TAX PLAN OR WELFARE PLAN?

[HT:OP]
Barack Obama's tax plan is the opposite of supply-side economics. He proposes to raise marginal rates for just about every federal tax. He also proposes a raft of tax credits that taxpayers can receive if they engage in various government-specified activities. Moreover, the tax credits would mostly go to those who pay little or nothing in federal income taxes. His trick is to make the tax credits "refundable," says Ferrara. For example:

• If the tax credit is for $1,000, but the taxpayer would otherwise only pay $200 in taxes, the government would write a check to the taxpayer for $800.
• If the taxpayer pays nothing in federal income taxes, the government would pay him the whole $1,000.

Such credits are not tax cuts. Indeed, they should be called The New Tax Welfare. In effect, Obama is proposing to create or expand a slew of government spending programs that are disguised as tax credits. The spending on these programs is then subtracted from the total tax burden, in order to make the claim that his tax plan is a net tax cut overall.

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AMERICA THE UNCOMPETITIVE

Currently, America has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world at 39.3 percent [Japan is #1 at 39.5]. And for the first time, the U.S. statutory rate is 50 percent higher than the average of our international competitors, continuing a long term trend as the rest of the world reduces corporate tax rates... [snip]

The problem: many U.S. politicians are still living in their own populist alternative universe, claiming that big corporations need to pay their fair share. This idea comes from a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study that found that 28 percent of large U.S. corporations paid no income tax in 2005.

In truth:

• The Tax Foundation found that among those companies, 85 percent of them also made no profits that year.
• The average European nation has tax rates on corporate income 10 percentage points lower than the United States.
• Those countries also, on average, raise 50 percent more in tax revenue as a share of gross domestic product.

To correct this revenue dearth, Barack Obama and John McCain have each proposed tax reforms, says the Journal:

• Obama wants to tax foreign profits when they are earned, which would accelerate the trend of U.S. companies moving entirely offshore.
• McCain proposes cutting the 35 percent federal corporate tax rate to 25 percent, which would leave the United States with a rate nearly five percentage points about the global average.

With corporate tax rates falling around the world, abolishing the U.S. corporate income tax should be on the table, concludes the Wall Street Journal. Every month without tax reform, America is a relatively less attractive place to do business.

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[speaking suicide...]

California tax bites get hard to digest

Stung by one of the highest state tax rates in the nation, Californians soon could be paying even more if officials and voters approve an array of new bond measures and taxes now under consideration. Already on the November ballot are nearly $17 billion in statewide bonds...

[bonds: the worst way to pay for anything, in that it doubles (if not more) the cost by virtue of the interest paid. Vote against all bonds; they're end-around games to financing what our taxes were supposed to go for. Every time we approve, we teach them it works...]

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The Deception of Consumption

I walked out of an investing seminar recently because the speaker used this fallacy–that consumer spending is the basis of the economy–as a foundational argument for his thesis. [snip]

When the Great Depression hit, the intellectuals and power elite of the period intervened in the failing economy by forcing entrepreneurs to maintain the high wage rates of the Roaring 20’s.

High wages do not lead to prosperity; prosperity leads to high wages. Wages are simply a byproduct of production; when production increases, so do wages because they represent an increase in value to the economy. Conversely, as productivity decreases, so must wage rates.

I challenge anyone who believes that consumption drives the economy to accrue as much debt and consume as much as possible, regardless of your level of production, and see how long your home economy lasts. Consumption removed from production leads to nothing but bankruptcy and insolvency.

Our ability to consume is based on our ability to produce. If we wish to consume more, there is only one way to do it without bankrupting ourselves or stealing from another, and that is to produce more. Entrepreneurial production is what drives economies–the only solution to failing economies is to eliminate all external forces that inhibit our ability to produce...

[I.e., we must keep industry healthy {low taxes/regulation}, especially small business - the majority employer in the nation. Recommended > ]

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iTunes blocked in China after protest stunt

Access to Apple's online iTunes Store has been blocked in China after it emerged that Olympic athletes have been downloading and possibly listening to a pro-Tibetan music album in a subtle act of protest against China's rule over the province.

NOW THEY'VE GONE TOO FAR
.

[HT:DT]

A store that sells new husbands has just opened in New York City , where
a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the
entrance is a description of how the store operates:

You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the value
of the products increase as the shopper ascends the flights. The shopper
may choose any item from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to
the next floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!


So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband On the first
floor the sign on the door reads:

Floor 1 - These men Have Jobs.

She is intrigued, but continues to the second floor, where the sign
reads:

Floor 2 - These men Have Jobs and Love Kids.

'That's nice', she thinks, 'but I wa nt more.'

So she continues upward. The third floor sign reads:

Floor 3 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, and are Extremely Good
Looking.

'Wow,' she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

She goes to the fourth floor and the sign read s:

Floor 4 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Good Looking and
Help With Housework.

'Oh, mercy me!' she exclaims, 'I can hardly stand it!'

Still, she goes to the fifth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 5 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Gorgeous, Help
with Housework, and Have a Strong Romantic Streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor, where the
sign reads:

Floor 6 - You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor. There are no men on
this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible
to please. Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store.

PLEASE NOTE:

To avoid gender bias charges, the store's owner opened a New Wives store just across the street.

The first floor has wives that love sex.

The second floor has wives that love sex and have money.

The third, fourth, fifth and sixth floors have never been visited.

Russia 'strengthens occupation' despite claims of withdrawal

[HT:JH]
Gori - The Russian occupation of the Georgian city of Gori appeared to be more entrenched tonight, despite claims by President Medvedev that his troops were planning to withdraw. As international pressure increased on Mr Medvedev to implement a French-brokered ceasefire pledge signed last week, the Kremlin declared today that Russian forces would start pulling back from the occupied territory in 'three or four days'...

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NATO, divided over Russia sanctions, 'gave birth to a mouse'

NATO declared Tuesday that it cannot have normal relations with Russia while its troops occupy large parts of Georgia --- but alliance foreign ministers failed to terminate any cooperative programs.

