Three Things to Ponder:
[HT:GC]
C O W S
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the state of Washington? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.
T H E C O N S T I T U T I O N
They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq . Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we're not using it anymore.
T H E 1 0 C O M M A N D M E N T S
The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this:
You cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery," and "Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians...It creates a hostile work environment.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Iran bans magazines for showing 'corrupt' foreign stars
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran has banned nine lifestyle and cinema magazines for publishing pictures of "corrupt" foreign film stars and details about their "decadent" private lives, the student ISNA news agency said Sunday...
[proof positive that even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut]
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China Blacks Out YouTube After Tibetan Riot Videos Appear
As Tibetans -- led by Buddhist monks -- rioted in the capital city of Lhasa, burning Chinese-owned businesses and attacking Chinese, Beijing clamped down on YouTube and other media outlets depicting the violence.
Access to YouTube was blocked after about 20 videos of the violence in Tibet were shown on the site.
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Who cares? &c.
Reading a report about China’s latest massacre in Tibet, I was struck by one line in particular: “China is gambling that its crackdown will not bring an international outcry over human rights violations that could lead to boycotts of the Olympics.”
That is a very, very good gamble. Nobody gives a rat’s behind what the Chinese do, to Tibetans or anybody else. It is a curious fact of modern times. If only China’s rulers would embrace the Bush administration: Maybe the world would care.
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Shifting towards Israel?
A United Nations panel voted overwhelmingly this month to condemn Israel for a recent armed incursion in the Gaza Strip. Thirty-three member countries of the 47-seat UN Human Rights Council endorsed the resolution, which accused Israel of war crimes.
Those in favour of censuring the Jewish state included China, India and Russia. Thirteen countries abstained, among them seven European governments. [so brave]
But one nation stood alone against the denunciation of Israel, and that country was not the United States – Israel's leading foreign supporter – or even Israel itself, for neither country has a seat on the human rights body.
Instead, the lone dissenter was Canada.
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Birth control pills spark debate over environment
Wherever possible, Tina Casale switches to compact fluorescent light bulbs; she also recycles daily, rides in carpools or walks when she can, and, as a third-grade teacher, has made it a priority to ensure that global warming is a frequent topic in her science discussions. But in the eyes of some activists, Casale could be doing more to save the environment: Namely, tossing out her birth control pills. Birth control pills, like batteries and baby bottles, have become the latest item in American homes to become a focus of environmental concerns...
[screw the pills, we need universal school vouchers]
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Blaming Americans again
Liberals are using the concept of Anthropogenic Global Warming to advance their favorite causes, and that the whole War of the Worlds AGW scare is a tool to that end. This piece in LiveScience.com certainly buttresses that opinion. The Left has traditionally hated Americans eating red meat and driving their cars, and now we are told that, in order to ``save the planet`` we should eschew both.
As for fighting obesity and global warming by walking and cycling, don't expect people to do it easily, said Kristie Ebi. She's a Virginia public health consultant and one of the lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
Now, why did the IPCC [International Panel on Climate Change] need a public health consultant, and why was she one of the "leading authors" of the IPCC? Does it not seem obvious that transforming our way of life is the critical point of all this? Can any informed person continue to doubt that this issue is primarily a political power grab?
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MANDATE UPDATE
Since the early 1990s, CAHI has tracked state health-insurance mandate legislation in all 50 states and estimated the impact of those mandated benefits on the cost of a policy. A health-insurance "mandate" is a legislative requirement that an insurance company or health plan cover (or offer coverage for) common -- but sometimes not so common -- health- care providers, benefits and patient populations.
Although there were only a handful of state mandates in the 1960s, CAHI's just released "Health Insurance Mandates in the States, 2008" has identified 1,961 nationwide -- up from 1,901 a year ago. For almost every health-care product or service, there are at least two groups that want insurance to cover it: those who sell the products and services so they can get more business, and those who use the products and services to lower their out-of-pocket costs.
Both of these highly motivated groups push state legislators -- and increasingly members of Congress -- to require insurance to cover the care. As a result, government interference in and control of the health-care system is steadily increasing -- and so is the cost of health insurance...
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The High Cost of a Free Lunch
... Although FDR is often, mistakenly, credited with bringing the Great Depression to an end, as Amity Shlaes made clear in her book, “The Forgotten Man,” his policies, which can best be described as Socialistic and anti-business, in reality prolonged America’s misery. The mere fact that he and his economic advisors thought it made perfect sense to keep raising taxes during the 1930s suggests that their primary motive wasn’t to lift the country out of its economic morass, but to take advantage of the situation to inflate the power of the federal government...
The end result of his 12 years in the White House is a hodge-podge of Washington bureaucracies and an economy that finds the federal government being far and away the single largest employer in the U.S. Couple that with his personal fondness for Joseph Stalin, his filling his administration and the State Department with like-minded idiots, and you have a perfect blueprint for disaster. For as Thomas Jefferson recognized,
“A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have.”... It should be no surprise that we now have tens of millions of Americans, not to mention several million illegal aliens, who seem to believe that the feds should guarantee their home loans, turn their schools into liberal indoctrination centers with a bias against religion and traditional values, and, for good measure, pay for their health insurance...
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COMMONSENSE TAX POLICIES
If we want to obtain long-term economic stability and spur economic growth and job creation, we need to cut the corporate capital-gains tax, Consider:
- Some, like Belgium, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore don't tax corporate capital gains.
- Others such as Japan and the United Kingdom have exemptions when capital gains are reinvested; even France and Germany passed a 95 percent exclusion.
- Only the United States, Sweden and the Netherlands still tax corporate income at the corporate level and then again at the individual level when shareholders receive dividends.
- The whopping 35 percent U.S. tax rate creates a "lock-in" effect of investment capital, meaning that corporate taxpayers are less likely to sell appreciated assets because the high-burden tax makes it far from beneficial. Estimates put the total amount of locked-in assets at more than $3 trillion.
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Under assault from two fronts
Report: Border Patrol Confirms Incursions by Mexican Officials Into U.S.
The U.S. Border Patrol confirmed 29 recorded incursions into the U.S. by Mexican military or other government agents in the last 12 months, according to a report made public Wednesday by Judicial Watch, a U.S.-based public interest group. The group obtained the information through a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
[snip]
"These documents not only show the dangerous and chaotic situation at the Mexican border, but also the complicity of some Mexican government agents in violating U.S. law."
