Political Digest September 30, 2010

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


Random Thoughts by Thomas Sowell
http://patriotpost.us/opinion/thomas-sowell/2010/09/29/random-thoughts/
Excerpt: I would vote against anyone who plays the race card. Race and politics have been an explosive mixture in countries around the world….This is truly the "me" generation, when someone will release secret information that includes who has been helping us in the fight against terrorism-- information that can get girls' faces mutilated and their parents beheaded by our Islamic terrorist enemies….Politicians often act as if you can create costs without creating consequences. Force insurance companies to cover more things and then act surprised when the premiums go up. Mandate more benefits for employers to provide for their employees and then act surprised when they don't hire as many workers. It is great political theater but lousy economic policy….How anyone can read history and still believe in political messiahs is beyond me. The fact that it has become possible to graduate from even our most prestigious colleges and universities, still fundamentally ignorant of history, may have much to do with our electing a political messiah to the White House-- for which we, our children and grandchildren will pay dearly….Do people understand that the world toward which the Obama administration is leading us is a world where individuals' economic well-being is no longer determined by how much their goods and services are valued by those pay for them, but by politicians in Washington? The counterproductive economic consequences of this are dwarfed by the harm done by making us all dependents and supplicants of "public servants" who become in reality public masters.

Anti-austerity protests sweep across Europe
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100929/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_austerity_protests
Euro-socialism has created a majority for fiscal collapse and social chaos. Obama & company want to bring it here. I have seen the future—and it’s ugly. ~Bob. Excerpt: Anti-austerity protests erupted across Europe on Wednesday — Greek doctors and railway employees walked out, Spanish workers shut down trains and buses, and one man even blocked the Irish parliament with a cement truck to decry the country's enormous bank bailouts. Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through the streets of Brussels toward European Union buildings in bright red, green and blue labor union jackets, aiming to reinforce the impact of Spain's first nationwide strike in eight years. Strikes or protests were also taking place Wednesday in Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Slovenia and Lithuania, all aimed at the budget-slashing, tax-hiking, pension-cutting austerity plans that European governments have implemented to try to control their debt. The march in Brussels was taking place just as the EU Commission proposed new penalties to punish member states that have run up deficits, mainly to fund social programs in a time of high unemployment. The proposal, backed by Germany, is running into strong opposition from France, which wants politicians to decide on sanctions, not rigid rules alone.

Senate Democrats eager to pass spending measure and leave D.C.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/121465-dems-rush-continuing-resolution-vote
Excerpt: Democrats eager to return to the campaign trail are rushing to hold a vote on a continuing resolution that would fund the government until the lame-duck session. The Senate is zipping through its work on the spending measure, which could be completed Wednesday if Republicans agree to waive procedural objections. The Senate was scheduled to stay in town through next week but has opted instead to leave a stack of bills for the post-election session, including any decisions on the George W. Bush-era tax cuts. Lawmakers aren’t scheduled to return to Washington until Nov. 15. Democrats in the House, who are just as eager to return home, given the challenging election outlook for their party, are expected to bring up a vote on the resolution within hours of Senate passage, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday.

GOP wants Waters, Rangel on trial before midterm election
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/121423-gop-members-of-ethics-panel-want-waters-rangel-on-trial-before-election
Excerpt: Republicans on the House ethics committee are calling on Democrats to schedule the public trials of charges against Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) before the November elections. In an unusual break from the bipartisan secrecy the panel normally maintains, Rep. Jo Bonner (Ala.), the ranking Republican on the ethics committee, issued a public statement accusing Democrats of “stalling” the resolution of the Rangel and Waters matters. “It is in the best interest of transparency and fairness to the American people, Representatives Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters, and other members of the U.S. House of Representatives, that the House ethics committee stop stalling the resolution of the Rangel and Waters matters and complete these public trails prior to the November elections,” Bonner said in a lengthy written statement signed by himself and the four other GOP members of the ethics panel. (That Swamp-draining sure takes time, don’t it? ~Bob.)

