The case for drilling in ANWR

I AM DISMAYED THAT

LEGISLATION HAS AGAIN BEEN INTRODUCED

in Congress to prohibit forever oil and gas development in the most promising unexplored petroleum province in North America -- the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in Alaska.

Let's not forget: Only six months ago, oil was selling for nearly $150 per barrel, while Americans were paying $4 a gallon and more for gasoline. And today, there is potential for prices to rebound as OPEC asserts its market power and as Russia disrupts needed natural gas to Europe for the second time in three years.

Americans, when apprised of the facts, became supporters of responsible oil and gas drilling in Alaska. So, I want to remind our national leaders of this promise and make the case against this legislation:

•Oil from ANWR represents a huge, secure domestic supply that could help satisfy U.S. demand for more than 25 years.

•ANWR sits within a 20 million-acre refuge (the size of South Carolina), but thanks to advanced technology like directional drilling, the aggregated drilling footprint would be less than 2,000 acres (about one-quarter the size of Dulles Airport). This is like laying a 2-by-3-foot welcome mat on a basketball court.

•Energy development is quite compatible with the protection of our wildlife and their habitat. For example, North Slope caribou herds have grown throughout more than three decades of oil development.

•ANWR development would create hundreds of thousands of good American jobs, positively affecting every state by providing a safe energy supply and generating demand for goods and services.

•Development here would reduce U.S. dependence on unstable, dangerous sources of energy, such as the Middle East, and would decrease our huge trade deficit, a large percentage of which is directly attributable to oil imports.

•Incremental ANWR production would help reduce energy price volatility. Previous price disruptions demonstrate how even relatively low levels of oil production influence world prices.

•Federal revenues from ANWR -- cash bids, leases and oil taxes -- would help reduce the multitrillion-dollar national debt, and we'd circulate U.S. petrodollars in our own country instead of continuing to send hundreds of billions of our dollars overseas, creating jobs and stronger economies in other countries. [snip]

Energy-producing countries are rapidly gaining world power. Several of these countries have objectives and value systems that are antithetical to U.S. interests. Washington politicians should be horrified as we become increasingly dependent on these insecure, foreign sources while our transfer of petrodollars finance activities that harm America and our economic and military interests around the world.

If we don't move now to enact a comprehensive energy policy that includes domestic oil and gas production, including ANWR, we will look back someday and regret that we failed to perceive a critical crossroads in the history of America. It's not overly dramatic to say our nation's future depends on the decisions made by the federal government over the next few months.

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Daschle Care

The $819 billion “stimulus bill” passed by the House includes $1.1 billion that has nothing to do with economic growth and everything to do with letting government control your medical decisions: House Democrats propose to spend taxpayer dollars researching which medical services work best. (Snip) the economic argument for taxpayer-funded comparative-effectiveness research is shaky, and experience suggests that it will fail to achieve any savings.

[more plainly, it's double-speak for service rationing - government style]

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Colombia’s drug mafias shift bases to Mexico: Official

Bogota Colombia’s drug mafias have shifted bases to Mexico after their networks busted in the country, EFE reported. Colombia’s National Police Chief Gen. Oscar Naranjo said the drug trade’s ‘centre of gravity’ has shifted to Mexico after Colombia tightened its grip on drugs cartels in recent years.

[well this is a 'good news/bad news' story...]

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My Day On Campus: No 'Out' Republicans Among Budding Media Professionals

The future of a media dominated by left-leaning professionals seems assured. At least, it is if my experience addressing an Ithaca College course today is any indication. Professor Wenmouth Williams, Jr. kindly invited me in to address two sections of his course on media and politics at Ithaca College's Park School of Communications.

Prof. Williams—who identified himself as a registered Dem—couldn't have been nicer or more gracious, and gave me absolute free rein. After I spent a few minutes at the beginning of each section discussing NewsBusters and related subjects and offering my general take on the MSM and the elections, the students and I spent the rest of the hour exchanging ideas and generally talking politics. [snip]

... of all the students who expressed a presidential preference—and many did—every single one supported Obama. Not one student identified himself as a McCain supporter or Republican.

Prof. Williams tells me that, based on their written assignments, there are some Republicans among the students. But they are rare, and he [the professor] acknowledged that they are reluctant to express themselves openly, for fear of recriminations from their classmates.

Remember, these are media professionals in training. Ithaca College has a solid reputation, and an excellent record in placing people in the field. The students I met with today are the folks who in years to come will be producing and directing MSM shows and working at newspapers across the country.

And so the MSM goes . . .

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Obama acts for unions

President Barack Obama issued a series of executive orders today that he said should “level the playing field” for labor unions in their "struggles" with management.

“I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, it’s part of the solution,” he said. “You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement."

James Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who attended the White House ceremony with other union leaders, said:

“It’s a new day for workers. We finally have a White House that is dedicated to working with us to rebuild our middle class. Hope for the American Dream is being restored."

The president and vice president said the task force includes Cabinet departments whose work has the most influence on the well-being of the country’s middle class, including the departments of education, commerce, health and human services and

He pledged that the task force will conduct its business in the open, and announced a Web site, www.astrongmiddleclass.gov, for the public to get information.

[Middle class?. Union membership in the private sector is 12%. We've a middle class of 12%? Insulting, but likely to work if they just say it often enough. How can anyone look at American auto makers and see labor unions as part of the solution? {rhetorical, he knows better - but a debt's a debt}. BTW:]

He also announced that the panel’s first meeting will be Feb. 27 in Philadelphia and will focus on environmental or “green jobs.”

[joy]

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Shocking Headline: 'Why the Bush Years Weren't So Bad'

Here's a headline I bet you'd never imagine seeing in a mainstream publication:

Why the Bush Years Weren't So Bad

Huh? Come again?

Yep. Counter to the doom and gloom regularly espoused by today's so-called journalists, things really aren't anywhere near as bad as what's being advertised.

