Little Green Cars

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Instead of putting the failed car enterprise into bankruptcy six months ago -- where Carl Icahn or Wilbur Ross could have bought it -- the Bush administration chose Bailout Nation. Under Team Obama, that bailout has morphed into full-scale government ownership. Twenty billion dollars of TARP money is already waisted in GM, with another $50 billion on the way. And that number could easily double unless GM car sales miraculously climb back to 14 million this year. That's highly unlikely, with sales presently hovering around 9 million a year.

In other words, taxpayers are not going to get their money back.

And with CAFE mileage standards ratcheting up -- all while GM is going down -- Team Obama's green vision for the economy will soon be crystal clear. With President Obama in the driver's seat, we're going to get little green two-door cars that most folks won't want to buy.

Even worse, UAW chief Ron Gettelfinger has made it plain that his powerful union won't let these cars be manufactured in low-cost non-union plants overseas. The result? Obama's little green cars are going to be unprofitable, as well. [That's ok, now that it's government owned, taxpayer subsidies will be no problem.]

But it's the bigger picture that has me most concerned. What does actually having a Government Motors say about the direction of the United States?

I won't lose my faith in this country's long-term future. But the issue of how much damage we sustain before returning to the policies of free-market economic growth is very much on my mind.

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image toon - 1st auto engry grn = Oby says 1300$ green hit good for business

Coming toYour Garage: :Le Car

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Finally, Americans can start moving forward—albeit in small, unsafe, state-mandated, subsidized pieces of junk. We all remember a time when we drove around in nearly any variety of automobile desired. Well, thank goodness we're getting past that kind of anarchy.

Rejoice, my fellow citizens, in the forthcoming automobile emissions and efficiency standards, even if they happen to add more than $1,000 to the cost of your average car...

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image toon - grn engry sclm bbro auto = Oby floats down new CAFE standards from Budget mobile

Small Cars Kill

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President Obama's push to force Americans into smaller cars ignores one big problem -- small cars are less safe than big cars.

Ignoring this fact will cost lives. Mr. Obama announced new miles-per-gallon regulations on May 19 that mandate that automobiles achieve 42 mpg by 2016...

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image toon - bbro sclm auto engry grn = Oby mandates 32 inch waists for 40 mpg cars

9/11 families angered by US support for Saudis

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Relatives of Sept. 11 victims say they're angry that the Justice Department is supporting the Saudi royal family's bid to be removed from a 9/11 lawsuit. The families of some victims have accused the royal family of financially backing terrorist groups that carried out the 2001 attacks.

The Justice Department filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday. It supports the Saudis' argument that the royal family as a sovereign state cannot be sued in a U.S. court. Bill Doyle's son was killed at the World Trade Center. He says the Obama administration's court filing undermines the nation's fight against terrorism...

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Barack Obama is blind to his blunders over Islam

The new President's approach discourages change in Middle Eastern countries that need it most

For the past week or so, the Middle East has been abuzz with speculation about Barack Obama's “historic address to the Muslim world” to be delivered in Cairo on Thursday.

Obama is the first major Western leader, after Bonaparte, to address Islam as a single bloc, thus adopting the traditional Islamic narrative of dividing the world according to religious beliefs. This ignores the rich and conflict-ridden diversity of the 57 Muslim-majority nations and fosters the illusion, peddled by people such as Osama bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Islam is one and indivisible and should, one day, unite under a caliphate.

By adopting the key element of the Islamist narrative, that is to say the division of humanity into religious blocs, Mr Obama also intends to send a signal to the Middle East's nascent democratic forces that Washington is abandoning with a vengeance George W. Bush's “freedom agenda”... [snip]

In an address to university students in Cairo in 2005, Condoleezza Rice explained the “Bush doctrine” in these terms: “For 60 years, the United States pursued stability at the expense of democracy in the Middle East - and we achieved neither. Now we are taking a different course.”

That different course transformed the US from a supporter of the status quo to an active agent for change - including the use of force to remove two obnoxious regimes in Kabul and Baghdad. It also coerced traditional Arab states to adopt constitutions, hold elections, grant women the vote, ease pressure on the media, and allow greater space for debate and dissent.

Mr Obama has started scrapping that policy in the name of “political realism”, the currently fashionable phrase in Washington... [snip]

In trying to prove that he is not George Bush, Barack Obama has committed big mistakes on key issues of foreign policy. His Cairo address, and his “one-size-fits-all” Islam policy, is just the latest. It encourages Islamists and ruling despots, discourages the forces of reform and change and, ultimately, could produce greater resentment of the United States among peoples thirsting for freedom, human rights and decent governance.

[Recommended > ]

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image toon - gwot - Oby's checkers v Iran's chess

Israel and Egypt Lose Faith in Obama

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During his first four months in office, President Barack Obama has demonstrated remarkably little leadership on Iran. This has significantly undermined our position in the Middle East, where states have lost confidence in the Obama administration and - as a consequence - are formulating new, unilateral strategies in anticipation of continued Iranian uranium enrichment.

In this vein, Israel has issued the latest signal that it is serious about executing a preemptive strike on Iran - with or without U.S. support. Yesterday, it launched the biggest civilian defense drill in its history, with police, local authorities, emergency services, and civilians engaging in a series of exercises to plan for a variety of attack scenarios - including non-conventional missile strikes. The signal that Israel is trying to send to Iran - and the U.S. - is very obvious: “We are prepared for any counterstrike that might follow our own attack on Iranian nuclear sites, and therefore possess ample freedom of action for hitting Iran if we deem it necessary.”

