RadioActive with Steve Mitton: July 2010

Friday, July 30, 2010

Why Liberalism Is Dangerous

(3) Finally, in saying that all this graduate-seminar mumbo-jumbo about natural rights and limited government is a sideshow, Lind is, again, being a good New Deal liberal. The practicalities are what matter, he says. Peter Beinart of The Daily Beast recently concurred: “FDR’s greatness stemmed from his indifference to ideology.” Beinart approvingly quoted Roosevelt’s reply to a question about how he would explain the political philosophy behind the Tennessee Valley Authority: “I’ll tell them it’s neither fish nor fowl, but, whatever it is, it will taste awfully good to the people of the Tennessee Valley.” By the same token, Beinart praised Barack Obama for discovering and giving voice to his inner New Dealer in time to salvage health-care reform by turning “a theoretical debate into a tactile one.”

This tactile aspect of liberalism is the one that causes so many conservatives to pound their heads on the table in frustration. I refer to the moist-eyed, quivering-voiced, morally preening affirmation of the tautology that when the government gives people stuff, the people it gives stuff to wind up with more stuff than they had before the government started giving them stuff. After they calm down, conservatives say, “Fine. Stipulated: Benefits are (or at least can be) beneficial. Now, can we please talk about how we’re going to pay for all these programs? And how we’re going to make sure that the Santa Clausification of American government does not transform us from a republic of free and equal citizens into a nursery of wardens and wards? And, finally, what will be the governing practices that allow us to overcome the correlation of political forces that makes it so much easier to expand failed programs than to euthanize them?”

From the White House to the Big House: 25 Impeachable Crimes and Counting

Last week Rep. Michelle Bachmann was asked what Republicans had in mind should they retake the House of Representatives this November, she replied “I think that all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another and expose all the nonsense that is going on.”

Considering the sheer volume of illegal and impeachable offences committed by Obama and his cohorts over the past couple of years, the House will be very busy indeed.

Putting aside Obama’s inept leadership, weakening of our national defenses and transparent attempt to socialize our great nation, there are a number of more practical crimes that once investigated could lead to Obama’s impeachment and perhaps even his well deserved imprisonment.

25 Obama Crimes the House Should Investigate in 2011

Convicted felon and Chicago real estate developer Tony Rezko’s purchase of land adjacent to Obama’s house in Hyde Park, IL. In 2006, Rezko sold a 10 foot strip of his property to Obama for $104,500, rendering the remainder of Rezko’s $625,000 investment too small to be developed and, for all intents and purposes, worthless.
The provision of Obama campaign donor lists to ACORN in 2007 and 2008, more complete than the ones he provided to the FEC. ACORN used the lists to raise money for Obama’s election from donors who had already maxed out their legally allowable contributions.
Widespread voter fraud including voter intimidation, ballot stuffing, falsified documents, and threats of violence against Hillary Clinton supporters committed by the Obama campaign and ACORN during the 2008 Democrat primary election. For more information see my CFP article How Obama Used an Army of Thugs to Steal the 2008 Democratic Party Nomination.
Obama’s refusal to release his long form birth certificate which would show conclusively that he is a dual citizen and therefore not constitutionally eligible to serve as President. Obama’s college records, which have also not been released, would also contain information regarding his dual citizenship status.
Protecting union interests over those of GM and Chrysler bond holders during bankruptcy proceedings, forcing investors to accept millions of dollars in losses in direct violation of bankruptcy laws, money to which they were legally entitled.
Preferential treatment given to minority and women owned car dealerships by Obama administration officials as part of the auto industry bailout program and the forced closing of a disproportionate number of rural dealerships located in areas that did not vote for Obama.
Unsubstantiated firing of Corporation for National and Community Service Inspector General Gerald Walpin for exposing Sacramento Mayor and Obama supporter Kevin Johnson’s misuse of an $850,000 AmeriCorps grant.

Tax-Hike Hypocrites

White House economic adviser Christina Romer is off-message. Her offense is nearly as grave as that of White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, who let slip that Democrats are in danger of losing the House. Romer's indiscretion is an academic paper arguing that tax increases kill growth . . . just as the White House prepares to raise taxes.

