Huffington Calls Suspension of Mark-to-Market Accounting 'Absolutely Tragic'

Huffington Post editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington appeared on ABC's April 5 "This Week," where she voiced her disapproval of the March 30 decision by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) relaxing mark-to-market accounting rules.

"This week, we saw so many concessions to the banks," Huffington said. "We saw the suspension of mark-to-market, which is absolutely tragic. Japan, by not having mark-to-market, made it much harder for them to recover."

Funny, Brian Wesbury and Robert Stein of First Trust Portfolios recently wrote for Forbes magazine, mark-to-market accounting reinstitution was reinstated only in recent years. The last time it was in effect - during the Great Depression - it caused many bank failures...

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Will Obama's Revolution Deliver Energy Independence?

Steven Chu, the physicist who is President Obama's energy secretary, recently gave a speech in which two key words never passed his lips. He talked about energy efficiency, electricity transmission lines and renewable energy sources. He waxed eloquent about technology and the need to fund energy research. But afterward, Chevron vice chairman Peter Robertson noted disconsolately that

"it would be nice to hear a bit about oil and gas." [snip]

"The clean energy revolution is here now,"

declares Greg Wetstone, senior director for government and public affairs at the American Wind Energy Association.

To carry out this revolution, Obama has appointed a climatologist's dream team of scientists, regulators and political operatives to energy and environment positions. Chu gave up his research to devote himself to seeking technologies that could slow climate change. Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson is determined to set greenhouse gas regulations. Lisa Heinzerling, principal author of the brief in a key lawsuit against the Bush EPA, is now working as the agency's senior climate policy counsel. And Carol Browner, who served for eight years as head of Bill Clinton's EPA, is back as White House energy and climate czar.

[Which is why the obvious (and only realistic) solution to our foreign oil dependance is being utterly ignored: develop our own oil and gas reserves.]

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Census Bureau: We’ll Work with ‘Community Organizations’

The acting director of the U.S. Census Bureau, Thomas Mesenbourg, told CNSNews.com that the bureau intends to work with community organizations to make sure every illegal alien in the United States is counted in the 2010 Census.

“Our job is to count everyone that resides in the U.S.(Snip) So, certainly that’s our goal to count(Snip) every resident whether they’re documented, undocumented, whether they are citizens or non-citizens.”

The Census is used to apportion the seats in the U.S. House of Representative. There are 435 House seats that are divided among the states in proportion to their population, which is determined by the decennial census. States with more people get more seats in the U.S. House.

This means that a state harboring more illegal aliens can gain more House seats as long as the Census Bureau finds the illegal aliens and counts them.

This also means that the illegal alien population resident in the United States during a census year has the potential to alter the regional and philosophical balance of power in Congress

[I.e., they'll make no effort to distinguish illegals for reapportionment reasons. The assault continues.]

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The Campaign To Bankrupt The Palin Family

From just September till now, Sarah Palin has accumulated a personal dept of over $500,000 in legal fees defending herself against fake/false/frivolous ethics charges. That’s Five Hundred Thousand Dollars.

I must defend against these baseless ethics accusations out of my own pocket as the use of public monies to do so could itself violate state law …

A group of Alaska liberals, with the apparent cooperation of members of the Alaska Democratic Party have been filing ethics charge after ethics charge against Sarah Palin. The aim? Not to get her impeached and booted from office, because every single one of the charges are frivolous, baseless and even fairly deranged - one was even filed in the name of a soap opera character - but something far more personal.

… obviously we cannot afford to personally pay these bills - and really no future governor should feel the sense of financial vulnerability at the hands of those with a political vendetta bent on personal destruction …

These people want to bankrupt the Palins and leave them destitute. They want to empty their bank accounts so that they cannot afford the basics and necessities of life after Governor Palin leaves office.

This is just despicable.

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MSNBC Shuns Democratic Hypocrisy; Highlights GOP

For over two and a half months, MSNBC host David Shuster featured a segment called "Hypocrisy Watch" on his program "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue".

An analysis by the Media Research Center finds that of the 48 "Hypocrisy Watch" segments, 34 went after conservatives or Republicans. Only four attacked liberals or Democrats. (Only two editions could be described as bipartisan. Another wasn't political. The remaining seven segments all hit business and corporate-related targets.)

The daily feature began on January 14 and Shuster asserted on that day, "...We will focus on an organization or person who clearly seems to be doing something that makes the term appropriate."

Liberal hypocrisies, such as President Barack Obama signing a $410 billion spending bill loaded with thousands of earmarks despite decrying them during the campaign, have gone unnoticed.

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Name That Party: Public Drunkenness Edition

The CNN story, Pennsylvania official checks into rehab following arrest, is yet another example. It begins:

Pennsylvania's acting secretary of labor and industry has entered a rehabilitation program for at least two weeks after her arrest on a public drunkenness charge last week.
Just a few hours before her arrest, Sandi Vito backed out of a scheduled interview with a CNN correspondent about the state's controversial use of debit cards to pay unemployment benefits.

Vito, who was appointed acting secretary of labor and industry in February 2008, "has entered a treatment program for two weeks," according to Gov. Ed Rendell's chief spokesman.

The article runs for a dozen paragraphs. Never mentioned is the fact Vito is a Democrat. We know this not just because she's an appointee of Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, whose party is also not reported, but because Vito has given money to Democratic political campaigns.

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Poll finds nation most polarized in decades under Obama

As President Obama travels across Europe, a new poll out at home shows he's failed so far to forge any kind of bipartisanship and has polarized the country.

"For all of his hopes about bipartisanship, Barack Obama has the most polarized early job approval ratings of any president in the past four decades,"

says the Pew Research Center.

The poll finds that Obama has very high approval from Democrats, 88 percent, and very low approval from Republicans, 27 percent.

The 61-point partisan gap eclipses George W. Bush's 51-point gap in his first year, and that was after the long recount and simmering charges from Democrats that Bush 'stole' the 2000 election..

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Modern American 'Racism'

In modern America, racism means anything you want it to mean. If you want a job you're not be qualified for, or you don't want to work at all but still want to get paid, or if you want to stop someone from doing something, or you want to punish someone for doing something, just scream racism at the top of your lungs until your lawyer gets someone to pay you to shut up.