[snip]
Between 1996 and 2006, there were 253 confirmed incursions into the U.S by Mexican government officials, according to figures supplied by the Border Patrol.
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ACLU's War On U.S. Immigration Law
While President George W. Bush, ICE, and Congress act as if the U.S. had no immigration laws and no borders, some heroic local officials and private organizations have nevertheless sought, against all odds, to enforce and uphold immigration law. And every time they have done so, the ACLU has been there to fight them, on behalf of those who are flouting our laws.
A study of the tactics of local ACLU chapters across the country and the national ACLU reveals a distinct, coordinated strategy of six components...
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Hell Freezes Over? NBC Finally Calls Spitzer 'Democratic Governor'
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, substitute NBC Nightly News anchor Ann Curry and reporter Mike Taibbi failed to identify disgraced outgoing New York Governor Eliot Spitzer as a Democrat, but on Thursday night Curry finally informed NBC viewers of the party affiliation -- a fact network journalists always consider relevant when a Republican gets caught in scandalous behavior. Curry set up a story on incoming Governor David Paterson by uttering the word she's avoided all week...
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Inner City Kids Benefiting From School Choice
...
The graduation rate at the local high school is 3 percent…Green Dot was ready to go in Watts. It had the money to open the schools. It had the support of the community. It met all of the legal requirements for its charters to be approved. Indeed, the School Board staff advised the members that their only legal option was to approve the charters... But who cares about the rule of law when the teachers’ union is saying no...
...
Barr makes it clear, in sometimes colorful language, that the purpose of state education spending is to educate children, not to provide job security to underperforming adults. Green Dot Schools in the toughest neighborhoods in Los Angeles have an average high school graduation rate of 80 percent. The first two Green Dot schools also had high percentages of graduates attending four-year accredited colleges and universities. The school model focuses on getting resources away from bureaucracy and into the classroom and an unflinching commitment to academic achievement.
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MORE ROADS, NOT RAIL
Dallas does not need an "ambitious" regional rail network, says Mary Katherine Stout, vice president for policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Less than two months ago, Dallas Area Rapid Transit announced that it would be $1 billion short of what is needed to meet existing building obligations.
Assuming local taxpayers are hip to the notion of paying more on every purchase so they can cruise around -- or subsidize others cruising around [*] -- in trains, it might be wise to consider how well this expanded rail network can be sustained in the future [**].
Combine inflated ridership projections and enormous cost overruns that have plagued rail projects like this across the country with the reality that people have not given up their cars [***] en masse despite the construction of fancy rail lines, and the only promise taxpayers can count on is that this will require their continued and growing financial obligation for decades to come.
Keeping Texas moving is a high priority, and the inescapable fact is that Texas needs more roads, not more rail cars, says Stout.
[* = survey after survey says a majority of voters support 'mass transit' - for the other guy to use - to better clear the roads for their own use, as evidenced by their consistent answer to what it would take for them to use mass transit - the #1 answer to which is 'nothing'.
** = rail systems are many times more expensive to maintain than pavement, and that's before factoring in labor costs - unionized of course - guaranteed to eventually leave riders stranded come the day they chose to 'renegotiate' their monopoly-protected pay scales.
*** = driving clearly best suits the majority of our life styles, where we often can't leave our jobs at a set time and, due to the prevalence of two-earner households, often run our errands after work. Need proof? Look at our freeways; they're packed. Despite the hour-long commute many of us are stuck with it's still our preferred mode of transportation - and who is government to nay say the wishes of its citizens on the matter?
> Conclusion: Want to realistically help the environment? decrease fuel consumption? improve our quality of life? Build more lanes. Anything else is detrimental wishful thinking (at best, and un-American social engineering at worst). ]
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Ad Council Uses Children in Horrific Global Warming Commercials
he non-profit organization Ad Council has not only decided to take on the most recent liberal bogeyman known as anthropogenic global warming, but do so by using young children.
In its current ads, a young girl is actually about to be hit by a train to disgracefully demonstrate that our inaction today will kill our children tomorrow. In another, kids imitate ticking clocks as they list the predicted climate change horrors of massive heat waves, severe droughts, and devastating hurricanes.
I don't know about you, but irrespective of my position on this issue, I find using children in this fashion to be indefensible and way over the line of decency.
How 'bout you?
[tell 'em (email form): http://www.adcouncil.org/contactus.aspx ]
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D.C. Anti-Union Group Offers 'Worst' Teachers $10G to Quit
A group in Washington, D.C., is asking for nominations for "The 10 Worst Teachers" in hopes that offering severance packages to poorly performing instructors will spark debate about how it is virtually impossible to fire bad teachers, MyFOXDC reports. The anti-union group The Center for
Union Facts on Tuesday launched a campaign to identify the nation's worst 10 instructors and offer them $10,000 to quit their careers.
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Monday, March 17, 2008
Heroes: Chairman Celebrates Unsung Heroes at ‘Angels of Battlefield’ Gala
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff praised the Army medics and Navy corpsmen who risk their lives on the battlefield to save others at the 2nd annual Armed Services YMCA gala here last night.
“You could see in how (the medic) talked and how they talked about him, how special he was, how much they depend on him and how confident they were they could carry out their mission because he was there,”
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Winning in Afghanistan
Another top NATO general is going on the record about our success in Afghanistan, though you are unlikely to hear about such things from the mainstream media that prefer a narrative of failure.
Last week I reported that comments from Army Gen. Dan McNeill, the U.S. commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan went nearly unreported in the US media. The General claimed that the rise in violence in Afghanistan was not an indication of Taliban resurgence but of increasing NATO aggressiveness. In short, that we are winning, albeit there are challenges ahead.
This week, Gen. Michel Gauthier, who is commander of all Canadian forces overseas, spoke out as detailed in this excellent piece from the Toronto Globe and Mail, by Graeme Smith. The General said that where his forces are concentrated, in the populated areas in and around Kandahar, there is no question that they are winning.
--
Such biased media reporting is not only hurting US national security, it is hurting the innocents in Afghanistan. It is time for President Bush to come out of hiding and take the case directly to the American people. The President must lead by letting his senior military officials speak to the people directly to dispel this "losing in Afghanistan" media myth.
