Political Digest for November 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. Help your friends and relatives stay informed by passing the digest on.

Obama announces 2-year pay freeze for federal workers

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/11/obama_announces_pay_freeze_for.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert

Excerpt: Bowing to growing budget concerns and months of Republican political pressure on federal pay and benefits, President Obama today announced he would stop pay increases for most of the two million people who work for the federal government. The freeze applies to all Executive Branch workers -- including civilian employees of the Defense Department, but does not apply to military personnel, government contractors, postal workers, members of Congress, Congressional staffers, and federal court judges and workers.

The Ryan/Rivlin Plan

http://healthblog.ncpa.org/the-ryanrivlin-plan/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HA#more-14716

Excerpt: Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Alice Rivlin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), have proposed an entitlement spending reform plan that is striking both for its boldness and its left-right-coming-together origins. There are a number of interesting parts, but I want to focus on the three most important: Medicare would, for the first time, be transformed into rational insurance. Beginning in 2013, all enrollees would be protected by a $6,000 cap on out-of-pocket expenses; in return they would pay for more small expenses on their own. After a decade, people newly eligible for Medicare would receive a voucher to purchase private insurance instead. The value of the voucher would grow at the rate of growth of GDP plus 1% (note: for the past four decades, health care spending per capita nationwide has been growing at about GDP growth plus 2%). Medicaid would be turned into annual block grants to the states. The value of the block grants would also grow at GDP growth plus 1%. Bottom line verdict: This is a good proposal that deserves serious attention.

The World from The Hill: Cao vows push for Vietnam sanctions in his final weeks

http://thehill.com/news-by-subject/foreign-policy/130851-the-world-from-the-hill-cao-vows-push-for-vietnam-sanctions-in-final-weeks

Excerpt: Capitol Hill's first ethnic Vietnamese lawmaker is spending his final weeks in the House pushing for sanctions against human-rights violators in his home country. Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao (R-La.) introduced two bills on Nov. 18. The Vietnam Democracy Promotion Act of 2010 provides aid money to promote freedom in the communist nation as well as education and refugee resettlement programs. It also imposes conditions on aid to Hanoi and requires annual progress reports. Cao's other bill, the Vietnam Human Rights Sanctions Act, would impose financial sanctions on, and deny visas to, Vietnamese officials guilty of human-rights abuses.

Higher Taxes Won't Reduce the Deficit

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704648604575620502560925156.html

Excerpt: The claim here, echoed by endless purveyors of conventional wisdom in Washington, is that these added revenues—potentially a half-trillion dollars a year—will be used to reduce the $8 trillion to $10 trillion deficits in the coming decade. If history is any guide, however, that won't happen. Instead, Congress will simply spend the money. In the late 1980s, one of us, Richard Vedder, and Lowell Gallaway of Ohio University co-authored a often-cited research paper for the congressional Joint Economic Committee (known as the $1.58 study) that found that every new dollar of new taxes led to more than one dollar of new spending by Congress. Subsequent revisions of the study over the next decade found similar results. We've updated the research. Using standard statistical analyses that introduce variables to control for business-cycle fluctuations, wars and inflation, we found that over the entire post World War II era through 2009 each dollar of new tax revenue was associated with $1.17 of new spending. Politicians spend the money as fast as it comes in—and a little bit more.

The 'Build America' Debt Bomb

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704648604575621062239887650.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Excerpt: The Obama administration responded with a new kind of taxable bond that offered a 35% federal subsidy on the interest rate. Washington designed the subsidy to appeal to investors such as pension funds and overseas buyers who don't buy traditional municipal bonds because they can't take advantage of their tax-free status. The federal subsidy allowed states and cities to offer these investors an attractive return. The catch: Congress authorized the program only through 2010, to allay concerns that BABs would become a permanent bailout. States and cities jumped deeply into this new market. California alone has issued some $21 billion in BABs, mostly as a substitute for its general obligation debt to support everything from school construction to sewer projects. New Jersey has used up to $500 million to recapitalize its depleted transportation trust fund. Columbus, Ohio, issued $131 million in BABs to start construction of a downtown convention hotel. And in Dallas, Texas, when no private operator would finance a new convention hotel, the city went ahead with a government-subsidized hotel, courtesy of $388 million in BABs….. One sure signal has been the sharp rise in the cost for investors to insure against default. In June, the price of a contract protecting an investor from a default by Illinois on its bonds rose to a record high of $309,100 on $10 million of debt over five years, according to CMA Datavision. The national average for states is $190,000 per $10 million in debt. At that point, Illinois surpassed California as the worst credit risk among U.S. states.

For Tottering States, Bankruptcy Could Be the Answer

http://townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2010/11/29/for_tottering_states,_bankruptcy_could_be_the_answer

Excerpt: The federal government still seems a long way from the disaster Bowles envisions. But some state governments aren't. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came to Washington earlier this year to get $7 billion for his state government, which resorted to paying off vendors with scrip and delaying state income tax refunds. Illinois seems to be in even worse shape. A recent credit rating showed it weaker than Iceland and only slightly stronger than Iraq. It's no mystery why these state governments -- and those of New York and New Jersey, as well -- are in such bad fiscal shape. These are the parts of America where the public employee unions have been calling the shots, insisting on expanded payrolls, ever higher pay, hugely generous fringe benefits and utterly unsustainable pension promises. The prospect is that the bond market will quit financing California and Illinois long before the federal government. It may already be happening. Earlier this month, California could sell only $6 billion of $10 billion revenue anticipation notes it put on the market. Individual investors have been selling off state and local municipal bonds this month. Meredith Whitney, the financial expert who first spotted Citigroup's overexposure to mortgage-backed securities, is now predicting a sell-off in the municipal bond market.

