From the Disney-owned Web site that brought you concerns that college co-eds were foregoing textbooks to pay for birth control comes the latest tale of high gas price-induced economic woes.
"Nevada Brothels Hit Hard by Gas Prices," ABCNews.com trumpets in a teaser headline in the top headlines slideshow on its front page. The editors showed a bit more leg in the photo caption: "Owners fight back: free $50 gas cards for high-spending customers."
READ MORE
[ok, NOW we'll do something about our energy dependence...]
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
.
.
“The Boumediene five also ignored the Constitution's structure, which grants all war decisions to the President and Congress. In 2004 and 2006, the Court tried to extend its reach to al Qaeda terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay. It was overruled twice by Congress, which has the power to define the jurisdiction of the federal courts. Congress established its own procedures for the appeal of detentions.
“Incredibly, these five Justices have now defied the considered judgment of the president and Congress for a third time, all to grant captured al Qaeda terrorists the exact same rights as American citizens to a day in civilian court.”
— John Yoo,
Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Currently Berkeley Law Professor and American Enterprise Institute Visiting Scholar, On the Supreme Court’s 5-4 Ruling in Boumediene v. Bush Affording Certain Rights to Terrorist Detainees
.
Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Currently Berkeley Law Professor and American Enterprise Institute Visiting Scholar, On the Supreme Court’s 5-4 Ruling in Boumediene v. Bush Affording Certain Rights to Terrorist Detainees
.
Beginnng of the End of Al-Sadr
[part II]
A sure sign of the weakening power of Moqtada al-Sadr is that his militia is just a shadow of its former self. The Iraqi army, backed up by a much smaller number of US troops, are rousting the militia out of their hiding places and the once feared fighters are running like dogs:
[FLASHBACK: http://netizennewsbrief.blogspot.com/2008/06/without-shot.html]
The significance of this is dramatic. I think we can conclude that law and order is coming to Iraq and that the bad guys know it. A psychological turning point may have been reached where the forces of civilization may be gaining the upper hand.
There is still plenty of time for this to change for the worst. We're not out of the woods by any means. But slowly and surely, the Iraqi government and army are asserting what any nation state must do in order to gain the confidence of the people; they are proving their right to govern.
READ MORE
A Glaring Omission
After years of telling us the war on terror was creating more terrorists, the mainstream media has mysteriously woken up to the fact that Islamic extremism is on the wane. Newsweek is the latest publication to run a support-for-jihad-is-fading piece. Readers of CONTENTIONS should by now be familiar with the evidence: Iraqis have turned against radical clerics, Pakistani voters have rejected Islamist leaders, Turkey’s ruling AKP party is trying to modernize Islam, etc. [snip]
But there is an important omission in the sudden coverage of moderate Muslims: No one talks about the effect of the Iraq War. The MSM can dodge the issue all they like, but the fact remains that the Coalition’s toppling of Saddam facilitated the first organized rejection of fanatical Islam in the Middle East...
READ MORE
0-7
.
“Yet another U.S. Marine, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, had charges dropped Tuesday in the so-called Haditha massacre — bringing the total number of Marines who've been cleared or won case dismissals in the Iraq war incident to seven. ‘Undue command influence’ on the prosecution led to the outcome in Chessani's case. Bottom line: That's zero for seven for military prosecutors, with one trial left to go.
“I repeat: Haditha prosecution goes 0-7. But you won't see that headline in the same Armageddon-sized font The New York Times used repeatedly when the story first broke.”
Michelle Malkin,
Regarding the U.S. Marines Charged with Civilian Deaths in Haditha, Iraq
.
Regarding the U.S. Marines Charged with Civilian Deaths in Haditha, Iraq
.
I'll Fight To Strip Telecom Immunity From FISA
[HT:GJ]
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., issued a statement in support of the House's update of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but said he would try to strip a provision granting immunity to telecommunication companies when the bill comes to a vote in the Senate next week.
READ MORE
Analysts: Hezb'allah Preparing an attack
ABC News is reporting that western analysts believe the Iranian-Lebanese terrorist group Hezb'allah is preparing to attack "Jewish targets" someplace in the west, perhaps North America:
Intelligence officials tell ABC News the group has activated suspected "sleeper cells" in Canada and key operatives have been tracked moving outside the group's Lebanon base to Canada, Europe and Africa. [snip]In addition to Canada, it is believed that South America is also a likely target. Translations of some Spanish language articles on Fausta Wertz's site of suspected Venezualean connections to Hezb'allah reveal a disturbing alliance between Hugo Chavez and Middle Eastern based terrorists.
"A few days ago, Fausta reports that Venezualeans of Arab ancestry were training at Hezb'allah sites in Lebanon. Then the State Department designated a Venezualean diplomat as a supporter of Hezb'allah..." [snip]It was in 1994 that Hezb'allah attacked an Argentina Jewish Community Center killing 85 people. Clearly the terrorists have the will to strike but do they have the means?
Given their massive support from Iran, there can be little doubt of that.
READ MORE
China denies hacking into US computers
Beijing - China denied accusations by two U.S. lawmakers that it hacked into congressional computers, saying Thursday that as a developing country it wasn't capable of sophisticated cybercrime...
[evidently said with a straight face]
READ MORE
The great carbon bazaar
Evidence of serious flaws in the multi-billion dollar global market for carbon credits has been uncovered by a BBC World Service investigation. The credits are generated by a United Nations-run scheme called the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
The mechanism gives firms in developing countries financial incentives to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But in some cases, carbon credits are paid to projects that would have been realised without external funding. (Snip) Arguably, this defeats the whole point of the CDM scheme...
READ MORE
The Climate Alarmist Manifesto
.
