In Stalin's Russia any dissenter from the Party Line was guilty. Innocence had to be proved. It's a standard tyrant's trick. During the reign of Oliver Cromwell in England, witchhunters did not have to prove that their victims were guilty. The accused witches had to prove their innocence. That's what Al Gore has done to science: He and his friends have flipped innocence and guilt from normal science to Stalinist science.
In Al Gore's America, any "global warming denier" is guilty until proven innocent. He or she must have been bought off by Big Oil. Skeptics, no matter how well-qualified, must prove the negative about really silly alarmist hogwash. And whenever some prediction is falsified, the warm mongers have an explanation: it's just a temporary glitch in the data. Oh, yes, we were wrong about 1998, but just wait till 2050! The excuses are endless... [snip]
Putting the burden of proof on the doubters is a perversion of normal, healthy science. In normal science the burden of proof is on the proposer. Albert Einstein had to prove in his historic 1905 paper that there was a fundamental flaw in classical physics. The distinctive predictions of Relativity Theory had to be verified for decades afterwards. Some are still being tested today.
To answer the biggest con trick in the history of science, you just have to address a single question to True Believers: What's your evidence for this barmy idea? And the answer is: There are no facts robust enough, consistent enough, and verified enough to support the mass hysteria... [snip]
The last ten years have seen global cooling, not warming. Look it up. Why? Nobody really knows, but Mr. Sun is the logical suspect. But don't get caught in the trap of proving the negative. In normal, healthy science, the skeptics ask questions.
It is the proponents who carry the burden of proof.
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Thursday, April 17, 2008
The slick trick behind global frauding
USGS: Montana-Dakota may hold 3.7 bln bbl oil -
A shale rock formation that stretches across Montana and North Dakota could hold about 3.7 billion barrels of oil, the biggest single deposit in the United States except for Alaska, the U.S. Geological Survey said this week.
The area could also hold 1.85 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 148 million barrels of natural gas liquids, the USGS said.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska could hold more than 10 billion barrels of oil. But ANWR is off-limits due to a congressional drilling moratorium...
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More drilling, please
How much more pain must Americans endure before our masters in Washington let oil companies punch a few holes in the Alaskan tundra? Must we shiver pennilessly in the dark before we may extract new domestic petroleum deposits? Or shall we simply keep buying $111 barrels of oil from people who want us dead? In case Congress missed the news, three U.S. airlines went broke last week. Aloha, ATA, and Skybus blamed in part unaffordable fuel as they grounded their jets...
[>115$/barrel yesterday - ready yet? {and you can keep the 'please'}]
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OUR [COLOMBIA] FREE-TRADE CONSENSUS
On the trade front, it is important to understand that, as Under Secretary of Commerce Chris Padilla has said, the United States already has free trade with Colombia -- but it's "one-way free trade." Thanks to the Andean Trade Preferences Act, which Congress passed 16 years ago:
• Colombian exporters pay tariffs on only 8 percent of the goods they send to the United States.
• Meanwhile, U.S. exporters currently pay tariffs -- some as high as 35 percent -- on 97 percent of the products we sell Colombia.
The U.S.-Colombia FTA would level this uneven playing field, eliminating the tariffs on U.S. goods and creating new market access for U.S. service suppliers; and it would do all of this with a major trading partner, says Duberstein and McLarty:
• The U.S. exports more to Colombia than Russia, even though Russia has a population that is three times larger and an economy seven times that of Colombia.
• Under the agreement now before Congress, U.S. exports to Colombia, from cars to chemicals to consumer products, would grow by an estimated $1 billion per year -- a direct benefit to U.S. workers and their families.
• From Colombia's perspective, the FTA would add a welcome dimension of certainty to our trading relationship, encouraging investors to commit to Colombia and help create jobs there.
In addition, the agreement would send an important signal of support to a close neighbor, friend and ally, say Duberstein and McLarty.
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West awakens slowly from suicidal slumber
IT is, by any measure, a sunny day when moralising elites are forced to eat their words. Only a few short years ago many were busily deriding Australia as an "international pariah" on immigration. Indeed, only last year our new citizenship test was labelled as nasty stuff by people such as journalist David Marr and former Liberal PM Malcolm Fraser. Enter the British Labour Government, which last month announced its intention to introduce tough new citizenship tests and, get this, bring in immigration controls "based on the Australian model"...
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Berlusconi to deal with Italy's Illegal Immigrants
ROME - Silvio Berlusconi has branded illegal immigrants an "army of evil" in his first day in office after winning Italy's general election. Berlusconi, 71 [a 71-year old President, oh my], who was elected on Monday to serve a third term as Prime Minister, said on Tuesday that he would "step up neighbourhood police, who can be an army of good, placing themselves between the Italian people and the army of evil".
READ MORE
[the larger story here is his election: yet another center-right victory - point? the Left's constant claim that the US has so much repair to do its 'prestige' is unambiguously debunked by the undeniable conservative election trend occurring in Europe and elsewhere - recall:
FLASHBACK:
The Conservative Tide in Major Democracies {Feb. 1, '08}... Remember how Senator Kerry said that leaders of Europe privately wanted him to win the presidency? That news has ceased to become newsworthy.
i.e., contrary to what the press portrays, the world's citizens are waking up to the realities of the world and following our election choices - ironically, should we elect a democrat president the US would actually end up to the left of Europe {think about that}]
Why? Because, like the surge, the sentiment in major democracies has turned as well.
In each of four major nations important to us, France, Germany, Canada, and Britain, the nations historically most important to America in both political and cultural connections, the alignment with America has improved - in some cases, dramatically improved - since the last elections in each nation...
READ MORE.
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America’s Debt to Blacks Already Paid in Full
Prof. Nicholas Stix
While millions of American blacks demand that American taxpayers (read: whites) pay slavery reparations of up to one million dollars to each and every black resident of the United States, in fact, American taxpayers—and consumers—have already paid trillions of dollars in reparations (read: racial extortion). And the tab is rising daily.... [snip]
Blacks have taken the reparations which have been paid to them in stride as their just due, while refusing to admit that they were reparations. They have seen each such payment as an entitlement, and as a stepping stone to their next, more grandiose demand. In many cases, blacks and their white elite supporters have managed to hush up even the existence of reparations [snip]
For an example of an explicitly race-based (read: racist) institution, consider that almost forty years after the enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which barred racially exclusive organizations, some 120 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) still exist, approximately half of which are financed virtually entirely by taxpayers.