AZ tourism bounces back from boycott
http://azstarnet.com/business/local/article_9d67373a-baca-5aa0-9999-bcce054eb8cd.html
Excerpt: At FireSky Resort and Spa, Jim Hollister's inbox swelled with e-mails from guests demanding cancellations just after SB 1070 became law. But the general manager of the luxury resort said business has been pleasantly brisk lately as fewer customers seem fazed by Arizona's controversial immigration law. 'I was watching carefully how business has been rolling in,' Hollister said. 'My summer business has never been better. … So people are traveling.' SB 1070, which makes it a state crime for an immigrant to be here without documents, triggered a boycott on Arizona's tourism industry and caused hundreds of hotel cancellations when it was signed into law in April.

Who wins, loses from mass immigration to California?
http://www.ocregister.com/news/-267327--.html
Excerpt: If you are middle-class and college-educated, immigrants make your busy life a little easier – and cheaper. Over the past generation, immigrants like manicurist Trang Le, a citizen, and cosmetologist Maria Rosa, who immigrated illegally, have flocked to the hairdressing and cosmetology business. Since 1970, wages in that field have dropped by 20 percent. Immigrants like Martha, an undocumented worker in Anaheim, have largely taken over the housekeeping business. Wages for housekeepers have dropped by 30 percent since 1970. No state and almost no developed economy has absorbed so many immigrant workers so quickly as California. The arrival of more than 5 million foreign workers over the past four decades raises a basic question: Who wins, and who loses? Among foes of immigration, particularly illegal immigration, it is an article of faith that everyone loses. Immigrants, they say, have driven down wages for natives while saddling taxpayers with billions of dollars for public services. But the truth is that there are winners and losers. The winners from mass migration are the people in the middle and at the top of the economic pyramid. The losers are those at the bottom. Economists agree that immigrants have depressed wages for the least-educated workers. In California, where immigrants dominate the ranks of the least educated, that means immigrants largely are hurting other immigrants. The burden on taxpayers is a murkier issue. In 2007, the president's Council of Economic Advisers concluded that over the long term, immigrants contribute more in taxes than they consume in services. But other studies say that the poorest and least-educated immigrants – including most illegal immigrants – cost more than they pay.

New Cybersecurity Bill Gives Obama ‘Power To Shut Down Companies’
http://www.prisonplanet.com/new-cybersecurity-bill-gives-obama-power-to-shut-down-companies.html
Excerpt: An amalgamated cybersecurity bill that lawmakers hope to pass before the end of the year includes new powers which would allow President Obama to shut down not only entire areas of the Internet, but also businesses and industries that fail to comply with government orders following the declaration of a national emergency – increasing fears that the legislation will be abused as a political tool. The draft bill is a combination of two pieces of legislation originally crafted by Senators Lieberman and Rockefeller. One of the differences between the new bill and the original Lieberman version is that the Internet “kill switch” power has been limited to 90 days without congressional oversight, rather than the original period of four months contained in the Lieberman bill. In other words, President Obama can issue an emergency declaration that lasts 30 days and he can renew it for a further 60 days before congress can step in to oversee the powers. The new powers would give Obama a free hand to not only shut down entire areas of the Internet and block all Internet traffic from certain countries, but under the amalgamated bill he would also have the power to completely shut down industries that don’t follow government orders, according to a Reuters summary of the new bill. (Don’t go all paranoid. It would take a real emergency for him to do this. "The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures...The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in itself a limited one." Like, say, a fire in the Reichstag. ~Bob.)

Joel Pollak ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdTV15j6PbI
Nice ad. Joel is the candidate we are supporting in our district. He’s running against Rep. Jan Shesacommie (if I’ve spelled that right). Tough district, but he’s running a great campaign.

Quiz on religion
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/28/dont-know-much-about-religion-youre-not-alone-study-finds/?hpt=Sbin
Ten for ten.

President Obama on Zakat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQG8PIqLp7k
From my reading, it is one of the “Five Pillars of Islam” and is charity for fellow Muslims, but not kuffer or infidels, which is why there are reports of non-Muslims being denied aid that is being distributed in Pakistan, following the flooding there. I have not read that there is a requirement that 1/8th of the charity goes to “Islamic Military Operations,” though I have read several books on Islam, pro and con, and many articles. Readers? ~Bob.