Just as class struggle forms the nucleus of Marxism, so does it sit at the very core of the Left's climate alarmism. At a glance, the regressive nature of fiscal Carbon control schemes, be they taxation or cap-and-trade, would appear to be antithetical to liberal thinking. But beneath the veneer of both the domestic and international green agenda lies a devious wealth-redistribution plan compared to which all predecessors pale. [snip]
"The bill sets aside a nearly $800 billion tax relief fund through 2050, which will help consumers in need of assistance related to energy costs. The precise details of the relief will be developed by the Finance committee."And if Senator Boxer's plan of doling out $800 billion in industry profits to the "needy" sounds like class warfare to you, just wait until you hear what's brewing down the hall... [snip]
before a House Judiciary Committee, Maxine Waters apparently cared little for Shell Oil President John Hofmeister's response to her questions about guaranteeing a drop in oil prices were he allowed to drill off US shores. Visibly flustered, the California Democrat let slip to an astonished audience:
"And guess what this liberal would be all about? This liberal would be all about socialize -- uh, uh, would be about basically taking over and the government running all of your companies."What still escapes me is just why anyone might be surprised by her faux-pas. Such is precisely the Left's rationale for jumping aboard the bogus GHG bandwagon in such earnest almost to the very man and woman...[snip]
In his book, Blue Planet in Green Shackles, Vaclav Klaus wrote:
"The largest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity at the beginning of the 21st century is no longer socialism. It is, instead, the ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous ideology of environmentalism.''With all due respect to the wise Czech President, they are indeed one in the same.
[Highly Recommended > ]
READ MORE
ON U.S. COASTS, A RETHINK ON OIL DRILLING
A new Rasmussen poll, taken prior to the Bush and McCain proposals to expand offshore oil drilling, found 67 percent of voters supportive of more offshore drilling. The Department of Interior's Mineral Management Services estimates there are 18 billion barrels of oil offshore under federal moratorium and another 10 billion to 12 billion in Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR). Also:
- As for environmental impact, each year 47 million gallons of oil seep out naturally into US ocean waters; this far exceeds the 870,000 gallons of petroleum leaked in offshore exploration and drilling, according to the National Academies of Sciences.
- Opponents of drilling overestimate the time frame for new development; some projects have turned around in 18 months.
READ MORE
Has Affirmative Action run its course?
In 1961, President Kennedy signed an executive order instructing federal contractors to take "affirmative action" to ensure against discrimination. Three years later, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act which prohibited race-based discrimination by large employers, public or private. In doing so he created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which became the driving force in AA policies.
Soon, the policy was expanded to include all other minorities and women, and mandated that they receive favored treatment in hiring and promotions... [snip]
To say that some prejudice still exists is to say that the sun still rises in the east. "Some" prejudice will always exist, but as long as it is relegated to a narrow-minded coterie of ignorant malcontents and not identified with the overwhelming majority of decent people, it shouldn't be used to justify what is merely another form of discrimination.
Furthermore, the very idea of continuing a policy which drives home the message that blacks can't make it in this country without racial quotas and preferences makes a mockery of, not only Obama's political success, but of every black person's efforts to reach personal goals without the stigma of having done so only because the government gave them an unfair advantage... [snip]
Then the question will be, how many African-American presidents, senators, governors and billionaires will it take to cause a psychological shift among blacks toward less dependence on government...
[how much longer are we going to ignore the vast state-sponsored racism being perpetrated here? A: until the major political party enabling it is replaced]
READ MORE
Judicial Supremacy Strikes in Oklahoma
[HT:MD]
The elected representatives in Oklahoma passed a law to stem the tide of illegal immigrants and, faster than you can say "judicial supremacy," a federal judge blocked its enforcement. The court suspended key sections of the law even before it was due to take effect on July 1.
The Oklahoma law passed the State Legislature by overwhelming, bipartisan, veto-proof majorities (88-9 in the House, 41-1 in the Senate) and was signed by Democratic Gov. Brad Henry. Public opinion polls reported that the law enjoys 88 percent public approval, and it was recognized as a model for other states to copy.
The law required employers who have contracts with the state of Oklahoma to use the Oklahoma Status Verification System to verify the legal status of their employees. [snip]
The employment picture in Oklahoma is quite different: Oklahoma's unemployment rate is now only 3.1 percent and dropping. That's because after the Citizen Protection Act was passed a year ago, illegal immigrants began leaving the state. [snip]
The judge granted standing to the Chamber of Commerce to sue - even though it had not been hurt one iota by the law that had not yet taken effect. The judge, in effect, legislated from the bench by blocking the statute from taking effect, so all its benefits might never be known...
[our judges are usurping our democracy - we ought fix that]
READ MORE
The Fairness Doctrine at Work
Conservative talk radio has been successful, i.e. profitable--and liberal talk radio has not--because of the most basic of reasons: it supplied a market demand. Listeners mean ratings. Ratings mean advertising revenues.
The failure of liberal radio shows to achieve similar success is the underlying motivation behind Democrats' efforts to impose the 'Fairness Doctrine'. Among those who have spoken up for the position are Senators John Kerry and Dick Durbin and Representatives John Dingell, Dennis Kucinich, and Louise Slaughter.
According to Accuracy In Media Editor Cliff Kincaid, with Democrats in control of both the White House and Congress, a Democratic-appointed F.C.C. could easily re-impose the Fairness Doctrine. "This may be what is planned," he told the Cybercast News Service .
Their stated goal: to require every radio station that airs a conservative host, to air an equal, and similarly day-parted, amount of time for a liberal to espouse their views. [snip]
Forced to provide equal time to liberal hosts -- an enterprise that has proved financially ruinous time after time -- broadcasters would soon have to pull the plug on all talk shows that addressed anything 'political', in the process silencing some of the most prominent and influential voices on the right.
And that's what the those supporting the Fairness Doctrine are really after.
READ MORE
Racism in Retreat
A year and a half ago, often I was sweetly dismissed when I said that Barack Obama was possibly on his way to the White House and would certainly trounce Hillary Clinton for the nomination. ''You don't know what they'll do to him,'' they'd say. As often as not, the idea was that America could not seriously support a black man for its highest office. I didn't get this. The America I live in today does not seem as deeply stamped by bigotry as these people seemed to think. (Snip) Well, here we are...
READ MORE
Friday, June 20, 2008
Without a Shot
Al-Mahdi Army militias routed without a shot fired
Yesterday the city's streets were crawling with Iraqi security forces. Soldiers searched houses as police manned checkpoints and Soviet-era tanks guarded bridges over the Tigris River.
The flood of troops, who had moved into position outside the city a week ago, had encountered no resistance as they moved in yesterday. The leaders of the Shia militias that once ruled as crime bosses and warlords were either gone or in hiding. Even the police chief fled a week ago, fearing arrest for his affiliation to al-Mahdi Army, while the mayor, a member of the Sadrist movement, was arrested.
