Friday, February 19, 2010

John Brennan and the Politics of Capitulation

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It’s bad enough that John Brennan, President Obama’s national security deputy, thinks Gitmo jihadi recidivism is “not that bad.” But in his talk last week with Islamic law students at New York University, Brennan made even more reckless comments about our counterterrorism programs while pandering to one of the worst Muslim grievance-mongers and sharia peddlers in America.

During the question-and-answer session, Brennan welcomed a question from Omar Shahin:

“We came to this country to enjoy freedom,” Shahin began with faux, flag-waving emotion.

“We feel that since September 11, we aren’t enjoying these values anymore. … Also, we feel that there’s a big lack of trust between Muslims’ community and our government. … My question: Is there anything being done by our government to rebuild this trust?”

Instead of countering the narrative, exposing Shahin’s true intentions and vigorously defending America’s homeland security apparatus, Brennan dutifully genuflected to the gods of political correctness.

Obama, he told the militant 9/11 inside-job theorist and jihad white-washer, is “determined to put America on a strong course”...

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The absurd trial of Geert Wilders

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At a certain level, the trial of Geert Wilders for the crime of “group insult” of Islam is déjà vu all over again. For as the spokesperson for the Openbaar Ministerie put it,

“It is irrelevant whether Wilders’s witnesses might prove Wilders’s observations to be correct. What’s relevant is that his observations are illegal.”

Ah, yes, in the Netherlands, as in Canada, the truth is no defence...

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Sen. DeMint at CPAC: ‘America Is Teetering Towards Tyranny’

Subject: txt 2010 lbrty bbro sclm -
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) told a standing-room-only crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday that Democrats in Congress and the White House are the inspiration for a revolution that he and fellow conservatives hope is sweeping the nation ahead of the 2010 mid-term elections.

''We now see all too clearly that the hope and change the Democrats had in mind was nothing more than a retread of the failed and discredited socialist policies that have been the enemy of freedom for centuries all over the world.''

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Only 21% Say U.S. Government Has Consent of the Governed

Subject: txt 1st 2010 lbrty bbro reps libs sclm -
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% disagree and say the government does not have the necessary consent. Eighteen percent (18%) of voters are not sure.

That helps explain why 75% of voters are angry at the policies of the federal government...



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NPR Blames Conservatives for Obama's Broken Promises

Subject: txt hcar msm bbro sclm -
Whatever version of healthcare reform President Obama gets from Congress will look nothing like the promises he made while campaigning.

According to NPR, it has nothing to do with Obama belting empty campaign slogans. Rather, NPR fired off a litany of conservative bogeymen, from Republicans to moderate Democrats to Sarah Palin's "death panels" to explain why Obama's campaign message has failed to materialize.

In an article printed Thursday called "Why Public Support For Health Care Faltered," NPR began with the assumption that President Obama really meant his dream of healthcare for all that would magically be free...


[Your tax dollars at work.]


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NHS hospitals ignore safety orders

Subject: txt hcare -
Hospitals were accused tonight of putting patients' lives at unnecessary risk after research revealed they were failing to comply with NHS orders designed to prevent deaths from mistakes involving drugs, surgery or equipment.

Information released by the Department of Health after a freedom of information request showed that hospitals were not complying with safety alerts issued by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA). The NPSA's chairman, Lord Patel of Dunkeld, told the Guardian that the behaviour of the trusts was unacceptable and endangered the health of patients.

[Good point: when it IS big brother running our hospitals, who's to police them?]

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Yvo de Boer resigns as top UN climate official

Subject: txt grn msm bias -
Yvo de Boer, the UN's top climate change official, says he will resign after nearly four years in the post. His departure takes effect from 1 July, five months before 193 countries are due to reconvene in Mexico for another attempt at a global deal on climate.

'It was a difficult decision to make, but I believe the time is ripe for me to take on a new challenge.''

Mr De Boer said he would become a consultant on climate and sustainability issues for KPMG, a global accounting firm, and would be associated with several universities....

[ANYTHING in the MSM YET???]

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Evidence of Climate Fraud Grows, Media Coverage Doesn't

Subject: txt grn msm -
While the media found nothing worth reporting in this weekend's astounding Climategate revelations, an overweight film director's ejection from an airplane was big news

Newsbusters' Noel Sheppard lets the mainstream media have it for completely ignoring this weekend’s game-changing revelations from Climategate conspirator Phil Jones while jumping all over the ejection of director Kevin Smith from a Southwest Airlines plane for being too fat.

