[meanwhile, in reality]
Friday, January 23, 2009
Model Green Governments?
The renewable energy movement’s leaders are green alright: Green with dictatorship envy.
“Get this,” says natural gas-mogul T. Boone Pickens in a television ad Promoting his self-serving plan for a natural gas-powered transportation. “Iran is changing its cars to run on national gas and we’re not doing a thing here.”
Meanwhile, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman writes “China for a day, but not for two.” The point being “about what we would do if for one day we could impose, cut through all the lobbyists, all the amendments, all the earmarks, and actually impose the right conditions to get our market to take off.”
So the only way for American democratic capitalism to prosper is by adopting the lessons of Islamic theocracy and Chinese communism.
Words matter, and the totalitarian reflex behind the Pickens-Friedman agenda should not be ignored.
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Nobel Prize Winner's Recession Solution
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said the government could borrow up to $5 trillion -- if needed -- to speed up a recovery from the recession. A stimulus plan of that size is probably not needed, but Krugman said he believes the $775 billion proposal from President-elect Barack Obama isn't big enough. (Snip)
''Government spending is the only surefire way to create employment.''[blatant lie (but hey, it's Kludgeman).
OR we can slash business taxes. The difference? Kludgy's way runs up your national debt to pay for temporary jobs, Milton's way creates legitimate/permanant jobs, financed by investors, and which bring money into the treasury.
And BTW: Nobels are political prizes, not meritorious: Gore, peace prize, for mis-forecasting the weather...]
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CUT TAXES FOR ALL
[HT:SR]
To "create or save" the 3 million jobs he intends to, Obama must instead focus on the unpopular but necessary job of lowering the burden on those taxpayers who create jobs and spur economic output -- the nation's entrepreneurs. But most of them are in the top 5 percent of earners -- those whom Obama would cut out of any tax reduction. This is class warfare with no real underlying economic rationale.
If Obama is serious, he should:
> Cut corporate tax rates. U.S. businesses pay a top rate of 35 percent on income, which rises to 40 percent when state taxes are added. The average corporate tax in Europe is 24.2 percent, so it is no surprise that many successful corporations are moving abroad.
> Slash capital gains tax rates. A recent report from Ernst & Young found that U.S. capital gains taxes are already higher than in more than half of the world's top-performing economies. Raising them would only make us less competitive.
> Not raise taxes on the rich. Those with incomes over $250,000 a year are the most likely to invest, (and they already pay 48 percent of all taxes).
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Reich: Stimulus Spending Shouldn't Only Help White Males
A rather astounding statement was made a few weeks ago by an economic adviser to Barack Obama that went completely ignored by America's press:
"I am concerned, as I'm sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to high skilled people who are already professionals or to white male construction workers."
Despite huge attention given this hearing from a wide range of press outlets not one mentioned Reich's racist comments (video and partial transcript below the fold):
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Mexican Drug Traffickers Now ‘Greatest Organized Crime Threat’ to U.S.
Mexican drug trafficking organizations are now the greatest organized crime threat to the United States, according to a recent report released by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The National Drug Threat Assessment for 2009, released last month by the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center, says Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) operate in more than 230 cities across the United States.“The violence, intimidation, theft and financial crimes carried out by DTOs, criminal groups, gangs and drug users in the United States pose a significant threat to our nation,”
the threat assessment concluded.
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What If Mexico Loses Its Drug War?
Security: A new Pentagon forecast warns that Mexico is so embattled by drug lords it could rapidly collapse. The study says the only other state so threatened is Pakistan. This ought to be a wake-up call about U.S. priorities.
In its assessment of worldwide security threats, known as the "Joint Operating Environment," or JOE 2008 report, the United States Joint Forces Command warns that Mexico and Pakistan face the possibility of a "rapid and sudden" collapse."The Mexican possibility may seem less likely [than Pakistan - some standard], but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that international conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone,"
That means a military surge — not to defend faraway Iraq, but defending our own homeland. A collapsed state will bring millions of Mexicans spilling over our border, not as illegal immigrants, but war refugees, fleeing for their lives from violence.
The U.S. will have no choice but to accept such refugees on humanitarian grounds, just as Pakistan, Thailand and Venezuela have had to do from over their own borders in the past. Criminals often embed themselves among them, to prey on the helpless and to expand their operations, creating a new internal threat to the US.
It's time to pay attention now...
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ACLU to sue Twin Cities charter school that caters to Muslims
The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota said it will file suit today against a publicly funded charter school, alleging that it is promoting the Muslim religion and that it is leasing school space from a religious organization, the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, without following state law.
[We need unencumbered school vouchers so parents decide where their kids go. The state wouldn't be promoting anything: the parents would be choosing as they saw fit. Anything less and you get this kind of nonsense.
Has it occurred to any of the ACLU geniuses that prohibiting government funds going to any religious school is state 'promotion' of atheism? {said the atheist}]
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ABC Touts Messages From Kids to Obama: Stop the Wars! Save the Earth!
"Good Morning America" on Wednesday featured video messages from young children to Barack Obama. GMA news anchor Chris Cuomo asserted that the kids, ranging in age from seven to 17, had "strong opinion[s]."
Yet, every single one of these youths spouted the type of liberal propaganda usually reserved for people like Keith Olbermann and not one conservative voice was featured.
One young boy sputtered, "Stop the wars. And- because more people die. And it's just- they don't want to die. They just die. But they don't want to die."
[is this how we want to govern? I'm growing increasingly suspicious/concerned of the increasing use of our children for political purposes.]
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Inaugural ratings likely second best
Early numbers for the inauguration of Barack Obama are impressive but, perhaps surprisingly, could come in below those for Ronald Reagan's first term in 1981.