Locals said that militiamen had been spotted throwing their weapons into the Tigris or trying to hide them along the lush river banks. One man said that he saw two women digging up a stash hidden by a fighter and taking them into a weapons collection point...
[I'm won't say the war is won. Don't tell me it can't be. It's a matter of resolve]
READ MORE
Survey: Americans Dissatisfied With War Coverage
It's not just President George W. Bush and Congress with low approval ratings these days. An online Zogby survey commissioned by The Poynter Institute should be a wake up call for the American news media. They found a "majority of readers, viewers and listeners say they are still far from satisfied with the coverage."
So what's missing from the war coverage? More information about the Iraqi government, stories about the Iraqi people, and chronicling soldiers returning home topped the list of the type of news the respondents said they would like to receive.
READ MORE
Rockets, airstrikes come hours before Gaza truce
[HT:JD]
Jerusalem - Palestinian militants fired 50 rockets and mortars from Gaza toward Israel on Wednesday, just hours before a truce was to take effect.
(Snip) In Gaza, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said the truce would ease the lives of Gazans, but success or failure was in Israel's hands.
"The calm is going to bring stability to Israel if they commit themselves to it," he said.
[typical: Palestinians fire the rockets, but success or failure is all up to Israel.]
READ MORE
Islamic cleric is released from jail
Abu Qatada, the radical Islamic cleric described as Osama bin Laden’s “right-hand man in Europe”, has been released from jail after a judge ruled that there were no grounds to keep him in prison.
The decision to allow him to return to his home in London – where he will receive around £1,000 per month in state benefits – made a mockery of the government’s promise to crack down on terror suspects, and embarrassed the Home Office, which had pledged to deport Qatada to Jordan to face terror charges...
READ MORE
ElBaradei warns to resign if Iran threatened
TEHRAN – The head of the United Nations atomic watchdog has said he would offer his resignation if the major powers make serious threats against Iran over its nuclear program.
[this is the guy a few yearrs ago that the world would just need to adjust to a nuclear armed Iran. Threaten already!]
READ MORE
THE MYTH OF VANISHING CO2 EMISSIONS
Environmental activists and some politicians are now promoting the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent or more by mid-century. CEO William O'Keefe and President Jeff Kueter, both of the George C. Marshall Institute, investigate whether this proposition is achievable and what this would cost Americans. Consider:
• In 2005, the United States emitted just below 6 gigatons of carbon dioxide (a gigaton is one billion metric tons, or 509,400,000,000 cubic meters).
• By 2030, U.S. emissions will rise to 7.9 gigatons; global CO2 emissions are projected to rise to 43 gigatons during this period, according to the U.S. Energy Administration.
• Analyses of various cap and trade proposals put the annual economic cost somewhere between $160 billion and $250 billion in 2015 and $800 billion to over $1 trillion by mid-century.
How efficient are cap-and-trade schemes?
• According to Yale economist William Nordhouse, they are highly inefficient because they imply carbon taxes rising to around $300 per ton in the next two decades; this would be the equivalent of adding 75 cents to the price of a gallon of gasoline.
• The U.S. population is expected to increase from 296 million in 2005 to 325 million in 2020, and economic growth is projected to expand gross domestic product (GDP) to $16 trillion.
• There is no way to accommodate nearly 30 million more people and add $5 billion in economic growth without CO2 emissions growing, say O'Keefe and Kueter.
The bottom line is that a growing population and growing economy are not compatible with lower emissions, given the state of today's technology or the technologies that could be in the market in the next decade, say O'Keefe and Kueter.
READ MORE
Global Warming Skepticism Shocks Chris Matthews
[Calm down Chris, everybody knows it's undisputed fact. Kool Aid?]
READ MORE
Nationalize This
"We can't drill our way out of the problem," goes the Democratic mantra on oil. So what would Democrats do? Some in the party have the worst possible answer: "Nationalize the oil industry."
This week, responding to President Bush's call for more drilling, Democrat Maurice Hinchey said "We (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets into the market."
This is what it's about: "control." And it's extremely dangerous for our democracy because once government controls the economy, it controls you, too. Then the Constitution, which guarantees your rights as a citizen of our republic, becomes a dead letter.
What's especially shocking is these two extremists no longer seem out of step with what used to be a centrist Party.
Don't take our word for it. A Rasmussen Poll released Tuesday showed that 37% of Democrats think nationalizing the oil companies is a good idea. Only 32% disagreed with that.
Which makes us wonder: Do they even know that socialism — state ownership of the means of production — has been completely discredited by history?
READ MORE
THE LAW POOR
According to a new report from the United Nations:
• Two in every three people on the planet -- a total of 4 billion -- are excluded from the rule of law.
• Around 40 percent of the developing world's five-year-old children are not registered as even existing.
• India only has 11 judges for every 1 million people.
Later, people will find that the home they live in, the land they farm, or the business that they start, is not protected by legally enforceable property rights.
[The Point: the Rule of Law , and its incalculable benefits, is not a universal given: is was earned, it must be protected, by being followed or changed - never set aside {yes, there's a reason this appears in the immigration section of the Brief}]
READ MORE
Media Ignore Minimum Wage Hike's Impact on May Unemployment Rise
What was shocking given the portion of May's unemployment rate rise attributed to high school and college students looking for summer jobs was that virtually no press outlets considered the impact last year's minimum wage hike might have had on young Americans finding temporary positions between school years.
Consider this op-ed published in Monday's Washington Examiner authored by Kristen Lopez Eastlick, the senior economic analyst at the Employment Policies Institute:
According to economist David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine, for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage, employment for high school dropouts and young black adults and teenagers falls by 8.5 percent. In the past 11 months alone, the United States' minimum wage has increased by more than twice that amount.Interesting, wouldn't you agree? And, certainly newsworthy.
Yet, from what I can tell, results of Google News and LexisNexis searches didn't find one major mainstream news outlet that offered such analysis in its reporting of Friday's unemployment rise...
READ MORE
NEW YORK'S NOVEL WAY TO KILL CHARTER SCHOOLS
Ten years ago, New York joined the charter school revolution by passing a law to allow these innovative public schools to open; but now, thanks to the state's Department of Labor and a labor-friendly state judge, building a new charter school just got a lot harder and a lot more expensive.