For those who may have taken the three-day weekend off from the blogosphere (and Fox News) -- the BBC released a Q&A and corresponding interview with the embattled erstwhile CRU chief on Friday. In each, the discredited Climategate conspirator revealed a number of surprising insights into his true climate beliefs, the most shocking of which was that 20th-century global warming may not have been unprecedented.

As I pointed out in Sunday’s article, Climategate's Phil Jones Confesses to Climate Fraud, as the entire anthropogenic global warming (AGW) theory is predicated on correlation with rising CO2 levels, this first-such confession from an IPCC senior scientist is nothing short of earth-shattering.

Noel has dug up some statistics on the major news agencies’ coverage of this vital chapter in what history will likely deem its greatest case of scientific fraud ever:

· No mention by the New York Times
· No mention by the Washington Post
· No mention by USA Today
· No mention by ANY major U.S. newspaper EXCEPT the Washington Times
· No mention by the Associated Press
· No mention by Reuters
· No mention by UPI
· No mention by ABC News
· No mention by CBS News
· No mention by NBC News
· No mention by MSNBC

Yet – the complicit media continue to speak of fantasy “green jobs” and the failings of Copenhagen and big-oil-paid-for Republicans and the need to pass President Obama’s so-called climate bill rather than doing the job they signed on for and unequivocally owe the American public: Asking questions.

I think Noel’s choice of closing words and punctuation expresses it perfectly:

Shame on them.

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"Miss Me Yet?" Bush Merchandise a Hit Online



It appears a lot of people think it's a fair question.

The online store CafePress saw a spike in demand for items featuring the same image as the billboard, the New York Daily News reports. Ten "Miss Me Yet?" items were on the company's list of its top-selling designs,
CafePress spokeswoman Jenna Martin told the Daily News...

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-end 100219 post-

Thursday, February 18, 2010


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Tea Party leaders ask voters to help draft ‘Contract from America’

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It's reminiscent of 1994, but in addition to budget balancing and term limits amendments, there’s a plank for preventing the government from regulating the Internet.

A list of issues that the activists will vote on include:
  • Amending the constitution to require a balanced budget and a two-thirds majority for any tax hike.
  • Permanently repealing all tax hikes scheduled to begin in 2011.
  • Requiring every bill in Congress to be made public seven days before any vote can be taken and all government expenditures authorized by any bill to be easily accessible on the Internet before the money is spent.
  • Requiring each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does.
  • Permitting all health insurance plans to be sold anywhere in the United States through the purchase of insurance across state lines. Allow small businesses and associations to pool together across state lines to buy insurance.
  • Adopting a simple and fair single-rate tax system by scrapping the internal revenue code and “replacing it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words — the length of the original Constitution.”
  • Imposing a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth.
  • Allowing Americans to opt out of Social Security and Medicare and instead put those same payroll taxes in a personal account “they own, control and can leave to whomever they choose.”
  • Preventing any regulation or tax on the Internet.
  • Improving education by eliminating ineffective and wasteful programs, giving parents more choices from pre-school to high school and improving the affordability of higher education.
  • Authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation, lowering prices and creating competition.
  • Prohibiting the Federal Communications Commission from using funds to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.
  • Creating a Blue Ribbon task force that engages in a complete audit of federal agencies and programs.
  • Blocking state and local governments that receive federal grants from exercising eminent domain over private property for the primary purpose of economic development or enhancement of tax revenues.
  • Preventing the EPA from implementing costly new regulations.
  • Placing a moratorium on all earmarks until the process is fully transparent. Also requiring a two-thirds majority to pass any earmark.
  • Making all lawmaking regulators, including presidential appointed czars, be affirmatively approved by Congress and signed into law by the president.
  • Audit the Federal Reserve System.
  • Making sure the federal government does not bail out private companies. The government should also immediately divest itself of its stake in the private companies it owns from recent bailouts.
  • Amending the constitution to require congressional term limits. No person shall be elected to the Senate more than twice or to the House of Representatives more than four times.
  • Making all regulations “sunset” after 10 years unless renewed by congressional vote.
  • Broadcasting all non-security meetings and votes on C-SPAN and the Internet.

Tea Party Patriots, the group organizing the effort, will hold a press conference on Thursday in Washington, D.C., at the CPAC conference to announce the launch of thecontract.org, where activists can help “draft” the finalized contract by voting for their top 10 of those issues.

