[meanwhile, in America...]
A conservation group gave notice Tuesday that it will sue to force federal action on a petition to list the Pacific walrus as a threatened species because of threats from global warming and offshore petroleum development. The deadline was May 8 for an initial 90-day review of the petition by the U.S. Department of the Interior, according to Center for Biological Diversity attorney Brendan Cummings.
[yes, these are the polar bear people, who have already stated that they intend to go right down the list of any & all potentially effected species with the goal of stopping all energy resource retrieval. The country does indeed need 'change']
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Thursday, May 29, 2008
Group will sue to list walrus as threatened
Americans Get The Judiciary We Pay For
We have Alexander Hamilton's assurances, from Federalist 78, that the judiciary is "the least dangerous" branch of government. Having "neither force nor will, but merely judgment," it "has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever."
Few passages from the Federalist seem as anachronistic today. Almost all social controversies seem to lead to the judiciary, and often up to the Supreme Court. So Roberts' report on the condition of the judiciary should interest a country selecting its next president, who, if he or she serves two terms, will fill about half the 875 seats on the federal bench. Now more than ever, but probably less today than tomorrow, the judicial branch is central to governance...
[the country needs 'change' indeed]
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Texas town's immigrant-renting rule is struck down
A Dallas suburb's ban on apartment rentals to illegal immigrants, an ordinance passed by city leaders and later endorsed in a vote by its residents, is unconstitutional, a federal judge found Wednesday.
Only the federal government can regulate immigration, U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay concluded in his decision.
The city didn't defer to the federal government on the matter, violating the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which allows for the federal government to pre-empt local laws, Lindsay said.
[ok, ignoring the abysmal job the feds are doing, there's some logic there. So, what will be done about the 'sanctuary cities' violating the supremacy clause in the other direction?]
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Man jailed after daughter fails exam
A father who was ordered by a judge to keep a close eye on his daughter's education has been jailed for six months after she failed a maths exam. Brian Gegner, of Fairfield, Ohio, was sentenced to 180 days in prison for "contributing to the delinquency of a minor". His daughter, Brittany, now 18, had a history of school truancy and a judge warned her father to make sure she passed her General Educational Development tests.
[sounds like a lousy father, but is this right? Are we ceeding to the state the right to subsume parentship based on arbitrary criteria? in attempting to prevent all harm of bad parents we're turning the government into ours]
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good news
Retirement-Fund Suits Allowed by U.S. Supreme Court
Participants in 401(k) and other retirement plans can file lawsuits claiming their individual accounts were mishandled, the U.S. Supreme Court said in a decision that bolsters the legal rights of 70 million people.
The court today unanimously allowed a suit by a man who says he lost almost $100,000 because his employer didn't make investment changes he requested. The court rejected business contentions that participants can sue only to enforce the rights of the entire plan, not to recover losses incurred by a single account.
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lite
Bloggers 'Nitwits Who Think They're Part of the News Media'
You pathetic little people of the blogosphere. You're nothing more than "nitwits at home with [your] computers" who've deluded yourselves into imagining you're "part of the news media." Just ask Mike Barnicle. The former Boston Globe columnist broke the tough truth to us on today's Morning Joe. WaPo editorial writer Jonathan Capehart was "so glad" to agree.
[typical: the 'professional' journo begins his piece with a blatant error: find a blogger that would claim any association with the media. they're really having trouble coping with the loss of their monopoly. aren't there 12-step programs for that kind of thing?]
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Wednesday, May 28, 2008
NASA Hits Mars Bullseye
In a jaw dropping feat of engineering and technical wizardry, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander touched down on the surface of the Red Planet at 7:53 EDT last night after a journey of 9 months and more than 440 million miles:
The accuracy of landing exactly where they expected and wanted to is unreal. It was explained as firing an arrow from the pitchers mound at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles and hitting home plate at Wrigley Field in Chicago. But the course was so accurate that the scientists didn't need to make a last course correction that was scheduled for yesterday morning.
I wrote a background piece on the mission here.
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'Terror On Wane,' 'Al-Qaida On Run' And Other Headlines You Won't See
From the deserts of Iraq to the villages of Spain to the jungles of Colombia, these victories against terrorist groups are all linked. They are the result of using proven tactics, holding together resolutely, cooperating with other nations to share and deliver intelligence, and forming united fronts. When this happens, terrorists cannot flourish. Recent successes show that these wars are winnable.
They are winning against all odds, overcoming not just terrorists, but other obstacles such as a lumbering Pentagon bureaucracy and weak-kneed Western intelligentsia whose media toadies trump every military error and harp on every isolated bad deed.
Now proven wrong, these same critics retaliate by ignoring what is a very big story...
[Recommended > ]
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How Defense Research Is Making Troops More Effective in Wartime
When Army patrol leaders in Iraq prepare to go out on missions in Baghdad, their last stop at headquarters is a computerized map on which they outline the area where they will operate. Then they watch as icons emerge, showing, in grim detail, the lurking dangers. By clicking on those, they can bring up not only sites of past hostile action but also photos and background on local leaders -- some to see and others to avoid -- videos of hostile and safe places, and reports from previous patrols..
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The Rebellion Within: An Al Qaeda mastermind questions terrorism
Enormous consequences in store as the idea of renunciation of terrorism takes hold.
... Fadl’s fax confirmed rumors that imprisoned leaders of Al Jihad were part of a trend in which former terrorists renounced violence. His defection posed a terrible threat to the radical Islamists, because he directly challenged their authority. “There is a form of obedience that is greater than the obedience accorded to any leader, namely, obedience to God and His Messenger,” Fadl wrote, claiming that hundreds of Egyptian jihadists from various factions had endorsed his position. [snip]
Although the debate between Fadl and Zawahiri was esoteric and bitterly personal, its ramifications for the West were potentially enormous. Other Islamist organizations had gone through violent phases before deciding that such actions led to a dead end. Was this happening to Al Jihad? Could it happen even to Al Qaeda?
[again: contrary to media know-nothings, time is not on the side of extremists - provided they don't acquire WMD...]
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One Step Closer . . .
Since Iran’s nuclear program was exposed in August 2002, Tehran has protested its innocence and claimed its nuclear program has only civilian purposes. The IAEA has just produced its latest report and it is not expressing confidence in Iran’s version of the facts. The IAEA pressing Iran on a number of findings about clandestine military activities–a diagram for an underground testing arrangement, the testing of explosive bridgewire detonators normally used for nuclear weapons, and documents about modifying the Iranian Shahab-3 missile...
