Mexican drug trafficking organizations are now the greatest organized crime threat to the United States, according to a recent report released by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The National Drug Threat Assessment for 2009, released last month by the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center, says Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) operate in more than 230 cities across the United States.“The violence, intimidation, theft and financial crimes carried out by DTOs, criminal groups, gangs and drug users in the United States pose a significant threat to our nation,”
the threat assessment concluded.
[but a fence would be rude]
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Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Mexican Drug Traffickers Now ‘Greatest Organized Crime Threat’ to U.S.
Daniel Pearl and the Normalization of Evil
When will our luminaries stop making excuses for terror?
... When we ask ourselves what it is about the American psyche that enables genocidal organizations like Hamas -- the charter of which would offend every neuron in our brains -- to become tolerated in public discourse, we should take a hard look at our universities and the way they are currently being manipulated by terrorist sympathizers.
At my own university, UCLA, a symposium last week on human rights turned into a Hamas recruitment rally by a clever academic gimmick. The director of the Center for Near East Studies carefully selected only Israel bashers for the panel, each of whom concluded that the Jewish state is the greatest criminal in human history.
The primary purpose of the event was evident the morning after, when unsuspecting, uninvolved students read an article in the campus newspaper titled, "Scholars say: Israel is in violation of human rights in Gaza," to which the good name of the University of California was attached. This is where Hamas scored its main triumph -- another inch of academic respectability, another inroad into Western minds.
Danny's picture is hanging just in front of me, his warm smile as reassuring as ever. But I find it hard to look him straight in the eyes and say: You did not die in vain.
Mr. Pearl, a professor of computer science at UCLA, is president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, founded in memory of his son to promote cross-cultural understanding.
[VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED > ]
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Tuesday, February 3, 2009
How Government Prolonged the Depression
Policies that decreased competition in product and labor markets were especially destructive.
The New Deal is widely perceived to have ended the Great Depression, and this has led many to support a "new" New Deal to address the current crisis. But the facts do not support the perception that FDR's policies shortened the Depression, or that similar policies will pull our nation out of its current economic downturn.
Why wasn't the Depression followed by a vigorous recovery, like every other cycle? It should have been. The economic fundamentals that drive all expansions were very favorable during the New Deal. Productivity grew very rapidly after 1933, the price level was stable, real interest rates were low, and liquidity was plentiful. We have calculated on the basis of just productivity growth that employment and investment should have been back to normal levels by 1936. Similarly, Nobel Laureate Robert Lucas and Leonard Rapping calculated on the basis of just expansionary Federal Reserve policy that the economy should have been back to normal by 1935.
So what stopped a blockbuster recovery from ever starting?
The New Deal...
[Highly Recommended > ]
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Stimulated right into being another Europe
"Stimulus" comes from the verb "stimulare," which is Latin for "transfer massive sums of money from what remains of the dynamic sector of the economy to the special interests of the Democratic Party." No, hang on, my mistake. "Stimulare" means "to goad." And, on that front, the Democrats are doing an excellent job. They've managed to goad 58 percent of the American people into opposing the "stimulus" package. They've managed to goad all 117 Republicans in the House into unpacking their mothballed cojonesand voting against the bill. And they've managed to goad the rest of the world into ending the Obama honeymoon in nothing flat. Headline from the London Daily Telegraph:"U.S.-EU Trade War Looms As Barack Obama Bill Urges 'Buy American.'"
That would be the provision in the Senate bill prohibiting any foreign-made goods from being used in "stimulus" projects. So, if you own a rubber plantation in Malaysia, and you're hoping for a piece of Nancy Pelosi's condom action, forget it. The EU Trade Commissioner is outraged at the swaggering cowboy Obama shooting from the hip and unilaterally banning European goods from American soil. But so are American companies such as General Electric. Bill Lane, an executive honcho with Caterpillar (the 10th-biggest U.S. investor in the United Kingdom), says,"We are students of history. A major reason a very deep recession turned into the Great Depression was the fact that countries turned inward."
Ah, yes. The Buy American Act of 1933. How'd that work out?
[i.e., all the wrong things - despite all history to the contrary.]
