Despite several other close calls, the Marines relentlessly pursued the insurgents until they secured the village, and the Taliban fighters were either killed or fled. Before they were done, the MSOC hospital corpsmen cared for and treated villagers injured by insurgents.
READ MORE
Monday, March 24, 2008
Special Ops Marines Deliver in Southern Afghanistan
Triple Threat Pressures al Qaeda in Iraq, General Says
Having been ejected from Baghdad and its environs during the surge of forces, al Qaeda in Iraq is attempting to re-establish itself in regions north of the capital city, a senior U.S. military officer posted in Iraq said today.
Yet, while al Qaeda scrambles to reorganize itself, the terrorist group is being pressured by a triple threat consisting of coalition and Iraqi security forces and local concerned citizens’ groups, Army Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, a spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, told reporters at a Baghdad news conference.
“We have to continue to pursue this enemy to prevent them from re-establishing themselves or creating new bases of operation,” Bergner said.
Meanwhile, the 70,000 members of Iraqi concerned citizens’ groups that have sworn to fight al Qaeda have proven to be powerful allies, Bergner said, as the capabilities and numbers of Iraqi soldiers and police continue to grow.
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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. As NVA regiments emerged from jungle-covered enclaves and massed for attack, they exposed themselves to the firepower of U.S. aircraft and artillery. The NVA units temporarily seized many cities at the cost of extremely heavy casualties.
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.
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Israel to hold massive emergency drill
In the face of a possible escalation with Syria and Iran's efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon, parts of the country will shut down next month in what security officials say will be the largest emergency exercise in Israel's history. The drill, which is being organized by the newly-established National Emergency Authority, will take place over five days starting on Sunday, April 6.
[just another day in the life of Israel]
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Hamas use of human shields documented
One of the cruelest and most telling barbarities of Hamas is its use of civilians (especially children) as human shields, deliberately firing weapons from densely populated locations, so that counterstrikes will either be deterred or will cause civilian casualties, reveals indifference to the welfare of their own ostensible constituents. The people for whom they are fighting are nothing but ammunition in the struggle to wipe out Israel and the world's Jews.
Israel's Ministry of Foreign affairs has assembled visual proof of this barbarism...
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Year of the what?
2008 is officially the United Nation’s International Year of the Potato, and, at least in Greece, the Year of Feta. The UN has also declared 2008 to be the International Year of Sanitation, the International Year of Planet Earth (which lasts for 3 years) and the International Year of Languages.
To get the UN to back a year of something takes a good deal of work and time. According to the UN’s procedure for the proclamation of international years, the subject for any such year must, among other things, be "of priority concern to all or the majority of countries" and it should "involve action at the international and national levels". In addition, "each international year should have objectives that are likely to lead to identifiable and practicable results"...
[don't laugh, you're paying for this]
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UN Says it needs 25% Boost in Funding
The United Nations says it needs more money - lots more. Citing increased demands placed on its peace keeping and nation building departments, the diplomats say they need $1.1 billion more:
They could probably find the extra money in the Secretariat. No one knows what the budget for the Secretariat of the UN might be. The last attempted audit found wasteful and duplicated departments throughout thanks largely to Kofi Anan. At a time when the UN is begging for more money from its major donors, perhaps it's time to root out the waste and corruption endemic to the UN before we give them another dime.
Bolton tried to reform the UN but was accused of not playing well with others, stepping on toes and riling the bureaucrats. Too bad. That kind of bulldog tenacity in going after the spendthrift Secretariat is just what we need right now.
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Plenty of scientific doubt about climate catastrophe
I am a denier, a pejorative term applied to those of us who reject the contention that the debate is over. I am in good company. The deniers include those scientists who are directly involved in actual measurements of global temperatures, or those who base their positions on solid science, as opposed to those who base their opinion on computer modeling.
A classic example of the latter is Dr. James Hansen of the Goddard Space Institute, whose presentation to Congress ignited the global warming frenzy and predicted double-digit warming and catastrophic consequences, based on a flawed computer model. An example of the former would include Dr. Richard Lindzen, the Alfred Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is often referred to as the world’s leading climatologist. He said it best:
“The current alarm rests on the false assumption not only that we live in a perfect world tempemperaturewise, but also that our warming forecasts for the year 2040 are somehow more reliable than the weatherman’s forecast for next week which use the same computer models.”[snip]
How many climatologists are deniers? No one knows, but a publication by Dr. Patrick Michaels, the State Climatologist of Virginia, entitled, “Is the Sky Really Falling?” lists 77 references to reputable climatologists, all of them deniers. The list now includes Dr. Hansen, whose predictions of warming have been steadily downgraded, and are now very close to those of the deniers. [ah, time marches on...]
What is the consensus of true scientists? [ Recommended > ]
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Not So Hot
If a scientific paper appeared in a major journal saying that the planet has warmed twice as much as previously thought, that would be front-page news in every major paper around the planet. But what would happen if a paper was published demonstrating that the planet may have warmed up only half as much as previously thought?
Nothing. Earlier this month, Ross McKitrick from Canada's University of Guelph and I published a manuscript in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres saying precisely that...
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THE ETHANOL HANGOVER
Despite what is often heard, there is not a right way to produce ethanol. However, several wrong ones -- spawned by congressional and presidential edicts -- could wreak havoc on food prices and the natural environment:
• An analysis by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) suggested that replacing even 10 percent of U.S. motor fuel with biofuels would require that about a third of the nation's cropland be devoted to oilseeds, cereals and sugar crops.In reality, ethanol can do little to affect oil consumption. But the diversion of grain from food to fuel exerts widespread and profound ripple effects on various commodity markets and has already been catastrophic for the poor around the world.
• Achieving the 15 percent goal would require the entire current U.S. corn crop, which represents a whopping 40 percent of the world's corn supply.
• The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's food price index climbed 37 percent last year, following a 14 percent increase in 2006.
• Ethanol yields about 30 percent less energy per gallon than gasoline, so mileage per gallon in internal combustion engines drops off significantly, and the addition of ethanol raises the price of blended fuel because it is more expensive to transport and handle.
