Political Digest June 1, 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. Nor that I disagree with them, of course.

Going Galt: When Will Surgeons Say Enough is Enough?
http://www.vimeo.com/11378278
Worth watching. Long but powerful video by a surgeon, suggesting that there will be a backlash to ObamaCare that was not anticipated. Details concerns from the medical profession about ObamaCare.

Paperwork results in wasted work for doctors, insurers and patients
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2010/05/paperwork-results-wasted-work-doctors-insurers-patients.html#more-44214
Excerpt: Yet I readily admit I’m hard put to figure out what’s been done to whom. And a good part of the reason is that the insurers and the HRA do not report services or payments — mine or theirs — using the same terminology. Nor do they always reflect the terminology used on the billing forms my doctors use. I’ve got to believe that simplification would help. Other people believe the same thing. We published an article last week about a study that detailed the monetary savings that could accrue by using a standardized claim form and a single set of submission and payment rules for all health plans. The number: $7 billion. And that doesn’t count the psychic savings. Two sentences in that report stood out in my mind: “For non-Medicare payers, 12.6% of billed charges were denied on initial submission. After appeals, 81% of initial denials were eventually paid.” Think of all the wasted work implied by those numbers — for all parties in the equation.

In Afghan region, U.S. spreads the cash to fight the Taliban
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/30/AR2010053003722.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Excerpt: In this patch of southern Afghanistan, the U.S. strategy to keep the Taliban at bay involves an economic stimulus. Thousands of men, wielding hoes and standing in knee-deep muck, are getting paid to clean reed-infested irrigation canals. Farmers are receiving seeds and fertilizer for a fraction of their retail cost, and many are riding around on shiny new red tractors. Over the summer, dozens of gravel roads and grain-storage facilities will be constructed -- all of it funded by the U.S. government. Pumping reconstruction dollars into war zones has long been part of the U.S. counterinsurgency playbook, but the carpet bombing of Nawa with cash has resulted in far more money getting into local hands, far more quickly, than in any other part of Afghanistan. The U.S. Agency for International Development's agriculture program aims to spend upward of $30 million within nine months in this rural district of mud-walled homes and small farms. Other U.S. initiatives aim to bring millions more dollars to the area over the next year.

New records show some lobbyists are top fundraisers for political candidates
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/30/AR2010053003471.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Excerpt: For more than a decade, Brian L. Wolff was the quintessential Washington insider, serving as one of Rep. Nancy Pelosi's closest aides as she rose through the House and helping to raise millions as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. But the fundraising didn't stop once he left the DCCC. As a top lobbyist at the Edison Electric Institute, which represents major power companies in the climate debate, Wolff has bundled together more than $600,000 in contributions for the DCCC within the past year -- and he hopes to raise $2 million more for the committee by November. "It's my night job," Wolff said of his fundraising efforts. "It's something that's an investment for me and that's something I want to be able to help with. . . . I know the national base of the party, and they know me." Wolff is among nearly 160 registered lobbyists who have raised at least $9 million for political parties and federal candidates over the past year, according to a Washington Post analysis of records filed under new Federal Election Commission requirements.

Tea party could add to Republicans' numbers in Congress but shake up their unity http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/30/AR2010053003682.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Excerpt: What we know: If any or all of the tea party candidates are elected this fall, they will join a broadened group of Republican senators. Currently holding 41 seats, the GOP is well positioned to win seats being vacated by Democrats in North Dakota, Delaware, Illinois and Indiana. Most neutral observers expect the GOP to gain at least four seats in November; eight seats is generally regarded as the ceiling. Those likely gains would seem to be good news for the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell (Ky.). But the prospects of Paul, Angle and other "true believers" in the Senate will almost certainly make it more difficult for McConnell to assert the rigid voting discipline that GOP strategists credit with bringing Republicans back from the brink of political extinction over the past 18 months. "It's hard to imagine, if elected, they could be 'controlled' by Mitch McConnell or anyone else," Republican strategist John Weaver said of the tea party candidates. "And perhaps that isn't a bad thing. Control and moving away from party orthodoxy on spending issues and competence is what gave impetus to the tea party movement."

