THE RYAN PLAN

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"Having the government compete against the private sector is kind of like my seven-year-old daughter's lemonade stand competing against McDonalds"

Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)

Ryan argues that providing every American with a tax-free voucher specifically for the purchase of health insurance not only levels the playing field, but puts consumers in the position to make the health care choices that make sense to them.

• The Midwest lawmaker's Roadmap plan allows every American except those eligible for Medicare or military health care the option to receive a $2500 refundable tax credit for individuals and $5000 for families.
• The individual or family could apply the tax credit either to the purchase of an employer-sponsored plan or to another option that suits the individual/family.
• Employers who continue to provide health coverage can continue to claim contributions as a business expense deduction.

Ryan would retain the itemized 7.5 percent deduction for medical expenses for those who do not claim the new health care tax credit described above.

The congressman would also allow individuals to utilize the refundable tax credit toward the purchase of health insurance -- in any state. This is probably the most controversial part of the Ryan bill, as most states currently have insurance regulations that are favorable to in-state businesses. As one business leader in the state has said, "Health plans sold in Wisconsin but regulated in other states are not in the best interests of Wisconsin businesses and consumers." [half true]

Obviously, a lot of disentanglement would have to take place there involving regulations that have taken root over the years in all 50 states, but this is true consumer impowerment long overdue...

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image toon - hcare = No lemonade for old man - won't live to enjoy

Cass Sunstein's despicable ideas on regulating the internet

Obama's new regulatory czar and the Democratic Congress are looking to stifle criticism of Obama on the internet.

Sunstein's book is a blueprint for online censorship as he wants to hold blogs and web hosting services accountable for the remarks of commenters on websites while altering libel laws to make it easier to sue for spreading "rumors." Smith notes that bloggers and others would be forced to remove such criticism unless they could be "proven". [snip]

We should note that another step is being taken by Congress that would chill free speech on the internet. Representative Linda Sanchez from California is behind the Megan Meier Cyber Bullying Prevention Act, an effort to impose regulations on the internet.

We should all question the motives of the lawmakers supporting such a constitutionally vague bill which would make just about any criticism made by blogs subject to fines or imprisonment.

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AP's Hyperbole Masquerades as Journalism

The headline startles the reader by screaming out "Powerful weapons found in Northwest drug raids." One immediately imagines an image of dozens of high powered and dangerous guns, those above and beyond the norm, in the hands of these felonious drug dealers. One imagines enough guns to arm an army with the police sorely out numbered.

But, when the story is read in its entirety, it becomes obvious that "powerful weapons" turns into one high powered pistol, the rest being your average, everyday firearms seen all over the place. Is 23 guns such a monumental amount from raids that took place over a large swath of the Pacific Northwest?

Now, there is no question that Mexican drug violence is getting worse and has spilled across the border into our country. There are a lot of troubles here, to be sure. But this story is filled with hyperbole that makes a mockery of the real troubles going on and is a perfect example of fitting in hyperbole where facts are needed.

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image toon lbrty guns = Feds search for guns one house at a time

"A free people ought to be armed."

George Washington

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Death of the Race Card?

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The election of President Obama was one secured by the white vote.

This past election has shown that we are not divided racially, but politically. When push comes to shove, a liberal will not vote for a conservative, and a conservative will not vote for a liberal. The source of optimism for this past election is that the truth has surfaced: racism is no longer prevalent in America.

It is time for Americans to turn the final page on "the race card" and live out Dr. Martin Luther King's, "I Have A Dream" speech, in which he states,

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Let's stand on the solid ground of truth and look at the reality of America's greatness. It was not a chauvinistic nation that took Governor Sarah Palin to great heights, but drive. It was not a chauvinistic, racist nation that took Oprah Winfrey from poverty to wealth, but her strong determination. While both women may have met prejudiced individuals along the way, they were not hindered by a nation that practices racism as a whole. [or, like Obama, they wouldn't be where they are.]

Let us turn the final page on affirmative action. It does not respect rugged individualism, the spirit that defines America. Instead, affirmative action lumps individuals into groups and tacitly yet outwardly says, "You do not have the brains or the ability to stand on your own two feet and accomplish anything because of the color of your skin."

Too often the far left, for political purposes, sets a racist picture of America in order to win the minority vote. They label conservatives as racist for not adhering to racist ideologies such as affirmative action. The conservative's respect for every person's individuality shows true understanding of the American spirit and way of life. A black man's election is the culmination of this conservative truth: Racism is no longer prevalent in America. Ideology is...

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Palin's audacity of the unconventional

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I don't know if Sarah Palin intends to run for president in 2012. Certainly, resigning her job as Alaska's governor is a politically unconventional way of doing it.

But whereas pundits have now almost uniformly written her off, 70% in a new USA Today/Gallup poll say Palin's resignation has "no effect" on their opinion of her. Of the remainder, 9 percent say they now see her "more favorably"... [snip]

So stepping down from a job in which you are no longer realizing your ideals to reconnect with family and self is not necessarily political suicide.

But doing what everyone says you are supposed to do, compromising your values, and letting pundits and experts run your life is.

So far, Sarah Palin's audacity of the unconventional is playing just fine...