- Last fall, as a sop to labor unions, Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith ordered charter schools to adhere to state "prevailing wage" requirements, which mandate paying union wages for construction projects and which typically add 30 percent or more to the cost of a project.
- Although charter schools have always been exempt from this state law, state trial judge Michael Lynch erroneously applied labor law to charter schools, contrary to anything intended by the legislature or precedent.
READ MORE
'Overheated and Amplified'
[HT:SJ]
Fortune magazine reports that Barack Obama is publicly backing away from his stated opposition to Nafta, confirming the private assurances he reportedly offered Canadians that he didn't really mean it...
READ MORE
INNOVATION NATION
Americans like to think they live in the most innovative country in the world. But how do other countries compare?
One measure is the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), a survey of "innovation indicators and trend analyses," put together by the European Commission. According to the 2007 EIS, the gap between the United States and the European Union (EU) has declined in recent years, but America still leads in most categories. For example:
- Of the 15 possible indicators measured by the EIS, the United States performs better than the European Union in 11 indicators, while the European Union scores above the United States in 4 indicators.
- Although the United States leads the EU in 11 indicators, on 9 of those indicators the United States is outperformed by at least one European country.
- The only two indictors on which the United States outperforms all other European countries are tertiary education and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patents.
- Sweden is the single most innovative country, as a result of its strength in innovation inputs.
- The gross domestic product (GDP) share of early-stage venture capital is more than 50 percent higher in the United States than the European Union.
- There is a large gap between the United States and the European Union in business R&D expenditures, 1.17 percent of EU GDP as compared to 1.87 percent in the United States, which has not decreased; in fact, the United States is expanding its lead in public R&D expenditures and high-tech exports.
- America also leads the rest of the world in patent applications, a key measure of intellectual property.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
.
House Democrats call for nationalization of refineries
House Democrats responded to President's Bush's call for Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. This was at an on-camera press conference fed back live.
Among other things, the Democrats called for the government to own refineries so it could better control the flow of the oil supply. (Snip)
We (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market.
[so, we're not racing down a path to socialism?]
READ MORE
March to Socialism
I just want to mark our place in time. And here's the latest. A new Rasmussen report telephone survey found -- you ready? Dan, if I asked you how many Americans, what percentage of Americans would oppose the nationalization of our oil companies, Americans, what would you say is a reasonable number? [snip]
DAN: I would say 90? Only crazy activists would be on the other side of that.
GLENN: Yeah, it's a little, a little lower than that. A little lower.
It's actually 47% of Americans are now opposed to nationalizing our oil industry.
By the way, in a completely unrelated story, front page of yesterday's Wall Street Journal, my favorite quote from Barack Obama. He cited new economic forces to explain what appears like a return to older style big government Democratic platforms skeptical of market forces.
He said, "Globalization and technology and automation will all weaken the position of workers." Hey, workers of the world, unite. "It will weaken the position of workers. He said a strong government hand is needed to assure that wealth is distributed more equitably."You know, here's the thing. Could somebody just call up and just say, hey, Glenn, really want to socialize the oil companies because the government is so good at... fill in the blank. Go ahead. Just give me one thing. Give me one thing the government is really, really good at. Anything. Throw it my way. Go ahead.
READ MORE
[ok, the only 'news' in the congressional Democrats piece is that they evidently consider it acceptable to voice such blatantly socialists intentions.
But the Rasmussen poll is truly alarming, not just in it's demonstration of some combination of education failure & media brain washing success that's resulted in a majority of Americans somehow not knowing the inevitable failure that nationalization entails, but in the scary precedent it represents:
it tells the government that it can cause the failure of an industry through regulation, and then use that failure as justification for its assuming control to 'fix' the problem it itself caused.
Scary. Sad. What will our grand children's America look like?]
Obama's Red Roots
It's natural to be skeptical of excessive claims about Obama's radical associations. After all, there are so many. But one bears attention — because it helped him get his start in politics. In 1996, he won an Illinois state senate seat on a "fusion" ticket of the Democratic Party and leftist group called the "New Party."
The New Party, founded in 1992 with 7,000 members at its peak, had been an explicitly anti-capitalist party of ex-Communists, socialists and activists from ACORN, the hard-left group that's constantly in trouble over voter fraud. The New Party didn't ask for Obama's association; he asked for the New Party's endorsement. [snip]
Obama actually had to audition for it. According to a September-October 1995 update on the New Party-aligned Chicago Democratic Socialists of America Web site: "About 50 activists attended the Chicago New Party membership meeting in July. The purpose of the meeting was to hear appeals for NP support from four potential political candidates." [snip]
The New Party also has advocated a bill of rights for children, a shorter work week, a universal "social" wage and military spending cuts. These will undermine parental rights, lower competitiveness, lard up welfare and make the U.S. less secure. All are echoed in Obama's proposals. They are the hardest battle cries of the left.
Obama should come clean on why he sought these radicals' support and, better still, disclose just how he intends to pay them back.
READ MORE
Obama’s Buddy, Bill Ayers Stomping the American Flag
The question that remains is, will the media pick this up or will they write it off as old news?
READ MORE
Chgo Sun-Times: Now Greely Says It's Racist Not to Vote Obama
Apparently, the Chicago media have decided that the meme for the 2008 general election is going to be that anyone who doesn't vote for Barack Obama is a racist because this is the second editorial (that I've seen, anyway) in Chicago stating such a theory. Last week the Daily Herald voiced the assumption and this week it's the Sun-Times with the volatile Andrew Greeley taking up the cause of ridding the world of racism one Obama vote at a time.
READ MORE
How the Media misrepresents the Candidates' Tax Plans
One might argue that in the current economic environment, not raising tax rates is a good idea. There are no new tax reductions of course, when you merely maintain the current rates. But the way things are scored in Washington DC, keeping rates the same is treated as a tax cut, and hence scored as a big revenue loss for the government, since the current rates are supposed to expire in two years, and go back to the levels where they were prior to the Bush tax cuts in 2001. [snip]
Barack Obama supports ending the Bush tax cuts -- in other words he wants individuals' tax rates to go up. However, the way this is scored in Washington , Obama's plan to let the Bush tax cuts expire, is "revenue neutral". So if rates go up, that is not treated as a tax increase. If rates stay the same, that will be reported as a tax cut for federal revenue purposes. [snip]
In reality, Obama wants higher individual tax rates, McCain wants them to stay the same. Obama also supports much higher tax rates on dividends, and capital gains, and to raise the ceiling on the level of income taxed for social security- in total, a massive federal tax grab, designed to support major new entitlement and programmatic spending. The federal government with Obama gets much larger, individuals' after tax income, and share of the economy, gets smaller. That is what you need to know.
