Thursday, January 14, 2010
Dems Flip the Panic Switch in Mass.
Subject: txt 1st 2010 -
Democrats have flipped the panic switch in Massachusetts, setting off an eleventh-hour effort to lock up what they have repeatedly called “Ted Kennedy’s seat” in the Senate. In latest sign of just how worried Democrats are, a leaked memo written by Coakley’s finance chairman and sent to top donors on Tuesday warned of a “very tight” race and made an “urgent” appeal for supporters to “max out” donations at $2,400 each.
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Union plans major ad buy for Coakley
Subject: txt 2010 action 1st -
A major national union supporting Democrat Martha Coakley is taking out a massive TV ad buy that slams her Republican rival, Scott Brown, for his positions on abortion and climate change.
[As I've said: because the other side is....]
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[Then >
Bright Red CONTRIBUTE button at top right - one time for any amount - it worked well for me...
...and please do pass on to like minded friends.]
....and please do pass on to like minded friends.]
Meehan Apologizes, AP Left With Egg on Face
Subject: txt 1st 2010 msm -
The latest: Michael Meehan, the Coakley staffer involved in last night’s scuffle, no make that a stumble, let’s try it one more time, the shoving incident with a Weekly Standard reporter, has now apologized:
Last evening I was a little too aggressive in the confusion of trying to help the Attorney General get to her car and catch a flight.
I talked with Mr. McCormack this afternoon and apologized for my part.
Maybe the AP won’t be quit so ready to go into Democrat-protective mode next time.[And maybe it'll make no difference whatsoever.]
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When Will Nets Show Up in 'Teddy Kennedy Seat' Race? So Far, Zero Coverage
Subject: txt 1st 2010 msm bias -
The U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts to replace Ted Kennedy is heating up. Republican Scott Brown has made it "tick tight" (to borrow from Dan Rather) for Martha Coakley, and Democrats are very nervous, and spending money on TV ads. It's on the Washington Post front page today. ABC's Jake Tapper added this from the White House on Twitter Wednesday morning:
Gibbs says "a lot at stake" w/Mass. Senate race but POTUS still has no plans to go. Hmmmm.
Do they fear a repeat of New Jersey, proof Obama might hurt more than help, even in a blue state?
This makes me wonder: how are ABC, CBS, and NBC covering this race as it heats up?
They haven't done a single story yet.
So they haven't touched on outrageous Democrat plans to delay seating Brown if he wins. They haven't touched on Coakley's debate gaffes from Monday night, like saying (as we lose American fighters to roadside bombs in Afghanistan) terrorists "are not there any more."How can liberal journalists say Sarah Palin's dumb, and let Coakley say stupid things like that?
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Commanders in Afghanistan ‘Confused’ about How To Handle Captured Terrorists Now That Some Are Tried as Civilians
[HT:DG]Subject: txt gwot -
Washington - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), just back from a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said he and other senators found operational ''confusion'' among U.S. military officials on how to handle detained enemy combatants.
''From the top to the bottom, the military, the American military people that we talked to, indicated some confusion, operationally, about what you do when you detain a terrorist,''
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Obama's TSA NomineeOnce Said U.S. a Terror Target for Ties to Israel
Subject: txt gwot nsec israel -
President Obama's nominee to lead the federal agency in charge of airport security claimed in 2008 that America is subject to terror attacks because of its alliances with countries, like Israel...
The comment could further complicate the confirmation of Southers to head the Transportation Security Administration. His confirmation already has been held up over concerns by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., that Southers would unionize the agency's screeners and over conflicting accounts that Southers, a former FBI agent, gave to Congress over background checks he ran on his then-estranged wife's boyfriend two decades ago...
[Another obviously inappropriate appointment.]
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Obama and Che, &c.
Obama and Che, &c.
You will recall the Jordanian doctor who killed seven CIA employees in that suicide attack in Afghanistan. This was at the end of December. The suicider’s wife (widow?), a Turk, is all over the press, proclaiming her pride, etc. And she has written a book called
“Osama bin Laden, the Che Guevara of the East.”
Most interesting title.I wonder what the wearers of the T-shirt think of it.
[Not to worry; as a rule, they don't.]
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Countries to be allowed a say in foreign aid usage
Subject: txt intl -
The Obama administration will share control over U.S. foreign aid with recipient countries, ending Washington's longtime policy of ''dictating'' to those nations how to spend the money, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday.
[How dare we put conditions on receiving our money. Evidently 'entitlements' from the US taxpayer are to go global.]
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Pacific islanders bid to stop Czech coal plant
Subject: txt grn owg -
Prague - A small pacific island state's challenge to a Czech coal-fired power plant extension some 6,000 km away on grounds it could harm its environment could open a new front in the fight over global climate change.Micronesia has filed a plea with the Czech environment ministry using a measure designed originally to settle disputes between near neighbours but which could spur others to do the same when opposing power plants, environmental advocates said...
