Calls for Obama's FCC to Silence the Right

In today's Huffington Post is Joseph A. Palermo's "Cheney, Rove, and Fleischer and the Importance of Net Neutrality." Net neutrality, you see, is yet another way the Left hopes to silence their opposition -- and Palermo calls on Obama's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to do exactly that.

"The Huffington Post and other progressive news and information sites, along with MoveOn.org and other Internet organizing networks, played a key role in this dramatic shift in communications technology away from the Right and toward progressive social change. We need to lock in this advantage.

"...With Democratic majorities in Congress and a liberal Democratic administration we can blunt the political influence of media conglomerates and the Right.... We have a very rare opportunity right now to lock in a progressive advantage in Internet communications, information sharing, and Netroots mobilizing."

What's so "neutral" about "lock(ing) in a progressive advantage" via regulatory fiat from Obama's FCC?

Palermo so loathes the free market and the First Amendment free speech rights of his opponents that he wants to rig the rules to establish a permanent progressive advantage in all things media.

The Censorship Doctrine isn't one particular regulatory beast, it is a state of mind. One that compels liberals -- in fact makes them feel entitled -- to silence the opposition by any means necessary.

All in the interest of "neutrality" and "fairness," of course.

['net neutrality' ... First; control the language... ]

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Obama For America to teach 'getting paid to cause trouble'

If you log into Obama's web site, you can find a list of Organizing for America (OFA) events in your area. Curious, I signed into the site and came up with a list of over thirty events within 200 miles, in the next two weeks.

The only intriguing one is this: On April 4, at Roosevelt University's downtown Chicago campus, there will be a workshop entitled ‘Getting Paid to Cause Trouble: Careers in Organizing for Social Change (Community Service)':

"Organizers from Illinois AFSCME, UNITE HERE, UFCW, Communities for an Equitable Olympics (CEO), Center for Community Change and other unions and community groups will be here to talk about jobs and internships available NOW!"

AFSCME, UNITE HERE, and UFCW are all unions. The other two groups are ‘progressive' Alinsky-model advocates for low-income people. Listed as a sponsor is the Chicago Center for Working-Class Studies, also a labor-oriented group.

"Come meet organizers from local community organizations and unions ‘walking the walk'," the page encourages. "Learn about careers in grassroots organizing."

Since when is training union organizers, or recruiting people into a union organizer training program, ‘community service'? [snip]

All I can say is that I expect it to expand and become more effective. The Stimulus bill contained $5.2 billion for ‘community development' and ‘neighborhood stabilization', and that money will pay salaries of new ‘community organizers' and ‘labor organizers'. The professional organizers will call on the grass-roots volunteers as needed:

"Hey, we're taking a busload of folks to protest at a banker's house. Care to join us?"

[FYI: this AT article by Lola Manning casts a critical eye on the group, including its creepy similarity to past personal cults. ]

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Gordon Gekko is a Democrat

How did Republicans get saddled with Wall Street? Obama just got the biggest campaign haul from Wall Street in world history, and Republicans still can't shake the public perception that they are tied at the hip to Wall Street bankers who hate them.

It's as if National Rifle Association members conspired with Republicans to bankrupt the country and everyone blamed the Democrats for being shills of the NRA...

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No Party ID for Murtha, But CBS Tags Critic Flake as '(R)'

Tuesday's CBS Evening News highlighted an ethics investigation of a long-serving House Democrat, but viewers were not clued in to his party affiliation verbally or with any an on-screen notation. Yet CBS slapped a party name on screen as a Murtha critic spoke: “Rep. Jeff Flake (R) Arizona.”

Fill-in anchor Maggie Rodriguez avoided Murtha's party as she asserted “there are few politicians as polarizing as Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha” and referred to him as “a powerful member of Congress.” In a story which consumed about-two-and-a- half minutes, reporter Sharyl Attkisson also failed to identify Murtha's party.

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More Tea Parties Media Are Sure To Ignore

There were more Tea Parties today that media are sure to ignore.

The picture to the right was furnished by Pious Agnostic who's all over the gathering in Orlando, Florida.

Our friend Glenn Reynolds has more here and here.

Below the fold are more pictures I'm sure readers will enjoy:

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California's Hefty Union Dues

Organized Labor: The state that led the way in giving labor push-button power to organize against private-sector taxpayers now stands — if you can call it standing — as a cautionary tale. The public should be forewarned for what might happen far more broadly if unions get their way in Congress.

Jobs are fleeing the Golden State, where unemployment has spiked well above 10%. Taxes are soaring, and a new budget shortfall of $8 billion, following the $42 billion gap that was patched up primarily with tax increases and borrowed money.

But California is still not a bad place to be — that is, as long as you have a secure job (which most are) on the public payroll.

According to the latest salary survey by the American Federation of Teachers, California teachers are the highest paid in the nation.

California also has America's highest-paid prison guards. A state agency's study last year found that the maximum pay of California's guards was 40% higher than that of the highest-paid guards in 10 other states and the federal government.

Private-sector workers and business owners in California get the worst of all deals. They pay some of the highest taxes in the country and get no more than mediocre public services.

It's not just the unions that have pulled the state into the ditch. Voters share the blame for ill-advised decisions at the ballot box, such as approving too much debt and imposing budget rules that keep tax revenues from going where they are needed most.

But public-union muscle has undeniably led the way in tilting the balance of power toward a self-serving, unaccountable governing class...

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image toon - cali mny = state bird = tax vulture + dead business trade

Nearly One-Third of Younger Americans See Colbert, Stewart As Alternatives to Traditional News Outlets

Nearly one-third of Americans under the age of 40 say satirical news-oriented television programs like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart are taking the place of traditional news outlets.

Thirty-two percent (32%) of adults ages 30-39 believe this to be true, while 42% disagree, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Thirty percent (30%) of those ages 18-29 say programs like the two Comedy Central shows that feature news reports with a comic twist are replacing traditional news outlets, but 35% disagree and another 35% are not sure.