Preliminary Nielsen estimates show that 29.2% of U.S. households were watching the presidential inauguration -- easily the largest in decades but below the 37.4 household rating for Reagan. Obama's figures include viewership on roughly 15 broadcast and cable networks, while the Reagan ceremony was viewed only on ABC, CBS and NBC.
The Reagan inauguaration in 1981 ended up averaging a whopping 41.8 million viewers to stand as the most-watched on record. [snip]
In total viewers for the night: Fox, 17.3 million; ABC, 11.5 million; CBS, 9.7 million; NBC, 8.9 million; Univision, 4.4 million; CW, 2.0 million.
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Thursday, January 22, 2009
Only Fox News Aired Bush's Texas Homecoming Ceremony Tuesday
It seems inaugural attendees weren't the only ones cheerful about George W. Bush's departure from Washington, D.C., Tuesday, for only the Fox News Channel aired a live broadcast of the homecoming ceremony held in Midland, Texas, for our 43rd President.
As the Los Angeles Times reported:
The rest of the networks, however, did not see the Bush address as news fit to broadcast.
Too bad, for it might have been one of his finest speeches ever (video embedded below the fold):
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Obama Should Emulate Ronald Reagan, Voters Tell Pollster
Americans would like to see incoming President Barack Obama use Ronald Reagan as a role model. 
When given the choice of Abraham Lincoln, FDR, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, JFK, Dwight Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan – registered voters overwhelmingly said they want the new Democratic president to emulate the late conservative Republican president, who held office in the 1980’s.
Reagan got the highest support of any president overall, regardless of party affiliation, at 26 percent -- followed by Franklin D. Roosevelt at 18 percent. JFK was third (17 percent) and Abraham Lincoln fourth (13 percent.)
Peter Schram, director of the Ashbrook Center for Public Policy at Ashland University, wasn’t at all surprised that Americans would choose The Gipper.
“Of the recent presidents, I think the one that has been most successful in the public imagination has been Ronald Reagan. I think that is probably historically accurate as well.
“He stood for certain things with a kind of clarity and seemed to – and in fact, did – carry on an eight-year long administration with those principles in mind.”
Reagan’s popularity goes far beyond the Republican tent, however, Kengor told CNSNews.com.
“People on the far left – and I emphasize ‘far’ left – who are critical of Reagan, don’t realize how extreme they are [media]. The vast majority of Americans like Reagan – and a very large majority of that adores Reagan."
The nationwide telephone survey was conducted Jan. 13-18, among a random, representative sample of 1,000 registered voters.
[We want a president that emulates Reagan - so we elected... .......... ohnevermind.]
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9/11 Families Outraged by Obama Call to Suspend Guantanamo War Crimes Trials
Family members of people killed on September 11, 2001, and in other terror attacks say they are outraged by President Obama's draft order calling for the suspension of war crimes trials of prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay."To me it's beyond comprehension that they would take the side of the terrorists, Many of these people have been released and been right back killing, right back at their terrorist work again"
said Peter Gadiel, whose son, James, was killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11. [snip]"There is no need to suspend [the military tribunals]. There is no reason why [Obama] can't conduct a concurrent review at the same time that the military commission process is moving forward to render justice for the terrorists that have murdered thousands of people,"
said former Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, who lost 17 sailors during a suicide bombing attack on the USS Cole in 2000. A suspect in the case is being held at Guantanamo.
"It demeans their deaths because we seem to be more concerned with the rights of detainees than we are with the justice that is being denied to my sailors that were killed,"Lippold told FOXNews.com
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Same as it ever was...
.
Hamas reasserts control in Gaza rounds up 'collaborators'
The Islamist Palestinian group Hamas said on Wednesday it had begun reasserting control in the Gaza Strip and rounding up suspected collaborators with Israel, drawing accusations from the rival Fatah group that its members were being targeted. ''The internal security service was instructed to track collaborators and hit them hard,''
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Gaza Strip smuggling tunnels operating despite IDF offensive
Smuggling into Gaza from Egypt is underway again, only days after the end of the IDF operation against Hamas. AP Television News footage showed Palestinian smugglers Wednesday filling a fuel truck with petrol that came through a cross-border tunnel from Egypt.
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[when you don't finish the job, you have to come back:
FLASHBACK: 'Israel won, but could have gone deeper'
............"Israel did not want to destroy Hamas. I believe you should have."
.
Muslims wary of Obama pledge
[HT:KE]
Jakarta - Muslim leaders on Wednesday cautiously welcomed President Barack Obama's promise of a fresh start to US relations with the Islamic world and moves to halt "war on terror" trials at Guantanamo Bay. (Snip) ''It is very good that Obama wants to find a 'new way forward' with the Muslim world but first he has to change US policy over Israel and the Palestinian conflict,'' he told AFP.
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The winner of the Battle of Gaza is ...
What took place in Gaza and Israel over the past three weeks was not a war -- it was one battle in a war. Or, to be more precise, it was one battle in what the soldier/scholar John Nagl has described as a "global insurgency" aimed at overthrowing the existing order, what we used to call -- in a more confident era -- the Free World."Yes, Allah is greater than America." Hamas supreme leader Khaled Mashaal said. "Allah is greater than the superpowers. We say to this West: By Allah you will be defeated."
Too many people refuse to understand: Hamas is not fighting for a Palestinian state. Hamas is fighting for the annihilation of Israel, which it would replace with an Islamic emirate. Not the same thing at all...
[i.e., 'GW Of T']
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It's OK to hit your wife, says Melbourne Islamic cleric Samir Abu Hamza
A Melbourne Islamic cleric has told his male followers they can force their wives to have sex and hit them if they are disobedient. Coburg's self-styled cleric Samir Abu Hamza said despite Australian rape laws it was impossible for a man to rape his wife even if she refused to have sex with him (Snip) In a recorded lecture entitled ''The Keys to a Successful Marriage''...
[almost went in the 'funny' section for the title - but it's not.
And the women's rights groups condemning Islam are - where?]
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Guns From Londonistan
"Londonistan" is the nickname given to the UK capitol in 1995 by France's counterterrorism service, partly out of frustration over the safe haven that the city offers to radical Islamist groups that have been exiled from their home countries and/or other EU nations. The year 2009 began with a story that offers a whole new dimension as to how that nickname fits better than most of us would have imagined.
This past week one of the major UK banks, Lloyds TBS Group, paid $350 million to New York State and U.S. Federal authorities in an out-of-court settlement. The fine was paid over charges that Lloyds obscured the fact that billions of dollars that had passed from its office and then through U..S banks and finally on to other foreign destinations had originated in Iran, Libya, and Sudan in violation of U.S. sanctions on those nations. It is the largest fine ever paid in the history of the Manhattan DA's office.
At first glance this subterfuge appears to be a one-off set of incidents, but there are nine other banks being investigated for engaging in similar transactions. Officials in the DA's office talk of a "systemic, wide-ranging scheme"...
But the persistent uncovering of UK entities willing to provide the mullahs with what they need to keep missiles in development, nuclear enrichment facilities humming, and Iranian military aircraft supplied with spares is more than troubling. Add this to the 2007 scandal surrounding BAE Systems and the accusations of a slush fund of more than $100 million that supplied kickbacks to Saudi Arabia and one begins to develop troubling conclusions about the influence oil-rich Middle Eastern states exert on major British institutions...
[none of which would have been caught if not for W's anti-terror inititives re: funding - Recommended > ]
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China: US arms sales to Taiwan 'harm' to relations
Beijing - China made a rare appeal for cooperation between its normally secretive military and Washington on Tuesday but said U.S. arms sales to Taiwan remain a ''serious harm to Sino-U.S. relations.'' The statements came as China issued a major policy paper on national defense that said blocking formal Taiwanese independence remains the chief concern for one of the world's fastest-growing armed forces.
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FLASHBACK:
CHINESE ARMS EXPORTS TO IRAN
"China's arms trade with Iran has presented very serious obstacles to improved U.S.-China relations..."
.
No more beef if Britain hopes to cut carbon emissions
ROAST beef and diary products may have to disappear from the British diet if the country is to meet its pledge to cut carbon emissions by 80%, a government report has warned. It found that the greenhouse gases generated by agriculture, and especially by Britain's 10.5m cows, will seriously undermine any attempt to meet the targets.
[that's no bull]
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Bill's mission
EVERYONE can do their bit to put a stop to global warming, Bill Clinton insists today.
The former US President urges rich and poor, young and old to play their part in the greatest challenge of the 21st century... [ not terrorists with WMD, not starvation due to a global recession - AGW.]
... He wants kids to talk to teachers about making schools more energy-efficient. And Mr Clinton pleads with parents to write to MPs and MEPs to heap pressure on them to act.
Mr Clinton warns that the signs of pending doom are already there — as water and food supplies are hit, sea levels rise and ice sheets melt. [not really]
His Clinton Foundation is working with 40 of the world’s largest cities to cut their greenhouse gas emissions...
[Hmm - sounds like there's a lot of money involved. What does it say when his propaganda drive focuses on kids instead of thinking adults?]
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The Warmist Shamans
Shaman James Hansen has proclaimed that we only have four years left before the world falls into climate catastrophy. The oceans will rise, species will die, the gates of hell will open, and general wailing and gnashing of teeth will prevail over mankind. Dr. Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is the world's leading witch doctor crusading against manmade global warming. He has taken this title away from Bigfoot Al, who is increasingly reticent in discussing his own giant carbon footprint in public.
The question arises as to why the George Soros-funded scientist has demanded this time-horizon (President Obama's first term) for decisive action to thwart armagedden. In the immediate future, we are going to hear increasingly desperate pleas from the true believers of Climatotholicism that the end is near. We must act now, or be lost forever. This is the start of a phenomenon I am calling the Shaman Shamboozle... [snip]
Dr. Hansen and his fellow witch doctors must act fast. Using the principle of the Shaman Shamboozle, the evil global warming spirits must be chased away before it is obvious to the tribal masses that the climate is actually getting cooler. In doing so, the shaman ecologists can claim that President Obama's "green initiatives", i.e., taxing anything that emits carbon dioxide, were successful. At that point their political power over the tribe will be complete and irreversable. Let the dance commence before the eclipse begins to wane!
[that's the beauty of this scam: once they enact 'solutions' and voila: nothing happens - they'll then hail themselves as having acted just in time. I say we wait a decade to decide - that would accelerate the data gathering proving catastrophic global warming at which point we could bet the farm on 'fixing' it a.s.a.p.. (or, maybe, perhaps, learn the whole thing's been a scam)
Time is not on their side: the screeching will get worse - much worse.]
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GREEN JOBS: FACT OR FICTION?
n their new study, Robert Michaels and Robert P. Murphy of the Institute for Energy Research examined four studies on the alleged benefits of government programs to foster green job creation and found a common characteristic: they all rest on incomplete economic analysis consequently overstating the net benefits of their policy recommendations. Below is a summary of the general problems: [factoids - snip]
With no standardized definitions of the renewable and energy efficiency industries, authors of these reports have a wide range of plausible choices. But the larger the percentage of the workforce engaged in producing renewable power and efficiency, the smaller the output of other goods, say Michaels and Murphy.
