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Europe Is Obama's First 'Global Test'

Global Economic Power Grab

Europeans say it's time to usher in a new global economic order. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for a series of economic summits, the first of which is now set to take place in Washington DC on November 15.

He says he wants the gathering to build from scratch a new financial and monetary framework, one that would replace the current system that is dominated by the United States with a new model far more to Europe's liking.

"Europe wants the summit before the end of the year. Europe wants it, Europe asks for it and Europe will get it," says Sarkozy. "Laissez-faire, it's finished. The all-powerful market that is always right, it's finished.... It is necessary then for the state to intervene."

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi proposes "rewriting the rules of international finance." The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, says: "We need a new global financial order." German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck says

"Anglo-Saxon" capitalist system has run its course and that "the United States will lose its status as the superpower of the global financial system." [snip]

European Power Games


What's behind Europe's latest round of "let's play superpower make-believe?" European leaders are testing Obama's mettle, plain and simple; they want to see if he will bend more easily to the European will than did his predecessor. European leaders never wracked up the courage to ask President Bush directly for a partnership of equals because they knew he would have laughed them out of town.

Bush understood that Europeans were unable and unwilling to match their words with deeds... [examples - snip] If their past conduct is anything to go by, today's European leaders are about as interested in solving global problems as was Otto von Bismarck, who devoted his life to empire-building and the practice of Realpolitik.

Today's European leaders are trying not only to revive the Roman Empire in the form of a unified Europe, but they are also seeking to rebalance global power in such a way that places Europe at the top of the international pecking order. The main obstacle to European superpower ambitions is, of course, the United States, in whose likeness the present global system is made... [snip]

Will President Obama concede where President Bush did not? Will he pass his first global test? It's impossible to know until Obama moves into the White House. But the stakes are far higher than many Americans may realize...

Berliners flocked to the Brandenburg gate to hear Barack Obama's European speech.

[Highly Recommended > READ MORE ]

then... 'Protect America's free markets from European regulation'

President Bush > president@whitehouse.gov
Obama Transition > http://www.change.gov/page/s/contact
Your Senator > http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

and as always, pass it on - silence is consent...
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RE: GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION

Does the United States favor the rich in comparison to other countries?

If a country's tax code is highly progressive, then this ratio will be quite high, as the rich will have tax rates that are much higher than those faced by the poor. In a flat-tax economy, the ratio would be 1.0, since everyone would face the same tax rate.

How does the United States do?

• We have a top statutory income-tax rate of 35 percent; the Social Security tax does not raise this rate, plus the Medicare tax of 1.45 percent on employers and employees = a top rate in the US of about 38 percent.
• In 2007, a person who earned half of the average income (as measured in gross domestic product per capita) earned about $23,000 and faced a federal income-tax rate of 15 percent plus Social Security and Medicare taxes.
• Accounting for these, the income received by the lower-wage worker faced a combined tax rate of about 30 percent, and the ratio of the top rate to this one was about 1.3.

When one performs such a calculation for a typical European country, one finds a lot more flatness in the tax code.

This occurs for a simple reason: While income taxes tend to be quite progressive, payroll and sales (or value-added) taxes are paid by just about everyone, and large governments around the world have to rely on all of these tools to raise the revenue they need to spend more than 40 percent of GDP.

What does it all mean? We redistribute far more than does the typical developed country, explains Hassett. Ever since the early 1990s, we have been one of the more redistributive countries in the OECD. The notion that U.S. tax policy is out of whack with the practices of our main trading partners is absolutely correct:

We redistribute more than they do, even with rates where they are.

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Critics of US gloat over 'crumbling capitalism'

As the US sought to find a way out of the financial crisis, its critics at the United Nations were gloating over what they described as the crumbling of US capitalism.

Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, the former Sandinista revolutionary in Nicaragua who is now serving as president of the UN 192-nation General Assembly, broke with protocol in his opening speech to denounce the “unbridled greed and irresponsibility of the powerful"... [snip]

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, told the visiting leaders: “We need a new understanding on business ethics and governance, with more compassion and less uncritical faith in the ‘magic’ of markets"...

[that's it: the UN is lecturing us on 'ethics and governance' - spare me. better yet...

U.S. Must Give U.N. The Boot

I've demanded it before, to no avail. Now, the U.S. should again consider getting out of the U.N., and the U.N. out of the U.S. What better timing than in a transitional election year? Nothing of lasting importance ever happens at the U.N. Why throw good money after bad?

The U.N. prefers to stand aside in internal conflicts and just look at the bloody rampages in Zimbabwe. Or, wring its hands when Burma suffered through a devastating hurricane. Humanitarian aid? Obviously not the U.N.'s table.
Instead, the U.N. elected Zimbabwe to head its commission on finance and the environment. Can anyone name a more horrible financial role model than Zimbabwe?"

Like the U.N.'s move to elect both Syria and Iran to its disarmament commission last year. Syria keeps Muslim terrorists well-armed and Iran promises to wipe out Israel and western civilization in general. And the U.N. has poured tens of millions of dollars into North Korea, another country illicitly developing and testing nukes.

Why do we allow embarrassments like these to happen on U.S. territory?

Now, the U.N. has the gall to examine the human rights record of the U.S. By a leftist lawyer from Senegal. It evidently never occurred to the U.N. to review countries that really do violate human rights. The U.N. frequently states it shouldn't be involved in the "internal affairs" of member states. What business, then, has the U.N. examining America's limited application of the death penalty and her jailing of juveniles?

There's something terribly wrong with this picture. We shouldn't be part of it and our hard-earned tax money shouldn't go to its financing, either. We can accomplish more by acting on our own or through regional pacts like NATO. Plus, giving the U.N. the boot would free up a valuable slice of real estate on New York's East Side.

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UNsalvageable. Time to scrap it and start over >

Enter UDN Site
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EU slices up 'ugly fruit' rules

The European Commission has scrapped controversial rules that prevent oddly-sized or misshapen fruit and vegetables being sold in Europe. The EU's agriculture commissioner called it

"a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot".

