[HT:BW].
Did Attorney General Eric Holder really want honest talk when in February he called for “frank conversations” about race? “Honest” talk, as the MSM and much of the chattering Left defines it, consists of slamming most whites as racist.
Thus, Jimmy Carter, Maureen Dowd, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, among many others, get bravery rewards for speaking truth to power in recent days.
That is, white power...
READ MORE
Friday, September 18, 2009
The White-Racism Chorus
A Tackle Box Full of Race Bait
.
Of all the poisonous, ugly and intellectually vapid controversies ginned up in my lifetime, the current breakout of St. Vitus' Dance over the "racist" opposition to Barack Obama may be the most egregious.
Al Sharpton tells CNN's Larry King that decent and racially sensitive Americans shouldn't let a small minority make health care into a "racial issue."
Left-wing writers spent the week droning on about how it's now racist to say "I want my country back." These amnesiacs are blissfully unaware that "taking back" America was the rallying cry of the Democratic Party for eight years under George W. Bush.
Anti-white racists all? [snip]
The good news is that the race peddlers have undermined themselves. The notion that opposing skyrocketing deficits and socialized medicine is racist is met with eye rolls by the vast majority of Americans, who do not need Sharpton and Carter to tell them what is -- or is not -- in their own hearts...
READ MORE
FNC Uncovering ACORN Corruption for Months
.
MRC's Vice President for Business and Culture, Dan Gainor, appeared on Fox News Channel today to discuss a GOP Congressional Report that accused ACORN of political corruption and fraud.
"Well, the main accusation is that they're breaking both election laws and tax laws while using – they've got $53 million from the federal government over the last – since 1994. You and me and everybody watching. And so what the House is charging them, you know, the House Republicans are saying that they're using this money to boost the campaigns of Democratic officials – whether it's Blagojevich or Obama or others,"
Skinner also asked "if it's so blatant and so bad. If it's been going on for 15 years, how could they have gotten away with it for so long?"
"ACORN is hugely a Democratic operation. You know, you're gonna have a hard time even going after them now with Democrats running both houses of Congress. You know, Washington is a land of favors – they've – people look out for them,"
READ MORE
The View Sticks Up For ACORN: Republicans Aren't Going to Take Care of the Poor
.
"the Republicans aren't going to take care of [the poor]."
Sure...who cares that they're advising people how to set up child prostitution rings, cheat banks, and evade taxes if they're helping the poor?
Of course, nobody on the panel pointed out that the Democrats currently control both Chambers of Congress as well as the White House. Alas, facts are never important to these folks when they get on a roll...
READ MORE
FLASHBACK >
Demolished, with hard data: the myth that liberals are more generous and "compassionate" than conservatives
READ MORE
Munich of the Skies
.
President Obama has chosen this day -- the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland -- to announce the abandonment of U.S.-backed missile defense for Eastern Europe.
It's worth looking back at how we got here. After the 1989 breakup of the Soviet Empire -- that "evil empire" Ronald Reagan had done so much to end-the newly free states of Central and Eastern Europe naturally looked to the United States, and to a lesser extent, to their Western European brethren, to safeguard their long sought freedom. Poland and the Czech Republic were among the first to apply for membership in NATO.
The U.S., it seemed, would extend it's nuclear umbrella of protection over these newly independent states. In these free states, streets and squares were being named for Ronald Reagan -- after the joyous people first pulled down statues of Lenin.
We should remember not just Munich, and not just the largely peaceful revolution of 1989. We should remember that Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939, seventy years ago... [snip]
Now, Barack Obama is changing it back again. The Obamamedia is reporting that the Russians will be "pleased" by the latest U.S. move. No doubt. They are regaining a position of predominance without firing a shot. Reagan is repealed.
Barack Obama is proving to be indeed what he promised to be: a transformational President. The American people are still cheering Barack Obama's foreign policy, just as the British once cheered Neville Chamberlain. But there will come a reckoning.
As Churchill said of Munich:
"This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time."
[Recommended > ]
READ MORE
'We may have to attack Iran by Dec.'
.
Israel will be compelled to attack Iran's nuclear facilities if Western powers do not impose serious sanctions against Teheran by the end of 2009, former deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh said on Wednesday.
''We cannot live under the shadow of an Iran with nuclear weapons,''
he was quoted as telling Reuters in an interview on a visit to the UK.
[Nor should they.]
READ MORE
Czarist Washington
.
The Framers of the Constitution knew that the document founding our democracy must be the anchor of liberty and the blueprint for its preservation.
Nearly 250 years later, these critical lines of separation are being obscured by a new class of federal officials.
A few of them have formal titles, but most are simply known as "czars"...
READ MORE
Feingold questions Obama 'czars'
.
A liberal senator on Wednesday questioned President Barack Obama's policy "czars".
