Thursday, April 29, 2010
The Hearing From Hell
[HT:LDot; A depressing 11 hour ordeal as senators froth, swear and slobber through a hearing in which absolutely no one looked good.]
Piece of c**p. S***y deal. Junk. These distinctly un-senatorial words slopped forth repeatedly from the mouth of Carl Levin on Monday evening, and anyone tuning into the Senate subcommittee hearing on financial reform could be forgiven for wondering whether this could really be C-Span, and not HBO or Showtime.
Our political rituals, usually decorous and borderline-prissy, are seldom as coarse as this, and Levin’s performance in particular was disgusting...
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What caused the offshore oil platform to explode?
Subject: txt nsec gwot engry -
There are a number of unanswered question since the event transpired a week ago: What happened to the eleven missing crewmembers? Can the wellhead be capped? If not, will containment efforts succeed? And so on.
But despite the media's tremendous outpouring of concern regarding this potentially disastrous environmental event, this writer has not heard or read a single newsperson address the issue of causation. Not one.
This is odd.When is the last time the MSM did not rush to assign blame/responsibility/causation for sensational issues? Especially those issues at the forefront of political debate....
Why is no one asking, "how did this happen?" Why is the MSM silent on this point instead of indulging in its typical lust for assigning responsibility?
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For nations living the good life, the party's over, IMF says
Subject: txt owg -
In the lingo of the International Monetary Fund, the future of the world hinges on "rebalancing and consolidation," antiseptic words that would not seem to raise a fuss. Who doesn't want more balance in their life? But the translation is a bit ruder, something on the order of: "Suck it up. The party's over."
To keep the global economy on track, people in the United States and the rest of the developed world need to work longer before retiring, pay higher taxes and expect less from government. And the cheap imports lining the shelves of mega-chains such as Wal-Mart and Target?
They need to be more expensive...
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More veterans enlisting in the electoral wars
Subject: txt 2010 heroes -
The wars they fought in are still raging, but a surge of veterans from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan are already running hard for public office and shaking up congressional races across the country. It is estimated that the number of candidates with military records on the 2010 ballot will double compared with just two years ago.
But most of the veterans seeking office this year are campaigning as conservatives and looking to emerge from crowded Republican primaries - a prospect that hasn't exactly been embraced in some GOP circles...
[Our two-party political system is killing our country.]
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Fresh strikes rattle Greece
Subject: txt sclm - intl -
trikes broke out in Greece on Wednesday as its crisis-hit economy drew another scathing debt downgrade as bad news poured in from the tourism sector and the stock exchange tried to ward off speculators.
Radio technicians launched a 48-hour strike, halting news broadcasts, as disgruntled applicants for civil sector jobs protested outside the finance ministry and teachers also launched work stoppages.On Tuesday, a Communist protest blocked nearly 1 000 tourists at Piraeus harbour, and despite a growing recession, a general strike has been called for May 5....
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71 Percent of Americans Oppose Comedy Central Censoring South Park
Subject: txt islm lbrty - msm -
A new poll found almost three quarters of the nation disagreed with Comedy Central's decision to censor last week's two-part episode of the hit cartoon series "South Park."
As reported last Thursday, the network caved to pressure from a radical Muslim group to not make references to the prophet Muhammed.
According to pollster John Zogby, a large bipartisan swath of Americans believe this was the wrong decision:
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DOJ Intel Report Downplays Terror Threat at Border
Subject: txt nsec immig libs -
A recent report by the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), a division of the U.S. Justice Department, downplays the threat of terrorists crossing the U.S.-Mexico border even as it paints a picture of a border wide open to the smuggling activities of Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), whose poisons and criminal co-conspirators are now found in every region of the United States...
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Canada Gains as U.S. Delays Colombia Agreement
Subject: txt trade - , Plata Says
Colombian Trade Minister Luis Guillermo Plata said Canadian exporters may gain as U.S. lawmakers delay approval of a free trade agreement with the Latin American country.
