White House, lefty blogs going ape over righty rejoicing at Obama's failure

Subject: txt 1st gdd othr libs reps -
If you did not support the president's trip to Denmark to lobby for the Olympics coming to Chicago, you are an unpatriotic moron. If you opposed bringing the games here, you hate America.

Those are the deep thoughts brought to us by the netnuts in blogdom and even the White House , who equated RNC Chair Michael Steele's opposition to Obama's trip (that 43% of Americans opposed also) with not "rooting" for America.

Now some might think it hypocritical for the left to point to anyone and say they hate America or wish America to fail. Given the incredible crap George Bush had to put up for 8 years from this crew, it might behoove our lefty friends to recall their own cheering on the insurgency in Iraq, gloating over American casualties, and generally acting as if losing the war would be a good thing.

And when they protest a bit too much that it's simply not true, remind them of what Gary Kamiya wrote in Salon Magazine as our troops were rolling to victory over Saddam's army: (Via Ace )

"I have a confession: I have at times, as the war has unfolded, secretly wished for things to go wrong. Wished for the Iraqis to be more nationalistic, to resist longer. Wished for the Arab world to rise up in rage. Wished for all the things we feared would happen. I'm not alone: A number of serious, intelligent, morally sensitive people who oppose the war have told me they have had identical feelings...." [all requiring more American service deaths...]

Lefty blogs today are full of accusations that the right hates America and hopes Obama fails. How one can connect the two - tying the person of the president to whether one loves their country or not - escaped much of the left for the last 8 years. They have suddenly discovered that they love America in the same way that the right does - at least as long as Obama is the president.

So let's allow them their spite. No one takes their charge that the right hates America seriously - I mean, really now. Who are they kidding? They just spent the last 8 years telling the right that their blind love of America was destroying us. Now all of a sudden the right hates the country? Phooey.

I devoutly wish that the left's discovery that they love America the same way that conservatives love her will be a permanent thing. But somehow, I think the next president - whoever she may be - will cause liberals to revert to type and see our flaws all to clearly while ignoring our virtues...

READ MORE

Meanwhile, in our 'Professional' media...

.

NBC: Mayor Daley - Not Obama - Biggest Loser in Push

ABC: Shocked TV Journalists Absolve Obama, Insist IOC Rebuke Won't Hurt President

MSNBC: 'Right-Wing Talkers' Responsible for Obama Olympic Defeat

ABC’:‘Crushing’ Olympic Defeat; -- for Chicago

Olympic Failure Bush's Fault

NPR Skips Over Conservative/GOP Critique of Obama Olympics Bid
National Public Radio’s idea of balanced coverage of the Team Obama Olympic bid was exclude any national Republicans in their coverage, before or after Chicago was eliminated.

Roland Burris - 'It's Bush's fault' Chicago lost the Olympics
Go back to sleep, Roland.

.

Will Media Finally Adopt ‘Barack the Bumbler’ Story Line?

Subject: txt msm bias - 1st -
Barack Obama’s bumbling of Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics is a test for the Washington press corps, the Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes argues:

Now is the time for the mainstream media to show it’s not totally in President Obama’s pocket.

The Washington press corps will never fault Obama for pushing hyper-liberal policies in a moderate-to-conservative country. Ideological criticism by the press is reserved for Republican presidents.

But the media is faced with three facts as a result of Obama’s embarrassing failure in Copenhagen. 1) The failure itself. 2) The incompetence. 3) The lack of persuasive ability. There’s nothing ideological about any of these items....

Liberal reporters may refuse to see the controversy in Obama’s far-left agenda, but the President’s high-profile Olympic flub offers a non-ideological story of White House incompetence - but can the MSM bring itself to be critical of 'the Won' about anything?

READ MORE

Newsweek: Losing Olympics Good for Obama

Subject: txt 1st msm bias =
It goes without saying the State media will be in full damage control mode this weekend trying to spin Friday's announcement that Chicago will not be the host of the 2016 Olympics, but this one has to take the cake:

• Losing the Olympics Bid Is Good for Obama

Such was the headline of an article posted at Newsweek's "The Gaggle" blog Friday.

[Fred's answer.]

READ MORE

Top 10 Reasons Chicago lost Olympic bid

[HT:FG]Subject: txt 1st fnn othr - owg -
With thanks to Rich Lowry of NRO for sharing

10. Dead people can't vote at IOC meetings
9. Obama distracted by 25 min meeting with Gen. McChrystal
8. Who cares if Obama couldn't talk the IOC into Chicago? He'll be able to talk Iran out of nukes.
7. The impediment is Israel still building settlements.
6. Obviously no president would have been able to accomplish it.
5. We've been quite clear and said all along that we didn't want the Olympics.
4. This isn't about the number of Olympics "lost", it's about the number of Olympics "saved" or "created".
3. Clearly not enough wise Latina judges on the committee
2. Because the IOC is racist.
1. It's George Bush's fault.

.

Democrats Quietly Craft 'Public Option'

Subject: txt 1st hcare -
Senate Democrats are quietly crafting a compromise over the so-called public option behind closed doors -- two days after a pivotal Senate panel struck down amendments to create the government-run program, congressional aides told Fox News. (Snip) Carper is proposing what one aide called ''an opt in plus a trigger,'' which would allow individual states to choose to create a public option to compete with private insurers in their state.

READ MORE

Comments:
It's a trap you asses. Once socialist gov healthcare is established in a state you can never be rid of it and it will destroy private insurers...

.

Poll: Opposition to Health Care Reform Still Growing

Subject: txt 1st hcare -
As Congress takes action on health care reform, public opinion on the issue remains divided and, at times, contradictory. The latest FOX News poll shows a decline in support for health care reform over the past two weeks.

