After running into a dead end in its efforts to jump-start Middle East peace talks, the Obama administration has signaled that it has evaluated the situation and understands that not all is well.
But instead of a course correction, senior administration officials have decided that what they need to do is to deploy their most effective weapon - the rhetorical brilliance of President Barack Obama - {wait for it} - ... on a recalcitrant state of Israel...
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When they first elected him in 1998, Venezuelans hoped that Hugo Chávez would be a healer. Instead, they got a tyrant who seizes private companies and farms and harasses political opponents.
Now after a decade of the so-called Bolivarian revolution, tens of thousands of disillusioned Venezuelan professionals have had enough. An estimated one million Venezuelans have moved away since Chávez took power, says Newsweek.
The exodus is sabotaging the country's future and no industry has been harder hit than Venezuela's oil sector: [snip]
Much of the same is happening in the Axis of Hugo, the states following Chávez. Leaders in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua are rewriting their constitutions, intimidating the media and stoking class and ethnic conflicts.
The result? More flight:
What’s the end-game here? I suppose it’s conceivable that there are a few remaining suckers out there who still believe Barack Obama is the great post-partisan, fiscally responsible, pragmatic centrist he played so beguilingly just a year ago. The New York Times’ David Brooks stuck it out longer than most: Only a few backs, he was giddy with excitement over the President’s “education” “reforms” (whatever they were).
But now he says we’re in “the early stages of the liberal suicide march”. For a famously moderate moderate, Mr Brooks seems to have gone from irrational optimism over the Democrats’ victory to irrational optimism over the Democrats’ impending downfall without the intervening stage of rational pessimism.
The end-game is very obvious. If you expand the bureaucratic class and you expand the dependent class, you can put together a permanent electoral majority.
By “dependent”, I don’t mean merely welfare, although that’s a good illustration of the general principle. In political terms, a welfare check is a twofer: you’re assuring the votes both of the welfare recipient and of the vast bureaucracy required to manage his welfare.
But extend that principle further, to the point where government intrudes into everything: a vast population is receiving more from government (in the form of health care or education subventions) than it thinks it contributes, while another vast population is managing the ever expanding regulatory regime (a federal energy-efficiency code, a government health bureaucracy) and another vast population remains, nominally, in the private sector but, de facto, dependent on government patronage of one form or another.
Either way, what you get from government – whether in the form of a government paycheck, a government benefit or a government contract – is a central fact of your life....
[Q: How can we control a government a majority is dependent on? A: We can't.]
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Stagnant unemployment, shrinking tax revenue and a struggling economy threaten to quadruple the size of last year's federal budget deficit, raising more questions about the timing of costly proposals to overhaul health care.
As the White House and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) prepare to release new deficit estimates this month, several economists say the news is likely to be as bad as or worse than forecasts.
"They have just a nightmare in terms of these health care bills, which do nothing but make things worse."
Only five percent (5%) say the president’s policies have cut the deficit, and 10% say they have had no impact. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure.
Not surprisingly, 88% of Republicans blame the president’s policies, compared to 52% of Democrats.
But 79% of voters not affiliated with either party agree.
Eighty-one percent (81%) of voters now say the bigger problem for the United States today is not voters’ unwillingness to pay enough in taxes but is instead the unwillingness of politicians to control government spending...
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This year, millions of Americans accepted a salary freeze or even a pay cut so they could keep their jobs. They ought to be asking why the federal government isn’t willing to make a similar sacrifice.
Even though faced with declining tax receipts and increased borrowing, lawmakers and President Barack Obama have ramped up federal spending — and not just temporary spending. They intend to make this year’s big increases permanent... [snip]
The pity is that a balanced budget could be within reach. If lawmakers would return to the level of spending they maintained throughout the 1980s and ’90s ($21,000 per household, adjusted for inflation), we could balance the budget by 2012 without raising taxes.