READ MORE
Obamanomics
Barack Obama hit the road this week with an economic tour to convince voters he is not a traditional tax and spend liberal. This will be tough because he likes tax increases and spending the tax payers’ money and is very liberal. [oh c'mon; that was funny - anyway >]
The McCain team, anticipating Obama’s offensive, kicked off the week with this statement:
“While hardworking families are hurting and employers are vulnerable, Barack Obama has promised higher income taxes, Social Security taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend taxes, and tax hikes on job creating businesses. In fact, during just three years in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama has already voted 94 times for higher taxes...READ MORE
Obama's Defense Policy
Senator Obama has made quite clear that he intends to eviscerate our most advanced defense programs. In a message to Caucus 4 Priorities, a liberal pacifist organization, (available on YouTube), the Senator called for major cuts in defense spending, for slowing or suspending the development of future combat systems, for the abolition of spending on the "weaponizing of space" [China will be pleased] and the slashing of investment in our ballistic missile defense program. More broadly he promised to support the group's policies. These include:
reducing the National Missile Defense program to a basic research program; cutting spending on platforms like the F-22 Raptor, the Virginia-class Submarine, the V-22 Osprey airplane/helicopter hybrid, the DDG-1000 destroyer, and the Army's Future Combat System. Also, the group advocates reducing America's force structure by eliminating two Air Force fighter wings and one aircraft carrier battle-group.By signaling his intention to unilaterally halt development of advanced defense systems he will reduce our bargaining strength against our adversaries while gaining absolutely nothing, geopolitically speaking, from them. Our defense programs are inextricably linked to our diplomacy -- a lesson that Barack Obama seems never to have learned.
Barack Obama's defense policy plans threaten foreign policy consequences inimical to American interests, and would pose perilous problems for some of our key allies around the world...
READ MORE
“I Will Slow Development of Future Combat Systems”
In a strange video address intended to somehow reassure American voters regarding his military bona fides, Senator Obama ends up doing just the opposite.
Among other things, he promises to cut “tens of billions of dollars” from the military budget, at a time when our armed forces are already stretched and in need of new weapon technologies and armor; to “cut investments in unproven missile defense systems,” which in reality have already proven remarkably effective; that he “will not weaponize space” even though other nations such as China do exactly that; to terminate the Iraq war just as the surge proves itself remarkably successful; and he rails against what he calls “unnecessary” military spending. He concludes by promising to remove our inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) from what he calls a “hair-trigger alert,” embarrassing himself via his ignorance regarding our deliberate targeting and launch protocol.
Most alarmingly, however, Senator Obama literally promises to “slow development of future combat systems.”
Think about the frightening implications of this pledge for a moment.
READ MORE
Two Reasons not to Vote for Obama
.
Iranian sees 'change' in U.S.
Iran's foreign minister offered his view on the U.S. presidential campaign today, saying that foreign policy will play a key role in the election and that American voters are "looking for change"
READ MORE
Barack Obama beats John McCain in European vote
Senator Barack Obama emerged as Europe's favourite candidate for America’s presidency today when a poll conducted for Telegraph.co.uk gave him 52 per cent support
READ MORE
Obama says fuel prices will change car habits
CHICAGO - Barack Obama said on Saturday Americans would start changing the kinds of cars they drive if gasoline prices continue to climb and said he owned a hybrid vehicle, though he doesn't drive it much.
[how nice for him. Doesn't sound like he's particularly worried about rising fuel costs. Q: and truckers? Airlines? All the motion fueled by liquid energy to deliver our standard of living to us?]
READ MORE
Palestinians in Gaza Are Phonebanking for Barack Obama
Phil Klein calls our attention to an al-Jazeera news report that sounds like a parody, but is genuine: A report on Palestinians in Gaza who are phonebanking in support of Barack Obama's campaign. I transcribed the most jaw-dropping parts: REPORTER: It may be hard to believe, but working in this tiny Internet cafe in Gaza City may just be one of Barack Obama's biggest fans. Before every U.S. primary, 23-year-old Ibrahim Abu Jayyab gathers 17 of his friends to try and rally support for Obama's campaign in the U.S...
[Q: why would they do that?]
READ MORE
Teamsters Defend Endorsement of Obama
The Teamsters union vigorously denied on Monday that its decision to endorse Senator Barack Obama in the presidential race was in any way tied to Mr. Obama’s statement that federal supervision of the union had run its course...
READ MORE
Not in My School Yard
... They frequently raise school choice as a cause Obama could take up to show his independence from Democratic interest groups. It doesn't look as if that's going to happen, as ABC News's Jake Tapper reports:
On the same day that he was extolling the need to shake up the "status quo" in education, Obama also defended his opposition to school vouchers.Our colleague Bill McGurn notes that Congress is on the verge of killing a small voucher program in the District of Columbia, where "parents have a question for Mr. Obama.
"We don't have enough slots for every child to go into a parochial school or a private school. And what you would see is a huge drain of resources out of the public schools," Obama said.
McCain advocates giving every parent a voucher to essentially choose which school they'd like to send their child.
Is Mr. Change-You-Can-Believe-In going to let his fellow Democrats take away the one change that is working for them?"
READ MORE
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Don't miss Wednesday's huge moon illusion
The moon illusion, as it's known, is a trick in our minds that makes the moon seem bigger when it's near the horizon.
The illusion will be particularly noticeable at this "solstice moon," coming just two days before summer starts in the Northern Hemisphere. The reason, according to NASA, lies in lunar mechanics: The sun and full moon are like kids on a see-saw; when one is high, the other is low. This week's high solstice sun gives us a low, horizon-hugging moon and a strong, long-lasting version of the illusion.
Many people swear it's real, suggesting that perhaps Earth's atmosphere magnifies the moon. But it really is all in our minds. The moon is not bigger at the horizon than when overhead. If it's any consolation, space station astronauts report the same effect.
