Political Digest for December 2, 2010

I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article. Help your friends and relatives stay informed by passing the digest on.

Important: Can Republicans Talk?: Part II by Thomas Sowell

http://patriotpost.us/opinion/thomas-sowell/2010/12/01/can-republicans-talk-part-ii/

Excerpt: Guess who said the following: "It is incredible that a system of taxation which permits a man with an income of $1,000,000 a year to pay not one cent to his Government should remain unaltered." Franklin D. Roosevelt? Ted Kennedy? Nancy Pelosi? Not even close. It was Andrew Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury under conservative Republican President Calvin Coolidge. What was Mellon's point? That high tax rates do not necessarily result in high tax revenues to the government. "It is time to face the facts," he said. Merely having high tax rates on large incomes will not bring in more tax revenues to the treasury, because of "the flight of capital away from taxable investments." This was all said in 1924, in Mellon's book, "Taxation: The People's Business." Yet here we are, more than 80 years later, still not facing those facts. It is not just a question of what Andrew Mellon said. It is a question of hard facts, easily checked in official documents available to all -- and ignored all these years.

Commission's final deficit report preserves controversial spending cuts; panel to vote Friday on whether to endorse plan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/30/AR2010113005968.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert

Unleash the lobbyists! ~Bob. Excerpt: The leaders of President Obama's fiscal commission released a final report Wednesday that is full of political dynamite, including sharp cuts in military spending, a higher retirement age and tax reforms that could cost the average taxpayer an extra $1,700 a year.

Ireland’s Reality Is Our Reality

http://www.mygovcost.org/irelands-reality-is-our-reality/

Politicians get elected by buying votes with our grandkids money, and trying always to kick the can—the painfully reality—beyond the next election. That may no longer be possible—certainly not for much longer. ~Bob. Excerpt: As the government of Ireland undergoes scrutiny and criticism for its poorly mismanaged fiscal house, the media risks missing the primary lesson. Poor public sector incentives drive politicians to enact policies that defy the laws of economics. There is no such thing as a free lunch—not even a Keynesian lunch of government issued corn beef and newly minted cabbage. The political process centers around the delusion that government spending amounts to something other than a zero sum—and more often negative sum—game. Markets, private property, and economic liberty are the engines of growth. No government can achieve what a spontaneous order of freely trading people can produce. The reality is clearly visible in Ireland’s own history. Unleashing markets via economic freedom enhancing policies led to remarkable growth rates of 5-9% in Ireland’s economy in the 1990s. During that period, working class Irish improved their lot dramatically. In 1986, Ireland’s GDP per capita was only 63% of the U.K.’s. By 1999 it exceeded per capita GDP in both the U.K. and Germany. The rapid growth experienced by the Irish in the 1990s came with low taxes. As low taxes encouraged investment and growth, revenue came rolling into the coffers. The incentives facing politicians encouraged excessive public spending. Government continued to expand—growing out of proportion to the private market. Public sending took to new levels and the Leviathan was unconstrained despite the insufficient tax revenue to feed the insatiable appetite of the state.

A Simple Way to Improve Medicare

http://reason.com/archives/2010/11/25/a-simple-way-to-improve-medica

Excerpt: Medicare, the government's health plan for seniors, has observed a ritual that's as regular and anticipated as the presidential pardon of a Thanksgiving turkey. It's called the “Doc Fix” and it's been enacted and reenacted 11 times in the last eight years….. Yet there is a simple short-term solution to the dilemma faced by Medicare, its beneficiaries, and its providers. It's no substitute for the sort of comprehensive entitlement reform that is badly needed, but it's a good first step. Let Medicare providers set their own fees, and end the ban on what's known as "balance billing." Prior to the institution of government price controls in the 1980s, Medicare would pay a provider based upon a predetermined fee schedule. Providers were free to bill the patients for the unpaid balance of their fees. Assume, for example, that Medicare would pay $80 for an office visit. A doctor could accept that in full or charge $100 or $120 or whatever to his patients. 

Illinois malpractice policies drive physicians out of state

http://www.protectpatientsnow.org/content/illinois-malpractice-policies-drive-physicians-out-state

Excerpt: Half of the graduating medical students or fellows trained in Illinois are leaving the state to practice medicine elsewhere, frequently in bordering states, according to a study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. The 2010 Illinois New Physician Workforce Study questioned 561 graduating students and fellows, and found that 49% intended to leave the state to practice. While the primary reason given was “overall practice opportunities,” the malpractice liability environment was frequently cited as a problem with Illinois. Early this year, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that caps on malpractice damages were unconstitutional and struck down laws limiting malpractice awards. As a result, malpractice insurance rates have increased in the state, and health care practitioners perceive Illinois to be a hostile malpractice environment. Survey respondents were asked if they were familiar with the Supreme Court decision, and to what extent it affected their decision as to where to practice. “The majority who were planning to practice outside of Illinois indicated that the decision affirms their decision to leave the state and reinforces the negative environment they believe exists due to a lack of tort reform, high medical malpractice premiums, a litigious environment and what they perceive to be a state legal profession that is anti-physician,” the researchers wrote. (One can only hope that an Illinois Supreme Court judge or trial lawyer will need a neurosurgeon and find there are none to be had. That’s the only way to stop the lawyers’ rampage. ~Bob.)

John Bolton Interview

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-turn/2010/12/john_bolton_interview.html#more

Very dark horse. ~Bob. Excerpt: It's December 2010, so it must be 2012 campaign season. A number of possible Republican presidential candidates have suggested (perhaps to endear themselves to weary political reporters) that they won't announce -- at least formally -- for several months. But that's a dodge. The pre-announcement jockeying -- which looks an awful lot like campaigning -- is well underway. Rep. Mike Pence delivered a candidate-like speech in Detroit on Monday. And a day doesn't pass without an e-mail missive from Team Pawlenty. Here at Right Turn, we'll be looking at and talking to would-be contenders and assessing how they might stack up against the competition. Today: former United Nations ambassador John Bolton. There's been no harsher critic of the Obama administration's foreign policy than Bolton. Whether on START, the Iranian threat or "Russian reset," he makes no bones about his concern that President Obama is simply "in over his head" on national security, as he told me in a wide-ranging interview that touched on his own presidential aspirations and his criticisms of Obama. Bolton has begun to talk openly to conservative gatherings and media about his interest in a 2012 presidential run

