.
In an internet rant to fellow extremist Muslims, they declare:"She is the one who applauds her sons and daughters to go out and massacre hundreds and thousands of innocent people. Shouldn't she be tried for genocide and the extermination of a nation?"
MP Patrick Mercer - chairman of the Commons counter- terrorism sub-committee - and ex-soldier remarked: "We must recognise Mr Choudary's words for what they are - weapons being wielded by al-Qaeda and the Taliban. This is the next phase of an enemy operation in our country."
Cops are currently investigating Choudary, 42 - who is on benefits and is a pal of hate preacher Omar Bakri - for demanding gays be stoned to death. Douglas Murray, of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said:"It's especially offensive because the people behind it are living off handouts from the British taxpayer."
READ MORE
Monday, August 3, 2009
Muslims call to prosecute Queen
Venezuela Still Aids Rebels in Colombia, New Material Shows
.
The materials point to detailed collaborations as recently as weeks ago...
FLASHBACKs >
Yes, Hugo Cheated
Hugo’s Hezbollah
Court Freezes $12 billion in Venezuela assets
READ MORE
Rubin on Eric Holder's Justice Department
.
Jennifer Rubin writes at the Weekly Standard how badly Eric Holder's Justice Department has politicized the law:
It is therefore surprising that in the first seven months of the Obama administration, a series of hyper-partisan decisions, questionable appointments, and the inexplicable dismissal of a high-profile voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther party have once again fanned suspicions that the Justice Department is a pawn in partisan political battles.
Both in Congress and among a number of current and former Justice Department employees is a growing concern that the Obama administration is politicizing the department in ways the Bush team never imagined. A former Justice employee cautions that every administration has the right and the obligation to set policy.
"Elections have consequences,"
he affirms. But he thinks that the Obama administration has gone beyond policy reversals and is interfering with prosecutorial decisions, staffing the department with unqualified personnel, and invoking privilege to thwart proper congressional oversight and public scrutiny...
Holder, who did Clinton's dirty work for him in the pardon fiasco, is quite familiar with these partisan brawls and there is little doubt that this is the reason Obama chose him in the first place. Holder sure didn't waste any time, did he?
Read Jennifer's entire piece.
READ MORE
Holder Approves of Bookstore and Library Searches... Where's Outrage?
.
But, now that it's Obama's AG announcing he agrees that the FBI should have this power, all anti-Bush administration voices are silent on the matter that had them so exercised for 6 years...
READ MORE
CALIFORNIA SCREAMING
.
During the last two decades, California has been transformed from the nation's most anti-labor outpost to a state essentially run by public-sector unions.
Nearly three in five public sector workers are unionized. The Democratic Party, which is fully owned by unions, has controlled the legislature and most statewide posts for more than decade. That means more government workers, higher salaries and drastically higher pension costs.
- According to Adam Summers, a policy analyst at the Reason Foundation, the state's annual pension fund contribution vaulted from $321 million in 2000-2001 to $7.3 billion last year.
- According to public databases, more than 5,000 people are drawing pensions in excess of $100,000 from the state of California each year. [many while working other jobs]
Just before the May 19 special election to plug the state's $24 billion budget deficit, a member of the Los Angeles Times editorial board asked Service Employees International Union chief Andy Stern to respond to charges that unions are the 21st-century equivalent of the railroads that were once all-powerful in California.
Stern verbally shrugged: "I think democracy is an ugly thing at times."
That ugliness has made the California budget, like those in most of the other 49 states, less efficient and more bloated. Government spending, unlike spending in the private economy, is a zero-sum game -- especially on the state level, since governors can't print money. Every dollar spent gilding a pension is a dollar not spent funding an orphanage.
[Labor unions must be banned in public entities - they've none of the 'leveling' forces that keep them in check in the private sector.]
READ MORE
Texas proves limited government works
.
Austin, Texas, and Washington are a little more than 1,500 miles apart, but the differences in governing philosophy could be measured in light years.
For example, our just-concluded legislative session yielded a balanced state budget, tax relief for 40,000 small businesses, and it left $9 billion unspent for future state needs.
States that have overspent, overtaxed and overregulated have seen greater deficits, job losses and even population loss... [snip]
When Washington's power to tax, regulate, mandate and meddle is restrained, American families are free to enjoy the liberty upon which our nation was founded. Limited government works.
[How many times must it prove true before acknowledged?]
READ MORE
Year Ago GDP Jump 'Disappointing'; This Year Negative GDP: 'Whole Lot Brighter,'
.
But Friday night, with a different President in office, Couric crowed a one percent decline in the 2009 second quarter GDP -- the first time since tracking began in 1947 that the economy has contracted for four straight quarters -- means the “glimmer of hope just got a whole lot brighter” . ABC anchor Elizabeth Vargas saw “new optimism about an economic recovery” and declared of the new negative number: “That's actually good” ... [snip]
George Stephanopoulos shared the White House's joy, the gullible ex-Democratic operative maintained “they can point to these numbers today and say, look, there is real evidence right now that the stimulus package that we pushed for so hard is working. They cited economists who said it made a three percent difference in these numbers.”