Among all Americans, 24% say programs like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are taking the place of traditional news venues, but 45% do not think so. Thirty-one percent (31%) are undecided.

[God help us all.]

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Bill Allows Texans To Keep Guns In Cars At Work

AUSTIN, Texas — Texans would be able to keep firearms in their cars even if their employers forbid them to under a bill that passed in the state Senate. Businesses could still keep guns out of their offices or company vehicles.

[I like Texas]

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Krugman Criticizes Obama, Hell Freezes Over

Mark March 21, 2009, as the day pigs flew and hell froze over: the shamelessly liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman actually criticized the Obama administration. I kid you not.

Unfortunately, he did so at his blog at the New York Times website, which means far fewer people will see his critique than if it had been published in print.

But as it seems foolish to look a gift horse in the mouth on such an auspicious occasion, let us be thankful for small mercies (h/t Hot Air headlines):

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image toon 1st mny = USam to taxpayer = money goes to skuns

Most Americans Say Let AIG Go Out of Business, Political Class Disagrees

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of American adults say it’s better for the economy to let American International Group (AIG) go out of business rather than providing federal subsidies to keep the insurance giant afloat.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that only 18% think it’s better to provide the subsidies while 24% are not sure.

But those who align with America’s Political Class have a fundamentally different view. By a 70% to 11% margin, the Political Class believes it is better to keep AIG in business through subsidies.

At the other extreme, 73% of Populists say it’s better to let AIG go out of business. Populists represent a majority of the country and it’s reasonable to consider their views as the views of Mainstream America.

Those who find themselves in the middle, between the Political Class and Mainstream America, say it’s better to let AIG go by a 44% to 22% margin.

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Mob Rule In D.C.

The Law: Of all the alarming things going on in Washington these days nothing is as shocking, or disheartening, as the collapse in respect for the rule of law and the Constitution.

Like most Americans, we found ourselves angry and perplexed about the AIG bonuses. Yet, while letting AIG pay some employees retention bonuses might seem wrong or even immoral to some, it wasn't illegal.

Yet Congress, which created the problem in the first place, acted with consummate cowardice by trying to "claw back" the money through a punitive, 90% retroactive tax, one specially levied on those who work at AIG. It wants to do the same thing with recipients of TARP money, too.

Why the big change? Public anger. Welcome to mob rule... [snip]

You don't have to like or agree with the AIG bonuses to understand that Congress is doing something it shouldn't under the Constitution. Once a precedent is set, Congress will be able to go after anyone or any group, at any time, for any reason...

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mage toon - lbrty vals libs - USS Constitution - enemy is Congress

Al-Qaeda on the run?

Hard to tell how much of this is smoke and how much is true but it appears that the Predator attacks on al-Qaeda in Pakistan over the last several months is doing a lot of good - killing leaders and sowing distrust among the rank and file: [details, snip]

The information tracks with other news coming from different sources - al-Qaeda has been hit hard and they are in the process of trying to regroup. I doubt whether we worry too much about "anti-US sentiment in Pakistan" since they are perhaps the most anti-American country in the world and nothing we do will change that anytime soon.

Right now, we ar concerned about Afghanistan and as long as Pakistan keeps harboring al-Qaeda and Taliban groups in their wild, Northwest Frontier Provinces, the predadtor attacks will continue.

[One hopes.]

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61% Support Putting More U.S. Troops In Afghanistan

Sixty-one percent (61%) of U.S. voters agree with President Obama’s decision to put more U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Twenty-five percent (25%) are opposed to putting more troops in the war-torn country, and 14% are not sure in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Republicans are more supportive of the president’s action than are members of his own party. Seventy-two percent (72%) of GOP voters support the decision to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, compared to 54% of Democrats. Sixty percent (60%) of voters not affiliated with either party agree.

But 20% of voters overall say the United States should pull all of its troops out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. Sixty-nine percent (69%) disagree, and 11% are undecided.

Support for this action is highest among Democrats, 31% of whom favor the removal of all troops right away. That view is shared by 11% of Republicans and 16% of unaffiliated voters.

Obama recently announced the deployment of 17,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan, bringing the U.S. military total in the country up to 53,000.

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Mr. President: War Is Not A ‘Struggle’ Or ‘Situation’

First, President Obama jettisoned the admittedly empty and useless phrase Next, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano avoided even mentioning the word “war on terror.”“terrorism” in her first congressional testimony. Now the Department of Justice has announced it is dropping the legal designation “enemy combatants.”

The aim of all this muting of the language in the War with No Name is twofold: for the Obama administration to distance itself from George W. Bush’s “politics of fear,” and to whitewash a plain fact that liberals are suicidally reluctant to acknowledge - that we are at [real, bloody, deadly] war with radical Islam... [snip]

The refusal to acknowledge the enemy isn’t just an Obama failing; it’s a congenital blind spot of the left in general. In the New Hampshire presidential debates of a year ago, all four Democratic candidates referred to Islamic terrorism by name a whopping total of zero times - by contrast, their four Republican counterparts mentioned it twenty-two times. This underscores the fact that one party in this country has at least a partial grip on the threat we face - and the other party, the one now in power, prefers either attempting to placate the enemy by “making nice,” or pretending it doesn’t exist... [snip]

And it certainly isn’t about poverty and economic opportunity, a favorite theme of Obama’s. The ranks of al Qaeda and every other Islamist group you can name are packed with moneyed, college-educated professionals; conversely, impoverished non-Muslims worldwide aren’t taking out their frustration by strapping on explosives and targeting Westerners and Jews.

Second, we’re not dealing with an enemy that thinks the way we do in the West or that wants the same things out of life. Obama intoned on al-Arabiya;

“what I’ve come to understand is that. . . regardless of your faith, people all have certain common hopes and common dreams.”

Actually, they don’t.