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) sent a letter to the president requesting the White House release information regarding the "roles and responsibilities" of the "czars."
The Senate Judiciary Committee member also requested that the president's legal advisers prepare a "judgment" on the "czars'" constitutionality...
READ MORE
PAY DOWN OUR DEBT
[HT:MG].
Taxpayers should know that the U.S. Treasury is sitting on $80 billion dollars that could be used to pay down the gigantic federal debt, but despite that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is bound by law to do just that he's not doing so:
- The $80 billion is the amount that has been repaid by banks that were the recipients of the giant $700 billion federal bailout of the financial industry last October.
- Leading the way have been the major banks, many of which received shovelfuls of taxpayer money in the form of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).
- However, the promise to make the taxpayer whole has not been fulfilled.
There's only one way to insure that this money goes to repay taxpayers: pass a law that forces Treasury to use the proceeds to pay off a portion of the nation's debt every time it receives a payback of TARP money from recipients. The Save American Free Enterprise Act (SAFE Act), could do just that. Under the bill:
- The Treasury would be required to pay down the federal debt and follow through on the requirements of the original financial bailout legislation.
- At the end of each month, SAFE requires Treasury to reduce the debt limit by the amount of any repayments, dividends and interest, warrant sales or other proceeds from the sale of assets received during that month.
Doing anything less than requiring Treasury to pay taxpayers back for bailing out Wall Street would not only be irresponsible, it would invite yet more unauthorized, counter-productive economic intervention.
READ MORE
"SUPPORT The Save American Free Enterprise Act (SAFE Act) "
Whitehouse: mailto:president@whitehouse.gov
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...
contact-templat
A Fact Based Look At Global Warming: Predictions Vs. Actual
[HT:AR]
There are numerous reasons why we should question the consensus view on human-induced climate change, says meteorologist Matt Rogers.
One of the strongest value propositions presented for fighting global warming is to slow tropical cyclone intensity increases, however:
- Global hurricane activity reached a record low earlier this summer.
- Florida State University has a site that tracks global hurricane activity; since the 1990s, this activity has been decreasing, which goes against what we were told to expect on a warming planet.
We are now about to complete an entire decade without a strong El Niño event (three occurred in the 1980s-1990s).
READ MORE
AUSTIN CONSUMERS AVOID PRICEY RENEWABLE POWER - FOR NOW
.
Austin Energy, a publicly owned power company and a city department of Austin, Texas, has found itself stuck with surplus renewable power as city residents have declined to sign up for higher rates under the city's GreenChoice program.
Contracting with renewable power providers and offering the service to customers sounded like a good idea to city officials until the price tag came in at three times the cost of conventional power. City residents aren't buying it.
In one of America's most liberal cities and one that prides itself on its environmental awareness, the latest allotment of renewable power is 99 percent unsold after seven months on the market.
Ultimately, Austin consumers will be required to pay much higher prices for their electrical power whether they like it or not: The Austin City Council, which oversees Austin Energy, has mandated Austin Energy generate 30 percent of its electricity from 'renewable' sources by 2020.
[The cost of not controlling your government - it runs amok.]
READ MORE
Greens Promote New Film 'The Age of Stupid'
..
Sponsored by MoveOn and Greenpeace. The film will be simulcast from a solar tent in downtown New York to over 440 movie theatres across America.
As usual in liberal-ese, "The Age of Stupid" is our age, in which someone still allows the obstacles of conservative activism and a fraction of a free market. The film is radical enough that The New York Times raved it was "a much sterner and more alarming polemic than An Inconvenient Truth." Here’s some of their promotional lingo:
Will people in the future call our time the age of stupid? Or will humanity find a solution to the world’s most urgent problem? You decide!
As one might expect, humans from the Horrific Future look back and wonder how we could be so stupid as to doubt the Greens...
READ MORE
87% of Employers to Reduce Benefits if Health Care Reform Increases Costs
Will The MSM Notice?
A Towers Perrin Survey came across the Business Wire on Reuters this morning stating that a majority of employers surveyed will reduce benefits resulting from the proposed Democrat Health Care Reform bill that is working its way through Congress if it increases costs.
Employers say they will not absorb any additional costs that result from reform and plan to take actions to avoid doing so, including reducing benefits, raising prices for customers and/or reducing head count.
The survey of 443 HR and benefit executives found that 87% of those surveyed would reduce benefits, 38% were likely to pass the increase off to consumers, 30% would absorb the costs by cutting staff and 27% would reduce salaries and compensation as a counter measure. Somehow we are supposed to believe the 11% of executives that claim their companies will absorb the loss.
What about the possibility of accepting the proposed penalty for eliminating health care coverage altogether and forcing employees onto the government plan?
Among the full survey group, employers expect they would respond to a pay-or-play mandate in the following ways:
37% of employers would provide company-sponsored health coverage that substantially exceeds the standard.