[despite only 2% of the stimulus being spent so far???
A: they think we're stupid.]
READ MORE
Same Inaccurate Claim on Oil Imports
.
In a July 6 interview with Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, President Obama repeated his false claim that the U.S. “import[s] more oil today than ever before.” When Obama first said this in February during an address to a joint-session of Congress, we wrote that the president had gotten his facts wrong. We said then that oil imports peaked in 2005 and have “substantially” declined since.
That’s still the case. This chart from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, updated from our February post, shows that weekly imports of crude oil and petroleum products have continued to decline. According to the chart, oil imports peaked in November 2005, with 15,217,000 imported barrels per day. The most recent data, from the week of June 26, 2009, shows 11,883,000 imported barrels per day.
READ MORE
DEVELOPING SHALE OIL MAY SOLVE OUR ENERGY 'CRISIS'
.
The United States imports about 66 percent of its oil; yet, Congress has done little to remedy the situation. Instead, it has erected barriers to domestic energy production.
Fortunately, the United States has vast quantities of oil in rocks, including oil shale, which can be converted into fuel. In fact, we have 75 percent of the world's oil shale.
Unfortunately, due to radical environmentalists' sway over key Democratic lawmakers, this oil is off-limits, despite:
- Per acre, oil shale is significantly more concentrated than the oil and gas on Alaska's North Slope, Alberta's tar sand or ethanol production.
- Indeed, some shale contains more than one million barrels of oil per acre.
- By contrast, conventional oil fields yield about 10,000 barrels per acre, and Congress's preferred alternative to oil, ethanol from corn yields, contains the equivalent of 10 barrels per acre.
- The RAND Corporation estimates that a three million bbl/day industry could generate $20 billion in annual profits while reducing prices for consumers.
- In addition, oil shale development and production would create as many as 100,000 direct and indirect new jobs during the operation of just a two million bbl/day shale oil industry.
READ MORE
Debunking myths about our 'lousy' health care system
.
Surprise! Who's more satisfied with their health care system; Us, or the Canadians?
The Hoover Institute's Scott Atlas has a list of 10 reasons why our health care system is better than in other countries. The figures for cancer survivability are astonishing:1. Americans have better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers. Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany than in the United States and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom. Prostate cancer mortality is 604 percent higher in the United Kingdom and 457 percent higher in Norway and 184 percent higher in Canada.
We also do better with treating chronic disease as well as giving more citizens wider access to preventive care, like screenings for some cancers.
Then there's the familiar fact that we spend less time waiting for health care services than elsewhere as well as being generally more satisfied with our own health care:
6. Americans spend less time waiting for care than patients in Canada and the United Kingdom.
7. People in countries with more government control of health care are highly dissatisfied and believe reform is needed. More than 70 percent of German, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand , and British adults say their health system needs either "fundamental change" or "complete rebuilding."
All told, 827,429 people are waiting for some type of procedure in Canada. In Britain, nearly 1.8 million people are waiting for a hospital admission or outpatient treatment.
Finally, innovation in medicine begins and ends with America:
10. Americans are responsible for the vast majority of all health care innovations.
The top five U.S. hospitals conduct more clinical trials than all the hospitals in any other developed country. Since the mid- 1970s, the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology has gone to U.S. residents more often than recipients from all other countries combined. In only five of the past thirty-four years did a scientist living in the United States not win or share in the prize. Most important recent medical innovations were developed in the United States.
There is no reason for massive reform of a system that delivers such miracles.
The problems with covering the uninsured and those with pre-existing conditions can be dealt with and not destroy what most people seem satisfied with.
There really is no comparison - the American health care system is the best, the most modern, and the most efficient in the world.
[No, it's "horribly broken". Don't any of the survey respondents watch TV??]
READ MORE
CNBC Goes into 'Crisis' Mode at Height of ObamaCare Debate
.
Balanced?
Invoking the word "crisis" might conjure up images of a Category 5 hurricane bearing down on the U.S. Gulf Coast or some other situation where decisive action much be taken to avert impending doom. But, is it appropriate to suddenly attach it to the key issue put forth by Obama administration, such as health care?
On July 30, CNBC dedicated its three-hour morning show "Squawk Box" to the issue and labeled the special coverage: "America's Healthcare Crisis." CNBC used the word "crisis" despite polls (including a July 30 Time article) that found 80 percent of the respondents satisfied with their health care...
READ MORE
Obama campaign style unchanged as president
.
It seems like Barack Obama has time-traveled back to last summer when he was simply a Democrat running for the White House. Only now, he's the president facing a more complicated objective and opponent as he campaigns to 'overhaul' the nation's health care system.
Yet, there he was last Wednesday, jetting to this Virginia town to talk to supermarket workers from a platform between the bakery and deli. Earlier, he bounded onto a flag-draped stage at a North Carolina high school to cheers from an adoring throng of two thousand. At both sites, he made remarks, took questions and shook hands with fans.
He also recently appeared at an interest group forum, AARP, toured the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and lent his starpower to Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey at political events — typical stops when he was the Democratic nominee.