American Narcissus - The Vanity Of Barack Obama

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/american-narcissus_516686.html

Excerpt: The story of Obama’s writing career is an object lesson in how our president’s view of himself shapes his interactions with the world around him. In 1990, Obama was wrapping up his second year at Harvard Law when the New York Times ran a profile of him on the occasion of his becoming the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review. A book agent in New York named Jane Dystel read the story and called up the young man, asking if he’d be interested in writing a book. Like any 29-year-old, he wasn’t about to turn down money. He promptly accepted a deal with Simon & Schuster’s Poseidon imprint—reportedly in the low six-figures—to write a book about race relations. Obama missed his deadline. No matter. His agent quickly secured him another contract, this time with Times Books. And a $40,000 advance. Not bad for an unknown author who had already blown one deal, writing about a noncommercial subject. By this point Obama had left law school, and academia was courting him. The University of Chicago Law School approached him; although they didn’t have any specific needs, they wanted to be in the Barack Obama business. As Douglas Baird, the head of Chicago’s appointments committee, would later explain, “You look at his background—Harvard Law Review president, magna cum laude, and he’s African American. This is a no-brainer hiring decision at the entry level of any law school in the country.” Chicago invited Obama to come in and teach just about anything he wanted. But Obama wasn’t interested in a professor’s life. Instead, he told them that he was writing a book—about voting rights. The university made him a fellow, giving him an office and a paycheck to keep him going while he worked on this important project. In case you’re keeping score at home, there was some confusion as to what book young Obama was writing. His publisher thought he was writing about race relations. His employer thought he was writing about voting rights law. But Obama seems to have never seriously considered either subject. Instead, he decided that his subject would be himself. The 32-year-old was writing a memoir.

New Jersey Man Serving 7 Years for Guns He Owned Legally

http://dailycaller.com/2010/11/30/family-new-jersey-man-serving-7-years-for-guns-he-owned-legally/

Don’t know the details of this one, but gangbangers and illegals walk the streets here in Blagobamaville armed. Only us non-criminal citizens have to go defenseless. ~Bob. Excerpt: EVERYTHING Brian Aitken was or had worked for was wiped away one winter afternoon after his mother called the police on him. Separated from his wife, the entrepreneur and media consultant, now 27, had moved back home to New Jersey from Colorado toward the end of 2008 to be closer to their young son. In between jobs, his well-oiled life was running ragged, and on Jan. 2, 2009, when his ex canceled his visit with their son, he became distraught, muttered something to his mother, and left his parents’ home in Mount Laurel, N.J. “He said something that scared her, things that a guy will only say to his mom, like . . . ‘Life’s not worth living anymore,’” said Larry Aitken, Brian’s father. Sue Aitken, a trained social worker, decided to play it safe and called police, but she hung up before the 9-1-1 dispatcher could answer. Police traced the call and showed up anyway, and found two handguns in the trunk of Brian’s car. And now Brian, her middle child, a graduate student with no prior criminal record, is serving a seven-year prison sentence for weapons charges. No one blames Sue Aitken for Brian’s arrest, except herself maybe, but his father and attorney claim that the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office and the former Superior Court judge who tried the case ignored evidence that proved Brian had the guns legally. The family has asked New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for clemency and has garnered a great deal of support on a “Free Brian Aitken” Facebook page and among gun-rights advocates.

Attack by WikiLeaks

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704584804575644490285411052.html

Killing this guy would do Obama’s image no end of good—precisely because he probably doesn’t have the courage to do it. (We need the Roman policy: "Oderint, dum metuant" - Seneca ) ~Bob. Excerpt: But that still leaves the Lincoln question of how to stop the likes of Mr. Assange? If he were exposing Chinese or Russian secrets, he would already have died at the hands of some unknown assailant. As a foreigner (Australian citizen) engaged in hostile acts against the U.S., Mr. Assange is certainly not protected from U.S. reprisal under the laws of war. Perhaps Lincoln would have considered him an "enemy combatant."

“I’m Tired” on Neil Boortz’s site

http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2010/11/well-said-marine.html

Opinion: Government Should Keep Its Hands Off the Internet

http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/article/opinion-internet-should-remain-free-of-government-regulation/19737988

Excerpt: A couple of decades ago, who would have imagined that much of America's hope for an economy-boosting holiday shopping season would hinge on something called "Cyber Monday"? If ever we needed an example of what can happen when innovation, entrepreneurship and a marketplace are left unfettered, it is the phenomenal and transformational growth of the Internet and the commerce it's engendered. No central planner or government could possibly have anticipated or steered such an innovation in the many life-changing directions it has taken. And no "encouragement" or stimulus from the government could have possibly matched the vast economic benefits the Internet has produced -- not just here, but in virtually every corner of the world. It is no coincidence that this one element of our modern economy that has been uniquely left free of government interference has created equally unique growth and transformation. Yet, in the face of this obvious correlation between freedom and prosperity, there are those who want the government to step in, regulate and pick winners and losers in the management and control of the Web. (The author is the former Governor of New Mexico, a Republican, and someone I hope we hear more from. Every now and then, AOL News finds some good in us, purely by accident. Ron P.)

The Special Assistant for Reality

http://patriotpost.us/opinion/peggy-noonan/2010/12/01/the-special-assistant-for-reality/

Excerpt: Because of the bubble, successful presidents have to walk into the presidency with an extremely strong sense of the reality of their country. In time, with the wear and tear of things, this sense of How Things Really Are may dissipate, disappear or remain stable, but it won't get stronger. It never gets stronger. High political office is like great affluence: It detaches you. It separates you from normal life. Once you're president, you're not going to be able to change the features on your famous face; you're not going to be able to escape security, grab a fishing rod, and go sit on the side of a river waiting for normal Americans to walk by, settle in, fish with you, and say normal American things, from which you will garner insights into what normal Americans think. What a president should ideally have, and what I think we all agree Mr. Obama badly needs, is an assistant whose sole job it is to explain and interpret the American people to him. Presidents already have special assistants for domestic policy, for congressional relations and national security. Why not a special assistant for reality? Someone to translate the views of the people, and explain how they think. An advocate for the average, a representative for the normal, to the extent America does normal.

Judge tosses challenge to Obama healthcare law

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6B000920101201

Excerpt: A federal judge in Virginia on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the landmark healthcare law championed by President Barack Obama, upholding key provisions that require health insurance coverage.