So says economics professor Steven Landsburg in an article surprisingly published by the Atlantic Friday:

After adjusting for inflation, the average American earns about $2500 a year more today than on the day of W's second inaugural. That same average American now spends a little less time at the office or on the assembly line, and a little more time on vacation or on the couch. He or she shops online for products that were unimaginable just four years ago. (How many of you read this morning's paper on your Kindle or iPhone?) The air is cleaner than it was a decade ago and life expectancy is up.

Read the whole marvelous piece for a refreshing take on the current economy you likely haven't heard in a very long time.

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Christians haven't got a prayer in 'diversity' Britain...

Nurse Caroline Petrie has been suspended and could even be struck off. What was her offence? Did she turn up drunk? Did she dispense the wrong medicine or forget to empty a bedpan? Was she knocking out prescription drugs to the local pusher? Perhaps she was guilty of neglect, of deliberate cruelty, or of practising a bit of freelance euthanasia?

No. Her 'crime' was to offer to say a prayer for one old lady on the ward. It's what we used to call an act of Christian charity.

But that was enough to bring her to the attention of the 'diversity' nazis at the North Somerset Primary Care Trust.

The next day she got a call from her 'co-ordinator' telling her not to report for work and informing her that her disgraceful behaviour was the subject of a disciplinary hearing.

[the problem, you see, is that in Britain all health care is run by the government...]

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A How-To Lesson For Left-Wing, Old Media Bias

Once in a while there is a short piece spewed forth by some Old Media outlet or another that is so perfect as a primer of left-wing bias 101 that I just have to share it. In this case we have the Telegraph writing on the story, covered here a few days ago, where Barack Obama found himself confused by an outside glass panel he mistook for a door at the White House. Michael M. Bates compared the bemused and easy treatment that the confused Obama received to the vicious attacks that Bush suffered when he was similarly confused by a door that wouldn't open in China in 2005.

Bates wondered aloud if Obama would see the same sort of hateful attacks on his intelligence that Bush was served up by the ignorati in the media in 2005. We have since seen the answer to Bates' question. Obama has been given a pass. The Telegraph's treatment of the story, though, is such a perfect example of the subtle, left-wing bias used to excuse anything a lefty does while still attacking every one else that it really must serve as exhibit "A" in the battle against Old Media bias...

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Even left now laughing at Global Warming

So-called "global warming" has shrunk from problem to punch line. And now, Leftists are laughing, too. It's hard not to chuckle at the idea of Earth boiling in a carbon cauldron when the news won't cooperate:

-- Nearly four inches of snow blanketed the United Arab Emirates' Jebel Jais region for just the second time in recorded history on January 24. Citizens were speechless. The local dialect has no word for snowfall.

-- January saw northern Minnesota's temperatures plunge to 38 below zero, forcing ski-resort closures. A Frazee, Minnesota dog-sled race was cancelled, due to excessive snow. Snow whitened Surf City, North Carolina's beaches. Days ago, ice glazed Florida's citrus groves.

-- Commentator Harold Ambler declared that Gore "owes the world an apology for his actions regarding global warming." He called Gore's assertion that "the science is in" on this issue "the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of mankind."

As Earth faces global cooling, both troglodyte Right-wingers and lachrymose Left-wingers find Albert Gore's simmering-planet hypothesis increasingly hilarious.... [snip]

"The so-called 'consensus' on man-made global warming is not holding up," Senator James Inhofe (R -- Oklahoma) told his colleagues January 8.

So-called "global warming" has accomplished the impossible: It has united liberals and conservatives in laughter.

[Sorry to rain on the parade {and yes, I am enjoying this}, but public awareness means nothing when you've a government bent on seizing the power this scam represents...]

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Politics of Payoff

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I love this. The new kind of politics of hope. Eight hours of debate in the House of Representatives to pass a bill spending $820 billion - or roughly $102 billion per hour of debate. This bill is sent to Congress after President Obama has been in office for seven days. It is 680 pages long. According to my calculations, not one member of Congress read the entire bill before this vote. Obviously, it would have been impossible, given his schedule, for the president to have read the whole thing.

Only 10 percent of the "stimulus" to be spent on 2009.

Close to half goes to entities that sponsor or employ (or both) members of the Service Employees International Union, federal, state, and municipal employee unions or other Democrat-controlled unions. [snip]

There has been pork-barrel politics since there has been politics, but the scale of this pork is beyond what had ever been imagined before. For the amount spent, we could have given every unemployed person in the United States roughly $75,000.

How long until the debt incurred under this program is so immense that it causes a downgrade in the nation's sovereign debt? What happens to us then?

This is a coup for the constituencies of the party in power and against the idea of a responsible government itself...

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Look at the Time

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President Obama could have made big history here. Instead he just got a win. It's a missed opportunity.

It's a win because of the obvious headline: Nine days after inauguration, the new president achieves a major Congressional victory, House passage of an economic stimulus bill by a vote of 244-188. It wasn't even close. This is major.

But do you know anyone, Democrat or Republican, dancing in the street over this? You don't. Because most everyone knows it isn't a good bill, and knows that its failure to receive a single Republican vote, not one, suggests the old battle lines are hardening. Back to the Crips versus the Bloods. Not very inspiring.

[correction on that last: the opposition to the bill was bipartisan, with 11 Dems. {and I think our sole 'independent'} voting against it. Only its support was one-party rule.]

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Obama: Nation can't afford bickering over stimulus

[It's called debate, Mr. President, and is the corner stone of our political system. Believe it or not there are many who feel that your policies do exactly the wrong things for the nation, and it's their duty to voice their dissent.]

Dems’ $800b ‘mistake’ - Harvard prof slams stimulus plan

Harvard University professor Martin Feldstein may not be the Democrats’ favorite conservative economist for much longer.

Feldstein, a former economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan, surprised many last year by embracing the Keynesian concept that more government action - in the form of massive spending increases and tax cuts - was needed to confront the economic crisis facing the nation.

Ever since, liberal Democrats have cited Feldstein’s views when pushing President Barack Obama’s massive $800 billion-plus economic-stimulus package.

