Monday, January 25, 2010
POLL: 61% Say It’s Time for Congress To Drop Health Care
Subject: txt hcare -
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 30% of voters nationwide disagree and think Congress should press ahead with health care.
Eighty-two percent (82%) of Republicans and 64% of voters not affiliated with either of the major parties say Congress should focus on more immediate ways to improve the economy and create jobs.
Conversely, sixty-one percent (61%) of Democrats say the Obama administration should keep pushing health care reform.
Eighty-four percent (84%) of GOP voters and 63% of unaffiliateds think the White House should top trying to 'reform' health care altogether...
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White House to take new shot at health care reform despite Massachusetts
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The White House isn't about to pull the plug on heath care reform, aides said Sunday, although they acknowledged their job now is determining "the art of the possible."
"It's very clear, people don't want us to walk away from health care," David Axelrod, a senior Obama adviser, told ABC News' "This Week." "They want us to address their concerns with the program."
Five days after Democrats lost a key Senate seat in Massachusetts, Axelrod insisted the election's message was that voters want "cooperation instead of obstructionism."
Republicans, meanwhile - led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the GOP's 2008 presidential nominee - insisted their party was open to negotiating. He said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that Obama should consider some of the GOP's health care prescriptions, like limiting medical malpractice lawsuits, letting residents buy health insurance across state lines and tax credits for people who buy insurance on their own.
"We'd be willing to sit down and start over from the beginning," McCain said. "There are things we can agree on."
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California Dems seek single payer health insurance
[HT:FC]Subject: Fwd: txt cali hcare action NPAC >>> -
Just two days after Republican Scott Brown's election, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced she no longer has the votes in the House to pass the Senate version of the health care bill. In effect, the plan for national health care has imploded in Washington D.C.
One would think that the liberal Democrats, even in California, would take a lesson from the Massachusetts election and what it means. Instead, what happened in Sacramento this week is a slap in the face to the citizens of California, and spit in the eye to voters nationwide.
Democrats in the California Legislature's Senate Appropriations committee, led by Sen. Mark Leno ( D-San Francisco) have voted, without any comment, to approve a bill SB 810 which will outlaw private health insurance in California and create a single-payer health insurance system in the state.
California's non-partisan Legislative Budget Analysis Office says the bill would cost California taxpayers at least $200 billion a year, the bill's language has no taxing or funding mechanism within it to pay for the proposed health care and the bill doesn't take into consideration the "significant" start-up costs and impact on the state's economy:
(See full budget analysis HERE.)
The California governor's office said this morning:
"Any elected official that thinks it's a good idea to strap the state with tens of billions of dollars from a government-run health care system is clearly not in touch with what voters need and deserve," ... "The governor continues to oppose any single-payer government-run health care system."
Here are the Democrats on the California Senate Appropriations Committee who voted in favor of moving SB 810 to a vote of the full legislature.
- Chairman: Mark Leno San Francisco
- Christine Kehoe, San Diego
- Ellen Corbett, San Leandro
- Carole Liu, Pasadena
- Leland Yee, San Francisco
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[Then >
"OPPOSE CA-SB 810 State Run Health Care"
CA Governor:
Phone: 916-445-2841
YOUR CA State Legislature =
YOUR CA Senate Email list pg.
and as always, pass it on...
contact-template.
Terror at the Mall?
Subject: txt gwot nsec -
The shopping malls of America will be among the next major terrorist targets.
It's not as if the jihadis haven't tried...
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Abdulmutallab interrogated for less than an hour; White House defends handling of terrorist case
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The White House is not disputing a report that FBI agents questioned accused Northwest Airlines bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab for just 50 minutes before deciding to grant him the right to remain silent and provide him with a taxpayer-supplied lawyer -- a decision that led Abdulmutallab to stop talking and provide no more information...
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U.S. Marines End Role in Iraq after Seven Years
ubject: txt gwot nsec heroes -
RAMADI, Iraq – The U.S. Marine Corps wrapped up nearly seven years in Iraq on Saturday, handing over duties to the Army and signaling the beginning of an accelerated withdrawal of American troops as the U.S. turns its focus away from the waning Iraqi war to a growing one in Afghanistan.
