NATIONALIZING DETROIT

Now the shrinking Big Three are the latest candidates for another a taxpayer bailout. One $25 billion loan facility has already been signed into law, and Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) wants another $25 billion, this time with no strings attached. Why President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson should just say no:

• A bailout might avoid any near-term bankruptcy filing, but it won't address Detroit's fundamental problems of labor contracts that are too rich and inflexible to make them competitive.
• As Paul Ingrassia notes, Detroit's costs are far too high for their market share.
• While GM has spent billions of dollars on labor buyouts in recent years, they are still forced by federal mileage standards to churn out small cars that make little or no profit at plants organized by the United Auto Workers.

Rest assured that the politicians don't want to do a thing about those labor contracts or mileage standards. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recommend such "taxpayer protections" as "limits on executive compensation and equity stakes" that would dilute shareholders. But they never mention the UAW contracts that have done so much to put Detroit on the road to ruin.

If our politicians can't avoid throwing taxpayer cash at Detroit, then they should at least do so in a way that really protects taxpayers. That means handing a receiver the power to replace current management, zero out current shareholders, and especially to rewrite labor and other contracts. Anything less is merely a payoff to Michigan politicians and their union allies.

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Perspective:
An estimated 125 people were shot and killed in Chicago over the summer. That's nearly double the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq over the same time period.
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Salamander-inspired therapy may aid injured vets

San Antonio, Texas - Last week in an operating room in Texas, a wounded American soldier underwent a history-making procedure that could help him regrow the finger that was lost to a bomb attack in Baghdad last year. Army Sgt. Shiloh Harris' doctors applied specially formulated powder to what's left of the finger in an effort to do for wounded soldiers what salamanders can do naturally: replace missing body parts. (Snip) Harris' surgery is part of a major medical study of "regenerative medicine" being pursued by the Pentagon...
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Political will 'wavering' in Afghanistan

[HT:SE]
London - NATO members are wavering in their political commitment to Afghanistan, one of the alliance's top commanders said on Monday, describing the nearly seven-year-old campaign against the Taliban as disjointed. Pointing to more than 70 ''caveats'' that give individual countries a veto over certain operations, and the fact that troop commitments remain unfulfilled...

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Nine convicted in France over Islamist bomb plot

Paris - A French court on Thursday sentenced nine men to prison for belonging to an Islamist group accused of plotting to carry out bomb attacks in France, one of the men's lawyers said. The Paris court ruled that Safe Bourada, 38, who has already served a 10-year sentence for his role in Islamist attacks in France in 1995, was the leader of the group, and sentenced him to 15 years in jail (Snip) were handed sentences of between three and seven years in prison.
[GWOT]
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LAWFARE AGAINST ISRAEL

Last month, Israeli and Spanish officials engaged in a flurry of secret talks to avoid a diplomatic crisis because a Palestinian nongovernmental organization (NGO) filed suit in Madrid, seeking arrest warrants against seven former Israeli officers allegedly involved in the 2002 targeted killing of Hamas leader Salah Shehadah in Gaza.

This lawsuit is just the latest front in the anti-Israel "lawfare" strategy -- the frivolous exploitation of Western courts to harass Israeli officials.The detractors of the Jewish state are increasingly using civil lawsuits and criminal investigations around the world to tie Israel's hands against Palestinian terror by accusing Jerusalem of "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity." Moreover, the "lawfare" against Israel raises troubling questions;

• Why do NGOs supposedly promoting "universal" human rights only target Israel and fail to hold responsible Palestinian or Hezbollah terrorists for hiding among civilians -- turning their neighborhoods into legitimate military targets?
• Why do these NGOs fail to seek "justice" for Israeli terror victims?
• Why do the EU and European governments fund these NGOs under ironically named programs like the "Partnership for Peace"?

Europe's taxpayers may want to ask their leaders why they are footing the bill for these frivolous lawsuits, suggests Herzberg.

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Prayer leads to work disputes

[Nebraska]
Requests by Muslims to pray at work have led to clashes with employers who say they cannot accommodate the strictly scheduled prayers. The conflicts raise questions about religious rights on the job. Muslims say they are being discriminated against and are taking their complaints to the courts and the federal government.

Muslims pray five times a day at specific times, which shift over the course of the year based on the sun's position.
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Hanged for being a Christian in Iran

Eighteen years ago, Rashin Soodmand's father was hanged in Iran for converting to Christianity. Now her brother is in a Mashad jail, and expects to be executed under new religious laws brought in this summer.

A month ago, the Iranian parliament voted in favour of a draft bill, entitled "Islamic Penal Code", which would codify the death penalty for any male Iranian who leaves his Islamic faith...

[what exactly do we 'negotiate' with that government?]

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Cuba, FARC may be training guerrillas at Venezuelan camp

SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela -- The Venezuelan government, with help from Cuban military advisors and leftist Colombian guerrillas, is operating a secret paramilitary training camp in a closed-off tourist campground near here, former participants and government critics say.