Obama's pitch has been the same everywhere: Congress must quickly pass health care legislation... [snip]
At each stop, Obama is his usual wonky professor yet charming everyman self, clad in his usual dark suit and tie, fielding the usual offbeat questions with ease and playing by his usual rules:"I'm just going to call on people as they raise their hand. I'll go girl, boy, girl, boy so that people don't think I'm biased."
Just like his 2008 campaign — but not...
READ MORE
Disaster in the Making?
.
When that person is the President of the United States, the potential for disaster is virtually unlimited.
He is heading this country toward disaster on many fronts, including a nuclear Iran, which has every prospect of being an irretrievable disaster of almost unimaginable magnitude. We cannot put that genie back in the bottle-- and neither can generations yet unborn. They may yet curse us all for leaving them hostages to nuclear terror.
Nothing has torn more countries apart from inside like racial and ethnic polarization. Just this year, a decades-long civil war, filled with unspeakable atrocities, has finally ended in Sri Lanka. Politicians "solving" the "problem" of the Tamil minority being more economically successful than the Sinhalese majority. Group identity politics led to group preferences and quotas that escalated into polarization, mob violence and ultimately civil war.
Many people are rightly worried about what this administration's reckless spending will do to the economy in our time and to our children and grandchildren, to whom a staggering national debt will be passed on. But if the worst that Barack Obama does is ruin the economy, I will breathe a sigh of relief.
This is a president on a mission to remake American society in every aspect, by whatever means are necessary and available. That requires taking all kinds of decisions out of the hands of ordinary Americans and transferring them to Washington elites-- and ultimately the number one elite, Barack Obama himself.
And it is the American people who will pay the price.
[More, Recommended > ]
READ MORE
Our Professional Media and Rumors
.
As you've probably heard by now that a couple of Alaska liberal bloggers "broke" the story about Sarah Palin's supposed impending divorce from her husband.
It sure sounded solid coming from Alaska Report News:
AlaskaReport has learned today that Todd Palin and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin are to divorce. Multiple sources in Wasilla and Anchorage (including a former Palin staffer) have confirmed the split.Very interesting. But not true, according to Stacy McCain and Dan Riehl who evidently talked directly to Palin or someone who was authorized to speak on her behalf:
A National Enquirer story exposing previous affairs on both sides led to a deterioration of their marriage and the stress from that led to Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska last week.
The Palins were noticeably not speaking to each other for most of last Sunday's resignation speech in Fairbanks. Sarah ditched Todd (MSNBC) right after the speech and left without him. Sarah removed her wedding ring a couple of weeks ago.
"Divorce Todd? Have you seen Todd? I may be just a renegade hockey mom, but I'm not blind!"
-- SARAH PALIN
Yes, that is her OFFICIAL reponse, which I got via phone at 5:35 this afternoon. Take that to the bank.
As someone who doesn't consider himself a professional ;^) journalist but who has been around newsrooms for many years, let me just say that if this had come across my desk, I would have smelled a set up. It's too pat, the pieces fit too nicely together (an "explanation" for why she resigned) not to raise alarms with real journalists.
Nevertheless, once both those sites hit the internet with the story, the blog feeding frenzy on the left began, with a couple of MSM outlets joining in...
READ MORE
How Did This Happen?
THE 
“Wow,” said Arthur Cooper, a reader from Manhattan. “How did this happen?”
The short answer is that a television critic with a history of errors wrote hastily and failed to double-check her work, and editors who should have been vigilant were not.
And, it could have been worse. Nicole Herrington, a late-shift editor reading the appraisal casually, decided to check a fact near the top — Cronkite’s age when he retired. It was wrong. He was 64, not 65. Virshup then headed off the same mistake in the Page 1 obituary...
[The 'funny' part? It's a NYT critique . Well, that aught to assure everything's fixed.]
READ MORE
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Safe-Sender note safe sender
Safe Sender List, or view it in your Browser.
For those truly 'time challenged', try Red Reading for just-the-gist points.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Members of the Republican Study Committee are putting forward their own piece of legislation for health care reform, a summary of which was provided exclusively to CBSNews.com's Washington Unplugged.
While Democrats are focusing on creating something like a government-sponsored health insurance plan and regulating the health insurance market, the Republican
which Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) will introduce tomorrow, instead promotes the individual insurance market as well as employer-based markets. Instead of focusing on regulating private insurers, the plan would in fact give them more freedom to work across state lines. Republicans say the plan will be paid for by reforms of defensive medicine, creating a more efficient health care system, and overall reductions in non-defense government spending.
"Liability reform has to be one or the hallmarks of a bill," ... "We make certain we pay for our bill by making this a priority."
Expanding Coverage in Employer-Based and Individual Markets
According to the summary, the bill aims to make health care accessible to all Americans by creating tax incentives for consumers to purchase insurance on the individual market, encouraging states to assist consumers with pre-existing conditions, and promoting the employer-based insurance system that is popular with many Americans.
"It's imperative each and every American have the access to health coverage that they select," ... "The way you do that is through the tax code to make it financially feasible."
