Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Congressional Committee Passes Bill Controlling ALL Pay at US-Involved Companies
Is it okay to call them socialists yet?
With Barney Frank's help, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is trying to expand his power (and by inference that of his Dear Leader boss) well beyond that. The "Pay for Performance Act," which has already gotten out of committee, would give him veto power over any and all salaries at any company into which the government has inserted its intrusive claws.
Besides the utter outrageousness of the news itself, the story leads to the question of how the establishment media will handle it. Whitewash it? Minimize its significance? Ignore it? Given the fact that the news is over a week old, I vote for a continuation of Door Number Three.
Byron York reports the following in the DC Examiner:
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Whose Money? The New Debate About Freedom
I’ve been observing the ongoing debate about high pay for corporate executives that was kicked off by the furor over bonuses at AIG. Many ordinary people are still mad enough to get out their pitchforks, and join protest tours of wealthy Connecticut neighborhoods organized by well-funded left-wing hate groups.
But most thinking people have understood that giving the government carte blanche to rewrite private contracts retroactively is a very, very bad thing for us all...
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End Obama’s secret DOD budget tribunals
When then-First Lady Hillary Clinton convened a secret task force in 1993 to redesign and nationalize the American healthcare system, policymakers and the public were rightly outraged.
They demanded, and ultimately got, a more open and transparent decision-making process that comported with the American political tradition of self-rule by the people and not elite rule by an anointed oligarchy.
Compare that to what is now transpiring within the Department of Defense (DOD). There, uniformed military officers and civilian government employees have been forced to sign a secrecy oath while they meet privately, behind closed doors, to decide the fate of nation’s defense budget.
The problem with information being “leaked out” or shared with the public is obvious: The public may disagree with what these uniformed military officers and government civilians are deciding and that in turn may alter or disrupt their decision-making process.
After all, that’s how democracy works. Democracy can be messy and untidy, noisy and boisterous; it can disrupt the work of the ruling class, who think they know better than we the people.
That’s why media blackouts and censorship are, sadly, the norm in human history. The ruling class - the self-anointed “experts” - don’t want their perfectly laid plans disrupted.
After all, they know best.
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Obama and the Imminent North Korea Missile Launch
Now that the Dems are in charge of the national defense, North Korea's planned missile launch, which could occur sometime in the next several weeks, is a good time to recall what some leading Democrats said about this a few years ago.
The very last time we were in this situation was in the summer of 2006. Just as North Korea was fueling the missiles for test-launch, William Perry and Ashton Carter, respectively secretary of defense and assistant secretary of defense under Clinton, advocated preemptive strikes on the platforms in a striking op-ed in the Washington Post:
"Intervening before mortal threats to U.S. security can develop is surely a prudent policy,"
Whatever else one may say, the looming North Korea missile launch may be considered the first crisis of Obama's National Security Council. How he acts may be a signal of how he intends to steer U.S. foreign policy in the years ahead.
[And the world is watching...]
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Iran missile experts in North Korea 'to help with rocket launch'
Missile experts from Iran are in North Korea to help Pyongyang prepare for a rocket launch, according to reports. Amid increasing global concern over the launch, which the US and its allies consider to be illegal.
Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper claimed today that a 15-strong delegation from Tehran has been in the country advising the North Koreans since the beginning of March.
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Netanyahu to Obama: Stop Iran—Or I Will
In an interview conducted shortly before he was sworn in today as prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu laid down a challenge for Barack Obama. The American president, he said, must stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons—and quickly—or an imperiled Israel may be forced to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities itself.
“The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu told me. He said the Iranian nuclear challenge represents a “hinge of history” and added that “Western civilization” will have failed if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
In unusually blunt language, Netanyahu said of the Iranian leadership,
“You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran."
Netanyahu said he would support President Obama’s decision to engage Iran, so long as negotiations brought about a quick end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but he added that he was skeptical that Iran would respond positively to Obama’s appeals. In an hour-long conversation, held in the Knesset, Netanyahu tempered his aggressive rhetoric with an acknowledgement that nonmilitary pressure could yet work.
“I think the Iranian economy is very weak, which makes Iran susceptible to sanctions that can be ratcheted up by a variety of means.”
