Political Digest April 2, 2010

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.

Book Recommendation
I’ve just read the latest edition of Applied Economics by Dr. Thomas Sowell, an internationally-known economist, with updates from recent events in politics and the economy. It’s written for the general public, so is easy to read and understand, but is very helpful on understanding why things have happened as they have—or will happen. I think you’ll find the 50 pages on the economics of healthcare worth the price. The sections on the housing crisis, the economics of slavery and the economics of discrimination were also quite interesting. Sowell preaches “Stag Two” thinking, pushing readers to think beyond the immediate to the longer term effects of political and economic decisions.

America's Quiet Anger
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/03/30/americas-quiet-anger
Excerpt: There is a quiet anger boiling in America. It is the anger of millions of hard-working citizens who pay their bills, send in their income taxes, maintain their homes and repay their mortgage loans -- and see their government reward those who do not. It is the anger of small town and Middle American folks who have never been to Manhattan, who put their savings in a community bank and borrow from a local credit union, who watch Washington lawmakers and presidents of both parties hand billions in taxpayer bailouts to the reckless Wall Street titans who brought down the economy in 2008. It is the fury of the voiceless, the powerless, the ordinary nobodies of Flyover Country who are ridiculed, preached to, satirized and insulted by the Celebrity Loudmouths of the two Left Coasts, the Jon Stewarts and Keith Olbermanns, the Paul Krugmans and their ilk. It is the salted wound of the millions who see that ruling Democrats in Congress are not listening to them but are willfully ignoring public opinion and the verdict of recent elections in passing a huge new health care entitlement when the existing entitlements of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are already going broke.
It is the frustrating helplessness of citizens who revere the Founding Fathers and the genius of the Constitution that they wrote, who actually believe the words of the Constitution mean what they say, not more and not less. They who watch politicians and the courts stretch and bend that Constitution -- finding "rights" not enumerated, powers never granted, meanings unimagined -- believe that their country is being redefined without their consent.

The Politics Behind the Pink Ribbon
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27283197/
Based on dollars spent per death on research, some people’s lives are worth ten times what others lives are worth. Excerpt: In the world of cancer charities and government funding, breast cancer is queen. The top four breast cancer charities take in a combined annual revenue of roughly $256 million according to their tax returns. The largest breast cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, had a total revenue of $161,974,711 for the year ending March 31, 2007 according to its tax return. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) devoted $572.4 million researching breast cancer in 2007. Other National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for breast cancer boosted the total spent on the disease to $705 million. Plus, the Department of Defense operates its own breast cancer research outfit at a cost of another $138 million in fiscal 2008. By way of comparison, in 2007 the NCI spent $226.9 million studying lung cancer, the leading cancer killer in the U.S., and $73.3 million studying pancreatic cancer, which kills nearly as many patients as breast cancer, usually within a year of diagnosis. Cardiovascular disease, the biggest killer of both men and women, received $381 million.

Obama On Health Care Victory: "It Is A Critical First Step"
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/03/30/obama_on_health_care_victory_it_is_a_critical_first_step.html?utm_source=Illinois+Policy+Institute&utm_campaign=5b20a204ab-March+4%2C+2010+E-letter&utm_medium=email
What, is there still some life in the private sector? Gotta kill that goose to get the eggs. Excerpt: President Barack Obama: "I think it is a critical first step in making a health care system that works for all Americans. It is not going to be the only thing." 9Did I mention the system is going to collapse in fiscal ruin?)

Democrat Congressman Johnson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNZczIgVXjg
Is very worried that the Island of Guam may “tip over” if you put more people there. These people are making decisions about our future. The Admiral deserves a medal for not cracking up.

When Jason Met Jim
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/04/01/video-when-jason-met-jim/?print=1
Excerpt: There is some truth in Moran’s statement, but it’s still a ridiculous dodge. We’re not talking about a few rounded-up pennies that didn’t get tracked properly. We’re talking about $6.4 billion dollars that wound up being reported to non-existent CDs like VA-12. That’s $6,400,000,000, which is more than what Democrats claimed as revenue from revoking that tax credit for employers who kept retirees on their prescription drug plans. As I wrote at the time, it wouldn’t have taken a database genius to devise an entry system that tested for that kind of bad data, and in the meantime it meant that billions of dollars couldn’t be tracked. Calling that a “clerical error” is rather jaw-dropping, considering the fortune that went untracked as a result. Moran’s aide at the end affirmed the obvious: Jason made his point … which is probably why Moran’s other aides had to restrain the Congressman. Kudos to those aides for handling that situation about as well as they could.