Remember: the current Israeli government already has significant public support for attacking Iran - public support that remains quite strong even if the Obama administration maintains its opposition to such an attack.

Egypt is also planning for the likelihood that the administration won’t inhibit Iran’s nuclear ambitions. In a statement released on Sunday, a spokesperson for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced that, “With regard to attempts to say Iran is a common danger, President Mubarak’s and Egypt’s priority is on the Palestinian issue.” Egypt’s strategic thinking is clear: if Iran is to become a nuclear state, its best option is to ensure that Israel is significantly weakened via the peace process, and thereby prevented from engaging Iran in armed (and perhaps nuclear) conflict.

Or, to put it another way, Egypt is shrewdly calculating that its interests are better protected with one regional power than with two - and it has noticed that the Obama administration is more eager to take a hard line with Israel than with Iran, despite Cairo’s own distaste for the latter.

Of course, if the Obama administration actually believes that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more destabilizing than a nuclear Iran, it will embrace Cairo’s sudden priority on the peace process. However, it will then have to contend with the increasing possibility that a well-prepared and determined Israel will take matters vis-à-vis Tehran into its own hands.

For this reason, the Obama administration’s lack of resolve on Iran is paving the road towards utter disaster.

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Israel to US: Stop favoring the Palestinians

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Barak Ravid writing in Haaretz reports:

"We're disappointed," said one senior official. "All of the understandings reached during the Bush administration are worth nothing."

Another official said the U.S. administration is refusing every Israeli attempt to reach new agreements on settlement construction.

"The United States is taking a line of granting concessions to the Palestinians that is not fair toward Israel,"

The Israeli officials attributed the unyielding U.S. stance to the speech Obama will make in Cairo this Thursday, in which he is expected to deliver a message of reconciliation to the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Obama, the master straddler, has no place to hide on the Israeli-Palestinian question and he will find that he will get no favors from the Arabs simply for showing empathy toward the Palestinians by taking a hardline stance against the settlements.

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image toon - gwot nsec = Terrorist + Oby = death to SOME Americans

Malaria, Politics and DDT

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In 2006, after 25 years and 50 million preventable deaths, the World Health Organization reversed course and endorsed widespread use of the insecticide DDT to combat malaria.

But earlier this month, the U.N. agency quietly reverted to promoting less effective methods for attacking the disease.

The result is a victory for politics over public health, and millions of the world's poor will suffer as a result...

[The organization is a net liability - past time to cut our losses.]

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Geithner tells China its dollar assets are safe

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday reassured the Chinese government that its huge holdings of dollar assets are safe and reaffirmed his faith in a strong U.S. currency.

His answer drew loud laughter from his student audience, reflecting scepticism in China about the wisdom of a developing country accumulating a vast stockpile of foreign reserves instead of spending the money to raise living standards at home....

[Even students know better.]

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image toon - china sclm lbrty - Chinese flab wallpapered over American

Tales of the new American nomenklatura

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The new ruling elite of America consists of those favored by government power. You can forget about working your way up via honest hard work. The fruits will be confiscated, and given to those with political sway.

It is a situation familiar to residents of the former Soviet Union, where the term nomenklatura (members of a list) was applied to describe the plutocrats who ruled that society and lived lavishly without benefit of huge personal wealth.

The fate of UAW members versus bond holders in the wreckage of Chrysler Corporation is one illustration of the benefits of membership, even junior membership, in the nomenklatura.

But it is at the upper reaches of the American nomenklatura, among office holders and senior bureaucrats, that we see how cushy life gets, even as the economy tanks. While the rest of us worry about having enough money to retire on or affording braces for our kids, the American nomenklatura are insulated from such mundane issues... [snip]

Taxpayers are being asked to do with less, because of the economic crisis. How about government's ostensible leaders actually leading -- by example?

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Illinois Senate votes to raise state income tax

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Springfield - The Illinois Senate late Saturday narrowly approved a 67-percent hike in the state income tax and imposed $1 billion in new sales taxes, dramatically reshaping the Statehouse’s budgetary stalemate.

No Republicans voted in support of the measure.

[During a time of recession. It matters who you vote for.]

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145% Beer-Tax Hike

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Washington - Drunk on power and dazed by ambition, members of Congress have stumbled upon a novel way to keep their spending binge rolling -- and leave American taxpayers with the hangover.

Under a Senate proposal, Congress would raise the federal excise tax on beer by 145 percent to more than $3 a case. Uncle Sam also would snatch an additional $7 on a case of wine -- a staggering increase of 233 percent ...

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POLL: 18% Favor National/VAT Sales Tax, 68% Oppose

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To raise additional money for the government, just 18% of Americans nationwide favor a national sales tax or VAT. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 68% oppose such a tax.

Democrats strongly support a national sales tax to provide universal health insurance coverage. Republicans are opposed by a three-to-one margin, and those not affiliated with either major party are opposed two-to-one.

A plurality of Americans would support a national sales tax if it meant getting rid of the federal income tax: 43% favor that trade-off, but 38% are opposed. Pluralities of Republicans and unaffiliateds like the idea, while a plurality of Democrats are against it.

Forty-eight percent (48%) say a national sales tax is fairer than an income tax while 26% hold the opposite view. The sales tax is viewed as fairer by 52% of Republicans, 49% of unaffiliateds and 44% of Democrats.

[BUT unless we unambiguously tell them not to, they'll move forward with it anyway.]

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image toon - mny sclm = Oby's next book = spending too much?