In the U.S. and the rest of the West, we’re generally content to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In stark contrast, our Islamist enemies love death more than life, reject freedom in favor of absolute submission to a totalitarian ideology, and won’t be happy until the world is entirely Islamic. They cannot be swayed from their goal by promises of economic prosperity and peaceful coexistence with infidels. [snip]

“Our administration does not believe in a clash of civilizations,”

Vice-President Joe Biden announced at his February address in Munich, referring to the now-famous title of Samuel Huntington’s prescient 1998 book The Clash of Civilizations.

Well frankly, I don’t believe in it either; I believe instead that we’re embroiled in a clash of civilization versus barbarism, and that it is the defining conflict of our time...

[Highly Recommended > ]

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imag too gwot - 5% paycut sacrifice vs. legless vet

Forget Bonus Outrage, What About 'ShariAIG?'

Sigh.

Dear American Taxpayer: If only you knew how easily you have been gulled, played like a greenhorn, a rube, a Madoff mark. This $165 million scandal may have unleashed the first genuine feeding frenzy of the Obama administration, but it is a distraction, a sideshow, a smokescreen over what is really going on: namely, the Bush-initiated, Obama-Pelosi-Reid-led incursion into the private sector designed to nationalize the workings of the economy in order to take over, capture and enslave enough of the free market to transform the fundamental character of this nation.

Remember what our 44th president said back in 1995: "In America," he told the Chicago Reader,

"we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know, we idolize the John Wayne hero who comes in to correct things with both guns blazing. But individual actions, individual dreams are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations."

That is exactly what's going on behind the $165 million smokescreen -- truly, a masterpiece of misdirection. [snip]

The nationalization of AIG is forcing the American taxpayer to support a very different kind of toxic asset. I refer to AIG's promotion of Sharia (Islamic law) in its Takaful division, the Sharia-compliant insurance sector of AIG...

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Mosque Child Abuse in America

[HT:YP]
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dave Gaubatz, the first U.S. civilian (1811) Federal Agent deployed to Iraq in 2003. He is currently the Director of the Mapping Sharia Project

Not only does Al-Farooq provide materials by convicted Islamic terrorists to their worshippers, they practice polygamy (per statements made by Al Farooq worshippers) as allowed under Sharia law, which also advocates children to be taken as ‘child brides’ married to older men...

[In America...]

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Fall out from massive spending: China wants new reserve currency

.
This, my friends, is not George Bush's fault.

The suggestion by China to remove the dollar as the world's reserve currency and replace it with an internationally regulated system by the IMF is a direct result of the trillions spent by the Obama Administration so far and the promise of more.

Essentially, the Chinese believe that they will be repaid by the US in devalued currency - a result of what most analysts believe will be unavoidable inflation that will start up once our economy gets moving again.

By removing the dollar as the major reserve currency for governments, it will be harder to finance our debt. And, as the Chinese fear, the US would get to repay its obligations in inflated currency which would make it easier to reduce the $11 trillion national debt we will have by 2012.

Or perhaps, as has happened in other countries, we will wake up one morning and the government will announce all dollars will have to be exchanged for the "new dollar" - at 92 cents on the dollar or whatever amount is deemed necessary...

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image toon owg - UN re dropping dollar vs 401k agrees

Obama seeks broad power to regulate risk

The administration is not only seeking power to regulate risk across the board on Wall Street but also the ability to seize [any] companies that, in the opinion of the Treasury Department, represent a risk to the American economy if they fail.

Now, I've been told that I am being hysterical when I point out that the government's ability to break contracts means simply that the "sanctity" of contracts no longer applies in America and that we are moving toward government by diktat. The fact that the government can "seize" (WaPo's word) a company heightens my concern. But don't mind me. I'm just an old fuddy-duddy who believes in stuff like "founding principles" and other outmoded, outdated concepts.

And you can bet that the whole idea of "risk-reward" on Wall Street and elsewhere will be pretty much thrown under the bus. Risky ventures will be a thing of the past. You will have to present a sure thing to venture capitalists in order to get funding - like creating a company that makes Obama dolls or framed portraits of our president. On the other hand, if you want to be the next Google, you will be SOL...

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Yes, It Was Government Regulation That Caused Our Currrent Crisis

There has been a lot of push back against the idea that the Community Reinvestment Act nudged banks to give mortgages to people who should have not gotten them. But then here comes this fantastic story about East Bridgewater Savings in Boston.

he FDIC has turned up the heat on Petrucelli's bank, giving it an apparently rare "needs to improve rating," for not making more risky loans under the Community Reinvestment Act...

[For anyone somehow unaware or still not convinced that government is the problem > ]

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MSNBC Blames Financial Crisis on Republican Deregulation; Ignores Overwhelming Democrat Support and History

On Friday, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow accurately blamed a bill enacted in 1999 for today's financial crisis, but in so doing exclusively pointed accusatory fingers at its Republican sponsors while totally ignoring the overwhelming Democrat support it received in both Chambers of Congress.

Maybe even more egregious, she chose not to address it being signed into law by President Bill Clinton until a guest inconveniently brought it up.

Of course, NewsBusters has been apprising readers about the significance of the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 (aka Gramm-Leach-Bliley) for many months, including articles on the subject here and here.

With this in mind, Maddow's not only extremely late to this party, but she also apparently thinks only the sponsors of a bill are responsible for its content and not those that vote for or eventually sign it into law (video part I embedded right, part II below the fold with partial transcript):

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TIME FOR A REAL CHANGE: REPEAL THE CORPORATE INCOME TAX

The government often taxes an entrepreneur's profits twice, once at the business level and then again when the profits are distributed to individuals. This double taxation not only dampens the incentive to invest, but also obscures who actually bears the burden of these taxes. Because a corporation is made up of a group of individuals but is not actually an individual, corporate taxes are really taxes on the stakeholders in the corporation.