Euro falls as Spain’s credit rating plunges
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?=14967
I anticipated and have been predicting the economic collapse of socialist Europe. But I didn’t anticipate it this soon, or that it would drag us into the abyss with it. Excerpt: The euro plunged and US stock markets dived last night after Spain was stripped of its top-level credit rating by a leading rating agency over concerns about its economic growth. In the latest blow to the eurozone, which is struggling to cope with the fallout from the Greek fiscal crisis, Fitch Ratings downgraded Spain’s sovereign credit rating — a measure of how easily it can meet the interest payment on its debt — by a notch from the top AAA rating to AA+. Standard & Poor’s, another ratings agency, downgraded Spain’s rating for the second time to AA last month but Moody’s, the other leading agency, has maintained the rating at AAA. Any downgrade in a sovereign credit rating will push up the interest that a country must pay on its debts. Brian Coulton, Fitch’s head of EMEA sovereign ratings, said that the process of cutting the country’s debt could slow economic growth.

What the MSM Didn’t Tell You About Holder and the Police Chiefs
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=14965
Excerpt: As if we needed one, here’s another item showing bias in the way the mainstream media covers the controversial Arizona illegal immigration law. Many major news organizations, including, MSNBC, CNN, and USA Today for example, covered a story about a group of Police Chiefs who met with A.G. Eric Holder to register their objections to the Arizona law……At first glance this all seems like a perfectly normal news story, but there was a very important piece of information left out: the meeting was arraigned by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) and the police chiefs attending the meeting were members of PERF. (Holder is an “old friend of PERF, he addressed their convention in April) . In the rare cases where a news organization mentioned the PERF connection (the NPR story referenced above is the only one I could find) they neglected to mention that PERF is an organization that objects to any enforcement of immigration laws directed at the illegal alien (as opposed to an employer who hires illegals). The Forum describes itself as a “national organization of progressive police executives.”

University shields climate scientist with legal delay tactic
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/23696
Excerpt: The legal ramifications from Climategate rumble on. As expected, the university accused of shielding a climate scientist from a fraud probe finally shows its legal cards. Accused by climate skeptics as apologists for scientific misconduct the University of Virginia’s (UVA) petition has been duly served on Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli. The writ is to protect discredited climate scientist, Michael Mann from a possible fraud prosecution. Naturally, the legal writ opposes Cuccinelli’s demand for disclosure of what may be important hidden climate data withheld by that once impeachable institution. But buried within the legal papers is a potentially cynical delay tactic. Filed on May 27, 2010, UVA’s attorneys make a thin case; they cite little or no legal precedents; hardly surprising when there are few, if any similar cases in the annals of Virginia’s case law.

16 killed as Israel storms Gaza aid boat
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/suddenly_chic_RFySb7KZobSLe6g2LyT8vI
Excerpt: As many as 16 people were killed today when the Israeli navy intercepted a convoy of aid ships bound for Gaza. Up to 50 were wounded. Gaza's Al-Aqsa television showed footage of Israeli commandos descending from helicopters and clashing with activists, as well as images of wounded people lying on the deck of one of the six vessels carrying supplies for the blockaded Hamas-controlled territory. Israeli Trade and Industry Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer expressed sorrow over the deaths, saying, "The images are certainly not pleasant. I can only voice regret at all the fatalities." The reports of the incident aboard the Turkish vessel set off protests in Ankara, where mobs of stone-throwing demonstrators tried to storm the Israeli Consulate.

Flotillas and the Wars of Public Opinion
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100531_flotillas_and_wars_public_opinion?utm_source=GWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=100531&utm_content=readmore&elq=a929a0c5213e456cb0b9d1960952f8a5
Excerpt: On Sunday, Israeli naval forces intercepted the ships of a Turkish nongovernmental organization (NGO) delivering humanitarian supplies to Gaza. Israel had demanded that the vessels not go directly to Gaza but instead dock in Israeli ports, where the supplies would be offloaded and delivered to Gaza. The Turkish NGO refused, insisting on going directly to Gaza. Gunfire ensued when Israeli naval personnel boarded one of the vessels, and a significant number of the passengers and crew on the ship were killed or wounded. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon charged that the mission was simply an attempt to provoke the Israelis. That was certainly the case. The mission was designed to demonstrate that the Israelis were unreasonable and brutal. The hope was that Israel would be provoked to extreme action, further alienating Israel from the global community and possibly driving a wedge between Israel and the United States. The operation’s planners also hoped this would trigger a political crisis in Israel. A logical Israeli response would have been avoiding falling into the provocation trap and suffering the political repercussions the Turkish NGO was trying to trigger. Instead, the Israelis decided to make a show of force. The Israelis appear to have reasoned that backing down would demonstrate weakness and encourage further flotillas to Gaza, unraveling the Israeli position vis-à-vis Hamas. In this thinking, a violent interception was a superior strategy to accommodation regardless of political consequences. Thus, the Israelis accepted the bait and were provoked.

