The Workshops Of Identity
by Bill Whittle
Part 4: Science and technology
The remarkable ownership of world-changing ideas produced by the United States is simply astonishing. That five percent of the world population could produce such staggering advances in knowledge, medicine, agriculture, instrumentation and basic research simply boggles any mind open enough to read a page.
Which narrows down the numbers of minds quite a bit.
Each year, scientists all around the world write research papers. These papers produce scientific citations. It’s fair to call these citations “units” of science, that is, a measure of how much ground-breaking science is being performed.
Listed by countries, China comes in sixth, preceeded by France, England, Germany and Japan, which produced, at number 2 on the list, 6,612,826 citations in a ten year period. During that time the United States produced 39,027,838 – more than six times as many as the runner-up.
All of those images of the deep structure of galaxies and nebulae are provided to the world at the expense of the American taxpayer and through the American genius that produced the Hubble and Chandra space telescopes. Every image of the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune was sent to the world by American grad students at Cal Tech. The American university system is the envy of the world. Nowhere is there better science being done, and no where is there anything like the numbers of people receiving advanced scientific and engineering degrees.
But that is not all they are receiving. They are also receiving lethal doses of anti-Americanism and anti-Capitalism, main-lined directly and administered by morally blind charlatans like Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky – men who repeatedly acknowledge the “relativity of truth” and who distort and select facts so frequently and shamelessly that I will paraphrase Mark Twain by saying that the omission of the works of Chomsky and Zinn would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn’t a book in it...
[Recommended > ]
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Prior Workshops of Identity > http://netizennewsbrief.blogspot.com/search?q=workshops
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Warnings of budget 'Armageddon' don't rouse ordinary Californians
California
Under the Capitol dome in Sacramento, Democratic and Republican lawmakers battle in a state budget quagmire, trading charges of obstruction or constitutional end runs. The fed-up governor warns of a financial "Armageddon." [snip]
He said his liberal format show's biggest talk generator in the past several weeks wasn't Schwarzenegger's warning of "Armageddon." It was President-elect Barack Obama's selection of anti-gay marriage pastor Rick Warren to deliver his inaugural invocation... [snip]
In his world, Macy is worried about farmers who face drought and water shortages and can't understand why politicians simply "can't get spending under control" in Sacramento without more taxes or regulations damaging to the economy...
[because we keep (re)electing folks who believe in bigger government and more regulation]
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the Professional media...
.
MSNBC: Media Shouldn't Cover RNC Criticism of Hillary
.
Now that Barack Obama is assuming the presidency, partisan criticism is suddenly so passé. Just ask Chris Matthews. In the course of cheerleading anchoring the MSNBC coverage of Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearing today,
Matthews suggested that the media shouldn't cover the Republican National Committee's criticism of Clinton.
A few minutes earlier, Matthews had assured us that those who had the privilege of knowing Hillary personally were aware of what a "wonderful" person she is. Then it was time to attack Republicans for refusing to join the Hillary love-fest.
View video here.
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Network Evening Shows Downplay Geithner Tax Evasion as a 'Speed Bump'
The network evening shows didn’t have much of an appetite for Democratic hypocrisy among the team they hailed as a "superstar Cabinet" on Tuesday night. Timothy Geithner, Barack Obama’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, a man who would oversee the IRS, failed to pay $42,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes -- and waited to pay more than half of that amount – $26,000 – only after Obama decided to nominate him.
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CNN Paints Barack Obama as Moses
CNN.com may have tired of the idea of Barack Obama as a political Messiah, so they’re switching it up. On Monday night, it posted a report from rural Mississippi headlined "Grandson of slaves: Obama is our Moses."
If you recall, TV reporters were upset when the McCain campaign did an ad depicting Obama as Moses (with a clip of Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments). But when someone does it without joking, it qualifies as headline news.
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Michigan band drops Chiefs name for inaugural parade
Members of the Wyandotte Marching Chiefs high school band plan to perform in the inaugural parade in Washington, but they won't be known by the name they've had since the 1950s. (snip) the band from Roosevelt High School will perform as the Roosevelt High School Marching Band. Patches will be sewn over logos on band uniform sleeves and the band's Marching Chiefs banner won't be carried.
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Paris opens door to author fleeing Islamist threats
Paris - The award-winning feminist writer Taslima Nasreen, who is under death-threat from Islamist extremists, is to be housed in an artist's studio paid for by the city of Paris, more than a decade after she was forced into exile from her native Bangladesh.
Nasreen's outspoken stance on what she calls the inherent misogyny of conservative Muslim society in Bangladesh has sparked protests, riots and warrants for her arrest as well as a cash reward for her decapitation by religious fundamentalists...
READ MORE
[public service, HT:SB]
REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public today
REMINDER... all cell phone numbers are being
released to telemarketing companies tomorrow and
you will start to receive sale calls.
... YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS...
This is a phony warning. No need to do anything. You can read all about this hoax at
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/cell411.asp
.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
War Crimes
So what exactly is our story with the bombs and civilians injuries? Are we the most evil element in the world, as the Evil and Stupidity Front claims, from Professor Noam Chomsky and Jos×™ Saramago, through Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah, and up to some of the moviemakers and authors, among us too, that agree that Israel commits crimes against humanity?
A short historical reminder. This time we won’t say a word about Muslims that butcher Muslims. We got used to it. The Muslims, especially in the eyes of the Left, are the retarded kids of the world. From them there is no need to demand responsibility, morale, international law. They are allowed.
Iran controls the Hezbollah, and also develops nuclear weapons, and also announces that it wants to wipe Israel off the map.
These are just declarations, the members of the Evil Front will tell us, those signed on various petitions. If we will just turn over the second cheek, Ahmandinejad and Nasrallah will send us flowers.
We’ve been in this situation before. We have the right to prevent it from recurring.