Despite Obama's optimism, economic outlook remains grim

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"Across America, recovery is under way,"

Vice President Joe Biden said in a statement accompanying a 28-page progress report.
However, Douglas Elmendorf, the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, was more cautious in his "State of the Economy" review to the House Budget Committee last week.

"The economy will stop contracting and resume growing during the second half of this year," ... "but the hardships caused by the recession will persist for some time."

The CBO report found that through April only about $19 billion in stimulus funds has been spent.

In addition, Elmendorf predicted, unemployment is expected to peak at 10.5 percent in the second half of next year. Last month's rate was 8.9 percent, up from 8.1 percent in February, when the stimulus became law.

The number of unemployed increased by 1.26 million during the past two months to 13.7 million.

The administration's report Wednesday was nonetheless upbeat...

[And so the media coverage will be...]

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The Geography of Carbon Emissions

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No American city is among the top 50 cities in the world for air pollution according to the World Bank. (1) Another list, ‘The Top Ten of the Dirty Thirty,' compiled by the Blacksmith Institute of New York compared the toxicity of contamination, the likelihood of it getting into humans and the number of people affected. Places were bumped up in rank if children were impacted. [arbitrary bs, but] No US or European sites made the list.

Sites in China, India and Russia occupied six of the top ten spots. Some examples: at Linfen in Shanxi province-the heart of China's coal industry-industrial and automobile emissions put the health of 3 million people at risk. At Sukinda in the state of Orissa in India, 2.6 million people face the hazards of one of the world's opencast chromite mines. And in Dzerzhinsk, Russia, 300,000 people are exposed to toxic by-products from chemical weapons. (2)

Have you heard about this? Probably not. But there's more.

Another report states that seven of the world's ten most polluted cities are in China. Of the ten cities in the world with the highest levels of air pollution, three are in India. (3). There are more reports but by now you probably get the point. Note that no US city has been mentioned. Steven Hayward in discussing the Blacksmith report makes an observation that could well apply to all of these documents: "Not surprisingly the media and green campaigners in the United States completely overlooked this report." (4)... [snip]

"The combined carbon dioxide emissions from the 850 new coal-fired power plants that China and India are building between now and 2012 are five times the total [global!] savings of the Kyoto accords. So you can put in all those curly light bulbs and drive all the Priuses you want: India just ate that for breakfast and China will eat the next round of conservation for lunch." (7)

Although China receives the most attention, it is not the only Asian nation where this concern is present. India is also growing rapidly, and its major cities experience particulate levels often eight to ten times higher than the worst American cities. India is the fourth-most coal dependent country in the world and has enough reserves to last for the next 100 years. Carbon emissions in India are rising faster than nearly every other country on the planet. Between 1980 and 2006, India's carbon output increased by 341%, compared to 321% for China, 103% for Brazil 238% for Indonesia and 272% for Pakistan. (9)

Peter Huber sums this up quite well:

"Cut to the chase. We rich people can't stop the world's 5 billion poor people from burning the couple of trillion tons of cheap carbon that they have within easy reach. We can't even make any durable dent in global emissions-because emissions from the developing world are growing too fast, because the other 80 percent of humanity desperately needs cheap energy, and because we and they are now part of the same global economy. What we can do, if we're foolish enough, is let carbon worries send our jobs and industries to their shores, making them grow even faster, and their carbon emissions faster still." (6)

References...

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China pans US over climate demands

Beijing - A leading Chinese strategist on climate change has declared ''there will be a deal at Copenhagen'' to replace the Kyoto Protocol, but he has belittled the carbon-reduction proposals of the Obama Administration and the Rudd Government as inadequate.

''China is not at all impressed with Obama ... Obama's statements are certainly insufficient and his demands for developing countries are unrealistic.''

[I.e., they're going to play on his global vanity to get even more self-limiting constraints on US while they do virtually nothing.]

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Climate Change Law Would Bolster U.S. Role at Global Warming Talks

The Obama administration today acknowledged that its ability to play a leading role at international climate change talks later this year will be dictated largely by how quickly Congress acts on global warming legislation.

"The president has been very clear that he wants to re-establish the United States as a leader on the issue of climate change,"

Carol Browner, the president's adviser on energy and climate change issues, told an energy conference ...

[Beautiful. He's going to enslave our children so he can be a big man at the podium come party time.]

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The Affirmative-Action Aristocracy?

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One wonders whether affirmative action and diversity preferences are any more predicated on past collective suffering? If so, why has the UC university system in the past tried to find insidious ways of limiting Asian "overrepresentation" (given ample bias against Chinese and Japanese), or why is a Barack Obama, of half-African ancestry, a beneficiary of efforts to offer recompense to those of the African-American experience?

No need to cite the obvious — a Travis Thornberry living in Bakersfield, part of the Oklahoma Diaspora, poor and without educated parents, is entitled to no affirmative-action execmptions, but perhaps an illegal alien who crossed the border yesterday does become a "minority" by the very loose association with the Mexican-American experience? So we use increasingly baffling circumstances to dictate who and who is not deserving of special consideration.

Seeking a racial identity in "diversity" has become like Marxism in the old Soviet Union — a doctrine that everyone praises, while privately realizing that it has devolved into a useful tool for careerist advancement...

[As usual with VDH, Recommended > ]

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Healthcare groups detail cost-containment plans

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The six interest groups that promised President Obama last month they would vastly reduce national healthcare spending put some meat on the skeleton of their plan Monday.

