Guard Responds to Winter Storm in Northeast

Dec. 15, 2008 – A round of winter storms that left several northeastern states covered in ice kept many National Guard units busy over the weekend.

Nearly 900 Guard members were on duty yesterday clearing debris, providing power generation, water, security, shelter and evacuations throughout the northwestern part of the state, which was hardest hit by the storms.

"All of the resources at our disposal have been made available to try to get the roads clear and power restored,"

The Guard members will stay on duty in the Northeast assisting local civilian authorities with clean-up efforts.

“We’ll be here however long they need us,”

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Bush Excluded by Latin Summit as China, Russia Loom

Latin American and Caribbean leaders gathering in Brazil tomorrow will mark a historic occasion: a region-wide summit that excludes the United States. Almost two centuries after President James Monroe declared Latin America a U.S. sphere of influence, the region is breaking away.

From socialist-leaning Venezuela to market-friendly Brazil, governments are expanding military, economic and diplomatic ties with potential U.S. adversaries such as China, Russia and Iran...

[they look at how Washington treats a supposed ally like Columbia and find the bad guys the more reliable allies...]

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Russian warships bound for Cuba in new show of strength

A group of Russian warships will from December 19-23 visit the Communist island of Cuba, a long-time adversary of the United States and Moscow's ally in the Cold War, the Russian navy said on Monday. "This will be the first visit to Cuba by Russian warships since the Soviet era," the Russian naval headquarters said in a statement.

[when will we learn: perceived weakness/lack of conviction invites aggressive behavior]

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Ecuador plans to buy weapons from Iran

[HT:PS]
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa says Quito may buy weapons from Iran to enable the tightening of security on its border with Colombia. “We have a very serious problem on the northern border with Colombia, an irresponsible government that does not take care of its border,” AFP quoted Correa as saying on Saturday. “We need to equip ourselves… Iran can supply us and help us with credit,” the president explained.

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Arab world hails shoe attack as Bush's farewell gift

Iraq faced mounting calls on Monday to release the journalist who hurled his shoes at George W. Bush, an action branded shameful by the government but hailed by many in the Arab world as an ideal parting gift to the unpopular US president. Colleagues of Muntazer al-Zaidi, who works for independent Iraqi television station Al-Baghdadia, said he ''detested America'' and had been plotting such an attack for months...

[priceless: all the while the 'professional' western media fails to point out that Mr. Zaidi would have been killed had he tried such public dissent against
Sadam. Isn't it wonderful how far Iraq has come?]

Btw: George dodge one, deflected the other and even had the presence of mind to notice it was a size 10 ;^) - not bad. Bush later said he saw the man's sole.]

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Human Rights Watch says Iraq's main court falls short on fairness

BAGHDAD - A human rights group says Iraq's main court fails to meet international fairness standards, saying judges rely on evidence from secret informants and confessions that are 'probably' coerced.

Human Rights Watch also said thousands of prisoners wait months or years before learning the charges against them in the Central Criminal Court and cannot mount a meaningful defence.

[last I checked it was a nation at war. typical. {and I mean typical...(next)}]

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It's time to end the impunity of Human Rights Watch

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Seventeen blown apart shopping in Istanbul; eight children gunned down at a Jerusalem school; 58 slaughtered in front of the Indian Embassy in Kabul. These are just some examples of the terrorist atrocities that plagued the world in the past year. Yet NGO superpower Human Rights Watch, winner of this year's UN Prize for Human Rights, did not find these incidents of mass murder and violations of the most sacred of human rights, the right to life, significant enough to merit a single comment.

Instead, it spends millions attacking Western democracies for doing their best to protect civil liberties and fight terror in an age where its perpetrators have no respect for human life and are driven purely by hate and religious fanaticism. HRW's website lists 38 reports attacking counterterrorism efforts around the globe, but only three on the brutal impact of actual terrorism on civilians.

HRW released three reports in May immediately condemning Israel for the accidental death of a Reuter's cameraman whose equipment looked strikingly similar to a shoulder-fired rocket launcher. It took the organization more than two years and hundreds of suicide bombings, shootings, and missile attacks to issue a report of any significance on the Palestinian terror campaign against Israeli civilians...

