THERE'S A VERY GOOD REASON WAL-MART SUPPORTS AN EMPLOYER MANDATE

Recent press reports, including a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal, announced the news that Wal-Mart has signed a letter to President Obama endorsing the idea of an "employer mandate" -- a requirement that employers offer health insurance to their employees.

Why would Wal-Mart -- the nation's largest employer -- endorse such an idea? Simple: It would cripple many of their competitors, says Robert Book, a health economist with the Heritage Foundation.

• Wal-Mart has 1.4 million U.S. employees and can negotiate a health insurance contract for them all at once.
• As a large multi-state employer, they can self-insure and provide coverage under federal regulations contained in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
• Self-insurance exempts Wal-Mart from costly compliance with most state health insurance regulations.
• Wal-Mart's small competitors that have less than 20 employees often pay more than twice as much per employee for the same insurance coverage, and small employers must comply with sometimes-onerous state regulations.

Ultimately, the employer mandate would impose much higher costs per employee on small retailers than it would on Wal-Mart. They would have to charge higher prices to compensate, which would put them at a substantial competitive disadvantage. Many of these small retailers would be forced out of business.

Supporting the employer mandate is just another way large business can harness the forces of government to hobble their smaller competitors.

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image toon - hcare mny = Economy v Health Care costs = ironic

Media Yawn as Obama Gives Ambassadorships to Campaign Contributors

All three morning shows on Tuesday ignored a Washington Times report pointing out that Barack Obama is "continuing the Washington tradition of handing out ambassadorships to political friends and fundraisers." Good Morning America, the Early Show and Today skipped the piece by Jim McElhatton noting that despite pledging to change the tone in Washington, the longstanding practice has continued.

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California: Teetering closer to junk

New York - California's bond rating is far from golden. Citing the Golden State's ongoing budget upheaval, Fitch Ratings on Monday downgraded California's long-term debt to BBB, one category above junk bond status. The next step is BBB- before the state's bonds would be considered speculative debt.

California has the lowest bond rating of any state, and therefore must pay higher interest rates than its peers when it issues debt...

[And still they refuse to stop spending.]

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image toon c-art - mny cali = California IOU Flag

LATimes: Men Secretly Sympathize With Adulterers, 'See Sanford in Mirror'

Meghan Daum of the L.A. Times has had an epiphany. The story of adulterous South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is still in the news, she's decided, because America's men see themselves reflected in him. Yes, Daum apparently feels that all men are adulterers, so they sympathize with him causing the story to keep bumping along.

[It's ok; blatant sexism against men is allowed.]

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New John Stossel Blog Often Counters Conventional Wisdom

Media types often have a habit of masking their true beliefs in their online blogs in attempt to maintain the fiction that they are "unbiased." One such blog that comes to mind is the Daily Nightly blog of Brian Williams in which he attempts (not always successfully) to hide his liberal bias to an extent that it comes off as quite inane.

In stark contrast to the Williams ennui is the new John Stossel blog of ABC News, John Stossel's Take, which began less than two weeks ago. And in that short time, Stossel has already made waves with his amazingly candid views which frequently run counter to the liberal conventional wisdom. An example is Stossel's blog edition posted last Friday titled, Arrogance:

As I read about the President’s new econ regulatory plans, I marvel at the arrogance. I doubt whether any president, with all his advisers and cabinet officials, is capable of overseeing something as complex as the financial system of a great economy.

A day earlier, Stossel posted Stimulus Not Working: Why is Vice President Biden Surprised?

Stossel views can't all be defined as conservative. Many of his libertarian opinions, while welcomed by many conservatives, might also cause some reservations among the same group such as his June 17 blog entry, Drug Control Begets Gun Control:

... conservatives who oppose gun control should also oppose the drug war. A war on drugs inevitably becomes a war on guns.

However, whether or not you agree with everything that John Stossel writes, his frequent astonishing frankness (for a journalist) is a refreshing break from the standard journalist blog banality. John Stossel's refreshingly candid new blog is off to a great start. I already added it to my Bloglines feed.

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Katie Couric Named 'Giant of Broadcasting'

Although having the lowest rated broadcast evening news program, Katie Couric was just named a "Giant of Broadcasting" by the Library of American Broadcasting.

[You can't make this stuff up.]

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[HT:GC]

Nominees for the 2009 Contractor Awards



"Screw that I-beam! That's the framer's problem."

.

xt 1st fnn othr crpt reps - Declaration of independence not read before signing

Did Iraq lead to Iran?

[an insightful look at the obvious]

Which brings me to a question that I think deserves to be asked: Did the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime, and the subsequent holding of competitive elections in which many rival Iraqi Shiite parties took part, have any germinal influence on the astonishing events in Iran?

Certainly when I interviewed Sayeed Khomeini in Qum some years ago, where he spoke openly about "the liberation of Iraq," he seemed to hope and believe that the example would spread.