The Marines formally handed over control of Sunni-dominated Anbar, Iraq's largest province, to the Army during a ceremony at a base in Ramadi — where some of the fiercest fighting of the war took place.
The province was once the heart of the deadly Sunni insurgency that erupted after the U.S.-led liberation in 2003. In the battles for control of the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, the Marines saw some of the most brutal and deadliest fighting of the war.
As many as 25,000 Marines were in Iraq at the peak, mostly in Anbar province. The few thousand who remain — except for U.S. Embassy guards and advisers in Baghdad — are expected to ship out in a matter of weeks.
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Danes at odds with burka
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COPENHAGEN: The face-covering burka and nikab veils worn by some Muslim women have no place in Denmark, Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen says, adding that his government is considering restricting them.
"The government's position is clear: the burka and the nikab have no place in Danish society. They symbolise a view of women and humanity that we totally oppose and that we want to combat in Danish society," ... "Denmark is "an open, democratic society where we look at the person to whom we are talking, whether it's in a classroom or on the job," ..."That is why we don't want to see this garment in Danish society,"
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Police discover children as young as seven being groomed for terrorism
Subject: txt islm -
Children in Britain* as young as seven have been identified by police as being groomed for terrorism, with some already talking about become suicide bombers.
Around 10 primary school pupils, aged between seven and 10, have been referred to a Government scheme to help combat the radicalisation of youngsters.
One child was referred to the Channel Project, a national programme run by the police and Government, after shocking his teachers by writing on a school book:
“I want to be a suicide bomber.”
[Do we really think it's any different here?]
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More bias in US against Muslims than other faiths
Subject: txt islm msm bias libs -
NEW YORK-- Americans are more than twice as likely to express prejudice against Muslims than they are against Christians, Jews or Buddhists, a new survey found. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they have little or no knowledge of Islam. Still, a majority dislike the faith. The analysis, for release Thursday, is from the Gallup World Religion Survey and is part of a project on finding ways to increase understanding between Americans and Muslims.
[And there's no cause whatsoever for that bias - not the prior story re: continued radicalization within mosques, not the photo at right, not the map below of last year's Islamic extremists' terror attacks around the world - nope: it's 100% American intolerance and bigotry.
Muslim's need to understand liberty? Immaterial; it's the West that needs better 'understand' them.]
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When Tolerance Trumps Principle
We scratch our heads and wonder, "How did we get to this point?"
Tolerance requires that we ignore "the law of non-contradiction." The online Stanford University Encyclopedia of Philosophy explains that "opposite assertions cannot be true at the same time" and suggests that Aristotle believed that "the principle of non-contradiction [is] a principle of scientific inquiry, reasoning, and communication that we cannot do without."
In a world of social and political tolerance, we do not inquire, we do not reason, we do not communicate...we do not respect...we tolerate.
By definition, [unbridled] tolerance renders us impotent.
Requiring passivity, it negates action. An ordered, lawful, moral, and virtuous life -- as an individual, city, state, or nation -- necessitates constant and intentional effort, often offending lesser angels of our personal or societal nature. In a letter to Mercy Warren in April 1776, John Adams wrote: "Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private [virtue], and public virtue is the only foundation of republics."
Study of our human nature confirms that left unbridled, it does not tend toward order or virtue. Human nature gravitates to chaos.
Should our sensibilities stop at every discussion of ideology and consider all equal and worthy of embrace, even when they are not? Do we abandon virtues citing moral failures? Can we no longer discern right from wrong? Rather than right a troubled world, tolerance allows it to turn upside-down.
At some point, we must choose, and fight boldly for, the principles that govern us...
[Highly Recommended > ]
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China blames US cyber attack for Iran unrest
Subject: txt intl china - iran -
Beijing - China's Communist Party mouthpiece has accused the United States of mounting a cyber army and a ''hacker brigade'', and of exploiting social media such as Twitter or YouTube to foment unrest in Iran. The People's Daily yesterday accused the US of controlling the internet in the name of freedom after secretary of state Hillary Clinton called for more internet freedoms in China and elsewhere in a speech on Thursday.