Don’t be VAT stupid

http://dailycaller.com/2010/11/22/dont-be-vat-stupid/

Excerpt: The worst idea is a proposed national sales tax, which is a disguised VAT (value added tax) on top of everything we already pay in federal taxes. Here are three of the biggest reasons the national retail sales tax is the worst idea on the table. First, we have a spending problem in Washington, D.C., not a revenue problem. The Commission claims their goal is to reduce the deficits by $4 trillion over the next decade. The task force says its plan would save $6 trillion by 2020. It’s sort of like dueling promises that would never happen, because when has a proposed cut in Washington D.C. ever produced the intended savings over 10 years? Never! Even worse is reason number two: In every country that has established a VAT with the promise of reducing its national debt, the VAT has eventually gone up or expanded on top of the existing tax structure. After discovering many of the tax grenades in the recently passed health care deform bill, which is already driving costs up and access down, it would be real easy for an overzealous bureaucrat to insert the language in the legislation “national retail and wholesale” tax.

Obama Should Cut The Corporate Tax Rate

http://www.forbes.com/2010/11/22/barrack-obama-corporate-tax-trade-opinions-contributors-scott-hodge.html?boxes=opinionschannellatest

No time for this—they are too busy trying to figure out why American jobs are going overseas where taxes are lower. It’s a puzzle. ~Bob. Excerpt: A dramatic cut in the corporate tax rate could be the best tonic for the ailing economy. As is now well known, next to Japan, the U.S. imposes the highest corporate tax rate of any industrialized country at nearly 40 percent (combining the federal and state rates). Perhaps an explanation why both economies are in the doldrums lies in a 2008 report by economists at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), who measured the relationship between different taxes and economic growth. They determined that the corporate income tax is the most harmful tax for long-term economic growth. High personal income taxes were found to be the second-most harmful tax for long-term growth, which would argue for not allowing the Bush cuts to expire on the "rich" as Obama proposes. The least harmful taxes for growth, according to OECD economists, are consumption taxes and property taxes.

Obama a one Term President? Don’t bet the farm just yet.

The Week, an excellent and I find unbiased news magazine which I subscribe to, reports that polls suggest that if the election were held now, it would be a dead heat between Obama and either Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee. (He beats Sarah Palin by eight points.) But before you write BO off, they report that in 1994, after the big Republican mid-term win, polls showed Bob Dole leading Bill Clinton by 10 points. We all know how that worked out.

Paradoxes of the Present Age, Profound and Trivial

http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/paradoxes-of-the-present-age-profound-and-trivial/

Excerpt: The Korean mess reminds us again of who was and who was not in the ill-famed “axis of evil” as articulated in January 2002. Germany, Japan, and Vietnam were not, all once bitter foes of the United States. The former two were defeated and their hostility ended in reformed, postwar democratic governments. The latter won a political victory over the United States, and the question whether there would be a South Vietnam analogous to an independent South Korea was answered in the negative. By the same token, the triad of evil all had ongoing but unresolved wars with the United States. Saddam Hussein at the time had lost the Gulf War but survived, and that fact in turn had led to an unending no-fly zone war. (Note that today Iraq would not be in the axis, given that Saddam is no more). An armistice in 1953 did not settle the question of whether an aggressive communist North Korea would leave South Korea alone. And our war that had de facto started with Iran in 1979, and which waxed and waned over the next thirty years through terrorist surrogates and American counter-measures, continues today.

Stalin’s world is still with us

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/stalins-world-is-still-with-us/article1813970/

The joys of a centrally-planned economy. ~Bob. Excerpt: More than five million people starved to death or died of hunger-related disease in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s, 3.3 million of them in Ukraine, of which about three million would have survived had Stalin simply ceased requisitions and exports for a few months and granted people access to grain stores. These events remain at the centre of East European politics to this day. Each November, Ukrainians commemorate the victims of 1933. But Viktor Yanukovich, the current Ukrainian President, denies the special suffering of the Ukrainian people – a nod to Russia’s official historical narrative, which seeks to blur the particular evils of collectivization into a tragedy so vague it has no clear perpetrators or victims.

N Korea deploys missiles near South border: reports

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/28/3078612.htm?section=justin

Excerpt: Naval war games are underway today off the west coast of South Korea. The exercise includes the use of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington. North Korea has warned that such games risk pushing the peninsula to the brink of war. According to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, North Korea has deployed SA-2 surface-to-air missiles near the border. The report suggested that the missiles appear to be in place to target the South's jets flying close to the frontier. These Soviet-designed missiles have a range of between 8 and 30 kilometres. Though the report is new, the missiles are said to have been in place for days. (If these ground-to-air missiles were in place days ago, they were likely there when the NKs shelled the island. These idiots appear to want a war. Why? Do they think they can win? Or even survive? Ron P. They don’t want a war. They want to push us to the brink so we buy them off again. ~Bob.)

The Sixty Years' War

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/advance-copy-sixty-years-war_519596.html

Excerpt: On November 12, North Korean scientists took Stanford professor Siegfried Hecker and two colleagues to the Yongbyon nuclear complex. The North Koreans led the Americans to a building that Hecker, former head of the Los Alamos nuclear laboratories, had visited in February 2008. The structure had been transformed into a “stunning” uranium enrichment facility, Hecker would later write. That revelation brings to an end the long-running debate inside the U.S. intelligence community over whether the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has an active uranium enrichment program. North Korea acknowledged that it had such an effort back in 2002. But the North Koreans later claimed their admission was a misunderstanding. And in the years since, the intelligence community has had little knowledge of the North Korean nuclear program—it is, after all, the most secretive project of the world’s most secretive regime. There was no fresh intelligence to cast doubt on the program’s continued existence, because there was little new information about the program at all.

Wikileaks Confirm Our Analysis of U.S. Policy and Middle East Politics

http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2010/11/wikileaks-confirm-our-analysis-of-us.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Rubinreports+%28RubinReports%29

Please forgive me for saying this, but what really amazed me in reading the Wikileaks was how thoroughly they proved points I’ve been making for years. I wouldn’t have had the nerve to say that except that readers have been telling me the same thing. 1. Iran steadily smuggled arms to Hizballah using various means including in ambulances and medical vehicles during the 2006 war. This violates the laws of war. At times, the media has condemned Israel for attacking ambulances though it showed Hamas was also using such vehicles for military and arms-smuggling operations. Moreover, the postwar UN force proved consistently ineffective in stopping smuggling while the U.S. government did not denounce Iran, Syria, and Hizballah for breaking the ceasefire arrangements. 2. Israeli leaders have repeatedly made clear in diplomatic discussions their acceptance of a two-state solution but warned that the Palestinian leadership sought Israel’s destruction. 3. Arab states have constantly been warning the United States about the threat from Iran as their highest priority, even urging the United States to attack Iran itself.