[object lesson: few ideas were so easily exposed as bad as this one, yet because we allowed government to get involved, pay attention to how long it takes to correct ]
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NHS definition of 'customer'
Figures obtained by The Scotsman under Freedom of Information legislation show at least 1,390 hospital appointments are missed every day in Scotland. However, the figure is likely to be much higher, as many health boards were unable to supply numbers for missed inpatient appointments, while others do not collect data on clinics with staff such as physiotherapists and dieticians.
[snip]
She added: "Part of the problem is appointments are made so far in advance that pat-ients simply forget. We need some kind of system to remind people of their appointments nearer the time." [you know, like the private sector has had for a decade. The NHS response? ...
practices (68 per cent) said they would support charging people £10 for missed appointments. ... of course.]
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YOUR $455,000 LOAN TO UNCLE SAM
The unfunded liabilities Uncle Sam has incurred on our behalf through already promised entitlements in programs such as Social Security, Medicare and the veterans benefits now exceed by $53 trillion, says Comptroller General David Walker, who heads the Government Accountability Office.
[snip]
Of course, every man, woman and child does not work ... when you divide the unfunded costs of promised entitlement benefits by the number of Americans who work full time, says Walker, it equals $410,000 per worker. A married couple making $80,000 per year would have to set aside all their income for more than five years to cover their share.
[snip]
Some day Americans will look back across the wreckage of our coming fiscal catastrophe and ask: Why didn't our leaders see it coming? The answer will be: They did.
[if we don't demand that our politicians address this issue they never will until after the disaster. Instead, we've presidential candidates promising yet more government entitlement programs being taken seriously...]
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France urges EU immigration curbs
Sarkozy has called for EU nations to adopt a common, tough standard in dealing with illegal immigration. "We can't all continue to have our own immigration policies," Mr Sarkozy said, ahead of talks in Madrid with EU members from southern Europe. Mr Sarkozy has accused Spain of causing a surge in illegal immigration by offering migrants an amnesty.
[you mean there's a correlation? Who knew...]
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Study: Networks Always Label GOPers With Sex Scandals
My colleague Brent Baker has painstakingly documented how the big three broadcast networks have gone out of their way to avoid labeling scandal-scarred New York Governor Eliot Spitzer as a “Democrat.” An examination of the fifteen ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news shows through Wednesday night finds Spitzer was called a Democrat just 20% of the time — twice on CBS, once on ABC, and never on NBC.
So how do the networks treat Republicans involved in sex scandals? Always, always as Republicans, and as problems for their party...
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Report busts the myths on cancer risks
[a little good news]
Breast implants, deodorant and coffee are extremely unlikely to cause cancer, says a new risk report designed to allay panic that everything can be carcinogenic. The risk assessment developed by an Australian cancer specialist puts in perspective the chance of getting the disease from a range of agents, including dental fillings, marijuana and cured meats. (Snip) Professor Stewart all but ruled out risk for a range of other rumoured carcinogens, including artificial sweeteners, coffee, deodorant, dental fillings, breast implants and fluoridated water.
[implants are back?! {just asking}]
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Friday, March 21, 2008
.
"We established however some, although not all its [self-government] important principles . The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to John Cartwright, 1824)
.
.
Face of Defense: Airman Drives 120 Convoys in Afghanistan
This is Velez’s third deployment.
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Gen. Petraeus Defines Victory in Iraq
As the fifth anniversary of the U.S. led invasion of Iraq is marked this week, Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, says that progress is "tenuous" and 'reversible'. In a discussion on the future of the country with Alex Chadwick, he defines victory as
"an Iraq that is at peace with itself, at peace with its neighbors, that has a government that is representative of — and responsive to — its citizenry and is a contributing member of the global community."READ MORE
El Paso Hosts Texas-Sized Homecoming Parade for Returned Cavalry Troops
School groups hoisted posters expressing thanks. Workers stood outside their office buildings, waving to the troops and calling out thanks as they marched by.
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The Left's Escalating War on Military Recruiters
For the past several years, I've chronicled the left's escalating war on military recruiters -- and the apathetic, weak-kneed response to it. The anti-recruiter thugs on college campuses and in liberal enclaves have thrived thanks to a combination of public indifference, law enforcement
fecklessness and left-wing ideological apologism.
The Times Square bombing was not an isolated incident, but an all-too-predictable result of reckless tolerance for dangerous "peace" peddlers skating on the edge of sedition. Lone nuts? Here is a brief history of the anti-military recruitment movement's mounting acts of
vandalism and violence. I'll list, you decide...
[19 paragraphs of specific incidents since 2003...]
There will be no end in sight until lawmakers, law enforcement, the media and the public open their eyes to the hate, connect the dots, and stop coddling the increasingly crazed and emboldened anti-military militants before more bombs go off -- and innocents get harmed -- in the name of "peace."
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Islamic threats shut art exhibit
Berlin - An exhibition by Danish artists in Berlin has been closed due to threats received over a photo deemed to be offensive to Muslims, organisers said. The exhibition, which opened in central Berlin on February 22, has been closed to ensure the safety of staff and visitors (Snip) One of the 21 photos is of the Kaaba - the cube-shaped building inside the Grande Mosque in Mecca - with the inscription describing the stone as ''stupid''.
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Iran source of Afghan weapons: MacKay
Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan – Defence Minister Peter MacKay says weapons are flowing from Iran into the hands of Afghan insurgents. He says improvised explosive devices from Iran have been a particular concern for Canadians. Most of Canada's 73 combat deaths have been the result of IEDs. He says it's been difficult for Canada to address the issue though he has made his concerns known to the Iranian government.
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Switzerland to sign huge Iran gas deal
Swiss energy giant EGL is set to sign a 25-year deal in Teheran on Monday to buy 5.5 billion cubic meters of Iranian natural gas per year, starting in 2011, for a reported €18 billion. The contract will be the second largest European gas deal, although EGL spokesman Bogdan Preda told The Jerusalem Post, "We are not releasing the value of the deal."
