Political Digest August 20 2009

It bears repeating. I post things to my blog because I think they are of interest, not because I necessarily agree with all—or any—of the contents. ~Bob

Rights?
If healthcare is a “right,” isn’t housing and food? Thus shouldn’t anyone who owns a house with, say, more than 1,500 square feet per occupant be required to house homeless people until below the 1,500 SF level? And if they spend more than 200% of the national average on food, including dining out, shouldn’t they be required to feed homeless people until they are below the benchmark? Maybe we could put Al Gore’s energy-pig mansion and the $100M he earned from Global Warming to some good use.

Rebutting Obama on ‘death panels’
http://www.thecitizen.com/~citizen0/node/38808
Excerpt: When Obama speaks of cutting “inefficiencies” and reducing costs, he means that he will reduce the amount and quality of healthcare available to the elderly. Denied state-of-the-art medications and necessary surgical procedures, patients will be faced with the grim likelihood of their imminent demise. In the face of this reality, end-of-life counseling will be both necessary and, given the choices, welcome.

Debate's Path Caught Obama by Surprise
Public Option Wasn't Intended as Major Focus
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/18/AR2009081803655.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Excerpt: But at a time when the president had hoped to be selling middle-class voters on how insurance reforms would benefit them, the White House instead finds itself mired in a Democratic Party feud over an issue it never intended to spotlight. "I don't understand why the left of the left has decided that this is their Waterloo," said a senior White House adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "We've gotten to this point where health care on the left is determined by the breadth of the public option. I don't understand how that has become the measure of whether what we achieve is health-care reform."

Can California Be Competitive (Again) in 2010?
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/081909-morning-fix.html?wprss=thefix
Excerpt: Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina's decision to open an exploratory committee to weigh a possible challenge to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in 2010 creates the possibility that Golden State Republicans may well field their most competitive statewide ticket in more than a decade next November. If, as expected, Fiorina runs against Boxer, she could well headline a ticket with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman who is regarded as the Republican gubernatorial frontrunner -- giving the GOP two prominent businesswomen with the sort of personal wealth that will allow them to be competitive statewide. "This will be the strongest [Republican] ticket since 1994," predicted Rob Stutzman, a California Republican consultant advising Whitman's bid. "Two strong Republican women is definitely a fresh take for voters.”

Americans still skeptical about Obama’s plans
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32464936/ns/politics-white_house/
Excerpt: A plurality believes Obama’s health plan would worsen the quality of health care, a result that is virtually unchanged from last month’s NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. What’s more, only four in 10 approve of the president’s handling of the issue, which also is unchanged from July.

White House Backs Right to Arms Outside Obama Events
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/18/AR2009081803416.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter
The guy who took a gun to the Obama event was a great help to Obama, allowing the media to paint the opponents as dangerous nuts.

Fact, Fiction, and the Laffer Curve
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18343
Excerpt: In other words, the current system assumes the tax rates have no impact on taxable income. Because of congressional budget rules, this leads to a bias for tax increases and against tax cuts. But if politicians increase tax rates, people will earn and report less taxable income, says Mitchell. A recent example comes from the state of Maryland, which imposed a higher tax rate on the so-called rich in 2008. This tax increase supposedly was going to generate an additional $100 million for the politicians. Instead, tax collections from rich people fell by more than $100 million.

The Corporate Income Tax and Workers’ Wages: New Evidence from the 50 States
http://taxfoundation.org/files/sr169.pdf
Excerpt: Specifically, a one percent drop in the average tax rate leads to a 0.014 percent rise in real wages five years later. In dollar terms, that means wages rise $2.50 for every one dollar reduction in state-local corporate income taxes. The reverse is also true: A one percent hike in the average tax rate leads to a 0.014 percent drop in real wages, or roughly a $2.50 loss in wages for each one-dollar rise in corporate tax collections.

Progressive, Black, Hispanic caucuses pledge more than 120 "no" votes on health co-op plan
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Progressive-Black-Hispanic-caucuses-pledge-more-than-120-no-votes-on-co-op-plan--53591842.html
Excerpt: The liberal wing of the House Democratic caucus is launching a counter-offensive to efforts by the White House and Senate Democrats to back away from a health care reform bill that includes a strong public option. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., who heads the 84-member House Progressive Caucus, said she sent a letter to Heath and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius telling her that her faction will not support a bill that does not include a "robust" government-run plan. If most of the Progressives stick with Woolsey on the threat, the House would be unable to pass a final health care reform bill without a public option, despite signals from the Obama administration that it would accept such a plan.

Demystifying health cooperatives
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Demystifying-health-cooperatives-8124660-53613187.html
Excerpt: The Obama administration is working hard to convince supporters that the president is still fighting for a government-run health insurance plan open to all Americans. The scramble is to convince liberals that the president hasn’t already accepted the idea of a non-profit health care co-operatives — an alternative plan offered by moderate Democrats in the Senate. But with Americans increasingly resistant to the idea of a big, expensive plan, the co-op idea might be the only one that could survive in Congress. But could a co-op help solve the problems facing American health care?

Stand-ins hold spots in line for lobbyists
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Stand-ins-hold-spots-in-line-for-lobbyists-8123423-53587192.html
Only in America.

Axelrod’s Very Big Problem
http://blogsforvictory.com/2009/08/19/axelrods-very-big-problem/
Excerpt: Connections to lobbyists; big payouts coming while holding federal office; nepotism - and all for the evil, wicked, nasty pharmaceutical industry (or, at least, that is how its characterized in lefty talking points). This is the change we wanted? Anyone else besides me smell a rat here? We already know that Obama won’t prevent the trial lawyers from profiting off his health care plan…now we know his people are in the hip pocket of the pharmaceutical industry. It there a special interest - other than, ya know?, the people - which isn’t feeding at the public trough while Obama talks “reform” of the system?

Whose Medical Decisions? Part II
http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/08/19/whose_medical_decisions_part_ii
The Sutton quote is now considered bogus, made up by a journalist, but the article is excellent.

The Great Disconnect
http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/the-great-disconnect/#more-4754
Excerpt: All across the country, Members of Congress are facing very angry constituents over the issue of health care. So ferocious has been the response that an estimated two-thirds of the Members are not even going to hold town hall meetings. Reportedly, our elected representatives are shocked. I don't know why. At least a month earlier, my colleagues and I at the National Center for Policy Analysis became aware of their anger as we collected more than 1.1 million signatures on the petition http://www.freeourhealthcarenow.com/ and read all their e-mail responses. Where, you wonder, were the politicians as this anger was boiling over? Don't they have staffers who answer their telephones and open their mail? Anyway, a great disconnect has emerged. It may be serious enough to cause the Democrats to lose control of the Congress in the next election. How did this happen? I think there are three causes.

Dear Senator Mike Enzi and Heritage Foundation: Shut Up.
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/08/19/dear-senator-mike-enzi-and-heritage-foundation-shut-up/?preview=true
Because I am a big fan and come from a family of donors to the Heritage Foundation, I take no pleasure at all in writing this post. But this must be said. The Heritage Foundation, which played a vital part in building conservative support for Romneycare in Massachusetts, is setting the stage for Republican capitulation on healthcare. This is the second time in less than a year that Heritage will have been instrumental in organizing a conservative collapse in opposition to big government. The first time was when Heritage gave conservatives cover to support TARP, calling it “vital and acceptable.” Now with healthcare, because Heritage is trying to be “helpful”, confusion is starting to crop up among Republicans in Congress at a very critical time in the healthcare debate. Capitulation and compromise are now on the table using a bastardized version of a Heritage proposal.

Iran: Protestors alleging rape in detention told to provide four witnesses as proof
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027278.php
Excerpt: A new twist on the Qur'anically prescribed requirement of four witnesses (4:15, 24:4, 24:6, and 24:13) to "prove" a sexual offense. So many aspects of Sharia, including this one, are illogical and unjust when followed conventionally, but as such, they also provide ample opportunities for additional, imaginative forms of abuse by corrupt, unaccountable authorities.

California: Muslim gets 70 months for plot to attack U.S. synagogues and kill Jews
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027274.php
Excerpt: “Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews." -- Sahih Muslim 41.6985

Swedish blood libel: Jews stealing organs from Palestinian children and selling them
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027269.php
Excerpt: Ancient blood libel revived as a rhetorical weapon against Israel. The Swedish-language article, ”Våra söner plundras på sina organ,” (Our sons' organs are being plundered) is in Aftonbladet here. Thanks to Ted Ekeroth for sending this in -- Ted also kindly sent in the Google translation, which is below. If any human being, meanwhile, can translate this and send it in, I will replace this mechanized gabble. Ted notes that "the article is written by the left-wing radical and Israel-hater Donald Boström, and he is given the title of 'journalist.'"

