[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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Friday, November 21, 2008
Combat Medic Training Evolves to Save Lives
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.
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.
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:
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
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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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