Monday, February 15, 2010

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The first attempt to create a Presidents Day occurred in 1951 when the "President's Day National Committee" was formed by Harold Stonebridge Fischer of Compton, California, who became its National Executive Director for the next two decades. The purpose was not to honor any particular President, but to honor the office of the Presidency. It was first thought that March 4, the original inauguration day, should be deemed Presidents Day.

However, the bill recognizing the March 4th date was stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee (which had authority over national holidays). That committee felt that, because of its proximity to Lincoln's and Washington Birthdays, three holidays so close together would be unduly burdensome. During this time, however, the Governors of a majority of the individual states issued proclamations declaring March 4 to be Presidents Day in their respective jurisdictions. Later on, the Washington's Birthday holiday would become known as Presidents Day.

By the mid-1980s, with a push from advertisers, the term "Presidents Day" began its public appearance.[2] Although Lincoln's birthday, February 12, was never a federal holiday, approximately a dozen state governments have officially renamed their Washington's Birthday observances as "Presidents Day", "Washington and Lincoln Day", or other such designations.




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SEIU’s Shameless Abuse of Olympic Games Tragedy

Subject: txt crpt 1st -
In the wake of the terrible tragedy outside of Vancouver at the Whistler Sliding Center, where Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili sadly lost his life, safety is on the minds of many. Only hours before the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the 21-year old lost control of his sled at 88mph and was catapulted over the track wall into a steel support column. All throughout the week, coaches, commentators, and even other Olympians have questioned the safety of the track, as nearly a dozen other athletes have also crashed during practice runs, including a Romanian women’s slider who was knocked unconscious and defending Olympic luge champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy.

The President of the World Luge Federation said the track is too fast and thinks it is a planning mistake, while Australian luger Hannah Campbell-Pegg questioned whether athletes were being treated as “crash test dummies“. The shocking footage of the accident was replayed all throughout the world, leaving horrified viewers focused on discussion about the safety of the track.

But in all of this shock, horror and sadness over the tragic death of an athlete in his prime and the dangers of the track on which he lost his young life, what has the SEIU focused on?

“PRESS RELEASE: Healthcare Union Raises Concerns Over Safety Of Food to be Served to Olympic Athletes at Vancouver Olympics“

Food safety. (Translated = unionizing)



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Weir scared after anti-fur threats

Subject: txt 1st bdd vals nsec - lbrty -
US men's figure skater Johnny Weir said Saturday he was so rattled by "threats" from anti-fur activists that he opted to stay in the Olympic Village rather than a hotel for security reasons.

Weir, 25, received threats after wearing a costume trimmed with genuine fox fur at US nationals, which lead him to change it for the Vancouver Games. The American had initially planned to avoid the Olympic village as he had not enjoyed his experience staying there four years ago in Turin. But faced with the threats he is now sharing a two-bedroom suite with US ice dancer Tanith Belbin.

"All those crazy fur people definitely changed my mind,"

[And his actions are only teaching them that their methods work.]

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Flashback: Lack of Blacks Makes Winter Olympics ‘Look Like GOP Convention’

[HT:SA] Subject: txt 1st bdd vals msm bias -



On the eve of the Winter Olympics four years ago, Bryant Gumbel couldn't resist taking a racial shot at the Republican Party in a commentary at the end of his Real Sports magazine show on HBO. He condescendingly suggested viewers

“try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention.”

Gumbel's remarks were aired a few days before the Olympics opened in Torino, Italy. No media uproar or call for his termination ensued.

[No racism here, move along...]

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.image toon bdd vals msm bias - NFL no rush but every other bum

POLL: 61% Say Congress Should Start All Over Again on Health Care

Subject: txt hcare -
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds just 28% who think it is better to build on the health care plan that has been working its way through the House and Senate.

Only 35% of voters believe Congress should pass ANY health care reform. Fifty-four percent (54%) say Congress should at least wait until voters select new congressional representatives in November.

It’s interesting to note that in a separate survey earlier this week 63% of voters said, generally speaking, it would be better for the country if most incumbents in Congress were defeated this November.

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Pelosi aide says Democratic congressional leaders have settled on legislative "trick" to pass Obamacare; So why have a summit?