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Israel's Cold War with Iran
The defeat of any of Iran's proxies is always a good thing. It weakens Iran's ability to project its power beyond its borders, and it drains Iran of the money and, crucially, the manpower to cause havoc in the Middle East. For example, how many Iranian Quds Force intelligence officers—its elite corps of terrorist organizers—were chewed up in Iran's failed attempt to establish the Mahdi Army as its theocratic puppet regime in Baghdad? Those are losses from which Iran will not easily recover.
But it is also correct to point out that, on a larger strategic scale, the defeat of Hamas is not a major defeat for Iran:
On Sunday, Iranian analyst Amir Taheri reported the conclusions of a bipartisan French parliamentary report on the status of Iran's nuclear program in Asharq Alawsat [a London-based Arabic-language newspaper]…. The report asserts that this year will be the world's final opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons…. [I]t is possible that Iran ordered the current war in Gaza for the same reason it launched its war in 2006: to divert international attention away from its nuclear program….
And if this is the case, then even if Israel beats Hamas (and I eat my hat), we could still lose the larger war by again having allowed Iran to get us to take our eyes away from the prize.
This is a good reminder that the real story is not the war against Iran's proxies, but the war against Iran. Glick's conclusion is a warning about the danger of fighting that war with a Cold War strategy, striking only at the proxies and never at one's real opponent. Israel may be constrained by its small size from waging war against Iran directly, so it may have no choice in fighting a slow and indirect Cold War (though it could still do so far more effectively).
But the United States has no such excuse.
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Bombs Are More Precious Than Children
[HT:PW]
Imagine a music video teaching kids that bombs are more precious than children. This is not fantasy - this is the message of an actual Hamas TV music video. After a five-year-old finds out that her mother wore a bomb belt to a suicide terror attack, she sings: ''Now I know what was more precious than us.'' She then swears to follow in her mother's footsteps, as a suicide bomber.
[Israel's 'partners in peace']
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American public backs Israel firmly in war with Hamas
As Palestinian casualties mount in the Gaza Strip, the American people are squarely behind Israel and overwhelmingly think that using force against Hamas is appropriate, according to a new McClatchy/Ipsos poll.
Forty-four percent of Americans support Israel's use of force, while only 18 percent considered Hamas' use of force appropriate. Fifty-seven percent think that Hamas is using excessive force, while only 36 percent said Israel was.
When it comes to who's to blame for the latest Middle East crisis, Americans blame Hamas hands down: Forty-four percent said Hamas, 14 percent said Israel and 29 percent said they weren't sure. Nine percent said both, and 4 percent said neither.
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All Military Services Meet or Exceed December Recruiting Goals
WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2009 – December was a recruiting success for all active-duty and reserve-component U.S. military services, which all met or exceeded their goals, according to a Defense Department news release issued today.
“All services continue to meet or exceed their active-duty recruiting goals, thanks to the tremendous efforts of our recruiters, and those who continue to step up and serve, it speaks volumes for the dedication and loyalty of our nation and its volunteers."In addition, the active Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force all exceeded December retention goals, and as all six Guard and Reserve forces also met or exceeded their December recruiting goals.
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Red-State Army?
Since 1970, the population of the United States has grown by about 50 percent, from roughly 200 million to 300 million. Over the same period, the number of active-duty armed forces has fallen approximately 50 percent, from 3 million to 1.4 million. A far smaller percentage of the citizenry now serves in the military.
The residential patterns for current veterans and the patterns of state-level contributions of new recruits to the all-volunteer military have a distinct geographic tilt. And tellingly, the map of military service since 1973 aligns closely with electoral maps distinguishing red from blue states.
Over the past four decades, which states have disappeared from the top 10? California, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Illinois, all big blue states that have voted Democratic in the past five presidential elections. These states and another blue state, New York, which ranked 12th in 1969, are among the 10 states with the lowest number of post-Vietnam vets per capita...
READ MORE.
The dark side of Galileo
[meanwhile, in Europe...]
When Americans think Europe, it's green parties and granola, not death from above. But a recent think tank report accuses the European Space Agency of plotting to use its Galileo satellite and other space programs to dominate the "high ground" of space.
The paper raises concerns about the "creeping militarization" of space and the potential for an inter-NATO arms race in the name of "EU security." It also highlights the roles played by the European military-industrial complex.
The Transnational Institute, a Dutch think tank ("a worldwide fellowship of committed scholar-activists"), charged in a report titled From Venus to Mars.
Galileo was designed to end dependence on America's Global Positioning System, which is controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense -- an agency that also has a final say in who gets to play with it. Galileo was initially pitched as a civilian project -- an economic stimulator, with the promise of 150,000 new jobs and billions in contracts for European companies.
That's smoke, according to the report's author, Frank Slijper. "While Galileo is generally presented as a genuinely civilian programme, it now appears highly militarized," he said.
Galileo could allow [enable] European armies to independently deploy GPS-guided munitions similar to those currently used by the U.S. and risks becoming the navigation system for European wars of intervention. [how do they know future wars will be of 'intervention'?] (Videos)"The public denial of these important capabilities shows how much Brussels and many European capitals are afraid to tell the public that Galileo is to become an extremely important tool in future warfare by European military forces"
[why? Could it be that after decades of news articles written just like this one - where anything end everything regarding their ability to physically defend themselves is worded with the most negative connotation - has brainwashed the masses into considering all things martial as bad? Were we dependent on another nations GPS for our armed forces we'd be demanding immediate rectification - but in Europe they need conceal the 'real' reason? Force? How barbaric - leave that to the Americans. Fine - but it will be at our discretion, not 'global government's]
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Colombian president pleased with U.S. award
BOGOTA, -- The Colombian ambassador to the United States said on Monday that Colombian President Alvaro Uribeis pleased with the award he will receive on Tuesday in Washington.
Carolina Barco said the government of George W. Bush will award Uribe the "Medal of Freedom," which is the highest-level civil award given by the United States. Uribe will be the first Latin American president to get it.