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Rumsfeld Decries 'Intellectual Dishonesty' of 'One-Sided Media Coverage'

The death of Vietnam War-era Robert McNamara unsurprisingly led liberal journalists to once again see the Iraq War as a Vietnam sequel. In a Sunday Outlook section piece in The Washington Post, former Post Pentagon reporter Bradley Graham promoted his new Donald Rumsfeld biography by asking when Rumsfeld will apologize like McNamara for the war that "many Americans see as a damnable misadventure, too costly in lives, money and national image."

Evidently, it doesn’t matter how Iraq’s democracy looks now, compared to Vietnam’s concentration camps and dictatorship.

Rumsfeld remains filled with a bitter sense that perceptions of the war and of his role in it have been badly distorted by one-sided media coverage, much of it based on self-serving accounts by State Department and National Security Council officials.

"The intellectual dishonesty on the part of the press is serious," ... "a strong incentive to be negative and dramatic" infused much of the coverage. It's a formula that works. It gets Pulitzers; it gets promotions; it gets name identification on the front page above the fold."

As an example, he noted accusations that Bush and Cheney lied about Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction in making the case for the invasion.

"They never say Colin Powell lied,"

Here is the furthest Graham will go to acknowledge that maybe Iraq is "salvageable," which is weak way of saying the war can be won:

Conditions in Iraq appear considerably more salvageable now than 2 1/2 years ago when Rumsfeld was replaced. If Iraq ultimately emerges as a stable country, the mistakes of the early years can be portrayed simply as the kinds of errors experienced in any conflict.

That would be an achievement, considering that the "one-sided media" seemed quite invested in a Vietnam-style debacle and a reinstatement of the Vietnam syndrome that would curb all American military "misadventures."

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USAT's Pathetic Pic At Story About Proposed Military Tobacco Ban

Call it "Yankee Imperialist Corrupts Impressionable Iraqi Youth":



Am I supposed to believe that USA Today had no other more relevant pictures they could have used? The fact that they went back to an AP file photo from 2007 is pretty strong evidence that USAT's page-fillers were looking to make a point.

Here are selected paragraphs from the related report by Greg Zoroya:

[These folks are being shot at, bombed and potentially the target of chemical weapons. Yeah, we've got to prevent them from smoking. {and the individual liberty for which they fight? Our accelerating rush toward collective fascism is truly alarming and will effect something of 'yours' in time if not stopped}]

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CNN Anchor's Smackdown: Bush Got Just as Warm a Welcome in Africa as Obama


On Saturday, CNN's Don Lemon was speaking live to correspondent Nkepile Mabuse who was reporting on location.

When Lemon asked whether the warm reception Obama received upon his arrival Friday was unprecedented, Mabuse caught him quite off guard with her response.

Pay particular attention to Lemon's body language [i.e., shock] when Mabuse says,

"It's not unprecedented. When President Bush was here, you will remember, in February, there were people who were drumming, there were dances, and President Bush joined some of them"

(video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, h/t NBer Jon):

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Kos, HuffPo Bloggers Compare Olbermann to Limbaugh, Cheney, Fox News


Olbermann is posting his lowest ratings of the year, down 26% from last year, and even liberals at the Huffington Post and Daily Kos are starting to disparage him... [snip]

It must be hard for Olbermann now that he doesn’t have George Bush to call a fascist or to compare to the Nazis. Crediting Obama with defeating Hezbollah in Lebanon’s elections just isn’t cutting it…

During last year’s campaign, liberal Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald noted the hypocrisy of Olbermann’s fire-breathing reaction to Bush over the FISA bill--“Now it begins to look like the bureaucrats of the Third Reich.”—versus his rationalization of Obama’s support of the same bill, praising Obama for “refusing to cower even to the left on the subject of warrantless wiretapping.”

KWolfman over at the [get ready for it:] Daily Kos chimed in on July 18 as well. Wolfman points out that Olbermann’s show is now devoid of politics and "consists entirely of Republican bashing".

He even went so far as to commit liberal heresy:

All of a sudden MSNBC fell off the map. Even Fox was better. Even Fox.

Contrasting Olbermann’s struggles, Fox News is dominating more than ever. FNC has ranked fifth or higher for 24 straight weeks among all cable channels in prime time [despite not being available in the majority of 'middle' America], while MSNBC ranks seven spots below the Food Channel...

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image toon - gwot nsec heroes msm = MSM asks if soldier liked MJ

Axing the Air Force

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imag photo c-art nsec - F22 photo

A branch of our Armed Forces is being hung out to dry by the Obama administration and, in the process, leaving America and our allies that much more vulnerable to our enemies.

Production of the F-22 has been terminated. Production of the C-17 has also been terminated. Production of the Combat Search and Rescue Helicopter has also been terminated. Production of the Multiple Kill Vehicle has also been terminated. F-15s, F-16s, and A-10s will all leave the Force with no replacements.

“This budget guarantees that the oldest Air Force in the history of our nation will get even older" ... “B-52s, built in the 1950s, will have to be kept on duty for a minimum of another 15-20 years.”

Did I mention that the budget of the Missile Defense Agency has been reduced by $1.4 billion. These cuts mean that there will be no increase of ground-based interceptors and that the Airborne Laser program has been terminated.