One swallow does not make a summer. But consider this: Many Iranians go as religious pilgrims to the holy sites of Najaf and Kerbala in southern Iraq. They have seen the way in which national and local elections have been held, more or less fairly and openly, with different Iraqi Shiite parties having to bid for votes (and with those parties aligned with Iran's regime doing less and less well).

They have seen an often turbulent Iraqi Parliament holding genuine debates that are reported with reasonable fairness in the Iraqi media. Meanwhile, an Iranian mullah caste that classifies its own people as children who are mere wards of the state puts on a "let's pretend" election and even then tries to fix the outcome.

Iranians by no means like to take their tune from Arabs—perhaps least of all from Iraqis—but watching something like the real thing next door may well have increased the appetite for the genuine article in Iran itself...

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image toon 1st iran = Iran to Oby = not a good time to meet

UN to discuss N Korean missiles

The UN Security Council is to meet to discuss North Korea's latest test-launch of ballistic missiles. The council is meeting at Japan's request later on Monday after seven missiles were fired off North Korea's eastern coast on Saturday.

North Korea is banned from all ballistic missile-related activities under UN sanctions.

North Korea is now banned from exporting all weapons...

[Thank God - we're safe now.]

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image toon - owg nsec - NKorean and UN resolutions space junk

Hail Colombia

President Obama, who withheld his support for a free-trade agreement with Colombia when he was a senator, recently sounded a more positive note on the issue. At a joint news conference this week with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Obama commended him for the progress his country has made in addressing human rights violations.

In particular, he remarked on the more hospitable environment in Colombia today for labor organizers...

[I.e., unions. Our treatment ('our' meaning the Democrat controlled Congress) continues to be shameful - we've no better ally in the region and Uribe has repeatedly proven he's a good many, it's past time we stop our unions' blackmail of his embattled country (reminder: we've much to lose in the region should he fall)...]

FLASHBACKs >

• Cuba, FARC may be training guerrillas at Venezuelan camp
• FARC's 'Human Rights' Friends
• Colombian police: FARC responsible for most U.S. cocaine
• Mullen Says Colombia Making Progress Against Narcoterrorists

READ MORE

Then >


"PASS THE COLUMBIA FREE TRADE ACT NOW"


Whitehouse: mailto:president@whitehouse.gov
House-Pelosi: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
YOUR Congressman: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

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

and as always, pass it on...

Public Policy That Makes Test Subjects of Us All

.


Suppose you wanted to test the effects of halving the amount of salt in people’s diets. If you were an academic researcher, you’d have to persuade your institutional review board that you had considered the risks and obtained informed consent from the participants.

But if you are the mayor of New York, no such constraints apply. You can simply announce, as Michael Bloomberg did, that the city is starting a “nationwide initiative” to pressure the food industry and restaurant chains to cut salt intake by half over the next decade. Why bother with consent forms when you can automatically enroll everyone in the experiment?

And why bother with a control group when you already know the experiment’s outcome? The city’s health commissioner, Thomas R. Frieden, has enumerated the results. If the food industry follows the city’s wishes, the health department’s Web site announces, “that action will lower health care costs and prevent 150,000 premature deaths every year.” [snip]

After reviewing the literature for the Cochrane Collaboration in 2003, researchers from Copenhagen University concluded that “there is little evidence for long-term benefit from reducing salt intake.”

A similar conclusion was reached in 2006 by Norman K. Hollenberg of Harvard Medical School. While it might make sense for some individuals to change their diets, he wrote, “the available evidence shows that the influence of salt intake is too inconsistent and generally too small to mandate policy decisions at the community level.”

In the past year, researchers led by Salvatore Paterna of the University of Palermo have reported one of the most rigorous experiments so far: a randomized clinical trial of heart patients who were put on different diets. Those on a low-sodium diet were more likely to be rehospitalized and to die, results that prompted the researchers to ask, “Is sodium an old enemy or a new friend?” [snip]

At the time, it seemed extraordinary for a city to be forbidding its diners to order a legal food product, particularly given the scientific uncertainties about trans fats and the possible harms resulting from the ban (see TierneyLab at nytimes.com/tierneylab).

But that local restaurant policy now seems fairly modest by comparison with Mr. Bloomberg’s and Dr. Frieden’s plans for salt. Soon, wherever you live, wherever you eat, you could be part of their experiment.

[I.e., arrogance run amok - a.k.a. 'government'. And the nanny state is accelerating... ]

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Progress or broken promise?

(CNNMoney.com) -- Nearly five months after President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a still-worsening economy has many wondering if stimulus is a bunch of baloney.

In February, the stimulus bill was passed with the promise that funds would be paid out quickly to save or create 750,000 jobs by early August. Without it, the Obama administration said, unemployment could rise to 9% in 2010.

With August quickly approaching, $56.3 billion, or 10% of stimulus funds have been paid out, and the unemployment rate has already risen to 9.5%.