[but he can't get a free trade agreement out of congress]
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Beijing looks at Hillary as ally
"Efforts by the People's Republic of China and other countries to gain foreign policy influence by illegally contributing foreign money to U.S. political campaigns and to the Democratic National Committee through domestic conduits." That was the subject of a 1997 Warning Memo from FBI Director Louis Freeh to Attorney General Janet Reno.
In short, the attempt by Beijing's security services to gain "foreign policy influence" over the Clinton administration is confirmed by the director of the FBI. Something in excess of 100 people caught up in the illegal campaign contributions to Mr. Clinton, Al Gore or the DNC were convicted or fled the county and a preponderance of them had Beijing connections... [snip]
Old news to some, perhaps, but arguably relevant as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee begins to consider the nomination of Sen. Hillary Clinton, New York Democrat, to be secretary of state. For example, even now long-range Chinese rockets fired by Hamas target Israeli civilians and may threaten the nuclear facilities in southern Israel.
Since the State Department is the chief enforcer of American anti-proliferation laws, the Chinese Communist Party and its security services will want a State Department inclined to be accommodating and not confrontational on issues - such as arms smuggling...
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Professor refutes global warming theory
Physics professor William Happer GS ’64 has some tough words for scientists who believe that carbon dioxide is causing global warming.“This is George Orwell. This is the ‘Germans are the master race. It’s that kind of propaganda,” ... “Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. Every time you exhale, you exhale air that has 4 percent carbon dioxide. To say that that’s a pollutant just boggles my mind. What used to be science has turned into a cult.”
Happer served as director of the Office of Energy Research in the U.S. Department of Energy under President George H.W. Bush and was subsequently fired by Vice President Al Gore, reportedly for his refusal to support Gore’s views on climate change. He asked last month to be added to a list of global warming dissenters in a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee report. The list includes more than 650 experts who challenge the belief that human activity is contributing to global warming.“I have spent a long research career studying physics that is closely related to the greenhouse effect, for example, absorption and emission of visible and infrared radiation, and fluid flow,” he said in the statement. “Based on my experience, I am convinced that the current alarm over carbon dioxide is mistaken.”
Happer cited an ice age at the time of the American Revolution, when Londoners skated on the Thames, and warm periods during the Middle Ages, when settlers were able to farm southern portions of Greenland, as evidence of naturally occurring fluctuations that undermine the case for anthropogenic influence.“[Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration] was exactly the same then. It didn’t change at all, so there was something that was making the earth warm and cool that modelers still don’t really understand.”
The problem does not in fact exist, he said, and society should not sacrifice for nothing.
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About Exxon's 'support' of Carbon Taxes
It's a sad commentary when CEOs have to support things that aren't in their interest, solely to survive. That's certainly the case with Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who in a speech said a carbon tax would be a "more direct, a more transparent and a more effective approach" than many of the current plans for curbing greenhouse gases, including the cap-and-trade approach favored by President-elect Barack Obama."My greatest concern is that policymakers will attempt to mandate or ordain solutions that are doomed to fail,"
Like cap-and-trade. Or new Environmental Protection Agency rules that essentially seek to regulate everything in our economy that uses carbon-based fuel. Since 85 percent of our energy comes from carbon-based fuel, that means the entire economy.
Take last fall's Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPA) by the EPA, which the new president has vowed to implement. ANPA sounds innocent, but cutting C02 output by 70 percent, as Congress has mandated, won't be easy. The costs will be enormous and could wreck our economy:
• According to Global Insight, ANPA could cost the United States nearly $7 trillion in real output, or about $650 billion a year.For the record, as the world shivers through a second frigid winter in a row, the United States is already cutting back on its CO2 output:
• Meanwhile, 800,000 U.S. jobs would be lost annually for several years.
• According to Energy Department data, from 2000 to 2006, per capita output of C02 in the United States plunged 4.7 percent.
• Meanwhile, it increased by 3 percent in Europe, and this despite Europe already having energy taxes five to 10 times what they are in the United States.
Source: Editorial, "Carbon Tax: The Lesser Of Two Evils," Investor's Business Daily, January 12, 2009.
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Old Left Versus New
The one consolation we can take from the financial crisis is that it does seem to be suppressing or delaying the most dangerous campaign on the left: the push for a cap or tax on carbon dioxide emissions. This is the one leftist proposal that would be most effective at making an economic downturn permanent, because sabotaging industrial production is precisely the purpose of the global-warming crusade.
The New York Times reports on the many campaign promises the Obama team has hinted they might delay because of the financial crisis. Of these, the most prominent is cap-and-trade energy rationing. The Obama administration may be too busy with its Old Left program of central planning and public-works giantism to focus on the New Left agenda of anti-industrialism...
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The Federal Department of Economic Recovery
The biggest evasion of Obama's speech is that he is hiding what is essentially an ideological program—a resurrection of the ghost of socialism—as a rejection of ideology. He warns us that we must not "rely on the worn-out dogmas of the past" (by which he means free-market economics) and he calls on both parties (by which he means Republicans) "to put good ideas ahead of the old ideological battles."
Yet it is not easy to guess Obama's own basic ideological commitment: that "only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy."
Obama's premise is that only government can guide and manage economic activity. Only a Federal Department of Economic Recovery can bring back prosperity. This is the most ideological of ideological positions, an "ism." The name for it is "statism," a belief in the central role of the state in controlling the economy.
I am most definitely not an opponent of "ideology." Ideas and principles can capture important truths, and those basic truths become even more necessary in an emergency, not less. The principles of individual rights and free-market economics, for example, would help us to remember the supremacy of the individual over the state and the moral and practical superiority of a free economy over central planning—the hard-won lessons of the past century. These principles would help us to understand how government got us into this crisis and how we can get out of it.
But of course there are other ideas that are "worn-out dogmas" that have demonstrated their failure again and again. And those are the statist ideas that social democrats are now trying to revive...