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House Passes Democratic Terror Surveillance Package, Does Not Grant Immunity
The House on Friday approved a Democratic bill that would set rules for the government's eavesdropping on phone calls and e-mails inside the United States.The bill, approved as lawmakers departed for a two-week break, faces a veto threat from President Bush. The margin of House approval was 213-197, largely along party lines. Because of the promised veto, "this vote has no impact at all," said Republican Whip Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri.
[incorrect: it delays, once again, reimplementation of this authorization which is currently expired - i.e., we're currently without the abilities it previously provided while the the House is once again on vacation]
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"It doesn't matter to Democrats that these companies patriotically responded to the president's call to assist with surveillance and relied on his assurances that they would be acting legally. What matters is that trial lawyers are among the biggest contributors to the Democratic Party — the party that supposedly eschews special-interest politics. The trial bar must be paid back whenever possible, even if it means telecoms will not cooperate in the future for fear of stepping into a malicious litigation trap."
China baffles world with mystery bomber
China's H-8 stealth bomber may be more advanced than the American B-2A and capable of delivering a 350-kiloton nuclear warhead to the continental U.S. Although it's ''top secret,'' Chinese quasi-official Web sites brag that the Xian H-8 is a carbon-fiber, ''special nanotechnology''-coated, stealth, strategic, heavy bomber all rolled into one.
Oh, and it was made possible by stolen American technology.
[more likely untrue than true - but need we wait until true to recognize China's stated ambitions and prepare accordingly?]
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FBI raids house in Chinese spy case
A Defense Department analyst and a former engineer for Boeing Co. were charged Monday in separate spy cases for allegedly handing over military secrets to the Chinese government, the Justice Department said. (Snip) The arrests mark China's latest attempts to gain top secret information about U.S. military systems and sales, said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein. He described China as "particularly adept, and particularly determined and methodical in their espionage efforts."
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Iran enriching uranium twice as fast
Iran said Sunday that it had started using new centrifuges that can enrich uranium at more than twice the speed of the machines that now form the backbone of its nuclear program. The announcement confirmed reports earlier this month by diplomats with the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency that Iran was using 10 of the new IR-2 centrifuges.
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There'll be consequences - Iran
Tehran - Iran warned on Monday of ''serious consequences'' if the UN Security Council adopts fresh sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear work. ''If a resolution is passed... it will have serious and logical consequences and we will announce them later,'' Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki Mottaki (Snip) Despite a four-year probe into Tehran's atomic drive, the IAEA has so far been unable to determine whether the program is peaceful.
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The Genocidal Threat to Israel
The real nature of the ''Arab-Israeli conflict''-a genocidal assault by Arabs and other Muslims on a peace-loving democracy-was on horrific display Thursday evening when a Palestinian entered a Jerusalem yeshiva and shot to death eight young men while wounding nine others before
being shot to death himself. The nature of Gazan society was also on horrific display; that same evening Gaza's streets filled with joyous crowds of thousands.... In mosques in Gaza City and northern Gaza, many residents went to perform the prayers of thanksgiving.
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Muslim nations: Defame Islam, get sued?
DAKAR, Senegal - The Muslim world has created a battle plan to defend its religion from political cartoonists and bigots. Concerned about what they see as a rise in the defamation of Islam, leaders of the world's Muslim nations are considering taking legal action against those that slight their religion or its sacred symbols. It was a key issue during a two-day summit that ended Friday in this western Africa capital. The Muslim leaders are attempting to demand redress from nations like Denmark, which allowed the publication of cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad in 2006 and again last month.
[meanwhile, Mary splattered in feces is publicly funded 'art']
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U.S. looking into terror list for Venezuela
The Bush administration has launched a preliminary inquiry that could land Venezuela on the U.S. list of nations that support terrorism because of its alleged close links to Colombian rebels, a
senior government official has confirmed. The inquiry, by government lawyers, is the first step in a process that could see Venezuela join North Korea, Cuba, Sudan, Syria and Iran as countries designated by the State Department as supporters of terrorism.
[which it is {I don't have the procedural barnacles to deal with}]
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Our Strategic Interest in Trade with Colombia
[HT: U.S. Chamber of Commerce {via Comment to Bush-related Brief Friday}]
Five former commanders [Generals all] of the U.S. Southern Command have sent an open letter to Congress supporting the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement. The letter clearly lays out why the agreement is in our national interest...
The U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement will build upon Colombia's remarkable transformation over the past decade, which has advanced the the long-term prospects for peace, stability, and development in Central America. It is in our national interest to help Colombia progress along the road toward democratic consolidation and economic development. This trade agreement will advance U.S. security and economic interests by forging a deeper partnership.
Finally, approving this agreement will meet our duty to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Colombians as they have stood by the United States as friends and allies. For all of these reasons, we strongly urge Congress to approve the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement.
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The Triumph of OPEC
For much of its 47-year existence, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has been a cartel in name only. It could not control oil prices because many of its members regularly breached the production quotas that were intended to regulate the market. So OPEC followed oil prices up and down, as supply and demand shifted. But now OPEC may be the real deal: a cartel that works. If so, that's bad news for the rest of the world...
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AMBER WAVES OF GREEN
[meanwhile, what do we do about developing our own reserves?]
Though last year was one of the best ever for farm incomes -- up 44 percent to $87.5 billion -- farmers are about to score the most lavish subsidies in American history. ... farmers will get about $26 billion over the next five years in subsidies:
• Corn producers will get subsidies of $10.5 billion over five years, which is on top of the deal of a lifetime these farmers were handed when Congress expanded ethanol subsidies.The giveaways are so large that the House version is the first farm bill ever that would raise taxes to pay for it -- by $14 billion.
• The handouts make growing corn so profitable that last year some 15.3 million acres were converted to new corn production, according to the USDA.
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"It's easy to understand how the public, looking for cheaper gasoline, can be taken in by the call for increased ethanol usage. But politicians, corn farmers and ethanol producers know they are running a cruel hoax on the American consumer. They are in it for the money."
[available for purchase {no affiliation} HERE ].
Senate votes to sink earmarks moratorium
WASHINGTON -- Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch joined a majority of their colleagues late Thursday to vote down a one-year moratorium on earmarks. The proposed ban on any earmarks in the fiscal year 2009 budget failed on a vote of 29-71 during a late session Thursday night.
[as despicable as this arrogance is, the much sadder critique is that the 18 billion dollars in earmarks last year is virtually mice nuts in the context of a (now) 3 trillion $ budget. Washington's spending can ruin this country]
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Now Democrats propose to raise taxes?