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China Blacks Out Tibet News
Since riots broke out in Tibet last week, authorities have imposed martial law and tried to control the flow of information into and out of the region. The government has banned journalists and tourists from entering Tibet. And officials have imposed strict controls over the Internet in an effort to spin what happened in Tibet and neighboring provinces to conform with Beijing's version of events. That's resulted in some typical blackouts.
[typical blackouts. We'll be hearing for the UN's Human Rights Council any day now...]
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UN Moving to Derail Fraud Investigations
The UN bureaucracy has once again acted to insulate itself from punishment for engaging in fraud that has cost the UN (and America, since America by far is the largest contributor to the United Nations) hundreds of millions of dollars. .
[snip]
The General Assembly is preparing to put an early end to an in-house panel that has exposed more than $600 million in tainted United Nations contracts and is currently investigating an additional $1 billion in suspect agreements.
The effort to scuttle the panel is not a budget matter so much as a political one, and it represents the continuing suspicion developing countries have about international intervention in their affairs.
[snip]
In its effort to curtail the task force’s work, Singapore succeeded in winning over the powerful Group of 77, an assemblage representing the developing world that has grown over the years to 130 nations. [each of which get as influential a vote in the general assembly as any nation, regardless of size or contribution to the UN's budget - and as a block of 130, they're nigh unstoppable.]
The investigations will obviously cease,” Mr. Appleton said Thursday, noting that the United Nations currently had no other unit “to address these matters.”
[The organization is UNsalvageable]
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New Peer-Reviewed Study Finds ‘Warming is naturally caused and shows no human influence’
Climate scientists at the University of Rochester, the University of Alabama, and the University of Virginia report that observed patterns of temperature changes (‘fingerprints’) over the last thirty years are not in accord with what greenhouse models predict and can better be explained by natural factors, such as solar variability. Therefore, climate change is ‘unstoppable’ and cannot be affected or modified by controlling the emission of greenhouse gases, such as CO2, as is proposed in current legislation.
The report is published in the December 2007 issue of the International Journal of Climatology of the Royal Meteorological Society [DOI: 10.1002/joc.1651]. The authors are Prof. David H. Douglass (Univ. of Rochester), Prof. John R. Christy (Univ. of Alabama), Benjamin D. Pearson (graduate student), and Prof. S. Fred Singer (Univ. of Virginia).
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Scientists Send Letter to UN: Headed in entirely wrong direction
If a former vice president with absolutely no formal scientific training in climatology or meteorology makes a statement about the world coming to an end due to rising temperatures, media will fawn over him like teenyboppers in the presence of Elvis Presley.
Yet, if more than 100 scientists from around the world send a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations urging him and his organization to stop wasting time, resources, and money fighting a futile climate change battle, crickets will be heard in newsrooms around the country.
Yet, such was the case when scientists from around the planet signed their names to the following letter sent to Ban Ki-moon Thursday...
[the subject line of which reads: "Re: UN climate conference taking the World in entirely the wrong direction" - read it > http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/reprint/open_letter_to_un.html, or if you're skeptical re: skepticism, start with the list of signatories - it's impressive > http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=164004.]
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Stop Blair: ambition to lead Europe hits fierce opposition
A "Stop Blair" website run by pro-Europeans has launched a petition against against a Blair ['EU'] presidency; senior officials in Brussels are privately dismissive about the new post going to a Briton; and senior diplomats in European capitals also doubt that Blair is the right person for the post being created under Europe's new reform treaty.
The Lisbon treaty now being ratified by EU member states creates a new post of president of the European council, representing and chairing summits of the leaders of the 27 member countries from the beginning of next year for a maximum five-year term. The president's role and powers are yet to be properly defined. EU ambassadors are expected to meet next month to try to come up with a job description.
[will Europeans get to vote on 'their' President or will that too (like ratification of the 'treaty' itself) be entrusted to politocrats? {SD: you know?}]
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WELFARE REFORM IN INDIANA
[government in action]
Like many other states, Indiana's social services have been bureaucratic and fragmented. As a result, they are not convenient for the state's welfare recipients and are costly to operate. Under the state's system:
- Clients must apply for each social service in person at a state office during business hours, and each visit requires an average wait of two to three hours.
- In almost three out of four cases (72 percent), eligibility is not determined during the initial interview -- requiring additional verification and often additional office visits.
- Almost every action in the eligibility process requires a different form and/or notice, and each of the state's 94 counties has had its own set of procedures.
- Thirty-five percent of eligibility determinations for Medicaid long-term care in 2003 contained errors, costing taxpayers an estimated $10 million to $50 million per year -- and the federal government up to $100 million annually.
- Twenty-six percent of TANF benefit determinations contained errors.
- Twelve percent of food stamp benefit determinations were in error -- and Indiana ranks 48th among the states in recouping food stamp overpayments.
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AP's 'Workers Giving Up' Claim Goes from 'Perhaps' to 'Fact'
[Friday:]
The Labor Department's report, released Friday, also showed that the nation's unemployment rate dipped to 4.8 percent as hundreds of thousands of people — perhaps discouraged by their prospects — left the civilian labor force. The jobless rate was 4.9 percent in January.
[Saturday:]
The Labor Department's report also indicated that the nation's unemployment rate fell to 4.8 percent as hundreds of thousands of people gave up looking for jobs. The jobless rate was 4.9 percent in January.
There is no evidence that "hundreds of thousands of people gave up looking for jobs" in February. And the AP writers overlooked the fact that early members of the Baby Boom that began on January 1, 1946 are turning 62 this year, and are thus eligible for early-retirement benefits in Social Security's Old Age program.
But it would appear that the AP and its reporters aren't about to let the truth get in the way of a good, yet made-up, story -- especially if it enhances Democratic candidates' opportunities to demagogue the economy.