Here are some practical examples of racism, as practiced by racists, in modern America:

• Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal questions whether to take federal stimulus money because to do so may obligate the state to continue to fund some programs long after the federal money runs out. He's a racist.
• Dallas County Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield says paperwork that keeps getting lost in a county office has disappeared into "a black hole." He's a racist.
• Toddlers who say "yuk" when fed unfamiliar ethnic food. They're racists. (Technically, this was based on a British study, but they speak English, too.)
• An Indiana University student working as a part-time university custodian reads the book Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan in an employee break room (the book is available in the school's library). He's a racist.
• A man tells a co-worker he wrecked his car after loosing control of it on a patch of "black ice." He's a racist.
• Anyone who suggests a link between Islam and violence is a racist.
• Anyone who suggests stricter border security is a racist.
• And obviously, anyone who didn't vote for Barack Obama is by default a racist.

These examples aren't made up. They're not hypothetical. They're real, and the people involved were accused of being racists, even the toddlers in the British study.

I'm fed up with it, but perhaps if enough of us are fed up, and together we express our disgust and begin to shout down the race mongers, we can be heard. And if we can be heard, maybe we can engage in an intelligent debate when the subject of race comes up, instead cowering in the corner hoping not to be accused of RACISM.

[Don't subscribe to the 'shouting' part - I think a calm, consistent {every time} but unambiguous rejection is the best counter to this extortionary tactic.

More, Recommended > ]

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Featherweights: Detroit police halt pillow fight

Detroit - Police in Detroit have ruffled some feathers after they cracked down on an organized pillow fight at a downtown park. The Detroit News reports that police at Campus Martius Park prevented the feathery fight Saturday by disarming pillow-toting participants.- police confiscated the 32-year-old man's pillows but returned their cases.

He said he was told that he needed a permit.

[Government. Health care anyone?]

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Our Exceptionalism Comes From Our Constitution

The U.S. Constitution is the rarest of documents and our execution of what it says has separated our country’s history from the rest of the world and made us objectively better. America is not a pile of soil. We aren’t a location. In fact, if we ever move the U.S. to the moon I’ll be the first on the ship and to hell with the Earth. The Global Community has no such miraculous document. It has no self-evident truth as its charter, instead it has global consensus.

Our country is not a peer of the G20. Our country is better than every other country in the world. Not because we’re white or black, or born in this or that hemisphere, or because of our GDP, but because of our values, our charter, our adherence to the Constitution. So the idea that we have just one vote amid twenty countries when we represent almost half of G20’s combined GDP is a foolish play on President Obama’s part.

So it pains me to watch my President stand among the G20 leaders as he works hard to fit in with a bunch of really stupid countries...

[Recommended > ]

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Woman to 911: Help! I'm locked inside my car

A 911 dispatcher had to tell a woman how to unlock her car on Sunday. A woman called Kissimmee police to say she was locked inside her car at the Walgreen's on John Young Parkway near Poinciana.

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image photo - fnn - reps Oby to Hillary = never sitting of sofa

North Korea 'has launched rocket'

[HT:LDot]

"Rocket went up near midnight. Came down in the Pacific. All media watching Obama. Not much time to cover."


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N. Korea fires missle over Japan

North Korea fired a long-range rocket over Japan on Sunday, provoking international outrage and triggering an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council as it succeeded in grabbing the world's attention. The reclusive communist state's official media said a satellite had been launched into orbit, and it was now circling the earth transmitting revolutionary songs. But both the U.S. military and South Korea said nothing had entered orbit.

U.S. President Barack Obama said the U.N. Security Council should deliver a strong message to North Korea for what analysts believe was effectively a test of a ballistic missile designed to carry a warhead potentially as far as Alaska.

Wait a minute: wasn't North Korea involved in such activities because of George W. Bush? Wasn't the world going to immediately become a safe place once Obama became president? How can this be that North Korea and Iran are still pursuing such weaponry with Obama in the White House?

Maybe more important, what will the healer of all evil things do about this OTHER than call on the U.N.? And will media gush and fawn over his response whatever it is?

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The Very Softest of Powers

The weekend rocket launch by North Korea capped off what has been a remarkably successful first quarter for the world’s most toxic regimes and troublesome bad actors.

President Obama said that he wants the U.S. to lead not by force, but by example. However no one is following. This means that there is, at this time, no world leader among nations. There is no unipolarity, but there is also no multipolarity. Declinists who thought American influence would be challenged (or augmented) by “emerging Asian superpowers” have been made irrelevant by the global economic crisis.

Influence is now in the hands of bad actors that see the Free World’s reluctance to take a stand.

They and their enablers within international bodies are setting the global agenda. Everyone else is reacting. In three months, the Obama administration has not failed one foreign policy test but six, by this reckoning. The only national security areas in which the president has acted soundly are in Iraq and Afghanistan. And those have been matters of continuing or expanding Bush policies...

[I.e., as always, any void in moral leadership is quickly being filled by the despots of the world. We can regret that human truism, but we deny it at peril.

Highly Recommended for the specific examples that support the above conclusions > ]

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I would've disabled missile

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told “Fox News Sunday” that he would have disabled the long-range missile before North Korea launched it, saying too many people “do not appreciate the scale of the threat that is evolving on the planet.”

“There are three or four techniques that could have been used, from unconventional forces to standoff capabilities, to say: ‘We’re not going to tolerate a North Korean missile launch, period.’

“One morning, just like 9/11, there’s going to be a disaster,” Gingrich said. “I have yet to see the United Nations do anything effective with either Iran or North Korea.”

Reacting to President Barack Obama’s speech in Prague, Gingrich called the plan for a Global Summit on Nuclear Security a “wonderful fantasy idea,” saying Russia and other nations can’t be trusted.

“What are they going to promise, and why would we believe them?” Gingrich said. “It’s very dangerous to have a fantasy foreign policy, and it can get you in enormous trouble.”

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Gates plans major changes in defense budget

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is expected to announce on Monday the 'restructuring' of several dozen major defense programs as part of the Obama administration's bid to 'shift' military spending from preparations for large-scale war against traditional rivals to the counterinsurgency programs that Gates and others consider likely to dominate U.S. conflicts in coming decades. Obama addressed the Pentagon budget March 24, saying:

"We've already identified potentially $40 billion in savings just by some of the procurement reforms. . . . And we are going to continue to find savings in a way that allows us to put the resources where they're needed, but to make sure that we're not simply fattening defense contractors."

