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.
Judge Rules Health Care Law Is Unconstitutional
Excerpt: A U.S.
Not counting Biden saying the guy who’s held absolute power for 30 years wasn’t a dictator and her saying we supported an orderly transition. Mixed messages from the teleprompter brigade. ~Bob. Excerpt: The Obama administration struggled to maintain a careful balance on its response to the crisis in Egypt
Obama administration aligns itself with protests in Egypt
Excerpt: The Obama administration firmly aligned itself on Sunday with the protest movement that has overtaken Egypt, calling for an "orderly transition" to a more representative government amid rising U.S. U.S. Egypt
Excerpt: If Egypt 's President Hosni Mubarak is toppled, Israel United States Cairo Israel Middle East ."
Excerpt: Egypt Egypt Egypt Iran is rogue in a part of the world they (the US Iran is rogue and their Clerics have in fact hi-jacked an otherwise peaceful religion, shouldn't we be concerned that they are apparently in league with the Muslim Brotherhood's efforts in Egypt Iran Iran Egypt Egypt
There’s an “Obama Doctrine”? Who knew? ~Bob. Excerpt: On Sunday, the military raised its presence, sending a column of tanks to enter Tahrir Square and buzzing the crowds with fighter jets. These actions came a day after the country’s most notorious prisons, Abu Zaabal and Wadi Natroun, were emptied of criminals and Islamic militants; uniformed police forces have all but disappeared (but appear to be trickling back to their posts today). Only the army and roving bands of armed vigilantes are in charge. With all but a few businesses closed and the economy at a complete standstill, it is unclear how long this standoff can last. One banner in
Tahrir Square
read: “The army has to choose between Egypt Egypt Egypt
Egyptian protesters push back armed police
We definitely want these guys on our side—Kate.
Elation Tempered by Fear as Looters Threaten Egypt
Excerpt: Many middle-class Egyptians have greeted with elation the demonstrations that have leveled an unprecedented challenge to the ruling regime in the Arab world's most populous country. But what happened overnight Friday and Saturday also raised widespread alarm across the capital at what disorder might bring. At the checkpoint, some escaped prisoners told [Mohammed] Saher [resident of 'Beverly Hills', Cairo] they'd been left alone at the prison for two days with no food or water until men in traditional garments opened the doors and set them free, he said. "How in the hell did they get released? The ex-president wants to create chaos and show Egyptians as barbaric," Saher said, referring to President Hosni Mubarak as though he were already gone. "That's the card he's playing with now. But we're too smart for this."
Excerpt: The State Department is set to evacuate U.S. citizens from Egypt on chartered planes, but is relying largely on friends and families in the U.S. Cairo and Assistant Secretary of State Janice Jacobs said the U.S. was looking at Athens , Greece ; Istanbul , Turkey ; and Nicosia , Cyprus Cyprus Egypt Egypt United States
What’s the Matter with Egypt
Excerpt: So what’s the matter with Egypt Middle East : in the post-industrial world, its hundreds of millions now are vicariously exposed to the affluence and freedom of the West via satellite television, cell phones, the Internet, DVDs, and social networks. And they become angry that, in contrast to what they see and hear from abroad, their own lives are unusually miserable in the most elemental sense. Of course, there is no introspective Socrates on hand and walking about to remind the Cairo or Amman Street that their corrupt government is in some part a reification of themselves, who in their daily lives see the world in terms of gender apartheid, tribalism, religious intolerance, conspiracies, fundamentalism, and statism that are incompatible with a modern, successful, capitalist democracy. That is, a century after the onset of modern waste treatment science, many of the cities in the Middle East smell of raw sewage. A century after we learned about microbes and disease, the water in places like Cairo Middle East suffer chronic pain and suffer from maladies that are easily addressed in the West. And they have about as much freedom as the Chinese, but without either the affluence or the confidence. That the Gulf and parts of North Africa are awash in oil and gas, at a time of both near record prices and indigenous control of national oil treasures, makes the ensuing poverty all the more insulting. (And a goodly number are determined to bring the blessings of an Islamist theocracy to the rest of us. ~Bob.)
