Thursday, January 21, 2010
Reversing Obama’s Worst Decision Yet?
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Top administration officials are getting nervous that they may not be able to proceed with one of their most controversial national-security moves: trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other accused 9/11 conspirators in federal court in New York City.
Last November Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. portrayed the trial as a way to showcase the American justice system to the world — and to accelerate President Obama’s stalled plans to shut down the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay. But because of shifting political winds in Congress, the trial is now “potentially in jeopardy,” a senior official, who did not want to be named talking about a sensitive situation, tells Newsweek.
The chief concern: that Republicans will renew attempts to strip funding for the trial and, in the aftermath of the bombing attempt aboard Northwest Flight 253, pick up enough support from moderate Democrats to prevail.
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Iraq's 'Chemical Ali' gets 4th death sentence
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BAGHDAD - An Iraqi court sentenced Ali Hassan al-Majeed, the Saddam Hussein henchman widely known as "Chemical Ali," to death by hanging Sunday for a 1988 gas attack that killed about 5,000 Kurds...
[No WMD in Iraq?]
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67 Years of the USO
Since just before World War II, the USO has been the bridge between the American people and our men and women in uniform, conveying the heartfelt appreciation and support of a grateful nation. Whether it is a quiet place to go for rest and relaxation, movies refreshments, or a friendly face, the USO consistently delivers its special brand of service to the military.
[NOT a government entity - relies fully on donations.]
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[Valentine's day is approaching and they've a neat AT&T prepaid calling card gift program...]
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[Valentine's day is approaching and they've a neat AT&T prepaid calling card gift program...]
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Muslim protesters 'branded British soldiers as rapists and baby killers' at homecoming parade
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Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment were greeted by protesters screaming the hostile jeers and holding placards as they marched through Luton last year.
A group of Muslim protesters shouted 'murderers', 'rapists', 'baby killers' and chanted 'burn in hell' at soldiers on a homecoming parade from Iraq, a court heard today.
Now it's the infuriated onlookers who are on trial for 'hate speech'...
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The Last Nail in Europe's Coffin
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Because of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership between the European Union and Islamic states in the Middle East, by the year 2050, the Islamic population of Europe will be 25% to 30% of the total population. There will be perhaps over 100 million Muslims in Europe. Partnership? More like a suicide pact.
Why would Europe get involved again with such evil and simultaneously take in such a diabolical and disastrous immigration bomb? And that's what this is. Geert Wilders said it in a speech at Columbia University in October 2009: "Make no mistake: Islam has always attempted to conquer Europe. Spain fell in the 8th century. Constantinople fell in the 15th century. Vienna and Poland were threatened, and now, in the 21st century, Islam is trying again. This time not with military armies, but through migration and demography."
Why cause that social strain? Why expose the European Union to the inevitable violence? The Euro-Med Partnership could be the final nail in the lid of Europe's coffin.
The effects on European civilization, and on Europe's relationship with the United States, are all too easy to imagine. And the U.S.-Muslim engagement document, the blueprint for the Obama administration's relationship with Muslim countries, parallels these plans...
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Party of God on war footing
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Hezbollah says it has regrouped since the 2006 conflict with Israel and is in a stronger position for a new war between Israel and Lebanon. The group's international spokesman, Ibrahim Mousawi, told The Australian yesterday that if Israel and Lebanon returned to war,
''we will do something that they will regret ... Hezbollah is ready."
[One of Israel's 'partners in peace'.]
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China says military arsenal comparable with West
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Beijing - China's military now possesses most of the sophisticated weapon systems found in the arsenals of developed Western nations, the country's defense minister said in comments published Monday. Many of China's systems, including the J-10 fighter jet, latest-generation tanks, navy destroyers, and cruise and intercontinental ballistic missiles, match or are close to matching the capabilities of those in the West...
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China Bans Non-Government Online-Video Sites
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China has moved to restrict videos online — including those posted on video-sharing Web sites — to state-controlled sites and to require those Internet providers to delete and report a variety of content. It wasn't immediately clear how the new rules would affect YouTube and other providers that host Web sites based in other countries that are available in China...
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NYT Again Praises Communist China for Getting Things Done
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New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman again showed a disturbing affection for China's dictatorship in his Wednesday column attacking Republican stubbornness on health care and climate change legislation ("Our One-Party Democracy").
Friedman pleaded for "enlightened" autocrats, able to get things accomplished against the will of the people, for their own good...
[Nobel prize winner. Naturally.]
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U.S. Economy: Trade Gap Grows as Oil Prices Jump
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Washington - The trade deficit in the U.S. widened in November more than anticipated as imports climbed faster than exports.
The gap expanded 9.7 percent to $36.4 billion, the highest level since January, from a revised $33.2 billion in October, Commerce Department data showed today in Washington. Imports increased 2.6 percent, reflecting a jump in oil prices...
[And we're doing nothing to increase our supply here at home.]
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Firms announce big oil find beneath shallow Gulf waters
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McMoRan Exploration Co. today announced what it said could be one of the largest oil and natural gas discoveries in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico in decades. The discovery was made at the Davy Jones ultra-deep prospect located on South Marsh Island Block 230 in about 20 feet of water and 10 miles off the Louisiana coast... [snip]
That puts the estimated the size of the discovery close to 2 trillion cubic feet of resources, rivaling some oil and gas discoveries in the deep water Gulf.
