Political Digest August 27 2009

Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy Dies at 77 after Cancer Battle
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/26/AR2009082600063.html
Conservatives should take no joy in this, no dancing in the streets as Muslims did on 9/11 or liberals would if George W. were to die or Sarah Palin be raped and murdered as a liberal blog suggested would be fitting. Nor do we have to join in the Michael Jackson style canonization sure to come or to forget the flaws, from the Harvard cheating scandal, to a young woman left to drown while he walked past lighted homes to try to get off the island and establish an alibi, to the frat-boy life style, to the privileged opposition to wind power when it might disrupt the Kennedy view. Rest in peace.

Democratic Fundraiser Charged With Fraud
Nemazee Worked For Kerry, Clinton, Obama Campaigns
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/25/AR2009082503262.html?wpisrc=newsletter
If he was a Republican, Nancy Pelosi would be talking about the “culture of corruption” again. More here:
http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2009/08/25/breaking-former-dscc-national-finance-chair-arrested-for-bank-fraud/

Deficit Projected To Soar With New Programs
10-Year Estimate of $9 Trillion Fuels Critics of President's Agenda
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/25/AR2009082501158.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter
How fondly we remember Democrats slamming Bush for much smaller deficits. Excerpt: White House budget director Peter Orszag played down the grim forecast as unsurprising, saying the update merely brings White House projections in line with those of outside experts. He noted that this year's deficit is now expected to approach $1.6 trillion -- the highest on record and the biggest as a percentage of the economy since the end of World War II, but slightly smaller than officials had feared. Still, with town hall meetings across the country erupting with bitter complaints about rising federal spending and the fear of greater government intrusion into people's lives, the new projections are likely to complicate Obama's ambitious legislative agenda when Congress returns in September.

Federal budget numbers now stratospheric
http://www.kansascity.com/444/story/1405028.html
Excerpt: It's publicly held debt is projected by the White House budget office to total a whopping $17.5 trillion by 2019 - a figure so big it is three-quarters of the nation's entire economy - and big enough that it would send Reagan's stack of thousand-dollar bills into satellite orbit.

Obama's 09 deficit exceeds all eight years of Bush red ink
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Obamas-09-deficit-exceeds-all-eight-years-of-Bush-red-ink-54801777.html
But who cares? Democrats have the usual answer: Bush made him do it.

Debt Clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Dear Foreign Minister Bildt
http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/harris/entry/dear_foreign_minister_bildt_posted
Excerpt: As you know well, a leading newspaper in your country, Sweden, earlier this month published an article alleging that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians to harvest their organs.

Why Is Obama Dissing Doctors?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/08/25/kevin-mccullough-obama-doctors-health/
Excerpt: There he was again with the profit motive. Only this time he was actually making the argument that the doctor would be so malevolent as to allow the diabetic in question to purposefully worsen the condition, just to cash in. I cannot repeat this strongly enough--his willingness to view doctors with such contempt and disrespect sickens me, as it should every medical practitioner in the nation. As best as I can tell there is no other industry that swears to the ideals of such a lofty vision as is found in the Hippocratic Oath.

The Health Care Quiz
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/20/health.care.quiz/index.html
I was 7/8.

Three Reasons Why Government Can't Run Health Care
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=33275
Excerpt: What if your husband had come home last Friday night and announced that he had racked up almost 30 percent more debt on the family credit card - including the mortgage and car loans - than he had told you about just a month ago? Would you trust him to go out and start spending money to remodel the kitchen? And do you think he could get a loan to do it? But that's exactly what the Obama Administration did with their weekend news dump. They announced late Friday that the amount of money they don't have but are nonetheless planning on spending over the next ten years isn't the astonishing $7 trillion they estimated in May but is instead an astounding $9 trillion. Add this to the fact that, after the administration sold its health care reform proposal on the grounds that it will reduce costs to the Treasury, the independent Congressional Budget Office determined that the House plan will actually cost an astounding $1 trillion-$1.5 trillion in the next ten years, which will be added directly to the federal debt. The director of the CBO testified before Congress last month that "[i]n the legislation that has been reported we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount. And on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs."