['global-government' mindset in action - they're actually proud of themselves for only spending some time on the topic]

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CRONIES AGAINST CAPITALISM

In a recent study, economists Alberto Alesina, Edward Glaeser and Bruce Sacerdote found that pre-existing social attitudes toward luck may be the crucial determinant of the political path of a society. The authors uncovered a striking difference between American and European attitudes towards the poor:

• If you ask Americans whether they believe the poor are lazy, 60 percent agree.
• However, if you ask Europeans, only 26 percent say yes.

Historically, large welfare states have emerged in countries where citizens generally believe that luck determines income. It takes more than luck to maintain a free society.

If America is to avoid acquiring a welfare state the size of Europe's, the rule of law must be vigorously defended and the corrupt must be adequately punished.

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TAXES AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

A tax system with low rates and little or no progressivity provides the greatest incentives to encourage entrepreneurship, says the Fraser Institute.

Entrepreneurship is increasingly being recognized as a critical determinant of job creation, innovation, and productivity gains. An often-used indicator of entrepreneurship is business creation and growth. A number of studies have shown the impact of taxes on creation and growth of businesses:

• A decrease in the marginal tax rate levied on a sole proprietor from 50 percent to 33 percent would lead to an increase in revenues of about 28 percent.
• A 5 percent rise in marginal tax rates would reduce the proportion of entrepreneurs who make new capital investments 10.4 percent, as well as lowering mean capital outlays by 9.9 percent.

Overall, the evidence suggests that a simple tax system, characterized by little or no progressivity and low rates for numerous types of taxes, would provide the least amount of distortion in the economy and provide the greatest incentives to encourage entrepreneurship.

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So Now Time Tells Us: Obama The New FDR

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Remember back during the campaign, when the Obama folks and their MSM cohorts adamantly denied that their man was a liberal? That National Journal study that ranked him the most liberal senator? Nonsense! Very misleading. After all, this is the man with a history of reaching across partisan lines (even if no good examples were handy at the moment).

So . . . remember all that? Well, forget it.

Now that Obama is safely ensconced in his Office of the President-Elect, the MSM can let the [ill-concealed to many of us] cat out of the bag: yes, he's a liberal. Big time! In fact, Obama is nothing less than the second coming of the biggest American liberal icon of all time: FDR! Rick Stengel announced the news on today's Morning Joe:

RICK STENGEL: It's the New New Deal, and it's Barack Obama as FDR, obviously. And it's about how he could forge a Democratic majority, a liberal majority, not unlike what FDR did.

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Obama to Create White House Office of Urban Policy

On National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" yesterday, longtime Obama family friend and Obama-Biden Transition Team co-chair Valerie Jarrett said that the President-elect would, as pledged during the campaign, create an Office of Urban Policy.

Jarrett said the office would "have a comprehensive approach to our urban development," who will be an "advocate for cities" within the White House, taking "all the variety of different federal programs and help target them..

[translation: to establish the system of subsidies from producing parts of the country to support the failure many of our 'inner cities' have become. I.e., wealth redistribution at the city level]

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"If you believe the left is tolerant, open-minded and democratic, you're in for a rude awakening"

READ THIS

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Another Assault on Freedom of the Airwaves

As free speech advocates gear up to oppose revival of the so-called “Fairness Doctrine,” another Orwellian-named government effort to dictate the content of radio and TV news and opinion has been hatched by the Bush administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC). So far, there’s been much less focus on the “localism rule” – even though it would have a similar chilling effect on First Amendment rights.

Under the FCC’s proposed regulations, owners of radio and TV stations would become subject to permanent advisory boards whose members – aka “community organizers” - would be chosen according to politically correct multi-cultural nostrums requiring representation of all “stakeholders.” These boards would be empowered by the FCC to decide if stations were airing a “sufficient amount of community-responsive programming”- with neither “sufficient” nor “responsive” defined. A negative advisory board finding could mean loss of a station owner’s broadcasting license.

If this proposed regulation is adopted, political activists with ideological agendas on advisory boards will be able to dictate that Christian radio stations air programs advocating abortion and gay marriage, which they oppose as a matter of religious conviction. This proposal is clearly antithetical to the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech and religion.

It will undermine an uncensored, independent press in a free society as a tool for holding politicians and bureaucrats accountable, and make government the arbiter of acceptable religious doctrine.

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Broadcast Blackout of Left’s 'Fairness' Doctrine Push

Barack Obama’s transition team has tapped former FCC Commissioner Henry Rivera, a longtime proponent of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine," to head the team looking for the man or woman who will soon give Democrats a 3-to-2 advantage on the Federal Communications Commission.

It’s another troubling sign that Democrats are serious about trying to reinstate the long-defunct FCC regulation, which can more aptly be described as the "Censorship Doctrine" because of its chilling effect on free speech. In effect from 1949 to 1987, the Fairness Doctrine was an obstacle to open discussion of public policy issues on the radio; its removal in the Reagan years spawned the robust talk radio marketplace of ideas now enjoyed by millions.

While talk radio hosts often warned during the campaign that free speech could be trampled by an all-Democratic majority, the broadcast networks have failed to react to this dangerous threat to the First Amendment. A review shows the broadcast networks — whose affiliates could also be regulated — have failed to run even a single story mentioning the push for a new Fairness Doctrine.

[ I believe it's considerably worse than that: I've noticed an drastic increase in {seemingly unrelated} MSM stories which feature and lambast Rush Limbaugh {of whom I'm no fan} - to such a degree that I now suspect he's being positioned as the bad-poster-boy they'll use for this effort. Yeah conspiraltorial - but what if there is one?

Regardless, the push to re-apply the Prohibitive-Costs Doctring {as I call it} is literally intended to make recent Democratic gains permanant by removing the primary cultural counter-balance to the left's otherwise pervasive media influence. This will prove devestating in years to come if it passes - please join me in working against it by joining MRC's Free Speech Alliance - and as always, pass it on...]