[Lawsuits as weapon are evidently also to go global.]
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There'll be nowhere to run from the new world government
Subject: txt owg -
There is scope for debate – and innumerable newspaper quizzes – about who was the most influential public figure of the year, or which the most significant event. But there can be little doubt which word won the prize for most important adjective. 2009 was the year in which "global" swept the rest of the political lexicon into obscurity.
There were "global crises" and "global challenges", the only possible resolution to which lay in "global solutions" necessitating "global agreements". Gordon Brown actually suggested something called a "global alliance" in response to climate change. (Would this be an alliance against the Axis of Extra-Terrestrials?)
The nation-state has never quite recovered from the bad name it acquired in the last century as the progenitor of world war. But if it is to be relegated to the dustbin of history then we had better come up with new mechanisms for allowing people to have a say in how they are governed. Maybe that could be next year's global challenge.
[Better: keep the old mechanism: sovereignty.]
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Civil Rights Division Lawyers Slapped With Sanctions
Subject: txt lbrty crpt bbro -
For the last nine months, the Justice Department has been stonewalling requests for more information about its dismissal of the voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther party. The department has denied requests for information about the case from newspapers and members of Congress, and is refusing to comply with subpoenas issued by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
But that’s not the only case where the Justice Department has been reluctant to show its work. This week, a federal district court in Kansas imposed sanctions on the same Civil Rights Division (CRD) officials who spiked the Panthers case, Loretta King and Steve Rosenbaum, for their refusals to provide information in another case. Breaking the president’s promise to have the most transparent administration in history, Rosenbaum and King’s concealment of information will cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars...
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Menacing turn in Black Panther case
Subject: txt lbrty bbro legal crpt -
The Justice Department told the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to drop dead yesterday. The growing controversy is over a voter-intimidation case involving the radical New Black Panther Party and why Justice is carrying water for the villains. The department's intransigence should frighten Congress because Justice is asserting broad privileges that undermine congressional authority to oversee government's executive branch.
The Commission on Civil Rights, acting according to explicit statutory authority to subpoena executive departments, demanded that Justice answer 49 detailed questions, with accompanying document requests. In yesterday's response, the department wrote that on the basis of seven distinct claimed "privileges," it objects "to each and every Interrogatory and Document Request."
Not even President Nixon at the nadir of Watergate asserted such a broad privilege against outside review. Sustaining such a privilege would let an executive agency assert that anything it self-defines as its "mission" would be immune from scrutiny...
That way lies tyranny...
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What Bias? re : In First Year, Obama Presides Over 4.1 Million Jobs Lost, Most Since 1940
Subject: txt mny -
Unemployment shot up in 2009 from 7.7 percent in January to 10.1 percent in October before settling at 10 percent in December. Behind those percentages were more than 4.1 million people who lost their jobs during the year. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that's the most job losses in a year since 1940. (BLS could only provide data from 1940-2009)
But don't expect journalists to label President Barack Obama the worst jobs president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945).
The media spent 2009 shielding Obama from such troubling numbers, and shows every sign of continuing the trend in twenty-ten...
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PUBLIC EMPLOYEES LIVING LARGER THAN EVER AS ECONOMY STRUGGLES
Subject: txt crpt mny cali -
The economy is struggling, the unemployment rate is high and many Americans are struggling to pay the bills. But one class of Americans is doing quite well: government workers.
Their pay levels are soaring, they enjoy unmatched benefits, and they remain largely immune from layoffs, except for some overly publicized cutbacks around the margins, says Steven M. Greenhut, director of the Investigative Journalism Center and News Bureau at the Pacific Research Institute and a Senior Fellow with the Goldwater Institute.
In his new book, "Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation," Greenhut documents many examples of municipal malfeasance. For example:
- Government employees of all stripes have manipulated the system to spike their pensions.
- The old deal seemed fair: public employees would earn lower salaries than Americans working in the private sector, but would receive a somewhat better retirement and more days off.
- Now, public employees get higher average pay, far higher benefits and many more days off and other fringe benefits.
- They have also obtained greatly reduced work schedules, thus limiting public services even as pay and benefits shoot ever higher.
The new deal is starting to raise eyebrows, thanks to efforts by groups such as the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, which publishes the $100,000 Club, a list of thousands of California government retirees with six-figure, taxpayer-guaranteed incomes, says Greenhut.
The story doesn't end with the imbalance in pay and benefits. Government workers also enjoy absurd protections. The Los Angeles Times published a recent series about the city's public school district, which doesn't even try to fire incompetent teachers and is seldom able to get rid of those credibly accused of misconduct or abuse.