Rove on Leno: More Evidence That The Worm Has Turned…
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/03/31/rove-on-leno-more-evidence-that-the-worm-has-turned/
Excerpt: I’m beginning to see some new and encouraging signs that the public is getting hip to the truth about President Barack Obama and his real agenda for America. An interesting one occurred Monday night when Karl Rove appeared on The Tonight Show. Rove freely spoke his mind about ObamaCare, and each time the audience responded with applause. The first time Leno brought the subject up, he said that he didn’t like it and that it was “bad for the country” which drew immediate applause. Later in the conversation, Rove said it would bankrupt the country, which also drew applause. Not once did I hear a single “Boo” out of the audience. Considering how Rove was treated by the media during the Bush administration, I was frankly surprised that he was welcomed on a major network talk show in the first place, although I don’t think he would have been treated anywhere near as respectfully by Letterman as he was by Leno. Another interesting sign was an article in yesterday’s NY Times entitled: “CNN Fails to Stop Fall in Ratings”. The article reports that Sean Hannity’s ratings are almost 4 times as high as Larry King’s, and I checked a few TV ratings sites, & confirmed that the top 10 cable shows are ALL on Fox.

Prescriptions for Disaster Now Covered Under Obamacare
http://townhall.com/columnists/AnnCoulter/2010/03/31/prescriptions_for_disaster_now_covered_under_obamacare
Excerpt: On the "Today" show this Tuesday, President Obama claimed the massive government takeover of health care the Democrats passed without a single Republican vote was a "middle of the road" bill that incorporated many Republican ideas. One Republican idea allegedly incorporated into the Democrats' health care monstrosity is "medical malpractice reform." Needless to say, the Democrats' idea of malpractice reform is less than nothing. Until trial lawyers are screaming bloody murder, there has been no medical malpractice reform. The Democrats' "malpractice" section merely encourages the states to set up commissions to "study" tort reform, in the sense that frustrated mothers "encourage" their kids not to slouch. By "study," the Democrats mean "ignore."

Poll: Majority says Dem health care tactics an 'abuse of power'
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Poll-Majority-says-Dem-health-care-tactics-an-abuse-of-power-89624142.html
Excerpt: A new Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans believes Democrats abused their power by using procedural shortcuts and controversial parliamentary tactics to pass the new national health care makeover. And in a striking finding, slightly more people blame the Democrats' tactics than Republican criticism for the threats of violence and vandalism that were reported after the bill's passage. The poll asked, "Regardless of whether you favored or opposed the health care legislation Congress passed this past week, do you think the methods the Democratic leaders in Congress used to get enough votes to pass this legislation were an abuse of power or were an appropriate use of power by the party that controls the majority in Congress?" The results: 53 percent say the Democrats' methods were an abuse of power, while 40 percent say they were appropriate. Breaking down the results by party, 86 percent of Republicans say the Democrats abused their power, while 58 percent of independents agree. Nineteen percent of Democrats say their own leaders abused their power, while 70 percent say Democratic methods were appropriate.

We’re Learning ‘The Chicago Way’: Union Thugs Won’t Intimidate Anonymously Anymorehttp://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=12624
Excerpt: Over the past two days, BigGovernment.com has been exposing the identities of members of IBEW Local 357 who taunted, harassed, intimidated and threw eggs at peaceful Tea Party protestors in Harry Reid’s hometown of Searchlight, Nevada last weekend. This could signal in important turning point in citizen journalism and the use of the internet and social media to reveal the truth about an important dynamic in American Politics

School to Bill Ayers: Thanks but no thanks!: Radical’s appearance at university canceled
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=12615
Excerpt: A scheduled appearance at the University of Wyoming by former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers, a close associate for years to President Obama, has been canceled over concerns the result could be damaging to the school. “The University of Wyoming is one of the few institutions remaining in today’s environment that garners the confidence of the public. The visit by Professor Ayers would have adversely impacted that reputation,” said Tom Buchanan, president of the school, in a statement today. Ayers had been on the calendar to appear at the Laramie, Wyo., school on Monday. A public lecture was to have been held in the Education Auditorium in an event to be sponsored by the UW Social Justice Research Center.