"This is going to be a huge reserve," McMoRan’s co-chairman, James R. Moffett, said in a conference call this morning. ... What’s more, Energy XXI Chairman and CEO John Schiller said the discovery "verifies the ultra-deep potential of the Gulf of Mexico shelf and opens this horizon as a major exploration frontier."
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Dem governor blasts Sec. Salazar for doing the bidding of green groups
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Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) on Friday said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has gone too far to placate environmental groups when it comes to oil and gas drilling policy. Salazar last week said Interior is expanding environmental reviews and increasing public input before leasing federal lands to energy companies, greatly expanding the time that will be required to develop new deposit finds.
"Making it harder for America to develop its own resources toward energy independence just doesn't make sense at a time like this"[It makes sense at no time. But yet another extremist appointment - what did anyone expect?]
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Rice University analysis questions U.S. ethanol subsidies
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Federal taxpayers forked over $1.95 a gallon in ethanol subsidies in 2008 on top of the retail gasoline price, a new white paper from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy found.
The 118-page analysis from the Houston-based institute says the United States needs to rethink its policy of promoting ethanol...
[Ya think? It's an inferior fuel (compared to petroleum-based) and is a staple food...]
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Plan for 1,800-mile ethanol pipeline unveiled
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Plans were disclosed Wednesday for an 1,800-mile long pipeline, running across Indiana and north of Indianapolis, to carry ethanol made in the Midwest to new markets for the fuel in the eastern United States.
If financing can be secured, the $4 billion project proposed by POET Ethanol Products, based in South Dakota, and Magellan Midstream Partners in Texas would carry about 3.6 billion gallons a year of the fuel made from corn
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White House: Stim bill 'saved or created' 1.7 million jobs
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Barack Obama's stimulus plan has been such a monumental failure that even the AP, who we've come to know as the Abracadabra Press, recently reported that the measure has had no effect on job growth.
Perhaps all the negative press would call for the president to change his view on the stimulus package, perhaps by not talking about it at all, and get serious about measures that will trigger job growth in the U.S.
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Predictions of Worsening Unemployment for Blacks, Latinos
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The Washington Post publicizing a report by the liberal Economic Policy Institute (EPI), written helpfully enough that the word "liberal" isn’t used, is usually a media-bias staple for economic gearheads. But Friday’s Post report by V. Dion Haynes might be seen by other Obama-helpers in the media as an unwelcome story.
The headline: "U.S. unemployment rate for blacks projected to hit 25-year high."
Unemployment for African Americans is projected to reach a 25-year high this year, according to a study released Thursday by an economic think tank, with the national rate soaring to 17.2 percent and the rates in five states exceeding 20 percent...
Naturally news like this was not a front-page story. It topped the "Washington Business" section on page A-20. But it's noteworthy that EPI was the long-time policy-research home of Jared Bernstein, who is now Vice President Biden’s chief economist and one of Team Obama’s economics explainers to the media.
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What Bias? re: CNN: December Layoffs Exceed Expectations...But Still Good News
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CNN's efforts to spin the current economy have gotten to the point of being ridiculous.
For three days in a row, a series of reports all showed persistent layoffs above expectations, and in each case CNN.com inexplicably reported optimism.
First up was an ADP report released Wednesday which tracked the economy from the side of business owners and how many workers they laid off. Instead of showing the complete picture, CNN chose to present a decidedly upbeat angle.
CNN Money writers Jessica Dickler and Hibah Yousuf set the tone as they worked hard to spin unexpected layoffs as a positive sign in their rosy-headlined "Job Picture Gets a Little Bit Brighter":
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HIGH-FLYING HOME-SCHOOLERS
Subject: txt edu -
According to a report by the National Home Education Research Institute released this year:
- Home-schooled students score 34 to 39 percentage points above the average standardized test score.
- This puts the home-school national average score at about the 80th percentile in language arts, math, social studies and almost 90th percentile in reading.
More impressive than these test scores is the study's analysis of the variables that impact standardized test scores, such as parents' level of education and family income, says Mackinac:
- Like students in conventional schools, home-schoolers with parents who have college degrees and higher income perform better than homeschoolers whose parents have no college degrees and lower family income.
- But the difference between the two is much smaller than in conventional schools, and based on these two variables, the home-schooled students that would be predicted to perform the most poorly still outrank the national average.
- For example, home-schoolers whose parents do not have college degrees still tested in the 83rd percentile.
Source: Michael D. Van Beek, "High-Flying Home-Schoolers," Mackinac, December 18, 2009.READ MORE
To Lead Schools, Christie Picks Voucher Advocate
Subject: txt 2010 edu - 
TRENTON - The man once described by teachers’ union leaders as “the antithesis of everything we hold sacred about public education” was chosen to serve as state education commissioner by Governor-elect Christopher J. Christie on Wednesday. The nomination of Bret D. Schundler to the post underscored the governor’s determination to press ahead with his push for school vouchers, more charter schools and merit pay for teachers.
[Finally. As so consistently the case, an election was required.]
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Obama, Democrats Put Politics Above Educating D.C.’s Youth
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Black leaders say that President Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and Congress have put politics ahead of helping low-income children in the District of Columbia by refusing to support a program that allows 1,700 children to go to a private school, including the school Obama’s two daughters attend. Congress did not reauthorize funding for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) in the 2010-11 federal budget...
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US Kids grade Obama a C-minus after first year
[And we're reporting on what children think - why?]
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