Published with her husband in the June issue of The American Economic Review, Romer's paper is complicated and nuanced, befitting the work of a serious academic economist. It surveys tax changes during the past few decades in widely varying circumstances. But here's a crude, two-sentence takeaway: "Our estimates suggest that a tax increase of 1 percent of GDP reduces output over the next three years by nearly 3 percent. The effect is highly significant."

If her paper spreads as quickly through the Obama administration as, say, the Rolling Stone article with former Gen. Stanley McChrystal's disparaging remarks about Joe Biden, it might do some good. But it surely will go the way of Romer's other work with pointed contemporary relevance.

Education secretary calls for 12-hour school days, longer school year

If Education Secretary Arne Duncan has his way, kids would be spending a lot more time at school — and a three-month summer would be a thing of the past.

Duncan joked with attendees at a luncheon at the National Press Club Tuesday in Washington that he would like schools to stay open 13 months out of the year. Then he told the audience of over 100 that he seriously supports longer school hours.

“In all seriousness, I think schools should be open 12, 13, 14 hours a day, seven days a week, 11-12 months of the year,” Duncan said. “This is not just more of the same. There would be a whole variety of after-school programs. Obviously academics would be at the heart of that. But you top it off with dancing, art, drama, music, yearbook, robotics, activities for older siblings and parents, ESL classes.”

He continued by explaining that the American school calendar is antiquated and must be modified so that American students can compete at the highest levels internationally.

“Most people realize that our current day is based on the agrarian economy, and we don’t have too many kids working out in the fields nowadays,” Duncan said. “Schools in countries that are beating us are going to school 25-30 days more than us. If you practice basketball five times a week, you’re gonna be better than the people who practice three times a week.”

Duncan, former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, also announced that 19 states are finalists for an estimated $3.4 billion of federal funding through President Obama’s Race to the Top education initiative.

A wind farm near the village of Bothel, Cumbria (Photo: Alamy)

“Energy prices may rise by a third,” says our disastrous secretary of state of energy and climate change Chris Huhne. Rubbish. They’re going to rise by a hell of a lot more than that before he is finished. Alternative energy, let us never forget, is just that: an alternative to energy. Wind power and solar power are so risibly inefficient that the only way they can ever be economically viable is with lashings and lashings of taxpayer subsidy. Nuclear power would be much more effective but Huhne has effectively ruled it out. Why? Because in Huhne’s bizarre Weltanschauung, it’s OK for the taxpayer to subsidise low-carbon energy that doesn’t work (wind, solar) but not low-carbon energy that does work (nuclear).

But it’s not Huhne’s breathtaking hypocrisy, ignorance and eco-fanaticism I want to talk about today. Rather I want to focus on just one aspect of it: his plan to carpet Britain in wind farms. What I should like to know is how many of you are with me on this one. It seems to me that at the moment we are sleepwalking towards the greatest environmental disaster of our lifetimes: in the name of alleviating something distant and imaginary – “Climate Change” – our government is now committed to the destruction of the British landscape. And what I’m not sensing, yet, is any kind of serious, concerted resistance.

We need a figurehead. (Not me, unfortunately. I ain’t got the time or the fame or the diplomatic skills.) We need somebody who can galvanise ordinary British people into saving their countryside before it’s too late. Ideally that figurehead would have been the Prince of Wales. But as I explained in last week’s Spectator the Prince has rather ruled himself out of that one. Alan Titchmarsh? He’s the only name that immediately springs to mind, but perhaps you can suggest others.

Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech

Here I stand

There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, "If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, "Ten years . ."  The student then said, "But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast -- How long then?" Replied the Master, "Well, twenty years." "But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?" asked the student. "Thirty years," replied the Master. "But, I do not understand," said the disappointed student. "At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?"  Replied the Master, "When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path."

This is the dilemma I've faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.

Some of you may be thinking, "Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn't you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer - not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition - a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I'm scared.

Think tank disputes premise that seniors who reject healthcare reform don't get it

The old saw that "you're entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts" just doesn't seem to apply when it comes to healthcare reform.

A day after the National Council on Aging vowed to give seniors "straight talk" on the new law, the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis said seniors already get it — despite the findings of a poll commissioned by the council.