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Tolerance fails T-shirt test

Catherine Vogt, 14, conducted an experiment in political tolerance at her Oak Park middle school and learned some valuable lessons. (Tribune photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo / November 12, 2008)

As the media keeps gushing on about how America has finally adopted tolerance as the great virtue, and that we're all united now, let's consider the Brave Catherine Vogt Experiment.

Catherine Vogt, 14, is an Illinois 8th grader, the daughter of a liberal mom and a conservative dad. She wanted to conduct an experiment in political tolerance and diversity of opinion at her school in the liberal suburb of Oak Park.

She noticed that fellow students at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama for president. His campaign kept preaching "inclusion," and she decided to see how included she could be.

So just before the election, Catherine consulted with her history teacher, then bravely wore a unique T-shirt to school and recorded the comments of teachers and students in her journal. The T-shirt bore the simple yet quite subversive words drawn with a red marker:

"McCain Girl."

"I was just really curious how they'd react to something that different, because a lot of people at my school wore Obama shirts and they are big Obama supporters," Catherine told us. "I just really wanted to see what their reaction would be."

Immediately, Catherine learned she was stupid for wearing a shirt with Republican John McCain's name. Not merely stupid. Very stupid.

"People were upset. But they started saying things, calling me very stupid, telling me my shirt was stupid and I shouldn't be wearing it," Catherine said.

Then it got worse.

"One person told me to go die. It was a lot of dying. A lot of comments about how I should be killed," Catherine said, of the tolerance in Oak Park.

But students weren't the only ones surprised that she wore a shirt supporting McCain.

"In one class, I had one teacher say she will not judge me for my choice, but that she was surprised that I supported McCain," Catherine said.

If Catherine was shocked by such passive-aggressive threats from instructors, just wait until she goes to college.

"Later, that teacher found out about the experiment and said she was embarrassed because she knew I was writing down what she said," Catherine said.

One student suggested that she be put up on a cross for her political beliefs.

"He said, 'You should be crucifixed.' It was kind of funny because, I was like, don't you mean 'crucified?' " Catherine said.

Other entries in her notebook involved suggestions by classmates that she be "burned with her shirt on" for "being a filthy-rich Republican."

Some said that because she supported McCain, by extension she supported a plan by deranged skinheads to kill Obama before the election. And I thought such politicized logic was confined to American newsrooms. Yet Catherine refused to argue with her peers. She didn't want to jeopardize her experiment.

"I couldn't show people really what it was for. I really kind of wanted to laugh because they had no idea what I was doing," she said.

Only a few times did anyone say anything remotely positive about her McCain shirt. One girl pulled her aside in a corner, out of earshot of other students, and whispered, "I really like your shirt."

That's when you know America is truly supportive of diversity of opinion, when children must whisper for fear of being ostracized, heckled and crucifixed.

The next day, in part 2 of The Brave Catherine Vogt Experiment, she wore another T-shirt, this one with "Obama Girl" written in blue. And an amazing thing happened.

Catherine wasn't very stupid anymore. She grew brains.

"People liked my shirt. They said things like my brain had come back, and I had put the right shirt on today," Catherine said.


Some students accused her of playing both sides.

"A lot of people liked it. But some people told me I was a flip-flopper," she said. "They said, 'You can't make up your mind. You can't wear a McCain shirt one day and an Obama shirt the next day.' "

But she sure did, and she turned her journal into a report for her history teacher, earning Catherine extra credit. We asked the teacher, Norma Cassin-Pountney, whether it was ironic that Catherine would be subject to such intolerance from pro-Obama supporters in a community that prides itself on its liberal outlook.

"That's what we discussed," Cassin-Pountney said about the debate in the classroom when the experiment was revealed. "I said, here you are, promoting this person [Obama] that believes we are all equal and included, and look what you've done? The students were kind of like, 'Oh, yeah.' I think they got it."

Catherine never told us which candidate she would have voted for if she weren't an 8th grader. But she said she learned what it was like to be in the minority.

"Just being on the outside, how it felt, it was not fun at all," she said.

Don't ever feel as if you must conform, Catherine. Being on the outside isn't so bad. Trust me.

[where to our kids learn this behavior? in our schools]

SOURCE

Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose

-- The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system.

Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

``It's your money; it's not the Fed's money,'' said billionaire Ted Forstmann, senior partner of Forstmann Little & Co. in New York. ``Of course there should be transparency.'' [snip]

In an interview Nov. 6, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said the Fed's disclosure is sufficient and that the risk the central bank is taking on is appropriate in the current economic climate. Frank said he has discussed the program with Timothy F. Geithner, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a possible candidate to succeed Paulson as Treasury secretary.

``I talk to Geithner and he was pretty sure that they're OK,''

said Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat.

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Troops Become Citizens on Veterans Day in Afghanistan

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan, Nov. 11, 2008 – This Veterans Day was like no other for 77 service members who took the oath of allegiance and officially became U.S. citizens while deployed to Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan.

Bill Wood, U.S. Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, gives a certificate of naturalization to a U.S. Army soldier on Bagram Air Field, during a Veterans Day ceremony, Nov. 11, 2008.

“For some of you, it probably seems like it was just yesterday when you raised your right hand and said that you would support and defend the constitution of the United States and serve in the Armed Forces,” said Schloesser. “Today, you are going to raise your hand again and become a citizen of the country of that constitution.”

Wood’s speech recognized the hard work and dedication of the 77 service members who stood in front of him.

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Recruiting Successes Continue in Fiscal 2009

Recruiting successes in fiscal 2008 continued into the first month of the new fiscal year, with all active and reserve components meeting or exceeding their October goals. Story

Britain should look to its own 'occupied territories' before criticizng Israel

Pot, meet kettle.