First-hand Witness to Staged Obama Town Hall Meeting in Belgrade, Montana
http://earthhopenetwork.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=3097
Excerpt: By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since Joe and I live here and we were at the airport on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you. If you chose to share this email with others I do ask that you DELETE my email address before you forward this on. On Wednesday, August 5th it was announced locally that the President would be coming here. There are many groups here that are against his healthcare and huge spending so those groups began talking and deciding on what they were going to do. The White House would not release ANY details other than the date. On about Tuesday Joe found out that they would be holding the "Town Hall" at the airport. (This is only because Joe knows EVERYONE at the airport) Our airport is actually located outside of Belgrade (tiny town) in a very remote location. Nothing is around there. They chose to use a hangar that is the most remotely located hangar. You could not pick a more remote location, and you can not get to it easily. It is totally secluded from the public.

A War Grows in Afghanistan: Does Obama have the courage to win it?
http://warnewsupdates.blogspot.com/2009/08/war-grows-in-afghanistan-does-obama.html
Excerpt: But concerns remained. In a speech to the Foreign Policy Initiative on March 31, 2009, four days after Obama's announcement, Senator John McCain offered words of support for the president's approach. But he also warned that Obama could face charges of LBJ-style incrementalism because he had refused to provide General David McKiernan with the full complement of troops he had requested--the general had called for an additional 30,000 men to be deployed to Afghanistan. It was more analysis than criticism, but his message was clear.In the four months since, McCain says he has seen "alarming signs" that Obama may not have meant what he said about winning in Afghanistan. In an interview on August 3, McCain blasted the White House for ruling out additional troops even before McChrystal, the man Obama chose to lead U.S. forces in Afghanistan, has had an opportunity to finish his strategic assessment of the war there.McCain was particularly incensed by an article that appeared on the front page of the Washington Post on July 1. (He brought it up to me without being asked about it.) Bob Woodward had accompanied Obama's national security adviser, General James Jones, on a trip to Afghanistan. Woodward's article described, with in-the-room detail, Jones warning against requesting more troops. General Lawrence Nicholson had told Jones that the force was "a little light," and Jones said that the troop levels had been decided and that requests for more were unwelcome.Well, Jones went on, after all those additional troops, 17,000 plus 4,000 more, if there were new requests for force now, the president would quite likely have "a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment." Everyone in the room caught the phonetic reference to WTF [Whisky-Tango-Foxtrot] -- which in the military and elsewhere means "What the [expletive]?" Nicholson and his colonels--all or nearly all veterans of Iraq--seemed to blanch at the unambiguous message that this might be all the troops they were going to get.

Political Digest August 19 2009

Bill Cahir Memorial Fund
Burke & Herbert Bank, c/o Mark Ragland, P.O. Box 268, Alexandria, VA 22313.
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/08/14/a-death-in-afghanistan/
Marine KIA in Afghanistan, wife pregnant with twins.

Till Death Do Us Part
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/08/14/AR2009081402519_pf.html
Excerpt: Ultimately, because of the business we are in, expected to fight, suffer and die without complaint, we also cultivate this bond to call on when needed. At times, it means being ruthlessly hard, as at Balaclava in 1854. When the "thin red line" of the 93rd Highlanders were all that stood between the Russian onslaught and the British camp, Sir Colin Campbell commanded the regiment he loved, "there is no retreat from here, men -- you must die where you stand."

At times, it means having compassion, as on Tulagi Island in the South Pacific in 1942. After an all-night attack, Marine PFC. Edward "Johnny" Ahrens lay quietly in his foxhole. He'd been shot twice in the chest, and blood welled slowly from three deep bayonet wounds. Thirteen dead Japanese soldiers lay nearby; two others were draped over his legs. Legendarily tough Lewis Walt -- later assistant commandant of the Marine Corps -- gently gathered the dying man in his arms. Ahrens whispered, "Captain, they tried to come over me last night, but I don't think they made it." Choking back tears, Walt replied softly, "They didn't, Johnny. They didn't."

For the Left, war without Bush is not war at all
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/For-the-Left_-war-without-Bush-is-not-war-at-all-8119694-53506047.html
Excerpt: Remember the anti-war movement? Not too long ago, the Democratic party's most loyal voters passionately opposed the war in Iraq. Democratic presidential candidates argued over who would withdraw American troops the quickest. Netroots activists regularly denounced President George W. Bush, and sometimes the U.S. military ("General Betray Us"). Cindy Sheehan, the woman whose soldier son was killed in Iraq, became a heroine when she led protests at Bush's Texas ranch. That was then. Now, even though the United States still has roughly 130,000 troops in Iraq, and is quickly escalating the war in Afghanistan -- 68,000 troops there by the end of this year, and possibly more in 2010 -- anti-war voices on the Left have fallen silent.

Enthusiasts Re-enacting Vietnam War
http://www.military.com/news/article/enthusiasts-reenacting-vietnam-war.html?ESRC=eb.nl
Hard to know what I think.

U.S. unions aid anti-democratic forces in Latin America
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/US-unions-aid-anti-democratic-forces-in-Latin-America--53443777.html
Excerpt: Anti-democratic forces working to de-stabilize the new government in Honduras have attracted U.S. labor unions as allies in their cause. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), UNITE HERE, and the United Steelworkers (USW) have lined up behind Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega to express their support for Manuel Zelaya, the former president of Honduras Although that country’s constitution stipulates a ban on second terms, Zelaya sought to remain in power. The Honduran Congress, Supreme Court and military decided they were having none of this and removed Zelaya from office, as provided by the county’s constitution.

Public Option Called Essential
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/17/AR2009081702859.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Excerpt: Several leading Democrats voiced concern Monday about an apparent White House shift on health-care reform, objecting to signals from senior administration officials that they would abandon the idea of a government-run insurance plan if it lacked the backing to pass Congress. View Only Top Items in This Story In the Senate, where negotiations are now focused, John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.) said that a public option, as the plan has become known, is "a must." Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.) said that "without a public option, I don't see how we will bring real change to a system that has made good health care a privilege for those who can afford it." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said that the plan will be included in whatever bill is voted on in the House. "There is strong support in the House for a public option," she said, though she did not demand that the administration express support for the idea. One Democrat predicted that without the provision, the bill could lose as many as 100 votes in the chamber.

The Public Option Goes Over
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204683204574356560765324476.html
Excerpt: There are plenty of other ways of "getting there" without a public option—namely, through the federally chartered insurance cooperatives now gathering momentum in the Senate. The idea of creating member-owned co-ops in the states, as Senator Kent Conrad originally proposed, isn't necessarily harmful. But if regulated as advertised by Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid, they'd be satellites of Washington and have 50 open checks drawn on the Treasury, creating the insurance industry equivalents of Fannie Mae. "We're going to have some type of public option, call it 'co-op,' call it what you want," Mr. Reid said in July. From the start, the Administration has always held that "the goal is non-negotiable; the path is," as Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel put it. Another path may be to convert private insurance companies into public utilities outright. In a New York Times op-ed on Sunday, Mr. Obama reiterated his plan to regulate who the insurers must cover, how generous the benefits must be and how much they can charge, including a limit on out-of-pocket spending. If Democrats decide to centrally plan the insurance market, in what sense is that different from a public option?

Pelosi digs in on public option
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Pelosi-digs-in-on-public-option--53495427.html
Excerpt: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she will forge ahead with a health insurance bill that includes a robust government-run insurance plan, despite signals from Senate negotiators that they may exclude a government plan from legislation it is drafting. "There is strong support in the House for a public option," Pelosi said on Monday, referring back to a statement President Barack Obama made in March in which he declared a public option will "give consumers more choices" and "keep the private sector honest." Pelosi pointed out that a public option is the main component of all three versions of health reform legislation that are circulating in the House as well as the committee-passed Democratic version in the Senate.

Howard Dean: Democrats should try to “tackle health reform another time”
http://www.redstate.com/dan_perrin/2009/08/17/howard-dean-democrats-should-try-to-%E2%80%9Ctackle-health-reform-another-time%E2%80%9D/
Excerpt: Carville was there for the HillaryCare flame out. And, when you are already planning to blame the Republicans for the coming health care failure, you have to be pretty clear about where the politics of continuing down this road will lead — so, it is natural for Carville to blame the Republicans. In other words, let’s keep health care alive as a political issue that can win elections, even if we let, er, uh, I mean, blame the GOP for killing it dead. These two leading Democrats, Carville and Dean, are really telegraphing warnings and caution to their elected Democratic friends: let’s wait, let’s not pass anything, we can blame the Republicans.

ABC's John Stossel on Obama's 'Health Care' Plan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9GMKK_fWKg

A Mistake or a Trick: When is Rep. Martin Heinrich’s (D-NM) Townhall Meeting?http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/08/18/a-mistake-or-a-trick-when-is-rep-martin-heinrichs-d-nm-townhall-meeting/Cute. Let supporters in first.