China on Friday warned that Washington's push against internet censorship could harm ties.
"Behind what America calls free speech is naked political scheming. How did the unrest after the Iranian elections come about?" said the editorial, signed by Wang Xiaoyang.
"It was because online warfare launched by America, via YouTube video and Twitter microblogging, spread rumours, created splits, stirred up, and sowed discord between the followers of conservative and reformist factions."
China has blocked YouTube since March, the anniversary of uprisings in Tibet, and Twitter since June, just before the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tienanmen Square crackdown. Facebook has been down since early July.[Never forget this is a communist totalitarian government with undisguised adversarial ambitions (Taiwan, anyone). They are actively preparing for war against us while we pretend they're our friends.]
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ENGLISH CRAZE HIGHLIGHTS CHINESE AMBITIONS
Subject: txt intl bad vals immig -
China is full of booming consumer markets, from car sales growing at 50 per cent a year to top-end apartments that developers sell within days of putting them on the market. But one of the most interesting is urban China's craze for the English language, says the Financial Times.
According to industry analysts, there are as many as 30,000 organizations or companies that offer English lessons outside school in China and the market has nearly doubled in the last five years to around $3.5 billion.
The proliferation of language schools says a lot about the ambitions of modern China, says the Times:
- For many individual Chinese, mastering English is a central part of their seemingly boundless aspirations, a tool to engage with the rest of the world in a way that their parents could never imagine and a path to a more interesting and lucrative career.
- China's government, meanwhile, has made teaching English in primary schools one of its priorities - a reflection of its desire for China to play a much bigger role in the global economy.
According to the British Council:
- The primary school emphasis on English means that there are 20 million new English speakers in the country each year.
- More remarkably still, it estimated in a recent report that China may already have more English speakers than India.
[And in America?]
[yet]
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Federal Court Has Become the New Feelings Forum
CALIFORNIA
Forget the law. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker has allowed the trial over a challenge to overturn Proposition 8 -- the 2008 California ballot initiative that limited marriage to "a man and a woman" approved by 52 percent of California voters -- to turn into what the measure's opponents like to call a "teachable moment."
That's another way of saying that the law isn't as important as feelings in this trial.
Feelings rule -- and not just because the measure's foes somehow believe that Californians haven't been 'taught enough' about gay people. A judge has chosen to allow the trial to revolve around if the voters ban on gay "marriages" was motivated by animus toward homosexuals.
Evidently, if they can convince Walker that the Proposition 8 people are haters, he's free to overturn the will of the majority of California voters...
[This trial should be (and ostensibly was to be) only about if the criteria for changing the state's constitution was met -- but from the opening moment a judge has chosen to make a show trial of it based on empathy, not legality. Our recourse? None.
Systemic crisis in need of real reform? Our legal system.]
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Obama's demonization of banks
Subject: txt mny libs -
President Obama has decided to take on the banking industry with the most intrusive regulatory and tax package since the New Deal of the 1930s. If the president's failed freshman year didn't convince the O Force of his own fallibility, attacking Wall Street should bring him back down to Earth... [snip]
Banks are not the bad actors Democrats want people to believe. Banks have paid back almost all the money they were lent -- along with interest. The same cannot be said for government-run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have irretrievably lost $400 billion and counting - and the Obama administration is offering those losers a blank check for billions more... [snip]
The truth is most of the blame for the financial meltdown belongs to government. Some banks were forced to take government bailout funds under government threat. Others, such as Bank of America, found themselves in financial difficulty because the government forced them to merge with other institutions that had lost oodles of money.
Even under Mr. Obama's own anti-business logic - that new taxes and regulations are needed to control risk in the banking sector - it would only make sense to impose a tax on riskier banks. Levying an across-the-board tax will only increase costs for all banks and raise prices for customers...