READ MORE
Haditha Hoax: Apparent Last Chapter
A military judge has dismissed the charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani.
The hoax screeches to its final terminal -- as we predicted it should two years ago.
[expect a PBS Frontline* piece investigating who's responsible - soon ... ]
READ MORE
FLASHBACK:
'Frontline' Haditha Story Short on Facts
“Frontline” story on PBS, “Rules of Engagement,” omitted key facts that help exonerate the Marines accused of killing innocent Iraqi civilians in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005.
”Frontline” accepted without question the legitimacy of the so-called Hammurabi Human Rights Association and allowed its alleged head man Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani to tell their story even though the organization consists solely of himself and one Thaer Thabit al-Hadithi — the original source of the video excerpts “Frontline” showed.
Moreover, “Frontline” neglected to inform viewers that the same Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani had just been released from almost six months captivity for insurgent activities.
There were other serious flaws in “Rules of Engagement,” ...
READ MORE
When Will Murtha Apologize?
Democrats in Congress -- led by Jack Murtha and echoed by no less than Senator Kennedy -- gleefully picked up the refrain that our military was rapists, murderers, uncontrolled criminals.
Murtha, Kennedy, and all the others that piled on here owe all of these people and the people of the United States of America the US Marine Corps an apology on public television with everybody knowing that it's coming, so as many people as saw their accusations see their retraction.
READ MORE
Obama’s America Is September 10th America
Sen. Obama, the Democrat’s presumptive nominee, made some astounding statements yesterday which provided his views on confronting the most urgent challenge facing the American people — that of radical Islam.
Taking aim at the Bush approach of regarding our terrorist enemies as, well, enemies, rather than criminal defendants clothed in all the rights and privileges of those American citizens whom these enemies pledge to kill, Obama asserted:
What we know is that, in previous terrorist attacks — for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center, we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated.This is a remarkably ignorant account of the American experience with jihadism. In point of fact, while the government managed to prosecute many people responsible for the 1993 WTC bombing, many also escaped prosecution because of the limits on civilian criminal prosecution...
And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, “Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims.”
[And remarkably dangerous. We arrested those responsible for the 1st WTC attack after they'd successfully conducted it. The mechanism of law enforcement deterrence is retribution - after the crime. How can that possibly work against suicide bombers? They cannot be 'deterred', they must be found and removed before they can do harm.]
READ MORE
GIULIANI ENTERS FRAY
"Barack Obama appears to believe that terrorists should be treated like criminals -- a belief that underscores a fundamental lack of understanding regarding our national security. In a post-9/11 world, we need to remain on offense against the terrorist threat which seeks to destroy our very way of life."
As Politico's Ben Smith notes, both John Kerry and former counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke fired back in defense of Obama. Said Kerry: "[McCain] has fully embraced, willfully, openly, fully embraced the failed tragic policy of the Bush Administration over the last 7 and a half years, and he’s really defending a policy that’s indefensible."
[no 2nd successful attack in America in 7 years - indefensible ]
READ MORE
Obama advisers say bin Laden can appeal to U.S. courts
WASHINGTON Barack Obama's foreign policy advisers said Tuesday that Osama bin Laden, if captured, should be allowed to appeal his case to U.S. civilian courts, a privilege opposed by John McCain. Responding to questions from The Examiner, Sen. John Kerry and former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke said bin Laden would benefit from last week's Supreme Court decision giving terrorism suspects habeas corpus, the right to appeal their military detention to civilian courts...
[>300,000 prisoners after WWII, zero were given lawyers - and that after the war was over, not still in progress...]
READ MORE
Europe Needs America
[HT:KW]
French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced France’s new defense policy and it represents an historic departure. Despite the media chorus telling us that the last eight years have driven a wedge between the U.S. and Europe, Sarkozy wants to cuddle. France will be an active part of NATO’s command structure for the first time since Charles de Gaulle turned his back on the transatlantic alliance in 1966.
In the end, it’s Europe that has to do something about its go-it-alone attitude. With American operations in Iraq meeting greater success and with Muslim integration in Europe proving evermore challenging, savvy European leaders know whose post-9/11 model they need to follow in both civil and military affairs. The truth is, the only way George W. Bush could have destroyed U.S.-Europe relations would have been to broadcast American weakness in a free world under threat... [snip]
Sarkozy has proved himself an admirable leader and reliable friend of the U.S. He, Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel, and Silvio Berlusconi are part of a wave of European heads of state who unabashedly cop to appreciating American strength.
[Charles Krauthammer recently observed: Don't listen to Europe's media, listen to its voters; in the last few years they've elected pro-American governments in Britain, France, Italy and Germany simultaneously for the first time in over 50 years...]
READ MORE
Report Shows U.N. Development Program Violated U.N. Law
[HT:GM]
After more than two years of accusations and probes into the operations of the United Nations Development Program in North Korea, a weighty report finally reveals how routinely, and systematically, the agency disregarded U.N. regulations on how it conducted itself in Kim Jong-Il’s brutal dictatorship, passing on millions of dollars to the regime in the process. (Snip) The report depicts an organization that for years apparently considered itself immune from its own rules...
[not to worry: it's a UN report; probably fabricated]
READ MORE
New front opens on evolution wars
A battle over science education could soon spill into the courts in Louisiana, where looming legislation would allow teachers to bring up scientific criticisms of evolution, global warming and other hot-button topics. The state House approved the bill Wednesday on a 94-3 vote.
[we now need legislation to allow teachers to 'bring up scientific criticisms' - in our schools. Heaven forbid we inject varied opinion into 'learning'. we need universal vouchers]
READ MORE
.
"Amazingly, although the risks of action are arguably at least as real as the risks of inaction, Canada and other countries are rushing into Earth-altering carbon schemes with nary a doubt. Environmentalists, who ordinarily would demand a full-fledged environmental assessment before a highway or a power plant can be built, are silent on the need to question proponents or examine alternatives."
Lawrence Solomon
.
.
NYT Double Standard Alert: GOP 'Death Tax' in Quotes, Dem 'Windfall Profits' Not
In Wednesday's off-lead story by Michael Cooper and Larry Rohter, the New York Times found both McCain and Obama retreating to home base when it comes to economic solutions. But the Times' unconscious embrace of liberal conventional wisdom was evident in how it treated much-argued political terms like "windfall profits", "the death tax," and even "victory" in Iraq.
