Ad Watch: Term limits change tied to effective disaster response

California

A new campaign advertisement cites emergency response to last year's devastating Southern California wildfires as a reason to alter lawmakers' terms by approving Proposition 93. The following is a text of the ad, and an analysis by Jim Sanders of The Bee Capitol Bureau: [snip]

ANALYSIS: The ad implies that legislators played a key role in responding to the fatal infernos, but the Assembly and Senate were not in session at the time. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued numerous emergency orders to assist victims while firefighters struggled to extinguish the flames, but the governor's actions did not require, or receive, a vote by the Legislature.

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/657810.html

$5 Million Reward Given to Tipster Who Fingered Moussaoui

Today a Minnesota flight instructor is being rewarded by the U.S. government for his vigilance in the form of $5 million. In August 2001, the instructor knew something was suspicious about Zacarias Moussaoui the day he met him, so he urged his bosses to alert the FBI. Moussaoui was taking private flight classes and was soon arrested on immigration charges. He later pleaded guilty to having a role in the 9/11 attacks and is the only person to face trial in the U.S. for the attack.

[a good idea]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4184403&page=1

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.

[yeah, because they'll of off switches! {was that out loud?}]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/5414105.html

Engineers Overcome Challenges to Build Electricity Substation

TALLIL, Iraq, Jan. 22, 2008 – Of the nearly 3,800 projects the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division has completed across Iraq in four years, one stands out because of the special challenges it posed.
[snip]
About 80 percent of the labor for the Amarah project came from the area, with more than 500 workers a day on site during the peak construction period, which lasted more than a year.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48722

Is the war in Iraq becoming winnable?

Last February I was in Fallujah at the start of the surge, and when I asked soldiers if they thought we were winning the war they almost universally rolled their eyes, and gave me some version of "Yea, right" for being dumb enough to even be asking the question. [snip]

Ten months later I toured the Air Force Theater Hospital in Balad with Col. Patrick Storm, the hospital commander, and he shared some amazing statistics with me. [>] [snip]

Now when I talk to soldiers there is definitely a new sense of optimism that was non-existent just 10 months ago. Nobody thinks the war will be over soon, but most people are coming to believe that it's winnable.

One of the most striking signs of progress to me is the number of Iraqis that wave at our helicopters as we fly over.

http://www.minnpost.com/iraq/

'We want to offer sharia law to Britain'

Islamic courts meet every week in the UK to rule on divorces and financial disputes. Clare Dwyer Hogg and Jonathan Wynne-Jones report on demands by senior Muslims that sharia be given legal authority.
<>
It is one of dozens of sharia courts - also known as councils - that have been set up in mosques, Islamic centers and even schools across Britain. The number of British Muslims using the courts is increasing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2008/01/21/noindex/nsharia_120.xml

The War of Ideas Should Be Engaged

At Rumsfeld's first post-Pentagon public comments at a conference today on network centric warfare sponsored by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement, he said that the United States is losing the war of ideas in the Muslim world, and the answer to that, in part, is through the creation of this new government agency.

"Private media does not get up in the morning and say what can we do to promote the values and ideas that the free Western nations believe in. It gets up in the morning and says they're going to try to make money by selling whatever they sell... The way they decided to do that is to be dramatic and if it bleeds it leads is the common statement in the media today.

We need someone in the United States, some entity, that would take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that exist today. There are multiple channels for information . . . The Internet is there, pods are there, talk radio is there, e-mails are there. There are all kinds of opportunities. We do not with any systematic organized way attempt to engage the battle of ideas and talk about the idea of beheading, and what it's about and what it means. And talk about the fact that people are killing more Muslims than they are non-Muslims, these extremists. They're doing it with suicide bombs and the like. We need to engage and not simply be passive and allow that battle of competition of ideas."

In Rumsfeld's view, the free press can co-exist with government sponsored/produced/paid news. "It doesn't mean we have to infringe on the role of the free press, they can go do what they do, and that's fine," says Rumsfeld. "Well, it's not fine, but it's what it is, let's put it that way."

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/01/rummy-want-pro.html

Human rights court slams France

Strasbourg - A French lesbian was discriminated against when authorities refused to allow her to adopt a child, Europe's [?] human right court ruled on Tuesday. The European Court of Human Rights said the refusal by regional authorities, upheld by two French courts, to authorize the adoption request breached the woman's rights because it appeared motivated by her sexual orientation. It granted her €24 500 in damages and court expenses.