As a result, there's debate about whether stimulus has put the economy on a path to recovery or is merely a broken promise...

[A: Neither. These 'stimuli' have nothing to do with helping the economy and everything to do with expanding the power of government. Remember all the 'strings' and government requirements that the press briefly reported on when some Governors where refusing the funds on that basis?

Well, the strings are still in there...]

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A MISERABLE FAILURE

That's the Obama administration's "stimulus" plan, which mainly stimulated Democratic constituencies with great gobs of pork. The web site Innocent Bystanders has done a service by plotting the actual unemployment rate against the Obama administration's prediction of what would happen with and without the "stimulus." Here is the latest, updated through June:

The administration's forecast provides a benchmark against which we can judge the success or failure of the $700 billion porkapalooza. The result is obvious: it was a failure. The best thing Congress could do is to cancel the rest of the program--the large majority that remains unspent--and let the economy recover without being hampered by government-imposed inefficiencies.

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Cantor says Biden misread stimulus, not economy

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., Monday declared the $787 billion stimulus bill to be an ineffective waste of money and said if President Obama is weighing another round of federal help, it should be focused on small businesses and working families...

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Dem Senator: Second Stimulus ‘Probably Needed’

As job losses mount, Democrats are growing impatient about the impact of the massive stimulus package passed earlier this year, with talk beginning on Capitol Hill about a possible second stimulus bill.

Today on ABCNews.com’s ''Top Line,'' Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said a second stimulus is ''probably needed,'' and predicted that Congress is likely to act before the end of the year to inject even more federal dollars into the economy.

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POLL: Sixty percent oppose second stimulus

Sixty percent (60%) of U.S. voters now oppose the passage of a second economic stimulus plan this year, a five-point increase in opposition since the issue was first raised in March.

While voters nationwide strongly oppose another stimulus plan this year, 57% of the Political Class think it’s a good idea.

That helps to explain why 68% of voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that President Obama and Congress will try to pass another economic stimulus plan this year. One-out-of-three voters (34%) say it is very likely to happen.

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[meanwhile, business tax cuts would have had an effect instantly...]

New climate strategy: track the world's wealthiest

As it stands now, under the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol, rich countries shoulder most of the burden for cutting the emissions that spur global warming, while developing countries -- including fast-growing economies China and India -- are not required to curb greenhouse pollution.

The study suggests setting a uniform international cap on how much carbon dioxide each person could emit in order to limit global emissions; since rich people emit more, they are the ones likely to reach or exceed this cap, whether they live in a rich country or a poor one.

For example, if world leaders agree to keep carbon emissions in 2030 at the same level they are now, no one person's emissions could exceed 11 tons of carbon each year. That means there would be about a billion "high emitters" in 2030 out of a projected world population of 8.1 billion...

READ MORE
[From catastrophic to horrific: can you think of a worse big-brother totalitarian scheme? And make no mistake, by any world definition of 'rich', virtually all Americans will qualify {consider, our current yearly average CO2 'emissions' {according to them} is ~20 tons, so we'd be expected to cut our energy use roughly in half -- or pay the price. All to accomplish nothing against nothing.

Now ask yourself how will they determine who owes what for their lifestyle? A: They'll need invade your private life to a degree that will make the IRS seem benign by comparison.

Demand rejection of this concept now or pay the price later, so...

"OPPOSE ALL CO2 RESTRICTION,
Domestic AND International"


Senate-Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

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

and as always, pass it on...

.

REMINDER: This is a TWOFER deal: not only is our national Cap & Tax bill 'in' the Senate for approval, it's the Senate which must 'ratify' international agreements/treaties - I.e., the above monstrosity - so let 'em have it...]
.

Democrats Admit That Their Cap and Trade Bill Is a Job Killer

In her remarks bringing the debate over the climate bill to a close, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California urged her colleagues to vote in favor of the cap and trade bill, saying the measure was about four things: "jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs."

She was right—the House-passed version of cap and trade is all about jobs: jobs lost, jobs never created, jobs sent overseas, and, unbelievably, jobs people will be paid for doing long after they cease to exist.

According to Friday's Washington Times, the legislation includes language that provides, should it become law, that people who lose their jobs because of it "could get a weekly paycheck for up to three years, subsidies to find new work and other generous benefits—courtesy of Uncle Sam."

How generous are these benefits? Well, according to the Times, "Adversely affected employees in oil, coal and other fossil-fuel sector jobs would qualify for a weekly check worth 70 percent of their current salary for up to three years, at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of $4.2 billion from 2011 to 2019.

Instead of being a the source of millions of new jobs of "green jobs"—as House Democrats are fond of saying over and over again—the provision is a hidden admission that their effort is not only a massive new tax on energy but a job killer... [snip]

Wouldn't it be better to leave the jobs alone in the first place? It would certainly be cheaper.

