image toon - 1st fnn msm bias libs othr - Reid's FAILS ignored but Rush's unpatriotic
Friday, March 13, 2009
Obama: Economic crisis 'not as bad as we think'
Confronting misgivings, even in his own party, President Barack Obama mounted a stout defense of his blueprint to overhaul the economy Thursday, declaring the national crisis is "not as bad as we think" and his plans will speed recovery.
Challenged to provide encouragement as the nation's "confidence builder in chief," Obama said Americans shouldn't be whipsawed by bursts of either bad or good news and he was "highly optimistic" about the long term.
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Soldiers Treat Ailing Iraqis
The soldiers wanted to provide medical assistance, but there was no clinic in the area available to the Iraqi citizens. So the soldiers made it their mission to establish one. In the meantime the “Top Gun” troops pushed out into the area and held six combined medical engagements, working side by side with Iraqi physicians to treat ailing Iraqis. [snip]
Just as the Top Gun troops have done for the last year, Treadway said he is keen to treat medical conditions and help the Iraqis avoid future ailments through preventive medicine. As his medics hit the streets daily on patrols, he said, he is eager to have them do all they can to help the people, no matter how severe the case.
Recently, he said, one child approached him and said when he grows up he wants to be a doctor just like him. Braverman said the soldiers are having a great impact on the children, the sheiks and the local council, who all appreciate what they have done to aid the community...
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Barak: Time running out on stopping Iranian nuke program
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday evening that the Iranian announcement that it had increased the number of centrifuges enriching uranium at the Bushehr plant to 6,000 constitute a stage in the creation of a substantial existential threat to Israel, adding that time was running out on stopping Iran becoming a nuclear power.
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Nuclear Iran? Decision time is here
Barack Obama’s foreign policy team knew that sooner or later they would face a crisis over Iran. Unfortunately for the new US president, the crisis is already upon them.
On Friday, the Financial Times reported that “Iran has built up a stockpile of enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb”. That same day, Benjamin Netanyahu was invited to form Israel’s next government
It is time for the Obama administration to launch a last big push to head off the Iranian bomb – and for the rest of the world to line up in support of that effort.
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Not Merely Wrong, but Unprofessional
Every time you think the New York Times cannot sink any lower, you open the paper and find something else that leaves you wondering about the lack of editorial judgment at the Grey Lady.
Today’s Op-Ed page is, on the surface, clear evidence of the paper’s editorial agenda with regard to the Islamist regime in Iran. Of the three pieces on the page, two are devoted to the cause of appeasing Iran.
One is by Ali Reza Eshraghi, an Iranian “journalist” currently playing the role of “visiting scholar” at Berkeley’s School of Journalism. His article puts forward a thesis that must be considered original if unpersuasive: that Mahmoud Ahmadinjad is a true moderate and that the Obama administration must seize the opportunity to negotiate with him now lest he be replaced by someone more hard-line.
One shudders to think what someone less moderate than Ahmadinejad would sound like. Would he advocate denial of the Holocaust? Threaten to wipe Israel off the map? Launch an all-out push for nuclear capability? Fund Hezbollah and Hamas? Oh right, that was Ahmadinejad–the moderate.
The idea that we should ignore all that and focus instead on a few throwaway lines about wanting to talk to Obama is comical...
[But it will be repeated, without comment, by the over-600 TV news stations that receive NYT 'feeds' directly to comprise their 'news']
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Shari'a making inroads in the West
Shari'a is making inroads into the West. One area particularly touched by this phenomenon is the judicial system in Europe. Two recent cases in Italy and France are particularly troublesome.
In Italy, three members of a Brescia-based Maghrebi family (father, mother and eldest son) were accused of beating their daughter/sister Fatima because she had wanted to live a "Western" life. In the first trial, the three were sentenced for abuse. But on appeal, the family was acquitted because the court deemed that the young woman had been beaten for "her own good." [snip]
In France a widely publicized case last June had a French judge rule in favor of a Muslim man who wanted the annulment of his marriage because his wife had turned out not to be a virgin. The decision triggered a huge outcry and was later overturned, Interestingly, a large majority of French Muslims, about 80 percent, are very secular and totally reject any kind of Shari'a law being implemented in France.