Plata was in Ottawa to court lawmakers from Canada’s main opposition Liberal Party in a bid to cement their support for a trade accord and assure its passage in Parliament....
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FLASHBACK >
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Daley: Send gun industry lawsuit to World Court
[HT:FC]Subject: txt sclm bdd libs lbrty guns owg -
Six years after the state Supreme Court dismissed his $433 million lawsuit against the gun industry, Mayor Daley today called for a change of venue — to the World Court normally reserved for disputes between nations and crimes against humanity.
Wrapping up the sixth annual Richard J. Daley Global Cities Forum, Daley convinced more than a dozen of his counterparts from around the world to approve a resolution urging "redress against the gun industry through the courts of the world" in The Hague....
[Do you realize what this idiot is proposing? Willful abdication of sovereignty by soliciting an external court to counter our own.]
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US Won’t Promise Won’t Shoot Down Israeli Planes
Subject: txt israel -
In a meeting with students at West Virginia University, a young pilot asked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Army, Mike Malen, to comment on rumors that if Israel decides to attack Iran, its fighters will need to cross Iraq's airspace to reach their targets.
Malen's reply:
"We have a strong exceptional relationship with Israel. I spent much time with my colleagues in Israel. And so we have a very clear understanding of where we are. Beyond that, I just would not want to get into speculation about what might happen and who might do what. Frankly, I do not think it serves any purpose. I hope that the issue will be resolved in the way which will never have to answer a question like this. "
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What Bias? Re: Tea Party: Instantly Attacked by Old Media, Coffee Party: Immediate Respect from Old Media
Subject: txt msm tea -
Nothing says "media bias" like coffee in the morning. If anyone ever wanted to see an example of the bias of the Old Media no better example can be found than the different ways that it has treated the tea party movement and the coffee party astroturf effort. The tea party movement was initially ignored, then it was ridiculed, then it was attacked as dangerous, but no where in the Old Media was it treated as a valid, powerful political movement despite the literally millions of Americans that have attended them.
Here are just a tiny number of examples of the Old Media still attacking the tea partiers since 2009: [READ MORE for linkages]
- New York Times Paul Krugman: Tea parties are fake astroturf
- Time Magazine’s Joe Klein: Tea partiers are racists
- New York Times: Tom Freidman says tea partiers are setting up an assassination atmosphere [much worse than making a movie about the assignation of a sitting president {Bush}]
- MSNBC: tea partiers are offensive
- Newsweek: Tea parties are loud, mad, and dangerous
- The AP: Tea Party filled with extremists
- Columbus Dispatch: Tea party is extreme right-wing
Since its debut a few months ago, this coffee party business has been treated quite well. Here are just a few of the laudatory stories on the coffee party effort:
- NBC: Virginia coffee party outlines goals
- Houston Chronicle: Coffee party making politics civil
- St. Louis Area: Coffee party big success in Belleville (7 participants showed)
- CBS: Is coffee party the next big thing?
- New York Times: Coffee party wonderful civic participation
- U.S. News: Coffee party kinder and gentler
- CNN: giving astroturfer room to say Why I started the coffee party
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[Reminder:]
Why Goldman Is Willing to Take the Heat
Subject: txt lbrty bbro sclm - mny - owg -
Faith, hope and charity: We used to seek God's blessings on the country, we used to pursue maximum freedom to solve problems and we'd rely on one another in times of need. Now we're being pushed towards what progressives have always found hope in: Dependency on regulations and administrations. Average Americans find that approach to be red tape. Our Founding Fathers found it to be slavery.
So it kind shocks me when there's no outcry to news stories like this one reported in the Financial Times over the weekend: The
"U.S. is preparing to pivot from domestic regulatory reform to push for a tough new international capital regime."
Excuse me?
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Obama's Tea Party Straw Man
Subject: txt 2010 tea -
Why does it seem that the public is being told that the only demand the Tea Party activists have is that their taxes be lowered? Though the activists would doubtless welcome such an outcome, it is by no means the sole impetus of their objections. In fact, the demand is explicitly absent from their "Contract from America."