The outcome of the emergency session called by the Bush administration indicated continuing divisions within the 26-nation organization even as Moscow has failed to withdraw its forces under a French-brokered ceasefire agreement.

Some European powers, like Germany, have been counseling restraint, anxious not to aggravate the crisis and jeopardize their energy supplies from Russia.

The United States and former Soviet-bloc governments have advocated a tougher stance, anxious to deter the Kremlin from believing it can reimpose its influence over its former empire...[snip]

Russia's representative to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, made light of the western alliance's indecision.

"The mountain gave birth to a mouse," he told reporters.

[Europe's moral bankruptcy is inviting further aggression, and not just Russia: what do you think China is learning from this vis-a-vis Taiwan {which the US is legally obligated to defend}? Worse than useless.]

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Poland 'won't be intimidated over missiles'

Warsaw - In a clear swipe at Russia, Poland's President Lech Kaczynski said his country would not give in to threats over its deal with Washington to deploy US missile silos on Polish soil. ''No one can dictate to Poland what it should do. That's in the past,'' Mr Kaczynski said in a live television address ahead of tomorrow's signing of the accord with the United States.

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British anti-Americanism 'based on misconceptions'

[HT:SB]
A poll of nearly 2,000 Britons by YouGov/PHI found that 70 per cent of respondents incorrectly said it was true that the US had done a worse job than the European Union in reducing carbon emissions since 2000. More than 50 per cent presumed that polygamy was legal in the US.

The survey showed that a majority agreed with the false statement that since the Second World War the US had more often sided with non-Muslims when they had come into conflict with Muslims. In fact in 11 out of 12 major conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslims, Muslims and secular forces, or Arabs and non-Arabs, the US has sided with the former group. Those conflicts included Turkey and Greece, Bosnia and Yugoslavia, and and Kosovo and Yugoslavia.

Asked if it was true that "from 1973 to 1990 the United States sold Saddam Hussein more than a quarter of his weapons," 80 per cent of British respondents said yes. However the US sold just 0.46 per cent of Saddam's arsenal to him, compared to Russia's 57 per cent, France's 13 per cent and China's 12 per cent.

[and where would they get such misconceptions? A: same place we do: 'the telly' ]

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Arab Sentiment Backs Russia Over Georgia

A Gulf News editor, Abdul-Hadi Al-Timimi, wrote in an op-ed Sunday that Russia’s willingness to use its military might to reassert its influence in the former Soviet space was “long overdue,” and “most urgently needed at a time when the U.S. and its allies are targeting two of the last few Russian allies in the Middle East: Iran and Syria." [you know: terrorist exporting states]

“All Arabs are mad at Georgia because it sent its troops to Iraq and took part in the occupation of that Arab land,” he said. “If it weren’t for Russia, Georgian forces would still be in Iraq."

However, amid the pro-Russia sentiment, a warning came from the Middle East Times, which in an editorial Monday urged Arabs to think with their heads rather than their hearts:

“Today, and merely to spite the U.S., many Muslims forget that [Russian prime minister and former president] Vladimir Putin has repeatedly taken violent military stances against Muslims in Chechnya and elsewhere, and celebrate his violence to compensate for their constant failure,”

[tens of thousands of casualties in Chechnya.]

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union had close ties at times with a number of countries, including Egypt, Syria, Iraq, South Yemen, Algeria and Libya. It was also a key ally of the terrorist Palestine Liberation Organization.

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Twofer...

.
Beijing's protest zones: Apply at your own risk

But four days after he evaded security officials in his hometown, slipped into Beijing at dawn and submitted his application, Gao, a farmer from Heilongjiang Province, has yet receive permission to display his hand-scrawled poster, which accuses local Communist Party officials and the police of conspiring to steal public money.

A tall, plain-spoken man, Gao, 45, persisted. During a subsequent arrest, he said he was brutally beaten by the police. They broke his leg in two places, his teeth were shattered and, he says, they kicked his genitals so hard he became impotent. During an interview on Tuesday, he showed photographs of his bruised limbs. His limp and evident stutter, he said, were a result of the beating. [snip]

Five days since the Olympics began, not a single demonstration had taken place at the three city parks approved for protests. In fact, at least four people have been detained for seeking to demonstrate, according to human rights groups and relatives of those who have been seized...

[Recommended > ]

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China has yet to approve protest applications
[HT:BN]
Beijing - Chinese authorities have not approved any of the 77 applications they received from people who wanted to hold protests during the Beijing Olympics, state media reported Monday.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency said the applications received since Aug. 1, a week before the games opened, were submitted by 149 people, including three from overseas. (Snip) But 74 of the applications were withdrawn...

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.

Arctic ice refuses to melt as ordered

Just a few weeks ago, predictions of Arctic ice collapse were buzzing all over the internet. Some scientists were predicting that the "North Pole may be ice-free for first time this summer". Others predicted that the entire "polar ice cap would disappear this summer".

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado released an alarming graph on August 11, showing that Arctic ice was rapidly disappearing, back towards last year's record minimum. Their data shows Arctic sea ice extent only 10 per cent greater than this date in 2007, and the second lowest on record. Here's a smaller version of the graph:
The problem is that this graph does not appear to be correct.

Other data sources show Arctic ice having made a nice recovery this summer. Maps of Arctic ice extent are readily available from several sources, including the University of Illinois, which keeps a daily archive for the last 30 years. A comparison of these maps (derived from NSIDC data) below shows that Arctic ice extent was 30 per cent greater on August 11, 2008 than it was on the August 12, 2007. (2008 is a leap year, so the dates are offset by one.)


So how did NSIDC calculate a 10 per cent increase over 2007? Their graph appears to disagree with the maps by a factor of three (10 per cent vs. 30 per cent) - hardly a trivial discrepancy.

And what of the Antarctic? Down south, ice extent is well ahead of the recent average. Why isn't NSIDC making similarly high-profile press releases about the increase in Antarctic ice over the last 30 years?