But the United Kingdom is a different story; indeed, close to 40% of young Muslims there are in favor of Shari'a law being implemented...
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No Honor in This
It really was two crimes in one. When Aasiya Hassan was allegedly beheaded by her husband in upstate New York, the response by many Muslim groups was to make sure that no one connected the murder to Islam, rather than to be concerned that a man may have brutally murdered his wife in the name of Islam.
Unfortunately, none of this came as any surprise to feminist Phyllis Chesler...
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Heads Roll in Havana, Baffling 'Cuba Experts'
The very week Obama proposed cozying up to Castro by dropping some economic and travel sanctions, the biggest political shake-up in twenty years rattled Cuba's regime. Last week Raul Castro purged almost twenty regime officials.
The most prominent among the purged were the youngest and most reform-minded (as these things are measured within a Stalinist regime), and they've all been replaced by diehard Stalinist septuagenarians with military and secret police backgrounds.
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The U.S. Needs a Reset Button for Britain
While President Barack Obama tries to improve U.S. relations with rogue states like Syria and Iran, he might want to ensure ties with our closest ally aren’t strained in the meantime.
Damascus and Tehran will remain hostile as long as they’re ruled by Bashar Assad and Ayatollah Khamenei, but Britain has long been a reliable friend no matter who is in charge...
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Dictatorial Trade
[HT:PL]
Trade: USTR nominee Ron Kirk mocked the U.S.' expansion of free trade as "deal fever" at his confirmation Monday and vowed to force "social" diktats on trade partners before new pacts can be signed. This isn't free trade. Unfortunately, dour statements on trade from the man who would be the U.S. trade representative are not surprising.
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RON KIRK: NO TRADE
U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) nominee Ron Kirk mocked the U.S.' expansion of free trade as "deal fever" at his confirmation Monday and vowed to force "social" diktats on trade partners before new pacts can be signed.
To start, Kirk dismissed existing free trade treaties as mindless chits instead of carefully negotiated pacts done on an equal basis with other countries. That ignores the fact that free trade has opened vast markets for U.S. companies, whose exports will be key to our economic recovery:
- Free trade with Mexico increased trade fourfold over the last decade, making it our third-largest trading partner and enabling U.S. companies to sell a billion dollars worth of goods to Mexicans each day.
- It has put an extra $2,000 in every American family's pocket and increased jobs — one out of four jobs here is now linked to global trade.
- South Korea's pact, which would open a market to U.S. exporters as big as Mexico's, was called "simply unfair."
- Kirk said the United States would "step away from that" if South Korea didn't bow to new terms dictated by the Obama administration (and its Big Labor financiers).
It's not as if these nations haven't jumped through hoops already. Colombia altered its constitution and revamped its court system on the promise of the deal's passage; now, it's getting new orders.
If the United States foists social projects on friends, rejects new markets and lets China snap away the spoils, it will be the biggest loser.
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NEVER ENOUGH BEAUTY OR TRUTH
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American philanthropy is the envy of the world. Americans have evolved a unique civic culture of giving and entrepreneurial problem solving, says Heather Mac Donald, the John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. For example:
- From 1995 to 2002, charitable donations as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) were nearly six times as high in the United States as in France and 14 times as high as in Germany.
- In 2007, America's charitable giving amounted to $306 billion. [as usual]
- No wonder that European universities and arts organizations look first to their American alumni and patrons for support when their government funding dries up.
- A growing number of activists and politicians argue that foundations should meet diversity targets in their giving and on their staffs.
- If foundations fail to diversify "voluntarily," threaten the race, ethnicity and gender enforcers, they risk legislation requiring them to do so.
The idea that foundations should view the world through the trivializing lens of identity politics dates back to the 1980s, when some liberal foundations, including the Ford Foundation, started asking groups seeking grants to report the race and sex of their staff and board members. But today, politicians are getting into the act; this latest diversity push began in 2005, when the Greenlining Institute, a "multiethnic advocacy group" in Berkeley, Calif., started pumping out studies claiming that foundations were ignoring "communities of color."
- This despite the fact that in California, 39 percent of large foundations' grants primarily benefit minorities, according to the Foundation Center, a respected research body.
- Greenlining's definition of helping a community of color: bestowing foundation grants on a nonprofit whose staff and board are at least 50 percent minority.