When I suggested that this statement contradicted his assertion that Iran, by its fanatic nature, is immune to pressure, Netanyahu smiled thinly and said,
“Iran is a composite leadership, but in that composite leadership there are elements of wide-eyed fanaticism that do not exist right now in any other would-be nuclear power in the world. That’s what makes them so dangerous.”
[Recommended > ]
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How will Israel survive Obama's naïveté on Iran?
As I watch as Obama appeases the Iranians I wonder if we in Israel will be able to survive.
Obama apparently believes that appeasing totalitarian regimes works.
His Nowruz address will become the classic example of such an attempt. But the history of appeasement is not very encouraging. It has not worked with the Nazis, it has not worked with Arafat's regime, and least of all has it worked with the jihadists.
For those in Europe who have for years believed that their appeasement has brought them less terror and cheap oil can only look around and see what Europe has become with the recent protests in Luton and Malmo.
The US would survive the collapse of its appeasement policy toward Iran, even the scenario of an EMP attack. Israel would not.
Israel should not be made to play the role of a victim of a failed appeasement policy, a learning curve unfortunate error in judgment of a rookie American president. For the lesson learned would have been that an Iranian-Israeli nuclear war would be a disaster not only for Israel but for the US as well. So why make the error in the first place?
As an Israeli citizen I therefore voted for those who have already experienced the futility of appeasing the jihadists in more than 15 failed peace process attempts in the last 15 years and who will in protecting Israel's survival be protecting American interests as well.
[They. Don't. Want. Peace. Any verbiage to the contrary, prior to a Western (in which I include the liberal democracy of Israel) victory, is nothing more than playing us for fools. Again.]
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THE GLOBAL TAX REVOLUTION
Dangerous movements are afoot to control and limit tax competition.
Policymakers in international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Commission and the United Nations (UN) want to create an OPEC for taxes to insulate governments from tax competition.
The good news is that the United States is uniquely situated to protect and advance global tax competition:
- Use American influence inside the OECD to kill the anti-tax competition project; the United States is the biggest funder of the OECD, providing nearly one-fourth the organization's budget.
- Reject European Union invitations to participate in cartel-like tax initiatives, such as the savings tax directive.
- Block possible UN schemes for global taxes, global tax regulations and a global tax organization.
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66% Say U.S. Should Stay in the United Nations
The head of the United Nations on Wednesday called the United States, which pays nearly one-fourth of the international organization’s $5-billion annual budget, a “deadbeat” because it doesn’t always [more accurately: ever] get the check in on time.
The United States which meets 22% of the U.N. budget is its largest contributor. [192 nations, 22% paid for by US]
In a survey taken just before the “deadbeat” flap became public, 66% of U.S. voters said America should continue to participate in the United Nations. Twenty-four percent (24%) think the United States should not stay in the international organization, and 10% are not sure.
[1 in 4 - not bad, really - and potentially noteworthy that it was prior to this latest insult]
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AP: Boos for Bush Change to 'Sustained Applause' for Obama on Global Warming
Associated Press reporter Arthur Max played up how the United States drew "sustained applause" on Sunday in Germany for joining the liberal consensus on the need for dramatic energy regulation to stop the "climate change" menace. Absolutely no one in the story questioned that consensus, and Max even downplayed how the Senate (Democrats included) voted on a resolution opposing the Kyoto climate-change treaty 95 to 0.
BONN – Once booed at international climate talks, the United States won sustained applause Sunday when President Barack Obama's envoy pledged to "make up for lost time" in reaching a global agreement on climate change....
The debut of Obama's climate change team was widely anticipated after eight years of obdurate participation in U.N. climate talks by the previous Bush administration.
Notice how Max and AP carefully negotiated around the 95-0 vote during the Clinton administration and left readers with the impression that only Team Bush stood in the way of scientific enlightenment:
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French workers take hostages at Caterpillar
Paris, France - Hundreds of French workers, angry about proposed layoffs at a Caterpillar office, were holding executives of the company hostage Tuesday, a spokesman for the workers said.
It is at least the third time this month that French workers threatened with cutbacks have blockaded managers in their offices to demand negotiations...
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Critics Decry Obama Nominee for State Department Legal Adviser
Former Clinton administration official Harold Koh, who has been dean of the Yale Law School since 2004, once wrote that the U.S. was part of an "axis of disobedience" with North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Koh also has long held that the U.S. should accept international law when deliberating cases at home.