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image toon - grn engry = Pelosi dousing economy for C&T 2454

'PEAK' OIL SHORTAGE IS POLITICAL FICTION, NOT REALITY

One anti-drilling argument often invoked by environmentalists is that either America or the world is running out of oil. Neither assertion is true. For example, in the 1970s, the Club of Rome guaranteed that we'd run out of oil by now. Yet the amount of available oil has expanded greatly since then:

• According to U.S. Geological Survey estimates, we've got just shy of 6 trillion barrels of oil or its equivalent.
• Ronald Bailey, Reason magazine's science correspondent, writes that this means 82 percent of the world's already tapped endowment of oil and gas remain to be used.
• Bailey, who did a thorough survey of the "peak oil" debate, found that most of the world's leading analysts and agencies simply do not think we are running out of oil.

The disinformation cycle keeps repeating itself:

• In 1995 the USGS said that the Bakken formation, in North Dakota and Montana, had a modest amount of oil; it now believes there are 3 to 4 billion barrels there -- 25 times the 1995 estimate.
• The Minerals Management Service (MMS) insisted in 1987 that there were a "mere" 9 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico; 20 years later that estimate is up to 45 billion.
• Prudhoe Bay in Alaska has already generated 15 billion barrels of oil and natural-gas liquids even though the government insisted the needle would hit empty at 9 billion; right now, the MMS conservatively guesses that the Atlantic and Pacific Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) has 14.3 billion barrels of oil and 55 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

And none of these figures included extracting oil from shale. Estimates put the amount of shale oil in the Intermountain West at 1.2 to 1.8 trillion barrels. If we chose to recover just the 'easiest' 800 billion barrels of that, it alone would represent an American reserve three times Saudi Arabia's oil stockpile.

[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 {currently illegal in most of the US} - has consistently outstripped demand and resulted in an ever expanding surplus of reserves.

Our {non} 'Energy' policy is insane and costing us more than a retarded economy, it's literally funding our enimies (Russia, S. American tyrants, middle east} and threatens to strip our children of thier liberties wholesale behind the global-warming canard.

It's past time we demand real change in this area.]

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Chevron Refinery Expansion Halted; 1,000 Jobs To Be Lost

[nonetheless...]

RICHMOND, Calif. -- The Chevron refinery in Richmond released 100 workers Thursday following a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge's ruling Wednesday ordering the refinery to stop construction of its Energy and Hydrogen Renewal Project, Chevron spokesman Brent Tippen said.

Tippen estimated that the ruling would result in a loss of about 1 million labor hours and approximately $50 million to $75 million in income to the workforce in Richmond and the county within the next year. The city will also lose $61 million in various community benefits... [snip]

The project, which broke ground in September after a permitting process that took more than three years, included replacing the refinery's 1960s-era hydrogen plant and its 1930s-era power plant.

But Judge Barbara Zuniga's ordered construction halted as she considered an environmental impact report on the project to have failed to disclose whether it would enable the refinery to process heavier crude oil, an ability refinery officials said would increase the refinery's flexibility to process a wider variety of crude oil and improve the plant's energy efficiency and reliability.

Plaintiffs from Communities for a Better Environment, Asian Pacific Environmental Network and the West County Toxics Coalition said that the upgrade would enable the refinery to process heavier crude oil, which would lead to increased pollution and increased risk of 'upset'...[snip]

Tippen said that Chevron was disappointed with the court's ruling and believe the project had been properly analyzed and permitted.

"Ironically, putting the project on hold means delaying demonstrable environmental benefits including improved refinery energy efficiency and reduced overall emissions,"

[Ironic or predictable. Even if we ever do get sane energy policy in place politically (2012 at the soonest), it likely won't mean much until we seriously overhaul our judicial system which is being used as a weapon for all things 'progressive']

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

Obamacare failed in Europe

President Barack Obama's proposed "public insurance option" for universal health coverage seems logical: A large public insurance fund will provide quality coverage for the uninsured and force competing insurers to lower costs.

In practice, though, one needs only look at what decades of government health care have done to ramp up the financial and quality problems endured by Britain and France...

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Reality check: Canada's government health care system

Kingston, Ontario - For Shona Holmes, simple pleasures such as playing with her dog or walking in her plush garden are a gift. After suffering from crushing headaches and vision problems, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor four years ago. She was told if it wasn't removed, she could go blind or even die.

Holmes is Canadian, but the "they" she refers to are doctors at the Mayo Clinic in the United States...

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CANADA SEES BOOM IN PRIVATE HEALTH CARE BUSINESS

Facing long waits and substandard care, private clinics are proving that Canadians are willing to pay for treatment. Critics lament the shortage of doctors as patients flood the system, resulting in long waits for some treatment. Health care delivery in Canada falls largely under provincial jurisdiction, complicating matters:

• Private for-profit clinics are permitted in some provinces and not allowed in others.
• Under the Canada Health Act, privately run facilities cannot charge citizens for services covered by government insurance.
• But a 2005 Supreme Court ruling in Quebec opened the door for patients facing unreasonable wait times to pay-out-of-pocket for private treatment.