Arab World Transfixed by Egyptian Protests
Excerpt: But this latest uprising is taking place in Cairo institute of Sunni Islamic learning in the world, the Al-Azhar University Egypt Egypt 's monarchy was Gamal Abdel Nasser, whose pan-Arab nationalist ideals inspired a generation of revolutionary leaders from Moammar Gadhafi in Libya to Saddam Hussein in Iraq Sudan on Jan. 30, Yemen on Feb. 3, Syria on Feb. 5 and Algeria
Beyond Mubarak: 'Twere Well It Were Done Quickly
Excerpt: In a crisis like this, moving quickly is often more important than moving in an “orderly” way. After all, an “orderly” transition is far less important than a desirable and orderly outcome. Trying to ensure now that everything is “well thought-out” to the satisfaction of diplomats can easily become an excuse for a drawn-out transition. And that means trouble. The more drawn-out this transition is, the more likely it is to end badly. The best case—the least radicalizing one for the population, the least advantageous for the Muslim Brotherhood—would be a quick transition now to an interim government, with the prospect of elections not too far off, so people can rally to the prospect of a new liberal regime. Uncertainty and dithering is what helps the Lenins and Khomeinis in revolutionary situations. Acting boldly to prevent more disarray and more chaos offers the best chance for an orderly outcome. 9but who is there to act boldly who wouldn’t be worse? Maybe the army. ~Bob.)
CNBC Host and Crew Fired Upon by Egyptian Military
Excerpt: “It is something when you see your first tank in a situation like this that in what we’re seeing in Egypt we saw that within the mile of the airport with the military and then from then on, gangs of young men, young men, middle-aged men with knives, bats, golf clubs – pretty much anything and they were very careful to say, and by the way their English was great, willing to talk to us,” she continued. “They said, ‘Look, we’re not here looting. We’re protecting our property from looters, our family from looters. We can’t sleep at night because there’s no police, no rule of law and we have to protect our families.’ They had some very interesting things to say to us. One of them said, ‘Egypt
Excerpt: What comes next? Ask the young men thronging the streets and squares of the capital, and nobody seems to have a clue. "We don't hate Americans," said Ali Abunil, 30, yesterday, a marketing executive for a pharmaceutical company who had defied the curfew to spend the night in Tahrir Square. And this was reflected in posters held up by marchers all week. "America America Iran Afghanistan Egypt United States is sworn to protect, Israel Israel that much, people cannot be happy with America Israel
Excerpt: "But I would not be at all surprised if this was the work of a gang who were being directed by a dealer, from the Middle East or elsewhere. These artefacts are immensely valuable and can be sold for huge amounts of money. They have ways of smuggling them out of the country. "Dr Hawass has spent many years building up the collection and he will be absolutely devastated by this." The museum, which houses over 120,000 treasures, was on Sunday guarded by tanks rolled into posts around the museum, to protect its national treasures against new acts of vandalism. The museum opened in 1858 with a collection assembled by Auguste Mariette, the French archaeologist retained by Egypt
Why they hate Mubarak: "He is supporting Israel Israel is our enemy...If people are free in Egypt ...they gonna destroy Israel
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood eyes unity gov't without Mubarak
Excerpt: The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt
Although the Muslim Brotherhood is officially banned from running for elections for parliament, some movement members have presented candidacy for parliament as independents.
If Brotherhood takes over, IDF will face formidable enemy
Excerpt: The collapse of Hosni Mubarak’s regime in Egypt is not yet about Israel Israel Israel Egypt is a reassuring sign for Israel
A coup in Yemen
http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/world/2011/01/coup-yemen-could-give-al-qaeda-stronghold-experts-say
http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/world/2011/01/coup-yemen-could-give-al-qaeda-stronghold-experts-say
Excerpt: Tens of thousands of Yemeni citizens took to the streets Thursday demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh resign. Saleh, whose been in power for 32 years, was discussing a constitutional amendment that would make his presidency a life term. After the protests erupted, he made promises to slash income taxes in half and raised the pay of his military and security officials. Experts say he won't be able to sustain the changes or fulfill promises without help. Christopher Boucek, a Yemen specialist with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the administration needs to look beyond the al Qaeda presence in Yemen Yemen Tunisia and what could easily unfold in Yemen Yemen , experts said, using government corruption and Saleh's overtures to the United States
Quote
Ship me somewhere east of Suez
Where there ain’t no Ten Commandments, and a man can raise a thirst. –Kipling.