Howard University, the nation’s most respected private black university, has alone received billions of dollars in illegal, explicitly race-based funding from the federal government... [{much} more...]
How much have blacks been paid? The possibilities boggle the mind...
[Recommended, not as 'truth' but as likely unrealized data perfectly relevant on any discussion re: 'reparations' {and frankly fascinating} >]
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Hollywood Agenda:’ Day The Earth Stood Still’ Remake Is All About?
No, the important message that the Keanu Klaatu wants to bring us, the message that will warn us of an apocalyptic impending alien police action is….
Global warming.
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Bush Pushes Senate to OK 180 Nominees
President Bush vented frustration anew Saturday over the Senate's failure to vote on more than 180 of his nominations, including more than two dozen to the federal bench.
" These delays are irresponsible, they undermine the cause of justice, and I call on the United States Senate to give these nominees the up-or-down vote they deserve." ... "Some have been waiting for more than a year," ... "As a result, careers have been put on hold, families have been placed in limbo and our government has been deprived of the service of these fine nominees."
[i.e., it's not a matter of the Senate finding fault with Bush's nominations and voting against them, they're not even allowing a vote ]
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Media Fail to Report Cost of Campaign Promises
How much does universal health care cost? What about bailing out troubled homeowners? There are hundreds of programs presidential candidates are promising that you haven’t even heard about, thanks to the media. Working with the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, we reveal what your favorite candidate could cost you...
[Recommended > ] READ MORE
Soros’s Political ‘Hit Man’ Brock Takes Aim at McCain
David Brock, the president and CEO of the George Soros-funded character assassination factory, Media Matters for America (MM), which euphemistically describes its mission, isn’t even pretending to be nonpartisan or fair anymore. Brock has assumed the chairmanship of Progressive Media USA (PMUSA) and in that role will spearhead “a four-month, $40 million media campaign centered on attacks on Sen. John McCain,” the Politico reports.
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California's Exodus...
California
Once again, California registered the biggest net loss of domestic population in the country – 263,035 more people moved OUT of California last year than moved IN. That comes on the heels of 2005-2006, when 287,000 more people moved out of California than moved in – a bigger total loss of domestic population than Louisiana suffered after Hurricane Katrina. According to the Census Bureau, California has suffered a net loss of more than a half-million people to other states in the last two years.
[snip]
The Laffer Competitiveness Index annually ranks states for tax and regulatory competitiveness. The higher the number, the heavier the burdens. California ranks 44th among the 50 states in the Laffer Competitiveness Index. Of the six states losing population the fastest, New York ranks 49th, Rhode Island 48th, New Jersey 43rd, and Hawaii, 45th. The only anomaly was Michigan (16th) whose economy is reeling from the slowdown in automobile sales.
[snip]
Does anyone see a pattern here? Once again, the states with high tax and regulatory burdens are losing population to the states with low tax and regulatory burdens...
[who's leaving demographically? well, those who pay high taxes and consume the least in government services...]
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Faith of Our Fathers
Is there any question that the United States is a profoundly religious country? A 2002 survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that this was the only developed country in which a majority of residents said that religion played "a very important" role in their lives.
[powerful statistic when you think about it, and may explain many things re: the seeming selfish absence of morality in international relations]
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[HT:GC]
A little boy wanted $100.00 very badly and prayed for weeks, but nothing happened.
Then he decided to write God a letter requesting the $100.00
When the postal authorities received the letter to God , USA , they decided to send it to the President.
The president was so amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a $5.00 bill.
The president thought this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy.
The little boy was delighted with the $5.00 bill and sat down to write a thank-you note to God, which read:
Dear God: Thank you very much for sending the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you sent it through Washington , DC., and those assholes deducted $95.00 in taxes
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Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Nobel Prize-Winning Peacekeeper Asks UN to Admit Climate Change Errors
[HT:NN].
Dear Dr. Pachauri and others associated with IPCC
We are writing to you and others associated with the IPCC position – that man’s CO2 is a driver of global warming and climate change – to ask that you now in view of the evidence retract support from the current IPCC position [as in footnote 1] and admit that there is no observational evidence in measured data going back 22,000 years or even millions of years that CO2 levels (whether from man or nature) have driven or are driving world temperatures or climate change.
If you believe there is evidence of the CO2 driver theory in the available data please present a graph of it.
We draw your attention to three observational refutations of the IPCC position (and note there are more). Ice-core data from the ACIA (Arctic Climate Impact Assessment) shows that temperatures have fallen since around 4,000 years ago (the Bronze Age Climate Optimum) while CO2 levels have risen, yet this graphical data was not included in the IPCC Summary for Policymakers (Fig. SPM1 Feb07) which graphed the CO2 rise.
More recent data shows that in the opposite sense to IPCC predictions world temperatures have not risen and indeed have fallen over the past 10 years while CO2 levels have risen dramatically.
The up-dated temperature measurements have been released by the NASA’s Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) [1] as well as by the UK’s Hadley Climate Research Unit (Temperature v. 3, variance adjusted - Hadley CRUT3v) [2]. In parallel, readings of atmospheric concentrations of CO2 have been released by the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii [3]. They have been combined in graphical form by Joe D’Aleo [4], and are shown below.
A third important observation is that contrary to the CO2 driver theory, temperatures in the upper troposphere (where most jets fly) have fallen over the past two decades. [Footnote 2]
IPCC policy is already leading to economic and unintended environmental damage. Specifically the policy of burning food - maize as biofuel - has contributed to sharp rises in food prices which are causing great hardship in many countries and is also now leading to increased deforestation in Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, Togo, Cambodia, Nigeria, Burundi, Sri Lanka, Benin and Uganda for cultivation of crops [5].
Given the economic devastation that is already happening and which is now widely recognised will continue to flow from this policy, what possible justification can there be for its retention?
We ask you and all those whose names are associated with IPCC policy to accept the scientific observations and renounce current IPCC policy.
Yours sincerely,
Svend Hendriksen, Nobel Peace Prize 1988 (shared), Greenland, hendriksen@greennet.gl
Cc: IPCC's yu.izrael@g23.relcom.ru christy@nsstc.uah.edu spencer@nsstc.uah.edu dy.pitman@gmail.com
Tim Yeo MP (Chairman Environmental Audit Committee) Lord Martin Rees (President Royal Society)
Gordon Brown MP David Cameron MP Nick Glegg MP
[footnotes etc. at site - long > ]
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Iran 'behind Green Zone attack'
The most senior US general in Iraq has said he has evidence that Iran was behind Sunday's bombardment of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. Gen David Petraeus told the BBC he thought Tehran had trained, equipped and funded insurgents who fired the barrage of mortars and rockets. He said Iran was adding what he described as "lethal accelerants" to a very combustible mix. There has as yet been no response from Iran to the accusations.