ObamaCare's Tax Credit System Will Make April 15 Even Harder
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=548559
Excerpt: Due to ObamaCare, millions of Americans may need to spend even more time on the income tax returns that they file in 2015 and beyond — and many will discover they owe the tax man more than before.

Red Tape Rises Again: Cost of Regulation Reaches $1.75 Trillion
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/22/red-tape-rises-again-cost-of-regulation-reaches-1-75-trillion/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email
That “Trillion” with a “T” and it comes out of your pocket, but it creates jobs for lawyers, accountants, clerks, and so on, so it’s a “stimulus.” ~Bob. Excerpt: How much does federal regulation cost Americans each year? The question is not an easy one. While the revenues and expenditures of the government are budgeted and accounted for each year, the costs of regulation are largely hidden from view, paid for indirectly via higher prices, fewer choices, and less innovation. The best estimates of the total cost, however, have come from a series of reports commissioned by the Small Business Administration (SBA). The latest such report was released today by the SBA’s Office of Advocacy, and the results are startling. Rules and restrictions imposed from Washington now cost Americans some $1.75 trillion each year. That is sharply higher that the $1.1 trillion in costs reported in 2005 in the SBA’s last such study.

"Consumer Safety" Bill Could Boomerang against U.S. Manufacturers
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12174
Excerpt: Barriers to trade can be straightforward and transparent, even if wrongheaded, such as a 27.5 percent tariff that certain members of Congress threatened to impose on imports from China. Or barriers can take the form of rules and regulations proposed in the name of protecting public health and safety but that have a secondary effect of restricting trade. An example of such a non-tariff barrier is legislation now before Congress called the Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act (FMLAA). The sponsors of the legislation claim that their principal goal is to protect American consumers from unsafe foreign products, but there are warning signs that the bill may be more about restricting trade than protecting the public. Introduced earlier this year in the House and the Senate, the FMLAA would require any foreign producer selling goods in the U.S. market to designate a legal agent located in the United States who could be served papers in a product liability suit. The agent would be required to register in a state with a substantial connection to the importation, distribution, and sale of the product. By registering an agent, the foreign producer would agree to accept the jurisdiction of the state and federal courts of the state where the agent is located.

An Annoying Regulation for Every Room in the House
http://www.openmarket.org/2010/09/24/an-annoying-regulation-for-every-room-in-the-house/
Excerpt: The Obama administration isn’t satisfied giving the American people several big things we don’t want — the stimulus package, expanded bailouts, Obamacare — but it is also hitting us with a multitude of bothersome regulations. Perhaps most annoying of all is Washington’s attempt to redesign home appliances. Just weeks after taking office, the president announced an accelerated process to create stringent new energy efficiency standards for nearly everything around the house that uses energy. The Department of Energy is well on its way towards accomplishing this goal, boasting of more than 20 such regulations since President Obama came to office. If past experience is any guide, these regulations will raise the purchase price of appliances — in some cases more than is ever likely to be earned back in the form of energy savings. Worse, several may adversely impact product performance and reliability. There are potentially problematic regulations on the way for virtually every room in the house.

Big Green: Global warming and EPA's threat to regulate everything
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/special-editorial-reports/Global-warming-and-EPA_s-threat-to-regulate-everthing-1030875-103954598.html#ixzz10vgxtV8j
Third part of five. EPA regulation of CO2 will actually be more invasive than an attempt to "control" the use of oxygen would be. Most plants produce oxygen as a waste product from consuming CO2, but all animals (including humans) require it for life. Ron P. Excerpt: In 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency concluded that it lacked authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon emissions as the cause of global warming. Because carbon emissions result from nearly all economic activity, the ruling made sense, as Congress never intended the EPA to regulate the entire economy. But Big Green environmentalists were outraged. They teamed with allies in state and local governments to sue the EPA to force it to reverse its ruling in a case known as Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency. The petitioners in the case featured multiple Big Green outfits that specialize in litigating environmental causes, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Conservation Law Foundation. Litigants on both sides were astounded when in 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the EPA does indeed have the authority to regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act. Critics called it a fundamentally flawed decision and predicted its reversal in the near future. But until then, Massachusetts is probably the most significant legal decision in Big Green's history because it opens the door to the agency using global warming as a threat to justify its regulation of anything that can be remotely linked to carbon creation or use.