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Sit-down protests trigger Beijing bathroom renovation
Chinese Olympic organisers are rushing to renovate bathrooms at flagship Olympic venues after complaints about a lack of western-style sit-down toilets, an official said Wednesday. (Snip) Some 500,000 overseas visitors are expected in Beijing during the August 8-24 Games but the only toilets available for the public and the media at many top venues like the National Aquatic Centre, known as the Water Cube, are squat toilets that are widespread in China but unfamiliar to westerners.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080319/lf_afp/lifestyleoly2008chntoiletsoffbeat
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Gasoline price spike has only just begun
Gasoline has hit record levels - and experts say it will likely continue to soar in tandem with the skyrocketing price of crude. The national average retail price for gas has risen about 30 cents in the past month to $3.279 a gallon (Snip) And experts say motorists should prepare to pay nearly $4 a gallon - and in some places even more than that - before the price of gas finally comes down in the late spring as high prices crimp demand.
[are we ready to demand drilling yet?]
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Pizza parlors struggle with soaring cost of wheat flour
The thick and thin crust creations at Ciro's Pizza Café wouldn't measure up without good flour and cheese, so Rob Marvin grits his teeth and pays the record prices being charged for them.
He spends $469 a week on flour alone, up from $156 six months ago. Next month, he predicts the tab will grow to $625 a week ... supplies are down. U.S. farmers have been growing less wheat, opting to plant corn and reap government incentives meant to ramp up the nation's ethanol supply...
[and of course everything he uses gets to him on a truck. I.e., this is how insane energy policy manifests into recession - if not depression. But as long as it's in time for the presidential election, mission accomplished: party before country.]
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Ruling: English-only sign at cheesesteak shop not discriminatory
A Philadelphia agency has ruled that English-only signs at a famous cheesesteak shop are not discriminatory. The Commission on Human Relations ruled Wednesday that the sign at Geno's Steaks does not violate the city's Fair Practices Ordinance.Joe Vento posted the signs at his shop in October 2005. They read "This is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING 'PLEASE SPEAK ENGLISH.'" Critics alleged that the policy discourages customers of certain backgrounds from eating there.
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Divinity school at TCU still plans to honor Obama pastor
Controversy surrounding the longtime minister of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is not deterring a Texas divinity school from honoring the Rev. Jeremiah Wright at a ceremony later this month. But Texas Christian University, the campus where Brite Divinity School is located, issued a statement Monday opposing that decision in light of video that shows Wright delivering racially tinged sermons and him railing against the United States. Wright is to be honored March 29 at the Black Church Summit and Awards Banquet...
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Palm Beach County Schools and the ACLU
The Sun-Sentinel reports that the Palm Beach County School Board is being sued by the ACLU (on behalf of parents and students, of course) for "failing to provide students with a high-quality education guaranteed under the state constitution". The ACLU cites low graduation rates as the major cause of the lawsuit.
There are, of course, calls for folks to do something. Predictably, money is in the equation. The Palm Beach County superintendant wants the ACLU to concentrate "on bringing more resources to public education." By resources, he probably means money. But a little research (schoolmatters.com) shows that the district spent $10,529 per student in 2005. One has to wonder if more money is really needed...
[just read the the ACLU is pulling the same extortion/stunt in Palm Springs FL]
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Shocked
The response to the CDC’s report last week that 25% of teen girls carry a sexually transmitted infection suggests that this comes as a shock to many, including some in our sex education industry...
With that message coming from professionals, we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that 34% of girls are sexually active by fifteen. That figure goes up to nearly 80% five years later, with over a fifth of all fifteen to nineteen year olds reporting two or more partners in the past year. Hey, they are exploring their sexuality; it’s only “natural"...
The pandemic of STIs in this country is a logical consequence of the way we educate kids about sexuality. Until an “extreme makeover” of our methods takes place, young people – especially girls – will continue to pay an awful price.
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The Darker the Berry, the Sweeter the Juice: Black Racism, Part I
Accusations of white racism are rampant, with the topic of race turning immediately to the alleged hate deep in the heart of every white person. In fact, any "dialogue" on race is nothing more than a vicious black attack on whites who cannot defend themselves and usually respond with a payment to black organizations and neighborhoods from the government and corporations. But what about black racism? Is it even possible? If so, does it exist? And if it exists, is it more or less virulent than white racism?
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George Soros and the Alchemy of 'Regime Change'
What does an aged multi-billionaire do after he spends $25 million dollars to force a presidential election his way, and still falls flat on his face? Well, of course, he tries and tries again.
When George Soros failed to obtain the election of his candidate, John Kerry, in 2004, he brooded for a while, even said he might get out of politics altogether, but he just couldn't stop himself. He has stated publicly that he wishes to burst the "bubble of American supremacy," because he says our preeminence in the world is a detriment to global "equilibrium." So far, he has failed, but he keeps on trying...
[this isn't scare mongering - read it yourself and decide if Gyorgy Schwatz (born name) has both the intention and means to do this country great harm >
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Nets Turn on McCain: Just 30% Positive; Obama: 67% Good Press
Meanwhile, Barack Obama enjoys overwhelmingly positive coverage of 84 percent positive coverage. Hillary Clinton got 53 percent positive. (Factoring in neutral coverage, Clinton earned more good than bad press.)
[I.e., help McCain to become the Republican nominee, once done, back to supporting the Democrats (just like the NYT, which endorsed him prior, than ran a fabricated hit piece after. Are we really not supposed to notice this? {rhetorical}]
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AP Math: 0.2% Rise is Small, 0.4% Rise is Modest, 0.6% Decline is Plunge
To be sure, store traffic was much worse than expected last month, and we are not trying to paint a rosy picture. However, there are two truly disturbing elements in Martin Crutsinger's piece entitled "Retail Sales Plunge by 0.6 Percent"...
1. A 0.2 percent rise was depicted as "small," a 0.4 percent rise was "modest," but a 0.6 percent decline was a "plunge"
2. In February, January's rise in retail sales was "surprisingly strong." Now, that same rise was depicted as "modest."
There's more of course...
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Four Times More Journalists Identify as Liberal Than Conservative
A survey conducted late last year and released Monday, by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, confirmed the obvious -- that compared to the views of the public, conservatives are under-represented in national journalism while liberals are over-represented. Jennifer Harper of the Washington Times discovered the nugget buried deep in the annual “State of the Media” report from Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism.