29% of employers would discontinue company-sponsored health coverage and pay the assessment if the per-employee costs of payments to the federal government were substantially lower than their current costs.
26% of employers would provide company-sponsored health coverage at the level of the minimum standard required.
Take note of that "minimum standard required". This could certainly result in a reduction of coverage for those fortunate enough not to have been kicked out of their plans altogether. You will be stretched to find this statement mentioned by the mainstream media unless accompanied by the phrase "according to racist right wing radicals".
There is no word as to how racisst Towers Perrin is [yet] for doing such a survey.
READ MORE
MSNBC: Tenth Amendment a 'Baloney' Issue That Appeals to Right-wing Fringe
.
That according to brilliant constitutional scholar MSNBC's David "biased in favor of facts" Shuster, who matter-of-factly insists the "general welfare" clause in Article 1 of the Constitution "unambiguously authorizes" social welfare spending like "social security, Medicare, veterans' care, etc."
Shuster made his comments today shortly after 4:30 p.m. EDT in reaction to Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), who recently suggested that Tenth Amendment grounds could be a means of opposing as unconstitutional certain Democratic health care proposals.
READ MORE
Time Magazine Asks 'Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?'
.
To be sure, most of the recent articles and news reports have been scathing, especially after his comment on FNC's "Fox & Friends" this summer about President Obama being a racist.
Yet, despite the headline, "Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?", Time magazine's David Von Drehle actually managed to offer some positive insights to the man that is taking radio, the book industry, and cable news by storm... [snip]
In the end, though Von Drehle wasn't gushing and fawning over Beck, with all the vitriol that most in the media have directed at the controversial author/radio-television personality of late, as well as the high-profile idols he's taken down like Van Jones and ACORN, this piece by Time is remarkably balanced, and one that even Glenn's followers might find surprisingly informative.
READ MORE
Down Steeply Since Late Jan., Big 3 Evening Newscasts Stuck at Low Summer Levels
.
... during the time period after Labor Day, the broadcasts primarily anchored by Brian Williams at NBC, Charles Gibson at ABC, and Katie Couric at CBS:
Are down a combined 28.5% from their peak in late January during the first full week of Barack Obama's presidency.
- Have lost a combined 37.7% of their audience in the 25-54 demographic during the same time period.
- Are down year-over-year compared to September 1, 2008, the week after Labor a year ago, by 8.9% overall and 18.1% in the 25-54 demographic.
- At 19.55 million, are basically drawing audiences no larger than they were during this past (for them) miserable summer.
There's little point in denying that Big 3 Nets supported and heavily invested in Barack Obama's electoral rise and ultimate victory, risking large-scale alienation of what remained of its already-shrinking audience. From a ratings and presumably financial standpoint, it's pretty hard to argue that it was worth it. The Internet doesn't cause almost 30% of an audience to disappear in less than 8 months.
More recently, as documented frequently at NewsBusters, all three networks have bit on the "subtle racism" meme and, until recent days, totally ignored James O'Keefe's and Hannah Giles's unmasking of the seamy side of ACORN, more than likely driving even more viewers away.
READ MORE
G, B, F...
.
Gene Therapy Cures Color-Blind Monkeys
After receiving injections of genes that produce color-detecting proteins, two color-blind monkeys have seen red and green for the first time. Except in its extreme forms, color blindness isn’t a debilitating condition, but it’s a convenient stand-in for other types of blindness that might be treated with gene therapy.
The monkey success raises the possibility of reversing those diseases, in a manner that most scientists considered impossible.
READ MORE
Premature baby 'left to die' by doctors
A young mother's premature baby died in her arms after doctors refused to help because it was born just before 22-week cut-off point for treatment. Sarah Capewell, 23, gave birth to her son Jayden when she was 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy.
Although doctors refused to place the baby in intensive care, Jayden lived for two hours before he passed away at James Paget Hospital in Gorleston, Norfolk, last October...
[Government run health 'care'.]
READ MORE
Hospital food bingo: patient posts photos of food asking people to guess the dish
A hospital patient has become so disgusted with the quality of food on his ward he has taken photographs of the meals and posted them on the internet inviting people to guess the dish.
So far the 47-year-old's followers have failed to correctly identify half of the meals;
READ MORE
.
Gene Therapy Cures Color-Blind Monkeys
After receiving injections of genes that produce color-detecting proteins, two color-blind monkeys have seen red and green for the first time. Except in its extreme forms, color blindness isn’t a debilitating condition, but it’s a convenient stand-in for other types of blindness that might be treated with gene therapy.
The monkey success raises the possibility of reversing those diseases, in a manner that most scientists considered impossible.
READ MORE
Premature baby 'left to die' by doctors
A young mother's premature baby died in her arms after doctors refused to help because it was born just before 22-week cut-off point for treatment. Sarah Capewell, 23, gave birth to her son Jayden when she was 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy.