Whose Medical Decisions?http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/08/18/whose_medical_decisions
Excerpt: There was a time when rushing a thousand-page bill through Congress so fast that no one has time to read it would have provoked public outrage. But now, this has been attempted twice in the first 6 months of a new administration. The fact that they got away with it before, with the "stimulus" bill, may have led them to believe that they could get away with it again. But the first bill simply spent hundreds of billions of dollars. The current "health care" bill threatens to take life-and-death decisions out of the hands of individuals and their doctors, transferring those decisions to Washington bureaucrats.

The "Preventive Care" Myth
http://townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2009/08/14/the_preventive_care_mythExcerpt: In the 48 hours of June 15-16, President Obama lost the health care debate. First, a letter from the Congressional Budget Office to Sen. Edward Kennedy reported that his health committee's reform bill would add $1 trillion in debt over the next decade. Then the CBO reported that the other Senate bill, being written by the Finance Committee, would add $1.6 trillion. The central contradiction of Obamacare was fatally exposed: From his first address to Congress, Obama insisted on the dire need for restructuring the health care system because out-of-control costs were bankrupting the Treasury and wrecking the U.S. economy -- yet the Democrats' plans would make the problem worse.

Taking Obama on faith
http://www.dglobe.com/event/article/id/26272/group/Opinion/
Quiz: Whose “Faith Based” program was largest, Bush’s or Obama’s? Which president appointed a 27-year-old Pentecostal preacher to head the program? Which appointed a Democrat political science professor? Which president invokes Jesus more often in his speeches? Which program got the most media coverage? Which President’s program pushed the President’s agenda hardest?

The One Lesson Democrats Never Learn
http://townhall.com/columnists/WyntonHall/2009/08/17/the_one_lesson_democrats_never_learnExcrpt:
Now ask yourself this question: If conservatives like Gov. Sarah Palin are such vaporous fools, then how can they “hijack” a national debate from the most powerful man on the planet…and all with a simple Facebook posting no less? Indeed, if Sarah Palin is the “whack job” and “intellectual lightweight” Mr. Begala claims her to be, then what does that make Mr. Obama who, according to Ms. Dowd, just got his clock cleaned by a Facebook message written by the unserious likes of a “nutty puppy” like Ms. Palin?

The Economic Consequences of Waxman-Markey
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18337
Excerpt: All of these costs will be paid for no more than a 0.2 degree Celsius moderation in world temperature increases by 2100, and no more than 0.05 degree reduction by 2050. Saddling the next generation with higher prices, higher debt, less income, fewer jobs and more taxes does not seem like a worthy legacy, say researchers.

Quote
Do you know what a soldier is, young man? He's the chap who makes it possible for civilized folk to despise war. – Allan Massie

Political Digest August 18 2009

How the White House's Deal With Big Pharma Undermines Democracy
http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/08/white-houses-deal-with-big-pharma.html
Excerpt: I'm a strong supporter of universal health insurance, and a fan of the Obama administration. But I'm appalled by the deal the White House has made with the pharmaceutical industry's lobbying arm to buy their support. Last week, after being reported in the Los Angeles Times, the White House confirmed it has promised Big Pharma that any healthcare legislation will bar the government from using its huge purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices. (What he doesn’t mention is that the Pharma Association exec is a long-time Democrat Congressman, whose salary is about $2M. Worth every penny, too, it looks like.)

New Poll: 54% say better to pass no health bill
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/New-Poll-54-say-better-to-pass-no-health-bill-53306262.html
Excerpt: Allies of President Obama have paid his two favorite advertising firms $12 million to push his health care plan. But they'll probably need a lot more money than that. A new poll from Rasmussen Reports shows that 54 percent of Americans would rather see Congress pass no health care bill this year. Only 35 percent believe that passage of the bill being developed in Congress bill would be better than passing no bill at all. Two key cross-tabs: First, only 60 percent of Democrats prefer passage of the congressional plan, whereas only 23 percent of independents felt the same way. Second, middle income voters -- people making between $40,000 to $75,000 per year, are the most strongly opposed.

No Treats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XivhwO_zWWg
One smart dog

Key Feature of Obama Health Plan May Be Out
Administration Hints That Public Option Isn't Only Way to Go
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/16/AR2009081602248.html?wpisrc=newsletter
And: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1916791,00.html
Is the ship leaking?

Hired Stooges
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/npo/1299047025.html
BO & Company have been accusing the Healthcare Takeover opposition of being not only un-American, but hired stooges of the insurance industry (Never mind that the insurance industry has been bought off like big Pharma). Now we see who needs to hire supporters. This is BO creating jobs, I suppose:

Now is our chance to make health care work.
America's health care system is broken. Health care costs are spiraling out of control, throwing families, businesses and government into financial crisis. Families are worried their health coverage won't be there when they need it. Our country can't afford to wait for health reform that keeps costs down and protects consumers. We can't wait for affordable, dependable health care. We're fighting for health care that will protect families' financial health, lay out a clear path for all Americans to afford health care, and improve patient safety and quality care.
You can work for change this summer. Join motivated staff around the country working to make change happen. You can make great friends and money along the way. Earn $4000-$6000 this summer.
To apply for a job, visit our website—http://www.jobsthatmatter.org/—or call Chris at [202-546-3965.]

Morning Fix: Creigh Deeds's Presidential Dilemma
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/081709-morning-fix-creigh-deed.html?wprss=thefix
Excerpt: Most interestingly, however, was that just 23 percent of Independents said the support of Obama increased their likelihood of voting for Deeds while 37 percent said it made them less likely to support the Democratic nominee.

More bad poll numbers for Patrick (Duval, D-Mass)
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/08/more_bad_poll_n.html
Excerpt: The latest quarterly poll from MassInsight, a nonprofit research institute, spells more bad political news for Governor Deval L. Patrick: His job-approval numbers have plunged to levels not seen in decades for a Massachusetts governor.
In a survey of 445 residents, taken last month and released this week, only 19 percent of respondents gave him a positive job rating, while 77 percent rated it fair or poor. One percent said he was doing an excellent job. Those numbers are significantly worse than last month's Globe poll, which also found him to be struggling politically.

Republican Health Care Ideas
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18329
Excerpt: Two interesting GOP proposals, so far not adopted by party leaders, have been offered from opposite ends of the Republican ideological spectrum -- conservative and moderate. They differ in one major way. Conservatives would end employer-based health care, while moderates would keep it. But both are aimed at using free-market competition to lower costs and make private insurance more affordable to businesses and individuals, says Morton Kondracke, executive editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill. The conservative health care proposal has been offered in the House by Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) and in the Senate by Richard Burr (N.C.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.). The moderate plan has been proposed by Reps. Mark Kirk (Ill.) and Charlie Dent (Pa.) and reportedly will form the basis of a full-blown GOP alternative developed by the GOP Health Care Solutions Group headed by Rep. Roy Blunt (Mo.), but not yet unveiled.

What is the Optimum Size of Government?
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18333
Excerpt: Previous studies have tried to determine and quantify the optimum size of government, recognizing that not all governments and societies are the same, and most have shown that the optimum size is between 12 and 30 percent of GDP. However, IME finds that the government sector should be no larger than 25 percent (and perhaps considerably smaller) to maximize GDP growth. All major governments, including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy greatly exceed the 25 percent level. The average government sector for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries now exceeds 41 percent of GDP.

The Price We All Pay For High Tax Rates
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18330
Excerpt: President Barack Obama wants Americans to believe that they can enjoy all of his proposed programs without paying for them because "the rich" will cover the cost. But taxing "the rich" will only be the start. To get real money, the big spenders are going to have to tax the middle class as well, says Bandow.

AP: Canada Considering Healthcare Overhaul with Private Insurance
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/08/16/ap-canada-considering-healthcare-overhaul-private-insurance
Excerpt: The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country's health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it. Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made. "We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doig said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Where Do We Find Good Leaders?
http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/tsegel/2009/ts_08131.shtml
Excerpt: Those questions the American people are asking today don't seem to have any positive answers. Citizens want to know why their views relative to proposed federal legislation are not being taken into account. They want to know why favoritism is being shown toward political supporters to the detriment of the entire country. They want to know why they should be forced into government-mandated programs ranging from the cars they drive to the healthcare they receive. They want to know why unelected or unconfirmed czars are being placed in positions of great power and control.

Climate Science: The Devil’s In the Details (Which Apparently No Longer Exist)
http://www.redstate.com/vladimir/2009/08/16/climate-science-the-devils-in-the-details-which-apparently-no-longer-exist/
You have to trust them, because they don’t keep the data!

