Friday, July 10, 2009
Axing the Air Force
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A branch of our Armed Forces is being hung out to dry by the Obama administration and, in the process, leaving America and our allies that much more vulnerable to our enemies.
Production of the F-22 has been terminated. Production of the C-17 has also been terminated. Production of the Combat Search and Rescue Helicopter has also been terminated. Production of the Multiple Kill Vehicle has also been terminated. F-15s, F-16s, and A-10s will all leave the Force with no replacements.
“This budget guarantees that the oldest Air Force in the history of our nation will get even older" ... “B-52s, built in the 1950s, will have to be kept on duty for a minimum of another 15-20 years.”
Did I mention that the budget of the Missile Defense Agency has been reduced by $1.4 billion. These cuts mean that there will be no increase of ground-based interceptors and that the Airborne Laser program has been terminated.
“The decisions are not just programic nuance, but will impact core Air Force functions to include Air Force ability to deter, to conduct an air campaign, and to rescue our downed airmen.”
These cuts come at the same time that North Korea just tested a missile that could hit the West Coast of the United States. One would think that a robust missile defense, to include the anti-ballistic laser, would be a good idea.
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The Real UN Resolution 242
[HT:BS]
Since we are about to embark on another fruitless peace effort in the Middle East, it probably makes sense to take another look at the UN Resolution we will be hearing a lot about over the next few months, UN Resolution 242.
You will hear politicians and diplomats claim that Israel must withdraw to the pre-1967 borders per UN Resolution 242. These people have no idea, or deliberately mischaracterize, what the resolution calls for... [snip]
But, if you read the statements of the drafters of the resolution there is no ambiguity about what they meant. Below are those statements by country and participant [1 of 11, all saying the same thing {at the time} in different ways] :
Mr. Joseph Sisco, Assistant Secretary of State, 12 July 1970 (NBC "Meet the Press"):
"That Resolution did not say 'withdrawal to the pre-June 5 lines'. The Resolution said that the parties must negotiate to achieve agreement on the so-called final secure and recognized borders. In other words, the question of the final borders is a matter of negotiations between the parties."
Source for the Above Statements
From now on when you hear a diplomat, politician, terrorist or newsman say that 242 calls for Israel to withdraw from the territories please send them a copy of this article with a note telling them the bias is pouring out of their mouths.
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Arrogance Alert: G8 Leaders Vow To Prevent Temps From Rising
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In today's "Can You Believe The Arrogance On Display" segment, the leaders of the G8 nations Wednesday vowed to -- get this -- stop global temperatures from rising more than they believe is acceptable.
I'm not kidding.
As reported by Britain's Times...
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G-8 agrees to cap on global temperatures
L'AQUILA, Italy - The Group of Eight industrialized nations joined with developing countries in agreeing Wednesday that average global temperatures shouldn't increase by more than 2 degrees in a significant new "temperature cap" in the fight against global warming.
President Obama and other G-8 leaders also said they supported a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent or more by 2050... [snip]
[Neither of these statements is {meant to be} a joke {it's an
piece, and everyone knows they've no sense of humor}.They're seriously taking themselves seriously (the patients are running the asylum) - with serious implications for the rest of us {and worse for our children}.]
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Tax increases costing vital local jobs
Four months ago, Californians were hit with the biggest tax increase in our state's history – more than $12 billion in new taxes on everything from income and sales to vehicle license fees. Since then, tax proponents have proposed another 31 new taxes that they predict will generate more than $40 billion in the first year. On top of that, legislators have singled out oil and tobacco products for massive new tax hikes.
It's time tax proponents in the Legislature heard from California's retailers. In this economy, many retailers have folded, and others are fast approaching their breaking point. Asking retailers to absorb the impact of more tax increases is a perilous proposition. New taxes have the clear potential to drive down retail sales, further eliminate retail jobs and heighten our state's budget crisis.
“I have been forced to lay off 37 percent of my work force, including an employee who has been with me since 1981,” said Amir Oram, of the Market Place in City Heights. “No doubt about it, the economy is bad, but tax increases and the added cost of doing business are what worry me. Business as usual tax increases could very well put us out of business."
The answer to this state's budget woes must be found elsewhere – in systemic changes that reduce expenses and eliminate waste, inefficiency and fraud.
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More Voters See Their Taxes Increasing Under Obama
Thirty-nine percent (39%) of likely voters now expect their personal taxes to rise under the Obama administration, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
That's up three points over the past two weeks,up eight points since the inauguration, and the highest level of concern measured to date.
Still, 40% don’t expect their taxes to change under the new administration.
[?]
Most voters (55%) continue to believe that tax increases hurt the economy, while 24% say they help. Fifty-three percent (53%) say tax cuts help the economy, while 22% say they hurt the economy.
[??]
Thirty-nine now say the country’s economic problems are now caused more by the policies Obama has put in place than those of Bush. That’s a 12-point jump from a month ago.
[Which is why all Obama's initiative are 'rush', because the more time we have to learn the full implications of his proposals, the more we'll dislike.]