["regional authorities"; French judges in France. And so the consumption of sovereignties continues in Europa ]

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2256422,00.html

Market turmoil sign of influence shifting to China

The current turmoil on world markets indicates a "significant shift of power and influence" from the US to emerging economic giants such as China and India, international financier George Soros said Wednesday....

"I'm not looking for a worldwide recession. I'm looking for a significant shift of power and influence away from the US in particular and a shift in favour of the developing world, particularly China,"

Soros said. Soros, who made 1 billion US dollars betting on the devaluation of the British pound in 1992.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/previousdetail.php?id=125401

Move over US -- China to be new driver of world's economy and innovation

Technology indicators A new study of worldwide technological competitiveness suggests China may soon rival the United States as the principal driver of the world’s economy – a position the U.S. has held since the end of World War II. If that happens, it will mark the first time in nearly a century that two nations have competed for leadership as equals [*].

The study’s indicators predict that China will soon pass the United States in the critical ability to develop basic science and technology, turn those developments into products and services – and then market them to the world.

[*We will not be 'equals'. We can no longer afford to tax and regulate our industry in isolation - it will lead to oblivion in the global economy. First step: changing to a consumption tax vs. taxing our industry TWICE for all exports, when all other developed countries pay ZERO (are refunded by their governments)]

www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/giot-mou012408.php

Cost of health initiative up $400m

Spending on the state's landmark health insurance initiative would rise by more than $400 million next year, representing one of the largest increases in the $28.2 billion state budget the governor proposed yesterday. State and federal taxpayers are expected to bear nearly all of the additional cost.

[now who could have seen that coming - and the years after?]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/01/24/cost_of_health_initiative_up_400m/

New Mexico Considering Video Game Tax

A tax called 'No Child Left Inside' has been backed by New Mexico's Sierra Club, an environmental and outdoor preservation group. The proposed one-percent sales tax on video games and televisions is aimed at funding outdoor classroom initiatives and encouraging New Mexico's increasingly obese and diabetic youth to get off the couch and explore the great outdoors.

[we're turning the government into our parents - worse still: your children's parents]

http://www.switched.com/2008/01/23/new-mexico-considering-video-game-tax/?ncid=NWS00010000000001

NOAA: Climate Change Actually Decreases Hurricanes

The study by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Miami Lab and the University of Miami postulated that global warming may actually decrease the number of hurricanes that strike the United States. Warming waters may increase vertical wind speed, or wind shear, cutting into a hurricane's strength. The study focused on observations rather than computer models, which often form the backbone of global warming studies, and on the records of hurricanes over the past century, researchers.

http://www.startribune.com/nation/14131656.html

Environmental Terrorism and the Price of Oil

Here we have the humiliating spectacle of a president of the United States begging an Arab potentate to increase our supply of oil while Democrats, who bear the major responsibility for the problem, scoff at him as a mendicant groveling at the feet of a foreign monarch. (Snip)

Make no mistake about it, you are paying exorbitant prices at the gas pump solely because the environmental terrorists and their Democrat allies in Congress have all but shut down our domestic oil production...

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=24527

Symposium: The Immigration Solution

In this special edition of Frontpage Symposium, we have invited a distinguished panel to discuss the myth and reality of immigration. Today our three guests are the co-authors of the new book, The Immigration Solution: A Better Plan Than Today's: Heather MacDonald, a John M. Olin fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor to City Journal.

[longish, but recommended for its statistics > http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=294A76DD-607D-4FCC-9DAD-375297E8A522 ]

And now, an era of irrational pessimism [aka: goo-goo economics]

THE most important number concerning the U.S. economy is also the least discussed one in this week's panic over the U.S. economy - 4.9 percent. That is the current rate of growth in the economy as measured by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That is the growth for the third quarter 2007.

Far from being in a recession, as defined by two consecutive quarters in which gross domestic product contracts, the American economy is growing.

Preliminary results for the fourth quarter will not be released for another week. I seriously doubt the growth continued at that rate. But my bet is that the economy grew in the months of October, November and December 2007. Retail sales in December were up.

The politicians in Washington are saying that we have to avoid a slowdown in the economy. That is absurd. A $14 trillion economy does not need 4.9 percent annual growth to succeed. As long as growth outpaces inflation, no one in Washington should care. And even if it does not, Washington should mind its own business. It has done enough damage already.

But the view from Washington is that the American people are all a bunch of children who need to be protected and baby-fed rebates and the like in order to survive.

It is goo-goo economics.