[A: funding]

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Inconvenient Youth: Brainwashing Teens With Climate Hysteria

A new group has been launched to brainwash America's teenagers with a "youth-focused version" of Nobel Laureate Al Gore's hysteria-filled and factually inaccurate schlockumentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

Even scarier, its founder is the daughter of a key partner at the venture capital firm Gore joined last November.

Based in Menlo Park, California, Inconvenient Youth is a non-profit group looking to "mobilize young people to educate their communities about environmental science" in order to solve global warming.

Isn't that sweet? Now Gore's got kids brainwashing other kids to further climate hysteria in the hopes that Congress will eventually enact a carbon cap and trade program that will likely make him a billionaire.

As reported by MarketWatch Friday:...

[do you know what your children are being 'taught' on this topic?]

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To Drill, or Not to Drill

... The answer that [Governor of Alaska] Palin makes a straightforward case for drilling in ANWR.:

"One of the pieces of a solution is allowing exploration on that little 2,000 acre plot of land out of the 20 million acres up there in the coastal plain."

The 2,000 acres that Palin refers to is the area that a drilling site would require--"smaller than the size of LAX," as she puts it.

"With new technology and directional drilling and other measures that can be taken today to minimize even that footprint. We know that this can be done safely and this can be managed well."

She added:

"And I know up here in Alaska, most every Alaskan believes that ANWR should be drilled, and no one cares more about Alaska's environment--our lands, our wildlife, our fresh air, our clean water--than Alaskans themselves. And we know that this can be allowed safely, cleanly, ethically--this type of exploration and development of an American supply of energy."

That last point is significant...

[where do all the bad guys of the world get the money to cause trouble? Us. We financed the invasion of Georgia: it's a consequence of >100$ oil due to our arbitrary refusal to contribute to world supply.]

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NAFTA paves U. S. route to energy from north

Beneath the forests of Alberta, 2,300 miles miles northwest of Buffalo, you’ll find the latest black gold: a mix of sand and oil being mined as a new kind of gusher.

And Alberta’s Athabasca Oil Sands are just part of a petroleum boom that has made Canada the world’s top supplier of oil to the United States.

[everyone but us]

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Union Prez: Teachers Shouldn't Protect Students

If your child's school were invaded by Columbine-style killers, methodically murdering students in cold blood, would you want teachers to shoot to stop them? Gayle Fallon wouldn't.

The topic was a decision adopted by a rural north Texas school district to permit teachers to carry guns in the classroom. Harrold, TX School Superintendent David Thweatt explained that the decision was prompted by the school's close proximity to an interstate and its remoteness—thirty minutes away from law enforcement—factors presumably making it a tempting target.

Thweatt made clear that all guns have to be approved by the school board and teachers have to undergo extensive safety and related training. None of that mattered to Fallon:

"Initially I thought it was a joke. However, after a couple of media calls, we realized it wasn't and we were asked whether our district would consider it, and it was absolutely no way would we consider it. One of the things that hit me is, you know, Columbine and the other incidents were generally initiated by students. Now, I've been around teachers a long time. They don't have it in them to aim at a student and kill him. Nor would I want them to." [?]

View video here.

[even when the 'student' is witnessed murdering others? ..... we need universal vouchers]

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Bush to relax protected species rules

WASHINGTON - Parts of the Endangered Species Act may soon be extinct. The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.

New regulations, which don't require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews government scientists have been performing for 35 years...

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Shocking!: Windmill Owner Wants More Wind Subsidies!

Would a major newspaper editorialize with surprise that "even Kraft Foods says we need to eat more macaroni and cheese"? Would guests on The McLaughlin Group get away with saying that "even Budweiser is lobbying for more beer consumption"?

Then why do talking heads and journalists exclaim with surprise that "even T. Boone Pickens," is lobbying for greater U.S. reliance on wind power? Don't they know he owns the largest wind farm in the world?

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Georgia: Europe wins a gold medal for defeatism

Sarkozy's ‘peace in our time' deal is a reminder of what could happen if the EU wins more clout

Once again, the Europeans, and their friends in the pusillanimous wing of the US Left, have demonstrated that, when it come to those postmodern Olympian sports of synchronized self-loathing, team hand-wringing and lightweight posturing, they know how to sweep gold, silver and bronze... [snip]

... the one-sided ceasefire that he [Sarkozy] 'negotiated' was more or less dictated to him by Mr Putin. It not only left the Russian military in place in the disputed enclaves. It allowed them free rein to continue operations inside the rest of Georgia... [snip]

... we should never forget what Mr Sarkozy and his EU officials got up to this week. There can be no clearer indication of the perils that threaten the West if the EU gets its way and wins more clout in the world.

This, remember, is the same EU that wants to take over foreign and security policy from member states, an institution that is always eager to pump itself up at the expense of democratic institutions in those member states, but which crumbles into puny submission when faced with authoritarian bullying overseas...

[I find myself having to remind my politicos that Europe chose to sell of its militaries over the years to pay for their welfare states. Only a handful could put up more than a token resistance if invaded, and none - not one - can project power above Falklands-level. America stands alone, capability wise, as defensible in the free world - we best take that fact seriously: China and Russia are rising, and Europe is worthless]

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Russian general says Poland open to nuclear strike

Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces"

A senior Russian general warned Poland today that it was leaving itself open to retaliation - and possibly even a nuclear strike - by agreeing to host a US missile base.

General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the Russian armed forces' deputy chief of staff, issued the extraordinary threat in an interview with Interfax, a Russian news agency.

“Poland, by deploying [the system] is exposing itself to a strike - 100 per cent,” he was quoted as saying, before explaining that Russian military doctrine sanctioned the use of nuclear weapons “against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them”. [snip]

Donald Tusk, the Polish Prime Minister, hinted that the US had pledged to back Warsaw in the event of Russian aggression towards Poland. He said that he only agreed to host the US defence shield on the condition that the US agreed to help augment Poland’s defences with Patriot missiles, which are intended to ward off any threat from Russia.

