Political Digest December 14, 2009

I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree with every—or any—opinion in the posted article.

Healthcare Book Recommendation
I just finished The Innovator’s Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Healthcare by Clayton M. Christenson. Uses Harvard Business School models of changes in other industries that if applied to healthcare would fix a great deal of the problems we have. You can read about it at Amazon. I wish everyone in the debate in Washington—both side—would read it.
http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Prescription-Disruptive-Solution-Health/dp/0071592083/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260680986&sr=8-1

Do nothing, Majority says
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=7502
Excerpt: While 41 percent of Americans want Congress to pass major health care reform legislation this year, a 54 percent majority says they would rather Congress “do nothing on health care for now,” up from 48 percent who felt that way in July. The poll finds that 57% of Americans oppose “the health care reform legislation being considered right now.” To be sure, this is Fox, which according to the White House is not a legitimate news organization because it reports the news even when it casts President Obama in a bad light. But a CNN poll found that an even bigger majority–61%–oppose the Senate’s version of the ObamaCare bill. The CNN.com story on the poll ignores this, focusing instead on the finding that Democrats have only a 1% lead, 40% to 39%, when survey participants are asked which party’s control of Congress would make the country better off. This is the slenderest advantage for the Dems since July 2002.

Andrew Klavan: My Way Into and Out of the Left
http://frontpagemag.com/2009/12/10/andrew-klavan-my-way-into-and-out-of-the-left-by-jamie-glazov/ Excellent interview with a recovering leftist.

The Climate Sceptics
http://www.climatesceptics.com.au/
(Aussie site. That’s how they spell it.) Check out their Power Point shows on the subject.

Al Gore and the Wizards of Climategate http://townhall.com/columnists/TomBorelli/2009/12/12/al_gore_and_the_wizards_of_climategate
Excerpt: In trying to minimize the importance of “ClimateGate,” Al Gore sounds like the Wizard of Oz, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" During a CNN interview, Gore downplayed the meaning of the emails at the center of the controversy by saying, “Well, they took a few phrases out of context. These are private e-mails, more than 10 years old, and they've tried to blow it up into something that it's really not." Like Dorothy’s dog Toto, the posting of emails and documents on the internet from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit has pulled back the green curtain on the secret world of leading climate scientists, exposing a disturbing pattern of apparent scientific misconduct. Most concerning, the scientists involved played a key role in the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the body responsible for producing the reports on global warming politicians use to justify mammoth interferences in the free market such as the Kyoto Treaty and cap-and-trade legislation.

The Battle for Kandahar
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/arghandab-the-battle-for-kandahar.htm
Excerpt: People are confused about the war. The situation is difficult to resolve even for those who are here. For most of us, the conflict remains out of focus, lacking reference of almost any sort. Vertigo leaves us seeking orientation from places like Vietnam—where most of us never have been. So sad are our motley pundits-cum-navigators that those who have never have been to Afghanistan or Vietnam shamelessly use one to reference the other. We saw this in Iraq.

Christian hoteliers received violent threats over Muslim guest 'insult' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/6796508/Christian-hoteliers-received-violent-threats-over-Muslim-guest-insult.html
Freedom of speech is dead in the UK, threatened here.

Love Jihad is real, says Kerala High Court
http://www.dailypioneer.com/221767/Love-Jihad-is-real-says-Kerala-High-Court.html
Excerpt: However, police reports themselves had made it clear that forced conversions through love affairs as a movement had been going on in Kerala since 1996. The judge said that the police reports had indicated that about 4,000 conversions had taken place through love affairs in the past four years, and 2,800 girls of other religions had undergone conversion into Islam in this period. He also said that 1,600 such conversions had taken place in four northern districts, including Malappuram, Kerala’s Muslim-majority district. It was evident from the report submitted by the DGP that outfits like Islamist Popular Front of India (earlier NDF) and its student wing, the Campus Front, were behind the organised campus-based conversion programme, said Justice Sankaran.