Obama nominated Koh on March 23 to become the State Department's legal adviser -- an appointment that, if confirmed by the Senate, will give Koh far-reaching influence over the extent to which international norms affect U.S. law.
"This is not a desk job. This guy will be the face of American international law around the world,"
said Steven Gross, legal expert and fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
"The top legal adviser at State travels extensively and is involved in international legal negotiations, treaties and in major United Nations conferences.
"The president should have the right to choose the most conservative or liberal legal advisers to give them advice, but this is much more than that. The concern is that he cares as much about -- if not more about -- international law and integrating that into the American judicial system than he does about protecting American prerogatives and American sovereignty,"
Gross said
"This is international imperialism. Under Koh's plan, the Constitution would become secondary and international law would take precedence regardless of what Americans said about the matter"...
[Recommended > ]
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FLASHBACK > OBAMA'S MOST PERILOUS LEGAL PICK
If he makes it through (which he will if he gets even a single GOP vote) the message to the Obama team will be: You can pick 'em as radical as you like..
"OPPOSE HAROLD KOH NOMINATION"
Whitehouse: mailto:president@whitehouse.gov
Senate-Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...
and as always, pass it on...
.
Taking a man's castle
Jose Meza labored for 25 years building his automotive paint business from a one-man operation run out of his Wilmington home to a family company with nine shops across the Los Angeles area.
With that kind of hard-earned entrepreneurial success, Meza could have bought a home almost anywhere. Instead, he chose to stay in the community he loves, where he and his children went to high school - largely low-income Wilmington.
"I said, `I want to build a dream home for my family close to my business,"' Meza said. "I built it thinking this is going to be my house forever, until I die, thinking of my grandkids."
Meza bought empty land in a residential area bordering Wilmington's downtown a decade ago and slowly began to construct his castle - a five-bedroom home with six bathrooms, a pool, a guest house and a five-bay garage for his classic cars.
His dream didn't last long.
Less than six years after it was completed, the home is now vacant, encircled by a padlocked metal fence and fortified with plywood behind its windows. Meza, forced out by a court order, is battling an eminent domain lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Unified School District...
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DOUBLING DOWN ON PRESIDENT BUSH'S ECONOMIC POLICIES
President Obama has framed his budget as a break from the "failed policies" of the Bush Administration. Actually, his budget doubles down on President George W. Bush's borrow, spend and bail out policies, says Brian M. Riedl a researcher with the Heritage Foundation. [snip]
President Bush ran budget deficits averaging $300 billion annually. After harshly criticizing Bush's budget deficits, President Obama proposed a budget that would run deficits averaging $600 billion even after the economy recovers and the troops return home from Iraq.
The President's tax policy is the only sharp break with Bush's economic policy.
President Bush reduced taxes by approximately $2 trillion; President Obama has proposed raising taxes by $1.4 trillion. In doing so, President Obama has rejected the most successful Bush fiscal policy.
In the 18 months following the 2003 tax rate cuts, economic growth rates doubled, the stock market surged 32 percent, and the economy created 1.8 million jobs, followed by 5.2 million more jobs in the next 27 months.
Not until the housing bubble burst several years later did the economy finally lose steam. Pro-growth lawmakers should embrace tax relief policies that have proven successful, while rejecting the runaway spending that has been business as usual in Washington.
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IN DEFENSE OF TAX 'HAVENS'
A new form of "tax protectionism" is infecting Washington -- several serious proposals are being floated in the nation's capital that would penalize Americans for investing in low-tax rather than high-tax jurisdictions.
Proponents say the measures are needed to catch tax cheats -- but ignore the fact that most of the low-tax jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, etc., already have tax information exchange agreements with the United States.
Nevertheless, Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Bryon Dorgan (D-N.D.), and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), as well as officials of the Obama Treasury, want to make it more onerous and costly for American companies to do business around the world and for Americans to invest elsewhere. They would even make it more difficult for non-Americans to invest in the United States.
The so-called tax havens are for the most part no more than way-stations to temporarily collect savings from around the world until they are invested in productive projects, such as building a new shopping center or semi-conductor plant in the United States. This enables a better allocation of world capital, leading to higher, not lower, global growth rates.
Indeed, to the extent tax competition between jurisdictions holds down the increase in the growth of governments, citizens of all countries experience more job opportunities and higher standards of living.