And look how the Times used quotation marks as warning flares or to suggest a conservative position was dubious. While "victory" and "death tax" were seen as partisan Republican terms and secured in protective quotes, Democrat-loaded terms like "windfall profits of oil companies" weren't put in quotes but stood unencumbered and presented as fact, even though the phrase "windfall" is calculated to make it appear oil company profits are somehow unjust or unearned...
[minor but legitimate: quotes in this context are used to convey dubiousness, or alleged, claimed etc. Conversely, their lack implies a phrase is ordinary, mainstream, accepted (often factually). Play along: note how quotes are/aren't used in this fashion when you read - the prevalence of this {sophomoric} tactic will surprise you {or not}]
READ MORE
UNHEALTHY SITUATION
California
One of Sacramento's great laments is the number of Californians without health insurance. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators ought to look eastward to find a solution. Not to Massachusetts, where government-imposed, so-called universal health care has increased costs and taxes, is running at a deficit, doesn't cover everyone as promised, and imposes fines on anyone who won't buy state-mandated coverage.
Instead, Sacramento should look to Florida and even New Jersey, which point the way to substantially reducing health insurance costs with a more market-based approach.
In Florida:
• The legislature unanimously approved allowing insurance companies to sell stripped-down, no-frills policies, exempted from more than 50 state-imposed mandates.
• Floridians now can shop cafeteria-style, picking and paying for only the coverage they desire, trimming their costs dramatically and getting only what they deem necessary.
In New Jersey:
• A family's annual health care policy costs $10,398, compared with the national average of $5,799.
• Responding to this exorbitant cost, a New Jersey Republican assemblyman is introducing a reasonable remedy, which would permit New Jersey residents to buy low-cost health insurance from any registered policy in any of the 50 states.
• Allowing purchases across state lines gives buyers alternatives to New Jersey's expensive coverage, inflated by multiple mandates on in-state insurance sellers.
Knocking down the props that hold up prices can be done in California without adding a dime to anyone's tax burden or policy premiums. If more-affordable coverage really is what the Legislature and governor want to accomplish, Florida and New Jersey point the way...
READ MORE
When I Was a Boy, America Was a Better Place
When I was a boy, America was a freer society than it is today. If Americans had been told the extent and number of laws that would govern their speech and behavior within one generation, they would have been certain that they were being told about some dictatorship, not the Land of the Free. Today, people at work, to cite but one example, are far less free to speak naturally. Every word, gesture and look, even one's illustrated calendar, is now monitored lest a fellow employee feel offended and bring charges of sexual harassment or creating a "hostile work environment" or being racially, religiously or ethnically insensitive, or insensitive to another's sexual orientation.
Meanwhile, all employers in California are now prohibited by law from firing a man who has decided to cross-dress at work. And needless to say, no fellow worker can say to that man, "Hey, Jack, why not wear the dress at home and men's clothes to work?" An employer interviewing a prospective employee is not free to ask the most natural human questions: Are you married? Do you have a child? How old are you? Soon "How are you?" will be banned lest one discriminate on the basis of health... [snip]
One might argue that these are the same laments that every previous older generation has expressed -- "Ah, when I was young" But in America, that has not been the case. In America, the older generations used to say the opposite -- "When I was a kid, things were worse."
Can we return to the America of my youth? No. Can we return to the best values of that time? Yes.
But not if both houses of Congress, the presidency and the Supreme Court move the country even further leftward. If that happens, many of the above noted changes will simply be accelerated: More laws restricting "offensive" speech will be enacted; litigation will increase and trial lawyers will gain more power; the American military will be less valued; trees will gradually replace the flag as our most venerated symbol; schools will teach even less as they concentrate even more on diversity, sexuality and the environment; teenage sex will be increasingly accepted; American identity will continue to be replaced by ethnic, racial, gender or "world citizen" identity; and the power of the state will expand further as the power of the individual inevitably contracts.
It's hard to believe most Americans really want that...
[...but silence will be interpreted as consent - if we don't manage our government, the special interests extremists will][Recommended > ]
READ MORE
Life Expectancy Hits Record High in United States
Americans' life expectancy reached a record high of 78.1 years in 2006, with disparities among ethnic groups and between the sexes generally narrowing, according to government data released yesterday. The death rates from most diseases went down, with influenza mortality falling steeply and AIDS mortality marking its 10th straight year of decline. Infant mortality in 2006 also fell from the previous year, continuing a trend stretching back nearly 50 years.
READ MORE
Colorado to Offer 'Sniff Lottery' Scratch Tickets
Denver - When is a lottery scratch ticket not just a scratch ticket? When it's a scratch, and sniff, ticket. Starting Monday, the Colorado Lottery will begin selling $3 Scented Crossword tickets through lottery retailers statewide. They're available in three varieties: Crossword Bouquet, Chocolate Crossword and Coffee Crossword. Lottery officials say the scents are activated when players scratch off the latex on the tickets' play area
READ MORE
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Al-Qaida's Vietnam
CIA Director Michael Hayden says the terror group has suffered "near-strategic defeat" in Iraq. It has been routed from Anbar, Diyala and Baghdad provinces, and now is getting a beating in its last stronghold of Mosul, in the north. It is reviled by the Iraqi populace, and its downward trajectory began with indigenous uprisings at its expense.
When the United States lost Vietnam, it lost credibility and saw an emboldened Marxist-Leninist offensive around the Third World. Al-Qaida is a global insurgency and not a nation-state -- and thus its circumstances are radically different from ours 40 years ago -- but it has suffered a similar reputational loss.
The Iraq War had been a powerful recruiting tool for al-Qaida when it was winning. No more. Osama bin Laden rendered what is called the "bandwagon effect" in international relations -- the tendency of states to go along with the dominant power -- in his homespun Arabic analogy of people liking the strong horse over the weak horse. In Iraq, al-Qaida's proverbial horse is a broken-down nag... [snip]
Lately, the Iraq War has looked more and more like another Vietnam -- not for us, but for al-Qaida...