Doing this would require discipline, of course. That’s why lawmakers should pass a strong Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights. TABOR, as it’s known, would help curb spending by limiting the growth of federal spending to the inflation rate plus population growth. That would save taxpayers trillions of dollars in the years ahead.
In these difficult times, with everyone cutting back, Americans ought to expect their government to do so as well. With a Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights, our government can reduce spending, balance its budget and start encouraging growth again. It’s an idea that’s long overdue.
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Detroit's public-school system, beset by massive deficits and widespread corruption, is on the brink of entering bankruptcy court. A decision on whether to file for protection under federal bankruptcy laws will be made by the end of summer. Such a filing would be unprecedented in the United States, says the Wall Street Journal.
In Detroit -- where U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan dubbed the school system a "national disgrace" this spring -- lawmakers and bankruptcy experts see few alternatives, given the deep financial challenges confronting the district and the state.
As with General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, bankruptcy may not be the worst thing for Detroit's schools:
Even if the liberal media continue to ignore it, the Justice Department's dismissal of a voter-intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party is a full-blown scandal. Fortunately, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is pursuing justice even though the Department of Justice is not.
As reported in our news pages last Friday, the commission has sent a strongly worded letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., effectively threatening to subpoena witnesses and documents if Justice does not provide better, more complete answers about its decision to dismiss the cases.
"We believe the Department's defense of its actions thus far undermines respect for rule of law," wrote the commission, "and raises other serious questions about the department's law enforcement decisions."
MSNBC Anchor: ''Socialist' Is Becoming the New N-word'
Did you know that when you refer to someone as a socialist, you're really calling them the N-word? Such an astonishing hypothesis was offered by MSNBC's Carlos Watson Monday in a segment he refers to as "The 'C' Note."
Potentially even more shocking, after Watson offered this seemingly absurd opinion, Mort Zuckerman actually agreed with him ...
[How to tie dissent against socialism to racism. First: demonize your enemy...]
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Some logic and horse sense
I see where several intellectuals in Massachusetts want to form a committee to explore racial harmony following the recent arrest of a Harvard professor.
In an effort to enhance my public-spiritedness, I decided to organize my own committee to analyze how confrontations between supposed adults of all races can best be avoided. Here is what my committee determined by applying a complex blend of common horse sense and elementary logic.
If your home has been previously targeted by potential burglars, it's wise not to try breaking into it in full view of a neighbor who doesn't recognize you but cares enough to summon police.
When the responding officer arrives to investigate a possible burglary in progress, simply invite him inside. Then smile and offer thanks for his putting himself in a potentially threatening situation because he was trying to stop an intruder from ransacking your home.
Do not immediately judge the officer's arrival to protect you and your home as "profiling" just because he's of a different race.
Instead, offer him a beer...
[More, all at no cost to the taxpayer.]
Now where does my committee collect its grant?
[Figures. Scratch that last...]
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Trinkets that stick it to Obama start to sell
In the political paraphernalia department, "Yes, we can" is becoming "No, he can't."
Anti-Obama memorabilia -- from T-shirts to bumper stickers to buttons -- is increasingly emerging in the marketplace as the president's economic and health care policies polarize supporters and detractors.
While "Mama for Obama" was a popular slogan during the 2008 election cycle, that design has been retooled with angry and fickle disenchantment: "To the Mama for Obama -- thanks for the tax hike."
The "Audacity of Hope," the title of Mr. Obama's popular book, has been replaced by the "Audacity of Hype." 
Whereas we had the campaign of Obama centered around hope, now they're asking: 'How's that hopey-changey thing going?' "
The Cafepress.com store, a cultural barometer of sorts for political and social expression, offers about 3 million Obama products, she said, but now is up to about 1 million that are "anti-Obama-oriented," reflecting a "significant shift in the last couple of months than what was the trend a year ago."
USA Today, by Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer
[HT:LDot: "Authors Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer declare free speech
un-American. Yes, they actually put this in writing..."]