And to the extent that businesses and individuals are discouraged by regulations from investing outside their own jurisdictions, they may simply choose to work and save less, period.
[Again, the 'cheating' argument only applies if you first subscribe to the notion that it's the government's money to begin with.
Its not, it's individuals, and our government competes with all other jurisdictions to be a part of its use.
As always, the socialistic reaction to competition is to kill it with legislation - are you listening, socialized-medicine proponents?]
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Liberal Authoritarianism and Earth Hour
This streak of leftist authoritarianism manifests itself most noticeably in the debate over AGW.
Stifling debate by threatening to try as criminals people who disagree with them, declaring an end to the scientific method by saying that the debate about AGW is "over," spreading lies about skeptics by positing the notion that they are all being paid by oil and coal companies, attempting to ruin the careers of scientists who disagree with them, and seeking to censor scientific studies that challenge AGW orthodoxy -- all point to a desire by AGW advocates to control minds by not allowing any dissent.
The fact that these tactics are generally supported by liberals is indicative of their own doubts about the efficacy of climate change and their desire to close their own minds to any information that would cause them to doubt, or otherwise alter their perception about the debate over AGW. This makes leftists not only authoritarians but stupid ones at that -- a very dangerous combination that the United Nations appears to be counting on in order to make their plan a reality.
Personally, I am agnostic on the issue. Free people deciding freely to reduce CO2 levels while the jury is still out on climate change is fine with me. We should rely on the scientific method, one of the crowning glories of the western world: observation, hypothesis, predictions, experimentation.
To date, the authoritarian left has prevented this from dominating the global warming discussion. Perhaps it is due to so many of their observations proving to be wrong, or their hypotheses not panning out, or their experiments blowing up in their faces, or their predictions not coming true.
In that case, it is understandable why the left has taken to doing everything in their power to stifle free speech and debate over global warming.
[Highly Recommended > ]
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Charter Schools Get Big Fat Zero In Spending Plan
Despite a state budget that includes $405 million more in school funding than last year, charter schools aren't slated to get an extra dime in state aid come July, critics charge. Advocates yesterday said a provision that freezes the next fiscal year's charter funds at this year's levels would slice as much as $30 million from city charters -- akin to an 8.5 percent cut.
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Obama's shameful silence
President Obama's huge stimulus bill includes about $100 billion for education. And he insists his criteria for supporting reforms is not ''whether an idea is liberal or conservative, but whether it works.'' Applauding, Randi Weingarten, powerful head of the American Federation of Teachers (1.4 million members), calls Mr. Obama the ''education president.''
However, when congressional Democrats recently doomed the Opportunity Scholarship Program for poor children in the District, the 'education president' didn't say a word...
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Spy Network Gave Washington Victory
[History]
George Washington defeated the British empire, not with his "ragtag Army," but with his extensive network of spies. That's according to Eugene Poteat, a retired senior CIA executive who began to research the history of espionage decades ago.
''Washington had his spies everywhere,'' said Poteat, who helped establish the International Spy Museum in Washington. ''He set up the most effective intelligence operation this country has ever seen.''
[Then he retired. Damn.]
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The Next Enemy
Having undergone training by students of Saul Alinsky, President Obama knows the value of a good enemy. By stirring up fear and hatred toward a key figure on the other side of the battlefield, Alinsky taught, organizers can fill their war chests and rally their troops. In the 1990s, the Democrats’ designated demon was Newt Gingrich. For the past several years, they counted on President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
Now that Bush and Cheney are out of power, who is next?
Democrats won’t find profitable enemies in the GOP congressional leadership. Unlike Gingrich, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell do not have a habit of making incendiary comments. And because the Democrats have such strong majorities in both chambers, they cannot claim that the minority leaders wield terrifying power.
So is there anybody left for the Democrats to boo and hiss? Yes, there is one figure in Washington whom liberals really do hate and fear, because he could help thwart their policy goals, especially on social issues.
That person is Chief Justice John Roberts...
[Recommended > ]
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A Nast-y Take on Governor Palin
Portfolio is sure of one thing: Sarah Palin is the villain.