While Britain harumphs about Israel's "occupied territories," preparing , once again, to butt its uh, diplomatic noses into another country's--in this case Israel's--security and internal concerns, Michael Freund, writing in the Jerusalem Post, provides updates on Britain's real occupied territories. While the Brits dispute land that has a 5000 year Jewish presence;

Judea and Samaria are the ancient heartland of the Jewish people, the cradle of our civilization, and Israel has every right - morally, historically, theologically and militarily - to be there.

Freund reminds us that the sun still has not set on the over 500 years of the tragedy of the British Empire.

There is hardly a corner of the world in which Britain isn't involved in some territorial dispute or another as it obstinately clings to control over disparate chunks of terrain. The most famous of these, of course, are the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic, which are claimed by Argentina. Although the islands are of little economic value and are home to more penguins than people, Britain fought a brief war with Argentina over them in 1982 which left 900 dead. And just last week, the British sparked a diplomatic row with Buenos Aires by issuing a new constitution for the Falklands, which it said is intended "to protect UK interests."

With variations, similar arguments are applicable to those other European countries -- France, Russia, even Norway -- that are so self righteously indignant. As for the Arab/Moslem countries, their history of brutal conquest continues to this day.

So England, retreat to your island and devote your diplomatic efforts to grant the Welsh and Scots their independence. That's enough for you to handle.

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Look who's leading a UN forum on religious tolerance

Even the Washington Post can't avoid using irony in its lede:

Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Islamic kingdom that forbids the public practice of other religious faiths, will preside Wednesday over a two-day U.N. conference on religious tolerance that will draw more than a dozen world leaders, including President Bush, Israeli President Shimon Peres and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Now, it is not a bad thing that the major religions of the world want to get together and try and find areas they can agree. But to have Saudi Arabia lead the way on this issue is not only laughable, it is an insult to people of other faiths who have found their co-religionists thrown in jail or worse for being discovered practicing any other religion except Islam.

So why are Bush and Rice participating in this charade?

I am at a loss for words why other, less religious European countries recognize the hypocrisy at play and are sending diplomatic flunkies to participate while we give this conference the full presidential treatment.

[A: it's because, rather than Rice fixing the State Department as we all had hoped, it fixed her instead. UN-salvageable]

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Iran tests precision missile able to reach Europe

Tehran, Iran - Iran said it successfully test-fired a new generation of long range surface-to-surface missile on Wednesday—one that could easily strike as far away as southeastern Europe with greater precision than earlier models.

The Sajjil is a solid fuel high-speed missile with a range of about 1,200 miles, Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammed Najjar said on state television. At that range, it could easily strike Iran's arch-foe Israel and go as far as southeastern Europe.

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Obama to be told U.S. missile defense capable, general says

WASHINGTON -- The outgoing head of the U.S. missile defense agency said he'll tell President-elect Barack Obama's transition team that missile defenses are workable and working in tests.

During the campaign, aides to Obama said he would support a missile defense shield when "the technology is proved to be workable." Lt. Gen. Trey Obering said Wednesday that missile technology is developed much further than some may believe it to be.

The general said Wednesday that American interests would be "severely hurt" if President-elect Obama decided to halt plans developed by the Bush administration to install missile interceptors in Eastern Europe.

Obering told a group of reporters that he is awaiting word from Obama's transition team on their interest in receiving briefings.

[their 'interest'?]

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N. Korea Refuses To Allow Nuclear Samples

Seoul, South Korea - North Korea said Wednesday that it won't allow outside inspectors to take samples from its main nuclear complex to verify the communist regime's accounting of past nuclear activities.

Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it never agreed to such sampling, contradicting statements by U.S. officials (Snip) The conflicting statements could prove to be a new snag in the long, tortured process of nuclear disarmament ...

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Mexico's War: The Iraq Next Door

The accelerating drug war in Mexico cries out for more attention. The horrific violence signals something already too big for Mexico to fight alone. It will spread north. The U.S. can't afford to wait. As Americans went to the polls last week, Juan Camilo Mourino, Mexico's interior secretary, was falling to Earth over the capital in a fiery crash that killed him and 13 others.

[we better wake up to our border security]

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Mexico: the next crisis

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Terror and a grim warning about future instability struck our NAFTA partner, Mexico, on the day Barack Obama was elected President of the United States.

There was no press attention in Canada, and hardly any in the U.S., about the crash during rush hour in downtown Mexico City of a Lear jet carrying the second-highest official in the Mexican government, Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño, along with key drug interdiction officials. Thirteen other people died in the plane, and on the ground, and 40 were injured.


Another passenger was former Assistant Attorney-General José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos who had a multi-million dollar price put on his head by the cartels because of his work against the drug trade during the Administration of Vicente Fox.

It appears to be a message that the drug cartels will stop at nothing as they continue to corrupt and ruin the country as they did in Colombia...

Mexico's drug war
In the past year, Mexico’s drug-related murder rate became four times’ higher than the casualty rate in Iraq among Americans. Some 4,000 people have been killed and the all-out war waged by Sr. Mourino, 37, resulted in assassinations of police chiefs, mayors and soldiers.

Clearly, this has grave implications for all NAFTA partners, notably the United States which will see increased drug trafficking and illegal immigration as Mexico starts a possible descent into a kleptocracy...

[we'll have to help - right after we secure our borders]

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Sunspots spell end of climate myth

The evidence is unequivocal. Measurable, let alone dangerous, manmade global warming is not happening, and is not likely to happen in the future. The real cause for concern is the possibility of severe cooling. More evidence is gathering, going back thousands of years, that the sun, not greenhouse gases, drives our climate. [snip]

Computer-based climate models provide the only "evidence" supporting claims that the world is warming, that it will be dangerous, that there will be rapid rises in sea levels and the like, yet these same models failed to predict the temperature peak in 1998 and the steady cooling trend that set in from 2002.

Observations from balloons and satellites have shown that warming is not happening. Therefore greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are not a major factor in the world climate. This fact alone is sufficient to sink the manmade global warming hypothesis...