PM Netanyahu Expresses Full Backing for the IDF
http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=48216
Our troops must envy the support the IDF gets from their leaders. Excerpt: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today (Monday), 31.5.10, spoke by telephone with the relevant security ministers and officials, and was updated on the action and subsequent developments. In his discussions with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, Minister Moshe Yaalon, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi and ISA Director Yuval Diskin, the Prime Minister issued security, diplomatic and information directives, reiterated his full backing for the IDF and inquired about the well-being of the wounded.

Close Up Footage of Mavi Marmara Passengers Attacking IDF Soldiers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYjkLUcbJWo
Excerpt: Video taken by IDF naval boat shows the passengers of the Mavi Marmara, one of the ships in the 'Free Gaza' Flotilla, violently attacking IDF soldiers who were trying to board the ship after having sent repeated requests for the boat to change course. Large groups of passengers surrounded soldiers and beat them with metal poles and chairs, and threw one soldier over the side of the ship. Some passengers grabbed pistols from the IDF soldiers and opened fire. As a result of the attacks, seven IDF soldiers were injured, and nine of the passengers were killed. The 'Free Gaza' Flotilla had publicly insisted on their non-violent intentions, however their violent attack on the IDF soldiers was clearly premeditated. They had knives, metal rods, firebombs and other items ready to use.

Useful Idiots Condemn Israel
http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2010/05/useful-idiots-condemn-israel.html
Excerpt: The flotilla was organized by the Islamist government in Turkey to aid Hamas with the goal of opening up shipping channels for Turkey's new friend, Iran, to ship more and better weapons as it is doing to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran is busy turning Lebanon and Syria into one large missile launching pad against Israel, and a southern base in Gaza will complete the encirclement of Israel for the coming crisis over Iran's nuclear program. The Europeans on the ships were cover, and the placement of an 18-month old child on these ships was the utmost cynical use of a human shield. If getting humanitarian supplies to Gaza really was the goal, this flotilla was not necessary. The supplies would have been off-loaded in Eqypt or Israel and then shipped in by land after being checked for hidden weapons. And that is the rub, only sea-based shipping would provide Iran with the mechanism for almost unlimited armament of Hamas. There is a limit to the quantity and size of missiles and other armaments which can be smuggled through tunnels from Egypt. That is why the sea blockade must be broken for Iran to get what it wants.

Israel to deploy nuclear-armed submarines off Iran coast
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-israel-to-deploy-nuclear-armed-submarines-off-iran-coast-1.293005
Excerpt: Israel is to deploy three submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles in the Persian Gulf, the Sunday Times reported on Sunday. According to the Times report, one submarine had been sent over Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran, and in the possession of Syria and Hezbollah, could be used to hit strategic sites within Israel, such as air bases and missile launchers. Dolphin, Tekuma, and Leviathan, all German-made Dolphin class submarines of the 7th navy Flotilla, have been reported as frequenting the Gulf in the past, however, according to the Sunday Times report, this new deployment is meant to ensure a permanent naval presence near the Iranian coastline. (If dealing with a rational opponent, this could be a very smart move. The Israelis obviously want the Iranians to be aware they are present, as they could have snuck around Africa and entered the Red Sea covertly. Only problem is, Iran may not be rational. Pray this is not a miscalculation of epic proportions. -Ron P.)