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Why There Is a Hamas-Israel War
The deliberate murder of eight and the wounding of nine Israeli rabbinical students in Jerusalem only highlights the fact that Hamas is at war with Israel. It is, from Hamas's view, a war that will never end until Israel is exterminated and its citizens killed or expelled. No other analysis is accurate or can explain what is happening... [snip]
To see who is aggressor here is an easy task. If Hamas were to stop attacking Israel there would be no cross-border Israeli operations whatsoever. But if Israel does nothing in retaliation—as it has repeatedly for long periods of time—the Hamas attacks on Israel continue. Israel ’s goal is to defend its civilians; Hamas’s goal is to destroy Israel as a state and society. [snip]
Hamas should be isolated by all western countries and pressured with the goal of pushing it out of power by making it realize that it must stop the war on Israel or face that outcome. Aid or comfort given to Hamas by the West will only encourage its intransigence and lead to more violence and suffering.
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Astounding Headline: 'Global Warming Rage Lets Global Hunger Grow'
Contrary to Nobel Laureate Al Gore's depiction of this energy panacea in his film "An Inconvenient Truth," as well as his investments in companies responsible for such processes, the Telegraph viewed biofuel as a growing international calamity:
The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits.And here was the fabulous conclusion:
"The reality is that people are dying already," said Jacques Diouf, of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Naturally people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react," he said.
The UN says it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol. That is enough to feed a child for a year. Last week, the UN predicted "massacres" unless the biofuel policy is halted.
The world intelligentsia has been asleep at the wheel. While we rage over global warming, global hunger has swept in under the radar screen.Nice. Think this will be headline/lead story news in the States?
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MARKETS AND MEDICARE
According to the trustees, Medicare's unfunded liability is $74 trillion -- five times that of Social Security. According to the Congressional Budget Office, health care spending is on a course that could crowd out all other government programs. How can we reduce the costs of Medicare?
• Reward doctors and other health care providers who raise quality and lower costs through improving patient communication and access to care, and by teaching patients how to be better managers of their own care. [*]
• Provide beneficiaries who have chronic diseases with training, easier access to information, and the ability to purchase and use in-house monitors, which would help them manage their own care as well or better than conventional physician care and at lower costs.
• Revise the reimbursement system to remove the many barriers to innovations in using those treatments efficiently and effectively.
These are just a few of the many things that can be done to control the rising costs of Medicare while improving care and health at the same time. These steps will not be enough by themselves to put Medicare and our health care system on a sustainable course, but timely action by the president and Congress could make a big difference.
[*example: I've had a half dozen tests conducted as a result of a recent MS 'flare' - the results of which I've been notified by email are available for my reading at Kaiser's web-based health management system - after which I email my doctor directly asking for English please, and he explains them to me. I.e., much better care at much reduced time expense on both our parts. Even a ship the size of Kaiser turns, in the private sector.]
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IN EASE OF PAYING TAXES, WE'RE #76
In "Paying Taxes 2008," its second annual report on corporate taxation produced in tandem with PricewaterhouseCoopers, the World Bank seeks to compare the ease of paying taxes around the world. According to the researchers:
- Despite the popular perception of America as a land of laissez-faire, the United States ranks only 76th.
- This means it is easier to pay corporate taxes in Lithuania (71st), Germany (67th), Portugal (66th), Belgium (65th), Sweden (42nd), Australia (41st), the Netherlands (36th), Estonia (31st), Canada (25th), Norway (16th), Denmark (13th), the United Kingdom (12th), New Zealand (9th) and Ireland (6th) than it is here.
[our tax 'code' is 67 thousand pages and growing. Want to reduce corruption in our government? Fiddling with the code is the No. 1 thing 'sold' to lobbyists - we need a flat-fair tax for more than economic reasons...]
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An Illegal Exodus...Back to Mexico?
Previously I reported to you that a federal court in Missouri upheld a law penalizing businesses that hire illegals. Last week, more good news to report from Arizona:
A federal judge on Thursday upheld an Arizona law that prohibits businesses from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants and yanks the business licenses of those that do. U.S. District Judge Neil Wake dismissed a lawsuit filed by business groups that argued that federal immigration law severely restricts Arizona's ability to punish people who knowingly employ illegal immigrants. [snip]
So, what impact is this work having on the illegal immigration population in Arizona? Check this out from The New York Times, reporting from Phoenix - where it makes note of one illegal alien who is pressing her husband “to return to Mexico because of the difficulty in finding a job...
If this doesn’t prove the wisdom of enforcing our nation’s illegal immigration laws, I don’t know what will. If we stop rolling out the red carpet for illegals, they will leave on their own. The problem will become more manageable. It’s clearly working in Arizona. And it will work on a national basis if we finally address the problem in a common sense manner – by enforcing the law.
[reminder: the only folks repeatedly talking about 'rounding up millions of people' are liberal-progressives ascribing it to rule-of-law supporters]
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Arbitration Ain't Broke, But Trial Lawyers Want to "Fix" It
Last fall the pro-lawsuit special interest group Public Citizen released a paper purporting to show that arbitrations find against the consumer the majority of the time. For a complete analysis of how misleading the report is, see: Arbitration – A Good Deal for Consumers by Dr. Peter B. Rutledge.
Nonetheless, the plaintiffs’ bar took up the Public Citizen’s report as proof that consumers are being denied their right to access the courts – and their timing, never a coincidence, was carefully coordinated to coincide with the introduction of the Feingold/Johnson Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007, a proposal that would effectively outlaw arbitration in virtually all consumer, employment and franchise contracts, leaving the courthouse as the only option for settling disputes.
That may be good for lawyers, but not so good for consumers...
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"Feingold/Johnson Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007"
Email YOUR Senator HERE
Greens Gone Wild and Jobs Gone, period...
California
In the latest installment of “Greens Gone Wild,” the governor’s appointees on the Air Resources Board have voted to reduce “greenhouse gas” emissions in the state to a maximum level of 427 million metric tons by 2020.
Since numbers like that have very little meaning without a reference point, consider this for perspective: Californians currently emit 500 million metric tons. That means that the economy will need to cut 73 million metric tons from its current level of emissions and then hold at that level until today’s kindergarteners are in college.