Repealing the corporate income tax alone, which would cost approximately $300 billion in annual tax revenue, would produce by 2012:

• 2 million more jobs than the baseline scenario.
• $280 billion more in real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP).
• $4,000 more in real disposable income for a fam ily of four.
• $707 billion more in household net wealth—the base of economic strength and stability.

According to a recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) working paper, of the three taxes (income, corporate, and consumption), corporate taxes are most harmful to economic growth. Other countries are aware of this and have steadily reduced their corporate tax rates. The United States has been the exception.

If Congress repealed the corporate income tax, investments would flow into the country. Multi national and international companies would be encouraged to operate in the United States, bringing jobs and new technology to meet today's economic challenges.

Eliminating the corporate tax would also encourage owners to hire and train people and to invest in their workforces because a more competitive tax structure would give corporations a greater incentive to domicile in the United States.

[Don't like 'off shoring'? This is the answer, and would lead to massive 'on-shoring'.]

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image toon - 1st mny reps = Bloated Oby tell taxpayers to tighten their belts

Al Gore vs. 7 Climate Scientists

The dissenters against Anthropogenic (man-made) Global Warming (AGW) have long desired an open and honest debate with Al Gore. But Mr. Gore has never consented.

Here’s the next best thing: a video presentation of edited arguments from 7 renown climate scientists that demolish the rationalizations presented in Gore's movie “An Inconvenient Truth."

It’s good for us to remember that, as I have written before, the whole AGW climate warming theory is hinged on one argument, namely that CO2 causes global warming.

All the politics of AGW including carbon-footprinting, taxation, etc, follow from that one claim. But the supposition on which global warming advocates base their dogma is indisputably wrong, as again documented here.

[I.e., the facts on the 'killer question' alarmists avoid like the plague, and how I know that AWG is a scam: cause cannot trail effect - if you're unaware of what I mean, this 10-minute clip will tell you all you really need know - MUST SEE > ]

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THE TAX CODE PUNISHES EFFICIENT ENERGY SOURCES

The U.S. tax code is heavily weighted in favor of renewable power sources over conventional sources such as coal and oil, Tufts University economics professor Gilbert Metcalf reports in a new study released by the Manhattan Institute.

Under current law, solar thermal and wind capital are subsidized to the greatest extent, with effective subsidy rates of 245 and 164 percent, respectively. While renewable power sources receive substantial subsidies, more efficient conventional power sources are heavily punished by the tax code. [snip]

These numbers paint a clear picture: Renewable energy receives substantial federal subsidies while generating very small amounts of energy and usable electricity. In 2007, less than 1 percent of U.S. electricity was generated by wind energy, while coal contributed over half the nation's electricity that year.

"The tax code is biased toward politically correct energies at the expense of the energies consumers want most -- oil, natural gas, and coal," ... "To this extent, tax policy is anti-consumer."

Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, agrees federal policy punishes the most efficient energy sources.

"In a time of economic crisis, it is reprehensible that politicians continue to throw good money after bad and foist high-cost, low-output energy sources on consumers,"

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Democrats on brink of clamping down on oil and gas drilling

[HT:MS]
After nearly two years of drafting and debate, rules imposing new environmental restrictions on gas and oil exploration in Colorado passed their last key test in the state Legislature with preliminary approval Tuesday by the Senate on a party-line vote.

Sen. Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, described the rules as "draconian."

"This bill means no business," said Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud.

"It means we're shutting down the oil and gas business."

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Twelve NHS trusts face inquiry after report on hospital where up to 1,200 patients died needlessly

Twelve NHS trusts are being investigated following a damning report which today slammed 'appalling' care at a hospital. Hundreds of patients may have died after bosses at Staffordshire General focused on Government targets rather than safety, the Healthcare Commission said.
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POLITICIZING CARE: OREGON CHANGES ITS PRIORITIES

After comment from interested parties [special interest groups, political and business], the state's health program for low-income people has re-ranked treatment for various diseases and conditions, currently from 1 to 680, in order of 'priority'.

The health care dollars available determine which priorities are met. As program costs have grown, the list of covered procedures has become shorter. Surprisingly, between 2002 and 2009 there was a fairly radical reordering of priorities.

A great many life-saving procedures that ranked high in 2002, such as treatment for Type 1 diabetes, have been relegated to a much lower position in 2009, while procedures that are only tangentially related to life and death have climbed to the top:

• Bariatric surgery for people with Type II diabetes and a 35 or greater Body Mass Index (BMI) number is ranked 33rd.
• This means that the rationing board thinks that stomach surgery to control obesity is more important than surgery to repair injured internal organs (88), a closed hip fracture (89), or a hernia showing symptoms of obstruction or strangulation (176).
• Abortions rank 41st, indicating that the state considers using public money for abortions more important than treating an ectopic pregnancy (43), gonococcal infections and other sexually transmitted diseases (56), or an infection or hemorrhage resulting from a miscarriage (68).

In 2002, when treatments through 566 were funded, there was far more emphasis on actual medical care and measurable interventions that save lives and improve individual functioning.

Various interest groups have spent the last seven years reordering the political* priorities embodied in the list.

[Everything government does becomes politicized. Smoke? Too bad. Ride a motorcycle? That's a problem. Eat too much - or maybe just too much red meat...? Skydive? Ski? ... You're not getting too old are you?...

We don't want government run health care.]

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image toon - hcare - Gov health care privacy vs abortion

WaPo to Domestic Violence Victims: You Can't, Shouldn't Arm Yourselves with Guns

The legislation is most likely DOA in the Maryland House of Delegates -- where a similar bill was shot down in an 86-51 vote -- but the Washington Post is so frightened by a state Senate committee vote approving a measure to make it easier for domestic abuse victims to buy a gun that it thought it important to preach about how "Arming abuse victims is the wrong way to curb domestic violence."