Joe McGinniss’s cover story in Conde Nast’s Portfolio on Gov. Sarah Palin is almost too well-researched to be dismissed as a hit piece. Over six pages, McGinniss, who covered Alaska’s oil boom in 1975, takes us deep into the world of the state’s oil-and-gas industry, the challenging terrain, the murky politics, and the Byzantine relationship between politics and big business. A reader who comes to the topic with no familiarity with the issue comes away more knowledgeable, and for that McGinniss deserves credit.
But the article’s argument doesn’t always mesh with the details. To many readers of Conde Nast’s other publications — The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, GQ — the Republican star Palin is, ipso facto, a villainess.
the Portfolio piece follows a simple tune: Whatever decisions Governor Palin makes about this massive, complicated project, she is always wrong...
[The fear isn't abating. Wonder why.]
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McCain: People voted 'mostly for Sarah Palin' last year
WASHINGTON-- Former Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has no illusions about the 2008 White House race.
"Over 50 million people voted for me and Sarah Palin - mostly for Sarah Palin,"
McCain said.
[It's why the press continues to attack her; fear.]
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Decorated Fmr. Staff Sergeant Fires Back at Bill Maher for Rapist Joke About Soldiers
It might be par for the course, but liberal cable talk show host Bill Maher has once again launched into a rant, on his March 27 HBO show about American soldiers still stationed in Germany and Japan and insinuated they were rapists.
"Forget about bringing the troops home Iraq - we need to get the troops home from World War II," Maher said. "Can anybody tell me why in 2009, we still have more than 50,000 troops in Germany and 30,000 in Japan? At some point these people are going to have to learn to rape themselves."
Former Army Staff Sergeant and author of "House to House" David Bellavia, who has been recommended for the Medal of Honor and is a recipient of the Silver Star and the Bronze Star didn't take Maher's criticism lightly.
"While Democrats want to accuse the right in America of being hijacked by the talking points of Rush Limbaugh and talk radio, it is more than a little odd to me that the greatest minds on the left today are community organizers, washed up former sports commentators and stand up comedians,"
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Name That Party: Spanking Judge Edition
MSNBC's Web site reports "Former Judge Herman Thomas Indicted on Sex, Ethics Charges." The piece begins:
Former Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas has bonded out of the Mobile County Metro Jail after he was arrested Friday afternoon. Before his arrest, Thomas was indicted by a grand jury on 57 felony counts, accusing him of, among other things, sexually abusing Mobile County inmates in exchange for favors in his courtroom.
Other news outlets covering the story included the Montgomery Advertiser, the Press-Register, SunHerald.com, and WKRG TV 5 in Mobile.
None identified the judge as a Democrat.
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INDEPENDENCE DAY
I’m an American. This has always been my favorite label, but of late even that has seemed to mean less and less. Being called an American used to carry with it a certain pride and esprit de corps that now apparently is dated and passe. How else can one explain the rash of America-haters in our midst who only claim pride in America if a Leftist resides in the White House, and can only back a war effort if the decision to go to war was that of a Democrat.
I’m told I’ll hurt my career if I continually spout off about Liberalism — which I see as a growing cancer in our society. Worldwide, I’ve seen Liberalism metastasize into virulent incarnations of Socialism, and, left unchecked, even into its malignant cousin, Communism. Only the arrogant or the somnambulist would think such a thing could never happen here. It’s a matter of increment. Once a group organizes into a coalition, it’s a short step to claiming the right to the property of another group. All that is necessary is for an individual’s right to personal property to become a secondary concern. The ‘needs’ of the group must supercede, dontcha know. It’s a vicious cycle – wants become needs become rights. The fact that the thievery is done at the behest of a ‘civilized’ government does not sanitize the crime.
At least the highwayman has the decency to wear a mask. [snip]
I was asked by the founder of this site to write an article… an ‘opening salvo’. Considering who might read it, and who in Hollywood might be incensed, the temptation to parse words and couch my opinions was strong. But the guy in the mirror counsels me the loudest. I was always impressed with John Hancock, when, reminded that signing one’s name to that Declaration in Pennsylvania could very well lead to their deaths…solemnly stepped forward and with grand flourish signed his name in huge, legible script. In that grand spirit…
I hereby declare my independence…from the small-minded, America-hating, race-bating, Christian-bashing, class-warfare-waging, politically-correct, collectivist, Liberal Hollywood establishment.
Anybody got a problem with that, I’ll mapquest you directions to my front door, we’ll settle it like men.
Signed,
GARY GRAHAM
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