“The decisions are not just programic nuance, but will impact core Air Force functions to include Air Force ability to deter, to conduct an air campaign, and to rescue our downed airmen.”

These cuts come at the same time that North Korea just tested a missile that could hit the West Coast of the United States. One would think that a robust missile defense, to include the anti-ballistic laser, would be a good idea.

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The Real UN Resolution 242

[HT:BS]
Since we are about to embark on another fruitless peace effort in the Middle East, it probably makes sense to take another look at the UN Resolution we will be hearing a lot about over the next few months, UN Resolution 242.

You will hear politicians and diplomats claim that Israel must withdraw to the pre-1967 borders per UN Resolution 242. These people have no idea, or deliberately mischaracterize, what the resolution calls for... [snip]

But, if you read the statements of the drafters of the resolution there is no ambiguity about what they meant. Below are those statements by country and participant [1 of 11, all saying the same thing {at the time} in different ways] :

Mr. Joseph Sisco, Assistant Secretary of State, 12 July 1970 (NBC "Meet the Press"):

"That Resolution did not say 'withdrawal to the pre-June 5 lines'. The Resolution said that the parties must negotiate to achieve agreement on the so-called final secure and recognized borders. In other words, the question of the final borders is a matter of negotiations between the parties."

Source for the Above Statements

From now on when you hear a diplomat, politician, terrorist or newsman say that 242 calls for Israel to withdraw from the territories please send them a copy of this article with a note telling them the bias is pouring out of their mouths.

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Arrogance Alert: G8 Leaders Vow To Prevent Temps From Rising

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In today's "Can You Believe The Arrogance On Display" segment, the leaders of the G8 nations Wednesday vowed to -- get this -- stop global temperatures from rising more than they believe is acceptable.

I'm not kidding.

As reported by Britain's Times...

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G-8 agrees to cap on global temperatures

L'AQUILA, Italy - The Group of Eight industrialized nations joined with developing countries in agreeing Wednesday that average global temperatures shouldn't increase by more than 2 degrees in a significant new "temperature cap" in the fight against global warming.

President Obama and other G-8 leaders also said they supported a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent or more by 2050... [snip]

[Neither of these statements is {meant to be} a joke {it's an piece, and everyone knows they've no sense of humor}.

They're seriously taking themselves seriously (the patients are running the asylum) - with serious implications for the rest of us {and worse for our children}.]

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image toon - grn engry = C&T lowers cap over USam's head

Tax increases costing vital local jobs

Four months ago, Californians were hit with the biggest tax increase in our state's history – more than $12 billion in new taxes on everything from income and sales to vehicle license fees. Since then, tax proponents have proposed another 31 new taxes that they predict will generate more than $40 billion in the first year. On top of that, legislators have singled out oil and tobacco products for massive new tax hikes.

It's time tax proponents in the Legislature heard from California's retailers. In this economy, many retailers have folded, and others are fast approaching their breaking point. Asking retailers to absorb the impact of more tax increases is a perilous proposition. New taxes have the clear potential to drive down retail sales, further eliminate retail jobs and heighten our state's budget crisis.

“I have been forced to lay off 37 percent of my work force, including an employee who has been with me since 1981,” said Amir Oram, of the Market Place in City Heights. “No doubt about it, the economy is bad, but tax increases and the added cost of doing business are what worry me. Business as usual tax increases could very well put us out of business."

The answer to this state's budget woes must be found elsewhere – in systemic changes that reduce expenses and eliminate waste, inefficiency and fraud.

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More Voters See Their Taxes Increasing Under Obama

Thirty-nine percent (39%) of likely voters now expect their personal taxes to rise under the Obama administration, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

That's up three points over the past two weeks,up eight points since the inauguration, and the highest level of concern measured to date.

Still, 40% don’t expect their taxes to change under the new administration.

[?]

Most voters (55%) continue to believe that tax increases hurt the economy, while 24% say they help. Fifty-three percent (53%) say tax cuts help the economy, while 22% say they hurt the economy.

[??]

Thirty-nine now say the country’s economic problems are now caused more by the policies Obama has put in place than those of Bush. That’s a 12-point jump from a month ago.

[Which is why all Obama's initiative are 'rush', because the more time we have to learn the full implications of his proposals, the more we'll dislike.]

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To stimulate the economy, let it be free

Lobbying is about the only sector of the economy experiencing a boom right now. This is a predictable effect of the tax-and-spend stimulus model favored by the Democrats.

Taking money out of the economy, wasting some of it on bureaucracy, and then putting it back in is not going to spark economic growth.

Even the Democrat-controlled Congressional Budget Office admits that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will hurt long-run economic growth...

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Sizing up the Tea Parties

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Atlanta--How many Americans have participated this year in “Tea Party” events? The scattered nature of the antitax protests makes it hard to know for sure – estimates run from less than half a million to close to a 1 million – but one unlikely enumerator thinks he has the answer.

He estimates that total attendance at Tea Parties this year approaches 2 million...

