Health care and the ailing Constitution

Here's the question I didn't get a chance to ask President Obama when he stopped by Montana recently. So far as I know, no one else has asked it of him either:

"If the federal role in health care is not enumerated in the Constitution, and it isn't, then shouldn't it be reserved to the states or the people as guaranteed by the 10th Amendment?"

The 10th Amendment, for those of you who don't already know, says,

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Pretty powerful stuff, if anyone followed it -- but they don't.

Scour the Constitution as you will, you won't find anything regarding health care. And don't resort to the cheap politician's trick of finding an excuse to do whatever you want in the "general welfare" clause from Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. The "general welfare of the United States' refers to the survival and health of those very states, not the individual well-being and medical check-ups of each and every individual citizen. The specific powers of Congress are indeed quite limited, and for good reason.

If you don't believe it, then explain why the Founding Fathers went to the trouble of detailing powers of Congress such as the power to "punish piracies' and "establish post offices," but didn't put in anything about "establish rules to ensure adequate health care" for all citizens. Based on the wording of the 10th Amendment, It seems obvious that the omission was because they saw health care as a power 'reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

And if you don't believe me, then what about James Madison, himself a Founding Father, who wrote in Federalist Paper No. 41, the following:

"For what purpose could the enumeration of particular powers be inserted, if these and all others were meant to be included in the preceding general power? "

Madison, the Father of the Constitution, was trying to allay fears of those who foresaw a "power grab" by Congress under the pretense that the "general welfare" clause gave them unlimited powers. Not so, Madison said. "General welfare" only gives Congress the power to carry out the "enumerated powers' of Section 8, not to invent new ones...

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THE BIGGEST MISSING STORY IN ECONOMICS

[Heard Mr. Woods speak at the Los Vegas Freedom Fest, where he explained that until 2007, one of the most sever and rapidly recovered from recessions our country has ever had didn't even have an entry in Wikipedia - which has an entry for everything - and that the " '21 episode' continues to be ignored in our institutions of 'higher learning' to this day. Read and decide why that might be for yourselves...]

Wikipedia:

The 1921 recession was an extremely sharp deflationary recession following World War I. It lasted from January 1920 to July 1921 [18 months].[1] The extent of the deflation was not only large, but large relative to the accompanying decline in real product. [2] The 1921 episode is shocking in terms of both the severity of the downturn and for the rapid nature of the recovery.

The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the 1921 recession from a general business peak in January 1920 to a trough in July 1921. The recession in the United States was brief relative to the Great Depression later that decade, but it included a very sharp price deflation. The decline in the GNP price deflator from 1920 to 1921 is the largest one-year percentage decline in the series in the more than 120 years covered.[2]

Various estimates show that one-year deflation figures were 18 percent, 13.0 percent, and 14.8 percent, respectively. The closest comparator is the 11.5 percent deflation recorded for 1931-32, the third year of the Great Depression. All other years of the Great Depression in which real GNP declined were all well below the 1920-21 figures.[2]

[I.e., it started out considerably worse than the great depression...]

Austrian school economists and historians argue that the 1921 recession was a necessary market correction, required to engineer the massive realignments required of private business and industry following the end of the War (which had marked a period of mass government distortions to free markets).

President Harding's laissez faire economic policies during the 1920/21 recession, combined with a coordinated aggressive policy of rapid government downsizing, had a direct influence (mostly through intentional non-influence) on the rapid and widespread private-sector recovery.[3]

A buoyant expansion followed the severe contraction of 1920-1921. In the 22 months after the depression bottom, industrial production rose 63%, the money stock expanded by 14%, and wholesale prices rose by 9%. Net national product rose 23% in the corresponding two calendar years.

Woods argues that the massive 1921 recession and subsequent rapid recovery is an episode in the history of capitalism and economics that is woefully understudied. He believes it to be a watershed case proving that free markets adjust prices and supplies much more efficiently than any government coordinated action, and that Keynesian philosophy ignores the '21 episode because it suggests government intervention prolongs such "crises."

[And our 'professional educators' today? Most are still teaching Keynesian economics as valid, despite all contrary negative (our 1930's, Japan's 1990's) or positive (Kenedy, Reagan, Bush tax cuts) evidence to the contrary. Why? Because such artificial influence on economies is code for government intervention - with which come social power.

You connect the dots. Lessons will be repeated until learned.]

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image toon - mny - Economy improving - still has 3 jobs...

The Branch Carbonian Cult

The Global Warming Movement (AGW) has taken on the worrisome attributes of a pseudo-religious cult, which operates far more on the basis of an apocalyptic "belief" system than on objective climate science.

Since this worldwide Movement and its strident policies of Less Energy at Higher Prices (in order to achieve reductions in everyone's "carbon footprint") are at the heart of America's enormous energy shortfall, it poses a national security threat of major proportions.