Ryan Hecker, a national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots and a member of the Houston Tea Party Society who developed the contract idea, said it “is a grassroots, bottom-up document.”

“It’s going to be a very democratic process,” Hecker said.

After releasing a final “Contract from America” on April 15, activists will ask members of Congress to sign the final document.

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ABC Dismisses the Idea That 2010 Will Be Trouble for Dems: 'A Tempest in a Teapot'

Subject: txt 2010 msm -
Good Morning America on Sunday derided the idea that Democratic retirements in Congress spell bad news for the party in 2010. Hendren, a day before Evan Bayh announced he's leaving the Senate, dismissed,

"But, for now, despite all the passionate, anti-incumbent tea parties, the math suggests limited changes on Capitol Hill. A tempest in a teapot."


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The Republican Party Began as a Tea Party Movement

Subject: txt 2010 -



Republicans should welcome a comparison of their party’s history with that of the Democrats – the party of slavery and socialism, Big Government and the Ku Klux Klan. As Republicans try to repel the socialist onslaught, the way to win – and to deserve to win – is to embrace our party’s original reform agenda. The patriots who created our Grand Old Party did so in order to preserve the vision of the Founding Fathers. And the way they did it has valuable lessons for us today...

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MSNBC Mocks 'Controversial' Tea Party Convention and the 'Funny Outfits'

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[Professional journalism.]

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Marines link up in Afghan Taliban stronghold

Subject: txt gwot nsec -
Marjah, Afghanistan - Marines moving by land from the north linked up Tuesday with U.S. units that have faced nearly constant Taliban attack in the four days since they were dropped by helicopter into this insurgent stronghold in southern Afghanistan. Also Tuesday, U.S. artillery fired non-lethal smoke rounds to disperse Taliban fighters

Commanders refused a Marine request to fire deadly high-explosive rounds because the unit on the ground could not be sure civilians weren't at risk...

[Insanity. Tecmuseh (Sherman) was right.]

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Qassam fired from Gaza explodes near Ashkelon

Subject: txt israel -
A Qassam rocket fired from Gaza exploded just south of Ashkelon on Thursday, causing no casualties or damage. The rocket fire came at the heels of a barrage of mortar shells earlier in the day, with Gaza militants firing at least 10 shells into Israel, and an anti-tank missile being fired at Israel Defense Forces troops patrolling the border with Gaza...

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Congressman says US should break Gaza blockade

Subject: txt israel -
The United States should break Israel's blockade of Gaza and deliver badly needed supplies by sea, a US congressman told Gaza students.

Rep. Brian Baird, a Democrat from Washington state, also urged President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy to visit Hamas to get a firsthand look at the destruction caused by Israeli's military offensive last year...

[ And if Mexico lobbed missiles toward San Diego, that wouldn't be cause for retaliation if they caused no major harm? Meaning we'd wait until after one hit a school {being targeted by Hamas, btw} to take seriously? Unbelievable. {Sadly, not.}. ]

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Greece loses EU voting power in blow to sovereignty

Subject: txt intl mny -
The European Union has shown its righteous wrath by stripping Greece of its vote at a crucial meeting next month, the worst humiliation ever suffered by an EU member state.

The council of EU finance ministers said Athens must comply with austerity demands by March 16 or lose control over its own financial policies altogether.

It if fails to do so, the EU will itself impose cuts under the draconian Article 126.9 of the Lisbon Treaty in what would amount to economic suzerainty...

[Ignoring the fact that the Lisbon Treaty has yet to be ratified, does stripping Greece of its vote not mean it's to be governed without representation?

There's a collective tyranny emerging in Europe's 'union' that has all but supplanted any claim to self-governance on that continent...]


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U.S. Should See Greece as A Warning

Subject: txt mny intl -
The fiscal collapse of Greece has rattled international markets and renewed questions about the feasibility of maintaining a single currency across Europe.

But it should also provide a warning to Americans about how quickly things can unravel for a country when it refuses to confront the realities of its mounting debt.

If it's hard to imagine the same sort of meltdown happening here, consider this: in Greece, debt is currently at 112. 6 percent of GDP.

According to the Congressional Budget Office's fiscal projections, we're on course to reach roughly that level (with debt at 111.5 percent of GDP) in 2025.

That's just 15 years from now...