"I think there is a fundamental shift in different parts of the country that's beginning to happen. I think people are beginning to realize that they should have a choice,"

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image toon - hcare = Oby asking patient to wait for committee decision

Welcome to Obamacare Theater

The White House sure likes to put on a show. Fresh off its joint stage production with ABC News, the Obama administration broadcast another health care propaganda play this week under the guise of a citizen “town hall.

The denials of pre-planning and stacked decks deserve nothing but derisive mockery. Obama’s town hall was filled with backroom players and a supporting cast of socialized medicine activists and ideologues...

[But it'll work]

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ABC: Is Sheriff 'Concerned' People Have 'Guns Right by the Side'

ABC’s Diane Sawyer acted more concerned than the reporter on the scene on Monday’s Good Morning America over a small town in South Carolina arming itself against a serial killer. She asked the local sheriff,

“The community has apparently been arming up and we’re reading that ammunition is selling out at some of the stores. How concerned are you that people are standing at their doorways with guns right by the side?”

It would be hard to guess that the reason for the story was a string of five murders apparently perpetrated by the same suspect over the course of a week during late June/early July in South Carolina.

Evidently law abiding citizens having the ability to defend themselves is a greater cause for fear...

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POLL: Why Is Palin Stepping Down as Governor?

Source


image toon = msm palin = MSM = palin quit for no reason v flying shoes

Barbara Boxer (a rare good report)

[Public Service Announcement kind of thing for Californians from DT]

I sent a letter to both Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein and I received responses from both (see Boxer response below). I am amazed, but Barbara Boxer is a sponsor and co-sponsor of two important bills (see attachment). Diane Feinstein is not a sponsor on either one. Also Jerry McNerney and Tom McClintock are sponsers of important bills in the House of Reps.

Check out this website: http://thomas.loc.gov

It provides all the bills in the HR and Senate and who are the sponsors and co-sponsors. Very interesting.

Dr. DT

Voight: Turned Conservative After 'Marxist' Left Caused & Ignored Vietnam/Cambodia Slaughter

[History]

And then I saw the end of the war. I saw us pull out, and then I saw the communists move in and slaughter 2 1/2 million people in South Vietnam and Cambodia. And I saw the left that had precipitated this turn away, just walk away from it. ...

They didn't take seriously the blood that they had been directly causing.

And I didn't – but I must say programming is very, very deep. And I didn't really pull out of it for quite a while afterward. But that's where the dime dropped and things started to happen. And then I , you know, then 9/11, of course.

Below is a complete transcript of the interview from the Wednesday, June 10, Beck show on FNC:

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Merit Isn’t What It Used to Be at Annapolis

A Naval Academy professor and former admissions official has blown the whistle on the Navy’s diversity admissions program. He contends there is one set of academic standards for white applicants and another one for minorities.

“First of all, we’re dumbing down the Naval Academy. . . Second of all, we’re dumbing down the officer corps.”

And he’s got the data on his side...

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Blind man has sight restored by having tooth implanted in his eye



Martin Jones, 42, a builder, had been blind for 12 years after a tub of white hot aluminium exploded in his face as he worked at a scrapyard. He married his wife Gill, 50, four years ago but had not seen her until after the delicate eight-hour operation to return the gift of sight.

The procedure began when one of Mr Jones' canine teeth was removed and converted into a holder for a special optical lens by drilling a hole in it. The tooth was then inserted into his cheek for three months to enable it to grow new tissue and blood vessels.

Then finally came the delicate operation to insert the tooth, complete with the fitted lens into Mr Jones' right eyeball. Within two weeks of the final operation to implant the tooth in his eyeball his sight returned and he was told he had almost perfect vision in his right eye.

"When I first heard about the technique I couldn't believe it. I don't think many people can. ... "My friends just don't believe me. They think I'm pulling their leg or have just made it up. But when I take my glasses off they say "oh my God" Because my eye looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. They're just amazed at it,"

[About time - I've long wondered why they didn't stick teeth in peoples' eyes to restore vision. Seriously; an example of our medical experts, of whom I'm frequently critical, truly earning the moniker of 'miracle workers'.
BTW:]

"The first car I saw when my sight was restored was a Smart car and I couldn't stop laughing – I'd never seen one before and I thought it had been chopped in half."

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Vegetarian diet 'weakens bones'

SYDNEY – People who live on vegetarian diets have slightly weaker bones than their meat-eating counterparts, Australian researchers said Thursday.

A joint Australian-Vietnamese study of links between the bones and diet of more than 2,700 people found that vegetarians had bones five percent less dense than meat-eaters, said lead researcher Tuan Nguyen.

The condition was most pronounced in vegans...