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A History Lesson in 'Name That Party'
ABC's "Political Sex Scandals Redux" popup slideshow <http://a.abcnews.com/Politics/Blotter/popup?id=2841254> has a series of 13 slides relating to current and past politicians.
If Republicans are or were involved, the network, with one rare and minor exception, consistently applies the "R" label almost immediately. With Democrats, with one very old exception, the party label isn't there. Here are the specifics... [follow link - snip]
This is all in our minds, huh, MSM? It's all accidental, right?
Then why does it keep happening, and why do you stubbornly refuse to make a simple style guide change -- requiring the party ID of any and all politicians caught in scandals upon first mention, in the first paragraph?
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Grand Gestures, Hot Air and Cold Water
Who says that the issue of global warming is a matter of science, not faith? Just last week, Mayor Gavin Newsom proved belief trumps data. The Chronicle reported that a San Francisco Public Utilities Commission study found that the giant turbines he wanted to put underwater below the Golden Gate Bridge would cost way too much money to install and maintain. They would generate power at a cost of 80 cents to $1.40 per kilowatt hour -- as opposed to Pacific Gas and Electric's 12 cents per hour commercial rate. It seems the turbines would produce only one or two megawatts of power -- not the 38 megawatts Newsom envisioned.
Newsom was unfazed. "I don't care about the arguments against it. I care about the arguments for it," Newsom told Chronicle reporter Cecilia Vega...
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“Punish Sacramento”
California
Governor Schwarzenegger kicked off his latest road show this morning in Fresno, talking budget reform and striking a curious balance between defending elected officials and criticizing them. Armed with his now infamous budget charts showing the imbalance between state expenditures and revenue, Schwarzenegger promised a new push this year for a constitutional amendment to change the budget system.
That proposal was hinted at in his State of the State speech two months ago but remains more concept than concrete. What we do know is that it would create a new rainy day fund by constraining spending in robust times and would give the governor the option of unilaterally cutting some state spending if the Legislature fails to do so as needed.
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Party of the 'Little Guy' (and big donors)
The top 100 political donors of the 2008 election cycle are listed in OpenSecrets.org . First, note how few of these big donors lean Republican: only 12 of the top 100. And the higher up the list (the bigger the donor), the fewer lean Republican. In fact, none of the top 15 donors leans Republican. Only four of the top 50 do.
You might want to remember this the next time your Democratic friends tell you how Republicans are so influenced by "the rich", how the Republican Party is the party of Wall Street and the Democratic Party is the party of the little guy, or how the current financial crisis is due to Republican capitalists.
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Sperm donor takes case to Supreme Court
Attorneys for a Topeka sperm donor have appealed his paternity case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case filed Monday seeks to overturn a ruling against Daryl Hendrix, the sperm donor, by the Kansas Supreme Court. The Kansas court ruled 4-2 last fall that a sperm donor who wants to have parental rights with any subsequent children must have a written agreement with the mother.
[and shouldn't women who intend to take a pregnancy to term be required to have a written agreement with the father accepting his parentship before he can be financially liable (for decades) for her decision?]
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Concealed-carry course graduates are armed but not dangerous
The Great Oaks Police Academy Concealed Carry Course has a great deal. For $25, I can rent a Smith & Wesson .38 revolver and get 200 rounds - cheaper than cartridges alone. The course is excellent. We start by naming the parts of a cartridge, a revolver and a semi-automatic pistol, then move on to 25 true-false questions on dozens of topics. "Being armed is a tremendous responsibility," it says. True.
--
If every gun owner took a class like this, we'd all be safer. But meth-heads, crack junkies and street muggers don't take classes. They don't get permits or certificates like the one Lengle gave me Sunday. They just grab a "nine" and use it against defenseless victims.
Each month another concealed-carry class graduates from Scarlet Oaks. And the bad guys are a little less sure their next victim is defenseless.
[it's disappointing and distasteful to think our populace needs to be armed to counter the armed bad guys. it's delusional not to recognize that that's indeed the case.]
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Meet the world's smallest bodybuilderAt just 2ft 9in, Indian muscleman Aditya 'Romeo' Dev is the world's smallest bodybuilder.
story & pictures
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
.
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"Twenty years a member, $20,000 in donations. Obama is either
lying or deaf. This one will be hard for the MSM to spin."
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"Twenty years a member, $20,000 in donations. Obama is either
lying or deaf. This one will be hard for the MSM to spin."
Tomas Sowell - Double Life of Barack Obama
[not really, watch]
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Face of Defense: Wounded Marine Prepares to Return to Iraq
“Honestly, leaving Iraq was the worst time of my life,” he said. “It was nice being around home for about the first month, because I got to see my family and friends, but then it tore me up inside knowing my buddies were still heavily engaged at the time (in Iraq).”
Boutwell said he never lost his desire to be a Marine during the surgeries and his ensuing recovery, but quickly found himself in another battle: the fight to re-enlist.
“Headquarters tried to retire me from the Corps when I was stuck down in Texas for my surgeries. But I didn’t want to get out, so I fought the decision, and they finally let me re-enlist. You just really got to believe in being a Marine and believe in what you’re doing, and that’ll carry you as far as you want to go.”
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Two Views
Poll suggests Iraqis optimistic
More than 50% of Iraqis think their lives are good, more than at any time in the last three years, a survey says. The poll for the BBC, ABC, ARD and NHK of more than 2,000 people also suggests that a majority believe that security in their area has improved since 2007...
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Clinton says "we cannot win" Iraq war
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton charged on Monday the Iraq war may end up costing Americans $1 trillion and further strain the economy, as she made her case for a prompt U.S. troop pullout from a war "we cannot win."
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Two Networks
Marking the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, ABC's Wold News on Monday provided a status check on how Iraqis view their lives. Anchor Charles Gibson explained “we have polled inside Iraq and there is some good news.” Specifically, “today, 55 percent of Iraqi say their lives are going well. Last summer that number was 39 percent.”