I don’t believe this figure includes exhaling, however. Thirty seven million Californians breathing produce an additional 13.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year (at 2.2 pounds per person per day). Just a drop in the bucket compared to the 2.4 billion metric tons that 6.6 billion human beings exhale annually worldwide.
But since they’re presumably not telling Californians to actually hold their breaths, one way of reaching the brave new world is to convince people not to drive cars. According to the ARB, an average car produces about 28 pounds of carbon dioxide per day, so the ARB target can be reached by removing just 15.4 million passenger cars from service. California only has 24 million passenger cars to take off the road in the first place, but the goal can be easily met if just two out of every three Californians quit driving. This will require some enforcement activity, of course, especially to keep former car owners from cheating by substituting ox carts.
“Now the rubber is hitting the road,” said an ecstatic Karen Douglas, the director of California Climate Initiative for Environmental Defense. And it won’t be long before the economy is hitting the skids and something else hits the fan.
No need to worry about jobs, though. The Air Resources Board is hiring.
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Mafioso too fat for jail
Rome - A court in Sicily has ruled that an accused Mafioso can be put under house arrest because he is too fat for any Italian jail. Salvatore Ferranti, who weighs 210 kg (462 pounds), was allowed to go home after spending six months in four Italian prisons (Snip) Guards at the first two prisons said they constantly needed to help Ferranti, 36, get dressed and undressed, move about and go to the bathroom.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23591801/
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Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Iraq Violence Peaked Just Before U.S. Election, Data Shows
Data from the Defense Intelligence Agency indicates that enemy-initiated attacks on U.S. troops, Iraqi security forces and Iraqi civilians peaked in October 2006, the month leading up to the U.S. midterm elections.
At the time, Vice President Dick Cheney said the insurgents were "very sensitive to the fact that we've got an election scheduled" and were trying to "break the will of the American people."
The DIA-reported data was published in a bar graph printed by the Government Accountability Office in written testimony presented to the Senate Appropriations Committee on March 11.
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The Dead Speak
The toll of the Khmer Rouge's brief but fatal reign of terror in Cambodia (1975-78) is uncertain - a million, two? The numbers can only be estimated, but the pictures of pyramids of skulls are well known. They've become emblematic of that bloody time.
It wasn't supposed to happen that way, not according to the sophisticates who were advocating an American withdrawal from Indochina in the 1970s. They blithely dismissed all the warnings that a bloodbath would follow once the United States abandoned its allies in Southeast Asia:
"Some will find the whole bloodbath debate unreal. What future possibility could be more terrible than the reality of what is happening in Cambodia now?" -Anthony Lewis in the New York Times, March 17, 1975.
"The greatest gift our country can give to the Cambodian people is not guns but peace. And the best way to accomplish that goal is by ending military aid now." -U.S. Rep. (now Sen.) Chris Dodd of Connecticut, March 12, 1975.
"Indochina Without Americans/For Most, A Better Life," -headline in the New York Times, April 13, 1975. [snip]
Now, once again, the sophisticates are urging Americans to abandon an ally, this time beleaguered Iraq. The leading Democratic presidential candidates speak glibly of pulling out of that country as if there would be no ill effects.
As in Cambodia?
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Walters Denies Surge Success
Hasselbeck then pulled some numbers noting the Iraqis "met 12 of the 18 benchmarks" and "90,000 of the Sunnis have decided to join U.S. forces."
Walters responded by dismissing those figures adding "darling you can get all of the statistics you want, but you’ve had more violence than you’ve had in months."
The entire transcript is below.
[I see - for months as the violence kept falling the mantra was "so what? it was all about political benchmarks". Now that the benchmarks are happening, we're back to violence as the yardstick. a yardstick of a few weeks...]
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Denmark charges two with plotting bomb attack
Copenhagen - Danish state prosecutors on Tuesday formally charged two men with plotting a bomb attack, saying they had manufactured and tested explosives. (Snip) The Danish Security and Intelligence service described the men as militant Islamists with international connections. They ranged in age from 19 to 29, and came from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Turkey. Six of them are Danish citizens.
[GWOT.]
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State Dept to Jimmy Carter: Don't Meet with Hamas
You know Jimmy Carter’s gone a little too far when even the State Department disapproves: State Department: Carter should not meet Hamas chief.
It’s just pathetic he should even need to be told.
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Lest we forget;
Jimmy Carter is the man who gave us Jihadist Iran.
Jimmy Carter is the man who gave us a Nuclear North Korea.
Jimmy Carter is the man who gave us the fraudulent Chavez election.
Carter buddies are the worlds most evil butchers; Nicolae Ceausescu, Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hugo Chavez, Kin Jong il and the list goes on.
People always write Carter off as naive or stupid but it is beyond curious just what sort of people he is most comfortable around and whose causes he works tirelessly to help.
Thirty years ago he didn’t get the chance to “serve” America in a second term but in the four short years he had, he caused so much damage that just the lingering remains are still the most pressing and challenging issues of our time.
Jimmy Carter is the last person on the planet who should be listened to on anything.
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Venezuela's navy plans to build torpedoes, mines
Venezuela plans to build its own torpedoes to arm submarines and frigates, the navy on Monday, the latest move by President Hugo Chavez to modernize the military. Chavez, a relentless critic of the United States, rattled nerves earlier this month when he briefly ordered tank battalions to the border in a spat with Colombia during a diplomatic crisis.
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Intimidation and censorship are no answer to this inflammatory film
Too many Dutch and international leaders have leapt to deplore Wilders' film without first excoriating those who threaten him with death. Particularly egregious is a statement by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, which, in explicitly condemning the film (but not the death threats), actually says "the right of free expression is not at stake here".
That's a truly idiotic claim. Mr Ban has no right to make it on our behalf.
The second question is whether Fitna should be banned by law, as the ambassadors of 26 Islamic countries have recently demanded the Dutch government to do. Unlike the murder issue, I accept that this is a matter for legitimate debate in a democracy, but my answer remains an unequivocal "no". The film is inflammatory but not, I think, across the line to incitement... [snip]
The Dutch politician's alarmist anti-Islam polemic needs to be taken apart and calmly answered...