"Seniors know more than the people conducting the poll," said NCPA President John Goodman. "The answers that seniors are giving are more correct than the answers that the pollsters claim are right."

The council's poll asked seniors if they thought 12 key statements were correct or not — whether the new law would improve long-term care, for example, or extend the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund. The "correct" answers tracked what the law or the Congressional Budget Office said about the matter — but seniors' answers could just as well be informed by their trust in the government's promises.

Federal Debt and the Risk of a Fiscal Crisis

Over the past few years, U.S. government debt held by

the public has grown rapidly—to the point that, compared

with the total output of the economy, it is now

higher than it has ever been except during the period

around World War II. The recent increase in debt has

been the result of three sets of factors: an imbalance

between federal revenues and spending that predates the

recession and the recent turmoil in financial markets,

sharply lower revenues and elevated spending that derive

directly from those economic conditions, and the costs of

various federal policies implemented in response to the

conditions.1

Further increases in federal debt relative to the nation’s

output (gross domestic product, or GDP) almost certainly

lie ahead if current policies remain in place. The

aging of the population and rising costs for health care

will push federal spending, measured as a percentage of

GDP, well above the levels experienced in recent decades.

Unless policymakers restrain the growth of spending,

increase revenues significantly as a share of GDP, or adopt

some combination of those two approaches, growing

budget deficits will cause debt to rise to unsupportable

levels.

MURRAY & SINCLAIR: Energy bills could include trans-Atlantic tax

The "clean energy" bills bouncing around Congress contain a dirty little secret. Both Sen. John Kerry's American Power Act and the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act (which passed the House last year) contain provisions that could benefit Europe at America's expense. Both bills would create the first trans-Atlantic tax by hitching an American carbon-emissions "cap-and-trade" system to Europe's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). If either bill is resurrected during Congress' lame-duck session, we would be a Senate vote away from a single tax on the utility bills of households across the developed world - a tax that could force American consumers to bail out Europe by paying more for energy.

This provision has always been the object of our European "partners."In May 2009, Jos Delbeke, a senior official in the European Environment Directorate-General, told an audience in Berlin that the "EU's goal is indeed a global carbon market." He went on to boast that the ETS and an American counterpart would be "integrated into a trans-Atlantic carbon market" that would drive the creation of a market spanning the developed world. He underlined that the ETS already had provisions for such linkage - all that was needed was for a U.S. equivalent to come into effect.

President Obama makes an appeal for bipartisanship on his legislative agenda on Tuesday, July 27, 2010, during a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The summer of the discontented voter steams onward and, unfortunately for President Obama, polls show voters are no longer blaming the bad times on the George W. Bush administration.

Add Hispanics to the growing list of Obama supporters disgruntled by aspects of the presidents performance, in what has become for the White House and Democrats a seemingly daily beat of gloomy polls.

Mr. Obama gets only lukewarm ratings on issues important to Hispanics in a Univision/AP poll released Tuesday, and, according to a separate Reuters-Ipsos survey, Americans overwhelmingly believe the president has failed to focus enough on job creation.

"A lot of these folks wouldn't like him no matter what, but I think the country has pretty much the same problems it did before Obama took office — at least that's how voters feel — and more and more that's becoming Obama's fault rather than Bush's fault," said Tom Jensen, director of Public Policy Polling.

Support for Mr. Obama has eroded among whites, independents, men and now Hispanics, who were part of the coalition that powered him to the White House in 2008.

Slavery bill H.R. 5741 is now in debate

H.R. 5741 is currently being argued in the house of representatives. If passed, H.R. 5741 will give the president the power to require 2 years of compulsory service from every US resident between ages 18 and 42. That's not a misprint: everyone between ages eighteen and forty-two will be required to serve in any capacity at the president's whim.

This bill will destroy US commerce as citizens are reassigned to service. The bill's sponsor is Charles Rangel, a democrat from New York. The bill does not yet have a co-sponsor. It was introduced on July 15th and is now before the armed services committee.

Prison Planet reports, "Under this new legislation nearly all, able bodied Americans will be sentenced to two years of forced labor. The infrastructure is already in place for those unwilling to participate in mandatory service and now the army is looking to fill it’s ranks with Interment/Resettlement Specialists."