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Government Incompetence Presented in High-Def
We'll find no greater example of what happens when the government runs any non-military operation that requires coordination, business acumen, technical skill, financial management and inventory control than we've seen in the "digital transition." In this arena, the government has once again made the Three Stooges look like the U.S. Marine Corps Silent Drill Team.
[health care anyone?]
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The Case for Bigger Government
The part of today's frenzy of stimulus that ought to depress you the most is its ideological component. The advocates of socialism are invigorated and self-confident in a way I have not seen in more than 20 years. They are taking a few months of supposed failures of the free market and using them to argue that two decades (and, more broadly, two centuries) of the achievements of capitalism were just an illusion.
For example, since the 1980s, "tax and spend" has been an effective all-purpose epithet against the left. But now the NYT is criticizing Obama's monstrous public works boondoggle on the grounds that it doesn't tax and spend enough.
The article dismisses the prosperity created by capitalism as illusory. In a flashback to arguments that haven't been prominent in decades, it talks glowingly about how the US lags behind those oh-so-advanced European countries and holds up sclerotic European socialist economies as models of prosperity.
Most strikingly, the author proposes a plan openly aimed at increasing income taxes from 18% to 25% of the economy and presents this as "the case for big government."
In the recent wave of financial panic, a very great evil that had been suppressed—but never eliminated—is resurrecting itself.
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Analysis: Obama stresses dire economy
WASHINGTON -- In hard times, the man in the Oval Office usually is the cheerleader-in-chief, looking ahead optimistically. Not Barack Obama, who is taking office full of gloom and doom about the nation's economy, warning that things are dire and bound to get worse.
That helps him sell his economic program and sets a low bar for measuring his success...
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CNN's 'Balance'
Weighing the pros and cons of a plan, particularly one that could cost $1 trillion taxpayer dollars, should mean all perspectives were considered. But that wasn't what it meant to CNN in one Jan. 9 segment in the 8 a.m. hour.
Instead, "American Morning" viewers didn't even hear an economist's perspective. They were fed a left-wing nationally syndicated columnist's perspective. That columnist was David Sirota, who was once called a "new-generation populist" by columnist Molly Ivins. Sirota has worked for Democrats on Capitol Hill and for the Center for American Progress, a [radical] "progressive" think tank.
Sirota's criticism of Obama's plan came entirely from the left arguing that "the bad" thing about his stimulus proposal are the tax cuts.
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Education Secretary Designee Failed Standard for Five Years
The Chicago Public Schools, whose superintendent, Arne Duncan, has been tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to be the next education secretary, failed to meet the Illinois state standards set under the No Child Left Behind Act for the last five years.
From 2004 to 2008, the Chicago district (District 299) failed to make ''Adequate Yearly Progress'' (AYP) in key areas...
[because they're selected for ideology, not trivialities like performance]
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CNN: Bush is a Stupid Buffoon, Cheney an Evil Sociopath
Readers are warned that regardless of political leaning, if you have any respect for the office of the President and those who occupy it, the following report aired during the 5PM installment of Wednesday's "Situation Room" will be quite disturbing: [sad, snip]
Were there no e-mail messages, even from those disappointed with the past eight years, that at least showed respect for our President and Vice President? Was there no positive feedback that Cafferty could have shared with his audience that might have offered some balance?
Honestly, it's moments like these that make me ashamed to have anything to do with the so-called news industry.
[more and more, even newsies are getting sick of the newsies]
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Bush's Better World
If you asked Americans to list President Bush's foreign policy and national security accomplishments, you'd likely get some laughs - surely some snarky comments. Perhaps, at best, a short list. But, in truth, there are a number of great successes. So as the Bush administration gets ready to exit the national and world stage in the coming days, it's time to give credit where credit's due.
Internationally...
In Asia...
Ties with Indonesia...
US-India relations ...
In Europe,...
In Kosovo...
In Poland...
In the Czech Republic...
In the Middle East...
In Libya...
In Latin America...
In Mexico...
In Africa,...
On Missile Defense...
On the Proliferation Security Initiative ,,,
On 10 Free Trade Agreements... [snip]
[I could name many policy positions with which I vehemently disagree with Bush - but the vogue media mantra that he was a worthless imbecile on all fronts is simply not supported by the historical record - as this piece demonstrates > Recommended > ]
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Velcro Presidency
[credit where due]
Leadership: George W. Bush was pegged as a hate figure even before being sworn in. Yet he resisted bitterness, stuck to principle and became what history will judge to be one of our better presidents.
We may have witnessed in the last eight the Anti-Watergate. Richard Milhous Nixon never forgot a slight, used federal law enforcement powers against his political enemies and infuriated the Republican Party's conservative base with policies ranging from wage and price controls to detente with communists to Supreme Court appointments.
"just people trying to do the best they possibly can."
That's charitable in the extreme.
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The Workshops Of Identity
by Bill Whittle
Part 3: Economically,
the United States is – and remains – the engine of the world. Much has been made of the recent meltdown, but any impartial look at the rest of the world shows their economies took a proportionally greater hit than we did, and if history is any guide – and it’s the only guide we have – we will recover faster, too.
In the last twenty years almost half of the world’s population – India and China – have been lifted from the darkness of stone-age, grinding poverty into almost the same sort of light taken for granted by those who live in Malibu. This was not the result of massive government programs; on the contrary – those had and continue to keep entire populations in a state of mental slavery and dependence. No, this most remarkable advance in the quality of human life on earth was simply due to America channeling some of its stunning wealth into phone banks in India and factories in China.
Much is made on the left about how five percent of the population consumes twenty-five percent of the world’s resources. But that same five percent has produced almost fifty percent of the world’s wealth and prosperity in the years after World War II, and the decline in that percentage is simply a reflection of the economic growth and prosperity of our former enemies and allies, who can now afford a few decades of socialism because they do not have to pay for their own defense.