“We have crossed the Rubicon,” he said after agreeing the landmark deal after more than 18 months of negotiations. In the past few days, Polish leaders told a domestic audience that the fighting in Georgia has justified Warsaw’s willingness to form such a significant alliance with the US.

[this is only the latest threat to go nuclear: last year Russia threatened to re-target it's ICBM on Europe should a missile defense system be deployed {again, a system, designed to defend against 'rogue players' {say: Iran}, which is unquestionably incapable of thwarting mass flights of missiles such as Russia is capable}

Q: if Europe is willing not to stand on this point, how can anyone expect anything meaningful go come from them re: anything else? ]

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Ukraine offers West radar warning

Ukraine has said it is ready to make its missile early warning systems available to European nations following Russia's conflict with Georgia. The foreign ministry said Moscow's abrogation earlier this year of an accord involving two tracking stations allowed it to co-operate with others.

President Viktor Yushchenko said his country could ensure its sovereignty only through collective security...

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The Olympics mess

[HT:MD].
It is hard to avoid the role of spoilsport when talking about the Beijing Olympics. We all love to hear the National Anthem played as American athletes step up onto the middle podium to receive their gold medals.

Then the knowledge of where this is all taking place intrudes and undercuts much of the pride. From there, thoughts then drift, or at least should drift in any morally developed soul, to all the brave Chinese dissidents who are languishing in dungeons as a result of the Chinese government’s pre-Olympics cleanup or simply its broader, routine beastliness.

For only the third time, the Olympic games are being held in a nation governed by a brutal dictatorship. This time might be the worst for a number of reasons... [snip]

... the Chinese government has killed somewhere between 50 million and 60 million of its own people since coming to power nearly 60 years ago, making it by almost any reckoning the most bloodthirsty in history. While it is true that most of that body count could be laid at the feet of the gruesome Mao Zedong, it staggers the mind to realize that the party and regime that he created are the same ones hosting our athletes in Beijing today.

Imagine that the Nazi Party had somehow survived World War II intact and that as a consequence Hitler’s acolytes were still running things in Germany. One needn’t go very far to intermix the policies at play, or that morality should have prevented the Olympic games from being presided over by thugs who can too smoothly trace their lineage back to the likes of Josef Stalin, Hitler or Mao...

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Kassam rocket lands in western Israel

A Kassam rocket landed in the western Negev Wednesday evening, near a greenhouse of one of the Gaza periphery kibbutzim. No damage or casualties were reported. On Saturday, during clashes between Hamas gunmen and members of the Fatah-linked Hilles clan, several mortar shells were fired into Israel.

(Snip) The Kassam fired Wednesday was not the first instance of Hamas breaking the ceasefire with Israel...

[just another day of cease fire in Israel]

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Muslim rebels leave a trail of bloodied corpses in Philippines

Iligan, Philippines - Muslim separatist rebels left a string of corpses and burning homes after a series of pre-dawn attacks yesterday on towns in the southern Philippines. Agence France-Presse reporters saw nine bloodied bodies lying by a roadside in one village as black smoke billowed from houses burning in the background. Five other civilians were killed in another village by marauding guerillas from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

[GWOT]

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[meanwhile...]

NBC's Andrea Mitchell Floats Idea McCain Cheated

[HT:LW]
Think John McCain did pretty well in last evening's Saddleback Civil Forum on Presidency hosted by the Rev. Rick Warren? You're not the only one. The Obama campaign thinks he did well too -- so good, in fact, that they think he might have cheated. And on this morning's "Meet the Press," Andrea Mitchell wasted no time floating the Obama campaign's "private" concern (Videotape) :

MS. ANDREA MITCHELL: The Obama people must feel that he didn't do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because that -- what they're putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama.

MR. GREGORY: Right. [?]

MS. MITCHELL: He seemed so well prepared.

Full video of today's "Meet the Press" can be seen here. Relevant segment begins at approx. 33:50.

Wow. Somehow, John McCain can't do well on his own -- that being "so well prepared" means that he heard Obama's answers and then immediately formulated revised responses to what he originally had planned.

I wonder what the Obama campaign's reaction (and Andrea Mitchell's for that matter) would have been had the situation been reversed -- if the McCain campaign implied that Obama had "seemed so well prepared" and therefore Obama must have cheated.

No doubt such an accusation against Obama would have been proof positive of racism...

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Polls: Public Dislikes Bias, Dems Want 'Fairness'

[HT:GI]
"The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 55% believe media bias is more of a problem than big campaign contributions." As Tom Blumer pointed out when first reporting on this poll on Monday,

This latest survey adds credence to an earlier Rasmussen poll that showed that "49% believe most reporters are trying to help Barack Obama win the election this year," while "just 14% believe they’re trying to help McCain."

Every new poll released shows a public increasingly disenchanted with news coverage and unwilling to suspend their disbelief while watching the liberal news. This is why, as Matthew Sheffield pointed out yesterday, they consume more and more of their news on the internet.

There are two other points revealed collectively by the three polls which we all already intuitively know:

Conservatives believe bias in the media is a bigger problem than liberals.
Liberals favor government regulation of the media in far larger numbers than conservatives.
Besides pointing out the obvious, I raise this issue for another reason: the added context of the Presidential election.

If Obama is elected in November, you can bet the Fairness Doctrine (or whatever other euphemism they decide to use) will be high on the agenda of Barack Obama and his MSM enablers.

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The inconvenient lies of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

.
The following is a plot of actual temperature observations with their trend line (purple) set against the predictions for temperatures over the same period made by IPCC (orange line). The result is not surprising because the IPCC models are programmed to assume that an increase in CO2 will result in an increase in temperature.

There is not a single case for any period of any duration where CO2 increase precedes temperature increase. All records show temperature increase precedes CO2 increase. But the IPCC have ‘proved’ with computer models they are 90% certain that the current warming is due to anthropogenic greenhouse gases, namely CO2.

This is pre-determined because the computer model is programmed to have an increase in temperature if CO2 increases. By their own definitive statements, temperatures cannot go down as long as CO2 increases. Trouble is CO2 has continued to increase but temperatures have declined and many scientists expect them to go lower until at least 2030.