The contract -- a written expression of the will of those like-minded Americans who would sign it -- serves to convey to U.S. public officials a consensus outcry for a policy agenda of individual liberty, limited government, and economic freedom...
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FLASHBACK >
Ban the Income Tax
Subject: txt tax edu crpt -
It is a truly tragic development that in America -- a country founded on the principle of the inviolability of private property -- half of us prey on the substance of our neighbors.
A striking 37-second video moment made it to the internet last week.
It was taken at a demonstration of public-sector unions in Springfield, Illinois marching in support of the proposed tax increases in that state. The clip features a public school teacher who carries a couple of placards while shouting:
"Where is the money? Where is the money? ... Give up the bucks! Where is the cash? We need it fast!"
The video is an eye-opening illustration of what taxes are ultimately about: Americans helping themselves to the property of other Americans....
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AMERICA NEEDS MORE JOBS, NOT MORE LAWSUITS
Subject: txt bbro legal cali -
It should come as no surprise that many of the states at the bottom of the survey -- including Illinois, California and Louisiana -- have high unemployment rates, with some in excess of the national average. What should be even more discouraging for residents of these states is the fact that the problem is only getting worse... [snip]
[CA: 48th worst of 50]
To stem this tide, state officials need to step up and take action.
There's no time to waste -- we must create 20 million new jobs by the end of this decade to put unemployed Americans back to work and keep up with a growing population. Once states can halt the expansion of lawsuits, businesses will have the freedom to focus on growing jobs, instead of fighting in court...
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GOP Financial Reform Plan Addresses Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae
Subject: txt mny - gdd -
Senate Republicans can play offense as well as defense. They released a summary of their own financial regulatory reform Tuesday, covering much of the same ground as the Democrats.
But the GOP plan also addresses Fannie Mae(FNM) and Freddie Mac(FRE), something Democrats have studiously ignored in their “comprehensive” plans...
The proposal would limit future bailouts of the mortgage finance giants and create an inspector general to examine Treasury decisions on the conservatorships of Fannie and Freddie. It would also require the president to submit a reform plan for the government-sponsored enterprises within six months...
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The $10 Trillion Climate Fraud
While senators froth over Goldman Sachs and derivatives, a climate trading scheme being run out of the Chicago Climate Exchange would make Bernie Madoff blush.
Its trail leads to the White House.
Lost in the recent headlines was Al Gore's appearance Monday in Denver at the annual meeting of the Council of Foundations, an association of the nation's philanthropic leaders. "Time's running out (on climate change)," Gore told them. "We have to get our act together. You have a unique role in getting our act together."
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Another Palin ethics complaint dismissed
Another ethics complaint against the former Alaska governor has been dismissed. Thomas Van Flein announced the dismissal Tuesday on Palin's Facebook page. Van Flein says the complaint was filed against Palin after she left office. It alleged Palin's legal defense fund was a violation of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.
The attorney says the complaint was tossed for lacking a factual or legal basis... [again...]
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'Sanctuary Cities' Fight Arizona's New Immigration Law - But Without Offering Sanctuary
They may call themselves ''sanctuary cities,'' but very few of them are offering sanctuary to the illegal immigrants in Arizona who now face possible deportation.
As San Francisco and other ''sanctuary cities'' declare war on Arizona over its new law cracking down on illegal immigrants, most state and local governments that provide a safe haven to undocumented workers refused to publicly roll out a welcome mat for the estimated 440,000 illegals in the Grand Canyon state.
Several mid-size cities and states with policies that seek to protect undocumented workers either declined to comment on their obvious hypocrisy...