"The slavery bill is currently in debate in the House Committee on Armed Services chaired by Rep Ike Skelton a democrat from Missouri. Those who oppose mandatory slavery should contact Rep. Skelton. Many bills die in committee and this bill should meet the same fate."

Lino Lakes approves English-only resolution

A controversial resolution barring the use of city money to provide translation of many city documents or to translate public meetings passed the Lino Lakes City Council on Monday night by a vote of 4-1. The northeast Twin Cities suburb became the first Minnesota city to pass such an ordinance.

About 50 people attended the meeting in the council chambers. In comments before the vote, opponents of the measure appeared to have more people in attendance, though both sides applauded loudly when their allies spoke.

When the vote was taken, Council Member Kathi Gallup cast the lone no vote. After the meeting, she said she is concerned about how the measure will affect perceptions of the city.

"Perception becomes reality," she said, adding that her constituents' comments had been even in recent weeks, but on Monday became a "watershed of 'vote against it.'"

On Monday night, city officials continued to say the measure was motivated purely by economics.

State mandate: Clearwater's lifeguard station needs to be handicapped-accessible

CLEARWATER — Clearwater Beach's lifeguards are in great shape. Most were competitive swimmers in college. They routinely swim, run and lift weights to maintain their edge.

But government regulations are requiring that their headquarters on the beach be made handicapped-accessible, even though the only people who ever use the two-story building are the lifeguards.

Another example of your tax dollars at work.

"It's odd. Obviously no one here is handicapped. No one in a wheelchair has ever asked to come up here," head lifeguard Donovan Burns said during an interview on the building's second floor. He noted that disabled people can borrow fat-tired beach wheelchairs from the lifeguard station for free, but those are stored on the ground floor.

The little yellow building near Pier 60 has to be brought into compliance with the state building code and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

Free pass for sanctuary cities?

The Obama administration had gone to federal court to kill Arizona's new illegal-immigration law, scheduled to go into effect Thursday. The Department of Justice argues that enforcement of the Arizona law "is pre-empted by federal law and therefore violates the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution."

Does this mean that if Team Obama prevails over Arizona, San Francisco and other sanctuary cities should prepare to go to court against the feds?

After all, the Obama brief argues that "a state may not establish its own immigration policy or enforce state laws in a manner that interferes with the federal immigration laws. The Constitution and the federal immigration laws do not permit the development of a patchwork of state and local immigration policies throughout the country."

In 1989, Ess Eff passed a sanctuary city ordinance which prohibits city employees from working with federal immigration officials, unless required by federal law, state law or warrant.

In 2007, Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is running for lieutenant governor, announced he would not allow city "department heads or anyone associated with this city to cooperate in any way, shape or form" with Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids to arrest immigrant fugitives who had criminal records or had violated deportation orders.

Stupid New Jersey judge used Sharia law to free Muslim husband accused of raping “arranged” wife

A stupid New Jersey judge has attempted to use Sharia law to uphold a Muslim husband’s “right” to rape a teenage girl forced to wed him in an arranged marriage. Taking the view that married women are the chattel slaves of their husbands, the judge (whose name has not been published by the old media) denied the validity of New Jersey’s marital rape law because the rapes were committed within the period in which the couple was married.

Allowing the man’s Islamic beliefs to exonerate him the judge remarked, “This court does not feel that, under the circumstances, that this defendant had a criminal desire to or intent to sexually assault or to sexually contact the plaintiff when he did. The court believes that he was operating under his belief that it is, as the husband, his desire to have sex when and whether he wanted to, was something that was consistent with his practices and it was something that was not prohibited.”

Recognizing marital rape

Before 1976 there was no recognition of marital rape in any state in America. Today every state has such a law and many, New Jersey, among them, make no distinction between spousal rape and stranger rape. This ruling was a direct assault on America’s system of law, a necessary first step to the destruction of our nation.

Fortunately this advance of the creeping influence of Islamic Sharia law was turned back. A New Jersey Appellate Court slapped down this fool’s ruling and reversed the decision.

The Cultural Defense

While the marriage in question may have stretched the margins of normal in our understanding of the word, what the judge did in accepting a “cultural defense” was extremely dangerous. The husband demanded her submission and, under Muslim law his 17 year old bride had to yield, but not under New Jersey law. When she continued to fight his advances the husband took the still teenaged woman to see an Imam and “verbally” divorced her.