Two Cheers for Wikileaks

http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2010/11/two-cheers-for-wikileaks.html

Collateral benefits instead of collateral damage. ~Bob. Excerpt: After all, only the leak of U.S. secret documents is forcing--finally!--the mass media to recognize that its entire model of the Middle East has been wrong. For years, we have been told that the region revolves around the Arab-Israeli conflict. And that was to some extent true up through the end of the 1980s. But now the Middle East revolves around the battle between Islamists and nationalists, and especially between the Iran-led bloc (Iran, Syria, Hizballah, Hamas, Iraqi insurgents, the government that rules Turkey) and most of the other countries. Here's how the New York Times put it in an article: "The cables reveal how Iran’s ascent has unified Israel and many longtime Arab adversaries — notably the Saudis — in a common cause. Publicly, these Arab states held their tongues, for fear of a domestic uproar and the retributions of a powerful neighbor. Privately, they clamored for strong action — by someone else.

Wikileaks: Old Gray Lady Invoke's The Harlot's Prerogative - James Delingpole

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100065919/wikileaks-old-gray-lady-invokes-the-harlots-prerogative/

Excerpt: “The documents appear to have been acquired illegally and contain all manner of private information and statements that were never intended for the public eye, so they won’t be posted here.” Andrew Revkin, Environment Editor, New York Times Nov 20, 2009. “The articles published today and in coming days are based on thousands of United States embassy cables, the daily reports from the field intended for the eyes of senior policy makers in Washington. The New York Times and a number of publications in Europe were given access to the material several weeks ago and agreed to begin publication of articles based on the cables online on Sunday. The Times believes that the documents serve an important public interest, illuminating the goals, successes, compromises and frustrations of American diplomacy in a way that other accounts cannot match.” New York Times editorial 29/11/2010. Can you spot the difference between these two statements of high moral principle? Scott at the Powerline blog can.

Gates Seeking to Contain Military Health Costs

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/us/29tricare.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

With a fiscal collapse looming, everything will be on the table. ~Bob. Excerpt: Francis Brady enjoys a six-figure salary and generous benefits at the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, but as a retired Marine lieutenant colonel he and his family remain on the military’s bountiful lifetime health insurance, Tricare, with fees of only $460 a year. He calls the benefit “phenomenal.” “It is so cheap compared to what Booz Allen has,” Colonel Brady said in a recent interview, acknowledging that premiums called for by private employers can run many times greater. Of nearly 4.5 million military retirees and their families, about three-quarters are estimated to have access to health insurance through a civilian employer or group. But more than two million of them stay on Tricare. As the costs of private health care continue to climb, their numbers are only expected to grow.

The news isn’t all bad: Iranian nuclear scientist killed, another injured in Tehran bombings

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112901560.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline

Excerpt: A prominent Iranian nuclear scientist was killed Monday and a second was seriously wounded in nearly simultaneous car bomb attacks in the Iranian capital, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported. The explosions, which took place near Shahid Beheshti University, are the latest in a string of recent assassination attempts in which five doctors and professors have been killed in Tehran.

Iran accuses Israel, West in scientist slaying

http://tdn.com/news/national/article_25b58410-4ba1-58c1-8297-737777fd95ab.html?flv=1

Excerpts: Assailants on motorcycles attached bombs to the cars of two nuclear scientists as they were driving to work in Tehran Monday, killing one and wounding the other, state media and officials said. Iran's nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, said the man killed was involved in a major project at the country's chief nuclear agency, though he did not give specifics. Some Iranian media reported that the wounded scientist was a laser expert at Iran's Defense Ministry and one of the country's few top specialists in nuclear isotope separation. State TV swiftly blamed Israel for the attacks. At least two other Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in recent years in what Iran has alleged is part of a covert attempt by the West to damage its controversial nuclear program. (It’s good to see somebody has finally gotten it together enough to take action. As crazy as the North Koreans are, I fear the Iranians are worse. I suspect their first test of a nuke wouldn’t be in a cave but in a western city. Ron P.)

Officials: Afghan border police officer shoots and kills 6 U.S. soldiers

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112901420.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline

Excerpt: An Afghan border police officer opened fire on American soldiers and killed six of them in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, in one of the deadliest incidents of its kind, according to Afghan and NATO officials.

Kenya Leader: "Homosexuals 'should be arrested."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40416985/ns/world_news-africa/

Excerpt: Kenya's prime minister has said that homosexuals should be arrested, according to reports. "We will not tolerate such behaviors in the country," the BBC quoted Raila Odinga as saying. "The constitution is very clear on this issue and men or women found engaging in homosexuality will not be spared." Africa Review reported that Odinga told a rally in Nairobi on Sunday that "if found the homosexuals should be arrested and taken to relevant authorities." The website said that Odinga added it was "madness" for two men to fall in love with each other when a recent census showed there were "plenty of women" in the country.

Gaddafi Hits Out At Eu As Talks Open - Demands 5 Million Euros To Help Stem Flow Of Immigrants Flooding Into Tripoli

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/Gaddafi%20hits%20out%20at%20EU%20as%20talks%20open%20/-/1066/1062720/-/13auge5z/-/index.html

Excerpt: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi declared open an Africa-EU summit today, saying the partnership between the two continents had failed and slamming bodies like the World Trade Organisation as “terrorists”. “We have failed in our economic partnership with Europe,” Gaddafi told leaders of 80 nations gathered for the two-day summit, which faces fractious issues such as trade and migration. Opening the first talks in three years between the two continents’ leaders, Gaddafi reopened old wounds between former colonial powers and nations marking half a century of independence, saying accords struck in 2007 “had no effect, they remained on paper.” “We want win-win relations based on mutual interest and not on exploitation,” Gaddafi said. Gaddafi also reiterated a request to the European Union for “at least” five billion euros to stem the flow of millions of migrants flooding into a Tripoli bottleneck.