Among the programs expected to be heavily cut is the Army's Future Combat Systems, cutting a new $20 billion communications satellite program and reducing the number of aircraft carriers from 11 to 10. He also plans to eliminate elements of the missile defense effort that are over budget or 'considered ineffective'...

[It's great news to learn we no longer need concern ourselves with the future intentions of nation-state 'traditional rivals' -- such as Russia and China.]

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image toon - nsec gwot - = Oby = proposes cuts in BMD missle defense

Russia warns US on Georgia

- Russia sent a strong warning to the United States Thursday about supporting Georgia in the U.S. ally's efforts to rebuild its military following last year's war.

The Foreign Ministry said helping arm Georgia would be "extremely dangerous" and would amount to "nothing but the encouragement of the aggressor."

The warning comes days after Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili stridently vowed to rebuild and prepare his armed forces for missions other than peacekeeping _ comments made alongside a top U.S. general.

"Georgia needs strong allies. Georgia needs the hands of friends for the resolution of further problems," he said. "Georgia will not be happy until it is free of occupation."

Russian troops have remained in part of Abkhazia and Georgia, and Moscow plans on building bases there...

[Russia calls the country it invaded, and still occupies, 'the aggressor' - and the press says.............. nothing.]

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Imperial Judiciary Goes Global

In 2004, the Supreme Court sowed the seeds for a national-security upheaval when it ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that war prisoners held outside the United States had a right to challenge their detentions in federal court.

Last year, in Boumediene v. Bush, the justices continued the seismic shift, holding that the right they had invented in Rasul — a right extended to aliens whose only connection to the United States is in waging war against it — was somehow rooted in our Constitution.

Thursday, the inevitable earthquake struck as a federal court in Washington took the imperial judiciary global. Though Rasul and Boumediene involved only the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Judge John D. Bates ruled that alien combatants detained by our military in Bagram, Afghanistan — an active combat zone — are entitled to petition the federal courts for their release.

Let’s be clear about what this means. Judge Bates is saying that, under the Supreme Court’s rulings, the jurisdiction of the federal judiciary extends everywhere in the world, without limitation, and it includes the power to micromanage wars as they are being fought.

[Our Judiciary dysfunction has reached crisis level - something must be done to reign in these self-appointed demi-gods.]

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Spain’s ‘Universal Jurisdiction’ Power Play

As the U.S. government’s myriad intrusions radically transform our economy, few seem to notice the dangerous progress of the international Left’s assault on American sovereignty. Without firing a shot, transnational progressives are further along than the Soviet Union could ever have reasonably hoped to be, notwithstanding Lenin’s prescient understanding that we would willingly participate in our own demise. In the Left’s sights is the very concept of the American people’s right of self-defense.

The New York Times reports that a Spanish court is considering filing human-rights charges, and issuing arrest warrants, against former attorney general Alberto Gonzales and five other Bush administration officials. What these former White House, Justice Department, and Pentagon attorneys did do was to wrestle with complex, largely unsettled questions about the parameters of American law, right after nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered in a sneak attack. [snip]

And it’s not just a European power-grab. American courts are as responsible as any for this travesty, having revived an “alien tort” doctrine, dormant for nearly two centuries, to prosecute torture and other crimes that occurred outside our borders and affected none of our nationals.

Now, as many of us have been predicting, the worm is turning. All that remains is for anti-American progressives to further pervert the “law of nations” — once finite but now endlessly malleable — so that, one by one, incidents related to national defense are judicially recognized as human-rights violations and war crimes...

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G20: A 'new world order' is simply fantasy

Those who thought that Dr Goebbels came to an end on a stretch of waste ground in Berlin in 1945 have been forced to think again. The piece of theatre that concluded in London on Thursday was one of the great confidence tricks of our lifetimes. As I wrote here a few weeks ago, this international act of posturing was pointless; because despite having caused the problem, the political class had none of the requisite skills to sort it out... [snip]

Capitalism is not too important to be left to capitalists. It has to be left to them. Politicians simply do not understand. They are contaminated by a desire to redistribute, and to regulate, to keep large constituencies of non-productive voters happy. In his [Brown's] drivelling speech on "morality" on Tuesday he castigated people for taking risks. Capitalism is based on risk. The reward for risk is profit. The punishment for bad risk should be bankruptcy.

Roosevelt's New Deal failed because it hindered people from helping themselves. This welfarist event this week risks making the same mistake on an international scale, with its £1 trillion slush fund for wrecked economies. The politicians have left the stage, thank God. Now let us hope they stay off it for as long as possible, and let the people who can sort out this mess get on with doing so – whatever the risk entailed.

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House Republican sorry for knocking Europe

The top Republican on the Budget Committee told The Hill that he owes an apology to Europe for insulting them over the past few weeks.

The 39-year-old lawmaker acknowledged that it was unfair to the continent to call President Obama's budget proposal the "Europeanization of America," since France and Germany recently called on the White House to rein in the stimulus spending.

“We owe them an apology because our budget is worse than theirs,” Ryan told The Hill, referring to the Democrats’ budget measure. "To suggest that we’re turning our budget into a European kind of a budget is unfair … it’s unfair to Europe."

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Let's look under hood of Constitution

I could just be missing something in the Constitution that authorizes the federal government to run private businesses or to enter into business on its own. So if anyone knows how the president of the United States got the power to tell the president of General Motors that he was fired please e-mail me.

I am eagerly awaiting the exact provisions in the Constitution that give the federal government the power to dictate business policy to individual corporations. Short of seeing them, I will assume our new busybody government has gone rogue.

Could you tell me, for instance, how it is that Congress can be considering a bill to establish a Green Bank that would be a wholly owned corporation of the United States intended to lend money to projects that promote or develop clean energy or renewable energy?

I missed that provision in the Constitution, too... [snip]

This is one more in a growing list of offenses of the Congress and president against the people of the United States. If it were not that the people have so little power left, you would almost call it a power grab.