The Economic Stimulus That Wasn't
Excerpt: Did the hundreds of billions spent to stimulate the economy do the job? And where did all that money go, anyway? A new report crunches the data and finds answers that are devastating for stimulus backers. Done by Stanford University
The United Nations' Scientific Fraud against DDT
I rate Rachel Carson as the fourth leading mass murderer of the twentieth century, trailing, in order Mao, Stalin and Hitler. But she’s gaining, as her book, Silent Spring, continues to kill third world children through malaria and other diseases. ~Bob. Excerpt: Key points in this Outlook: UN agencies are misleading the public by claiming that malaria can be controlled without insecticides, notably DDT. The stated aim is to stop DDT use globally by 2020. UN agencies are committing scientific fraud by deliberately and incorrectly interpreting data on malaria control using noninsecticide methods. While DDT is no panacea, it is still a critical weapon in the battle against malaria and other insect-borne diseases.
Uncertainty Continues To Depress Jobs
Excerpt: Although the unemployment rate fell to 9.4% in December from 9.8% in November, some 14.5 million people are still classified as unemployed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just 1.1 million fewer than in October 2009, when unemployment hit its peak. Put in perspective, the current number of unemployed is some 5.2 million, or 56%, greater than the number in June 2003, when unemployment hit its peak after the dot-com bust. Even if the recovery continues along its current track, some six more years will be needed to bring the job total back to where it was November 2007, when some 146.6 million people were employed in the U.S. U.S.
House Dem: Liberal groups need to back off for party to succeed in 2012
Just shut up and don’t antagonize the uninformed middle until after November 2012, then we can move left again. ~Bob. Excerpt: Liberal groups need to stay out of Democratic primaries if the party is going to retake the House majority, according to a conservative Massachusetts Democrat. Rep. Stephen Lynch was one of several Democrats who faced an aggressive primary challenge from the left in 2010. His challenger Mac D'Alessandro, a former top official with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), received almost $300,000 from labor groups for his campaign.
House GOP tries to find middle ground on budget-cutting plan
Excerpt: House Republicans are putting together a floor debate plan that tries to broker a divide over how deeply to cut spending. Under the two-step plan, Republicans are likely to bring a measure to the floor that would propose much more moderate cuts to the budget for 2011 than what many Republicans have sought. To mollify those who want deeper cuts, Republican leaders would allow the House to consider amendments offering more significant cuts to the budget, according to a House GOP aide. This process would allow House leaders to put forward a budget plan for FY 2011 that would not propose the kind of drastic cuts that would be opposed by the Democratic Senate and White House. At the same time, it would give Republicans who want more cuts a chance to make their case through the amendment process.
When Good Muslims Go Bad
Excerpt: Another example of hypocrisy appears to have been lost upon those Muslims who have surrendered their independent thought. While Islamist imams encourage them to become suicide bombers and target Allah’s enemies (the victims of which bombings often include more believers than non-believers), there is no recorded case of an imam ever practicing what he preaches by donning a suicide bomber’s vest himself—or, for that matter, of the children of an imam doing so. Radical imams “talk the talk” yet prove reluctant to “walk the walk”—a result apparently reached by their exercise of the independent thought they bar followers from using. Contrast this example set by Islamist clerics failing to practice what they preach to that set by “The Four Chaplains” of World War II fame. These four religious leaders—two Protestant pastors, a Catholic priest, and a Jewish rabbi—were onboard a US China
Democrats launch campaign against 19 House Republican targets for 2012
Excerpt: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has started airing advertisements for the 2012 election cycle, targeting 19 House Republicans in typically left-leaning districts. The Democrats will need most, if not all, of those seats to reclaim a majority in the House in the next Congress. The DCCC’s most notable target is Tea Party favorite Allen West, Florida Republican, who won his election in a historically Democratic district.
