Problem: The War In Iraq Wasn't About Oil
This 2008 presidential election cycle has been jam-packed with irony. John McCain has been forced to rely on the 527 groups he so despises; Barack Obama has been denounced by members of the black community but embraced by upper class whites; the Clintons have been rejected by the very media that put them in power.
But perhaps the most ironic fact of the 2008 election cycle is this:
the war in Iraq was not a war for oil.,
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Cologne's Speech-Killing Politico's Reek of 'Fascism'
... I have watched in horror as local authorities yielded their charge of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly -- indeed, yielded civic space and civic peace -- to a lawless band of violent leftists, who, in their weekend stint of mob rule, successfully prevented a political rally against the Islamization of Europe from taking place.
In brief, elected officials from several different countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy), politicians who campaign and win elections on the politically incorrect issue of resistance to the spread of Islamic law (Sharia), were invited to speak in Cologne.
Why Cologne? After a long and contentious battle, the city council last month narrowly approved the construction of a giant mosque complex funded by a group called the Turkish-Islamic Union... [snip] declared before 20,000 cheering Turkish expatriates that "assimilation is a crime against humanity", and called for the German formation of Turkish-language schools... [snip]
As in Europe, huge mosque complexes are opening across the States -- one very recently in Boston and another in Atlanta. Do they portend the extension and entrenchment of Islamic law in the United States?
Possibly; we don't have any political parties willing to even discuss it.
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'Jewel of Medina' Publisher's Offices Set Afire
Amid all the false media hubub about Sarah Palin being an alleged "book banner" comes much more serious news about the British publisher of "Jewel of Medina," a book about the child-bride of Islamic prophet Mohammed has been set afire:
Three men arrested in north London on suspicion of terrorism continue to be questioned by police. They are suspected of attempting to set fire to a publisher's office in Lonsdale Square, Islington.Will the U.S. media report this event? I'm not exactly holding my breath since the American press showed little interest earlier this year when Random House, originally scheduled to publish the book in the United States went back out of fear of violence.
The publisher, Gibson House, is due to release a controversial novel about the Prophet Muhammad and his child bride, entitled "The Jewel of the Medina."
At that time, not a single American television network reported on this sad moment for free speech.
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Iran to pursue uranium enrichment
Tehran - Iran today said it will go on with its uranium enrichment activities despite a fifth UN Security Council resolution calling for a freeze to the sensitive nuclear work.'' Enrichment is our right and we believe that suspension is an illegal request. We will continue on our path in a normal way,''
The United States and its European allies had pushed for tougher sanctions but ran into resistance from Russia and China.
[misleading: it wasn't the 5th resolution, it was a republishing of the 4th as Russia refused to support any new/additional sanctions]
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Venezuela set to develop nuclear power
CARACAS - President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday Venezuela will develop a nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes, in another challenge to Washington just days after Russia offered nuclear assistance to the socialist Latin American leader. "In Venezuela we are interested in development of nuclear energy, of course for peaceful purposes, for medical purposes, for purposes of electricity generation," Chavez said at a political rally.
[the world's failure on Iran has far reaching consequences]
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Diplomats: Syria passes 1st test of nuclear probe
Vienna, Austria - site bombed by Israel show nothing to back up U.S. assertions that the target was a secret nuclear reactor, diplomats said Saturday.
But _ if they were interested in a cover-up _ the Syrians would have scoured the region to bury, wash away and otherwise remove any such traces. Long before the time of the June IAEA visit to the site, it had been encased in concrete that served as the foundation of a new building...
[I.e., it was a nuclear reactor, which is why Syria kept everyone out until they'd sanitized the place, despite which the IAEA published what anyone with the I.Q. of a cabbage knows is bullshit - but it's critical of the U.S. so run with it.
When will we learn? It's in our interest to dissolve the organization - starting with withholding our lion's share of dues and evicting them from New York]
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The Nonsense of Global Warming
This summer's atrocious weather tempted me to tease a Green whom I know. "Well, what about your weather theory now?" (One of the characteristics of Greens is that they know no history.) He replied: "Yes, this weather is unprecedented. England has never had such an August before. It's global warming, of course." That's the Greens' stock response to anything weather-related. Too much sun? "Global warming." Too little sun? "Global warming." Drought? "Global warming." Floods? "Global warming." Freezing cold? "Global warming."
Marxism, Freudianism, global warming. These are proof--of which history offers so many examples--that people can be suckers on a grand scale. To their fanatical followers they are a substitute for religion. Global warming, in particular, is a creed, a faith, a dogma that has little to do with science. [snip]
The idea that human beings have changed and are changing the basic climate system of the Earth through their industrial activities and burning of fossil fuels--the essence of the Greens' theory of global warming--has about as much basis in science as Marxism and Freudianism. Global warming, like Marxism, is a political theory of actions, demanding compliance with its rules.