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image toon - mny tax - Ob feeding more stimulus to debt lion

Obama’s Stimulus One Year Out: Employment Falls, Deficits Grow

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A year after Congress passed President Barack Obama's $862 billion stimulus package, unemployment remains stubbornly high, and the federal deficit has mushroomed. By the time the stimulus program kicked in, the recession had cost the economy more than 6 million jobs. Since the program began, the nation has lost 2 million more.

Many experts feel it is was costly, debt-increasing blip that merely made ripples in the nation's economy...

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Now IPCC hurricane 'data' is questioned

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More trouble looms for the IPCC. The body may need to revise statements made in its Fourth Assessment Report on hurricanes and global warming.

A statistical analysis of the raw data shows that the claims that global hurricane activity has increased cannot be supported...

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IPCC Report of Increased Hurricanes Not Supported by the Data

Subject: txt grn owg -
A new study raises serious questions about yet another IPCC forecast of doom.



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The red-hot scam unravels

Subject: txt grn fnn - gdd -
Not everybody is on to the global-warming scam, not yet, but all the people — or enough of them — are getting there. "Global warming," or even "climate change" as Al's marketing men now insist that it be called, is becoming the stuff of jests and jokes.

Sen. James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, a Republican, built an igloo of that hot stuff that buried Washington last week on the Capitol lawn and dubbed it "Al Gore's new home"...

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image toon - grn - burn Gore's books, keep farmers almanac

SOCIALISM KILLS: THE COST OF DELAYED ECONOMIC REFORM IN INDIA

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In "Socialism Kills: The Cost of Delayed Economic Reform In India," Aiyar seeks to estimate the number of "missing children," "missing literates" and "missing non-poor" resulting from delayed reform, slower economic growth, and hence, slower improvement of social indicators. He finds that with earlier reform:

  • 14.5 million more children would have survived.
  • 261 million more Indians would have become literate.
  • 109 million more people would have risen above the poverty line.

The delay in economic reform represents an enormous social tragedy. It drives home the point that India's socialist era, which claimed it would deliver growth with social justice, delivered neither.

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Organizing Kids for Obama

Subject: txt lbrty sclm bbro libs bdd edu -
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Pamela Geller, founder, editor and publisher of the popular and award-winning weblog AtlasShrugs.com..

I would like to talk to you today about Organizing for America (OFA), formerly Obama for America, and what it is doing in public schools....

[Parents: do you know what your children are being 'taught'?]

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What Bias? Re: CBS Skips Part of Poll Finding Most Americans Want Smaller Government

Subject: txt msm sclm bbro =
Touting the latest CBS News/New York Times poll on Friday's CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer concluded that Americans were upset with President Obama and Congress simply over the influence of "special interest groups," without mentioning massive government spending or ObamaCare as other possible reasons.

After reporting that 70% of Americans were "dissatisfied or angry about the way things are going in Washington," Smith focused on the poll question about special interests: "8 in 10 say Congress is more interested in serving the needs of special interest groups rather than the people they represent." Schieffer explained: [snip]

However, neither Smith nor Schieffer brought up the part of the poll that showed the desire by a majority of Americans for smaller government:

"59% of Americans think the government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals....56% would choose a smaller government providing fewer services over a bigger government providing more services, up from 48% last spring and the highest percentage in more than a decade."

[Professionals both.]

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THE NATIONAL DEBT: DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH YOU NOW OWE?

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As of Feb. 7, our total national debt was $12,348,804,540,946.54 or $12.35 trillion which is larger than the economies of China, the United Kingdom and Australia combined.

The national debt is growing with the spending spree in Washington, D.C. According to the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget:

  • Our national debt will grow an additional $9 trillion over the next decade, to more than $20 trillion.
  • During that time, the United States will accumulate $2.5 billion in new debt each and every day.
  • That's $1.72 million per minute, for the next ten years.

According to the Department of the Treasury the estimated population of the United States is 307,795,997 so each citizen's [man, woman and child] share of this debt is $40,146.02.

And all these calculations are before Congress tacks on trillions for health care, cap and trade, new federal stimulus programs, and other yet to be identified spending programs.

Part of the way President Obama plans to pay for his new round of spending is to eliminate the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts families making more than $250,000 per year which impacts a ton of family-owned, small businesses which are the backbone of our economy and nation...

[All the wrong steps...]