Suggestion from a blog reader
Your articles are great, and they are making the E-mail circuit. However, while these things may be inspiring, are they effective? What sort of action are they provoking? This is a humble but positive suggestion that might gain traction if you included it on your website. Those of us opposed to "OBAMACARE" are sending BAND AIDS with a big "NO" on it to the president, and members of congress. They would have to take note if they were buried in band aids. Just feel the need to overtly express my dissent. This was the only means I found. If you have a better idea, my ears are open. How can we stop this rape of our freedom, by a band of thieves? We are looking at pure evil. It is frightening. I have never been near a gun, but I find myself thinking about being helpless if violence breaks out. These people play rough. What would I do if confronted?

Ozone-Friendly Chemical Said to be Causing Global Warming
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18367
Excerpt: This latest research highlights the potential unintended consequences of government regulation, and it further supports the position that drastic measures to curb greenhouse-gas emissions are premature, insofar as research is ongoing and current questions remain unanswered and new questions emerge. As an alternative to hasty, sweeping, climate-fighting mandates and regulations, a better approach is to take whatever time is necessary to continue important research and gather the information that will put us in a better position to protect the environment and consumers.

Global Warming Hard Data in Charts
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/rutanagwdataanalysis.pdf

What Will They Learn?
http://townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2009/08/26/what_will_they_learn
Excerpt: ACTA conducted research to see whether 100 major institutions require seven key subjects: English composition, literature, foreign language, U.S. government or history, economics, mathematics and science. What ACTA found was found was alarming, reporting that "Even as our students need broad-based skills and knowledge to succeed in the global marketplace, our colleges and universities are failing to deliver. Topics like U.S. government or history, literature, mathematics, and economics have become mere options on far too many campuses. Not surprisingly, students are graduating with great gaps in their knowledge -- and employers are noticing."

Obama's Plan to Desecrate 9/11
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/08/24/obamas-plan-to-desecrate-911/print
Excerpt: The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry. This effort to reshape the American psyche has nothing to do with healing the nation and everything to do with easing the nation along in the ongoing radical transformation of America that President Obama promised during last year's election campaign. The president signed into law a measure in April that designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service, but it's not likely many lawmakers thought this meant that day was going to be turned into a celebration of ethanol, carbon emission controls, and radical community organizing.

Rangel lowballed net worth by half
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Rangel-lowballed-net-worth-by-half--54864837.html
Excerpt: House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., has amended his 2007 financial disclosure forms, adding hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously undisclosed assets. The news was first reported on the Website of Congressional Quarterly earlier today. The site reports that Rangel filed an amended financial disclosure statement earlier this month to include $250,000 in a Congressional Federal Credit Union, "land in southern New Jersey and stock in PepsiCo and fast food conglomerate Yum! Brands," CQ reports. The amended report doubles Rangel's net worth reported in the original form filed in 2008. Rangel holds the gavel of the House tax writing panel. He is under investigation by the House ethics committee for failing to pay back taxes and suspicion of engaging in a pay-for-play scheme involving donations to a school named after him. Ethics is also probing a trip Rangel took to the Caribbean with other members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Democrats put a fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus in charge of the Caribbean investigation. (He’ll get a pass. Democrats will tolerate any level of corruption in black politicians rather than offend black voters. See “Sen. Roland Burris” and many others.)

The 'burqa robberies': Man clad in Muslim garment and armed with an axe steals £150,000 designer watches
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209006/Jewellers-robbery-Oxfordshire-burka-clad-man--150-000-designer-watches-stolen.html
Excerpt: Staff at the shop told police the offenders, including the one wearing the burkha, were all male.The other two were wearing dark clothing and had their faces covered. All are thought to be Asian. (British PC speak for Pakistanis) The incident is the latest in a spate of 'burqa robberies' where thieves conceal their identity with the full-body garment typically worn by Muslim women.