Secret Cables, The State Department and the Danger of Wikileaks

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/wikileaks-top-secret-cables-and-state-department_519720.html

Excerpt: The greatest danger of episodes like this is not the “damage” that might be done to foreign policy—which is minimal, since everybody knows that friendly governments gossip about one another, have occasional spats, and negotiate on many fronts—but to free and unfettered communication on matters of war and peace, life and death. If an ambassador or military officer knows that his honest answers to questions from superiors will soon be in the public domain, he will begin to furnish dishonest answers—or no answers at all. How any news organization can conclude that this is in the public interest is beyond me.

Me Being President

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/11/me_being_president.html

Excerpt: "The notion that somehow me saying maybe you should be taxed more like your secretary when you're pulling home a billion dollars...I don't think is me being extremist or me being antibusiness," Obama explained. Most readers with even a minimal sensitivity to the language will detect that something has gone awry here. Those who possess a decent high school education should be able to tell you why.

After his own loss, a general salutes two brave Marineshttp://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2010/11/sunday-reflection-after-his-own-loss-general-salutes-two-brave-marines

Excerpt: Given the opportunity to do another 9/11, our merciless enemy would do it today, tomorrow, and every day thereafter. I don't know why they hate us, and I don't care. We have a saying in the Marine Corps that there is "no better friend, no worse enemy, than a U.S. Marine." We always hope for the first, friendship, but are certainly more than ready for the second. If it's death they want, it's death they will get, and the Marines will continue showing them the way to hell if that's what will make them happy.

Hedge Fund Manager Mark Hart Bets on Chaina as the Next Enormous Credit-Bubble to Burst http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8166440/Hedge-fund-manager-Mark-Hart-bets-on-China-as-the-next-enormous-credit-bubble-to-burst.html

Ah, if China’s bubble bursts, and they can’t buy American debt, what happens here? ~Bob. Excerpt: Mark Hart, an American hedge fund manager who has made millions predicting the crises in US sub-prime market and European debt, has launched a fund to bet on the imminent implosion of China. Mr Hart, who runs Corriente Advisors from Fort Worth Texas, has told potential investors in a presentation that China is in the "late stages of an enormous credit bubble". When this bursts, the financier said he expects an "economic fall-out" that will be as "extraordinary as China's economic out-performance over the last decade". Asking for a minimum $1m (£640,000) stake, Corriente said it will use sovereign and corporate credit default swaps, interest rate and foreign exchange options to cash-in on the collapse.

Thousands of Ranches Abandoned in Northern Mexico Due to Violence

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=379548&CategoryId=14091

Has to spread to the US. ~Bob. Excerpt: Thousands of ranches have been abandoned in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas by owners who do not want to end up like Alejo Garza, a rancher who died defending his property from a drug cartel. Garza, considered by a hero by many in the region, refused to hand over his property to a drug cartel, which gave him 24 hours to leave his property. The 77-year-old rancher barricaded himself inside his house and took on 30 cartel gunmen, killing four of them and seriously wounding two others before being slain.

Good cartoon

http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/11/clueless.html

Wireless network excludes DHS

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/28/wireless-network-excludes-dhs/

Excerpt: Federal law enforcement officers from different agencies soon will be able to talk to each other on their own radios in the Washington area - but the Department of Homeland Security will not be a part of the new system. The Justice Department this month is rolling out a new state-of-the-art interoperable tactical communications system in the national capital region. Called IWN, for Integrated Wireless Network, the new system addresses long-standing problems with existing legacy radio systems highlighted by communications failures on Sept. 11 and during Hurricane Katrina.

WikiLeaks exposé: Iran used ambulances to run arms into Lebanon during 2006 war

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/wikileaks-expose-iran-used-ambulances-to-run-arms-into-lebanon-during-2006-war-1.327483

No surprise here. Just confirms that Iran and Hezbollah are scum. Dangerous scum, whose actions defame Islam. ~Bob. Excerpt: Iran used the neutrality of the Iranian Red Crescent to smuggle agents and weapons into Lebanon during Israel's 2006 with Hezbollah, U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks revealed on Sunday. According to an Iranian sources mentioned in the cables, which were made available by the U.K. newspaper the Guardian, the IRC provided a cover for Iranian Revolutionary Guards members. "The only true Iranian Red Crescent officers dispatched to Lebanon were the doctors and drivers. Shipments of medical supplies served also to facilitate weapons shipments," the Guardian quotes the source as saying.

The Kingston Brio

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704700204575642702239206256.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_opinion

Excerpt: A Republican Appropriator bids to change Congress's culture of spending.  House Republicans are choosing their committee chairmen in the next week or so, and one of the biggest decisions will be who runs the Appropriations panel that dictates federal spending. Georgia Republican Jack Kingston is only fifth in line by seniority, but he is making an impressive case that he understands the need to rethink how Congress spends money. Mr. Kingston's two main competitors for the job are promising that they've got tea party religion, but their records belie the claim. Californian Jerry Lewis is a former Appropriations Chairman whose tenure coincided with the record for the number of earmarks in 2005 and 2006. He fought every reform attempted by younger Republicans and presided over the favor-factory mentality that corrupted Members like Duke Cunningham. Mr. Lewis would need a special term limit waiver to lead the committee again, and if he gets the job we'll know Speaker-presumptive John Boehner has been cowed by the Old Bulls.

Quote

The one sure way to conciliate a tiger is to allow oneself to be devoured. - Konrad Adenauer

Nice response to “I’m Tired” via e-mail

Dear Sir, Thank you for your words and for your courage. I've received this particular blog post via email a few times, and I just couldn't agree more. I also thank you for your time serving in the military. I am honored to have a family full of those who have served, and I know the sacrifice it takes to do so. I don't have much to say in response to your post, except that I' not particularly psyched up about reading it or anything like those on your website. I am encouraged to know that there is someone who sees through all of this, as my family and I do as well, but at the exact same time, I'm discouraged that this amount of ignorance can exist in one place at one time. My husband and I are starting a family, and we have spent much time in thought about doing so, given the state of this nation. In the end, we decided to go ahead and start with the hope that we will be able to produce more people who can speak out against this tolerant nation by instilling them with our values and praying that they continue forward with those into the world. I hope you continue to produce informational posts such as this one that enlighten those who may not have taken a step back and seen the writing on the wall from this. I, unfortunately, have been one to watch Michael Moore, speak out against Bush and vote for Obama. I wish every day since finally seeing what is really going on that I had not. When I first received your blog post in an email, I was seeing through a glass darkly. It was a tool that helped me finally see what was actually happening with our government. I will be praying for you, as I see you are going through a difficult time with your health. Again, thank you for all of your courage and unwillingness to water down your faith. Sincerely, --A.A.