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image toon c-art - bddbdd 1st lbrty bbro sclm - Constitution Under New Management

"There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

James Madison, "Father of the Constitution"

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Federalism and America's Financial Crisis

Federalism is not a new idea. It is as old as our republic. President Thomas Jefferson, in his inaugural address, emphasized that "the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns" are state governments. In New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 262 (1932), Justice Louis Brandeis, in a famous dissent, noted the power of federalism and that states serve as valuable testing grounds where the people can apply social and economic policies to address individual concerns. Said he:

"It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country." Id., at 311 (Brandeis, J., dissenting).

The point of this article is to remind us, particularly our policymakers, of the benefits of government power rooted in federalism. For several years, I have been raising this issue to the federal courts, Congress, and federal agencies. I plan to keep pressing for Idaho's rights as a sovereign state. Federalism is too important to abandon.

[More simply, with an emphasis on state's rights we get 50 tries to get complex challenges right, with rapid adoption of those ideas that prove beneficial by other states. When we allow Washington to set the rules, we get one shot - inevitably compromised and corrupted, and then defended forever as the feds are loath to admit error or relinquish power gained.

It is in our interest to devolve power away from Washington and back to the states.

Highly Recommended > ]

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The American cars Obama wants

The Obama administration has made it clear: In order to get the billions of dollars of federal money that Chrysler and General Motors need to survive, they'll need to build and sell more fuel efficient vehicles.

But while GM and Chrysler may rely too [?] heavily on large trucks and SUVs today, they can't entirely turn away from them now and survive. There is still a market for larger vehicles and those vehicles bring higher profits.

Unfortunately, as much as "green cars" have become a popular rallying point, it's not clear that they're the way to business success. Today, hybrid cars make up about 2% of all vehicle sales in the U.S., a tiny sliver compared to sales of just pick-up trucks alone.

Chrysler relies more heavily than GM on sales of trucks and vans. "On a standalone basis, Chrysler will struggle to comply with increasing fuel economy standards, and it may even have to restrict the sale of certain models to make sure it's in accordance with proposed standards."

[This 'rescue' plan has nothing to do with business success and everything to do with forcing a religious belief ('Green') upon this country...]

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image toon mny auto grn - More CAFE poured on auto industry

Deep Solar Minimum

The sunspot cycle is behaving a little like the stock market. Just when you think it has hit bottom, it goes even lower.

2008 was a bear. There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's 366 days (73%). To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days: plot. Prompted by these numbers, some observers suggested that the solar cycle had hit bottom in 2008.

Maybe not. Sunspot counts for 2009 have dropped even lower. As of March 31st, there were no sunspots on 78 of the year's 90 days (87%).

It adds up to one inescapable conclusion: "We're experiencing a very deep solar minimum," says solar physicist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center.

"This is the quietest sun we've seen in almost a century," agrees sunspot expert David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.

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No Wonder Climate Alarmists Refuse to Debate

When you hear the names Al Gore and James Hansen in the same sentence you immediately assume the subject to be manmade global warming panic. But there’s another distinction which links these two – they both steadfastly refuse to defend their positions in formal debate. And a recent performance by one of their own in just such a venue reminds us why.

Roll Call TV has just posted video of the March 27th debate they hosted between Marc Morano, former communications director for Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), and Climate Progress's Joe Romm. Part one begins here at about the 3:45 mark and Part two begins here directly.

Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Marlo Lewis once noted:

“The alarmists claim all the evidence supports their theory, but the only way they can prove that is to actually show up for a debate and win. If they are afraid to publicly debate and scientifically defend their assertions, it is a good indication who they fear will win the debate.”

Exactly the reason that Gore and Hansen have both declined invitation after invitation to defend their imminent climate catastrophe assertions. And a decade of zero-discernable warming and recent reliable predictions of multi-decadal cooling will surely do little to persuade them otherwise.

But will the public abide additional financial hardships based on projections by so-called experts and policy makers who insist that “the debate is over” yet have never actually managed to win a single one?

[The greatest scam in the history of the world, for which we will pay if we allow it.

Highly Recommended {and the videos} > ]

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A tax by any other name

Many Americans find the debate in Washington over adopting a "cap and trade" program to reduce carbon dioxide a bit confusing. That's understandable. Put simply, it's a tax on energy consumption.

In fact, it would be a huge tax. If enacted, cap-and-trade will be one of the government's largest revenue sources within the next decade. It also would break one of President Obama's promises. In his speech before Congress in February, he said,

"If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime."

Unless you use energy, apparently.

A new study by Bryan Buckley and Sergey Mityakov of Clemson University found that that the cap-and-trade approach contained in a bill introduced last summer by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I–Conn., and John Warner, R–Va., would, in effect, hit the average American household with a tax hike of $1,100 in 2008 – a hike that would rise to more than $1,400 in 2015. There goes that "single dime" – and then some... [snip]

So what can we expect from cap–and–trade? A lot of gain (in the form of tax revenue) for the federal government – and a lot of economic pain for the American consumer.

And all for purely hypothetical environmental gains.

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NATIONAL HEALTH PREVIEW: THE MASSACHUSETTS DEBACLE, COMING SOON TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

Massachusetts' overall costs for health programs have increased by 42 percent since 2006, when health care became "free"...

In Massachusetts's latest crisis, Governor Deval Patrick and his Democratic colleagues are starting to move down the path that government health plans always follow when spending collides with reality -- i.e., price controls. As costs continue to rise, the inevitable results are coverage restrictions and waiting periods. It was only a matter of time, says the Journal.

They're trying to manage the huge costs of the subsidized middle-class insurance program that is gradually swallowing the state budget:

• The program provides low- or no-cost coverage to about 165,000 residents, or three-fifths of the newly insured, and is budgeted at $880 million for 2010, a 7.3 percent single-year increase that is likely to be optimistic.
• The state's overall costs on health programs have increased by 42 percent since 2006.

Like gamblers doubling down on their losses, Democrats have already hiked the fines for people who don't obtain insurance under the "individual mandate," already increased business penalties, taxed insurers and hospitals, raised premiums, and pumped up the state tobacco levy. That's still not enough money.

Which brings us to Washington, where Obama and Congressional Democrats are about to try their own Bay State bait and switch: First create vast new entitlements that can never be repealed, then later take the less popular step of rationing care when it's their last hope to save the federal treasury.

The real lesson of Massachusetts is that reform proponents won't tell Americans the truth about what "universal" coverage really means: Runaway costs followed by price controls and bureaucratic rationing.