Currently, one-third favors the legislation being considered (33 percent) and 53 percent opposes it...

READ MORE

ANOTHER SERIOUS CONSERVATIVE HEALTH PLAN

Subject: txt 1st hcare =
Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, has joined a host of other Republicans in the House of Representatives by crafting another serious conservative alternative to the health plans that the President and the Democratic leadership are trying to push through Congress.

"Having practiced medicine for more than two decades, I personally know that the status quo must not stand. Whether coming from the federal government or an insurance company, the third-party decision making that drives our health care delivery system is increasingly distancing patients from quality care. Going down the path of more government will only compound the problem,"

says Dr. Price, who was a practicing physician for nearly 25 years before coming to Congress. Price's

"Empower Patients First Act,"

would:

• Fix the unfairness in the tax treatment of health insurance by extending a tax credit or deduction to those without employer-sponsored insurance;
• Use automatic enrollment, with a right to "opt out" of health insurance coverage, and promote defined-contributions for employer plans, instead of using government coercion and mandates, to expand coverage;
• Establish health plan portals in the states so that patients can own and control their own health insurance;
• Offer low-income Americans the option of a voucher to purchase private coverage; and
• Give states incentives to experiment with how best to cover high cost individuals.

For months President Obama has suggested that on health reform the choice is between the Democrats plans before Congress or the status quo. Congressional conservatives, like Rep. Price, have offered other serious legislative proposals that include practical health care solutions, only to have them all closed out of consideration by the majority party.

It's time for official Washington to stop demonizing its critics and ordinary citizens who are opposed to its health care agenda. There's many good ideas being proposed that would actually increase the quality of health care for the patients - but the President and the Congressional leadership need to get serious about listening to them...

READ MORE

No place for GOP at Senate health-bill table

[HT:SS]Subject: txt 1st hcare - Harkin:
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said today Republicans will not be at the table when the Senate merges the health-care bills from two committees before sending one to the floor.

“It will have a lot of good stuff in it. It will have a lot of prevention and wellness programs in there that I’ve been fighting for,” Harkin told reporters in a morning conference call.

“And it will have a public option.”

READ MORE

Obama Now Links Job Growth to Healthcare Reform

Subject: txt 1st hcare -
On September 9, in front of a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama for all intents and purposes declared the recession over:

[T]hanks to the bold and decisive action we've taken since January, I can stand here with confidence and say that we have pulled this economy back from the brink.

Less than a month later, following Friday's much worse than expected employment report from the Labor Department, our President is singing a different tune.

As was well-telegraphed by his economic advisor Robert Reich moments after the jobs numbers were released, Obama during his weekly radio address on Saturday told Americans that the employment situation in this country isn't going to improve until -- wait for it -- Congress passes healthcare reform...

READ MORE

Healthcare Adds Another 19,000 Jobs, 559K Since Recession Began

.
As the Business & Media Institute's Julia Seymour previously reported, the September unemployment data just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed a larger than expected decline in non-farm payrolls.

Yet, as employers shed another 263,000 workers, the healthcare industry ADDED -- yes, ADDED -- 19,000 employees.

As reported last month, the healthcare industry, despite dire warnings from Democrats and their media minions that it's in a crisis, continues to add to payrolls month after month during this recession...

READ MORE

[Hmm. One might suspect that folks in that industry think it less likely they'll be hit with the reductions in 'fraud and abuses' promised than in it turning out to be {yet another} government boondoggle...]
.

image toon - hcare - Health Care largest employer in country

US sees Iran talks as start of process

Subject: txt gwot -
Washington - The United States is looking for Iran to disclose details of its nuclear program, provide access to facilities and personnel and otherwise take concrete steps to show it is serious about complying with international demands at Thursday's landmark meeting between the countries -

though American officials characterized the parley as the beginning of a long process...

READ MORE

Sarkozy chides Obama on Iran

Subject: txt gwot nsec -
When France chides you for appeasement, you know you're scraping bottom

"President Obama, I support the Americans' outstretched hand. But what did the international community gain from these offers of dialogue? Nothing."

– French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Sept. 24

Just how low we've sunk was demonstrated by the Obama administration's satisfaction when Russia's president said of Iran, after meeting President Obama at the U.N. that

"sanctions are seldom productive, but they are sometimes inevitable."

You see? The Obama magic. Engagement works. Russia is on board.

Except that, as The Washington Post inconveniently pointed out, President Dmitry Medvedev said the same thing a week earlier, and the real power in Russia, Vladimir Putin, had changed not at all in his opposition to additional sanctions.

And just to make things clear, when Iran then brazenly test-fired offensive missiles, Russia reacted by declaring that this newest provocation did not warrant the imposition of tougher sanctions... [snip]

Confusing ends and means, the Obama administration strives mightily for shows of allied unity, good feeling and pious concern about Iran's nuclear program – whereas the real objective is stopping that program.

This feel-good posturing is worse than useless, because all the time spent achieving gestures is precious time granted Iran to finish its race to acquire the bomb...

READ MORE

Losing Faith in the Commander in Chief

Subject: txt gwot nsec -
[HT:LDot]

Obama has already achieved what it took Jimmy Carter
an entire term to attain.

[That's the gist.]

READ MORE

image toon - gwot nsec = Iran = letting proliferation genie out of bottle

World Must Sustain Push against Iran's Human Rights Abuses

Subject: txt owg iran islm -
As the United States and the international community meet Iran's diplomats and hope for the nuclear crisis to be resolved, another critical front should be opened: an investigation into the Iranian regime for abuse of human rights of its own...

READ MORE

[Instead...]
.

You Can't Say That

At the UN, the Obama administration backs limits on free speech.

The Obama administration has marked its first foray into the UN human rights establishment by backing calls for limits on freedom of expression. The newly-minted American policy was rolled out at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council, which ended in Geneva on Friday. American diplomats were there for the first time as full Council members and intent on making friends.

