Monday, October 19, 2009
Look in the mirror, Mr. President
Subject: txt 1st hcare crpt reps li- 
Politicians of all stripes routinely spin facts and logic so fast they make the rest of us shake our heads in bemused wonder. Then there are those rare occasions when a prominent politician says something that clearly deserves a place in the Political Chutzpah Hall of Fame. President Obama earned a place in the pantheon with his Saturday radio address.
"It's smoke and mirrors," ... "It's bogus, and it's all too familiar. Every time we get close to passing reform, the insurance companies produce these phony studies as a prescription and say take one of these and call us in a decade. Well not this time."In view of these facts [provided in piece], it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that Obama's campaign promises were just so much ... smoke and mirrors. Not only were Obama's bullying remarks Saturday harsh and hypocritical, they also sounded desperate, shrill and divisive. Not what one expects from a president promising bipartisan reform.
[Ah but that was in 'campaign mode' were told, which enlightened, nuanced folk realize doesn't really count.]
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$1T reform for 5%
Subject: txt 1st hcare immig -
THE health-care-reform debate is plagued by different num bers on how many Ameri cans lack health insurance, but we actually have excellent data on the question: Ninety percent of Americans are insured, according to the Census -- and even the president more or less concurs.
The Census is the source for the much-cited figure of 46 million uninsured. Yet the very same table plainly indicates that 9 million of those are not US citizens. That leaves 37 million uninsured who are Americans.
But there's more. In the same document, the Census also plainly states that "health-insurance coverage is underreported" in its survey. When it cross-checked its survey results with the official Medicaid rolls, it found that 16.9 percent of those on Medicaid had claimed on their Census forms that they were uninsured. That 16.9 percent amounts to 9 million people.
So the actual tally, according to the most authoritative source we have, is just 28 million uninsured citizens.
So, who are the 28 million uninsured? The president suggests they're all people "who cannot get coverage." But the Census tallies suggest otherwise.
Many of the uninsured are young. Except in states like New York that have made it illegal for insurance companies to offer lower rates to younger, healthier people, these Americans can get insurance cheaply -- but many choose not to. That may be problematic, but it doesn't suggest that they "cannot get coverage."
Then, too, the Census tells us that 47 percent of the uninsured (citizens or not) make over $50,000 a year. Since the median American family income is $50,740, this means that nearly half of those who are uninsured make more than most American families.
None of this is to deny the high costs of health care -- which are often a key reason federal health programs are already by far the biggest contributor to the deficit. But it brings us to a simple but largely ignored truth:
Only 5 percent of Americans are uninsured and making less than the median income. (And many among that 5 percent are already eligible for government programs).
For comparison, the Congressional Budget Office says that 6 percent of Americans would remain uninsured after 10 years under the bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee, which would spend nearly a trillion dollars, impose new taxes and fines of more than half a trillion and cut $400 billion-plus from Medicare and related programs -- while raising taxes and spending by more than three times as much in its second decade...
[Its never had anything to do with health 'care'.]
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POLL: Most Insured Americans Say They’d Have to Switch Coverage if Health Care Reform Passes
ubject: txt 1st hcare -
Despite assurances from the president and congressional Democrats who authored the bill that no one with insurance will be forced to change their current coverage, 52% of those with insurance say it’s likely they will have to change coverage following passage of the congressional health care reform proposal.
The current numbers include 31% who say it is Very Likely that they would be forced to change their coverage while only 18% say it’s Not at All Likely. Most Republicans and unaffiliated voters say it’s likely they would have to change plans. Thirty-nine percent (39%) of those in the president’s party agree.
That’s part of the reason that just 43% of all voters currently favor the president’s plan and 53% are opposed. Those who oppose the plan feel more strongly about it than those who favor it.
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Destruction Of Healthcare Delivery System Underway
Subject: txt 1st hcare - 
If you want to understand why Aetna, Independence Blue Cross (Keystone), and other insurance companies are dropping some, though not all, of their Medicare Advantage policies, you have to understand the way these plans have been tainted by President Obama and the Democratic proposals for Obamacare in its various forms. Their proposals, not yet enacted, will destroy the greatest health care delivery system in the world if enacted...