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Europe Shall Bleed, Once Again
Civilized peoples’ idea of the “other” is the exact opposite of that of Muslims. All over Europe, for one, people have been singing the praises of multiculturalism; the idea that everybody should bend over backwards to accommodate the different in society. However, the different in this case are the hordes of invasive Muslims, with their rigid medieval ideas about every aspect of private and public life.
Me and my brother against my cousin; me, my brother, and my cousin against the other. This is an old Muslim saying and Muslims live by this motto. To be sure the people of the "religion of peace" find the world full of “other,” to oppress and kill, both within as well as without the Islamic Ummah.
To [fundamentalist] Muslims, anyone who doesn’t toe the line of Islam, as each sect defines it, is the “other” and fair game as kafir (blasphemous; unbeliever in Allah). The “other” covers a broad spectrum: the six billion or so people of the world who are not Muslims, including the Jews and Christians who are considered Dhimmis. Every one of the numerous sects and sub-sects of Islam consider every other sect and sub-sect as “other” to be punished and even eliminated... [snip]
Here are some of the statistics:
Marseilles – 25% (200,000 of 800,000)
Malmö - ~25% (67,000 of 270,000
Amsterdam – 24% (180,000 of 750,000)
Stockholm – 20% (>155,000 of 771,038)
Brussels - ~20% (some say 33%)
Moscow - 16-20% (2 million of 10-12 million)
London – 17% (1.3 million of 7.5 million)
Luton - 14.6% (26,963)
Birmingham 14.3% (139,771)
The Hague - 14.2% (67,896 of 475,580)
Utrecht - 13.2% (38,300 of 289,000)
Rotterdam – 13% (80,000 of 600,000)
Copenhagen - 12.6% (63,000 of 500,000)
Leicester – 11% (>30,000 of 280,000)
Aarhus - ~10%
Zaan district (Netherlands) - 8.8 percent
Paris - 7.38% (155,000 of 2.1 million)
Antwerp- 6.7% (>30,000 of >450,000)
Hamburg - 6.4% (>110,000 of 1.73 million)
Berlin - 5.9% (~200,000 of 3.40 million)
In the West, an unholy coalition of mentally-deranged suicidal-liberals; together with self-selling Islamic apologists; are doing their level best to assist the Islamists in the destruction of the existing order of freedom and liberty. [snip] Many affluent Europeans who see the handwriting on the wall are packing and moving to North America, Australia, and other seemingly safe lands...
[this is the perennial blindness of the West - Recommended > ]
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Tutu asks Hamas to halt rocket fire
Gaza City - Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu urged a senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip overnight to put an end to rocket attacks by militant groups against Israel. Archbishop Tutu, who leads a UN fact-finding mission to Hamas-run Gaza, also said he was moved to tears by the ''unacceptable'' situation in the Palestinian territory that is under a tight Israeli blockade[?]. (Snip) The former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town was in Gaza on a UN fact-finding mission into the killing of 19 Palestinian civilians in a 2006 Israeli artillery attack.
[ 'asks' Hamas to stop the daily firing of rockets at civilians? -- Correction: Israel isn't blockading Gaza, but defending it's own borders from suicide TRUCKS loaded with TONS of explosives; Gaza is free to import all the assistance it chooses from Egypt -- if their fellow Arabs chose to help them, but they decline: there wouldn't be a "unacceptable situation" for the UN to complain about if the vast, rich, Arab nations pooled resources to help their 'brothers'. Q: when is there going to be a UN 'fact finding mission' into Palestinians' daily assault on Israel? UNsalvagable - worse than useless - this is how the situation has festered for over 70 years...]
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UN’s IPCC preying on people’s ignorance
In previous parts of this series (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), I identified the deliberate process by which climate science was hijacked to establish a political agenda of undermining developed industrialized nations.
Maurice Strong and then others used UN agencies to control the science and the politics by proving the byproduct of those nation’s industries, specifically CO2, was causing catastrophic global warming and climate change. The urgent need throughout was not to understand climate but to find a clear human signal in the scientific data.
While the political and propaganda campaigns were successful, the science continued to prove defiant. But that wasn’t a concern for the cabal functioning through the IPCC because they knew the public didn’t understand the science. Now the exploitation of lack of knowledge could proceed...
[ DAVE T.: you wanted a 'concise-comprehensive' (cute) primer on global warming, this serves nicely in total (i.e., other 7 parts linked at bottom of article cover the full gambit of the issue. Recommended > ]
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Putin Cuts Taxes To Boost Oil Industry
Russia’s government took its first steps on Monday towards $4bn of tax cuts to boost investment in the oil industry. Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, told a cabinet session the proposed cuts to the mineral extraction tax would be fast-tracked for parliamentary review this week in order to increase oil production and boost refining. [snip]
Industry executives have blamed Russia’s tax regime for putting the brakes on investment just as fields in western Siberia start to peter out and additional funds are needed to tap more remote regions.
Mr Weafer said a second phase of tax cuts toadjust for inflation and the rouble’s appreciation was in the pipeline and could free up as much as $20bn for the industry, while a further $5bn to $10bn could come from changes to export tariffs.
Analysts said the further cuts were being discussed by the government and the oil lobby and could be forwarded to parliament in late June, in time to amend next year’s budget.
With oil prices at record levels of up to $130, Russia’s government could afford to give money back to the oil industry, Mr Weafer said. An average oil price of $110 per barrel this year would, he estimated, give the government $60bn to $70bn more than the revenues it was currently projecting.
[everyone the world over - but us]
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DANGEROUS TRADE GAMES
By killing "fast track" procedures that guarantee a yes-or-no vote on trade agreements within 90 days, Democratic lawmakers in Washington have destroyed the credibility of the United States as a reliable trading partner, says C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. [snip]
• The United States has been effectively removed from any significant international trade negotiations for the foreseeable future.Peterson Institute studies show that the U.S. economy is $1 trillion per year richer as a result of trade liberalization, and that America would gain another $500 billion per year if the world could move to totally free trade.
• Current and former chief trade officials of three of the world's largest trading entities have indicated that, since the House action, the U.S. has lost all credibility.
The European Union, and the large and dynamic economies of Asia, will now strike trade compacts among themselves that discriminate against America rather than attempt deals with her. The United States will lose billions of dollars worth of exports and the associated high-paying jobs -- just at a time when improvements in our trade balance, fortified by continuing growth abroad and a highly competitive dollar, are cushioning our slowdown.
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'Sharing' Social Security Numbers w/ 'Undocumented Workers'
Identity theft, defrauding the federal government, and illegal immigration are serious criminal matters.
But if you're the Web editor for MSNBC.com, stolen Social Security numbers are merely "shared" with "undocumented workers" stuck in a web of "federal employment laws."