According to a March 24 Post editorial, abused women are just too emotionally unstable to exercise their Second Amendment rights and probably

"have seen one Jodie Foster film too many"

if they think a gun can even the odds against a violent abuser.

[There's a reason they're called 'equalizers', and no one is harmed more by gun restriction laws than are women.]

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Black Activist Jailed and Tortured Near Florida

Rude and shaggy punk rockers who sneer at their president as "a fraud and an a**hole!", who diss their national icons as "pr*cks" and "murderers!" have recently been arrested for attempting to visit a black civil rights activist who is being tortured in prison for quoting Martin Luther King in public.

"Wait a minute?!" you say. "Should'nt all hip people be outraged by this?..How come I haven't heard about this in Rolling Stone Magazine, MTV, VH1, Time, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, People, Vanity Fair, OK, InTouch, InStyle, ABC, CBS, CNN etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.??

It's very simple. The insulted "president" is named Fidel Castro, the dissed national icon is named Che Guevara, and the black civil rights activist was jailed and tortured for campaigning for civil rights in Cuba for Cubans.

Need I say more?

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Name That Party: 3 Dems in FBI Probe, Party Affiliation Omitted/Buried

The Associated Press posted a story on the FBI's probe of questionable campaign donations to Senator Patty Murray and Representative Norm Dicks of Washington state. The possibly worrisome donations were from PMA Group, a lobbying firm founded by an aide of Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania.

With all these politician's names being thrown around in the AP report, though, it is curious that not a one of them were ever identified as Democrats. Not once.

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Barbour signs law to ban red-light cameras in Mississippi

Jackson — Officials in several Mississippi cities are scrambling to re-evaluate contracts with private companies after Gov. Haley Barbour signed a new law banning the use of automatic cameras that snap pictures of vehicles running red lights. The new law says the two cities that already have the cameras, Jackson and Columbus, must take them down by Oct. 1. Other cities and counties are banned from starting to use them.

[It's not about safety, it's about revenue.]

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[HT:JN]

image toon - 1st mny fnn - CBO = Oby qualified to bowl in special olympics

image toon - 1st fnn othr reps oby - Leno = swami re beneth the dignity of a president

'Are we a banana republic?'

I'm stupefied to find that some people are defending the constitutionality of the discriminatory, confiscatory and retroactive tax on people who receive bonus income from companies that got TARP money. I would have considered it a bright line rule that the government can't identify a class of unpopular people and impose a special tax on them. [unless, of course, you smoke]

What's next? A 100% income tax on registered Republicans, retroactive to last year? If Pelosi's bill passes muster, why not? [snip]

A banana republic features governments that arbitrarily change the law to suit their interests or the interests of their cronies. Peter Robinson of NRO added this to John's missive:

As it happens, just a couple of weeks ago I found myself having this very conversation with a Cuban and a Colombian. Both were close and longtime observers of Latin American politics and experts, therefore, on banana republicdom. They insisted—just insisted—that Barack Obama was moving us in that direction, and fast.

I had a much harder time refuting their argument than I'd have liked.

The fact is, the Democrats are doing things in Congress and the White House that are far beyond what Bush and the Republicans ever even contemplated.

But setting up a "tyranny of the majority" is easy when no one calls you out for it.

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57% Support 90% Tax on AIG Post-Bailout Bonuses

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of U.S. voters favor imposing a 90% tax on bonuses paid by American International Group (AIG) and other firms that receive government bailout money, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Thirty-five percent (35%) oppose such a tax, which already has been approved by the House and is now under discussion in the Senate.

Three-out-of-four Americans (76%) want the executives involved to give the bonuses back. Sixty-eight percent (68%) have come to believe that most bailout money is going to those who caused the economic crisis to begin with.

Seventy-three percent (73%) of voters say Congress and President Obama should have acted to prevent the AIG bonuses before the company received its bailout money. Only 10% disagree,and 17% are not sure.

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We've legalized theft in America

I have been looking through a new study, released by an organization called the Property Rights Alliance, called the International Property Rights Index. The study examines 115 nations worldwide and examines the correspondence between prosperity in a country and how secure private property is there.

It shows a practically perfect correlation. The more secure private property is in a given country, the more prosperous it is. Countries rated in the top 25 percent in secure and safe private property have on average nine times more income per person than those in the bottom 25 percent.

It's one of those things that makes so much sense that you wonder why you have to do a study to show it. The easier it is to steal in any given country the less likely the economy will function well there.

Yet, basic truths such as this are becoming increasingly lost in our country and this is what should be driving our outrage. That we now live in a country where our private property is no longer safe and the very government that supposedly exists to protect it has become the thief we have to worry about.

President Obama went on Jay Leno's popular Tonight Show and talked about the current crisis. Listening to him, there seems little doubt that everything started on Wall Street.

"The problem is ... people were able to take huge, excessive risks with other people's money."

But, Mr. President, half the mortgages in this country are owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which were and are backed up with the money of us taxpayers. An easy flowing mortgage credit market built by politicians, by setting us taxpayers up to guarantee it all, which is what we wound up doing, is what started this whole thing... [snip]

Or we can re-direct our attention from symptoms to causes.

We can recall that the founders of our country intended the role of government to protect our lives and property, not violate them. And that in times when we have respected that proper use of government, our country has prospered.

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Poll: Nearly half place most of blame for bonuses on AIG anagement; one in five point at Congress

[HT:AD]
There's a lot of blame to go around when it comes to the $165 million in bonuses paid to executives at AIG, the insurance giant that has gotten $170 billion in federal aid.

A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows that Americans hold AIG management itself most responsible.

[Propaganda works.]

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image toon - 1st fnn mny DODD pointing cookie jar at AIG

Poland hopes U.S. will not let it down on shield

- Poland said on Sunday it hoped the new U.S. administration would not abandon plans to station a missile defence system on its territory.