Excerpt: Now (here’s the glitch) if you’re a health policy wonk living, say, in Princeton or New Haven you cannot in your wildest dreams imagine why anyone would ever voluntarily choose to live in Bandera County. Think how far away it is from the Met, from Broadway, from Avery Fisher Hall. Think how far away it is from decent Chinese or Italian cuisine. Think how far away it is from… from… well, from civilization. So to a great many of my colleagues, underdoctored areas are natural and inevitable. What graduate of Harvard Medical School U.S. Kingman , Ariz. USA
When Reagan battled the Soviets — and American journalists
This is actually a 3-page article, but readers need to click the red "next" line at the bottom of each of the first two pages to advance to the next page. Ron P. Excerpt: In the 1980s, liberals in the media viewed Reagan as a simpleton, even a Neanderthal, when it came to appraising the USSR Moscow
The Old Obama in New Clothing
Excerpt: The November election sent a clear message to Washington
The Corporatist Culture of Corruption
Excerpt: A big part of the problem lies with the Russian people, who have an overwhelming desire to work for the bureaucratic regime that is the Russian government. They are resistant to change. Many have accepted the fact that corruption is the way business and politics function. Just like in many countries with bloated public sectors, people are comfortable in their cozy government jobs, and those already in government jobs enjoy the benefits of a corrupt political system. This is typical of government intensive economies, as politics picks winners and losers rather than competitive behavior and natural market forces. A $500,000 company simply cannot compete with a $500 billion company that receives government subsidies and political favoritism. Corporate welfare and sleazy government relationships create unnatural monopolies, developed through a command economy market structure. The economy becomes not a free market, but a "corruption" market. The United States Los Angeles
China announces thorium reactor energy program, Obama still dwelling on “Sputnik moments”
Excerpt: Currently there is no US China US US US US US
After Tucson
Excerpt: In the illuminating Do Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help (And The Rest of Us), Mona Charen speaks to the atmosphere of the time and some of its driving forces. Charen explains that Thomas Szasz, author of The Myth of Mental Illness, “popularized the idea that mental illness did not exist but was merely a label that a rigid and intolerant society placed upon those who were nonconformists of any stripe [...]. Mental illness was a social construct, a prejudice, not a diagnosis.” Charen notes that Erving Goffman wrote an influential book called Asylums, in which he argued that all mental treatment institutions were essentially alike, and not for the better. Goffman “insisted that that most of the symptoms of mental illness displayed by residents of mental hospitals — raving, hearing voices, paranoia — were responses to being locked up, not evidence of illness [...].” Also enormously influential was British psychoanalyst R. D. Laing. “Laing argued that modern society itself was twisted and unnatural [...]. Laing taught that society’s coercion alienated human beings from their instinctive, natural, and intuitive selves. The people society called mentally ill were merely attempting to recapture the ecstatic and intuitive parts of their souls. Who were we, he asked, to label them insane when society itself was so sick?” If this sounds familiar, that is because it is of a piece with the contemporary progressive meme expressed by Mr. Obama — who, on the 2008 campaign trail, often called America the greatest nation in the world and then exhorted crowds to help him fundamentally change it. (…) One must not underestimate the influence that people like Szasz, Goffman, and Laing had on society and those treating mental illness. Their ideas — however well-intentioned — essentially boiled down to an idea that, heard today, sounds utterly idiotic: the mentally ill aren’t really sick at all, but have a supernatural sense of perception, perhaps even a more evolved consciousness than the rest of the everyday dullards…. 9 If you've spent any time in the downtown area of the nearest city and think about the people you saw on the street—the ones that always seemed to be on the street, not merely walking to a destination—you’ll realize this author is exactly right. I watched downtown Fitchburg, MA deteriorate from being a vibrant shopping district in 1977 to being a near ghost-town in 1982, largely because of the sudden influx of “odd and unusual personalities.” Almost none of the businesses, most of them decades old, survived. Ron P. Huh. I thought Fitchburg suffered because the city’s brilliant State Senator retired in 1982 and moved to Florida. ~Bob.)
The case for Jon Huntsman
Excerpt: Talk of a 2012 presidential candidacy by Jon Huntsman, the Obama Administration's ambassador to China, is heating up. We reported last week that Huntsman was leaning toward a run for the Republican nod and had a group of advisers beginning the outreach effort in early states to ensure that he could hit the ground running if and when he returned from China. Politico reported today that the White House is expecting Huntsman to resign his post this spring, an obvious precursor to a presidential bid. Today we make the case for why Huntsman can win the Republican nomination in 2012. Tomorrow we will offer up the case against the former Utah governor.
Political Blogs are Ready to Flood Campaign Trail
Excerpt: The New Hampshire primary is over a year away, and the first major candidate has yet to formally declare. Just don’t tell that to outlets like Politico, Talking Points Memo and RealClearPolitics, which are already planning to smother the 2012 campaign trail in a way they could never have imagined four years ago when they had far smaller staffs of bloggers and shoestring budgets. With an eye toward earning greater respectability, this crop of political Web sites is hoping for more than just page views and traffic-driving links from the Drudge Report. They want to establish themselves as the Blogs on the Bus. “We were a garage band in 2008, riffing on the fly,” said Jim VandeHei, Politico’s executive editor and co-founder. “Now we’re a 200-person production, with a precise feel and plan.”