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image toon - hcare - Nationalize due to great job on bail outs?

Groups challenge Obama on whistleblower policy

Consumer and watchdog groups will send a letter to White House on Wednesday that will strongly press President Obama on his whistleblower policies.

The letter, which is being signed by Public Citizen, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and others, will note that Obama’s March 11 signing statement of the omnibus spending bill would deny a salary to a federal manager who “interferes with or prohibits certain communications between federal employees and members of Congress.”

The signing statement also says the executive branch could control employees’ communications with Congress “in cases where such communications would be unlawful or would reveal information that is properly privileged or otherwise confidential.”

Grassley and whistleblower groups say this runs counter to Obama’s campaign promises on protecting government informants...

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Expanded Americorps has stench of authoritarianism

With almost no public attention, both chambers of Congress in the past week advanced an alarming expansion of the Americorps national service plan, with the number of federally funded community-service jobs increasing from 75,000 to 250,000 at a cost of $5.7 billion. Lurking behind the feel-good rhetoric spouted by the measure’s advocates is a bill that upon closer inspection reveals multiple provisions that together create a strong odor of creepy authoritarianism.

To begin with, the legislation threatens the voluntary nature of Americorps by calling for consideration of “a workable, fair and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people.” It anticipates the possibility of requiring “all individuals in the United States” to perform such service, including elementary school students.

The bill also summons up unsettling memories of World War II-era paramilitary groups by saying the new program should “combine the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service,” while establishing “campuses” that serve as “operational headquarters,” complete with “superintendents” and “uniforms” for all participants. It allows for the elimination of all age restrictions in order to involve Americans at all stages of life. And, it calls for the creation of “a permanent cadre” in a “National Community Civilian Corps.”

But that’s not all. The bill also calls for “youth engagement zones” in which “service learning” is “a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency”...

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The mighty ACORN and the 'Project Vote' story

ACORN employees across the country have been indicted for voter fraud, and by its own admission, the group has submitted at least 400,000 questionable voter documents, according to a New York Times report dated Oct. 24, 2008.

Now two whistle-blowers, Anita MonCrief and Marcel Reid, who used to work for ACORN have testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee that the organization took money to intimidate capitalist organizations like the Carlyle Group and H&R Block, and worked closely with the Obama presidential campaign to get voters to the polls.

It is here where the story begins to rise to the next level.

According to MonCrief, New York Times reporter Stephanie Strom was getting close to documenting a story directly linking the Obama campaign to ACORN through the “Project Vote” organization. There is speculation that “Project Vote” did a number of illegal things last November during the voter-registration process. Strom was allegedly zeroing in on the situation.

But the Times’ investigation suddenly stopped dead, prompting a call from Strom to MonCrief, her source. A voicemail from Strom was left on Oct. 21, 2008:

“Hi, Anita, it’s Stephanie. I’ve just been asked by my bosses to stand down. ... They want me to hold off on coming to Washington. Sorry, I take my orders from higher up.”

The motto of The New York Times is “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” “Standing down” on a story with presidential implications does not seem to fit that motto.

Or am I wrong?

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Hate Speech Resides on the Left

I thought conservatives were the only group that was guilty of hate speech until I heard Jon Stewart’s rant on Rush Limbaugh. But, that was proceeded by New York Governor David Paterson. And, that was proceeded by David Letterman. Limbaugh is a tough football loving brute, but even three libs throwing illegal chop blocks can’t take Rush down.

Odd how they accuse us of hate speech..

[For the umpteenth time: not personally a fan of Rushbo - but there's a media witch hunt against him that's un-American and a dangerous precedent (well, continuation of an assault) against free speech. Recommended > ]

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Student finds mobile phone while out celebrating his 18th birthday and is ARRESTED after handing it in to police

A college student who found a mobile phone while out celebrating his 18th birthday was arrested after handing it in to police. Teenager Paul Leicester was arrested for 'theft by finding' and detained for four hours.

The Southport College A-level student eventually had the case against him withdrawn but said it was a 'shocking experience'.

['theft by finding'. government]

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Ruling hands greens a setback

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that federal environmental regulators can use cost-benefit analysis techniques when deciding how to upgrade equipment at power plants, a defeat for green groups who want the impact on the environment to be the chief or only consideration.

The 6-3 ruling strikes down a victory for the Riverkeepers environmental group, which had persuaded the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that cost should not matter in its bid to require companies to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in system upgrades to meet what it claimed were Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority in the 6-3 decision that the EPA is permitted to weigh cost when ordering electrical plants to upgrade their cooling systems.

"While not conclusive, it surely tends to show that the EPA's current practice is a reasonable and hence legitimate exercise of its discretion to weigh benefits against costs that the agency has been proceeding in essentially this fashion for over 30 years,"

Justice Scalia wrote.

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Nigerian police detain goat over armed robbery

Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery. Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

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image toon - 1st fnn auto - 2009 cars - fed gurantee vs free floor mats

image toon - 1st fnn - White Housle = GM certified dealer

Obama's Own Report on GM Says Plan to Build Non-Gas-Burning Car Would Not Save Company

The report on General Motors released by the White House says the company’s restructuring plan will not lead to a stronger company, in part because the beleaguered auto giant’s proposal to rely more heavily on advanced, fuel-efficient cars is not commercially viable.

The report’s findings stand in stark contrast with the President’s chief goal for America’s auto industry: leading the world in green car production.

“I am absolutely committed to working with Congress and the auto companies to meet one goal: The United States of America will lead the world in building the next generation of clean cars,”

Obama declared Monday at a press conference marking the report’s release.

In fact, the report found that even if GM can successfully make and sell green cars, it will still not lead to a viable company because it will not be able to make enough money to weather future economic slowdowns... [snip]

Labor costs are left out of the administration’s recommendations for returning GM to profitability. The four areas the government will focus on are: sustainable profitability, healthy balance sheets, operational restructuring, and technology leadership (green cars)...

[Idea: let them make cars people want to buy.
Government: the end of thinking.]

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image toon - bdd mny auto - Ob = one more straw for auto industry's camel

Budget Debate Shows Washington Politicians in Denial

Americans who are looking to Washington for leadership in a time of economic turmoil are likely going to be disappointed by this week's debate on the budget. Instead of seeing a new kind of politics and an honest debate that asks hard questions and contemplates tough choices between competing priorities, taxpayers will see more partisan role-playing and accounting sleight of hand.

