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Calm and Ready

Subject: txt 1st hcare = At Health Care Summit, Republicans
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., one of the GOP's fastest-rising stars, laid out the free market health care argument for the nation to see. He told the president and the American people

The difference is this. We don’t think all the answers lie in Washington regulating all of this. So the problem with the approach we're seeing that you're offering, which I do believe, Senator, is very different from what we're saying, is we don't want to sit in Washington mandating all of these things.

What you're doing is you're defining exactly what kind of health insurance people can have, you're mandating them to buy this kind of health insurance, and so we simply say, look if the National Restaurants Association or the National Federation of Independent Business on behalf of their members, wants to set up an association health plan, we think they'll probably do a good job on behalf of their members. Let them decide to do that instead of restricting insurance competition.

By federalizing the regulation of insurance, and by mandating exactly how it’ll work, you make it more expensive and you reduce the competition among insurers for people's business. We want to decentralize the system, give more power to small businesses, more power to individuals, and make insurance compete more. But if you federalize it, you standardize it and mandate it, you do not achieve that. And that’s the big difference we have.

Ryan's brief but apt summary of the Republican position on DemCare generally was at once calm and hard-hitting.

Of course this is not the first time Republicans have issued the charges Ryan did today. But it is the first time they have been able to do so in an organized setting with virtually every national media outlet present.

Who knows, maybe this will get the nation's lefty pundits to stop calling Republicans do-nothing obstructionists and actually discuss some of their ideas...

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Obama Rejects Socialist Tag But Would Tax Health Plans If More Than People 'Need'

Subject: txt sclm hcare -

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." -- Karl Marx, 1875

The day after Pres. Obama carped about people calling him a socialist, he sent his top spokesman out to describe a plan to tax health insurance policies that provide benefits more generous than what people "need."

"It's a tax on insurance companies that offer Cadillac, or quite frankly, Rolls Royce policies that in essence people don't need." -- Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, 2-25-10

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The Main Event: Ryan v. Obama

Subject: txt 1st hcare -
Rep. Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, just launched a full-bore assault on the faulty assumptions behind the claim that the Obama health care plan will reduce the deficit.

Obama didn't even bother questioning Ryan's presentation. He changed the subject to Medicare Advantage.

The expression on the president's face as Ryan made his case was that of someone who realizes he's met his match...

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Rave reviews for Republicans

Subject: txt 1st hcare -

CNN’s WOLF BLITZER: “It looks like the Republicans certainly showed up ready to play.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

CNN’s GLORIA BORGER: “The Republicans have been very effective today. They really did come to play. They were very smart.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

BORGER: “They took on the substance of a very complex issue. … But they really stuck to the substance of this issue and tried to get to the heart of it and I think did a very good job.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

CNN’s DAVID GERGEN: “The folks in the White House just must be kicking themselves right now. They thought that coming out of Baltimore when the President went in and was mesmerizing and commanding in front of the House Republicans that he could do that again here today. That would revive health care and would change the public opinion about their health care bill and they can go on to victory. Just the opposite has happened.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

THE HILL’S A.B. STODDARD: “I think we need to start out by acknowledging Republicans brought their ‘A Team.’ They had doctors knowledgeable about the system, they brought substance to the table, and they, I thought, expressed interest in the reform. ” (Fox News’ “Live,” 2/25/10)

THE WEEKLY STANDARD’S STEVE HAYES: “I think to me the most important thing to come out of the morning so far is that Republicans have spent a great deal of time talking with great passion, and I think eagerness about their plans, detailing the plans that until this morning the democrats had been saying didn’t exist. Well, you now see, I think, in great detail that Republicans do have plans, that they care about the same issues and that they feel passionately about it.” (Fox News’ “Live,” 2/25/10)


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NPR: 'Menacing' That ObamaCare Can't Get Passed

[Meanwhile, in our tax-paid-for media...]

In his weekly interview on Weekend Edition Saturday, National Public Radio "senior news analyst" (read: unrebutted liberal commentator) Daniel Schorr saw something "menacing" in Capitol Hill’s failure to pass a big ultraliberal agenda.

It’s "more menacing than simply whether one or another winds a couple of seats in the Congress."

That’s an easy thing for a 93-year-old government-paid commentator with no term limits to say. Schorr was circulating the same liberal "wisdom" of the week that Sen. Evan Bayh has identified that Washington is somehow "dysfunctional" or "broken" when ultraliberal bills that the majority of Americans despise aren’t rammed through boldly and persistently...

['Menacing', as in potentially violent]

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What happens next in health care

Subject: txt 1st hcare - Exclusive:
After a brief period of consultation following the White House health reform summit, congressional Democrats plan to begin making the case next week for a massive, Democrats-only health-care plan, party strategists told Politico.