WHEN it comes to the federal budget, there is a lot Washington can learn from American families. (Snip) Yet we have a Democratic majority in Congress seeking to enact the largest tax hike in history in an apparent monument to fiscal irresponsibility. Their proposal would raise taxes by a whopping $683 billion over the next five years. Put in perspective, this amounts to a tax hike of nearly $2,500 for the average family...
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Military Rocket Falls Off Jet, Lands At Tulsa Apartment Complex
Residents of a Tulsa apartment complex are extremely lucky to be unharmed this morning after a military rocket crashed nearby after apparently falling off a passing jet. It happened Thursday afternoon near 51st and Lewis. Police showed up after the power went out at the Canyon Creek Apartments. When they arrived, they found what appeared to be a bomb. They called out the bomb squad, who quickly identified it as a military ordnance. The military later took over the scene and said it had indeed lost a rocket...
http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0308/503781.html
Friday, March 14, 2008
Wounded Soldiers See the Pentagon In Private Parade
WASHINGTON - Cpl. Kenny Lyon's mother pushed his wheelchair down a narrow Pentagon hallway, crying as she listened to the applause. Hundreds of Defense Department employees lined the corridor, cheering for Cpl. Lyon and the other wounded military personnel who walked or rolled past. (Snip)
"I was really humbled by it because I didn't do anything special," says Cpl. Lyon, a 22-year-old Marine who lost a leg in a mortar attack near Fallujah. "I went to Iraq to do a job, and I got injured and actually couldn't do it. So why was I getting honored?"
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The West is Winning in Iraq
[HT:DH]
As the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq approaches, the United States has proved her critics wrong -- again. The U.S.-led surge in Iraq has been a remarkable success, and the fledgling democracy is no longer descending into civil war. The ballot box and the rule of law are rapidly replacing terror, fear and intimidation as the norm.
The surge campaign has demonstrated that the United States is capable today of fighting and winning a protracted counter-insurgency war against well-armed and highly trained militia groups thousands of miles away in the Middle East. The figure leading the operation, General David H. Petraeus, is a true hero -- a remarkable military commander who defied the odds to deliver results in the face of a brutal, sophisticated and multifaceted enemy. [just about the time Time magazine was proclaiming Putin man of the year]
Al-Qaeda remains though a potent threat in Iraq, and there can be no room for complacency... Ultimately, Iraq is a microcosm of a larger war the West is waging against Islamist terrorism and extremism. The battles on the streets of Iraq have a direct relevance to the national security of the United States and its allies, and to walk away from this frontline of the war against Islamist terrorism would significantly increase the terror threat to the West itself. It is a long-term conflict that must be fought to ensure the security of the free world. America’s recent success in Iraq demonstrates that this is a war that can and must be won.
['winning' isn't won - but the trends are undeniable - would we really allow defeat-by-withdrawal now? {not rhetorical; you'll literally be voting on the answer in November]
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Two Americas
One is fighting a global war; one has better things to.
Al-Qaeda and other militant Islamist groups live in a shadow world where they plot to kill you and me. If we expect our intelligence professionals to prevent them from succeeding, we must give them the tools required to get the job done.
Last week, President Bush was presented with a bill that would have prohibited the CIA from utilizing such methods even in cases involving unlawful combatants believed to have knowledge of imminent terrorist attacks. Instead, the bill would have restricted the CIA to the mild interrogation methods authorized for soldiers in the U.S. Army Field Manual — a document terrorists can access, read, and utilize for training purposes...
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Iran continues to train killers for missions in Iraq
In his press briefing yesterday, Multi-National Force Iraq spokesman Rear Adm. Greg Smith made it very clear that Iran continues to train people for terrorist operations within Iraq.
[snip]
Those detainees, Iraqis, all speak the same story. They all tell exactly the same involvement of handlers here inside of Iraq that move them into Iran specifically for training, how they were trained inside of Iran by Lebanese Hezbollah and other trainers, the training that specific they received in paramilitary activities, and that they were sent back here purposely, purposefully to support anti-coalition, anti-security, and obviously anti-peace and stability of Iraq.
That's undeniable. Again, those aren't our assertions. Those are the exact facts associated with the Iraqis themselves who have provided that information to us. And sharing that with you, I think, is the most visible way of we have describing precisely what's happening inside of Iran. And we'll continue to do that and again in the weeks to come.
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Colombia calls for Chavez charges
[HT:NF]
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe says he will ask the International Criminal Court to bring genocide charges against President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. He accused Mr Chavez of sponsoring and financing Colombian Farc rebels.
(Snip) ''Colombia proposes to denounce the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, in the International Criminal Court for sponsoring and financing genocide,'' Mr Uribe said.
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Bush calls for Colombia trade accord
The Bush administration said Wednesday it will force a congressional vote on a Colombia free trade agreement this year, in effect launching a do-or-die effort to help the closest U.S. ally in Latin America and setting up a contentious debate smack in the middle of a presidential race. President Bush cast the trade agreement in urgent national security terms for the small nation...
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Time for U.S. to reject U.N.'s anti-democratic conference
If a group of despotic governments wants to organize a global mega-conference dedicated to fueling hatred of Jews, Israel and the United States, the United Nations might not be able to stop it. But surely the U.N. would at least refuse to organize, bankroll and host such an outrage?
Think again. The U.N. has done it before, in 2001, with a gathering in South Africa known as the Durban conference. (Snip) the "Death to Israel! Death to America" discourse waxed so virulent that then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell ordered the U.S. delegation to
walk out.
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WHO'S FOOLING WHO?
The World Health Report 2000, prepared by the World Health Organization, presented performance rankings of 191 nations' health care systems. These rankings have been widely cited in public debates about health care, particularly by those interested in reforming the U.S. health care system to resemble more closely those of other countries, says Glen Whitman, an associate professor of economics at California State University, Northridge. For instance:
Those who cite the WHO rankings typically present them as an objective measure of the relative performance of national health care systems. They are not, says Whitman. The WHO rankings depend crucially on a number of underlying assumptions -- some of them logically incoherent, some characterized by substantial uncertainty, and some rooted in ideological beliefs and values that not everyone shares...
[chief among it's biases is that it subtracts major point if the system is government run, claiming free market solutions are unstable. I.e., it's a joke.]