From the subheadline for the front page tease to the May 27 edition of "Red Tape Chronicles" (see screencap above at right):
Millions of Americans find themselves sharing Social Security identies with others, mostly undocumented workers looking to get around federal employment laws.Of course, you're lucky if just one person is "sharing" your Social Security Number (SSN). MSNBC.com blogger Bob Sullivan noted one Chicago woman who had 37 other people fraudulently claiming her number. Yet at no point in his 33-paragraph post did Sullivan describe the claiming of other people's SSNs as "fraud." What's more [you knew it was coming], Sullivan turned to an "immigration rights advocate" who painted the illegal immigrant fraudsters themselves as victims: [...]
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All Wet: P.C. in the heartland.
It’s springtime, and political correctness is blooming in Iowa. It takes the form of new Core Curriculum “standards” proposed by the Iowa Department of Education which misinform and manipulate kids. Standard course requirements for schools are not intrinsically bad... (Snip) A more egregious example is Application B on the same page, which instructs students to use what they’ve been taught “and other research, [to] write a letter to your legislator arguing against the sale of DDT to Third World countries when it is banned in the U.S.”
[not arguing the student's position pro or con, but the school's predetermined stance. how does 'indoctrination' not apply?]
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Little Annie to rescue, in a big way
LAKE OSWEGO -- Pam Fischer usually wags a finger and says "hush" when her little dachshund, Annie, starts barking. But now, she's glad her 91/2-pound friend has such a big mouth.
Around 1 a.m. Tuesday, police responded to a complaint about a barking dog waking residents in the Lake Grove neighborhood. Sgt. John Brent expected to find a giant, frothing canine. Instead, he was confronted by a very small, very agitated dachshund that was so aggressive it blocked Brent's patrol car.
At first Brent, who heads Lake Oswego's police canine unit, tried to catch Annie -- formally named Annabelle -- but that only made things worse. Not only did the dog keep barking with unwavering ferocity, she wouldn't let Brent pass and stopped him when he tried to leave in the other direction.
That's when the officer heard a faint cry for help...
[good doggie]
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Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Why is it so hard for Americans to learn about the successes of our war on terror? In the wake of the killing of the leader of the FARC guerillas and the success of our Iraq policies in marginalizing Al Qaeda (all without much press notice), Investor's Business Daily points to the lessons Colombia can teach us about fighting a guerilla war.
As support flags for the Iraq War even in the face of victory, it may help to look to south to Colombia, where the public still supports its military and celebrates victories. The fighting spirit helps to win. [...]
You see, in Colombia, they understand terrorists thrive on propaganda machines of their own. To win, you must get ahead of them.
[snip]
The U.S. can learn from this. If we're to win our war on terror, we must do more than just send our troops into harm's way. We must celebrate them - and the victory they're bringing us.
There may be little we can do about the inclinations of the press and the elites in our country, but more vigorous communication from the top would have been helpful. In war we need a great communicator, it seems.
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Face of Defense: Soldier Fights to Deploy Despite Medical Condition
... Still more visits to more doctors led him to a neurologist. Late in September 2005, he was diagnosed with multifocal motor neuropathy. [snip]
Once again, the doctors said no. A chain of e-mails revealed one medical professional after another who believed he had no business deploying. They cited the risk for contamination, with possible secondary effects of anaphylaxis or renal failure. They said his understanding of the condition was “oversimplified.”
In his response, he said he outlined his own research -- discussing the shelf life of the medication and the plan that he and squadron surgeon Maj. (Dr.) Sean Hollonbeck, had come up with to administer the treatments.
“The Army is attempting and perfecting new things in the theater of operation every day,” he wrote. “Why not this? -- Army doctrine is to train in times of peace and to win at war,” Smith said. “I see a lot of value in what I did as a rear detachment soldier, but if the Army’s at war, I want to go."
After a successful month at Fort Irwin, Calif., at the National Training Center, during which an enlisted combat medic administered the treatment, the Army finally relented. Smith deployed to Multinational Division Baghdad as part of Task Force 12 in November 2007.
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Commander Charts Progress in Baghdad, Diyala
– A mix of force, good governance and economic stimuli has resulted in a turnaround for an area in Iraq that once was a hotbed of Sunni and Shiite insurgents. [snip]
“In our time here, murders have declined by greater than 50 percent, from 631 in '06 to 253 in '07,” [context: many US cities average between 700-1100 murders/year] Grigsby said in a video hook-up from Baghdad. “Shop owners are selling their goods in revitalized markets, and we are now down to maybe one attack every other day.” [snip]
“We did bloody the nose of the enemy, and the enemy does fear us, both coalition forces and Iraqi security forces. We never forgot what a U.S. Army heavy brigade combat team is built to do: to close with and destroy the enemy."
The unit’s soldiers head back to Fort Benning, Ga., knowing they have made a difference, Grigsby said.
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Olbermann Names General Petraeus "Worser" Person in the World
Last night on the MSNBC program "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," the host gave the runner up position to his daily segment "World's Worst Persons in the World" to General David Petraeus. View video here.
"Tonight‘s runner-up, General David Petraeus. It turns out his role as a press flack for President Bush began long before his embarrassing testimony to Congress last September. "After the negative reaction the smear ad from MoveOn.org received last year it should be well-known by now that name calling Gen. Petraeus is not the way to go. Apparently Mr. Olbermann didn't get the memo. Hat tip: Greg Pollowitz.
Partial transcript here: [...]
[I watched much of the General's testimony last fall; he was chief among the minority {all in uniform} in the room who didn't embarrass themselves. incredible {literally}]
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Palestinian suicide bomber attacks Gaza crossing
Gaza City, Gaza Strip - A Palestinian suicide bomber detonated a truck loaded with tons of explosives early Thursday in an attempt to ram a crucial crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel, militants said.
[but why oh why does Israel have all those checkpoints at their borders? They make it hard for Palestinians to get to work]
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How Iran is changing the balance of power in the Middle East?
Lebanon fell in the lap of the Iranian regime in less than two days. Lebanon is now unofficially a colony of Iran. The illusions are over now. Those who thought that Iran has abandoned Hezbollah and occupation of Lebanon through Hezbollah were proved to be wrong. Iran designed a strategy of deception for some time to arm, equip and train Hezbollah to the highest level on one hand and to give false assurances to the Arab governments that it has no bad intentions in Lebanon. During this time, the Shia regime of Iran prepared Hezbollah so well and so much that it took over Beirout in less than two days... [snip]
The poor Sunnis, who have been disappointed completely in different aspects of life, now convert to Shiism and they get some substantial financial rewards for so doing. Every Sunni that converts to Shiism becomes a new agent of Iran and will join an organization that is supported and financed by Iran. The stakes are high. Iran has numerous and very powerful leverages in Arab countries and can create any change she wants. The Arab countries are helpless. They have become the victims of their self- complacent attitude and policies. While Iran can interfere in their policies when ever she wants, the Arab countries cannot do anything inside Iran as they do not have any viable allies among the Suuni and Shia Iranians.