The camp offers six-week courses for a rolling contingent of 400 to 1,000 participants, including a first-phase political indoctrination with texts printed in Cuba and a second phase of guerrilla training for the most loyal students...

[and weapons supplied by Russia...]

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IAEA reportedly finds traces of enriched uranium in Syria

Investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which works under the auspices of the United Nations, have found traces of enriched uranium in Syria, a potential sign that the country had been attempting to develop a nuclear program... [snip]

The uranium was discovered at the same site which was allegedly bombed by IAF jets in September 2007.

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btw:

Report: Obama lied about firing anti-Israel advisor
Robert Malley, a top Middle East advisor that US President-elect Barack Obama promised months ago would play no role in his administration due to ties to Hamas, has reportedly been sent out on the next administration's first diplomatic mission.

Obama dispatched Malley to Egypt and Syria late last week with a message that the he intends to mend and bolster relations with both nations...
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UK's Brown: Now is the time to build global society

The international financial crisis has given world leaders a unique opportunity to create a truly global society, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown will say in a keynote foreign policy speech on Monday. In his annual speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, Brown -- who has spearheaded calls for the reform of international financial institutions -- will say Britain, the United States and Europe are key to forging a new world order... [snip]

According to a summary of the speech released by his office, Brown will set out five great challenges the world faces. These are: terrorism and extremism and the need to reassert faith in democracy; the global economy; climate change; conflict and mechanisms for rebuilding states after conflict; and meeting goals on tackling poverty and disease.

[anyone else horrified? The U.S. will be used as little more than an ATM with continual assault on our sovereignty]

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[Where 'World Governments' lead...
{didn't meet curvature specifications to be called bananas - not a joke}]

Climate Realists unite

In early September, I began noticing a string of news stories about scientists rejecting the orthodoxy on global warming. Because a funny thing is happening to global temperatures -- they're going down, not up... [snip]

Also in September, American Craig Loehle, a scientist who conducts computer modelling on global climate change, confirmed his earlier findings that the so-called Medieval Warm Period (MWP) of about 1,000 years ago did in fact exist and was even warmer than 20th-century temperatures. [snip]

Don Easterbrook, a geologist at Western Washington University, says, "It's practically a slam dunk that we are in for about 30 years of global cooling," as the sun enters a particularly inactive phase. His examination of warming and cooling trends over the past four centuries shows an "almost exact correlation" between climate fluctuations and solar energy received on Earth, while showing almost "no correlation at all with CO2." [snip]

An analytical chemist who works in spectroscopy and atmospheric sensing, Michael J. Myers of Hilton Head, S. C., declared, "Man-made global warming is junk science," explaining that worldwide manmade CO2 emission each year "equals about 0.0168% of the atmosphere's CO2 concentration ? This results in a 0.00064% increase in the absorption of the sun's radiation. This is an insignificantly small number." [snip]

Other international scientists have called the manmade warming theory a "hoax," a "fraud" and simply "not credible". It may be that more global warming doubters are surfacing because there just isn't any global warming.

[ignore 'em, they're {highly qualified} doubters - let's spend trillions anyway and give away most of our liberties in the process...]

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Paler shade of green

[Canada]

Since Stephen Harper won another election, it has become clear just what the irrelevant in the room is. That would be the environment. And that should gladden the heart of every Albertan, given that every party, save the Tories, had a serious Rape-The-Alberta-Economy platform plank. The Greens got 6% of the popular vote. Who knew there were that few pairs of Birkenstocks in this country?

[I.e., folks are slowly waking up to this scam the world over - but it will be a fight to the death against our own governments and the big money (and now business) interests determined to force it upon us regardless of the harm caused...]

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We Cannot Worship Nature and Remain Free

When I heard Barack Obama promise to bankrupt the coal industry I did not hear a man at war with coal -- I heard a man at war with man.

His harsh words for the coal industry sprang from his near deification of nature and his subsequent willingness to sacrifice not only our livelihoods in the name of “environmental responsibility” but our freedom as well...

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Media Attacked Bush Over Baseless Conscription Fears, Ignores Conscription Calls From Obama And Other Dems

Since U.S. troops have been in Iraq, the media instilled baseless fears around college campuses that President Bush would bring back the draft. The Washington Post reported in 2004 the following:

Rumors of reinstating the military draft, which have flourished for months in panicky e-mails, online chat rooms, college dorms and student newspapers, suddenly dominated the House floor yesterday in one of the strangest parliamentary maneuvers in memory. With even its sponsor voting against it, a bill to require young adults to perform military or civil service failed, 402 to 2.

The news, however, remains silent as President-elect Barack Obama rolls out his own plans for conscripting America’s youth.

Obama will have help pushing this agenda from his new chief of staff appointment, Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel proposed conscripting young Americans in his 2006 co-authored book, The Plan:

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Who Defines 'Fair and Balanced,' Sen. Schumer?

