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[Apologies for yesterday's very late post; had an SMTP-relay snafu]
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Thursday, January 28, 2010
The Lesson of an Affirmative Action President
Subject: txt bdd vals othr libs 1st -
The vote in 2008 was even crazier than picking your brain surgeon by the color of his skin. If the knife slips in the surgeon's hand, you might die, but the nation as a whole doesn't. But if the president has a nervous breakdown in the Oval Office, the whole world is at risk. It's a mad, mad, mad idea to elect people on the basis of race or gender.
We have been so PC-whipped as a nation that Obama's election as a black man -- not as a competent black man, not as an experienced and well-qualified black man -- was celebrated by liberals and Leftists around the world. It is the victory of brain-dead ideology over common sense. The guy in the White House today is potentially the most dangerous, mentally fixated, and irresponsible demagogue we have ever known. Those wacky ideas are once again on the rise, not just in the schools and colleges, but even at the very centers of power. The election of Obama was by far the screwiest thing American voters have ever done. It throws doubt on the whole American experiment, because we have inflicted this disaster on ourselves.
The lesson of the Obama presidency is exactly the opposite of what our stuck-on-stupid media are telling us. It is that we must never, ever hire, promote, or elect somebody to a position of power and responsibility merely because of his race. Abraham Lincoln would not have been surprised. Neither would Martin Luther King, Jr. Even the editors of the New York Times choose schools for their kids not by race, but by educational competence.
Somehow the American people have forgotten their common sense while Obama was rifling their wallets...
[Recommended > ]
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Gitmo? Mideast? Not in Obama Speech
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Don't look for any mention of Pakistan's struggle with al-Qaida in President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.
Or the ongoing conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Or the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Obama was notably silent on those elements of American foreign policy during his speech Wednesday night to Congress. All are top challenges facing his administration, but they didn't make the cut for his first State of the Union address.
[Guess we're no longer in two shooting wars. Won't our young people in uniform be relieved.]
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Obama ‘Engagement’ Policy Has Led to ‘Unprecedented’ International Consensus on Iran
Subject: txt nsec intl iran - National Security Adviser Says
Washington – Gen. Jim Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser, claimed Monday that the administration had seen “unprecedented” success in rallying the world against Iran through its strategy of engagement.
“Engagement, our strategy in Iran, has resulted and is resulting in an unprecedented level of international consensus and unity on Iran,”
Jones told reporters Monday. The four-star general made the comments at a liberal think-tank, the Center for American Progress (CAP),
But while the other Security Council nations were reportedly considering circumventing the U.N., James Phillips of The Heritage Foundation, said that option has also recently imploded as well.
“I don’t know what consensus that he’s referring to that we should be encouraged by. I don’t see any progress being made,”
Phillips, who is Heritage’s senior fellow for Middle Eastern affairs, told CNSNews.com.
“Just today, the foreign ministers of the EU (European Union) backed away from imposing sanctions and said that they should be imposed only by the Security Council or that it’s necessary for the Security Council to take the lead.”
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[?]
Russia: Iran nuclear plant to start up this year
Der Spiegel: Iran able to produce nuclear bomb this year
'Iran to unveil new missiles in Feb.'
Iran’s Private Army Digs in for a Wider Lebanon War
EU wary on new Iran sanctions, waits for UN discussions
Iranian official uses 'N' word to describe Obama
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A vanishing
Subject: txt intl china lbrty sclm bbro -
Readers may remember Gao Zhisheng, the incredibly brave and valuable Chinese human-rights lawyer who was snatched last February — snatched by the state and then made to disappear. I wrote about him last April, in this column.
Interestingly enough, the Chinese Foreign Ministry was asked about Gao last week. And an official replied that Gao “is where he should be.”
Of course. And where might that be? Nowhere good, you can be assured.
[Never forget what we're attempting to 'deal' with in China: An undemocratic communist tyranny aggressively working for regional and global dominance.]
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DON'T LOOK TO EUROPE, THE UNITED STATES NEEDS REHAB CAPITALISM
Subject: txt mny intl sclm -
It makes no sense to regard the crisis of the American economic system as reason to glorify Europe's social welfare system, with its ghastly faults, or to see the latter system as a way out of decline, says Edmund S. Phelps, director of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University and the winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics.
Europe has been a distant second to the United States in dreaming up, developing, marketing and embracing new commercial products. The reason is not bad luck. Europe is lacking in economic dynamism -- in systematically cultivating and facilitating innovation. This is evident by any measure:
- Venture capital investment in Europe is less than half the U.S. level.
- There are few start-ups in Europe -- no Microsoft, Netscape or Google.