Iran is changing the balance of power in the Broader Middle East.
[and the West signs more energy deals with Iran {Switzerland}. A permanent base in Iraq is our only hope of mitigating Iran's march to dominate the region - a region our economy literally cannot do without]
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South Korea, Arab States Move to Improve Relations
SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea and a group of governments from the Middle East and Africa agreed to launch a cooperative organization Monday aimed at enhancing political, cultural and economic ties, officials said. [snip]
The resource-poor country is heavily dependent on oil imports and has been intensifying what it calls energy diplomacy to secure stable supplies amid a scramble by Asian neighbors China, India and Japan to so the same amid rising prices.
[the implications to America's political refusal to compete in the field of energy are legion - we're handing energy exporters such as Russia and the middle east enormous influence, none of whom are our friends {i.e., brilliant}]
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Planting the Seeds of a Demographic Winter
Did you know that planting a tree won’t save the earth?
A two-person household is responsible for releasing 41,500 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. To offset that, each household would have to plant 483 trees and let them grow for 10 years.
We know this because the Washington Post Home section on May 8 featured a cover story encouraging folks to plant trees while sternly warning them that this won’t help much because people are a cancer on the planet.
If a two-person household is that bad, what does that make families with children? Environmental criminals? Earth wreckers?
[a lever for massive social engineering - paid for in the coin of liberties]
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Democrats' Energy Plan: Tax, Sue, and Investigate
More than two years ago, now-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues promised what they called a “common sense” energy plan to bring down prices at the gas pump.
Today, 744 days later, congressional Democrats finally unveiled their grand proposal to the American people.
To most Americans, addressing rising energy prices might include at least a bow to the law of supply and demand. It might contain some true common sense ideas such as stepped-up exploration, added domestic refinery capacity, or other measures to increase U.S. energy and reduce dependence on foreign supplies.
But Democrats made clear they have other priorities. They want to tax, sue and investigate their way out of this problem...
[you should read it, seeing as you're going to pay for it > ]
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House action targets OPEC
Washington - The House voted Tuesday to let the Justice Department pursue energy antitrust and price fixing cases against members of the OPEC oil cartel, although critics said such attempts would likely be fruitless and could prompt a backlash from oil producers. The bill, approved 324-84, also would create a special Justice Department task force to investigate energy markets to root out manipulation and unwarranted speculation. Similar measures are part of a package of Democratic energy proposals being considered in the Senate.
[but we won't drill our own wells]
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What We're Buying at College
At Colorado College in Colorado Springs, a couple of insouciant students circulated a flyer that parodied one distributed by the Feminist and Gender Studies program. The FGS flyer called itself the "Monthly Rag" (charming) and reportedly advertised a lecture on "feminist porn" and carried an approving mention of "castration." The student parody flyer, the "Monthly Bag," referred to "tough guy wisdom," the range of a sniper rifle and "chainsaw etiquette."
The students responsible for the parody were at first threatened with expulsion, which was later reduced to a violation of the college's student conduct policy on (get ready for it) "violence." Dean of Students Michael Edmonds acknowledged that the flyer was a satire, but "in the climate in which we find ourselves today, violence -- or implied violence -- of any kind cannot be tolerated."
Translation: If someone uses words you find offensive, he has committed an act of violence. This does violence to the English language, apart from the assault on free speech and free thought. The offenders will be forced to attend a forum to discuss the issues raised (read: reeducation seminar) and will have a disciplinary note placed in their student files...
[parents: choose your child's college carefully]
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Friday, May 23, 2008
Petraeus: Troops in Iraq help blunt Iran threat
WASHINGTON - Army Gen. David Petraeus, who is to assume control of U.S. forces in the Middle East, says that a continued U.S. presence in Iraq is more likely to blunt, rather than inflame, Iran's growing influence in the region. In a 46-page question-and-answer document submitted in advance of his confirmation hearing on Thursday, Petraeus says the U.S. must work on developing more leverage - primarily diplomatic or economic - to pressure Tehran to abandon its nuclear program. But, he notes, the U.S. must retain military strike options...
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Gates Again Asks Congress to Pass Emergency Funding Act
WASHINGTON, May 20, 2008 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates asked Congress today to act quickly to approve the president’s $102.5 billion fiscal 2008 supplemental war budget request.
Gates told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee that the delay in passing the emergency legislation means the department is now using fourth-quarter funds from the department’s base budget to cover current war costs.
If Congress doesn’t act soon, Gates said, two critical accounts will run dry, starting with Army military personnel.
“After June 15, we will run out of funds in this account to pay soldiers, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Gates said.
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From Detainee to Detonatee
"A Kuwaiti man released from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay in 2005 has carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq, his cousin told Al Arabiya television on Thursday," Reuters reports from Dubai.[snip]
Over at The Volokh Conspiracy, blogger and law professor Jonathan Adler makes a manful effort at evenhandedness: [snip]
According to Adler, both sides agree that the detainees at Guantanamo are terrorists, differing only over how they became terrorists. The real distinction is that one side favors keeping the terrorists at Guantanamo so as to prevent terrorism, whereas the other side wants to release the terrorists so that they can murder more Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere...
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Twofer...
.
U.S. and UK say Hezbollah weaker after Beirut fighting
The United States and Britain said on Thursday they believed Hezbollah had been weakened by this month's fighting in Beirut despite the greater influence the militant group gained in Lebanon's Cabinet. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Secretary David Miliband rejected the view that the show of force by Hezbollah had increased its power. "Hezbollah lost something very important, which is any argument that it is somehow a resistance movement on behalf of the Lebanese people," Rice told reporters...
[their additional seats now allow them to veto any legislation they disagree with. So, are we going to act on their weakened state - while it lasts - to wipe them out? Of course not? Then they won.]
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Sharia law part of deal to stop attacks
Islamabad - A Pakistani Government deal to bring peace to the conflict-ravaged Swat valley will introduce Sharia law in return for an end to Taliban suicide bombings, attempts to stop girls going to school and attacks on barbers who shave beards. The peace deal was signed on Wednesday by the newly elected Government of North West Frontier Province and representatives of the cleric Maulvi Fazlullah, whose fighters battled the army last year.