U.S. to Aid South Korea With Naval Defense Plan
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/world/asia/31koreanavy.html?om_rid=Mqh-D0&om_mid=_BMA7D0B8Krq1QL&
Excerpt: The discovery of the weaknesses in South Korea caught officials in both countries off guard. As South Korea has rocketed into the ranks of the world’s top economies, it has invested billions of dollars to bolster its defenses and to help refine one of the oldest war plans in the Pentagon’s library: a joint strategy with the United States to repel and defeat a North Korean invasion. But the shallow waters where the attack occurred are patrolled only by South Korea’s navy, and South Korean officials confirmed in interviews that the sinking of the warship, the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors, revealed a gap that the American military must help address. The United States — pledged to defend its ally but stretched thin by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — would be drawn into any conflict. But it has been able to reduce its forces on the Korean Peninsula by relying on South Korea’s increased military spending. Senior Pentagon officials stress that firepower sent to the region by warplanes and warships would more than compensate for the drop in American troop levels there in the event of war. But the attack was evidence, the officials say, of how North Korea has compensated for the fact that it is so bankrupt that it can no longer train its troops or buy the technology needed to fight a conventional war. So it has instead invested heavily in stealthy, hard-to-detect technologies that can inflict significant damage, even if it could not win a sustained conflict.

Seeing a fallen soldier home: Gratitude should be foremost in American hearts and minds
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/28/seeing-a-fallen-soldier-home/
Excerpt: His name was Marine Lance Cpl. Justin Wilson - although I did not know it when his life brushed mine on March 25 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Lance Cpl. Wilson was not there in the terminal that afternoon; at age 24 and newly married, he had been killed in Afghanistan on March 22 by a roadside bomb. A coincidence of overbooked flights led our lives to intersect for perhaps an hour, one I will never forget. I did not meet his family that day at the airport, either, although we were there together that evening at the gate, among the crowd hoping to board the oversold flight. I did not know that I had a boarding pass and they did not. I did not know they were trying to get home to hold his funeral, having journeyed to Dover, Del., to meet his casket upon its arrival from Afghanistan. I also did not know that they already had been stuck for most of the day in another airport because of other oversold flights. But I did not need to know this to realize what they were going through as the event unfolded and to understand the larger cause for it. No matter how we as a nation have relearned the lesson forgotten during Vietnam - that our military men and women and their families deserve all the support we can give them - despite our nation's fighting two wars in this decade, it is all too easy for most of us to live our lives without having the very great human cost of those wars ever intrude. But it did intrude heartbreakingly that day at the airport gate. It began simply enough, with the usual call for volunteers: Anyone willing to take a later flight would receive a $500 flight voucher. Then came the announcement none of us was prepared to hear. There was, the airline representative said, a family on their way home from meeting their son's body as it returned from Afghanistan, and they needed seats on the flight. And there they were, standing beside her, looking at us, waiting to see what we would decide. It wasn't a hard decision for me; my plans were easily adjusted. I volunteered, as did two women whom I later learned sacrificed important personal plans. But we three were not enough: Six were needed. So we stood there watching the family - dignified and mute, weighed with grief and fatigue - as the airline representative repeatedly called for assistance for this dead soldier's family. No one else stepped forward. The calls for volunteers may have lasted only 20 or 30 minutes, but it seemed hours. It was almost unbearable to watch, yet to look away was to see the more than 100 other witnesses to this tragedy who were not moved to help. Then it did become unbearable when, in a voice laced with desperation and tears, the airline representative pleaded, "This young man gave his life for our country, can't any of you give your seats so his family can get home?" Those words hung in the air. Finally, enough volunteers stepped forward. I had trouble sleeping that night; I could not get out of my mind the image of the family or the voice pleading for them. When I met my fellow volunteers the next morning at the airport, I found I was not alone. One had gone home and cried, and another had awakened at 3 a.m.; all of us were angry and ashamed that our fellow passengers had not rushed to aid this soldier's family and consequently had forced them to be on public display in their grief. We worried that this indifference to their son's sacrifice added to their sorrow.

Rebel Against COIN
http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/1412/Admiral-Olson-Rebel-against-COIN.aspx
Excerpt: Finally, some high-ranking, active-duty, public pushback against the Petraeus-McChrystal-Mullen-Gates-Kilcullen-Bush-Obama world of COIN. From Defense News:
The U.S. military's counterinsurgency tactics increasingly place too much emphasis on protecting local peoples and not enough on fighting enemy forces, said U.S. Special Operations Command chief Adm. Eric Olson. While the U.S. military has adopted a population-focused strategy in Afghanistan, Olson said May 26 he "fears counterinsurgency has become a euphemism for nonkinetic activities." The term is now to often used to describe efforts aimed at "protecting populations," Olson said during a conference in Arlington, Va. The military's top special operator, in a shot across the bow of modern-day counterinsurgency doctrine proponents, then added: "Counterinsurgency should involve countering the insurgents." Olson also made clear he thinks U.S. laws give him the authority to craft and implement doctrine for America's special operators. Olson said doctrine is important for fighting wars, and "should be carefully written - but we should not fall in love with it." In a blunt statement, Olson called "COIN doctrine an oxymoron."