[fair enough, let's do that. And while we're at it, might not we include as public a review and condamnation of extemist Islamic speech which clearly is intended to 'incite'? {or are we to ignore that half of this equation - again}]
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>> VIEW VIDEO HERE
SEEDING THE FOOD CRISIS
The United States has long prided itself in being the breadbasket of the world and Americans have traditionally paid a smaller share of their income on food than citizens of other developed countries. But the days of cheap milk, bread, beef and poultry may well be over -- and Uncle Sam is partly to blame:
- In 2007, the cost of a gallon of milk increased 26 percent; eggs went up 40 percent; and a loaf of white bread went from $1.05 to $1.28 from 2006 to 2008.
- Steep increases in the price of oil have contributed to these higher costs, but the federal government has played a pernicious role as well.
- By mandating that oil companies increase the amount of ethanol they blend with gasoline, the government has not only artificially increased the cost of corn, which is what most U.S. ethanol is made of, but has driven up the cost of other grains as well.
Source: Linda Chavez, "Seeding the Food Crisis," Washington Post, April 1, 2008.
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UNITED STATES MUST CLEAR A PATH FOR OIL SANDS USE
For national security as well as economic reasons, the US must make use of a vast, secure and reliable supply of fuel from Canada's oil sands, says Mark J. Perry, professor of Finance and Economics at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan:
• The tar sands hold an estimated 174 billion barrels of crude oil, making Canada's oil-sands deposits second only to Saudi Arabia in global reserves.Unbelievably, greenhouse gas issues seem to be overshadowing all other considerations, and Congress recently blocked any additional importation of Canadian Oil Sands petroleum by classifying it as an 'alternative' energy source, which requires carbon emission levels the petroleum product simply can't meet.
• The United States currently obtains 1 million barrels a day from Canada's tar sands, but with planned investments, the daily supply could exceed 3 million barrels by 2015.
The irony is that countries with fast-growing economies like those in China, Brazil and India are accelerating energy resource development, while resource-rich North America is becoming captive to environmental extremism and continues to restrict access to oil supplies.
This situation points to an inescapable imperative, says Perry: Congress needs to address the matter and it should take action to ensure the civilian and military use of Canadian tar sands oil. Our economic and national security depends on it.
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RED TAPE RISING
George Mason University's Mercatus Center reveals in a soon-to-be released study that every measure of regulatory activity is up in recent years -- agency staffing, budgets, pages of rule making and compliance costs. Those numbers contradict the stream of attacks against this Administration for "weakening" federal consumer and environmental protections.
• Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new ozone rules for the first time in 10 years; the cost in lost economic output from this new more stringent rule is estimated at $6 billion a year.
• Last year Bush rule-making agencies imposed $11 billion of net new economy-wide regulatory costs (mostly in the environmental area); the cost of new regulations has increased every year on Bush's watch, but last year was by far the highest.
• The Small Business Administration (SBA) calculates that the total cost in 2005 of complying with 145,000 pages of federal rules and procedures was $1.1 trillion; this is the rough economic equivalent of imposing a second federal income tax on the economy.
Excluding homeland security regulations, the budgets of Uncle Sam's 50 largest agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Consumer Products Safety Commission, are up almost one-third since 2001. There are now some 200,000 full-time government employees writing and enforcing federal commandments.
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Hispanic Leaders Fear Patrols Will Spark Violence
Hispanic leaders are calling for an immediate end to Sheriff Joe Arpaio's illegal immigrants' patrols, claiming they are dividing the community and could lead to violence. "As a community, we see him going out setting up his troops and stopping people at random -- racial profiling," said Hector Yturralde, president of We Are America. "After they find out they can't speak English or they have no identification, then they stop them for immigration."
[the whole article is little more than the sloppy double speak evident in the first paragraph - re-read it: police officers are 'troops'?, they're being 'profiled' while stopped at random, then they're being 'stopped' for immigrating... vs. checked for immigration status only after they can't speak the language nor have any identification. And the cops have been doing this free of incident for some time now, so who exactly is 'We Are America' worried about becoming violent?
It's called rule of law, and it's critical to any society. I'd invite this 'tyrannical' sheriff up here but somehow I don't think he'll relocate to the San Francisco bay area {call it intuition}]
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Starbucks and 'Laissez Faire'
Laissez-faire. It's a policy that made Starbucks vastly successful. But don't try to put that phrase on a customized Starbucks Card.
The cards are supposed be personalized to reflect customers' tastes and uniqueness. But when my friend Roger Ream, president of the Fund for American Studies, received a Starbucks gift card for Christmas, he found there was a limit to how personalized a card could be. His card required him to customize it on the company's Web site. So he went to the site and requested that the phrase "Laissez Faire" be printed on his card.
A few days later he was informed that the company couldn't issue such a card because the wording violated company policy. [snip](such as threatening remarks, derogatory terms, or overtly political commentary)
And so, at my suggestion, my friend went back to the Web site and asked that his card be issued with the phrase "People Not Profits." Bingo! Starbucks had no problem with that phrase, and the card arrived in a few days.
I wondered just what the company's standards were. If "laissez-faire" is unacceptably political, how could the socialist slogan "people not profits" be acceptable?
So we tried another foreign phrase – "Si Se Puede," or "Yes we can." It's the United Farm Workers slogan, now adopted by Barack Obama's presidential campaign. That sailed right through. The senator's political campaign slogan was acceptable...
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Monday, April 14, 2008
Hero: German immigrant takes bullet for U.S. 'ideals'
That is something that troubles his family, especially his father. Bashir Jamaleldine says his son is fighting an unjust war for America -- a sentiment shared by the majority of Germans. He wishes his son would get back to his "German roots."
Of his son's time in Iraq, the father says, "He went there to receive this bullet. If he would not have gone there, he wouldn't have been wounded; he wouldn't be in the hospital; he wouldn't be treated by a doctor. He would be living in peace with his family." Shaking his head with his son at his side, he adds, "He is more American than German."
Jeffrey Jamaleldine, a 31-year-old U.S. Army scout who proudly wears a Stetson hat agrees with his father on one thing: His love for America is unwavering. Jeffrey Jamaleldine moved to the United States to go to college in Missouri at the age of 18 and immediately fell in love with the United States and its culture. "You can go from rags to riches there. People still believe in that. It is not something that has gotten lost,"
And when the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, happened, he felt it was time for him to do something. By accident, he says he found out that with his green card, he could join the U.S. military. And in 2006, he did just that.
Last year, he paid a heavy price for his patriotism. Pinned down in a firefight with insurgents in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, Jamaleldine was shot in the face. While many Americans would consider Jamaleldine a hero, most in his home country don't. Germans largely oppose the Iraq war. The criticism doesn't bother him. He says even after getting wounded on the battlefield, he would go fight for America again if ordered back to Iraq.