Although doctors refused to place the baby in intensive care, Jayden lived for two hours before he passed away at James Paget Hospital in Gorleston, Norfolk, last October...
[Government run health 'care'.]
READ MORE
Hospital food bingo: patient posts photos of food asking people to guess the dish
A hospital patient has become so disgusted with the quality of food on his ward he has taken photographs of the meals and posted them on the internet inviting people to guess the dish.
So far the 47-year-old's followers have failed to correctly identify half of the meals;
''I don't know whether the chef used an industrial hardener or simply drove out the moisture with a flamethrower "...
READ MORE
.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
'Probe' March attendees for racist views
.
The media should investigate the racial views of conservative activists like the ones who attended the Washington anti-big government march last weekend, one liberal congresswoman said Wednesday.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said that it's not enough for African-Americans to levy allegations of racism against the right-leaning protesters, and that the media must look into their views.
"I want those people talked to; I want them interviewed,"
READ MORE
The 'Racism' Canard
.
In the wake of Joe Wilson's crude outburst, many network commentators (and Jimmy Carter, of course) are weighing in on the new racism that supposedly explains 1) rising opposition to Obamacare and 2) the president's sinking polls.
I think this is a disastrous political move to save a health-care plan that simply has not appealed to a majority of Americans. I suspect it will result in another 5-point poll slide.
[Let's hope. The race baiters must be held accountable for the severe harm they do our nation with false racism charges. We just elected a black president for crying out loud, racism is not a pervasive problem in this country.
At least not among whites, or BO couldn't have been elected.]
READ MORE
POLL: Americans Overwhelmingly Reject Racism Claims
.
Twelve percent (12%) of voters nationwide believe that most opponents of President Obama’s health care reform plan are racist. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 67% of voters disagree, and 21% are not sure.
Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Republicans reject the notion that most of the opponents are racist. So do 78% of voters not affiliated with either major party.
However, just 39% of Democrats share that view. Twenty-two percent (22%) of those in the president’s party say that most of the opposition to his plan comes from racists, and another 39% are not sure.
Wilson’s comment forced the White House to issue a clarification of its position on health care coverage for illegal aliens and added a further complication for advocates of the plan, as eighty-three percent (83%) of voters nationwide say that people should be required to prove they are citizens before receiving government health care benefits.
READ MORE
Senate's 10-year health fix would cost US $856B
.
Sen. Max Baucus on Wednesday brought out the much-awaited Finance Committee version of an American health-system remake — a landmark $856 billion, 10-year measure that starts a rough ride through Congress without visible Republican backing.
The bill by Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee, would make major changes to the nation's $2.5 trillion health care system, including requiring all individuals to purchase health care or pay a fine...
READ MORE
New IBD Poll Disputes Media Claims Most Doctors Back ObamaCare
.
Earlier this week, as the front-page story in today’s Investor’s Business Daily noted, the Los Angeles Times ran a front-page story touting the American Medical Association (AMA)’s backing of President Obama’s health care plans, while a National Public Radio publicized a poll funded by a pro-ObamaCare group to claim that “nearly three-quarters of doctors said they favor a public option.”
READ MORE
POLL: Opposition to Health Care Reform Reaches New High at 55%
.
The latest Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll shows that just 42% now support the plan, matching the low first reached in August.
A week ago, 44% supported the proposal and 53% were opposed, but then the president had yet another prime-time speech on the topic.
If the plan passes, twice as many say the quality of care will get worse vs. better (50%, 24%). Fifty-three percent (53%) say passage of the plan will make the cost of health care go up while 17% say it will make costs go down.
Despite declining overall support, 51% still say that health care reform is likely to pass this year.
['Representative' government?]
READ MORE
A "Sting"-ing Indictment of Media Hypocrisy
.
Undercover journalism is only acceptable when it fits a liberal agenda.
That is the message from "professional" reporters and left-wing activists outraged about three successful video stings targeting President Obama's old friends at the left-wing tax-subsidized outfit ACORN...
READ MORE
AP Report On Census Bureau's Firing minimizes ACORN, blames on Republicans
.
- Giles should call herself a “freelance performing artist” for tax purposes.
- That they should claim three of 13 underage girls the pair planned to bring in from El Salvador to work as prostitutes as dependents.
- That the prostitute should also claim child tax credits for those declared as "dependents."
O'Keefe and Giles piled on Friday morning by releasing a second pair of videos showing that they had pulled off a similar sting at ACORN's DC office.
But if we're to believe the Associated Press, Friday's out of the blue decision by the Census Bureau to sever its ties with ACORN in connection with the 2010 census had nothing or at most very little to do with what O'Keefe and Giles pulled off.