And in this context, the AGW Crusade should be understood in a "Know Thy Enemy" frame of reference -- perhaps not in terms of a fully conscious or intentional enemy of the American people at a time of war and economic crisis but as a deadly threat to our economic stability and national security, nonetheless... [snip]

Truths to be Ignored or Denied

On the more climatically correct side, all that is needed to begin the collapse of this house-of-cards scam is yet another list of certifiable facts and truths -- one which will disprove much of the Cult's mission, tactics and alleged "solutions" -- namely,

• (a) the fact that while Arctic ice may (or may not, of late) be receding, Antarctic ice has been increasing for about 40 years,
• (b) the fact that global temperatures have been on a slightly decreasing trend since 1998,
• (c) the fact that Mars (which features no man-made factor at all) is experiencing "global warming," as well,
• (d) the fact that Antarctic "ice shelves" which occasionally break off, float away and melt at sea, do not raise ocean levels at all,
• (e) the fact that several of the "hottest years" on record were in the 1930s and 1940s, when CO2 levels were much lower than today's,
• (f) the fact that ever more scientists assert convincingly that atmospheric CO2 is a lagging consequence, rather than a triggering cause, of alleged global warming,
• (g) the fact that all earlier glacial and inter-glacial periods were clearly caused not by man but by solar, ocean and volcanic cycles and "natural" fluctuations,
• (h) the fact that di-hydrogen oxide (H2O) molecules -- water vapor -- and methane molecules are 20-30 times more heat-retentive than CO2 molecules are,
• (i) the fact that termites worldwide expel about as much "greenhouse gasses" into the atmosphere as does all the burning of fossil fuels by human beings,
• (j) the fact that even if all Kyoto-type limits on CO2 were obeyed by all nations, the claimed net impact by 2050 would be less than half a degree F -- with a ruinous cost-to-benefit ratio of thousands to one, when the standard requirement is no more than one to one.

Conclusion: Since every such Prophet-led, scare-mongering, pseudo-religious conspiracy needs a properly descriptive name, and since this one's primary concerns over alleged depletion of the so-called "ozone layer" over Antarctica have shifted to a panic over CO2, instead, a fitting name for this cultic gaggle might be the "Branch Carbonian Cult" --

[+ the 10 Commandments of the Cult - please consider passing this brief or source piece on to a friend you know needs it - Highly Recommended > ]

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image toon - grn = Alarmists finding it harder to frighten citizens

Hispanic groups call for Census boycott

Some Hispanic advocacy groups are calling for illegal immigrants to boycott the 2010 Census unless immigration laws are changed.

The National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders, a group that says it represents 20,000 evangelical churches in 34 states, issued a statement this week urging undocumented immigrants not to fill out Census forms unless Congress passes "genuine immigration reform."

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A Porn-Pop Summer

[HT:LP]
The baby boomers are trotting out the celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the "Summer of Love," complete with all that soggy and groggy Woodstock nostalgia. Perhaps the singular statement of that summer was the music and the open celebration of "free love."

All of which, believe it or not, is preferable to what is on the air this summer.

Start with the big hit "Birthday Sex," which brought quick 'fame' to a singer named Jeremih. His basic lyric is "Don’t need candles and cake / Just need your body to make / Birthday sex." But Jeremih also elaborates about how he wants sex in the kitchen, on a waterbed, and so on. It’s an audio porn movie.

Sadly, few can be found to disapprove of foisting these "adult situations" lyrics on children. Radio station managers are, as a group, completely apathetic. But school administrators? The Chicago Public Schools enlisted their newly famous alumnus Jeremih in an online Twitter campaign to 'urge' Chicago teens to go back to school this fall.

[We must have universal school vouchers to drive the privatization of education over time. Nothing with change without them.]

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NBC Online Store Offers 29 Pro-Obama Items

NBC Universal isn't just showing its love for Obama on the news airwaves:

If you're a fan of all things Obama, NBC Universal's online store has no fewer than 29 options for your buying pleasure -- from a shirt with the president's picture proclaiming "YES WE DID"...to both of his books...to a special inauguration DVD...to a refrigerator magnet of the first couple.

The items are promoted with pro-Obama lingo.

Lott reported what might seem obvious: there’s no Bush merchandise, and "NBC did not say whether it ever sold Bush items after his victory in 2000." Lott noted NBC is unique, that the CBS and ABC online stores sell books about the president, but no merchandise. Fox and CNN do not sell books or merchandise.

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Nets Fail to ID Party of Pols Arrested in NJ; CNN Misleads Its Viewers

Continuing a well-established pattern, the broadcast network evening newscasts all failed to point out the party affiliation of the major New Jersey office-holders amongst the 44 people the FBI arrested Thursday for corruption.

As the AP pointed out, all but one are Democrats:

“Among the 44 people arrested were the mayors of Hoboken, Ridgefield and Secaucus, Jersey City's deputy mayor, and two state assemblymen. A member of the governor's cabinet resigned after agents searched his home, though he was not arrested.”

Nonetheless, CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Deborah Feyerick saw a bi-partisan scandal...

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Too Big To Vote?

CALIFORNIA

How do you run for California's top political offices when you often have failed to vote yourself and have no political experience? Some big names in the GOP have rallied behind former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as she eyes a run against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman as she prepares to run for governor. (Snip) But both former CEOs have a boardroom-sized problem: They have shoddy voting records.

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You're A Racist! The Ultimate Emotional Intimidation

I am on the email list of a dear black friend of 20 years. He is a minister, writer and professor. He has mentored and advised me with great wisdom on numerous occasions. With me being a black conservative Republican and he a Democrat, we avoid talking politics. Since the election of Obama, my friend will talk about nothing else... [snip]

Behind all of my friend's intellectual yada, yada, festers a deep hatred for the rich and white people. In a conversation, he said with great glee that Obama was going to "reign in Wall Street" and CEO's salaries should be limited to $500,000 per year. I thought, "Who the heck are you to dictate how much someone should be permitted to earn. This is America. The sky's the limit." [snip]

Many sincere white Americans thought by electing a black president America could never again be characterized as a "racist country." Shamefully, this characterless administration betrayed Obama voters by exploiting race, using it as a tool to implement their far left agenda. If you don't agree with everything Obama wants, you must be a racist. Rather than the election of America's first black president bringing the races together, Obama's administration is tearing us apart. They will continue to play the tired, old and tattered geriatric "race card" as long as it is effective.

