California
Núñez, 41, is the mastermind behind Prop. 93, and he enlisted his top political consultant, Gale Kauffmann, to lead the campaign for the measure. He would be able to serve six more years in the Assembly if the measure passes, rather than being termed out at the end of this year.
Núñez got his big break among the labor circles when Contreras hired him as political director of the labor federation. He kept that post until 2000, when he took a job as lobbyist for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Núñez arrived at the Capitol in 2003 and became speaker the following year. The first two years of his leadership were marked by political battles against Schwarzenegger. The speaker struck deals with the governor on bills that increased the minimum wage and, more importantly [?], made California the U.S. leader in efforts to curb greenhouse gases. "I put the power of the speakership behind it," Núñez said of the emissions bill. "Otherwise it wouldn't have moved."
"The bottom line: It was all about Prop. 93 and (Núñez's) ambition to continue to be speaker and his terror that Big Four gambling tribes would put money against (the measure) if he didn't do their bidding," said Jack Gribbon, California political director of UNITE Here, a labor union that opposes the gambling deals. "It was one of the coldest political calculations that I have seen in my life."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/22/MN9UU0M5L.DTL
Thursday, January 24, 2008
How Núñez rose to power so fast
3 Dogs Live The Sweet Life On $800,000 Inheritance
Hagerstown, Md. -- They're not as loaded as Leona Helmsley's pooch, but three dogs in western Maryland still have more money than they know what to do with. The dogs -- a beagle named Buckshot and Labrador mixes named Katie and Obu-Jet -- inherited $400,000 and a house in Hagerstown when their owner, Ken Kemper, died last year. The trio is worth about $800,000 altogether. (Snip) On Friday nights, Grady treats them to a spaghetti dinner, complete with meatballs and garlic bread.
http://www.myfoxdc.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5344789&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.7.1
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Soldiers Re-enlist to Commemorate 100th Army Reserve Anniversary
In the grand rotunda of Al Faw Palace here, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, issued the oath of enlistment and remarked on the continued commitment Army Reserve soldiers make in reenlisting.
“In places like Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, the Philippines and Latin America, Army reservists are bringing their warrior skills and their civilian trades to the fight,” Petraeus said.Soldiers selected to participate in the commemorative ceremony are a sampling of the more than 1,876 Army Reserve soldiers who have reenlisted over the past 12 months while deployed in Iraq and Kuwait, approximately 20 percent of all re-enlistments for the Army Reserve worldwide, officials said.
“As everyone here knows,” Petraeus told the citizen-soldiers, “that combination is particularly effective in the exceedingly complex environments we face today -- environments that require our troopers to be not just warriors but also diplomats, builders, trainers, advisors, intelligence gatherers, service providers, economic developers and mediators.”
“Citizen-soldiers perform these diverse roles expertly, and in so doing, they demonstrate the critical role members of the Army Reserve play in safeguarding freedom at home and defending it abroad,” the general added.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48718
Al Qaeda Can Run, But Can’t Hide in Northern Iraq, General Says
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2008 – The tables have turned for al Qaeda in northern Iraq, as a surge of operations there in the new year has put terrorists on the run looking for new places to hide, a commander in the region said today.
“A year ago, we were often reacting to al Qaeda and what they were going to do,” Hertling said. “Now, I think the tables have turned, and they are attempting to react to where we’re going to go next. And that’s a critical difference.”
About 15,000 local people have signed up as concerned local citizens under a program that allows them to assist with the security effort.
“As things begin to develop and we get more and more into the ‘hold’ and the eventual ‘build’ stage, coalition forces will begin to leave,” the general said. “As the Iraqi police stand up more and more capability, the Iraqi army will begin to leave and the police will be left, along with local citizens, in securing the inside of town.”http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48730
U.N. Envoy Offers Upbeat Report on Iraq
UNITED NATIONS — In the most upbeat assessment by a U.N. official since America invaded Iraq, Secretary-General Ban's top envoy in Baghdad, Steffan de Mistura, told the Security Council yesterday that it "cannot ignore the recent improvements" in Iraq since last year's troop surge. (Snip) U.N. assessments of the conditions in Iraq since the war began in 2003 have often been bleak and critical of the activities of the American-led international troop contingency, known as the Multi-National Force–Iraq.
http://www.nysun.com/article/69897
Empowering Lies
What if a major news story is made up? What if it's just Hamas propaganda without being true? And what if this story is repeated around the world? Of course, nowadays it's not hard to imagine such things happening. When one gets to specific statistics, however, it should not be too easy to lie and get away with it.
But it is.
The story in question here is by Ibrahim Barzak, “Israel cuts fuel, electricity to Gaza,” January 7, 2008. Like all individual articles it might be of limited importance by itself but it is an example of a phenomenon which has grown to be almost daily.
In the version run by the Philadelphia Inquirer it carries the following subheadline: “People have only a third of winter needs, said an official. The intent is to halt rocket attacks.”
It is important to emphasize—do a computer search if you like—that this article has been published and broadcast around the world by huge media outlets, not to mention websites.
And the main point—and impact—of the story is a fabrication...
[read how it's done > http://www.globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=4009&cid=2&sid=71 ]
Canada expected to back out of UN racism conference
UNITED NATIONS -- Canada is poised to become the first country to significantly distance itself from a major anti-racism conference the United Nations is planning for next year. Insiders say the government feels the new conference is shaping up to be like the anti-West and anti-Israel free-for-all that critics said the initial gathering quickly turned into.
"At the moment, much of the planning for the conference suggests it will focus little on denouncing racism wherever it occurs, and a lot on advancing some countries' agendas against Israel and the West," said one insider familiar with the new policy. "The government feels that taking a stand against the gathering will do more in the long run for combating racism than joining in."Arab- and Muslim-led verbal attacks on Israel at the 2001 conference were so dominant the United States and Israel walked out in protest. Canada, then under a Liberal administration, stayed, but its senior delegate told the assembly it did so "only ... to ... decry the attempts ... to de-legitimize the State of Israel and to dishonor the history and suffering of the Jewish people."
The UN gave planning oversight to its Human Rights Council, which since its launch less than two years ago has targeted Israel in 14 of its 15 resolutions charging human rights violations. States sitting on the Council then placed Iran, which has called for Israel's destruction, on an executive planning committee. Libya is the chair.