Subject: txt hcare crpt libs -
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's senior health care advisor has told Congress Daily that congressional Democratic leaders have settled on a strategy they believe will allow them to make changes in both Senate and House Obamacare bills, then send a single, revised version to President Obama for signature.

Congress Daily is a subscription-only publication, but LifeNews.com has these details:

"In comments reported by Congress Daily, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s top health care aide Wendell Primus admitted top Democrats have already decided on the strategy to pass the Senate's pro-abortion, government-run health care bill.

"Primus explained that the Senate will use the controversial reconciliation strategy that will have the House approve the Senate bill and both the House and Senate okaying changes to the bill that the Senate will sign off on by preventing Republicans from filibustering.

“'The trick in all of this is that the president would have to sign the Senate bill first, then the reconciliation bill second, and the reconciliation bill would trump the Senate bill,' Primus said at the National Health Policy Conference hosted by Academy Health and Health Affairs.

“'There's a certain skill, there's a trick, but I think we'll get it done,' he said."

The comments from Primus raise an obvious question: why call a health care summit and challenge congressional Republicans to come with their best ideas when the plan is already in place to use legislative trickery to pass Obamacare?

The most logical answer would seem to be that the summit is part and parcel of a White House/congressional Democratic strategy to distract attention from what is about to happen on the Hill.

It's the classic magician's trick of distracting you with the left hand while the right hand does the "trick"...

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Let the games begin

The Health Care summit will be classic political theater

Live from Washington - It's Health Care Chicken, starring Barack Obama and a carefully chosen panel of useful idiots, desperate Democrats and resolute Republicans.

The President's televised health care "summit" on February 25th promises to rival for sheer theatre the spectacle last October of 150 doctors in the Rose Garden costumed in white coats handed out by the White House.

In his State of the Union address, the President said "I don't quit," and nowhere is that more apparent than in his quixotic left-wing pursuit of health care nirvana in the form of a federal takeover... [snip]

This would certainly be entertaining political theatre, but the stakes transcend politics, pitting "we, the people" against Obama's big government leviathan. In response to six months of fierce public rejection of their agenda, the Democrats have mashed the gas pedal to the floor...

[Representative government?]

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image toon - hcare = Reps duped by bipartisan love notes

What Bias Re: Health Reform - Stephanopoulos Contends: ‘People Want That’

[Meanwhile, in our professional media...]

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos conceded Wednesday night in reporting how President Obama’s approval level has fallen to 46 percent amongst independents. But though 53 percent disapprove of his handling of health care and more are opposed to than in favor of the congressional Democrats/Obama plan, Stephanopoulos still asserted :

"What the White House can do -- what they're trying to do -- is to achieve a health care bill. People still want that."

[People want it scrapped.]

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CNN: President Made 'Pants on Fire' Claim on Health Care

[Credit where due.]

CNN refreshingly called out President Obama on Friday's Newsroom concerning his false claim that

"for the first time...you saw more people getting health care from government than you did from the private sector."

President Obama delivered this line at his February 9, 2010 White House press conference. Harris played the sound bite of this statement 20 minutes into the 12 pm Eastern hour, and asked Simons, who is an executive producer with CNN's "Fact Check Desk," to verify its accuracy: "Tell us, is that an accurate statement from the President?"

CNN's Suzanne Simons and anchor Tony Harris both used the
"pants on fire"
expression to describe the President's statement...

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U.S., Afghan Troops Sweep into Taliban Stronghold

Subject: txt gwot heroes -
Thousands of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers stormed the Taliban stronghold of Marjah by air and ground Saturday, meeting only scattered resistance but facing a daunting thicket of bombs and booby traps that slowed their advance through the town.

It is the largest offensive since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. The operation aims to establish Afghan government authority over the biggest southern town under militant control and break the Taliban grip over a wide area of their southern heartland.

Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, NATO commander of forces in southern Afghanistan, said Afghan and coalition troops, aided by 60 helicopters, made a "successful insertion" into Marjah in southern Helmand province. He said the operation was going "without a hitch."



But there were military casualties...