But Feldstein yesterday took aim at the Democrats’ general plan - a version of which passed the House earlier this week - saying it’s a “mistake” and needs to be “thoroughly revised”...

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In Iraq, security trumps sectarianism at polls

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Reporting from Baghdad -- A young Sunni man strolling along the Tigris River hesitated when asked whom he had voted for in provincial elections Saturday. Then he gave an answer that would have seemed unthinkable during the depths of Iraq's bloody civil war: "Our prime minister" -- the Shiite head of government, Nouri Maliki.

Along Haifa Street, where high-rises once served as shooting galleries for Sunni gunmen battling U.S. troops, another Sunni voter was coy about his choice but hinted that he too was pleased with the job Maliki has done.

"Definitely I'm happy," the elderly man said when asked his opinion of the current state of affairs in Iraq.

"When there are insurgents on the Sunni side, he hits them. When there are insurgents on the Shiite side, he hits them,"

the riverside stroller, Wissam Hussam, said of Maliki, whom he initially distrusted on sectarian grounds but has grown to admire. [snip]

Election officials and police reported no major violence, compared with Jan. 30, 2005, voting in which more than 40 people were killed. Many adults headed to vote with children in tow*, a sign that the security fears of the past were gone.

[* and that's the real end game here: the next generation. Current adults in Iraq will always be cynical/susceptible to reverting to the 'old ways'. But once the current generation of educated (including girls) and voting children becomes the majority of adults, it's game-set-match: there'll be no going back. The turn around from worst to now is shaping up {knock on wood} to be one of this nation's/military's finest accomplishments.]

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Gazans say Hamas kept them in homes used by gunmen

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Palestinian civilians have accused Hamas of forcing them to stay in homes from which gunmen shot at Israeli soldiers during the recent hostilities in Gaza, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported Thursday.

More than 1,250 Palestinians were reportedly killed during Israel's offensive against Hamas in the coastal territory. But the Italian paper also quoted a doctor at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital as disputing the number:

"It's possible that the death toll in Gaza was 500 or 600 at the most, mainly youths aged 17 to 23 who were enlisted by Hamas - who sent them to their deaths,"

The Gaza doctor was further quoted as saying:

"Perhaps it is like Jenin in 2002. At the beginning they spoke about 1,500 dead, and at the end it turned out to be only 54 - of whom 45 were militants."

[history shows Arab 'reporting' is 90% fabricated propaganda - but our 'professional' media take it at face value anyway - and by the time the truth is know, it's no longer 'news'.]

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Iran says Obama's offer to talk shows US failure

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US President Barack Obama's offer to talk to Iran shows that America's policy of "domination" has failed, the government spokesman said on Saturday.

"This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed,"

Gholam Hossein Elham was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

"Negotiation is secondary, the main issue is that there is no way but for (the United States) to change,"

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[It's not what was meant by remarks, it's how they're heard. And nowhere is the penchant to interpret any conciliatory remark as weakness/capitulation stronger than among the muslim (to cover Arabs and Persians) mindset where the 'strong horse' concept means so much. I.e., any such Chamberlain-like remarks virtually assure a Chamberlain-like result...

I.e.2: Israel will not allow a country that professes its destruction to acquire the means to do so. We're headed for a middle-eastern war due to our refusal to stop Iran's acquisition of the bomb...]


Israel’s nuclear hawk Avigdor Lieberman in poll surge

AN ultra-rightwinger, who is said to favour flattening Tehran if Iran develops nuclear weapons, has emerged as the politician gaining the most ground in next week’s general election in Israel.

Avigdor Lieberman, 50, is advancing so rapidly in the polls that his Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party is set to overtake Labour and become the third largest party in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

In private Lieberman is said to have urged that Tehran be levelled if Iran goes ahead with its nuclear weapons programme. In public he told listeners to Israel Radio’s Persian service:

“You will pay a high price. You, the good Iranian citizens, will pay for your leaders’ actions.”

[Israel will not allow the nation publicly committed to its destruction to acquire the means to do so - no matter the mealy mouth EUNuchs or Washington Pollyannas .]

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French Jews ask Sarkozy to help curb anti-Semitic attacks

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An umbrella group of Jewish groups sought assurances on Friday from French President Nicolas Sarkozy that authorities would do more to stem a rise in anti-Jewish crime in the wake of the war in the Gaza Strip.

Some 100 acts targeting Jews were reported in France since Israel launched its offensive against Gaza's Hamas Islamist rulers in late December, said the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France

"These acts are the manifestation of very deeply engrained anti-Semitism in a portion of the population and particularly among the youth in our country."

In recent years, flare-ups between Israel and the Palestinians have been followed by acts of violence against Jewish people or buildings in France, home to Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities.

Earlier this month, attackers launched two cars packed with petrol bombs at a synagogue in France's southwestern city of Toulouse, causing damage but no casualties.

[anyone care to guess what the 'youths' have in common?]

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Muslim population 'rising 10 times faster than rest of society'

The Muslim population in Britain has grown by more than 500,000 to 2.4 million in just four years, according to official research collated for The Times. The population multiplied 10 times faster than the rest of society, the research by the Office for National Statistics reveals. In the same period the number of Christians in the country fell by more than 2 million.
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The terrible warning of a Holocaust survivor

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At my dinner table on Friday night, a holocaust survivor admits that she is trying to persuade her son to take his family out of Europe to America, Canada, Australia, Israel...’ They say they can’t leave me, but I tell them:

“Go, get out. My parents left my grandparents behind in Berlin and brought me to safety in England. Now I want you to leave so that my grandchildren will be safe.”

There is an unbearable desperation in her plea. But she has a point.

As tens of thousands of demonstrators march through the streets of Europe, the chants are modified but the message remains substantially intact: ‘Hamas, Hamas, Hamas — Jews to the Gas’. Or, more simply: ‘Death to the Jews’.

