We seem to be moving steadily in the direction of a society where no one is responsible for what he himself did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did, either in the present or in the past.
I know a lot about the curveballs that the economy can throw at us. But in 2004, I joined millions of otherwise-sane Americans in what we now know was a catastrophic binge on overpriced real estate and reckless mortgages.
"It's a bit perverse," the American think tank director added, "but if the system treated everyone worse but didn't kill anyone, there would be a lot more pressure from voters seeking reform."
"The fact is that the system [nationalized healthcare] kills quite a lot of people -- but that's still only a tiny percentage of the overall population -- so it reduces the pool of people who are dissatisfied," she said.
Carol Browner was on TV early this morning, claiming that this would force automakers to “produce the cars Americans want”. My jaw ’bout hit the floor. Can she really be so mind-numbingly stupid? (I find myself thinking that a lot these days)
My DOGS are smarter than that - and they’re not that swift.
[For writers] this is what David Brooks calls "status-income disequilibrium" .... Everyone you write about makes more than you. Most of the people you know make more than you. And you come to feel that shopping at the farmer's market, travelling to Europe, drinking good coffee, are minimum necessities. Your house is small, your furniture is shabby, and you can't even really afford to shop at Whole Foods. Yet you're at the top of your field, working for one of the world's top media outlets. This can't be so.
And so the debts creep up, one happy hour or Colorado backpacking adventure at a time.
IN THE PAST few months, some 50 people have been slaughtered in the United States in mass attacks involving firearms. Police officers in Oakland, Calif., and Pittsburgh were mowed down by gunmen using assault weapons.
Asked at that news conference whether he planned to keep his campaign promise to reinstate a U.S. ban on assault weapons, Mr. Obama said he still supports the measure. He then proceeded to ease away from the promise by arguing that enacting such a ban would not be easy ....
Mentally ill homeless people wander big city streets, unless they freeze to death, or die of tuberculosis, or of violent crime. A small fraction of them become headlines when they go on a rampage, as happened in Binghamton, N.Y., in Colorado Springs, in an Amish school last year, and dozens of other tragedies the last few years.
We can make all of America like a mental hospital, where we don't trust anyone with anything dangerous. Or we can hospitalize those who are severely mentally ill--before they become a headline.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not know how long the Worldwide Intelligence Update cover sheets quoted from the Bible .... For a period in 2003, at least, the daily reports prepared for President George W. Bush carried quotes from the books of Psalms and Ephesians and the epistles of Peter .... The Bible quotes apparently aimed to support Bush at a time when soldiers' deaths in Iraq were on the rise ....
There is a certain haughtiness in [Washington DC Mayor Adrian] Fenty's bearing, a trace of scorn in his demeanor, a sense of self-importance that was not present (or at least was not noticeable) in him before.
The word that comes to mind, and which frequently slips out of the mouths of people who spend time observing the mayor, is "arrogance."
[T]he problem is not that we all can change our minds as events change, or that acts sometimes are at odds with words. Rather the rub is the vehemence in which views are expressed-and for some, the propensity to slur and slander others, and the readiness even to call for criminal penalties. Once that extremism, fueled by self-righteousness, begins, we rightly suspect the virulence comes not just from the issue in question, but rather from some deep psychological desire for penance, to expiate one’s own past sins by finding their new counterparts in others.
Under bylaws enacted in 1985, PBS stations are required to present programs that are noncommercial, nonpartisan and nonsectarian. The rules were put in place to ensure balance and fairness among PBS-affiliated stations, which rely on government funding, private-sector grants and sponsorships, and contributions from viewers.
- improving health information technology,
- expanding wellness programs,
- expanding preventive medicine,
- penalizing hospitals for poor outcomes
- instituting comparative effectiveness measures
My book America Alone is often assumed to be about radical Islam, firebreathing imams, the excitable young men jumping up and down in the street doing the old "Death to the Great Satan" dance.
It's not. It's about us.
[O]one of the interns asked if I thought it was morally okay to be happy that the senior Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh had just been blown up in a car bomb in Damascus, Syria.
Time for an answer.
[E]very human life starts out as precious; something to be treasured, valued and treated with dignity and respect.
But then some of those lives veer off track, becoming murderers, pedophiles or in Mughniyeh’s case, a butchering terrorist with the blood of several hundred innocent people on his hands. At the point where these individuals choose to carry out heinous acts, they opt out of civilization and all those lofty, righteous ideals regarding the treatment of human life
That’s the point where I no longer feel a moral obligation to worry about how they are treated. If you choose to become a terrorist, I choose to view you as less than human..
I think the word "fubar" should have been deleted from the May 3 Doonesbury comic.
The word that the "f" stands for in this acronym is considered by many to be extremely offensive.