The fact that building and operating renewable power generators requires more labor time than for conventional generators is a signal that the nation should not rush toward renewable. The public is worse off because it sacrifices the outputs that those workers could have produced had they been employed elsewhere, says Michaels and Murphy.
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LEAVE THE NEW DEAL IN THE HISTORY BOOKS
Barack Obama's policy plans are driven by the belief that New Deal economic programs ended the Great Depression. Not so. In fact, thanks to New Deal policies and programs, the U.S. economy faltered for years longer than it might otherwise have done, says Mark Levey, senior managing director at Lotsoff Capital Management in Chicago. [snip]
The problem was that neither Roosevelt nor Hoover grasped the essential nature of the crisis, which was not the stock-market crash, but global deflation. The same perils are now confronting Obama, as the risk of deflation casts a long shadow over the economy.
Yet, the quickest way to strengthen the credit system and begin the end of this crisis is to get money into the economy for true job creation, and not into government work programs. The way to do this is to slash taxes.
The U.S. corporate tax rate, currently the highest in the world, should be cut to zero; the capital-gains tax should be cut further. If the United States is to lead the international economic community out of this crisis, this is the place to start, says Levey.
[those familiar with history know that cutting tax rates is the key to recovery: it's worked every time. So what's the problem? It doesn't expand government power - and that's the real agenda behind all spending stimuluses (or they'd leave the money in your pocket)]
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FLASHBACK: Don't Repeat Errors of New Deal
THE historical model that the Democrats are choosing to hold up as they ponder our financial crisis isn't Harry Truman's Fair Deal or Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. It is Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.
At least three economic reforms under discussion now were also central in the New Deal package. Trouble is, these reforms didn't necessarily work well when they were first tried - and some failed outright...
NBC Stars Insist Obama Needs to Make Americans 'Sacrifice'
NBC News personalities were clear on Sunday’s Meet the Press that Barack Obama needs to bring the fiscal "pain" and sacrifice to the voters with higher taxes. In his interview with incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, host David Gregory suggested Obama’s middle-class tax cut promises should be abandoned in the current state of affairs:
"Is that the responsible thing to do on top of the debt burden that we talked about, on top of the deficit I just outlined?"
In the roundtable segment, Tom Brokaw agreed it was time for "pain" and time for an end to "ideological food fights" with Obama now that "even Republicans are cheering him on." New White House reporter Chuck Todd added that Obama’s latest speech on a stimulus plan was dry and weak, since "it didn't ask for any sacrifice from the country."
[ever notice how 'the people' need sacrifice but the government just keeps spending? Why isn't the government reduced by the amount the economy contracts?]
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BEWARE OF THE BIG-GOVERNMENT TIPPING POINT
We will soon shift from a market-based economy to a political one in which the government picks winners and losers and extends its reach and power in unprecedented ways. This shift is exemplified by the desire of Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress to push us toward government-run health care:
• For all his talk of allowing consumers to select their own health-care coverage, Obama's proposal, as he laid it out in his campaign, will provide strong financial incentives for employers to sign up with a new, Medicare-style government plan for their workers.
• This plan will almost certainly use a price-control system similar to the one in place for Medicare, allowing it to charge artificially low premiums by paying fees well below private rates.
• These low premiums will serve as a magnet for enrollment and will devastate the private companies trying to compete in the health-insurance market.
The result will be the nationalization of the health-care sector, which today accounts for 16 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.
Nationalizing health care will put America on a glide path toward European-style socialism. We need only look to Great Britain and elsewhere to see the effects of socialized health care on the broader economy. Once a large number of citizens get their health care from the state, it dramatically alters their attachment to government.
Every time a tax cut is proposed, the guardians of the new medical-welfare state will argue that tax cuts would come at the expense of health care -- an argument that would resonate with middle-class families entirely dependent on the government for access to doctors and hospitals.
[I.e., it's how control is gained.]
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Teach the pleasure of gay sex to five-year-olds
Children as young as five should be taught to understand the pleasures of gay sex, according to leaders of a taxpayer-funded education project. Heads of the project have set themselves a goal of'creating primary classrooms where queer sexualities are affirmed and celebrated'
The stated purpose of the project - which is operating in 14 primary schools - is to stop bullying and prejudice aimed at homosexuals.
However, at a seminar at Exeter University tomorrow, supporters of the group will go beyond the anti-bullying agenda and discuss 'pleasure and desire in educational contexts' During the project, the seminar paper says, its members have 'challenged each other to go beyond imagined possibilities into queer practice'
[universal vouchers]
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Senate Democrats move toward seating Franken
Washington - It's no joke: Senate Democrats are moving toward letting comedian Al Franken join the chamber while Republican Norm Coleman's election lawsuit is pending. ''We're going to try to seat Al Franken,'' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters on Wednesday, a few hours before he posed with Franken for photos just off the Senate floor.
[the most ethical congress in history]
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Free the California 52,000?
California
A panel of three federal judges is holding a trial to determine whether to free 52,000 of California's 172,000 prison inmates to alleviate overcrowding. You might be asking yourself: Who elected these guys to run California?
One of the three judges, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, determined in 2005 that California's prison health care system is so bad that it's unconstitutional. He put the system in receivership and appointed law professor Clark Kelso to oversee prison health care.