READ MORE
Foe, Not Friend
[HT:RS]
The United States is in mortal peril from a false friend: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The peril emanates from the totalitarian legal-religious-military-political code the Saudis call Shariah and their assiduous efforts to impose it worldwide. The danger is enormously exacerbated by the almost-complete failure of American officials at every level of government to acknowledge, let alone act to prevent, the Saudis’ true agenda. [snip]
A recent expose by New York Times reporter Philip Shenon of congressional and independent investigations of the murderous September 11, 2001 attacks describes evidence of financial, logistical and other material support by Saudi government personnel...
READ MORE
A Terrifying Decision
Remarkably, a court recently upheld a jury verdict that found the owners of buildings that were terrorized more culpable than the terrorists.
A New York state appeals court upheld the jury's allocation of 68 percent of the blame for the 1993 World Trade Center bombings on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owned the buildings. Citing the jury's finding that several explicit warnings were provided to the Port Authority by credible sources, including Scotland Yard, the majority of the blame (and corresponding damages) was placed on the Port Authority. Moreover, the court cited precedent that holds that an owner's negligence can be at least 50 percent to blame for harm even when the harm was caused by another party's deliberate actions.
"Defendant's negligence had been extraordinarily conducive of the terrorists' conduct -- so much so that the fulfilment [sic] of the terrorists' plot and the ensuing harm could with clear justification have been understood as primarily attributable to that negligence," the court ruled. "The intentional act [of the terrorists] causally did little more than bring the incipient catastrophic potential of the negligence to terrible fruition."
[we've a legal system broken at every level]
READ MORE
Muslim children in Britain 'brought up to hate their homeland'
Radical British Muslims have formed chatrooms to discuss adopting orphans and bringing up children to be Islamic fighters, a study has found. Discussions on a number of radical websites have asked how children should be brought up to be "mujahideen" and whether they should be pulled out of mainstream schools...
READ MORE
Russia rebuilding superpower military
Gen. Nikolai Makarov has replaced tough, old Gen. Yury Baluyevsky as the chief of staff of Russia's armed forces and has been tasked with rapidly modernizing them. Despite all the stories of a run-down and demoralized military that regularly appear in the Western media, Russia's armed forces remain the most powerful and effective land force across all of Eurasia...
READ MORE
Why Irish Voters Rejected the Lisbon Treaty
Irish voters on June 12 said ‘No' to the superpower ambitions of European political elites, who want all 27 member-states of the European Union to ratify the 269-page (about 3000 pages with annexes) Lisbon Treaty that would turn the EU into a bureaucratic superstate.
Ireland was the only country to submit the "Reform Treaty" to a popular vote; all other member states of the EU intend to ratify the document through 'parliamentary procedures' [i.e., the very same bureaucrats who's power and job security will be enhanced by its passage][snip]
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: "There will be no treaty at all if we had a referendum in France."
D'Estaing said: The approach "is to keep a part of the innovations of the constitutional treaty and to split them into several texts in order to make them less visible. The most innovative dispositions would pass as simple amendments of the Maastricht and Nice treaties. The technical improvements would be gathered in an innocuous treaty. The whole would be addressed to Parliaments, which would decide with separate votes. The public opinion would therefore unknowingly adopt the dispositions that it would not accept if presented directly."
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said that it did not matter if people had not read the treaty (he had not read it either, he admitted) and did not understand it because they should trust their elected leaders. [snip]
Although by EU law the Irish vote (53.4 percent said ‘No' and 46.6 percent said ‘Yes') should kill the treaty (because it requires unanimous approval to come into effect), European politicians will almost certainly find a way to keep it alive.
[you gotta read this thing -- how do you say "jaw-dropping-chutzpah" in european? and evidently no one is threatening to hang them, {an aspect also addressed, in part} -- Highly Recommended > ]
READ MORE
Dirty US Media Secret: 'Rest of the World' Rebels Against Climate Taxes
The supposedly surprising rejection of the Lieberman-Warner climate bill last week had an element that Old Media in the US hasn't covered, but is very relevant.
While the press is ever eager to jump on politicians who fly in the face of supposed "world opinion" when it goes against US positions and traditions, it has been virtually silent over how "the rest of the world" has been rejecting the true linchpin of government climate policies: supposedly climate change-related higher taxes and fees. Consider the following:
• Germany -- "German Car Tax Plan to Be Delayed: Government."
• In Canada, a sympathetic columnist cautions the Liberal Party, which seems to think that the road back into power is through green taxes, about "The Suicidal Allure of a Carbon Tax."
• Australia -- "The Sun Sets on Rudd’s Climate Change Credibility."
• New Zealand -- "Emissions Bill Hanging by Thread"
Each story is about how a government or party is finding that citizens/voters are not at all keen on reducing their living standards in the name of supposed environmental purity.
The biggest media blackout is over the political situation in Great Britain, where Tony Blair's successor Gordon Brown hangs by a thread, largely because of his radical environmental initiatives... [snip]
If most of all of this is news to you, it's because the US press is studiously ignoring it. New York Times stories about Brown's situation on May 14 and May 23 have not a word about the Green Road Tax, even though many Labour MPs have been calling it a "ticking time bomb" for several weeks...
[the most pervasive spin: story 'selection' (omission)]
READ MORE
"SPLASH AND DASH" BIOFUEL SCAM COSTS AMERICANS MILLIONS
U.S. taxpayers are being bilked to the tune of millions of dollars by a biofuel subsidy that helps to lower gas prices - in Europe. The scam is known as "splash and dash." Here's how it works:
• The scam stems from an existing $1 subsidy for every gallon of biodiesel fuel blended with regular diesel in the United States.
• Biodiesel is produced abroad using South American sugar cane or Asian palm oil and shipped to the United States, where it's blended with just a "splash" of regular diesel.
• A typical tanker-load of about 9 million gallons of biodiesel requires just 9,000 gallons of American diesel to make it qualify for the subsidy.
• The ship then makes a "dash" for Europe, where its fuel is sold below market rates; that means each tanker-load that makes the dash nets importers about $9 million dollars in tax credits from the IRS.
• In 2007 this subsidy cost the American taxpayers $300 million; it's projected to cost them $600 million next year.
And while Congress and the National Biodiesel Board say they know the loophole is being exploited -- as America is exporting much more biofuel than it is producing -- they can't identify the guilty companies that continue to profit from this scam due to IRS rules...
READ MORE
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