And yet is it businessmen, and “corporations,” that are endlessly cast as villains and murderers when all they have done is transformed the world from poverty to relative health and prosperity. You don’t have to take my word for this. Statistics on life expectancy, death by disease, and infant mortality do not lie. Free Trade and Free Enterprise – championed by the United States – has brought to billions some small and growing taste of the kind of life enjoyed by Hollywood liberals so blinded by mental cataracts that in the remake of The Manchurian Candidate the villain was remade from being Chinese Communists into The Manchurian Corporation.
How unimaginative. How pathetic. How deep in denial...
[Recommended > ]
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Prior Workshops of Identity > http://netizennewsbrief.blogspot.com/search?q=workshops
Al Franken, Already an Unpopular Democrat?
Alexander Burns of Politico (featured Sunday on Yahoo!) sees no chance of Norm Coleman retaining his Senate seat, but he devoted an article to Al Franken’s unique position as a potential top-dollar fundraiser – for conservatives and Republicans.
Polling results this week confirmed Franken's precarious position: more Minnesotans have a negative impression of him than a positive one, by a 45 percent to 37 percent margin. Those would be dismal numbers under any circumstances, but for a newly-elected senator they would be particularly alarming.
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CALIFORNIA'S GOLD RUSH HAS BEEN REVERSED
After more than 150 years of being a destination, California is becoming a place entrepreneurs, investment capital and the hardy workers who made it a global leader in agriculture, technological innovation and scientific research are fleeing. This exodus is the marker of something deeper than a national recession; it's a sign that the attempts by state leaders to spend their way back to prosperity are killing California.
Despite having the sixth highest tax burden in the nation, California is facing a breathtaking $40 billion budget deficit this year. This comes on the heels of a decade-long spending spree; last year, the state budget was $131 bullion, up from $56 billion in 1998.
Moreover, citizens and businesses are burdened by all manner of state regulations and are fleeing to more business-friendly states. Consequently, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming all have unemployment rates around 5 percent at a time when California is suffering an unemployment rate of 9 percent.
It's time to turn to the ballot initiative and enact needed reforms that elected representatives in Sacramento have refused to correct. Californians need to be able to elect leaders whose primary interest is public service, not furthering political careers; therefore, a part-time, nonpartisan citizen legislature -- a model that has proven effective in states like Texas and Nebraska -- should be enacted.
[here here - it's the 'professional' politician which is the bane of our system {thatandonlytwoparties}]
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Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Working Dog Teams Help to Make Baghdad’s Streets Safer
A Multinational Division Baghdad soldier and his four-legged partner work with other military dog teams here in helping to make Baghdad’s streets safer for Iraqi citizens and soldiers to live and operate.“Ryky is a very friendly dog, She is not a trained attack dog, so I allow her to be sociable with soldiers. I let others pet her, because it is a big morale booster.”
Capable of detecting 19 separate odors on the battlefield and able to run off of a leash, the specialized service dogs have a distinct advantage, Harrington said.
“It would take another dog three hours to complete that stretch of road, because they would be on a six-foot leash and the handler has to present everything to the dog,”
“I think Ryky and I make soldiers’ jobs easier because we can search faster, the dog can smell better and she leads from the front,” Harrington said.
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U.S., Iraqi Forces Prepare for Election-fueled Violence
[HT:RL]
U.S. and Iraqi forces in Iraq’s Diyala province are preparing for rising violence amid upcoming provincial elections, an Army commander in Iraq said at a Pentagon news conference today. Army Col. Burt Thompson, commander of the 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, said he anticipates an increase in violent activities as the Jan. 31 polling date nears. “It's pretty clear what they'd be going after,” Thompson said, referring to potential election saboteurs. “It's to sway the hearts and the minds, to intimidate those civilians from going and voting.”
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WAR CRIMES AND THE FAILURE OF TRUTH
Israel does not need to justify itself to Europe
A report by the UN secretary general cites: "of the 8000 deaths in Afghanistan in 2007, 1500 are civilian deaths", killed by various bombings carried out by several armies, including European ones, operating in the region under NATO.
In 2008 the situation escalated and many more thousands were killed. In fact, even as we speak, European armies are causing the killing of innocent civilians and justifying it as inevitable in the struggle against the Taliban.
The Taliban has not fired any rocket into any European city. Hamas shoots into Israeli towns. The Taliban does not proclaim a sacred desire to kill all Europeans. Hamas promotes the killing of Jews in its charter and Hamas leaders repeat this instruction religiously in their sermons.
Yet Europeans continue fighting in Afghanistan, justifying their war on the grounds that they are at war against a central faction of Islamic fanaticism, just like Israel fights against the Hamas. Moreover, the Hamas' threat to Israel's security and future is far greater and more immediate than any threat the Taliban poses to Europe.
So why are Europeans allowed to conduct a war on territory that is thousands of miles removed from their homes, kill hundreds or thousands of innocent civilians and claim that their cause is necessary, while Israel cannot do the same? By what right do they absolve themselves while condemning Israel?
[A: none whatsoever, and it's call antisemitism.][Recommended > ]
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Hamas raids aid trucks, sells supplies
[HT:DH]
Hamas on Monday raided some 100 aid trucks that Israel had allowed into Gaza, stole their contents and sold them to the highest bidders.
Between 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the army had ceased all military activity in Gaza and once again established a "humanitarian corridor" to help facilitate the transfer of the supplies.
The IDF said that since terminal activity is coordinated with UNRWA and the Red Cross, Israel could do nothing to prevent such raids, Israel Radio reported.
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.
Hamas terrorists kill innocent Palestinian in Gaza (Rare Video) (Must See)
Monday, January 12, 2009 3:21:05 PM ·
WEDDING PARTY IN GAZA - you won't believe this unless you see it with your own eyes. The person describing what you are about to see asks - how can they do this to their own people?
106,861 VIEWS. 1,064 COMMENTS.
Sustainable Peace: Possible in Gaza?