President Barack Obama's administration is reviewing U.S. security policy, including the missile shield plan. This has prompted speculation he might shelve a project that has angered Moscow, with which Washington wants to mend ties.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Poland had taken "something of a political risk" in signing an agreement with the Bush administration to host the system.

NATO member Poland has said it expects the shield project, designed to counter possible threats from what Washington calls rogue states such as Iran, to go ahead eventually after the review and hopes to complete technical talks next month.

Under the deal agreed last year, Poland would host 10 ground-based interceptors, and in return Washington promised to station a Patriot missile battery on Polish territory for a period before the end of 2009.

[Reneging on a non-NATO member would be dishonorable - but on a fellow member?]

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FLASHBACK > No Offense :

On December 3, every last one of them signed a statement saying that missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic would make a "substantial contribution" to keeping them alive, roughly speaking.

Why in the world is Obama dithering?

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Robbing the Pentagon to Pay Foggy Bottom

The administration’s plan to get us to European levels of defense spending by 2016 comes at the same time as reports that the Chinese government stated that its official defense budget will jump by 14.9 percent this year (who knows how high the actual amounts are) and an announcement by Russian President Medvedev that Russia will undertake a “large-scale rearming” by 2011 given that “there are a range of regions where there remains serious potential for conflicts.”

There are a multitude of reasons that cutting defense at this juncture is a bad idea.

The systems reportedly on the chopping block include a new Navy destroyer, the Air Force’s F-22, Army ground-combat vehicles, and possibly aircraft carriers, all integral elements of our ability to project power and defend our allies. Missile defense, now out of favor because it is unpopular in Moscow, is expected to take a significant hit as well.

But beyond the programs and systems, the administration’s budget offers insight into its mentality about national security. Listen to some Democratic budget experts and you hear phrases like a “return to normalcy” used to describe the administration’s plans for defense spending.

In this “normal” world, there is no mention of 9/11, or of the fact that countries such as Russia and China still threaten our allies and our interests...

['get us to European levels of defense spending' ? Europe cannot defend itself. Highly Recommended > ]

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Obama Diverting Money From Armed Pilots Program

In an editorial on Tuesday, The Washington Times noted that the administration recently diverted some $2 million from the pilot training program. Instead, the money will be used to hired more supervisors to conduct field inspections of pilots, the Times reported.

The move will make air travel more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, something that should outrage travelers, said the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said.

“This looks like completely unnecessary harassment of the pilots,”

the newspaper opined. CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb agreed that the Obama administration is

“risking public safety, as the newspaper put it, 'in the name of an anti-gun ideology.'"

According to the Air Line Pilots Association, the government – since April 2003 -- has trained thousands of volunteer airline pilots as federal flight deck officers to protect passenger and cargo aircraft flying throughout the United States.

“The FFDO program has evolved from a small program that armed airline pilots to protect the flight deck into a substantial, cost-effective security institution,”

Gottlieb noted that some politicians and bureaucrats have never liked the armed pilot program:

"These anti-gun, anti-self-defense bureaucrats seem more interested in their own power, and protecting their little empires, than they are in protecting the public. And now Obama is catering to their anti-gun bigotry."

The pilots’ union repeatedly has urged Congress to adequately fund the program, and its priorities for 2009 include bolstering the program.

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How Will Media Report Chavez Calling Obama 'A Poor Ignoramus'?

Barack Obama is hailed by sycophantic media members as one of the brightest men to ever be President, and was supposed to improve America's standing around the world.

Yet, on Sunday, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez called Obama

"a poor ignoramus" who "should read and study a little to understand reality."

Given how impressed news members are with our new President, and how they regularly disparaged the intellectual capacity of George W. Bush, it is going to be very interesting to see how Chavez's comments get covered in the coming days.

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U.N. panel says world should ditch dollar

A U.N. panel will next week recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, a member of the panel said on Wednesday, adding to pressure on the dollar.

Currency specialist Avinash Persaud, a member of the panel of experts, told a Reuters Funds Summit in Luxembourg that the proposal was to create something like the old Ecu, or European currency unit, that was a hard-traded, weighted basket.

Some analysts said news of the U.N. panel's recommendation extended dollar losses because it fed into concerns about the future of the greenback as the main global reserve currency, raising the chances of central bank sales of dollar holdings.

"Speculation that major central banks would begin rebalancing their FX reserves has risen since the intensification of the dollar's slide between 2002 and mid-2008,"

Russia is also planning to propose the creation of a new reserve currency, to be issued by international financial institutions, at the April G20 meeting, according to the text of its proposals published on Monday.

It has significantly reduced the dollar's share in its own reserves in recent years.

[I.e., we cannot just print money, which is what our spending frenzy is requiring, and expect the rest of the world to simply eat the devaluation which follows.]

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image toon - owg - UN says world should ditch dollar = everyone wants

Thank God America Isn't Like Europe -- Yet

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The stuff of life -- the elemental events surrounding birth, death, raising children, fulfilling one's personal potential, dealing with adversity, intimate relationships -- occurs within just four institutions: family, community, vocation and faith.

Seen in this light, the goal of social policy is to ensure that those institutions are robust and vital. The European model doesn't do that. It enfeebles every single one of them.

Drive through rural Sweden, as I did a few years ago. In every town was a beautiful Lutheran church, freshly painted, on meticulously tended grounds, all subsidized by the Swedish government. And the churches are empty. Including on Sundays.

The nations of Scandinavia and Western Europe pride themselves on their "child-friendly" policies, providing generous child allowances, free day-care centers and long maternity leaves. Those same countries have fertility rates far below replacement and plunging marriage rates.

They are countries where jobs are most carefully protected by government regulation and mandated benefits are most lavish. And with only a few exceptions, they are countries where work is most often seen as a necessary evil, and where the proportions of people who say they love their jobs are the lowest.

Call it the Europe Syndrome, which goes something like this: Human beings are a collection of chemicals that activate and, after a period of time, deactivate. The purpose of life is to while away the intervening time as pleasantly as possible.