"But if you haven’t figured out by now that Mr. Obama’s a habitual liar, you haven’t been paying attention."
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Small Group Now Leads Closed Negotiations on Health-Care Bill
Subject: txt 1st hcare -
Three months before he was elected president, Barack Obama vowed not only to reform health care but also to pass the legislation in an unprecedented way.
"I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table,"... the discussions would be "televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies."
But now, as a Senate vote on health-care legislation nears, those negotiations are occurring in a setting that is anything but revolutionary in Washington: Three senators, count 'em, are working on the bill - behind closed doors...
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America Apologizes for its Own Existence
Subject: txt 1st bdd vals sclm -
Last week was Columbus Day, once considered a major event, the holiday has been undergoing a decline in recent years. Columbus Day parades have met with protests and some have been deemphasized or outright eliminated.
In California, Columbus Day become Indigenous People’s Day, which sounds vaguely like a Marxist terrorist group’s holiday. But while it’s tempting to put that down to California’s political nuttiness, in South Dakota, Columbus Day became Native American Day, and that is a trend that other states are likely to follow, as protests mounted under the aegis of La Raza (The Race) continue to grow.
And while none have thus far followed Venezuela’s lead in renaming it Día de la Resistencia Indígena, or Day of Indigenous Resistance, which indeed is a Marxist terrorist group’s holiday, the whole notion of celebrating the discovery of America has come to be seen as somehow shameful and worst of all, politically incorrect...
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[Only for some...]
Most Think Columbus Deserves Holiday
Subject: txt 1st -
Some historians paint a dark picture of Christopher Columbus these days, and nearly a quarter (24%) of adults now don't think America should honor him with a national holiday.
Fifty-eight percent (58%) disagree and say Columbus should be honored with a holiday. Seventeen percent (17%) are undecided.
Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Republicans favor continuance of Columbus Day, compared to 52% of Democrats and 54% of adults not affiliated with either party. Democrats are nearly twice as likely as Republicans to think Columbus should not be honored.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of whites say Columbus deserves a holiday, a view shared by just 50% of African-Americans and 51% of those in other racial categories.
Perhaps surprisingly, younger Americans are more supportive of the famous Italian explorer than their elders. Seventy-two percent (72%) of both men and women under 40 believe Columbus should be honored with a holiday. Only 57% of men over 40 and 53% of women over 40 agree.
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Revolutionary Guard commanders killed in Iran bomb
Subject: txt gwot heroes -
TEHRAN, Iran — A suicide bomber killed five senior commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guard and at least 26 others in an area of southeastern Iran that has been at the center of a simmering Sunni insurgency, state media reported.
The region in Iran's southeast has been the focus of violent attacks by Jundallah, which has waged a low-level insurgency in recent years. The group accuses Iran's Shiite-dominated government of persecution and has carried out attacks against the Revolutionary Guard and Shiite targets in the southeast.
Despite Iran's claims of an al-Qaida link, Chris Zambelis, a Washington-based risk management consultant who has studied Jundallah, said in a recent article that there is no evidence al-Qaida is supporting the group. He does note, however, that the group has begun to use the kinds of suicide bombings associated with the global terror network.
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Iran blames U.S. and U.K. for suicide attack, vows revenge
Subject: txt gwot - intl -
The Iranian armed forces have accused the United States and Britain of involvement in a suicide bombing that targeted the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard on Sunday, and warned of revenge. The headquarters of the armed forces blamed the bombing on ''terrorists'' backed by ''the Great Satan America and its ally Britain''. ''Not in the distant future we (Iran) will take revenge"...
[Seems to me that, if we're going to get blamed for it anyway, ...]
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Explaining terrorism to a Nobel laureate
Subject: txt gwot libs edu -
The world finally has a definitive answer to the age-old question about whether intelligence is the same thing as common sense. That answer, in case you've ever wondered, is a conclusive "no."