[click to enlarge]

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Surprise tactic in Afghanistan offensive befuddles Taliban

Subject: txt gwot heroes -
Afghanistan — U.S. Marines and Afghan forces airlifted over the Taliban-laid minefields into the center of Marjah town Saturday, apparently surprising the insurgents and taking strategic positions from them, according to military officials.

Although billed as a major confrontation between the international coalition and Afghan forces and the Taliban, the first day of the offensive in the southern Helmand province saw only sporadic fighting.

Two coalition soldiers were killed, along with about 20 insurgents...



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Chatting up the Taliban

[HT:MG]Subject: txt gwot -
In his State of the Union address, President Obama claimed that the U.S. had basically ignored the situation in Afghanistan during the 1990s.

But as Michael Rubin shows in a disturbing article in Commentary, Obama's account, as is so often the case when the president dabbles in history, is not correct.

Rather, beginning in 1995, before the Taliban had even taken control of Kabul, the Clinton administration began a policy of 'engagement'...

[Seems to me our military professionals' definition of engagement is the much more effective.]

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image toon - gwot nsec islm = Oby can't understand terrorists

Western Civilization on Trial

Subject: txt islm owg intl -
As the Geert Wilders case goes into pre-trial, National Review Online asked our experts: Is there any legitimate reason he’s in court? What are the implications of such a trial being held, nevermind its outcome?

BAT YE’OR: Geert Wilders is a hero for those countless Europeans who cherish a free and democratic Europe — a Europe proud of its Judeo-Christian and humanistic values, its civilization, and its achievements in the field of human rights.

But this is not today’s Europe. In today’s Europe, synagogues, Jewish schools, clubs, and cemeteries need to be guarded — as if going to a Jewish school or praying in a synagogue were a crime punishable by death as in Nazi-occupied Europe. Intellectuals, scholars, and those who protest the creeping Eurabization of culture and society are threatened, boycotted by their colleagues, thrown out of their jobs, forced to leave their families and go into hiding, or obliged to live with bodyguards.

Wilders has devoted his life to freeing Europe from Eurabia’s clutches. To this titanic struggle he has sacrificed the security of his life and the joys of family. Threatened by a desert whirlwind blowing hatred upon Europe from the south, spending days and nights shielded by bodyguards, persecuted and tormented by his feckless Eurabian opponents, Geert Wilders incarnates the free soul of an unbending Europe.

But of course what Dutch authorities, Muslim groups in the Netherlands, and the OIC really want to accomplish is to silence Wilders’s truth-telling about jihad and Islamic supremacism. The court’s railroading of Wilders was clear from that fact that 15 of his 18 requested witnesses were disallowed, including Mohammed Bouyeri, the Koran-inspired murderer of Theo Van Gogh who would have proven Wilders’s point immediately.

As Wilders himself put it Wednesday:

“This court is not interested in the truth. This court doesn’t want me to have a fair trial.”

The darkness descending over Europe, as indicated by this trial, may ensure that there is no fair trial there again for a long, long time.

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[This is what he's on 'trial' for...]

Watch Video Here

[slow, but it'll happen]


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The Spiritual Dimensions of Nationhood

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I’ve said this before but no matter how many times it is said, it bears repeating: the threats that the United States face from a fanatical Islamic foe are made possible by the Left's devotion to positions that undermine our heritage, accomplishments and founding.

It is not coincidental that I’m reminded of this condition by the passing of Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of The United States. This bestselling [assigned by colleges nation wide] book, memorialized by the pseudo intellectual rants of the actor, Matt Damon is among the most influential textbooks ever published. Bob Herbert of the New York Times wrote a saccharine ecology which suggested Zinn was a “national treasure.”

If so, it was a treasure of fool’s gold.

Zinn was not a historian, but an ideologue who would envision only the blemishes in America’s past. For him, the American experiment was predicated on colonialism, imperial aims, exploitation and enslavement. But the damaging aspect of Zinn’s brand of contemptuous nihilism, his anti-American posture and hatred of capitalism, is its irresistible siren's song to American self-ascribed 'elites'.

Is it any wonder that a multi-cultural stance that denigrates our national experience and superordinates the goals of other nations is now the prevailing orthodoxy in our schools and colleges?