When it comes to national security and defense, the fundamental flaw with liberals is that they simply do not comprehend basic human nature. It’s as simple as that, and something that I cannot excuse. This article covers the main stream media's censorship of news, such as Hamas kidnapping children for use as human shields, their use of fake news stories, and how to reach sustainable peace in Gaze.
Liberals and democrats in Washington should read this piece, it'll help them a lot.
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UN To Send Fact-Finding Mission To Gaza
The United Nations Human Rights Council today adopted a resolution strongly condemning the ongoing Israeli military operation in Gaza, and decided to dispatch a fact-finding mission to investigate human rights violations committed in the territory.
Canada cast the only negative vote for the non-binding resolution, which received the support of 33 of the Council’s 47 members, while 13 countries abstained. [cowards]
In adopting the text, the Geneva-based body demanded that Israel – which launched the latest offensive 17 days ago with the stated aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks into Israel – immediately end its attacks and withdraw its military forces from Gaza...
[you know; give up - and leave Hamas behind and armed to continue the rockets attacks that started this mess. This whole thing is a pathetic joke, as is evidenced by the 'resolution' being issued before the 'fact-finding' publicity stunt.]
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A Non-Melting Arctic Ice Update
A sharp friend sent along these contrasting links: The Washington Post published an op-ed Tuesday from Vikki Spruill of the Ocean Conservancy about environmental issues for the new president:
Focus on the Arctic. The Arctic, Earth's air conditioner, is already experiencing some of the most severe effects of climate change.The Post accompanied this with a photo of melting Arctic ice over the piece captioned “Disintegration in the Arctic Ocean’s Ward Hunt Ice Shelf.”
But the Daily Tech cites new research from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign:
Rapid growth spurt leaves amount of ice at levels seen 29 years ago.
Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Earlier this year, predictions were rife that the North Pole could melt entirely in 2008.
It’s always wise to check out the actual science developments on global warming issues when liberal reporters insist, with a rather unscientific attitude, that there is no opposing side to report on.
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'Cow Tax' Uproar Underscores Greenhouse-Gas Divide
Many environmental groups want the Clean Air Act used to control greenhouses gases. But business groups, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are resisting. They argue such use of the Clean Air Act would lead to a cascade of unintended regulatory consequences, with regulations covering schools, hospitals, breweries, bakeries and farms.
At the core of the battle is a Supreme Court ruling last year that the 1970 Clean Air Act authorizes the agency to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions if it concludes they 'endanger' public health or welfare...
[I.e., the EPA can 'regulate' whatever it wants to by 'concluding' it's 'harmful'. And with Obama's team running the EPA...]
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Obama's 'climate czar'
[HT:NM]
The Washington Times is reporting that president-elect Obama's climate czar has ties to an international organization that promotes "global governance." According to the report, as recently as last week Carol M. Browner was listed as one of "14 leaders of a socialist group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society."
The group, one of many under the umbrella group Socialist International, calls for rich countries to shrink their economies in order to combat climate change. Browner's name and biography has since been removed from the Socialist International's web page.
Ms. Browner's appointment as Obama's climate czar does not need Senate confirmation.
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REFORMING RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS
Teresa Ghilarducci of the New School for Social Research recently proposed a plan to require workers to trade their current 401(k) plans in for a Guaranteed Retirement Account (GRA):
- Require every worker to put a mandatory 5 percent of after-tax earnings into a GRA (the employer would contribute half of the 5 percent).
- Pay a monthly amount at retirement, similar to an inflation-indexed annuity, with a guaranteed 3 percent real rate of return on the account balance.
- They do not allow individuals to pick from an array of funds; the money would instead be pooled and invested by the government as it sees fit.
- The government would have the right to reduce the guaranteed rate of return during economic downturns [so it's not 'guaranteed'].
- The fund would be managed by an independent body, similar to the Thrift Savings Plan for federal employees; Congress has frequently attempted to require the TSP to invest in funds of dubious value [because they're politically correct].
[This is a blatant attempt to steal your 401K and let the government tax more of your money and play with the rest, plain and simple.]
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Economic Illiteracy Of The NY Times
The Times’ understanding of economics boils down to a simple formula — tax cuts, bad; spending, good. The Times thinks it’s not only possible, but desirable, to try to spend our way out of a recession caused by over-spending, deficits and misplaced priorities.
An editorial in yesterday’s Times urges President-elect Barack Obama to spend more — apparently, $800 billion isn’t enough — jettison his call for business tax breaks (which amount to less than $1 for every $5 of new spending) and forget entirely about his promise to cut taxes for those who make up to $200,000 a year.
While The Times is all for tax cuts for “low and middle-income” Americans (at least in theory), it is apoplectic at the idea of cutting taxes on the rich (a term it never defines). It reasons that while middle-class tax cuts will “stimulate the economy”, while upper-income taxpayers are more likely to save, which supposedly will result in little economic benefit.
How does The Times think the rich will save — by shoving their tax refunds into a piggy-bank?
Their tax savings will be invested in stocks, bonds and mutual funds, which will lead to more capital investment and more job creation — far more than simple spending on consumer goods. Investment, which leads to job creation, which in turns leads to long-term consumer spending, is essential to a recovery.
It’s amazing that the editorial board of America’s self-styled newspaper of record can’t grasp basic economic principles.
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FOX Business Sues Treasury for Failure to Respond to Freedom of Information Act Requests
FOX Business Network has filed a lawsuit against the United States Treasury Department over failure to provide information on the bailout funds or respond to FBN’s expedited requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act [FOIA].“Despite the several requests for expedited information filed by FBN, it has become apparent that the Treasury will not cooperate without mounting legal pressure. Therefore, we have filed a complaint in the Federal Court in New York and ask the Court to make the Treasury provide the information sought by the journalists at FBN.”
FBN is asking for the Treasury Department to identify, among other issues, the troubled assets purchased, any collateral extended, and any restrictions placed on these financial institutions for their participation in this program.