GOP brass owes us, West assures tea partyers
Excerpt: John Boehner came to West Palm Beach in October to provide a high-profile campaign boost for Allen West, but West says it's Boehner who is indebted to West and other House Republican freshmen. "You've got 87 new freshmen that are up there. And it's because of those 87 freshmen that John Boehner is the speaker of the House," West told a town hall meeting Thursday in Deerfield Beach. Tea party favorite West was responding to an audience member who wanted assurance that, after his first few weeks on Capitol Hill, he hadn't sold out to Republican establishmentarians. The candidate who runs against Washington, goes to Washington and gets co-opted by Washington is one of the oldest recurring characters in American political drama. But West told the town hall crowd that he and his fellow freshman firebrands will be different. After helping the GOP take control of the House from Democrats, West said, the rookies have "huge leverage" with Republican leaders.
Tawdry details of Obamacare: White House quietly exempts pampered politicos
Excerpt: If you would like to know what the White House really thinks of Obamacare, there’s an easy way. Look past its press releases. Ignore its promises. Forget its talking points. Instead, simply witness for yourself the outrageous way the White House protects its best friends from Obamacare. Last year, we learned that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had granted 111 waivers to protect a lucky few from the onerous regulations of the new national health care overhaul. That number quickly and quietly climbed to 222, and last week we learned that the number of Obamacare privileged escapes has skyrocketed to 733. Among the fortunate is a who’s who list of unions, businesses and even several cities and four states (Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio and Tennessee) but none of the friends of Barack feature as prominently as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). How can you get your own free pass from Obamacare? Maybe you can just donate $27 million to President Obama‘s campaign efforts. That’s what Andy Stern did as president of SEIU in 2008. He has been the most frequent guest at Mr. Obama‘s White House…. Dr. Milton R. Wolf is a board-certified diagnostic radiologist, medical director and cousin of President Obama. He blogs daily at miltonwolf.com.
Upcoming Pentagon cuts make for hard sell
Excerpt: The Obama administration looks to be in for a tough time in selling its proposed 2012 defense budget, with opposition rising against almost every reduction, cut and slice proposed in military programs. Fierce opposition to some of the cost-saving measures was evident during a House Armed Services Committee hearing last week in which the panel's new Republican chairman, Rep. Buck McKeon of California, said he "will not support any measures that stress our forces and jeopardize the lives of our men and women in uniform. I will also oppose any plans that have the potential to damage or jeopardize our national security." Proposals drawing the most fire include reductions in the size of the Army and Marine Corps, cancellation of the Corps' Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, and about $7 billion in health care savings that will include fee increases for some beneficiaries. The Obama plan would, over the next five years, shift about $100 billion within the defense budget to new priorities and reduce planned spending by another $78 billion. The plan remains, in large part, because while some complain it cuts too deeply, others say it doesn't cut deeply enough. For example, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the armed service committee, called the Pentagon plan "a good first step in the right direction."
The Netherlands Freezes Contacts With Iran After Execution
Excerpt: The Netherlands has formally frozen all contacts with Iran following the execution of a Dutch Iranian woman on drugs charges. In a statement, the ministry said the move is to show the Netherlands' disgust at the hanging of Zahra Bahrami on drugs charges. Other Iranian Dutch nationals are being advised not to travel to Iran. ‘The Netherlands is very shocked by this execution, this scandalous deed,’ foreign minister Uri Rosenthal said. ‘We had done all we could to prevent this barbarous act.’ On Friday, Iran’s ambassador to the Netherlands had told Rosenthal that not all avenues had been closed off, the minister said. ‘I really regret that Iran did not keep its word and we have to find out via the media.’ (If she was really a drug dealer, I have no sympathy. But I suspect she was a regime opponent, and they are using this the way the Soviets labeled any opponents “crazy” and locked them up. ~Bob.)
150th Anniversary of the Civil war is coming up
Two sites with info.
Dem Sen. Chucky Schumer: Three Branches of Government are House, Senate and White House…Wait, Which Ones?…
Excerpt: And he sits on the Senate Committee that oversees the third branch: The Judiciary. Imagine the MSM response if Palin made this mistake? (How about a Constitutional Amendment that you can’t hold Federal office unless you got a “C” in ninth grade civics? That is, where they still teach civics. ~Bob.)
Explosive New Book Charges Obama Invites Attack on U.S.