In a three-page follow-up letter to Obama and 25 pages of proposals, health insurers, physicians, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers and a labor union say - stop.

Anyone missing from the list? Oh yeah, consumers.]

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The Crisis of the Disappearing Educated Male

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Over the past couple of decades, the male-female ratio on campuses has been changing dramatically. Women outnumber men by a 4-3 ratio on college campuses. Men currently make up only 43 percent of college graduates. According to USA Today, "currently 135 women receive bachelor's degrees for every 100 men." That imbalance, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Education, "is expected to widen in the coming years."

In short, many today acknowledge that there is a crisis of the disappearing educated male.

The "2nd Conference on College Men" at the University of Pennsylvania featured sessions examining the implications of negative comments about men that are prevalent on college campuses and the sexist campus activism of participants in the nation's 500 college gender studies departments. The conference program, attended by about 100 professors and student affairs personnel, exposed some unpleasant facts: men are "underrepresented" in academic programs and campus leadership activities.

Some experts claim that the imbalance begins in the public schools, where recess and physical education are being cut. More active boys are at a disadvantage, they say, when there is no outlet for their energy and restlessness. In addition, Title IX programs have hurt men's athletics with the less profitable men's sports being cut (over 400 men's collegiate athletic teams have been cut since Title IX went into effect) in order to fund women's programs. According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), "for every new women's athletic slot created between 1992 and 1997, 3.6 male athletes were dropped."

Is it any wonder that men are avoiding today's college campuses?

Hostility toward men and masculinity begins in daycare and increases each year thereafter. Sexual harassment training and policies have created an uncertain environment, if not a hostile one, where men have to watch their every word and action lest it be misunderstood or misinterpreted. Some experts criticize a campus "worldview that sees things only in terms of oppressors and the oppressed." Typically, the few campus men's studies programs are designed to push an anti-masculinity agenda.

The negative implications are enormous... [snip]

Actually, the solution is much simpler: create an environment starting in kindergarten that teaches children to respect masculine traits. To do otherwise is to discriminate against our sons and brothers.

[The guy's nuts - men are society's enemy, everybody knows that.]

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400,000 Petition Pelosi, Reid for Vote on Broadcaster Freedom Act

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Today the Media Research Center’s Free Speech Alliance (FSA) will deliver nearly 400,000 petitions – combined with thousands of calls and faxes - to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urging them to allow a full, fair stand-alone floor vote on the Broadcaster Freedom Act (BFA).

"Free speech on the radio airwaves remains in peril so long as the FCC is just a 3-2 vote away from reinstating the mis-named 'Fairness' Doctrine," ... "remains a threat to free speech as long as elected officials like Pelosi and Reid... refuse to give the Broadcaster Freedom Act a vote."

The Free Speech Alliance (www.FreeSpeechAlliance.us) is made up of sixty-seven (67) organizations representing millions of Americans dedicated to defending free speech against a return of the Censorship Doctrine or any other assault on the First Amendment and talk radio. National talk show hosts Lars Larson and Rusty Humphries have also been heavily involved in the petition effort.

The full June 1 press release is posted below:

[And thanks to those of you who joined me in signing.]

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"Hold stand-alone floor vote on the Broadcaster Freedom Act"


Senate-Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
House-Pelosi: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
YOUR Congressman: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...

and as always, pass it on...

.

May Posterity Forget You Were Our Countrymen

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There is something about D.C. that saps the will and dulls the intellect of conservatives. Prolonged exposure makes them fretful and risk-averse, even timid with controversial issues. Rather than standing on the fundamental values that define American conservativism such as fiscal restraint, limited government, low taxes and free markets, they sidestep and tap-dance, befuddled by the "bi-partisan" opiates peddled by Socialist Democrats.

Socialist calls for "bipartisanship" are a trick conservatives fall for again and again, a tool they use to undermine us; they do not pretend to follow it. So why do we listen to political traitors like Colin Powell or fence-sitting bureaucrats like Tom Ridge? Why do we give the advice of "big tent" moderates any credence? Because our opponents tell us to, and, like fools, we listen.

It is fashionable in elite Republican circles to turn up your nose when Limbaugh is mentioned, he is so embarrassingly proletarian, so annoyingly common, and he has no Ivy League pedigree. He is "divisive," he is "offensive," he is "polarizing;" in short; he is a hell of a lot more effective than the gang in charge that let the opposition define the issues and the debate.

When you don't fight back, you lose.

Either you believe in your principles or you do not. If not, you might as well go the way of the wretched Arlen Specter. You fight honorably, but you fight to win, because the alternative is a failed America. There is not much time, 2010 is our last chance.

Once the trillions in stimulus fill the Democrat party coffers and cement their cronies into government, the nation is theirs, and just like the title on James Carville's newest book proclaims, ‘40 More Years, How The Democrats will Rule the Next Generation,' we will be powerless to stop the destruction of our institutions.

And yes, Carville used the word Rule. Not serve the nation, not govern, not lead, but rule... [snip]

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!"
Samuel Adams

[Highly Recommended > ]

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Liberal Blogs/Radio Quickly Link Doctor’s Murder to Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck

"A so-called Pro-Life activist took, cowardly, the life of doctor George Tiller, this sunday, while he was attending to a church service. I bet Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and the other will praise the killer since "he only killed a liberullllllll" according to them..."

The incredible leap from the death of George Tiller, to three leading conservative talk show hosts is shocking to people who make their home here on Earth.

More stunning is that this posting was allowed to present the statement - "he only killed a liberullllllll" according to them - as if it is a quote drawn from one of their shows.