Now Kelso is demanding $8 billion to renovate the system — even though the state is spending about $14,000 on health care per inmate... [snip]
Here's the unfunny funny part: Criminal Justice Legal Foundation President Michael Rushford recently figured out that inmates live longer on the inside than on the outside, and they live longer on the inside than outsiders live. [snip]
Corrections spokesman Seth Unger explained what that difference would be:"Releasing 50,000 inmates would be the equivalent of emptying 10 prisons onto the streets."
Pity no one seems worried what the effect on the general public's 'health' might be...
[we've a serious problem with our black-robe society; it needs be reigned in]
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Name That Party: Gay Portland Mayor Lied About Sex With Teen
Associated Press and The Oregonian in Portland both completely flunked the party-ID test on Portland's brand-new openly gay Democratic mayor having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old man and lying about it.
Readers who weren't familiar with Adams could have been confused, since a Republican label later surfaced in the story:
Adams met Beau Breedlove in April 2005. Breedlove, then 17, was an intern at the Oregon Legislature for then-Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer.
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Time Skips Holder Controversy, But Implied Ashcroft Was Unfit in 2001 Cover Story
Time magazine hasn’t devoted a single article to Attorney General nominee Eric Holder yet. (He’s drawn one short mention since being nominated.) This is a big change from eight years ago, when Time had a blazing cover story on George Bush nominee John Ashcroft. With a close-up of Ashcroft’s half-darkened face peering out with a one-eyed Cheneyesque glare, Time asked
SHOULD THIS MAN BE ATTORNEY GENERAL?
Sure, news magazines telling the American people you're historically ugly will have no impact on their memory. Gibbs and Duffy saw only poisonous discord in the making, as they unloaded their discordant anti-Bush editorializing: [snip]
By contrast, while Time went on to cast Ashcroft as a fervent religious conservative seen by his allies as "St. John the Divine," Time’s glancing mention of Eric Holder cast him as a moderate that disturbes the ACLU in an article in the December 8 print edition entitled "Closing Down the Dark Side"...
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Dems want apology from Lieberman 
WASHINGTON -- A day after Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation's 44th President, the Connecticut Democratic State Central Committee called on Sen. Joe Lieberman to apologize to him for having backed his Republican opponent in the 2008 campaign.
[no, it's not a joke. Is this what we've come to? Apologize for choosing who you'd like to support? And if your side had won? They're to apologize for having been ont he 'wrong' side? How bad is our education system that grown adults don't realize how anathema this is to our very concepts of democracy?]
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Bush's humanitarian triumph
George Bush as president was a brutal war-monger who cared not a whit about the poor, it's said by some, and you wonder what they are going to do with a fact that shines so large and bright that to ignore it is to admit their own ugly bias.
It is simply this - that Bush did more humanitarian good for the world's poorest, most diseased people than any of his predecessors as much as dreamed of. The instruments were, first off, the Global Fund, an international group fighting AIDS, malaria and TB that he helped start, and then the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief that does its work in Africa, where people absolutely cheer him loudly.
Here's the lowdown on why. It has saved millions of lives...
[Recommended > ]
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Nation Tottering Close To Political Idolatry
[HT:LK]
It is understandable that most would take an interest in the peaceful transitions of power that take place in the United States between one administration to the next as it is a skill less civilized countries have failed to master; however, what is taking place right now in relation to Barack Obama is downright frightening and almost idolatrous in its implications.
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Liberal Tolerance
.
New president cheered, old one jeered
As a helicopter carried George W. Bush away from the U.S. capital where he has served as president for the past eight years, those in the crowd sang the taunting sports anthem, “Na na na na, hey hey, goodbye."
The 43rd president certainly didn’t hear them. But he might have seen the “Arrest Bush” signs waved by some spectators as he rode in the presidential limousine toward the Capitol.
He also might have heard the chants of “No more Bush” shortly before the swearing-in ceremony began.
The sentiment was apparently widespread.“People have been coming up to me all day saying, ‘Nice sign, let me take a picture,’” said Washington prison guard Jewell Lee, 44, referring to her styrofoam sign that said simply: “GET OUT.”
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Bush Mocked As He Arrives on Inauguration Dais
The crowd packed on the west side of the Capitol grounds serenaded President Bush in mocking fashion when he took to the inaugural stage alongside Vice President Dick Cheney. "Nah nah nah nah, hey hey, good-bye," a section of the crowd chanted.
The crowd packed immediately below the podium received Bush in stony silence when he took his seat on the stage surrounding the podium where Barack Obama was scheduled to take the oath office to become the 44th president of the United States
But at least one man was seen giving the chopper what Bush used to call the "one-finger salute." Another man, with a thick New England accent, yelled, "Go back to Crawford!" And a woman shouted, "Good riddance! He's leaving"
[aren't we proud]
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Bush's Real Sin Was Winning in Iraq
... Yet perhaps the most important reason for this unpopularity is the one least commented on. Here's a hint: It's not because of his failures. To the contrary, Mr. Bush's disfavor in Washington owes more to his greatest success.
Simply put, there are those who will never forgive Mr. Bush for not losing a war they had all declared unwinnable. [snip]
That was Vietnam thinking. And the president never accepted it. That was why his critics went ape when, in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, he touched on the killing fields and exodus of boat people that followed America's humiliating exit off an embassy rooftop. As the Weekly Standard's Matthew Continetti noted, Mr. Bush had appropriated one of their most cherished analogies -- only he drew very different lessons from it. [snip]
Mr. Bush's success in Iraq is equally infuriating, because it showed he was right and they wrong. Many in Washington have not yet admitted that, even to themselves. Mr. Obama has. We know he has because he has elected to keep Mr. Bush's secretary of defense -- not something you do with a failure.