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The ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts in near-unison on Friday night disparaged the anti-ObamaCare protests at town meetings held by Members of Congress as “unruly,” “nasty” and “getting ugly,” while CBS and NBC targeted Rush Limbaugh -
- NBC's Kelly O'Donnell charged “some anger...gets stoked by the provocative megaphone of Rush Limbaugh, who went so far as accusing Democrats of wanting the socialized medicine of Nazi Germany” -
- without bothering to acknowledge Limbaugh was reacting to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who first put Nazi comparisons into play by accusing the opponents of “carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care.”
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Are you opposed to ObamaCare? Willing to attend a town hall to express your disapproval? Odds are good you're a racist. Just ask Cynthia Tucker...
As Clay Waters has noted, Paul Krugman alleges that racist motives are at the heart of the town hall protests against ObamaCare. On this evening's Hardball, Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was willing to get specific, estimating that "45 to 65%" of the protesters are motivated by racism.
View video here.
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As so-called journalists negatively depict town hall meeting protesters as an organized angry mob (or worse!), they seem to forget how throughout most of this decade while George W. Bush was president dissent was quite encouraged.
As an example, try to guess who said this in 2003?
"I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you're not patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration."
Forty-one percent (41%) of U.S. voters have a favorable opinion of the people opposing health care reform at town hall meetings now being conducted by members of Congress, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
But 35% view the protesters unfavorably. Twenty-three percent (23%) are not sure what they think of them.
Given the partisan anger prompted by the town hall meetings, it’s not surprising to see a similar divide in the survey. Fifty-five percent (55%) of Democrats have an unfavorable view of those opposing the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and the leaders of their party. Sixty-three percent (63%) of Republicans and the plurality (48%) of voters not affiliated with either party view the protesters favorably.
Senior Democrats charge that many of the protests at the town hall meetings are orchestrated by special interests, but 49% of voters believe, generally speaking, that the protesting citizens are reflecting the concerns of their neighbors.
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"When I watch the news people stand here and tell me that I am a member of a hired mob, that I've been called up by the Republican Party, they only wish they could have done something like this. I've never been contacted by any organized group."
So stated a caller during Saturday's "Washington Journal" on C-SPAN in a monologue that is likely to go viral throughout the Internet and possibly make the speaker America's next Joe the Plumber.
But that's only the tip of the iceberg, for Leah from New Hampshire's declaration about what's really going on in the country, Congress, the media, and at these town hall meetings perfectly encapsulated what most so-called journalists are either ignorantly missing or dishonestly ignoring (video and transcript below the fold, h/t Ed Morrissey via Bob Hicks):
[Recommended > ]
On Friday’s Your World program, Fox News Channel’s interviewed Kenneth Gladney, the victim of an assault outside a health care town hall meeting in St. Louis on August 6, along with his lawyer David Brown. A video of the immediate aftermath of the attack showed some of the suspects wearing t-shirts bearing the logo of the SEIU union, which is a member organization of Health Care for America Now!, a left-wing coalition pushing for the passage of ObamaCare [video clips from the segment are available here; audio clips are found here].
Mr. Gladney stated that he arrived outside the building where the town hall meeting was taking place, and started distributing and/or selling flags which bear the famous slogan “Don’t Tread on Me.” He continued that
“this guy...walked up to me and said...who in the blank is selling this blank here. And I said, sir, this is my merchandise, and....he was like, what kind of ‘N’ are you to be giving out this kind of stuff here? And he snatched the- the button board. And when he snatched the button board, I snatched it back from him, and that’s when he proceeded to hit me in my face.”
Bill Hennessey of the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition reports (snip)the man who beat up Mr Gladney is an SEIU official (snip) Elston K. McCowan is a former organizer - now the Public Service Director of SEIU Local 2000 - (snip) has been a community organizer for more than 23 years, and now, he is running for Mayor of the City of St. Louis under the Green Party.