- In European countries the same old companies remain in the top 20 from decade to decade.
Some economic indicators convey the costs of this deficiency:
- Young people still leave Europe in droves to make their careers.
- Reported job satisfaction and employee engagement are far lower in France and Italy than in Canada and the United States.
The corporatist strategy of inserting the state in place of private initiative and creativity has never worked -- we need return to high dynamism by bringing back old-fashioned banks that lend to business and old-fashioned companies that are forward-looking and courageous.
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'UN Wrongly Linked Global Warming To Natural Disasters'
Subject: txt owg grn - Breaking:
Just days after the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change admitted it used junk science to predict Himalayan glaciers would vanish by 2035, its claim that global warming is linked to increased natural disasters has also been found to be wrongly concluded.
The British Times Online reported moments ago:
THE United Nations climate science panel faces new controversy for wrongly linking global warming to an increase in the number and severity of natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods.
It based the claims on an unpublished report that had not been subjected to routine scientific scrutiny — and ignored warnings from scientific advisers that the evidence supporting the link too weak.
The report's own authors later withdrew the claim because they felt the evidence was not strong enough.
The article continued:
When the paper was eventually published, in 2008, it had a new caveat. It said: "We find insufficient evidence to claim a statistical relationship between global temperature increase and catastrophe losses."
Despite this change the IPCC did not issue a clarification ahead of the Copenhagen climate summit last month.
It has also emerged that at least two scientific reviewers who checked drafts of the IPCC report urged greater caution in proposing a link between climate change and disaster impacts — but were ignored.
The credibility of the organization at the very heart of global warming hysteria is increasingly brought into further question -- but will American media report this new revelation?
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U.N. Offiicial Won't Quit for Climate Report Error
Subject: txt owg grn -
The head of a panel of United Nations climate scientists said Saturday he would not resign despite a recent admission that a panel report warning Himalayan glaciers could be gone by 2035 was hundreds of years off.
But Rajendra Pachauri, who heads the panel, said no action would be taken against the authors of the report and he would not resign...
[Of course - that would be too close to accountability. Mistakes happen. The more indicative actions are those in response to their discovery...
And the Obama administration is supporting this outfit's ability to tax us directly for its operating revenue...]
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What Bias? Re: MSM Newsers Ignore UN Apology for Himalayan Glacier Error
Subject: txt owg grn msm bias -
Last Sunday [two weeks ago], it was reported that the United Nations was to retract a claim its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made back in 2007 concerning Himalayan glaciers being completely gone by 2035 as a result of global warming.
Last [week's] Wednesday, the IPCC issued a statement doing just that.
But despite the seriousness of this apology and its implications for the veracity of the entire manmade global warming myth, the announcement was completely ignored by America's major television news outlets except Fox News (partial transcript of January 20's "Special Report" below the fold):
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IT'S TIME TO FREEZE GOVERNMENT WAGES
Subject: txt mny bbro sclm -
In a recession when wages are stagnating, you would expect governments to capitalize on the loose labor market by holding the line on employee compensation. But public sector compensation (as measured by the Department of Labor) rose 42 percent faster than private sector compensation over the last three years:
- Since the end of 2006, hourly total compensation (wages plus benefits) has risen 6.5 percent for private sector workers, essentially keeping pace with inflation; but state and local government workers saw their hourly compensation rise 9.2 percent.
- Federal civilian workers (about 10 percent of the public sector civilian workforce) are excluded from the above measure, but they did even better, receiving Congressionally-approved wage rises totaling 9.9 percent over the same period.
Why have public sector wages grown so fast?
- In some cases, it's because employees are receiving scheduled raises under contracts 'negotiated' [extorted] by public employee labor unions.
- But in other cases, governments have agreed to pay increases during the recession, or been forced into them by arbitrators.
- Transit agencies in New York and Washington, D.C., have seen their budget crises exacerbated by arbitrator-mandated pay increases, leading to service cuts.
- And Congress just approved another 2 percent pay increase for federal workers, effective this month.
Or, put differently, the last three years' excess growth in public sector compensation necessitates anextra $36 BILLION
in annual tax collections or program cuts,...
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Reality Check...
Subject: txt sclm bbro libs mny msm lbrty =
"When I made the decision to leave my job to found Public Allies Chicago [in 1993], an AmeriCorps program that prepares youth for public service, I realized right away that I had made the right decision. There are few things more rewarding than watching young people recognize that they have the power to enrich not only their lives, but the lives of others as well. But careers in public service are not always encouraged. We push our young people to strive for things, an advanced degree, a job title, a big salary... But, at a time when our nation is facing unprecedented challenges, encouraging careers in public service and social innovation is more important than ever."