Courting Disaster book review. Excerpt: Despite his circumstances, KSM still refuses to talk. He spews contempt at his interrogators, telling them Americans are weak, lack resilience, and are unable to do what is necessary to prevent the terrorists from succeeding in their goals. He has trained to resist interrogation. When he is asked for information about future attacks, he tells his questioners scornfully: "Soon, you will know." It becomes clear he will not reveal the information using traditional interrogation techniques. So he undergoes a series of "enhanced interrogation techniques" approved for use only on the most high-value detainees. The techniques include waterboarding. His resistance is described by one senior American official as "superhuman." Eventually, however, the techniques work, and KSM becomes cooperative - for reasons that will be described later in this book. He begins telling his CIA de-briefers about active al Qaeda plots to launch attacks against the United States and other Western targets. He holds classes for CIA officials, using a chalkboard to draw a picture of al Qaeda's operating structure, financing, communications, and logistics. He identifies al Qaeda travel routes and safe havens, and helps intelligence officers make sense of documents and computer records seized in terroristraids. He identifies voices in intercepted telephone calls, and helps officials understand the meaning of coded terrorist communications. He provides information that helps our intelligence community capture other high-ranking terrorists, KSM's questioning, and that of other captured terrorists, produces more than 6,000 intelligence reports, which are shared across the intelligence community, as well as with our allies across the world. In one of these reports, KSM describes in detail the revisions he made to his failed 1994-1995 plan known as the "Bojinka plot" to blow up a dozen airplanes carrying some 4,000 passengers over the Pacific Ocean. (What few people understand, yet is so terribly important. --Del)
New estimates put Pakistan's nuclear arsenal at more than 100
They’re our ally—what could go wrong? ~Bob. Excerpt: Pakistan's nuclear arsenal now totals more than 100 deployed weapons, a doubling of its stockpile over the past several years in one of the world's most unstable regions, according to estimates by nongovernment analysts. The Pakistanis have significantly accelerated production of uranium and plutonium for bombs and developed new weapons to deliver them. After years of approximate weapons parity, experts said, Pakistan has now edged ahead of India, its nuclear-armed rival. An escalation of the arms race in South Asia poses a dilemma for the Obama administration, which has worked to improve its economic, political and defense ties with India while seeking to deepen its relationship with Pakistan as a crucial component of its Afghanistan war strategy. In politically fragile Pakistan, the administration is caught between fears of proliferation or possible terrorist attempts to seize nuclear materials and Pakistani suspicions that the United States aims to control or limit its weapons program and favors India.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy confession: 'I no longer feel left-wing.'
Excerpt: Only two years ago Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy [France's first lady] had claimed that she was "instinctively left-wing" after at one stage supporting her husband's Socialist rival in the 2007 presidential elections. She had also publicly opposed Mr Sarkozy's plan to conduct DNA tests on immigrants. In 2008, she told the Libération newspaper: "Nobody has to be joined at the hip in politics or with one's husband". A year earlier she told a British newspaper: "I would never vote on the Right." But in Monday's interview with Le Parisien newspaper, she said her previous political persuasion was only due to her belonging to a "community of artists." "We were bobo (bourgeois bohemians), we were left-wing but at that time I voted in Italy (her native country)." I have never voted for the Left in France and I can tell you, I'm not about to start now. I don't really feel left-wing anymore," she said.
Politics By the Numbers: Good Omens For the GOP in 2012
Excerpt: In the Senate, where Democrats have a 53-47 majority, but not iron control, the situation is different. In the 2012 cycle, 23 Democrats come up for re-election and only 10 Republicans. You can get a good idea of their political incentives by looking at the 2010 popular vote for the House in their states. Since the mid-1990s, when partisan percentages in presidential and House elections converged, the popular vote for the House has been a pretty good gauge of partisan balance.
Excerpt: Modeled after 2010’s Daily 10, POLITICO’s Monthly 10 is a list of the most competitive Senate races in the country — measuring candidate entries, polling, the latest developments on the trail and other intangibles. The higher the ranking, the closer the race, with 1 being the most competitive and 10 being the least competitive contest. Here’s our inaugural 2012 list, which will appear in this space towards the end of each month.