"Make no mistake, Durban II is on track to be even worse than Durban I," said Anne Bayefsky, a Canadian academic who edits the New York-based monitoring Web site EyeontheUN.org. "Canada, if it drops out, would be exhibiting moral clarity and courage after making the mistake at Durban I of staying despite serious reservations."Canada was among 41 countries that last month opposed allocating US$6.8-million in UN funding to help pay for preparatory meetings for Durban II. The measure carried in the 192-member General Assembly.
"No one can stop Durban II because countries that are classified as less than democratic hold a majority in the General Assembly, and they are for it,"said Ms. Bayefsky.
["because countries that are classified as less than democratic hold a majority in the general assembly" - where they exercise what they don't grant others, to our perpetual detriment. The organization has morphed into a gaming mechanism for despots - which we finance - it needs go (or we from it)]
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=256095
RAF scrambled as Russia tests nuclear-capable missiles
January 22, 2008 RAF scrambled as Russia tests nuclear-capable missiles (RAF/MoD Crown Copyright/PA Wire) A Russian Bear-H bomber Tony Halpin in Moscow RAF fighters scrambled to track Russian long-range bombers joining a naval task force today as Moscow practised strike tactics off the coast of France and Spain and test-launched nuclear-capable missiles. The fleet of Russian warships, supported by fighter jets and the bombers, engaged in Russia’s biggest naval exercises since the end of the Cold War.
[end? Test launching nuclear-capable missiles (and how can observers know they're duds?) off the coast of Europe? They've learned from watching tin-pot dictators that bad behavior works against the West, eventually resulting in a 'negotiated' capitulation...]
http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3234607.ece
'Patients to lose weight before NHS treatment'
Patients could be required to lose weight before they can be treated on the National Health Service, Gordon Brown has suggested. In a New Year message to NHS staff, the Prime Minister indicates people may have to fulfil new "responsibilities" in order to establish their entitlement to care. The new conditions could be set out in a formal NHS "constitution", Mr Brown says. (Snip) Despite the NHS commitment to provide free universal care, it is already common for doctors to set conditions on patients seeking treatment.
[the inevitable evolution of government run health'care']
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=EL3VVI3Y3LYOFQFIQMFSFFOAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2008/01/01/nhealth201.xml
Bill Delays Oil Exploration for Polar Bear Listing
Environmentalists welcomed a bill introduced by a House Democrat last week that would delay the sale of land in Alaska for oil exploration. Environmentalists believe the Interior Department wants to avoid classifying the polar bear as an endangered species until the land -- which is polar bear habitat -- is sold.
[snip][despite...>]
"Sale 193 was originally scheduled for June 2007, but we delayed the sale until February 2008 to provide sufficient time to complete the environmental analyses," he said in his testimony for the select committee on Thursday.
[snip]
According to Randall Luthi, director of the Minerals Management Service, "the Chukchi Sea Planning Area could hold 15 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas ... thus providing potentially significant future production of oil and gas from Northern Alaska."
[snip]"Rep. Markey and too many other members of Congress are willing to use any tools available to stop oil production in this country," he said. "Then they complain about high gasoline prices and importing oil from countries they don't like."
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200801/NAT20080121a.html
Oil drilling will not harm polar bears
US officials defended plans for oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea off northwestern Alaska, telling lawmakers that it would not harm polar bears, already threatened by global warming [?]. Randall Luthi, director of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, which sells oil drilling rights, told Congress Thursday that the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act provides adequate safeguards to polar bears from oil exploration accidents such as oil spills.
[?] = fact? : "Fact: Polar Bears are not going extinct because of the supposedly melting ice, according to a biologist Dr. Mitchell Taylor from the arctic government of Nunavut. “Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number. They are not going extinct, or even appear to be affected at present,” Taylor wrote on May 1, 2006. See here: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1146433819696&call_pageid=970599119419
[nonetheless]: Representative Edward Markey demanded polar bears be declared a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act due to global warming prior to the sale of oil drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea, scheduled for February 6.
[and so our ever-increasing oil dollars continue to flow to our middle-eastern 'friends', while driving up the costs of virtually everything in our economy...]
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080118092115.otnxbhdn&show_article=1&catnum=7
Hidden Cartel Target Range Is Reportedly Found In Raid(Tijuana)
TIJUANA – Days after a wild, deadly shootout between drug cartel gunmen and Mexican police and soldiers, authorities have uncovered what they say is a clandestine training ground for cartel assassins, complete with an underground target range that investigators believe went undetected for months.
Heavily armed federal police raided the house Saturday night. They found two armored pickups at the home, along with two other vehicles that had hidden compartments, authorities said. At ground level, the two-story green-and-white hillside house in the Independencia section of Tijuana included a machine shop for assembling and repairing weapons. Parts of disassembled pistols and...
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20080122-9999-1m22narco.html
US Supreme Court declines experimental drugs case
The Supreme Court refused earlier this week to review an earlier federal appeals court ruling that prevents terminally ill patients from being treated with experimental drugs.
Last year, a federal appeals court, siding with US FDA, said the government may deny terminally ill patients access to drugs that have not been through extensive testing and have not received FDA approval—a process that can often take years.
[criminal]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080114/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_experimental_drugs&printer=1;_ylt=Am7DEeqbpa2U2LZx5_u0vmlAw_IE
Unraveling the Unemployment Rate...
California
One of the excuses we hear for California’s budget problems is that they are caused by the national economic slowdown. It’s true that the national economy has a big impact on the state, but we’re seeing data that suggests that something went seriously wrong with California’s economy last year quite apart from our national difficulties.
Last year, California imposed a series of devastating new economic burdens, including the governor’s mandate to radically reduce carbon dioxide emissions (with profound impacts on sectors such as construction, manufacturing, agriculture and cargo transportation) and major increases in the minimum wage. Ironically, proponents claimed that these changes would greatly improve California’s job opportunities.
What we have seen over the past year is that California’s unemployment rate – that had been tracking very consistently with the national rate – broke radically upward from the national figures shortly after these laws took effect.
The Employment Development Department has just released California's December unemployment rate. While the national numbers ticked up by 3/10 of a point, California’s jumped another half point and is now running 1.1 points ahead of the national rate. A picture is worth a thousand words:
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
A New Disgrace at HuffPo
They come so frequently, it's hard to get worked up, but there's a dead giveaway this time. The teaser for the piece reads, "At the risk of sounding like an apologist for the Islamic Republic..." The author is Hooman Majd, who accuses the Pentagon of manufacturing the incident with Iran in the Gulf this week.