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The New York Times suddenly isn't so fond of community organizing, now that the right has gotten into the game, attacking Obama's health-care proposals in clamorous town halls held by Democratic congressmen over the August recess. In fact, the Times agrees with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that such meetings have become "hostile" and "extreme."
The past week’s debate about health care has shown that in Washington the only things more stubborn than facts are politicians who evade them. In spite of a torrent of independent analyses showing that the so-called health-care “reform” bills moving through Congress will dramatically increase the deficit and cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance, the politicians leading the effort have steadfastly refused to consider that their ideas and policies, rather than the character of their critics, may be flawed. At the same time, the politicians writing the bill still refuse to answer basic questions about how it will be paid for and how it will affect patients
According to independent sources, the health-care bills under consideration will dramatically increase the deficit, take away patient choice, and set the stage for a total government takeover of health care — the single-payer model many Democrats have long dreamed of. As the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, recently said, the bills moving through Congress did not contain“the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount. And on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health-care costs.”
Meanwhile, the independent Lewin Group estimates that 114 million Americans will be forced to give up their current health-care plans as the government-run plan puts everyone else out of business.
Congressional leaders and partisan operatives have responded to these policy indictments by inventing a bizarre conspiracy theory that involves right-wing extremists, the CBO, moderate Democrats, and insurance companies — all of whom are somehow dreaming up “scare tactics” while plotting to disrupt town-hall meetings. This line of attack is troubling because it goes far beyond traditional partisanship and instead indicts millions of hardworking taxpayers who have honest concerns... [snip]
Individual Americans should view the month of August as their best, and perhaps final, opportunity to alter the health-care bills before Congress reconvenes in September.
Citizens should ask hard questions without having their motives questioned. I expect such questions at my town-hall meetings. After all, the greater threat to freedom and liberty is not an informed citizenry but an irresponsible, elitist, and evasive political class that refuses to answer hard questions and make tough choices...
[Long - Highly Recommended {it's your money and your care}]
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[Then...]
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A petition opposing President Barack Obama’s plan for a government-led overhaul of the nation’s health care system [above] has garnered over 1 million signatures since it launched May 25, something its sponsors say is proof that public opposition to Obama’s plan is very real...
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[To those of you who signed last month {FLASHBACK}, well done. For those of you that haven't...]
Ramadi, Iraq - The top U.S. general in Iraq said Tuesday that he disagrees with a colonel's memo urging an early troop withdrawal even though the security situation is better than expected since American forces turned over security in urban centers to the Iraqis more than a month ago.
Gen. Ray Odierno, the first senior American official to comment on the memo, told The Associated Press the Americans need to stay the course in Iraq
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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Georgia’s actions, including a troop buildup on the borders of two separatist Georgian regions, are cause for “serious concern” a year after a war between the two countries.
Russia routed Georgia’s U.S.-trained army in the five-day war over separatist South Ossetia that began one year ago today. Medvedev later recognized South Ossetia and a second breakaway region, Abkhazia, as sovereign countries in the face of Western condemnation. Russia has deployed thousands of troops in the regions, which Georgia regards as occupied territories, and agreed to 'defend' their borders.
Russia maintains that it sent troops into South Ossetia in response to Georgia’s “inhuman attack” on civilians and Russian peacekeepers. Georgia insists that Russia invaded late on Aug. 7, forcing it to launch a counter-offensive. Georgia denied Medvedev’s claim of a troop buildup.“Georgia has never attacked Abkhazia or South Ossetia and never will,” Gilauri said, calling last year’s war “Russian aggression.” “Why should we sign a non-aggression pact when we’re not the ones who attacked? We defended ourselves, that’s all.”
Medvedev also reiterated Russia’s call for all countries to impose a “lengthy” halt on arms shipments to Georgia. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said on Aug. 5 that the U.S. continues to deliver arms to Georgia, Interfax reported.
[The West's inaction taught Russia it can do whatever it wants in the region - and it will...]
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Although hundreds of well-trained eyes are watching over the $700 billion that Congress last year decided to spend bailing out the nation's financial sector, it's still difficult to answer some of the most basic questions about where the money went.
Despite a new oversight panel, a new special inspector general, the existing Government Accountability Office and eight other inspectors general, those charged with minding the store say they don't have all the weapons they need. Ten months into the Troubled Asset Relief Program, some members of Congress say that some oversight of bailout dollars has been so lacking that it's essentially worthless...
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Three Australasian researchers have shown that natural forces are the dominant influence on climate, in a study just published in the highly-regarded Journal of Geophysical Research. According to this study little or none of the late 20th century global warming and cooling can be attributed to human activity.
"Our paper confirms what many scientists already know: which is that no scientific justification exists for emissions regulation, and that, irrespective of the severity of the cuts proposed, ETS (emission trading scheme) will exert no measurable effect on future climate,"
Under a new city law, residents of Austin, Texas, must purchase costly energy audits before they will be allowed to sell their homes.
Prospective sellers must provide evidence they've had a professional analysis of items such as heating systems, cooling systems, draftiness and insulation. Austin joins San Francisco and Berkeley, Calif., as the only cities requiring such energy audits, which typically cost $200 to $300 apiece.
Experts agree that this is a bad policy:
Here's a shocking new poll result from CNN that seems almost guaranteed to not get a lot of attention from the media: more people believe Barack Obama's presidency is a failure after six months in office than felt that way after George W. Bush's first half year.
Maybe even more shocking: the poll included an oversampling of African-Americans. [why?]
Impossible?
Well, the good folks at Real Clear Politics made this discovery on page two of CNN's PDF released at 6AM Thursday.
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Three of the top four books on the New York Times nonfiction hardcover bestseller list are by conservatives -- and none have been reviewed by the Times. The fourth is Malcolm Gladwell's ubiquitous "Outliers."
Michelle Malkin's "Culture of Corruption," the nation's top-selling nonfiction hardcover book, debuted this week in the top spot, followed by "Liberty and Tyrranny" by Mark R. Levin. Gladwell's book is third, followed by "Catastrophe," a critical book about President Barack Obama's health care agenda by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann.Meet Nick Vujicic, a man born with no legs or arms who I assure you will touch you in more ways than you can possibly imagine (h/t Bernard Kerik):
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The Democratic National Committee has released a new video to push back against protests happening at town hall meetings across the country, and according to ABC's Jake Tapper, these demonstrators are being depicted as
"irrational birthers who want to 'destroy' President Obama."
"desperate Republicans and their well funded allies [who are] organizing angry mobs -- just like they did during the election."
.
In another display of adapting campaign tactics to governing, the White House posted a video on its official website Tuesday to rebut accusations that President Obama's healthcare proposals would do away with private health insurance.
The video shows White House spokeswoman Linda Douglass sitting in front of a computer monitor displaying the Drudge Report website.
Douglass says that because the president has talked so much about healthcare, he is at risk of having his words distorted by people with
"a computer and a lot of free time" who "take a phrase here and there, they simply cherry pick and put it together and make it sound like he's saying something that he didn't really say."
"I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There's going to be potentially some transition process..."
"I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House."
.
The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a challenge to the Pentagon policy forbidding gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, granting a request by the Obama administration.
The court said it will not hear an appeal from former Army Capt. James Pietrangelo II, who was dismissed under the military's ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy. The appeals court in Boston earlier threw out the lawsuit
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,
It's been a long time since MSNBC could pretend to be anything but a shill for liberal politicians, policies and causes. Any remaining doubts about that can be dispelled by surveying the network's recent coverage of the controversy over gays in the military.
Cable news' self-described "place for politics" covered the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" administrative policy six different times between July 27 and July 29. Opponents of the current policy were able to state their case unchallenged, while network anchors made it clear that they were themselves in favor of allowing openly homosexual men and women to serve in the armed forces.
Not one defender of the current policy appeared in any of the pieces.
There are plenty of valid arguments to support retaining the current 'compromise' policy. MSNBC audiences just won't hear any of them.
For example, a July 30 Washington Times article reported that a survey conducted by the Military Officers Association of America, an organization made up of active-duty officers, reservists, military retirees and veterans, found that 68 percent said changing the law would have a negative effect on troop morale and military readiness.
Unsurprisingly, MSNBC failed to report that study, or other any other evidence of military officers' support for the current law. In March 2009 more than 1,000 retired flag and general officers signed a statement of support for the 1993 law.
The only play the letter received on MSNBC was a brief mention in 1 of the 6 airings.
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Washington - Jordan on Monday joined Saudi Arabia in publicly rejecting US appeals to improve relations with Israel to help restart Middle East peace talks, throwing a damper on President Barack Obama's administration's push for Arab support behind new negotiations....
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Is it time for those who clamor for a Middle East peace to "declare victory and go home"? Two recent events in the region signal the answer.... [snip]
On July 5, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning to Lebanon:
"that Israel will hold the Lebanese government responsible for any attack launched from within the country's territory, including Hizbullah operations."
[a] week after a group of 15 people carrying Lebanese and Hizbullah flags crossed into the Shaba Farms, the terror organization called on its followers... not to demonstrate in the area under Israeli control."
top Hizbullah and Amal officials made a commitment to the UN envoy in Lebanon not to organize rallies along the border with Israel and to block any attempt to demonstrate there.
Seven months after Israel started a fierce three-week military campaign here to stop rockets from being fired on its southern communities, Hamas has suspended its use of rockets and shifted focus to winning support at home and abroad through cultural initiatives and public relations.
[HT:DT]
Last month a world-wide survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was:-
"Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"
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We currently find ourselves in the worst economic crisis since the "Great Depression". If you have an inquiring mind, you have to ask "how did we get into such a mess?" We can point our fingers at many that are indeed guilty, such as Wall Street, the mortgage industry, cowardly politicians, and plain old fashioned "greed and dishonesty" and there is some truth to be found there. However, there is one entity that is not well understood by most of us, that lurks in the shadows and in reality has the greatest accountability here.
That entity is the Federal Reserve.
It is guilty for dereliction of duty in its entrusted job of maintaining a stable dollar and as a protector of economic stability
The Federal Reserve began in 1913. Its job was to be a protector of our monetary system. Since then, we have had many recessions, the Great Depression of the 1930s and our current debacle. Each and every single one of them can be traced to the Federal Reserve manipulating interest rates, to either higher or lower than what the free market has determined what that rate should be. The results are either inflationary artificial booms, (such as we saw with the housing boom these past few years with artificially low rates) or cycles of tight money and recession/depression.
The Federal Reserve's interference throws markets and interest rates out of balance. Although short term this may all seem to be "fine and dandy" there is always a longer term price to pay, and inevitably the "chickens come home to roost". The Federal Reserve has the tremendous ability to create money out of thin air, but with a cost, for all money creation, in the current system, is only created through the mechanism of DEBT. Money supply growth is thru the vehicle of loans. Like the personal abuse of credit cards, the compounding of interest on this debt lives long after the enjoyment of the purchase.
It may come as a surprise, but the Federal Reserve, in spite of its name, is actually a privately owned cartel and is only a "quasi governmental agency". It is actually owned by its member banks, which hold its stock. The primary dealers are the well known entities such as UBS, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Credit Suisse etc. These business entities harvest the benefits of interest debt and inflation, and are "insiders" to the mechanisms and directions of this process. Realize that much of the "bailout" that was given to banks by the Federal Reserve was actually authorized by these very same banks themselves as members of the Federal Reserve! Talk about a conflict of interest!
The Founding Fathers knew that unbacked paper money would ruin our beloved and hard fought for country, and they put into the Constitution the way that would ensure a sound, commodity-backed currency. Unfortunately, the Constitution was dismissed and ignored a long time ago. We find ourselves now suffering under an unconstitutional regime of bogus paper money.