The Republican proposal would extend the income tax deduction on health care premiums to those who purchase coverage in the individual market. By contrast, several others -- ranging from Republican Sen. John McCain to Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden-- have proposed eliminating the deductions all together; that idea, however, has remained unpopular.
In the Republican plan, low-income consumers would also be eligible for advanceable, refundable tax credits, provided on a sliding scale, to purchase coverage in the individual market.
In order to provide coverage for Americans who have pre-existing conditions, the Republican plan proposes giving states incentives, such as federal block grants, to establish high-risk insurance pools. Comparatively, Democrats have proposed regulating insurance companies to prohibit them from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
To promote the employer-based health insurance system, the Republican plan proposes giving small businesses tax incentives for auto-enrolling employees in a plan. Many companies already auto-enroll their employees. The plan also calls for allowing workers to define their own contributions to an employer-sponsored plan. Employers would als be encouraged to offer discounts for healthy habits through wellness and prevention programs
Republicans are also proposing to expand the individual market by creating pooling mechanisms such as association health plans and individual membership accounts. Consumers would also be able to shop for insurance across state lines. They would be able to obtain more information about different plans through state-based health plan portals the Republican plan proposes creating.
Medicaid and Medicare
The Republican plan also proposes reforming Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by giving beneficiaries the option of getting a voucher to purchase private insurance. Mr. Obama, in fact, wants to lessen encouragement for private insurer participation in government-run programs like Medicaid and Medicare -- he has proposed eliminating subsidies for private insurers to participate in Medicare Advantage.
The Republican plan also reforms Medicaid by dictating that states must cover 90 percent of those below 200 percent of the federal poverty level before they can expand eligibility levels under Medicaid and SCHIP.
Republicans and Democrats agree the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), a formula Congress created to keep Medicare costs under control, needs to be reformed. Without reform, doctors could face a pay cut in Medicare reimbursements of about 20 percent. The Republican plan would rebase the SGR and create two separate conversion factors for primary care and all other services.
Cost Containment
Republican and Democratic ideas about health care reform perhaps differ most substantially on the issue of cost containment. Most of the reforms proposed in the bill, the summary says, would be paid for by decreasing defensive medicine [aka, tort reform]; savings from health care efficiencies; reducing waste, fraud and abuse; and an annual one-percent non-defense discretionary spending step down.
The plan touches on Mr. Obama's proposal to further implement comparative effectiveness research (CER) as a means of reducing waste, which is very controversial. CER attempts to use research and scientific evidence to conclude which health care treatments are most cost effective. The president already instituted the idea through the the stimulus package, which created the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research to coordinate CER across the federal government.
The Republican health care proposal would require that none of the suggestions from the Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research be finalized unless done in consultation with and approved by medical specialty societies. It would also establish performance-based quality measures endorsed by the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI) and physician specialty organizations.
The Republican plan also addresses the issue of medical liabilities that doctors face -- something Democrats have not addressed. It would establish in each state administrative health care tribunals, also known as health courts, and add affirmative defense through provider established best practice measures. It would encourage the speedy resolution of claims and caps non-economic damages.
Price said today on Washington Unplugged that the August recess will give Americans the chance to compare and contrast Republican and Democratic plans.
"If we go home over August and talk to the patients of America, we wil have a better product in the fall," ..."The American people will select solutions that will put them in charge, not the government."
READ MORE
[But it must make a 'buzz' when introduced - so it's important we contact our representatives today ...
"SUPPORT 'EMPOWERING PATIENTS FIRST ACT"
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...
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Devolution: AP Waters Down Obama-Gates-Crowley
Watching Associated Press reports evolve, or as is all too often the case, devolve, can be a revealing exercise.
Example: What happened between 8 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. Saturday that would have caused the Associated Press and writer Nancy Benac to water down the headline and opening paragraphs of their story about the Obama-Gates-Crowley situation from this ....
.... to this?
Why, 12 hours later, when there are no known developments in the story, is the situation no longer one that Obama "helped fire" or "stoke"?
While the AP headline writers and Benac eased up on Obama, Benac didn't lighten up on Obama critics, as the following paragraphs from each report demonstrate... [snip]
The current AP dynamic link is here, so readers can see if and/or how Benac's story further devolves.
READ MORE
Did the CIA 'Cook the Books' on Iran?
.
Simply put, while our country's intelligence service believed that Iran had abandoned its nuclear bomb program in 2003, Germany's intelligence service was amassing evidence that the Iranian bomb program was ongoing. This raises three obvious and crucially important questions:
- Was our country's intelligence service aware of the BND's evidence and conclusions when its analysts wrote that 2007 NIE about Iran?
- If not, why not?
- If our intelligence service was aware of the BND's evidence and conclusions, then how and why did the authors of that 2007 NIE reach the opposite conclusion about Iran's nuclear bomb program?
Did they just ignore the BND's evidence because they didn't like it and because our intelligence officials wanted to throw a banana peel under President Bush's feet?
A nuclear-armed Iran threatens our national survival, and that to meet this threat President Obama and his advisers need the best possible intelligence. Only the House and Senate intelligence oversight committees can get to the bottom of all this. But right now leading members of these committees, and the Speaker of the House, are blathering on -- and on -- about the phony issue of whether former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to not testify about some program to wipe out the leaders of al Qaeda that never actually got off the ground.