"I still don't want to die, I love life, I enjoy life," he says. "But I would still make the sacrifice to go to Iraq again if I am called. If I have to go, I will -- to stand up for what I believe in," he says,
His father looks on in disbelief as he listens to his son, now an American citizen. "Why he's more American than a German, I don't know," he says. But Jeffrey Jamaleldine says joining the military was never about that, it was about defending American ideals.
"If we have people who want to change those ideals or take them away," he says, "then there are people like me or my platoon who stand up and fight for those ideals"
[personally I think his father is right on both counts: Jeffrey is more American than German in character, and Bashir never will get why. Our gain.]
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Services See Strong Showing for March Recruiting
WASHINGTON, April 10, 2008 – All military services met or exceeded their recruiting goals for March, Defense Department officials reported today. This makes the 10th straight month the services have hit their recruiting marks. All of the services have surpassed their recruiting goals for fiscal 2008 to date.
In the reserve components, the Army Reserve and Air National Guard topped recruiting efforts, with both hitting 121 percent of their goals. The Army National Guard and the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force reserves all made 100 percent of their recruiting goals for the month.
In active-duty retention, the Army and Marine Corps continued with strong showings this month, both exceeding their year-to-date goals.
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The Success of Iraq Policy
The rough edges of the Iraq war have inspired negative rhetoric and carefully considered judgments that the war has been a total loss. The critics cite the turmoil, scramble, expense and destruction that is part of any large scale military action, and conclude that even minimal amounts war chaos are unacceptable and were unnecessary; any cost is too costly; the effort has been a failure. The problems may well have come from conducting the war with such a degree of political correctness... [snip]
Have we achieved results worth the effort and expense, both human and financial? Republicans are not sure; they think, probably. Democrats are very sure; they think, no. Iraqis think, yes. Europe thinks, maybe, finally. The Middle East thinks, yes, finally, but will not to say so... [snip]
Contrary to the dominant media narrative, the Iraq war is working out as a global strategic success, albeit not to a comfortable time schedule or cost. A Walter Chronkite-type surrender won't be necessary, this time: America had the strength to endure, analyze, correct and advance the mission, and Europe and the Middle East have seen this light. [snip]
A League of Democracies might go a long way toward cooperative international efforts at worthwhile global management projects. We had hoped for this with the League of Nations and the United Nations. If ever we can make progress on international communal sanity, we might yet look back on Iraq and its reformation with pride, and relief.
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The Problem of Western Civilization
Western civilization seems to be deathly ill with a problem that has yet to be diagnosed. Some people suggest that the rise of Islam is the principle problem that faces the Occident in contemporary times. Other people suggest that a secularization of the Western people is the main quandary. Still others suggest that a balkanization of American culture is the primary dilemma. In my opinion the aforementioned problems are only symptoms of the true problem, which is that Westerners lack the willpower to defend their civilization [snip]
When Westerners do defend their culture, they are branded “racist,” “xenophobic,” or “fascist” by either foreign enemies or domestic traitors. For example, when it comes to the debate involving immigration, La Raza, which translates into English to mean “The Race,” is an ethnocentric organization for Mexicans that quickly labels organizations that are opposed to mass and illegal immigration to the United States as “bigots.” Why is it that foreigners have a right to promote their interests, but Westerners are not allowed to promote their own national interests in their homeland without being called derogatory names? [snip]
The multiculturalists are trying to force Westerners to assimilate to ways of life that are foreign in origin rather than insist on immigrant assimilation of its culture...
[Recommended > ]
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DOTS...
Religion's evolution tests tolerance
Europe's largest mosque was built in Rome – right in the wheelhouse of Christendom. If the Vatican looked askance at this religious arriviste three kilometres from St. Peter's Basilica, it made no comment. That sumptuous mosque, opened in 1995, cost $50 million to build, a cost borne by 23 Muslim donor nations, though the bulk of funding – $35 million – was contributed by Saudi Arabia. A country which, by the way, allows no Christian churches on its soil...
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Saudi Arabia is prime source of terror funds, U.S. says
Washington - Saudi Arabia remains the world's leading source of money for Al Qaeda and other extremist networks and has failed to take key steps requested by U.S. officials to stem the flow, the Bush administration's top financial counter-terrorism official said Tuesday. Stuart A. Levey, a Treasury undersecretary, told a Senate committee that the Saudi government had not taken important steps to go after those who finance terrorist organizations or to prevent wealthy donors from bankrolling extremism through charitable contributions...
[and where does Saudi Arabia get its money? We need to start drilling.]
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Drop Dead, Colombia
Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocks a trade deal with America's closest South American ally.
THE YEAR 2008 may enter history as the time when the Democratic Party lost its way on trade. Already, the party's presidential candidates have engaged in an unseemly contest to adopt the most protectionist posture, suggesting that, if elected, they might pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Yesterday, Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared her intention to change the procedural rules governing the proposed trade promotion agreement with Colombia. President Bush submitted the pact to Congress on Tuesday for a vote within the next 90 legislative days, as required by the "fast-track" authority under which the U.S. negotiated the deal with Colombia. Ms. Pelosi says she'll ask the House to undo that rule.
That political turf-staking, and the Democrats' decreasingly credible claims of a death-squad campaign against Colombia's trade unionists, constitutes all that's left of the case against the agreement. Economically, it should be a no-brainer -- especially at a time of rising U.S. joblessness. At the moment, Colombian exports to the United States already enjoy preferences. The trade agreement would make those permanent, but it would also give U.S. firms free access to Colombia for the first time, thus creating U.S. jobs. Politically, too, the agreement is in the American interest, as a reward to a friendly, democratic government that has made tremendous strides on human rights, despite harassment from Venezuela's Hugo Chávez.
Perhaps Colombia's government and people will understand. We don't.
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Obama Pledges to Fight Special Interests...at AFL-CIO Rally
.
[the title will do. Evidently recognizing irony isn't among the senator's strengths]
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U.N. Official Calls for Study Of Neocons' Role in 9/11
When last we left our unhinged and wacky friends who believe the US government was behind the 9/11 attacks, they were busy trying to recover from a History Channel gut punch that tore so many holes in their "theories" that that the fabric of the truther movement was rent asunder.
Now Trutherism has invaded the United Nations - with spectacularly ridiculous results:
On March 26, Richard Falk, Milbank professor of international law emeritus at Princeton University, was named by unanimous vote to a newly created position to report on human rights in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs.