Instead, Yen portrayed the decision as a cave-in to the minority party in Washington known as Republicans. Uh-huh.READ MORE
ACORN Story Grows But Mainstream Media Reluctant to Cover It
.
ACORN Story Grows But Mainstream Media Reluctant to Cover It
CBS and NBC Finally Catch Up to ACORN Scandal; Express Sympathy for the Left-Wing Group
ABC World News Boss on Ignoring ACORN: 'We're Not in the Business of Noise'
Jon Stewart Mocks Media on ACORN Story: ‘Where the Hell Were You?’
[Think about that; the comedian had it more right than our major 'professional' news orgs.]
.
ACORN Suspends Operations
.
ACORN, calling the actions of some of its employees “indefensible,” has suspended advising new clients as part of its service programs and is setting up an independent review to see what happened.
ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said in a written statement that she was “ordering a halt to any new intakes into ACORN’s service programs until completion of an independent review.”
READ MORE
'Liquid bomb' plotters sentenced in London to life in prison
.
London - Three British Muslim extremists were all handed life sentences on Monday after being found guilty last week of plotting to blow up transatlantic passenger aircraft with home-made liquid bombs.
The 28-year-old ringleader of the group, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, was given a minimum of 40 years in prison, while his accomplices Assad Sarwar, 29, and Tanvir Hussain, 28, received a minimum of 36 and 32 years, respectively..
[If only our intelligence agencies could find some point of commonality between all these terrorists...
GWOT]
READ MORE
FBI unit set for more anti-terror raids in Queens; Fears of Madrid-style subway bombings
.
Fearful of a Madrid-style subway train bombing, authorities are poised to make more raids to seize bomb-making materials at locations in Queens, sources said Wednesday.
The FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team arrived in New York in anticipation of the offensive to thwart a Denver-based terror cell with ties to Al Qaeda, police sources told the Daily News...
[GWOT]
READ MORE
Al Qaida moves the battle to Iraq
.
What do you do if you're Osama with an S? Easy. You attack where the enemy is retreating. The Americans are pulling back in Iraq, so that's where you start to truck-bomb civilians again, to show that they can't rely on the Americans, and the Iraqi government is helpless. The goal is to spread terror until the people buckle under again.
In Iraq we are therefore seeing a series of massive suicide bombs against civilians. American military sources think AQ is doing it. Ahmadinejad may be aiding them, or anybody else, including Saudi princes and Iraq's own political parties. It's a snake's nest. But the Gulf region is the biggest source of oil. [incorrect: North America is the largest source - were it developed] Whoever controls the Gulf controls Europe and the Middle East. Who else will do it besides the US? Well, there's Ahmadinejad just waiting in the wings.
In Afghanistan Obama has imposed new rules of engagement, resulting in four US Marines killed last week when they were pinned down and denied artillery support.
In sum: Eight years after 9/11/01, the US is being attacked again by Al Qaida, but this time in Iraq. They will attack us where they see weakness, and Obama can be pushed most easily in the war he campaigned against.
Under George W. Bush we had AQ on the run, but Bush was crucified by the Left for whipping Al Qaida in Iraq. Bush was supposed to wait until they came to New York City again, and get them there. But now Obama's retreat from Iraq will result in a power vacuum that both Al Qaida and Tehran will try to fill.
And we are going to see more US deaths as Obama leaves our military on the defensive....
READ MORE
Anti-Americanism: Alive and Well in the Age of Obama
.
Islamic countries distrust the United States under the leadership of President Obama about as much as they did under President George W. Bush. What's going on?
Throughout the Bush presidency, opinion polling from the Pew Research Center trumpeted America’s “abysmal” approval ratings across the globe. The problem, pollsters suggested with numbing regularity, was that a “cowboy president” had inflamed the Muslim world...
READ MORE
Hillary Clinton Hosts Iftar, Reaches Out to Muslim Communities
.
Hillary Clinton reached out to Muslim communities at home and abroad by hosting an ''iftar'' at the State Department Monday evening.
"Iftar" refers the one meal participating Muslims have each day after fasting from sun-up to sun-down for one month, in observation of Ramadan -- the holiest period of each year and the ninth month in the Islamic calendar.
READ MORE
Focusing on 9/11 Victims - Muslims
.
With the eight year anniversary of 9/11 mere hours away, the Associated Press wrote a very moving, very emotional piece, focusing on victims who fear leaving the house on that day, victims who will never view that day as routine, victims who get a sick feeling in their stomach when the anniversary arrives each year - Muslims.
READ MORE
An Iran Next Door
.
Security: When a tropical thug vows to go nuclear, he's easy to dismiss as a blowhard. But Hugo Chavez's menacing plans are growing more specific and call for a stronger U.S. response. Fresh from what he called his most successful "Axis of Evil" tour, the anti-American strongman won not only Russian contracts for new S-300 rocket systems and T-72 tanks last week, but $2.2 billion in Russian cash to buy them...