Before the budget 'debate' even began, the script was already written.

In the majority's war room, aides are continuing the script of 2008 presidential campaign. In this script, every decision that contributed to our budget and economic challenges occurred during George Bush's tenure. President Obama, as Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) said this week, inherited this mess and is merely "part of the clean-up crew."

Finally, in this script, the congressional majority has no real responsibility for any of the fiscal mess in which we find ourselves. Anyone who counters this script is merely recycling old ideas and old talking points...

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image toon - 1st mny sclm bbro - National Debt Service Corps signs up the babies

A BUDGET TO BEGGAR US

The president's budget makes clear that a huge expansion of government is not just about today's economic downturn. Once the recession is behind us, this budget will continue pushing for more and more government in our everyday lives.

Instead of tightening Uncle Sam's belt the way so many American families are cutting back these days, the president's proposal spends so aggressively that it essentially adds $1 trillion to the debt, on average, every year, says Gregg.

Except for some accounting gimmicks, the budget makes no attempt to cut wasteful spending or find savings:

• It ignores reform for major entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security, which are on track to cost us $67 trillion more than we have over the next 75 years.
• The new spending is coupled with the largest tax increase in U.S. history -- $1.5 trillion over 10 years.

We will be left with an unsustainable level of debt, says Gregg:

• Under the president's budget, the national debt doubles in five years and nearly triples in 10 years.
• Our debt will exceed 80 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2019 -- the highest level since World War II.

This borrowed money is certainly not free. Our children and grandchildren will be hit with the bill.

Sadly, in 10 years, we will spend more on interest payments on this debt than we spend on education, energy and transportation combined -- almost four times as much...

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image toon - sclm bbro = Dems building road to serfdom

Shocked?

SHOCKED? Should we condemn a man for doing What he said he was going to do? There isn’t much change ensuing That is news to me or to you.

For months Mr. Obama touted His wealth-spreading plans quite clearly. For those who refused to listen, Their neglect will cost us dearly...

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"There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

James Madison, "Father of the Constitution"

image toon - 1st mny sclm bbro libs - Toad to change-scorpions = hop on

Imaginary Islamist Think-Tanks

Despite what the pessimists say, there is one industry that is still flourishing in the UK. It consists of Islamists establishing their own think-tanks and pressure groups. They serve little purpose other than to bestow legitimacy upon ill-informed, extremist Muslim speakers, who can then attend conferences and get media access under the façade of expertise.

This is a surprisingly easy bandwagon to jump on...

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California’s Shariah-Compliant Newspaper

The pull quote, “If everybody was Shariah-compliant, there would be no recession,” comes courtesy of Farouk Fakira, a Yemeni immigrant who last recently moderated a discussion on Islamic finance at Sacramento's Masjid Annur Islamic Center. Imam Abdul Azeez of the Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims (SALAM) defines Sharia as 1,400 years of Islamic legal knowledge based on the words of the Prophet Muhammad, and which guide Muslims in daily life."

The piece also cites Mohammed Memon, a Pakistani American who has a 401 (K) through Amana Mutual Funds “a Shariah-compliant fund” based in Bellingham, Washington. Such funds, he says are “relatively better than other funds.”

In a news story it is customary to balance sweeping assertions with contrary information. At no point, however, does the Bee’s Stephen Magagnini do anything but record the statements of his Islamic subjects. Readers are evidently to assume that Shariah prevents inflation, that Shariah-compliant funds are indeed “relatively better” and that Shariah-compliant retirement plans “socially responsible.”

This amazing page-one story, with multiple photos, gives no clue that there might be any clash between Shariah law and the Constitution of the United States. The treatment of women under Islamic law, for example, does not exactly square with U.S. law and general practice in Western societies, likewise the treatment of homosexuals. Criminal law in Western societies is decidedly at odds with the Shariah approach. And if Islamic law is such a flywheel of prosperity and security, one wonders why anyone would bother moving to the United States.

And if a local minister had proclaimed, “If everybody was a Baptist, there would be no recession,” one may be sure, contrary opinion would be mandatory, along with a quote from the ACLU...

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Islamophobia is a fabrication

I've been considering a request from a post-graduate student who wants to do a thesis on Islamophobia in Australia. She writes:

"I am researching the topic Islamophobia, and I am trying to prove whether Islamophobia is based on religion fear or cultural fear of Islam."

What about proving that Islamophobia exists at all? That would be the logical, ethical and scholarly starting point...

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Obama bows down to Saudi King (updated)

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I am quite certain that this is not the protocol, and is most unbecoming a President of the United States.

Update (for the doubters who claim this was not a bow). Here is a video of the unmistakable bow: (hat tip: Michelle Malkin)

Update: See Miss Manners on the protocol. Americans do not bow to foreign monarchs because that act signified the monarch's power over his subjects.

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Obama seeking Muslims for high administration positions

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From the Denver Post:

In a bid to get more Muslim Americans working in the Obama administration, a book with resumes of 45 of the nation's most qualified - Ivy League grads, Fortune 500 executives and public servants, all carefully vetted - has been submitted to the White House.

The effort, driven by community leaders and others, including U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., was bumped up two weeks because White House officials heard about the venture, said J. Saleh Williams, program coordinator for the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association, who sifted through more than 300 names.

This is evidently the change Obama believes in.

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Nato welcomes Albania and Croatia

Albania and Croatia have officially joined the Nato military alliance. The two states became Nato's 27th and 28th members after their ambassadors to the US filed their instruments of accession at a ceremony in Washington. Correspondents say Nato wanted to mark its 60th birthday at a summit this week with a symbolic expansion into a region.

Croatia's ambassador said his country intended to assume its share of the security burden in Afghanistan...

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New government may face EU sanctions over two-state solution

At a closed-door dinner of European Union diplomats held Friday in the Czech Republic, several senior officials said Israel must be required to present an explicit commitment accepting the principle of "two states for two peoples," and if it fails, the process of upgrading Israel-EU relations should be frozen. [Like 'Palestine' has been required to accept the existence of Israel?]

After the dinner he told a Czech newspaper that a decision had been made to cancel a summit between the Israeli prime minister and EU leaders planned for late May or early June.