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Obama's bank bashing killing wealth creation
Subject: txt mny bdd -
It is ironic that, last year, when too many Americans were still under the illusion that Obama's stimulus program, deficit spending and cap and trade and health care monstrosities were somehow going to help rescue the economy (they aren't any longer), Obama's loose tongue was already diminishing the wealth of the American people. It got so bad that even Bill Clinton had to tell him to button it.
Well, here we go again. This past week his Excellency reprised his repeated thrashing of the banking and insurance industries - with the same result on the stock market. Since more than half of Americans are now shareholders, it is not unfair to lay the blame for a decline in the typical American taxpayer's wealth at Obama's feet.
This is what we get for electing an ignorant community organizer with no expertise in running a newsstand, much less a country...
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White House says no reset button for Obama
Subject: txt 2010 libs reps -
President Barack Obama's senior adviser says the president isn't hitting the reset button as he begins his second year in office. The Senate's top Republican suggests that Obama should do just that.
Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett says the president's recent words on jobs and the economy reflect what he's been saying ever since he ran for president.
But Senate leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky says Obama should move from the left to the middle of the political spectrum if he wants to gain support from Republicans.
Obama is expected to lay out his agenda for the coming year during the State of the Union address on Wednesday.
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Axelrod: No White House shake-up in the works
Subject: txt 2010 libs reps -
President Barack Obama's top political aide says there's no White House shake-up in the works even as Obama's campaign manager is given a greater role in the administration.
Obama's chief political strategist, David Axelrod, says Plouffe will take a more active role. But Axelrod says don't expect a staff shake-up. He says "nothing gets Washington more excited than someone losing their job."
Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, calls Plouffe as smart as anybody "ever seen in politics."
[I.e., damn the will of the people, stay the uber-liberal course.]
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What Bias?
.
After Senate Race, Some Say Barrier for Women in Massachusetts Still Stands
''Welcome to liberal Massachusetts — we’re not,'' said Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic political consultant.
[The message: electing a Republican proves sexism - why else elect him?]
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Obama-Loving Spammer 'Ellie Light' Dupes 42 Newspapers
Subject: txt msm bias bdd fnn -
In January, an anonymous person supposedly named "Ellie Light" launched a massive PR campaign on behalf of President Barack Obama. The goal appears to have been to infiltrate as many newspapers as possible to spread pro-Obama propaganda -- as if the press needed the help.
Light's plan was simple enough: write a compelling letter to the editor, pretend to be a concerned reader in the region, and persuade the paper to print her liberal blather. For three weeks, editors of mainstream newspapers big and small allowed Light to spread Democrat talking points under the guise of small-town grassroots without anyone bothering to double check her story.
The content of her letter was also quite simple: Blame George Bush.
Dozens of times over, Light echoed the sins of the previous administration and urged readers to give President Obama more time. Light's argument was nothing unique, but it was good enough to impress some of the best 'editors' in America.
By the time a real reporter wised up to the game, Light had appeared in 42 newspapers claiming different residences, with each letter almost identical, and no one knowing any details about the masked citizen.
The scam abruptly came to an end Friday when reporter Sabrina Eaton of the Cleveland Plain Dealer followed a simple procedure of actually verifying a source. Light had appealed to the Cleveland paper to publish her screed, but as soon as a real reporter practiced some journalism, her cover blew wide open.
Readers are warned to avoid all beverages as they review Eaton's account of the hilarity that ensued:
[Can you imagine a Obama-critical 'letter' being treated in kind? Eleven AP 'fact checkers' for Palin's book...
If it fits their world view, it runs - if not, not.
Our professional media.]
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First Tweets: Space and Beyond
Subject: txt 1st gdd othr fnn -
Tweeting is no longer only an earthly phenomenon.
A NASA astronaut made Twitter history on Friday by sending the first tweet from outer space. Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer broadcast the following message directly from the International Space Station:"Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station -- the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your ?s"
Take that, Neil Armstrong.
[More importantly, another communication channel outside the previously government controlled NASA press corps - not that its been a major problem to my knowledge, but more is better...]
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