Last week Israel Army Radio interviewed Dr. Ada Yonath, professor of structural biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, on her selection for a Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Dr. Yonath, who uses high powered x-rays to map locations of things I can neither spell, pronounce, nor use in a sentence, is the first Israeli woman ever to win the Nobel in any category... [snip]
...when the topic turned to 'Palestinian' prisoners and Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit, Dr. Yonath reportedly said the following:
"It's not clear to me why we're holding these Palestinian terrorists, instead of releasing everybody who is [in our jails] from the outset, without any connection to a deal for Shalit. I do not understand why he is there."
Well, that's pretty simple. Staff Sergeant Shalit is there because he was taken hostage while serving his country. His kidnappers, members of various terror gangs, are the sons of foreigners once given refuge by that same country.
Gilad Shalit (image courtesy of the Shalit family)
Perhaps Dr. Yonath should ask them why he is there.
I have watched for some clarification by Dr. Yonath, or some protestation that her words were taken out of context, but so far nothing like that has been forthcoming...
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[Why some of us so frequently use terms such as 'insular' {ok, sometimes 'liberal'} delusion. Or as recently put another way...
Beware of Ideological Teamism
"Ideological teamism" refers to people's desire to belong to a team representing that they want to believe, which corrupts their judgment in determining what to believe... "or, put in its most basic:
"If Arabs laid down their arms there'd be no war. If Israel laid down its arms, there'd be no Israel."Council ef ex-Muslims
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Played By Putin
Subject: txt intl russia - gwot nsec -
If only the world matched President Obama’s rosy image of it. Perhaps then pre-emptive concessions to other nations, in the hope of prompting reciprocation, might make sense.
Alas, the world doesn’t work that way.
And nothing demonstrates this more than Moscow’s increasingly problematic position on Iran, despite the White House’s “goodwill”...
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Russia Rejects Our Reset Button in Favor of Theirs
Subject: txt intl -
From the moment the use of the term “reset” as a synonym for do-over, start-over, or make-over, entered the political vocabulary – inserted by none other than that wonderful wordsmith, Vice President Joe Biden – it has been applied foremost to our relationship with Russia. But as a recent, probable reluctantly chosen, headline in the Washington Post indicated, a reset button can often create an error message.
“Russia Not Budging on Iran Sanctions: Clinton Unable to Sway Counterpart,”
was how the largely pro-administration paper put it. [snip]
The message of danger is never a comfortable one to deliver or receive, but without it we may find ourselves with no real comfort zone at all.
I say let’s forget about this whole reset button nonsense. Frankly, what some in Washington should actually be concerned about is an eject button. It is shaped like a lever and every voting booth in the country will be equipped with one over the next few Novembers...
[Alas, nearly half of this country still gets its 'news' from TV...]
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Whipped for wearing a 'deceptive' bra
Subject: txt islm - :
A hardline Islamist group in Somalia has begun publicly whipping women for wearing bras that they claim violate Islam as they are 'deceptive'. The insurgent group Al Shabaab has sent gunmen into the streets of Mogadishu to round up any women who appear to have a firm bust, residents claimed yesterday.
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e-reformation: Internet Vital to Reforming Islam
Subject: txt islm gdd -
First, many Muslims can now express their opinions about religious issues without fear for their lives. They can simply critique the traditional teaching and provide alternative interpretations anonymously and remotely without fear on the Internet. This encouraged many reformers to speak out and forced the recipients of their views to listen without being able to harm them physically.
The Internet basically changed the ‘war within Islam’ from a physical one (where the reformer could be killed) to an intellectual one where reformers are relatively safe and able to continue their mission. This option was not available before the Internet era when reformers were physically threatened. In fact, the reformers can now communicate together to become more powerful and even find a larger audience.