Silencing Those Who Say There Is A Problem
Excerpt: As most readers know, Lars Hedegaard, the Chairman of the Danish Free Speech Society, was tried last week on “hate speech” charges for discussing the disproportionate incidence of family rape among Muslim immigrants in Denmark. The verdict came in today, and Mr. Hedegaard has been acquitted of all charges. This is indeed an occasion for Counterjihad activists to pop the champagne corks. We should, however, retain a measure of our sobriety: this is a partial victory at best. The acquittal of Mr. Hedegaard was based on the fact that his words were not intended to be public, and were thus not covered by the law — the offense defined by the “racism” statute applies solely to public speech. This law remains on the books in Denmark. Anyone who publicly repeats what Lars Hedegaard said, or says something similar in public, is likely to face the same charges, and may well be convicted and fined. And this is in Denmark, mind you — a country we all associate with freedom of expression.
Excerpt: After the 2008 election, the right-leaning Washington Examiner learned through a records search that 88% of the campaign donations made by network news employees, including writers, producers, reporters, and executives, went to Democrats. Just 88%, huh? Not coincidentally, a Harvard study conducted during the 2008 election found that 47% of the print and broadcast stories about Barack Obama were overtly positive vs. only 12% positive for John McCain, while the Washington Post’s own ombudsman acknowledged that Obama received three times more front-page coverage than McCain, and that reporters went over the top in their scrutiny of Gov. Palin compared to then-Sen Biden. Fair and balanced, my friends! And file this under the obvious, but a Media Research Study further confirmed the bias, studying every mention of Barack Obama since his appearance on the national stage in 2004, concluding: The networks downplayed or ignored major Obama gaffes and scandals. Obama’s relationship with convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko was the subject of only two full reports (one each on ABC and NBC) and mentioned in just 15 other stories.
Professor Cornpone: Ethanol lobbyist Newt Gingrich and us—and the future of the GOP
I’ve been a Newt fan—but find this very troubling. ~Bob. Excerpt: The former Speaker blew through Des Moines last Tuesday for the Renewable Fuels Association summit, and his keynote speech to the ethanol lobby was as pious a tribute to the fuel made from corn and tax dollars as we've ever heard. Mr. Gingrich explained that "the big-city attacks" on ethanol subsidies are really attempts to deny prosperity to rural America, adding that "Obviously big urban newspapers want to kill it because it's working, and you wonder, 'What are their values?'" Mr. Gingrich traced the roots of these supposed antipathies to the 1880s, an observation that he repeatedly tendered "as an historian." The Ph.D. and star pupil of futurist Alvin Toffler then singled out the Journal's long-held anti-ethanol views as "just plain flat intellectually wrong." Mr. Gingrich is right that ethanol poses an intellectual problem, but it has nothing to do with a culture war between Des Moines and New York City. The real fight is between the House Republicans now trying to rationalize the federal fisc and the kind of corporate welfare that President Obama advanced in his State of the Union. We'll dwell on this problem not merely because Mr. Gingrich the historian brought it up, but because it and he illustrate so many of the snares facing the modern GOP.
Save the environment or save the economy? The brewing battle over bottled water could kill jobs
Excerpt: For more than a few years environmentalists have fueled a movement to ban or significantly reduce consumer use of bottled water. Dozens of universities and municipalities have already taken action to curb bottle water use. But the impact of such a ban on the U.S. economy, especially in the current economic climate, could be significant. “It could be massively destructive for the industry,” said Tom Lauria, spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association. More than 150,000 jobs in the water bottle industry could be at risk, and billions of dollars of exports of polyethylene terephthalate, a primary ingredient used to produce water bottles, could also be at risk. (...) “Unfortunately, even though tap water is more stringently regulated and monitored more than bottled water, we still have contamination problems in many U.S. cities,” Larsen said. “The ideal solution would be to have clean tap water, delivered through municipal systems delivered directly to people’s homes and places of work.” Nonetheless, in her most recent report, “Bottled Water Boycotts, 2007,” Larsen said bottled water is bad for the environment because it requires the crude oil equivalent to run three million U.S. cars for one year’s worth of bottle production. Eliminating the 12-ounce standard water bottle from the consumer market for one year would save about 17 million barrels of crude a year that the water bottle industry uses for pumping, processing, refrigeration and delivery, she said. (Having worked in the convenience retail industry for more than a decade (and now retired, thank god), I can state with absolute certainty that customers DO NOT BUY products they don’t value. Bottled water is one of the most important and useful categories in the cooler. That water door produces three to four times the profit generated by the “healthy” milk and dairy door, and double what would be expected from a good beer door—without the legal complications of the alcohol. It is perceived as quick, easy, and convenient to carry in pockets, backpacks, and lunchboxes. If you have good tap water and a convenient way to carry it around with you, you’re blessed; no one forces the purchase of these products. But, for those who need to purchase it, and the 150,000 folks making it, it is also a blessing. And, let’s put the oil “savings” in perspective: 17 million barrels is about three quarters of one day’s consumption (21 million barrels daily per Google) in the USA, or a little less than 2 tenths of 1 percent of our yearly oil use; it wouldn’t make a measurable difference. Ron P.)