[contains good science and economic data - Recommended > ]

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Climate first for Obama transition team

After eight years out in the cold, Democrats in Washington DC are rushing to warm themselves by the White House fireplace. And although research advocates may have to wait to see major science-policy positions in the new administration filled, a sense of the next president's priorities and style of governance is starting to emerge... [snip]

Podesta, who trained in psychology as an undergraduate before going on to study law, founded the liberal think tank Center for American Progress (CAP) in 2003. The Washington-based group includes a number of leading scholars in science, including Thomas Kalil — another Clinton-White-House veteran, now at the University of California, Berkeley — who served as a science adviser to the Obama campaign.

The transition team declines interviews, but the CAP may provide some clues to how certain issues may fare under an Obama presidency — chief among them energy and climate. In a book published this week, Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President, the think tank outlines its case for a 'national energy council' that would coordinate energy policy among the various agencies and departments with a stake in such issues.

The creation of such a council, under an 'energy czar', would provide a coordinating role not seen before...

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The Climate for Change

The inspiring and transformative choice by the American people to elect Barack Obama as our 44th president lays the foundation for another fateful choice that he — and we — must make this January to begin an emergency rescue of human civilization from the imminent and rapidly growing threat posed by the climate crisis.

[they're serious. {well, 'they' is also the NYT}]

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Study: Tap natural gas from Alaska's frozen areas

Washington - Today's technology could extract enough untapped natural gas, frozen in Alaska's North Slope, to heat millions of homes for years, federal officials announced Wednesday.

An estimated 85.4 trillion cubic feet of ''undiscovered, technically recoverable gas'' is frozen in the state's North Slope region, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study released by the Interior Department.

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THE DEBT AGE

State and local governments have caught bailout fever and are asking taxpayers to clean up their messes, and with trillions in underfunded public pensions, the messes are colossal, say observers... [snip]

• Analysts at the National Bureau of Economic Research have found that state pensions alone are expected to grow to about $7.9 trillion in 2005 dollars over the next 15 years.
• There's a 50 percent chance, they say, that the pensions will be underfunded by $750 billion by that time ...

To put this in perspective, consider that the NBER report says that underfunding in state pension plans is larger than the total magnitude of outstanding state bonds.

So who is going to be responsible for the debt run up by reckless elected officials eager to provide luxury -- and often outrageously early -- retirements for civil servants?

Primarily the next generation's taxpayers, who will reap few if any benefits from services they'll be forced to pay for, as well as those who are not yet paying serious taxes but one day will be.

[I.e., allowing our tax payer funded public servants to unionize was and remains insane - it needs be undone, or probably you and certainly your children will be bankrupted by them and the actions of the politicians they own]

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PAY ATTENTION AMERICA

Explosion of private clinics raising red flags

Since the first private MRI clinics opened their doors in Canada 10 years ago, there has been a national explosion of private health facilities across Canada: there are 42 for-profit magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) clinics, 72 private surgical hospitals (excluding cosmetic surgery facilities) and 16 "boutique" physician clinics, the Ontario Health Coalition says in a report, entitled Eroding Public Medicare: Lessons and Consequences for For-Profit Health Care Across Canada, being released today. [and as they must be paid for 100% by patients, they must really, really want them. But there's a problem... snip]

"The contention that for-profit health care can exist along with a public system is not true," said Natalie Mehra, the report's author and director of the coalition. "It is a take-away from the pblic health-care system"

Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario, said the federal government has simply "turned a blind eye" and not enforced the Canada Health Act. [which prohibits private competition]

"Governments have fallen down on it. The Harper government definitely has, but the Liberals did too. This trend needs to be reversed. They need to catch up to the reality that the for-profit clinics are moving into this country and we need to get ahead of them."

[so, the wait times and capabilities of the government system are so bad that an entirely separate industry has sprung up to serve it without a penny from the government, and the government response? Kill it. This is crossing the (fine) line between socialism and communism. More to the point, it is the inevitable evolution of self-serving/protecting governments once allowed into markets: legislatively kill all competition. We've been warned...]

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Here Come Health Insurance Mandates

This was inevitable as every single policy expert I've ever read says it is impossible to have "half" a national health insurance plan. It's everybody in or the plan will fail. Obama ran on a platform that stopped well short of forcing everyone into an insurance pool. When queried about that he claimed that health care costs would come down because insurance premiums would be cheaper.

This is the harsh reality: The first item for business before the Congress will probably be this plan being worked up by Max Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee and one of the most senior Democrats in the Senate.

"There is one important difference between the initiative coming from Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus and the plan Mr. Obama laid out during his presidential campaign: Mr. Baucus would require all Americans to have health insurance..."

... if you mandate coverage - if you tell every single American they must have health insurance - there must be an enforcement mechanism so that people don't get away with not paying their "fair share." The only logical entity who is equipped to carry out such a task is the IRS who will almost certainly be empowered to seize your property - most likely any tax refund you might have coming - and even send you a bill for what is due the same way they send bills for taxes owed... [snip]

What will start out costing $100 billion or so will skyrocket. Also skyrocketing will be the number of citizens who will be eligible for subsidies. Soon, virtually the entire health insurance system will be subsidized to one degree or another. And with the government putting that much into health insurance, it logically follows that they are going to want a bigger say in divvying up health care resources.

You can bet if they're paying for it, they are going to want to horn in on personal decisions made by citizens in consultation with their doctors. That would be the end of private health care and the beginning of the nightmare that European countries are experiencing as they pick and choose who gets care and who doesn't, who lives, and who dies...

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CA Press Downplays Policital Facism in State

California

The litmus test results are in: If you're against the legalization of same-sex marriage and are discovered, you can't be involved in the performing arts in California, even though the majority of potential patrons in your state agree with you.

Under the pressure of a threatened boycott, the artistic director of a Sacramento theater has stepped down after it was learned that he contributed to Yes side of the Proposition 8 campaign.