Egyptian charged with genital mutilation of 11-year-old girl
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027255.php
Excerpt: An Egyptian man has been charged with practicing female circumcision on an 11 year-old girl, reports the website of TV station Al Arabiya today. Ahmed Gad al-Karim, 69 year-old, is the first person to be tried for this type of procedure since an Egyptian law came into effect which treats all types of female genital mutilation as a crime. The law, which was passed in 2008, was fiercely criticised by the Islamic Brotherhood and by supporters of the Egyptian parliament, who maintained that they supported the practice as "conforming to Sharia law (Islamic law) and protecting the chastity of women". However, the Islamic Institution responsible for religious opinion (Dar al-Iftaa) responded by saying that female genital mutilation is not part of the Islamic culture.

Jihadists demolish 20 churches, murder three pastors
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027254.php
No big deal. Not very news-worthy. Now if it were Jews accused of desecrating a Qur’an….

Afghanistan's "no sex, no food" law for Shi'ite women goes into effect
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027253.php
Excerpt: An Afghan bill allowing a husband to starve his wife if she refuses to have sex has been published in the official gazette and become law. (These are our allies, the good, moderate Muslims!)

You've Had a Good Innings
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTAxYzFjODdiN2E3OWUyNzY1MDU1ODM1ZjZjYmY3YjM=&w=MA
Excerpt from the always-entertaining Mark Steyn: Which brings us to the United States and its allegedly worst health system in the developed world. Here's the reality: The longer you live in America, the longer you live. If you're one of those impressionable Meet the Press viewers who heard Mayor Bloomberg bemoaning U.S. life expectancy and you're thinking, "Hey, I'm 77. Just about at the end, America-wise. Maybe it's time to move up north or over to Europe, and get a couple of bonus years," don't do it! If you're old enough to be a Meet the Press viewer, your life expectancy is already way up there. America is the Afghanistan of the western world: That's to say, it has a slightly higher infant mortality rate than other developed nations (there are reasons for that which I'll discuss in an upcoming column). That figure depresses our overall "life expectancy at birth." But, if you can make it out of diapers, you'll live longer than you would pretty much anywhere else. By age 40, Americans' life expectancy has caught up with Britons'. By 60, it equals Germany's. At the age of 80, Americans have greater life expectancy than Swedes.

Don't Go There
Martha's Vineyard is not the best presidential vacation site.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/819iwhon.asp?pg=2
Excerpt: Dear Mr. President, How nice to know you will summer on Martha's Vineyard at Blue Heron Farm, where the amenities are said to be fabulous. "The 28-acre estate, $20 million enclave is located in Chilmark," CBS told us. "The farm suits Obama to a tee with golf facilities, a pool, basketball court, private beach, and a rental price tag of up to $50,000 a week." What happened? Versailles and The Breakers were rented already? Is this how you empathize with the suffering masses, whose pain you feel so at town meetings? What is it with real estate and you liberal Democrats? There's John Kerry, who has five mansions, including a ski chalet whose every last stone was brought over from England; and John Edwards, whose "house" looks like five of them strung together, and which has not one, but two, stages, and its own private gym.

Obama fighting for his presidency, not reform
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Obama-fighting-for-his-presidency_-not-reform-8114039-53354747.html
Excerpt: The big question for President Barack Obama right now isn't about health care, but his own political survival. If he fails to deliver health legislation, Obama will prove right those who said he was in over his head. That would make him something of a lame duck after only seven months in office. But if he does manage to squeeze a bill out of Congress, it would be a Pyrrhic victory. By delivering unwanted changes to unwilling voters on a life-or-death issue, the president would squander the goodwill he earned during the campaign. Voters now say passing nothing would be better than any of the plans stewing in Congress, so it's hard to imagine that lawmakers will return from their recess ready to take political risks.

Cindy Sheehan heads to the Vineyard; wants anti-war demonstrators to emulate health-care protesters; will anyone cover the story?
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Cindy-Sheehan-heads-to-the-Vineyard-wants-anti-war-demonstrators-to-emulate-health-care-protesters-will-anyone-cover-the-story-53406107.html
Excerpt: This morning the anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan -- the woman who spent so much time leading well-publicized protests outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas -- announced that she will demonstrate next week at Martha's Vineyard, where President Obama will be vacationing. "There are several things that we wish to accomplish with this protest on Martha's Vineyard," Sheehan said in a statement: “First of all, no good social or economic change will come about with the continuation or escalation of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. We simply can't afford to continue this tragically expensive foreign policy.”

Keeping Score
http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/keeping-score/#more-4715
Excerpt: Why is it that Washington is spending so many hours over so many months — on top of two decades of prior conversation, analysis and debate — and is still failing to come up with a reasonable way to reform the health care system? Today I will slice through the Gordian Knot and give you a simple way to keep score. There are four basic questions to be asked of any health care system. If you answer these questions the right way, the path to reform is rather easy and straightforward. But if you answer even one question the wrong way, you will get caught up in a cycle of complexity — with fix upon fix, each trying to patch up the problems created by the previous fix. Hint: Right answers are the ones that give people socially good incentives. Those are incentives to meet your own needs without imposing external costs on others. Wrong answers are the ones that give people socially bad incentives. These are perverse incentives to impose external costs on others in the process of pursuing your own interests.

Bob Dylan Arrested for Walking
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/bob_dylan_arrested_for_walking/
police said he was very cooperative. He should have screamed, “This is what happens to a folksinger in America!” Would have gotten him a beer at the White House.

From a Marine vet:
Without encroaching on anyone's partisan political persuasions, this is an opportunity for American's (in general) to unite for a common cause that will serve all. Collectively throw all incumbents out. Keep your existing party preference (if that's how you vote/operate), but vote the professional politicians out. Effectively hit the "reset" button in order to return government to the people. Maybe then we will see results and stop the polarization that is causing so much turmoil (and waste) correcting our current inability to make sound decisions that enhance America, rather than divide it. America needs to be more dynamic. It's okay to disagree, but the bickering I'm seeing on both sides of the fence is offensive to me. This is not what government was set up to achieve, but it is exactly what we have going on! Relative to issues facing us today I am hopeful the American spirit of innovation, free enterprise, independence, self-reliance and sense of justice for our fellow man is beyond the current flirt we are having with socialistic ideology and agenda. Are we going to toss that which has brought us so far? A quotation I just read, attributed to Thomas Jefferson, perhaps best sums up what I believe the majority of Americans (left/right/middle-of-the-road) still believe: "Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage on them."

45 Years Ago Today

I arrived at Parris Island, SC in the early morning hours of August 17, 1964. Got off the bus, said goodbye to the Woman Marine recruit I'd been snogging with on the long drive, and was unceremoniously ushered into the receiving barracks. That started my journey to become a U.S. Marine.

Unlike most platoons, the recruits of Plt. 273 didn't meet our DIs until we had filled out some paperwork in the morning. Then they came in, the three men who were to change my life: Sgt. William H. Harris (our senior DI), Sgt. Michael P. Martin (whom we called "P.T." Martin) and Sgt. Ezekiel Owens Jr. Sgt. Owens was black, and I had heard there was only one black DI, the toughest on the island. Actually, most platoons had at least one, to avoid complains from the black recruits of discrimination. Sgt. Owens was the easiest, as his sense of humor kept coming out.

Half of our Plt. members were reservists, so we lost only two in Vietnam, which really started going about eight months after we graduated.

Forty-five years later, I remember my DIs well. Last week, I dreamt I visited Parris Island, and there they were, unchanged, faces as I remembered, training a new platoon. Maybe they are there, in spirit.

We were assigned to the Second Recruit Training Bn., known as "The Twilight Zone," pictured above. (1st. Bn. was Dodge City or Death Valley and 3rd., with new brick barracks, was Disneyland.

I remember a big guy, six foot plus, poster Marine-Greek God type who washed out after three weeks, and a little wiry, ugly guy who weighed 110 soaking wet, who graduated with us. I learned that it was heart that counts, not size.

The discipline and self confidence my DIs instilled in me has made all the difference in my having a successful life. I've talked to Sgt. Owens, to thank him. (He is retired, has a locksmith business near Camp Lejeune, NC.) I have no idea if Sgts. Harris and Martin are still living, though they were only a few years older than I at that time. I am forever grateful to them.

It's a Marine thing. You wouldn't understand.

Robert A. Hall
Once a Staff Sergeant, still a Marine.

Political Digest August 16 2009

Parris Island
45 years ago today I reported to the Marine recruiters in Camden and started my journey to Parris Island, to earn the title US Marine. Best decision I ever made. I’ll blog more about my arrival there tomorrow, as I actually got to the island early on August 17.

Does it matter what the bill says?
We are involved in long arguments about what is in, or will be in, any health care “reform” bill passed by Congress. But does it matter?

The brilliant economist, Dr. Thomas Sowell writes in his books that opponents of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, like Barry Goldwater, were concerned that it would require racial preferences and quotas in employment, school admissions and so on. Supporters scoffed, and pledged that it would not, writing prohibitions against quotas and preferences into the law. But the courts and bureaucrats ruled that the law required affirmative action to achieve its goals, that is preferences and quotas based on race. So the opponents were correct and the supporters lied—or were stupid.

They can write all the protections into the law they want, but the bureaucrats and courts and use seemingly innocuous phrases like, say, “reasonable access to quality health care,” to rule the law means what they want it to mean. I made that one up, but the bill is certain to contain dozens of such openings for the courts. Increasingly, the legislative branch is only the door opener for the real rulers—the courts and bureaucrats.

A Death in Afghanistan
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/08/14/a-death-in-afghanistan/
Excerpt: Bill did not come from a family of military tradition. He was past the age when most young people enlist. He had a job and a career, and a woman he loved. But something else called him, and when the terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001, he felt that call even more urgently. He agonized for two years. Then he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and went off to boot camp. He was 34 years old. Marine Sgt. Bill Cahir was killed in action this week in southern Afghanistan. Back home, his wife, Rene Browne, is pregnant with twins. A graduate of Penn State, Bill served briefly as a Capitol Hill aide before becoming a reporter with small newspapers in his native Pennsylvania. In 1999, he joined the Washington bureau of Newhouse Newspapers, which is where I met him.

The Road to Serfdom
At the monthly lunch of the Chicago Mensa cell of the vast right-wing conspiracy, which meets for conversation “and secret planning,” a booklet called “The Road to Serfdom in Cartoons” was passed around. It’s on this website, and will take about three minutes to read.

http://mises.org/books/TRTS/

There was a lively debate as to which page of the book the US is currently on, the consensus being page 8. The cartoon version was originally published in Look magazine. The irony was it was published by General Motors, now owned by the government and the union.

The original book was published in 1944. Here’s an article about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Serfdom

“Truther” denial
http://realclearpolitics.blogs.time.com/2009/08/14/truther-denial/
Excerpt: This means that, according to the Scripps poll, about half of Democrats, about a third of Independents and nearly a fifth of Republicans said it was "likely" that “federal officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action to stop them” in order to go to war. (And they call the “birthers” fanatics!)

The news isn’t all bad
http://www.ignatius-piazza-front-sight.com/2009/08/14/special-front-sight-friday-blog-the-hero-of-harlem-needs-your-help/
Excerpt: A 72 year old, law-abiding business owner in the middle of Harlem, NY faces down four armed robbers who invade his business and begin assaulting his employees. Grabbing a pistol-gripped pump shotgun, he defends his employees by firing only three times, and scores hits on all four criminals (two of which are lethal) without inflicting any injuries to his staff or innocent bystanders! Although he performed at a level of courage, skill, and efficiency with his weapon, that had he been one of NYPD’s finest, would warrant a Medal of Valor, the “Hero of Harlem” is getting the usual New York Times negative spin on a citizen’s use of a firearm as they try to humanize the armed robbers instead of acknowledging the heroic actions of a 72 year old man.

A Laser Defense Hit
The Airborne Laser scores a hit, even as its budget is being cut.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574348822530004230.html?mod=sphere_ts&mod=sphere_wd
Excerpt: Never has Ronald Reagan's dream of layered missile defenses—Star Wars, for short—been as politically out of favor as in the Age of Obama. Nor as close, at least technologically, to becoming realized. The latest encouraging news came Thursday courtesy of the Missile Defense Agency. The Airborne Laser prototype aircraft this week found, tracked, engaged and simulated an intercept with a missile seconds after liftoff. It was the first time the Agency used an "instrumented" missile to confirm the laser works as expected. Next up this fall will be the first live attempt to bring down a ballistic missile, but this test confirms how far along this innovative effort has come. Along with space-based weapons, the Airborne Laser is the next defense frontier. The modified Boeing 747 is supposed to send an intense beam of light over hundreds of miles to destroy missiles in the "boost phase," before they can release decoys and at a point in their trajectory when they would fall back down on enemy territory. It's a pioneering use of directed energy in defense. The laser complements the sea- and ground-based missile defenses that keep proving themselves in tests. Yet the Obama Administration isn't buying it. Funding for missile defense was cut in the 2010 budget by some 15%—$1.2 billion to $1.6 billion, depending on how you calculate it. The number of ground-based interceptors was reduced. The Missile Defense Agency's budget for the Airborne Laser is to be slashed in half, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pulled the plug on buying a second plane. The Pentagon says the program will have three tries to hit a live missile, or be killed altogether. (They fear it might work, masking America safer and giving credit to—gasp—a Republican.)

Hope and Change Cartoons
http://hopenchangecartoons.blogspot.com/
Funny blog. Check it out.

American Values
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn4IH3yng4k
Good Video.

Call the UN! Hamas attacks Gaza mosque!
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027235.php
Excerpt: Israel hit a mosque in Gaza that was being used to store weapons, and the international condemnation was fierce. Somehow I doubt that those who were so angry about that attack on a mosque will be upset about this one at all. More on this story. "Mosque gun battle rages in Gaza," from the BBC, August 14

78% of Pakistanis favor killing apostates, 83% want adulterers stoned
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027228.php
Part of the “tiny minority” that gives Islam a bad name.

While Woodstock Rocked, GIs Died
http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=news.magDtl&dtl=1&mid=5144
With the 40th anniversary of the ‘60s cherished rock concert, the so-called “Sixties Generation” remembers fondly those four days in August 1969. Instead, VFW magazine commemorates the 109 Americans killed in Vietnam then.

Now They're Feeling Guilty
http://www.skytroopers.org/now_theyre_feeling_guilty.htm
Excerpt: Those of us who did not go may have pretended that we held some moral superiority over those who did, but we must have known - even back then - that that was largely sham. A tiny, tiny minority served jail terms - the rest of us avoided the war through easier methods. The men who went to Vietnam were no more involved with the politics of the war than we were. They were different from us in only two important ways: They hadn't figured out a successful way to get out of going, and they had a certain courage that we lacked. Not "courage" as defined the way we liked to define it; not "courage" in the sense of opposing the government's policies in Vietnam. But courage in an awful, day-to-day sense; courage in being willing to be over there while most of their generation stayed home. When I meet men my age who are Vietnam veterans, I find myself reacting the same way that Chris Buckley indicates he does. I find myself automatically feeling a little lacking. "I have friends who served in Vietnam..." Buckley writes. "They all saw death up close every day, and many days dealt with it themselves." They're married, happy, secure, good at what they do; they don't have nightmares and they don't shoot up gas stations with M-16s. Each has a gentleness I find rare in most others, and beneath it a spiritual sinew that I ascribe to their experience in the war. I don't think I'll ever have what they have, the aura of I have been weighed on the scales and have not been found wanting, and my sense at this point is that I will always feel the lack of it..." "I will always feel the lack of it."

Rethinking America’s Budget Process
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2009/08/13/HP/A/22092/AEI+Seminar+on+Rethinking+Americas+Budget+Process.aspx

From an e-mail—I couldn’t trace the source:
If You Can't Beat 'Em, Buy 'Em!
Proving that the President "can buy me love," the blog of the Los Angeles Times has uncovered a web ad that shows how desperate the Left is for support. The Fund for the Public Interest is actually offering to pay "volunteers" to support the President's takeover. "Work to pass Obama's health care plan and get paid to do it! $10-15 hr!" The ad promises anywhere from $400-$600 a week to people who agree to rally on the administration's behalf, presumably at townhall meetings. Maybe the slogan should be "Work for change--and make some too!" Not everyone has pure motives, but it's somewhat ironic that the Left blames conservatives for "manufacturing" anger when their groups are hiring it! Of course, this strategy is bound to be more productive than the leadership's contribution, which has largely consisted of public name-calling. Just this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) joined the messaging train wreck and called angry voters "evil-mongers." Yesterday he thought better of the term, telling reporters sheepishly, "I maybe could have been less descriptive. I doubt you'll hear it from me again."

Tactics or Strategy?
By Bing West

I came back from my latest month in the field in Afghanistan disquieted about our basic military mission. Is the military mission to engage, push back and dismantle the Talbian networks, with population protection being a tactic to gain tips and local militia, or is the military mission to build a nation based on US soldiers protecting the widespread population, with engagements against the Taliban as a byproduct?

It appears our strategy is nation-building, with fighting and dismantling of the Taliban a secondary consideration. Thus, the number of enemy killed will not be counted, let alone used as a metric. This non-kinetic theory of counterinsurgency has persuaded the liberal community in America to support or at least not to vociferously oppose the war. As Carl Prine of the Pittsburgh Tribune has put it, we have to balance between messages that gain domestic support and messages that direct battlefield operations.

We must understand what our riflemen do in Afghanistan every day. The answer is they conduct combat patrols. That underlies all their other activities. They go out with rifles to engage and kill the enemy. That is how they protect the population. For our generals to stress that the war is 80% non-kinetic discounts the basic activity of our soldiers. Although crime isn’t eradicated by locking up criminals, we expect our police to make arrests to keep the streets safe. Similarly, our riflemen are trained to engage the enemy. That’s how they protect the population. If we’re not out in the countryside night and day – and we’re not – then the Taliban can move around as they please and intimidate or persuade the population.

I’m not arguing that we Americans can ever dominate the Taliban gangs. There’s a level of understanding and accommodation among Afghans in the countryside that culturally surpasses our understanding. During the May poppy harvest, the shooting stops on both sides and men from far and wide head to the fields to participate in the harvest. That’s an Afghan thing. Only the Afghans can figure out what sort of society and leaders they want.

That said, we should strive to do a better job of what we are doing for as long as we are there. Only doing defense doesn’t work mathematically. Unless and until the Taliban are crippled, the population is not protected; it is at best only sheltered. Unless we go after the Taliban, they retain the initiative to fight where and when they choose.

That isn’t a winning strategy.

I condensed several hours of firefights I filmed during various patrols into the 30-second clip below. Simply put, our ground forces are not inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. However, the annual bill for the US military in Afghanistan exceeds $70 billion, with another four to six billion for development. We’ve already spent $38 billion on Afghan reconstruction. Congress may eventually balk at spending such sums year after year. The problem is we’re liable to be gradually pulled out while the Taliban is intact. Nation-building alone is not sufficient; the Taliban must be disrupted.

Our soldiers only get a small number of chances to engage the enemy. Our battalions average one arrest every two months, and one platoon-sized patrol per day per company that infrequently makes solid contact. On average, a US rifleman will glimpse a Taliban once a month. The Taliban initiate the fights because they know they can escape. Our patrols have firepower but lack mobility. Our soldiers are carrying 70 pounds; a Taliban is carrying ten pounds. The Taliban have the distinct edge in mobility. Because the Taliban are well-concealed and scoot away, our superior firepower does not yield precision aim points to do severe damage.

More senior-level attention must be paid to inflicting severe enemy losses in firefights and to arresting the Taliban, so that their morale and networks are broken. A recent directive forbids applying indirect fires against compounds where civilians might be hiding. That directive upholds human decency and may reduce enemy propaganda. But indirect fires – helicopter gunships and jets – used to be called “precision fires” and gave the US its enormous advantage in combat. Now that such fires are restricted, what provides our advantage when the enemy sensibly fights from compounds? Don’t expect Afghan soldiers to do it for us. We have equipped and trained the Afghans in our image. They are as heavy and slow-moving on the ground as we are, and rely upon our advisors to call in the firepower.

This is my third war. It has the highest level of military scholars. Those scholars who emphasized the concepts of non-kinetic counterinsurgency need also to design concepts that bring more lethality to the ground battlefield. We’re pumping billions into UAVs. Surely we can find technologies and techniques for the grunt. The 30-second video below illustrates a major problem, not a tactical shortcoming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN2Qk2Tbzo8

Note: Bing West was a Marine officer in Vietnam, wrote the classic book about the CAP Program The Village. His son served as a Marine officer in Iraq, is also a writer.

Political Digest August 15 2009

Little girl at Obama town hall has not-so-random political connections
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/11/little-girl-at-obama-town-hall-has-not-so-random-political-connections/
The Congresscritters have to face real people, but not “Transparent BO!” Turns out the mother of the little girl who asked a “random” question was the Obama campaign person in Massachusetts. Excerpt: Manning Hall (the girl’s mother) has donated thousands of dollars to Obama, as has her law firm. But, you know, um, like Obama said: “I don’t want people saying I just have a bunch of plants in here.” Right. We have plants, but we don’t want people saying it.

And BO said at that Plant Hall Meeting that surgeons get $30,000 to $50,000 for an amputation, when Medicare actually pays between $740 and $1,140. Is this the kind of “fishy” stuff the White House wants us to report at flag@whitehouse.gov.?

Obama's Senior Moment
Why the elderly are right to worry when the government rations medical care.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574344900152168372.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Excerpt: Elderly Americans are turning out in droves to fight ObamaCare, and President Obama is arguing back that they have nothing to worry about. Allow us to referee. While claims about euthanasia and "death panels" are over the top, senior fears have exposed a fundamental truth about what Mr. Obama is proposing: Namely, once health care is nationalized, or mostly nationalized, rationing care is inevitable, and those who have lived the longest will find their care the most restricted. Far from being a scare tactic, this is a logical conclusion based on experience and common-sense. Once health care is a "free good" that government pays for, demand will soar and government costs will soar too. When the public finally reaches its taxing limit, something will have to give on the care and spending side. In a word, care will be rationed by politics. Mr. Obama's reply is that private insurance companies already ration, by deciding which treatments are covered and which aren't. However, there's an ocean of difference between coverage decisions made under millions of voluntary private contracts and rationing via government. An Atlantic Ocean, in fact. Virtually every European government with "universal" health care restricts access in one way or another to control costs, and it isn't pretty.

Gov. Rick Perry: Tort reform must be part of health care reform
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/Tort-reform-must-be-part-of-health-care-reform-8096175.html
Excerpt: Texas, in fact, stands as a good example of how smart, responsible policy can help us take major steps toward fixing a damaged medical system, starting with legal reforms. Just six years ago, Texas was mired in a health care crisis. Our doctors were leaving the state, or abandoning the profession entirely, because of frivolous lawsuits and the steadily increasing medical malpractice insurance premiums that resulted.
Two thirds of our state's counties had no practicing obstetricians, and for pregnant women that meant long trips in cramped cars and higher fuel bills. Sixty percent of our counties had no pediatricians, which often meant delayed, or denied, health care for sick children. And 24 counties in the Rio Grande Valley had no primary care doctors at all.

$3 billion buys not-so-green vehicles
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/aug/13/spin-meter-3-billion-buys-not-so-green-vehicles/
Excerpt: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the nation's top car salesman in recent weeks, has cited the Obama administration's best-seller list of mostly smaller, fuel-saving cars like the Ford Focus to describe the success of the Cash for Clunkers rebate program. But what LaHood and other administration officials usually don't mention is that some trucks and sport-utility vehicles that get less than 20 miles per gallon, like the Ford F-150 truck and one version of the Cadillac SRX Crossover, also are being purchased with the new government subsidies. Both are bulky vehicles weighing more than 6,000 pounds when loaded that boast at least 248 horsepower. (Can we turn in our members of Congress as clunkers?)

Morning Fix: Polling the Town Halls
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/081409-morning-fix.html?wprss=thefix
Excerpt: Sixty-one percent of those tested in the Pew poll called the protests "appropriate" while just 34 percent said they were inappropriate. Nearly two-thirds of independents, the critical voting bloc as both parties look to the 2010 midterm elections and the 2012 presidential race, described the protests as appropriate. In the Gallup polling, 51 percent said that "individuals making angry attacks against a health care bill and what it might do" was an example of "democracy in action" (the Republican argument) while 41 percent called it an "abuse of democracy" (the Democratic argument). The numbers were far different when the Gallup sample was asked about the booing of members of Congress (44 percent called it democracy in action while 47 percent said it was an abuse of democracy) or the "shouting down of supporters" of the health care plan when they attempted to speak. (33 percent democracy in action/59 percent abuse of democracy). What does this flood of poll numbers mean? That not only are people paying attention but that the frustration and downright anger being vented is seen as authentic and powerful by a majority of those watching the coverage.
That's not to say, however, that the protesters -- and the conservative groups helping to rally them -- are headed toward a political win, however. The striking numbers in the Gallup survey when it comes to certain behaviors (booing, shouting down dissenting voices) suggest the real possibility that the protesters could overplay their hand on this issue.

In N.D., the Road to Economic Recovery
Woman's Path to Work Ends in Rural, and Job-Rich, North Dakota
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/13/AR2009081303866.html
Another state with a strong economy, low unemployment and that is cutting taxes. Wonder how they do it. Could it be because they have a Republican Governor, and Republican Legislature with a conservative approach to finances? Nah, the story didn’t mention that.

GOP thinks the unthinkable: Victory in 2010
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/GOP-thinks-the-unthinkable-Victory-in-2010-8103193-53174842.html
The polls are definitely moving in the GOP's direction. Just look at the Real Clear Politics average of the generic ballot question, which asks whether, if the election were held today, you would vote for your local Democratic or Republican candidate for Congress. It's been dominated by Democrats for the last few years -- until now. In recent weeks, poll after poll has shown Republicans neck-and-neck, or even ahead, of Democrats. Even a National Public Radio survey found Republicans in the lead. "There's no question that you're seeing a shift across virtually all the polling," says one GOP strategist, "with Democrats losing ground."

Trial lawyers seek return on contributions to Senate Democrats
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Trial-lawyers-seek-return-on-contributions-to-Senate-Democrats-53177542.html
Excerpt: In February, just two months before he became a Democrat, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania made a passionate plea for a special tax break for plaintiffs' trial lawyers. His bill, S 437, would allow trial lawyers to deduct immediately on their taxes up-front expenses they incur when investing in contingency lawsuits. The tax break is reportedly worth $1.6 billion to trial lawyers. If Specter’s amendment passes, this single provision would more than repay the legal industry for its roughly $762 million in political contributions to Democrats over the last two decades. Which would, in turn, mean more money could be recycled and funneled back to Democrats. (You can’t reduce health care costs without curbing the cost of defensive medicine. You can do that without tort reform. You can’t get tort reform while the League of Leftwing Lawyers controls the White House and both branches of the Congress)

Revolution
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/revolution.html
Excerpt: With this analogy in mind, now we can see clearly what's been happening in the United States during the last three decades. While conservatives have been working to improve our democracy and our free-market economy, liberals have been working to replace our democracy with a dictatorship, and our free-market economy with a command economy controlled by the government. The liberals couldn't say this aloud, because if they did the American people would have tossed them out of office on their ears. So the liberals worked covertly, feigning support for democracy and for the free market while working diligently to undermine both.

Obama's "Catholic Plan"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVN2MMuiedI&feature=sdig&et=1242466852.02

Study: Industrial states will experience severe job loss, higher energy prices under climate bill
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Study-Industrial-states-will-experience-severe-job-loss-higher-energy-prices-under-climate-bill-53065962.html
Excerpt: America’s industrial states will absorb the worst of the Waxman-Markey global warming bill in the form of acute job loss, reduced income and higher energy prices should it become law, according to a new study commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF). Nationwide data on the impact of Waxman-Markey included the following key findings: Cumulative loss in gross domestic product (GDP) up to $3.1 trillion (2012-2030), employment losses up to 2.4 million jobs in 2030, residential electricity price increases up to 50 percent by 2030, gasoline price increases (per gallon) up 26 percent by 2030. Waxman-Markey (H.R. 2494), which passed the House by a 219-212 vote in June, calls for reducing total U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emission by 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. Lisa Jackson, the administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has already acknowledged that unilateral U.S. actions will not have a significant impact on Co2 levels. Even so, the Senate is expected to release its own version of the legislation in September.

Mohammed most popular boy's name in four biggest Dutch cities
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027220.php
Excerpt: Mohammed, or other variations of the name of Islam's founding prophet, has become the most popular name choice for baby boys in the four biggest cities of the Netherlands. Information collected by the country's social security agency has found that traditional Dutch names have been displaced in the urban centres of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht as the country's Muslim population grows.
In The Hague variations of the name Mohammed have taken first, second and fifth place in the Dutch capital's league table of most popular names for boys, replacing traditional favourites such as Jan, Luuk, Gijs or Daan.

Political Digest for August 14 2009

Government Medicine Should Horrify Americans
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/08/07/government_medicine_should_horrify_americans_97810.html
Excerpt: Breast cancer kills 25 percent of its American victims. In Great Britain, the Vatican of single-payer medicine, breast cancer extinguishes 46 percent of its targets. Prostate cancer is fatal to 19 percent of its American patients. The National Center for Policy Analysis reports that it kills 57 percent of Britons it strikes. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data show that the U.K.'s 2005 heart-attack fatality rate was 19.5 percent higher than America's. This may correspond to angioplasties, which were only 21.3 percent as common there as here. (This guy doesn’t get it. When people die, they use less health care in the future, bringing the cost down!)

So You Want to Replace Profit-Driven Health Care with Politics-Driven Medicine?
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18319
Excerpt: A video explaining Oregon's heavily politicized Medicaid system is currently making the rounds and serving as a warning against further government involvement. Produced by Colorado's Independence Institute, the video shows how ailments with political constituencies are covered under the government medical system, while unchampioned conditions get short shrift. The video makes good points, but it misses the fact that politicized government decisions already play a role in driving up the cost of private medical coverage, says J.D. Tuccille, a contributor to the Washington Examiner.

Contractor With Ties To Murtha Charged By Feds
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2009/07/contractor_with_ties_to_murtha.html?wprss=government-inc
Excerpt: The company that allegedly paid the bribes, identified in court filings only as "K," closely resembles Kuchera Defense Systems, which is based in Murtha's congressional district outside Pittsburgh and was a subcontractor to Coherent. Kuchera Defense Systems and its sister company, Kuchera Industries, are under federal investigation for allegations of fraud and overbilling on Defense Department contracts. The probe focuses on companies that benefited from contracts orchestrated or approved by Murtha, the powerful chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee on military spending

If 10% is good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for Uncle Sam!
http://susie1114.com/10percentisgoodenough.html
Funny song

BUSTED!: "Obama As Hitler" Poster Was A Democrat/Union Plant At John Dingell Townhall! UPDATED with video interview!
http://theblogprof.blogspot.com/2009/08/busted-obama-as-hitler-poster-was.html
Surprise!

Muslims behead four ex-Muslim Christian orphanage workers in Somalia
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027191.php
Excerpt: “All the four apostates were given an opportunity to return to Islam to be released but they all declined the generous offer." Yet in the wake of the Rifqa Bary case, Islamic apologists are actually claiming that Islam doesn't teach that apostates deserve death. This kind of story makes their smooth lies transparent. Is it any wonder that Rifqa Bary is in fear for her life?

The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html
Excerpt: While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone:

Statement from the American College of Surgeons Regarding Recent Comments from President Obama
August 12, 2009CHICAGO--The American College of Surgeons is deeply disturbed over the uninformed public comments President Obama continues to make about the high-quality care provided by surgeons in the United States. When the President makes statements that are incorrect or not based in fact, we think he does a disservice to the American people at a time when they want clear, understandable facts about health care reform. We want to set the record straight.

• Yesterday during a town hall meeting, President Obama got his facts completely wrong. He stated that a surgeon gets paid $50,000 for a leg amputation when, in fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation. This payment also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation. Private insurers pay some variation of the Medicare reimbursement for this service.

• Three weeks ago, the President suggested that a surgeon’s decision to remove a child’s tonsils is based on the desire to make a lot of money. That remark was ill-informed and dangerous, and we were dismayed by this characterization of the work surgeons do. Surgeons make decisions about recommending operations based on what’s right for the patient. We agree with the President that the best thing for patients with diabetes is to manage the disease proactively to avoid the bad consequences that can occur, including blindness, stroke, and amputation. But as is the case for a person who has been treated for cancer and still needs to have a tumor removed, or a person who is in a terrible car crash and needs access to a trauma surgeon, there are times when even a perfectly managed diabetic patient needs a surgeon.

The President’s remarks are truly alarming and run the risk of damaging the all-important trust between surgeons and their patients. We assume that the President made these mistakes unintentionally, but we would urge him to have his facts correct before making another inflammatory and incorrect statement about surgeons and surgical care.

About the American College of Surgeons
The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and to improve the care of the surgical patient. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 76,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world.

Political Digest for August 13 2009

Obama Cites Post Office in Healthcare Debate
As you no doubt heard, in NH President BO said, “I think private insurers should be able to compete. They do it all the time. I mean, if you think about, if you think about it, um, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. Right? The, uh, no they are. I mean, it's the post office that's always having problems.” Never mind that’s because the government runs the Post Office, or the fact that few folks would want the USPS to be in charge of their healthcare.

UPS and FedEx have some advantages in the market that insurance companies don’t have. They get to compete nationwide, insurance companies can’t compete across state lines. They don’t have hundreds of mandates as to what services they are required to provide, as insurance companies do. Insurance operates in a government-controlled market, not a free market, and government-controlled markets are expensive, inefficient and political. And their product isn’t under threat of thousands of lawsuits, a situation that won’t change for healthcare as long as the League of Leftwing Lawyers is in charge of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives.

They do have to deal with laws designed to protect the postal union. You buy a mailbox, but even if you give them permission, FedEx cannot leave a package in your mailbox, due to federal law at the behest of the postal union. Imaging what your healthcare will look like when the federal healthcare unions get to lobby what’s best for their members, not for you.

Third World Care? (A Short Must Read)
Buffeted by growing outrage that ObamaCare will ruin quality medical care in America, a top administration official has resorted to telling desperate lies.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=334882846847336
Excerpt: 'Frankly," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a recent meeting of AFL-CIO leaders, "the health delivery system is under-delivering in terms of quality of care. We spend over twice as much as any nation on earth, and our health results look like we're a developing country." Tell that to all the princes and potentates from developing countries who flock to America for lifesaving treatment. Saudi billionaires could go anywhere in the world to cure what ails them, but they check into the Mayo Clinic or the Texas Medical Center. And poll after poll shows Americans are much more satisfied with the quality of their care than their counterparts in industrialized countries with government-run health care. More than 70% of adults in countries with government-controlled health care — Britain, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, as well as Canada — complain that their systems need either "fundamental change" or "complete rebuilding."