[If they're 'minorities', is not 50% representation over-representation?]
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The Entrepreneur's Moment
The question facing America is: who will lead us out of this economic crisis? George Washington answered this question for us in a letter to Benjamin Harrison in 1784. He wrote:“A people... who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages may achieve almost anything.”
Unfortunately, today, many elected officials, the media, and even big business have lost confidence in “the spirit of commerce” – in the American free enterprise system - and are looking to government for the answer. A recent Newsweek cover declared “We are all Socialists now” and Congress and President Obama just passed a stunningly partisan $787 billion “stimulus” bill. From the TARP to special loans to GM and Chrysler to a new $275 billion mortgage entitlement program, bailout nation is in full swing.
Yet if more government spending could spark sustained economic growth, we'd be in a boom right now from the reckless expansion of spending over the last six years.
That is why it must stop, now. It is time for America to return to its roots and look to entrepreneurs in the private sector to lead us back to prosperity.
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LET'S GET REAL ABOUT RENEWABLE ENERGY
During his address to Congress, President Obama declared, "We will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years."
We need slow down for a moment and get realistic about this country's energy future. Consider two factors that are too-often overlooked: George W. Bush's record on renewables, and the problem of scale.
By promising to double our supply of renewables, Obama is only trying to keep pace with his predecessor:
- From 2005 to 2007, the former Texas oil man oversaw a near-doubling of the electrical output from solar and wind power.
- And between 2007 and 2008, output from those sources grew by another 30 percent.
Let's start by deciphering exactly what Obama includes in his definition of "renewable" energy:
- If he's including hydropower, which now provides about 2.4 percent of America's total primary energy needs, then the president clearly has no concept of what he is promising.
- Hydro now provides more than 16 times as much energy as wind and solar power combined.
- Yet more dams are being dismantled than built. Since 1999, more than 200 dams in the U.S. have been removed.
the contribution of those two sources to America's overall energy needs will still be almost inconsequential.
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VICTIMS OF SOCIALISM
What's a life worth? Apparently not much in Great Britain.
- The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the government agency that decides which treatments the National Health Service will pay for, has effectively banned Lapatinib, a drug that was shown to slow the progression of breast cancer, and Sutent, which is the only medicine that can prolong the lives of some stomach cancer patients.
- Banning beneficial drugs due to cost is nothing new in Britain; NICE forbade the use of Tarceva, a lung cancer drug proven to extend patients' lives, and Abatacept, even though it's one of the only drugs that has been shown in clinical testing to improve severe rheumatoid arthritis.
Promises of an effective, cost-effective health care system operated by the federal government are cruel fabrications.
The British system shows that the state makes a mess of health care. So does the Canadian plan, which is plagued with unhealthy and often deadly waiting times for treatment.
The Swedish government system is no better. It also refuses to provide some expensive medication and, inhumanely, refuses to let patients buy the drugs themselves. Why? According to a Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons article, bureaucrats believe doing so
"would set a bad precedent and lead to unequal access to medicine."
A reasonable person would see the record of repeated failures in government-run medicine as evidence that such a system is not sustainable.
Yet every central planner thinks he or she -- or his or her immediate group -- is smart enough to correct the flaws of socialist programs and therefore has the moral authority to force others to participate in his experiments.
Medicine needs experimentation to progress. But experiments need to stay in the laboratories, not spread to the domain of public policy.
['unequal' - sounds a lot like 'fair'...]
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George Soros: International Man of Misery
The term “euphemism” refers to the substitution of a vague or milder term for one that may be considered harsh, offensive or blunt. Example: George Soros is a “philanthropist”.
If by “philanthropist” we mean one who creates chaos, destruction and financial ruin for his own personal gain, it’s a perfect fit. Calling Soros a philanthropist is rather like referring to the Nazi block wardens as Neighborhood Watch.
[If you don't know why he's loathed, despised and dangerous, read > ]
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Flashback: Carville Wanted Bush to Fail
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, just minutes before learning of the terrorist attacks on America, Democratic strategist James Carville was hoping for President Bush to fail, telling a group of Washington reporters:"I certainly hope he doesn't succeed."