Second, the Internet has allowed an exchange of ideas with the non-Muslim world as well. This has enriched the thinking process in Muslim communities and bypassed the barriers that have been created by the radicals to prevent such exposure. Now Muslims can listen to different views and ideas from other parts of the world... [snip]
The Internet can certainly be used by the radicals to promote radical views. However, the net outcome of using the Internet is more likely to be positive than negative as it overcomes most, if not all, of the obstacles of reformation in Islam that existed. Using the Internet to promote reformation and modernity within Islam rather than extremism is our next challenge and goal to modernize the Muslim world.
This form of e-reformation can change the future of our world and can determine the future of Islam...
[Provided pro democracy folk aren't cowed into silence by political correctness. I.e., we too need speak up.]
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Uribe faces ‘crossroads of soul’
Subject: txt intl trade -
Alváro Uribe sweeps in and apologises for keeping his visitors waiting for four hours. “If you’d seen my schedule since 6.30 this morning, you would forgive me,” says the 57-year-old Colombian president. Mr Uribe, a dapper, silver-haired man who has survived 19 assassination attempts, has just finished emergency talks with his economic team. Venezuela, a troublesome neighbour, has tightened restrictions on Colombian food imports, while the soaring peso is squeezing exports.
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[And still no trade agreement with the US.]
FLASHBACK >
Colombia’s Uribe, Canada’s Harper to Sign Free Trade AgreementPresident George W. Bush made approving a free trade agreement with Colombia, a top ally in the fight against drugs, a priority before leaving office in January. U.S. President Barack Obama, voicing Colombia’s human-rights record raised by labor unions, opposes the agreement...
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EU Grabs Korea Trade Pact That Was Ours
Subject: txt trade -
Free Trade: Europe just walked off with the second-biggest trade deal in history with South Korea, bringing a fresh $26 billion to both economies and extending their clout globally. It's a prize that could have been ours. Welcome to the new America, the land of the left behind. As the Obama administration dithers for the eighth straight month about three pending free-trade treaties, those dust clouds you see are Europe taking off and running
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Pleasing China, at Dalai Lama’s expense
Subject: txt intl -
President Obama was too quick to please China’s leaders when he recently put off meeting with the Dalai Lama. The spiritual leader of the long-oppressed Tibetan people was visiting Washington, but Obama said he did not want to meet with the exiled monk until after meeting President Hu Jintao of China next month.
Obama’s consideration for foreign leaders’ sensibilities can be a virtue, but in this case the president showed China’s leaders and Tibetans alike that he is more susceptible than recent predecessors of both parties to pressure from Beijing. The informal chats presidents Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush held in the White House with the Dalai Lama had no adverse effects on US-China relations.
Obama should be using his persuasive powers to convince China’s leaders that their interest would be best served if they granted cultural autonomy and religious freedom to Tibetans...
[Again and again, the 'new' US sides with tyranny. How very european.]
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U.S. can't afford pay for no work
Subject: txt bbro bdd mny hcare -
Can you detect the pattern? About 15,000 postal workers, including (so far) more than a dozen in Waterbury, will spend at least part of some or all of their shifts this year in "standby rooms," where they will collect their paychecks but will be prohibited from earning them.
The cost to the Postal Service of paying 7 percent of its work force to do nothing will exceed $50 million this year...
[This is government. Health care anyone?]
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"Pay Czar?!"
Subject: txt sclm bbro mny -
The Obama administration's "pay czar" has demanded that Ken Lewis, Chairman of the Board of Bank of America, work for free. The "czar," Kenneth Feinberg, pressured Lewis not only to forgo all remaining compensation for 2009, but to repay the $1 million he has already received this year.
Lewis acquiesced...
[And that's part of the problem. Like all aspects of contemporary American society, our 'captains' of industry are completely devoid of testicular fortitude. The government works for them, not the other way around {unless we allow it}.
Sheep will be sheared.]
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NBC's 'Today' Includes Michael Moore as Expert to Attack Wall Street Bonuses
Subject: txt mny msm bias fnn bdd -
[What bias?]
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Obama team makes it official: Budget deficit hits record. By a lot.