[translation: they won]
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A Talk in Tehran
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reports that two organizations at Tehran University will host a May 26th conference on “Israel’s End” in order to coincide with “the sad 60th anniversary of Palestine’s occupation by the Zionists.” Here’s the IRNA:
The guests of the conference that would be attended by Iranian and foreign students of universities in Tehran will be intellectuals and university professors from Egypt, Venezuela, Morocco, Lebanon, Indonesia, the United States, Pakistan, Argentina, India, Iraq, Syria, Chile, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, France, Tunisia, and a number of other countries.In March, the Justice-Seeking Student Movement, one of groups organizing the upcoming confab, offered a bounty of more than $1 million for the assassination of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Mossad director Meir Dagan, and military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin.
What kind of student activist group has a cool million laying around in a mercenary fund?
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The United States and U.N. Security Resolution 1325
The House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight held a hearing last week to discuss House Resolution 146 which concerns the United States’ 'responsibility' regarding the United Nations Security Resolution 1325.
The introduction to the resolution states: “Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States should take action to meet its obligations, and to ensure that all other member states of the United Nations meet their obligations, as agreed to in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325..." [snip]
The problem is that the United States has not agreed to the obligations of the UN Security Resolution 1325. That UN Resolution refers to numerous UN treaties. The United States has made no commitments to those treaties. For instance, we have withdrawn from the International Criminal Court to which it refers. [snip]
It is important to note exactly WHY the United States has chosen NOT to make these commitments.
The issue in regard to the U.N. treaties is a matter of national sovereignty, a matter of quotas and a matter of the specific provisions of the various treaties that would challenge the laws and culture of the United States...
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German universities bow to public pressure over GM crop
Scientists have decried the decision by two German universities to pull the plug on field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops, calling it a “disgraceful” interference with scientists' freedom to research. “Unfortunately, we were no longer able to deal with the massive opposition from politicians and the general public. The university has a reputation in the region that we cannot risk losing.”
[truly amazing: there's food riots erupting all over the planet, but because of the euro-enviro's long standing hysteria over genetically modified crops they're actually succeeding in banning the single most promising solution to world hunger. What's next, refusing to develop energy because the Earth has a fever?]
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Blessed are the sceptics
IN 1633 Galileo Galilei was hauled before the religious authorities of his day, the Inquisition, for daring to concur with Copernicus that the Earth was not the centre of the universe and also that it orbited the sun rather than the other way around.
For his pains, he was placed under house arrest and forced to recant. Giordano Bruno failed to recant and suffered a crueller fate.
Today we are faced with a newer religion known as environmental activism which has insinuated itself into some aspects of science. It shares some of the intolerance to new or challenging ideas with the old. Immolation at the stake is no longer fashionable but it has been replaced by pillory in the media.
The new faith makes it apostasy to question the proposition that our river systems are dying and that nothing like this has ever happened before. And it is the blackest heresy to suggest that the beatification of StAl and the Goronites may be a little premature.
The symbols and practices of the new and the old faiths are remarkably similar...
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Governor says Alaska will challenge polar bear listing
Anchorage, Alaska -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says the state will sue to challenge the listing of polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Palin on Wednesday said there is insufficient evidence to support the decision U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne made last week. Palin says polar bears are well managed and that their numbers have dramatically increased over 30 years...
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To give America freedom
What do the following recent events have in common? c The president of the United States has prostrated himself for the second time in five months before the king of Saudi Arabia, pleading for more oil.
Despite George Bush's inducements — an array of advanced, offensive arms; the promise of nuclear technology with which the Saudis can expect (like the North Koreans, Iranians, Pakistanis, etc.) to acquire the ultimate weapons; and U.S. help securing Saudi Arabia's borders (something the president has declined to do at home) — the American plea was spurned. The contempt felt by the House of Saud was captured in its oil minister's quip, "If you want more oil, buy it." [snip]
• The Senate rejected, by a vote of 56-42, an initiative offered by Republicans that called for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska and some offshore waters now closed to exploration and exploitation of their substantial oil reserves.It seems that, if we want more oil, we will have to buy it at ever increasing prices from the Saudis and others even more unfriendly to this country's national security and economic interests — like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez or Russia's Vladimir Putin, perhaps even Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. [more, snip]
• In addition, that chamber's appropriations committee refused by a similar party-line vote to lift its moratorium on oil-shale production in Colorado.
These actions — given soaring energy prices and the attendant hemorrhage of U.S. petrodollars to, among others, people who wish us ill — represent the sort of behavior in which only a nation utterly unserious about energy security could indulge.
In truth, no matter what we do, we will need oil for the foreseeable future. As a result, we should do our utmost to find and exploit it in places either under our control (for example, near where the Cubans and Chinese are getting it off the coast of Florida) or at least friendly to us (notably, Canada, Mexico and Brazil)...
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Appeals court rules state had no right to seize sect kids
SAN ANGELO — A state appellate court ruled today that child welfare officials had no right to seize more than 400 children living at a polygamist sect's ranch. The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled that the grounds for removing the children were "legally and factually insufficient" under Texas law...
[object lesson: let's see who gets fired over this {like the judge who allowed it}. My bet; no one - it's government]
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Kansas Voters Could Change the Way Judges Are Selected
Kansas will have a proposition on the November ballot that could send shock waves into the tenure of state court judges. The voters in Kansas' Johnson County will vote on the right to elect their 10th judicial district court judges instead of having them chosen by the lawyers.
We hear a lot in the media about bringing democracy to the world. Citizens in this suburban Kansas City county are asking for more democracy in the middle of the United States...
[We've activist judges (galore) because they're largely unaccountable to the American people. "Independent Judiciary" was meant to mean independent from the other branches of government only - never the people - we need remind the black robe society on who's sufferance their jobs rightly depend. Recommended > ]
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Preferences for Everybody!
Would white voters be more inclined to support so-called affirmative action if it discriminated only in favor of blacks, rather than, as it does now, in favor of women and all "persons of color"--which is to say, against white men? Maybe.
Then again, blacks-only racial preferences would have been untenable, for both political and legal reasons. Politically, it would have been difficult to sustain support for a program of discrimination that benefited only about an eighth of the population. But when you add in every minority under the sun plus a whole sex, you give a large majority of the population an interest in preserving the system...
[ironic that the only legal minority in the US is white men. Will we ever be honest enough to admit that AA is nothing more than state sponsored discrimination against them?]
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ACLU
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ACLU: Police Enforcing Immigration Laws 'Terrorize' America
State and local police who help enforce federal immigration laws are targeting Latinos and ''terrorizing'' people across the United States, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said at a briefing on Capitol Hill on Monday.
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ACLU's War On U.S. Immigration Law
Prof. Nicholas Stix
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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"The ACLU set a course to destroy America - her freedom and her values - right from the start."~Jax Hawk
Little Annie to rescue, in a big way
LAKE OSWEGO -- Pam Fischer usually wags a finger and says "hush" when her little dachshund, Annie, starts barking. But now, she's glad her 91/2-pound friend has such a big mouth.