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McClintock ready to just say no as he starts House term
WASHINGTON – Tom McClintock arrived in Washington last week, ready to say no.
He'll say no to President-elect Barack Obama's plan to spend roughly $800 billion to rev up the economy. He'll say no to spending billions to bail out the auto industry. And he'll say no to his home state of California and others looking to Congress to get out of their budget messes.
He said the federal government doesn't have the money and needs to spend less to avoid "the same folly" as California, which is projecting a $40 billion shortfall in the next 18 months."My state is going to hell in a handbasket, and my country's not far behind. It's incumbent upon the Republicans to sound the warning,"
McClintock said he'll oppose Obama's stimulus plan because the U.S. budget deficit is predicted to hit a record $1.2 trillion this year. He said the auto companies can file for bankruptcy. And he said California shouldn't get any federal help because the state overspent for years, causing its own troubles.
He has another big difference with Democratic leaders, opposing mandatory controls on greenhouse emissions:"We've tried that now in California, and it has been systemically shutting down California's economy."
[excuse my 'I told you so', but this is the guy I voted for governor {the wife voted for that actor guy}. Had he won we likely wouldn't be in the mess we're in - certainly it would be smaller.]
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Go East, young man? Californians look for the exit
Mike Reilly spent his lifetime chasing the California dream. This year he's going to look for it in Colorado.
Is there something left of the California dream?
"If you are a Hollywood actor," ... "but not for us." [snip]
The number of people leaving California for another state outstripped the number moving in from another state during the year ending on July 1, 2008. California lost a net total of 144,000 people during that period — more than any other state, according to census estimates. That is about equal to the population of Syracuse, N.Y.
Why are so many looking for an exit?
With state government facing a $41.6 billion budget hole over 18 months, residents are bracing for yet higher taxes. Median housing prices have nose-dived one-third from a 2006 peak, but many homes are still out of reach for middle-class families.
"You see wages go down and the cost of living go up," Reilly says. His property taxes will be $1,300 in Colorado, less than 1/3 what he's forced to pay in California... [snip]
Financial adviser Barry Hartz lived in California for 60 years and once ran for state Assembly before relocating with his wife last year to Colorado Springs, Colo., where his son's family had moved.
"The saddest thing I saw was the escalation of home prices to the point our kids, when they got married, could not live in the community where they lived and grew up," ... "Some people call that progress."
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[a very high price for environmoralism. Q: how many Californian's are aware that in the Bay Area more land has been put off limits to any development than has been developed - total? I'm not kidding, BA development uses ~750K sq. acrers, while >1M sq. acres have already been 'protected' from any development. Now add NIMBY attitudes, 'hill protections' and global warming-required public-transit-friendly high-density development and single family homes skyrocket. But we can't figure out why they cost so much?
I recommend Dr. Sowell's work on this (or any other) topic: Sowell Articles
Plant farm accused of favoring foreign labor
A Maryville woman has filed complaints with three government agencies saying she was discriminated against by a Blount County nursery farm because she is a U.S.-born worker. In a complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice, Sabrina Steele alleges that Pope's Plant Farm on U.S. 411 South and Mike Pope, of the plant farm, discouraged her from accepting agricultural employment because the firm wanted to hire foreign-born workers.
[when we're ready to fix our immigration problems, we'll start with employers {we've the tools now - just not the will}]
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The answer on immigration
The U.S. routinely awards green cards to more than a million legal immigrants each year. They play by the rules, and together with those who have come before them, now comprise the largest legal immigrant population in U.S. history. But to sustain this generous legal immigration policy, we must put an end to illegal immigration.
The solution is simple: enforce current law.
Failure to enforce these laws has contributed to the more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. Close to one-quarter of all federal prisoners are foreign born. There are, however, some recent bright spots.
In just the past two years, the administration has begun to focus on the job magnet that attracts illegal immigrants and is also working with state and local law enforcement authorities to identify and deport criminal aliens.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stepped up its efforts against employers who hire illegal immigrants by relying on criminal prosecutions and the seizure of assets of companies that employ illegal immigrants.
Some 93,000 employers now participate in E-Verify, a program created by Congress that enables them to verify that workers are eligible to be hired...
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Any Amnesty for Illegal Migrants Is Simply Surrender
It is a cast iron principle of justice in any civilised society that nobody is above the law. Yet this does not seem to apply to the hundreds of thousands of migrants who are illegally living in Britain. a vast, swelling army of foreign lawbreakers has been allowed to settle here without the slightest interference from the authorities...
[almost as if they were living in a sanctuary ]
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[well, divisive diversity is divisive]Back With a Vengeance
England decriminalized homosexuality in 1967, a move hailed by libertarians of the day as getting the government out of bedrooms [snip]
A few years ago Home Office Minister Michael O'Brien found the Fire Service had an overly tough and masculine culture and that firemen were failing to come to terms with homosexuality. The 6,750 London brigade firemen were then presented by a questionnaire from the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, seeking to know whether they were homosexual or not.
Most recently at Brighton Pilgrim Homes, a charity that operates a care-home for elderly Christians, has been accused of institutional discrimination and has lost its grant from the Brighton and Hove Council because the residents refused to answer questions about their sexuality. [snip]
In October 2007, a Christian couple, Vincent and Pauline Matherick, who over the years had taken in 28 foster children, were forced by local authorities from Somerset County Council to give up being foster parents after they refused to promote homosexuality to children in their care if the children expressed an interest in it [which is where our schools come in].
Nothing could indicate more clearly that the side presently prosecuting and winning Britain's culture war has no interest in supporting liberty or the individual's privacy or dignity, or show up its own sometimes barely disguised viciousness...
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The Workshops Of Identity
by Bill Whittle
Part 2: The Reactor:
America is the greatest nation in the history of the world.
This sentence – verifiably true as we are about to see – fills me with a burning pride so great I cannot get through the National Anthem at Dodger Stadium without getting misty at the awe-inspiring scope and the terrible cost of it.