[yeah, he's (intending to be, anyway) serious]
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2008/01/a_new_disgrace_at_huffpo.asp
Iranian TV airs video of Gulf encounter
Cairo, Egypt - Iran aired video Thursday of its boats and U.S. naval ships in the Persian Gulf in an apparent attempt to show that there was no confrontation between the vessels. The grainy 5-minute, 20-second video showed a man speaking into a handheld radio, with three U.S. ships floating in the distance. (Snip) But the short clip likely did not show Sunday's entire encounter, which U.S. Navy officials described as threatening, and said lasted about 20 minutes.
[smooth - not only did the US fabricate the entire incident, it even convinced Iranian TV assist. Impressive.]
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107ap_iran_us_navy.html
How The News Is Made
Ring, ring, goes the telephone. And of course I answer it. The voice on the other end says that he is “Joseph” of Reuters. I get many calls from journalists and wire services but never has someone I don’t know introduced himself by first name only. He tells me that he is working on a story about how Israel is strangling the Palestinian economy...
In such circumstances, I have taken to arguing back with correspondents. By framing the story that way, I explain, Reuters is building in a bias. After all, the story should be: What’s wrong with the Palestinian economy, how to fix it, and will the massive infusion of aid--$7.4 billion just promised for three years by mostly Western donors--help?
Aren’t wire services, and the media in general, supposed to be somewhat balanced? They ask an open question, collect viewpoints, and let the reader conclude what the factors are, or at least wait until they have gathered some evidence. This is supposed to be especially true of wire services, which supply newspapers and other media with the basic facts on which they can build their own stories.
What is going on here, then, is not reporting but propaganda, as evidenced by the predictable dramatic headline of the resulting story:
“Analysis-Aid can't save Palestinian economy in Israeli grip.”No doubt is to be left that it is Israel’s fault that the Palestinian economy is in shambles. And so pervasive is this evil that even the whole world cannot save them. So after that $7.4 billion is all gone with no result everyone will know who to blame, right?
http://www.globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3962&cid=1&sid=112
Sweden, Norway drop out of UN's Darfur mission
Sweden and Norway have dropped plans to send about 400 troops to the UN peacekeeping force in Darfur because of opposition from Sudan's government, a Swedish Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday. The two Scandinavian countries had planned to send a joint engineering unit to the peacekeeping force in the troubled region, but the Swedish and Norwegian foreign ministers said in a joint statement that ''Sudan's opposition makes it impossible to maintain the offer of a Norwegian-Swedish contribution."
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/01/09/darfur-peacekeeping.html
Bush and the damage to America
ON June 27, Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke at the Center for a New American Security.
"We can repair the damage that has been done to our security and our standing over these past six years. We can rebuild our alliances and restore our moral authority, and reestablish our leadership in the world. And by doing so, we can forge a new American security for this new century,"
What in the devil was the woman talking about? The idea that our allies abandoned us is more Clintonian spin.
Let's look at the facts. In the past year, Canada elected a conservative prime minister, who of course is pro-American. Britain replaced the pro-American Tony Blair with the pro-American Gordon Brown. And South Korea, which had an anti-American streak a mile wide in 2002, elected the retired head of Hyundai, Lee Myung-bak, as its president. He's pro-American as well. Mrs. Clinton's ridiculous statement came less than six weeks after France elected as its president Nicolas Sarkozy, who calls himself - unabashedly - L'Americain.
[snip]
The reason for Democratic minority votes is Democrats continue to fail the security test. Bush gets it. So do the allies.
True, except for England and Australia, no major ally signed on for Iraq. Instead, they eased the burden in Afghanistan instead. Roughly half the allied troops in Afghanistan are from our NATO allies. NATO was set up to protect Europe. Under George Bush's leadership, it ventured into Asia. The new Australian government just re-upped for another two years, as have the Dutch and the Canadians.
[smip]
To be sure, many are the countries that liked the Clinton administration and who now despise the Bush administration. Some of their names are Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba.
Everyone says in public that they don't like having America as the lone superpower and that America should not be the world's cop. But in their hearts, they thank God for America. The world President Bush inherited from Mrs. Clinton's husband was far less secure, as we learned on Sept. 11, 2001. There has been no successful attack on us since. Maybe it is luck. Likely not.
Thanks to a surge that she did not support, Iraq likely will be on its own on Jan. 20, 2009. Overthrowing Saddam Hussein had many benefits. It ended once and for all the threats from Iraq. It convinced Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions in 2003 (although Iran may have resumed). It ended sponsorship of terrorist attacks on Israel. It convinced Libya that maybe now is not a good time to develop weapons of mass destruction.
The world still has its problems. But compared to the mess Bush received from the first President Clinton, things are better. Much better.
http://dailymail.com/Opinion/DonSurber/200801100392
'Patients to lose weight before NHS treatment'
Patients could be required to lose weight before they can be treated on the National Health Service, Gordon Brown has suggested. In a New Year message to NHS staff, the Prime Minister indicates people may have to fulfil new "responsibilities" in order to establish their entitlement to care. The new conditions could be set out in a formal NHS "constitution", Mr Brown says. (Snip) Despite the NHS commitment to provide free universal care, it is already common for doctors to set conditions on patients seeking treatment.
[the inevitable evolution of government run health'care']
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=EL3VVI3Y3LYOFQFIQMFSFFOAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2008/01/01/nhealth201.xml
New U.K. nuclear plants approved
[there...]
LONDON - The British government today announced support for the construction of new nuclear power plants, backing atomic energy as a clean source of power. Business Secretary John Hutton told legislators that nuclear power "should have a role to play in this country's future energy mix", saying nuclear energy was a "tried and tested, safe and secure" source of power.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/292806
Forget oil, the new global crisis is food
A new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen. The credit crunch and the reverberations of soaring oil prices around the world will pale in comparison to what is about to transpire, Donald Coxe, global portfolio strategist at BMO Financial Group said at the Empire Club's 14th annual investment outlook in Toronto on Thursday.
"The greatest challenge to the world is not US$100 oil; it's getting enough food so that the new middle class can eat the way our middle class does, and that means we've got to expand food output dramatically,"At the centre of the imminent food catastrophe is corn - the main staple of the ethanol industry. The price of corn has risen about 44% over the past 15 months, closing at US$4.66 a bushel on the CBOT yesterday. This not only impacts the price of food products made using grains, but also the price of meat, with feed prices for livestock also increasing.