Until we abolish the Federal Reserve, and its severe conflicts of interest, and return to a true stable currency that will not create boom and bust cycles, we will continue down the path of economic manipulation, bubble markets, and our debt slavery to the banking system.
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Last week, the Wall Street Journal noted that the House health care bill places an 8 percent payroll tax on small businesses with payrolls of $400,000 or more that do not provide health insurance for their employees.
In addition, individual workers would have to pay a 2.5-percent tax on gross income if they do not buy the health insurance the government mandates.
What people do not realize is that whether an employer offers health benefits is generally a function of how badly the employees want those benefits and if they are willing to forego wages in return.
Labor and health economists both have documented that health benefits are essentially part of an employee's compensation -- employers do not pay for that, workers do.
That is why minimum-wage workers in small businesses will be hit the hardest -- they will either be laid off, or in many cases not get the job because their skills are too marginal to afford the cost of a Cadillac health plan.
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Fifty-four percent (54%) of U.S. voters say tax cuts for the middle class are more important than new spending for health care reform -- even as President Obama’s top economic advisers signal that tax hikes on the middle class may be necessary to pay for their plan.
Thirty-four percent (34%) disagree and say new spending for health care reform is more important. Twelve percent (12%) are not sure.
The partisan and ideological divide on the question is sizable. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Democrats say new spending for health care reform is the priority. But 80% of Republicans and 62% of voters not affiliated with either party favor tax cuts for the middle class...[Baloney; they're all right-wing-extremists who have been paid to answer that way.]
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President Obama may have to break his campaign pledge and raise taxes on middle-class Americans to pay for public health care and the growing deficit, an eventuality that administration officials touched lightly on Sunday as they attempted to describe the economy emerging from recession...
[The news is the 'attempted to describe' per a major news outlet. Methinks even the media is catching on...]
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It's time to explode the Myth of the Expert and the disinterested scientist, because scientists are part of the problem in climate science
Last week Steve McIntyre of the Climate Audit website cracked the walls of the fortress at Britain's Climatic Research Unit. A "mole" sent him a sample of global temperature data that CRU Director Dr. Phil Jones had refused to share with the climate audit community. By Sunday Christopher Booker had reported the news in the Daily Telegraph.
For some reason government scientists like Dr. Jones that get millions in government research grants are considered to be disinterested experts. Yet anyone who has ever taken a dime from an oil company is bought and paid for.
Of course that is nonsense. To politicians, scientists are just another interest group competing for favors. It's pay to play. To get their grant money scientists need to deliver science that helps argue for bigger government. And they do, especially in the climate sciences.
Climate scientists like Michael Mann of Penn State University and the "Hockey Stick," James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies and Phil Jones of CRU are not disinterested experts. It's perfectly obvious when you watch Steve McIntyre audit their work.
The climate scientists don't respond to McIntyre like disinterested experts. They act like politicians looking for a fight... [snip]
But there is hope...
[Recommended > ]
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Despite President Obama's prediction that it will create new jobs, the global warming bill passed by the House of Representatives will mean fewer jobs by 2030 than if Congress did not act at all, according to the first comprehensive study of the measure by the federal government.
The Energy Information Administration report, requested by the two Democrats who wrote the House bill, says the short-term economic consequences are considerable, especially as rapid increase in energy prices causes the economy to contract.
The House passed its bill June 26 on a 219-212 vote, and a week later Mr. Obama said the legislation
"holds the promise of millions of new jobs -- jobs, by the way, that can't be outsourced"
CALIFORNIA
Along with California's efforts to crack down on its own greenhouse gas emissions, state officials have begun preparing for the worst: heat waves, a rising sea level, flooding, wildlife die-offs and other expected consequences from what scientists predict will be a dramatic temperature increase by the end of this century.
California's Natural Resources Agency on Monday issued the nation's first statewide plan to "adapt" to climate change...