Ironically, "Black Racism" has blinded my long time friend as well as many other black Americans from seeing beyond Obama's skin color. MLK would not be proud... [snip]

Obama wants to redistribute wealth, punish achievers, decide who lives or dies and control as much of our lives as possible. It is just that simple. His must be stopped. Do not allow yourselves to be manipulated and intimidated for fear of being called "racist."

Folks, please, please, please do not fall for it. The stakes are far too high. Boldly speak the truth and stand up for what you know in your hearts to be right for America...

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LA Times Accidentally Lists 'Jackass' in Olbermann's Time Slot

The Los Angeles Times Calendar section on Thursday accidentally listed MTV's hit series "Jackass" as airing on MSNBC at 7 and 10PM.

7 and 10PM just so happen to be when "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" replays on the West Coast.

Innocent mistake or Freudian slip?

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image photo fnn - HT:GC = CAT truck parks on pickup

image toon - 1st fnn crpt hcare = Pelosi wants to shout Oby down if drop public option

Obama Bears False Witness, Saying Abortion Coverage in Health Bill is a "Fabrication"

While the White House "reality check" website was silent on the issue of abortion in Obamacare, his campaign website quotes a false factcheck statement that "In fact, none of the health care overhaul measures that have made it through the committee level in Congress say that abortion will be covered".

In fact, the Capps Amendment passed by the House Energy and Commerce committee would require the establishment of at least one plan covering elective abortions in every federally-subsidized exchange, and it gives the HHS Secretary the authority to include abortion coverage in the public plan and requires that the public plan cover abortion if the Hyde amendment (which bans funding of abortions through Medicaid) is repealed.

Can any intellectually honest person call it something else?

As Reason's Jacob Sullum wrote, "The Democrats might as well tell the anti-abortion taxpayer that they won't use his money to kill fetuses, which will be done only with money from taxpayers who have no compunctions about the procedure."

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Reprisal for Opposing Part of Obama's Plan

In a move some fear is a reprisal for opposing President Obama's health care plan, Democrats sent 52 letters to health insurers requesting financial records for a House committee's investigation. Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., sent a letter warning health insurers that the House Energy and Commerce Committee is

"examining executive compensation and other business practices of the health industry."

[They haven't received any tax dollars. And they're private businesses. Is this still America?]

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MORE CAPITALISM THE CURE FOR HEALTH CARE

Many Americans that think capitalism has failed to provide the country adequate health care are unaware that there hasn't been a free market approach in the U.S. for nearly 50 years due to Medicare.

Consider the fact that Medicare faces $34 trillion in unfunded liabilities and President Obama wants to add 45 million people to the bankrupt system:

• President Obama's health care model is the Canadian system; yet, Canada's mortality rate for colon cancer is higher than the United States because the Canadian government refuses to purchase the two most effective drugs to treat the disease.
• The proportion of middle-aged Canadian women who have never had a mammogram is twice that of the United States, and three times as many Canadian women have never had a Pap smear.
• This lack of screening is partly responsible for the fact that the mortality rate in Canada is 25 percent higher for breast cancer.

While we might debate its affordability, there's no debating the fact that U.S. medicine is the best in the world.

When American billionaires become seriously ill, they seek treatment at home. And while much is made of the fact that U.S. life expectancy is a bit shorter than that of other countries, if you adjust for violent crime and automobile accidents, Americans have the longest life expectancy in the world...

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Learning From Canada's Mistakes

Before Americans adopt Canadian-style health care regulations, we might want to ask Canadian doctors what they think of their system.

The Canadian Medical Association gathered for its annual meeting on Sunday.

Warnings from doctors to our north are important to dispel the Obama administration's claim that its government takeover is a way to get costs under control...

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image toon - 1st hcare = Canadian asks Oby if can keep doctor

Arab League welcomes bomber's release

Cairo - The Arab League has welcomed the release of a terminally ill Libyan convicted over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, it was reported today. '

'The Arab League welcomes the Scottish court decision to release Megrahi, taking into consideration his serious health condition,'' [but healthy enough to walk up and down airline ladder-stairs]

Assistant secretary-general Ahdmed Bin Hilli said that

"Libya would receive compensation for its suffering during the years of ongoing sanctions''

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Panetta Revealed

Joseph Finder at the Daily Beast has the scoop on Leon Panetta: CIA Director Leon Panetta’s emergency testimony to Congress about an illegal assassination program has set off a crisis at the spy agency. The Daily Beast’s Joseph Finder exclusively reports that: • The secret assassination “program” wasn’t much more than a PowerPoint presentation, a task force and a collection of schemes—it never got off the ground.

[Expect front page corrects in the NYT... "soon" ...]

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Flashback: When Gibson was Enthralled by Cindy Sheehan

Washington Examiner's Byron York how ABC World News anchor Charles Gibson declared “enough already” when asked on Chicago's WLS Radio (audio) about Cindy Sheehan's plan to travel to President Barack Obama's Martha's Vineyard vacation spot next week to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. York observed how “that's a remarkably different stance from the one Gibson took four years ago” when he was co-host of Good Morning America: [Gibson on multiple multiple dates]

“We're going to turn next to the standoff that is playing out near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Cindy Sheehan, you know, the mother who lost a son in Iraq, is now on the move, but she's still standing her ground."

[snip]

“All across the country protests against the war in Iraq, inspired by the mother standing her ground at President Bush's ranch.”

[snip]

"This morning a war of words. All across the country protests against the war in Iraq, inspired by the mother standing her ground at President Bush's ranch."