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Even huge tumour can't secure care in Ontario
Inside Sylvia de Vries lurked an enormous tumour and fluid totalling 18 kilograms [~40 lbs.]. But not even that massive weight gain and a diagnosis of ovarian cancer could assure her timely treatment in Canada. Fighting for her life, the Windsor woman headed to the United States. In
Pontiac, Mich., a surgeon excised the tumour - 35 centimetres at its longest - along with her ovaries, appendix, fallopian tubes, uterus and cervix. In addition, 13 litres of fluid were drained during that October, 2006, operation.
And there was little time to spare: Had she waited two weeks, she would have faced potential multiorgan failure, rendering her unstable for surgery, according to a letter from Michael L. Hicks, who performed the four-hour operation at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland.
[snip]
But a devastating cancer diagnosis was only the beginning of Ms. deVries's troubles.
The Ontario Health Insurance Plan says it won't pay for the $60,000 cancer treatment because Ms. de Vries did not fill out the correct form seeking preapproval for out-of-country care...
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MASSACHUSETTS STRUGGLES
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has been boasting that his state's health reform initiative has reduced the number of uninsured by half, with nearly 300,000 more people added to the health insurance rolls. What he doesn't say is that four out of five of them are relying on taxpayer subsidies:
-- Only 63,000 -- or about one in five -- have purchased private insurance, and the majority of them pay no premiums - the rest pay tokens.Meanwhile, the costs:
- Massachusetts now estimates that its spending on the new program for the uninsured may exceed its budget by nearly $150 million.
- Individuals who don't get insurance this year -- or don't get an exemption -- will face a fine of $912, four times last year's penalty and scheduled to increase each year.
- The state "negotiated" with the health insurers participating in the Commonwealth Connector to keep premium increases to about 5 percent this year. [i.e., price controls]
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WHO WILL PAY THE BILL?
In 2009, when the next president takes office, the government is expected to spend $400 billion more than it takes in, adding to a national debt that tops $9 trillion. Yet Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both offer a long list of new spending proposals - $287 billion for Obama and $218 billion for Clinton. But what is more unclear is how they would pay for them.
To make matters worse, any tax increases and military reductions might be needed just to cover the government's existing shortfalls caused principally by rising health care costs and the pending baby boomer retirement...
[not to worry, they'll just repeal the Bush tax cuts and that will pay for everything. When are we going to learn: it's the spending.]
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Senate Signals Repeal of Bush Tax Cuts
[aren't I prophetic...]
The Senate on Thursday gave a sweeping endorsement to some of President Bush's tax cuts but rejected renewing others as all three major presidential candidates interrupted their campaigns to cast key votes on the budget. The chamber voted 52-47 to reject a move by Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., to extend Bush's tax cuts for middle- and higher-income taxpayers, investors and people inheriting businesses and big estates.
Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain, Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting, voted for the full roster of Bush tax cuts. Rivals Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., both voted against them.
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Green movement also behind gas hike
[HT:HS]
USA Today recently reported that 40 percent of economists say the biggest threat of a recession is from rising oil prices. I don't believe it. There is no way 40 percent of economists could agree on anything. But I do believe 40 percent of $3.50 gas is caused by eco-stupidity.
But what if we had our own Iraq-sized supply that we haven't even touched yet?
We do. According to the U.S. Geological Survey we have at least 112 billion barrels of undrilled oil - by comparison, Iraq has 115 billion barrels and Venezuela 80 billion. According to the and American Petroleum Institute that's;
"enough to produce gasoline for 60 million cars and fuel oil for 25 million homes for 60 years."READ MORE
Film's casting call wants that 'inbred' look
A movie about to be filmed in Pittsburgh is casting Gothic characters -- including an albino-like girl and deformed people -- to depict West Virginia mountain people. "'Regular-looking" children need not apply. That's the gist of an open casting call for paid extras for "Shelter," a horror film starring Julianne Moore that will begin shooting in Pittsburgh in March. (Snip) Belajac said the announcement was not meant to stereotype people from West Virginia. But state officials and a history professor called it "unfortunate"...
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/mostread/s_554266.html
Thursday, March 13, 2008
KISSING OFF CANADA
What country has the world's largest oil reserves? Saudi Arabia? Iran? Nigeria? Venezuela? Wrong on all counts. The answer is Canada. And our neighbor to the north is worried we don't want it, says Investor's Business Daily (IBD).
* Canada has an estimated 1.6 trillion barrels of oil on its territory, much of it locked in tough-to-excavate tar sands in the province of Alberta.
* By comparison, oil-rich Saudi Arabia has an estimated 270 billion barrels left.
Yet, according to the Financial Times of London, Canada's government recently sent U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates a letter of warning that it might not be able to sell the United States any of its oil, which the Pentagon desperately needs for national defense. For that,
you can thank the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, passed by our 'new' Congress:
* Under Section 526 of that law, tar sands are considered to be an alternative fuel.
* But the law requires oil sold to the U.S. government and produced from alternative sources to emit fewer greenhouse gases than oil produced from conventional crude sources.
"Classifying the oil sands as a nonconventional fuel," said Tristan Landry, a spokesman for Canada's Embassy in Washington, "would unnecessarily complicate the integrated Canada-U.S. energy relationship."[Translation: they pooched it. Brilliant]
READ MORE
Forget oil, the new global crisis is food
A new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen. The credit crunch and the reverberations of soaring oil prices around the world will pale in comparison to what is about to transpire, Donald Coxe, global portfolio strategist at BMO Financial Group said at the Empire Club's 14th annual investment outlook in Toronto on Thursday.
"The greatest challenge to the world is not US$100 oil; it's getting enough food so that the new middle class can eat the way our middle class does, and that means we've got to expand food output dramatically,"At the centre of the imminent food catastrophe is corn - the main staple of the ethanol industry. The price of corn has risen about 44% over the past 15 months, closing at US$4.66 a bushel on the CBOT yesterday. This not only impacts the price of food products made using grains, but also the price of meat, with feed prices for livestock also increasing.
"You're going to have real problems in countries that are food short, because we're already getting embargoes on food exports from countries, who were trying desperately to sell their stuff before, but now they're embargoing exports," he said, citing Russia and India as examples.
Mr. Coxe warned U.S. corn exports were in danger of seizing up in about three years if the country continues to subsidize ethanol production. Biofuels are expected to eat up about a third of America's grain harvest in 2007.