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Obama misdiagnoses source of deficits

Subject: txt mny -
President Obama says he wants to reduce America's record trillion-dollar deficits. Too bad he hasn't even correctly diagnosed their cause. Yes Mr. Bush implemented the three policies mentioned by Mr. Obama in his State of the Union address.

Yet by 2007 — the last year before the recession — the budget deficit stood at only $161 billion.

So how could those policies cause trillion-dollar deficits from 2009 through 2020?

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CNN: Bush Tax Cuts Are Largest Cause Of Budget Deficit

Subject: txt mny msm fnn -
CNN's Fareed Zakaria on Sunday demonstrated just how ignorant most media members are of how the federal budget actually works. During the most recent installment of "Fareed Zakaria GPS," the host actually said,

"[T]he Bush tax cuts are the single largest part of the black hole that is the federal budget deficit."

Before we examine the staggering stupidity on display here, let's first look at exactly what Zakaria said (video embedded below the fold with transcript):

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uffett: Bush Did Good Job During Financial Crisis

Investment legend Warren Buffett says he has come to respect President Bush’s handling of the financial crisis. The Oracle of Omaha notes that he has read great economists from Adam Smith to John Keynes.

“But I’ve never heard a more eloquent statement that succinctly summed up the economic world than George Bush made in September 2008, when he said in a memorable 10 words, ‘If money doesn’t loosen up, this sucker can go down.’”

The remark resembled Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: “short, but to the point,” Buffett said.


“He (Bush) went to (Harvard) business school. He had a good fundamental understanding of markets and economic issues. I really did gain an appreciation for the fact that he understood what was going on and understood what needed to be done. He cared about them.”


[Again, I think history will consistently improve its opinion of our sometimes-ineloquent 43rd President.]

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CBS’s Schieffer to Biden: Doesn’t George Bush ‘Also Need a Little Thanks for That?’



Words never spoken before by a CBS News journalist: “Do you think also that George Bush would also need a little thanks for that? I mean, does he share in the credit or not?”

That very unusual quest to credit former President Bush came from Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation, since even for him Vice President Joe Biden’s claim -- “Iraq, I think, is going to be one of the great achievements of this administration” -- was too much. Cuing up a retort from former VP Dick Cheney on ABC’s This Week aired just over an hour earlier, Schieffer challenged Biden:

"You said the other night to Larry King in an interview that you thought Iraq could be one of the “great achievements” of this administration. And I must say a lot of people, when you said that, said their response was “what?” This administration didn’t have very much to do with Iraq and your friend, Dick Cheney, had a thought about that, as well. So let’s listen to this.”

Cheney suggested “for them to try to take credit for what’s happened in Iraq strikes me as little strange” and recommended “it ought to go with a healthy dose of ‘thank you, George Bush,’ upfront.”

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010


image toon - 1st fnn 2010 libs - Oby rowing over falls

CNN poll: 52% say Obama doesn't deserve reelection in 2012

Subject: txt 1st 2010 -
52 percent of Americans said President Barack Obama doesn't deserve reelection in 2012, according to a new poll. 44 percent of all Americans said they would vote to reelect the president in two and a half years, less than the slight majority who said they would prefer to elect someone else. Obama faces a 44-52 deficit among both all Americans and registered voters, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll released Tuesday. Four percent had no opinion.

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Liberals Say U.S. Is Ungovernable. Again.

Subject: txt 1st 2010 libs -
Liberals are at it again. They are worrying that the U.S. is "ungovernable." Political scientist Jay Cost has the details: [snip]

Liberals were saying exactly the same thing in 1980, thirty years ago, in the darkest days of the Carter administration. The mess of inflation, recession, Iran hostages, and gas lines, they decided, was not a direct result of stupid Carter administration policy. It was a sign that America's best days were behind us, and that there was nothing to do but decline gracefully.

You'll remember that U.S. voters had a different idea. They decided to elect a B-movie actor to the presidency, who immediately set about cutting tax rates, strengthening the dollar and cutting government spending. The result was a twenty-year boom. And now here we are back where we started, with a nasty economy, a soft dollar, a failed presidency, and another generation of liberals complaining that the U.S. is ungovernable.

Don't they realize that the founding fathers wrote the U.S. Constitution precisely to make it hard to control the Senate? The founders wanted to restrain momentary Pelosian majorities in the House of Representatives with regional power in the upper house. They set the controls to make the U.S. almost ungovernable -- by design.