Here's the opening of the Sacramento Business Journal's story (links were in original):

Scott Eckern, artistic director of the California Musical Theatre, is resigning his post and leaving the organization.

A boycott of the theater was called Tuesday by some in the national arts community when news broke that Eckern contributed $1,000 to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign, which supported the ban on gay marriage.

Scott Eckern said in a prepared release that he chose to express his view through the democratic process, and he was deeply sorry for any harm or injury he cause by doing so. [?]

“I am leaving California Musical Theatre after prayerful consideration to protect the organization and to help the healing in the local theatre-going and creative community,” he said. “I am disappointed that my personal convictions have cost me the opportunity to do what I love the most.”

Eckern's statement reflects failed attempts made in the past day or so to backtrack and make nice with his critics. It's clear that nothing short of his resignation would satisfy those who called for a boycott.

It's not unreasonable to think that this might be the beginning of a purge of all same-sex marriage dissenters in the theatrical and entertainment communities in California, and perhaps elsewhere ("Are you now, or have you ever been, an opponent of same-sex marriage?").

The headline writers at the Sacramento Bee or the Los Angeles Times's Culture Monster blog have done their best to make the stories appear less ugly than they really are. Their respective headlines -- "Prop. 8 gift gets theater's leader in a ruckus" and "Prop. 8 repercussions hit Sacramento theater" -- give little indication of the free speech-stifling severity of the situation.

The blacklist is back in full force in California's performing arts, and may be coming to your state or city [or profession] soon .

[ok you enlightened types, please explain to this simpleton how this is 'tolerant' - or better: not seriously dangerous to the civil discourse our society depends on. It's name is fascism.]

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Analyst: California faces

Sacramento - California's budget deficit will grow to $28 billion through June 2010 unless lawmakers take bold action, possibly including a hike in the state income tax, the Legislature's nonpartisan analyst said Tuesday. [snip]

The revenue collapse is so bad that if lawmakers did nothing, the state would face $22 billion shortfalls each year from 2010 to 2014, the analyst's report said.

[yet we just returned all Democrats to Sacramento again on the 4th.]

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Anti Prop 8 Mob Swarms Elderly Lady

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Watch this amazing video of an anti Proposition 8 mob in Palm Springs swarming an elderly woman, ripping a cross out of her hand, and then stomping on it. What is most amazing about this video is the idiotic summation of what happened by KPSP TV anchorman, Kris Long. However before we get to his money quote, let us take a look at a report on this mobbing by LifeSiteNews.Com:

Video footage from KPSP CBS 2 Palm Spring News shows Proposition 8 protesters surrounding an elderly woman and the reporter trying to interview her, shouting and blocking the camera's view of the woman, ultimately forcing the two to flee from the encircling crowd.

Phyllis Burgess, a supporter of true marriage, had been assaulted earlier as she displayed a large cross in front of the protesters. Video footage shows the anti-marriage crowd pushing Burgess, slapping the cross out of her hand and stomping on it as they surround her.... [snip]

Matching the thuggery of the crowd was the idiocy of anchorman Kris Long who came up with this "gem" of a conclusion:

...There is a lot of anger and a lot of hate, quite honestly, on both sides.

Anger and hate "on both sides?" Mr. Long, perhaps you need to have your eyes checked. All the anger and hate was coming from one side only as any sensible person can plainly see.

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A Checklist Of Obama's Many Promises

Few presidential candidates have made more specific promises to American voters than Barack Obama. They came so fast and furious in the latter part of the campaign, you'd be excused for not keeping up. So as a public service, we've put together a handy checklist of some of the biggest Obama promises — culled from his "Blueprint for Change," his campaign speeches and advertisements. Clip it. Save it. And see how he did in four years.

[ok]


Taxes
• Give a tax break to 95% of Americans.
• Restore Clinton-era tax rates on top income earners.
• "If you make under $250,000, you will not see your taxes increase by a single dime. Not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes. Nothing."
• Dramatically simplify tax filings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than five minutes.
• Give American businesses a $3,000 tax credit for every job they create in the U.S.
• Eliminate capital gains taxes for small business and startup companies.
• Eliminate income taxes for seniors making under $50,000.
• Expand the child and dependent care tax credit.
• Expand the earned income tax credit.
• Create a universal mortgage credit.
• Create a small business health tax credit.
• Provide a $500 "make work pay" tax credit to small businesses.
• Provide a $1,000 emergency energy rebate to families.

Energy
• Spend $15 billion a year on renewable sources of energy.
• Eliminate oil imports from the Middle East in 10 years.
• Increase fuel economy standards by 4% a year.
• Weatherize 1 million homes annually.
• Ensure that 10% of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012.
Environment
• Create 5 million green jobs.
• Implement a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Get 1 million plug-in hybrids on the road by 2015.

Labor
• Sign a fair pay restoration act, which would overturn the Supreme Court's pay discrimination ruling.
• Sign into law an employee free choice act — aka card check — to make it easier for unions to organize.
• Make employers offer seven paid sick days per year.
• Increase the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2009.

National security
• Remove troops from Iraq by the summer of 2010.
• Cut spending on unproven missile defense systems.
• No more homeless veterans.
• Stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq.
• Finish the fight against Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida terrorists.

Social Security
• Work in a "bipartisan way to preserve Social Security for future generations."
• Impose a Social Security payroll tax on incomes above $250,000.
• Match 50% of retirement savings up to $1,000 for families earning less than $75,000.

Education
• Demand higher standards and more accountability from our teachers.
Spending
• Go through the budget, line by line, ending programs we don't need and making the ones we do need work better and cost less.
• Slash earmarks.

Health care
• Lower health care costs for the typical family by $2,500 a year.
• Let the uninsured get the same kind of health insurance that members of Congress get.
• Stop insurance companies from discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.
• Spend $10 billion over five years on health care information technology.

source

President Honors Veterans, Families at USS Intrepid Ceremony

[Belated but heart felt]

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11, 2008 – On his last Veterans Day as commander in chief, President Bush paid tribute to all those who have worn the uniform of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard during a speech at the USS Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City.