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Wednesday, April 28, 2010
A carefully crafted immigration law in Arizona
[HT:LDot: "For all the gum-flapping and semi-hysterical shouts of Gestapo in the streets, Arizona's bill is precisely written. Read it. "]
The chattering class is aghast at Arizona's new immigration law. "Harkens back to apartheid," says the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Cynthia Tucker. "Shameful," says the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne. "Terrible…an invitation to abuse," says the New York Times' David Brooks.For his part, President Obama calls the law "misguided" and says it "threaten[s] to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans." Obama has ordered the Justice Department to "closely monitor the situation and examine the civil rights and other implications of this legislation."
Kobach, a Republican who is now running for Kansas Secretary of State, was the chief adviser to Attorney General John Ashcroft on immigration issues from 2001 to 2003. He has successfully defended Arizona immigration laws in the past.
"The bill was drafted in expectation that the open-borders crowd would almost certainly bring a lawsuit," he says. "It's drafted to withstand judicial scrutiny."
The bottom line is, it's a good law, sensibly written and rigorously focused -- no matter what the critics say...
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POLL: Nationally, 60% Favor Letting Local Police Stop and Verify Immigration Status
Subject: txt immig -
Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Republicans support the law along with 62% of voters not affiliated with either major party. Democratic voters are evenly divided on the measure.
Voter support for empowering local police comes at a time when most voters (56%) believe it is unlikely Congress will take action to gain control of the border. Only 31% say Congress is even somewhat likely to take such an action.
President Obama has denounced the Arizona law, and he and other critics of the measure see it as an incentive to push new national immigration reform legislation to supersede it.
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Whose Country Is This?
Subject: txt 2010 lbrty immig -
With the support of 70 percent of its citizens, Arizona acted because the U.S. government has abdicated its constitutional duty to protect the states from invasion and refuses to enforce America's immigration laws.
"We in Arizona have been more than patient waiting for Washington to act," said Gov. Jan Brewer. "But decades of inaction and misguided policy have created an unacceptable situation."READ MORE
CNN Omits Pro-Illegal Immigration Stance of Featured 'Legal Defender'
Subject: txt immig msm -
"The Human Rights Coalition," whose website features a logo incorporating the southwestern states into Mexico, but which the CNN graphic called only a "Coalition for Human Rights"
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Lawmaker wants to bring Arizona immigration law to Utah
[HT:LG]Subject: txt immig gdd -
As media protests in Arizona over its anti-illegal-alien law are portrayed as the mood of the country, conservative Utah lawmakers want to bring the law to this state, and say they have the support to do it. Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, is drafting a bill that would require immigrants to carry proof of status and require law enforcement officers to question anyone they believe is in the country without documentation.
The bill also would target employers who hire illegal aliens...
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America’s Choice: Arizona or Amnesty
Subject: txt 2010 immig -
Arizona lawmakers, led by state Sen. Russell Pearce, have once again shown courage and boldness in their efforts to protect their citizens from the brutal consequences of an open border.
Their latest measure, designed to actually be effective against illegal immigration, could be the beginning of the end of massive illegal immigration in this country.
Which is why the Left, in all its guises, if mounting a full counter attack in the media, congress and even the White House.
Their future plans rely on the steady influx of millions of new Democrats, and they've no intention of giving them up without a fight...
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New Evidence: Bin Laden in Iran as of 2007
Subject: txt gwot -
Ken Timmerman’s latest article about allegations from a falcon smuggler that he has repeatedly met Bin Laden in Iran, specifically Zahedan, which is known to be a base for Al-Qaeda.
This specific story has been reported by Timmerman and Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld before, but this adds a few new details. It reveals that the smuggler provided the Union for the Conservation of Raptors with the
“specific frequencies of small transmitters Bin Laden had strapped to the backs of his hunting falcons so he could find them if they failed to return to base.”
[Pretty sneaky.]
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U.N.'s Ballooning $732 Million Haiti Peacekeeping Budget Goes Mostly to Its Own Personnel
.
The United Nations has quietly upped this year's peacekeeping budget for earthquake-shattered Haiti to $732.4 million, with two-thirds of that amount going for the salary, perks and upkeep of its own personnel, not residents of the devastated island...
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