Subject: txt mny -
The Obama administration has released new deficit numbers, and they are not pretty. The deficit for Fiscal Year 2009, which ended Sept. 30, came in at a record $1.42 trillion, more than triple the record set just last year. In addition, future deficits are currently projected to total $9.1 trillion in the coming decade...
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US budget deficit hit a record $1,400bn
Subject: txt mny -
The US budget deficit hit a record $1,400bn in the last fiscal year as the government tried to spend its way out of recession - more than three times that of 2008.
[Maybe that's the way we should get in the habit of portraying it: One THOUSAND four hundred BILLION dollars. Think about that. In a year.]
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CO2 driven global warming is not supported by the data
Subject: txt grn -
CO2 -- many seek to regulate it, legislate it, tax it, capture it, sequester it, cap it, trade it or otherwise control it. And they who do would have us risk nothing less than worldwide economic destruction based on the theory that not doing so will inevitably lead to catastrophic global warming.
But one need only study the past two centuries of climate history to conclude that CO2 simply does not drive global warming.... [snip]
The above plot clearly shows the following shifts in mean global temperatures:
Global cooling by 0.71 deg C from 1878 to 1911, for 33 years.
Global warming by 0.53 deg C from 1911 to 1944, for 33 years.
Global cooling by 0.48 deg C from 1944 to 1976, for 32 years.
Global warming by 0.67 deg C from 1976 to 1998, for 22 years.
In addition to the data above that show cooling and warming phases of mean global temperature anomalies, there exist supporting documents that describe the climate of those periods in the media:
For the global cooling from 1878 to 1911, the headline in The New York Times on 24-Feb-1895 was PROSPECTS OF ANOTHER GLACIAL PERIOD.[snip]
For the global warming from 1911 to 1944, the headline in The New York Times on 15-May-1932 was Melting Polar Ice Caps to Raise the Level of Seas and Flood the Continents
For the global cooling from 1944 to 1976, the headline in Newsweek on 28-April-1975 was The Cooling World.
Science is about the data. Science is not about consensus or authority.
The linear global warming of the last century was similar to that of two centuries ago. The oscillating warming by 0.67 deg C from 1976 to 1998 is as natural as the oscillating cooling by similar amount from 1878 to 1911. From Figure 4, there is no shift in mean global temperature anomaly in the last century as a result of CO2 emission. None.
CO2 driven global warming is not supported by the data.
Girma Orssengo, MASc, Ph.D.
[Long, boring, much of it over my head - you know; serious science.]
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Cash for Clubbers
Congress's fabulous golf cart stimulus
We thought cash for clunkers was the ultimate waste of taxpayer money, but as usual we were too optimistic. Thanks to the federal tax credit to buy high-mileage cars that was part of President Obama's stimulus plan, Uncle Sam is now paying Americans to buy that great necessity of modern life, the golf cart... [snip]
The federal credit provides from $4,200 to $5,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle, and when it is combined with similar incentive plans in many states the tax credits can pay for nearly the entire cost of a golf cart. In South Carolina, sales of these carts have been soaring as dealerships alert customers to Uncle Sam's giveaway.
"The Golf Cart Man" in the Villages of Lady Lake, Florida is running a banner online ad that declares: "GET A FREE GOLF CART. Or make $2,000 doing absolutely nothing!"
You can't blame a guy for exploiting a government backed scam... [snip]
This golf-cart fiasco perfectly illustrates tax policy in the age of Obama, when politicians dole out credits and loopholes for everything from plug-in cars to fuel efficient appliances, home insulation and vitamins.
Democrats then insist that to pay for these absurdities they have no choice but to raise tax rates on other things—like work and investment—that aren't politically in vogue. If this keeps up, it'll soon make more sense to retire and play golf than work for living.
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California appears poised to be first to ban power-guzzling big-screen TVs
ubject: txt grn cali engry -
Reporting from Sacramento - The influential lobby group Consumer Electronics Assn. is fighting what appears to be a losing battle to dissuade California regulators from passing the nation's first ban on energy-hungry big-screen televisions.