A Democratic official said the six-hour summit was expected to “give a face to gridlock, in the form of House and Senate Republicans.” Democrats plan to begin rhetorical, and perhaps legislative, steps toward the Democrats-only, or reconciliation, process early next week, the strategists said...

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While You Are Distracted by the Summit, Obama Democrats Are Targeting the CIA

Subject: txt nsec - 1st -
The House is about to debate the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act (H.R. 2701), and, with all eyes are on the health care summit, Democrats have slipped into the bill a new provision that would establish criminal punishments for CIA agents and other intelligence officials who engage in "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" during interrogations.

[such as placing hoods over heads or 'exploiting phobias' - with up to 15 years prison time]

The Democratic addition is called the "Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Interrogations Prohibition Act of 2010," and it was inserted into the larger intelligence bill without being considered by the House Intelligence Committee.

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Judge orders another Guantanamo detainee freed

Subject: txt gwot nsec bbro -
A federal judge here has ordered the release of a Yemeni prisoner who's been held at the Guantanamo detention center. U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr., issued the order late Wednesday, telling the Obama administration to "take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps" to free Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman. Kennedy ordered the administration to report back on its progress April 1.

The order brings to 33 the number of people ordered freed under the Supreme Court's ruling...

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The Special Relationship is under fire: Obama’s refusal to back Britain over the Falklands is a disgrace

Subject: txt intl nsec libs sclm bdd owg bdd -
The Obama administration’s decision to remain neutral in the dispute between Great Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands is a shameful decision that will go down very badly across the Atlantic. As The Times has just reported, Washington has point blank refused to support British sovereignty over the Falklands, and is adopting a strictly neutral approach. In the words of a State Department spokesman:

“We are aware not only of the current situation but also of the history, but our position remains one of neutrality.."

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British Tea Party Movement to launch on Saturday

Subject: txt intl lbrty -
The inaugural British Tea Party will take place on Saturday in my home town of Brighton. Labour has raised more than a trillion pounds in additional taxation since 1997. Yet, unbelievably, Gordon Brown has still managed to run up a deficit of 12.6 per cent of GDP (Greece’s is 12.7 per cent). A far lower level of taxation brought Americans out in spontaneous protest last year - [snip]

Oh, and this being England, we’ll be serving actual, you know, tea.

[Pretty flexible interpretation of history there - but whatever brings 'em out...]

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Islamic and Leftist Allies Defend Iran’s Human Rights Record at U.N. Gathering

Subject: txt owg - libs -
As the U.N. Human Rights Council scrutinized Iran’s domestic rights record on Monday, Western nations raised concerns about abuses including executions, torture and mass arrests, while Tehran’s Islamic and leftist allies lined up to defend and praise the regime.

The events once again highlighted the deep divisions in the Geneva-based U.N. body, which the Obama administration joined last year, citing hopes of improving it from within...

[I.e., another year squandered being played by the mullas while they build their bomb...]

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'Doomsday is here for the state of Illinois'

Subject: txt sclm mny -
To become solvent, the state must enact the largest tax-increase package in Illinois history and wrest major financial concessions from the state's unionized work force, a nonpartisan government watchdog contends.

In a new analysis of Illinois' ''horrific'' finances, the Civic Federation lays out the painful choices awaiting Gov. Quinn and the Legislature as they stare down an epic $12.8 billion budget deficit that has choked the flow of state cash to public universities and schools, transit systems and social-service agencies to the point of economic collapse...

[Note that continued spending is assumed...]

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Private Accounts the Only Answer on Social Security, Pensions

Subject: txt mny bbro sclm gdd - Cato Scholar:

Americans have been so bombarded with the word "crisis," it appears to have lost all meaning. But distinguished scholar the Cato Institute, there is a real, serious crisis pending in America's addiction to entitlement programs, government-dependence, and imaginary "rights" to live off future generations.

"You will have to look into the future, do the responsible thing, and begin moving toward a system of personal accounts. That is the only long-term solution,"

said Jose Pinera of America's social security and pension system.

Pinera knows what he's talking about - he's the architect of social security reform in Chile. Introducing a recent interview with Pinera, Fox Business Network's Brian Sullivan said,

"Thirty years ago, the social security system of Chile was broke, flat-busted. Entitlement reform was just destroying the nation's finances. In walks the Harvard-educated Jose Pinera. He pushed through by force of will a plan to privatize their entire entitlement system and social security - there is no government social security in Chile now - and everybody has a private account..."