Mr. Obama seems aware that he will soon find himself under pressure to measure up to two Bush achievements: a strategic victory in Iraq, and the prevention of another attack on America's home soil. As he rises to this challenge, our new president will learn that when you make a mistake, opponents and pundits will make you pay dearly.
But it will not even be close to the price you pay for ignoring their advice and succeeding.
[A plausable shot at BDS explained: Recommended > ]
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Is This How the Post-Racial Obama Administration Begins?
Martin Luther King's dream has come to life. Or at least I thought so.
There, he was — at the threshold of history. Fifty years ago, a black man couldn't be served at lunch counters in some cities. And today, Barack Obama stood in front of millions of Americans on the mall — black and white, right and left— to take the oath of the highest office in the land.
His speech generally respected the situation —- heavy on those things that bring us together and shed light on specifics that might divide. In the days leading up to the speech, some on the left claimed that division would be coming from that evil minister of hate — Oprah Book Club author Rick Warren. His crime: He agrees with much of Obama's platform on gay marriage. What bigotry there.
However, it was another minister — Reverend Joseph Lowery — who used his benediction, to ask God for this:"We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to give back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right."
Is this how the post-racial Obama administration begins? That someday the brown can stick around, the yellow can remain mellow, and the white will embrace what's right?
Even at the inauguration of a black president, we are being called racist.
USA Today reports that you smiled when he said this and shook your head. And it's not like you didn't know what you were getting yourself into. This is the same Reverend Lowery that even made Coretta Scott King's funeral about politics*.
Mr. President — I want to believe. I want to trust. I want to hope for change — but I am really failing to see how this is any different.
There are many that didn't vote for you, myself included, that want you to succeed, and that pray for you and your safety. You may be fascinated to learn that we don't hate minorities, and we don't want to starve the poor, and we are perfectly fine with the brown sticking around.
We will do our part. But help us help you. We will argue about politics — but let us expect the best from each other, and chastise those who insist on driving wedges between us...
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[* In 2006, at Coretta Scott King's funeral, Dr. Lowery remarked before four U.S. Presidents in attendance:
"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor! "
AP Describes Black Minister's Mockery of Whites as Not Right As 'Note of Racial Caution'
The Associated Press noticed liberal Rev. Joseph Lowery's prayer raised eyebrows when he prayed for that day in the hazy future when "white will embrace what is right." That divisive note drew this headline: "Lowery gives sole inaugural note of racial caution." The entire dispatch was brief:
"We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around.READ MORE
"When yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right."
[I heard this 'live' on my way into work and was profoundly saddened. Here we are, swearing in our fist black president which required a majority vote of the entire nation, and this guy drudged up every divisive topic known (he also disparaged the successful in the classic class warfare card).
I guess the grievance industry is just to big and powerful to face the fact that the pervasive racism they've been selling for years has just been disproved.]
[re: AP's obfuscation...
Face of Defense: Amputee Earns Commission Through Army ROTC
The blast of a roadside bomb in Iraq's Sunni Triangle resulted in the amputation of a portion of Richard Ingram's left arm, but it did not rob him of his dream of becoming an Army officer. Ingram's dream became a reality Dec. 13 when he graduated from North Georgia College and State University and became a second lieutenant.“I am extremely proud to have earned a commission through the Army ROTC program at North Georgia College, and I look forward to serving as an Army officer," Ingram said. "I didn't decide to do this just to get a slap on the back. I want to be an inspiration to others who were wounded."
He is the first individual with such severe combat injuries suffered during the global war on terrorism to earn a commission through the Army ROTC program, military officials said.
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Iraqis out stumping for votes in show of democracy
BAGHDAD -- Candidates in this month's provincial elections are answering questions from voters and debating issues ranging from Baghdad's housing shortage to the need to attract foreign investment. This is the new style of campaigning in Iraq, where candidates feel safe enough to stump for votes and focus on grass-roots issues instead of the religious divisions and violence that overshadowed earlier elections held after Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled in 2003.
[focusing on issues instead of divisions - I'm envious.]
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'Israel won, but could have gone deeper'
Israel clearly won the latest round with Hamas, but could have gone deeper into Gaza and done greater damage to the organization, according to military analysts in the US media who were visiting the region this week."I think you achieved what one Israeli general called 'changing the reality' in which Hamas operates, but I think you were too restrained and could have gone deeper into Gaza,"
Lt.-Gen. Thomas McInerney, a 35-year veteran of the US Air Force and a Fox News military analyst, told The Jerusalem Post Monday after touring the Gaza periphery and receiving briefings from Israeli officials"The Israeli public's support for this war mutes global opinion. When a nation is united in its right to defend itself, it makes it more difficult for Europeans, the Left or the Arab media to counter that."
Commenting on the unilateral cease-fire announced on Saturday, he suggested that"your leadership is too sensitive about world opinion. Israel did not want to destroy Hamas. I believe you should have."
[but they didn't, so they'll be more 'rounds' in the future]
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Hamas holds victory rallies as UN chief tours Gaza
Gaza City, Gaza Strip -- The U.N. chief inspected the devastation wrought by Israel's onslaught in Gaza on Tuesday, leading a moment of silence at the smoldering U.N. headquarters, as the territory's militant Hamas rulers, triumphant at having survived, held victory rallies amid the ruins.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded a full investigation into strikes on United Nations facilities...
FLASHBACK: "Gaza headmaster was Islamic Jihad ''rocket-maker''... headmaster at a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip built rockets for Islamic Jihad. ... laid bare and embarrassed a U.N. agency which has long had to rebuff Israeli accusations that it has aided and abetted terrorists fighting the Jewish state...
.