The Kochs vs. Soros: Free markets vs. state coercion
http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/01/kochs-vs-soros-free-markets-vs-state-coercion
http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/01/kochs-vs-soros-free-markets-vs-state-coercion
Excerpt: At the front gates of the Rancho Las Palmas resort, a few hundred liberals rallied Sunday against "corporate greed" and polluters. They chanted for the arrest of billionaires Charles and David Koch, and their ire was also directed at the other free market-oriented businessmen invited here by the Koch brothers to discuss free markets and electoral strategies. Billionaires poisoning our politics was the central theme of the protests. But nothing is quite as it seems in modern politics: The protest's organizer, the nonprofit Common Cause, is funded by billionaire George Soros. Common Cause has received $2 million from Soros's Open Society Institute in the past eight years, according to grant data provided by Capital Research Center. Two panelists at Common Cause's rival conference nearby -- President Obama's former green jobs czar, Van Jones, and blogger Lee Fang -- work at the Center for American Progress, which was started and funded by Soros but, as a 501(c)4 nonprofit "think tank," legally conceals the names of its donors. In other words, money from billionaire George Soros and anonymous, well-heeled liberals was funding a protest against rich people's influence on politics.
Government 'investment' doesn't create jobs; the private sector does
Excerpt: With unemployment remaining above 9 percent and showing no signs of going down any time soon, there's lots of talk in Washington about job creation. For President Obama and congressional Democrats, unemployment is an opportunity for government "investment" in massive public works projects such as manufacturing solar shingles and building high-speed rail lines. At best, such big-spending projects by the federal government mainly create temporary jobs while building things of dubious consumer value. More often, these government spending projects funnel tax dollars to Democratic political allies like the unions that benefit from Project Labor Agreements. These PLAs bar nonunion workers, thereby driving up costs to taxpayers. The problem is that big-government public works projects allow Washington politicians in both political parties to claim to be "doing something" about high unemployment. But the reality is that every dollar spent by government is one less that is available for the private sector to invest in new businesses and technologies that spur the creation of permanent jobs.
'Green chemistry' is California's new job-killer
Excerpt: "Green chemistry" isn't just a slogan. It is a full employment concept for government regulators and private-sector lawyers that will have the effect of costing American business billions even as it produces minimal benefits for consumers. Just like "global warming" and "clean energy," "green chemistry" is a phrase containing worlds within it, almost all of them dangerous or downright deadly to market-driven innovation and productivity. We are entering the third decade of the "green chemistry" movement, and a handy guide to its history is in Katharine Sanderson's article in the Jan. 6 issue of Nature. The would-be regulators of all chemistry have not had an easy time of it these past 20 years. Anderson quotes a proponent of the movement as telling her that "a mention of green chemistry in a gathering of chemists can still provoke sighs and eye-rolling." Among government bureaucrats eager to expand their regulatory reach, however, that mention is likely to produce clasped and rubbing hands, while manufacturing executives reach for the aspirin and their lawyers reach for the time sheets. "Green chemistry" got a toehold in California and from there will climb its way on to the backs of the rest of America.
Ignoring China's military buildup at our own peril
Excerpt: It went from being just another country to a world power in just a few decades. The world's leading manufacturer, it was also one of the great traders. It boded well for peace and stability, some said. The extensive trade ties and business connections reduced the likelihood of future war to all but nil. Until the first shot was fired. In 1914, the German Empire declared war on two of its largest trading partners: France and Britain. The first modern age of globalization gave way to global war, followed by a global pandemic, a global depression and, finally, another world war. The lesson? It takes more than a robust economy to make a peaceful nation. Today, China's economic rise ought to be cold comfort for those laboring to keep Washington and Beijing off a collision course. A few weeks ago my fellow Examiner columnist, the Cato Institute's Gene Healy, highlighted the work of political scientist Erik Gartzke, the university professor who "found that the statistical correlation between economic freedom and peace is vastly greater than the relationship between representative government and peace."
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