President Obama chose to join the Council despite the fact that the Organization of the Islamic Conference holds the balance of power and human rights abusers are among its lead actors, including China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia. Islamic states quickly interpreted the president's penchant for "engagement" as meaning fundamental rights were now up for grabs. Few would have predicted, however, that the shift would begin with America's most treasured freedom.

Privately, other Western governments were taken aback and watched the weeks of negotiations with dismay as it became clear that American negotiators wanted consensus at all costs... [snip]

Pakistan's Ambassador Zamir Akram, speaking on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, made it clear that they understand the resolution and its protection against religious stereotyping as allowing free speech to be trumped by anything that defames or negatively stereotypes religion.

The idea of protecting the human rights "of religions" instead of individuals is a favorite of those countries that do not protect free speech and which use religion--as defined by government--to curtail it.

The Obama administration's debut at the Human Rights Council laid bare its very different priorities. Threatening freedom of expression is a price for engagement with the Islamic world that it is evidently prepared to pay...

READ MORE

.

Defying Obama, Republican Senator Making Honduras Trip

Subject: txt intl lbrty -
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., will defy President Obama by meeting with de facto Honduran president Roberto Micheletti.

"No U.S. Senator has yet been to Honduras to assess facts of crisis. but John Kerry & the Obama administration are using bullying tactics to hide truth,"

DeMint wrote on his Twitter. The meeting goes against the administration's policy of isolating Micheletti's government,

READ MORE

Colombia nabs major cocaine smuggler wanted by U.S.

Subject: txt intl trade -
BOGOTA - Colombian police struck a blow against the country's top drug cartel by capturing a trafficker accused of smuggling about 100 tons of cocaine to the United States, officials said on Sunday. Juan Rivera was arrested in the city of Cali after a six-month manhunt. He is wanted for extradition by U.S. courts in Florida and was second in command of the Norte del Valle cartel, Colombia's biggest cocaine smuggling gang.

[Our best ally in the region - not that you'd know it by Congress' stone walling of the free trade agreement it desperately needs at the behest of our labor unions.]

READ MORE

US Secy Locke: Colombia Trade Pact Not Likely Ratified

Subject: txt trade intl crpt -
SANTIAGO --The U.S. Congress won't likely ratify a free trade agreement with Colombia this year as it's currently focusing on health care reform and energy-related legislation, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said Tuesday. "It's pretty doubtful" that the pact will be ratified this year, although the Obama administration is pushing forward with similar ones with South Korea and Panama, the secretary said,

[Unions, again.]

READ MORE

If I told You, Would You Have Believed?

Subject: txt 1st reps libs sclm bbro othr -
...that within the first seven months of the new administration,

• > 90% of all mortgages in the United States would be backed by the federal government (placing the taxpayer at risk for over $5 trillion dollars, I might add),
• > The U.S. government would become a major shareholder in one of the world's largest banks, Citigroup,
• > Conduct a hostile takeover of General Motors and Chrysler, sacking their respective CEO's, replacing them with political appointees, and then heartlessly close hundreds of profitable dealerships across the country, with a tangible bias against owners were known to have contributed to Republican politicians and conservative causes,
• > Introduce legislation to to hijack the student loan industry,
• > The budget deficit for Barack Obama's first fiscal year would total $1.6 trillion dollars, and in ten years the predicted national debt would surge to $16 trillion,
• > Drop the lukewarm phrase ‘War on Terror' and replace it an even wimpier one: ‘Overseas Contingency Operation,'
• > Soon be reciting Miranda rights to terrorists captured on the battlefield-AK-47 toting thugs attempting to kill Americans soldiers in Afghanistan,
• > Would have an Attorney General who does not believe the Second Amendment is an individual right,
• > That a Supreme Court justice who feels race makes for judicial wisdom, would be sworn-in,
• > That the Tenth Amendment would be obliterated by the new administration in an attempt to pass ‘health insurance reform',
• > Have president who declared the United States is "no longer a Christian nation",
• > Have a president who would not publicly participate in the National Day of Prayer, but would travel to Egypt to give a major address directed to the Muslim world,
• > Have a president who's first phone call to a world leader was to a former pillar of the Palestinian Liberation [terrorist] Organization, Mahmoud Abbas,
• > Have a president that, offered by Britain to keep it, had the bust of Churchill already in the Oval Office crated and shipped back to England,
• > Have a president who appointed a hater of conservative radio to the FCC.

If we had told you, would you have believed such things were possible in the United States of America?

Well, to a large degree, many of us did, and now many more believe...

READ MORE

image toon - mny sclm = Oby agenda team nervious re deficit bridge crossing

Do Not Blame Barack

Subject: txt sclm bbro othr edu bdd -
...Obama doesn't alarm me as much as the average American. To explain why, I'll present something Roman philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero said 2000 years ago when lamenting Julius Caesar's rise to dictator:

"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions . . . . Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the 'new, wonderful good society' which shall now be Rome's, interpreted to mean 'more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.' Julius was always an ambitious villain, but he is only one man..."

Barack Obama is only one man, but he is a symptom more than a cause. Without millions of fawning Americans, he would just be a community agitator, vainly preaching Alinsky principles from a soapbox. We've had self-professed communists such as Bill Ayers -- and other assorted intellectual mutants, such as Ward Churchill, Cass Sunstein and John Holdren -- in academia for many decades.

But good Americans still donate their money to universities and still sent their most precious possessions, their children, to them.

So, should it be any surprise that millions of these children would, knowing nothing and feeling all the wrongs things, flock to the polls and cast votes for people just like their teachers and professors? You may say that their parents knew nothing of these universities' true nature. But it was their place to find out.