The message also indicated that several ministers spoke of the "need to teach Israel a lesson about its treatment of the Palestinians."

[The EUNuch Union is worse than worthless.]

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54% Count On U.S. Business Leaders More Than World Leaders To Help U.S. Economy

So much for the hoopla and highly publicized activities of this week’s G-20 economic summit.

Fifty-four percent (54%) of Americans say the U.S. economy will be helped more by the decisions of U.S. business leaders to grow their own businesses than by the actions of world leaders on behalf of the global economy.

Thirty percent (30%) say decisions made by world leaders to help the global economy will benefit the U.S. economy more.

Republicans and adults not affiliated with either major political party have more confidence in the private sector than do Democrats. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Republicans and 57% of unaffiliateds say the decisions of U.S. business leaders will benefit the American economy more.

Democrats are closely divided.

“Adam Smith would be proud. While all the media attention is focused on the G-20, the American people are looking in a different direction for solutions to the global economic slowdown,”

Scott Rasmussen, founder and publisher of Rasmussen Reports, explains.

“By a nearly two-to-one margin, voters say decisions U.S. business owners make will do more for the economy than pronouncements by the world leaders gathered in London.”

Americans, in fact, are closely divided over whether the Group of 20 summit of world leaders will produce anything of note. Forty-one percent (41%) say the participants are at least somewhat likely to agree on a significant plan to help the world’s economy, but just eight percent (8%) say that is Very Likely.

But forty-one percent (41%) believe the G-20 meeting in London is not very likely to produce a significant global economic plan, and an additional eight percent (8%) say it’s not at all likely.


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image toon - mny owg intl - G20 summit = mountain of scratched ideas

Movin' On Up

A Treasury study refutes populist hokum about "income inequality."

The study shows beyond doubt that the U.S. remains a dynamic society marked by rapid and mostly upward income mobility. Much as they always have, Americans on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder continue to climb into the middle and sometimes upper classes in remarkably short periods of time.

The Treasury study examined a huge sample of 96,700 income tax returns from 1996 and 2005 for Americans over the age of 25. The study tracks what happened to these tax filers over this 10-year period.

One of the notable, and reassuring, findings is that nearly 58% of filers who were in the poorest income group in 1996 had moved into a higher income category by 2005. Nearly 25% jumped into the middle or upper-middle income groups, and 5.3% made it all the way to the highest quintile.

Of those in the second lowest income quintile, nearly 50% moved into the middle quintile or higher, and only 17% moved down. This is a stunning show of upward mobility, meaning that more than half of all lower-income Americans in 1996 had moved up the income scale in only 10 years.

Also encouraging is the fact that the after-inflation median income of all tax filers increased by an impressive 24% over the same period. Two of every three workers had a real income gain--which contradicts the spin about stagnant incomes.

This is even more impressive when you consider that "median" income and wage numbers are often skewed downward because the U.S. has had a huge influx of young workers and immigrants in the last 20 years. They start their work years with low wages, dragging down the averages.

Those who start at the bottom but hold full-time jobs nonetheless enjoyed steady income gains. The Treasury study found that those tax filers who were in the poorest income quintile in 1996 saw a near doubling of their incomes (90.5%) over the subsequent decade.

Those in the highest quintile, on the other hand, saw only modest income gains (10%). The nearby table tells the story, which is that the poorer an individual or household was in 1996 the greater the percentage income gain after 10 years.

Only one income group experienced an absolute decline in real income--the richest 1%. Those households lost 25.8% of their income. Moreover, more than half (57.4%) of the richest 1% in had dropped to a lower income group by 2005.

The key point is that the study shows that income mobility in the U.S. works down as well as up--another sign that opportunity and merit continue to drive American success, not accidents of birth. The "rich" are not the same people over time.

The study is also valuable because it shows that income mobility remains little changed from what similar studies found in the 1970s and 1980s.

Some journalists and academics have cited selective evidence to claim that income mobility has declined in recent years, but when reviewed comprehensively just the opposite proves true.

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Lost In An Energy Wilderness

Energy Policy: The House approves a Senate-passed omnibus bill that puts 2 million more acres of energy-rich land off-limits. We need a government that leads us out of the energy wilderness and not into it.

S.22 is a smorgasbord of 160 bills totaling more than 1,300 pages and, no, we're not sure how many who voted for it actually read it. A stimulus bill it is not, for it locks up an additional 2 million acres to the 107 million acres of federally owned wilderness areas. That total is more than the area of Montana and Wyoming combined.

Speaking of Wyoming, 1.1 million of these newly restricted acres are in that state. This bill, which also provides $1 billion for a water project designed to save 500 salmon in California, takes about 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 300 million barrels of oil out of production in that state, according to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The energy resources walled off by this bill would nearly match the annual production levels of our two natural gas production states — Texas and Alaska. As Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., points out:

"We are not suffering from a lack of wilderness areas in the United States. According to the Census Bureau, we have 106 million acres of developed land and 107 million acres of (officially declared) wilderness land." [snip]

Most of the locked-up lands are in Western states where there's enough oil shale to satisfy America's needs for the next 200 years. Modern technology can extract these vast resources from the earth with a minimal footprint.

Technology for shale-oil extraction is certainly further along than getting energy from switch grass or producing cellulosic ethanol. If we're going to stimulate anything, let's stimulate shale-oil production.

It took Moses 40 years to lead his people out of their wilderness to the Promised Land. The green lobby and its friends in Congress are leading the American people in the opposite direction.

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image toon - engry - PLMA of 09 = Keep Out of Oil drills

The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S

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You've heard this shocking "fact" before -- on TV and radio, in newspapers, on the Internet and from the highest politicians in the land: 90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States.

-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it to reporters on a flight to Mexico City.

-- CBS newsman Bob Schieffer referred to it while interviewing President Obama.

-- California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at a Senate hearing.

-- William Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said it in the House of Representatives.

There's just one problem with the 90 percent "statistic" and it's a big one:

It's just not true. In fact, it's not even close.

By all accounts, it's probably around 17 percent...

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Border upgrades announced

Inspections of vehicles crossing into Mexico will be stepped up under a $400 million effort to improve security on the border, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said yesterday during a visit to San Diego.