Election Theft Underway in Wisconsin
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/04/election_theft_underway_in_wis.html
Excerpt: The far left has taken over the Democratic Party, and is aggressive changing the rules so as to entrench itself in power, regardless of the will of the people. The same Alinskyite mentality that rammed through ObamaCare. Rules are what you make the other guy live up to. ("We make ‘em up as we go along.") Now, with the same anti-transparency approach used on ObamaCare, Wisconsin Democrats plan to close down scrutiny while they tailor election practices to benefit themselves.

Is a State-Based Recall of a U.S. Senator Constitutional?
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/04/is_a_statebased_recall_of_a_us.html
Excerpt: Recall of elected officials is a powerful remedy that is seldom used. This does not diminish its importance in those rare instances when the voters heartily disapprove of the conduct of an elected official after he or she has taken office and has a track record. Impeachment of presidents is a dire remedy that also has rarely been used. That is no argument that it should not exist.

The Hutarees: Exposure and Vulnerability
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100331_hutarees_exposure_and_vulnerability?utm_source=SWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=100401&utm_content=readmore&elq=459147bebb594e67a6825040a7c11ef1
Interesting analysis from StratFor.

Iran on a roll
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/27/the-iranian-regime-thinks-it-is-on-a-roll-without-/print/
Excerpt: Now the regime has won new allies in its effort to crush the opposition: the governments of Belgium and Germany, and Interpol, the International police organization based in Lyons, France.

Terrorist vs. Terrorist: Bad-guy fratricide in AfPak http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/terrorist_vs_terrorist_0tTc4sE48r30J0dFnc4reK#ixzz0joWqum87
Good news if accurate. Excerpt: As an intelligence officer or journalist, you've got to know which sources you can trust. And a source who's never let me down told me yesterday that the terrorist multinational based in Pakistan is coming apart. According to this insider's insider, the Pakistan-headquartered Afghan Taliban is furious at the Taliban's Pakistani wing because its assaults on the Islamabad government triggered a stunning backlash.

U.S. Frigate Makes Short Work Of Five Pirates In Indian Ocean
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/04/us_frigate_makes_short_work_of.html
Go Navy! Excerpt: Pirates in the Indian Ocean west of the Seychelles appear to have chosen the wrong ship to fire on very early this morning. It was the USS Nicholas, a U.S. Navy frigate and in less than three hours it had captured five pirates, sunk their skiff and confiscated their "mother ship." (Now for the drum-head court martial and the hangings….)

Lady Gaga Versus Mideast Peace
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052702304370304575151541851806562.html
Excerpt: Pop quiz—What does more to galvanize radical anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world: (a) Israeli settlements on the West Bank; or (b) a Lady Gaga music video?
If your answer is (b) it means you probably have a grasp of the historical roots of modern jihadism. If, however, you answered (a), then congratulations: You are perfectly in synch with the new Beltway conventional wisdom, now jointly defined by Pat Buchanan and his strange bedfellows within the Obama administration. What is that wisdom? In a March 26 column in Human Events, Mr. Buchanan put the case with his usual subtlety: "Each new report of settlement expansion," he wrote, "each new seizure of Palestinian property, each new West Bank clash between Palestinians and Israeli troops inflames the Arab street, humiliates our Arab allies, exposes America as a weakling that cannot stand up to Israel, and imperils our troops and their mission in Afghanistan and Iraq."…. In his 1951 essay "The America I Have Seen," Qutb gave his account of the U.S. "in the scale of human values." "I fear," he wrote, "that a balance may not exist between America's material greatness and the quality of her people." Qutb was particularly exercised by what he saw as the "primitiveness" of American values, not least in matters of sex.
"The American girl," he noted, "knows seductiveness lies in the round breasts, the full buttocks, and in the shapely thighs, sleek legs and she shows all this and does not hide it." Nor did he approve of Jazz—"this music the savage bushmen created to satisfy their primitive desires"—or of American films, or clothes, or haircuts, or food. It was all, in his eyes, equally wretched. Qutb's disdain for America's supposedly libertine culture would not matter much were it not wedded to a kind of theological Leninism that emphasized the necessity of violently overthrowing any political arrangement not based on Shariah law. No less violent was Qutb's attitude toward Jews: "The war the Jews began to wage against Islam and Muslims in those early days [of Islamic history]," he wrote in the 1950s, "has raged to the present. The form and appearance may have changed, but the nature and the means remain the same."