[They plan to adapt to future changes. Now there's a plan. Don't laugh, you're actually paying for this idiocy.]
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[July 27]
Border: Last week, a U.S. agent was murdered in cold blood by Mexican traffickers. But something different occurred in the aftermath: Mexican cops swiftly arrested the thugs. It shows the value of the Merida drug pact
The barbaric criminals who murdered Border Patrol officer Robert Rosas last Thursday showed absolutely no regard for human life or the sovereignty of the United States.
What's worse, they thought it was easy to shoot an American agent investigating their drug and alien smuggling operations, slither back across the border, and get away with it.
After all, that's pretty much how border crimes have worked in the last few decades. Banditos have always known where to run.
But this time, the thugs were in for a surprise...
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You may have heard of Maricopa County, AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio who has been a one man border enforcement machine - doing the job the feds refuse to do.
Well, Joe got himself in a spot of trouble with Obama administration immigration enforcement officials at Homeland Security by rounding up 13 illegal immigrants and trying to deliver them to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
One would think that ICE would be grateful to Sheriff Joe for doing their work for them. Not according to this editorial in the Washington Times. It seems that in the end, Joe was forced to let the illegals go - and ICE lied about the reason why:
Sheriff Arpaio blamed ICE. However, Matthew Chandler, Washington-based spokesman for the federal Department of Homeland Security (ICE's parent agency), issued a statement saying that "the determination to release these individuals lies solely within the [sheriff's office].... [On July 23], ICE gave the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office permission to interview the three individuals in question, arrest, and initiate removal proceedings -- instead Sheriff Arpaio released them."
Homeland Security's story doesn't pan out. The sheriff's deputies taped the calls to ICE. The recordings show that ICE repeatedly refused permission to take custody of the illegals.
"Right now we cannot authorize you to take her into custody," an ICE official said to one deputy about a woman who had admitted to being illegal. On another call, ICE said: "The only way we can [authorize detainment] is if he has a criminal record." A frustrated deputy replied, "We're just gonna kick him loose then." ICE said: "OK."
The obvious misinformation from the administration might be dismissed ordinarily as a spokesman's one-time goof except that it follows a pattern of misbehavior by Obama appointees that seems intended to undercut the controversial sheriff.
On May 29, Arpaio attorney Robert N. Driscoll, former chief of staff at the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, sent a complaint letter to both Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
His letter, amply documented, accuses the two federal departments of "a serious violation of ethical standards of conduct" with regard to three federal "investigations" into Sheriff Arpaio's practices...
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The Massachusetts experiment in health care reform offers many lessons that are applicable to the current debate in Congress. The goals of the Massachusetts plan are similar to proposals supported by Democratic congressional leaders and the Obama administration: universal health insurance coverage through greater access to health insurance.
The Obama proposals would use similar means to achieve these goals: requiring individuals to purchase insurance and creating an "insurance exchange" where they can buy heavily regulated, heavily subsidized health insurance.
The Massachusetts reform, however, has raised costs, not lowered them.
The state has indeed lowered the number of uninsured dramatically -- down to 2.6 percent of the population by some estimates. But it has done so in a very expensive way that does nothing to control costs.
The state was able to get the federal government to pay for much of these new costs, but even with that help, state government spending has increased 42 percent since 2006.
The Massachusetts program has cost about one-third more than projected when the law was passed.
In just two years under the Massachusetts reforms, from 2005 to 2007, health care spending per capita rose an additional 23 percent.
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The poor, benighted little people. They just don't understand what a wonderful hopey-changey world Pres. Obama is offering them . . .
Andrea Mitchell has suggested that the problem Pres. Obama is facing in selling his health care plan to Americans who already have coverage is that people "may not know what's good for them."
Mitchell made her condescending comment on today's Morning Joe. [snip]
Condescension seems to be in the MSNBC air. Yesterday, we noted Chris Matthews, surprised that Sgt. James Crowley could handle a press conference, calling him "our Susan Boyle." Now this.
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