[bad science leading to bad policy leads to bad consequences - who'd of thunk]
READ MORE
SOME GOOD NEWS
By most measures, now seems to be a very good time to be alive, says Pete Geddes, executive Vice President of the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment. [that's some title] Consider:
- The world's per capita inflation-adjusted income rose from $5,400 in 1980 to $8,500 in 2005.
- The World Bank reports that between 1980 and 2000, the share of the world's population living on less than $1 a day fell from 34.8 percent to 19 percent.
- It forecasts that the number of people living on less than $1 a day will continue to fall sharply despite population growth, and account for only 10 percent of the world's population by 2015.
- Environmental improvement in the United States has been substantial and dramatic almost across the board
- The chief drivers of this improvement are economic growth, constantly increasing resource efficiency and innovation in technology.
READ MORE
NO AMNESTY IN ARIZONA
Arizona is seeing signs of a flight by illegal immigrants out of the state and back across the border. Local reformers credit the state's recent crackdown on employers - Consider:
- The new state law punishes employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants by suspending their business license for 10 days on the first violation and revoking it for a second offense.
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection has given arrest authority to many deputies; so in the course of a traffic stop, illegal aliens without driver's licenses for the first time now stand a real chance of being deported.
- The consulate is reporting an "unusual" 400 percent increase in parents applying for Mexican birth certificates for their anchor babies and other documents they need to return to Mexico.
- Overall, some 30,000 illegal immigrants plan to leave Arizona as the state's tough new immigration laws kick in, according to a survey conducted earlier this month by Chicanos Por La Causa.
[as has repeatedly been shown to be the case - the same better-deal thinking that brought them here will lead to their 'immigration' - south]
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Teens losing touch with historical references
Big Brother. McCarthyism. The patience of Job. Don't count on your typical teenager to nod knowingly the next time you drop a reference to any of these. A study out today finds that about half of 17-year-olds can't identify the books or historical events associated with them. (Snip) Among 1,200 students surveyed: •43% knew the Civil War was fought between 1850 and 1900. •52% could identify the theme of 1984. •51% knew that the controversy surrounding Sen. Joseph McCarthy focused on communism.
[that's half the problem - then there's what they are taught. We need universal school vouchers]
READ MORE
College Students Could Benefit From Right History Books
An earlier survey of college seniors at 50 top colleges conducted by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni found that more than half didn't know that George Washington was the commanding general of the Continental Army during the American Revolution who accepted
Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown. Some 36 percent thought it wasUlysses S. Grant, and 6 percent said it was Douglas MacArthur.
And another just-released survey found that a significant proportion of U.S. teenagers live in "stunning ignorance" of history and literature. That survey was conducted by a new research organization called Common Core. Students were asked 60 questions to test their knowledge of U.S. history and government. In general, the better a college ranked on the widely publicized U.S. News & World Report list, the lower it ranked on civic learning...
READ MORE
Journalists Issue Guidelines That Downplay Islam in Terrorism
The Society of Professional Journalists has issued “diversity guidelines,” which are now posted online. No longer confined to the quaint idea of impartially reporting the news, the media are advised to change opinions, engage in public relations and "demystify" Islam and even ask "targeted communities" to "review" coverage and "make suggestions."
— Cover the victims of harassment, murder and other hate crimes as thoroughly as you cover the victims of overt terrorist attacks.
— When writing about terrorism, remember to include white supremacist, radical anti-abortionists and other groups with a history of such activity.
— Avoid using word combinations such as "Islamic terrorist" or "Muslim extremist". Alternate choices, depending on context, include "Al Qaeda terrorists" or "political Islamists." [?]
— Avoid using terms such as "jihad". The basic meaning of "jihad" is to exert oneself for the good of Islam and to better oneself.
— Ask men and women from within targeted [?] communities to review your coverage and make suggestions.
Asking "targeted communities" to "make suggestions" about terrorism coverage is extremely worrisome and will affect media impartiality and independence. Don't journalism schools teach independent evaluation of stories? Some of what the SPJ advocates is sensible. All Muslims are not terrorists. However, it ridiculous to claim that it is unimportant that a man recited passages from the Koran before breaking into an airplane cockpit.
This pattern of downplaying inconvenient story lines is one reason why almost 70% of Americans believe the traditional media are out of touch. The media are too busy trying to help America “understand” The New Truth to realize their audience no longer thinks they are reliable.
READ MORE
California's sweeping budget cuts draw fire
California
[as anticipated, the 'firehouse ploy' in action...]
Mr Schwarzenegger has caused a public outcry with a series of measures aimed at curbing spending. The radical [?] proposals include cutting the state's education budget, closing some of its most popular parks and releasing some prison inmates early.
Some reports have suggested that the highly emotive cuts proposed by the governor are part of a calculated plan to ready the ground for tax increases.
However, an increase in taxes would only make matters worse. "The governor has wisely avoided piling new taxes on Californians at a time when a record number of people are losing their homes," says Teresa Casazza, acting president of the California Taxpayers' Association.
READ MORE
Intruder slain by resident, police say
A man was shot and killed by a homeowner Thursday night after police said he and two others broke into a South Side home. The home invasion occurred in the 5800 block of Sanderling Drive in Littletown around 9 p.m when the three men forced their way into a residence where a 29-year-old man and his daughter, 2, were inside (Snip) The homeowner was shot once in the arm by one of the intruders, and he returned fire, killing one...
[and had he not been armed?]
READ MORE
John Stossel, Award-Winning News Correspondent and Co-Anchor of ABC News '20/20', On Calls for Gun Control:
"The usual suspects keep calling for more gun control laws. But this idea that gun control is crime control is just a myth. The National Academy of Sciences reviewed dozens of studies and could not find a single gun regulation that clearly led to reduced violent crime or murder. When Washington, D.C., passed its tough handgun ban years ago, gun violence rose.Source
"The press ignores the fact that often guns save lives."
Why Is President Bush Attempting to Fund The Dangerous Law of the Sea Treaty?
In his fiscal year 2009 budget proposal, President Bush solicits some $5 million of American taxpayers' hard-earned dollars on behalf of the infamous United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, more commonly known as the "Law of the Sea Treaty," or "LOST." Indeed, few words could better characterize this pernicious accord better than "lost
For those unfamiliar, LOST is the proposed international agreement, rejected by President Reagan, that seeks to create an international legal tribunal governing the oceans and their resources. Just what America needs - another unaccountable multinational court to undermine its interests and further erode its sovereignty. Like the United Nations itself, such a tribunal would constitute a forum in which anti-American tyrants and kleptocrats could sue the United States and place the world's unclaimed oceanic resources under its authority. This body would take unto itself the authority to 'allocate' nations' ability to navigate the seas.