An Iranian military ultimatum to the regime? http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/12/an_iranian_military_ultimatum.html
Talk is cheap, but could get interesting. Excerpt: "The army is a haven for the nation and will never want to suppress the people at the request of politicians. We shall remain true to our promise not to intervene in politics. But we cannot remain silent when our fellow citizens are oppressed by tyranny." They go on: "Therefore, we warn the Guards who have betrayed the martyrs (from the war between Iran and Iraq) and who decided to attack the lives, the property and the honor of the citizens. We seriously warn them that if they do not leave their chosen path, they will be confronted with our tough response. The military is a haven for the nation. And we will defend the peace-loving Iranian nation against any aggression."

Petition to free the Navy Seals who are alleged to have given a murdering terrorist a fat lip http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34775

Army Officer Kills Al-Qaeda Operative, Imprisoned After Prosecutors Ignore Own Expert Witness
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=7540
Excerpt: Largely as a result of the prosecutors’ decisions, Army Ranger 1st Lt. Michael Behenna is now serving a 20-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth after being convicted by a seven-member court-martial panel of unpremeditated murder in the shooting death of Ali Mansur, a known Al-Qaeda operative.

Rasmussen: New Low for Obama
http://newsrealblog.com/2009/12/12/rasmussen-new-low-for-obama/
Excerpt: The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 25% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16. That’s the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President. The 25% who Strongly Approve matches the lowest level of enthusiasm yet recorded. That’s partly the result of declining enthusiasm among Democrats. While Democrats continue to offer their approval, just 43% Strongly Approve.

Andrew Breitbart Announces Launch of New “Big” Sites
http://www.mediaite.com/online/andrew-breitbart-launching-new-sites/
Excerpt: When Andrew Breitbart launched Big Government in September, we asked if he was gearing up to be the next Arianna Huffington: An opinion blog rainmaker with a one-stop digital powerhouse, but presented from the opposite end of the political spectrum. Three months later, hyperbole has become reality as Breitbart is adding to his network of vertical blogs. The newest site to join the Breitbart network is “Big Journalism,” which will launch in January of next year. His target is much bigger than HuffPo — or any other website for that matter. Breitbart is gunning for the institution of mainstream media, or what he calls “the Democratic-media complex.”

Graph: Government jobs vs. Manufacturing Jobs http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/12/graph_of_the_day_for_december_11.html

Judge Andrew Napolitano Natural rights Patriot Act
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n2m-X7OIuY
Good piece on the constitution. Worth seeing.

Biden: Dodd Is Getting ‘Living Bejesus’ Beaten Out Of Him
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=7524
Excerpt: “Chris is getting the living hell beat out of him, the living bejesus beat out of him,” Biden said, according to the pool report. “Why? Because he’s being a leader. This is going to be a hell of a race and it’s an uphill race, but Chris Dodd will prevail.”

Get out your wallet
http://gretawire.blogs.foxnews.com/get-out-your-wallet-2/
Excerpt: Just prior to the vote, Sen John McCain, R-AZ, demanded that President Obama veto the bill and send it back stripped of the so-called pork-barrel spending, something McCain noted that his 2008 presidential opponent promised to do. (Come on, John. Obama didn’t mean that anymore than his promise of transparency on healthcare reform. Just a promise to get the rubes to vote for him.)

Dems of Yore
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-1213vplettersbriefs3dec13,0,3670377.story
Great letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune: What happened to the Democratic Party? During the '40s and '50s, it stood for helping low- and middle-income citizens in finding jobs. It stood for patriotism and strong national defense. It stood for traditional values -- God, lending a hand to those in need and a strong economy through minimal taxation. It was the party of Harry Truman, who ended World War II and stood up to the communist Chinese in Korea. It was the party of JFK, who cut taxes to get an economy in recession moving again and backed down the Soviets in Cuba. Something happened in the '60s going forward. It gradually changed from the party of the traditional working man to the party of the post-modern victim. Its philosophy changed from its Judeo-Christian ethic to the Me First Party, highlighting any and all grievances and ever-expanding entitlements. It is the party of debt and taxation, the party of contempt of country and religion, the party of socialism. It is now the party of Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank and, yes, Barack Obama. No, this is not your father's Democratic Party anymore. -- Gary Ziolkowski, Crown Point, Ind.