This isn't politics; this is suicide. God help us if our enemies conclude that the United States is no longer capable of being serious about intelligence.
READ MORE
Horrific “Honor”
It was as cold-blooded and vicious an honor crime as any the West has seen, but with one difference. This time, the victim was male.
A 24-year-old Asian man is clinging to life in a British hospital after seven men attacked him last week in London for having a friendship with a married Muslim woman.
The unidentified man, who is Muslim himself and has Danish citizenship, was stabbed twice in the back and beaten so severely with bricks that authorities report he is now blind in one eye and will probably lose sight in the other. Acid was also poured down the victim’s throat, damaging his tongue and throat so severely he will probably never speak again.
“The poor man got up and ran straight into a tree, then staggered back to his house, tugging at his burning clothes and banging on doors, shouting for water,” said one woman who witnessed the attack.
The victim’s body was also doused with acid, burning more than 50 per cent and leaving him in critical condition. News reports state he is not expected to survive. His assailants, police say, were all wearing gloves and masks for protection against the sulphuric acid, ... [ snip]
The motive for the attack, British newspapers report, is that the woman’s family, which is from Pakistan, considered the man’s friendship with her “insulting” to the family’s honor.
Incredibly, London police now expect the Pakistani family to attempt to further wash away more of that “foulness.” The woman, police fear, may be killed next and are trying to figure out how to protect her...
["Trying to figure it out" ? We take children from their parents for far less - why not here where there's no doubt?
Oops, forgot: don't' want to offend anyone.]
READ MORE
It wouldn't happen to the Koran
The Pope has condemned a ' disgusting' taxpayer-funded exhibition in which visitors are urged to deface the Bible.
Visitors were offered pens by gallery bosses so they could scrawl comments on the text - leading to a host of puerile and obscene remarks.
Pope Benedict XVI believes the stunt would not have been contemplated with a copy of the Koran.
Artist Anthony Schrag. He wanted gays and transsexuals who felt left out of religion
[Isn't that 'tolerant'.]
READ MORE
China has pointed questions for US in private
Washington - The United States and China are striking a conciliatory tone in their public comments during economic talks, although that hasn't stopped China from posing some pointed questions behind closed doors about such issues as America's soaring budget deficit to try to reassure China that the U.S. will not let deficits or inflation jeopardize the value of Chinese investments...
[Guess the days of the US asking China 'pointed questons' about its human rights violations are long gone. The consequences of becoming the world's super-debtor.
'Free' health care anyone?]
READ MORE
Zelaya's Gone, but Democracy Now! Keeps Trying to Bring Him Back
... Let's take a moment to review some of the events that led to the Zelayas now finding themselves in their new role as perpetual guests of fellow Marxist President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua:
- 1. Officials are investigating allegations that Zelaya stole millions from the Central Bank of Honduras. A security video from the Central Bank of Honduras (now in the possession of the The Washington Times) shows Honduran officials entering the bank and withdrawing millions, which was taken directly to Mr. Zelaya’s chief of staff, Enrique Flores Lanza.
- 2. Zelaya was planning an illegal referendum that, if successful, would have permitted him to serve a second term as president. This is blatantly illegal under the Honduran Constitution. Honduras’ Supreme Court, the military, its Congress, and the majority of the people were all united in their vigorous opposition to the referendum.
- 3. The Zelaya administration was coming more and more under the influence of Marxist Hugo Chavez, the soon to be president-for-life of Venezuela. Honduras is a conservative country, and the growing influence of the leftist ideology of Chavez over Zelaya prompted Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga to declare that Zelaya no longer has:
“…any authority, moral or legal. The legal authority he lost because he broke laws and the moral authority he lost with a discourse full of lies. The most patriotic thing he could do is stay away. Anything else is just trying to impose Hugo Chavez’s project [Socialism] at all costs.”
The Hondurans don’t want Chavez-style authoritarianism, and running Zelaya out on a rail was their way of making that fact known to the world.
Goodman and the folks at Democracy Now! should begin to reconcile themselves to that fact.
READ MORE
FLASHBACKs >
Tossing Free Honduras under the Bus
Obama 'meddles' in Honduras -- and chooses the wrong side
Hondurans unhappy with Obama
.
Obama, Chavez Are Both Nationalizing Private Companies
Washington - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is taking over private companies in order to deal with the economic crisis that has affected both his country and the United States, and the Obama administration is trying to do roughly the same thing, Venezuelan political analyst Dr. Luis Vicente León told CNSNews.com Monday.
READ MORE
THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD
The illusion that Barack Obama will lead from the economic center has quickly come to an end. His policies are designed to radically re-engineer the market-based U.S. economy, not mitigate the recession.
The President's $3.6 trillion budget blueprint, by his own admission, redefines the role of government in our economy and society:
- Almost triple the deficit.
- Add $6.5 trillion to the national debt.
- Leave future U.S. taxpayers (I.e., our children) with the tab.
- There will have been several years of economic recovery.