With "CAN ANTI-WAR MOMS STOP BUSH?" on screen throughout the interview session, Charles Gibson gave her a lot of credit, asking in the midst of giving her publicity:

“You are but a small group there that is perched on the approach to the President's ranch. One hundred, two hundred people. Do you really think you've got people talking about the war?"

Now that it's a Democrat President she's protesting?

"Enough already".


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

Row over Afghan wife-starving law

Afghan legislation allowing a husband to starve his wife if she refuses to have sex has been published in the official gazette and become law.

[It's just a 'different' culture and we should all be tolerant.]

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Yale Surrenders

The capitulation of Yale University Press to threats that hadn't even been made yet is the latest and perhaps the worst episode in the steady surrender to religious extremism—particularly Muslim religious extremism—that is spreading across our culture.

A book called The Cartoons That Shook the World, by Danish-born Jytte Klausen, who is a professor of politics at Brandeis University, tells the story of the lurid and preplanned campaign of "protest" and boycott that was orchestrated in late 2005 after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten ran a competition for cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Yale University Press announced last week that it would go ahead with the publication of the book, but it would remove from it the 12 caricatures that originated the controversy. Not content with this, it is also removing those by Dante, William Blake, Sandro Botticelli, Salvador Dalí, and Auguste Rodin - so there's a lot of artistic censorship in our future if this sort of thing is allowed to set a precedent.
According to Yale logic, violence could result from the showing of the images—and not only that, but it would be those who displayed the images who were directly responsible for that violence.

Let me illustrate: The Aug. 13 New York Times carried a report of the university press' surrender, which quoted its director, John Donatich, as saying that in general he has "never blinked" in the face of controversy, but "when it came between that and blood on my hands, there was no question." [snip]

Last time this happened, I linked to the Danish cartoons so that you could make up your own minds about them, and I do the same today.

Should some homicidal theocrat decide to take offense, I reject absolutely that I will have instigated him to do so, and I state in advance that he is directly and solely responsible for any blood that is on any hands.

He becomes the responsibility of our police and security agencies, who operate in defense of a Constitution that we would not possess if we had not been willing to spill blood—our own and that of others—to attain it.

The First Amendment to that Constitution prohibits any prior restraint on the freedom of the press. What a cause of shame that the campus of Nathan Hale should have pre-emptively run up the white flag and then cringingly taken the blood guilt of potential assassins and tyrants upon itself.

[Just what are our young being taught from such stalwarts of American 'higher learning'.]

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[BTW:

Click each image to enlarge. [when you get to the site.]

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THE COST OF RAILROADING AMERICA

[HT:PW]
Congress approved $8 billion for President Obama's high-speed rail program without ever asking what the total cost would be, how to pay for it, or who would ride the trains.

The dismal answers to these questions reveal much about American politics:

• State estimates indicate Obama's plan will cost around $90 billion, or about $1,000 for every federal income taxpayer.
• Since 17 states, including Arizona, aren't even in the plan, a truly national network would cost far more.

The main users will be the wealthy and downtown workers whose employers pay their fares -- in other words, bankers, lawyers, and government officials who hardly need our transportation subsidies.

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POLL:54% Fear Government Will Do Too Much To Fix Economy

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 37% are more worried that the federal government will not do enough in reacting to the nation’s current economic problems.

Among the nation’s Political Class, (70%) worry that the government will not do enough. As for those who hold populist or Mainstream views, an identical percentage (70%) fear the government will do too much. (See more on the Political Class/Mainstream divide).

Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Republicans and 66% of voters not affiliated with either major party worry the government will take too much action, but 60% of Democrats worry it won’t do enough.

Most voters (53%) believe increases in government spending hurt the economy and there is strong opposition to a second economic stimulus package.

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40% Say Cutting Deficit Is Top Priority

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that, of the four priorities outlined by the President earlier this year, 21% rate health care reform as the most important. Eighteen percent (18%) say ensuring that every child has access to a complete and competitive education should be the priority, and 15% put the emphasis on development of new sources of energy.

Although deficit reduction is the top priority for voters, it’s also seen as the least likely to be achieved. Two-out-of-three voters (67%) rate it as least likely while just seven percent (7%) say it’s the goal most likely to be achieved.

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image toon - 1st hcare mny = Deficit under Obycare obses

YOU WANT A CRISIS?

Americans have been debating about the proposed universal health care bill. During this time, President Obama has stated over and over that it will be revenue neutral and that it will not increase the deficit.

While it's true that we have some obvious problems in our medical system, most Americans are satisfied with their health care. A majority sees no crisis to warrant a government takeover:

• The new polling shows that 80 percent of those with insurance rate their own coverage as good or excellent.

But when we get through the economic time that we're in right now, we're going to be confronted with an even bigger problem.

The first of the Baby Boomers started signing up for early retirement under Social Security last year and in two years they will start signing up for Medicare.

All told, 78 million people are going to stop working, stop paying taxes and start drawing benefits.

The problem is that neither Social Security, nor Medicare is ready for them.

And the federal government has made explicit and implicit promises to millions of people, but has put no money aside in order to keep those promises...

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image toon - mny sclm bbro - SSN + Medicare moon looks so close

THE THINGS BEING DONE TO BRING BACK HIGH GAS PRICES

A return to $4 a gallon gas -- or higher -- will be made even more certain if Congress and the President succeed in enacting a host of proposals to crack down on domestic energy supplies.

Instead, the federal government should support several pending pro-domestic energy measures that would help meet the nation's growing demand in the years ahead:

• Expand offshore and onshore oil production into previously restricted areas, including Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil lie beneath a few thousand acres that can be accessed with minimal environmental impact.
• Reduce the regulatory and legal delays that can slow and sometimes stop production.
• Allow further progress on oil shale.
• Prevent costly new anti-energy regulations from being imposed in the name of addressing global warming.