[But did the study sufficiently exclude other potential causative factors, such as vegans having softer craniums, also skeletal tissue, to begin with? {just advocating for good scientific method...}]

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[HT:DT]

Cost of a bowl of soup at homeless shelter: $0.00 dollars

Having Michelle Obama Serve you your soup: $0.00 dollars

Snapping a picture of a homeless person who is receiving government funded meal while taking a picture of the first lady using his $500 Black Berry cell phone: Priceless

.

image toon - 1st fnn msm vals = MH Fan throngs actually the media

Hondurans unhappy with Obama

Rejecting the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya, Honduras' interim leaders dug in for a fight on Thursday after governments across the region demanded the deposed leftist be restored to power...The Organization of American States on Wednesday issued a weekend deadline for the interim government to reinstate Zelaya, in a standoff that is testing U.S. President Barack Obama's administration after he promised an era of better relations with the region...

"We have established a democratic government and we will not cede to pressure from anyone. We are a sovereign country,"

said Roberto Micheletti, who was named as caretaker president by Honduran lawmakers shortly after Zelaya's ouster.

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Who cares about Honduras?

Barack Obama has fundamentally shifted our foreign policy away from our own national interests in Honduras. He aligns us with the interests of Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and a long list of South American drug cartels.

The Honduran people, wise to the ways of Latin American politics, adopted a constitution that prohibits any president from serving more than one term. Presidents in Latin American countries, like herpes, have a habit of never going away. Further, the Honduran constitution requires that any referenda put to the voters must be approved by the Honduran Congress... [snip]

For perspective, Obama more quickly condemned President Zelaya’s ouster by a democratic government than he condemned Iran for gunning down its citizens who had taken to the streets to demand freedom. Obama needed public pressure to even discuss Iran.

Sadly, our president needs public pressure to align his moral compass toward freedom...

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Source

Obama 'meddles' in Honduras -- and chooses the wrong side

President Barack Obama has made it clear that he does not want the United States to be seen as "meddling" in Iran's internal politics.

Never mind that the Islamic Republic has been "meddling" in our affairs for the past three decades, if such a bland word can be used to characterize the seizure of our embassy in 1979, the killing of 229 American servicemen in 1983 and the planting of roadside bombs to kill our soldiers in Iraq.

The Obama administration apparently believes that words and actions in support for the Iranian people in their struggle against religious fascism will hurt their cause, even though the mullahs have never needed a pretext for blaming their self-inflicted wounds on the West.

The administration's response to the events in Iran was predictable given its obsession with "engaging" a regime that shows no interest in returning the favor.

Yet while distancing ourselves from democratic forces in Iran under the guise of respect for that government's sovereignty, we have been quite eager to "meddle" in the domestic politics of Honduras.

Worse, we have wound up on the wrong side...

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image toon - 1st nsec lbrty = Oby meddling in Honduras

Liberty And Liberation On July 4

Mission Accomplished: The withdrawal of U.S. troops from 15 Iraqi cities makes this a time to remember the sacrifices that made success possible — and the president who refused to lose.

It is questionable if even Reagan could have resisted the kind of united pressure from political friend and foe alike that George W. Bush was under during the months preceding the Surge. As we celebrate this 4th of July, we should be thankful for a 43rd president who refused to allow another Vietnam.

And we should hope his successor does not undo what history will remember as one of the great instances of presidential fortitude.

But the concerns that former Vice President Dick Cheney recently expressed regarding our forces in Iraq are not to be taken lightly. Reacting to the announcement last week that U.S. soldiers would leave Iraq's cities in a 24-hour span, Cheney reflected to the Washington Times that

"one might speculate that insurgents are waiting as soon as they get an opportunity to launch more attacks."

The former defense secretary for the first President Bush understood that the Iraqis eventually

"have to stand on their own, but I would not want to see the U.S. waste all the tremendous sacrifice that has gotten us to this point."

With over 4,300 of our servicemen and women having fallen to rid the world of the threat of Saddam Hussein and bring freedom to Iraq, it certainly should be a priority not to waste so much valor.

Unfortunately, President Obama's main concern seems to be something else: Keeping to his self-imposed, artificial timetable to end U.S. combat operations in little more than a year and get all our troops out by the close of 2011...

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[No matter if defeat is snapped from the jaws of victory, our military accomplished its job in truly historic fashion given the hole they had to dig themselves out of - while regrettably reversible by our politicians, for our countrymen in uniform Iraq goes into the history books as

Joe Biden: Iraqis on own if violence flares

Vice President Joseph Biden told ABC's George Stephanopoulos in an interview taped in Iraq on Saturday for ''This Week'' that the United States does not intend to slow its withdrawal plan in Iraq even if violence spikes after U.S. troops leave.