On Tuesday, executives and consultants for the Arlington, Va., trade group asked members of the California Energy Commission to instead let consumers use their wallets to decide whether they want to buy the most energy-saving new models of liquid-crystal display and plasma high-definition TVs.
"Voluntary efforts are succeeding without regulations," said Doug Johnson, the association's senior director for technology policy. Too much government interference could hamstring industry innovation and prove expensive to manufacturers and consumers, he warned.
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Did You Know...
Subject: txt msm bias libs intl owg mny -
"I said that population, when unchecked, increased in a geometrical ratio; and subsistence for man in an arithmetical ratio." Thomas Malthus, 1798
"The battle to feed humanity is over. In the 1970s, the world will undergo famines. Hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. Population control is the only answer." Paul Ehrlich, in The Population Bomb, 1968.
Human Population Growth Since 1750
Source: United Nations.
World grain production increase from 1960 to 2000: 270%.
Percentage of world population living in poverty and hunger in 1960: 50%.
Today: 13%.
Source: Thomas R. DeGregori, American Council on Science and Health.
[That's can't be right; everything's getting worse, everyone knows that...]
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How to take down a great power
Subject: txt hstry -
Unlike Augustus or Caligula, Lucius Aurelius Commodus was not an emperor who made a strong impression on modern consciousness. Until the release of the film Gladiator, a heavily fictionalized version of his reign, most Americans had never heard of him.
Commodus' failings became evident soon after he ascended to the imperial purple. Having no background in foreign policy, he effectively set it aside, allowing his father's achievements to unravel.
We look back at the Roman epoch with a sense of relief. We've learned so much since then. No longer do we consider our leaders to be gods among men. No longer do we hand them unearned and meretricious awards and prizes. We don't turn on and destroy members of previous administrations.
We don't tolerate incompetent and corrupt sycophants in high office. We've learned to recognize disorders such as pathological narcissism and assure that the victims do not gain high office. Any president who placed his prestige on the line with an athletic contest would be laughed to scorn.
And as for political bloodshed, that kind of savagery has no place in a modern democracy. Any party that called for the assassination of an opposing leader -- say, George W. Bush -- would simply be run out of the public sphere. Unlike the Romans, we all understand the concept of consequences, that what goes around comes around.
Don't we?
Under Commodus the leadership of Rome rotted away. The fault of those who opposed him and did not rid themselves of him sooner.
So here is today's history lesson: If you don't like history be warned that you are living it...
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Island of fiscal sanity - in Michigan
It's well known that the State of Michigan is on life support from the federal government. The situation is hopeless. Thousands are lining up for "Obama Cash." The state budget is a mess. State police have been laid off and school funding reduced.
But, amidst the calamity, to the absolute horror of tax and spend democrats there is a shining example of conservative, republican, common-sense management: Oakland County.
It's just had it's triple A bond rating reaffirmed:
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson announces that Wall Street has reaffirmed the county’s coveted AAA Bond Rating.
The AAA Bond Rating is difficult to retain in the current economy. Only about two dozen of the nation’s 3,000 counties have the AAA rating.
“The county will continue to adhere to its historically strong budget and management practices which have resulted in ample financial flexibility that positions the county well to manage current economic challenges,”
Moody’s says.
Patterson, in the mid 1990's, reformed Oakland County's employee health and retirement plans and privatized many services,
So don't tell the voters there that the only choices in tough times are higher taxes or cuts in services. Oakland county voters know better.
It could be called the Miracle of Oakland County if it were ever reported by the major media, but as usual success contrary to the liberal line doesn't seem to be 'news worthy'.
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Woody Harrelson claims he mistook photographer for zombie
Woody Harrelson defended his clash with a photographer at a New York airport Wednesday night as a case of mistaken identity -- he says he mistook the cameraman for a zombie.
The TMZ photographer filed a complaint with police claiming the actor damaged his camera and pushed him in the face at La Guardia Airport, according to an airport spokesman.
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