Poor countries 'need carbon cuts'
Poznan, Poland - People in developing countries will need to make big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions if ''dangerous'' climate change is to be avoided, a report warns. Researchers at the Third World Network calculate that even if rich nations make deep cuts, the developing world will face per-capita reductions of 60%.
It suggests this would pose challenges to these countries' development.
[it would cause the death of thousands, possibly millions by retarding how they'd otherwise develop. But they're only people...]
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James Hanson's Factory of Death
James Hansen, a politically connected scientist who uses his NASA sinecure as a pulpit from which to preach the global warming creed, has written an open letter to the new president calling for a moratorium and phase-out of coal-fired power stations, which he calls "factories of death."
I have found varying estimates of the percentage of this country's electrical power that is produced by coal-fired plants, but they vary within a range of 40 to 60 percent. This means that Hansen is proposing to cut off, within a few years, about half of the nation's power supply, offering only vague hopes about "renewable energy" or as-yet-undeveloped "fourth-generation nuclear power" to fill the gap.
All of this is to be accomplished by a massive new "carbon tax" on all forms of fossil fuels, with a "100% dividend"—i.e., the proceeds from the tax will be given back to the American people in the form of direct monthly subsidy. This is a kind of welfare payment intended to bribe the American people into thinking that they are benefiting from a scheme that is actually designed to collapse the economy.
It is Hansen's scheme that is the real factory of death—a mechanism for permanent global economic collapse, with all of its horrific consequences.
For those who want to see it for themselves, Hansen's original letter is available here, though in a poorly formatted version.
Global Warming Skepticism Panic Attack at Huffington Post
Please pay no attention to the evidence right outside your windows! Despite the fact that we are experiencing the coldest weather in decades, Kevin Grandia blogging at the Huffington Post wants you to ignore this and start worrying about the growing trend of global warming skepticism.
According to Grandia, questioning the holy theology of the Church of Global Warming is a seriously disturbing heresy. He even catalogued the increased levels of global warming skepticism by analyzing Google search stats in excruciating detail:
Our 2008 analysis of global warming misinformation finds that there was a very significant upswing in online activity.
This trend should be troubling to US policymakers and campaigners wanting to implement new greenhouse gas reduction strategies.
Here's the stats I've generated as evidence of my conclusions:
"Global Warming" hoax
A Google blog search for the term "global warming" hoax between January 1, 2008 and January 1, 2009 reports 49,719 page results. The same search for the previous year reports only 22,077 page results.
Eeek! The number of global warming thought crimes more than doubled in just a year. Grandia continues to give us more "grim" Google statistics about this growing heresy:
"Global Warming" skeptic
A Google blog search for the term "global warming" skeptic between January 1, 2008 and January 1, 2009 reports 73,956 page results. The same search for the previous year reports only 38,346 page results. Fancy graph.
But..but Kevin. How can we keep the majority of mainstream media, who are in the tank with you over global warming, from preventing their weather people from delivering reports about the record cold temperatures? Grandia delivers more sad news about why the global warming ideology is crumbling:
Here's some recent findings that should trouble anyone working to implement new laws to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:
1) The Internet is now a larger source of news for people than newspapers.
2) Millions of people are seeking global warming information online.
Gasp! How dare people search for global warming information on their own outside of the reliable mainstream media which continues to support this climatic notion despite evidence to the contrary! Grandia concludes that in order to combat the growing global warming skepticism, more propaganda is going to have to shoved down the throat of the public:
If this is going to be the year that we have the political leadership in the United States with the will to take real action on climate change, we're all going to have to double, or even triple our efforts to dispel the myths and lies being spread online about the realities of the situation.
Of course, in order to promote the global warming ideology, Grandia might want to start by silencing Harold Ambler who wrote this incredible heresy in his own Huffington Post:
Mr. Gore has stated, regarding climate change, that "the science is in." Well, he is absolutely right about that, except for one tiny thing. It is the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of humankind.
So the first place to send in the global warming Thought Police would be right there in the Huffington Post.
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[Typical logic pattern of the alarmist mind: they guy is blogging his dismay that people are reading the Internet.
As enjoyable as I found this piece, truth is - thanks to the capitulation of corporate America {third leg in stool: governments, media, business} - if we're to prevent the ruination of our economy and protect our children's civil liberties it's we realists (if you don't mind) who will need to become much, much more vociferous in our opposition.
Silence will be taken as consent, and all legislative momentum is on the side of the environmoral fascists. {so sharpen you email}]
The Goodfellas at the Fed
The basic pattern of Washington's financial panic continues: the more the government tries to stimulate the economy, the more depressed it gets.
According to the latest report in the New York Times, after hundreds of billions of dollars in spending, the stimulus is not working. The banks who were supposed to be saved by the first round of bailouts are actually in worse shape and need more federal cash.
Even before word came on Tuesday that Citigroup might split into pieces to shore up its finances, an unpleasant message was moving through Congress and President-elect Barack Obama's transition team: the banks need more taxpayer money... a lot more money...
The obvious question is: why are private investors scarce? Maybe it has something to do with the terms of the bailouts and "stimulus" aimed at them. The Times story contains only one hint at this:
Mr. Obama's economic team is planning a broad overhaul of the program to impose more accountability and more restrictions on executives at companies that receive government money.
"More accountability" means more government management of the banks; more restrictions means more measures designed to reduce the profitability of the banking industry and drive out the best talent. For an example of what all of this "accountability" means, consider the Wall Street Journal's overview of the government's treatment of the healthiest of the big nationwide banks, Bank of America.