Obama: incompetent and ideological
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/obama_incompetent_and_ideological_xhY0m0S1zSF7YyLaK8WttJ
Not sure BO is to blame for all this, but karma for his blaming Bush for Katrina. Excerpt: 'Obama Struggling to Show He's in Control," reads the headline on The Washington Post's story on Barack Obama's Thursday press conference, where most of the questions were about the Gulf oil spill. "Defensive, unauthoritative and equivocal," wrote Congressional Quarterly's Craig Crawford of Obama's performance. "He came across as a beleaguered bureaucrat in damage control." Uh-oh. People, even people in the Obama-friendly press, are beginning to say that the oil spill is Obama's Katrina. That it destroys his reputation for competence.

Stories that could rock the summer
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37963.html
Excerpt: While voters may not completely tune in to the midterm election until after the Labor Day holiday, here are eight possible issues this summer that could play a role in reshaping the November landscape:

Immigrants and Socialists March Against SB 1070 in Phoenix
http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/immigrants-and-socialists-march-against.html
Excerpt: This is why I covered it. Reading the morning newspapers on yesterday's illegal immigrant march in Phoenix, you'd think it was just a nice outing for families to stand up against Arizona's SB 1070. But this was no weekend picnic. The event was more about revolution and reconquista than about "immigration reform." The Arizona Republic, CNN, and the New York Times all published blasé reports, riddled with inaccuracies and omissions. And check the screencap at yesterday's Los Angeles Times below. It's hard to find a better image that captures the media's pro-illegal immigration reporting: "A girl waits to join the march through downtown Phoenix." See how seemingly normal things appear. The editorial choices made by MSM functionaries are staggering sometimes:

When Masculine Virtues Go Out of Fashion
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/when_masculine_virtues_go_out.html
Excerpt: The culture war begun in the sixties has, in large part, been won by the left. Nowhere is this clearer than in the feminization of men. The virtues of manhood which had been extolled and celebrated throughout the middle ages right up to the 1950s have been completely expunged from academia and pop culture. The baby boom generation was the last to be taught the values of rugged individualism, risk-taking, courage, bravery, loyalty, and reverence for tradition. John Wayne epitomized the rugged individual who was committed to fighting "the bad guy," but he was only one of a whole host of competing figures cut out of the same cloth. What happened? (....) Edward Gibbon chronicles the increasing femininity of the Roman Empire in his six-volume work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He catalogues the progressive decadence that rendered the once-proud republic into spoils for barbarian hordes. The consuls in the early republic, who were warrior-generals adhering to a strict code of honor, gradually gave way to the backroom emperors who were no more than brazen criminals and thugs. It is the same script in all noble human enterprise: The fabric which bred success is torn apart by the complacency of the successful. When warfare is demonized as violence and negotiation is raised to an art, the end is near. Today, we are there. (Heinlein wrote: “No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops and, in the long run, no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons: “Come back with your shield, or on it.” Later on this custom declined. So did Rome.” –Ron P.)

Never Give Up Your Weapons
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/never_give_up_your_weapons.html
Excerpt: History demonstrates that destruction awaits those who attempt to placate their enemies by surrendering their weapons. In 149 BC, half a million citizens of Carthage tried to appease Rome by turning over their armaments. But instead of buying peace, they only facilitated their own destruction. Ninety percent of the Carthaginians were killed, and the city of Carthage was razed. Those who survived were sold into slavery, and Carthaginian civilization was forever wiped from the face of the earth.... Between 264 and 146 BC, Rome and Carthage fought three Punic Wars for control of the Mediterranean. The Romans were victorious in both the First and Second Punic Wars. At the close of the Second Punic War in 202 BC, Carthage was forced to pay Rome 200 talents of silver a year for fifty years. An additional term of peace was that Carthage was forbidden from waging war without Rome's permission. Consequently, Numidians in North Africa began to raid Carthage without fear of reprisal. When the Carthaginians begged Rome for permission to defend themselves, they were refused.

An American Anthem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRRXjk0mvcs