Change Tea Party Goals?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/change_tea_party_goals.html

Excerpt: Social and religious conservatives, like their Progressive counterparts on the left, have deluded themselves. They have fallen into the trap of believing that achieving the social outcome that they prefer trumps the need to build an electoral majority based on those issues that they embrace. They are trying to piggy-back their agenda on top of the successes of the Tea Parties, thus (in their worldview) gaining the ability to legislate changes in society which they feel are necessary. In this they are exactly like the Liberal/Progressive/Democrats. They are displaying a willingness to legislatively coerce the majority, because of their belief that they, and they alone, know what's best for all of us. The social and religious conservatives fail to recognize that it was just such an attitude that was a major cause of the disaster that hit the L/P/Ds on November 2nd.

'No Labels' - No Kidding

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/12/no_labels_no_kidding.html

Excerpt: It was only after reading Joe Scarborough's angry, poison pen attack on Sarah Palin that I learned Morning Joe is part of a new organization for civility in politics called "No Labels..." Its founders and leaders include political fundraisers and consultants, David Frum, a Huffington Post blogger (oh, joyful day!), a ‘green' law professor, and the founder of the Progressive Policy Institute, an alternative to, among other things, the "conservative bid to simply dismantle government." I suppose he could start the civility process by no longer equating conservatives to anarchists. No Labels sounds like a Jaycees for professionals. Its motto is that we don't have to give up our political labels, but merely put them aside to do what's best for America. I'm not making this up. These are very smart people who think we can solve our problems by being very nice to the people who created the problems. I suppose I'd be all for that, but the people who caused the problems generally don't seem to respond to passive and nice. Sometimes they need to hear an angrier tone. [It is not possible to work in our gazillion-dollar college library because of the noise in there. I lost count of the number of times I was concentrating on a paper, only to be interrupted by the arrival next to me of two females who'd obviously come there for a good chin-wag. Many times I asked these women politely to be quiet, as is the normal way of doing things in a civilized society. Invariably the offenders (who seem to be clones) responded to my politeness, not only by shouting at me, but by shouting at me at length. I decided to try another approach: The minute the yappers sat down and started to yap, I would instantly shout, "SHUT UP!" as loudly as I could. That shut them up—a treat. But whatever way I played it, I was still on the animal level. I did my own survey around campus to see if other people had had this experience, and yes, they had. I no longer attempt to work in the 'library'. Thank you, taxpayers, for our big beautiful free internet cafe, but you know, you could get a lot more computers in there if you took out all those books. --KC]

The Care and Feeding Of Progressives

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/the_care_and_feeding_of_progre.html

Excerpt: I've had to ask readers of my blog to register in order to post comments. There are three reasons why: 1.Trolls 2.Trolls 3.Trolls (By the way, I often tell clients that there are three rules for dealing with the character disordered: "Boundaries, Boundaries, and Boundaries." Not surprisingly, the same can be said about extreme progressives.) When I started my little blog, it didn't occur to me that trolls would come out in droves. Why would leftists expend their energies on me? And why would they subject themselves to scrutiny by a licensed psychotherapist? But apparently, numerous trolls have been drawn to me, like venomous bees to honey. These trolls use the same weaponry of other extreme progressives: shame and degradation. They try to use ridicule as sort of stun gun, immobilizing the other. (Another interesting tidbit: People with character disorders do the very same thing. Coincidence?) (I’ve had the same thing on my blog from foul-mouthed, vicious leftists. I usually post their screeds, letting the world know them by their foolishness. I only block a couple who tried to take over the blog, posting long responses to every post. And I block commercial Spam when I can. ~Bob.)

'Hacktivist' takes credit for WikiLeaks attacks via Twitter

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/11/hacktivist-takes-credit-for-wikileaks-attacks-via-twitter.html

Excerpt: A self-proclaimed "hacktivist" is apparently taking some credit for the Internet attacks that shut down many pages on WikiLeaks.org today. The hacker, who goes by the name Jester, claims on his blog to have used distributed denial of service attacks to bring down websites in the past -- the same method WikiLeaks says it was hampered by on Sunday and today. Jester often claims responsibility for bringing down websites on his Twitter account using the phrase "tango down," which is used by the military to indicate that an enemy has been eliminated in a firefight.

CableGate: Obama's Katrina Times Ten

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

Excerpt: America's governing regime is trying to make us believe that the greatest threat to this country is a man by the name of Julian Assange. If you did not know, Julian Assange is not a spy or an agent of an enemy government. He is the founder of WikiLeaks, an internet outfit that has released a cache of confidential and secret cables from the State Department. Our government officials tell us that Assange's act somehow poses a threat to our national security by undermining America's foreign policy. One may as well ask: What foreign policy? The cables show something many have always known -- that most so-called leaders and politicians are liars, schemers, crooks, egomaniacs, and incompetents.

BREAKING NEWS: Interpol puts WikiLeaks Founder Assange on Most-Wanted List

http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/12/01/breaking-news-interpol-puts-wikileaks-founder-assange-on-most-wanted-list/

Excerpt: Just in: Interpol has put WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on its most-wanted listed. The official reason is that Sweden asked Interpol to put a “red notice” on the radical leftist and enemy of the United States because he’s suspected of raping a Swedish citizen. The request came after a Swedish court issued an international arrest warrant for Assange on probable cause, saying he is suspected of rape, sexual molestation and illegal use of force in August incidents.

2 House ethics attorneys suspended

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45777.html

Excerpt: Two attorneys for the House ethics committee have been placed on indefinite “paid administrative leave” stemming from serious problems within the secretive panel. Morgan Kim, the deputy chief counsel and the lead attorney on the case of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), is one of the attorneys placed on leave, said several sources familiar with the controversy. (Hope this doesn’t get Demo-corrupt Waters off.)

A Witness Lies, the Court Shrugs and Veterans Are Outraged

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/us/30bar.html

Excerpt: Elven J. Swisher wore a replica of a Purple Heart on the witness stand when he testified that the defendant had tried to hire him to kill three federal officials.

Asked about the medal, Mr. Swisher pulled a document from his pocket to show that he was entitled to it and many others for his service in combat in the Korean War.