Obama did not create the modern academy - but rather is more a creation of it...

[Highly Recommended > ]

READ MORE

The Bane of the Federal Government

Subject: txt mny lbrty sclm bbro -

"...[our predecessors] understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, the vulnerable can be exploited."

President Obama, to a joint session of Congress on September 9, 2009.

[I.e.;

1. National Defense against foreign enemies,
2. Interstate regulation for those issue requiring 50-state commonality to function effectively,
3. Devolution of a Federal role in anything not meeting one of the above criteria,
4. Clearing the way for 50 chances to get complex issues 'right', with good ideas quickly adopted/propagated by neighboring States,
5. Except on issues where the people have expressly banned their governments from meddling.

I believe there's a document floating around somewhere which says this...]

READ MORE

A FEDERAL LEVIATHAN: THE AMERICAN CLEAN ENERGY AND SECURITY ACT OF 2009

Subject: txt engry =
On June 26, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 2454, the 1,480 page American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), by the slim margin of seven votes.

The U.S. Senate plans to consider this bill as early as October.

Policymakers [and citizens] across the country need to review the full scope of this bill.

The cap and trade program, under Title III, will be considered first.

Initially known as the Waxman-Markey bill after authors Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), it is typically labeled as the "cap and trade" bill.

ACES, however, is so much more:

• The cap and trade provisions comprise only 400 of the bill's almost 1,500 pages.
• ACES, viewed in its entirety, contains a dizzying array of federal dictates and programs to transform and control U.S. energy production and use.
• The bill imposes more than 1,000 new federal dictates through 21 federal agencies.
• The senior attorney for the Sierra Club recently commented that ACES "is the most complex piece of legislation in the history of our country, which may make it the most complex piece of legislation in human history … it imposes on EPA alone approximately 600 [new] mandates."

The colossal price tag of this massive bill is also rarely noted:

• The Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) estimated federal cost in direct spending at $822 billion, another nearly trillion dollar burden on American taxpayers.
• Worse, the revenues to the federal treasury are from the indirect carbon tax imposed on energy users -- all economic sectors and consumers.

In short, ACES sanctions 85 percent of the U.S. energy supply from fossil fuels and pours money and mandates at renewable energy and energy efficiency. Nuclear energy is barely mentioned.

In so doing, the legislation wagers U.S. economic vigor on as yet untested, unproven, more expensive energy sources which have inherent limitations...

[Translation: national suicide.]

READ MORE

Media Malpractice: Ayers 'Dreams authorship suppressed

Subject: txt msm bias bdd othr crpt -
Perhaps one of the biggest political stories of the year is being completely overlooked by the Obama-struck mass media.

A new biography by veteran author Christopher Andersen, "Barack and Michelle: Portrait of a Marriage," reveals that former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers wrote most, if not all of President Obama's book "Dreams From My Father."

In a series of American Thinker articles over the past year, PhD author and columnist, Jack Cashill has been asserting just that. But while he found striking similarities between the two men's writing styles he could never conclusively prove Ayers' ghost authorship.

Andersen's book does... [snip]

It is old news now that Ayers and Obama served on the boards of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and the Woods Fund together, but in total, Obama worked with Ayers and other radicals on least six related non-profit boards and shared the same office for three years with Ayers and fellow radicals, Susan and Mike Klonsky.

Now this latest revelation about Ayers' ghostwriting suggests that not only did they work together, but Ayers essentially gave Obama his voice.

All this has somehow been lost on mass media's intrepid investigative journalists.

Nary a peep.

READ MORE

Dog the Wags

Subject: txt msm bias - fnn -
... A decade later, a self-absorbed Big Media also seems destined to lose to its rival, the new media. Employing a mirror image of the movie plot, Big Media is trying to stay in power by cynically manipulating politics, stoking a culture war. Life seemingly does imitate art -- this time in reverse though. ...

... In contrast, as part of today's mirror image of the movie, Big Media frequently refuses to "run with" negative news about the Left -- even when the journalists know it's true... Big Media has trivialized Democrat scandals ranging from Barney Frank's Fannie Mae malfeasance to ACORN's offer of taxpayer funding for underage prostitutes.

However, in an unscripted plot twist, fewer and fewer Americans are willing to be manipulated by Big Media.

... according to a recent national survey conducted by Sacred Heart University, 89 percent of Americans suspect that Big Media played a strong role in getting President Obama elected.

As the study also showed, the public has become substantially more suspicious of Big Media in just the past few years...

[Recommended > ]

READ MORE

image toon - msm bias = Oby channel = 24/7

Reich Laughed At For Saying Stimulus 'Keeping People Employed'

Former Clinton Labor Secretary and current Obama economic advisor Robert Reich was laughed at Friday for claiming

"the stimulus package is the thing that is actually keeping the economy up, keeping people employed."

In a discussion on CNBC about the larger than expected September job losses reported Friday by the Labor Department, Reich was explaining to hosts Melissa Francis and Lawrence Kudlow how things would be much worse if not for the stimulus package.

He also implied that things won't get better until healthcare is reformed.

In the middle of this absolutely absurd statement, Francis and Kudlow appeared to look at each other with the former breaking out into laughter and the latter doing his best to hold it back (video embedded below the fold):

READ MORE

Moore's 'Capitalism' bombs at box office

[B]ut the biggest disappointment of the weekend is Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story (Overture). After a $57K per theatre average on 4 screens last weekend, the picture broke to a wider 962 locations with terrible results. The "documentary" only sold an estimated $1.3M in tickets to start the weekend, and it will finish at about $3.9M for a PTA of less than $4,000. That soft opening will almost certainly make Capitalism Moore's weakest-grossing movie since 2002's Bowling for Columbine ($21.5M domestic gross).