Such principles are contained in bills like the American Energy Innovation Act (H.R. 2828), the No Cost Stimulus Act (S. 570 and H.R. 1431) and the American Energy Act (H.R. 2846).

It should be obvious, but in Washington it is often not: discouraging domestic oil supplies with access restrictions, regulations, fees and taxes will add to the future price at the pump, while streamlining these impediments to increased production will do the opposite.

Congress and the President should be enacting measures that allow oil and gasoline to be as plentiful and affordable as possible to meet the nation's energy needs.

Instead, they are doing the opposite...

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AN INSIDE/OUTSIDE VIEW OF U.S. SCIENCE

This spring, Pew Research Center surveyed two groups of adults and members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

The online survey sampled 10,000 AAAS members, excluding schoolteachers. According to the results, the public imagines scientists to be less politically partisan than they actually are, and scientists are decidedly more liberal than the general population:

• When how they seem themselves politically, 56 percent of scientists said they are liberal, two percent said conservative, while 42 percent didn't not classify with either ideology.
• When asked what party affiliation they subscribe to, most scientists answered Democrat (55 percent), 32 percent are Independents, six percent Republicans, four percent other and three percent declined to answer.

However, the public views scientists as having no political ideology (64 percent), eight percent didn't know, 20 percent said they were liberal and only nine percent answered conservative.

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Science Czar:Born Baby 'Will Ultimately Develop Into a Human Being'

President Obama’s top science adviser said in a book he co-authored in 1973 that a newborn child “will ultimately develop into a human being” if he or she is properly fed and socialized.

“The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being,”

John P. Holdren

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image toon - bdd grn - John Holdren = Whitehouse Science Fiction adviso

Gun Rights Group Calls Out MSNBC for Claiming Gun-Carrying Protesters ‘Racist’

Following MSNBC coverage of ObamaCare protesters legally carrying guns, on Thursday, the Second Amendment Foundation condemned the liberal network for

"using deceptively-edited video from a Phoenix, Arizona anti-tax rally on Monday to invent a racial stereotype in its on-going effort to demonize and marginalize American firearms owners as ‘racists.’"

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FLASHBACK >

MSNBC: ObamaCare Protesters ‘Racist,’ Including Black Gun-Owner

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Bush Quietly Saved a Million African Lives

What if a president, on his own initiative, under no demands from staff or from supporters or opponents, set out to spend an unprecedented amount of money on AIDS in Africa, literally billions of dollars, at a time when the nation could not afford it, citing his faith as a primary motivation and, ultimately, saved more than a million lives?

[A: It would be ignored by the MSM, because he was of the 'wrong' party.]

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Bush Quietly Saved a Million African Lives

What if a president, on his own initiative, under no demands from staff or from supporters or opponents, set out to spend an unprecedented amount of money on AIDS in Africa, literally billions of dollars, at a time when the nation could not afford it, citing his faith as a primary motivation and, ultimately, saved more than a million lives?

[A: It would be ignored by the MSM, because he was of the 'wrong' party.]

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Sharpton Alarmed by Potential Reconciliation Between Gates and Crowley

That Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Mass., police sergeant James Crowley may attend a baseball game together has the Rev. Al Sharpton concerned.

SHARPTON: Let me start out by asking you, where, what is the status with Dr. Gates? You're his lawyer. Some people feel like we've made enough conciliations. I'm reading now he's talking about going to the ballgame with Sgt. Crowley. I need not tell you, some of us are saying that, wait a minute, enough is enough. What's going on here?

This from a man of the cloth, no less.

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Congressman Tells O'Donnell 'You're Illustrating Why MSNBC's Viewership Is In the Tank'

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell for the second time in eight days bullied a guest he was interviewing, but this time the person on the receiving end really let him have it.

As previously reported, O'Donnell last Thursday, while subbing for Ed Schultz on that evening's "The Ed Show," continually talked over his guest Peter Schiff and basically never let him answer any questions.

On Friday, O'Donnell, who was sitting in for Chris Matthews on "Hardball," tried the same tactic with Rep. John Culberson (R-Tex.), but this time his guest struck back:

"You know, Lawrence, for your listeners, you're illustrating why MSNBC's viewership is in the tank because you don't allow your people you're interviewing to answer questions. And, you know Lawrence, this is why Katie and everybody else is going to the Internet because why listen to MSNBC when you won't even let the people you're interviewing answer the question?"

Bravo, Congressman.

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image photo - fnn - Sign = no trespassing Enter

image toon - hcare 1st mny = Natl Debt 800lb gorrilla in hcare town hall

What Media Won't Tell You About ObamaCare: It WILL Hurt Seniors

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There's a dirty little secret about ObamaCare the Left and their media minions are immorally hiding from the public: the plan in its current form will definitely harm senior citizens.

Of course, it's understandable politicians are comfortable not telling such a large voting bloc the truth. Just ask Machiavelli.

But the facts revealed by the Wall Street Journal Friday would be in virtually every report about this issue if we indeed had an honest media as opposed to advocacy journalists misrepresenting reality in order to advance an agenda they support (h/t Keith Rasmussen):

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Healthcare and the Resourceful Poor

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The real problem holding back the poor in the world today is not discrimination and racism; it is the tax bite and the regulatory bite and the credentials bite of the liberal welfare/regulatory state

The minute that you propose to touch a penny of the trillions of our money that liberals spend on their patronage state, the cry from the modern Tapers and Tadpoles goes up: You are balancing the budget on the backs of the poor! Everyone knows that the poor are helpless, and that without government programs the poor would go to the wall, or worse.