The media does not help. With the war going well in Iraq, news people are looking for bad news. And bad economic news is easy to find. There is always someone who "cannot" pay his bills. Someone is always losing his job. Someone's business always fails. But the science of economics deals with macro numbers, and those are being ignored. Why?

http://dailymail.com/Opinion/DonSurber/200801240035

Pope attacks media for 'distorted morals' (praises Internet)

Pope Benedict XVI today said the media were too often used irresponsibly to spread "violence and vulgarity" and impose "distorted models" of social and family life. He urged the world's communicators instead to adopt what he called "info-ethics". In a message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Communications Day, Pope Benedict said the media often sought to create reality rather than report it, with agendas dictated by "the dominant interests" of the day. "This is what happens when communication is used for ideological purposes...

[ouch. ethics lecture from the head of the Catholic church - what's that say...]

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3245753.ece

'I decided to die like a man', says tycoon who took on 'armed gang who threatened to kill his daughter'

A millionaire yesterday told how he fought off three armed burglars who were holding a knife to his daughter's throat, saying he "would rather die like a man than a dog". Bernard Dwyer, 51, was convinced he and his family were about to be killed so he chose to take on the men - hours after they had allegedly killed a restaurant owner, a court heard.

[Recommended - one of those 'wow' stories > http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=509962&in_page_id=1770 ]

Times defends hiring conservative Kristol

The New York Times’ hiring of Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol to write for its op-ed page caused a frenzy in the liberal blogosphere Friday night, with threats of canceling subscriptions and claims that the Gray Lady had been hijacked by neo-cons. But Times editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal sees things differently. Rosenthal told Politico shortly after the official announcement Saturday that he fails to understand “this weird fear of opposing views.”

[funny: he's to write one piece a week - thus is the liberal definition of conservative 'hijacking']

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7613.html

Economic Program Builds on Concerned Citizens’ Success

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2008 – The concerned local citizens groups in Iraq have made a huge impact in areas that were once al Qaeda fiefdoms, and the program is expanding to include the economic aspects of the counterinsurgency fight, Army Col. Wayne W. Grigsby Jr. said today during a phone interview from Iraq.
[snip]
The Iraqi Civilian Conservation Force is based on the U.S. version formed in the early 1930’s to put unemployed young men to work during the Great Depression. The Iraqi version will pave roads, conduct neighborhood sanitation and work on other infrastructure improvements.

In addition, the program aims to provide scholarships to concerned local citizens to attend vocational schools. The program provides training and loans for people to start businesses. The program is also beginning in other parts of Iraq.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48717

War? What War?

A pertinent question for 2008 might be: How many 9/11's does it take to wake a sleeping giant and keep him alert at the helm?

More than one, it would seem.

How quickly America has been lulled back to sleep. With a heap of help from our watchful media.

For more than four years, every news outlet in the Country was stirring its anti-American pot and blasting news of the carnage from Iraq 24/7. They were counting the bodies and inflating the count. They were giving more coverage to the paltry numbers of paid anti-war protesters than they were to our military heroes and their families. We heard about the horrors of the Iraq War day in and day out.
[snip]
But suddenly, we are winning the war that was lost, and you could hear a pin drop in the abandoned echo chamber of war coverage. And just as predictably, the 2008 Presidential election, according to our media elites, isn't about the war at all. Now it's about the economy.
[snip]
Take a look at the little Iranian with the messiah complex, who is exploring nuclear "energy." Give a peek at the situation in Pakistan, with its nuclear arsenal. Then look over the border to Afghanistan, where the Taliban is gaining again in strength.

And before you vote, ask yourself just one question: If we aren't safe in our homes and workplaces from another catastrophe like 9/11, will the price of your bread really matter?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/war_what_war.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

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 missles (and how can observers know they're duds?) off the coast of europe?]

http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3234607.ece

Real ID and Reality

The REAL ID laws were a top a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission after investigators found that the hijackers had obtained 17 driver’s licenses and 13 state-issued identification cards in the process of carrying out terrorist actions. “Terrorists take advantage of the system being blind,” said Janice Kephart, President of 9/11 Security Solutions.

“This is going to make three groups of people unhappy: terrorists, illegal workers, con men and criminals,”

said Stewart A. Baker, the Assistant Secretary for Policy at the DHS. The new laws are making others unhappy as well. Because the REAL ID Act does not institute a national identification card, it is left to the states to enforce the new standards. This leaves a large financial burden on state governments.