Turning Waste Heat Into Power
http://www.uanews.org/node/34382
Excerpt: "Thermoelectricity makes it possible to cleanly convert heat directly into electrical energy in a device with no moving parts," said lead author Justin Bergfield, a doctoral candidate in the UA College of Optical Sciences. "Our colleagues in the field tell us they are pretty confident that the devices we have designed on the computer can be built with the characteristics that we see in our simulations. We anticipate the thermoelectric voltage using our design to be about 100 times larger than what others have achieved in the lab," Stafford added. Catching the energy lost through waste heat has been on the wish list of engineers for a long time but, so far, a concept for replacing existing devices that is both more efficient and economically competitive has been lacking. Unlike existing heat-conversion devices such as refrigerators and steam turbines, the devices of Bergfield and Stafford require no mechanics and no ozone-depleting chemicals. Instead, a rubber-like polymer sandwiched between two metals acting as electrodes can do the trick. Car or factory exhaust pipes could be coated with the material, less than 1 millionth of an inch thick, to harvest energy otherwise lost as heat and generate electricity. (Wow. This is an exciting development. Effectively, we get to "re-use" the energy in the waste heat several times over before it cools to ambient temperature (it could probably be jiggered to work from "cold," too, as the charge is produced by temperature difference, not a particular temperature). If these can be made cheaply enough, they may be the true "green power" source everyone has dreamed of for decades. While the use of oil and coal will never be eliminated, this might significantly reduce it. It'll be interesting to see if there is any attempt at commercial application in the next few years. Ron P.)

'Mumbai-Style' Terror Attack in Europe Foiled
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/09/28/mumbai-style-terror-attack-thwarted-europe/
Assuming they weren’t enraged Presbyterians, they apparently didn’t get the “Islam is a Religion of Peace” memo from Obama. ~Bob. Excerpt: A commando-style terror plot that allegedly called for simultaneous attacks in multiple European cities has been disrupted, a senior U.S. intelligence official told Fox News late Tuesday, after the CIA launched a barrage of drone strikes in Pakistan to help thwart the plot. The plan allegedly included attacks on hotels frequented by Western tourists in London, as well as cities in France and Germany, and was in an "advanced but not imminent stage," Sky News reported. The plotters were purportedly of Pakistani or Algerian origin and have been trained in Pakistan's tribal areas. While officials are still working to understand the plot, a leading concern is that the plotters were modeling their European assault on the 2008 attack in Mumbai, India, in which armed gunmen killed more than 200 people in coordinated attacks at hotels and other easily accessed venues, current and former officials said. Several U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal they haven't seen a terror threat as serious as the European plot for many years. "This isn't just your typical Washington talk about how the threats have evolved. People are very concerned about what they're seeing," the counterterrorism official said.

The Protectionist Threat of Another Great Depression
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/29/morning-bell-the-protectionist-threat-of-another-great-depression/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
Excerpt: A financial bubble fueled by easy money and loose credit bursts. Unemployment shoots up, and gross domestic product falls sharply. Some in the U.S. Congress blame foreigners for unfair trade practices and pass a trade bill that prompts widespread retaliation, exacerbates the popping of the bubble, and sends the country into further economic trouble. That is what happened with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 and the Great Depression. Americans might hope our leaders would learn from our past mistakes. But the leftist majority in Congress, aided by some misguided members of the minority, is trying to repeat this terrible history. At issue is H.R. 2378 or the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act. The bill would grant new powers to the Obama administration, allowing them to raise tariffs on imports if the Commerce Department determines that an exporting country is manipulating its currency. Its not known what President Obama would do should this bill hit his desk. A real leader would let it be known loud and clear that it faces certain veto. The protectionist proponents of this bill believe that Chinese currency manipulation is artificially lowering the price of Chinese goods imported into the United States while inflating the price of U.S.-made exports. In 1930, the protectionists thought they could help American manufacturers by punishing foreigners. They were tragically wrong. The same misguided logic is being applied to China now. Heritage Foundation Research Fellow Derek Scissors explains why higher tariffs on Chinese imports would not help the U.S. economy: (The crash of ’29 produced unemployment of around 9%, a bit lower than today. The Smoot-Hawley protectionist tariff bill drove it to 25% in two years, as international trade collapsed. But the protectionists never learn. ~Bob.)