Those who buy in to global warming wish to drastically curb human economic and industrial activities, regardless of the consequences for people, especially the poor. If the theory's conclusions are accepted and agreed upon, the destructive results will be felt most severely in those states that adhere to the rule of law and will observe restrictions most faithfully.
The global warming activists' target is the U.S. If America is driven to accept crippling restraints on its economy it will rapidly become unable to shoulder its burdens as the world's sole superpower and ultimate defender of human freedoms. We shall all suffer, however, as progress falters and then ceases and living standards decline...
[I wouldn't call it nonsense though; they're deadly serious about forcing it on us - Recommended > ]
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GREEN POWER: BUYERS BEWARE
... given their eagerness for environmental bragging rights, many of the power companies are strangely reluctant to explain with specificity how extra payments from consumers produce green energy that would not be generated otherwise. A recent investigation found that a good portion of money is actually going toward marketing:
- Georgia Power's Green Energy program services 4,042 customers, but the company charges a premium even though green energy is actually cheaper than conventional alternatives.
- In Indiana, Duke Energy sponsors the Go Green program that could provide green energy to 1,156 customers, but in 2007, less than 18 percent of voluntary consumer contributions went to renewable energy development.
- Companies like Dominion in North Carolina provide the NC GreenPower program to over 14,000 customers, yet only 19 percent of program spending in 2007 was directed to renewable energy projects. [more, snip]
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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]
THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON
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Obama Supreme Court Candidate Deval Patrick—Part 1
Deval Patrick has made his mark on the law in the field of racial preferences. Let’s take a look at his remarkable record:
Patrick as AAG aggressively pursued and defended racial preferences and racial line-drawing across the board—in employment, government contracting, and gerrymandering—even in the face of contrary Supreme Court rulings. Patrick was notorious for his tactics of intimidation and abuse. Even liberal senator Carol Moseley Braun (whose seat Barack Obama occupies) decried Patrick’s “Gestapo techniques” that “run roughshod over citizens, over communities.” (Washington Times, Oct. 1, 1996.)
When the city of Torrance, California stood up to Patrick’s charge—based entirely on statistical disparity from what quota-based hiring would yield—that it had committed employment discrimination, a Carter-appointed judge found Patrick’s case “frivolous, unreasonable, and without foundation” and awarded Torrance two million dollars in attorney’s fees.
Similar examples abound...
[this is the issue that will have repercussions lasting a generation and beyond - MUST READ > ]
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Judges: McCain’s strong suit
If John McCain falters down the stretch, he can find strength on the bench. One of the only lines that received enthusiastic applause from delegates during the flat first half of John McCain’s Republican National Convention speech last Thursday came when the nominee said his party
“believes in the rule of law, and judges who dispense justice impartially and don’t legislate from the bench.”READ MORE
Chicago Tribune Writer Finds Cause for Possible Obama Loss: Elderly Frontal Lobe Prejudice
Chicago Tribune correspondent, Howard Witt, seems to have found the villain to blame in case Barack Obama loses in November: elderly prejudiced white people.
However, such "prejudice" is not their fault, Witt "generously" allows, since they suffer from atrophied frontal brain lobes. Witt's article claims that such people will be more likely to vote against Obama due to the prejudice induced by these diseased frontal lobes...
[ah; unintended racism. progress of a sort, I guess]
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Homeland Security Detects Terrorist Threats by Reading Your Mind
Baggage searches are SOOOOOO early-21st century. Homeland Security is now testing the next generation of security screening — a body scanner that can read your mind.
Most preventive screening looks for explosives or metals that pose a threat. But a new system called MALINTENT turns the old school approach on its head. This Orwellian-sounding machine detects the person — not the device — set to wreak havoc and terror.
MALINTENT, the brainchild of the cutting-edge Human Factors division in Homeland Security's directorate for Science and Technology, searches your body for non-verbal cues that predict whether you mean harm to your fellow passengers...
[not done cooking yet - but not pie in the sky either - Interesting > ]
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Zardari’s Palin flirt earns him a fatwa
LAHORE: The prayer leader of the infamous Lal Masjid in the heart of Islamabad has issued a decree against President Asif Zardari for publicly making indecent gestures towards the American Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin during their Washington meeting, saying the act was un-Islamic and Zardari has shamed the entire Pakistani nation.
[Elect Palin. Send her on a world tour. All extremists kill each other. Another problem fixed. The 'Palin Doctrine' is born.]
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