While Mr. Falk's specialty is human rights and international law, since the attacks in 2001, he has devoted some of his time to challenging what he calls the "9-11 official version." On March 24 in an interview with a radio host and former University of Wisconsin instructor, Kevin Barrett, Mr. Falk said, "It is possibly true that especially the neoconservatives thought there was a situation in the country and in the world where something had to happen to wake up the American people. Whether they are innocent about the contention that they made that something happen or not, I don't think we can answer definitively at this point. All we can say is there is a lot of grounds for suspicion, there should be an official investigation..."
First, this is an example of the kind of morons they have serving on the UN Human Rights Committee.
[actually, that point will do - the place is UNsalvageable]
http://www.nysun.com/news/foreign/un-official-calls-study-neocons-role-911
An Inconvenient Announcement
On the same week in which the European Union (EU) admitted that its carbon cap-and-trade system is failing miserably, Al Gore shamelessly equated his latest global warming project with fighting Nazism in World War II, the Civil Rights Movement and the moon landing.
As one might expect, Gore’s proposed solution lies in even more big-government bureaucratic mandates from Washington, D.C. As he told the Washington Post, “the path to recovery runs right through Washington.”
But according to the EU’s website, its cap-and-trade scheme was marred by inherent flaws. Consequently, they were forced to recalibrate emissions limits and the number of credits, and the program proved a miserable failure. Instead of the intended decline in emissions, they have risen approximately 1% each year since the program’s inception.
Lest Al Gore’s devotees dismiss the EU’s miserable failure as an anomaly, Japan’s climate-change scheme has failed just as badly. The home country of Kyoto was itself supposed to reduce its emissions by 6% below 1990 levels, but its emission levels have actually risen steadily as well.
Across the EU, energy-intensive businesses are relocating their operations and employment overseas. Conditions in the EU have deteriorated so badly that the European Roundtable of Industrialists has written the EU to warn that the EU’s Kyoto mandates are eroding businesses’ ability to compete in the world economy.
Ignoring these inconvenient truths, climate change alarmists nevertheless insist that the United States dive into the same self-destructive schemes. The American Council for Capital Formation, as one example, estimates that a cap-and-trade law would cost 3.7 million American jobs, reduce gross national product by 2.6%, increase fuel costs even more and punish the average American household some $1,760 each year.
Hopefully, Americans will prove unwilling to pay this economic price for a scheme that fails to reduce emissions or benefit the environment.
[only if they're aware of these facts - forwarding, anyone?]
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Buy a Carbon Offset, Save the Planet?
Just a year ago, Gloria Estela Gonzalez, a professor in Middlebury, Vt., and her husband and two sons thought they were living the greenest lifestyle possible: They made compost, they drove a Prius, they recycled. But when Gonzalez's then 10-year-old son Matias Van Order Gonazalez got upset after reading about global warming in a children's almanac, the family decided to do even more: Buy carbon credits...
[are you paying attention America? No, not the credit scam - the fact that this theory is being pushed to our children - 'upset after reading about GW in a children's almanac'?! the tactic should cause outrage regardless of subject - shouldn't it? time for home schooling...]
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Some Wicked Friends of Public Schools
[...oops, guess not]
A lamentable appellate court decision this month in California shows, there is a dark side to government trying to control the education of children. When compulsory education of children slides into compulsory education of children in a politically correct manner, then compulsory education becomes a mere pretext to indoctrinate.
There are many effective systems of teaching children basic skills and the building blocks of learning. Homeschooling can work. Private schools can work. Public schools also can work. It is fair for society to insist that parents make sure that children grow up literate and conversant with basic science, history and mathematics. It is unfair for society to insist that parents only follow a prescribed path to the education of their children...
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Wednesday, April 9, 2008
General Petraeus is delivering his second report on progress in Iraq to Congress this week, and once again those in Washington opposed to the war are pre-empting his report with defeatist agendas.
Democratic Senators Chris Dodd, John Kerry, Jack Reed, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have decried the lack of political progress and called it a sign of "failure." Apparently they're unaware of the Iraqi government's passage of key legislation, including a vital de-baathification law, oil revenue sharing provisions, a national budget, and granting limited amnesty to thousands of detainees.
Now, a new group of activists wants to get in on the act, setting up a new coalition called "The Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq" - but their plan is anything but responsible.
It calls for an end to all military action in Iraq, and instead encourages the U.S. to end the conflict using "diplomatic, political, and economic power." There's a word for this strategy: surrender.
Call your member of Congress today. Tell them the only responsible plan to ending the War in Iraq is through victory. A good first step toward that goal is for Congress to listen to the advice of the military commanders on the ground - qualified and capable men like General David Petraeus.
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General Petraeus’ Report Is About Far More Than Election Year Politics
...the burgeoning Iraqi government is making important strides of its own: its Ministry of Defense has assembled 134 army combat, infrastructure, and special operations battalions, the national government is sharing vital oil revenues with Iraqi provinces, and the Iraqi parliament has passed pension, de-Baathification reform, amnesty, and budget laws in just the last few months alone. In fact, the much-maligned Iraqi government has met 12 out of the original 18 benchmarks set for it and made substantial progress toward meeting five more. I often jokingly say that this gives the Iraqi parliament a better track record than the U.S. Congress, but as it turns out, it’s really not a joke. There is genuine validity to that assertion...
As a result of these indisputable steps forward, more than 20,000 of our troops are coming home. But more importantly, they are returning home after success – not defeat.
That is, after all, where the difference lies between those who have stood behind the Petraeus plan and those who have sought to undermine it every step of the way. Indeed, congressional Democrats and their allies in the anti-war Left have devised strategy after strategy to derail our efforts in Iraq, but they have failed each time, allowing our troops to achieve the gains over the past year that have made victory in Iraq much more attainable. This week, they’re bound to try once again, however, with all signs indicating that they will take direct aim at General Petraeus, even as his strategy is yielding success in Iraq, and make the convoluted argument that Iraq is to blame for our recent economic downturn...
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[last time around all we heard was political-benchmarks-political-benchmarks-political-benchmarks... Yesterday? No mention of political benchmarks by any Democrat. Now it's all about the cost.
about that cost:
defense spending -- even with war costs factored in -- is well below the historical average -- Today we’re spending less than 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense. That’s only 1 percentage point higher than we were spending at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks. And it’s still below the 6.2 percent of GDP we were shelling out for defense during the waning years of the Cold War in the 1980s -- and significantly less than the 9.5 percent we spent in the late 1960s, duringthe Vietnam War. READ MORE
Media is Absent on Medal of Honor Awardees
Google News [search] shows that no one, other than local news in San Diego, is covering the awarding of the Medal of Honor to US Navy SEAL Michael Monsoor.