Pakistan, A Nuclear Proliferator, Will Chair U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Agency
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/75880
Excerpt: The United Nations nuclear watchdog has appointed Pakistan to chair its governing board. Pakistan is responsible for the most serious known case of illicit nuclear proliferation in history, and it is blocking progress on a treaty to ban production of fissile material used to fuel atomic weapons. The 35-member International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board made the decision in Vienna Monday “by acclamation” – that is, no country objected or called for a roll-call vote. Board members include the United States, Canada, Australia and nine European nations. Pakistan was nominated by the Middle East and South Asia group at the IAEA. (...) Pakistan has held the post of IAEA board chairman before, but that was more than a decade before its widely-condemned nuclear bomb tests in 1998. In 2004 it emerged that the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had been running a sophisticated black-market ring, providing nuclear know-how to Iran, North Korea and Libya. President Pervez Musharraf insisted the activity was unsanctioned and pardoned Khan, who is regarded as a national hero in Pakistan. (Isn't this like giving the keys to the convent to a known rapist? Ron P. For shame, Ron. Trying to stop them from committing mass murder is “Islamophobic! ~Bob.)

Sarkozy's planned crackdown on illegal immigration is introduced as legislation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/28/AR2010092803217.html
Excerpt: The French government introduced tough new immigration legislation Tuesday that would make it easier to expel illegal residents and strip recently naturalized citizens of their French passports. The bill translates into law a July 30 announcement by President Nicolas Sarkozy that, in a bid to curb crime, he was going to crack down on illegal immigrants, in particular Roma from Eastern Europe, who officials say commit up to 20 percent of the robberies in the Paris region. Since then, about 1,000 Roma, or Gypsy, immigrants have been shipped back to Bulgaria and Romania, and about half of their estimated 150 unauthorized camps across the country have been dismantled. (France and many European nations are now deporting their illegal aliens. I wonder if Obama's DOJ will sue France? –DH)

Chicago News Outlets Miss That FBI Targeted Protester is Chief Steward for SEIU
http://www.stoptheaclu.com/2010/09/28/chicago-news-outlets-miss-that-fbi-targeted-protester-is-chief-steward-for-seiu/
Excerpt: One might think it would be big news that a Chief Steward for a Local chapter of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is being investigated by the FBI for possible connection to overseas terror networks. Apparently, though, several Chicago news outlets didn’t see a reason to add this little fact to their stories. And even if it wasn’t big news that the FBI is investigating a union member, one would think that his profession would at least make an appearance somewhere in properly formulated coverage of the story… right? Over the weekend the FBI announced that it was investigating Joseph Iosbaker for possible connections to overseas terror groups. Iosbaker and his wife Stephanie Weiner, both anti-war activists, are suspected of activities “concerning the material support of terrorism.” The Chicago news has been all over the demonstrations that left-wing groups have mounted in Chicago to protest the FBI’s investigation of the anti-war activists. These stories are filled with all sorts of facts, dates and names. But in a significant handful of stories one little fact seems to have escaped the notice of these hardnosed journalists. Iosbaker is an SEIU union member. And not just a rank and file member but an official. According to the SEIU Local 73 website, Iosbaker is listed as the Local 73 Chief Steward. (Wonder why Fox News is the leading cable news show? ~Bob.)