Nathan Clemons complained about the "extremely offensive" word signified by the letter "f" in "fubar." What's so offensive about "fouled?"
The reason Pelosi raised no objection to waterboarding at the time ... is not because she ... suffered a years-long moral psychosis from which [she has] just now awoken. It is because at that time [she was] aware of the existing conditions ... and concluded that on balance it was a reasonable response to a terrible threat.
You can believe that Pelosi ... underwent a radical transformation from moral normality to complicity with war criminality back to normality. Or you can believe that [her] personality and moral compass has remained steady throughout the years, but changes in circumstances (threat, knowledge, imminence) alter the moral calculus attached to any interrogation technique.
You don't need a psychiatrist to tell you which of these theories is utterly fantastical.
“If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.” Thus wrote the Sicilian writer Giuseppe di Lampedusa, in The Leopard. This seems to me the guiding principle of the Obama presidency. To many Americans, he seems a flaming radical. To me, he is a pragmatic conservative, albeit one responding to extraordinary times.
Eviscerating the rule of law in the Chrysler bankruptcy so as to protect favored constituencies (mainly labor) at the expense of those to whom the law gave priority
Becoming a headhunter hiring and firing corporate directors and CEOs
De facto nationalization of the leading financial institutions
Federalizing executive compensation in the financial sector
Preempting state corporate law on issues like selection of boards of directors and compensation of executives
Refusing to let healthy institutions exit TARP
Bullying Chrysler's creditors
Playing shell games with the stress tests
An enormous expansion of the budget and huge budget deficits for as far as the eye can see
Raising the size of the government as a percent of GDP from about 20 to 22 on what seems to be a permanent basis
Planning a de facto federal takeover of health care, which amounts to 17% of the US economy (the public plan will almost certainly squeeze most private insurance out of the market, creating de facto a single payer plan)
We've become accustomed to our economic dominance in the world, forgetting that it wasn't reckless deals and get-rich-quick schemes that got us where we are, but hard work and smart ideas -- quality products and wise investments. We started taking shortcuts. We started living on credit, instead of building up savings.
Last month, four respected public-interest groups - Democracy 21, Common Cause, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG - called on the House ethics committee to launch an inquiry into whether campaign contributions from the lobbying firm PMA Group, its employees and clients improperly influenced Democratic lawmakers in deciding whether to fund various projects.
[O]n Tuesday, the House voted 215-182 against a Republican resolution to initiate a House ethics committee inquiry. The vote was not strictly partisan - 29 Democrats went against their leadership in favor of an investigation.
Someone important appears not to be telling the truth about her knowledge of the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs). That someone is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
[T]he Obama plan, whatever its tactical cleverness, will suffer from the key drawbacks of all government-financed and managed health insurance. It would make the government the gatekeeper--the controller of prices and the provider of coverage. Health care decisions would increasingly be made in Washington and subject to political pressures that take into account neither patient needs nor economic realities.
[I]n the Senate Finance Committee hearings on health-care reform .... [t]he speaker, Professor Stuart Altman of Brandeis University, tells the committee that resources get wasted in the American health-care system, especially for one segment of the population. Professor Altman says he’s reluctant to mention it, but why waste money on in-depth treatment for people who won’t live long anyway? Better to warehouse them and save the resources for the young.
unleashed a socialist revolution ....
declared war against capitalism ...
[using] free-spending, fear-mongering tactics....
unleashed a ... troubling socialist frenzy ....
grow government; increase spending ..., redistribut[e] wealth, and destroy the savings of millions ....
... a government that encourages personal responsibility, expands freedom and stays off of our backs ....
... ideas and commitment ...
... budget carving ...
... streamlined government using the latest technology ...
Social Security
Medicare and health “care”
Taxes
The environment
Immigration
Education
One week @ $141.68 /week - $141.68
Plus one day @ $22.99 /day - $22.99
4.49 BUS COST REC FEE - $4.49 /rental
24.00 FACILITY CHARGE - $24.00 /rental
11.11 PCT CONCESSN RECOV FEE - $20.70 /rental
3.60 ENERGY RECOVERY FEE - $3.60 /rental
13.52 FLEET RECOVERY FEE - $13.52 /rental
10.00 PCT RENTAL TAX - $23.10 /rental
5.00 PCT COUNTY RENTAL TAX - $11.55 /rental
SAVE THE WORLD
VOTE DEMOCRATIC
SAVE THE WORLD (from DEMOCRATS)
VOTE REPUBLICAN
“From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this, though: despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Osama bin Laden, there’s a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death,”
[I]t was heartening to see council members facing election next year ... vote their principles in the face of a hostile audience threatening political retaliation. By contrast, Mr. Barry said he had to oppose the measure because he believed that is what his constituents wanted.
Throughout his career as an activist, school board member and mayor, Mr. Barry has supported gay rights, fighting the ouster of a gay schoolteacher and backing recognition of domestic partnerships.
This [28-page] handbook will help sellers of used products identify types of potentially hazardous products that could harm children or others. CPSC’s laws and regulations apply to anyone who sells or distributes consumer products. This includes thrift stores, consignment stores, charities, individuals holding yard sales (emphasis mine), and flea markets.
President Obama's choice for the government's No. 2 housing job is embroiled in the largest fine in U.S. history for "blatant violations" of open records laws ... [T]he Washington State Supreme Court found the actions of Mr. [Ronald] Sims' office to be so "egregious" that they scrapped a lower court's order of a $123,780 fine - the largest ever assessed in a public records case - and recommended that the penalty be increased to as much as $825,000.
“Fundamentally, the regulatory approach is focused on the lowest common denominator: the person who needs a warning sign to ensure that he doesn’t spill hot coffee on himself or who shuns any responsibility for his own decisions. Acting in his name, regulators restrict everyone’s choices and freedoms.”
"Michele Bachmann’s version of history is 'from another planet.' Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana, is 'chronically stupid.' And Eric Cantor of Virginia, the second-ranking Republican in the House, is 'busy lying constantly.'
[T]he magnanimity isn’t there. Indeed, the closer the Democrats get to total power, the nastier the commentators friendly to them have become.
The Obama administration has signaled its support for a congressional effort that aims to boost the troubled car industry by subsidizing new cars sales for consumers who scrap old ones.
Under the so-called cash-for-clunkers legislation, consumers with old, gas guzzlers could get $3,500 or $4,500 in government vouchers to use toward the purchase of new cars that get gas mileage that exceeds [that of] the old cars.
THE RIGHT IN THESE TIMES:
UNDERSTANDING AND COMBATING CONTEMPORARY SHIFTS TO THE RIGHT
Second Annual Conference on "Rightist Movements"
Friday, May 1, 2009
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Republicans and the nation need to get back to the Ronald Reagan principles of less government and more individual freedom.
Conservatives will return to power when they give the nation what it needs — upfront and without apology.
There is one thing that soaking the rich will do effectively, and that's redistribute wealth .... Let's just understand that reslicing the pie to give the rich a smaller piece doesn't make the pie any bigger - and won't get us out of the recession any faster.
President Obama: "The Treasury Department and the IRS, under Secretary Geithner's leadership and Commissioner Shulman's, are already taking far-reaching steps to catch overseas tax cheats ...."
What, is Geithner telling the IRS, "Look for these signs, because that's how I did it"?
[A]t least the president only praised one tax cheat ... oh, wait:
"These problems have been highlighted by Chairmen Charlie Rangel ...."
Geithner and Rangel thanked for helping crack down on tax cheats? What's next, a ceremony on the importance of accurate information in public-health communication, thanking Joe Biden?
Newborns ------------- 44 breaths per minute
Infants -------------- 20–40 breaths per minute
Preschool children --- 20–30 breaths per minute
Older children ------- 16–25 breaths per minute
Adults --------------- 12–20 breaths per minute
Adults during strenuous exercise 35–45 breaths per minute
Athletes' peak 60–70 breaths per minute
-- 3-hour trip on Air Force One: $300,000Probably exactly because the videos show the panic in the streets below.
-- Military jet escort: $30,000
-- Pictures generated: Classified.
Investors sense that the economy is at a crossroads. A political crossroads.
The headwinds that remain have less to do with bank stress tests, and more to do with CEO sentiment. The Business Roundtable reports “record low” CEO confidence as of early April.
Why are CEOs in such a low mood? Answer: If you are a CEO in financial services, manufacturing, energy production, [or] health care, you are going to be more regulated. Period, end of story. Your response to forthcoming regulation of yet-to-be-determined complexity will be to hunker down.
“Am I the only one noticing the dearth of calls in America to fill the shortage of lawyers in our country?”Of course not. Insufficient regulation and the subsequent massive amount of cash available to those pursuing malpractice suits ensures a huge oversupply of lawyers.
In New York some signs of that future are obvious: fewer cars, less traffic, less of the old busy hum of the economic beehive. New York will, literally, get dimmer. Its magical bright-light nighttime skyline will glitter less as fewer companies inhabit the skyscrapers and put on the lights that make the city glow.
....
A prediction: By 2010 the mayor, in a variation on broken-window theory, will quietly enact a bright-light theory, demanding that developers leave the lights on whether there are tenants in the buildings or not, lest the world stand on a rise in New Jersey and get the impression no one's here and nobody cares.
The Director of Homeland Security is worried about "right-wing extremists."
According to the same official document, the Department of Homeland Security "has no specific information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence."
But somehow they just know that you right-wingers are itching to unleash terror somewhere, somehow.
In one sense, the Department of Homeland Security paper is silly. In another sense, it can be sinister as a revealing and disturbing sign of the preoccupations and priorities of this administration -- and their willingness to witch hunt and demonize those who dare to disagree with them.
Barack Obama during last year's election campaign that got remarkably little attention in the media. He suggested the creation of a federal police force, comparable in size to the military. Why such an organization? For what purpose?
In short, a federal police force could become President Obama's personal domestic political army, his own storm troopers.
Perhaps there will never be such a federal police force. But the targeting of individuals and groups who believe in some of the fundamental values on which this country was founded, and people who have demonstrated their patriotism by volunteering for military service, suggests that this potential for political abuse is worth watching, as Obama tries to remake America to fit his vision.
"The Pakistanis have run out of excuses" and are "finally getting serious" about combating the threat from Taliban and Al Qaeda extremists operating out of Northwest Pakistan, the general added.
But Petraeus also said wearily that "we've heard it all before" from the Pakistanis and he is looking to see concrete action by the government to destroy the Taliban in the next two weeks before determining the United States' next course of action, which is presently set on propping up the Pakistani government and military with counterinsurgency training and foreign aid.
Petraeus made these assessment in talks with lawmakers and Obama administration officials this week, according to individuals familiar with the discussions.
They said Petraeus and senior administration officials believe the Pakistani army, led by Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, is "superior" to the civilian government, led by President Ali Zardari, and could conceivably survive even if Zardari's government falls to the Taliban.
[W]e are in a race—a race to get the dependent constituents permanently in place and institutionalized before the proverbial (fill in the blanks) hits the fans. If he succeeds, we will end up like a Greece, France, or Belgium— weekly strikes by government workers and unions, rampant cynicism as everyone seeks to land the federal job for base salary and taxes and benefits, and then moonlights to get untaxed cash and barter for necessary goods and services, all coupled with a culture of blame at various foreign and domestic “thems” who make us so unhappy.
7.2% - Really well2564 total responses
1.8% - Good
1.7% - So-so
5.5% - Disappointing
8.2% - Bad
75.7% - Scary bad
89.4% - Too liberal2549 total responses
2.7% - Insufficiently liberal
6.7% - Just right
1.3% - Too conservative
3.0% - Inspire me2564 total responses
0.5% - Don't matter
4.8% - Are about right
7.2% - Worry me
84.4% - Really scare me
25.1% - Just the right thing2532 total responses
9.6% - Doesn't matter
20.7% - A betrayal of his anti-war stance
44.6% - Real trouble later
10.1% - Appropriate2544 total responses
10.3% - Naive but necessary
79.7% - Hopeless
6.3% - Hopeful2548 total responses
3.3% - Confident
72.2% - Suspicious
18.1% - Sleepy
8.3% - His confidence2479 total responses
1.6% - His speeches
0.6% - His spending
0.8% - His Cabinet
5.8% - His family
82.9% - His dog
29.8% - His arrogance2477 total responses
2.4% - His speeches
32.3% - His spending
17.4% - His national security plans
18.2% - His other plans like healthcare reform
2.1% - An inspiration2559 total responses
3.5% - Better than I expected
5.0% - OK
57.1% - An embarrassment
32.2% - Who cares?
3.4% - A+2567 total responses
3.7% - A
2.1% - B
1.8% - C
10.8% - D
15.5% - F
62.8% - Whatever comes beneath F
(CNN) — The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday, as the Obama administration marks 100 days in office, asked respondents to use a grading scale of A, B, C, D and F, where A is excellent and F is very poor.
Two percent of those questioned gave a grade of A, 15 percent a B, 25 percent a C, 24percent a D and 34 percent an F.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted April 23-26, with 2,019 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus two percentage points.
A very small number of taxpayers -- the 10% of the country that makes more than $92,400 a year -- pay 72.4% of the nation's income taxes.
Given the state of the economy and trillion-dollar deficits projected as far as the eye can see, we need to return to an era of more conservative, fiscal discipline.
Congress should start by refusing to go along with Mr. Obama's promise to cut taxes for 95% of the country. With the government running an almost $2 trillion deficit, no one should have their taxes cut -- no one. Given the size of the deficit, fiscal responsibility demands nothing less.
Humans produce, through respiration (breathing) about 2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. If you add the production of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels and other human industry (26 billion metric tons) and the respiration of domesticated animals (6 billion metric tons), the total carbon dioxide production that can be blamed on humans, directly or indirectly, is 34 billion metric tons.
Insects, through respiration, produce 48 billion metric tons.