After BofA shareholders approved the Merrill purchase on December 5, Mr. Lewis saw Merrill's assets plunge in value and began to explore a way out. At least he wanted a better price….
Mr. Lewis's effort to protect his common shareholders was vetoed by his most important shareholder, the feds.
In October the US Treasury had 'insisted' on investing $15 billion in his bank. Come December, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told him that Merrill had to be saved, and that BofA had to be the savior….
In other words, the feds believe that the way to calm financial markets is to force the nation's largest, and a heretofore healthy, bank to swallow toxic assets it didn't want...
[this is an example on how government always screws the pooch when it tries to manage markets - can't be done. We must let the market work itself out with as little government intervention as possible - i.e., money if we must - but for heaven's sake no 'instructions' from government (unless you find Congress well run?)]
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$825 Billion 'Stimulus' Plan to Pay for New Windows, Day Care, Cable TV
[exhibit A re: Congress' budgetary acumen, HT:BC]
The $825 billion government stimulus package unveiled by congressional Democrats on Friday contains billions of dollars in government spending supposedly designed to create jobs and stimulate the economy. However, the package also contains a host of items congressional leaders rarely mention, including hundreds of millions of dollars for cable TV boxes, new windows in government housing, and day care...
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HOUSING PUSH FOR HISPANICS SPAWNS WAVE OF FORECLOSURES
California
For years, immigrants to the U.S. have viewed buying a home as the ultimate benchmark of success. Mortgage lenders appear to have regarded Latinos as a largely untapped demographic
- Between 2000 and 2007, as the Hispanic population increased, Hispanic homeownership grew even faster, increasing by 47 percent, to 6.1 million from 4.1 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
- In 2005 alone, nonprime mortgages to Hispanics jumped by 169 percent, according to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
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Obama's First Act as President
Barack Obama emphatically promised more than a year ago, "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act." Will he keep his word?
The Freedom of Choice Act is a sweeping bill that would abolish all pro-life regulations across the nation, from parental notification laws to bans on federal funding of abortions. The Office of the General Counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops identified 13 categories of pro-life laws that would be stampeded and nullified by FOCA.
The fight to pass FOCA is being waged despite a new nationwide survey revealing that about 4 in 5 U.S. adults would limit abortion's is some way. About 1 in 3 would limit abortion to rape, incest or saving a mother's life. One-third also would limit abortion to either the first three months of pregnancy or the first six months. Only 9 percent said abortion should be legal for any reason at any time during pregnancy.
As far-reaching as the decision of Roe v. Wade is into the states' jurisdictions and our lives, even it, for example, showed certain respect for state laws and limits on infringing regulations in the medical field. FOCA shows no such restraints; it nails shut the coffin on pro-life choices and safeguards... [snip]
sign the online petition to fight FOCA, and then contact your representatives and senators to tell them how you expect them to vote on the bill.
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[me, I'm pro-choice - with caveats - not the least of them having to do with the protection of states rights][what do you think? tell 'em...]
Name That Party: He's a Mayor Accused of Soliciting Sex From Child... But is he a Democrat?
Mayor Gary Becker of Racine, Wisconsin, received some unwanted attention from the Old Media and the local police today because of his arrest for using a computer to solicit sex from a child. According to the Associated Press, Becker is "tentatively charged with attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child, child enticement, possession of child pornography, exposing a child to harmful materials, using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime and misconduct in public office."
The AP spends several paragraphs detailing the world of Mayor Becker. It describes his election, his marriage and kids. It describes his accused crime and where and how he was snapped up by the police. But there is one little thing the AP can't seem to find any information on... his party.
That's right, once again the Old Media gives us an alleged criminal sexual pervert politician and somehow forgets to mention the accused is a Democrat.
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ABC Cites Only Democrats as the 'Warriors' in the Civil Rights Movement
"And on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we thought it would be appropriate to look back at all the warriors, black and white, who made this moment where we are today possible."
All the warriors? The piece went on to feature clips from eight Democratic politicians in addition to a number of non-political civil rights pioneers. Republican Abraham Lincoln went unmentioned, so did New York Governor Thomas Dewey who signed one of the nation's earliest civil rights laws in 1944 and President Ronald Reagan who made Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday in 1983. In fact, no Republican was mentioned.
That's particularly egregious given the (evidently inconvenient) fact that a higher percentage of Congressional Republicans voted for the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act than did Democrats. Another point left unmentioned was the heroic effort by the conservative GOP minority leader in the Senate, Everett Dirksen, in supporting that legislation (see a December 14, 2002 article by Diane Alden on NewsMax.com.
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Pentagon: 61 ex-Guantanamo inmates return to terrorism
WASHINGTON- The Pentagon said on Tuesday that 61 former detainees from its military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appear to have returned to terrorism since their release from custody.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed and 43 suspected of "returning to the fight."He said the figures, updated at the end of December, showed a higher rate of recidivism than seen in a previous report showing 37 former detainees as active militants.
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Court rules in favor of Cheney in lawsuit
WASHINGTON -- A federal judge ruled Monday that Vice President Dick Cheney has broad discretion in determining what records created during his eight-year tenure must be preserved. Absent any evidence that Cheney's office is failing to safeguard records, it is up to the vice president to determine how he deals with material, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled.
[another 'scandal' down the crapper]
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Obama gets smelly 'gift'
Toulouse, France - French cheese producers sought to cause a stink for incoming US president Barack Obama on Friday, sending him a case of pungent Roquefort to protest American import tariffs.
George W. Bush, already a hate figure here after eight years of tense trans-Atlantic relations, bade farewell to French shepherds by slapping 300% import duty on their prime product.
[Consequences to speech? Intolerable!!!] :^)
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