"Today we send a clear message to all who have worn the uniform: Thank you for your courage, thank you for your sacrifice, and thank you for standing up when your nation needed you most.

"The war on terror has required courage; it has required resolve equal to what previous generations of Americans brought to the fields of Europe and the deep waters of the Pacific, and I'm proud to report to my fellow citizens, our armed forces -- the armed forces of this generation -- have showed up for the fight, and America is more secure for it."

"They are representative of the finest our nation offers. And they have the support of strong and caring and loving families," he continued. "And so on this Veterans Day, not only do we honor those who have worn the uniform, those who are wearing the uniform -- we honor their families."

During his speech, Bush noted that he is often asked what he's going to miss about the presidency once he leaves office.

"The truth of the matter is, I will miss being the commander-in-chief of such a fabulous group of men and women -- those who wear the uniform of the United States military,"

he said.

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American Troops Still in Harm's Way?

Oh yeah. Them.

When was the last time you saw American soldiers being interviewed in prime time? When was the last time you saw wall-to-wall coverage of the NYC ticker-tape parades in our soldiers' honor? When was the last time you heard an American newsman even acknowledge that we're still fighting (and WINNING!) a war?

What in tarnation is happening to this great Country? But never fear, real people are here to do the real work that needs to be done.

Operation Gratitude continues their valiant effort to give a little thanks where thanks is more than due. Thousands and thousands of all-volunteer homefront support forces are gathering from sunup to sundown every day of the week to get care packages to every man and woman in uniform still in harm's way.

This year's holiday package drive has been under way for months now. Volunteers work tirelessly packing each box with goodies, letters and genuine love.

Operation Gratitude

Now this is newsworthy.

Now they're ok...

WASHINGTON — President Bush leaves President-elect Obama broad latitude for covert action in countries with which the United States is not at war, powers that Obama could scale back along with other Bush presidential orders now under consideration for rescinding.

But he's not likely to do that.

Obama already has telegraphed his willingness to exercise those powers if he deems them necessary.

Obama said in an August speech that he would target high-value terrorists in Pakistan without that government's permission.

"Rescinding blanket orders would limit Obama's flexibility and proscribe the ability of U.S. intelligence and military forces to capture or kill wanted terrorists..."

[right. These policies, headlined as 'Nazi like' again and again when under Bush's authority are now magically good things if they provide Obama the necessary 'flexibility' and avoid 'proscribing' the ability of US intelligence. ufb. And no one in the press will call them on their shameless hypocrisy.]

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Captured battle plan shows strength and training of Taleban forces

Tang Khata, Bajaur - The map tells a war story of its own. Sketched by a Taleban commander, it is of a stretch of territory fought over in Bajaur between the Pakistani Army and the insurgents. The ground has been neatly divided into specific areas of responsibility for different Taleban units. (Snip) ''If I were going to pick the next attack to hit the United States, it would come out of Fata,'' Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said recently.

Fata, that's Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Terrorist wannabes from all over the world flock there as long as the Taliban and al Qaeda aren't dislodged and destroyed. The worry is that some might have already left and formed trained cells to carry out missions in the West.

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Iran seen test-firing new missile near Iraq

TEHRAN - Iran has test-fired a new type of missile during war games near the Iraqi border, state television said on Tuesday, after warning the United States it would respond to any violation of Iranian airspace.

The English-language Press TV said the Iranian-made missile, named as the Samen, was successfully tested on Monday by the elite Revolutionary Guards in the western border city of Marivan.

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Disconcerting NYT editorial about American Jews and Israel

The tone of this editorial in today's NYT is more than a little disconcerting. Aside from the rote "Israel strangling Palestinian economy" and casting doubt on Israeli sincerity to restrain settlers comes this statement:

As a step toward peace, Israel must freeze all settlements and reduce the roadblocks in the West Bank that are strangling the Palestinian economy. To do so, the Israeli government needs the public support of American Jews and moderate Israelis against militants who seek political change through violence.

This seems a roundabout way to place responsibility for Palestinian problems on American Jews who support Israel. To me this is an unwarranted implicit accusation that raises qualms on several levels (the dual loyalty canard, the conflating of American Jews with Israelis, the belief that American Jews are all-powerful, the scapegoating of American Jews for problems in the Middle East).

Furthermore, tens of millions of Christians support Israel and the American-Israel alliance. Israeli actions are not the responsibility of America's few million Jews (some of whom are Israel's harshest critics).

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[meanwhile...]

Israel to continue Gaza fuel cutoff
Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided not to resume fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip on Monday because of continued rocket fire, defense officials said, and Gaza officials threatened to shut down the territory's only power plant. [snip]

The defense officials said fuel shipments could resume Tuesday if no more rockets are fired...

[the spin on this issue is insulting. imagine Mexico firing rockets into the US and our only reply was to close the border until they stopped, at which time we'd reopen it without additional consequence. Israel's patients with their local terrorists is astounding - it is a tiny democracy surrounded by terrorist regimes wanting to annihilate it, yet in the world press (and UN) it is forever the bad guy. disgusting. ]

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‘Apartheid’ Israel, Islamophobia on the Agenda for U.N. Racism Meeting

Seven years after the United States and Israel withdrew in protest from a United Nations racism gathering, the drafters of the primary document for a follow-up conference next spring have included sentiments that prompted the earlier walkout.

Most glaringly, the draft text declares that Israeli policies and practices in territories claimed by the Palestinians constitute

“a new kind of apartheid, a crime against humanity [and] a form of genocide."

The 2009 conference aims to review the progress made since the U.N. World Conference on Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa in 2001, which critics said was so focused on Israel that other issues of serious racial discrimination around the globe were all but ignored.

Despite the controversy that dogged that event, the Israeli-Palestinian issue is once again looming, while another topic promising to make waves at the event is “defamation” of religion – primarily Islam.