Perhaps if we lived in Moore's socialist paradise, we would all have been forced to line up and shell out $12 bucks to see this turkey.

Fortunately, we still live in a land where those choices are left to us.

And it is obvious that the prospect of being hectored about how greedy we all are for wanting to make a comfortable life for ourselves by a monumental hypocrite who has gotten fabulously wealthy in a system that he thinks is evil just isn't a big sell on Main Street in America.

Gee - ya think?

.

image toon - 1st fnn libs reps othr = Cowboy Oby exhausting donkey

Public servants? No, we are the servants

How public employees became the new labor aristocracy

An article of mine at American Thinker, Taxpayers: Eat Your Hearts Out, Suckers outlined the myriad of abuses taxpayers suffer from the demands of government workers. I was not writing about the rules and regulations, or the rudeness and inefficiency and incompetency that many of us suffer when dealing with government workers (not all, mind you, but many).

I was instead writing about the gold-plated contracts and benefit packages government workers enjoy, courtesy of you and I. Even if government workers were superlative, however, they are still vastly overpaid. This is made clear in an op-ed in today's Boston Globe by Jeff Jacoby and by an article in the new conservative publication, National Affairs, which uses California as the textbook example of what happens when politicians serve the desires of public workers rather than the needs of private citizens.

Jacoby writes about the myth of the underpaid public employee:

Take account of total compensation - wages plus benefits - and the disparity [between public and private sector employees] is even more striking. In 2008, total federal civilian compensation averaged $119,982 - more than twice the $59,908 in wages and benefits earned by the average private-sector employee.

Chris Edwards, a scholar at the Cato Institute, has documented the steady widening of the gap: In 1960, federal workers averaged $1.24 for every $1 earned by a private employee. By 1980, the federal advantage was up to $1.51; in 2000 it was $1.66. Now it is $2 - and climbing....

He provides examples of the dreams of public workers being fulfilled at our expense. He also notes that the resistance grows and profiles the work of one principled businessman who has had enough and has founded a group-The Free Enterprise Nation-to try to inform the public about the severe impact of these plush payrolls on our future... [snip]

The second article portrays the downfall of California as being the result of bad government policy. One of the causes of the fiscal basket case that is California: public labor unions. Among the worst are the powerful teachers' unions: one of the most powerful of Democratic interest groups. Teachers spend a lot of their free time-and they often have plenty-canvassing for Democrats, handing out flyers, manning phone boots, funding campaigns. The payoff? Great pay and benefit packages from politicians in their pockets.

The percentage of unionized public employees in California is 20% higher than the national average.... Awarded collective bargaining rights with nearly every sector of government during the 1960s and '70s, the unions subsequently exploded into a political force to be reckoned with and a primary cause of California's fiscal hemophilia.

The result of the teachers' flight from responsibility has been unadulterated dysfunction. In Los Angeles schools, one out of every three students drops out before graduation. And a research team from the University of California, Riverside, recently concluded that by 2014 - the year all students are required to be proficient in math and English under No Child Left Behind - nearly every elementary school in the state will fail to meet proficiency standards. [....]

But no matter how egregious their misconduct, California's public-school teachers can always skirt the consequences. With 340,000 members statewide, the California Teachers' Association is perhaps the most powerful interest group in state politics. In 2005, for instance, the organization spent nearly $60 million to defeat ballot measures aimed at bringing more accountability to California schools.

These contracts are killers. They are black holes that will suck in vast amounts of our money-investments that could go towards our childrens' futures instead get sucked up, along with the pina coladas, by retired government workers relaxing on a beach.

Public workers are not public servants. We are the servants.

READ MORE

Democrat Compares U.S. Health Care System to Holocaust

Subject: txt 1st hcare bdd vals reps libs -
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) last night doubled down on his wild health care rhetoric. On Tuesday Grayson let loose with the statement that Republicans had no health care plan and just wanted everyone to ''die quickly'' instead of getting care. Yesterday, after Republicans demanded an apology for the slander, Grayson returned to the House floor where he apologized to people who have died and their families, comparing America’s health care system to the Holocaust...

[More liberal 'civility'.

BTW: this is Holocaust {intentionally reduced so it's less visible}:

This is the health care that everyone in American, including those here illegally, are entitled to use now and cannot be turned away by law in any state:

Yeah, comparable.]

READ MORE

Veterans Affairs won't release any more care home reports

Subject: txt 1st hcare -
Facing congressional scrutiny over details revealed in a review of care given to veterans at one of its Pennsylvania facilities, the Department of Veterans Affairs slammed the door on the release of similar reports nationwide.

In a directive dated Friday, VA officials in Washington informed local agency officials that inspection reports like the one on the VA nursing home in Philadelphia are not to be released to the public.

[Even though they're publicly funded. This is government run health 'care'.]

READ MORE

Nothing for Everyone

Subject: txt 1st hcare -
The health care reform proposals put forth so far by Democrats, and supported by President Obama, have the unique gift of satisfying virtually no one.

READ MORE

If we don't want it -- Obama Delivers

Subject: txt 1st hcare bdd reps libs -
The majority of the American people do not approve of Obama's health care plan.

Current Associate Press poll place the disapproval rate at 52%. President Obama plans on making health care reform a reality, including taxing those who fail to comply, in spite of what the American people want.

Support by Chicagoan's for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Chicago in 2016 has gone from 62% in February to 47% on September 3rd. President Obama is helping his buddy Mayor Daley, and is making a special Air Force One flight to Denmark to make certain that Chicago is the site for the 2016 Olympic Games.

It appears that Congress is planning to vote on health care bill proposals without even taking time to fully disclose the legislation. Laws affecting your income and health care will be voted on in the abstract. So corruption and money can buy the final draft and become laws all Americans will have to obey.