Hillary Clinton: Population Control Will Now Become The Centerpiece Of U.S. Foreign Policy

http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=22177

As we used to say in the Corps, you have to be shitting me. Sorry for the language, but this is not believable, with the birthrate in most of the civilized world below replacement levels. ~Bob. Excerpt: During remarks that she made for the 15th Anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the launch of a new program that according to Clinton will now become the centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy. This new program is known as the Global Health Initiative, and it is being incredibly well-funded at a time when the U.S. government is drowning in debt. According to Clinton, 63 billion dollars will be spent by the U.S. to prevent pregnancies and to improve “family planning” services around the globe over the next six years. In other words, the new centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy is all about eugenics and population control.

Clueless

Political Digest For November 29, 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.

Important: The suicide pacts

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-pension-20101127,0,4277227.story

While everyone is focused on the PIIGS in Europe, and the coming Federal Fiscal Failure, a disaster of alarming magnitude is working its way up from below. And it’s not just collapsing states like California and Illinois. Not even just large cities, such as the $30B unfunded pension liability in Chicago. Politicians at all levels have bought support from public unions with dollars they don’t have the paper and ink to print. This editorial deals with the unfolding pension disaster in the small cities and towns surrounding Chicago. Is it unique to this area? I don’t think so. ~Bob. Excerpt: Tens of billions of dollars that might pay for these priorities already are committed to future retirement benefits of public employees. Unless we curb that burden going forward, we will bequeath to next-generation Illinoisans an infrastructure of services and facilities that is grossly inferior to what our grandparents and parents bequeathed to us….Over the past four decades, many of the folks who run our state and local governments signed suicide pacts — spectacularly unaffordable retirement deals — with public employee unions. These pacts have committed so many of today's and tomorrow's dollars to so many pension and retiree health benefits that not enough money is left to fund everything else. Hence the suicide pact analogy: Our governments — our taxpayers, that is — cannot realistically cover all of these exorbitant retirement promises. And our public workers cannot realistically expect that their too-generous benefits will survive as written on paper.

US embassy cables: browse the database

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2010/nov/28/us-embassy-cables-wikileaks

These Wikileaks people need killing before they get too many of the good guys killed. Seriously. ~Bob.

WikiLeaks sparks worldwide diplomatic crisis

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/8166502/WikiLeaks-sparks-worldwide-diplomatic-crisis.html

Excerpt: The King of Saudi Arabia privately urged the United States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear weapons programme, according to diplomatic cables leaked by the whistle-blowing website, WikiLeaks. (Well, I believe the King is a follower of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, so naturally wants to destroy the apostate followers of Ali. If you don’t get that, it’s because you aren’t up on the 7^th Century politics that are getting people killed. ~Bob.)

WikiLeaks: Yemen covered up US drone strikes

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/yemen/8166610/WikiLeaks-Yemen-covered-up-US-drone-strikes.html

Excerpt: But, according to a leaked document from January, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told Gen David Petraeus, then commander of US forces in the Middle East, that: "We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours." The conversation was reported in a diplomatic cable sent back to Washington by a US diplomat in Yemen.

Secret cables reveal that U.S. believes Iran has advanced missiles

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/28/AR2010112802983.html?hpid=moreheadlines?hpid=topnews

Excerpt: The United States believes Iran has obtained advanced missiles from North Korea that could reach Moscow and cities across Western Europe, one of several secret diplomatic assessments of Iran's weapons program disclosed publicly for the first time Sunday. The treasure trove of secret State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks and reported Sunday by several news organizations chronicle the Iranian nuclear standoff from its genesis. The diplomatic memos disclose the extent to which many of the United States's allies in the Arab world repeatedly implored Washington to stop Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. In one such plea, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia reportedly urged U.S. officials in 2008 to "cut off the head of the snake" while there was still time. In another, in May 2009, Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak, argued that the world had six to 18 months "in which stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons might still be viable." According to a secret cable that the U.S. ambassador to Israel, James B. Cunningham, sent to Washington, Barak said: "Any military solution would result in unacceptable collateral damage."

Global warming has slowed down over the past 10 years, say scientists

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1333225/Global-warming-slowing-say-scientists.html

Huh. I noticed that Al Gore has stopped spouting off so much—that would reduce warming! Actually, I thought even the warmist “scientists” were now saying there had been no warming since 1995, but that was “temporary.” ~Bob. Excerpt: The rate at which global temperatures are rising has slowed in the past decade, scientists said today. In a report published today, the Met Office said the slow in the rate of warming was down to a combination of natural variation in the weather and pollution. Scientists say one of the major factors is the rise in heavy industry and pollutant 'aerosols', particularly in Asia. An upsurge in industrial emissions such as sulphur which are being pumped into the atmosphere reflects sunlight and could lead to a cooling effect.

Dublin protesters march against cuts as bail-out looms

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11849568

Easier to make folk songs about the nasty Brits than about the collapse of another Euro-Socialist state. Which is rather too bad, as I’m a huge fan of Irish folk music. Who, do you suppose, will bail out the US when our time comes? ~Bob. Excerpt: Tens of thousands of people have marched through Dublin in protest at the government's austerity programme. Protest leaders said it was the first of many demonstrations over plans to raise taxes and cut public spending. The austerity programme is designed to cut the Irish Republic's massive government deficit, exacerbated by the rescue of the country's banks. The march came as officials met to hammer out the final details of a financial bail-out for the country.