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Only 5 percent of $819b plan would go toward infrastructure
WASHINGTON - Five weeks before becoming president, Barack Obama urged passage of a massive economic stimulus package, vowing that it would "create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s." But the bill passed by the House dedicates only about 5 percent of the $819 billion measure to highway, mass transit, and rail projects, analysts said.
[and almost half of the can't be started within the 18-month timeframe quoted as necessary to 'stimulus' {hence the 3% figure you'll hear}]
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33 Minutes: All Our Enemies Need to Change America as We Know It
33 minutes—about the time it takes to get a pizza delivered—is all it takes for a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile to travel halfway around the world and obliterate an American city. In less time, if detonated high above the homeland, its Electromagnetic Pulse would incapacitate everything from ATM and hospital machines to traffic lights and computers for thousands of miles. Life would never be the same.
This is not science-fiction. Recently, the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation, and Terrorism said, “Terrorists are determined to attack us again—with weapons of mass destruction if they can.” The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack reported in 2004 that an attack from a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile would have “catastrophic consequences,” citing effects like those above felt in Hawaii after a test 1400 kilometers away in 1962.
Amazingly, some pundits say the threat of such attacks is farfetched, and our military can repel them anyway. They are wrong. Though our capabilities have come a long way in eight years, they are not enough to protect all of America. It is morally wrong to suggest that the government should settle for protecting only some of us. [snip]
The bad news is that the Obama administration has not yet made a commitment to the range of programs we need for an effective, layered system—with missile defenses on the ground, at sea, and in space.
Our new leaders need to hear that we want them to continue investing in missile defense. To help us understand what is at stake, The Heritage Foundation has produced 33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age, a high-definition documentary that spells out in plain language the growing threat, what missile defense entails, how far we’ve come, and most important, what we still need to do.
We can’t negotiate the threat away. We’ve tried. This is an inconvenient truth for those who think talking to our enemies from a position of vulnerability trumps military strength. We want protection from ballistic missiles. Anything less is abrogating their oath to uphold the Constitution and “provide for the common defense.”
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U.S. imposes sanctions on North Korea, Iran, and China companies
Washington - The Obama administration said Monday that it had imposed sanctions on companies in North Korea, China and Iran for violating U.S. law aimed at stopping the spread of missiles and other weapons technology.
The penalties were the first of their kind from the new U.S. administration and signaled a willingness to continue the Bush administration's tough stance on weapons proliferation.
[it does seem that 'the more things change...']
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Who's Sorry Now?
Iran's president wants an apology from the United States for its past policies toward Tehran."Those who say they want change, this is the change they should make: They should apologize to the Iranian nation and try to make up for their dark background and the crimes they have committed against the Iranian nation."
Been there, done that. President Clinton apologized at a state dinner on April 12, 1999, saying Iran"has been the subject of quite a lot of abuse from various Western nations. And I think sometimes it's quite important to tell people, look, you have a right to be angry at something my country or my culture or others that are generally allied with us today did to you 50 or 60 or 150 years ago."
As the Los Angeles Times recounted on March 18, 2000, the Clinton administration in its final year positively groveled before the mullahs in the proud tradition of Jimmy Carter. Carter, recall, helped bring them to power out of concern for human rights violations by the pro-Western regime led by the Shah of Iran.
Iran has never apologized for holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days after Iranian thugs stormed the American Embassy in Tehran. It has never apologized for being a state sponsor of terror or for developing a nuclear weapon to destroy Israel while failing to cooperate with the United Nations.
Past American timidity toward Iran has not exactly instilled fear in the mullahs that threaten us and helped place us and our allies at risk. President Obama has an opportunity to avoid the mistakes of his Democratic predecessors and to make it clear that it's the Iranians who have some 'splaining to do, not us.
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Cyprus stops ship to check for arms cargo
Nicosia - Cypriot authorities have detained a vessel from Iran and are investigating whether it was carrying an illegal cargo of weapons, diplomatic sources said on Friday. It was unclear where the ship was destined. Israel's Haaretz newspaper said the vessel was loaded with weapons and heading to Syria when it was intercepted. (Snip) Cyprus had acted after Israel and the United States requested that the vessel be stopped.