Many European Jews, even well-established, affluent Jews, have been checking the suitcase they keep packed under the bed. They have been here before and many are (albeit reluctantly) reading the writing on the wall...

[this isn't history, it's now...]

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Russia Snares New Black Sea Bases

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The Kremlin's latest move to project military force is raising some alarms.

Russia and the breakaway state of Abkhazia announced they had concluded a deal that would allow Russia establish an air and naval bases in the republic. Abkhazia won recognition from Russia as an independent state after the war in South Ossetia this summer. (Besides Russia, only Nicaragua has recognized Abkhazia's 'independence'.)

The Financial Times summarizes the anxiety over Moscow's latest move.

"Nato members are concerned at the decision because they see it is an important step in allowing Russia to project its military strength beyond its borders ... They also believe the move deepens the violation of Georgian sovereignty after Russia invaded Georgia last August and declared Abkhazia and South Ossetia independent territories."

Russia has another Black Sea base at Sevastopol, which belongs to Ukraine. The lease for that base runs out in 2017. Building an airbase in Abkhazia could also be a raised middle finger at the United States, which runs an airbase in Kyrgyzstan. The head of Georgia's parliamentary committee on defense and national security, told Reuters the move proved Russia's expansionist ambitions.

"It demonstrates that Russia's real goal was never the protection of its so-called citizens in South Ossetia or Abkhazia, but to use these territories for new military bases,"

It gets trickier: the United States and Georgia signed a strategic pact earlier this month....

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Europeans are finally waking up to the demise of democracy

Angry people across the EU are discovering the fine print in all the treaties signed by their leaders

The peoples of Europe have finally discovered what they signed up to. I do mean "peoples" (plural) because however much political elites may deceive themselves, the populations of the member states of the EU are culturally, historically and economically separate and distinct. And a significant proportion of them are getting very, very angry.

What the strikers at the Lindsey oil refinery (and their brother supporters in Nottinghamshire and Kent) have discovered is the real meaning of the fine print in those treaties, and the significance of those European court judgments whose interpretation they left to EU obsessives: it is now illegal – illegal – for the government of an EU country to put the needs and concerns of its own population first. It would, for example, be against European law to do what Frank Field has sensibly suggested and reintroduce a system of "work permits" for EU nationals who wished to apply for jobs here.

Meanwhile, demonstrators in Paris and the recalcitrant electorate in Germany are waking up to the consequences of what two generations of European ideologues have thrust upon them: the burden not just of their own economic problems but also the obligation to accept the consequences of their neighbours' debts and failures. Each country is true to its own history in the way it expresses its rage: in France, they take to the streets and throw things at the police, in Germany they threaten the stability of the coalition government, and here, we revive the tradition of wildcat strikes.

But the response from the EU political class is the same to all of these varied manifestations of resistance. Those who protest are being smeared with accusations of foolhardy protectionism or racist nationalism... [snip]

And here we are, with a generation of European political leaders who almost all accept the terms in which their predecessors gave away the most important principle of that great democratic pact between a free people and its government. While times were good and there was enough prosperity to keep everybody distracted and happy, the loss went almost unnoticed except by a few persistent and despairing critics.

Well, not any more.

[Will we learn from Europe's mistakes? America is the perennial top target of the one-world-government crowd and they never rest {it's their 24/7 job at the UN} - we need be eternally vigilant.]

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Free trade frenzy

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The main focus of Colombia’s international economic policy might be the FTA with United States, now hindered in the US Congress. But it is not the only interest. In less than a week, the country struck two free trade agreements and also secured an important cooperation deal

They include two of the biggest countries in the world –China and Canada- and a group of four politically small –but stable- European states, which have ratified their support for trading with Colombia even amidst one of the biggest economic crises of all time.

President Hu is considering, according to Chinese Press Agency Xinhua, “increasing imports from Colombia to realize a balanced rise in bilateral trade”. He added that his government will continue to encourage Chinese investments in Colombia, especially in areas such as infrastructure, construction, agriculture, telecommunications and energy.

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Call for obese children to be taken into 'care'

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Severely obese children should be notified to child protection authorities, and even taken into care, if their parents are unwilling or unable to help them lose weight, experts have argued. The continuing failure of parents to ensure treatment for their obese child could be considered medical neglect when the child is at high risk of suffering associated severe health problems.

[Who decides what constitutes 'high risk'? The government of course]

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The Next Big Stink

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They're worrying up a storm in Washington. (Good thing that George W. Bush is no longer in charge of the weather and FEMA the way he was during Hurricane Katrina.) America is experiencing a polar ice cap and financial meltdown, causing sea levels to rise and sending cold water flooding into Wall Street where the rapidly acidifying ocean is corroding our 401(k)s and releasing mortgage securities full of hot air into the atmosphere until our every breath is full of CO2 especially when we exhale, which should be banned when children are present lest their uninsured health care be harmed by second-hand greenhouse gases that are causing endangerment of plant and animal species (Republicans are extinct already), leading to a shortage of green, leafy vegetables vital to the fight against America's growing epidemics of obese hunger and housing foreclosures on the homeless. [snip]

My guess is that the next great government crusade will be against soap. The president will appoint a Blue Ribbon Commission, which will determine that soap releases polluting grime into the ecosystem, leads to aquifer depletion, and contains fatty acids that laboratory studies have shown to be acidic and not fat-free. Soap encourages teenage pregnancy as well as adult sexual activity with multiple partners, driving America's divorce rate higher, causing more children to live under the poverty line in single-parent households. Soap is a factor in many cases of child abuse, according to small boys in bathtubs. Soap bubbles may contain methane, especially if rising to the surface of bath water containing small boys. Soap marketing sends the wrong message about the Ivory trade and also about Irish Spring, which is being altered by climate change. Soap degrades the flame-resistant properties of children's pajamas. And soap makes whales foam when they spout.

Socialism--you can smell it coming.

[Sadly, Recommended, to demonstrate how consistently P.J.'s satire strikes resonant cords throughout his piece - and where there's such volumes of smoke...]