Tea Party Targets Big Business

http://dailycaller.com/2010/11/26/tea-party-targets-big-business/

Wait, aren’t the Democrats the folks opposed to big business? ~Bob. Excerpt: “Big business has had huge impact on public policy,” Borelli told the Daily Caller. “It’s time to make business pay the price for lobbying for big -business politics,” he added before singling out The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and the member companies of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) as potential targets. “PhRMA was a huge backer of Obamacare,” said Borelli. “Members of Congress gave [USCAP] credit for cap and trade passing the House. These policies are very unpopular with conservatives and Tea Party activists. It’s reasonable to hold them accountable just like we hold politicians accountable.” The timing of Kibbe and Borelli’s project is no coincidence. The two groups just released a poll Tuesday that showed when consumers are told about a company’s lobbying for progressive legislation, their opinion of the company drops dramatically. General Electric, for example, started out with a 51 percent favorable image among self-identified conservatives. However, when participants were told about GE’s support of liberal policies like cap and trade, as well as CEO Jeffrey Immelt’s coziness with the Obama administration, that rating fell to 20 percent.

Why is Greenland so rich these days? It said goodbye to the EU.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/alexsingleton/100065718/why-is-greenland-so-rich-these-days-it-said-goodbye-to-the-eu/

Cutting out government red tape is good for business and jobs? Who knew? ~Bob. Excerpt: If you think that leaving the EU would be catastrophic, take a look at Greenland. By rights its people ought to be poor. Their island is isolated, suffers from freezing weather, has a workforce of only 28,000 and relies on fish for 82 per cent of its exports. But it turns out that since leaving the EU, Greenland has been so freed of EU red tape and of the destruction of the Common Fisheries Policy, that the average income of the islanders today is higher than those living in Britain, Germany and France. Greenland’s politicians realised that the fisheries policy was ruining their fishing industry. They had the guts to stand up against the all the prophets of doom and let their people vote in a referendum on leaving the European Community, as the EU was then called. On January 1, 1985, it became independent of Brussels – the only country ever to do so. Greenland was, with Britain, one of only two EU countries to be heavily dependent on fishing. In fact, Britain had, in some estimates, 80 per cent of Europe’s fish stocks when it entered the EU, because our fishermen had carefully managed them, while the fisherman of Spain, France and Italy had destroyed most of the Mediterranean stocks. The surprising thing is that while the unemployment from closing (loss-making) coal mines is frequently denounced by Labour politicians, more British workers lost their jobs as a result of gigantic French and Spanish boats being permitted to raid our stocks. Few of those politicians seem to care.

Bombs Don't Kill People; Terrorists Do

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/11/bombs_dont_kill_people_terrori.html

Excerpt: This is precisely the disconnect which the Left faces with airport security and passenger examinations. The danger is not that someone will bring a handgun, a knife, or even an explosive on an airliner. Properly stored and maintained, none of these will do the slightest harm to anyone. In fact, if every passenger on September 11, 2001 had been armed, the terrorists would almost certainly have been stopped. Disarming the innocent never stops violence. Moreover, the "things" which can be used to cause injury are as endless as human imagination, and in the hands of terrorists, almost anything can be used to murder large numbers of people. The variety of methods and tools of destruction are as broad as the bored minds of evil men. Anyone who has toured a prison can hear from guards about the remarkable ingenuity with which inmates can make real-looking "guns" or very real knives and other weapons.

It was mercy, not justice, that spared Portland

http://amnation.com/vfr/

Excerpt: You’ve probably already heard that Portland, Oregon prohibited its police officers from working with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force—the very unit which intervened in the case of Mohamed Mohamud and deflected his planned mass murder attack into a sting operation with false explosives. But guess why Portland found the Joint Terrorism Task Force so offensive? Byron York writes in the Washington Examiner: In April 2005, the Portland city council voted 4 to 1 to withdraw Portland city police officers from participating in the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. Mayor Tom Potter said the FBI refused to give him a top-secret security clearance so he could make sure the officers weren’t violating state anti-discrimination laws that bar law enforcement from targeting suspects on the basis of their religious or political beliefs. [emphasis added.] So, Portland refused to cooperate with federal anti-terror police work because such work involved … profiling. It involved using, among other factors, the fact that someone was a Muslim. It was discriminatory. Portland preferred to leave itself helpless in the face of Islamic terrorism than discriminate against even one possible Muslim terrorist.

America’s Grim Options on North Korea

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/americas-grim-options-on-north-korea/?singlepage=true

Excerpt: To many, the idea that North Korea might actually sell nuclear warheads to Islamic extremists might seem implausible, even for the North Koreans. It is obvious to outsiders that to even attempt this, in the current international climate, would be suicidally reckless. But North Korea is perhaps the ultimate rogue state. It has never paid any attention to the normal rules of international conduct: it sells narcotics; it forges currency; it blows up passenger airplanes; it murders the entire families of defectors; it kidnaps children from neighboring countries; it assassinates diplomats; it digs invasion tunnels; and, as we saw yet again with the Yeonpyeong island attacks, it lashes out militarily whenever it feels the need. The result of the DPRK’s dramatically enhanced uranium enrichment capacity is a situation much worse than the one which nearly triggered a war in 1994, during the Clinton administration. Compared to then, North Korean nuclear capability is now a fact, not a possibility; and unless action is taken, the regime will begin adding warheads to its arsenal at the rate of perhaps one a month. What to do now? Unfortunately, we are at the point where the easy options have all evaporated. Contrary to the bizarre conclusion of Dr. Hecker in his report, it is obvious that further direct diplomatic approaches to North Korea itself will be pointless. All the years of frantic diplomacy to date have only succeeded in buying the North time to bring its nuclear weapons program to successful fruition. It is now perfectly clear that, from the very beginning, North Korea was never sincerely willing to bargain away its nuclear activities. (Once again, we pay the price for being “merciful.” The best time to have dealt with this was back in 1953. The author has laid out all the options currently available. His analysis of which is most desirable can be argued against. A new class of explosive bombs the author ignores is the FAE (fuel [oil]-air-explosive) that actually overlaps in destructive power with the smaller (up to perhaps 10 kilotons) nuclear devices. Properly delivered, these would provide a non-nuclear means of absolutely interdicting the mountain passes the NK armor and mechanized infantry would have to use to invade the South. One great and potentially useful suggestion the author makes is to hold the Kim family "personally" responsible if a nuke goes off anywhere in the world. At a minimum, it would make the family keep their heads down. I seriously doubt the wisdom of betting the future of the USA and our people on "the throw of the dice." If we need to go to war with the NKs, then we should do it as hard and swiftly as possible, but without telegraphing our every move to the NKs ahead of time. Ron P.)