- The funds will be returned from the financial bailouts.
- U.S. forces will have withdrawn from Iraq.
READ MORE
POLL: 62% Oppose Federal Bailouts for State Budget Problems
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 20% of adults favor bailing out financially troubled states. Nineteen percent (19%) are not sure which course is best.
These findings are largely unchanged from mid-May when California’s financial problems became national news.
Eighty-two percent (82%) of Republicans and 61% of adults not affiliated with either major political party oppose federal bailout help for states with budget problems.
A plurality (42%) of Democrats agree, but 31% think bailing out the states is a good idea.
Seventy-seven percent (77%) of voters nationwide say the unwillingness of politicians to cut government spending is a bigger problem than the public’s unwillingness to pay higher taxes.
Roughly seven-out-of-10 California voters oppose raising income and sales taxes to meet the state’s massive and growing budget deficit.
Forty-four percent (44%) of American adults say, generally speaking, the government tries to do too much, but 31% believe it doesn’t try to do enough...
READ MORE
A Chemical Scare Campaign Is Good Business for Some
Last month, the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS), a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization affiliated with George Mason University, released "Science Suppressed: How America became obsessed with BPA,
" a report which accuses the media of ignoring the extensive research of respected scientists and major health agencies in the United States and around the world, which found BPA was not only safe but played an important role in ensuring food safety." [snip]
If you're unfamiliar with Bisphenol A (BPA), it is a chemical used to make lightweight, versatile, durable, high-performance plastics. [like water bottles]
Until recently, this appeared to be nothing more than a typical attempt by liberals to go after business and manufacturing. But as several bloggers have recently pointed out, there appears to be a more sinister motive. You see, the radical environmental groups who fundraise off of this issue, the trial lawyers who line their pockets with class action lawsuits against BPA manufacturers, and the Democratic politicians who score political points by attacking BPA all have one thing in common: They all share the same PR huckster -- David Fenton.
If the name David Fenton of Fenton Communications sounds familiar, it may be because he's the guy who invented the 'General Betray Us' ad campaign that MoveOn.org used to attack General Petreaus... [snip]
Sadly, it appears that these attacks were not mistakes made with the best of intentions, but rather, a racket designed to put money in the pockets of liberal special interests...
READ MORE
What Green Jobs?
President Obama devoted nearly $60 billion of his stimulus package to building a new green-based economy rich in renewable energy and strategies to cut carbon.
But despite the price tag, not one green job yet exists.
It comes down to a problem of etymology. No one can yet agree on what a green job actually is...
[Guess it's now called the 'sixty billion dollar question'. Too bad no one had time to read the thing before they passed it.]
READ MORE
72% Don’t Want Feds Changing Their Light Bulbs
Just 18% of adults think it’s the government’s job to tell Americans what kind of light bulb they use, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Seventy-two percent (72%) say it’s none of the government’s business, and 10% are not sure.
The federal government under an energy bill passed in 2007 is requiring consumers to dump incandescent bulbs, the ones we’ve used for well over a century, for more expensive fluorescent ones. The plan is scheduled to go into effect over the next 10 years in the name of great energy efficiency.
Eighty-three percent (83%) of Republicans and 78% of adults not affiliated with either major political party say it’s not the government’s role to make Americans change their light bulbs. Among Democrats, 58% share that view, but 29% say it is the government’s job.
READ MORE
Democrats search for villains on health care
.
With their health care plans in a holding pattern — and no George W. Bush to kick around anymore — Democrats are casting about for somebody to blame.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn says that Republicans have “perfected ‘just say no.’”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said insurance companies are chalking up “immoral profits.”
But even if they won’t acknowledge it publicly, most Democrats in Congress know the truth: It’s their own colleagues who are slowing down progress in both the House and the Senate...
[Again and again: they don't debate the merits of their ideas but attack anyone who questions...]
READ MORE
White House using class warfare to sell health reform plan
In explaining why it was OK to sock a new 5.4% tax on the highest earners in this country — to pay for health care reform — President Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said this:
“The president believes that the richest 1% of this country has had a pretty good run of it for many years.”
Ah. So that’s it. The old “You’ve had it good enough for long enough” policy...
[What has our country come to that a politician at any level can say such a thing and not be thrown out of office?]
READ MORE
Plastic Surgery Tax Eyed As Revenue Raiser
Face-lifts, tummy tucks and hair transplants could be hit with a new tax to help finance the trillion-dollar healthcare overhaul plan, according to sources familiar with the Senate talks.
The Senate Finance Committee has discussed imposing a 10 percent excise tax on cosmetic surgery deemed 'unnecessary' [by whom?] for medical purposes.
[Translation: how dare you pay for for just your own surgery - if you can afford that you should be made to pay for someone else's.
'Home of the free.']
READ MORE
Rare, Truthful Treat: AP's 'Fact Check' On Obama Presser Hits Surprisingly Hard
.
OBAMA: "It will keep government out of health care decisions, giving you the option to keep your insurance if you're happy with it."