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Former USS Cole commander criticizes Obama on Guantanamo
The former commander of the USS Cole, the American war ship that was struck by a suicide boat in Yemeni waters more than eight years ago, on Thursday slammed President Barack Obama's orders to close the Guantanamo detention center and reassess the prisoners being held there.''We shouldn't make policy decisions based on human rights and legal advocacy groups. We should consider what is best for the American people, which is not to jeopardize those who are fighting the war on terror — or even more adversely impact the families who have already suffered loses as a result of the war."
R etired U.S. Navy Cmdr. Kurt Lippold said in a telephone interview. Lippold was responding to the decision by a U.S. military judge in Guantanamo to reject a request by Pentagon lawyers to delay next week's scheduled arraignment of Abd el Rahim al Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian who's charged with helping orchestrate the October 2000 suicide bombing of the Cole. The bombing killed 17 U.S. sailors.
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Beware Of CAIR
In the latest setback, a "Dear Colleague" letter sent out to every House member warns lawmakers and their staffs to "think twice" about meeting with CAIR officials."The FBI has cut ties with them," ... "There are indications" CAIR has links to Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group.
The letter, signed by the head of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus, is attached to an article by a homeland-security news service. It reports that the FBI has been canceling outreach events across the country with CAIR, following a recent directive from headquarters to cut ties with the group.
CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad, moreover, was caught on tape participating in a meeting with Hamas leaders to disguise payments as charity. During the trial, the FBI described CAIR as a front group for Islamic extremists.
It's a major policy shift at the FBI, which has appeased the notoriously litigious CAIR since 9/11. The group aggressively attacks critics with threats of boycotts and discrimination lawsuits.
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Nato wary of Russian treaty plan
Russia is pushing for a new "treaty on European security" to govern East-West relations, arguing that Nato is a Cold War relic.
Nato officials say such a treaty would weaken the alliance and reward Russian "aggression".
The proposal also contained what could be seen as a veiled threat. Russia wants a new agreement on "comprehensible" rules of the game, "to avoid having to rely exclusively on national means... to ensure security".
Nato strategists are worried at the growing list of what they see as belligerent Russian actions:
- Its seizure of territory in Georgia and unilateral recognition of breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia
- Its latest use of natural gas as a political tool this month, aimed at least partly at discrediting Ukraine as a would-be Nato member
- What US officials say is Russia's abandonment of democracy
A western diplomat at the Wilton Park meeting responded acidly that Russia had trampled on the rules of international conduct by its military action in Georgia, and was now demanding the West's acceptance of that violation as a condition of further dialogue.
"Russia's action in Georgia was no aberration. It may have become the norm."
"Russia is aggressively trying to establish its sphere of influence and to rewrite the rules based on Russian national interest, not on international rules."
But some European leaders have voiced sympathy with Russia's call for a new security set-up - notably France's President Nicolas Sarkozy. Mr Sarkozy gave further encouragement to the Russians by saying that the US missile defence system would not help Europe's security, and might harm it.
Russia has also let it be known that it wants to build a naval base for its warships on the Black Sea in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, which would break last year's ceasefire accord again.
And Russia is still refusing to let OSCE military monitors return to South Ossetia to restore an international security presence there, six months after the fighting.
The issue could be politically explosive for Nato. A national security adviser to Polish President Lech Kaczynski, Witold Waszczykowski, said at Wilton Park that Russia's security treaty idea was aimed at "the dissolution of Nato". Poland, he added, would block any high-level meeting to discuss it.
"Russia must not have a veto on which countries can join Nato. If we concede that we're finished."
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Trade versus Protectionism
There's a growing anti-trade sentiment in our country. Much of the dialogue is grossly misinformed. Let's try to untangle it a bit with a few questions and observations. First, does the U.S. trade with Japan and England? Put another way, is it members of the U.S. Congress trading with their counterparts in the Japanese Diet or the English Parliament? An affirmative answer is pure nonsense. When I purchased my Lexus, I had nothing to do with either the Japanese Diet or the U.S. Congress. Through an intermediary, a Lexus dealer, I dealt with Toyota Motor Corporation.