Both are being promoted by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the bloc of Islamic states that accounts for one-third of the members of the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, the body overseeing preparations for the racism conference.

The Bush administration has sat out of the Human Rights Council since its establishment in 2006, accusing it of disproportionately targeting Israel and of protecting rights-violating regimes. But a senior State Department official told lawmakers early this year it would be the next administration’s decision - and Obama is expected to seek membership next May... [snip]

Anne Bayefsky of Eye on the U.N., a project of the Hudson Institute, believes the next administration probably will also decide to attend the racism conference.

“President-elect Obama has a grossly naive attitude towards the U.N. and its ability to foster American interests, he is therefore likely to run for election on the morally bankrupt U.N. Human Rights Council, as a means of pandering for votes for the Council election which will take place shortly thereafter.”

Bayefsky highlighted four main areas of concern in the latest version of a draft “outcome document,” being prepared for the conference next spring. She identified them as “the demonization of Israel,

” attacks on freedom of expression, attempts to thwart counterterrorism measures, and “alleged discrimination against Muslims."

The organization’s executive director, Hillel Neuer, said the dominant theme of the draft outcome document

“is that the United States, Western Europe, Israel and the other liberal democracies – their principles, institutions, policies, respective histories and national identities – are singularly racist and discriminatory against Islam".

[all points elaborated on in full - Highly Recommended > this is the 'world government' in action]

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[FLASHBACK NNBriefs:
The Pathology of Durban II
Time for U.S. to reject U.N.'s anti-democratic conference
Canada expected to back out of UN racism conference

"because countries that are classified as less than democratic hold a majority in the general assembly" - where they exercise what they don't grant others, to our perpetual detriment. The organization has morphed into a gaming mechanism for despots - which we finance - it needs go (or we from it)"

see all three here.

Finally: I know you're all sick of this topic given the pervasive 24/7 coverage by the MSM, but let's play it safe by assuring our new President-Elect is aware of our sentiments before he acts on the matter:

'Boycott Durban 2!'
http://obama.senate.gov/contact/


and please, pass this on {white envelope below left} to friends and family - thank you.]
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Most affluent voters key to Obama edge

Barack Obama promised he would lower taxes for 95 percent of Americans and presumably raise them for the 5 percent who benefited most under President Bush’s tax policies. But, remarkably, the most affluent 5 percent supported Obama and that was perhaps the key to his victory last week.

This group — and the rise of a new elite class of voters — is at the heart of the fast-paced changes in demographics affecting the political, sociological and economic landscape of the country.

While there has been some inflation over the past 12 years, the exit poll demographics show that the fastest growing group of voters in America has been those making over $100,000 a year in income. In 1996, only 9 percent of the electorate said their family income was that high. Last week it had grown to 26 percent — more than one in four voters. And those making over $75,000 are up to 15 percent from 9 percent.

The poorest segment of the electorate, those making under $15,000, has shrunk from 11 percent to 6 percent over the past dozen years. And those making $15,000 to $30,000 annually — the working poor — also shrunk from 23 percent to 12 percent of the electorate.


[my, aren't those some interesting statistics, in {huge!} percentages mind you, of the consequences of the "failed Bush policies". I.e., they voted for 'cool', not realizing what they're jeopardizing]

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Conservatives didn't lose election, GOP did

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -- For all Americans, this election represents another glass ceiling broken, and in the words of my 16-year-old, "That's very cool." The election of the first black president is an inspiring and transformational moment for our country.

I am happy for President-elect Barack Obama, and for many who supported him. They and, in many cases, their ancestors fought for this day for centuries as they experienced first-hand the unthinkable wrong of segregation. As an American, I wish him every success. [snip]

I believe in the Biblical notion of taking the log out of your own eye before worrying about the splinter in someone else's. Accordingly, let me focus on my own party and the way Ted Stevens personifies what went wrong in the election...

[I.e., Reagan wouldn't fold, he'd fight {and the 'cool' reference came soon after I'd penned the prior quip}]

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What Would Reagan Do?

This is not the first time that conservatives and Republicans have stared into an electoral abyss. After Barry Goldwater's crushing 1964 defeat, most political observers thought the only future for the GOP was to become a centrist party only slightly to the right of Great Society Democrats.

Ronald Reagan didn't agree.

In a trenchant column penned in the Dec. 1, 1964 issue of National Review, he argued that Americans had rejected only a false vision of conservatism as a radical departure from the status quo. Conservatives, he said, had only "lost a battle in the continuing war for freedom." Voters would rally to the conservative banner once they realized that Democratic liberals were the true radicals.

His article is striking for what he said -- and didn't say. Reagan spoke of a "war for freedom," but he did not mention a single specific conservative policy. Rather, he defended conservatism's salience by arguing that

"we represent the forgotten American -- that simple soul who goes to work, bucks for a raise, takes out insurance, pays for his kids' schooling, contributes to his church and charity and knows there just 'ain't no such thing as a free lunch"

This vision of conservatism would succeed by pointing out how liberal values diverged from the American consensus, and by attracting to conservatism average Americans -- the Reagan Democrats...

[time will tell if the Republican party retains anyone smart enough to realize that 'liberalism light' loses to liberalism-radical every time - but can be countered with true conservatism, to which most Americans subscribe...
{see: NNBrief of 081110 re: election data showing Republicans staying home last Tuesday > http://netizennewsbrief.blogspot.com/2008/11/that-huge-voter-turnout-didnt-happen.html]

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[Meanwhile, in our 'professional' media...]

Time Magazine (Again) Impatiently Declares ‘End of Reagan Era’

Once again — perhaps this time hoping that they are right — Time magazine has ostentatiously declared: “The End of the Reagan Era.” In the November 17 “commemorative edition,” the magazine features a piece by historian Richard Norton Smith explaining how “the Age of the Gipper ends with Obama’s election.”

But we’ve seen this movie before...

[multiple times before - they probably believe it this time too...

that's fine.
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