It didn’t take long for nature to show the IPCC was wrong....


[straight and to the point - Recommended > ]

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ABC's Gibson Attempts Guilt Trip on Exxon CEO

.
Maybe it was a stab by Charles Gibson to provide a national group therapy session, but the ABC "World News" anchor aggressively questioned ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson on the August 14 broadcast for "obscene" profits and asked him to "justify" the company's success.

But Tillerson explained to Gibson it was the nature of a large business that performs an incredible amount of transactions:

"Everything we do, the numbers are very large," Tillerson replied. "I saw someone characterize our profits the other day, in terms of $1,400 in profit per second. Well, they also need to understand we paid $4,000 a second in taxes. And we spent $15,000 a second in costs. We spend $1 billion a day just running our business. So, this is a business where large numbers are just characteristic of it."

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Giant solar project in California rivals coal plant

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- SunPower Corp. shares rallied 18% Friday after the solar-panel maker announced its participation in a giant 800-megawatt, photovoltaic project from Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., hailed by industry insiders as the first major utility-scale endeavor of its kind in the United States. Analysts cheered the project's news as a positive move for the solar stocks, hit by concerns tied to a slowing economy and oversupply, as well as uncertainty over federal tax $ub$idies for alternative energy...

[Pop Quiz: can anyone spot what makes this 'technology' so green...?]

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Let go of the past and allow offshore oil drilling

.
Like a lot of Californians, however, when the drilling platform fouled our beaches, I became a NIMBY. Get those leaking monstrosities out of our waters. No more drilling.

That was nearly 40 years ago.

At that point, America was importing only 24% of its oil. Today, it's up to nearly 70% and rising, a ludicrous transfer of American wealth to other countries - many not our friends... [snip]

California is the nation's biggest consumer of gasoline -- 45 million gallons a day, plus 10 million gallons of diesel. That makes us the third-biggest petroleum-consuming entity in the world, behind only the United States and China

So there's a gusher of hypocrisy here: The state that is the biggest consumer of gasoline in the nation is opposed to drilling for more oil off its shores. We're slackers not pulling our weight

Anyway, the important thing is to produce the fuel ourselves, not be shaping our foreign policy to assure a steady supply from shifty overseas sellers.

It's time to let go of the past -- the past 40 years -- and allow offshore drilling. It's about the principle as much as the production...

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Texas school district lets teachers, staff pack pistols

To deter and protect against school shootings, trustees have altered district policy to allow employees to carry concealed weapons if they have a state permit and permission from the administration.

"When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that’s when all of these shootings started," Thweatt said. "Why would you put it out there that a group of people can’t defend themselves? That’s like saying 'sic ’em’ to a dog.

Superintendent David Thweatt said a main concern was that the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff’s office, leaving students and teachers without protection.

"The naysayers think [a shooting] won’t happen here," he said. "If something were to happen here, I’d much rather be calling a parent to tell them that their child is OK because we were able to protect them."

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Aussie mayor urges unattractive women to move into town

The mayor of an Australian outback mining town has come under fire for urging unattractive women to move in, assuring them they will find a man because there is a shortage of women. John Moloney, mayor of Mount Isa in northwestern Queensland, told a newspaper his town was a place for "ugly ducklings to flourish into beautiful swans" and called on the "beauty-disadvantaged" to flock there.

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UN designed intersection

Report from the Georgian Front

As we continue to follow the war in Georgia, and make no mistake, the war is still on; our exclusive sources on the ground have been filling in some of the gaps. A team went out on reconnaissance last night to assess the damage and came back with stories you won’t see on the news [snip]

These irregulars have been accused of ferocious acts of looting and of committing atrocities on the local population wherever they have gone. Their job, it seems, is to run amok in the wake of the Russian troops, do their worst, but give deniability to the official Russian military. All these activities are in violation of a new cease-fire agreement that Russia and Georgia signed on Friday.


While the agreement called for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops, the Russians refused to set a date and withdrawal seems unlikely in the foreseeable future. When US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was asked about these reports on Saturday, she responded limply, “The Russians perhaps are already not honoring their word" [snip]

No simple answers will suffice in this very public show of force. But force against democratic society requires a forceful response, one which we have not given. Just as Georgians stood beside America in Iraq, we must now stand beside them in this grave hour of their imminent demise. Weak statements of support no longer suffice. They will make us all vulnerable in the face of power-hungry opponents, which Putin has now declared Russia to be...

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Russia began Georgia aggression three years ago...

A trove of evidence strongly suggests that Russia was preparing the logistics for war well before August 7. As long as three years ago, diplomats, officials and analysts say, Moscow started waging a multi-pronged propaganda, military and economic campaign against its tiny neighbour as it moved hurriedly and provocatively into the Western sphere - and possibly even into NATO, Russia's Cold War nemesis, itself.

"The political decision was made in April," said Pavel Felgenhauer, a military analyst in Moscow. "It was final. Preparations were being in place for a year beforehand."

Propelled to power in 2004 after the so-called Rose Revolution, Mr Saakashvili immediately began to push his country headlong toward the West, purging the Soviet-era bureaucracy, liberalising the economy and cosying up to the US by sending 2000 troops to Iraq. Many observers say the Georgians, with the US in their corner, became overly confident of their capabilities.

"These are the most romantic people in the world. They're very gallant, in the stupid sense,"... "Do they really listen? They're very much the charge of the light brigade people. It has a lot to do with personal honour."

[snip] Russia also started issuing passports to residents of South Ossetia. In March, Moscow rejected sanctions on separatists in the breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia proposed by the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose confederation of former Soviet republics. Instead, the Russian Parliament passed a resolution recognizing the demands of South Ossetian and Abkhaz separatists...

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Russia 'distributing passports in the Crimea'

Ukraine is investigating claims that Russia has been distributing passports in the port of Sevastopol, raising fears that the Kremlin could be stoking separatist sentiment in the Crimea as a prelude to possible military intervention.