READ MORE
Cuba won't make any concessions wants embargo lifted anyway
.
Havana, Cuba - Cuba will not make any political or policy concessions to improve relations with the U.S. - no matter how small, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said Wednesday, snubbing Washington's suggestions that some reforms could lead to better ties.
He told a news conference that the United States must lift its 47-year-old trade embargo without waiting for anything in return...
READ MORE
Job-killing policies could doom Democrat hopes
"The level of unemployment is unacceptably high. And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years."
Who do you suppose said that? A Republican political operative? A Fox News political analyst? One of those Tea Partiers who assembled in Washington on Sept. 12?
No, it was Lawrence Summers, the director of President Obama's National Economic Council and, by common consent, one of the world's leading economists...
READ MORE
POLL: 54% Say Tax Hikes Bad for the Economy
.
Just 16% of U.S. voters believe that tax increases help the economy. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds most voters (54%) say tax increases hurt the economy, a number that has been fairly consistent for more than a decade. Fourteen percent (14%) say tax increases have no impact, and 16% are not sure.
READ MORE
TAXING HEALTH CARE
.
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus released his revenue "policy options" and high on the list is . . . taxing health benefits. The tax exclusion is such a big revenue prize because Baucus is scrubbing every other tax nook and cranny and only coming up with rounding errors. A sampler:
- End or limit the tax-exempt status of charitable hospitals, which only costs currently a mere $6 billion a year.
- Make college students in work-study programs subject to the payroll tax; also targeted are medical residents,
- Reducing Medicare reimbursement rates for supposedly "over valued physician services," such as diagnostic imaging; CBO says that requiring doctors to get prior clearance could save $1 billion in 10 years.
- For individuals with high-deductible insurance plans, contributions to health savings accounts would no longer be tax deductible; that would penalize patients who choose plans that encourage them to be informed consumers
To finance government-run health care, liberals will have to tax everything in sight, and that includes your current health insurance...
READ MORE
Cap And Trade Could Cost Families $1,761 A Year
.
The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.
A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year...
READ MORE
TAXING OUR WAY TO ENERGY INSECURITY AGAIN
.
In June, the Institute for 21st Century Energy issued a report outlining the reasons why the Obama Administration's efforts to levy new taxes and fees on the oil and gas industry is a bad idea.
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the report outlines the many reasons why singling out the oil and gas industries is bad for America, including increasing our reliance on foreign oil, harming U.S. economic competitiveness, and jeopardizing jobs while increasing costs to consumers.
Of particular concern is the fact that national oil companies (NOCs) will gain a competitive advantage over U.S. companies if oil and gas taxes be raised.
Already, 17 of the top 25 oil and gas producing companies are national companies, the largest of which are based in the Middle East, Russia, China and Venezuela. NOCs currently account for 51 percent of world oil and gas production.
Instead of raising oil and gas taxes, the Institute recommends:
- Making public areas [the ones we supposedly own] available for lease and exploration, which could create as many as 160,000 new jobs, increase government revenues by as much as $1.7 trillion and offset nearly 20 percent of imported oil.
- Changing the tax code such as reducing the recovery period for investment in electricity transmission lines. [I.e., an instant 'fix']
- Creating policies that encourage greater use of natural gas, and increasing and making permanent the research and development tax credit.
Since the Obama Administration seems intent on taxing us back to energy insecurity again, it will be up to Congress to reject this approach and pursue a path that will instead increase our energy security.
[That means up to us, and silence will be interpreted as consent.]
READ MORE
[Then >
.
Pledge of Confusion
asldkfjs
It's a new school year, but an old fight is brewing in American classrooms. Teachers and administrators around the country are scratching their heads once again over the Pledge of Allegiance.
The courts have consistently ruled that students have the right not to recite the pledge in public schools. But now some First Amendment advocates are taking it one step further, arguing that the law compels educators to inform kids at the beginning of school that the decision is entirely up to them.
They're advocating a "Miranda warning" for the Pledge -- an administrative notice to students that they have the right to remain silent...
[I've an idea: let's leave it up to their parents - if they don't want Jr. saying the pledge, a note to the teacher will get him excused.
Of course there's no extra staffing funds my way - never mind.]
READ MORE
G, B, F...
.
Weekly Standard Mocks WaPo Crusade Against Bob McDonnell
The Weekly Standard parodied the Washington Post for its biased, obsessive coverage of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell:
Weekly Standard Mocks WaPo Crusade Against Bob McDonnell
The Weekly Standard parodied the Washington Post for its biased, obsessive coverage of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell:"Post Runs Another Story About Its McDonnell Story: Stories to run until ‘controversy’ takes on life of its own, sources say."...