If that's the purpose of life, then work is not a vocation, but something that interferes with the higher good of leisure. If that's the purpose of life, why have a child, when children are so much trouble? If that's the purpose of life, why spend it worrying about neighbors? If that's the purpose of life, what could possibly be the attraction of a religion that says otherwise?

[I.e., Europe, as a union and a people, is retiring. You know, that time in life when you get your just rewards and do for you. That's great for individuals - but it does beg the question when speaking of societies: what follows retirement?

Highly Recommended > ]

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54% Say Allies Should Follow America's Lead

More U.S. voters than ever (54%) think the nation’s allies should do what the United States wants them to do.

Only 14% think America should do what its allies want when it comes to foreign policy, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Twenty-six percent (26%) think neither side has the answer.

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Your 'duh' moment for today

The headline says it all:

New deficit estimates much worse than W. House predicted

How much worse?

President Barack Obama's budget would generate deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year over the next decade, according to the latest congressional estimates, significantly worse than predicted by the White House just last month.

The Congressional Budget Office figures, obtained by The Associated Press Friday, predict Obama's budget will produce $9.3 trillion worth of red ink over 2010-2019. Worst of all, CBO says the deficit under Obama's policies would never go below 4 percent of the size of the economy, figures that economists agree are unsustainable.

By the end of the decade, the deficit would exceed 5 percent of gross domestic product, a dangerously high level.

"Unsustainable" deficits means that we are going to have to do something drastic like raise everyone's taxes beyond belief while gutting our military and reducing discretionary spending to as close to zero as we can get. And this will have to be done in an economy that is being ruined by the president's actions.

It won't [just] be our children or grandchildren who will be living in the wreckage of a ruined economy. It will be us and it will happen much quicker than we are being told.

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image toon 1st mny grn fnn othr - Oby's budget turns earth red

Obama links budget to environment

President Barack Obama's aides say the administration will work with Congress on his budget proposal, but energy independence is not subject to wheeling and dealing. Obama planned to make the case Monday for a budget proposal that invests billions in research designed to reduce climate change and guarantees loans for companies that develop clean energy technologies.

[I.e., all the things that don't work, at the expense of abandoning all the things that do.]

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Lord Monckton Spring Cleans Global Warming Hysteria

Following a wonderfully droll refresher on archaic royal manners, Monckton shredded Al Gore’s “consensus” claims and offered Liddy a history lesson in previous – and significantly warmer -- warming periods. And then explained how a combination of “very powerful naked vested interests” drives the warming alarmist misinformation campaign.

Here’s his formula: Combine media “world to end” sensationalist marketing ploys with “rent-seeking” scientists and the political left’s need to appear to be relevant and concerned. Add teachers wanting to appeal to the idealism of students – for them the Al Gore message of apocalyptic imminent doom is magnetically attractive -- and U.N world government wannabes and -- voila!

Monckton repeated verbatim the magnificent 428-word cap-and-trade dragon beheading sentence he befuddled the clowns in the House Ways and Means subcommittee with earlier this month, and that alone is well worth your listening time. And, as always, his Lordship was as charming and entertaining as he was enlightening. Hear the entire segment here.

Thomas Lifson adds: Give yourself a treat and listen. It is obvious why Al Gore is scared to death of debating Lord Monckton. He is eloquent, witty, and effortlessly eloquent. Gore is ponderous at best, and would sound like a dummy paired with him.

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image toon = grn = snowman = know how foolish look?

British Minister calls for 50% reduction in population

The "sustainable development" crew is at it again. This time, it's a British Minister who will recommend at a population conference this week that the United Kingdom reduce its population from 60 million to 30 million in order to build a "sustainable society:"

This is beyond insidious. In order to achieve a 50% reduction in population, Great Britain would have to mandate family size and even take control of family planning completely, making the decisions regarding which parents will be able to have children and which won't. And there is absolutely no scientific evidence whatsoever that reducing the population of a developed country will impact climate change one iota. They are just making stuff up as they go along.

And people wonder why many of us point to the real agenda of global warming fanatics as a reason to oppose them.

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Offshore Oil Drilling Ban Will Be Restored ‘By Any Means Necessary,’ Democratic Congressman Says

The ban on offshore oil drilling that expired last September will be restored by “any means necessary,” Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), who serves on both the House Committee on Natural Resources and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, told CNSNews.com on Friday.

Inslee, who participated in a conference entitled "Planning for a Secure Energy Future” sponsored by the Washington Post, also recommended a ban on future drilling in the arctic, where he says there is a “gold rush” for oil by [every nation but the U.S.].

But Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), who serves on the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and also attended the conference, told CNSNews.com that offshore oil drilling should provide an integral part of American energy and recommended the Interior Department begin distributing offshore oil drilling leases.

“We have to have natural gas,” ... “We have to have U.S. oil production. There may be as much as 75 percent of our proven reserves that are on federal lands or in the ocean combined. It’s a huge opportunity for this country to become energy independent.”

Walden added that he thinks the process of offshore oil drilling could also provide an excellent stimulus to the U.S. economy.

[Which are you for? If continued inslavement to OPEC, you're in good hands, the Dems are in charge. But if you'd rather we used our own oil, you'll need speak up: silence will be interpreted as consent.]

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

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College scholarship for illegals only

CALIFORNIA

The San Mateo Community College District, on the San Francisco Peninsula, has sent a mass email announcing a scholarship for "undocumented" students of "Chicano / Latino descent" only.

CORE (Chicano Organizing & Research in Education) is pleased to announce its first annual "Que Llueva Café" scholarship. Applicants must be undocumented, Chicano/Latino, high school students entering college this fall. The postmark deadline is April 10, 2009. [snip]

Here is the full text of an ungrammatical email sent yesterday, proudly announcing the boon solely for those who do not follow the immigration laws of our country. Oddly enough, they see nothing wrong with requiring their own documentation.