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Democrats Launch Petition Against Rush Limbaugh

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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has launched an online petition for readers to express their outrage at conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh for saying last week that he wanted President Barack Obama to fail.

On Tuesday, in a note at the top of his Web site , Limbaugh responded to the Democrats' petition:

"I am greatly puzzled. Why would the Democrats petition against me if I am doing such terrible damage to the GOP? "

Last Friday, Obama advised Republicans to stop listening to Limbaugh if they wanted to get along with Democrats and the administration. [snip] According to Wolff,

"Limbaugh's cheap shot at President Obama might be the first by the Republican attack machine this year but we know that it won't be the last. We need every grassroots Democrat to show Rush Limbaugh and all of the Republicans what they're up against if they start attacking President Obama and Democrats who are working to end the failed GOP policies of the last eight years."

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[And if you question Obama's policies? For the 100th time: not a big fan of Rush - but this is prelude to reintroducing the misnamed 'Fairness Doctrine', which is overt censorship by our government and must be resisted...

please join me in working against it by joining MRC's Free Speech Alliance - and as always, pass it on...]

Bye, Bye, American

Economy: In barring foreign steel from infrastructure projects and forcing payment of "prevailing wages," [union wages] the stimulus bill merges the Davis-Bacon and Smoot-Hawley acts in a way that could be a recipe for depression.

[Could be? They're considered key factors in worsening the great depression - what do we think they could do this time around?]

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UPDATE: Obama Will Review Buy American Provision in Stimulus

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s administration will examine a “buy American” requirement in economic stimulus legislation that has raised concern among U.S. trading partners, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

The issue may cloud Obama’s trip to Canada on Feb. 19, his first journey outside U.S. borders as president. Officials in Canada, the top U.S. trade partner, are criticizing a part of legislation that passed the U.S. House of Representatives Jan. 28 that requires the use of U.S.-made iron and steel in infrastructure projects.

Ralph Goodale, house leader for the opposition Liberal Party, said today in Parliament. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday that he will complain to U.S. officials over the “buy American” measure. “This is obviously a serious matter,” he said.

The provision also is opposed by U.S. companies with significant sales overseas such as General Electric Co. and Caterpillar Inc., which warn it may spark other countries to retaliate by restricting U.S. products.

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GDP Better Than Expected: Have Media Overhyped Depression Talk?

The Gross Domestic Product declined by 3.8 percent in the final quarter of 2008.

It was bad, but nowhere near as bad as expected.

Is it possible that all the hysterical gloom and doom emanating from the media is way overdone, and that things are not close to as apocalyptic as we've been told the past five months?

Consider the actual numbers reported Friday morning by MarketWatch:

The U.S. economy contracted at a 3.8% seasonally adjusted annual rate in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department estimated Friday. This is the largest contraction since the first quarter of 1982. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch were expecting a negative 5.5% growth rate in the fourth quarter.

For the year, GDP rose 1.3 percent which was its worst performance since 2001. Is this the end of the world we've been hearing about since September?

After all, this 3.8 percent decline is only the 13th worst since the Commerce Department began doing quarterly reports in 1947. This means that there's been twelve worse quarters since 1946, and none of them signalled the end of the world nor required the kind of government spending now being discussed in Washington.

For instance, GDP declined by an astounding 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 1982. This followed a 4.9 percent drop in the fourth quarter of 1981. History now shows this to be the worst of that decade's recession, as the economy exploded in 1983 beginning one of its most powerful and long-lasting expansions ever.

In fact, there have been two recessions in the previous three decades [i.e., not counting the big D] when we experienced far worse economic growth than this most recent quarter without it indicating a depression and without the need for historic increases in deficit spending to get the economy going again.

Is it therefore possible all this doom and gloom is way overstated?

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All Seriousness Aside

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It is like the Peanuts gang laughing in derision after yet another Charlie Brown gaffe. It is like the doubling-over at the double-stumble (video) during fashion week in Paris.

The cackles and guffaws now come routinely. Global warming alarmists, led by inconvenienced (because of cooling weather) Al Gore, are seeing their prophecies of doom dissolve. Now that big ice grows, big winter is bad (like last year), cold temperatures hit record levels, and global mean surface temperature has not continued upward -- despite continued increases in that demonized "greenhouse" gas, carbon dioxide -- the panic peddlers look like flailing jesters.

Look at the recent responses to the self-caricature, Gore. The late nighters already found global warming (targeting both sides) to be fodder for yuks. But after the former vice president gave a repeat command performance before Congress this week, the scorn against alarmists is stronger than ever. The acerbic Dennis Miller, who said Gore probably is otherwise a good guy, called him a "doofus" because of his global warming beliefs... [snip]

It's not limited to Gore. Even scientists recognize they have a credibility and perception problem, yet they still can't harness their own panicky rhetoric. The faltering reputation of the alarmists, so dependent on the climate change industry bubble they've inflated, now drives environmental reporters to find quotes that attempt to shore up credibility,

Since when does the mainstream media need quotes of validation to support their fellow environmental activists? You would never have seen this, even six months ago. The alarmists are desperate.

[Sadly, the burgeoning realization we've been scammed is likely too late: with big business figuring out how to profit from the game the last serious impediment to government expansion has evaporated, and it's very likely that laws will make it on the books - and once on...

still, Recommended > ]

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Poll: Economic Stimulus Plan Unpopular

Americans are skeptical that an economic stimulus plan from the federal government will help the nation’s economy. This is perhaps due to the fact that most people think that the elected officials in Washington working on the plan are part of the economic problem as opposed to the solution.

Less than half (45 percent) of Americans think “Barack Obama’s proposed $825 billion dollar economic recovery plan” will help the economy. More Americans think the focus of an economic stimulus plan should be “cutting taxes” (50 percent) than "increasing government spending on new programs and infrastructure projects” (29 percent).