But are they?

We have seen James Tooley in The Beautiful Tree describe how the Third World poor pay for the education of their children when the government schools are no good. Then there is Dr. Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh and his Off the Books: The Underground Economy and the Urban Poor. He describes the urban poor African-Americans of Maquis Park on Chicago's South Side.

They appear to be anything but helpless. [snip]

The big problem of the modern poor is that they can't afford to go legit. The system is set up to force them outside the law. For the employer, it's the tax bite that cranks up the costs of labor. For the would-be employee, a legitimate job in the private sector would terminate welfare or disability payments.

The same problem was faced by the school entrepreneurs in James Tooley's Beautiful Tree. The only way they could keep their schools open was by bribing the city inspectors.

The poor are resourceful and they have the will to make it. But they can't afford to pay full freight on all the bells and whistles that the modern state hangs onto every product sale and every employee labor hour. When you insist on all that stuff then the poor have to go off the books.

Then they become victims of the police, the politicians, and the gangs.

Yet our liberal friends are even now straining every sinew to increase taxes, regulations so they can give us health care. It's a pity that the increased bite will make it even more difficult for the poor to go legit.

Here's a mad conservative vision. Imagine a world in which the poor got a few breaks. Imagine an America where the cost of government was radically smaller, and they didn't have to go off the books to hide from the tax bite, the regulation bite, and the credentials bite.

Then maybe they could support themselves instead of living as wards of the state on the liberal plantation.

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Not all Libs push astroturf canard

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Not everyone on the left is in denial of the town hall protests and propagating the notion that any opposition to ObamaCare is manufactured "Astroturf" from the right.

Former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, now a Bloomberg TV contributor, said that the issue of public sentiment isn't settled.

"I think it's still a toss-up ball quite frankly. I think everybody is looking to see who gets to be on the offensive and there is a critical effort on both sides to do that.

Whoever is usually on the offensive as you go into the legislative fight is the winner. And so, that's really the key - who can be on the offensive as we go through the next critical weeks."

Daschle said on Bloomberg TV Aug. 11.

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REPUBLICAN HEALTH CARE IDEAS

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Two interesting GOP proposals have been offered from opposite ends of the Republican ideological spectrum -- conservative and moderate.

They differ in one major way. Conservatives would end employer-based health care, while moderates would keep it. But both are aimed at using free-market competition to lower costs and make private insurance more affordable to businesses and individuals.

The conservative health care proposal has been offered in the House by Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) and in the Senate by Richard Burr (N.C.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.).

The moderate plan has been proposed by Reps. Mark Kirk (Ill.) and Charlie Dent (Pa.) and reportedly will form the basis of a full-blown GOP alternative developed by the GOP Health Care Solutions Group headed by Rep. Roy Blunt (Mo.), but not yet unveiled.

• The Ryan-Burr proposal would allow employees to opt out of their employer-based insurance plan and get a $5,000-per-family tax credit to buy health insurance or pay medical bills.
• It would also allow individuals and businesses to form pools and buy insurance anywhere in the country, not just in the state where they live.
• This will greatly expand the choices of coverage available to consumers and will also encourage broader competition and diversity among insurers.
• Along with practically every other plan, Democratic and Republican, the conservative plan would require insurance companies to offer insurance regardless of a person's pre-existing medical condition.

Meanwhile:

• Kirk and Dent's Medical Rights and Reform Act is designed to lower the cost of insurance policies through legal reform -- which will reduce the expensive practice of "defensive medicine" -- and also create interstate pools.

Both the conservative and moderate plans would allow low-income Medicaid patients to get vouchers to buy private insurance and encourage states to experiment with insurance market reforms.

Source: Mort Kondracke, "GOP has health care ideas. Why not fight for them?"

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"SUPPORT RYAN-BURR, KIRK-DENT PROPOSALS "


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

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

and as always, pass it on...

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image toon - hcare = patient v doctors broken legs over healthcare law suits

US Pentagon thinks small for forces overhaul

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THE Pentagon yesterday unveiled a sweeping overhaul of its weapons priorities to prepare the US military to fight unconventional conflicts such as those in Afghanistan rather than against China, Russia or other major powers.

[Exactly what China, Russia or other major powers don't need to hear.]

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"China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese."

Former French President Charles De Gaulle.

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With Obama In Office Kossacks Not So Worried About War

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When George W. Bush was in the White House, one of the leading anti-war voices in the nation was the ultra-liberal website Daily Kos.

Now that Barack Obama is President, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are mysteriously no longer of such great concern to the Nutroots.

I guess the anti-war movement was much more about getting Bush out of office than getting our troops out of harm's way.

Such was reported by the Washington Examiner's Byron York Tuesday (h/t Paul Chesser):

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image toon gwot nsec msm reps = Oby against detention - except when he wants it

Lieberman: Fatah 'burying' any chance of peace in coming years

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The political platform formulated at the Fatah General Assembly in Bethlehem, combined with unrest in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, ''has buried any chance of coming to an agreement with the Palestinians in the next few years,'' Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday.

''the Palestinians' uncompromising, extremist positions on Jerusalem, right of return, and settlements are making a gap between us that can't be bridged.''

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With whom is Israel supposed to cut a two state deal?

[HT:NW].
According to President Obama's vision of a two-state solution, Israel must conclude a peace agreement with Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas.