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image toon - 1st mny = Insanity v 2nd stimulus

'Put nothing in writing'

Carol Browner, former Clinton administration EPA head and current Obama White House climate czar, instructed auto industry execs "to put nothing in writing, ever" regarding secret negotiations she orchestrated regarding a deal to increase federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-WI, is demanding a congressional investigation of Browner's conduct in the CAFE talks, saying in a letter to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-CA, that Browner "intended to leave little or no documentation of the deliberations that lead to stringent new CAFE standards."

Federal law requires officials to preserve documents concerning significant policy decisions, so instructing participants in a policy negotation concerning a major federal policy change is a criminal act.

Browner's informal directive was previously reported by The New York Times. Sensebrenner's letter, which is being made public tomorrow, follows: ...

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Browner has history of deceit on government files

Obama White House climate czar Carol Browner's instruction to auto executives to ''write nothing down'' on those secret negotiations to jump the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards up significantly higher was not the former EPA head's first time for trying to suppress official documents.

Soon after leaving EPA at the end of the Clinton administration, Browner was implicated in a federal court decision against EPA for destroying official computer files...

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image toon - cali grn engry = CA child instructer = hard left off of cliff re CAFE standards

CO2 Emissions Disagreement Between EPA and Energy Dept. Ignored by MSM

[HT:WP]
The mainstream media loves to tell the public about how "unreliable" the blogosphere is as an information source. However, there is a huge story out there that is only being covered by the blogosphere, in particular at Watts Up With That?, which is currently being completely ignored by the MSM.

It is about a significant disagreement between the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and Energy Secretary Steven Chu over the amount of worldwide CO2 emissions if the United States acts alone should a climate bill pass in both Houses of Congress. Basically EPA's Jackson says that such a bill, if passed, would have very little effect on global CO2 emissions while Chu disagrees with that assessment.

You can see the EPA chart below the fold followed by the transcript of a video of both these Obama administration officials responding at complete odds with each other under questioning from Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe at the Senate hearing yesterday on a climate bill...

[Correction; FNC's Special Report carried the story.]

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Global Warming Alarmists Propose Limiting Population ... to the Point of Extinction

In a statistical study entitled “Reproduction and the Carbon Legacies of Individuals,” published in Global Environmental Change by Murtaugh and Shlax of Oregon State University, and again published here , the authors propose that the potential savings from reduced reproduction rates among humans are some 20 times more effective than the savings wrought by life style changes.

By the authors’ desires, if we would limit every couple to having only one child, we would solve the Global Warming problem for every one. Again, humanity itself is the cause of all the woe, and the best thing for us to do is just stop procreating. Living human beings are bad for the planet.

It is clear that the authors follow the Liberal mantra of the ends justify the means. If we can reduce carbon emissions by reducing the number of children, then we should do it. It appears that carbon reductions trump even “life” itself.

[Teachers at an institution of 'higher learning'. Great.]

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Just 96 months to save world, says Prince Charles

Capitalism and consumerism have brought the world to the brink of economic and environmental collapse, the Prince of Wales has warned in a grandstand speech which set out his concerns for the future of the planet.

The heir to the throne told an audience of industrialists and environmentalists at St James's Palace last night that he had calculated that we have just 96 months left to save the world...

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image toon - grn engry = Oby soldier = destroy capitalist village to save it due to C&T

House Wants to Soak the Rich For Health Care; AP Forgets the 'Again' Part

In a wildly meandering report on the status of the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Alliance's attempt to enact statist health care this year, Associated Press writers David Espo and Erica Werner:

• Told us that the House wants to slap a surtax on "highly paid" Americans without disclosing the percentage of the proposed surtax or how much it might raise.
• Forgot to tell us that wealthy wage earners already pay a "surtax" designed to fund others' health care that has failed to solve any long-term financial issues (maybe you've forgotten too, so I'll remind you).
• Acted as if the legislation under consideration will instantly zero out the number of uninsured Americans, which they falsely claimed is currently 50 million.

Here are the relevant paragraphs from the AP report:


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WILL HEALTH CARE REFORM REALLY PAY OFF?

Health care reform, if enacted, is going to be expensive -- estimates range from around $1 trillion for a plan introduced by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) to $1.6 trillion or more for other proposals -- so the Obama Administration has come up with a list of $948 billion in savings it claims can be obtained by enacting such changes:

• Some $309 billion in reduced costs from the Medicare and Medicaid programs and $326 billion in additional revenue that will come from such things as raising taxes on families earning more than $250,000 a year.
• The Medicare and Medicaid savings include such things as assumed improvements in patient care and reduced hospitalization rates, as well as reduced Medicare payments to private insurers.
• The Administration added to that an estimate of $313 billion more it feels can be saved through such things as 'productivity adjustments' to Medicare and Medicaid, reduced hospital subsidies and by paying less on Medicare Part D, the prescription-drug program.

John C. Goodman, President, CEO and the Kellye Wright Fellow of the National Center for Policy Analysis, wrote in a recent blog post:

"Because this is a complex system, it is very hard to believe how all this new spending will affect the system as a whole. But we can be fairly confident total spending will rise -- and probably by a lot -- No matter what else happens, if I and my doctors don't change what we are doing for me and you and your doctors don't change what is being done for you….. and so forth….. aggregate spending will not change."