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CNN Features Iraqi Troops Who Favor Democrats in Election
CNN’s Kyra Phillips, currently in Iraq on assignment, apparently couldn’t any Iraqi troops who support the Republicans for the November election in the U.S. All of those featured in her report on Friday’s "Newsroom" program said glowing things about Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or the Democrats in general...
[what bias?]
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Pelosi Wants 'Rwanda-Like Genocide' in Iraq, Expert Says
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said President Bush's Iraq policy has failed. She spoke in response to comments made last week by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, who said that no one in the U.S. and Iraqi governments thinks there has been "sufficient progress by any means" when it comes to Iraqi national reconciliation. [i.e., the politics]
But Michael Rubin, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, called Petraeus a "realist," adding that "the progress toward reconciliation will take time."... "President Bush doesn't have a magic wand," he said. "But there is a huge difference between not following an arbitrary congressional timeline and failing."
"The worst possible option would be to withdraw and create a vacuum," Rubin told Cybercast News Service.
[The critical thing is that Iraq be made to fail in time for the presidential election.
Party before country]
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The New Report on Iraq and Terror
A new Pentagon report on Iraq and Terrorism has the news media buzzing. An item on the New York Times blog snarks, "Oh, By the Way, There Was No Al Qaeda Link." The ABC News story that previews the full report concludes, "Report Shows No Link Between Saddam and al Qaeda."
How, then, to explain this sentence about Iraq and al Qaeda from the report's abstract: "At times, these organizations would work together in pursuit of shared goals but still maintain their autonomy and independence because of innate caution and mutual distrust"?
The executive summary says that the evidence did not reveal a "smoking gun (direct connection)" between Iraq and al Qaeda. But, as noted, the report itself offers much evidence that the opposite is true...
... Saddam Hussein "supported" a group that merged with al Qaeda in the late 1990s, run by al Qaeda's #2, and the New York Times thinks this is not a link between Iraq and al Qaeda? How does that work?
Anyone interested in the "strong evidence that links the regime of Saddam Hussein to regional and global terrorism" -- that language comes from this report, too -- should read the entire thing for themselves, here.
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Russia: A Destructive Culture Of Lies And Mendacity
Although there has been considerable talk in recent months about possible political, constitutional, or economic crises in Russia, only distinguished human rights activist Sergei Kovalyov has drawn attention to a crisis that is already under way: Russia's "shameful moral crisis."
Kovalyov emphasized the "corrupting force" of the lies that Russia's leaders "are incapable of rejecting." He notes that no "remotely literate citizen" believes these lies, including even the staunchest supporters of Putin and the pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party...
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Trojan Dragon: China's Cyber Threat
[HT:MD]
Foreign technology collection efforts have "eroded the US military advantage by enabling foreign militaries to acquire sophisticated capabilities that might otherwise have taken years to develop." "Massive" industrial espionage has "undercut the US economy by making it possible for foreign firms to gain a competitive economic edge over US companies."
Dr. Brenner's report goes on to say that foreign intelligence efforts increasingly "rely on cybertools to collect sensitive US technology and economic information." Foreign intelligence agencies do this by "placing collectors in proximity to sensitive technologies or else establishing foreign research" by "forming ventures with US firms." The report specifically identifies China and Russia as the leading culprits...
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GREENHOUSE AFFECT
Trendy climate-change policies like ethanol and other biofuels are actually worse for the environment than fossil fuels, according to two studies published in Science, a peer-reviewed journal. The first study, by ecologists at Princeton University and the Woods Hole Research Center, break new ground by exposing a kind of mega-accounting error:
- About 2.7 times more carbon is stored in terrestrial soils and plant material than in the atmosphere, and this carbon is released when these areas are cleared. Compounding problems is the loss of "carbon sinks" that absorb atmospheric CO2 in the bargain.
- When the hidden costs of conversion are included, greenhouse-gas emissions from corn ethanol over the next 30 years will be twice as high as from regular gasoline.
[167 years - I believe we're all supposed to be drowned by then]
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Power play
Utilities face a serious problem. Electricity demand is projected to increase 40 percent by 2030, according to government estimates. Meanwhile, overzealous regulators make it difficult to expand energy capacity. Unfortunately, instead of loosening regulations to induce capacity expansion, state and federal governments are moving toward rationing electricity.
Proponents make it sound so simple. Just buy a new dishwasher, build a couple of windmills, put some solar cells on the roof and — voila — energy problem solved. Not really. Maryland would have to reduce its electricity consumption by about a fifth of today's use — or the equivalent of a half a million households — to meet Mr. O'Malley's objective. Still, some may say, all this sounds fair enough. What's wrong with some aggressive conservation?
Well, there's a lot wrong when it's unjustifiably forced upon consumers. Think about it. The legitimacy of these draconian efforts is rooted in the notion there is an energy shortage. Conservation, after all, makes sense when there is a shortage of something. But energy is not in short supply. There are fossil fuels, and lots of them, right here in America. Yet America is one of the few nations that chooses to leaves much of its own reserves untapped...
[a component of our insane energy policies is that government bureaucrats are always looking for ways to increase their power - and this energy-is-bad idea plays right into their hands of taxing (and so controlling) all activity]
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WHY ARE CANADIANS STILL WAITING FOR HEALTH CARE?
Wait lists for medically necessary health care are Canada's shame, says writer Nadeem Esmail. Or, as Beverly McLachlin, Chief Justice of the Canadian Supreme Court, says, access to a waiting list is not access to health care.
* In 2007, wait times for access to health care in Canada reached a new historic high: 18.3 weeks averaged across 12 medical specialties.
* Canadians waited a median of 25 weeks for cataract surgery from the time their general practitioner referred them to a specialist to the time they received treatment.
* Canadians waited a median of 42 weeks for joint replacement.
Consider the personal costs a wait line of that magnitude entails in
term of pain and suffering and actually making a condition worse.