Quotes from The Patriot Post www.patriotpost.us/subscribe/
"We demand entire freedom of action and then expect the government in some miraculous way to save us from the consequences of our own acts.... Self-government means self-reliance." --President Calvin Coolidge (1873-1933)
"There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him." --American writer Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988)

White House scorecard: MSNBC up, bloggers down
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42864.html
Excerpt: The vice president told Democrats to “stop whining,” the president told them to “buck up,” and if there was any remaining doubt that press secretary Robert Gibbs’s exasperation over the summer with the “professional left” was the official view of the White House, they dispelled it this week. But who, exactly, makes up this “professional left” that is so bothering President Barack Obama and his advisers? On Tuesday, Gibbs’s deputy, Bill Burton, made it clear that the occasionally critical cable personalities originally associated with this comment have the administration’s blessing. "If you're on the left, if you're somebody like Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow or one of the folks who helps to keep our government honest and pushes and prods to make sure that folks are true to progressive values, then [the president] thinks that those folks provide an invaluable service,” Burton told reporters. Noticeably absent from Burton’s embrace was anyone from the blogosphere once courted so avidly by the White House. Peter Daou thinks he knows why: “With each passing day, I’m beginning to realize that the crux of the problem for Obama is a handful of prominent progressive bloggers, among them Glenn Greenwald, John Aravosis, Digby, Marcy Wheeler and Jane Hamsher.” (Heh. Kind of like the French revolution produced the Reign of Terror, as the progressives of the day sent each other to the guillotine for disagreeing with the vision. The revolution eats its own. ~Bob.)

The Dead Just Keep On Voting
http://www.redstate.com/thomasrspencer/2010/09/28/the-dead-just-keep-on-voting/
Why should they lose their rights just because they are disabled? In fact, given that death is the ultimate disability, I’d be surprised if the Democrats weren’t sending them welfare checks and setting up job training programs for corpses. ~Bob. Excerpt: Isn’t modern medicine wonderful? A hundred years ago, the average life expectancy in the United States was 47 years. In 2009, the federal government recently announced that it is 78 years. And, now, in an age when NASA has machines roving Mars, many states are extending the voting life of citizens for years after they are medically pronounced dead. There are 116,000 dead eligible voters in Massachusetts. And in Florida, one major newspaper recently investigated and reported that almost 15,000 dead Floridians are still hanging around on the election rolls – just six weeks before one of the most vicious and important election cycles in our history. Can it be the sun? Most States have similar statistics. Every two years, states must report to the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) information about the integrity and accuracy of their voter rolls. The latest report is not good news for our democracy – or our international reputation. South Dakota, Texas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Indiana report in excess of a dozen counties with more registered voters than breathing human beings old enough to vote. West Virginia, Maryland, Iowa and North Carolina also reported having eligible deceased voters on their rolls. The list goes on and on. And so does the real risk that these voters will have illegal votes registered in their names. Close races, like the Franken/Coleman race in Minnesota can be decided on just a handful of votes. We may have to go to purple thumbprints at this rate. Hugo Chavez must be howling at this American disgrace

Gov. Strickland (D, OH) supporter attacks war veteran at rally.
http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2010/09/28/gov-strickland-d-oh-supporter-attacks-war-veteran-at-rally/
Excerpt: Do you know this guy? Because he went after a Iraq War veteran at a Ted Strickland rally. Dumped hot coffee on him, then came back later to give said veteran the finger (in case you were wondering whether it was deliberate or not). The cops would like to discuss the matter with the assailant….

Police: Terrorists plan to turn Indonesia into Afghanistan, Iraq
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/09/24/police-terrorists-plan-turn-indonesia-afghanistan-iraq.html
Excerpt: The National Police have learned that terrorists aim to wage a war in cities across Indonesia, which will turn the country into strife-torn Afghanistan and Iraq. National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri told a televised press conference on Friday the terrorists might recruit warriors from overseas.