The allegation has prompted accusations that Russia is using the same tactics employed in the Georgian breakaway regions of Abhkazia and South Ossetia in order to create a pretext for a war...

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NATO Now

Russia’s adventurism in Georgia was meant to send the bluntest of signals to its neighbors: “Don’t get too cozy with the West, because we rule this region.” The fossilized communists and other Kremlin toadies all too willingly obey. But such a subservient response will only take Ukraine backwards.

To the contrary, the solution is for Ukraine to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization military alliance. Ukraine will have a better fate with NATO, a grouping of 26 democratic European and North American countries, rather than with Kremlin autocrats.

“NATO now!” should be the new rallying cry for all politicians in Ukraine. But as we have seen, the desire of France and Germany not to irritate Russia, which supplies a quarter of Europe’s natural gas, is blamed for the April decision at the NATO summit in Bucharest to delay the membership applications of Ukraine and Georgia... [snip]

Western leaders, meanwhile, should recognize that their ambivalence to Ukraine and Georgia is encouraging Russia to menace and threaten beyond the Caucasus and Black Sea...

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Nato divided on American call to punish Moscow

Russia’s military walkover in Georgia has deepened Nato divisions as it prepares to find a new way next week of handling the resurgent former superpower.

Washington has called a meeting on Tuesday of Nato foreign ministers, essentially to punish Moscow for what the United States, Britain and, especially, East European countries see as a brutal invasion that reverted to Cold War methods.

Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, said: “There need to be consequences for Moscow’s behaviour.” Relations with Russia, which has had a “partnership” with Nato for more than a decade, would not be the same for years to come, he said.

The trouble is that several big European states — notably France, Germany and Italy — do not see the Russian offensive that way. They partly blame Georgia, a would-be Nato member and a protégé of the United States. As Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, told The Times:

“Russia is a great nation. Look how we have been treating it.”

[cowards all. Recommended, if you haven't indigestion and for some reason desire it...]

SOURCE

After Russia's invasion of Georgia, what now for the West?

Russia’s invasion across an internationally recognised border, its thrashing of the Georgian military, and its smug satisfaction in humbling one of its former fiefdoms represents only the visible damage.

As bad as the bloodying of Georgia is, the broader consequences are worse. The United States fiddled while Georgia burned, not even reaching the right rhetorical level in its public statements until three days after the Russian invasion began...

[untrue: McCain immediately replied precisely the unambiguous language history proves is the only such heard by aggressors. Unfortunately, European and Russian media aren't quoting McCain - they're overwhelmingly quoting Obama... [snip]]

The European Union took the lead in diplomacy, with results approaching Neville Chamberlain’s moment in the spotlight at Munich: a ceasefire that failed to mention Georgia’s territorial integrity, and that all but gave Russia permission to continue its military operations as a “peacekeeping” force anywhere in Georgia.

More troubling, over the long term, was that the EU saw its task as being mediator – its favourite role in the world – between Georgia and Russia, rather than an advocate for the victim of aggression...

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THE GEORGIA TEST

The phone may not have rung at 3 a.m., but when word came of Russia's brutal invasion of neighboring Georgia, one of the two presidential candidates instinctively understood the adventure's long-range implications.

And one did not.

Indeed, the crisis in the Caucasus is giving voters real insight into how John McCain and Barack Obama might handle a foreign-policy emergency.

In his first public reaction, Obama merely called on "Georgia and Russia to show restraint" - a reflexive exercise in what Sen. Joe Lieberman rightly labeled "moral neutrality."

Then Obama called for a UN Security Council resolution condemning Russia - apparently unaware that Moscow, a permanent Security Council member, can veto any such resolution.

He also suggested sending an international force under "an appropriate UN mandate" to South Ossetia. (See above, Security Council veto.)

Obama's initial reaction was that only Georgia's territorial sovereignty was at stake - and that the way to resolve that issue was to negotiate.

But McCain immediately understood that the real issue wasn't just a Georgian territory violation, but Vladimir Putin's premeditated effort to let Eastern Europe know that Russia intends thoroughly to dominate what it terms its "near abroad"...

[Recommended > ]

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Propagandists turn to Dick Cheney plot

RUSSIANS were told over breakfast yesterday what really happened in Georgia: the conflict in South Ossetia was part of a plot by US Vice-President Dick Cheney to stop Barack Obama being elected president of the US.

The line came on the main news of Vesti FM, a state radio station that -- like the Government and much of Russia's media -- has reverted to the old habits of Soviet years, inwhich a sinister US hand washeld to lie behind every conflict, especially those embarrassing to Moscow.

The Obama angle is getting wide play. It was aired on Wednesday by Sergei Markov, a senior political scientist who is close to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "George Bush's administration is promoting interests of candidate John McCain," Dr Markov said.

"Defeated by Barack Obama on all fronts, McCain has one last card to play yet -- the creation of a virtual Cold War with Russia."

A classic of Soviet-speak also came from Vasili Lickhachev, a former Russian ambassador to the EU.

"The West has spent a lot of time, energy and money to teach Georgia the tricks of the trade ... to make the country look like a democracy, We and many other nations see through this deceit."

Modern Russia may be plugged into the internet and the global marketplace but in the battle for world opinion the Kremlin is replaying the old black and white movie...

[we must remember that Putin assumed control of Russia's media years ago...]

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America Focused on Iraq, Could Have "Avoided" Georgia Violence

[meanwhile, in America...]

ABC News' Ayana Harry Reports: Former Senate Majority Leader Democrat Tom Daschle S.D. represented the Obama campaign discussing the Russia-Georgia conflict on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos. " In a debate with Republican Mitt Romney, Daschle maintained

"If we would have preemptively worked with Russia, with Georgia, making sure that NATO had the kind of ability and the presence and the engagement, we could have perhaps avoided this."

[yes, we all assumed it was ultimately America's fault]

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Basketball's Kobe Bryant on Patriotism


The reason this story is making waves is that first, it was unexpected and second, Bryant was obviously sincere when he said it.

NBC's Chris Collingwsorth, former pro football player, was interviewing basketball superstar Kobe Bryant and asked him about the first time he put on the "USA" uniform:

Kobe: "Well I had goosebumps and I actually just looked at it for awhile. I just held it there and I laid it across my bed and I just stared at it for a few minutes; just because as a kid growing up this is the ultimate, ultimate in basketball."

He asked where Byrant's patriotism comes from.

Kobe: "Well, you know it's just our country, it's... we believe is the greatest country in the world. It has given us so many great opportunities, and it's just a sense of pride that you have; that you say "You know what? Our country is the best!"

Collinsworth: "Is that a ‘cool' thing to say, in this day and age? That you love your country, and that you're fighting for the red, white and blue? It seems sort of like a day gone by(?)"

Kobe: "No, it's a cool thing for me to say. I feel great about it, and I'm not ashamed to say it. I mean, this is a tremendous honor."

Bryant's attitude was refreshing coming from a star athlete. You can watch the video here courtesy of Ms. Underestimated.

[Kobe: cool]
[NBC putz: not so much]

discipline

Russia 'destroying' towns before withdrawal

Explosions rocked the Russian-controlled Georgian town of Gori on Wednesday, posing a fresh threat to a fragile truce between the enemy neighbours.

Georgia and the United States accused Russian forces of destroying installations in several towns as they withdrew.

Under the ceasefire, Russian and Georgian forces were to return to positions held before Georgia launched its offensive against South Ossetia.

One clause, however, allowed Russian forces to "implement additional security measures" pending agreement on an international peace mechanism.

A senior Russian military official, General Vyacheslav Borissov, said it would take two days for all Russian troops to leave Gori...

[the French brokered cease-fire, and subsequent 'negotions', have handed Russia the EU legitimization to control the area for years to come]

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Russia complains of media bias

[HT:VS]
"When war is declared, truth is the first casualty." So goes the old saw about how problematic it can be to discern the truth when a war starts. Now, predictably, Russia is complaining that its invasion of Georgia is being unfairly portrayed in the news media -- an accusation mainstream media executives deny, according to an article in Variety.

Writer Nick Holdsworth notes at one point that piecing together information from the Internet may be the best way to figure out what's going on in Georgia...

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Georgia/Russian War: Predictable, Preventable

Georgia’s president Mikheil Saakashvili has been watching the American elections closely. Like the rest of the world, what he sees is a man who presents and even weaker foreign policy stance than the feminized policies of Bill Clinton in the form of Barack Obama, the leading favorite to step into the White House in 2009.

President Saakashvili understands that an Obama presidency will be a nod to the Russians that absolutely anything they do will be met with hot air and nothing else, effectively giving the expansionist Russians the green light to do what ever they want to do with no fear of reprisal.

The Georgian president is on a timer. Once Obama gets in office, the world knows that the USA will likely not come to the assistance of any democratic nation striving to survive. Once Obama gets into the White House bad actors the world over understand that they will be on the rise. And Mikheil Saakashvili understands this and made his move accordingly... [snip]

[overstated? ask:] Can anyone imagine that a president Obama would even have used American assets to help Georgian soldiers to get from the Middle East to their war zone at home as Bush did this week?

[Highly Recommended > ]

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“Please, educate me: In over 5,000 years of more or less recorded history, how many tyrannies have been overthrown by noble sentiments? How many genocides have been averted by reasonable discussions? How many wars have been prevented by Quakers?

Ralph Peters, LTC, USA-Ret., On War and Words

US stays the course in Iraq while media loses

AND now for some news from the front. Iraq says it's ready to stand on its own two feet, and the United States is planning a gradual pullout. War over. Sorry, I should have prepared you for this. I can see you're shocked.

You never saw this coming, did you? No wonder. The way the media has reported Iraq has been like reporting every Allied setback in World War II - from Dunkirk to the Battle of the Bulge - without mentioning the fact that the Nazis were still, ahem, beaten.

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The Troops Mobilize...

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MSNBC Freaked Out by 'Dishonest' Swift Boaters Attacking Obama

On Wednesday's "Hardball," substitute host David Shuster previewed a new book targeting Barack Obama by issuing the following warning to viewers at the top of the show:

It was right around this time four years ago that the dishonest and highly effective Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry began. Now the man who started it all, with a book about Kerry, has one out attacking Obama. Can the Swift Boaters repeat their success, or does Obama know how to fight back?

[again, a very sad example of the media's ability to propagate an untruth and create a pejorative where none should exist: 237 ex-veterans said Kerry lied. Kerry said 237 ex-veterans lied. Naturally, the 237 are the liars, and now 'Swift Boating', a case of private citizens speaking up when they heard untruths, is affixed in our lexicon as a pejorative. wonderful]

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CNN Concerned Anti-Obama Book 'Might Catch on With Some Voters'

Never Again! Not the Holocaust. We're talking about the MSM's determination not to let Barack Obama be "Swiftboated." In successive segments today, CNN provided a perfect example of the phenomenon.

First, a one-sided trashing of Obama Nation, the anti-Barack book by Jerome Corsi, who co-authored Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry.

In the succeeding segment, anchor Suzanne Malveaux worried out loud to Paul Begala that Barack Obama might not be responding fast enough to attacks against him, thereby "falling into the same trap as John Kerry."

[see above - or better: set up a debate with the author. unlikely; I've heard him speak and none of Ob's brave defenders are going to go near him: the man has done a credible work]

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Fearful Publisher Drops Novel About Mohammed's Wife

Self-censorship toward radical Muslims continues to be a problem in corporate America. The latest casualty: a book by author Sherry Jones about Aisha, the favored wife of Islam's founder Mohammed, whom he is said to have betrothed when she was less than ten years old.

Writing in today's Wall Street Journal [You Still Can't Write About Muhammad] , Asra Q. Nomani tells how the book, "The Jewel of Medina," got canceled by would-be publisher Random House:

In an interview about Ms. Jones's novel, Thomas Perry, deputy publisher at Random House Publishing Group, said that it "disturbs us that we feel we cannot publish it right now." He said that after sending out advance copies of the novel, the company received "from credible and unrelated sources, cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."