I would challenge the author, Lauren Monica, or anyone at the Daily Kos to present an audio copy of any of these conservative talk show hosts in which they heap praise upon a killer because, "he only killed a liberullllllll".

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Oppression Liberators Need not Apply

This is a job announcement from the website of one of America’s top inner-city public charter schools located in Oakland, California (no kidding):

“AIPCS is always in search of teachers and staff who are smart, ambitious, and
motivated to teach inner-city youth. We are looking for hard working people who
believe in free market capitalism to join our family at AIPCS.

“AIPCS believes in setting a high standard for ALL students regardless of race, ethnicity, language, economic standing, etc.”

“Multi-cultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots, and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply.”

“If you believe ‘hard work’ is the key to academic success for minority students, poor students, and all other students, we encourage you to submit the following documents by fax or email.”

Let me get this straight. An inner-city public charter school job announcement specifically discriminates against the following applicants: socialists, multiculturalists, “ultra liberal zealots, and college-tainted oppression liberators.”

Takes your breath away doesn’t it? In a time when white conservatives have been viciously abused for merely thinking along these lines, the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland openly and courageously protects its young students from America’s mostly harmful liberal educrats. The result is a flourishing academic environment that produces some of California’s top scores and manages to send its students to places like MIT and Cornell.

Although AIPCS started out in the late 90’s with a multicultural and Native American motif its lagging performance changed when the school was taken over in 2000 by Ben Chavis, a Lumbee Indian who tossed out the “basket weaving” in his words and decided to go traditional. In a recent Los Angeles Times story, Chavis demonstrates little patience for teachers who make the classroom an ideological bully pulpit instead of a place where the kids come first:

"You think the Jews and the Chinese are dumb enough to ask the public school to teach them their culture?"

Chavis, in other words, has exposed a nasty little secret the liberal educrats would like to keep well-hidden. Here it is: compassionate teachers are those who are hard on their students and who train the kids to be independent and successful. Selfish teachers are those who arrest the development of young minds by using the classroom to affirm their own political beliefs. In short, one group thinks about others and the other group thinks about power.

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Family Axes Wedding Plans, Egyptian Cuts Off Penis
[Only under blue-humor because I've no idea where else to put it...]

A 25-year-old Egyptian man cut off his own penis to spite his family after he was refused permission to marry a girl from a lower class family, police reported Sunday. After unsuccessfully petitioning his father for two years to marry the girl, the man heated up a knife and sliced off his reproductive organ, said a police official.

[I pride myself in being in a minority (these days) in standing on principle even when it costs me something - but, but --- damn. Death before dishonor but --- damn. {that's about as eloquent as I can be - sorry.} --- {damn}]

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[HT:GC]

U.S. occupation leaves cultural legacy in Iraq

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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Across the street from the tidy rows of tombstones in the British cemetery, mute testimony to the soldiers of an earlier occupation, Mustafa Muwaffaq bears witness to the quieter side of the United States' six-year-old presence in Iraq.

In wraparound sunglasses, shorts and shoes without socks, the burly 20-year-old student waxes eloquent about his love for heavy metal of all kinds: death, thrash, black. But none of it compares, he says, to the honky-tonk of Alan Jackson, whose tunes he strums on his acoustic guitar at night, pining for a life as far away as a passport will take him.

"You know, I wanna go to Texas and be a country boy," ... "I wanna be a cowboy, and I wanna sing like one."

[game, set, match]

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image toon - bbro legal vals = Sotomayor's dream = not character but race + empathy

Media Ignores Obama's SCOTUS Nominee's Membership In Radical La Raza Organization

Back in the 2006 nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court , Barack Obama criticized the philosphy on confirming Supreme Court Justices stating "Meaningful advice and consent includes an examination of a judge's philosophy, ideology, and record."

I agree with his objection, and find it very curious as to why Obama now has focused on his nominee's empathy and "personal story" . As Obama advises, we need get beyond personal character and examine the judge's "philosphies, ideologies, and record." [snip]

One statement made by Sotomayor is very disturbing in the realm of judicial philosophy. This month…a video surfaced of Judge Sotomayor asserting in 2005 [during a panel discussion for law students] that a ‘court of appeals is where policy is made.’

This statement has been largely ignored by the main stream media yet the need for clarification is extremely important if the Senate is to approve this woman to one of the most powerful positions in America. If we are to look at judge Sotomayor's personal ideologies it would be reckless to ignore her feelings on race and sex... [snip]

However, the most disturbing reflection of Sotomayor's character is the company she keeps. According the American Bar Association, Sotomayor is a member of the NCLR, otherwise known as "La Raza".

La Raza is a known radical pro-illegal immigration group that should be bringing up many, many questions. However, the media hasn't reported a peep on Sotomayor's association with the group. Don't expect much either.

In summary, I advise the Senate to take the Presiden't advice. Look past the personal stories and look at the nominee's beliefs, philosophies, and record.

We know the media won't.

[La Raza: "The Race", and we're to have a supreme court justice as a member. Think about it. Highly Recommended > ]

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image toon 1st bbro legal = Sotomayor taking blindfold off

Washington Times Cites Media’s Promotion of Sotomayor

(Friday’s) Washington Times picks up on a recent report from the Media Research Center (you can read it here) documenting the outpouring of positive coverage for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. The piece, by reporter Jennifer Harper, included a quote from Democratic operative Dan Gerstein claiming,

“If President Bush had appointed someone with the same background — working class, an up-by-the-bootstraps story — the coverage would have been exactly the same.”