While it might be convenient to speak of one country trading with another, such aggregation can conceal a lot of evil, particularly when people call for trade barriers. For example, what would be a moral case for third-party interference, by either the Japanese Diet or the U.S. Congress, with an exchange between me and Toyota Motor Corporation? Some might reason that since Japan places restrictions on U.S. products entering their country, an appropriate retaliatory measure is not to allow Japanese products to freely enter the U.S. By the way, Japanese protectionist restrictions on rice imports force Japanese consumers to pay three or four times the world price for rice.
How much sense does it make for Congress to retaliate against Japan by imposing restrictions on their products thereby forcing American consumers, say Lexus buyers, to pay higher prices? Should our rule be: If one country screws its citizens we should retaliate by screwing our citizens?
[and that's the part the anti-Wal-Mart crowed always forgets: we are all, i.e. 100% of us, consumers - hence our supposed 'consumer based society'. While good paying jobs are good for those that can get them (read education or unions), good prices on goods benefit the entire society. It's the larger half of the prosperity equation for most people, so when the trade protectionists start their shtick know that they're protecting a few privileged jobs at the expense of higher prices for everyone else. - Recommended > ]
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Governors Against State Bailouts
As governors and citizens, we've grown increasingly concerned over the past weeks as Washington has thrown bailout after bailout at the national economy with little to show for it. In the process, the federal government is not only burying future generations under mountains of debt. It is also taking our country in a very dangerous direction -- toward a "bailout mentality" where we look to government rather than ourselves for solutions.
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We show tolerance to 'gays' and get tyranny in return
If I never again had to read or write a word about homosexuals, I would be very happy. I really don't want to know what other people do in their bedrooms. But these days they really, really want us all to know. And, more important, they insist that we approve. No longer are we allowed to keep our thoughts to ourselves, while being polite and kind.
We are forced to say that we think homosexuality is a good thing, that homosexual couples are equal in all ways to heterosexual married couples. Most emphatically, we are compelled to agree that homosexual couples are just as good at bringing up children as the children's own grandparents. Better, in fact.
Many people who believe nothing of the kind now know that their careers in politics, the media, the Armed Services, the police or schools will be ruined if they ever let their true opinions show. I am sure that many of them regularly lie about their views, to avoid such trouble.
We cringe to the new Thought Police, like the subjects of some insane, sex-obsessed Stalinist state, compelled to wave our little rainbow flags as the 'Gay Pride' parade passes by. You think I exaggerate the power and fury of these forces? [snip]
The family involved in the adoption case have been treated shamefully.
...what about a powerless pair of grandparents in Edinburgh, their grandchildren's lives shipwrecked by the multiple horrors of our 'liberated' society? First, their daughter ends up as a drug abuser, like so many others in a country which permits the endless promotion of drug use by rock stars and refuses to punish the possession of narcotics, the only measure that would work.
Then, when they seek to look after her children, they are first insultingly informed that they are too old, and that their minor illnesses disqualify them from the task. Heaven help any employer who dared 'discriminate' in this fashion. But the new Thought Police are oddly exempt from their own rules.
Next, the grandparents are informed that the children are to be put into the care of a homosexual couple. And - this is the crucial moment - they are warned in the most terrifying terms that if they object to this arrangement they will never see their grandchildren again... [snip]
This is the action of a tyranny in operation, especially the use of children to blackmail their parents and grandparents. People who can do this can do anything.
Isn't it amazing to reflect that this campaign began in the name of tolerance?
[this is the natural, unavoidable evolution of governmental 'social engineering' - the reversing of which usually requires {if history is any guide - and it's the only guide we have} bloodshed. Better, perhaps, to prevent it from happening in the first place?]
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UPDATE: Tycoon backs grandparents fighting gay adoption bid
A multi-millionaire is funding a legal challenge to halt the controversial adoption of two young children by a gay couple.(Snip) a top law firm has been instructed to help the grandparents of the children, whom social workers ruled were too old, at 46 and 59, to offer a loving home.(Snip)‘Allowing two men to adopt children against the wishes of their grandparents who want to care for them is positively wicked.’
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Proposals would let licensed owners tote guns more easily
AUSTIN — Michael Guzman, a 25-year-old Texas State University senior and Marine veteran, takes his Kimber Ultra Carry II handgun just about everywhere he goes. Except to school.