But Fatah, at this week's party convention, took a leaf from Arafat's playbook and decided that it wouldn't even start negotiations until Israel completely withdraws to the pre-1967 lines, releases all Palestinian terrorist prisoners, and imposes an absolute construction freeze not only in West Bank settlements, but in Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. And Fatah went on to give its full support to its terrorist wing, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, launched close relations with Iran, and demanded an absolute "right of return" to Israel for millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

As if this weren't enough of an obstacle in the peace process, Hamas -- dedicated to Israel's total elimination -- has been ruling Gaza for the last two years and is not about to change its spots or its grip on half of what is supposed to become the state of Palestine.

And to complicate things even further, a Qaeda-offshoot group, known as the "Warriors of God," has emerged in recent weeks in Gaza, intent on folding all Palestinian areas into an Islamist Caliphate across the entire Middle East. At week's end, this group fought a pitched battle with Hamas from a mosque in Rafah, Gaza, which according to latest dispatches left two dozen people dead and 100 injured.

So, President Obama, with whom exactly is Israel supposed to reach a two-state agreement?

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"The quickest way to end a war is to lose it".

- George Orwell

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image toon gwot israel - Hamas truce = reload

THE NEW FEDERAL TOBACCO TAX

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Congress increased the federal tax on cigarettes by 61 cents per pack and raised the tax on other tobacco products.

According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, the resulting tax increase was much higher on some forms of tobacco:

• For large cigars, the federal tax increased 725 percent per cigar, from about a nickel to 40 cents.
• For loose tobacco, the tax increased 2,160 percent.
• For small cigars, it increased 2,653 percent

S-CHIP will now cover up to four million additional children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. Unfortunately, there is plenty of evidence that not only will these tax hikes harm poor consumers and small businesses, they will fail to deliver the promised government revenues or public health benefits.

Using excise taxes to fund S-CHIP is especially problematic, since the percentage of the population using tobacco products is shrinking, while the number of children eligible for S-CHIP coverage is growing.

According to Heritage Foundation projections, the federal government will need 22.4 million new smokers by 2017 to pay for the S-CHIP expansion.

This means that Congress will likely have to raise other taxes to cover the $33 billion estimated annual cost of the S-CHIP expansion...

[It's call 'hook-&-reel'; Start a program on the backs of a demonized minority, and when that funding dries up you're now in a much better position to get general funding to foot the bill to avoid 'loosing' what's in hand.

Duped again.]

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THE PRICE WE ALL PAY FOR HIGH TAX RATES

[HT:MG].
According to a Tax Foundation study on the economic cost of high tax rates:

• Consider the combined effect of Obama's proposal to raise the top tax rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent and the new surtax; this means high-income households will receive 54 cents rather than 65 cents from every dollar they earn.
• That is, the after-tax reward from earning income falls by 17 percent.
• Based on the research mentioned above, with such large increases in tax rates, we can expect taxpayers facing the top tax rates to reduce their reported incomes by nearly 7 percent.

Moreover, this is a cautious estimate; thus, we might expect an even faster shrinkage of the federal tax base from these tax increases, says the Tax Foundation.

President Barack Obama wants Americans to believe that they can enjoy all of his proposed programs without paying for them because "the rich" will cover the cost.

But taxing "the rich" will only be the start. To get real money, the big spenders are going to have to tax the middle class as well...

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image toon - 1st hcare mny = USam = rich to pay - & you're rich

ASK NOT IF THE SCIENCE OF GLOBAL WARMING IS TRUE…

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Many people will buy "Why We Disagree About Climate Change," the new book by British socialist Mike Hulme, based on the promise that it examines the ideas and motives of both sides in the global warming debate.

But that's not what this book is about, says Joseph Bast, President of the Heartland Institute.

In fact, the real purpose isn't revealed until far into it.

"The idea of climate change," Hulme writes, "should be seen as an intellectual resource around which our collective and personal identities and projects can form and take shape. We need to ask not what we can do for climate change, but to ask what climate change can do for us."

In other words, socialists like Hulme can frame the global warming issue to achieve unrelated goals such as sustainable development, income redistribution, population control, social justice and many other items on the liberal/socialist wish list.

But this notion is jarring for an American reader:

• Opinion polls show two-thirds of us do not believe global warming is manmade.
• More than 30,000 [31,478 and counting] American scientists have signed a petition saying there is no convincing scientific evidence that human activity will cause catastrophic global warming.
• The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) has produced an 880-page rebuttal of the latest IPCC report containing more than 4,000 references to peer-reviewed science.

The debate taking place about global warming in America is not the one described by Hulme as being between those who favor "cap and trade" and those who favor even more radical changes; it's about how much of the warming of the late 20th century was natural and how much was manmade.

This -- the real public policy debate -- is entirely missing from Hulme's book.

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image toon - grn = Alarmists finding it harder to frighten citizens

Obama's "science adviser"

Compulsory abortion and sterilization aren't youthful indiscretions

Earlier this month Obama's "chief science adviser," John P. Holdren, served as co-chairman when the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology met for the first time. It's a disgrace that Mr. Holdren is even on the council. In "Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment," a book he co-authored in 1977 with noted doomsayers Paul R. and Anne H. Erlich, Mr. Holdren wrote:

"Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society."

It gets worse.:

"A program of sterilizing women after their second or third child, despite the relatively greater difficulty of the operation than vasectomy, might be easier to implement than trying to sterilize men. The development of a long-term sterilizing capsule that could be implanted under the skin and removed when pregnancy is desired opens additional possibilities for coercive fertility control." [snip]

The question naturally arises why President Obama chooses to surround himself with extremists like Mr. Holdren.

No matter how much they claim their views have "evolved," health and science under Obamacare would be a frightening prospect with people like this 'advising' the president.