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What Bias? re: Venezuela Slipping Into Socialist/Statist Darkness, Literally And Figuratively

Subject: txt sclm - msm -
Four recent stories out of Venezuela each give readers a brief glimpse at how Hugo Chavez's brand of authoritarian socialism is critically wounding what could be resource-rich, financially prosperous country:

1. January 9, Associated Press -- "Venezuela weakens currency for 1st time in 5 years."
2. January 10, Bloomberg -- "Chavez Says He’ll Seize Businesses That Raise Prices."
3. December 22, AFP -- "Chavez announces new discount 'socialist' stores."
4. January 9, AP -- "Venezuela faces risk of devastating power collapse."

Collectively, however, they depict a country in the early stages of a headlong free-fall into Cuban-style financial ruin.

But no U.S. establishment media enterprise appears interested in making the accelerating decays in financial well-being and personal freedom in that country understandable to the average person...


[Well, no; socialism is really a good thing, reality notwithstanding.]

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UKIP would ban Al Gore film in schools

Subject: txt grn edu -
Following a number of scandals around the science of climate change, UKIP are promising to launch a Royal Commission led by a High Court judge to investigate whether global warming is man-made.

Pending the results of the commission, it's hoped that Global warming 'propaganda' like the Al Gore film Inconvenient Truth will be banned in schools and public settings that represent captive audiences to only one point of view...

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Green madness, &c.

Subject: txt grn -
For a long time now, many of us have written about the green movement, and I don’t mean democratic protests in Iran: I mean the environmentalist movement here in the United States.

Is it a sane, realistic, and admirable response to genuine environmental problems? Or is it a foolish, often bullying cult, which will one day be regarded as a bizarre chapter in our history?

Sometimes you think — Has the whole world gone mad? Green-mad?

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Time Magazine Links Austin Suicide Pilot To Tea Party Movement

Subject: txt 1st 2010 lbrty msm -
In an article about Thursday's apparent suicide by a pilot in Austin, Texas, the folks at Time.com made two seemingly intentional links to the Tea Party movement.

First, the piece began:

The long, rambling rant posted on a website eerily reflected the angry populist sentiments that have swept the country in the past year. In it, a Joe Stack inveighed against intrusive Big Brother government, corrupt corporate giants, irrational taxes, as well as the "puppet" George Bush.

Then, after the third paragraph which concluded, "Toward the end of what appears to be his final note, Stack wrote, 'Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well,'" the folks at time advertised the following article by the magazine with a hyperlink highlighted in yellow:

Not very subtle, is it?

Let's be clear that tying this person to Tea Parties or conservatives is preposterous. After all, his suicide note ended:

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Joe Stack (1956-2010)

02/18/2010

You know a lot of conservatives and/or Tea Party members extolling the virtues of communism while bashing capitalism?

No...I don't either.

Shame on Time for doing this.

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NYT: The First Tea-Party Terrorist?

Subject: txt msm bias 1st 2010 -
[Not to be outdone by its liberal competition.]

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[You need read Stack's writings to know how blatant this (180-degree) spin is: the guy was a lefty loon - but I guess any nut job will do to disparage a grass roots movement the elite left despises.
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Breitbart to NY Times Reporter for Alleging Racial Tones: 'You’re a Despicable Human Being'

Subject: txt 1st 2010 msm bias -

After Barack Obama's election as the first black president of the United States, we were supposed to have entered a new, post-racial era. However, as many feel it has turned out, any dissent or criticism of the most powerful man in the free world or his agenda draws allegations of "racial tones," as happened on the New York Times Web site on Feb. 18.

And on Feb. 18 at the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference, Andrew Breitbart, publisher of Breitbart.com, Breitbart.tv, Big Hollywood, Big Government and Big Journalism, called out the Times' reporter, Kate Zernike, for making those allegations. (6:00 in first video)

Breitbart was accepting the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award for extensively covering one of the most "uncovered" stories of 2009 for corruption within the so-called community activist organization ACORN.

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ACORN Official: Gangster Group Will Be Bankrupt Soon But Fake Spinoff Groups Will Carry On The Corruption

Subject: txt crpt
The ACORN crime syndicate is not going away anytime soon, but it’s going to look different. ACORN will probably run out of money and fold by year’s end

but a dozen ACORN state chapters reincorporated to seem like new, independent organizations will spring up in the next week to carry on ACORN’s business,

a leaked email from ACORN’s online director suggests...