Around 1 a.m. Tuesday, police responded to a complaint about a barking dog waking residents in the Lake Grove neighborhood. Sgt. John Brent expected to find a giant, frothing canine. Instead, he was confronted by a very small, very agitated dachshund that was so aggressive it blocked Brent's patrol car.
At first Brent, who heads Lake Oswego's police canine unit, tried to catch Annie -- formally named Annabelle -- but that only made things worse. Not only did the dog keep barking with unwavering ferocity, she wouldn't let Brent pass and stopped him when he tried to leave in the other direction.
That's when the officer heard a faint cry for help...
[good doggie]
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Thursday, May 22, 2008
Iraqi forces on brink of controlling Sadr City
Iraqi forces aim to be in complete control of Sadr City within 24 hours after some 10,000 troops, backed by tanks, pushed deep into the Baghdad Shia slum in an unprecedented operation.
Militiamen who have clashed with US and Iraqi soldiers over the past few weeks melted away as the Iraqi Army took control of the streets in the impoverished slum for the first time since the 2003 invasion.
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Success in Iraq: A Media Blackout
DO we still have troops in Iraq? Is there still a conflict over there? If you rely on the so-called mainstream media, you may have difficulty answering those questions these days. As Iraqi and Coalition forces pile up one success after another, Iraq has magically vanished from the headlines. Want a real "inconvenient truth?" Progress in Iraq is powerful and accelerating...
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Democrats and Our Enemies
Wall Street Journal, by Joseph Lieberman
[snip]
"No people in history have ever survived, who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies."
[Recommended >]
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AP: Afghan Women Victims of 'Stern Social Codes;' Not Sharia
The AP's Alisa Tang wrote a horrifying account of the oppression and misogyny that women face in Afghanistan. The April 30 article bucks the post-9/11 trend of the media turning a blind eye to women's issues in Muslim countries.
In parts of Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, where stern social codes prevail, a woman who runs away from home is typically suspected of having taken a lover and can be prosecuted for adultery. Simply leaving her house without her family's permission may be deemed an offense — as in Rukhma's case — although it is not classified as such under Afghanistan's penal code.What's missing throughout the article are two words—Islam and Sharia.
"If my wife goes to the bazaar without my permission, I will kill her. This is our culture," Abdul Qayum shouted scornfully during an interview in his office in the city of Jalalabad.[how stern]
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Where Have all the Germans Gone?
... And he does. In essence, Germany does not have enough young people for its old people to lend money to. So its financial institutions went to where the young people are: America. As Spengler says:
There is nothing complicated about finance. It is based on old people lending to young people. Young people invest in homes and businesses; aging people save to acquire assets on which to retire. The new generation supports the old one, and retirement systems simply apportion rights to income between the generations. Never before in human history, though, has a new generation simply failed to appear.Those who think demography bores such as myself are peddling archaic theories of no relevance are missing the point. Yes, medieval farming communities assume large numbers of children in order to function. But the modern global economy and all advanced societies assume sufficient numbers of children in order to function.
[and the west's populations {which now includes the US 'native' population when immigration is subtracted} are contracting - ]
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Theater of the Absurd
While hundreds of thousands are dying due to the callous indifference of the military junta in Burma and millions are fleeing oppression and hunger in Robert Mugabe’s brutal Zimbabwe, the U.N.’s farcical Human Rights Council (HRC) is focusing its attention elsewhere — the United States, the freest nation on the face of the earth.
This week sees the arrival on U.S. soil of Doudou Diene, the U.N. special rapporteur charged with investigating ''racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance'' in America...
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So much for 'settled science'
You may have heard earlier this month that global warming is now likely to take break for a decade or more. There will be no more warming until 2015, perhaps later. Climate scientist Noel Keenlyside, leading a team from Germany's Leibniz Institute of Marine Science and the Max Planck Institute of Meteorology, for the first time entered verifiable data on ocean circulation cycles into one of the U. N.'s climate supercomputers, and the machine spit out a projection that there will be no more warming for the foreseeable future.
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Greens Will Leave us Cold and Hungry
There is always a point in time when reality steps up to remind everyone that bad ideas come with a price to pay. The long history of environmental bad ideas are now beginning to cause food riots around the world with its campaign for biofuels and against the energy that powers great economies and feeds the world.
On May 14, Earthworks, one of the many environmental organizations zealously trying to leave America and the rest of the world cold and hungry released its intention to initiate a “No Dirty Energy” campaign “to alert the public to the climate, ecosystem and community risks associated with mining and burning the world’s dirtiest fuel sources…”
Labeling coal and oil “dirty” is pure PR and ignores the fact that coal, a cheap and abundant energy sources, provides just over fifty percent of America’s electricity, an energy without which the entire nation would cease to function. It ignores the way the Green’s campaign against oil has for four decades thwarted the right of American’s to access and use its own national oil and natural gas reserves and virtually enslaved us to middle eastern nations (as Bush's hat-in-hand trip to Saudi Arabia this week again proved). [snip]
Take away these energy sources and you cripple that nation...
[the voters will need insist in change, as the environmoralists now control a multi-billion dollar industry they've no intention of giving up without a fight. ready?][Recommended >]
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Flawed climate bill will hurt economy
In June, the U.S. Senate will debate Senate Bill 2191, "America's Climate Security Act," sponsored by Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. This badly flawed bill would implement a cap-and-trade policy to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to 4 percent below the 1990 level by 2020, and to 63 percent below the 2005 level by 2050, according to its authors. The bill could cap the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted in America...
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YOUR Senator > http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
It May Be 2008 at Home, But in the Academy It's 1984
Freedom of speech and inquiry have long been cherished principles in America. They are especially important in the world of academia where they have been viewed as the basis of "academic freedom." For years scholars have advanced the proposition that academic freedom is essential to the advancement of knowledge. Only by challenging the prevailing orthodoxy, they maintained, could one open up new vistas of learning and truth.
In our postmodern world, however, many scholars are learning the hard way that "academic freedom" has become an Orwellian term meaning "academic tyranny." Today, in the academy, one is free only to advance notions that are consonant with the prevailing politically correct orthodoxy. Challenges to that orthodoxy are often met with denials of tenure, refusals to renew contracts, or expulsion...
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Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens
Vatican City - The Vatican's chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God. The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, says that the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones. (Snip) Funes said that ruling out the existence of aliens would be like ''putting limits'' on God's creative freedom.