December 2008 marks the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) - enacted to remedy the

"disregard and contempt for human rights" that resulted in "barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind."

Such acts of horrific violence will never come to an end so long as the perpetrators know that HRW, and other "human rights" NGOs will spend more time lobbying against the West than protesting the murder and wounding of tens of thousands simply going about their daily lives.

In the spirit of the UDHR, it is time for this hugely influential organization to stop the selective application of human rights and to take a firm stand against terrorist atrocities...

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Prison bans chapel crucifix to avoid offending Muslims

A prison’s new chapel will not contain a crucifix to avoid offending Muslim inmates, it emerged today. Bosses at HMP Lewes have been told the traditional Christian symbol, featuring Jesus nailed to a cross, must not be used in the Grade-II listed Victorian jail’s ‘multi-faith space’. The room - part of a £1million new block - has been split in two, with one half featuring heated foot baths so Muslim worshippers can wash their feet before prayer.
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Russia building 'Berlin Wall' in Georgia

London - forces are erecting a ''Berlin Wall'' as part of a campaign to cut off rebel regions from the rest of the country, said Georgian Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili. Russia is trying to divide Abkhazia and South Ossetia from the rest of Georgia, she said in a speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank in London. (Snip) ''Russia physically destroys physical links between the regions of Georgia''
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The World Bank’s Free Pass for China

Today, Robert Zoellick, repeating Beijing’s propaganda line on the global financial crisis, gave the Chinese a free pass on their mercantilist trade policies. So far, China’s principal plan to strengthen its “growth and recovery” has been to increase its exports. And its principal tactic for this purpose has been the lowering of the value of its currency to preserve price advantages for its exporters.

The plan, part of a package of export incentives, is evidently working. Last week, Beijing announced that November’s trade surplus is a monthly record. In the first week of this month, the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, extended the export campaign by driving down the value of the currency almost one percent in one day in an apparent warning to the international community that it will continue to seek unilateral trade advantages.

These exclusionary trade practices are violations of its World Trade Organization promises (such as its discriminatory auto parts tariffs that were just ruled illegal) - yet the world meekly tolerates all misbehavior in the mistaken notion that the West needs China more than it needs the West.

Zoellick, instead of issuing bromides from Beijing, should start speaking clearly about China’s predicament - and stop handing out free passes to China at his press conferences.

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Truth, Economics, and Politics

As global warming pathologists insist that increasing carbon dioxide drives planetary meltdown, scientists who actually watch the climate trends -- as well as all the forces that affect it – see something different. They observe unchanging (if not declining) temperatures over the last dozen years despite increased global CO2 emissions during the same time period.

They see Antarctic ice swells despite a greater media emphasis on Arctic ice (PDF) loss. They see a current warming bias across temperature monitoring stations; a cooling pattern since 1997; and a valid theory that solar cycles affect climate change more than any other phenomena.

That's just a start to what I will finish momentarily, but the point is this: that the politicos who push for CO2 emission reductions, and grant-seeking activist researchers, should be put out to pastures where they can examine cow flatulence (methane) up close and personal.

Really, you alarmists: you waste our time and resources de-beefing your baloney. You lie about hockey stick graphs -- repeatedly (PDF). You deceive about "points of no return." You manipulate data and promote "tailored climate information." You claim there is agreement among scientists that supports your alarmist beliefs when in fact there is no such consensus. You attribute weather-driven disasters (PDF) to anthropogenic global warming. You talk all benefits and no costs when you tout the wonders of "green jobs." You've created a whole new industry sector for yourselves with this garbage. And now you've corrupted companies who want to skim off their portion.

Meanwhile we're not addressing more important issues like malnourished children, genocide, and modern-day slavery, and will have no funds to do so if your GWS (Global Warming Scam) sucks up every possible (and likely: impossible) dollar... [snip]

Please, you're killing us with this crap.

[but there's no profit in addressing those things]

[Recommended > ]

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Worshipping the Weather

Everyone is religious. People will have their religion. The particular religion does not, necessarily, have to include worship of a god -- but it must include a dogma and rituals.

For many on the left, environmentalism has become a religion, no real surprise there. But the reason for the need of some religion, any religion, to fill the spiritual void on the left is rarely discussed. This article will examine some of the implications, and complications, of the new green creed -- which is, in fact, an ancient creed. It was once called "paganism."