It wasn't so much governing as getting government out of the way. So when liberal wring their hands because the U.S. seems to be ungovernable, we conservatives chuckle. That's not a bug, liberals; that's a feature...

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image toon - 2010 libs 1st fnn = Moderate Dems leaving Oby agenda launch pad

“Support Our Troops” slogan falls foul of Olympic rules

Subject: txt 1st gwot heroes -



Trouble is brewing over United States ice hockey goalie Jonathan Quick and the “Support Our Troops” slogan on his helmet. Slogans of this sort are banned under Olympic rules and Quick will be told to remove it, the International Ice Hockey Federation has told Reuters.

IOC rules forbid political propoganda [?] or advertisements being placed on equipment.

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World Inspired By First Snowman To Win Luge

[HT:FG - wy not]Subject: txt 1st fnn =
VANCOUVER—In what has become the most inspiring story at the XXI Winter Olympiad, the luge was won Sunday by the most unlikely of competitors: Tom, a snowman rolled together just two days earlier by the Kansy family of Vancouver...

Recent Sports:


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Obama names special envoy to global Islamic group

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President Barack Obama on Saturday named a White House lawyer as his special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, part of his continuing effort to repair strained U.S. relations with the world's Muslims.

Obama announced Rashad Hussain's appointment during a video address to the 7th U.S.-Islamic World Forum meeting in Doha, Qatar.

As his liaison to the OIC, the president said Hussain will continue working to repair U.S.-Islamic relations and develop the types of partnerships Obama called for when he addressed the Muslim world during a speech last year in Cairo.

U.S. relations with the Muslim world became 'strained' after [?] the [ongoing] wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Obama's Islamic Envoy Quoted Defending Man Charged With Aiding Terrorists

Subject: txt gwot islm nsec -



President Obama's new envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, Rashad Hussain, is at the center of a controversy over remarks attributed to him defending a man who later pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid a terrorist group.

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs quoted Hussain in 2004 as calling Sami al-Arian the victim of "politically motivated persecutions" after al-Arian, another university professor, was charged in 2003 with heading U.S. operations of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad...

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[meanwhile...]

image toon - gwot nsec = Feds = helping al qaeda if critic

Police probe 'Kill Jews' Oxford chant

Subject: txt edu israel islm -
British police are investigating the verbal attack on Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon after an Oxford University student shouted ''slaughter the Jews'' during a talk he gave at the university on Monday night.

During the event, hosted by the university’s Student Union, a Muslim student, who had been heckling the deputy foreign minister, got up and shouted in Arabic ''Itbah Al-Yahud'' – ''slaughter the Jews'' as he was leaving the lecture hall.

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Muslim students scream 'killer' during Israel envoy speech in L.A.

Subject: txt israel islm edu -
California police reportedly made 12 arrests on Monday after a speech by Israel's U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren descended into chaos. Hecklers interrupted Oren's lecture at University of California, Irvine, over 10 times, shouting ''killers'' and ''how many Palestinians did you kill?''

Oren took a 20 minute break after the fourth protest, only to be interrupted again by young men yelling at him every few minutes, local press reported. Many members of the audience also applauded..

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Welcome to UC Islam

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Muslim students are not always cowards. But the Muslim Student Union (MSU) is often the least tolerant and most cowardly student group on a given college campus. The gulf between the speech they prevent and what they practice with administrators' consent is enormous.

What follows [in source piece, linked at end] is a summary of a recent, and increasingly typical, incident. I have included links to video of the incident for verification. I have also included the chancellor's complete contact information so that “infidels” can express disgust with unchecked Muslim bigotry and intolerance on our nation’s campuses.

Readers of this column need to watch this five-minute video and ask themselves whether this looks more like a university in Iran than a university in California:



The UCI chancellor's contact information follows for those who wish to express concern for what they saw on the video:

Chancellor Michael Drake
University of California, Irvine
Office of the Chancellor
Irvine, CA 92697-5125
(949)-824-5111
chancellor@uci.edu

To date, I’ve seen nothing about this in the main edition of the Los Angeles Times. But suppose the Syrian ambassador had been interrupted just once by the Jewish Student Association. Do you think they would have found that newsworthy?

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Mideast Expert: Obama Should Support Iran Dissidents

Subject: txt nsec intl lbrty - owg -
President Barack Obama should “absolutely” be more vocal in supporting the dissidents fighting the radical Islamic government in Iran, says Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council.