Mr. Swisher said the defendant, David R. Hinkson, an armchair constitutionalist with eccentric views about the tax code, had asked him how many men he had killed. “Too many,” Mr. Swisher recalled saying. All lies. Mr. Swisher had never seen combat, had killed no one and had served without distinction. The document was a forgery. Mr. Swisher has since been convicted of lying to federal officials, wearing fake medals and defrauding the Department of Veterans Affairs of benefits for combat injuries. But the jury knew none of this, and with Mr. Swisher’s testimony it convicted Mr. Hinkson of soliciting three murders. He was sentenced to 33 years for those crimes, along with 10 years for tax evasion, and he is serving his sentence in the maximum-security prison in Florence, Colo. ((Wow, another set of court rulings that make no sense at all. –Del I’m going to start wearing my National Defense Medal. When people ask how I won it, I’ll shrug modestly and say, “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s the guys who didn’t come back who are the real heroes.” ~Bob.)

NJ Governor Chris Christie Blasts Teachers Unions Again in Washington DC Speech

http://dailycaller.com/2010/12/01/new-jersey-governor-chris-christie-blasts-teachers-unions-again-in-washington-d-c-speech/

Excerpt: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie gave the keynote speech at the Jeb Bush Excel in Education Annual Summit in Washington, D.C. Tuesday night. In his 50-minute speech on education reform – one of Christie’s most passionate topics – the governor left no room to question how he feels about teachers’ unions, most specifically the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA). In short: he doesn’t like them. Hosted by the Foundation for Excellence in Education, the audience was comprised of a wide range of VIPs in the education world, state lawmakers, former Florida Republican Governor Jeb Bush.

The Littlest Victims of Obamacare

http://townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2010/12/01/the_littlest_victims_of_obamacare

Excerpt: It's time for America's youth to buckle up and take a rough ride on

Reality Highway

. For the past two years, President Obama has promised our children the moon, stars, rainbows, unicorns and universal health care for all. But the White House Santa's cradle-to-grave entitlement mandates are a spectacularly predictable bust. Don't take it from me. Take it from Obamacare's own biggest cheerleaders. Late last month, the Service Employees International Union informed dues-paying members of its behemoth 1199 affiliate in New York that it was dropping its health care coverage for children. That's right. A radical leftist union, not an evil Republican corporation, is abandoning the young 'uns to cut costs.

Muslim girl killed for love affair with Hindu

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/11/muslim-girl-killed-for-love-affair-with-hindu.html

Too bad for her dad didn’t get the “Islam is a religion of peace” memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: A Muslim man has been arrested for killing his teenaged daughter who was in love with a Hindu youth from the same village, police said on Thursday. Mushtakeem, a resident of Mawaithakuran village, strangled his 18-year-old daughter Rehana Parveen after she insisted on marrying her lover Bhoora Prajapati, 21, police said.

Book Launch Exposes UN Climate Science in Another Scandal

http://climatechangedispatch.com/political-exasperations/8193-book-launch-exposes-un-climate-science-in-another-scandal

Excerpt: Newly released science book revelation is set to heap further misery on UN global warming researchers. Will latest setback derail Cancun Climate conference? Authors of a new book ‘Slaying the Sky Dragon: Death of the Greenhouse Gas Theory’ claim they have debunked the widely established greenhouse gas theory climate change. In the first of what they say will be a series of sensational statements to promote the launch of their book, they attack a cornerstone belief of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - what is known as the “carbon isotope argument” (If true, this blows the IPCC completely out of the water, but there is some scientific disagreement about the validity of the physics. The book’s 24 authors are a mixed bag, some well known and respected, some not so much so. This link is to Climate Change Dispatch blog where the story first appeared. I suggest also seeing the coverage at Watts Up With That blog as Anthony Watts knows at least one of the authors. There is also a “Slaying the Sky Dragon” site, but it is purely advertising to sell copies of the book. Ron P. )

Obama, GOP negotiating deal on Bush-era tax cuts

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/congress/2010/11/obama-gop-negotiating-deal-bush-era-tax-cuts

Excerpt: The Obama administration is sending in high-ranking mediators in hopes of ending its stalemate with congressional Republicans over extending the Bush-era tax cuts. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew will meet with four lawmakers -- two each from the House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats -- with the aim of striking a deal on how to extend tax cuts that are set to expire for all income levels on Dec. 31. The negotiations were proposed in a morning meeting between President Obama and Republican and Democratic lawmakers to discuss the agenda of the lame-duck session.

In Canada, the criminalization of free speech

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2010/11/canada-criminalization-free-speech

Excerpt: But it has become clear in the past few years that democracy in Canada is seriously threatened, and it's time Americans spoke up. We had better, because Canadians can't. On Nov. 20, Canadian journalist Ezra Levant was ordered by an Ottawa judge to pay $25,000 for libeling Giacomo Vigna, a Canadian Human Rights Commission lawyer. According to the judge, Levant "spoke in reckless disregard of the truth and for an ulterior purpose of denormalizing the Human Rights Commission across Canada." Despite the judge's ruling, not only is Levant right to "denormalize" these commissions -- they should be immediately abolished. (I’ve heard Levant speak and recommend his prophetically-named book, “Shakedown.” He’s one of the last free men in Canada, thus hated by the slaves of the state. ~Bob.)

Dennis Gartman: ‘Eventually, the Euro Breaks Apart’

http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=22279

Excerpt: Faced with “almost terminal problems,” Dennis Gartman on Monday said the euro could soon unravel. “Eventually, the euro breaks apart into a northern euro and a southern euro,” said Gartman, explaining that the Continent’s many languages, religions and cultures are too diverse for the singular currency to work. Gartman said he thinks Europe’s debt troubles won’t stop with Ireland’s bailout and mounting concerns in Spain and Portugal. He thinks it’s a “rolling contagion from one country to the next,” which will likely claim Belgium next.

Foreclosure Help - NeighborWorks PSA - 'Clown.60'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYTyQzF-tgo&feature=related

What gets me is a “public service” ad run by Neighborhood Works and played as a community service ad re: refinancing mortgages. The customers are two well-dressed blacks. The mortgage officer is a white male dressed in clown shoes and short polka dot tie. He toots a little clown horn and asks for a contract and a woman in a kid’s car rolls in and hands him one, says they are out of toner, backs into the door and leaves. The black couples’ eyes bug out and they get up and walk out as the white male is tooting the horn telling them to “Sign here, sign here. Go on and sign.” If this were reversed and blacks were the clowns asking intelligent whites to sign, there would be action by the Panthers, NAACP, etc. This is racist. How can this get on the air as a “Public service”? –BM.