Majorities of Republicans (69 percent) and independents (52 percent) think cutting taxes should be the focus of an economic stimulus plan. More Democrats think the focus should be increasing spending (42 percent) than cutting taxes (35 percent).

Nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of Americans think moving “away from capitalism and more toward socialism” would be a good thing for the United States. This includes 42 percent of those with household incomes under $30,000, as well as 35 percent of Democrats, and 31 percent of those under age thirty.

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An $800 Billion Mistake

As a conservative economist, I might be expected to oppose a stimulus plan. In fact, on this page in October, I declared my support for a stimulus. But the fiscal package now before Congress needs to be thoroughly revised. In its current form, it does too little to raise national spending and employment. It would be better for the Senate to delay legislation for a month, or even two, if that's what it takes to produce a much better bill. We cannot afford an $800 billion mistake.

The plan to finance health insurance premiums for the unemployed would actually increase unemployment by giving employers an incentive to lay off workers rather than pay health premiums during a time of weak demand. And this supposedly two-year program would create a precedent that could be hard to reverse.

Instead, the tax changes should focus on providing incentives to households and businesses to increase current spending. Why not a temporary refundable tax credit to households that purchase cars or other major consumer durables, analogous to the investment tax credit for businesses? Or a temporary tax credit for home improvements? In that way, the same total tax reduction could produce much more spending and employment.

Postponing the scheduled increase in the tax on dividends and capital gains would raise share prices, leading to increased consumer spending and, by lowering the cost of capital, more business investment. All new spending and tax changes should have explicit time limits that prevent ever-increasing additions to the national debt. Similarly, spending programs should not create political dynamics that will make them hard to end.

The problem with the current stimulus plan is not that it is too big but that it delivers too little extra employment and income for such a large fiscal deficit. It is worth taking the time to get it right.

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image toon - Ob's good intentions paving way to hell - mny

House GOP throws stimulus brushback

Despite President Obama's trip to the Hill on Tuesday, he couldn't pry loose a single Republican vote for his stimulus plan, which nonetheless passed with solely Democratic support. Still, the partisan split signaled that despite their weakened political state and the popularity of the new president, Republicans won't be won over by charm alone. Nor has it escaped notice that it was the opposition to the bill which was bipartisan...

[TV Test: has your news source pointed out that it was the opposition to this bill that was bipartisan, while support came from only one party? No? Change the channel...]

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Bipartisan Stimulus

There's a serious debate in this country as to how best to end the recession. The average recession will last five to 11 months; the average recovery will last six years. Recessions will end on their own if they're left alone. What can make the recession worse is the wrong kind of government intervention.

I believe the wrong kind is precisely what President Barack Obama has proposed. I don't believe his is a "stimulus plan" at all -- I don't think it stimulates anything but the Democratic Party. This "porkulus" bill is designed to repair the Democratic Party's power losses from the 1990s forward, and to cement the party's majority power for decades

Notwithstanding the media blitz in support of the Obama stimulus plan, most Americans, according to a new Rasmussen poll, are skeptical. Rasmussen finds that 59% fear that Congress and the president will increase government spending too much. Only 17% worry they will cut taxes too much. Since the American people are not certain that the Obama stimulus plan is the way to go, it seems to me there's an opportunity for genuine compromise. At the same time, we can garner evidence on how to deal with future recessions, so every occurrence will no longer become a matter of partisan debate. [snip]

Fifty-three percent of American voters voted for Barack Obama; 46% voted for John McCain, and 1% voted for wackos. Give that 1% to President Obama. Let's say the vote was 54% to 46%. As a way to bring the country together and at the same time determine the most effective way to deal with recessions:

54% of the $900 billion -- $486 billion -- will be spent on infrastructure and pork as defined by Mr. Obama and the Democrats; 46% -- $414 billion -- will be directed toward tax cuts...

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Top U.S official: There's no way to stop Iran's nuclear program

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"There's no way and no chance to stop the Iranian nuclear program," U.S. Congressman and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra told the independent American news site Newsmax in an interview on Tuesday.

The U.S army's Strategic Studies Institute's assessment that Iran will obtain enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb before the end of the year.

"Iran is a threat to the stability of the Middle East, and countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel fear what it may do," said Hoekstra.

[complete tripe. It's not a case of our being unable to stop Iran, it's a case of the 'international' community lacking the will.

If we literally blockaded the country until it gave up its nuclear ambitions, it would crumble - its only natural resource is oil.

But we don't; we let the UN play veto games with China, Russia and the largest single voting block in the organization - the Islamic nations.

Meanwhile, thanks to public statements like this guy's, smiles all around in Tehran...]

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Turkey Holds Suspicious Iran-Venezuela Shipment

Ankara, Turkey - Turkey was holding a suspicious shipment bound for Venezuela from Iran because it contained lab equipment capable of producing explosives, a customs official said Tuesday. Suleyman Tosun, a customs official at the Mediterranean port of Mersin, said military experts were asked to examine the material, which was seized last month Authorities detected the equipment during a search of 22 containers labeled ''tractor parts''...

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To Combat Obama, Al-Qaeda Hurls Insults

Soon after the November election, al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader took stock of America's new president-elect and dismissed him with an insulting epithet. "A house Negro," Ayman al-Zawahiri said.

That was just a warm-up. In the weeks since, the terrorist group has unleashed a stream of verbal tirades against Barack Obama, each more venomous than the last.

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Obama and the Arabs

... The interview wasn’t into its first two minutes before Obama tells the Arab interviewer that, when it comes to the on-going Arab-Israeli conflict in Gaza, the United States has acted more like an ignorant dictator:

"…what I told (Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell) is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating—in the past on some of these issues—and we don't always know all the factors that are involved."

It’s all downhill from there, with President Obama later implying that the United States hasn’t been respectful in its treatment of the Muslim world:

“Now, my job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Muslim world, that the language we use has to be a language of respect.”

He also implied that the American people have a prejudiced view of Muslims, owing to the attacks of September 11, and therefore do not understand the Muslim world:

“My job is to communicate to the American people that the Muslim world is filled with extraordinary people who simply want to live their lives and see their children live better lives.”