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Hey, unions, leave those kids alone

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As we learned from Arthur Conan Doyle’s story, Hound of the Baskervilles, sometimes the most revealing piece of information is the dog that didn’t bark.

And so it was with an unheralded little piece by Ewin Hannan which appeared on page 7 of The Australian newspaper last Friday.

Hannan’s news report described a new initiative called Unionstart run by Unions NSW where unionists will go into NSW schools to 'educate' 14 to 18-year-olds about unions...

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HIDDEN 'REFORM' COSTS: THE HEALTH COPS

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EAT your vegetables. Avoid sweets and fats. Never smoke. And do your calis thenics. Or be ready to pay a hefty tax.

Ridiculous? Sure. But under ObamaCare, Americans may well find themselves moving quickly toward a world of just those kind of mandates. Here's why.

As taxpayers start paying an ever-larger share of the nation's health bill (as they clearly will under the Dems' health reforms), pressure will mount for Uncle Sam to see that folks live healthy lives. There'll be two key rationales for broader sin taxes and other ways to control lifestyles:

• * They promote "wellness."
• * They make those living "unhealthy lives" bear the medical costs of their "reckless" behavior.

[snip]

If the goal is to make each of us pay the health costs linked to our own indulgences, there's a more efficient way to do it: Simply make everyone pay his own medical bills -- and scrap nationalized health care altogether.

Lifestyle dictators will have none of that, of course. They'd rather end personal financial responsibility for health-care costs and then claim government has a right to mandate how we live -- since it pays the bills.

Which is why a vote for government health care is a vote for government-run life. Let's hope Americans understand that be fore ObamaCare goes to the floor.

[Recommended > ]

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image toon - lbrty libs bdd fnn - Legalizing dope while taxing soda

POLL: 56% Favor Regulation of Campaign Contributions, But 88% Say Special Interests Likely To Get Around It

.[HT:DA]
The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a ruling this fall that could loosen restrictions on contributions to political campaigns in a major way, but 56% of U.S. voters believe the federal government should regulate how much money [very wealthy] individuals can give to political campaigns.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 25% don’t believe the government should regulate campaign contributions. Nineteen percent (19%) are not sure.

But 88% say it’s at least somewhat likely that special interest groups will find ways to get money to politicians and influence their votes even if the government places limits on how much individuals can give to campaigns.

There is very little partisan disagreement on the need for campaign finance regulation or over the ability of special interests to get around that regulation.

However, an unusually high number of voters (40%) don’t know enough about the subject to have an opinion one way or the other.

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Bob Dylan Detained By Cops Week After Gates, Story Buried Until Now

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Exactly one week after the highly-publicized arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates stirred a national discussion on race relations, legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was detained by police officers in a "low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood" in Long Branch, New Jersey.

Makes one wonder why it took so long for this to get reported, and if news outlets that were convinced Gates's arrest was racially motivated will see the delicious irony in a white rock star being questioned by police just because he was "wandering around the neighborhood."

The Associated Press sure didn't - Here's the money quote:

The officers thanked him for his cooperation.

"He couldn't have been any nicer to them," Woolley added.

In fact, according to ABCNews.com, Dylan was quite gracious:

"He was really nice, though, and he said he understood why I had to verify his identity and why I couldn't let him go," Buble said.

Hmmm. So, Dylan was detained a week after Gates, was cooperative, and the issue was quickly resolved.

And we're hearing about this NOW?

How might this have impacted the Gates-Sgt. James Crowley affair if it had been reported at the time it happened rather than over three weeks after the fact?

I guess when a white rock legend is detained by police for having the nerve to walk around a minority neighborhood, and cooperates fully with the authorities to quickly resolve the misunderstanding, it's not a teachable moment.


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image toon 1st fnn vals - Gates stopped after WH beers..

CBS Buries Democrat Label in Chris Dodd/Kent Conrad Countrywide Scandal Story

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The two most prominent figures currently still in government who are implicated in the scandal are Democratic Senators Christopher Dodd and Kent Conrad, neither Senator was identified by Attkisson as a Democrat. Even while soundbites of the two Senators were shown, there was not even an on-screen label showing the party of either Senator.

But later, the CBS correspondent did more directly link one other figure to Republican members of Congress as she read documentation citing Countrywide’s interest in a former House committee counsel, Clinton Jones. Quoting an "internal Countrywide email," Attkisson described him as "‘an advisor to ranking Republican members of Congress responsible for legislation of interest [to Countrywide].’"

It was not until the end of the report, after a soundbite of Republican Congressman Darrell Issa – whose party was labeled on screen – complaining about Countrywide’s actions, that Attkisson finally hinted that Democrats may have more to fear from the scandal as she relayed that "Democrats are blocking a Republican effort to subpoena Countrywide documents."

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Actor's US 'detention' prompts outrage in India

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Angry fans burned a U.S. flag in protest Sunday, a Cabinet minister suggested searching visiting Americans and an actress tweeted her outrage after Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan said he was detained for questioning at a U.S. airport.

While U.S. immigration officials noted he wasn't formally held, fellow Indian film stars and political leaders condemned what they called "humiliating" treatment given to Khan, a Muslim who is well-loved in a largely Hindu country. One Cabinet minister suggested a "tit-for-tat" policy toward Americans traveling to India.

Khan said he was detained Friday by U.S. immigration officials at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey because his name came up on a computer alert list. In India the ability to avoid being frisked at airports is seen as a status symbol. Politicians, sports celebrities and film stars often claim VIP status to avoid security checks.

The actor is in the U.S. to promote a new film, "My Name is Khan," which is about racial profiling of Muslims after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

[Just an ironic coincidence I'm sure.]

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