Political Digest for December 1, 2010

Political Digest for December 1, 2010

Robert A. Hall

http://www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com/

I cannot add everyone who wishes to be added to my mailing list, or my ISP will block me for Spam. Please join me in dispelling ignorance by forwarding the Digest to your friends, or to directing them to my blog, where this is also posted.

I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article. Help your friends and relatives stay informed by passing the digest on.

Important: Have Some Irish Coffee

http://www.redstate.com/blackhedd/2010/11/29/have-some-irish-coffee/

The world’s economy is so tied together, they are likely to drag us into the abyss with them when they go. ~Bob. Excerpt: Yesterday afternoon, Ireland finalized terms of a bailout valued at 85 billion euros, from the ECB, the IMF, a government pension fund, and several European states. So far, the bailout is NOT having a calming effect on Europe’s capital markets. Credit spreads on so-called “peripheral” European sovereigns are blowing out this morning, and government bonds of Portugal and Spain are falling sharply. Italy managed to tap the credit markets earlier today, but the interest rate was high and the subscription level was disappointing.

Important: European Union: R.I.P.?

http://townhall.com/columnists/PatBuchanan/2010/11/30/european_union_rip

Excerpt: When communism collapsed in Moscow, Prague and Belgrade at the end of the Cold War, ethnic nationalism surged to the surface in all three nations and tore them apart into 24 countries. Economic nationalism is now resurgent across Europe. And it is hard to see how a transnational institution like the European Union, run by faceless bureaucrats, and the 16-nation eurozone it created long survive. As of Monday, Greece and Ireland had been bailed out -- Greece with $145 billion, Ireland with $89 billion. All eyes have now turned to Iberia, to Portugal and Spain, where bond prices are sinking and interest rates are rising, and investors are eying the exits. Monday's stock and bond sell-off across Europe testifies to a belief that this storm is far from over…. For if bondholders know they will be among the first victims burned in bailouts in 2013, they may suspect a singeing even before then. This will impel them to start shedding the bonds of any nation with deficit and debt problems, which will deepen those deficit and debt problems. While the EU-IMF bailout fund is now sufficiently flush to handle a Portugal, Madrid has an economy twice the size of Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined. If Spain is forced into a bailout, and Italy, which has a huge debt, totters, a European panic is on -- and a global panic may not be far behind.

"I’m Tired"—the Energizer Bunny of blog posts

Have another request for a radio interview—from Australia. And this comment just came in: “Just heard Neil Bortz read this on his program and I had to look it up for myself. I think you have summed up what many hard-working, country loving Americans are feeling these days. Thank you Mr. Hall for your service to our country. We might be headed in the wrong direction, but thanks to people like you we have such a long, long way to fall.”

Airport Security: Let's Profile Muslims

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-29/airport-security-lets-profile-muslims/?om_rid=Mqh-D0&om_mid=_BM9BM2B8V8thpK

Excerpt: As an American Muslim, I’ve come to recognize, sadly, that there is one common denominator defining those who’ve got their eyes trained on U.S. targets: MANY of them are Muslim—like the Somali-born teenager arrested Friday night for a reported plot to detonate a car bomb at a packed Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in downtown Portland, Oregon. We have to talk about the taboo topic of profiling because terrorism experts are increasingly recognizing that religious ideology makes terrorist organizations and terrorists more likely to commit heinous crimes against civilians, such as blowing an airliner out of the sky. Certainly, it’s not an easy or comfortable conversation but it’s one, I believe, we must have. (...) In the debate, I said, “Profile me. Profile my family,” because, in my eyes, we in the Muslim community have failed to police ourselves. (The author of this piece is taking a lot of heat from within her community, but her point is irrefutable. I especially like the last line of the excerpt as she is saying what many of us have said all along. Terrorists cannot and do not live in a vacuum. So long as there is no social or familial “cost” to supporting terrorists (or being a terrorist), there is little or no reason for the community not to tolerate or support them. This way, all those “innocent, peace-loving, moderate” Muslims have an incentive to be more active in their opposition to terrorists. Ron P.)

The Swiss have voted to deport foreign criminals. Let's copy them.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/alexsingleton/100065886/the-swiss-have-voted-to-exile-foreign-criminals-automatically-lets-copy-them/

Excerpt: The Swiss know how to stand up for themselves. In a referendum yesterday, they voted in favour of the automatic deportation of foreigners who commit serious crimes. Needless to say, the latte liberals at Amnesty International are appalled and – revealing their utter contempt for democracy – are calling on Swiss politicians to ignore the will of the people. Amnesty’s reasoning is that deportations could cause convicts to be sent back to countries where they could face persecution. But this is a ridiculous argument: no one is forcing visitors to Switzerland to commit offences. If people don’t want to be sent back home, why don’t they just desist from rape, robbery, murder and fraud? The new Swiss policy is so obviously a sensible idea that we ought to copy it here. Having very high levels of immigration, and having allied ourselves with America in the fight against terrorism, we have an even bigger problem with foreign criminals.

The Climate Conference Echo Chamber

http://www.redstate.com/absentee/2010/11/29/the-climate-conference-echo-chamber/

Phelim McAleer is a journalist. In his capacity as a journalist, he is a skeptic. The role of skeptic - the one who asks the questions, the one who demands answers - is generally a lauded role in modern society. At least .. as long as there’s a Republican on the hot seat. But in climate circles, they have another word, a pejorative term, for skeptics: deniers. The church of global warming has no tolerance for heresy, and even less for probing questions or investigations. And so it is that the journalist Phelim McAleer was denied press credentials for the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in sunny Cancun, Mexico this week. (Certainly a better PR choice than frigid Copenhagen.)

CAIR: Unindicted, But Still A Co-conspirator

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/11/027781.php

Excerpt: We have noted many times that the Department of Justice named the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a self-described civil rights group, as an unindicted co-conspirator in its prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation and others for providing support to the terrorist group Hamas. But we missed the fact (I did, anyway) that the federal courts have now affirmed DOJ's designation of CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator.