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MISSISSIPPIANS VS. LARD
Several members of the state's House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would have the state's health department set the limits on who is obese. These guidelines would be sent to all restaurants, which would then be enjoined from serving customers who fall into the dreaded obese category.
[snip]
It's unlikely that such a law will ever become reality, but the fact that it's been proposed shows how crazy it's getting out there...
[again: political correctness runs amok - with no limits - until actively stopped by the populace. Are we there yet? ]
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The Lawyers' Party
The Democratic Party has become the Lawyers' Party. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are lawyers. Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama are lawyers. John Edwards, the other former Democrat candidate for president, is a lawyer and so is his wife Elizabeth. Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate.) Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Benson, went to law school. Look at the Democrat Party in Congress: the Majority Leader in each house is a lawyer.
The Republican Party is different. President Bush and Vice President Cheney were not lawyers, but businessmen. The leaders of the Republican Revolution were not lawyers. Newt Gingrich was a history professor; Tom Delay was an exterminator; and Dick Armey was an economist. House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer, not a lawyer. The former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is a heart surgeon.
Who was the last Republican president who was a lawyer? Gerald Ford. The Republican Party is made up of real people doing real work.
Lawyers see these sorts of people, who provide goods and services that people want, as the enemies of America. And so we have seen the procession of official enemies in the eyes of the Lawyers' Party grow. Against whom do Hillary and Obama rail? Pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers and anyone producing anything of value in our nation.
This is the natural consequence of viewing everything through the eyes of lawyers - and the Democratic Party is made up of lawyers.
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Three Things to Ponder:
[HT:GC]
C O W S
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the state of Washington? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.
T H E C O N S T I T U T I O N
They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq . Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we're not using it anymore.
T H E 1 0 C O M M A N D M E N T S
The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this:
You cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery," and "Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians...It creates a hostile work environment.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Iran bans magazines for showing 'corrupt' foreign stars
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran has banned nine lifestyle and cinema magazines for publishing pictures of "corrupt" foreign film stars and details about their "decadent" private lives, the student ISNA news agency said Sunday...
[proof positive that even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut]
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China Blacks Out YouTube After Tibetan Riot Videos Appear
As Tibetans -- led by Buddhist monks -- rioted in the capital city of Lhasa, burning Chinese-owned businesses and attacking Chinese, Beijing clamped down on YouTube and other media outlets depicting the violence.
Access to YouTube was blocked after about 20 videos of the violence in Tibet were shown on the site.
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Who cares? &c.
Reading a report about China’s latest massacre in Tibet, I was struck by one line in particular: “China is gambling that its crackdown will not bring an international outcry over human rights violations that could lead to boycotts of the Olympics.”
That is a very, very good gamble. Nobody gives a rat’s behind what the Chinese do, to Tibetans or anybody else. It is a curious fact of modern times. If only China’s rulers would embrace the Bush administration: Maybe the world would care.
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Shifting towards Israel?
A United Nations panel voted overwhelmingly this month to condemn Israel for a recent armed incursion in the Gaza Strip. Thirty-three member countries of the 47-seat UN Human Rights Council endorsed the resolution, which accused Israel of war crimes.
Those in favour of censuring the Jewish state included China, India and Russia. Thirteen countries abstained, among them seven European governments. [so brave]
But one nation stood alone against the denunciation of Israel, and that country was not the United States – Israel's leading foreign supporter – or even Israel itself, for neither country has a seat on the human rights body.
Instead, the lone dissenter was Canada.
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Birth control pills spark debate over environment
Wherever possible, Tina Casale switches to compact fluorescent light bulbs; she also recycles daily, rides in carpools or walks when she can, and, as a third-grade teacher, has made it a priority to ensure that global warming is a frequent topic in her science discussions. But in the eyes of some activists, Casale could be doing more to save the environment: Namely, tossing out her birth control pills. Birth control pills, like batteries and baby bottles, have become the latest item in American homes to become a focus of environmental concerns...
[screw the pills, we need universal school vouchers]
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Blaming Americans again
Liberals are using the concept of Anthropogenic Global Warming to advance their favorite causes, and that the whole War of the Worlds AGW scare is a tool to that end. This piece in LiveScience.com certainly buttresses that opinion. The Left has traditionally hated Americans eating red meat and driving their cars, and now we are told that, in order to ``save the planet`` we should eschew both.
As for fighting obesity and global warming by walking and cycling, don't expect people to do it easily, said Kristie Ebi. She's a Virginia public health consultant and one of the lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
Now, why did the IPCC [International Panel on Climate Change] need a public health consultant, and why was she one of the "leading authors" of the IPCC? Does it not seem obvious that transforming our way of life is the critical point of all this? Can any informed person continue to doubt that this issue is primarily a political power grab?
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MANDATE UPDATE
Since the early 1990s, CAHI has tracked state health-insurance mandate legislation in all 50 states and estimated the impact of those mandated benefits on the cost of a policy. A health-insurance "mandate" is a legislative requirement that an insurance company or health plan cover (or offer coverage for) common -- but sometimes not so common -- health- care providers, benefits and patient populations.
Although there were only a handful of state mandates in the 1960s, CAHI's just released "Health Insurance Mandates in the States, 2008" has identified 1,961 nationwide -- up from 1,901 a year ago. For almost every health-care product or service, there are at least two groups that want insurance to cover it: those who sell the products and services so they can get more business, and those who use the products and services to lower their out-of-pocket costs.
Both of these highly motivated groups push state legislators -- and increasingly members of Congress -- to require insurance to cover the care. As a result, government interference in and control of the health-care system is steadily increasing -- and so is the cost of health insurance...
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The High Cost of a Free Lunch
... Although FDR is often, mistakenly, credited with bringing the Great Depression to an end, as Amity Shlaes made clear in her book, “The Forgotten Man,” his policies, which can best be described as Socialistic and anti-business, in reality prolonged America’s misery. The mere fact that he and his economic advisors thought it made perfect sense to keep raising taxes during the 1930s suggests that their primary motive wasn’t to lift the country out of its economic morass, but to take advantage of the situation to inflate the power of the federal government...