Gel that can help decayed teeth grow back could end fillings

A gel that can help decayed teeth grow back in just weeks may mean an end to fillings.

The gel, which is being developed by scientists in France, works by prompting cells in teeth to start multiplying. They then form healthy new tooth tissue that gradually replaces what has been lost to decay.

Researchers say in lab studies it took just four weeks to restore teeth back to their original healthy state. The gel contains melanocyte-stimulating hormone, or MSH.

We produce this in the pituitary gland, a pea-sized gland just behind the bridge of the nose.

MSH is already known to play an important part in determining skin colour - the more you have, the darker your flesh tone.

But recent studies suggest MSH may also play a crucial role in stimulating bone regeneration.

As bone and teeth are very similar in their structure, a team of scientists at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Paris tested if the hormone could stimulate tooth growth.

Reporting from Phoenix — Every time a customer buys some of the large fabric tote bags from the Dollar Store at 43rd Avenue and Thomas Road, Najmuddin Katchi sees another piece of his business vanish.

The purchase of the briefcase-sized shoulder bags means that another one of Katchi's customers, mostly Latino immigrants, is packing to leave the state before what is touted as the nation's toughest law against illegal immigrants takes effect July 29.

Katchi's store isn't the only business suffering. The vast shopping center that holds his small shop is almost empty. The Food City supermarket closed this spring. Then the furniture shop. Then the pizzeria.

Edward Schumacher-Matos: Victims of our inaction

The article was largely buried in most newspapers, if run at all.

So many bodies of unauthorized migrants were being found in the Arizona desert in July, the Associated Press reported, that the Pima County medical examiner was stacking them like boxes of fish in a refrigerated truck.

Forty bodies were found in just the first half of the month.

Last year, 317 Americans died fighting in Afghanistan. Guess how many migrants, mostly Mexicans searching for work, died crossing illegally into America? The Border Patrol collected 422 in the last fiscal year, part of a rising trend.

Most die in the desert. Here is how Luis Alberto Urrea, in his book The Devil's Highway, described what happens:

"Dehydration had reduced all your inner streams to sluggish mudholes. ... Your sweat runs out. ... Your temperature redlines – you hit 105, 106, 108 degrees. ... Your muscles, lacking water, feed on themselves. They break down and start to rot. ... The system closes down in a series. Your kidney, your bladder, your heart."

Yet, the deaths figure little in the debate over immigration. There is faint sense of scandal or of urgency to agree on a solution. The extremists on the two sides rule, one side calling for more enforcement; the other saying enforcement doesn't work.

Rule by Decree

The same week that the burning Deepwater Horizon rig collapsed through its pontoons and sank to the bottom of the sea, Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post admiringly observed that Obama accomplishes “usually by executive action” those priorities that he can’t achieve through the normal political process. Hiatt didn’t know the half of it.

America’s economic strength has always depended upon a healthy legal climate for business activity — an environment in which rights and obligations are legally enforceable. Obama has discovered that, using federal regulatory action to create uncertainty and prohibitive risk for private commerce, he has almost unchecked power to advance his green-energy agenda by shutting down entire sectors of the U.S. economy. And there isn’t anything that any court or any legislature can do about it — at least, not fast enough to make a difference.

On May 28, Obama declared a sweeping moratorium on existing and future offshore drilling below the depth of 500 feet — in other words, the vast majority of all new offshore oil development in the United States. Just a few weeks later, a federal district court in Louisiana struck down the moratorium, calling it “arbitrary and capricious.” Then the government’s interlocutory appeal sped to the Fifth Circuit, where it was summarily dismissed. There was simply no logical justification for a moratorium on offshore drilling that didn’t take into account each rig’s compliance with safety measures or how close it might be to a high-pressure oil and gas reservoir. As far as the judicial branch of the federal government was concerned, Obama had no right to declare such a sweeping moratorium.

Our national debt would horrify the Founders

On the issue of government spending and debt, there is a gulf far greater than a mere 223 years between the Founders and the present generation of American leaders.