[Much like AWG, the professed goal is cover: the current plans having nothing to do with improving health care in America and everything to do with the government seizing control over it: there is no better mechanism to control the populace than by controlling their health care.]

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Health Care Overhaul Bill Suffers Another Setback

The drive to remake the nation's health care system suffered yet another setback in Congress on Thursday when a pivotal group of House Democrats demanded numerous changes in legislation the leadership was drafting on a fast track.

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image toon - hcare = Con Gress running different directions with patient
[These are the folks you want running our health care system?]
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U2’s Bono’s political views to be imposed on the American students?

U2’s Bono, a fixture in the corridors of political power, is coming soon to a classroom near you. New Hampshire parents are more than a little peeved that their board chairman says their schools are the right size to be an incubator for what is, in effect Bono’s left-wing politics.

“Reading about this sends my blood pressure through the roof,” one parent wrote in a letter to Canada Free Press...

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The Inevitability of Parental Choice

A year ago, the nation’s largest newspaper wrote in an editorial that it was time to “move beyond vouchers” in the debate over America’s educational future.

Although it did not reject any particular solution outright, the paper’s recommendation at the time was that America focus its energy and attention on less controversial education reforms. In other words, it was a victory for those who have spent years – and expended untold taxpayer resources – in an effort to demonize parental choice and its supporters.

Then, two weeks ago, USA Today suddenly changed its tune.

Not only did the paper enthusiastically embrace parental choice – it also roundly criticized our nation’s teachers’ unions for “protecting failing schools.”

“Twenty million low-income school kids need a chance to succeed,” the USA Today editorial board wrote. “School choice is the most effective way to give it to them."

According to the most recent data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), America’s per pupil expenditure on public education is the highest of any industrialized nation in the world.

On the most recent Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test, American students scored well below the average of other industrialized nations on both the math and science portions of the exam – just as they did the last time the tests were administered. And the time before that.

Each year, the purveyors of this country’s education monopoly continue failing children at a record clip – and yet in a perfect example of precisely what’s wrong with our system, they are rewarded for their poor performance with additional taxpayer resources.

In fact, according to President Obama’s plan – the more children you fail, the more money you get...

[It's past time for universal/unencumbered school vouchers.]

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image toon - bdd edu reps Obama v edu unions = no vouchers

FCC Commissioner Circulates Document on ‘The State of Media Journalism’

Michael Copps, a commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission and its former acting chairman, has circulated an internal report examining the state of media journalism in America and discussing ways to address issues such as the rise of media conglomerates and the prevalence of opinion journalism.

After the FCC makes the report public, it can then be used as the basis for instituting new rules governing broadcasting ownership, licensing and content...

[It's coming...

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...then > ]

[select]
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'Billions In (Stimulus) Aid Go to Areas That Backed Obama in 08'

[HT:SG]
USA Today today deserves serious credit for Brad Heath's look into how:

"Billions of dollars in federal aid delivered directly to the local level to help revive the economy have gone overwhelmingly to places that supported President Obama in last year's presidential election."

That quote is in fact the first sentence of the article. No burying the lede or mincing of words here.

A little later, Mr. Heath offers:

"Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration's $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain ... The reports show the 872 counties that supported Obama received about $69 per person, on average. The 2,234 that supported McCain received about $34."

According to USA Today, if you vote Donkey, they will repay you - literally, with other people's money.

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On Social Issues, WaPo Says Obama Displays 'Centrist Instincts'

The Washington Post printed a front-page story headlined "President Obama Wades Into Gay Issues" on Thursday, but Scott Wilson’s story displayed the usual double standard, calling the religious right "conservative" [not the same thing as anyone who knows what each stand for can tell you] and describing the gay left with no ideological label at all.

Is this really a cultural clash between the conservatives and the supposedly 'non-ideological' sexual revolutionaries?

Worse yet, Wilson suggested Barack Obama’s been displaying "centrist instincts" on the social issues:

That agenda comprises a set of social and economic issues that at times pit Obama's religious beliefs [?] and centrist instincts [??] against the demands of a well-organized constituency important to his future electoral prospects...

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ABC’s Cokie Roberts Attacks Male Politicians: They Wouldn't Cheat 'If They Were Thinking with Another Part of their Body'


[Not to worry, men are socially acceptable targets.]


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Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 30% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of –8.

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US lags behind Europe on climate change

[It's even colder there.]

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[HT:BV]

image toon 1st fnn = Hiding behind dumpster to avoid MH hoopla

Fire sale of America's nuclear defences in Moscow

[UK]
Well said, Nile Gardiner, for asking if Barack Obama is the most naïve president in American history. The answer is undoubtedly yes – unless he has a secret agenda to cut America down to size.

It was always in Russia that Obama threatened to do most damage and, as Nile Gardiner has rightly pointed out, these forebodings have been fulfilled. His supposed missile deal with Vladimir Putin is very satisfactory to Russian ambitions and realpolitik.

For America voluntarily to reduce its nuclear superiority is madness. Bien-pensant talk of a nuclear-free world displays total stupidity in a global situation where nuclear weaponry is proliferating, not receding. There is even a nuclear bomb in Pakistan, which is teetering on the brink of failed statehood at the hands of Islamist insurgents. Is this a time for America to disarm, to “sell the store” as one commentator has already described Obama’s posturing in Moscow?