But what should be of utmost concern to Americans is the way Obama redefined the priorities of the president:

" I think that what you'll see is somebody who is listening, who is respectful, and who is trying to promote the interests not just of the United States, but also ordinary people who right now are suffering from poverty and a lack of opportunity. I want to make sure that I’m speaking to them, as well."

Obama believes that equal to the interests of the United States, the president must also promote the interests of “ordinary people” in the Muslim world.

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Somalia: Fighting Erupts in Mogadishu

Mogadishu — At leat 2 people have been killed after fresh fighting between government militias and Islamist terrorists has erupted Monday in Medina district in Mogadishu, witnesses told Radio Shabelle. Residents say the fighting is heavy and both sides have used mortars and heavy machine guns. The fighting started after the Islamist terrorists attacked a checkpoint manned by government militias...

[GWOT]

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"You have enemies? Good. That means you've up for something in your life."

-- Winston Churchill

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U.S. professors call for academic and cultural boycott of Israel

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A group of American university professors has for the first time launched a national campaign calling for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

While Israeli academics have grown used to such news from Great Britain, where anti-Israel groups several times attempted to establish academic boycotts, the formation of the United States movement marks the first time that a national academic boycott movement has come out of America.

Israeli professors are not sure yet how big of an impact the one-week-old movement will have, but started discussing the significance of and possible counteractions against the campaign.

[shameful]

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Nato has 'no will' to admit Georgia or Ukraine

Nato is suffering from 'enlargement fatigue' and has no will to admit Georgia or Ukraine, according to Poland's foreign minister Radek Sikorski. Mr Sikorski, who is a leading contender to become Nato's secretary-general when the Alliance selects a new chief in April, told The Daily Telegraph that membership for both countries was a "fairly distant prospect".

[They're cow-towing to Russia, plain and simple. I.e., a "Gas in our lifetime" moment.]

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Biden to make 'major' US foreign-policy speech in Munich

[we're doomed]
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EU warns Slovakia against reopening nuclear plant

The European Commission warned Slovakia Monday that its decision to reactivate an old nuclear reactor runs counter to EU law and was "not an option." If the Slovakian government reactivates the Bohunice nuclear plant "that would be a clear violation" of the treaty that Bratislava signed to become an EU member, said commission spokesman Ferran Tarradellas.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said earlier that his government would restart a nuclear reactor at the plant unless Russian gas supplies were restored to Europe.

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FATAL NAIVETE ON FREE TRADE

At her Senate confirmation hearing last week, Hillary Clinton expressed confidence the U.S. alliance with Colombia will always be good, free-trade treaty or not. But growing signs show she's got it wrong.

Last year, Columbia's Trade Minister Luis Plata warned that denying free trade to Colombia in a hemisphere full of U.S. free-trade treaties amounted to sanctions on an ally because the other countries with which America has agreements are its competitors.

The matter is urgent, because the global economic downturn is hitting Colombia hard now.

Colombia already has tariff-free trading on its exports to the United States for its cooperation in the war on drugs. It collects $1 billion in tariffs on U.S. imports, but would gladly give that up to draw foreign investment that would flow under the trade treaty.

[ah, but our unions don't like it; so its political party...]

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Northern Virginia lawmaker proposes four-day workweek for state workers

A Northern Virginia delegate is proposing to cram a 40-hour workweek into four days for many state workers, in the hopes of recouping energy costs and 'encouraging' Virginians to access the Internet for government services. [snip]

“I think the work force is going to like this, I think they’re going to enjoy it. I think we’re going to benefit from energy savings, and I think people are going to wind up using the Internet more to access services."

[and the tax payers? What do they think about 'winding up' using the internet more? A: They weren't asked. But who cares - they just pay the bills, and it's not like there's any competition to turn to - this is the government...]

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Guilty Until Proven Innocent

I have frequently written about how the environmentalists have set up a system in which all products of industrial civilization are regarded as guilty until proven innocent, i.e., all industrial emissions are regarded as toxic or destructive until proven otherwise, according to an impossible standard of proof.

The article below reveals the same pattern, but as applied to cigarette smoke. You have heard of "second-hand smoke," but have you heard of "third-hand smoke"? According to this article, "Studies have shown that these contaminating particles are measurable in rooms, on clothing and on toys long after a person has finished smoking."

They key word is "measurable." With the extraordinary sensitivity of modern scientific instruments, which can detect substances in concentrations of parts per billion, anything is "measurable." Thus, many contemporary health scares are mere artifacts of our newfound ability to measure, in benignly infinitesimal quantities, substances that would be toxic if they were found in much higher concentrations.

This story finally makes clear to me the reason for the enduring strength of the anti-smoking crusade. It is a kind of laboratory for establishing the key environmentalist method. It is an attempt to condition the public to accept the most outlandish health claims about the smallest quantities of man-made chemicals—a method that can then be applied to the byproducts of industrial civilization.

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Fat dogs seized by RSPCA

The RSPCA has seized two dogs from their owner after she was accused of feeding them too much. The Labradors were taken from their home by an inspector from the charity who said they were just going to be weighed.

The organisation has not allowed Marie Davidson, 48, to see her animals, or even told her where they have been kept for the past three months...

[her loved pets. 'Liberal fascism' isn't just another catch phrase - it's real and accelerating. This act was based on the fact that we're allowing governments to somehow label being overweight as criminal. Think about the ramifications of that...]

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INTEREST ON RESERVE

On October 6, 2008 the Federal Reserve announced it would begin to pay interest starting on October 9, 2008, on required and excess reserves that individual banks maintain at the Fed, stating that this would encourage banks to hold larger reserves. But this is exactly the wrong policy objective in an environment where banks are reluctant to lend to businesses and others, says Jim Johnston, director of the Heartland Institute.