Consider this: Militarily, the United States is not only unmatched on the world stage, but its relative strength is unmatched in history. And without question, this juggernaut is the most benign dominant military force the world has ever seen – and by a very large margin.
Consider modern history, which many consider the time since the end of World War II. At the end of 1945, the only military force of any real substance remaining in the world was that of the Soviet Union, and while they had large numbers of troops and tanks, they had no navy and no strategic air force to speak of. The United States possessed, intact, the most awe-inspiring, battle-hardened navy the world had ever seen. It possessed sky-darkening clouds of B-29 strategic bombers. And it possessed, alone, the atomic bomb.
The United States of America could have planted its flag anywhere it wanted and no one would have been able to do a thing about it. And what did we do with this arsenal? We scrapped the ships, drove steel bars through the wings of the priceless bombers, and began the largest de-militarization in the history of the world.
And in all of the years since then, despite what Michael Moore may want you to believe from the comfort of his editing room, the United States has deployed in response to aggression – not to cause it. Berlin, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland – all of it Soviet — that is to say Communist – Leftist – aggression. Ask a 17 year old indoctrinated with Hollywood’s portrayal of America as a world-striding bully who started the War in Korea, or Vietnam, or Nicaragua or any of these places, and I will bet you a Xbox 360 Elite that they will not reply that it was in fact worldwide socialism, but rather America. Tell them that communists started Korea and Vietnam and pretty much everything else and they will likely ask “what is a communist?”
And for those who feel that such a once-noble America is dead and gone, let’s talk about the last time we heard about “Imperialism” and “a war for oil.” In 1991, after destroying the army that Saddam Hussein sent into Kuwait to steal, rape and murder, the United States sat alone and unchallenged on top of the richest oil field on the planet. What did it do? It put out the fires and went home.
And now we have spent 4000 and more lives building schools and hospitals and protecting a people against fellow Muslims who show day in and day out that they will kill as many children as they need to in order to terrorize their own people into submission.
That story, apparently, holds no interest for today’s Hollywood...
[Recommended > ]
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House Rules Package ‘Does Not Represent Change’
House Republicans are calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to reconsider her plan to change House rules to end term limits for committee chairs.
When Republicans were in the majority in 1995, the House adopted fairness rules written in conjunction with Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America,” which included six-year term limits for committee chairs to encourage fresh ideas and guard against strict longevity.
In a letter to Pelosi on Monday, GOP leaders said the rules package that Pelosi is considering would restrict the opportunity for members to offer alternative legislation which Republicans guaranteed to Democrats as “motions to recommit.” [snip]
“And it has grave implications for the American people and their freedom, coming at a time when an unprecedented expansion of federal power and spending is being hastily planned by a single party behind closed doors. Republicans will vigorously oppose repealing these reforms if they are brought to a vote on the House floor."
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[apologies for the tardy post, but the deed is done - and folks link Charlie Rangle, being investigated for four separate criminal acts, can keep his chairmanship indefinitely. 'The most ethical congress in history'.]
LATimes Prints Hamas Terrorist's Op Ed
Amazingly, the L. A. Times gave ample space to a Hamas terrorist to "explain" how the current Gaza action is all Israel's fault. Mousa Abu Marzook the purported "deputy of the political bureau of Hamas," the group called an "Islamic Resistance Movement," shamefacedly claims that Israel's actions shattered "any incentive by Palestinian leaders to enforce the moratorium on rocket fire."
This so-called deputy of the political bureau of the terror agency Hamas engages in one lie after another in this piece. He peels off one after another accusations of Israel's culpability after each excuse for his own people's failures.
In fact, there are so many distortions and lies in this thing it is impossible to critique each of them in turn. It would take reams of discussion and many hundreds of links to various news reports refute each of them. But that has been the Palestinian way, hasn't it? Present so many bold faced lies that your opponent simply tires of the argument.
Thanks L.A.Times for giving terrorists the legitimacy they crave.
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Fashion Writer: Michelle O's a 'Goddess.' Palin is 'Worst Dressed'
It appears Obamamania has not only infiltrated British newspapers, but so has Palin Derangement Syndrome...even in the fashion section.
This month, a goddess stepped onto the world stage and made it her own.Makes you wonder if the editors intentionally made the obvious errors in the preceding paragraph because they knew it was going to make so many people sic[k].
First Lady-in-waiting Michelle Obama, who looks as chic in a chainstore’s $148 printed tank dress as she does in Narciso Rodriguez designer wear, proved that you can be tall, have unruly hair, be amother [sic] of two demanding daughters, be married to someone who is, frankly, a sex god, and come out smiling, confident and truly a style icon. [...]
WORST DRESSED
There were lots ofcontenders [sic] for thistitle [sic]. Dannii Minogue, the Geldof girls, Beyoncé, Madonna inthat [sic] dress made of grass. But the award simply has to go to Sarah Palin, who may have spent $150,000 on six suits but still resembled a hopelessly sexless, up [sic] hockey mom who buys all her clothes from Wal-Mart.
Of course, what really makes this breathtakingly silly is calling such an attractive woman -- who, by the way, has five children INCLUDING one born this year!!! -- hopelessly sexless.
Tough to believe the author missed this delicious irony...or maybe not.
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A Revealing Morning With Sarah Palin
One of the things you quickly learn when you visit the Palins is that the legend created around who they are and how they live is no myth. It appears to be absolutely real and everything about them seems 100% sincere. From the stuffed hunting trophies on the wall, to Track’s military photo by the TV set, to Piper’s crayon school projects on the refrigerator door - everything is exactly as you imagined.
She is the real deal. [snip]
I also know, with moral certitude, that the media assassination of her, her character and family, was one of the greatest public injustices of our time and that I’m totally justified in devoting my life to correcting the historical record in my forthcoming film, “Media Malpractice… How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Smeared.”
[Recommended > ]
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