[i.e., the government blew it again. I used to warn of and rail against a national I.D. Then the world changed, and now we need one. Regrettable, unavoidable, let's grow up and get it done - at the federal level where it belongs (otherwise our security control is only as strong as that of the weakest state)]

http://www.campusreportonline.net/main/articles.php?id=2070

Blowin' in the Wind

If you thought the 2008 presidential race was shattering all records for windy rhetoric, it's nothing compared to the political eco-rhetoric being spun to US taxpayers -- to get them to cough up billions of dollars to fuel a renewable wind power industry boom sensible investors won't touch with a turbine's rotor...
[snip]
In a recent US report about Silicon Valley clean energy investments, Vinod Khosia, founder of Khosia Ventures (representing dozens of US clean energy companies) says, "I worry about over-investing from firms that don't understand the energy markets." He's not alone. In an astute article in Energy Pulse (June 2007) Consulting Engineer Brian Leyland warned that the entire alternative energy renewables investments boom may turn into just another "dotcom bubble".

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=012308A

CNN: Media Deserve 'Shame' for 'Complicity' w/ Dems Ignoring Immigration

On Tuesday's Lou Dobbs Tonight, which was repeated on Sunday, CNN host Dobbs chided the media for not including illegal immigration in exit polls of Democratic voters simply because Democratic candidates have avoided discussing the issue. Dobbs:

"Would it surprise you if I were to tell you right here in front of God and everybody I had to convince CNN a couple of years ago to include illegal immigration in a poll because we didn't even in this organization believe it was an important issue, some of us didn't?"

He even got Schneider to agree with his contention that the media's "complicity with that motive" of the Democratic candidates in ignoring the issue should "bring a sense of shame to these [media] organizations."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2008/01/21/cnn-media-deserves-shame-complicity-dems-ignoring-immigration

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

Media Stimulate Recession by Twisting Fed Chairman's Words

On the day after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sat before Congress and said the Fed is “not forecasting a recession,” CBS’s Bianca Solorzano reported on the “Early Show” that “Bernanke confirmed recession fears.”

Anthony Mason reported on the “CBS Evening News” that night that Bernanke “was telling Congress the economy needs a rescue package, and the sooner the better.”

On NBC’s “Nightly News,” reporter Erin Burnett summarized Bernanke’s testimony: “Guess what? It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

But Bernanke didn't say that.

What the Fed chairman did say was that “recent indications suggest … that the economy has softened somewhat and that the growth prospects for 2008 are certainly below that of last year,” adding later that “again, we’re not forecasting recession but rather at this point slow growth.” [as low as 1.7% according to CBO testimony yesterday]

Instead of explaining the nuances of Bernanke’s talk, reporters went for a simplistic – and unfortunately, misleading – characterization, selectively quoting from Bernanke’s testimony before Congress to suggest he predicted a recession and called for an immediate “stimulus package.”

[more, recommended > http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20080123110534.aspx ]

NYT Won't ID Tax Cuts as Chief Irish Economic Success Factor

In an article (HT Jim Taranto at Best of the Web) describing Ireland's emergence as an European Union powerhouse ("Entrepreneurship Takes Off in Ireland"), reporter James Flanigan of the New York Times simply could not bring himself to specifically identify the main reasons for the country's success (bolds are mine):

“The change came in the 1990s,” said James Murphy, founder and managing director of Lifes2Good, a marketer of drugstore products for muscle aches, hair loss and other maladies. “Taxes and interest rates came down, and all of a sudden we believed in ourselves.”

So tax rates "changed," eh? And we're told that "taxes and interest rates came down," as if by some external supernatural force.

The reason taxes "came down," of course, is that they were proactively C-U-T, cut (the word "cut" does not appear even once in the article).

The Times's C-word allergy is all the more maddening because, like so many other Old Media outlets, it doesn't hesitate to describe reductions in projected spending increases in government programs as "cuts," even though, virtually without exception, year-over-year dollars spent continue to increase. You would think that employing the three-letter C-word when a cut actually does occur -- even a dreaded tax cut -- wouldn't be that difficult. But it clearly is.

[subtle, but pervasive - and how an ideology goes about controlling the language of a debate.]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110011111

How Núñez rose to power so fast

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

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

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.

“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.

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.

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:

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

[here...]

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

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

For the remainder of this century, it will be global cooling we'll have to worry about, according to highly credentialed Russian scientist, Dr. Oleg Sorokhtin.

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.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20080103/94768732.html

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