Is this the Change that America Hoped for?

READ MORE

image toon 1st hcare = Don't want people to know what's in bill-what it costs

MAJORITY LEADER PROTECTS HOME STATE

If ObamaCare is so great, why does Nevada need protection from it?

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, has secured a special deal protecting his state against the costs of expanding Medicaid under one of the major health care bills moving through Congress.

Reid, a Democrat, complained about the impact on Nevada when the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, unveiled his bill on Sept. 16.

Now Baucus has modified the bill to spare Nevada and three other states, and Reid, who faces a potentially difficult race for re-election next year, is taking credit for getting a "major increase" in federal money for his state...

[Again, it has nothing to do with improving health care.]

READ MORE

China displays upgraded missiles in October 1 parade

Subject: txt nsec intl -
Beijing- Upgraded missiles were featured prominently in China's Oct 1 military parade which celebrated 60 years of Communist Party rule, the Xinhua news agency said, citing a commander of the service that controls nuclear weapons.

READ MORE

Oil, Ideology Keep China From Joining Push Against Iran

Subject: txt gwot nsec -
In its effort to muster support for sterner action against Iran, the Obama administration will have to overcome China's reluctance to punish a country that is one of its top oil suppliers and a major beneficiary of its energy-related investments.

The administration's frustration with Beijing is growing. U.S. officials have noted that China has appeared even more reluctant than Russia to take action against Iran after disclosures about its nuclear program. U.S. officials said they are particularly concerned that China has blocked their efforts to target freight-forwarding companies based in Hong Kong that reship goods, including prohibited weaponry, to Iran.

The Chinese "have not displayed a sense of urgency" on Iran, said a senior administration official. Instead, the official said, China has attempted to "have it both ways," preserving its relationship with Iran while also working with the United States and other countries involved in the effort to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Why is China protecting Iran? Two reasons, analysts say: oil and ideology...

READ MORE

Polish Prez Not Happy After Obama Reneged on Missile Plan

Subject: txt nsec intl sclm -
On Thursday, FNC viewers got to learn of a little reported diplomatic faux pas on the part of President Obama, as the administration announced on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland that America would back out of the plan for a missile defense shield previously worked out with Polish President Lech Kaczynski.

On Special Report with Bret Baier, host Baier showed an interview with the Polish president who did not seem happy with President Obama’s foreign policy decisions.

Kaczynski signaled his belief that the deal he had worked on with the Bush administration was important to his country:

"I thought that the August 2008 deal, I considered that to be a success. I worked very hard to bring about the deal, to make it successful. I would like to be honest with you, and I will just say that I did everything I could to just finalize the deal. I cannot say I was happy. It was a very important deal for us."

Baier then brought up the bad timing of the Obama administration’s announcement...

READ MORE

The Coming Russia-Georgia Clash Over Abkhazia

Subject: txt intl russia -
All summer, Kremlin officials hinted that hostilities between Russia and Georgia could rise to a boil again. Now it looks as if Moscow has decided to turn up the heat.

Last week a Russian patrol boat carrying rockets docked in a port along the coast of Abkhazia, one of Georgia's Russian-backed breakaway republics. Moscow has promised nine more ships to follow...

[Weakness invites aggression.]

READ MORE

Despite suspicions, Obama urges better Russia ties

Subject: txt intl - nsec -
U.S. President Barack Obama called for better ties between NATO and Russia on Tuesday and said the two sides should work together even as Moscow voiced suspicions about revamped U.S. missile defense plans.

"It is important for us to reach out to Russia and explore ways in which the missile defense configurations that we envision could potentially lead to further collaboration with Russia on this front,"

READ MORE

image toon - nsec = Oby walks away from E eruope re BMD

Spain contest bans Israeli team affiliated with West Bank college

Subject: txt israel - intl -
Spain said Thursday it has disqualified a group of Israeli academics from a solar power design competition, the latest in a series of low-level European sanctions against Israel.

Spain expelled the team representing Ariel University Center of Samaria from an international contest called the Solar Decathlon

READ MORE

'Buycott' challenges Israel boycotters

Subject: txt israel -
A new Web site set up by pro-Israel Canadians seeks to defy anti-Israel boycotts by encouraging subscribers to deliberately buy Israeli products that are being boycotted.

http://www.cicweb.ca/

The campaign, titled ''Buycott Israel,'' was organized by the Canada-Israel Committee together with the Jewish federations of Vancouver and Toronto and the Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific Region, to counter the increasing number of boycotts in Canada over the last year...

READ MORE

DEMOCRATS FAVOR TRADE SANCTIONS ON AMERICANS

Subject: txt trade -
Congressional failure to ratify the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement -- a deal that was signed almost three full years ago -- has so far cost American exporters $2 billion - increasing $1.9 million each and every day:

• Since that time (November 22, 2006, when the trade agreement was signed), American exporters have paid approximately $1.9 million per day in Colombian tariffs that they wouldn't have paid if the Democrat-controlled Congress had just passed the FTA back then and thus allowed it to enter into force.
• That means that Congress' and (now) the President's partisan stalling has resulted in a pointless tax on American businesses of almost $2 billion ($1.9798 billion = 1042 days times $1.9 million) and counting.

Daniel Griswold, director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, explained Tuesday in the Washington Times how U.S. trade policy punishes poorer people abroad, and amounts to a regressive tax here at home:

• America's highest remaining trade barriers are aimed at products mostly grown and made by poor people abroad and disproportionately consumed by poor people at home.
• While industrial goods and luxury products typically enter under low or zero tariffs, the U.S. government imposes duties of 30 percent or more on food and lower-end clothing and shoes -- staple goods that loom large in the budgets of poor families.

The Obama administration and Congress could easily remove the sanctions that burden America's exporters and lower-income consumers.

But the Democratic Party playbook counsels more exaggerations about evil foreign labor practices as a sop to Big Labor...

[again it's the unions]

READ MORE

Why does Obama keep snubbing the British?

Subject: txt intl -
At the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, and at the UN Security Council meeting before that, Barack Obama continued his administration's new policy toward Great Britain: declare that the "special relationship" between the U.S. and the U.K. is as strong as ever, and then act as if there is no such relationship at all. The British papers were filled with the news that the president would not grant Prime Minister Gordon Brown a one-on-one meeting...

READ MORE

The Ugly American

Subject: txt reps intl libs bdd -
Five decades ago, during the heart of the Cold War, a term entered modern political vocabulary: "The Ugly American." Based upon a 1958 novel of the same name, the phrase began to be used to describe the whole range of thoughtless mistakes that Americans had made -- which had led to the loss of American friendship among the peoples of the world.

Today, the Obama Administration has brought the Ugly American back to life.

Our nation and our people have always had jealous rivals. The French, whose revolution failed miserably, are loath to respect an American Revolution that proved a spectacular success. Marxist ideology led Russia and China to be hateful to America, whatever ordinary citizens of those countries might have felt. Arabs and Moslems, seeking someone to blame for their poverty and impotence, find America (and Israel) very tempting targets.

But America still has many natural and cultivated friends, though in less than one year, Obama and his lieutenants have succeeded in irritating, confusing, and angering these friends. It is as if Obama has contorted the Arab maxim "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" into the "enemy of my friend is my friend."

Obama seems determined to be the Ugly American.... [snip]

There are people around the world who will always hate or distrust us, like the mullahs of Iran or Kim Jong il or Castro. Obama seems determined to befriend these mortal enemies. Then there are peoples, nations, and leaders which share natural interests with America, like Israel, Poland, India, Columbia, and Britain.

Toward these nations and their leaders, Obama seems bent on being the very ugliest Ugly American...

READ MORE

image toon - 1st gwot nsec owg - Iranian bomb in WH but Oby was being nice

Disarmament for All (Except the UN)

Subject: txt nsec owg -
In the midst of one of the greatest existential threats of our times, President Obama is pursuing severe reductions in US military strength. His recent statements at the United Nations have merely added fuel to the fire. When combined with his pledge to reduce US nuclear weapons stockpiles by 80 percent, a clear pattern emerges.

These actions would seem irrational, even by Obama's standards, if they weren't in keeping with a 50-year old strategy aimed at unilaterally disarming the United States in order that a "progressively strengthened" UN Peace Force might be established.
Among the document's many alarming proposals, one stands out:

"The disbanding of all national armed forces and the prohibition of their reestablishments in any form whatsoever other than those required for internal order and for contributions to a United Nations Peace Force...."

This idea has been steadily advanced during both Republican and Democrat administrations alike and, incredibly, this abominable plan is still being implemented...

[Recommended > ]

READ MORE

POLL: UN not trusted on terrorism

Subject: txt gwot nsec owg -
Just 30% of U.S. voters have at least some confidence in the ability of the United Nations, while more than twice as many voters (68%) lack confidence in the U.N. to deal with the threat of terrorism. Thirty-nine percent (39%) describe themselves as not very confident, and another 29% are not at all confident.

Fifty percent (50%) of Democrats are at least somewhat confident that the U.N. can deal with terrorism, while 83% of GOP voters and 76% of unaffiliateds are not.

Voters ages 18 to 29 believe in the United Nations much more than their elders...

[Of course, it's what they're taught in our schools...]

READ MORE

THE TRUTH ABOUT INCOME INEQUALITY

Subject: txt mny othr - SCLM -
Despite the conventional wisdom of Democrats, income, properly measured, has not fallen in America. Moreover, the supposed gaps between income and private sector productivity growth are greatly exaggerated, says Robert J. Gordon, a professor at Northwestern University in his new study entitled, "Misperceptions About the Magnitude and Timing of Changes in American Income Inequality," published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The conventional view is that income growth has seriously lagged productivity, so that increases in productivity yield returns to shareholders and corporate management but not to workers. However, Gordon finds that labor incomes are higher than previously measured:

• Most measures of income are constructed on the basis of households; since the number of people per household has been declining over time due to increasing divorce, longer life expectancy, and later marriage, income per person has increased faster than income per household.
• The most common inflation measure used, the Consumer Price Index for Urban areas, is too high, so incomes calculated by the CPI-U are too low; when the gross domestic product (GDP) deflator, the same measure used to calculate productivity, is used, then incomes adjusted for inflation are higher than would be the case otherwise for the bottom 90 percent of the income distribution.
• Productivity measures generally cover only the nonfarm business sector, which represented just 76 percent of GDP in 2007; less-productive sectors of the economy, such as government and households, are excluded. When these are included, total productivity is lower.

When these adjustments are made, the gap between income and productivity is far lower, says Gordon:

Horror stories about worsening income distribution in America are largely scare tactics; new policies and laws in Washington should rise or fall on the merit of the underlying facts and ideas, not on the fear that American society is spiraling hopelessly into extremes of income distribution...

READ MORE

Obama's Policies Would Redistribute Nearly $1 Trillion in Wealth - Every Year

Subject: txt sclm -
By 2012, nearly $1 trillion from the top 30 percent of American families will be redistributed among the bottom 70 percent if Obama’s proposals on taxes, health care, and climate change become law, according to the Tax Foundation.

Under the Obama plan, 70 percent of American families as a group -- those earning less than $109,460 -- will receive more in benefits than they pay in taxes...

[Recommended > ]

READ MORE

image toon - mny sclm bbro vals = Kid to dad = called to sacrifice

Stimulus Spending Doesn't Work

Subject: txt mny -
The global recession and financial crisis have refocused attention on government stimulus packages. These packages typically emphasize spending, predicated on the view that the expenditure "multipliers" are greater than one—

The bottom line is this: The available empirical evidence does not support the idea that spending multipliers typically exceed one, and thus spending stimulus programs will raise GDP by less than the increase in government spending....

[Again: before government can first 'spend' money anywhere it must first steal it out of the private sector economy. Who do you think spends such funds more wisely?]

READ MORE

Exhibit A: Sept. US auto sales fall due to clunkers letdown

Subject: txt mny auto -
GM, Ford and Chrysler reported September sales declines today, revealing a tough hangover from this summer’s Cash for Clunkers buying spree.

General Motors Co. reported the steepest drop, 45 percent, when compared with September of last year. Chrysler Group LLC was down 42 percent and Ford Motor Co. had a much smaller decline of 5.1 percent.

GM blamed the decline on the clunkers program...

READ MORE

Ford sales drop least in September

Subject: txt mny crpt auto gdd - : 5.1%
The six biggest automakers as measured by sales in the United States all reported down numbers for September as they felt the payback from the end of the "cash for clunkers" program.

Ford Motor Co., however, bested the field by reporting a decline of 5.1 percent for September compared to a year ago, far better than the 45 percent drop for General Motors Co. and 42 percent fall for Chrysler Group LLC...

[Good: Ford deserves to be rewarded for taking its responsible approach to fixing itself without taxpayer bailouts.]

READ MORE

Gore and Google: Pants on Fire

Subject: txt grn - msm -
Earth's self-anointed global warming czar, Al Gore, has teamed up with his business partners at Google (he's an Advisory Board member) to make the latest pitch for a planet that is about to burst into a bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Together they have created an internet video which heralds Google's entrance into the world of climate forecasting.

The video champions Google's new mapping tool which simulates a 3D map of the world predicting the effects of "climate change" through the year 2100. They claim their data is provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

According to Google, the mapping tool was introduced in partnership with the Danish Government ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Convention in December. In otherwords, this is a visual ruse to scare the hell of out of the uninformed masses.

Yet the IPCC itself believes that over the next 90+ years, even their usually enthusiastic global warming editors are not anticipating the kind of predictions that Gore/Google are spitting out:

The IPCC states, "All studies for the 21st century project that Antarctic [ice] changes will contribute negatively to sea level..." That means there is more snow and ice accumulating on Antarctica than is breaking off and melting into the surrounding waters. In addition the 2007 report declares, "...for the last two decades... Antarctica as a whole has not warmed."

Regarding the potential collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the IPCC says, "...no quantitative information is available from the current generation of ice sheet models as to the likelihood of timing of such an event." And, regarding the swamping of major cities projected by Gore/Google, the report reads, "...accelerated sea level rise caused by rapid dynamic response of the ice sheets to climate change is very unlikely during the 21st century."

Regarding Greenland, the IPCC states: "...the total melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which would raise global sea level by about seven metres, is a slow process that would take many hundreds of years to complete...no quantitative information is available from the current generation of ice sheet models as to the likelihood or timing of such an event"

Gore and Google have an agenda: money.

For Gore it's the payday he'll secure through carbon trading; for the Google guys, it includes providing critical technology for the energy monitoring plans involved in the coming 'Smart Grid'...

Hmm. Besides the smoldering shorts, I'm noting noses as long as a telephone wire.

READ MORE

Spreading the Taxpayers' Green

Subject: txt grn crpt bbro sclm -
Planet Gore had the scoop Thursday morning that Gore-backed luxury carmaker Fisker was receiving over half-a-billion in government loans. But the Wall Street Journal’s subsequent story adds some notable detail...

[Recommended > ]

READ MORE

image toon - grn engry = Fisker auto 529M taxpayer fraud

Take Action: Stop EPA Overreach

Subject: txt grn - action =

Carbon Dioxide is NOT a Pollutant.

AFP is engaged in a pitched battle against environmental extremists and we need your help to stop them. The Left has mobilized their grassroots to tell the EPA to choke off economic activity in this country.

Last year we battled an EPA proposal to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, a proposal that would allow bureaucrats to control everything that emits carbon dioxide in our country, including: cars, trains, planes and even your lawnmower.

Since the Obama Administration has taken hold, things have only gotten worse. The EPA is feeling emboldened and have submitted a proposal that would find carbon dioxide "endangers the public health and welfare."

That's right; the essential gas that has always been a critical component of the planet's natural life cycle will now be officially labeled by the U.S. Government as a pollutant. One lawsuit by a fringe environmental group could bring our economy to a standstill.

But, before the EPA can pass this ridiculous rule, they are required by law to listen to the people.

Click here to take action
and tell EPA that you oppose this new regulation.

READ MORE

Redefining Sarah Palin

As President Obama fumbled badly at the UN and G-8 last week, Sarah Palin began redefining herself as presidential timber. (Snip) Palin has scared the Left into mass hysteria because of her star quality on the campaign trail with a visibly creaking John McCain. Sarah Palin is our only charismatic leader at this profoundly dangerous time. That is why her actions are so important to the fate of the GOP, and to the future of this country...

[Recommended > ]

READ MORE



Sarah Palin's Book No.1 on Amazon...

[in three hours]

...and it's not printed yet.


UPDATE: cover now released;

.

OMG, Obama Exec Order fed txtg while drving ROFL!

Now that Health and Human Services Secy. Kathleen Sebelius has issued formal instructions on the proper way Democrats want Americans to sneeze and/or cough during the official federal flu season (into your elbow), President Obama 2day issued an Executive Order with strict new rules for feds to not text while driving. Good thing for highway safety, cuz feds not known as gr8 multi-taskers.

READ MORE

-end 091002 post-