For Obama, success is not the delivery of watertight nuclear security for America; it is a feel-good news conference and photo opportunity that will create huge approval ratings on liberal campuses where the delusions of 1968 and the anti-Vietnam war movement still linger on in these isolated Jurassic Parks...

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Former Bush Aides Warn Obama to Beware of Russia's Pledge in Iran Nuclear Issue

Former aides to President Bush and Vice President Cheney are warning their successors in the Obama administration to be wary of Russian pledges of cooperation in the multilateral campaign to rein in Iran's nuclear program.

The warnings came after FOX News reported on Thursday that top Obama aides believe Russia will be willing to sign on to "much more severe" sanctions against Iran if the Islamic republic refuses to halt its uranium enrichment activity by 2010.

"Every time in this period I landed in a European capital to discuss Iran, the first thing I got was: 'What is your end game here? Tell us where you are going with this before we tell you how much we will admit Iran is going down the path to a bomb in the U.N.'

When I failed to give them a guarantee that we will not strike Iran, they stalled on moving ahead with acknowledging or using the evidence in public which in private they accepted."

Russia, he added, "was like the E.U. on hormones in this regard"...

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Iran's Axis of Nuclear Evil

By JOHN BOLTON

While President Obama's unanticipated Nowruz holiday greeting to Iran generated considerable press attention, his video wasn't really this week's big news related to the Islamic Republic. Far more important was that a senior defector -- Iran's former Deputy Minister of Defense Ali Reza Asghari -- disclosed Tehran's financing of Syria's nuclear weapons program. That program's centerpiece was a North Korean nuclear reactor in Syria. Israel destroyed it in September 2007.

That the Pyongyang-Damascus-Tehran nuclear axis went undetected and unacknowledged for so long is an intelligence failure of the highest magnitude. It represents a plain unwillingness to allow hard truths to overcome well-entrenched policy views disguised as intelligence findings.
At this point, it is impossible to ignore Iran's active efforts to expand, improve and conceal its nuclear weapons program in Syria while it pretends to "negotiate" with Britain, France and Germany (the "EU-3"). No amount of video messages will change this reality.

The question is whether this new information about Iran will sink in, or if Washington will continue to turn a blind eye toward Iran's nuclear deceptions...

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image toon - gwot iran with nukes = why so worried

Obama Administration: Terrorists Captured on Battlefield Have Constitutional Rights

At a Senate hearing Tuesday on the use of military commissions to prosecute terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay, some members of the Armed Services Committee took offense at the Obama administration’s view that the detainees have the same legal protections under the Constitution as U.S. citizens..

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image toon = gwot islm nsec = Say, weren't you a prisoner at Gitmo?

Spread Freedom? Not So Much

The Obama Doctrine is finally coming into focus.

It's been hard to glean its form because for so long it seemed the president's most obvious guiding principle was "not Bush," particularly when it came to the Iraq war. Indeed, his anti-Bush stance has led him to stubbornly refuse to say the war has been won or to admit that he was wrong to oppose the surge.

Obama himself insists that he's guided by nothing other than a cool-headed pragmatism. Indeed, Obama has a grating habit of describing any position not his own as "ideological," as if his is the only sober, practical understanding of the problems we face.

Joshua Muravchik, a scholar at Johns Hopkins University and a leading advocate of democracy promotion around the globe, demonstrates in the current issue of Commentary magazine that Obama has a similar attitude toward those who say America should advance the cause of liberty and democracy worldwide.

Again and again, the administration has made it clear that spreading freedom is so much ideological foolishness. Indeed, it seems Obama has an ideological problem with democracy...

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image toon 1st fnn mny hcare auto gwot iran = Oby meddles everywhere but Iran

Return of the Black Panther

Justice is stonewalling on voter intimidation

Rarely does the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights vote unanimously on anything.

A partisan divide has made the commission contentious in recent years. Yet the [Holden] Department of Justice's decision to forfeit its voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party and three individual defendants drew a 6-0 vote with one abstention by the commission. What unified the commission was outrage at the Justice Department for letting the Black Panthers off the hook.

The Civil Rights Commission has sent two letters -- on June 16 and June 22 -- to Loretta King, acting assistant attorney general for the civil rights division, asking for an explanation, but it has not received a response. Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican, sent a June 8 letter demanding an explanation, but the congressman told us he has yet to receive an answer from the department one month later... [snip]

The commission's letter quoted "Veteran of the civil rights movement, Bartle Bull" calling the defendants' actions

"the most blatant form of voter intimidation I have encountered in my life in political campaigns in many states, even going back to the work I did in Mississippi in the 1960s."

The commission summed up the case in its June 16 letter:

"Though it had basically won the case ... the [Department of Justice's Civil Rights] Division took the unusual move of voluntarily dismissing the charges .... In its notice of dismissal, the Division cites as its rationale only the fact that defendants failed to appear and respond ... the Division's public rationale would send the wrong message entirely - that attempts at voter suppression will be tolerated and will not be vigorously prosecuted so long as the groups or individuals who engage in them fail to respond to the charges leveled against them"

There's good reason for today's unanimity. The Justice Department needs to explain why it is not pursuing charges against these thugs.