"You're going to have real problems in countries that are food short, because we're already getting embargoes on food exports from countries, who were trying desperately to sell their stuff before, but now they're embargoing exports," he said, citing Russia and India as examples.Mr. Coxe warned U.S. corn exports were in danger of seizing up in about three years if the country continues to subsidize ethanol production. Biofuels are expected to eat up about a third of America's grain harvest in 2007.
[bad science leading to bad policy leads to bad consequences - who'd of thunk]
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=213343
Report: Border Patrol Confirms Incursions by Mexican Officials Into U.S.
The U.S. Border Patrol confirmed 29 recorded incursions into the U.S. by Mexican military or other government agents in the last 12 months, according to a report made public Wednesday by Judicial Watch, a U.S.-based public interest group. The group obtained the information through a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
The report includes a description of a January 2006 confrontation between Texas officials and several armed men in military uniforms who were seen in a military Humvee near Fort Hancock, Texas. No shots were fired and the suspects fled back into Mexico. [snip]
"These documents not only show the dangerous and chaotic situation at the Mexican border, but also the complicity of some Mexican government agents in violating U.S. law."[snip]
Between 1996 and 2006, there were 253 confirmed incursions into the U.S by Mexican government officials, according to figures supplied by the Border Patrol.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321547,00.html
FBI Wiretaps Dropped Due to Unpaid Bills
Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time. A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. Poor supervision of the program also allowed one agent to steal $25,000, the audit said. (Snip) The FBI did not have an immediate comment. [their phone was disconnected...]
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20080110/D8U35C500.html
The Washington Monument Strategy...
California
The Washington Monument Strategy is so named for a predictable bureaucratic reaction to any suggestion that a government budget should be reduced. Whenever a Congressman suggested that the National Parks Service budget could be trimmed, the standard bureaucratic response was always, “Well, then we’ll just have to close the Washington Monument.” [aka; 'fire house strategy' at the local level]
[snip]
“Across-the-board” cuts are the most stupid conceivable way to make budget reductions, because they treat the highest of state priorities the same as the lowest. Thus, instead of making 100 percent cuts in utterly indefensible expenditures like tuition subsidies for illegal aliens and a vast array of duplicative or obsolete state programs, the governor proposes throwing the prison doors open. The governor is obviously employing the Washington Monument Strategy when he proposes releasing 20,000 dangerous felons – including burglars – onto California streets and closing the most popular beaches in Southern California.
Yet he refuses even to consider the obvious question: why should it cost California $42,000 per year to house a prisoner when Florida does it for just $18,000? (When we recalled Davis, California’s cost was $32,000 per year). Last year, the governor had the opportunity to save $7 billion in construction costs and $1 billion in annual operating expenses by contracting out 50,000 prison beds – as many states already do. Instead, he approved a law that makes it impossible to do so. (Click here for my speech to the Senate last April)
So who does he think he’s kidding?
[A: all those who get their news from TV, which undoubtedly will focus on the pain and suffering such un-compassionate across-the-board-cuts will cause without ever mentioning the lunacy of the concept in the first place {unless your goal is to incite as many as possible against cuts... and toward increasing taxes - then it's brilliant...}]
[more, recommended > http://www.carepublic.com/blog.html?blog_id=214&frompage=latestblog&domain=tom_mcclintock
Sleeper awakes with freight train on top
A man had a miraculous escape yesterday, sustaining only minor injuries when a freight train rolled over the top of him while he slept between the tracks. The Bendigo man, 20, whose name has not been released, was sleeping at a level crossing in Port Augusta, 300km northwest of Adelaide, when the train approached about 3.40am. (Snip) The train rolled over the man, still lying between the tracks, and stopped just ahead of him. It is believed the man hit his head on the train while trying to sit up. It is understood he may have been intoxicated.
[may]
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23035691-29677,00.html
Monday, January 7, 2008
U.S. military fatalities in Iraq continued to drop
While we stand in awe of the willingness of our troops in Iraq to sacrifice themselves for the Nation, the fewer that are required to do so, the better. And the news on that front is good. As can be seen in the chart below, our military deaths are down over 80% (82%) from May's peak this year of 126. What is no unquestionable a trend (with future fluctuations of course), reflects a tremendous achievement on the part of General Petraeus, since this is the result not of retreating from our objectives in Iraq but of advancing toward them - of executing the mission.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/01/us_military_fatalities_in_iraq.html
Authorization Act Impasse Poses Challenge to Recruiters
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3, 2008 – Recruiters, particularly in the Army, have a new challenge to deal with because the enlistment bonuses they count on to attract new recruits won’t apply until the legislation that authorizes them passes into law.
As a result, recruiters find themselves having to tell prospective recruits they may be able to offer enlistment bonuses, but can’t make any promises. So recruits end up signing contingency contracts that acknowledge they could feasibly get no bonus.
“That can have a chilling impact on the propensity of a person to sign one of those contracts,” he said. “That might affect their willingness to enter into a contract that conditionally promises a bonus.”Another downside of the authorization act impasse is its impact on servicemembers’ paychecks. The 2008 Defense Authorization Act had called for a 3.5 percent pay raise for military members.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48569
A Global Assessment of the Confrontation
Walid Phares, Ph.D.
The conflict we call the War on Terror still continues at the end of 2007 and all indications are that its battlefields are expected to spread further, and escalate, in the upcoming year.
The following is a global assessment of the confrontation that has taken place since 2001, though the systematic war waged by the Jihadi forces against democracies and the free world began at least a decade before 9/11. This evaluation isn't comprehensive or definitive, but a collection of observations related to major benchmarks, directions and projections.
[snip]
The main powers and allies involved in the War on Terror still lack global cohesion. While the US integrates its efforts in the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with its efforts globally to defeat al Qaeda and contain nuclear proliferation of rogue regimes like Iran, other powers and blocs of countries have different plans...
[Recommended > http://www.globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3951&cid=11&sid=63 ]
'Nanny state' cramps Europe's style
BERLIN - Europe started 2008 with a raft of new laws against smoking, air pollution and even junk food adverts, but some grumbled that the New Year's resolutions from the "nanny state" cramped their style. (Snip) While many accepted the new rules as reasonable*, some bristled at what they called the state's overreach and the creeping end of the Euroean way of life.
[reasonable: other people should be forced to act as I would. This is the model some Americans want to emulate?]