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Vanity Fair: Conservative Magazines Rise on Hate

Subject: txt msm bias lbrty 2010 fnn bdd -
According to Vanity Fair's Matt Pressman, President Obama's plummeting approval rate isn't just affecting the Oval Office, it has liberal magazines suffering and conservative titles flourishing. "Hate sells," Pressman wrote in his Feb. 23 article, and, with fewer Americans approving of the President, conservative magazines have enjoyed a "boost from the anti-government, tea-party led fervor."

[And differing opinions on the definition of liberty have nothing to do with it whatsoever - move along ... ]

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Marines Seize Taliban Headquarters

Subject: txt gwot nsec heroes -

After a fierce gunfight, U.S. Marines seized a strongly defended compound Friday that appears to have been a Taliban headquarters — complete with photos of fighters posing with their weapons, dozens of Taliban-issued ID cards and graduation diplomas from a training camp in Pakistan.

Insurgents who had been using the field office just south of Marjah's town center abandoned it by the end of the day's fighting, as Marines converged on them from all sides, escalating operations to break resistance in this Taliban stronghold in southern Helmand province...

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NATO issues directive restricting night raids

Subject: txt gwot owg -
A new directive, confirmed Wednesday by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, aims to limit such nighttime raids on civilians. It was prompted by a storm of complaints from Afghans who, like Nabi, who were enraged over foreign soldiers bursting into their homes.

[Understandable on their part - insanity on ours.]

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Criticism of Obama’s OIC Envoy Raises Questions About the Need for Such an Envoy

[HT:CC]Subject: txt islm gwot nsec -
President Obama’s decision to appoint an envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has focused renewed attention on the Saudi-based body, and what role a U.S. envoy should play.

The OIC describes itself as “the second largest intergovernmental organization in membership after the United Nations, with 57 member and five observer countries, and … the voice of 1.5 billion Muslims in the world affairs.” Its 56 member states are scattered across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, along with one in Europe (Albania) and two in South America (Guyana and Suriname). The 57th is “Palestine,” which is not a sovereign country.

Partly overshadowed by the controversy surrounding statements Rashad Hussain made six years ago about a man indicted for supporting terrorists, is the question of whether the U.S. should have an envoy to the Islamic bloc in the first place...

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Bosses rapped for valid sacking

Subject: txt intl sclm bbro bdd - mny -
The nation's industrial umpire has ruled that a long-term employee who was legitimately sacked for repeated safety breaches must be reinstated and paid compensation because of his poor education and poor job prospects. In the latest ruling to concern business, Fair Work Australia found the worker had engaged in "relatively serious misconduct", but ruled the sacking void due to his length of service and the fact he was a poorly educated middle-aged family man,

[I.e., a victim. The inevitable result of a society based on the equality of outcomes.]

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Greek workers stage general strike

Subject: txt intl sclm owg mny -
Flights in and out of Greece were grounded and schools and most public services shut down as the country's unions staged a general strike on Wednesday. Police fired tear gas in clashes with demonstrators in central Athens who hurled rocks and plastic bottles near parliament, but the violence remained fairly limited.

More than 30,000 protesters took part in a march on Wednesday in Athens, part of the first general strike in the country since the election of a centre-left government in October...

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Congress Puts Toyota On Show Trial

Subject: txt auto crpt mny -
Commerce: Toyota's leaders are in for nasty star-chamber hearings in Congress, with politicians grandstanding and regulators pointing fingers. It's no way to treat a big employer that contributes so much to our economy. When Toyota first came to the U.S. in the 1950s and took out TV ads in the 1960s, the Japan-based company was ridiculed. How could its dinky little cars compete with the mighty Big Three automakers for the American market?

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U.S. owes Toyota fair, careful treatment on safety issues

Subject: txt bbro auto crpt -
When I announced three years ago that Toyota would open a U.S. vehicle assembly plant in Blue Springs, Miss., I said Toyota was the world's premier automobile manufacturer. I still believe that. Make no mistake, the safety and reliability concerns identified in some Toyota automobiles -- although they occur very infrequently -- are serious.

It seems to me, however, that the company is doing everything it should as quickly as possible to make things right...

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POLL: 23% Say Government Criticizing Toyota To Help GM

Subject: txt lbrty bbro sclm auto msm -
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 23% of Americans agree that senior government officials are criticizing Toyota to help GM. Thirty-eight percent (38%) disagree. But nearly four-out-of-10 (39%) aren’t sure.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of adults, however, believe that the government as the majority owner of GM has a conflict-of-interest when it comes to regulating competing automakers. Twenty-five percent (25%) don’t think the government has a conflict-of-interest, but 24% more are undecided.

Fifty percent (50%) also say it is at least somewhat likely that the government will pass laws and regulations giving GM an unfair advantage over other car companies. That number includes 27% who say it is very likely.