China Groped Us

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.8018/pub_detail.asp

Excerpt: A Los Angeles woman, traveling by air the day before Thanksgiving, did not want radiation from an airport ‘naked body’ X-Ray scanner; she also did not want TSA goons to grope her. So she wore a revealing bikini and avoided both radiation and groping. The Obama White House is not nearly so clever. China groped the missile defenses of our homeland and President Obama said and did nothing. No one noticed. Well, almost no one. On November 8th, a KCBS-TV news helicopter filmed a missile launched a few miles off the California coast! The video shows a smoke plume rising from the ocean just north of Catalina Island, well inside US territorial waters, heading west over the Pacific Ocean. No one has claimed the mystery missile. No one has said why or how it was done. So let us examine some facts and make a reasonable guess.

San Francisco's Far Left Gets Ballot Box Beating

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-11-18/bay-area/24837710_1_ballot-box-dccc-endorsement

Excerpt: Now that Mark Farrell is the surprise winner to represent District Two on the Board of Supervisors, I asked him if he'd gotten a congratulatory call from political power broker Aaron Peskin. "Still waiting on that one," he joked. "Go figure. It's a mystery." He might have a long wait. Peskin and his far-left leaders of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee are still shaking off the ice water from the dunking they took at the ballot box. Formerly the organization of write-down-the-endorsements-and-start-planning-the-victory-party (40 out of 43 endorsement wins for supervisor since 1990), the Peskin-led DCCC took an 0-4 skunking on supervisors... Of course, Peskin didn't become known as the city's political mega-mind without an ability to turn burnt toast into crisp croutons. He and San Francisco Labor Council Executive Director Tim Paulson insist they look at the results and see nothing but seashells and rainbows... "The composition of the Board of Supervisors remains unchanged," he said. "Nobody won anything." This hands moderate Supervisor Sean Elsbernd a laugh. "I absolutely disagree," he said. "Every person who is replacing an incumbent is more moderate. If the DCCC didn't think that, why didn't they endorse them? The DCCC was the kiss of death. Perhaps now they will realize how woefully out of step they were."

Union Drops Health Coverage for Workers’ Children

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2010/11/20/union-drops-health-coverage-for-workers-children/

What goes around…the SEIU spent members’ dues to jam ObamaCare through, now members’ kids won’t be covered. ~Bob. Excerpt: One of the largest union-administered health-insurance funds in New York is dropping coverage for the children of more than 30,000 low-wage home attendants, union officials said. The union blamed financial problems it said were caused by the state’s health department and new national health-insurance requirements. The fund is administered by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. Union officials said the state compelled the fund to start buying coverage from a third party, which increased premiums by 60%. State health officials denied forcing the union fund to make the switch, saying the fund had been struggling financially even before the switch to third-party coverage. The fund informed its members late last month that their dependents will no longer be covered as of Jan. 1, 2011. Currently about 6,000 children are covered by the benefit fund, some until age 23.

A Marine collecting Toys for Tots donations at Augusta's Best Buy was stabbed in the back Friday while helping to subdue a shoplifting suspect.

http://www.onemarinesview.com/one_marines_view/2010/11/a-marine-collecting-toys-for-tots-donations-at-augustas-best-buy-was-stabbed-in-the-back-friday-while-helping-to-subdue-a-sh.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+onemarinesview%2FYGTZ+%28One+Marine%27s+View%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail

Excerpt: Fellow Marines identified the injured man as Cpl. Phillip Duggan, 24, who spent part of Black Friday recuperating at Eisenhower Army Medical Center with injuries that were not life-threatening. Tracey Attaway, 39, of Waynesboro, Ga., was jailed and charged with armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a knife in the commission of a crime.

Surrendered Nation

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/11/surrendered_nation.html

The turkey being served up last Thursday by the ruling elite was the American people. Because she was wearing a panty liner that obscured the screener's view of her genitals, a TSA official subjected a menstruating woman to a fondling "so invasive that I was left crying and dealing with memories that I thought had been dealt with years ago of prior sexual assaults." When did we agree to surrender to Islam? Seriously. Whom did we appoint or elect to negotiate this surrender? Our surrender has been parceled out in loss of freedom, accommodation, and submission to Islamic supremacist demands, and in foreign policy that is supine before Iran and cozying up to the Taliban.

Ballot help defies spirit of the law

http://www.telegram.com/article/20101128/COLUMN27/11280426

Excerpt: While some strongly feel the sanctity of Worcester’s polling booths was hijacked during the Nov. 2 state election by an overzealous community activist group, they had best not hold their breath waiting for satisfaction from state election officials about their complaints. The next telephone call they don’t get will be from the secretary of state’s office. That’s because members of the group Neighbor to Neighbor apparently did not violate state election laws by accompanying people into the voting booth and supposedly telling them how to vote; in some instances, they even actually marked their ballots for them, as some poll observers said they witnessed in affidavits filed last week with the Worcester Election Commission. (It seems nothing illegal occurred during the voting process. All those helpful Neighbor to Neighbor folks were doing is permitted under the law. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.  Ron P.)