The real scandal is a two-tier society where government workers enjoy benefits far in excess of those for whom they supposedly work.
It is past time to start cleaning up the mess by reforming retirement systems and limiting the public unions' power...
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Plundering California
[HT:FC]Subject: txt mny cali crpt -
The economy is struggling, the unemployment rate is high, and many Americans are struggling to pay the bills, but one class of Americans is doing quite well: government workers. Their pay levels are soaring, they enjoy unmatched benefits, and they remain largely immune from layoffs, except for some overly publicized cutbacks around the margins.
To make matters worse, government employees—thanks largely to the power of their unions —have carved out special protections that exempt them from many of the rules that other working Americans must live by.
California has been on the cutting edge of this dangerous trend, which has essentially turned government employees into a special class of citizens.
In Orange County, the average pay and benefits package for firefighters was $175,000 per year. Firefighters, like all public-safety officials in California, also receive a gold-plated retirement plan: a defined-benefit annual pension that offers 90 percent or more of the worker's final year's pay, guaranteed, by taxpayers, for the rest of his life (and the life of his spouse).
It's past time to start cleaning up the mess by reforming retirement systems and limiting the public unions' power. If we don't, California's financial problems will become insurmountable.
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MARRIED COUPLES PAY MORE THAN UNMARRIED UNDER HEALTH BILL
Subject: txt hcare -
The built-in "marriage penalty" in both the House and Senate health care bills could mean a hike of $2,000 or more in annual insurance premiums for married couples...
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POLL: 53% Favor Abortion Ban in Health Plan
Subject: txt gdd vals hcare -
Fifty-three percent (53%) of voters favor a ban on abortion coverage in any health insurance plan that receives federal subsidies. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 40% are opposed to such a ban in the proposed health care legislation now before Congress.
Those figures include 39% who Strongly Favor it and 26% who are Strongly Opposed.
Voters doubt the Congressional Budget Office analysis and overwhelmingly believe the health care plan will cost more than projected. Most also believe it will lead to higher deficits and middle class tax hikes.
Fifty-two percent (52%) believe that passage of the plan would force them to change insurance coverage. Forty-seven percent (47%) believe each state should have the right to opt out of the entire plan, and just 34% want to see a single-payer health care system.
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New Study Reveals Connection Between Enforcing Immigration Laws and National Security
Subject: txt immig nsec -
Some of the findings in the report include:
- 287(g) officers lodged immigration charges on more than 81,000 illegal or criminal aliens between January 2006 and November 2008, according to data provided to us by ICE.
- In 2008, the number of 287(g) arrests (45,368) was equal to one-fifth of all criminal aliens identified by ICE in prisons and jails nationwide that year (221,085). The program has flagged a large number of known serious and/or violent offenders, as well as some low-level offenders still at the bottom of the criminal behavior escalator.
- Illegal aliens targeted by the program have been identified as a result of involvement in local law-breaking in addition to immigration law-breaking.
- Participating agencies credit the 287(g) program as a major factor in reduced local crime rates, smaller inmate populations, and lower criminal justice costs.
- “State and local jurisdictions are, by and large, willing to do their part in immigration enforcement. The gains of 287(g) will certainly be lost if the troubling change in congressional priority and ICE’s bureaucratic games persist,” it added.
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Ariz. Sheriff Investigated by Federal Grand Jury
Subject: txt immig -
PHOENIX — Two officials said Thursday night they have been subpoenaed to answer questions next week before a federal grand jury about a high-profile Arizona sheriff who gained attention for enforcing illegal immigration law.
In statements read by a county spokesman, Maricopa County Manager David Smith and Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson said they met with a federal prosecutor to discuss the case and will testify Wednesday.
Critics allege that some of Arpaio's deputies racially profiled people during immigration sweeps. But Arpaio maintains that people pulled over in the sweeps were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they had committed crimes.
Last month, Arpaio and Thomas filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against a group of county administrators, judges and attorneys, accusing them of participating in a conspiracy to hinder an investigation into a $341 million court building under construction in Phoenix and the investigation of Supervisor Don Stapley.
Last year, Arpaio was stripped of some of his special authority to make federal immigration arrests, [why?] though he retains some federal power that allows his jail officers to speed up deportations.
A half-day after his powers were limited, he launched a crime and immigration sweep and has since continued his enforcement of state laws banning immigrant smuggling and prohibiting businesses from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.
Sheriff's spokesman Brian Lee said Arpaio was declining to comment on reports of the investigation. "He has stated that we will conduct business as usual," Lee said.
[This is a despicable witch hunt against a law enforcement official specifically for enforcing laws.]