Religion gives lives significance.

Likewise environmentalism. Traditionally religion posits an all-powerful God that saves a sinful humanity from itself through the intervention of a human clergy. In environmentalism, an all-wise clergy, composed of government bureaucrats and "scientists," saves the planet from a sinful humanity.

We are righteous when we act in conformity with the establishment's dogma -- and we are evil if we question it...

[Finally. Excuse my snobbery but as an atheist I've long come to the conclusion that history shows us that humans desire something larger than themselves to believe in and give their lives meaning - and with the assault on traditional religions diminishing their ranks other ideas eventually occupy the void.

The repeated failures of Communism and Socialism, which used to enjoy primacy among the faithless, forced a search for something more defensible and ta-da: environmentalism {aka: environmoralism, but I digress}.

Don't agree? Offended? Fine, then do the thing religions won't: encourage perpetual debate on the topic - as anything scientifically based is supposed to entail by definition - and let a logical review of all the facts lead us where the may.

And READ THIS > Highly Recommended > ]

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Iran Proposes 2 Million Barrel Per Day OPEC Cut

Tehran, Iran — The Iranian Oil Ministry says Iran is proposing a cut in OPEC's production of up to two million barrels per day. The ministry's Web site quotes Iran's Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari as saying Iran would push for a production cut of 1.5 to 2 million barrels per day at organization's meeting in Algeria
[if only we had our own oil reserves]
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Medvedev: Russia may join OPEC
Russia does not rule out joining the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday, reported the Russian news agencies Interfax and Ria Novosti, as quoted by AFP. This country is ready to join efforts with OPEC to reduce production in order to sustain the oil price, said Medvedev.
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[select banner, & pass it on...]
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UAW Gave $1 Million+ to Pro-Bailout Congressmen; Media Focus on Anti-Bailout Interests

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Over the past month, accusations have been flying against several Southern senators who oppose a $14 billion bailout for the beleaguered big three automakers and support the the alternative of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. These senators, critics say, are representing the interests of foreign automakers that donate heavily to their campaigns.

But what has been largely ignored is the other side of the equation - the influence of the United Auto Workers (UAW) on the members of Congress that voted for the bailout.

According to campaign finance data from the Center for Responsive Politics Web site OpenSecrets.org, when broken down by how members of Congress voted, for the 2008 election cycle the UAW gave more than eight times as much in campaign cash to members that voted for the bailout than those that voted against it -- $1.14 million to proponents versus just $136,500 that voted against it.

As Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., pointed out last week - much of the force behind the push for the bailout can be attributed to the UAW - for fear that Chapter 11 bankruptcy would spell the end of their influence.

"The primary driver behind this is the unions, because bankruptcy allows the auto companies to basically restructure all their contracts in a way that a bankruptcy judge says will make them sustainable," DeMint said. "And if they do that, then essentially the unions lose all their leverage. It's the unions that have brought them to the brink. So definitely, I think the reason they want a political solution and a car czar is because a car czar can protect the unions through this whole process at the expense of the taxpayer."

Despite this data showing the UAW has overwhelmingly gave to bailout proponents versus its opponents, the media have largely ignored the union and has attacked bailout opponents for representing the interests of foreign automakers with manufacturing facilities in the United States.

[our 'investigative journalists' at their finest]

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Republicans Crusading 'Against Very Idea of Americans Making Good Wages'

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Granted, the Countdown host was on hiatus. But even if Olby had been around, he would have been hard-pressed to outdo Maddow for sheer silliness.

The preposterous proposition Rachel propounded?

"frankly they are seizing the ideological opportunity to crusade against the unions, and against the very idea of Americans making good wages at their jobs."

That's how Maddow in part explained the decision of Senate Republicans to oppose the Big Three bailout.

View video here.

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Jindal: Medicaid program on skids

BATON ROUGE -- Arguing that "doing nothing is not an option, " Gov. Bobby Jindal on Friday proposed restructuring Louisiana's health-care program for the poor into a private insurance model that relies on managed-care principles to control costs and improve health outcomes.

"Our health-care system today is not working to help the very people it's designed to serve, " Jindal said at a late-afternoon press briefing to announce the Louisiana Health First initiative.