The end result of his 12 years in the White House is a hodge-podge of Washington bureaucracies and an economy that finds the federal government being far and away the single largest employer in the U.S. Couple that with his personal fondness for Joseph Stalin, his filling his administration and the State Department with like-minded idiots, and you have a perfect blueprint for disaster. For as Thomas Jefferson recognized,
“A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have.”... It should be no surprise that we now have tens of millions of Americans, not to mention several million illegal aliens, who seem to believe that the feds should guarantee their home loans, turn their schools into liberal indoctrination centers with a bias against religion and traditional values, and, for good measure, pay for their health insurance...
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COMMONSENSE TAX POLICIES
If we want to obtain long-term economic stability and spur economic growth and job creation, we need to cut the corporate capital-gains tax, Consider:
- Some, like Belgium, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore don't tax corporate capital gains.
- Others such as Japan and the United Kingdom have exemptions when capital gains are reinvested; even France and Germany passed a 95 percent exclusion.
- Only the United States, Sweden and the Netherlands still tax corporate income at the corporate level and then again at the individual level when shareholders receive dividends.
- The whopping 35 percent U.S. tax rate creates a "lock-in" effect of investment capital, meaning that corporate taxpayers are less likely to sell appreciated assets because the high-burden tax makes it far from beneficial. Estimates put the total amount of locked-in assets at more than $3 trillion.
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Under assault from two fronts
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.
[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.
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ACLU's War On U.S. Immigration Law
While President George W. Bush, ICE, and Congress act as if the U.S. had no immigration laws and no borders, some heroic local officials and private organizations have nevertheless sought, against all odds, to enforce and uphold immigration law. And every time they have done so, the ACLU has been there to fight them, on behalf of those who are flouting our laws.
A study of the tactics of local ACLU chapters across the country and the national ACLU reveals a distinct, coordinated strategy of six components...
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Hell Freezes Over? NBC Finally Calls Spitzer 'Democratic Governor'
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, substitute NBC Nightly News anchor Ann Curry and reporter Mike Taibbi failed to identify disgraced outgoing New York Governor Eliot Spitzer as a Democrat, but on Thursday night Curry finally informed NBC viewers of the party affiliation -- a fact network journalists always consider relevant when a Republican gets caught in scandalous behavior. Curry set up a story on incoming Governor David Paterson by uttering the word she's avoided all week...
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Inner City Kids Benefiting From School Choice
...
The graduation rate at the local high school is 3 percent…Green Dot was ready to go in Watts. It had the money to open the schools. It had the support of the community. It met all of the legal requirements for its charters to be approved. Indeed, the School Board staff advised the members that their only legal option was to approve the charters... But who cares about the rule of law when the teachers’ union is saying no...
...
Barr makes it clear, in sometimes colorful language, that the purpose of state education spending is to educate children, not to provide job security to underperforming adults. Green Dot Schools in the toughest neighborhoods in Los Angeles have an average high school graduation rate of 80 percent. The first two Green Dot schools also had high percentages of graduates attending four-year accredited colleges and universities. The school model focuses on getting resources away from bureaucracy and into the classroom and an unflinching commitment to academic achievement.
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MORE ROADS, NOT RAIL
Dallas does not need an "ambitious" regional rail network, says Mary Katherine Stout, vice president for policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Less than two months ago, Dallas Area Rapid Transit announced that it would be $1 billion short of what is needed to meet existing building obligations.
Assuming local taxpayers are hip to the notion of paying more on every purchase so they can cruise around -- or subsidize others cruising around [*] -- in trains, it might be wise to consider how well this expanded rail network can be sustained in the future [**].
Combine inflated ridership projections and enormous cost overruns that have plagued rail projects like this across the country with the reality that people have not given up their cars [***] en masse despite the construction of fancy rail lines, and the only promise taxpayers can count on is that this will require their continued and growing financial obligation for decades to come.
Keeping Texas moving is a high priority, and the inescapable fact is that Texas needs more roads, not more rail cars, says Stout.
[* = survey after survey says a majority of voters support 'mass transit' - for the other guy to use - to better clear the roads for their own use, as evidenced by their consistent answer to what it would take for them to use mass transit - the #1 answer to which is 'nothing'.
** = rail systems are many times more expensive to maintain than pavement, and that's before factoring in labor costs - unionized of course - guaranteed to eventually leave riders stranded come the day they chose to 'renegotiate' their monopoly-protected pay scales.
*** = driving clearly best suits the majority of our life styles, where we often can't leave our jobs at a set time and, due to the prevalence of two-earner households, often run our errands after work. Need proof? Look at our freeways; they're packed. Despite the hour-long commute many of us are stuck with it's still our preferred mode of transportation - and who is government to nay say the wishes of its citizens on the matter?
> Conclusion: Want to realistically help the environment? decrease fuel consumption? improve our quality of life? Build more lanes. Anything else is detrimental wishful thinking (at best, and un-American social engineering at worst). ]
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Ad Council Uses Children in Horrific Global Warming Commercials
he non-profit organization Ad Council has not only decided to take on the most recent liberal bogeyman known as anthropogenic global warming, but do so by using young children.
In its current ads, a young girl is actually about to be hit by a train to disgracefully demonstrate that our inaction today will kill our children tomorrow. In another, kids imitate ticking clocks as they list the predicted climate change horrors of massive heat waves, severe droughts, and devastating hurricanes.
I don't know about you, but irrespective of my position on this issue, I find using children in this fashion to be indefensible and way over the line of decency.
How 'bout you?
[tell 'em (email form): http://www.adcouncil.org/contactus.aspx ]
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D.C. Anti-Union Group Offers 'Worst' Teachers $10G to Quit
A group in Washington, D.C., is asking for nominations for "The 10 Worst Teachers" in hopes that offering severance packages to poorly performing instructors will spark debate about how it is virtually impossible to fire bad teachers, MyFOXDC reports. The anti-union group The Center for
Union Facts on Tuesday launched a campaign to identify the nation's worst 10 instructors and offer them $10,000 to quit their careers.
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