Troops Buck Historical Trend by Saying Gays OK

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/troops-buck-historical-trend-by-saying-gays-ok/19735038

Excerpt: When a majority of troops told the Pentagon this summer they didn't care if gays were allowed to serve openly in the military, it was in sharp contrast to the time when America's fighting forces voiced bitter opposition to accepting racial minorities and women in the services. The survey, due out Tuesday, is expected to find pockets of resistance among combat troops to ending the ban on gays. But some 70 percent of respondents were expected to say that lifting the ban would have a positive or mixed effect, or none at all, according to officials familiar with the findings. The study is expected to set the stage for a showdown in the Senate between advocates of repealing the 17-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" law and a small but powerful group of foes in the final days of the lame-duck Congress. Repeal would mean that, for the first time in U.S. history, gays would be openly accepted by the military and could acknowledge their sexual orientation without fear of being kicked out. (Bob and I must have been ahead of our time. Back in 1965, sitting in the Enlisted Men's Club aboard MCRD San Diego, we decided we'd rather have a Woman Marine or a gay Marine (we didn't call them that at the time of course) who both "wanted to be there and had the will to fight" in the foxhole next to us, rather than somebody who "didn't understand what the fighting was all about," or didn't have the guts to do the job. Even with that said, though, I think this may be a more difficult transition than we are being led to believe. Sexual gratification is about as personal as anything gets. Barracks may have to be rebuilt into smaller—and more private—quarters. There will be people made uncomfortable; but the Marines never promised comfort to any of us (I hear only the Air Force does that). And, why would we want to waste good talent for the job? Take the talent where we find it and bend it to our need, just like we do with everything else. Ron P. Actually, I don’t think they have open squadbays anymore, Ron. All rooms now. ~Bob.)

California an addict yet to hit bottom

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/state-277726-california-san.html

Excerpt: Anyone who has dealt with a loved one deeply involved in some destructive behavior understands that there's only so much you can do until the person hits whatever low point is necessary to spark a commitment to turn things around. I think of my beloved California in the same light. What a great state, but it remains on a collision course with reality. We can't keep spending money we don't have, punishing those who pay the bills and ignoring the advice of truth tellers. Californians are known for crafting new realities, but the financial markets are immune to Disney-like fantasies. Eventually, the fiscal self-destruction has to stop – and adults have to step in with an intervention to divert our state from its dangerous path.

Can environmentalism be saved from itself?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/margaret-wente/can-environmentalism-be-saved-from-itself/article1815408/

Excerpt: Maybe it was just a bad dream. Just a year ago, 15,000 of the world’s leaders, diplomats, and UN officials were gearing up to descend on Copenhagen to forge a global treaty that would save the planet. The world’s media delivered massive coverage. Important newspapers printed urgent front-page calls for action, and a popular new U.S. President waded in to put his reputation on the line. The climate talks opened with a video showing a little girl’s nightmare encounter with drought, storms, eruptions, floods and other man-made climate disasters. “Please help the world,” she pleads.

New GOP House Majority Bodes Well for Immigration Reform

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/new-gop-house-majority-bodes-well-for-immigration-reform/?singlepage=true

Excerpt: Let’s recall that, on the immigration issue, you not only find plenty of Republicans who favor comprehensive immigration reform — usually to please their benefactors in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the business community — but also plenty of Democrats who oppose it, usually at the behest of their benefactors in organized labor who want to keep their members from having to compete with guest workers. That’s a major reason why, even with Democrats in control of the White House and both houses of Congress for the last two years, the prospects for immigration reform have stalled. Is this the arrangement that the immigration reform community was so desperate to preserve? If so, reformers can do better. And, this time, “better” might just mean Republican control of the House of Representatives. They certainly can’t do worse. Democrats had their shot and they refused to take it. They’ve been compromised on this issue. They’re always going to be paralyzed with fear and afraid that voters that will see them as weak on border security the same way that, a generation ago, they were seen as weak on national security. Republicans don’t have that problem. Voters already assume that most of them are tough as nails on border security, so they can afford to bend a little in search of an honest and common sense solution. We might be in for a “Nixon goes to China” moment where Americans finally understand that there is a reason why, despite the rhetoric, it’s usually Republicans — and not Democrats — who push immigration reform efforts. For example, the last time the country debated an “amnesty,” it was in response to the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, a bill written by one Republican (Sen. Alan Simpson, R-WY) and signed by another (President Ronald Reagan). (I don’t think the voters will be happy with another round of reform that grants amnesty for those here in return for never-realized promises of increased security. Like promising to fund ObamaCare by eliminating Medicare fraud. If they could eliminate fraud, why haven’t they done it already? ~Bob.)

Democratic South Falls at Last

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45627.html

Excerpt: For Democrats in the South, the most ominous part of a disastrous year may not be what happened on Election Day but what has happened in the weeks since.

After suffering a historic rout — in which nearly every white Deep South Democrat in the U.S. House was defeated and Republicans took over or gained seats in legislatures across the region — the party’s ranks in Dixie have thinned even further. In Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama, Democratic state legislators have become Republicans, concluding that there is no future in the party that once dominated the so-called Solid South. That the old Confederacy is shifting toward the GOP is, of course, nothing new. Southerners have been voting for Republican presidents, senators and governors for decades. But what this year’s elections, and the subsequent party switching, have made unambiguously clear is that the last ramparts have fallen and political realignment has finally taken hold in one of the South’s last citadels of Democratic strength: the statehouses.

Inside North Korea - exclusive footage

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/8113817/Inside-North-Korea-exclusive-footage.html

Ah, the joys of living in a centrally-planned economy! ~Bob. Excerpt: A growing group of North Korean dissidents are risking their lives to secretly film inside the repressive regime before smuggling the tapes across the Chinese border to show the outside world what is happening to their countrymen.

Texas Rangers to Obama: 'To suggest the border is secure is ridiculous'

http://www.examiner.com/immigration-reform-in-national/texas-rangers-to-obama-to-suggest-the-border-is-secure-is-ridiculous

Captain Stacy Holland with the Texas Department of Public Safety who is on the frontlines battling the Mexican drug cartels, recently told Fox News: 'I never thought that we’d be in this paramilitary type of engagement. It's a war on the border.' Holland commands a fleet of 16 Texas DPS helicopters and is a daily witness to the columns of drug smugglers armed with AK-47s crossing into this country. Unable to wait any longer for the federal government to act, the Texas Department of Public Safety has launched what they refer to as a ‘counterinsurgency.’ Former FBI prosecutor Steve McCraw said: 'It certainly is a war in a sense that we’re doing what we can to protect Texans and the rest of the nation from clearly a threat that has emerged over the last several years.'