Can Republicans Talk? By Thomas Sowell

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell113010.php3

Excerpt: The biggest battle in the lame duck session of Congress may well be over whether or not to extend the Bush administration's tax cuts, which are scheduled to expire in January. The fact that this decision has been left until late in the eleventh hour, even though the expiration date has been known for years, tells us a lot about the utter irresponsibility of Congress. Neither businesses nor individuals nor the Internal Revenue Service will know what to do until this issue is resolved. In a stalled economy, we do not need this prolonged uncertainty that can paralyze both consumer spending and investment spending. Republicans want the current tax rates to continue and Democrats want only the current tax rates for people earning less than "the rich"-- variously defined-- to continue, with everyone making more than some specified income to have their tax rates rise next year…. What does that record say? It says, loud and clear, that cuts in tax rates do not mean cuts in tax revenues. In all four of these administrations, of both parties, so-called "tax cuts for the rich" led to increased tax revenues-- with people earning high incomes paying not only a larger sum total of tax revenues, but even a higher proportion of all tax revenues. Most important of all, these tax rate reductions spurred economic activity, which we definitely need today.

Policy change will allow passengers to bring guns on Amtrak

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1110/guns_amtrak.php3

Reversing a near decade-long ban, Amtrak will allow passengers to bring guns on most trains starting next month. The change, pushed by gun-rights advocates and ordered by Congress, aligns Amtrak's firearm policy with air travel rules that allow unloaded guns to be stored in locked baggage holds.

Minimum Wage, Maximum Folly

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/williamns120110.php3

Excerpt: How about this: The law of gravity is applicable to the behavior of falling objects on the U.S. mainland but not applicable on our Pacific Ocean territories Samoa and Northern Mariana Islands. You say, "Williams, that's lunacy! Laws are applicable everywhere; that's why they call it a law." You're right, but does the same reasoning apply to the law of demand that holds: The higher the price of something, the less people will take of it; and the lower its price, the more people will take of it? The law of demand applies to wages, interest and rent because, after all, they are the prices of something. In 2007, the Democrat-led Congress and White House enacted legislation raising the minimum wage law, in steps, from $5.15 an hour to $7.25. With some modification, the increases applied to our Pacific Ocean territories. Republicans and others opposed to the increases were labeled as hostile toward workers. According to most opinion polls taken in 2006, more than 80 percent of Americans favored Congress' intention to raise the minimum wage. Most Americans see the minimum wage as a good thing, and without it, rapacious employers wouldn't pay workers much of anything.

Political markets betting on John Thune in 2012

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45697.html

I think that the four “front runners,” Palin, Romney, Huckabee and Gingrich (my favorite) have too much baggage and the GOP needs a new face. ~Bob. Excerpt: He barely registers in polls, but there’s a lot of smart money betting on Sen. John Thune for Republican presidential nominee in 2012. In a Quinnipiac University poll out Monday, just 2 percent of likely Republican voters said they support the South Dakota senator. That places him at the bottom of the field, tied for seventh place with Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. A Gallup Poll earlier in November. But on two of the three major political exchanges — markets in which users bet on or buy stocklike futures contracts for candidates they think will win the GOP nomination — Thune ranks third, behind only Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin. Investors think he’s almost twice as likely to win it as the fourth-place contender, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Want To Raise a Good Person? Stop Nurturing Your Child's Self-Esteem

http://townhall.com/columnists/DennisPrager/2010/11/30/want_to_raise_a_good_person_stop_nurturing_your_childs_self-esteem

I’ve long thought that the best way to destroy a child’s future was to heap un-earned self esteem n him or her. I’m hardly an expert—but what we’ve been doing hasn’t produced a new “greatest generation.” ~Bob. Excerpt: It turns out, however, that the premise was entirely misguided. There is no correlation between goodness and high self-esteem. But there is a correlation between criminality and high self-esteem. Florida State University Professor Roy Baumeister (Ph.D. psychology, Princeton University) has revealed that in a lifetime of study of violent criminals, the one characteristic nearly all these criminals share is high self-esteem. Yes, people with high self-esteem are the ones most prone to violence. The 1960s and '70s ushered in what I refer to as the Age of Feelings. And one of the most enduring feelings-based notions that came out of that era was that it was critically important that children feel good about themselves. High self-esteem, it was decided, should be imparted to children whenever possible -- no matter how undeserving.

5 Reasons The CIA Should Have Already Killed Julian Assange

http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnHawkins/2010/11/30/5_reasons_the_cia_should_have_already_killed_julian_assange

Excerpt: One of the weirder tics of modern civilization is that oftentimes, even in matters of life and death, many people would prefer to lose in a politically correct manner than win easily, but make people angry in the process. So, we put nonsensical, self-defeating limitations on ourselves to try to avoid angry editorials and hurt feelings. Take warfare, for example. We've built an overwhelming, nearly unstoppable war machine that can turn any military force that goes up against it into cat food and then we've proceeded to create mind numbingly stupid, overly legalistic rules of engagement that nullify many of our advantages. We have a military capable of reducing whole regions to rubble in days and yet we struggle to deal with Somalian pirates and Taliban cavemen because we can't bear the idea that there might be an unflattering piece in the New York Times if we accidentally kill some of the "civilians" who, short of picking up a gun, are doing everything they can to help our enemies.

Egyptian Security Used Live Ammunition on Christian Coptic Protesters, 4 Killed

http://www.aina.org/news/20101129225702.htm

Excerpt: Christian Copts worldwide were shocked and enraged at the use of live ammunition by Egyptian state security forces against unarmed Coptic protesters, causing the death of three Coptic young men. A four-year old child suffocated from tear gas thrown inside the chapel. Rights groups inside and outside of Egypt have condemned the use of excessive violence by security forces and the use of live ammunition against Coptic demonstrators.

Yodelling offends praying Muslims, say judges

http://www.austriantimes.at/news/General_News/2010-11-29/28753/Yodelling_offends_praying_Muslims%2C_say_judges

First they came for the yodelers, but I was not a yodeler….~Bob. Excerpt: An Austrian has been fined for yodelling while mowing his lawn, according to a report. The Kronen Zeitung newspaper claims Helmut G. was told by a court in Graz, Styria, that his yodelling offended his next-door Muslim neighbours. The men reportedly accused the 63-year-old of having tried to mock and imitate the call of the Muezzin. The daily paper writes the Austrian was fined 800 Euros after judges ruled he could have tried to offend them and ridicule their belief. The Muslims, whose nationalities were not revealed by the report, were right in the middle of a prayer when the Austrian started to yodel.

Now you can breathe easy, Infidels: Wheelchair-bound nun searched by TSA

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/11/now-you-can-breathe-easy-infidels-wheelchair-bound-nun-searched-by-tsa.html

Her fault. She should have told them it was a burka. ~Bob.

Three days after a Muslim tries to kill thousands of Infidels in Oregon, OIC chief says West is spreading "Islamophobia"

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/11/three-days-after-a-muslim-tries-to-kill-thousands-of-infidels-in-oregon-oic-chief-says-west-is-sprea.html

Excerpt: No, Ihsanoglu. Mohamed Mohamud is spreading "Islamophobia," if it really exists at all. Nidal Hasan is spreading "Islamophobia." Faisal Shahzad is spreading "Islamophobia." Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad is spreading "Islamophobia." Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is spreading "Islamophobia."

Gunbattle breaks out in Kyrgyz south

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101129/ap_on_re_as/as_kyrgyzstan_unrest

Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: At least four Islamic militants were killed Monday in a clash with security forces in Kyrgyzstan's restive south, officials said.

Three suspected militants were shot and killed by government forces in the city of Osh, while another militant blew himself up during the clash, Security Council Secretary Marat Imankulov said. One soldier was injured.

A Yale Forum Two-Part Special Feature: Scientists and Journalists on ‘Lessons Learned’ (Pt. 1)

http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2010/11/scientists-and-journalists-on-lessons-learned/

Excerpt: By any account, it’s been a challenging 12 months for climate science, for climate scientists, and for the ever-changing face of journalism as its practitioners struggle, or not, to keep their audiences adequately informed and knowledgeable.

Portland averted its eyes as terror threat grew

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2010/11/portland-averted-its-eyes-terror-threat-grew

Excerpt: "I was recently told by a media person that if something happens in this city, I'm toast." So said Tom Potter, mayor of Portland, Oregon, on April 28, 2005 as he and the city council voted to bar Portland police from participating in one of the federal government's key anti-terrorism initiatives, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. In Portland's deep-blue precincts, there was intense opposition to the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror; residents worried the task force might violate state anti-discrimination laws by targeting Muslims for their religious and political views. So city leaders forbade police from taking part in it. They made brave statements. "Here in Portland, we are not willing to give up individual liberties in order to have a perception of safety," city commissioner Randy Leonard told reporters a few days before the vote. Yet there was still a little note of concern in Mayor Potter's words: What if there were a terrorist attack after we refused to work with the FBI to prevent it?

Rangel hopes punishment will come in writing rather than on House floor

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112906181.html?hpid=topnews

Excerpt: In the curious annals of congressional drama, this week's debate on the fate of New York Rep. Charles B. Rangel will be odder than most. The House will agonize, and Rangel will emote, over this question: Will Rangel - who has been found guilty of 11 ethics violations - be scolded in person, or will he be scolded in writing? That's all. The first option is called a censure. The second, which Rangel (D) very much prefers, is a reprimand. Neither would kick Rangel out of Congress, dock his pay, take away his right to vote - or in any other way prevent him from being the exact same congressman he is today. (He’s lucky. The average tax-avoider goes to jail—or into Obama’s cabinet. He whole, I’d prefer jail. ~Bob.)

Congress Must Veto Taxpayer Bailout of Ireland

http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=22216

Excerpt: Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced plans to bailout Ireland. Since U.S. taxpayers pay 17 percent of the IMF’s funding, we are the world’s largest contributors. This means that American taxpayers will be on the hook again for billions of dollars to prop up failed economic policies overseas. With the largest share of voting power, the U.S. government has the authority to veto any IMF bailout. For the sake of American taxpayers, Congress should reject any effort to bailout profligate European countries.

The EPA Permitorium

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704658204575610924168519824.html

Another round of anti-stimulus for the economy from the Feds. ~Bob. Excerpt: President Obama is now retrenching after his midterm rebuke, and one of the main ways he'll try to press his agenda is through the alphabet soup of the federal regulators. So a special oversight priority for the new Congress ought to be the Environmental Protection Agency, which has turned a regulatory firehose on U.S. business and the power industry in particular. The scale of the EPA's current assault is unprecedented, yet it has received almost no public scrutiny. Since Mr. Obama took office, the agency has proposed or finalized 29 major regulations and 172 major policy rules. This surge already outpaces the Clinton Administration's entire first term—when the EPA had just been handed broad new powers under the 1990 revamp of air pollution laws….. Then there's the upcoming "boiler rule," which the EPA's lowball estimate says will impose $9.5 billion in new capital costs on manufacturers, paper mills, hospitals and the like. There are so many others.

The Climate Cash Cow

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/554439/201011191859/The-Climate-Cash-Cow.aspx

Excerpt: A high-ranking member of the U.N.'s Panel on Climate Change admits the group's primary goal is the redistribution of wealth and not environmental protection or saving the Earth. Money, they say, is the root of all evil. It's also the motivating force behind what is left of the climate change movement after the devastating Climate-gate and IPCC scandals that saw the deliberate manipulation of scientific data to spur the world into taking draconian regulatory action.

Is ET Search Heating Up? NASA to Announce 'Astrobiology Finding'

http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/is-extraterrestrial-search-heating-up-nasa-to-announce-astrobiology-finding/19738077

Excerpt: Could this be what we've all been waiting for? NASA has announced it will hold a special news conference Thursday "to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life." That's quite an eye-opening mouthful. NASA's press release goes on to say: "Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe." Speculation is, of course, skyrocketing on the Internet, as people wonder what the space agency is going to reveal. (Maybe the little green men will save us. ~Bob.)

Obama Is "Gutless" For Not Taking Down Wikileaks

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/11/30/ralph_peters_obama_is_gutless_for_not_taking_down_wikileaks.html

Excerpt: Lt. Col. Ralph Peters: "This is an attack on the United States, on our security. We have the cyber capability to take down Wikileaks, could have done it before the first dump of information, could have destroyed their operating systems. President Obama decided not to do it because President Obama is a gutless wonder who cared more about his left-wing free-cyberspace base than he did about protecting the security of the United States......We have the capability to track cyber crime anywhere in the world, to go after it anywhere, take it on, and we've done nothing? And I'll tell you, people are stewing about this because President Obama has overseen the gravest compromise -- the greatest willful compromise because he did nothing -- of our national security of any president in my lifetime."