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23002134-5001028,00.html?from=public_rss
China does not allow democracy
Taipei - A senior Taiwanese official said that Beijing's move to delay any direct election for Hong Kong's leader until 2017 underlined why Taiwan could not accept reunification with China. Tung Chen-yuan, a deputy chief of Taiwan's China policy-making body, known as the Mainland Affairs Council, said the decision sent a clear signal ''that the Chinese Communist Party does not allow genuine democracy''
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22987836-12335,00.html
Top Russian scientist: global cooling coming
Dr. Sorokhtin, Merited Scientist of Russia and fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, is staff researcher of the Oceanology Institute. He explains the recent warming as a natural trend.
"Earth is now at the peak of one of its passing warm spells. It started in the 17th century when there was no industrial influence on the climate to speak of and no such thing as the hothouse effect. The current warming is evidently a natural process and utterly independent of hothouse gases."So what will happen in the future?
"The latest data, obtained by Habibullah Abdusamatov, head of the Pulkovo Observatory space research laboratory, say that Earth has passed the peak of its warmer period, and a fairly cold spell will set in quite soon, by 2012. Real cold will come when solar activity reaches its minimum, by 2041, and will last for 50-60 years or even longer."The high standing of Dr. Sorkhtin and the inherent plausibility of his argument that climate will continue to follow the same basic causal factor, solar activity, make this another heavy blow to the global warming alarmists, who insist there is no argument at all.
New Nebraska bill would target benefits for illegal immigrants
LINCOLN - Gov. Dave Heineman unveiled a legislative proposal today aimed at ensuring that illegal immigrants do not get state or local government benefits in Nebraska. The plan, backed by Attorney General Jon Bruning and State Sen. Mike Friend of Omaha, would require state and local agencies to verify that people are legal U.S. residents before extending benefits.
http://www.lavistasun.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19170115&BRD=2712&PAG=461&dept_id=556239&rfi=6
Guns in the cockpit
"Do airline pilots still need to be armed?" The answer is, "Absolutely — now more than ever."
Consider this: Arming pilots is not a new idea. In fact, airline pilots flew armed in large numbers from the dawn of commercial aviation to 1987 with no record of incident. When the federal government disarmed pilots in 1987, many pilots predicted cockpit takeover attempts — including the late Captain Victor Saracini, who, in horrible irony, was the captain of United flight 175 on September 11, 2001 when his Boeing 767 was hijacked and crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. It was the disarming of pilots in 1987 that inevitably led to the September 11 cockpit takeovers...
http://washingtontimes.com/article/20080103/EDITORIAL/583177106/1013
Infantilism Of the Left
.
[the bad news...]
A former liberal turned conservative comedian, Evan Sayet, also puzzled over whether those on the left side of issues were evil or stupid, and he came to the conclusion that they were instead suspended in a childhood frame of mind. In a speech at the Heritage Foundation last year, Mr. Sayet said: "So what you're left with after 10, 12, 14, 20 years in the leftist indoctrination centers that our schools have become are citizens of voting age who are utterly unwilling and incapable of critically judging the merits of the positions they hold and have held unquestioned since they were 5 years old and first entered the leftist indoctrination process."
[the good news...]
But thanks to the Internet, this time our military is getting the respect it richly deserves. There's no Walter Cronkite on the air distorting our victories as defeats, as he did in 1968, when he called the Tet offensive a victory for the North Vietnamese army, when it was a defeat. There's no Dan Rather pushing fake documents to influence an election. Thanks to bloggers, innumerable groups are organizing care packages for those serving abroad. There's also professional help available when soldiers come home to a grateful nation...
[I'd say those forces of disinformation still strive to distort - think of Reid, Murtha, the Marine 'murderers' of Haditha and AP's photo-shopped photos -- but they've no longer a media monopoly and so those weaned from TV can learn 'off message' facts...]
http://www.nysun.com/article/68931
A Recession Shouldn't Be in Your 2008 Forecast
Some analysts were predicting a recession would hit the U.S. economy in the fourth quarter as consumers, hurt by falling house prices and the high cost of gasoline, cut spending. It didn't happen, and there's no reason to think it's going to this year either. Economic growth will be slow in the first half of 2008, and the unemployment rate, which was still a low 4.7 percent in November, is likely to rise. (Snip) On the other hand, economic growth should accelerate in the second half of the year as financial-market conditions and the U.S. trade deficit improve...
[I've no idea. Point is, neither do the doom & gloomers in the MSM so I thought I'd 'balance' a little here.]
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_berry&sid=aeV7.rn.uMDM
Preserving ballot integrity
There's a showdown at the O.K Corral, otherwise known as the U.S. Supreme Court, over an issue most of us think about only once a year, if that. The ballot box.
On one side are Indiana election officials; on the other is the American Civil Liberties Union and the Indiana Democratic Party. The fight is over an Indiana law requiring people to show photo ID when they go to vote. Sounds like a common-sense requirement, right? According to a Wall Street Journal poll, more than 80 percent of Americans think so, but evidently we need the black robe society to decide the what's best for us...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071231/COMMENTARY/127201184
Who Will Control Your Thermostat?
California
Californians may lose ultimate control of their thermostats, if proposed revisions to state building regulations are approved. All in the name of the greater good, of course.
A proposed revisions to Title 24 [state-mandated energy standards] is the requirement for what is called a "programmable communicating thermostat" or PCT. Every new home and every change to existing homes' central heating and air conditioning systems will required to be fitted with a PCT beginning next year following the issuance of the revision. Each PCT will be fitted with a "non-removable " FM receiver that will allow the power authorities to increase your air conditioning temperature setpoint or decrease your heater temperature setpoint to any value they chose. During "emergency events" the new setpoints can be whatever the power authority desires and you would not be able to alter them.
In other words, the temperature of your home will no longer be yours to control.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/who_will_control_your_thermost.html
Sacked for sheep sex prank
Two British oil workers have been sacked after simulating sex with sheep due to be slaughtered for a Muslim festival. The animals were being killed for 30 foreign workers to celebrate Eid Al Adhha in the Algerian oil town Hassi Messaoud. The men, who have not been named, were reported by stunned restaurant workers and guards — then sacked by their employer, US industrial giant Schlumberger. They were accused of ''sheep violation''.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article639408.ece
Sunday, January 6, 2008
contact template action template
"BOLD SUPPORT/OPPOSE MSG. HERE"
Whitehouse: mailto:president@whitehouse.gov
Obama Transition: http://change.gov/page/content/contact/
Senate-Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
House-Pelosi: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
YOUR Congressman: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
CA Governor: http://gov.ca.gov/interact mailto:governor@governor.ca.gov
YOUR CA Legislators (Sen+Assy): http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html
or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...