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To stimulate the economy, let it be free
Lobbying is about the only sector of the economy experiencing a boom right now. This is a predictable effect of the tax-and-spend stimulus model favored by the Democrats.
Taking money out of the economy, wasting some of it on bureaucracy, and then putting it back in is not going to spark economic growth.
Even the Democrat-controlled Congressional Budget Office admits that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will hurt long-run economic growth...
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Sizing up the Tea Parties
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Atlanta--How many Americans have participated this year in “Tea Party” events? The scattered nature of the antitax protests makes it hard to know for sure – estimates run from less than half a million to close to a 1 million – but one unlikely enumerator thinks he has the answer.
He estimates that total attendance at Tea Parties this year approaches 2 million...
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Atlanta--How many Americans have participated this year in “Tea Party” events? The scattered nature of the antitax protests makes it hard to know for sure – estimates run from less than half a million to close to a 1 million – but one unlikely enumerator thinks he has the answer.
He estimates that total attendance at Tea Parties this year approaches 2 million...
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'Put nothing in writing'
Carol Browner, former Clinton administration EPA head and current Obama White House climate czar, instructed auto industry execs "to put nothing in writing, ever" regarding secret negotiations she orchestrated regarding a deal to increase federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.
Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-WI, is demanding a congressional investigation of Browner's conduct in the CAFE talks, saying in a letter to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-CA, that Browner "intended to leave little or no documentation of the deliberations that lead to stringent new CAFE standards."
Federal law requires officials to preserve documents concerning significant policy decisions, so instructing participants in a policy negotation concerning a major federal policy change is a criminal act.
Browner's informal directive was previously reported by The New York Times. Sensebrenner's letter, which is being made public tomorrow, follows: ...
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Browner has history of deceit on government files
Obama White House climate czar Carol Browner's instruction to auto executives to ''write nothing down'' on those secret negotiations to jump the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards up significantly higher was not the former EPA head's first time for trying to suppress official documents.
Soon after leaving EPA at the end of the Clinton administration, Browner was implicated in a federal court decision against EPA for destroying official computer files...
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CO2 Emissions Disagreement Between EPA and Energy Dept. Ignored by MSM
[HT:WP]
The mainstream media loves to tell the public about how "unreliable" the blogosphere is as an information source. However, there is a huge story out there that is only being covered by the blogosphere, in particular at Watts Up With That?, which is currently being completely ignored by the MSM.
It is about a significant disagreement between the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and Energy Secretary Steven Chu over the amount of worldwide CO2 emissions if the United States acts alone should a climate bill pass in both Houses of Congress. Basically EPA's Jackson says that such a bill, if passed, would have very little effect on global CO2 emissions while Chu disagrees with that assessment.
You can see the EPA chart below the fold followed by the transcript of a video of both these Obama administration officials responding at complete odds with each other under questioning from Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe at the Senate hearing yesterday on a climate bill...
[Correction; FNC's Special Report carried the story.]
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Global Warming Alarmists Propose Limiting Population ... to the Point of Extinction
In a statistical study entitled “Reproduction and the Carbon Legacies of Individuals,” published in Global Environmental Change by Murtaugh and Shlax of Oregon State University, and again published here , the authors propose that the potential savings from reduced reproduction rates among humans are some 20 times more effective than the savings wrought by life style changes.
By the authors’ desires, if we would limit every couple to having only one child, we would solve the Global Warming problem for every one. Again, humanity itself is the cause of all the woe, and the best thing for us to do is just stop procreating. Living human beings are bad for the planet.
It is clear that the authors follow the Liberal mantra of the ends justify the means. If we can reduce carbon emissions by reducing the number of children, then we should do it. It appears that carbon reductions trump even “life” itself.
[Teachers at an institution of 'higher learning'. Great.]
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Just 96 months to save world, says Prince Charles
Capitalism and consumerism have brought the world to the brink of economic and environmental collapse, the Prince of Wales has warned in a grandstand speech which set out his concerns for the future of the planet.
The heir to the throne told an audience of industrialists and environmentalists at St James's Palace last night that he had calculated that we have just 96 months left to save the world...
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House Wants to Soak the Rich For Health Care; AP Forgets the 'Again' Part
In a wildly meandering report on the status of the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Alliance's attempt to enact statist health care this year, Associated Press writers David Espo and Erica Werner:
- Told us that the House wants to slap a surtax on "highly paid" Americans without disclosing the percentage of the proposed surtax or how much it might raise.
- Forgot to tell us that wealthy wage earners already pay a "surtax" designed to fund others' health care that has failed to solve any long-term financial issues (maybe you've forgotten too, so I'll remind you).
- Acted as if the legislation under consideration will instantly zero out the number of uninsured Americans, which they falsely claimed is currently 50 million.
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WILL HEALTH CARE REFORM REALLY PAY OFF?
Health care reform, if enacted, is going to be expensive -- estimates range from around $1 trillion for a plan introduced by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) to $1.6 trillion or more for other proposals -- so the Obama Administration has come up with a list of $948 billion in savings it claims can be obtained by enacting such changes:
- Some $309 billion in reduced costs from the Medicare and Medicaid programs and $326 billion in additional revenue that will come from such things as raising taxes on families earning more than $250,000 a year.