Asked what happens ''if the violence flares up again,'' the vice president replied,

"Well, that's going to be a tragic outcome for the Iraqi people"

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Pentagon warns US arms may be [becoming] obsolete

America's traditional means of projecting power abroad is growing “increasingly obsolete” and its billion-dollar military hardware could be as ineffectual against future threats as the heavily fortified Maginot line was in defending France against the Nazis, a senior Pentagon adviser has warned... [snip]

In 2006, China sneaked one of its submarines into the middle of a US carrier group — to the mortification of the US navy...[snip]

Even new areas of supremacy, such as US dominance of global positioning satellites that guide “smart” bombs to their targets, are becoming a “wasting asset” as states such as China develop the space technology to destroy them. China already has the ballistic missiles and laser technology to destroy low-orbit satellites on which the military depends.

Krepinevich claims America should devote more resources to cutting-edge nanosatellites to maintain its technological lead and should invest in missile interceptors and laser energy defences* that could counter the threat from adversaries deploying their own “smart” weapons.

Last week Robert Gates, the defence secretary, rewarded him for his prescience with a seat on the influential defence policy board at the Pentagon. Even with this encouragement from Gates, his prescription is likely to run into opposition from powerful vested interests...

[* = both of which the Obama administration has reduced.]

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Russian PM calls on U.S. to shelve missile shield

MOSCOW - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday called on the United States to move relations forward by shelving plans for a missile defense shield in Europe, news agencies reported.

"We are ready for effective cooperation, we really expect a lot of the new administration,"

Putin said on an agricultural inspection in Russia's southern Krasnodar region.

[Are we really so naive as to even consider this?]

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image toon - gwot nsec = Bush's hawk BMD v Oby's dove

Obama’s deadly hand revealed

American Jewish supporters of Israel now regret welcoming their President with open arms

Almost 80 per cent of American Jews voted for Barack Obama as President. Those of us who warned that this man would endanger Israel were scorned.

As the world watched events unfold in Iran, Obama’s double standard over Israel was illuminated in flashing neon lights. How could he say that it's wrong for him to tell the Iranians what to do, people asked themselves, when he is dictating to Israel its policy on settlements?

For the past six months, while Obama has been holding out the hand of friendship to Iran, he has been showing Israel a mailed fist.

None of this proves Obama is really a Muslim. But it does all suggest that America has a pro-Islamist President. Doubtless as a result of his constant sniping at Israel, the percentage of American voters who say they support Israel has plummeted from 69 per cent last September to 49 per cent this month.

The US and Israel could be heading for the greatest disagreement between the two countries in the history of their relationship, as Middle East expert Robert Satloff recently told Newsweek.

Even now, though, despite the outbreak of buyers’ remorse, most American Jews still don’t realise what they have done — and probably never will...

[Highly Recommended > ]

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Saudis give nod to Israeli raid on Iran

[Meanwhile, the adults...]

The head of Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence service, has assured Benjamin Netanyahu, its prime minister, that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets flying over the kingdom during any future raid on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Earlier this year Meir Dagan, Mossad’s director since 2002, held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility...

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U.S. asks China to drop censoring software requirement for PCs

The U.S. Trade Representative has written a letter to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce asking that the country drop its requirement that all new PCs sold in China have special filtering software installed.

The letter was sent Tuesday by Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce...

[Wait, we're not meddling now are we...? {Truth: enabling is more like it, via our companies' technical support of the regime}]

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'U.N. Me' Sneak Peek: Guns Don’t Kill People, Climate Change Does

Note: This was originally published at Andrew Breitbart's "Big Hollywood" blog. It looks like an entertaining documentary. It's a shame the liberal MSM is likely to ignore it.

I’m putting the finishing touches on my feature film coming out later this year called “U.N. Me” (unmemovie.com), a satirical documentary on the profound failures of the United Nations. Here’s the second of three clips that very much represent the flavor of my upcoming film. Hope you enjoy …

”Guns Don’t Kill People, Climate Change Does.”

You may know that there is a genocide taking place in Darfur (news to the U.N.). You may not know who is the real culprit responsible for the raping, killing and burning down of Darfurian villages...

[You guessed it: global warming so Americans are responsible. Watch this 2-minute clip for a view of the U.N. folks your tax dollars are paying for... {and pass it on}]

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Europeanization

With U. S. unemployment set to climb to 10% the North American market economies will soon be looking at what used to be derisively termed "European levels" of unemployment.

The question is whether these high unemployment rates are merely short-term blips that will be followed by quick recoveries, or whether high jobless numbers will persist, turning the United States into a grim replica of sclerotic Europe...

[Is this a trick question? If you implement European-like policies...]

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image toon - sclm intl owg mny = EU v US Capitalism v Socialism reversal

You Know The Real Reason Why Time Mag Is Going Down the Drain? The Content.

Sample verbiage:

It's old news that F.D.R.'s New Deal did not end the Depression....F.D.R. appreciated the irony that it was the Depression that made it possible for him to realize those larger objectives.