Inmates Say Prisons Violate Rights
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Terrorism-Criminals-Sue-For-Not-Getting-Enough-Quality-Time-With-Pals--89597602.html
I suppose 24/7 would be enough? Every time you accede to a Muslim demand, you get….another demand. I won’t be contributing to the CCR anytime soon. Excerpt: A group of 60 to 70 Muslim prisoners in highly restrictive jail programs, in Terre Haute, Indiana and Marion, Illinois are suing because they don't get enough time to visit with family and friends. The suit, brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights claims the prisoner's constitutional rights are being violated at the "Communications Management Units," a set of experimental prison facilities.

UK conference on Islam in Italy boasts of coming Islamic conquest
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/03/uk-conference-on-islam-in-italy-boasts-of-coming-islamic-conquest.html
Excerpt: Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, is said to have predicted the Islamic conquest first of Constantinople ("the city of Heraclius" below) and then of Rome. An Islamic conference to be held in London on April 10 boasts about what the conference organizers see as the looming fulfillment of the second part of that prophecy: the Islamic conquest of Rome. But remember: if you speak about Islamic supremacism and the global jihad aspiration to impose Sharia over the world, you're an "Islamophobe"!

Do Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton know what's going on in the Chittagong Hills? If they did, would they care?
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/03/fitzgerald-do-barack-obama-and-hillary-clinton-know-whats-going-on-in-the-chittagong-hills-if-they-d.html
If you mention Muslim genocide, you are an Islamophobe! Excerpt: If you visit this site every day, you know that there are three kinds of news stories related to or about Islam. There are the stories that, within a day or a week, will make it to the New York Times, and NPR, albeit in less intelligible and often tendentious form. Then there are the stories that only appear months later, and you can't quite figure out why it takes so long for the editors at The New York Times or the Washington Post to recognize the significance of such Jihad News. And finally, there is a third kind of story, the kind of story that you read here, that appeared in places quite obscure, and that you will never read again, unless the story put up here is publicized so that others who write online pick it up and force the major news organizations to start reporting about such things. Here, for example, are two stories about what took place in the Chittagong Hills of Bangladesh recently. The Chittagong Hills (or "Chittagong Hill Tract") have for centuries been lived in by the indigenous Jumma people, who are the last remaining indigenous Buddhists (the Tibetan refugees not being "indigenous") on the entire subcontinent, though it was in India that Gautama Buddha was born and Buddhism first flourished. In 1947, at the time of Partition, 85% of the population was Buddhist and 10% Hindu. Now, in 2010, 50% are Buddhist and 48% are Muslim settlers…….. Five groups of ethnic minorities have demanded a probe into violence by Muslim settlers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh. The leaders of the affected communities, who are Buddhists, have made the request to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Office. In a memorandum, they sought a 'people's inquiry commission' to investigate the violent attacks in Rangamati and Khagrachari districts and the arrest of the attackers.

Medvedev Calls for ‘Brutal’ Anti-Terror Measures After Bombings
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-01/medvedev-calls-for-brutal-anti-terror-measures-after-bombings.html
Maybe we should outsource the War on Terror to Russia? Excerpt: President Dmitry Medvedev made a surprise visit to Russia’s southern Dagestan region, where 14 people have died in bomb blasts in the last two days, and called for stepping up the war on terror. “We’ve twisted off the heads of the most odious thugs, but clearly that’s not enough,” Medvedev said during a security meeting in the regional capital Makhachkala. “We’ll find them all in a timely manner and we’ll punish them all,” he said in comments broadcast on state television. “That’s the only way.”

Belgium places ban on burqas in public
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=172150
How will they modestly hide their bombs?

Red Horse
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/red-horse.htm
Terrific pictures from Afghanistan.

Des Plaines Casino Names
The local weekly is soliciting suggested names for the new casino they are starting to build a stones’ throw from my office building. To be helpful, I submitted several:

Bet the Rent Resort

Congestion Casino (to honor the coming traffic problems)

The Suckers’ Centre

The House That Always Wins

The Bankruptcy Betting Boutique

The Bad-at-Math Betting Emporium

One Born Every Minute Casino

Come Make Us Rich Casino

Double Down and Sleep in the Park Casino

More Losers Than Winners Casino

Saving is for Stiffs Casino

Gambling Addicts Unanimous Casino