Of course, Christianity is constantly ridiculed in books, film, and song. Ah but Christians aren't known for going around making bomb threats--at least outside the mind of Rosie O'Donnell.

Put this down as yet another incident that gives lie to the ridiculous liberal phrase about how courageous they are about "speaking truth to power."

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Countering Islamism

America is in a unique position to avoid making the same mistakes the UK and continental Europe have made in trying to solve the tension between having an open, democratic society of religious tolerance, and halting the efforts of Islamists who use such privileges as cover to advance an anti-democratic, intolerant and even violent agenda. [snip]

The error both of these extremes foster is the failure to recognize that two genuine views of Islam exist today: The Islamic view and the Islamist view. The primary difference between the two is that Islamic adherents reject the idea that Islam mandates a global superstructure built on Shari'ah law.

For Islamists, or those who adhere to the ideology of Islamism, the ultimate end is the establishment of a global political superstructure called the Caliphate where Allah's law reigns supreme. Islamists advocate comprehensive Jihad to achieve this worldwide Islamic State, with violence as only one means of achieving the goal. [snip]

One of the most visible extensions of the MB [Muslim Brotherhood] is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) which Baran testified "was created by MB to influence the US government, Congress, and NGOs, along with academic and media groups."... [snip]

The British and Europeans are awash in a wave of Islamism that for decades has been crashing over their culture. To avert the same destiny, deliberate and specific efforts to counter the ideology of Islamism must be engaged. Failure to do so will only embolden the Islamists and hasten their efforts...

[and we're failing to do so. Recommended > ]

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BioLunacy [no, it doesn't mean seeing the light]

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Report Blames Biofuels for Food Crisis

LONDON - Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75 percent -- far more than previously estimated -- according to a confidential World Bank report published in a British newspaper on Friday. The assessment is based on a detailed analysis by Don Mitchell, an internationally respected economist at the Washington-based global financial body, the Guardian said.

[again, an object lesson: few ideas have so quickly been proven so disastrously wrong - yet watch how long it takes government to react {i.e.,, remove all biofuel subsidies}. Health Care anyone?]

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Britain says to slow introduction of biofuels

LONDON - The British government said on Monday it would slow the introduction of biofuels to address concerns that switching the use of land could push up food prices. (Snip) Critics say diverting land from food crops to produce biofuels has helped push up global food prices and in some cases has led to the destruction of rain forests.

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TEXAS IS FED UP WITH CORN ETHANOL

In 2005, Congress imposed a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandate requiring the addition of biofuel in gasoline; in 2008, nine billion gallons of ethanol were required to be blended in, and even more will be required in 2009. As a precautionary measure, Congress gave the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the power to waive the new mandates if they turn out to have unforeseen, negative consequences.

• In 2004, the cost of corn hovered around $2 per bushel; now it is close to $8.
• In April 2008, Perry asked the EPA to cut the grain-based ethanol mandate in half for one year.
• In response, the agency opened a comment period and received more than 15,000 comments, most of which supported the request.

But in August 2008, the EPA decided to deny the request. The EPA claims that the mandates are not causing sufficient damage to warrant action.

If forcing Texas ranchers to close their doors because they can no longer feed their livestock is not sufficient damage to warrant action, than what is?

The United States should follow Texas's lead and begin developing technology that makes use of nonfood energy sources.

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Study says most corporations pay no U.S. income taxes

WASHINGTON - Most U.S. and foreign corporations doing business in the United States avoid paying any federal income taxes, despite trillions of dollars worth of sales, a government study released on Tuesday said. The Government Accountability Office said 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005.

[1) businesses never pay taxes, they only collect them from customers.
2) finding write offs that exceed tax liability for business, with capital investment and/or loss deductions, in one of 7 years, is hardly news - so how did 'professional' journalists come up with that headline? {better question: why}]

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THE QUOTAS THAT WILL NOT DIE

California
Race- and gender-based government contracting has become endemic in the US. From the U.S. State Department to city garbage collection, contracts at all levels of government employ race and gender 'preferences'. Race-based contracting practices are an enormous burden on taxpayers, according to a study by Justin Marion of the University of California at Santa Cruz:

• Road construction projects in California cost 6 percent less after the overturning of affirmative action by Proposition 209 in 1996.
• In the two years after racial preferences were eliminated, the state saved an estimated $64 million.

Several factors account for the tenacity of preferential-contracting programs, despite two Supreme Court rulings against them:

• First, aggrieved non-DBE-eligible companies are reluctant to sue the government and offend a hand that may feed them in the future.
• They also fear offending well-organized civil rights activists who have the potential to organize pickets, demonstrations, and sophisticated public relations campaigns against a firm. [you know: extortion]

On the political front, neither party takes seriously the concept of colorblind government. Unless the public loudly demands a colorblind government, we will continue with the existing system that is guided by the notion that the government is entitled to discriminate among its citizens.

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Cavuto Rejects ABC's Economic Pessimism
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ABC’s “Good Morning America” hosted Fox Business anchor/managing editor Neil Cavuto on Wednesday morning — by himself with no liberal counterpart! While co-host Diane Sawyer peppered Cavuto with questions based on the idea that the economy was a disaster and Barack Obama was being unfairly attacked by John McCain, Cavuto offered a healthy alternative not typically seen on ABC.

Sawyer dourly observed that consumer confidence was at “almost a 22-year low.” But Cavuto rejected Sawyer’s pessimism:

If people have a feeling that things are so miserable, why are they buying $300, $400 IPhones with very expensive contracts. Why are they spending so much at the movie theaters? Why are they still going out in record numbers to restaurants?...When people are surveyed Diane on this stuff, it's very important to distinguish between someone saying we think things are lousy but when they're asked about how are you doing, they say, well, you know, not that bad, not that bad. There is a difference...

[there is: they know their own situation, but are reliant on the media for all other perceptions of the economy]

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exactly who's idea was it to send a Frenchmen to 'negotiate' with a Russian?

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