As TimesWatch editor Clay Waters pointed out yesterday, the press had a far more cynical reaction to the “up-by-the-bootstraps” story of Clarence Thomas, elevated to the Supreme Court by the first President Bush back in 1991...

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image toon - 1st bbro legal vals = Sotomayor to Oby = how president w/o quota?

The Axis of Evil

As the US and Asian neighbors of North Korea mull a united response to block the communist nation's nuclear program following a recent test, Israel is bracing for the fallout.

The chief concern is that Pyongyang's defiance of the international community will serve as a case-study for how Iran also might side-step diplomacy, acquire nuclear weapons, and fuel a regional arms race. If North Korea can get away with becoming a nuclear nation with little punishment and despite US diplomatic efforts, Israeli analysts say that may embolden Iran to flout international pressure, too.

"If the Americans can't show credibility on North Korea, then they won't be able to go far. It's a thermometer,"

says Gerald Steinberg, a political science professor at Bar Ilan University.

"The US has been threatening to take action against North Korea since the 1990s and the North Korea has been able to buy time. The Israeli concern is that's exactly what will happen with Iran."

N. KOREAN TIES TO IRAN
North Korea's history of supplying missile equipment to Iran, Syria, and Egypt stretches back at least a decade.

According to a technical report published earlier this month by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Theodore Postol, Iran's ballistic missile program "relies very heavily" on North Korean components, which it began importing as early as the 1980s. Three of its four known missile systems have flight characteristics "essentially identical" to those of North Korean missiles, the report says.

US intelligence officials believe North Korea and Syria, which have a longstanding military relationship, began cooperating on nuclear issues as early as 1997...

[So that UN resolutions plan - working out well?]

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image toon - nsec intl owg - UN to NKorea = bad little bomb badder big bomb

National Security Is More Important to Voters This Month

The economy remains the top issue for most Americans, but national security and the War on Terror are considered very important by 70% of voters nationwide, the highest level found since September 2007.

That’s up from 64% in April and 60% in February, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Separate Rasmussen polling shows that voter confidence in the U.S. involvement in the War on Terror is at its lowest level since last summer.

Eighty-seven percent (87%) of voters also are now at least somewhat concerned about the security of nuclear weapons in Pakistan as the radical Islamic Taliban continues to make gains there.

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image toon - gwot nsec intl = NKorea missle at WH = reconsider BMD?

UK Journalists Strike Back at WH Press Secretary's 'Sneering and Condescending Remarks'

There is little argument that the British press is doing a better job than its U.S. counterparts covering the Obama administration's less than perfect performance.

If the reactions of Nile Gardiner and James Delingpole at the UK Telegraph to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs's blanket criticism of British journalism is any indication, UK reporters are also more willing to stand up for themselves instead of letting veiled threats go by without blowback.

Gibbs's response to Loven, also at Kurtz's report, as "Nice business you got here, little lady. It would be a shame if anything were to happen to it."

["Chicago politics": a euphemism for strong-arm thugs - in our White House]

Gardiner passed on the traditional British stiff upper lip and ripped into Gibbs and his boss:

I cannot recall an instance like this where the President's official spokesman has blasted the press of a key ally - in this case America's closest friend, Great Britain.

This kind of attack would normally be made against the likes of the North Korean or Iranian state media, but in the current climate of "engagement" with America's enemies the White House is far more likely to attack its own allies. Gibbs' remarks have echoes of a senior State Department official's anti-British statements to The Sunday Telegraph after the appalling handling of the Prime Minister's visit in March.

..... The British press, especially the Telegraph, has been singled out because they frequently publish articles critical of the Obama administration and are not afraid to take on the status quo in Washington. Increasingly, millions of Americans are turning to online UK news websites for cutting edge reports on American politics and U.S. foreign policy that [their] mainstream media refuses to cover in the States, especially if it is unflattering to the Obama White House.

Oh, to have a U.S. press corps with more Gardiners and Delingpoles...

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image toon - 1st fnn msm - Press yells Oby enchanged...

Anti-Putin protesters detained

Moscow - Russian police have detained a prominent Kremlin critic and several other people who tried to hold a protest against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

National-Bolshevik Party leader Eduard Limonov was among at least 10 people seen being detained as they tried to protest in central Moscow's Triumph Square on Sunday. Police grabbed protesters and dragged them roughly into buses...

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Obama, Incorporated

The interlocking directorate is anathema to trustbusters and corporate watchdogs. It occurs when a board member or top executive of one company sits on the board of another company, accumulating undue power over a given industry. When it reduces competition, the arrangement is forbidden by the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914.

If Henry De Lamar Clayton, the Alabama congressman who introduced the aforementioned act, were still with us, he'd presumably be shocked at the creation of the most far-reaching interlocking directorate in U.S. history. Obama Inc. has effectively won a seat on the board of companies at the heart of the nation's industrial production and its financial system. The robber barons of old would marvel at the tentacles of influence of Barack Obama, a CEO whose power would overawe J. P. Morgan.

In difficult negotiations with business, Obama now has the advantage of sitting at both sides of the table. This makes the art of the deal considerably simpler than when Donald Trump wrote about it years ago. Consider the matter of CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy), the mileage standards that have been resisted by automakers for decades in a multifaceted regulatory and legal battle featuring enviros, the state of California, and industrial-state lawmakers:

The other day, Obama snipped the Gordian knot in an offhand swipe with his fingernail clippers - he gathered Detroit's CEOs in the Rose Garden and decreed that they had to meet a drastic increase in the standards, to 39 mpg for cars in 2016.