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Healthy by force: Nanny will keep you fit
Subject: txt lbrty -
The days when you have the freedom to indulge in guilty pleasures without being punished by your government may be coming to an end. Already the government taxes tobacco products not to raise revenue, but to discourage smoking. In Concord, two Grafton Democrats have introduced a bill to tax sugar-sweetened soft drinks, not to raise revenue, but to make the drinks more expensive so fewer people will buy them.
Tax policy is becoming health policy... [snip]
Our bodies are gradually becoming socialized. The choices we make about how to live, what to eat and drink and what pleasures we enjoy are increasingly to be guided by the hand of the state.
Underlying all of this legislating is the theory that society must collectively dictate individual behavior for the purpose of making society collectively healthier. Individual will must be stamped out and replaced with the will of the state.
This is not some science-fiction fantasy. This is happening right now.
If the health care bill pending in Washington becomes law, no American citizen will be allowed the freedom to live, no matter how briefly, without health insurance. The purpose of the mandate is to collectivize everyone's health. Your body is no longer to be your own.
It will belong to everyone...
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Tea Party rattles America's educated class
Subject: txt 2010 lbrty -
WASHINGTON – Barely a week into a new decade that will redefine America's place in the world, the feisty Tea Party movement is readying its next brew.
As Tea time approaches, nerves are jangling. New York Times columnist David Brooks, a conservative [not really] intellectual [ditto], made big waves this week with a piece voicing fears that the "Tea Party brigades" have "the potential to shape the coming decade"...
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Why not a Constitutionally Conscious Third Party?
Subject: txt 2010 -
Based on the fact that neither of the two primary political parties in the U.S. seem to know or care about the very limited constitutional powers of the federal government today, it’s not hard to understand why many American patriots are seeking a silver bullet in the form of a new political party. But how realistic is that idea, or more accurately stated, is it a dangerous road to go down?
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Bravo to Brit Hume: Why Faith Is Not a Private Matter
Subject: txt gdd bdd vals othr -
Not too many things raise my eyebrows in these days of through-the-looking-glass America, where I fully expect up to be down, left to be right, and right to be wrong. It's not that I'm a pessimist -- just a realist. And this is why hearing mainstream-media newsman Brit Hume recommend Christianity over Buddhism on FOX News Sunday -- well, made my eyebrows say "bonjour" to my hairline.
In case you missed the story, Hume was addressing Tiger Woods' womanizing woes and recommended that the golfer seek his answers in Christianity, saying,
"I don't think that faith [Woods' Buddhism] offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, 'Tiger, turn to the Christian faith, and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.'"
While pleasantly surprised, I knew that Hume was going to take heat for straying outside the Box of Tolerance, which is about the size of Get Smart's Cone of Silence. And the reaction came promptly...
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God to Palin: ‘You Go, Girl’
Over the weekend, former John McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt told “60 Minutes” something shocking about McCain’s former running mate, Sarah Palin. It seems that when Schmidt met Palin after McCain selected her, he was surprised that she was so calm. Schmidt apparently asked her how she could remain so tranquil in the face of such a monumental life change. She responded, “It’s God’s plan.”
Naturally, the media went bonkers over this revelation, primarily because she was serious... [snip]
There’s a reason the media elites allow liberals to get away with God-talk. It’s because the media elites know that liberals aren’t really serious about their God-talk. Everyone could see Bill Clinton crossing his fingers behind his back when talking about God, just as everyone can see President Obama laughing behind his hand when he mentions religion... [snip]
Here’s a newsflash for liberals: Incredible as it may seem, Palin’s view represents that of the vast majority of mankind. People across the globe agree with Palin that their lives fit into God’s grand scheme. When liberals laugh at Palin on this score, they risk laughing at billions.
And even liberals should understand that billions can impact the flow of history...
[Again, don't benefit from faith myself. But it's as a comparatively impartial 3rd party, I tell you: there's a concerted effort to banish any and all religion from our society by the elitist left (which is to say academia and media). As said-3rd party, I've come to believe that good religions are good for societies in general, and an honest reading of history proves its been a boon to the formation of the American society specifically.
So let's not throw the baby out with the bath water, shall we? {and that setting aside today's aspect of Islam and what Christianity could do to mitigate its overwhelming destructive nature, despite its being deemed the larger enemy by the aforementioned {self-ascribed} 'elites')}]
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POLL: 45% Say Random Group From Phone Book Better Than Current Congress
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 45% of likely U.S. voters now think a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do a better job addressing the nation’s problems than the current Congress. That’s up 12 points from October 2008, just before the last congressional elections. Thirty-six percent (36%) disagree, and another 19% are not sure.
[Not really funny - and frankly unbelievable. That 36% could disagree.]
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