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Kids Are Being Taught That Carbon Kills Polar Bears

CALIFORNIA

California’s KQED has a story about elementary school children being taught that manmade “Mr. Carbon” is giving the Earth a global warming “fever” and killing “lovable” polar bears. Of course, the San Francisco-based PBS station thinks that’s just swell.

Cool The Earth, the group behind this blatant indoctrination program, is the brainchild of two Marin County parents who say they were inspired by watching Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. That’s probably all you need to know, but bear with me – it gets better.

According to their website, “Cool The Earth is a ready-to-run program that educates K-8 students and their families. Here’s how they describe the program’s kick-off assembly:

The Cool the Earth program launches with an all-school assembly in which an original, play is performed by teachers, parents and students. Characters such as Koda the polar bear, Earth and Mother Nature act out scenarios about how human activities are contributing to raising levels of carbon dioxide and giving the earth a global warming “fever.”

It’s broken record time again, folks. As global temperatures continue to cool, alarmists are picking up both the tempo and intensity of their disinformation campaign. And public schools are a high value target. Please monitor the “science” being fed to your kids in school. And be prepared to remove any green mush that finds itself between their ears. Sit your kids down to watch and discuss the fabulous video AT’s Gregory Young features today.

And should your 7-year-old return home from school one day, upset that your “carbon footprint” is killing poor Koda the polar bear, explain to the little tyke that what he or she saw in school wasn’t real, but only make-believe.

Just like manmade global warming itself.

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Judge Orders FDA to Reconsider Limits on Morning-After Pill for Minors

A federal court today ordered the Food and Drug Administration to reconsider the agency's controversial decision limiting non-prescription access to the morning-after pill Plan B to women age 18 and older.

U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman ordered the FDA to make Plan B available to women age 17 and older within 30 days and to reconsider whether to make the drug available to women of all ages without a prescription.

[Excuse me, but did the FDA break a law in exercising the authority given it by United States Code? No? Then who the heck is this (or any) judge to arbitrarily 'order' it what to do?

We've a serious problem with our run-away judiciary - it needs be reigned in.]

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We've a serious problem with our run-away judiciary - it needs be reigned in.]

San Francisco Democrat In House Seeks Lower Taxes -- By Claiming Maryland Residency

The Washington Post's Miranda Spivack downplayed all the irony in her report Friday on a top House Democrat on the tax-law-writing Ways and Means Committee trying to lower his taxes in Maryland by claiming the state as his residence – even as he represents a district in San Francisco. The congressman is long-time liberal Pete Stark.

Stark's homestead exemption was first reported yesterday by Bloomberg News. The congressman is the second-ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee and chairs its health subcommittee, which writes tax legislation.

Stark said yesterday that he expected Maryland to reject his application for a homestead exemption. "From what I hear from everybody, it will be denied and my taxes will go up," he said. He said he expects his $12,500 annual property tax bill to increase by about $3,000.

Will this story be reported in San Francisco and New York? Neither of these liberals are in much danger of being unseated, but it should be highly embarrassing for them to call themselves residents of Maryland just for a tax break.

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Biden bashes Obama?

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“Axelrod really wanted me to do this on teleprompter -- but I told him I’m much better when I wing it. … I know these evenings run long, so I’m going to be brief. Talk about the audacity of hope. … President Obama does send his greetings, though. He can’t be here tonight -- because he’s busy getting ready for Easter. (Whisper) He thinks it’s about him. …"

[Prepare for 24/7 media blitz.]

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NYT Columnist: People Only Want Info That Confirms Prejudices

"[T]here’s pretty good evidence that we generally don’t truly want good information — but rather information that confirms our prejudices. We may believe intellectually in the clash of opinions, but in practice we like to embed ourselves in the reassuring womb of an echo chamber."

I hardly ever agree with anything New York Times columnist Nicolas Kristof writes, but his piece on Wednesday was astoundingly provocative and an absolute must-read.

His basic premise is that with the demise of print media and our reliance on the Internet as an information source, we Americans are mostly surrounding ourselves with folks that think like us and, therefore, aren't really being challenged to defend our views on the important issues of the day.

Before casting this aside as so much liberal elite twaddle, consider the following:

One 12-nation study found Americans the least likely to discuss politics with people of different views, and this was particularly true of the well educated. High school dropouts had the most diverse group of discussion-mates, while college graduates managed to shelter themselves from uncomfortable perspectives.

The result is polarization and intolerance. Cass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor now working for President Obama, has conducted research showing that when liberals or conservatives discuss issues such as affirmative action or climate change with like-minded people, their views quickly become more homogeneous and more extreme than before the discussion.

For example, some liberals in one study initially worried that action on climate change might hurt the poor, while some conservatives were sympathetic to affirmative action. But after discussing the issue with like-minded people for only 15 minutes, liberals became more liberal and conservatives more conservative. [snip]

Interesting. Does that mean the information superhighway is actually narrowing our horizons rather than broadening them?

Before dismissing this notion offhand, ask yourself how many liberal websites you surfed today, and how many people you have in your inner circle that don't share your political point of view.

So do yourself a favor: go find a liberal [or conservative, or 'other'] to argue with! [ahem: debate]

[Shortish and quite good, and gratifying to see. Those of you who know me have likely heard my {self aggrandizing} speech re: my 'discipline' to read a number of left-blogs every day (kos, huff, media matters etc. - I've even posted from the latter).

Point is; this is the dark side of the new media. As empowering as being able to select our own 'news' is, we're also self-filtering - with the exact effects described above, so...

I re (re-re) offer free advice: try to spend half your news browsing time reading those articles that don't sound agreeable or 'right' per the title. It's surprisingly tough (dumbness can be painful) - but what exactly are we learning by reading only what we already agree with?

Highly Recommend (from the New York Times, mind) > ]

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image toon - fnn msm bias othr - Rading paper in bathroom = lugging PC along