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The Employment Report: AP Misses Noting Worst June Since Before WWII

At the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web, Jim Taranto noted that it took the Associated Press's Jeannine Aversa until the 15th paragraph of her expanded dispatch on the Employment Situation Report to find something mildly positive to write.

Aversa, who has been one of the wire service's chief silver lining make-up artists during the Obama presidency's disastrous economic stewardship offered up this contention:

"Even with higher pace of job cuts in June, the report indicates that the worst of the layoffs have passed."

The charts from Uncle Sam's Bureau of Labor Statistics that follow show that the evidence for her claim is scant to non-existent.

The red box on the left in the NOT seasonally adjusted data shows that the situation got decidedly worse in June. From February through May, the differences in year-over-year monthly job gains and losses on the ground before seasonal adjustment narrowed in by about 60% from -680,000 to -264,000. But June's -371,000 difference went the wrong way, causing the seasonally adjusted number (the result of smoothing results to account for seasonal variations) to move sharply upward.

How bad was June? On the ground (not seasonally adjusted), the monthly job loss of 110,000 is the worst June performance listed in 71 years of monthly data BLS has available on the web (1939-2009).

How this "indicates that the worst of the layoffs have passed," as Aversa claims, is beyond me.

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Federal Government Was Culprit in Housing and Economic Crisis, Says Congressional Report

[This one's for 'CHUCK' {CL}...]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the chief culprits in the housing crisis because they encouraged people who could not afford payments to borrow money, according to a congressional report released Tuesday.

The claims in the report have long been advanced by conservatives, who argue that the Community Reinvestment Act and other federal programs fed the housing bubble that burst in 2007 and led to the economic downfall in 2008.

But the report explains in detail how Fannie and Freddie -- government sponsored enterprises (GSE) that were not subject to the same oversight as other publicly traded firms -- “privatized their profits but socialized their risks.” [after being empowered to do so by the {government's} CRA]

“This government intervention's ultimate effect was to create a mortgage tsunami that wrought devastation on the American people and economy,” ... “While government intervention was not the sole cause of the financial crisis, its role was significant and has received too little attention.”

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, said Tuesday in a speech at the Heritage Foundation;

“That is the perfect smoking gun that tells how Barney Frank [D-Mass.], the Clinton administration and others would do it in those days,” ... “The seeds of the meltdown began with the well-intentioned goal that everyone have a home even if they can’t afford it,” ... “It led to one of the biggest ponzi schemes ever.”

The report comes after Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) – who fought against regulation of the two quasi-public mortgage giants -- and Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) wrote a letter in June to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac calling on the GSEs to lower lending standards.

The report also cites Frank’s accusations that to blame Fannie and Freddie is to blame only the lender and not the borrower...

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FLASHBACKs >

• Yes, It Was Government Regulation That Caused Our Currrent Crisis
• GOVERNMENT POLICIES LED TO WALL STREET'S RISKY BUSINESS
• What is the cause for the current recession?
• The True Origins of This Financial Crisis
• How A Rule Rewrite Made Subprime Crisis Inevitable
• Congressional Problem Creation
• NYT obscures blame for financial crisis

[ok, so that last one isn't news... ]

Relying on deception again

First, there are 46 million uninsured people in the United States. This isn't just misleading, it's an outright lie, as anyone in this country can get health care by checking into an emergency room.

In terms of sincere debate on this topic, the only legitimate concerns for society are categories 4 and 5, (4) people with severe pre-existing conditions who are turned away by insurance companies; and (5) people who are too poor to purchase insurance - and they number a small fraction of 46 million - so why not be honest and report the number in those categories, instead of exaggerating?

Another deception is the claim that there will be no rationing of health care. We already have rationing of health care, accomplished by family budgets, doctors and insurance companies. Government run health care will transfer such decisions to bureaucrats. So, why not be honest and simply state that rationing will continue and will be done by a different entity?

Another deception is that citizens can keep their existing health care plans. Is anyone going to continue to pay $500 per month for a private health policy when a policy, subsidized by the U.S. taxpayers, is available for $300 per month? Folks will choose the cheaper plan, resulting in single payer health care. How much would it hurt to simply tell the truth?

Another misleading claim is that the majority of people in Canada or the U.K. are happy with their government run systems. Of course the majority of Canadians are happy. Most Canadians are not ill. The people who are unhappy are those with a serious illness, or those with an illness that requires immediate treatment. Wouldn't it be more truthful to focus on what those who have experienced such systems think of them than those that haven't?

Then there's the old faithful life expectancy canard, that the U.S. has a lower life expectancy than some other developed nations. "Texas A&M health economist Robert Ohsfeldt and health economics consultant John Schneider calculated that when accidental deaths and homicides are removed from such calculations {neither having anything to do with health care}, life expectancy in America ranks at the top of all developed countries."

So why don't proponents of the "public health option" just come clean and admit that the U.S. has, far and away, the best health care system on the planet?

You know the answer.