[Misdirection (hiding behind a grain of truth, the best way): the real unforgivable sin committed by Toyota is that it's a non-union shop - and that's intolerable to Congress' owners...]

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Obama, Biden, Clinton, Dodd & More Believe Reconciliation is Unconstitutional

Subject: txt lbrty bbro hcare crpt libs -
The Obama White House has recently announced that they will go forward with a reconciliation process -- sometimes called the “nuclear option” -- to try and pass their government run healthcare plan in the Senate. This process circumvents a Republican filibuster and only requires a simple majority vote of 51 rather than 60.

What did top Democrats think of this process previously? See below…

[Long list of harsh attacks on the idea/process - but I guess that was then...]

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Senate skirts new rules to pass second stimulus bill

Subject: txt 1st mny crpt libs -
It took less than two weeks for lawmakers to vote to break new rules requiring that new spending be offset elsewhere in the budget, waiving the requirement just minutes before a strong bipartisan majority passed a $15 billion job-creation bill in the Senate on Wednesday.

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Feds derail Kasich's idea to spend $400M on roads instead

Subject: txt grn crpt sclm bbro bdd -
The federal government says Ohio must use $400 million in stimulus money for a new passenger train project, not on highways as suggested by Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich.Kasich, a critic of the train project, said this week the money ought to be used to repair roads and bridges.

Rob Kulat, a spokesman for the Federal Rail Administration, said today that the money can't be reallocated.

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UK hospital care horrific - report

Subject: txt hcare -
An independent inquiry said on Tuesday it had found ''shocking'' standards of care at a National Health Service (NHS) hospital trust in the Midlands, including patients being left unwashed for up to a month. The inquiry's chair Robert Francis said many patients treated by the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust had ''suffered horrific experiences that will haunt them and their loved ones for the rest of their lives''...

[Again and again - not the individual horror stories, all systems have them (including ours) - but studies of effectiveness in the macro invariably draw the same picture again and again: government involvement destroys systems.]

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The “Green Jobs” Scam Unmasked

Subject: txt grn engry - mny -


According to an ABC News report, though, almost $2 billion in “stimulus” funding has been spent so far on wind power, and yet 80% of that money has gone to foreign-owned companies. “Most of the jobs are going overseas,”

In fact, there’s a good chance that the government employees hired to promote “Green Jobs” outnumber the actual permanent “Green Jobs” created.

However you do the math, these positions are obviously a mere drop in the bucket compared to U.S. job losses in the wind manufacturing segment of the energy economy alone, to say nothing of the millions of lost jobs nationwide.

Worse still, the lunacy isn’t stopping. We are continuing to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into this failed framework, which uses American sweat to create permanent positions (and profit) for foreign companies.

Frankly, it’s time for Obama to come clean on the “Green Jobs” scam – and to explain why his so-called “transparent and accountable” administration didn’t catch it sooner.

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Report: Oil-and-gas drilling bans will cut GDP by $2.36 trillion

[Meanwhile...]

This should provide some ammo for industry groups pushing the White House to allow wider drilling: A new report says U.S. oil-and-gas drilling bans will increase consumer energy costs and decrease cumulative U.S. GDP by $2.36 trillion over the next two decades -

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Bill to Grant Native Hawaiians Sovereignty Passes House

Subject: txt lbrty bdd vals hstry othr libs -
A bill that would give native Hawaiians the same right as Native Americans is halfway through the congressional process but opponents say the legislation is divisive and would turn over valuable land and resources out of U.S. hands.

In an overwhelming win, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization bill, also known as the Akaka bill for four-term Sen. Daniel Akaka, passed the House Tuesday, which establishes separate sovereignty for a sub-set of Hawaii's population...

[Resulting in differing laws applied to neighbors based on their race. There is no faster way to dismantle a nation.]

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CNN Perpetuates Dangerous Tuskegee Myth

On February 14, CNN aired both segments of its special series “Black in America," and used the opportunity to perpetuate a harmful racial myth.

Dr. Thomas says black men are afraid of being exploited – a fear caused by history and the revelation that for forty years unsuspecting poor black men were used as medical guinea pigs in the infamous Tuskegee experiments,” O’Brien said.

“Between 1932 and 1972, 400 men were lied to about their condition; the men suffered terribly – tumors, heart disease, paralysis, blindness, insanity, and many died. Project Brotherhood overcomes this legacy of fear by staffing clinics with doctors, interns, and social workers who are black, professionals they say their patients can link to.”

However, the story of the Tuskegee “experiments” as told by “Black in America,” is a [complete] myth...

[In fact, another "180-degree" spin... aired on a major 'professional' news network.]

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