Texas lawmakers, how ever, are crafting ways to allow licensed handgun owners to tote their guns more easily. One proposal would let guns be carried on campuses, and another would allow licensed handgun owners to openly brandish their guns in public.
Together, the two issues are likely to be the most contentious gun-related laws of the session.
State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, is preparing the campus concealed-carry gun measure. He calls it a “safety protection bill” for students and faculty.“I don’t want to wake up one morning and hear on the news that some madman went on a Texas campus and picked off Texas students like sitting ducks,” Wentworth said. “I’m doing what I can to prevent that from happening in Texas.”
A national debate over guns on college campuses was sparked almost two years ago after the fatal shootings of 32 students at Virginia Tech. [during which the shooter casually reloaded his weapons safe in the knowledge he was the only person there armed.]
Since then, 17 states have introduced legislation to let students and faculty pack heat on campus.
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Climate change’s Antarctic ruffle
[as promised {i.e., the perfect track record of all AGW 'studies' being debunked over time} - albeit much faster than I expected {probably due to who the author of the report is}]
For two decades now, those predicting climate-change catastrophe have been frustrated by skeptics who ask, “If carbon dioxide is warming the planet, why does the data show Antarctica to be cooling?” Until last week, the doomsayers had all manner of complicated explanations but no slam dunk answer. Now, thanks to a new study published last week in Nature magazine, the doomsayers obtained the answer they sought — proof that any fool can understand. The bottom line: Antarctica is in fact warming, just like the rest of the planet.
The press seized on the findings. “Antarctica is warming, not cooling: study,” announced a Reuters headline. “Global warming hits Antarctica,” stated CNN. “Antarctica joins rest of the globe in warming,” said the Associated Press. But this study in Nature leaves many unimpressed, including top scientists from the doomsayer camp.
One week after the study’s release, it is clear this study does nothing to explain the enigma of a cooling Antarctica.
The Nature authors had a daunting challenge. For one thing, the U.S. government has maintained a scientific base at the South Pole since 1957 at which temperatures have been continuously measured. The temperature readings show a cooler climate over the past half century. For another, various weather stations in Antarctica record cooler temperatures. Moreover, satellite readings of temperatures above Antarctica show a cooling trend.
How do Mann and the other scientists involved in the Nature study now conclude that Antarctica is warming when actual temperature readings show it is not? Antarctica’s weather stations cover a small fraction of the continent. Where data doesn’t exist, Mann makes various assumptions, then deduces Antarctic temperatures over the last 50 years with the 'help' of computer models.
More computer modeling. [snip]
Michael Mann and Nature are not new to political controversy, or dubious science. The two collaborated before — in publishing what became known as the hockey-stick graph. This graph — which showed the 1990s to be the hottest decade of the hottest century of the last thousand years — became one of the most publicized facts of the year when it was published. Then the hockey stick became slapstick as it became an object of ridicule: Mann’s statistical techniques were shown to be entirely invalid and Mann was shown to have lacked the statistical knowledge demanded by the study. Mann and Nature refused to make public the data used to produce the graph, Nature refused to publish a response rebutting the hockey stick graph and Nature’s peer review process was shown to be a sham.
It took years, and a U.S. Congressional committee, to finally resolve the dispute, to Mann’s and Nature’s shame. Mercifully, the verdict over the latest offering from these two is seeing a speedier resolution.
[How does one write chutzpah in scientific notation? Sadly amazing: Mann was flat-busted when finally forced to share his hockey-stick method data (which he refused to submit to peer-review for five years, while the IPCC and MSM flamed it world wide), which was immediately shown to be mathematical nonsense - the best example being that inputting random numbers for temperature histories still result in a hockey-stick outcome.
Unfortunately, it's deja vu all over again: yeah the realists are reviewing any claim Mann makes a.s.a.p., but as you see the MSM is again flaming it - as fact, without caveat or context - all over and we all know how hard they'll work at retracting/correcting the story as peer review tears it apart. I think that's why Mann has done it again - he and his ilk know they need only make the immediate headline splash and rely on the MSM to flame the 1st half of the story and ignore the 2nd. Voila: TV news watchers hear only more 'proof' of global warming. Recommended > ]
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The case for drilling in ANWR
I AM DISMAYED THAT
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
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
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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Monday, February 2, 2009
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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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
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
.
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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