Have Yourself an Excremental Christmas

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/smithsonian-christmas-season-exhibit-fea

I believe in their freedom to create what they want. But I’d like the freedom not to pay for it. ~Bob. Excerpt: The federally funded [American] National Portrait Gallery, one of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution, is currently showing an exhibition that features images of an ant-covered Jesus, male genitals, naked brothers kissing, men in chains, Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts, and a painting the Smithsonian itself describes in the show’s catalog as “homoerotic.”

Christine O’Donnell backs Hillary Clinton for 2012 run

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45722.html

I’m sorry, but I can’t resist. This is clearly a case of witches flocking together! ~Bob. Excerpt: Former Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell's dream presidential matchup for 2012 might just be Hillary Clinton versus Sarah Palin. O'Donnell, a Republican who rode the tea party wave to a primary upset in August, said she hopes Clinton runs and defeats President Barack Obama in a Democratic primary.

Myth of the Ugly American exploded

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/myth_of_the_ugly_american_exploded_0qdYJXA3ivRdqdtPxNz8cO

Excerpt: A government whose inattention to detail (no corporate secrets would be so easily accessible) made such a horrific event possible is an entity worthy not of paranoid terror but of scorn and contempt. It should frighten not because it's so powerful, but because no matter how potent the weapons at its disposal might be, it's fundamentally inept. That ineptitude is not the only aspect of the US government revealed by the Wiki dump. One also gets an overpowering sense of just how well-intentioned the United States is. The cables I've read so far show our diplomats trying to make sense of a Bizarro World in which the United States tends to say what it means while almost every other nation is essentially allergic to candor or straight talk.

WikiLeaks founder could be charged under Espionage Act

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112905973.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010112906806&om_rid=Mqh-D0&om_mid=_BM9Pt0B8V8v0rZ

Excerpt: Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the Justice Department and Pentagon are conducting "an active, ongoing criminal investigation.'' Others familiar with the probe said the FBI is examining everyone who came into possession of the documents, including those who gave the materials to WikiLeaks and also the organization itself. No charges are imminent, the sources said, and it is unclear whether any will be brought. Former prosecutors cautioned that prosecutions involving leaked classified information are difficult because the Espionage Act is a 1917 statute that preceded Supreme Court cases that expanded First Amendment protections. The government also would have to persuade another country to turn over Assange, who is outside the United States. (No doubt, this will have them shaking in their WikiBoots. Ron P.)

Americans Hiding From Reality: Personal Responsibility

http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty614.htm

Excerpt: NBC’s Brian Williams last week reported, “The latest figures show 72 percent of African-American newborns in the United States arrive from single mothers, most of them teenagers.” (Date: November 7, 2010, NBC Nightly News) They immediately land on welfare rolls as “Aid to Dependent Children.” Similar figures include Hispanic teen single mothers. These unmarried teen mothers fail to graduate from high school—while they birth two, three, four and more children while living full-time off welfare. The rate of U.S. taxpayer welfare dollars for this new generation of illiterate, irresponsible, unemployed and un-trainable armada of citizens and non-citizens—grows annually with massive immigrant loading of 3.1 million. (Source:www.cis.org, Dr. Steven Camarata) Legal immigrant mothers birth 900,000 newborns annually within the United States. Additionally, figures show that an average of 350,000 to 400,000 illegal alien un-wed women and pregnant visa over-stayers also land on welfare rolls—paid for by U.S. taxpayers. U.S. citizens must pay for assisted housing, medical care, breakfasts and lunches, food stamps, K-12 education and more. (Let us note that it’s not just minorities, though the rates are worse there. The single mother with children entirely dependent on living off others is too high and growing among whites as well. When I was in high school, both the guys and the girls were scared shirtless of getting a girl pregnant out of wedlock. Now it is no big deal. We will likely not recover from the sixties until the future survivors of the collapse build a new society on the Jamestown Rule—no work, no eat. ~Bob.)

Angry Iranian and Arab Leaders in the Middle East React to WikiLeaks Revelations

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-29/angry-iranian-and-arab-leaders-in-the-middle-east-reacts-to-wikileaks-revelations/?om_rid=Mqh-D0&om_mid=_BM9Pt0B8V8v0rZ

Excerpt: “New and harmful” was how Freilich described the WikilLeaks revelation that Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, consulted with Washington about working with Iran's students and ethnic minorities to topple Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime in Iran. In the Muslim Middle East, even suspicions of alliance with Mossad can be fatal to the accused. The Mossad-Washington exchange would strengthen the Iranian government's claims that its critics are agents of Israel and the U.S., Freilich said, noting that this was “not good for the opposition.” Inside Iran, the revelations have sparked anger—and not all of it toward Israel or the United States. P.B., a human-rights activist in Tehran, who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the revelations just highlighted Arab animosity toward Iran. The Gulf States “have their own problems,” she said. “The last thing that they want is the Shia brand of Islam being imported to their [Sunni Arab] country.” (The lives of Iranian Greens being endangered counts for nothing in the eyes of these self-righteous idealists at WikiLeaks. Few countries treat their enemies as gently as the western democracies; WikiLeaks will have bloody hands. I favor the .45 caliber solution to the WikiProblem. Ron P. Now, now, Ron, that would endanger the guy holding the 1911. Better a cruise missile into their headquarters, eliminate computers, staff and all. ~Bob.)

It's WikiHateAmerica

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/it_wikihateamerica_8gavSDF6ZCf5Lh6Kojfc9I

Excerpt: Barack Obama came into office hawking the illusion that America's adversaries hated his predecessor, not this country. Julian Assange begs to differ. The first batch of WikiLeaks documents undermined the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, violent conflicts started by the hated, warmongering Bush administration. The latest batch undermines American diplomacy, the soft art of international bargaining and persuasion as practiced by the highly anticipated, engagement-loving Obama administration. The classic justification for a leak is to expose malfeasance. In all his tens of thousands of released documents, Assange has exposed none, despite his typically delusional boast that the first dump revealed "thousands" of possible war crimes. Assange's goal is wanton destruction, pure and simple. He wants to expose to retribution those who cooperate with us on the ground in war zones. He wants to undercut domestic support for our wars. He wants to embarrass our foreign allies and exact a price for their trust in us. He wants to complicate sensitive operations like securing nuclear material in Pakistan and attacking terrorists with missiles in Yemen.