[And if you don't: It has nothing to do with health care. Consider: poll after poll show that more than 70% of Americans are happy or very happy with their health care. That leaves room for improvement, but how does that fact support the incessant claim that our system is 'broken'? It's about more money and power for the government.]

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image toon - hcare = Oby puts health bill on children's bill with warning re bankruptcy

http://www.freeourhealthcarenow.com/form.php
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Purge of Inspectors General Raises Concerns

The government's top watchdogs are quickly becoming all bark and no bite, say critics who call the recent "purge" of inspectors general a warning about limited transparency in the Obama administration.

Inspectors general serve as the primary investigator and auditor at federal agencies. They have statutory powers to investigate internal fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement as well as conduct oversight of the recipients of funds and contractors who work with the individual agencies.

"The mounting evidence that there might be political interference with the IGs is disturbing," "The IGs are being emasculated."

said Pete Sepp, vice president for policy and communications at the National Taxpayers Union.

"When inspectors general across the administration have roadblocks placed in their way, American taxpayers should worry. A threat to one's independence is a threat to them all."

Jake Wiens, an investigator for the Project on Government Oversight, a non-profit watchdog group in Washington, D.C., warned against seeing "patterns" in the dismissals.

"The IG office was always sacrosanct" ... "the Obama administration is not setting the right tone, especially after pledging during his campaign to reform government and make it more transparent"

The story may stay below the mainstream media's radar, but if you've spent years watching how scandal stories unfold in Washington, IG-Gate looks like one that will keep making headlines for months...

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Battle lines drawn in AmeriCorps IG scandal

Key Republicans in both the House and the Senate are accusing the White House of giving “incomplete and misleading” information to investigators probing the president’s abrupt firing of AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin.

In return, the White House is hinting that documents concerning its actions in the Walpin affair may be protected by executive privilege.

Both developments are part of an escalating conflict between GOP lawmakers and the Obama administration...

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FLASHBACKs >

Inspector General Fired by Obama Wants Congressional Hearing on His Case
The ousted inspector general who reported that his office found misuse of AmeriCorps funds granted to a charity run by a political ally of President Barack Obama sees an assault on the institution of government watchdogs, noting that besides himself, the inspectors general in both the Treasury Department and the International Trade Commission (ITC) have faced reported hurdles in doing their jobs...

A witness to Walpin-gate
The fact remains that an inspector general does not serve at the president's pleasure and can be removed only for a specified just cause.

Walloping Walpin
But Obama then fired Walpin immediately saying only that he no longer enjoyed his 'full confidence', despite a law that he cosponsored requiring that Congress be given a 30-day notice of his intent and a detailed justification for the removal...

Key Obama Ally Says President Obama Did Not Follow the Law in IG Firing
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said the president did not abide by the same law that he co-sponsored – and she wrote – about firing Inspectors General...

Gangster government's grip on the AmeriCorps
The key issue now is whether Congress will permit this latest illustration of what The Examiner’s Michael Barone calls Obama’s “gangster government”...
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Newsweek Shocker: 'Obama Closes Doors On Openness'

In today's "You're Not Going to Believe This" segment, Barack Obama has gone back on his promise of creating an open and transparent administration, and the good folks at Newsweek not only noticed it, but actually reported it.

Yes, the magazine that seems to have Obama on its cover every week actually exposed the object of their affection for not only going back on a campaign promise, but also for contradicting his own highly-publicized decree made the first full day he was in office.

Maybe even better, the author, Michael Isikoff, was the same reporter who was about to break the Monica Lewinsky story in January 1998, but was stopped by Newsweek higher-ups.

Readers are advised to tighten their seatbelts and prepare themselves for an alternate media reality...

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We Have To 'Legally Stop' Glenn Beck

Noted free-speech champion Keith Olbermann has declared that we have to "legally stop" Glenn Beck. The Fox News host's crime? Not reacting strongly enough for Olbermann's taste when a guest made an over-the-top remark.

On the June 30 editon of Beck's show, former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer said: "the only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to detonate a major weapon in the United States." Apparently Scheuer thinks that's what it would take to shock the country and its leaders back to their senses.

Olbermann was infuriated that Beck didn't "scream at him" or otherwise jump down Scheuer's throat, choosing instead to nod gravely while suggesting that would be the last thing OBL would do.

In Olbermann's eyes, nodding in the third degree is a crime warranting legal action to "stop" Beck.

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Voters' ire fails to fire up process

CALIFORNIA

If the May 19 special election scared Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers into action, they aren't showing it. Fifty days after voters rejected a Capitol driven ballot package in a rebuke of Sacramento politics, California lacks a budget-balancing agreement and is paying bills with IOUs for the second time since the Great Depression...

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image toon - mny cali = Calif slides into debt sea

Los Angeles will end use of coal-fired power

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles will eliminate the use of electricity made from coal by 2020, replacing it with power from cleaner renewable energy sources, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.

Consumers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest city-owned utility in the United States with 1.45 million electricity customers, will see higher power bills in the "fight against climate change"...

[You can't make this stuff up - it's like a bad sit-com {only you can't turn it off, and you're paying for it}. Expect no change until we replace our current crop of 'representatives'.]

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How to create the progressive utopia

Source

[Planning is everything.]

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