Friday, January 4, 2008
Afghan Province Provides Safety for Pakistani Refugees
WASHINGTON, Jan. 2, 2008 – Security has improved so much in Afghanistan’s Khowst province that Pakistani families are taking refuge there, officials said today.
[snip]
Jamal stressed that the families moving into his province are not Afghan refugees who lived in Pakistan, but rather are Pakistani citizens. Some 2.5 million Afghans lived in camps in Pakistan during the Soviet occupation and subsequent civil war.
Jamal and Schweitzer said the counterinsurgency strategy in place in the province has made the difference in security. The coalition stopped focusing on the enemy as the center of gravity and started focusing on the people of Afghanistan, the colonel said.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48559
Iraq Bombing Underscores Need to Pressure Al Qaeda
WASHINGTON, Jan. 2, 2008 – Yesterday’s suicide bombing at a Baghdad funeral highlights the need to keep up the pressure on al Qaeda in Iraq, a senior U.S. military officer said today.
“Together with the Iraqi security forces and this new group of leaders, we will continue to pursue those who terrorize the Iraqi people,” Bergner said. “We know it will continue to be a tough fight and one that will test the courage and the strength of the Iraqi people, the Iraqi forces, and the coalition forces. All of us start this year with the full understanding that this is still a tough fight. It will continue to be a tough fight,”U.S. forces in Iraq will face that challenge teamed with increasing numbers of capable Iraqi soldiers and police, as well as additional concerned-citizen groups that have sworn to fight al Qaeda, Bergner said.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48561
The only answer, &c.
I should begin by saying something about Benazir Bhutto, and I will contribute the briefest of words: I remember when she gave the commencement address at Harvard, in 1989. After she was murdered, there was a lot of blaming going on: people blaming Bush, people blaming Musharraf. You know who was to blame? The murderers — and Islamofascism in general.
There is a strange, harmful reluctance in the West to blame the Islamofascists for their misdeeds — people feel the need to blame someone else (and Bush and the “neocons” are a frequent resort, for some reason). There is a general reluctance to look Islamofascism in the eye — which George W. Bush is very good at. This is one reason so many hate him.
The truth is, these people, the Islamofascists, have to be beaten: They have to be ground down, humiliated, utterly defeated. They have to be relentlessly opposed and pursued, until they bother us no more.
You can talk about this and write about this at length, and we should. But that is the long and the short of it.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDQxNmVlMWY2YTY1MDEwZDYzYjIyMjdiOTg5ODYzOWQ=
Iran to Get Russian Anti-Missile Defense
Russia is preparing to equip Iran with a powerful new air defense system that would dramatically increase its ability to repel an attack, Iran's defense minister said Wednesday. The S-300 anti-aircraft missile defense system is capable of shooting down aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missile warheads at ranges of over 90 miles and at altitudes of about 90,000 feet. Russian military officials boast that its capabilities outstrip the U.S. Patriot missile system.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8TPC0V00&show_article=1 
NHS patients told to treat themselves
Millions of people with arthritis, asthma and even heart failure will be urged to treat themselves as part of a Government plan to save billions of pounds from the NHS budget. Instead of going to hospital or consulting a doctor, patients will be encouraged to carry out "self care" as the Department of Health (DoH) tries to meet Treasury targets to curb spending...
[the inevitable state of government run health'care']
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=X1PRMN4XJXPRHQFIQMGSFGGAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2008/01/02/nhs102.xml
Analysis of Historic Climate Studies PinpointData Errors
[snip]
The researchers compared the composite output of 22 leading global climate models with actual data. Many of these models are also incorporated in research by the UN Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), the recent Nobel laureate. Turns out that the historic predictions of these models do not match current climate change - by far.
[snip]
So how bad is it? The answer is "rather bad'. But the irony of the story is that this refers to the studies' reliability, not to the climate. The good news from the climate front is; there's possibly reason for less pessimism...
[snip]
The research published in the Royal Meteorological Society’s International Journal of Climatology, arrives amid already adverse circumstances and raised new concerns about the reliability of models used to forecast global warming.
http://www.globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3958&cid=1&sid=106
Ethanol stirring coastal concerns
The recent passage of the mammoth energy bill could have unintended consequences for the Gulf of Mexico that have nothing to do with oil and gas platforms. Under the law, production of ethanol is set to increase five-fold to 36 billion gallons a year by 2020. (Snip) Already ethanol, by doubling corn prices since 2002, has driven corn production to its highest levels since World War II. Growing corn requires considerably more nitrogen-based fertilizer than most crops...
[it was damn dumb from the word go - now watch how long it takes to fix it...]
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5412577.html
England to be most overcrowded EU nation
England is about to become the most crowded major country in Europe, official figures show. It is ready to overtake Holland, leaving only the tiny island of Malta with a higher population density. About 70 per cent of the recent population growth in England resulted from immigration and much of the rest was down to higher birth rates among immigrants
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/02/npop102.xml
Japanese Envy India’s Schools
MITAKA, Japan — Japan is suffering a crisis of confidence these days about its ability to compete with its emerging Asian rivals, China and India. But even in this fad-obsessed nation, one result was never expected: a growing craze for Indian education. (Snip) many people here are lessons from India, the country the Japanese see as the world’s ascendant education superpower. Bookstores are filled with titles like “Extreme Indian Arithmetic Drills” and “The Unknown Secrets of the Indians.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/business/worldbusiness/02japan.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all
Investment Firm CEO: If We Have a Recession, Media Will Cause It
Craig Hester, CEO of Hester Capital Management, who during an interview with CNBC's Erin Burnett and James Cramer Friday spoke an inconvenient truth about media's impact on the economy that folks in the press sadly don't recognize as they disseminate pessimistic after pessimistic predictions often leading to people unnecessarily losing their jobs - or worse:
That's one thing about the economy, Jim. There's a lot of pessimism, and I think we're going to, through the media, if we're going to have a recession, it's going to be media generated as opposed from the economy. Things look very strong from what I can tell.Thanks, Craig. We couldn't have said it any better.
http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2007/20071128154245.aspx
Repression, Michigan-style?
In Michigan, taxpayers are now trying to recall ten state legislators, and in the process testing how "real life" their democratic rights are.
The ten targeted politicians come from both parties. Prior to their fateful votes to raise taxes against their constituent wishes, taxpayer groups repeatedly warned them that a recall effort would be launched against them if they voted for the $1.6 billion dollar tax increase. And yet vote for the tax boost they did. And it passed, adding yet more depressive burden to the state's staggering recession.