The Bush Administration's effort to endow this atrocious treaty with American dollars is perplexing and alarming. Because the United States is not a member of this agreement, it is under no obligation whatsoever to fund it or submit to its destructive terms. By choosing to finance it, however, President Bush sends a signal that America should somehow accept its obligations and ratify it formally.
In response, the Senate should rightfully resist the Bush Administration's not-so-clever attempt to circumvent its Constitutional advice and consent responsibilities, and refuse to provide the requested funds.
[worst of all: it would finally give the UN the (major) power to tax nations, thereby removing that pesky business of being beholden to its members for funding. This thing is an overt assault on the sovereignty of the US and its navy - it needs be defeated...]
READ MOREPresident Bush: 202-456-1111 , Comments@whitehouse.gov + president@whitehouse.govBarbara Boxer = 415-403-0100 (SF),202-224-3553 9DC) + http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfmDianne Feinstein = 415-393-0707(SF) + 202-224-3841(DC) + http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMeAny other Senator's contact information = http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Reuters Lines Up Iraqis Who Hate Bush, Pine for President Hillary
The Reuters wire service has scoured the countryside of Iraq for opinions about who should be elected to the U.S. presidency. Apparently, either Iraq or the Reuters template offered only two options: (a) "change" from the hasty and stubborn Bush team, or (b) and apathy over how America will never change from its ruinous policy. But isn't there anyone in Iraq who is grateful for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, or grateful for the American commitment to stay and help build a civil society? Reuters interviewers couldn't seem to find a one. Reporter Aseel Kami began by underlining the need for change:
Iraqis are avidly watching the 2008 U.S. election race, searching for signs of policy change under a new president and prospects for U.S. troop withdrawals from their country.The story reads like a lineup of Iraqis voting rhetorically for Democrats...
"I do not care if the president is a man or a woman, what really matters is the change of American policy towards Iraq," said Muhenad Sahib, a university professor from the southern oil hub of Basra, Iraq's second largest city.
[This is despicable. I've been 'harvesting' half a dozen Iraq stories a day (to forward one or two) for years now, and I can tell you from those living there that the overwhelming majority of Iraqis are worried about just the opposite: our leaving too early, and essentially throwing them to the wolves. Leaving the American people with the impression that the majority of Iraqis want us out runs the real risk of becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy - and risks potentially millions of Iraqi lives. Then what? Reuters apologizes {if that}? Dangerous irresponsibility and truly despicable.]
READ MORE
Iraqi cannot understand why we discuss leaving Iraq
NOT LONG AGO, I finally succeeded in arranging for my Iraqi cultural adviser to move to the safety of the United States. My adviser -- whom I'll call by his tribal name, al-Dulaimi -- helped me navigate the thickets of local culture and politics when I served in Iraq during the first year of the war.
As we drove from the airport down an Oklahoma highway in the darkness, Dulaimi told me that he'd watched the Democratic presidential debates while waiting for his flight out west.
"They all talked about leaving Iraq," he said of the candidates. "They're just saying that to get votes, aren't they? They would never do that, would they?"His plaintive question gave me pause. Of course, Dulaimi wouldn't understand American politics, or the way some Americans would view this war. After all, he had known American soldiers who were selfless and dedicated. Who cherished Army values. Who had committed their lives to each other and this cause.
So it would seem impossible to Dulaimi that the United States might give up. The Americans he knew, the ones he had risked his life (and the lives of his family members) to support, would never "cut and run."
[snip]
When I turned to answer Dulaimi's question about the heart of America, I didn't duck the obvious. Yes, we could pull out of Iraq. As bizarre as it sounds to anyone who has given a piece of themselves to this effort, retreat is possible. However, it is unnecessary...
READ MORE
Face of Defense: Soldier Makes Positive Impact in Iraqi Community
BAGHDAD – Making a visible, positive impact during a tour in Iraq is something to which every deployed servicemember aspires. For an Army staff sergeant deployed to Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, the quest to make his impact took him to Iraqi neighborhoods and schools.
[snip]
“Every time we come back, I love each and every one of those kids,” Dietzman, the Rough Riders first sergeant, said. “I have a blast with them.”[snip]
Escuza and Dietzman are planning more trips to the school to deliver supplies and see what else is needed. They rely mostly on supplies sent from the United States, they said.
READ MORE
Al-Qaeda Commander in Northern Iraq: We Are in Dire Straits
On February 12, 2008, the Qatari daily Al-'Arab published an interview with Al-Qaeda commander in northern Iraq Abu-Turab Al-Jaza'iri. The interview, at an Al-Qaeda hideout in northern Iraq, was conducted according to Al-Qaeda's stipulations - including no disclosure of the region where it took place and no communications or recording equipment of any kind brought to the site. The following are excerpts from the interview: [1]
We Have Been Forced to Withdraw from Several Cities
"It is true that we have lost several cities and have been forced to withdraw from others, after a large number of [Sunni] tribal leaders betrayed Islam and when their tribe members joined forces against us. However, we are still fighting, and the 'paralysis' mentioned by the Crusaders is true only for some of the regions. [Besides,] it is common knowledge that any war always involves advance and retreat, so that [even] in those regions I wouldn't call our position 'paralysis,' but rather 'the [changing] conditions of the war.'"
Al-Jaza'iri added: "…I do not want to paint a false picture: Our position is very difficult, but we are fighting, and will continue to do so…"
READ MORE
Can Germany muster the courage to commit to fighting in southern Afghanistan?
Munich - When someone asks Hans-Ulrich Klose if he is the only member among the Bundestag's 614 parliamentarians willing to openly call for a move by German troops into the fighting and dying of Afghanistan's south, he provides this gracious sidestep: ''We are six who believe things must change.'' But the others remain in the closet, right? Right, Klose answers. (Snip) the idea persists that Germany can go on providing materiel and a kind of uniformed alternative service at a noncombatant's distance from the battlefield.
[translation: 'no']
READ MORE
How to commit national suicide
And I thought Berkeley was bad. The UK goes one step beyond.