Intolerance ‘on the rise’ among Muslims
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/09/29/intolerance-‘-rise’-among-muslims.html
Excerpt: Religious intolerance among Indonesian Muslims has increased in the last 10 years, a new study shows, indicating a link with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the country. The survey results were announced Tuesday by the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM), an independent research center at the State Islamic University (UIN) in Jakarta. The findings confirmed the results of previous surveys by other study groups. PPIM executive director Jajat Burhanudin said his center’s study was conducted nationwide between 2001 and 2010, each year surveying different groups of 1,200 Muslim men and women aged 17 and above, mostly elementary and junior high school graduate from various backgrounds. “The study used several indicators to measure tolerance such as the level of objection among Muslims to non-Muslims teaching their children in public schools, and to plans by non-Muslims to building houses of worship,” he said. The survey showed that non-acceptance levels among the surveyed Muslims toward the construction of churches and other non-Muslim religious buildings in 2010 was 57.8 percent, the highest ever recorded since 2001 (40.5 percent).

The Madison Avenue Approach to Health Policy
http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/approach-to-health-policy/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HA#more-13391
Excerpt: Can you sell health reform the way you sell toothpaste? Can you stop health reform the way you sell soap? A lot of people apparently believe so. I would guess that in the 10 months leading up to the vote on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), proponents and opponents spent more than $200 million on TV, radio and newsprint advertisements. These ads were produced by agencies that basically knew nothing about health care. The clients of these agencies were groups that often knew nothing about health care. The funding often came from donors who knew nothing about health care. By “knew nothing” I mean they did not understand health care as a complex system. That means they had no idea how you could solve real problems — like controlling costs, raising quality and improving access to care. To add insult to injury, most of the people who engaged in the ad wars knew very little about what became known as “ObamaCare.”

Hard hitting WV Senate ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=jYHsyJ2AwYQ&wpisrc=nl_fix

Fox News Polls: Democrats Face Tough Job Building Senate Firewall
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/28/fox-news-polls-democrats-tough-job-building-senate-firewall/?wpisrc=nl_fix
Excerpt: When President Obama arrives in Wisconsin for a campus rally on Tuesday, he'll be visiting a state where his party and his policies are in big trouble with voters. Democrats are hoping to build a firewall with cash infusions and special attention from the president around a group of incumbent senators to preserve a majority in the upper chamber. But the latest round of Fox News battleground state polls suggests Democrats have their work cut out for them, especially in Wisconsin where incumbent Sen. Russ Feingold is trailing his Republican challenger badly. The latest surveys were conducted on Sept. 25 in Wisconsin, Washington, Colorado, Ohio and Illinois by Pulse Opinion Research for Fox News. Each survey included 1,000 likely voters and has a margin of sampling error of three percentage points for the total sample.

Dems retreat to coasts as GOP rules vast interior
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Dems-retreat-to-coasts-as-GOP-rules-vast-interior-1034594-103959178.html
Excerpt: Here's an exercise for some evening when you're curious about big nationwide trends in this year's elections. Get an outline map showing the 50 states and take a look at the latest poll averages in pollster.com in each race for senator and governor. Color in the percentage (rounded off; no need for tenths) by which either the Republican or Democratic candidate is leading (I use blue for Republicans, red for Democrats) in each state. The results are revealing, even breathtaking. The map of the Senate races shows Republicans leading over almost all the landmass of America.

NBPP’s King Samir Shabazz Says Whites Use Black Babies as ‘Alligator Bait,’ Laments ‘Fox Jews’
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=19692
Talk about playing the race card! Of course, liberals say blacks can’t be racist, as members of a minority, so spewing hate based on race is okay, I guess. ~Bob. Excerpt: A video recently released by Election Journal shows New Black Panther Party member King Samir Shabazz railing against the media and defending his remarks calling for the death of white babies. The video, which includes a date stamp of August 9, 2010 and says it takes place in Harlem, features the hate-spewing King Samir attacking Fox: “This is what King Samir and the Philadelphia chapter, along with the guidance and leadership of attorney Malik Shabazz, has been doing that you don’t hear about from Fox Jews; I’m sorry, Fox News.” “Let’s talk about the little black babies that you use as alligator bait,” he adds: