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.
Probably No Post Tomorrow
I will be tied up with family matters on Saturday, so will not be able to put the Digest together for Sunday. Therefore, you get a day off for rest, contemplation, and prayer. ~Bob.
Gunfire, new clashes in Tripoli
Excerpt: Gunfire erupted in at least three neighborhoods of the Libyan capital of Tripoli Tripoli
President Obama orders unilateral sanctions on Libya
Sanctions having proven their effectiveness against Iraq and Iran Libya
Excerpt: There is no aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time since Jimmy Carter was in office! It was apparent in Carter's days as President that aircraft carrier presence was 'pulled' to allow a, 'lame,' excuse to allow the Shah of Iran to be deposed and to lend an excuse to allow American hostages to remain in the hands of their Iranian captors. Obama must be a student of, 'an Inept President,' as he too offers a somewhat lame excuse for the impossibility to provide a, 'No Fly Zone,' over Libya Libya America Mediterranean of aircraft carriers he is helpless.
Rubicon: A river in Wisconsin
Excerpt: The magnificent turmoil now gripping statehouses in Wisconsin , Ohio
Should the GOP pin hopes on 2016? Some contenders wait
And, of course, the country may be then have collapsed into fiscal ruin, making the nomination like becoming captain of the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. ~Bob. Excerpt: The GOP presidential field has weakened in recent weeks as Republicans seem to conclude they’d stand a better chance of winning the White House in 2016. Several strategists and observers say the potential candidates are weighing their options and deciding it’s best to wait until the next cycle, when President Obama is ineligible to run and Vice President Biden, who will turn 74 that November, isn't expected to seek the Democratic nomination. The downside to waiting, of course, is that the 2016 Republican primary could be more competitive on account of the openness of the race.
A Dozen Ideas: What to Do about Fannie and Freddie
Is shooting the former executives, like Franklin Raines, who made millions running up our debts, off the table? ~Bob. Excerpt: Marvin Bower, the great managing partner of McKinsey & Co. in the 1950s, offered this advice: Direct every action toward building a stronger position for the long term, but take the action now. I think we can apply this advice to addressing the government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the huge distortions and losses they have caused. We should aim in the long term for a housing finance sector which is principally a robust private market, and one in which you can be either a private company, or you can be a government agency, but you can't be both. In other words, in the long run, there should be no GSEs. As we all know, the GSE charters meant that Fannie and Freddie were private corporations with an implicit, but absolutely real, taxpayer guaranty; they were granted many special privileges and very large economic subsidies, which privatized profits and socialized risk, and as a result, have passed giant losses to the taxpayers. The GSEs were highly politicized, exercised duopoly market power, and transferred a portion of their subsidies to politically directed housing programs, thereby escaping the democratic discipline of appropriations. They were described as "Masters of Beltway Capitalism." Fannie, in particular was genuinely feared as a hard-ball political operator. They had especially high leverage and low capital ratios, because their real capital was known by the bond market to be the credit card of the U.S. Treasury. No private entity can compete with the government-granted advantages of the GSEs, which are even greater now that they have no capital of their own left to worry about. A private company is subject to market discipline; a government agency is subject to government discipline: GSEs escape both.
Federal Compensation: Why Government Pay Is Inflated
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/02/Federal-Compensation-Why-Government-Pay-Is-Inflated
Excerpt: How Does Federal Compensation Compare to Market Rates? The average federal employee earns 57 percent greater cash pay and 85 percent greater total compensation (which includes benefits) than the average private-sector worker. This is an apples-to-oranges comparison because federal employees have more education and experience than private-sector workers. Controlling for observable skills and characteristics allows economists to make an apples-to-apples comparison between private-sector and federal employees. Doing so shows that the federal pay system gives the average federal employee hourly cash earnings 22 percent above the average private worker’s. Including benefits raises the average compensation disparity to between 30 and 40 percent. Federal workers receive automatic seniority-based raises irrespective of performance. President Obama’s suspension of the annual cost-of-living adjustment does not affect these raises.
States Should Use Constitutional Amendment to Rein in Federal Government
Excerpt: Americans are increasingly questioning -- and resisting -- the endless growth of the federal government. Part of this resistance finds voice in efforts to enforce state sovereignty through litigation and legislation such as the Health Care Freedom Act and the Firearms Freedom Act. Measures such as these protect existing, fundamental rights from erosion at the federal level. But the growing discontent has also reignited interest in an even more direct route for the people and the states to regain control over the federal government -- the Article V constitutional amendment process, says Robert G. Natelson, a senior fellow at the Goldwater Institute. Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, the states have the power to apply to Congress to hold a convention for the purpose of proposing constitutional amendments. This power was meant to provide a fail-safe mechanism to control the federal government. Natelson's report demonstrates that the historical record during the Founding era establishes a clear roadmap to guide the Article V amendment process. Among other discoveries, this report reveals that the Framers rejected drafts of Article V that contemplated the very kind of wide-open convention that could "run away," substituting instead a provision for a limited-scope convention, attended by state-chosen delegates, and addressed to specific subject matters. Natelson recommends that states seriously consider initiating the Article V constitutional amendment process to restrain the federal government.
Accountable Care Organizations: The End of Innovation in Medicine?
The Obama administration is pinning its hopes for controlling Medicare costs on accountable care organizations (ACOs)—a system in which groups of doctors are given responsibility for a large population of patients, with a share of the doctors’ reimbursement dependent on their ability to reduce spending and improve clinical outcomes. The Department of Health and Human Services is expected to release regulations governing the framework for ACOs by the end of February. ACOs are supposed to offer incentives for doctors to improve the coordination of care. While this idea is not inherently wrong, the Obama team relies heavily on hospitals to develop these new organizations. Yet historically, most of the significant innovation in health care delivery has developed in for-profit companies, often started by entrepreneurs, and has aimed to move patient care away from costly hospital settings and into less expensive outpatient settings. But entrepreneurs are now exiting the health care services space because the Obama plan tilts the marketplace so heavily against their endeavors. The Obama team is forced to rely on hospitals as much by default as by design, but many hospitals are unlikely to succeed at running ACOs.
Excerpt: Say you want pay students to improve their grades. It turns out that the direct approach — just giving them cash for good grades — doesn't work. But paying them for other things — doing their homework, going to class — does seem to boost achievement, at least in some cases. That's according to a series of studies that paid out $6.3 million to 38,000 students in 261 schools. Here's the paper, by Harvard's Roland Fryer. The results are contrary to a basic economic idea: You should pay for output (in this case, grades), and let workers figure out the best inputs (in this case, studying and going to class). Of course, that idea falls apart if the workers don't really know the relationship between inputs and outputs — in this case, if they don't really know on their own how to get good grades. (I guess they’ve given up on thrashings. And the recent trend of teachers having sex with students does nothing to help those of us who were ugly under-achievers in high school. ~Bob.)
Judiciary chairman: Texas
Guy doesn’t get it. We have to let potential terrorists in, or they will call us Islamophobic. Would you want to be non-PC, even to save your family’s lives? Heaven forfend! ~Bob. Excerpt: The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday said that the terror accusations against a Saudi man living in Texas U.S. U.S.
Cutting — and growing?
It’s also interesting to ponder what will happen to the economy and poor folk when no one will lend us more money, and the alternative is a government default or printing money to have Zimbabwe-like hyper-inflation. ~Bob. Excerpt: As both parties gird for a battle over spending cuts that could shut the government down, it is interesting to ponder just what will happen to the economy when, yes, some public-sector jobs are lost as a result of the spending cuts now under consideration and, simultaneously, the rest of the stimulus money runs out.
Allen West not ruling out VP bid: 'I'm always willing to serve my country'
Unlikely. The media would “Palin” him, but I’d be happy to vote for him. ~Bob. Excerpt: Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) is not closing the door to being considered for the vice presidential spot, despite only having served in Congress for less than three months. Speculation over West was sparked Friday when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who is considering a presidential bid, said that a number of Florida GOP politicians would do well as vice president, including West.
CBO: Jobs Created and Saved By Stimulus Cost At Minimum An Average of $228,055 Each
Excerpt: In a report released Wednesday—“Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from October Through December 2010”—the CBO said it now estimates the stimulus law cost a total of $821 billion, up from CBO’s original estimate that the stimulus would cost $787 billion. In the same report, the CBO estimated that in the fourth quarter of 2010 there were somewhere between 1.3 million and 3.5 million people who were then employed who would not have been had the stimulus not been enacted. (...) This estimate seeks to state the net impact the stimulus had on the number of people employed in the United States as a result of the stimulus, taking into account not only the new jobs believed to be created and the existing jobs believed to be killed by the stimulus, but also the existing jobs that were saved that otherwise would have been lost. (...) Thus, the $821 billion cost of the stimulus divided by the maximum of 3.6 million jobs the CBO believes the stimulus may have saved or created equals an average of $228,055 per job. (But, government is surely more efficient at creating jobs than private industry...isn’t it? The first line of the article contains a link to a PDF of the CBO report. Ron P.)
Excerpt: Illinois , known for its wayward politicians and back-door political dealings, is in the odd position of having become the Switzerland on the Prairie as lawmakers fleeing votes in Wisconsin and Indiana Illinois
Bashir Says He Has Been Targeted by US and Its Allies
Excerpt: Radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir lambasted the United States US Malaysia , the Pharaoh America accused me of being an Al Qaeda leader that should be eliminated from Indonesia US US government approached then President Megawati Sukarnoputri with a request to imprison him in the Guantanamo Bay
Ollie North on the Middle East turmoil
Put the REINS on EPA
Excerpt: EPA’s end-run around democracy — the agency’s hijacking of climate policy via the backdoor of Clean Air Act regulations — is meeting stiff resistance on Capitol Hill. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has already held a hearing on the Energy Tax Prevention Act, which would overturn EPA’s Endangerment Rule and an assortment of related rules imposing Clean Air Act permitting requirements on power plants, refineries, and other emitters of greenhouse gases. Passing the bill — sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), and Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) — is reportedly a top priority of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) have also introduced the “Defending America’s Affordable Energy and Jobs Act.” This even stronger legislation would prohibit all agencies from “legislating’” climate policy under any existing statute, none of which was ever designed or intended for that purpose. Not so long ago cap-and-trade advocates, such as Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), warned that if Congress did not enact “comprehensive energy and climate legislation,” opponents would end up with something they’d like even less — a cascade of Clean Air Act climate regulations promulgated by EPA. Cap-and-traders clearly implied that using the Act as a framework for climate policy would be worse for business — less efficient, less predictable, and potentially more costly. They tried to scare industry, Republicans, and coal-state Democrats into supporting cap-and-trade as a lesser evil. But this just means that if EPA’s climate regulations were put to a vote, they’d have even less chance of passing in the 112th Congress than cap-and-trade did in the 111th Congress. It also means that non-elected bureaucrats are “enacting” an economically riskier version of the same agenda that Congress recently rejected. (...) EPA’s power grab is, alas, only the most egregious example of a more pervasive disorder undermining our Constitution and endangering our prosperity. Americans live under a regime of regulation without representation. In the modern regulatory state, elected officials enact broad regulatory statutes, such as the Clean Air Act, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, or the Telecommunications Act. However, Congress and the president then delegate to non-elected officials the tasks not only of developing and proposing but also of enacting the implementing rules. (YES!!! Hang the bean-counters FIRST! I added emphasis to the last paragraph of the excerpt. Ron P.)
Quote from The Patriot Post www.patriotpost.us/subscribe/
"Taxes should be continued by annual or biennial reenactments, because a constant hold, by the nation, of the strings of the public purse is a salutary restraint from which an honest government ought not wish, nor a corrupt one to be permitted, to be free. ... We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. ... The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife." Thomas Jefferson. 9revered as the founder of the Democrat Party. ~Bob.)
Income Redistribution: Of Green Schemes and Shams
Reports have surfaced that tie the Obama administration to a massive green energy stimulus scam by a failed California
SEC cracks down on fake company that claims to fight global warming
Not surprising to find that scams beget scams. ~Bob. Excerpt: Ever heard of CO2 Tech? It turns out that the London-based company, which advertised products and services to combat global warming, is a fraud. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged seven individuals associated with the company with fraud. The group included fake stock promoters, traders and a lawyer. According to an SEC report, from late 2006 through April 2007, the group raked in $7 million in illicit profits.
Hate-A-Rama: The Vulgar, Sexist, Racist, Homophobic Rage of the Left
Excerpt: Barack Obama's new era of civility was over before it began. You wouldn't know it from reading The New York Times, watching Katie Couric or listening to the Democratic manners police. But America Madison , Wis. Buffalo Walker Wisconsin
All of California
But will they have the guts to use it? ~Bob. Excerpt: The federal immigration agency has finally linked all California Southern California , enables U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to tag arrests and travel to all of the state's county jails to pick up immigrants accused of committing crimes. In essence, local police, willingly or not, have become an arm of the federal immigration agency.
Can Al Qaeda Survive the Revolts?
Excerpt: Dictators weren’t the only ones caught off guard by the sweep of revolts across the Middle East —so was Al Qaeda. Bruce Riedel on how the revolutions will affect the future of global jihad. As the Arab world undergoes the most profound changes it has seen in over a half century, and the first-ever democratic revolutions in its history, al Qaeda has been caught off guard like everyone else. Now it is trying to regain its footing by looking for ways to gain advantage. So the stakes in Arabia ’s earthquake include not just the outcome in each country, the price of oil, and broader regional security, they also involve a battle for the future of the global jihad. (This is an interesting take on the events in the Arab world. Though I hope for the best, I think the author is much too optimistic; the degree of “democracy” in these revolutions is yet to be determined. Al Qaeda has repeatedly proven itself very flexible in dealing with changes in circumstance. Al Qaeda has learned to apply the strongest feature of free market capitalism—the ability to swiftly respond to change in the marketplace—to their concept of locally franchised war. To them, this will simply be another change to adapt to and try to turn to their advantage. Ron P.)
Stand with Scott Walker
Good ad.
Newspapers, GOP call for congressman to resign
Excerpt: A photo of Rep. David Wu wearing a tiger costume and other unusual revelations about his mental health are increasing pressure on the seven-term Oregon Democrat to step down. But the lawmaker says he's not quitting even as an editorial in one of the state's largest newspapers and the state Republican chairman called for his resignation. Wu said this week that it was "unprofessional and inappropriate" to send pictures of himself wearing a tiger costume to staff members while he was in the middle of a heated campaign last year. He also acknowledged taking two tablets of a pain killer that were given to him by an unnamed campaign donor. (Wu's on First? –Michael F.)
A first taste of the New Middle East
Excerpt: The brilliant academic president who theorized that diplomacy-by-apology was more powerful than governing-by-strength is being outmaneuvered -- and outright humiliated -- by the Arab world: Hamas, the Muslim brotherhood and Fatah.
Qaradawi and The Treason of the Intellectuals
Excerpt: Last Friday (2/18/11) marked the triumphal return to Cairo of Muslim Brotherhood "Spiritual Guide" Yusuf al-Qaradawi. After years of exile, his public re-emergence in Egypt Egypt Morocco and Saudi Arabia
A Genuine Black American Hero for Black History Month
Excerpt: Don't look for this from Oprah, Tavis Smiley, The Congressional Black Caucus, or anywhere in the MSM, including (especially!) The History Channel or PBS, but the second in command of the freedom-fighters who hit the Bay of Pigs beachhead 50 years ago was a black Cuban (and today a proud U.S. U.S.
Violent Leftists Threaten Citizen Journalist “A$$hole White Boy” “I’m Gonna Hit Your Head”
Excerpt: It’s been at least 8 hours since I posted the last leftist assault video. So here’s the latest display of leftist tolerance…Enlightened St. Louis leftists threatened a conservative citizen journalist this week. St. Louis
$50k Eco-Classroom Scrapped 'Cause Solar Panels don't Provide Enough Heat
Maybe they’d have more heat if they just burned the money. ~Bob. Excerpt: Eco-campaigners who built a classroom powered by the sun believed they were paving the way for the future. Instead they have been taught a valuable lesson - there is not enough sun in North London to sufficiently heat their building. The much feted zero-carbon Living Ark Caribbean '.
New Soros investment fund, profiting off Obama's 'green energy' push, hires top Obama energy aide
Excerpt: George Soros -- whom we're always told is not serving his own economic interests at all by promoting liberal politicians and big-government policies -- is launching a new investment fund that plans to profit off of the "green energy" boom, which is entirely dependent on government subsidies supported by the groups Soros funds. As the press release puts it, this fund will "leverage technology and business model innovation to improve energy efficiency, reduce waste and emissions, harness renewable energy, and more efficiently use natural resources, among other applications." As Soros puts it in the same release: “Developing alternative sources of energy and achieving greater energy efficiency is both a significant global investment opportunity and an environmental imperative.” Cadie Thompson at CNBC's NetNet flagged this.
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