The Queen was deeply concerned to learn that RAF servicemen and women had been banned from wearing their uniforms in Cambridgeshire after months of verbal abuse in the streets, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
As head of the Armed Forces, the Queen backed the Prime Minister's decision yesterday to speak out against RAF Wittering for ordering its personnel to keep a low profile in Peterborough.
Gordon Brown insisted that members of the Armed Forces should wear their uniforms with pride in public.
Buckingham Palace would not comment publicly, but one source said: "Naturally the Queen was concerned to hear about the uniforms.
"Her two sons were in the Forces and so are two of her grandsons. It is very sad."
READ MORE
Canada expected to back out of UN racism conference
UNITED NATIONS -- Canada is poised to become the first country to significantly distance itself from a major anti-racism conference the United Nations is planning. Insiders say the government feels the new conference is shaping up to be like the anti-West and anti-Israel free-for-all that critics said the initial gathering quickly turned into.
"At the moment, much of the planning for the conference suggests it will focus little on denouncing racism wherever it occurs, and a lot on advancing some countries' agendas against Israel and the West," said one insider familiar with the new policy. "The government feels that taking a stand against the gathering will do more in the long run for combating racism than joining in."
Arab- and Muslim-led verbal attacks on Israel at the 2001 conference were so dominant the United States and Israel walked out in protest. Canada, then under a Liberal administration, stayed, but its senior delegate told the assembly it did so "only ... to ... decry the attempts ... to de-legitimize the State of Israel and to dishonor the history and suffering of the Jewish people."
The UN gave planning oversight to its Human Rights Council, which since its launch less than two years ago has targeted Israel in 14 of its 15 resolutions charging human rights violations. States sitting on the Council then placed Iran, which has called for Israel's destruction, on an executive planning committee. Libya is the chair.
"Make no mistake, Durban II is on track to be even worse than Durban I," said Anne Bayefsky, a Canadian academic who edits the New York-based monitoring Web site EyeontheUN.org. "Canada, if it drops out, would be exhibiting moral clarity and courage after making the mistake at Durban I of staying despite serious reservations."
Canada was among 41 countries that last month opposed allocating US$6.8-million in UN funding to help pay for preparatory meetings for Durban II. The measure carried in the 192-member General Assembly.
"No one can stop Durban II because countries that are classified as less than democratic hold a majority in the General Assembly, and they are for it,"
["because countries that are classified as less than democratic hold a majority in the "general assembly" - where they exercise what they don't grant others, to our perpetual detriment. The organization has morphed into a gaming mechanism for despots - which we finance - it needs to go (or we from it)]
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Female Muslim medics 'disobey hygiene rules'
Muslim medical students are refusing to obey hygiene rules brought in to stop the spread of deadly superbugs, because they say it is against their religion. Women training in several hospitals in England have raised objections to removing their arm coverings in theatre and to rolling up their sleeves when washing their hands, because it is regarded as immodest in Islam.
[if we let government run our healthcare, it will become subject to any & all the political correctness that infests every other facet of government]
READ MORE
Islam's Animal Gulag
...there are ten things that are essentially unclean for Shi'ite
Muslims. These are urine, feces, semen, dead bodies, blood, pigs,
alcoholic liquors, the sweat of an animal that habitually eats unclean
things, unbelievers, and - dogs.
Thus a man who walks his dog in a public place, where people might come
in contact with it, is liable to render them unclean. That's why the
Iranian authorities have come down so hard on this man: he is
compromising the ritual purity of the populace...
[WHAT?!! -more seriously, how long will it be before dog owners face
restrictions in the name of tolerance of Islam? Silly? Read preceding piece...]
READ MORE
THE WAGES OF HILLARYCARE
Hillary Clinton's "individual mandate" for health care, is being exposed for its inevitable government coercion. Under HillaryCare II, everyone would be required to buy health insurance, along with more insurance regulation, a government insurance option for everyone and tax hikes. HillaryCare II isn't about "choice,
"but would require financial penalties for people to comply, including garnishing wages. To put it more accurately, the individual mandate is really a government mandate that requires brute force plus huge subsidies to get anywhere near its goal of universal coverage."
Consider: Mitt Romney's mandate program in Massachusetts is already expected to reach $1.35 billion in annual costs by 2011, up from $158 million today. And that's with only half of the previously uninsured currently enrolled.
Most experts calculate that a national mandate with subsidies like Clinton's would enroll about half to two-thirds of the uninsured - but such guesswork is pointless without the basic enforcement assumptions, which Clinton refuses to provide.
The political lesson that Clinton learned in 1994 wasn't about compromise or market forces. It was that a government health-care takeover can only be achieved gradually and by stealth. Her individual mandate is an attempt to force everyone to buy into a highly regulated and price-controlled system where government redistributes income and dictates coverage.
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Economists See US Avoiding Recession
The U.S. economy will suffer as the slumping housing market eats away at job creation and consumer spending, but the nation should avoid slipping into a recession this year, according to a new economic report. A recession could still happen though, if the credit crisis that has stifled the housing market deepens, preventing consumers from buying big-ticket items (Snip) The forecast anticipates job growth remaining sluggish in 2008, with the U.S. unemployment rate rising to
5.5 percent by the end of the year
[who knows - point: no one really]
READ MORE
Depression Coverage
Economists "don't even agree that we're in a recession yet," Gainor said. "But then if you watch the network news shows, we're already up to eight times this year - that's once a week where they've made a comparison to the Great Depression."
Gainor was referring to new research from the Business & Media Institute showing the media's tendency to compare current economic conditions to the Great Depression. Network news shows have made the comparison eight times in 2008, and made the comparison 18 times in 2007.
"[P]art of the problem is [they don't] put it in context," Gainor said of the media's coverage of potentially negative economic news. "And when you don't put it in context you forget - yes, housing is down, nobody is saying that it's not gloomy right now, but then put it context and say we had several record years before this."
The incessant focus on "recession" and now "depression" poses the threat of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy - and that's according to journalists, Gainor explained. "I got an e-mail today from the Poynter Institute, one of the foremost journalistic authorities in the country," he said. "They're warning also about how the media may be over-hyping recession so much that they're making this basically a fait accompli."
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Moses was high on drugs: Israeli researcher
Jerusalem - High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week. Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.
[now a cynical person might quip that that explained a lot]
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gEOpkeLopJixolK1-9AQ_zNeWe5g