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France unveils national identity plans

Subject: txt intl islm -
Newcomers to France will be made to sign a declaration of values as part of a new campaign to define national identity, France's Prime Minister says. Francois Fillon announced the initiative after three months of public debates around the country.

Other measures include the flying of the French flag and the singing of the national anthem - La Marseilleise - at schools, to promote patriotism...


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You Know What’s a Human-Rights Violation?

Subject: txt intl owg israel -
Criticizing anti-Zionist NGOs, that’s what. In what is apparently not a parody, Human Rights Watch has issued a press release about the New Israel Fund 'controversy', apparently in the belief that making the association between the two groups explicit will help the NIF:

(New York, February 7, 2010) – The growing harshness of attacks by Israeli government officials on nongovernmental organizations poses a real threat to civil society in Israel, Human Rights Watch said today.

The most recent attacks center on the New Israel Fund (NIF). …

“What we’re seeing in Israel is a greater official intolerance of dissent,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. … “A clear pattern of official efforts to suppress voices critical of government policy is emerging.”

Note that HRW has done zero investigation into the clear pattern of official efforts to murder democracy activists by the Iranian regime. However, a thoroughly democratic debate in Israel about NGOs sends the group into hysterics about “threats to civil society.”

Aren’t there some actual dissenters in the Middle East who are actually being attacked who Human Rights Watch could pay attention to?

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China Goes On U.S. Buying Spree

Subject: txt mny trade china nsec -
China's giant sovereign wealth fund revealed it has accumulated stakes totaling $9.6 billion in major U.S. companies including Coca-Cola, Apple and Goodyear following a buying spree last year.

Most of the stakes are small, reflecting China Investment Corp.'s strategy of avoiding politically sensitive acquisitions. But they highlight its growing presence in global markets as it invests a portion of Beijing's $2.4 trillion in foreign reserves...

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The New Conformo-radicalism

Subject: txt bbro sclm lbrty grn -
A man asks for a plastic bag at the supermarket checkout. Next thing you know, his head’s slammed against the counter, and he’s being cuffed by the Green Police.



“You picked the wrong day to mess with the ecosystem, plastic boy,” sneers the enviro-cop, as the perp is led away. Cut to more Green Police going through your trash, until they find . . . a battery! “Take the house!” orders the eco-commando. And we switch to a roadblock on a backed-up interstate, with the Green Police prowling the lines of vehicles to check they’re in environmental compliance.



If you watched the Super Bowl, you most likely saw this commercial. As my comrade Jonah Goldberg noted, up until this point you might have assumed it was a fun message from a libertarian think-tank warning of the barely veiled totalitarian tendencies of the eco-nanny state. Any time now, you figure, some splendidly contrarian type — perhaps Clint lui-même in his famous Gran Torino — will come roaring through flipping the bird at the stormtroopers and blowing out their tires for good measure.

But instead the Greenstapo stumble across an Audi A3 TDI. “You’re good to go,” they tell the driver, and, with the approval of the state enforcers, he meekly pulls out of the stalled traffic and moves off. Tagline:

“Green has never felt so right.”



So the message from Audi isn’t “You are a free man. Don’t bend to the statist bullies,” but “Resistance is futile. You might as well get with the program...”

Not so long ago, car ads prioritized liberty...

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Contact Audi of America
1-888-AFS-AUDI (237-2834)
Email: Audi of America [Form: https://secure-www.audi.com/us/brand/en/tools/form/audicare.formlayer.html
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UK's Brown Says Global Bank Tax Near

Subject: txt owg bdd mny action -
In an interview published on Thursday, Brown said he believed backing for a global bank tax had gained momentum since U.S. President Barack Obama called for a fee to be levied on major U.S. financial institutions last month.

"People are now prepared to consider the best mechanism by which a levy could be raised,"

said Brown, who put forward an idea of a global transactions tax at a meeting of the Group of 20 nations in Scotland in November. [Correction: not 'people', politicians are interested in how to establish a mechanism by which they can take funds from nations without worrying about details such as if they condone it.]