READ MORE
Supreme Court Asked if ''Redskins'' Offends
A group of American Indians who find the Washington Redskins' name offensive wants the Supreme Court to take up the matter. The group on Monday asked the justices to review a lower court decision that favored the NFL team on a legal technicality.
Seven Native Americans have been working through the court system since 1992 to have the Redskins trademarks declared invalid...
READ MORE
POLL: 57% View Pelosi Unfavorably, But That’s An Improvement
...that’s down seven points from late last month when she hit an all-time high in terms of unpopularity. This puts Pelosi’s unfavorables back to where they were in February.
Forty-two percent (42%) have a very unfavorable view of the San Francisco Democrat, down from 46% in August.
Thirty-four percent (34%) of voters view Pelosi favorably, but just 13% have a very favorable opinion of her. Still, that’s the highest level of very favorable support she has enjoyed since March.
READ MORE
..
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Our 'Intolerance Festival'
.
It’s very easy to be outraged by the way our "objective" media greeted the massive September 12 rally against Big Government in Washington and across the country. They treated it as a menacing surge of white anger, meanness, and racism.
But all the media bias against this rally clearly illustrates one nagging truth for media liberals: they really don’t think conservatives should be allowed to protest. It’s somehow like a copyright violation.
READ MORE
Jimmy Carter: Wilson's Obama Outburst Racist
.
READ MORE
Wilson's Son Says Dad Is Not Racist
.
"There is not a racist bone in my dad's body," said Alan Wilson, an Iraq veteran who is running for state attorney general in South Carolina. "He doesn't even laugh at distasteful jokes. I won't comment on former President Carter, because I don't know President Carter. But I know my dad, and it's just not in him."
"It's unfortunate people make that jump. People can disagree -- and appropriately disagree -- on issues of substance, but when they make the jump to race it's absolutely ludicrous. My brothers and I were raised by our parents to respect everyone regardless of background or race."
READ MORE
FLASHBACK:
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2009
Joe Wilson's War
Discourse: The reaction to the congressman's outburst shows what happens when you judge this president by the content of his character.
In a post-racial presidency, charges of racism are the new last refuge of scoundrels...
READ MORE
Matthews: Was Joe Wilson Outburst 'A Race Thing?'
.
Chris Matthews, on Tuesday’s "Hardball," insinuated racism may have been behind Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst against President Obama, at last week’s health care speech, as he repeatedly asked his guests if they thought Wilson's exclamation was "A race thing," that represented "the old black/white attitude of the South."
In the very first segment of the show Matthews pressed Democratic Congresswoman Donna Edwards,
"Do you think this is a race thing...I mean was it a racial thing on the part of Wilson? Was he expressing contempt for Barack Obama because of his heritage?"
For her part Edwards insisted, "I don’t think that at all." [audio available here]
However Matthews persisted and, later in the show, got the reply he desired from the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, as seen in the following exchange:
READ MORE
WashPost Ignores Own Poll Finding: 54 Percent Say the More They Learn About ObamaCare, the Less They Like It
.
This particular poll result was not mentioned anywhere in the story about the poll that was posted by the Washington Post on its Web site on Monday. The result did appear in the data sheet from the poll that was linked to the story.
The 54% who now say that the more they hear about Obama’s health-care plan, the less they like it is larger than the percentage who answered a similar question about then-First Lady Hillary Clinton’s health-care plan back in 1993 and 1994.
The new finding comes on the heels of an extraordinary effort by the president to sell his plan. On Wednesday evening, the president gave a nationally televised primetime speech to a joint session of Congress that was solely focused on pitching the health care plan...
READ MORE
Obama Healthcare Speech No Game-Changer
.
Something absolutely shocking happened on Monday's "Good Morning America": ABC's George Stephanopoulos told the nation that the President's healthcare address to the country Wednesday did nothing to change Americans' views about ObamaCare.
And, you can see by the expression on Stephanopoulos's face that no one was more disappointed than him (video embedded below the fold with some of the poll results, h/t Jake Tapper):
READ MORE
Most Still Oppossed to President's Health Care Plan
.
Following President Obama’s speech to Congress Wednesday night, a plurality of voters are still opposed. While gains in favorability were made, all appear to have come from Democrats.
New Rasmussen Reports national polling - conducted over the two nights following the speech - shows that while 47% of Americans now favor the plan proposed by the president and congressional Democrats forty-nine percent (49%) of voters remain opposed to the plan.
The gain in overall support for the plan comes entirely from Democrats. Eighty-four percent (84%) of those in the President’s party now support the health care plan, up from 72% earlier in the week. Support among Republicans is unchanged.
Notably, support among those not affiliated with either major party has fallen after Obama's prime time address...
READ MORE
TRANSPARENCY IN THE HEALTH INSURANCE MARKET
There is a remedy for shaking up the private health insurance market: increased transparency. And unlike the public option, this is actually favored by voters.