THE FACTS: A commission appointed by the government would determine what is and isn't covered by insurance plans offered in a new purchasing pool, including a plan sponsored by the government. The bill also holds out the possibility that, over time, those standards could be imposed on all private insurance plans, not just the ones in the pool.
OBAMA: "I have also pledged that health insurance reform will not add to our deficit over the next decade, and I mean it."
THE FACTS: White House Budget Director Peter Orszag told reporters this week that the promise 'does not apply' to proposed spending of about $245 billion over the next decade to increase fees for doctors serving Medicare patients.
OBAMA: "You haven't seen me out there blaming the Republicans."
THE FACTS: Obama did so in his opening statement, saying, "I've heard that one Republican strategist told his party that even though they may want to compromise, it's better politics to 'go for the kill."
OBAMA: "If we had done nothing ... you'd have a $9.3 trillion deficit over the next 10 years. Because of the changes we've made, it's going to be $7.1 trillion."
THE FACTS: Obama's numbers are based on figures compiled by his own 'budget office'. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, in its own analysis of the president's budget numbers, concluded that the cumulative deficit over the next decade would be $9.1 trillion.
Woodward et al could have done a bit better. Their "deficit-neutral" fact check point ignored Congressional Budget Office predictions that the legislation will add to the deficit, and to spending.
The AP team could have further pointed to the history of federal programs in general, which rarely if ever stay within their anticipated spending constraints, or to Massachusetts's government-run Commonwealth Care, supposedly a model for much of what is in ObamaCare, where costs are spiraling out of control.
Nonetheless, Woodward and ABC's Jake Tapper remain virtually alone in the White House press corps in their willingness to report negative news about Obama or to even question him on identified analysis items.
Will that ever change?
READ MORE
WaPo Shocker: President Is Hiding Cost of Obamacare
.
With as much as Obama has on the line with this agenda item, these words from the Post have to hurt ...
READ MORE
Hawaii officials confirm Obama's original birth certificate still exists
Hawai'i's Health Department confirmed yesterday that it has President Obama's original Aug. 4, 1961, birth certificate in storage, but the announcement is unlikely to satisfy conspiracy theorists who insist Obama was born in Kenya.
'We don't destroy vital records,; Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said. ;'That's our whole job, to maintain and retain vital records.'
[Terrific, produce it, and put the whole topic to rest.]
READ MORE
Traffic to Obama's White House Web Site Has Plummeted
.
The traffic at President Obama's official White House Web site--whitehouse.gov--has fallen from a post-Inauguration peak to nearly the same level it was during the waning days of the Bush administration
The dramatic drop in traffic has happened despite the Obama Administration's complete redesign of the site. Traffic to the site has fallen 51.6 percent in the last three months.
People are also spending less time on the site than they did before.
READ MORE
Obamas' dog Bo celebrates his 'first 100 days'
.
Los Angeles Times
[Our professional media - and no, you're not getting a link]
.
Sarah of Liberty
Sarah Palin may become the great champion of liberty in an era when it is under threat as never before. Two pictures contained herein in this express this hope.
Sarah Palin has already demonstrated a capacity to connect with ordinary Americans. This charisma frightens and angers many and the left, and not a few Republicans as well.
The phony intellectual elitists, who have little or no understanding, much less grounding, in the fundamental ideas undergirding the American republic, as well as the shallow conservative intellectuals, jealous of her connection to the taproot of the American spirit, will no doubt be bewildered by her reappearence on the national stage.
But the American people, who don't think you must be stupid if you didn't go to an Ivy League university, and who understand that America is a special nation, a unique experiment in liberty, will respond. American exceptionalism is as much an anathema to the pointy heads as shopping at Wal-Mart. But not to mainstream America.
I have a strong suspicion that Sarah Palin will emerge as a strong champion of liberty.
READ MORE
Peggy Noonan: Sarah Palin Jealous
You're Peggy Noonan and you're jealous. But it's not the normal kind of jealous, the kind reserved for girlfriends who can squeeze into size 2 jeans. No, it's the kind of jealous that hurts, that grabs your gut and twists, that has you howling with rage into your pillow in the middle of the night, screaming "It's not fair" like a two-year-old denied another piece of cake. It is Sarah Palin jealous...and it is consuming you... [snip]
They talk about the Palin family fishing business-big deal. Anyone can get a couple of fish -- just call Leonards' on Third Avenue and they will deliver. But Palin is not the only savvy executive type. You got together with your closest friends, all the kind of women who, unlike Sarah Palin, live in the real world where women wear "Channel jackets" and "long, flowing pants with heels," and understand life, as Reuters noted, "on a level that goes beyond the mundane."
You're Peggy Noonan and you're jealous. Your "beyond the mundane" co-founders -- "buds" as the Sarah Palin types so crassly put it-for your new venture are the essence of your kind of middle America: they include "60 Minutes" reporter Lesley Stahl; actresses Candice Bergen, Whoopi Goldberg and Marlo Thomas, your type of conservatives, which puts them a bit to the right of Hugo Chavez... [snip]
But after a year your audience is less than 20 percent of what is defined as success, your investors are worried, and the same women who pack Sarah Palin rallies are ignoring your venture, which features such pieces as "Michelle Obama's Scintillating Style" and "French Fashion Designers Churn Out Stylish Burqhas."