Jindal said change is needed because the state's Medicaid program, which serves more than 1 million poor, elderly and disabled Louisianians, is on an unsustainable financial path.

Whereas the program consumed about 8.5 percent of the general fund budget in 2006, it is projected to take up 21 percent by 2011, the governor said...

[finally, sanity. But will anyone listen?]

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Another Barack in the Wall

Usually, children's books do not scare me. But I just read a children's book entitled "Barack" by Jonah Winter, with illustrations by AG Ford, published on September 30, 2008 by Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers. "Barack's" dust jacket states that it is for children ages 4-7. This book scared me very much.

I am scared because of what this book will do to my daughter and other children who read it. My little girl is six and a half years of age. I will not allow her to read this book or have it read to her without my being able to explain to her what was omitted from the book. I will be checking with her school teachers for the next five years or so to make sure that she is not exposed to this book without the material that was omitted. To do otherwise would allow my child to become a victim of political deception.

The entertainment value of "Barack" through an inspirational and abbreviated account of Barack Obama's life leading up to the Presidential election cannot justify the false impression it conveys. "Barack" will create another battle for parents to fight against a culture that teaches their children so much that is wrong...

[MUST READ for parents, then > contact the publisher of "Barack" at harpercollinschildrens.com.]

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Chicago Schools Administrator: Homosexual High School Is 'Necessary'

Washington – A proposed homosexual-friendly Chicago public high school is ''necessary'' for the well-being of students, a Chicago Public Schools administrator told CNSNews.com Wednesday. Joyce Brown, who is in charge of the public school district’s high school counselors, said the ''Social Justice High School – Pride Campus'' is necessary because ''the issue (of homosexuality) is out there.''(snip) The proposed school would offer taxpayer-funded support for homosexual and lesbian students.

[where's 'don't ask, don't tell' when it's appropriate?]

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MSNBC Rewrites History of Great Depression, Reinforces Liberal Creation Myth

... For example, her claim that Hoover "cut" spending. By this, Maddow must mean Hoover did not increase federal spending at a rate preferred by liberals, who have resorted to this rhetorical sleight of hand for decades.

But as conservatives and Republicans are well aware, Hoover did the opposite -- he increased spending, and not by a little.

He sought to provide jobs through public works; more was spent for this purpose in his administration than in the preceding thirty-six years, including the building of the Panama Canal.

Surely Maddow has heard of at least one of these projects, which bears the name of the man instrumental in initiating it -- the Hoover Dam -- the largest public-works behemoth of the era. Other public projects begun by Hoover include the San Francisco Bay Bridge and the Los Angeles Aqueduct...

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Women at the top of business outearn men

A Carnegie Mellon University study has concluded that women executives out-earn their male counterparts.The study, which examined 16,000 executives over 14 years, found that women at the top of the business world bring in a bit more than men and are promoted at the same rate, countering the popular notion that women earn less than men for the same work.

"That common perception is not borne out by this study,"

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Is California too unwieldy to govern?

California

California government is arguably more dysfunctional now than it was when Davis, a Democrat, got the boot. The budget deficit has grown so huge that a shutdown of government services looms. Partisan gridlock grips the Legislature, and lawmakers bicker as the state plunges into crisis. The state's latest collision course with insolvency has renewed the question in the Capitol: Has California become ungovernable?

Some say this nation-state is so oversized, Balkanized and polarized that it is destined for dysfunction no matter who is in charge. They cite its influx of immigrants, its constant tensions over water supply and its large, self-contained regions that bear little resemblance to one another.

It has been suggested that the state should break into multiple, more manageable pieces. More than two dozen attempts at that have been tried over the years, the latest by a Northern California lawmaker in the early 1990s.

"There is no center," Perata said. "I'm not talking about political center. There is no action center, or moral center, or anything else left in Sacramento"

[personally I've long been for it, NorCal/SoCal at a minimum, probably 3 pieces would be even better: the more local government, the better it serves]

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Zambia says thankyou

Government has paid tribute to the United States for its continued support to Zambia in various fields. It says the US is particularly helping Zambia in its efforts towards fighting poverty. Charge de Affairs at the Zambia Embassy in Washington, Newstead Zimba, says Zambia is grateful for the support.

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