• The recovery from the Great Depression was well on the way when the Fed observed that banks were holding more than twice the level of reserves than was required.
• Under the Banking Act of 1935, the Board of Governors doubled the reserve requirement on member banks between 1936 and 1937 believing that doing so would generate an increase in public confidence and would not change the behavior of the banks.
• However, the banks responded by sharply increasing their already-sufficient reserves, resulting in the sharpest downturn in U.S. economic activity in history.

Therefore, paying interest on excess reserves poses a substantial threat to the recovery. The policy should be immediately reversed, suggests Johnston. If it is not reversed, he continues, the Fed risks causing the current downturn to be even sharper than the depression of 1937-38.

[at least he's not being alarmist]

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Gore Warns Global Warming Will Bring Civilization to a ‘Screeching Halt’

Former Vice President Al Gore told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday that if action is not taken by the United States to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the world as we know it could disappear. (Snip)

Gore testified on Capitol Hill. “If we continue at today’s levels, some scientists have said it can be an increase (in global temperature) of up to 11 degrees Fahrenheit.

[the guy is getting more desperate, and absurd, but the day]

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Iraq to Open More Oil Fields to Bids

BAGHDAD — Iraq announced on Wednesday that it would launch a second round of bids to license international oil companies to develop 11 oil and gas fields or groups of fields.

Iraq’s oil minister, Hussein al-Shahristani, said at a news conference that he hoped that these fields could be producing 2 to 2.5 million barrels a day in three or four years...

[everyone but u.s.]

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[click, sign, pass it on...]

domestic energy petition

THE LATEST ENTITLEMENT: FEDERAL HEALTH CARE AT 300 PERCENT OF POVERTY

The Senate made its first down payment on President Obama's health-care plans yesterday, passing a major expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP).

S-CHIP will more than double in size with $73.3 billion in new spending over the next decade -- not counting a budget gimmick that hides the true cost. The program is supposed to help children from working-poor families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but since it was created in 1997 Democrats have used it as a ratchet to grow the federal taxpayer share of health-care coverage.

The political purpose behind S-CHIP has always been to capture the middle class. But every time the program grows, it displaces private insurance, says the Journal:

• Even before Democrats struck down rules limiting crowd out, research indicated that for every 100 children signed up -- now more than 7.1 million -- there is a reduction in private coverage for 25 to 50 kids.
• Exactly the same thing will happen if Obama and Daschle end up introducing a "public option," a government insurance program modeled after Medicare but open to anyone of any income.

As with S-CHIP, any net increase in insurance coverage will come by having taxpayers gradually supplant the private system.

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Colleges cut instruction spending

Most of the nation's colleges are gradually paring back their investments in classroom teaching, an analysis of federal data shows. And all colleges have in recent years been spending a greater share of their revenue on expenses other than instruction, including computing centers, student services, administrative salaries and lawn care.

Those are among findings of a report released today that sheds light on where various types of colleges and universities get their money and how they spend it. While instruction remains the largest share of education and general spending at most colleges, much of the revenue raised by increasing tuition is not going to that core function of higher education, it concludes.

"Students are paying for more and arguably getting less, particularly in the classroom,"

says Jane Wellman, director of the Delta Cost Project, a Washington-based non-profit that released the report. It is based on federally reported data from 2002 to 2006 of nearly 2,000 public and private institutions that enroll about 75% of all college students.

At some point between 2002 and 2004, most private four-colleges began spending a larger share of their budget on administrative and academic support than on instruction.

[if our government was serious about raising general attendance, it would implement an Internet based education system for a basic college education (probably with more varied degrees than bachelors/masters). Transfer of knowledge (if not wisdom - but do you think we're getting that now?) is exactly what the net does best. The problem? It could be done for comparatively FREE - and there's unions galore who think that would be just horrible - and they own a major political party.]

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Harry Reid's dictatorship of bad ideas

Last September, Louisiana's David Vitter strode to the podium of the U.S. Senate to offer an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2009. What's so significant about that?

Amazingly, it marks the last time that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid permitted a Republican amendment to be voted on -- a period of 125 days that can only be described as a diabolical, dictatorial suppression of democracy...

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Experts: ‘Pay to play’ is the SOP on Capitol Hill

The alleged “pay-to-play” scheme coarsely laid out by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) in FBI wiretaps sent the political world on the hunt for those who reportedly offered $1.5 million for a Senate seat. But campaign finance experts and some lawmakers wonder why the person dubbed “Senate Candidate 5” is getting singled out. They do not see much difference between what the candidate’s “emissary” offered and standard operating procedure in Congress.

[our two party system is killing us. We need move to an OPEN (On-line Party-less Electorate Nominating) Process using the Internet to level the playing field and broaden it to anyone with the gumption to run.]

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Democrats in Chicago and Alabama in Trouble, Neither IDed as Democrats

One convicted on bribery, the other attacks cops at crime scene saying she wasn't driving drunk...

... none of the stories (plural) detailing either of these incidents could find room in them to identify these politicians as Democrats.

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NY Pol Indicted... But What's That Party?

Well, it's the Republican Party. And how do we know this? Well, check out the beginning of this AP story: (my bold throughout)

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Joseph Bruno, the former majority leader of the New York Senate and for a time the most powerful Republican in state politics, was indicted Friday on federal corruption charges.

Hmmm. He's noted as a Republican in the first sentence.

Then there's the Washington Post that was in such a hurry that it didn't wait for the story to start at all but told us right in the headline that "Former NY GOP Leader Indicted."

Reuters gives us the important news of party affiliation in it's first sentence, too.

And, on top of that, nearly every single local New York paper, TV and radio report filed on the Internet includes Bruno's party right in the first few sentences.

Whereas, and as we've chronicled roughly one bazillion times in the past, when the media finds a criminal Democrat that politician's party is either buried at the end of the story or never mentioned at all.

[nonsense, there's no bias here - move along...]

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Video: 100 Years of Headlines About Catastrophic Climate Change

Readers are encouraged to review a previous NewsBusters report "150 Years of Global Warming and Cooling at the New York Times."
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