What is wrong with this country? Why don't people listen to you? Can't they read without moving their lips?
You're Peggy Noonan and you're jealous. And, worst of all, Sarah Palin is not...
[More, Recommended > ]
READ MORE
Great polling data for Sarah Palin
So where does Sarah Palin stand right now? Well according to the recent Public Policy Poll (PPP) she is doing quite well, in fact she is in the lead of all potential GOP 2012 contenders.
Sarah Palin favorability rating among conservative Republicans is 73%, Huckabee is at 65%, and Romney is at 53%. Sarah Palin also has a 45% approval rating among registered independents, which is just under half of their support. Sarah Palin also scored huge among Hispanic voters with a 51% approval rating, with not even a close second among GOP 2012 hopefuls. Sarah Palin also leads among GOP 2012 contenders with the 18-29 age range with 51% having a favorability rating in what is traditionally considered a Democratic stronghold.
In every region in the country Sarah Palin is in the lead against all the other GOP 2012 hopefuls; with 43% in the Northeast, 47% in the South, 50% in the Midwest, and 51% in the West.
How about among GOP “moderates” surely Sarah Palin is not doing well with this demographic, right? Wrong the PPP Poll finds that,“For the second month in a row we found Sarah Palin as the most popular of the leading 2012 GOP hopefuls among moderate Republicans. 64% have a positive opinion of her compared to 57% for Newt Gingrich, 53% for Mike Huckabee, and 45% for Mitt Romney.”
So for Sarah Palin the sky is the limit, and she has yet to really start taking the fight to the Democrats and Obama.
READ MORE
An Incoherent Truth
NY Times, by Paul Krugman
"Right now the fate of health care reform seems to rest in the hands of relatively conservative Democrats — mainly members of the Blue Dog Coalition, created in 1995. And you might be tempted to say that President Obama needs to give those Democrats what they want.
But he can’t — because the Blue Dogs aren’t making sense..."
[Krugman saying someone else isn't making sense - now that's comical.
{points for the title though}]
READ MORE
.
What if Palin Were President?
Can you believe the gall of these Sarah Palin cultists? Presidential aspirations? This is a woman who named one of her kids "Track," for God's sake. (Well, if it really is her kid.)
William Buckley once wrote that he rather would
"entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University."
But running government is no longer a suitable vocation for the bumbling proletariat. It's for folks with schoolin' and such. It's a job for herculean thinkers with degrees from Ivy League schools. In other words, no one from Alaska need apply.
Former sports reporters certainly won't do. We need former constitutional scholars. Who else, after all, has a better understanding of how to undermine the document?
Really, where would we be if a bumpkin like Palin were president? With her brainpower, we probably would be stuck with a Cabinet full of tax cheats, retreads and moralizing social engineers.
If Palin were president, chances are we'd have a gaffe-generating motormouth for a vice president. That's the kind of decision-making one expects from Miss Congeniality.
The job of building generational debt is not for the unsophisticated. Enriching political donors with taxpayer dollars takes intellectual prowess, not the skills of a moose-hunting point guard.
The talent to print money we don't have to pay for programs we can't afford is the work of a finely tuned imagination, soaring gravitas and endless policy know-how.
Palin is so clueless she probably would have rushed through some colossal stimulus plan that ended up stimulating nothing.
If Palin were president, no one doubts this nation would have continued the Bush-era policy of indefinite detention of enemy combatants and the CIA's program of transferring prisoners to other countries without legal rights. Be thankful you have a president who makes you think this nation doesn't.
If Palin were commander in chief -- and, again, can anyone imagine anything so preposterous? -- the United States still would be fighting endless and expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It's true that Palin's first veto as Alaska governor was of a bill that would have blocked state employee benefits and health insurance for same-sex couples, but does anyone doubt her true intentions?
If she were president, brave American soldiers still would be living under the dark specter of "don't ask, don't tell." Palin even might have instructed her Justice Department to file a brief in defense of the Defense of Marriage Act. Such is the depth of her depravity.
Does anyone believe that Palin possesses the competence to nationalize entire industries without the consent of the people? A housewife from Wasilla isn't equipped with political brawn to shake down banks and bondholders.
Palin never would be able to convince Americans that a trillion-dollar government-run health care plan would save taxpayers money or have the rhetorical ability to convince even a single person that a European-style cap-and-trade scheme has any benefit at all.
Palin is such a goofball that she probably believes oil will continue to be a vital American energy source.
And how is anyone as simplistic as Palin going to help change the habits of all these fatsos in America? We need a mommy ... but, you know, not a real mommy.
For Palin, though, there is hope.
Just because you're the target of a revolting elitist hit job doesn't mean you're ready to be president. I don't believe Palin has thought deeply enough about serious issues. She certainly has proved to be unable to defend herself adequately on intellectual grounds.
To this point, at least, Palin hasn't offered much more than populist sloganeering. Her popularity often seems fueled by charisma alone.
So, judging from Barack Obama's 'success', she has all the makings of a future president.
READ MORE