He needn't bother with the traditional "jawboning" of an industry, the tiresome work of a Harry Truman or Lyndon Johnson - not when both General Motors and Chrysler continue to exist on the basis of Obama's good will. After their ['structured', by the White House] bankruptcies, the companies will give a 72 percent and 8 percent ownership stake, respectively, to the federal government...

[This is how tyrannies are established, one step at a time. It can happen here. It may be happening now.]

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image toon - auto sclm bbro engry = Oby at CAFE telling customers what they'll be ordering

When Pravda Calls Us Communists

There was an embarrassing editorial (embarrassing for Americans, at least) on a recent online edition of Pravda – the Russian newspaper. When the leading publication of the former Soviet Union starts to editorialize the downfall of the United States, maybe someone, somewhere, should pay attention.

Here are some excerpts from the opinion piece:

American capitalism gone with a whimper

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a Burger King burger than for their constitutional rights.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

You can read the full editorial (and weep) here.

[What will it take for most Americans to realize what's happening to their country?
A: Those Americans that do talking to them about it. As always, silence will be interpreted as consent.

Sadly, Recommended > ]

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

Ford’s The Favorite Among Big Three

With Chrysler in a government-supervised bankruptcy and General Motors expected to follow suit any day now, Ford is stretching its lead as the most highly regarded of the Big Three automakers.

Among investors, 69% have a favorable regard for Ford, nearly 30 points higher than their view of GM and Chrysler. But then most voters say GM or Chrysler is likely to go out of business over the next few years anyway.

Sixty-one percent (61%) of Americans say Ford is the Big Three auto company which has the best chance of surviving and becoming profitable again.

[A real/honest bankruptcy could be half way to real solvency by now had the government not interfered. Instead we'll now have a government-run state car companies to the benefit of their labor unions.

Does anyone really think they'll be permitted to fail? Think Amtrak: we'll be subsidizing them forever.]

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image toon - sclm auto mny - Kids pay for Government Motors

Arctic may hold twice the oil previously found there

(CNN) -- Continental shelves beneath the retreating polar ice caps of the Arctic may hold almost double the amount of oil previously found in the region, scientists

A team of scientists at the USGS collaborated with international researchers to conduct the first-ever comprehensive assessment of undiscovered oil and gas reserves within the Arctic Circle.

"We tried to put some boundaries on the range of possibilities and resources available in the Arctic," said geologist Donald Gautier, lead author of the survey, which is published this week in the journal Science.

Using geological analysis and probability modeling, researchers mapped out sedimentary rock deposits to estimate the amount of undiscovered oil and gas beneath undersea continental shelves.

This survey, the first of its kind*, could help oil and gas companies locate new troves of fossil fuels.

[I guarantee there's more than double the amount 'previously found': a) evidently this is the only comprehensive survey that's ever done, and b) They're only talking about 'conventional' reserves, our technology is way past that now, and c) We always find more.

Again: the history of oil use has been one of constantly expanding excess reserves discovered above and beyond consumption. The claim of 'peak oil' is a canard completely contrary to all empirical facts. Despite our every increasing appetite for oil & gas are discovery of new reserves - when we bother to look - has consistently outstripped demand and resulted in an ever expanding surplus of reserves.

FLASHBACK > Abundant energy will power future growth

Bottom line for the world: an incredible 36% increase in oil reserves [excess] during the two decades that saw the greatest globalization-spurred oil consumption in the history of mankind. And that doesn't include the 152 billion barrels in proven oil reserves obtainable from Canada's tar sands. Is there any reason to doubt that the next two decades won't build on the steady growth of the last two?

But this is still not the end of it. Unconventional oil reserves are now in play. In 2005, the Rand Corporation estimated that the oil shale in America's Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, contains as much as 1.1 trillion barrels of oil recoverable, an amount comparable to the reserves of four Saudi Arabias.

Then there's Canada's tar sands, with its even greater potential--estimates of the total reserves that may be available top two trillion barrels, or eight Saudi Arabias.

This is still not the end to it. Most of the oil we know about lies in the well traveled portions of the globe. But most of the world remains unexplored...

Highly Recommended > ]

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The Next Oil Shock

Energy Policy: A top expert tells Congress that oil will be around for a long time and high inventories and low prices are no excuse not to find more.

Energy prices have fallen — but only as part of the global decline in economic activity.

The current recession has wiped out demand growth for the last four years. Oil prices have tumbled $100 a barrel or more from their high point. Spare production capacity is expected to be 6.5 million barrels per day through 2009.

This has been used as an excuse to further discourage exploration for and development of domestic oil resources.

Anticipating a robust future, other countries such as China and Brazil have continued to look for oil while we continue to research . . . switch grass.

When the economy does recover, our energy 'policy' alone will provoke a follow on recession where we drive to the unemployment office in our government-designed clown cars...

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

c-art oil petition

Patients forced to wait hours in ambulances parked outside A&E departments

Ambulance chiefs have warned that lives are being put at risk ''on a daily basis'' by long delays allowing patients into Accident and Emergency units.

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has found that thousands of 999 patients are being left to wait in ambulances in car parks and holding bays, or in hospital corridors – in some cases for more than five hours – before they can even join the queue for 'urgent' treatment...

[The unavoidable evolution of government run health care. Don't believe, ask someone from Britain or Canada....]