Americans overwhelmingly want the government to require that performance ratings on hospitals and doctors be publicly available, say Regina Herzlinger, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and Peter Pronovost, a professor of anesthesiology and critical-care medicine and health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University.
Transparency could stimulate competition by revealing which insurance companies and policies provide the most medical-care benefits and best outcomes per dollar, which ones offer the best doctors and hospitals, and which ones hassle sick people the least.
Armed with answers to these questions, consumers could reward best value. If insurers with lackluster scores do not improve, competitors would enter this surprisingly entrepreneurial market. (The leading providers of high-deductible insurance, for example, were formed only nine years ago.)
Further, the mere act of providing data motivates providers to effect changes, a phenomenon known as "the audit effect,":
- The CBO estimated that sharing peer-profile scorecards with physicians would save Medicare $350 billion from 2010 to 2014.
- Evidence confirms that hospitals respond to publicly reported data with efforts to improve patient care and their standing in reports.
- For example, although Johns Hopkins researchers virtually eliminated one type of hospital infection in Michigan intensive-care units, this intervention disseminated slowly, probably because infection rates are invisible.
READ MORE
A promise fulfilled: US to talk directly with Iran
.
Obama may have broken dozens of promises he made during the campaign. I just wish he would have broken the one where he promised to establish direct talks with Iran. And to make matters even worse, Obama has agreed not even to discuss Iran's nuclear program:
Glenn Kessler of WaPo has the story:
The United States has decided to ignore Iran's refusal to discuss its nuclear program and instead accept a vague Iranian plan for talks as in the hope of drawing Tehran into real negotiations.
Iran this week ruled out talks on its program, instead offering a five-page plan that it said would lay the groundwork for peace and stability in the region.
The document made no reference to international demands that Iran suspend its efforts to enrich uranium...
And what happened to Obama's other promise - you know, the one where he said he wouldn't talk to the Iranians unless their nuclear program was included?
The sell out begins.
READ MORE
Chavez: Nothing Will Stop Venezuela Going Nuclear
.
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Hugo Chavez wants to join the nuclear energy club and is looking to Russia for help in getting started.
"I say it before the world: Venezuela is going to start the process of developing nuclear energy, but we're not going to make an atomic bomb, so don't be bothering us afterward ... (with) something like what they have against Iran,"
Russia has offered to help bridge both the technological and financial gap, and Chavez has announced that the two countries have created an atomic energy commission.
[Every time American communicate weakness the despots emerge.
Every time.]
READ MORE
Look who wants to be Russian president - again
.
Luke Harding and David Hearst of the Guardian have the details... [snip]
'So, while Communism has been pushed into the background in Russia thanks to Reagan, Putin and his KGB thugs will continue to rule. Democracy, while not completely dead, nevertheless is under attack - literally. Putin doesn't arrest opponents very often. He simply has them murdered. In that respect, Putin is worse than the Communists and will continue to rule with an iron hand until he is deposed or until he dies.'
[But it's the US that needs 'reset' our relationship with Russia? Our current administration is empowering Putin with its embarrassing acquiescence.]
READ MORE
Eastern Europe not feeling the love from Obama
.
Czechs feel betrayed, Poles irked, Romanians slighted. Ask them who's to blame, and the answer may come as a surprise: President Barack Obama.
George W. Bush fawned over Eastern Europe's recently free democracies, and its leaders rushed to join his post-9/11 "coalition of the willing."
Now many—officials and ordinary citizens alike—are grumbling over what they perceive as the Obama administration's neglect...
READ MORE
BOWING TO THE GLOBAL TAX BULLIES
.
A meeting was held in Mexico City last week under the auspices of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), whose implicit goal is to create a global high-tax cartel.
In order to create a global tax cartel, the OECD needs to have tax information shared among nations -- which means that the citizen of any country that signs on to this scheme may have his or her tax information shared with other member jurisdictions.
- The OECD has managed to get 87 jurisdictions to sign on to its global "tax standard."
- The high-tax countries are using the OECD to threaten low-tax jurisdictions to sign this agreement.
- It is worth noting that the tax bullies at the OECD and at other international organizations, such as the United Nations, International Monetary Fund and World Bank, who demand that others pay higher taxes, enjoy tax-free personal income courtesy of the world's taxpayers.
The OECD is supporting the double taxation of capital and trying to quash those jurisdictions that do not levy multiple taxes on savings and investment, i.e., productive capital.
If the OECD ultimately gets its way, individuals and businesses trying to protect themselves from multiple taxation from thuggish and rapacious governments will have nowhere to go...
READ MORE
FLASHBACK:
THE GLOBAL TAX REVOLUTION
Policymakers in international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Commission and the United Nations (UN) want to create an OPEC for taxes to insulate governments from tax competition.
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