Question for Chuck Schumer: Who appointed you - or anybody else in government for that matter to decide what qualifies as "fair and balanced" political news and commentary on radio and television? The question arose earlier this week when the Democratic senator from New York was asked during an interview on Fox News whether he supports restoration of the Federal Communications Commission's Fairness Doctrine:

"I think we should all be fair and balanced, don't you?"

That's an especially rich retort coming from one of the most zealously hyper-partisan members of the Democratic caucus in the U.S. Senate.

The truth is that Democrats like Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, have been talking up bringing back the Fairness Doctrine because they hope to use it to stifle conservative dissent, particularly that which is heard daily from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Examiner columnist Michael Reagan on Talk Radio...

[and they will, if we don't have another comprehensive-immigration like uproar to stop them]

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Economic Ignorance: Financial Crisis Bush's Fault

For years NewsBusters and its affiliate the Business & Media Institute have agonized over the astounding economic ignorance of many press members who despite their lack of financial acumen have the gall to offer their unqualified opinions to the public.

No finer example of a media member who should understand her limitations and keep her mouth shut during economic discussions was the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Cynthia Tucker Sunday morning who on ABC's "This Week" actually said that all the problems in the financial services industry would have magically disappeared if only the Bush administration would have bailed out individual homeowners.

Maybe more interesting was that she began her nonsensical accusation by saying, "I've never understood." As this was the most accurate statement she made concerning this matter, she should have stopped there.

Sadly, she didn't (video available here, relevant section at 11:33, file photo)

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THE STOCKHOLM CURVE

Recently, the Swedish government announced business tax cuts, income tax cuts and payroll tax cuts to boost jobs. And to market their country to outside businesses, cutting the corporate tax rate is a great move, since the corporate tax is one of the taxes which large companies study when they plan to set up business somewhere:

• The corporate tax reduction will bring the Swedish rate down to 26.3 percent from 28 percent, continuing its fall from a high of 57 percent in 1987.
• This means that Swedes will soon have a corporate tax rate one-third lower than the U.S. average of 39.5 percent (the 35 percent federal rate plus the state average).
• Sweden remains a high-tax country overall, with individual rates well above 50 percent plus pension and payroll obligations; however, Sweden is discovering that it must cut taxes to compete with Ireland, Eastern Europe and fast-growing Asia.
• Nearly three years ago, Sweden eliminated its inheritance tax. The U.S. death tax rate is still 45 percent.

The United States is taking notice. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) cited Ireland's low rate in his September debate with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). But Obama continues to insist that U.S. business is undertaxed...

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Sheriff's office can now access huge immigration database

[HT:BK]
The Harris County Sheriff's Office today became the first local law enforcement agency in the nation to test an automated fingerprint check system that gives jailers full access to suspects' immigration history, officials said.

The new program provides a seamless and simultaneous check of immigration and criminal history by linking the FBI's database with the Department of Homeland Security's database, known as IDENT (the Automated Biometric Identification System), officials said Monday.

Gregory Palmore, a spokesman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston, said the Sheriff's Office was selected to lead the pilot program in part because Houston has "one of the largest criminal alien populations in the United States."

[2008 - 7 years after 9/11 - 'pilot' program. excuse me if I don't give kudos all around]

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Edu...

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Overhauling D.C. School Overcome by Violence
D.C. Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee has dispatched a team of administrators and extra security to an Anacostia middle school where three teachers have been assaulted, a 14-year-old was charged with carrying a shotgun and students have run the hallways discharging fire extinguishers.

Interviews with teachers, parents, students and police paint a picture of a troubled school...

[ya think!?]
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OBAMA AND VOUCHERS
According to public opinion polls, 65 percent of adult African-Americans and 63 percent of adult Hispanics favor the use of school vouchers, as well they should: the number of minority students that are quitting the education system is staggering:

• In 2006 nearly 11 percent of African-American students between the ages of 16 and 24 dropped out of school.
• The dropout rate among Hispanics was 22 percent.
• Higher dropout rates also mean higher unemployment: in 2006, more than half of all African-American dropouts and more than one-third of Hispanic dropouts were not in the labor force.

Obama argues that voucher-based initiatives fund mostly faith-based schools, violating separation of church and state. But faith-based institutions may participate in voucher programs as a result of Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, in which the Supreme Court ruled that students may study at any private or public school as long as aid is awarded directly to the parent or guardian and not the school.

[this is a {another} union problem - and their strangle hold on certain politicians - plain and simple]

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'Office of President Elect of the United States'

First post-election press conference BO has given, I thought. Cut the guy some slack. But then my mom called me: "Did you see the sign on the podium?

Well, I hadn't seen the sign. I asked American Thinker contributor Otis Glazebrook to send me a picture of the podium. He sent me this:


Once again, BO can't wait to invest himself with the trappings of office.

[it's a little thing - but you've got to admit it's a little bit creepy thing]

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