Remarks of First Lady Michelle Obama at TIME 100 Most Influential People Awards
Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis data, tables 6.2D and 6.5D.
- Michelle Obama's compensation in 2005 as vice president of community affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals: $316,962. (Source: Chicago Tribune.)
- Percentage of all households, among those headed by non-Hispanic white males, with more than $250,000 income in 2006: 1.3%. (Source: US Statistical Abstract, Table 683.)
THE GOLDEN QUARTER
Subject: txt mny hstry -
In the nine quarter-century periods since the American republic was founded in 1789, the one with highest economic growth and job creation was the period from 1983 through 2007. Particularly remarkable -- there were just four quarters (out of 100) of negative economic growth in that entire interval:
- That period of time was characterized by a reduction in government spending from 23.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to 20 percent (the low point was 18.4 percent in 2000), and a reduction in marginal tax rates.
- Despite the reduction in tax rates, tax revenues both in absolute terms and as a percentage of GDP grew in the 1983-2007 period because of the improved work and investment incentives.
- As a result, the deficit fell from 6 percent of GDP in 1983 to just 1.2 percent in 2007.
Most people understand that if the government is growing faster than the economy (as it has been for the past two years) disaster ultimately will occur, but if the economy and the private sector grow faster than the government, as they did from 1983-2007, the country prospers...
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POLL: 59% Say Cut Taxes to Create Jobs, 14% Expect Congress to Listen
Subject: txt mny
Only 15% of voters hold the opposite view and believe that increasing government spending is the better approach.
However, while voters overwhelmingly think cutting taxes is the better approach, they also overwhelmingly expect Congress and President Obama to take the opposite approach.
Seventy-two percent (72%) say the nation’s elected politicians are more likely to increase government spending than cut taxes. Only 14% think they’ll cut taxes instead.
Republicans and unaffiliated voters strongly believe that tax cuts are the best tool for job creation. Democrats are evenly divided. Among those in the president’s party, 33% say tax cuts are best, 30% say increased spending...
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What Bias? Re: Networks Ignore Contradiction Between Obama's Middle Class Giveaways, Spending 'Freeze'
bject: txt mny msm -
In an attempt to boost flagging approval ratings, President Barack Obama announced a series of initiatives aimed at 'helping out the middle class' on Jan. 25, two days ahead of his State of the Union address.
"Good evening, everyone. He got the message: it's the economy middle-class voters are most worried about. And with critical congressional elections coming up this year, President Obama today rolled out a series of proposals designed to show he's on the case,"
Couric said as she teased White House correspondent Chip Reid's story.
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To re-empower our states
Subject: txt lbrty cali - bbro sclm -
As I was preparing to write a column on the ludi -crous maligning of the Tea Party movement by liberals, Democrats and the mainstream media (which I hope to write next week instead) I started thinking about one of the key objectives of the Tea Party people - the strict enforcement of the 10th Amendment ("The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.").
As an early-1960s-vintage member of the then-new conservative movement, I remember us focusing on the 10th Amendment during the 1964 Goldwater campaign. It has been a staple of conservative thought, and the continued dormancy of 10th Amendment enforcement has been one of the failures of our now half-century-old movement.
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Dem plan: Split GOP, tea party
Democrats are looking for someone to blame for their electoral woes — and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Robert Menendez is working hard to make sure it’s not him. Showing that they’ve learned the lesson of Massachusetts, Menendez and his staff will distribute a memo Tuesday advising Democratic campaign managers to frame their opponents early — and to drive a wedge between moderate voters and tea-party-
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Newsmax-Zogby Poll: Palin Tops GOP Field for 2012
Sarah Palin's recent book success and her new high-profile role on Fox News are having a stunning impact on her political standing with a Newsmax-Zogby poll showing the former Alaska governor now leading the GOP field as the party's preferred candidate for president.
The exclusive Newsmax Media-Zogby poll released Thursday asked likely GOP voters:"If the Republican primary for president of the United States were held today... for whom would you vote?"
The poll gave voters a selection of top tier potential candidates as well as some dark horses, the list included Scott Brown, Jeb Bush, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, David Petraeus, Tim Pawlenty, and Mitt Romney.
Despite the size and diversity of the field, Palin grabbed a solid 22.2 percent to take the lead with former Massachusetts Gov. Romney close behind with 19.4 percent.
Also making a strong showing was former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich with 12 percent, followed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 11 percent.
The Newsmax-Zogby poll suggests the rumble for top dog among GOP candidates is anything but static.
The latest data is clearly good news for Palin.
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