“The leader of the free world should never remain silent when people are seeking freedom, certainly the way they are in Iran,”

he told Newsmax.TV’s Ashley Martella.

“There’s probably not a game-changer we can apply. But if we remember the experience of Soviet dissidents during the Cold War, what we said was very important. The way we altered international trade with the Soviet Union was very important.”

“These are the kinds of things we should be doing.”

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image toon - gwot nsec iran = Oby duped by Iran

Recession a point of view?

Subject: txt mny bbro sclm lbrty bdd 2010 -

"How do we contend with the traditional definitions of what success should look like, those beliefs that still hold sway over so many young people -- the idea that success means money, or power, or prestige, and that it comes with a nice house and a fancy car? How do we counter those voices that tell them, ‘Well, if you don't get paid a lot money for what you do, then maybe what you do really isn't that valuable.' Or voices that say, ‘Well, that's awfully nice that you want to do service, but when are you going to get a real job?' (Applause.)"
First Lady Michelle Obama.



Source: Josh Barro at The Manhattan Institute.


  • Average hourly compensation (wages and benefits, not adjusted for inflation) increase in last two years for federal government civilian employees: 9.9%
  • For state and local government employees: 9.8%
  • For private sector employees: 6.9%

Source: Josh Barro at The Manhattan Institute.

Public Employee Benefit Plans: Up to $1 Trillion in Unfunded Liabilities

Subject: txt crpt sclm bbro - bdd -
For years, employers in the private sector have been moving in the direction of versatile, 401(k) style retirement accounts. However, a vast majority of the 20 million state and local government workers in the U.S. have kept their generous, defined-benefit pension plans and over the years and have become huge liabilities that severely threaten the financial health of many states...



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State of the Nation

Subject: txt crpt sclm bbro gdd - edu -
This headline brightened up my breakfast:

Unionized Rhode Island Teachers Refuse To Work 25 Minutes More Per Day, So Town Fires All Of Them

Yeee-HAH!

The teachers at the high school make $70,000-$78,000, as compared to a median income in the town of $22,000. This exemplifies a nationwide trend in which public sector workers make far more than their private-sector counterparts (with better benefits).

The town is Central Falls, Rhode Island, pop. 19,000.

School Supt. Frances Gallo notified the state that she was switching to an alternative she was hoping to avoid: firing the entire staff at Central Falls High School. In total, about 100 teachers, administrators and assistants will lose their jobs.

Is there any national-policy angle to the story?

No, none at all.
Absolutely not. Don't even think about it.

Just keep moving along, please...


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A Resurgent Federalism?

Subject: txt 2010 gdd vals - lbrty bbro sclm -
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 59% of likely voters say states should have the right to opt out of federal government programs they don’t agree with. Just 25% disagree, while another 15% are not sure...

Sixty-three percent (63%) of voters also think states should have the right to opt out of federally mandated programs if the federal government doesn’t help pay for them. Seventeen percent (17%) say states should not have the right to opt out of federally mandated programs.

Voters strongly believe that a state should have the right to avoid federal programs it doesn't like, but they draw the line at states seceding from the union.

David Freddoso asks, "Is the Tenth Amendment becoming sexy again?"



[We can hope.]

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Nation’s Top Conservatives Will Sign Philosophical Declaration of War against Big Government


(CNSNews.com) - The nation's top conservative leaders will gather Wednesday at Collingwood in Alexandria, Va.—a property that was once the site of George Washington’s River Farm—to sign a document organizers are calling the Mount Vernon Statement.

It is designed to signal that a united and resurgent conservative movement is declaring philosophical war against the big government and moral relativism advanced by the nation’s liberal cultural, academic and political establishments.


The statement emphatically says no to the type of "change" pushed by political leaders who ignore the Constitution's limits on government power...

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A TUTORIAL ON BATS
[HT:GC - I just post 'em folks.]

Our planet is populated with plenty of bizarre and astonishing creatures … here are two from the Bat Family ... without the need to resort to fiction.




Sucker Footed Bat

A rare bat that roosts upright clings to slick leaves by secreting a "modified sweat" into pads on its wrists and ankles, a new study says. New research shows that the bat is actually using wet adhesion, a sticky trick employed by certain insects and tree frogs.







Blood Sucking Left-Wing Ding Bat

Unable to fly on it's own and relies on the US Air Force, funded by taxpayers.


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