[and there you have it: the Catholic Church is more tolerant of alternative views than is American academia. marvelous]
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Farming for riches
I may surprise some people by saying what few presidential candidates would ever be willing to say out loud in farm country: I'd veto the farm bill—a bloated expansion in federal spending that will do more harm than good. When agricultural commodity prices and exports have reached record highs, we no longer need government-grown farms and mammoth government bureaucracies. As grocery bills soar, food banks go bare and food rationing occurs on a global scale, we must challenge the wisdom of this bill.
[summary: as usual, government intervention only multiplies a problem...]
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Hillary, Barack, want my vote? Just $20 million, please
California
What will it take for a Democratic presidential candidate to win the support of California superdelegate Steven Ybarra? Say, $20 million. The Democratic National Committee member doesn't parse his words when it comes to what he wants from Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton - an ironclad promise to spend that heady amount to register Mexican-American voters and get them to the polls in November...
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Read a Book, Get Charged with Racial Harassment
The May 9 edition of the New York Post carries a short article by an Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis student named Keith John Sampson. He tells a story of how he was charged with "racial harassment" simply because he was "caught" reading an anti-Ku Klux Klan book. I'm not kidding. Sampson tells his story:
The book was Todd Tucker's 'Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan'; I was reading it on break from my campus job as a janitor. The same book is in the university library . . . .The affirmative-action officer -- who draws a salary of $106, 000 a year to perform her crucial role and is obviously a woman of inestimable intellect -- neither examined the book nor spoke with Sampson. He wasn't guilty before proven innocent. He was just guilty.
But that didn't stop the Affirmative Action Office of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis from branding me as a detestable Klansman.
They didn't want to hear the truth. The office ruled that my 'repeatedly reading the book . . . constitutes racial harassment in that you demonstrated disdain and insensitivity to your co-workers.'
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Texas caught off guard as more seek handgun permits
AUSTIN — Demand for concealed handgun licenses has risen nearly 40 percent in Texas in a year, an increase being attributed to many factors, even presidential politics. Though the exact cause may be unclear, what's certain is that the spike in applications has caught the Department of Public Safety unprepared. The state is taking a month longer than the 60 days allowed by law to process original applications and 80 days longer on renewals.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5762984.html
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Current Generation Ready to be Next ‘Greatest Generation’
“We are a nation at war,” Cartwright said. “We made a commitment to this conflict, and we’ve put our national treasure -- our youth -- into this fray. Today’s soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen are prepared to be tomorrow’s leaders -- These citizen-soldiers, as you watch them, are going to be our nation’s future,” Cartwright said. “When you look at them, you can only be proud.”
The vice chairman said part of the reason for being proud is their commitment to serving the nation.
“They’re going to carry this idea of service through the rest of their lives,” -- “The one thing you can see in their eyes every time you meet with them is they are, in fact, going to be this nation’s next ‘greatest generation.’ They are incredible. What they do day in and day out, the pain they bare, the strength they have, should make every mother and father proud.”
The general said the faces he sees when he travels to Iraq and Afghanistan are reflective of the American population, and they’ve learned to be a part of something greater than themselves.
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America Supports You: Groups’ Gathering at Pentagon Shows America’s Support
The groups represented at the Pentagon today are just 38 of the nearly 400 that support America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and companies with servicemembers and their families serving at home and abroad. [snip]
“It’s wonderful to have these organizations here today, to have people get exposure and show the goodness coming out,” said Kelly Meyer, project coordinator for Operation Iraqi Children. “A lot of it isn’t shown on the news. This is one way, one day, that we get that chance to show the goodness.” [snip]
“They need to know that America’s behind them, ... Having been there myself, you don’t realize that until you see the Motomails coming and you see the care packages coming from the support groups.”
The knowledge that someone is helping take care of things on the home front provides deployed servicemembers with peace of mind, said Torres, who served in Al Asad Air Base in Iraq in 2006.
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England Calls on Congress to Pass Funding Quickly
– The deputy secretary of defense called on Congress to act quickly to pass the fiscal 2008 supplemental legislation for the war on terror. In a May 15 letter, Gordon England told Congress the legislation is urgent and needed before the House and Senate recess for Memorial Day.
“Absent additional Congressional action, the Army will run out of military personnel funds by mid-June and operation and maintenance funds by early July,” England said in the letter.
Civilian personnel funding and money for the Commander’s Emergency Response Program also is included in the operations-and-maintenance accounts.
“CERP funding is a critical enabler that our ground force commanders are using on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan to shape the strategic environment,” England wrote.
Without quick action, the program runs dry in mid-June.
READ MOREWhitehouse > mailto:president@whitehouse.govYOUR Senator >
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfmYOUR House Representative >
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
THE COGNITIVE AGE
[Recommended > ]
The globalization paradigm has turned out to be very convenient for politicians. It allows them to blame foreigners for economic woes. It allows them to treat economic and social change as a great mercantilist competition, with various teams competing for global supremacy, and with politicians starring as the commanding generals. But there's a problem with the way politicians present the globalization paradigm. It doesn't really explain most of what is happening in the world - for instance:
• Some Americans have seen their jobs shipped overseas, but global competition has accounted for a small share of job creation and destruction over the past few decades.Nor is the globalization paradigm even accurate when applied to manufacturing:
• 90 percent of fixed investment around the world is local, says Pankaj Ghemawat of the Harvard University Business School.
• Companies open plants overseas, but that's mainly so their production facilities can be close to local markets.
• The U.S. share of global manufacturing output has actually increased slightly since 1980, according to Thomas Duesterberg of Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI.The chief force reshaping manufacturing is technological change:
• Thanks to innovation, manufacturing productivity has doubled over two decades.The central process driving this is not globalization. It's the skills revolution. We're moving into a more demanding cognitive age. The globalization paradigm emphasizes the fact that information can now travel 15,000 miles in an instant. But the most important part of information's journey is the last few inches -- the space between a person's eyes or ears...
• Employers now require fewer but more highly skilled workers.
• Technological change affects China just as it does the America; between 1994 and 2004 the Chinese shed 25 million manufacturing jobs, 10 times more than the United States, says William Overholt of the RAND Corporation.
[and the US turns away 9 out of 10 H1B (high skilled) visa applicants (85K/yr. max, gone in one day - by lottery {brilliant}]
[Recommended > ]
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31,000 Scientists Rejecting Global Warming Theory to be Named Monday
The names of over 31,000 American scientists that reject the theory of anthropogenic global warming are to be revealed on Monday.
Although this will occur at the National Press Club in Washington, DC., it seems a metaphysical certitude media will completely ignore the event.