It would be too much to say that he deliberately prolonged the crisis to preserve the possibilities for reform. But he candidly acknowledged the relationship between peril and progress in his second Inaugural Address, on Jan. 20, 1937....

President Obama knows this. Asked by PBS news anchor Jim Lehrer in February if he did not feel burdened by the several crises now besetting the country, Obama noted that the moment "is full of peril but full of possibility" and that such times are "when the political system starts to move effectively."

Roosevelt could not have said it better. F.D.R. championed a long-deferred reform [vs. rejected bad ideas] agenda that put security [vs. government control] at its core. Obama wants to advance another set of reforms [vs. government expansions] that have long been stalled [vs. vetoed by the people].

Given that it's such old news that the New Deal was an economic flopperoo and that President Obama is pushing a New Dealish-like economic stimulus package, you'd think that maybe Time would be interested in engaging the whys and wherefores of such things. Or in anything like a critical analysis of FDR and BHO. It needn't be negative or libertarian, but something other than idle idol worship might actually pull some eyeballs.

Check out Radley Balko and Jeff Winkler's great social-panic stories from the past four decades of Time here.

In any case, what can Obama learn from FDR? Plenty. Especially what not to do during an economic downturn. Just watch below...

[Highly Recommended {above}]
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California : The “Furloughing” Of Common Sense

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How many California state employees does it take to screw in a light bulb?

We’ll find out soon enough.

A recent analysis of the state’s general fund conducted by the San Jose Mercury News found that government growth in California had exceeded the growth in population plus inflation by a whopping $10.2 billion over the previous five years.

That’s a 35% increase – in just five years - causing California’s fiscal house of cards to collapse last year, opening a $24 billion hole in its upcoming budget.

In an effort to save a nickel – or rather, $1.4 billion worth of nickels – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed last December that state employees take two days worth of furloughs each month, an idea that was roundly rejected by the state’s government unions.

What impact, precisely, do furloughs and other government layoffs have on the services currently being provided to California taxpayers?

Obviously, there are those who claim the budget shortfall will result something akin to the state falling into the Pacific or deteriorating into a third world wasteland, but those doom-and-gloom pronouncements were roundly rejected by California voters last month when they declined to approve billions of dollars worth of tax hikes... [snip]

Take the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which has seen a dramatic increase in customers taking advantage of its online services in the wake of the recent furloughs. Rather than be “adversely impacted,” Californians simply went online to conduct their business – which begs the question of whether or not some of those furloughed DMV employees should have jobs in the first place.

And what of the state’s park system –which could easily be privatized instead of draining hundreds of millions in tax dollars each year? Sure California’s parks are lovely, but are they an essential government responsibility?

Sadly, common sense assessments like that don’t seem to factor into the decision-making process in Sacramento... [snip]

California is the world’s eighth-largest economy. Frankly, it’s about time its leaders started running the state more like a business and less like a pyramid scam.

[Not if we keep returning the same crew to Sacramento.]

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image toon = 1st fnn cali mny sclm bbro - Oby's progressive ideas v failed CA ideas

[in our professional media...]

"Alaska's governor Sarah Palin to resign,
dooming her presidential pipe dream"

[New York Daily News 'Analysis']


FLASHBACKs >

The Campaign To Bankrupt The Palin Family
Well funded liberals, although exactly from where has been deliberately masked, have been filing ethics charge after ethics charge against Sarah Palin. The aim? Not any serious attempt to get her impeached, as every single one of the charges are frivolous - one was even filed in the name of a soap opera character - but something far more personal.

These people want to bankrupt the Palins and leave them destitute.

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.


Ethics Complaints Against Palin Dismissed; Sun Rises In East

[BUT THE BILLS REMAIN - Please:]

Palin's legal defense fund
Gov. Sarah Palin reportedly now has more than $600,000 in legal bills as a result of a string of frivolous ethics complaints - 14 of which have been dismissed so far with no finding she violated the state ethics act.
[but they continue to be filed, one after another despite their demonstrated lack of legitimate standing - it's litigation as financial weapon]

http://www.thealaskafundtrust.com/

[contributing will help counter one piece of the Left's campaign against this lady...


The Networks and Palin: A Study in Character Assassination
Not one of the major network evening news programs - ABC's World News, NBC's Nightly News, and CBS's Evening News - ran a single positive story about Palin.

Why Feminists Hate Sarah Palin

'Balancing Blackberry and baby'

... and remember the real world is a different story...]

McCain: People voted 'mostly for Sarah Palin' last year

WaPo Shocker: Palin Helped McCain Avoid Far Worse Loss

Trip Outside shows Palin's national star still blazes

It's no Tripp: Palin still popular

More Sarahs, Fewer Arnolds

The Power of Authenticity

The biggest red flag proving her popularity with normal
Americans is that liberals won't shut up about her.

Still the Biggest MISSING Story in Politics
The answer is the same - just the same - America is still, in every way and from every vantage, a conservative nation.

http://www.sarahpac.com/

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