I checked because I hoped that they might print something today about the Navy SEAL who sacrificed himself to save his teammates. I thought, maybe, it would make for a nice front page story this morning. "The Paper of Record" did not print one word.
You can email the Public Editor, Mr. Clark Hoyt, and ask why the Times chose not to run a story about Michael Monsoor on the day of his award.
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[UPDATE: Special Report with Brit Hume had a piece.]
Iran installs 6,000 more centrifuges in nuke facility
It has been two years since the United Nations demanded that Iran suspend it's enrichment of uranium so that a thorough review of its nuclear program could take place under the auspices of the IAEA.
Since then, Iran has installed more than 3,000 centrifuges at its facility in Nantanz to convert uranium to either nuclear fuel to power a reactor or highly enriched uranium to build a bomb. This despite 3 different sets of sanctions given out by the Security Council.
Now the Iranians are making a giant leap in capability by doubling the number of operational centrifuges at Nantanz:
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[but the UN's 3 declarations against such developments were so sternly worded...]
Palestinian Hate-Education Continues
"The Palestinian education and propaganda are more dangerous to Israel than Palestinian weapons."Acknowledging that without a population educated to accept peace, no other negotiations or concessions were meaningful, the U.S. President set forth, "A Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." (April 30, 2003) Before discussions on the status of land, borders, Jerusalem, or "settlements," the Road Map called for Palestinian leadership to issue an "unequivocal statement reiterating Israel's right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere. All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel."
Ariel Sharon, November 18, 2004
In a few weeks, it will be five years since the Palestinian Authority was to prepare its citizens for a two-state solution and end incitement in its educational system. Yet from pre-school through highschool, Palestinian children are indoctrinated to deny Israel's legitimacy, demonize Israelis and Jews, and glorify violent struggle as a religious goal. The Palestinian government-produced [Saudi Arabia paid for, manufactured in Lebanon] textbooks and government-controlled media work in tandem to assure that Palestinian children will be no more disposed to living peacefully with Israel tomorrow than their parents are today.
[the US keeps pressuring Israel to make concessions toward a peace in which they have no partner]
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Pentagon staffer guilty of handing secrets to China agent
A Pentagon official pleaded guilty Monday to passing US military secrets to an agent working for China after being showered with gifts and gambling money, the Department of Justice said. Gregg William Bergersen, 51, faces up to 10 years in jail after admitting to one count of conspiracy to disclose national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it, the department said in a statement.
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China Seen As Top 3 U.S. Enemy In Poll
Washington - China has replaced North Korea as one of the top three U.S. enemies, according to a poll of Americans. Iran topped the list, with 25 percent naming it when asked which country is the greatest U.S. enemy, according to the Gallup Poll. Iraq came next at 22 percent, then China with 14 percent. (Snip) Iraq has remained one of the most frequently named ever since, even though Saddam Hussein was overthrown and the current Baghdad government is backed by the U.S.
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Global Warming Activist Pressures BBC to Significantly Alter Article
[UPDATE to prior piece]
NewsBusters has just learned that a British "climate activist" was responsible for getting the BBC to radically alter its "Global Temperatures 'To Decrease'" article last Friday.
As reported Sunday, the third paragraph of what previously had been a very balanced piece about how global temperatures have been declining since 1998 was totally reworded in order to make the report just another hysterical climate change pronouncement. [snip]
[before]:
Yet, some time on Saturday after NewsBusters posted its piece at 12:22 PM, the third paragraph was mysteriously changed to this (emphasis added):
[after]:
On Monday, Jennifer Marohasy, the director of the Environment Unit at Australia's Institute of Public Affairs, received and published an e-mail exchange between the article's author, Roger Harrabin, and a climate activist affiliated with the British Campaign Against Climate Change:
[she condescends and he stands his ground - for the first two rounds, but after she threatens him with [my bold]:
"I would ask : please reserve the main BBC Online channel for emerging truth.
Otherwise, I would have to conclude that you are insufficiently educated to be able to know when you have been psychologically manipulated. And that would make you an unreliable reporter.
I am about to send your comments to others for their contribution, unless you request I do not. They are likely to want to post your comments on forums/fora, so please indicate if you do not want this to happen. You may appear in an unfavourable light because it could be said that you have had your head turned by the sceptics."
[his reply 16 minutes later]:
"Have a look in 10 minutes and tell me you are happier
We have changed headline and more"
[read the whole thread, and compare the full before v after versions of the article > ]
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THE CHILL IS ON
[btw: the basis for the above BBC's original article]:
The United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reports that global temperatures have not risen since 1998. That would be the same temperatures that models from the U.N.'s Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said would be scorching the earth by now.
Of course the IPCC spins the news, saying we should look at trends over a pretty long period, and that the cool spell is the effect of the Pacific Ocean's La Nina current, part of what he calls "variability." If that's the case, then why can't the Pacific's El Nino current, which played a large part in the warm reading for 1998, simply been seen as a "variability" and not part of a greater warming trend?
Were the IPCC not dedicated to spreading fear, it would admit its climate models, on which much of the global warming alarmism is based, are flawed. While pandering politicians, media sycophants and Hollywood dupes desperately seeking significance have lectured us about our carbon monoxide emissions, real temperature changes measured over the past 30 years have not matched with increases predicted by the IPCC's models.
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Devastating demolition of the case for mass immigration
[UK]
Today's report on immigration from the House of Lords Economic Committee strikes a devastating blow against years of blatant government propaganda. It rejects outright the Government's argument that a high level of immigration is of economic benefit to the UK.
The committee's findings are devastating. The report takes each of the arguments that the Government has been putting forward for years, and tears them to shreds one by one. It is a watershed in the debate on immigration...
[yeah they drive on the wrong side of the road but most points apply... Recommended > ]
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Bill would hide police salaries
California
An amendment to a bill Monday seeks to push police salary and other basic information about officers back out of public view. The bill comes on the heels of two state Supreme Court rulings last year finding that salaries and other basic information about police officers are indeed public records. AB 1855, authored by Assemblyman Anthony J. Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge, would declare that the salaries of police officers as well as their badge numbers and individual identities are private...
[this is not transparent government, is insulting to taxpayers, and potentially dangerous otherwise given the considerable power we invest police with (guns come to mind)]
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