That's because they wait longer for treatment and die sooner than Americans from common cancers and other diseases, according to a study by Dr. Scott W. Atlas, a Hoover Institution senior fellow and chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center. Consider breast cancer mortality, which is 88% higher in Britain and 9% higher in Canada. Or prostate cancer mortality, which is 604% higher in Britain and 184% higher in Canada.

Please help Rifqa Bary: "I am fighting for my life, you guys don't understand...he said he would kill me"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027189.php
Excerpt: Listen to her carefully. Watch this. Watch it again. It is heartbreaking, and it is true. Send it to everyone you know. I have been trying all day to reach someone connected with her case -- unsuccessfully -- in order to give solid information about Islamic apostasy law, contrary to the lies being spread in court by Islamic authorities. But the threatening of this girl must not be allowed to stand in the United States. Are we still a free people? You'll note also that this is a girl who was raised as a Muslim, and who knows what Islamic law is regarding apostates. Contrast her palpable fear to the lies of the smooth apologists who claim that Islam does not mandate death for those who leave Islam. Rifqa Bary knows better, and not because she is an "Islamophobe," but from her personal experience.

Vote in the USA Today poll - click on the link below.
The Question is: "Does the Second Amendment give individuals the right to bear arms?"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/quickquestion/2007/november/popup5895.htm

Trust the Government
https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&zx=1loa9gdrk0ybc&shva=1#inbox/1230e5c1215f98ec
Excerpt: How much is one additional year of your life worth? Or one more year of life for your father or your wife? For your child? In Great Britain, the government has settled on a number: $45,000. That's how much a government commission with the Orwellian acronym NICE has decided British government-run health care will pay for one additional year of life for a British subject.

Town Bull
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?secid=1501&status=article&id=334882369728643&secure=1&show=1&rss=1
Excerpt: "I have not said that I was a 'single payer' supporter," the president claimed in answer to a question at Portsmouth High School in New Hampshire on Tuesday. (But) Americans have seen the YouTube clip of the president telling the AFL-CIO in 2003 that he was "a proponent of single-payer universal health care coverage . . . that's what I'd like to see."

Hundreds Protest in Greenville Against Obama's Health Care Reform
http://www.witn.com/watercooler/headlines/52796602.html
Insurance companies are doing a good job turning out that small group of anti-American protesters in lots of places!

McCaskill: 'I Don't Understand This Rudeness
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2009/08/12/VI2009081200912.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Those Un-American crowds seem to be growing!

"Sleeping Giant" Woman From Specter Town Hall On "Hannity"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyT_M3aEJKc
Woman getting abuse from speaking out.

Nelson Strikes Back
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/morning-fix-nelson-strikes-bac.html?wprss=thefix
Excerpt: Meanwhile, forces on the ideological right -- including some of the angry element at town halls across the country -- are pressuring these same senators to abandon the plan entirely due, in large part, to their belief that the public option would destroy private insurance altogether. Watch to see how those 13 Democratic senators -- Max Baucus (Mont.), Mark Begich (Alaska), Robert Byrd (W.Va.), Kent Conrad (N.D.), Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Tim Johnson (S.D.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Nelson, Mark Pryor (Ark.), Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.) and Jon Tester (Mont.) -- who represent states that Obama lost in 2008 react to this health care cross-pressuring. The White House needs Democratic unity -- or something very close to it -- to pass a health care bill in the fall. Can they get it amid the increasingly contentious ad wars in the states?

Miracle on Wacker Drive
http://www.redstate.com/robert_a_hahn/2009/08/11/miracle-on-wacker-drive/
Excerpt: I’m unfamiliar with the details, but apparently there is some provision in Obama’s plan that expands the number of doctors, nurses, hospital beds, etc., to instantly accommodate 47 million more people. It usually takes eight to ten years to school a new doctor, so whatever the Democrats are doing here is a major advance. We should begin sharing it immediately with the Third World, where doctor shortages have long been a problem. Thank goodness they won’t be here, if this plan passes.

Elderly Swing Against Obama Plan
http://townhall.com/columnists/DickMorrisandEileenMcGann/2009/08/12/elderly_swing_against_obama_plan
Excerpt: The most ominous signal yet for the Obama health-care plan emerged in the poll by Scott Rasmussen released today. While public support for the plan fell to a new low (42 percent support, 53 percent oppose -- down five points in two weeks), the elderly emerged as the strongest opposition group. Those over 65 rejected the plan by 39 percent to 56 percent, while almost half -- 46 percent -- said they were "strongly opposed" to it.

ANGRY MOB MAULS CROWDER!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeaRJfvJokU&eurl=http://viralfootage.com/&feature=player_embedded
Too funny.

"DISINFORMATION"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04qJXudcyvc
BO & others in their own words

Expanding Preventive Care May Add to Costs
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18313
Excerpt: Expanding preventive medical services may well improve public health, but it is highly unlikely to save the government money, says the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In a letter to leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, CBO director Douglas W. Elmendorf said the evidence suggests that the cost of making services such as cancer screening, cholesterol management, vaccinations and wellness training broadly available would far outweigh any savings ultimately generated.

5 freedoms you'd lose in health care reform
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news/economy/health_care_reform_obama.fortune/
CNN Money: If you read the fine print in the Congressional plans, you'll find that a lot of cherished aspects of the current system would disappear.

Healthcare Fact of the Day
From Red State Briefings: http://www.paramountcommunication.com/Newsletters/Redstate/index.aspx
Billions in Pork Barrel Spending for 'Community Transformation' and 'Beautification' Under the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee's "Affordable Health Choices Act," local governments can apply for "community transformation" grants to build jungle gyms, sidewalks, bicycle paths, and grocery stores, to install streetlights, and to establish new farmers' markets. The dollar amount of these grants, and of the total "community transformation" earmark program, is left to the discretion of the Obama administration. Cities can also apply for "community makeover" grants, which can provide them with up to $10 per resident in taxpayer dollars for "beautifying streets." Sen. Tom Coburn, MD (R-OK) sponsored an amendment to the HELP Committee bill that would have prevented any funds it made available from being used "to build, develop, or maintain sidewalks, parks, bike paths, or street lights." The amendment was defeated by party-line vote. The "Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009," the House of Representatives' health overhaul legislation, also contains an earmark for these grants. The House bill sets the amount available for their funding at $1.6 billion. Sources: "Affordable Health Choices Act," Title III, Subtitle C HR 3200, § 3151

How End-Users Suffer Under Socialism
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=334882669428387
Excerpt: Central planners announced this week that they were fresh out of money to buy toilet paper — yes, toilet paper — for the island's 9 million citizens. But not to worry. A nameless official for state-run monopoly Cimex and quoted by Reuters assured that "the corporation has taken all the steps so that at the end of the year there will be an important importation of toilet paper." The predicament would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. But toilet tissue is hardly the only item Cuba is lacking. Food itself is in short supply, with red bean and chickpea rations cut by a third, according to the Miami Herald. Special hard-currency-only stores for the elites have mysteriously failed to open after last week's "inventory," with no explanation given. There's no gas, either. The Associated Press this week reported that state planners have decreed that oxen — yes, oxen — would replace tractors in the fields, a bid to conserve fuel. This, despite the fact that Cuba gets 100,000 barrels of oil a day from Hugo Chavez's Venezuela — effectively free, because Cuba never pays its bills.

Democracy in Danger: What States Can Do to Safeguard America's Election System
http://www.heritage.org/Research/GovernmentReform/hl1129.cfm
Excerpt: A long-time federal prosecutor once told me that as long as elections put people into positions where they can make decisions about how much the government will spend, who will receive the money, and how the government will exercise its power, elections will be important enough to tempt some individuals to steal them. As the Supreme Court recognized when it upheld the constitutionality of Indiana's voter identification law in 2008, flagrant examples of voter fraud "have been documented throughout this Nation's history by respected historians and journalists." Those examples "demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud real but that it could affect the outcome of a close election." (But the people in charge now don’t want honest elections. They want ACORN & BP thugs to control the voting.)

Obama vs. Mathematics
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18314
Excerpt: Therefore, we can't allow federal health care subsidies to continue to grow faster than inflation indefinitely. The challenge is to find ways to make the nation's commitments to retirees and others sustainable without harming economic growth prospects. In this regard, the Obama administration is charting a course in the wrong direction -- expanding entitlements on the backs of our nation's job creators. The math will work against the Obama administration and, eventually, against us all, say Gokhale and Smetters.

Expanding Preventive Care May Add to Costs
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18313
Excerpt: Expanding preventive medical services may well improve public health, but it is highly unlikely to save the government money, says the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In a letter to leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, CBO director Douglas W. Elmendorf said the evidence suggests that the cost of making services such as cancer screening, cholesterol management, vaccinations and wellness training broadly available would far outweigh any savings ultimately generated.