- The Medicare and Medicaid savings include such things as assumed improvements in patient care and reduced hospitalization rates, as well as reduced Medicare payments to private insurers.
- The Administration added to that an estimate of $313 billion more it feels can be saved through such things as 'productivity adjustments' to Medicare and Medicaid, reduced hospital subsidies and by paying less on Medicare Part D, the prescription-drug program.
"Because this is a complex system, it is very hard to believe how all this new spending will affect the system as a whole. But we can be fairly confident total spending will rise -- and probably by a lot -- No matter what else happens, if I and my doctors don't change what we are doing for me and you and your doctors don't change what is being done for you….. and so forth….. aggregate spending will not change."
[Much like AWG, the professed goal is cover: the current plans having nothing to do with improving health care in America and everything to do with the government seizing control over it: there is no better mechanism to control the populace than by controlling their health care.]
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Health Care Overhaul Bill Suffers Another Setback
The drive to remake the nation's health care system suffered yet another setback in Congress on Thursday when a pivotal group of House Democrats demanded numerous changes in legislation the leadership was drafting on a fast track.
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[These are the folks you want running our health care system?]
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U2’s Bono’s political views to be imposed on the American students?
U2’s Bono, a fixture in the corridors of political power, is coming soon to a classroom near you. New Hampshire parents are more than a little peeved that their board chairman says their schools are the right size to be an incubator for what is, in effect Bono’s left-wing politics.
“Reading about this sends my blood pressure through the roof,” one parent wrote in a letter to Canada Free Press...
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The Inevitability of Parental Choice
A year ago, the nation’s largest newspaper wrote in an editorial that it was time to “move beyond vouchers” in the debate over America’s educational future.
Although it did not reject any particular solution outright, the paper’s recommendation at the time was that America focus its energy and attention on less controversial education reforms. In other words, it was a victory for those who have spent years – and expended untold taxpayer resources – in an effort to demonize parental choice and its supporters.
Then, two weeks ago, USA Today suddenly changed its tune.
Not only did the paper enthusiastically embrace parental choice – it also roundly criticized our nation’s teachers’ unions for “protecting failing schools.”
“Twenty million low-income school kids need a chance to succeed,” the USA Today editorial board wrote. “School choice is the most effective way to give it to them."
According to the most recent data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), America’s per pupil expenditure on public education is the highest of any industrialized nation in the world.
On the most recent Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test, American students scored well below the average of other industrialized nations on both the math and science portions of the exam – just as they did the last time the tests were administered. And the time before that.
Each year, the purveyors of this country’s education monopoly continue failing children at a record clip – and yet in a perfect example of precisely what’s wrong with our system, they are rewarded for their poor performance with additional taxpayer resources.
In fact, according to President Obama’s plan – the more children you fail, the more money you get...
[It's past time for universal/unencumbered school vouchers.]
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FCC Commissioner Circulates Document on ‘The State of Media Journalism’
Michael Copps, a commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission and its former acting chairman, has circulated an internal report examining the state of media journalism in America and discussing ways to address issues such as the rise of media conglomerates and the prevalence of opinion journalism.
After the FCC makes the report public, it can then be used as the basis for instituting new rules governing broadcasting ownership, licensing and content...
[It's coming...
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'Billions In (Stimulus) Aid Go to Areas That Backed Obama in 08'
[HT:SG]
USA Today today deserves serious credit for Brad Heath's look into how:
"Billions of dollars in federal aid delivered directly to the local level to help revive the economy have gone overwhelmingly to places that supported President Obama in last year's presidential election."
That quote is in fact the first sentence of the article. No burying the lede or mincing of words here.
A little later, Mr. Heath offers:
"Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration's $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain ... The reports show the 872 counties that supported Obama received about $69 per person, on average. The 2,234 that supported McCain received about $34."
According to USA Today, if you vote Donkey, they will repay you - literally, with other people's money.
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On Social Issues, WaPo Says Obama Displays 'Centrist Instincts'
The Washington Post printed a front-page story headlined "President Obama Wades Into Gay Issues" on Thursday, but Scott Wilson’s story displayed the usual double standard, calling the religious right "conservative" [not the same thing as anyone who knows what each stand for can tell you] and describing the gay left with no ideological label at all.
Is this really a cultural clash between the conservatives and the supposedly 'non-ideological' sexual revolutionaries?
Worse yet, Wilson suggested Barack Obama’s been displaying "centrist instincts" on the social issues:
That agenda comprises a set of social and economic issues that at times pit Obama's religious beliefs [?] and centrist instincts [??] against the demands of a well-organized constituency important to his future electoral prospects...
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ABC’s Cokie Roberts Attacks Male Politicians: They Wouldn't Cheat 'If They Were Thinking with Another Part of their Body'
[Not to worry, men are socially acceptable targets.]
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Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 30% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of –8.
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