Prior U.S. administrations have opposed a tax on financial transactions, but last month Obama proposed that Wall Street banks pay up to $117 billion in order to reimburse taxpayers for the financial bailout. [That's an acceptable debate to have within our Nation...]

The International Monetary Fund is compiling a report, due in April, on options for requiring banks to "make a fair and substantial contribution" towards future bailouts... [...this isn't. The Holy Grail of the one-world-government types is any way to tax the American people directly.

Should we allow it the stage will be set for ever-increasing encroachment on our nation's sovereignty through monetary means {think carbon tax schemes - just another tactic}. These schemes must be stopped at the door: once the camel's nose is under the tent...]


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[Then >


"OPPOSE ANY 'INTERNATIONAL' TAXATION OF AMERICANS"


Whitehouse: mailto:president@whitehouse.gov

Senate-Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Californians:
Barbara Boxer web mail http://boxer.senate.gov/en/contact/policycomments.cfm
Dianne Feinstein webmail
http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMe

House-Pelosi: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
YOUR Congressman: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

or: Speed Message them with your
personal distribution list...
and as always, pass it on...
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World may not be warming, say scientists

Subject: txt grn -
The United Nations climate panel faces a new challenge with scientists casting doubt on its claim that global temperatures are rising inexorably because of human pollution. In its last assessment the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the evidence that the world was warming was ''unequivocal''... [snip]

''The temperature records cannot be relied on as indicators of global change,''

said John Christy, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, a former lead author on the IPCC...

[The wheels are really coming off - outside the US that is.]

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Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995

Subject: txt grn -
*Data for vital 'hockey stick graph' has gone missing
*There has been no global warming since 1995
*Warming periods have happened before - but NOT due to man-made changes

The academic at the centre of the ‘Climategate’ affair, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, has admitted that he has trouble ‘keeping track’ of the information. Colleagues say that the reason Professor Phil Jones has refused Freedom of Information requests is that he may have actually 'lost' the data he claims...

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Independent Probe of ClimateGate Aiming to 'Reappraise' Conclusions of Climate Research Unit

Subject: txt grn msm -
East Anglia University, which came under fire a few months ago for the now infamous ClimateGate email scandal, announced yesterday that it is launching an independent probe into the work of its Climate Research Unit (CRU).

Wall Street Journal's Guy Chazan reports the story today -- found on page A15 of the print edition -- noting that the independent review led by Sir Muir Russell will "reappraise the CRU's scientific conclusions."

But Chazan noted that some critics argue that a deeper problem underpinning ClimateGate is not addressed by the probe:

"To do an assessment of the scientific research...is sort of beside the point," said Judith Curry, chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "The main issue is to provide open access to the data and the metadata ... and let the broader community assess the data sets."

British wire service Reuters has a full story on the development here, and FoxNews.com also has an article on the story, written by British sister network Sky News.

It remains to be seen how American print and broadcast outlets will cover the story.**

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MSNBC: Denying Climate Change 'Unpatriotic,' 'Inappropriate'

Link[** "Asked and answered"]



Challenging someone's patriotism is a pretty hefty charge to level in the political arena, based on the response when Barack Obama's patriotism was challenged during the 2008 election cycle.

However, there seems to be a different set of rules when it comes to questioning the authenticity of the manmade global warming argument in the wake of record-setting snowfall in the Mid-Atlantic.

And this different standard applied to Bill Nye "The Science Guy," who appeared on MSNBC's Feb. 10 "Rachel Maddow Show" and aired his disapproval of manmade climate change skeptics and labeled them "unpatriotic..."

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MSNBC: Cherry-picks Glenn Beck To Call Him A Liar

Subject: txt msm bias grn -
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Friday cherry-picked statements from Glenn Beck's radio show to accuse him of lying about global warming.

In a brief segment on the MSNBC program bearing her name, Maddow said the Fox News star claimed the snowstorm that hit the East Coast this week disproves Al Gore's favorite myth.

Unfortunately, Maddow conveniently left out the part when Beck said "one storm does not prove anything."

But that didn't stop the MSNBC host from making the accusation
(video embedded below the fold with transcript):

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image toon 1st fnn grn libs = Searchers find Gore by stupid statements