The southbound inspections will include canine teams trained to sniff out weapons and cash, the deployment of 100 Border Patrol agents borderwide to inspect vehicles headed into Mexico....

[400 M $ to search things leaving the country]

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image toon - immig - Hillary 50-50 US Mexico - Taco Hell

The Soros Doctrine in Obama Foreign Policy

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"I have made rejection of the Bush doctrine the central project of my life."
-- George Soros, Wall Street Journal; March 3, 2004

The relevant question here would seem to be, Why? What was it, specifically, about the Bush Doctrines that so roiled George Soros?

Krauthammer (who was himself the first to use the term, "Bush doctrine") delineated four distinct and superceding elements to Bush foreign policy:

• #1 (pre-9/11) - unilateral withdrawal from the ABM treaty, the Kyoto protocol and other international initiatives, which were deemed by President Bush harmful to U.S. interests.
• #2 - the "with us or against us" speech to Congress nine days after 9/11, re: the assisting or harboring of terrorists plotting against America or its interests.
• #3 - in the wake of our invasion of Iraq, President Bush gave his justification for preemptive defensive measures if America is threatened.
• #4 - enunciated in President Bush's second inaugural address, that the fundamental mission of American foreign policy is to aid the spread of democracy throughout the world - again as it's in America's interest.

The bottom line for Bush was what was in America's interest, and we know for certain the Bush Doctrines kept us safe for seven whole years, kept our IslamoFascist foes magnetized in Afghanistan and Iraq and kept other enemies balanced on their toes with the full knowledge that any belligerent move would be met with U.S. force.

Say whatever you will, Charlie Gibson, the cowboy kept us safe. [snip]

Soros, the Anti-Bush

Soros published his own book on the subject in 2003: The Bubble of American Supremacy, in which he contends that the desire to spread American democracy to other regions is based on a false set of documents, namely the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

Soros' belief that there is no such thing as a universal truth, that all things are relative and all moral systems are essentially equivalent leads him to conclude that our founding documents are fundamentally flawed in that they claim to rest upon "self-evident truths."

So, what doctrines does Soros specifically advocate?

• The United States should increase foreign aid to all who need it. Soros believes that by giving grants, as opposed to loans, to developing countries, we make friends and give people what they need, thereby decreasing the incentives for making war against us.
• Terrorists have always been with us, Soros insists, and terrorism requires "police action," not wars based upon "imperialist intentions." [I.e., trials after the attack - now think WMD...]
• Only an international body (such as the U.N.) can solve the problem of terrorism as it is an inherently international problem.
• The Bush Doctrine of holding host nations responsible for their support and protection of terrorist entities shuts down the necessary diplomatic channels, which would otherwise lead to joint solutions.

The bottom line is that George Soros is an internationalist; he always has been. He has even said that the only thing the U.S. does for him is issue his passport, which is itself an obsolete instrument of the even more obsolete nation-state concept.

Soros Doctrines and President Obama...

[Recommended > ]

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61% Are Confident Online and Other Sources Can Replace Newspapers

This is the finding that struggling daily newspapers don’t want to hear: 61% of American adults are confident that online and other news sources will make up the difference and report things people want to know about if many newspapers go out of business.

The Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that only 35% still lack confidence in other news sources to make up the difference.

Thirty percent (30%) are now Very Confident that sources other than newspapers will provide the news they want, while only eight percent (8%) are not at all confident of that.

“It’s ironic that traditional media outlets are missing one of the biggest communications stories ever because it is happening to them,"

says Scott Rasmussen, Founder and Publisher of Rasmussen Reports.

"Frustrating as it may be to the old media firms, traditional reporters are now viewed as little more than a Wikipedia reference, a source of potentially interesting information that requires verification.”

In terms of income, those who earn more than $60,000 per year tend to be more confident that other news sources will take the place of newspapers than those who earn less than they do. Adults aged 30 to 49 have more confidence in the new sources than those younger and older.

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Newt on G20 Protests vs. Tea Party Protests

To former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, the media's flag-to-flag coverage of the G20 protests are a glaring contrast to the recent "tea party" protests - which have had more attendees and have been peaceful.

"Look, I got a note from a friend of mine in Orlando who pointed out there were more people at a taxpayer tea party in Orlando a week ago than there are in London,"

Gingrich said on Fox News Channel's April 1 "On the Record with Greta van Sustren."

"They just didn't get any coverage out of the media. There were more people recently in Cincinnati at a taxpayer tea party than there have been demonstrating in London.

But the London demonstrators are breaking windows, they're being violent, and you know, the media is always happy to cover the anarchic and violent left."

Even as he highlighted the tea parties, Gingrich, who is the chairman of the organization American Solutions for Winning the Future, didn't dismiss the significance of the G20 protests. He said the pockets of unrest - whether they're peaceful or not - are a sign that there is a real frustration around the world with government leadership.

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When Affirmative Action Is A Quota System

According to dictionary.com, a quota is a required amount. One of the several definitions given was "A number or percentage, especially of people, constituting a required or targeted minimum: a system of quotas for hiring minority applicants. " (Italics in original.)

Affirmative action is not the same thing as equality or equal opportunity.

Hiring and civil rights policies are often about affirmative action quotas -- privileges for certain groups -- and not equal opportunity, which would be everyone having a fair chance to compete for the position. Failure to recognize the difference between equal opportunity and quotas results in policies that can generate much racial separation or hatred.

It is not politically correct to talk about affirmative action as often being a quota system, but it needs to be said...

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Dems Failure to Fast Track Cap-And-Trade a Terrific Omen

Yesterday, a genuine bi-partisan coalition (twenty-six Democrats and forty-one Republicans) denied cap-and-trade legislation a filibuster-and-amendment-proof path through the Senate.

The move effectively prevents overzealous Senators the likes of Boxer and Waxman from turning their paranoid green dreams of citizen-control into law by circumventing Senate procedures.

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Hidden Video Camera + Tanning Teens = Arrest of Oak Hill (FL) Man

A local man has been charged with three counts of video voyuerism after Oak Hill police said he had secretly recorded video of teenage girls using a tanning booth in a shed behind his house. Officers arrested David Russell Brown, 48, Baywood Drive, Wednesday night after serving a search warrant at his residence.

[Why did they think a 48 year old man would have a tanning booth in a shed behind his house?]

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