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TOO MUCH LAW GUARANTEES UNFAIRNESS
It's no secret that America's public schools, health care system and lawsuit industry are broken. After decades of alarming reports and reform efforts, they still cost far more, and with worse results, than those of almost all other developed countries. Why? Because our institutions and their leaders are paralyzed by tangles of legal rules and a fear of being unfairly hauled into court, says lawyer-author-civic leader Philip Howard in his forthcoming book, "Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans From Too Much Law."
We will never fix our system unless American law is rebuilt to protect freedom in our daily choices, Howard continues. Take for example, America's public schools:
- Despite massive reform efforts, reading scores in elementary and high schools have stayed flat for almost 40 years; in that period, the ranking of American students has consistently fallen relative to their peers in other developed countries.
- More than 40 percent of high school teachers have said they sometimes spend more time trying to keep order than teaching, and nearly 80 percent of middle and high school teachers said they have been threatened with lawsuits or accused of rights violations by students.
- Another survey found that one in seven teachers in urban schools had been physically assaulted by students, some have been seriously injured.
Would this risk unfairness to some? Sure. But that would beat the unfairness to all students of disorderly classrooms and bad teachers. As a check, independent committees of parents and teachers could be created to overturn disciplinary decisions and overrule unfair teacher firings, says Howard.
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America under Obama will see one crisis after another
We interrupt this financial crisis to bring you a gargantuan federal power grab masquerading as an economic stimulus. Tell me, does the following sound at all familiar?
We've GOT to act. NOW! There's NO TIME for debate. We're on the PRECIPICE. We're staring into the ABYSS. The government has to spend BIG and it has to spend FAST, before it's TOO LATE!
Yes, yes. We heard it just a few weeks ago, remember? Right before the government spent big and fast so it could avert the financial crisis. Which continues today, quite unaverted, because no one bothered to require that the government spend WELL or -- yes, I know this was always a long shot -- WISELY.
So we're still in the same mess. And we're not trying to get out of it yet, because for some among us, messes -- especially messes that can be credibly described as crises -- have their uses. When Joe Biden said during the campaign that President Barack Obama was going to face a crisis right out of the gate, it wasn't a wild guess.
He was stating half of the elemental strategy of the Obama administration: Have a crisis. So, have a crisis and use it to get things you want that you couldn't have gotten from people who weren't frightened. Repeat as necessary.
Want to appoint a tax cheat secretary of the treasury? Just tell everyone you're in a big hurry because of the financial crisis.
Want to hand out, in one fell swoop, more pork and more paybacks to more favored political constituencies than anyone has ever handed out before? Write a spread-the-wealth bill like the one the House of Representatives just passed. Just be sure to call it a stimulus.
Want to grow government beyond comprehension and make it the master of health care, energy, education, finance and, through regulation, business? Don't declare the crisis solved until you've passed enough phony stimuli to complete your whole hidden agenda.
There is only one thing that can be done to block the socialist agenda that's so clearly visible just beneath the Rahm Emanuel useful-crisis strategy. Fortunately, it's something every American can do.
Refuse to fear.
If your congressional representative voted for the stimulus, call him up and chew him out. If he voted against it, call to say thanks. Then get on the horn to your senators and demand that they do whatever it takes to stop this cynical power grab. You can get to every one of them through the U.S. Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121...
[my kinda guy]
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"Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.".Otto Von Bismark.
Bernard Madoff and the Democratic Party scandal
In a country with an unbiased, watchdog press corps, the Bernie Madoff scandal would have Democrat pols in Washington shaking in their suits, fearing hearings, as many Republicans did during the Jack Abramoff scandal.
Instead, you probably don't even know that Madoff is a big supporter of the Democratic Party.
Could the Charles Ponzi of today thrive in any party other than the party that memorialized the Ponzi Scheme forever, with Social Security?
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Barack Obama welcomes Brad Pitt to White House
President Barack Obama has welcomed actor Brad Pitt into the White House for a secret meeting to discuss the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Pitt (Snip)became the second member of the cast of the "Ocean's Eleven" to talk to Obama about policy. Last month, George Clooney called on Mr Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to discuss how to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
[Twilight Zone]
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One-legged criminal roaming free
An investigation has been launched after a man convicted of possessing cannabis was fitted with a tracking device attached to his false leg.
A security worker failed to spot his left leg was made of metal and detachable when they attached the tag.
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