As announced Thursday by PR Newswire via StreetInsider.com:
Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM)
Who: Dr. Arthur Robinson of the OISM
What: release of names in OISM "Petition Project"
When: 10 AM, Monday May 19
Where: Holeman Lounge at the National Press Club, 529 14th St., NW, Washington, DC
Why: the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM) will announce that more than 31,000 scientists have signed a petition rejecting claims of human-caused global warming.
The purpose of OISM's Petition Project is to demonstrate that the claim of "settled science" and an overwhelming "consensus" in favor of the hypothesis of human-caused global warming and consequent climate damage is wrong. No such consensus or settled science exists. As indicated by the petition text and signatory list, a very large number of American scientists reject this hypothesis.
It is evident that 31,072 Americans with university degrees in science - including 9,021 PhDs, are not "a few." Moreover, from the clear and strong petition statement that they have signed, it is evident that these 31,072 American scientists are not "skeptics."
With over 31,000 now on the list, all with degrees in science -- including 9,000 PhDs -- what might this do to the nonsensical premise of there being a consensus concerning this issue?
[stand by for a deluge of national, nay global - media coverage...]
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CAPPING CO2 EMISSIONS BOOSTS ENERGY COSTS
Bills recently introduced in Congress would control greenhouse gas emissions through cap-and-trade schemes. However, the proposals unveiled so far would harm the U.S. economy, disproportionately hurt the poor and fail to produce the environmental benefits promised by proponents:
An analysis from Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) concludes Lieberman-Warner would increase gasoline prices up to 144 percent and raise electricity prices up to 129 percent.
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Obama and Clinton Vote Against Oil Independence – Again
Liberal political leaders, including two who happen to be running for President, constantly claim to seek American oil independence. Invariably, however, they turn around and thwart measures to achieve precisely that. This week, a bill introduced by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R – Kentucky) once again illustrated liberals’ duplicity on this subject.
Senator McConnell, along with twenty other Republican Senators, had introduced the Domestic Energy Production Act, which sought to allow domestic oil exploration and production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the deepwater Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). This would result in production of more barrels of oil here at home, creating well-paying American jobs in the process, as opposed to further increasing dependence upon oft-hostile foreign sources.
Unfortunately, the liberals who now dominate the Senate defeated this prudent measure, and once again said “no” to greater American oil independence...
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Wellness Über Alles
A new battlefront in the war to erase politically incorrect civil liberties is taking place across corporate America under the innocuous-sounding banner of "Wellness." Wellness certainly sounds nice; what kind of person is against wellness?
Obviously we all want to be well, but now it appears you won't have much choice in the matter. Be well or face consequences beyond the state of one's health. But always remember: We're doing this for your own good.
The latest thing that's in our best interest is a renewed focus on quitting smoking, or as they say in more sophisticated circles, smoking cessation... [snip]
Freedom is the right of emancipated adults to make choices for themselves and accept the responsibility for the consequences. Don't think that the good intentions of the elites stop at the point of preventing you from putting smoke in your mouth;
There are all those bad choices people make about what to eat just begging for correction...
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Gay Rights vs. Democracy
Now the high court of California has made gay marriage into a right that is immune from restriction by the majority of citizens in the state. We already know what California citizens think about gay marriage: they oppose it. A referendum outlawing gay marriage was passed with the support of the state's voters. More than 60 percent of voters cast their ballots against gay marriage.
How, then, can a court invalidate the referendum and over-rule the will of the people? Basically through a kind of legal fraud. The court has to pretend that there is a right to gay marriage even though it is nowhere evident in the state constitution. Read the constitution, hold it up to the light, squeeze lemon juice on it--you won't see a right to gay marriage in there. It is simply not an enumerated right, nor is it a right that can be clearly derived from other enumerated rights. [snip]
... states have a legitimate right to define marriage. State legislatures, drawing on tradition and appealing to the values of their constituents, have defined marriage in a very particular way. Marriage requires a) two people who are b) of legal age and c) not closely related to each other who are d) one male and one female. Note that this definition excludes people who want to marry children, or guys who want to marry their sisters, or Muslims who want to take four wives, or that strange guy who wants to marry his dog.. [snip]
It is the essence of democracy that people should be able to decide the moral rules that govern the nature of a community. If people don't have that power, then they are living under an autocracy...
[Recommended > ]
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CALIFORNIA, HERE WE COME?
California's state budget has risen from $99.4 billion in 2000-01 to $142 billion in the current fiscal year -- nearly a 50-percent increase in state revenue. Yet California remains plagued by budget problems, and those problems may pale in comparison with those it can expect in the future:
• California has a $50 billion un-funded liability for the future health care of retiring state employees, according to the Pew Center.
• Despite ranking among America's most heavily taxed states, California is facing a budget deficit next year of more than $16 billion.
• Much of the money reaching the state treasury is earmarked for various programs beyond the Legislature's control.
Meanwhile, as a result of California's projected $16-billion budget shortfall, the state is taking desperate but still inadequate steps in an attempt to curtail spending and balance its budget:
• It may close several of its state parks.
• California is even pondering an early release for thousands of the inmates in its pricey prison system, where the guards' union has gotten such astronomical pay and benefits that the prison system receives 130,000 job applications a year for a handful of vacancies.
[but all incumbents will be returned to office]
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Appeals Court Shoots Down New York City Gun Law
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals just handed down an equally important gun decision that has additional implications against judicial supremacy.
The court, which convenes in New York City, shot down the longtime liberal dream of achieving gun control by suing gun manufacturers for crimes committed by firearms. In a remarkable decision, this federal appellate court dismissed City of New York v. Beretta U.S.A. Corp. and protected gun corporations against frivolous lawsuits in state and federal courts.
The lawsuit was brought by the City of New York in order to not only make money but also obtain from judicial activists the gun control that the liberals could not get from representative government...
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Lawsuit Really Stinks
A New York mother is suing the City of Norwalk, Connecticut, because her toddler's shoes were ruined by dog poop. Kelly DeBrocky claims in her lawsuit that her 1-year-old stepped in dog feces outside the Maritime Garage. DeBrocky seeks $100 in damages. Fifty-four dollars is to pay for the replacement shoes she had to buy her son and the remainder is to reimburse the family for the wasted $50-plus admission fee they paid to enter the Maritime Aquarium. DeBrocky claims their visit to the aquarium was cut short because of the ruined shoes.
City attorney M. Jeffry Spahr questioned the city's liability and the need to discard the child's shoes and clothes. He further opined on the frivolousness of the claim, adding "Some wacky stuff comes across. I don't know if people are more litigious. My opinion is two things are at play. No. 1, people are resistant to taking responsibility for their own actions and No. 2, they feel there always has to somebody to blame," Spahr said.
According to Spahr, the city will deny the claim. "The official response to her claim is denied and poop happens," he said.
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