[snip]
State Representative Tim Allen says, "The fight is to keep them off the ballot." Notice: His goal isn't to win an election. It is to prevent the voters from ever getting the opportunity to decide. State House Democrats plan to use "blockers" against the recall petitioners. One Democrat, unnamed in media reports, says the plan is to "shadow" or "follow" those who circulate the petition and "have a debate with each potential signer in an attempt to convince them not to sign the recalls."
We've seen this before — in Michigan and elsewhere. It is a tactic of increasing popularity on the big-government left. Hire blockers to swarm around petitioners at the mall or grocery store or library, creating angry street theater to scare away normal folks wishing to sign a petition. In other words, a campaign of stalking and voter intimidation.
[snip]
But this is only the half of it — opponents of the recall aren't putting all their repressive methods in one basket. They have also put into play their bread-and-butter tactic of tying the recalls up in court... [>]
This is how to repress democracy in a democracy.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2007/12/30/repression,_michigan-style?page=full&comments=true
Programmed for love
If you're younger than 35, you'll probably live long enough to put David Levy's prediction to the test. Levy says that by 2050 we'll be creating robots so lifelike, so imbued with human-seeming intelligence and emotions, as to be nearly indistinguishable from real people. And we'll have sex with these robots. Some of us will even marry them. And it will all be good.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/5414105.html
Thursday, January 3, 2008
The Other Iraq Surge
It's no front-page news that Iraq is a dangerous place. But a capital magnet? The presses have stopped for less. According to the not-quite closed record book for 2007, Iraqi sovereign bonds, the Iraqi currency, and the Iraqi stock market have each logged astounding, not to mention politically provocative, gains...
http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=68648&v=9915378911
Local Governance Center Opens South of Baghdad
“This is where people can get problems solved,” Adgie said, adding that this also is a step forward in political progress in Arab Jabour.Local Iraqis in attendance praised the opening of the center and the overall improved security in Arab Jabour. “Today is a great day for our region and for all of Baghdad,” said Majid Hamad Yasien al Jabouri. “This is a great day for all of the Iraqi people.”
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48549
Don't Count Your Victories Before They're Won
The war in Iraq is not over or waning. In many ways the false idea that the war is won is far more dangerous than the defeatist ideas of the last year ever were.
Many political commentators have, for the most part, definitively announced that the war in Iraq is over; that the "Surge" has defeated the Islamo-Fascists (IF) in Iraq, and that the War in Iraq will not be an issue in the 2008 elections. This now-popular idea is as short-sighted and foolish as the idea that we were beaten in Iraq was, only a few short months ago...
[It's a long war. The only way to shorten it is to increase our resolve to winning it. If we lose in Iraq, it will only follow us home. ]
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/dont_count_your_victories_befo.html
Seeking Psychological Victory in the War on Terror
In Iraq, as military and security conditions continue to improve, American war politics enters one of its stranger moments in our history. Certainly it is historically odd for war reporting to diminish almost to the point of public invisibility -- just as our troops are starting to gain the upper hand. But we are fighting this war with the journalists we have, not the ones we want.
[snip]
Bin Laden said it best. His people will follow the strong horse. If, after years of stumbling and bumbling, the enduring strength and eventual wisdom of the American people can enter into the belly of the Islamist world, overturn tyrants, empower the Muslim people with peaceable and prosperous ways and intimidate two Islamist nuclear aspirants to renounce their pretensions, we will show ourselves to be the strong horse. Thereby we will hasten the day when the terrorist pretensions will fall on deaf Muslim ears and the threat of Islamist terrorism will begin to recede.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/we_sacrificed_4000_to_vindicat.html
The Conservative Tide in Major Democracies
Recall four years ago, when "all" the leaders of our major democratic friends were hostile to America, to our liberation of Iraq, and in particular to President Bush? Remember how Senator Kerry said that leaders of Europe privately wanted him to win the presidency? That news has ceased to become newsworthy.
Why? Because, like the surge, the sentiment in major democracies has turned as well.
[snip]
In each of four major nations important to us, France, Germany, Canada, and Britain, there remain obstacles for conservatives and pro-Americans. But the condition within these democracies, these nations historically most important to America in both political and cultural connections, has improved - in some cases, dramatically improved - since the last elections in each nation...
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/12/the_conservative_tide_in_major.html
'Patients to lose weight before NHS treatment'
Patients could be required to lose weight before they can be treated on the National Health Service, Gordon Brown has suggested. In a New Year message to NHS staff, the Prime Minister indicates people may have to fulfil new "responsibilities" in order to establish their entitlement to care. The new conditions could be set out in a formal NHS "constitution", Mr Brown says. (Snip) Despite the NHS commitment to provide 'free' universal care, it is already common for doctors to set conditions on patients seeking treatment.
[the inevitable evolution of government run health'care']
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=EL3VVI3Y3LYOFQFIQMFSFFOAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2008/01/01/nhealth201.xml
Moments after Investor's Business Daily presaged that "2008 just might be the year the so-called scientific consensus that man is causing the Earth to warm begins to crack," the New York Times of all entities published a rather shocking piece pointing fingers at folks like Nobel Laureate Al Gore for being part of a group of "activists, journalists and publicity-savvy scientists who selectively monitor the globe looking for newsworthy evidence of a new form of sinfulness, burning fossil fuels."
This from the New York Times? Hold on tightly to your seats, folks, for the shocks in this piece came early and often:
Today's interpreters of the weather are what social scientists call availability entrepreneurs: the activists, journalists and publicity-savvy scientists who selectively monitor the globe looking for newsworthy evidence of a new form of sinfulness, burning fossil fuels.Checking that link to make sure it really goes to a Times piece? I understand - and there's {much} more...
A year ago, British meteorologists made headlines predicting that the buildup of greenhouse gases would help make 2007 the hottest year on record. At year's end, even though the British scientists reported the global temperature average was not a new record - it was actually lower than any year since 2001 - the BBC confidently proclaimed, "2007 Data Confirms Warming Trend."
When the Arctic sea ice last year hit the lowest level ever recorded by satellites, it was big news and heralded as a sign that the whole planet was warming. When the Antarctic sea ice last year reached the highest level ever recorded by satellites, it was pretty much ignored. A large part of Antarctica has been cooling recently, but most coverage of that continent has focused on one small part that has warmed.
When Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans in 2005, it was supposed to be a harbinger of the stormier world predicted by some climate modelers. When the next two hurricane seasons were fairly calm - by some measures, last season in the Northern Hemisphere was the calmest in three decades - the availability entrepreneurs changed the subject. Droughts in California and Australia became the new harbingers of climate change (never mind that a warmer planet is projected to have more, not less, precipitation over all).
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/01/science/01tier.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin
[unfortunately, 2007 was initial heralded as the year scientists stood up - but the lengths to which the alarmists would ratchet up what was essentially a counter offensive was frankly underestimated. 'If you tell a lie big enough...'. Personally, I consider the jury still out as to if they'll get away with this; the truth can't 'float to the top' if it's literally withheld from TV, where too many Americans still get their news.]
Oil hits $100 a barrel for the first time
Oil prices rose above the symbolic level of $100 a barrel for the first time on Wednesday, a long-awaited milestone in an era of rapidly escalating energy demand. Crude oil futures for February delivery crossed the $100 threshold on the New York Mercantile Exchange shortly after noon New York time...
[and still the US refuses to develop its own reserves...]
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/02/business/02oil-nyt.php
Pa., N.J. join flood of bills on immigrants
The state Senate wants to make tougher illegal immigration laws a priority when the General Assembly returns to work next month. Their commitment to this legislation comes at a time when a record number of immigration-related bills are moving through state legislatures around the country. This heightened activity is triggered by the failure of the federal government to enforce immigration law.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/special/immigration_debate/20070830_Pa___N_J__join_flood_of_bills_on_immigrants.html
The candidates and illegal immigration
One of the most important issues in this year's presidential campaign is an issue that most leading contenders have been reluctant to discuss in a serious way: illegal immigration. Following are summaries of the candidates and the issues...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080102/EDITORIAL/57748580
Poll: Nation tired of Iowa-NH first
All eyes may be on Iowa and New Hampshire, but many of them are rolling. Despite efforts to evict the two states from the front of the presidential calendar, both managed to hang on for another election cycle that culminates with the Iowa caucuses on Thursday and the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 8. As a year of media attention reaches its crescendo, voters in other states are saying enough is enough...
[it's the 21st century: all candidates state their positions on the issues on the net, we answer a questionnaire with our preferences, and let computers do what they do best - point us toward those with closest answers to further vet. Then we have winnowing cycles whereby the field is cut in half based on votes garnered - repeatedly {maybe a month between} - until there's only two candidates left (regardless of party - and let's make it a six month process, start-to-finish process while we're at it). This assures that the eventually winner will have been elected by the majority of Americans. The NPATs could serve as the model (www.vote-smart.org) and the internet-based election process ready to role within a year (remember, billions of dollars of other people's money is transferred every day - technically an election system would be a cake walk.) OK, let's get it started...]
http://www.kansas.com/wireupdates/story/268961.html
A Recession Shouldn't Be in Your 2008 Forecast
Some analysts were predicting a recession would hit the U.S. economy in the fourth quarter as consumers, hurt by falling house prices and the high cost of gasoline, cut spending. It didn't happen, and there's no reason to think it's going to this year either. Economic growth will be slow in the first half of 2008, and the unemployment rate, which was still a low 4.7 percent in November, is likely to rise. (Snip) On the other hand, economic growth should accelerate in the second half of the year as financial-market conditions and the U.S. trade deficit improve...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_berry&sid=aeV7.rn.uMDM
Media Myth Exposed: 84 Percent of Americans Happy With Lives
If you listen to the negativity in the media , the overwhelming majority of Americans think they're falling behind financially, are despondent about their lives and their futures, and are desperately looking for a change.
Yet, a new poll out from the folks at Gallup confirms people are far happier with themselves and their lives than press members care to report. Here's the first result from Gallup (emphasis added throughout):
According to the Dec. 6-9, 2007, poll, 84% of Americans say they are satisfied with the way things are going in their personal life at this time, while 14% are dissatisfied. These results have been fairly stable since Gallup first started tracking Americans' personal life satisfaction in 1979. The percentage of Americans who say they are satisfied with their personal life has averaged 82% over this period, with a low of 73% in July 1979 and a high of 88% in December 2004. (It is worth noting that in the same Dec. 6-9 survey only 27% of Americans said they were satisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time, providing a vivid contrast between Americans' view of things "out there" across the country and their view of their own personal lives.)
Key question: who provides folks' view of things "out there?"
http://www.gallup.com/poll/103483/Most-Americans-Very-Satisfied-Their-Personal-Lives.aspx
Sacked for sheep sex prank
Two British oil workers have been sacked after simulating sex with sheep due to be slaughtered for a Muslim festival. The animals were being killed for 30 foreign workers to celebrate Eid Al Adhha in the Algerian oil town Hassi Messaoud. The men, who have not been named, were reported by stunned restaurant workers and guards — then sacked by their employer, US industrial giant Schlumberger. They were accused of ''sheep violation''.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article639408.ece
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
British Paper Names General Petraeus Person of the Year
[snip]
"But the reason for picking Petraeus is simple. Iraq, whatever the current crises in Afghanistan and Pakistan, remains the West's biggest foreign policy challenge of this decade, and if he can halt its slide into all-out anarchy, Gen Petraeus may save more than Iraqi lives."Wouldn't it have been nice for an American newspaper or magazine to recognize this? Or is that asking too much? Regardless, readers are strongly encouraged to review the entire article.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=AA4OSBQXNV5A3QFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/12/30/nperson130.xml
Soldiers, Afghans Celebrate School Opening
[snip]
"This land was donated from private individuals,” Berry said. “That goes to show the emphasis the people in this area put on education. They give valuable farmland in a beautiful area.”
[snip]
The school will not be the last project. Berry noted plans are in the works for more projects in the spring.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48539
Don't be surprised if terrorists stage a Tet offensive
This spring marks the 40th anniversary of Hanoi's offensive. It will also mark the umpteenth time American enemies have attempted to win in the psychological and political clash of an American election what they cannot win on the battlefield.
[snip]
At the operational level, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) suffered a terrible defeat. However, Tet achieved the grand political ends North Vietnam sought. Tet was a strategic psychological attack launched in a presidential election year during a primary season featuring media-savvy "peace" candidates.
[snip]
The terrorists will attempt a series of terror spectaculars, and kill several hundred civilians in the process, because — in the quadrennial turmoil of an American presidential contest — sensational carnage that even momentarily seeds the perception of defeat is their only chance of victory.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5411653.html