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Obama Lifts Ban on Lobbyists! Back to Business as Usual

Roll Call is reporting that during the typical Friday afternoon document dump -- a practice used to hide actions that might prove somewhat embarrassing to the White House -- the administration quietly announced that some of the former restrictions on lobbying ballyhooed about during the late campaign have been lifted.

And now, we have to wonder: will the media notice this sudden change? I mean, a whole day has gone by and so far only Roll Call has even mentioned it.

In any case, let special interests ring, baby!

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County Trying To Stop Home Bible Studies

[HT:DT]
SAN DIEGO -- A local pastor and his wife claim they were interrogated by a San Diego County official, who then threatened them with escalating fines if they continued to hold Bible studies in their home, 10News reported.

Broyles said, "The county asked, 'Do you have a regular meeting in your home?' She said, 'Yes.' 'Do you say amen?' 'Yes.' 'Do you pray?' 'Yes.' 'Do you say praise the Lord?' 'Yes.'"

"For churches and religious assemblies there's environmental impact concerns when you have hundreds or thousands of people gathering. But this is a different situation, and we believe that the application of the religious assembly principles to this Bible study is certainly misplaced,"

Broyles said a few days later the couple received a written warning that listed "unlawful use of land" and told them to "stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit" -- a process that could cost tens of thousands of dollars... [snip]

"If the county thinks they can shut down groups of 10 or 15 Christians meeting in a home, what about people who meet regularly at home for poker night? What about people who are meeting to watch baseball games on a regular basis and support the Chargers?"

[Again, the new green religion is a path toward the government(s) controlling all activity...]

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ACORN, Soros and the Census

Just as ACORN happily accepted millions of dollars from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in its campaign to attain general acceptability and political power as well as to use all that money, ACORN hopes to participate in the upcoming census to promote interests beyond helping to conduct the next census:

obtaining general acceptability, power AND confidential information...

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image toon - othr fnn - Dept of Commerce taken leave of Census

ABC Offers Skeptical Take on Obama's Stimulus Claims; CBS, NBC Uncritical

ABC White House correspondent Jake Tapper provided a skeptical, challenging analysis of the Obama administration's claims about the economic stimulus bill. After playing a clip of Obama claiming 150,000 jobs have been created by the stimulus bill, Tapper called that

"a number based on theory, not fact."

University of Maryland economist Peter Morici appeared briefly to point out,

"It's simply an implausible statement to say that some 150,000 jobs were created by direct spending, indirect spending and so forth."

NBC's "Today" and CBS's "Early Show" on Thursday simply regurgitated White House statements that the "economy is looking much healthier these days" and that the President is "taking credit for writing the prescription." [Audio available here]

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Name That Party: Dem Cincy Councilwoman In Controversial Traffic Stop Not Id'd; GOP Critic Is

The station did not mention Cole's Democratic Party affiliation in its report, or in its follow-up when Cole called to defend herself. The Cincinnati Democratic Committee endorsed Cole's reelection bid this November on April 8. The Cincinnati Enquirer's report on the incident also doesn't name Cole's party.

That's bad enough, but when Hamilton County Republican Party chairman Alex Triantafilou issued a press release denouncing Cole's apparent attempts at obtaining favoritism, the Enquirer only identified Triantafilou's party, and not Cole's...

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Lost in the Labyrinth of Race

One of the unexpected results of the Sotomayor nomination is a refocusing on the politics of racial identity and the fossilized institutions of affirmative action-or the belief that the U.S. government should use its vast power to ensure an equality of result rather than a fairness of opportunity....

[We certainly need that to counter the nation's systemic racism - as evidenced by its black president.

The victim industry: too big to fail regardless of the facts to the contrary.

As always, VDH is Highly Recommended > ]

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The dream of limitless energy suppllies


This is unlikely to pay off quickly, but perhaps in a decade or two we will have ramped up a significant energy source from this new technology.

From TG Daily:

Livermore, CA - A fusion ignition facility which uses the power of lasers to turn tiny hydrogen pellets into thermonuclear energy is to open in California today.

The device is expected to be the first to create more energy than it uses, releasing ten to 100 times more energy than the amount of laser energy required to initiate the fusion reaction.

It is hoped that the $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility (NIF) will pave the way for commercial laser fusion power stations - potentially providing clean, almost limitless energy.

Could this be the beginning of the end of the power of the oil despots?

What is Putin without oil? What is Chavez without oil? What is Iran without oil? What is Saudi Arabia without oil?

[But if they're so bad, why not develop our own vast reserves in the interim?]

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Highlights from New Show that Mocks Left-Wing, PC, Environmental Family

'The Goode Family,' a new half-hour animated comedy show which spoofs the politically-correct and environmental do-good thinking of a liberal family which considers its lifestyle superior to “abstinence people” who “wear flag pins,” debuted this past Wednesday night on ABC. The opening scene showed a “Support Our Troops ... And Their Opponents” bumper sticker on the family's hybrid.

When the 16-year-old son who the parents adopted from Africa and presumed he'd be black, but to their surprise was a white South African, wants to start driving, the father cautions: “With greater emissions, comes greater responsibility.” In another scene, the mother declares “nothing brings a mother and daughter closer together than shopping at a high-end, organic grocery store.” And inside the store an intercom announcement alerts shoppers: “Check out the big board to see how you can limit the impact of your existence.”

I won't give away all that's in the accompanying video in which I cobbled together a little under three minutes of what I thought were the funnier and most-damning parodies of liberal thinking...

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image toon - 1st cali mny fnn - Arnie re back in time