In the period spanning the final year of George W. Bush's second term in the White House and President Obama's tenure to date, the national debt has exploded from $9.1 trillion to nearly $13.2 trillion, reaching 90 percent of the gross domestic product. On a graph, the direction of the national debt for this period is almost straight up, recalling what fighter pilots mean when they "go vertical" in a dogfight. We are accumulating a debt so massive that our children and grandchildren will still be paying it off decades hence.

There is no doubt that George Washington, our first president, Alexander Hamilton, our first secretary of the treasury, and Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the Declaration of Independence and our third president, would be horrified by the present financial condition of the federal government. Public debt was anathema for Washington, who in his Farewell Address admonished us to "cherish public credit," noting that "one method of preserving it, is to use it sparingly ... avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt." Washington warned that one generation could spend itself into great debt, then "not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen. ..."

Veto likely on bills blocking EPA regs

President Barack Obama would veto legislation suspending the EPA's plans to write new climate change rules, a White House official said Friday.

Coal-state Democrats, led by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (W. Va.), Reps. Rick Boucher (Va.) and Nick Rahall (W. Va), are trying to limit the federal government’s ability to control greenhouse gases from power plants.

The coal-state proposals, which would block the Environmental Protection Agency's authority for two years, would undercut what is widely seen as Obama’s alternative climate policy, now that Congress has punted on cap-and-trade legislation for the year. The Obama aide said the proposals won’t win the president’s signature if they managed to pass on Capitol Hill. Rockefeller’s bill is expected to reach the Senate floor at some point this year.

In a press release on Friday, Rockefeller said he was “continuing to push hard” for his legislation to suspend the EPA regulations “so that Congress, not federal regulators, can set national energy policy.” The West Virginia Democrat also came out this summer against efforts to pass cap-and-trade legislation that would place mandatory limits on greenhouse gases.

Mexican inmates are set loose to kill, officials allege

MEXICO CITY – Guards and officials at a prison in northern Mexico let inmates out, lent them guns and allowed them to use official vehicles to carry out drug-related killings, including the massacre of 17 people last week, prosecutors said Sunday.

After carrying out the killings, the inmates would return to their cells, the attorney general's office said in a revelation that was shocking even for a country wearied by years of drug violence and corruption.

"According to witnesses, the inmates were allowed to leave with authorization of the prison director ... to carry out instructions for revenge attacks using official vehicles and using guards' weapons for executions," office spokesman Ricardo Najera said at a news conference.

The director of the prison in Gomez Palacio in Durango state and three other officials were placed under house arrest pending further investigation. No charges have been filed.

As over-leveraged investment houses began to fail in September 2008, the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties, of major corporations, and opinion leaders stretching from the National Review magazine (and the Wall Street Journal) on the right to the Nation magazine on the left, agreed that spending some $700 billion to buy the investors' "toxic assets" was the only alternative to the U.S. economy's "systemic collapse." In this, President George W. Bush and his would-be Republican successor John McCain agreed with the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. Many, if not most, people around them also agreed upon the eventual commitment of some 10 trillion nonexistent dollars in ways unprecedented in America. They explained neither the difference between the assets' nominal and real values, nor precisely why letting the market find the latter would collapse America. The public objected immediately, by margins of three or four to one.

When this majority discovered that virtually no one in a position of power in either party or with a national voice would take their objections seriously, that decisions about their money were being made in bipartisan backroom deals with interested parties, and that the laws on these matters were being voted by people who had not read them, the term "political class" came into use. Then, after those in power changed their plans from buying toxic assets to buying up equity in banks and major industries but refused to explain why, when they reasserted their right to decide ad hoc on these and so many other matters, supposing them to be beyond the general public's understanding, the American people started referring to those in and around government as the "ruling class." And in fact Republican and Democratic office holders and their retinues show a similar presumption to dominate and fewer differences in tastes, habits, opinions, and sources of income among one another than between both and the rest of the country. They think, look, and act as a class.

Although after the election of 2008 most Republican office holders argued against the Troubled Asset Relief Program, against the subsequent bailouts of the auto industry, against the several "stimulus" bills and further summary expansions of government power to benefit clients of government at the expense of ordinary citizens, the American people had every reason to believe that many Republican politicians were doing so simply by the logic of partisan opposition. After all, Republicans had been happy enough to approve of similar things under Republican administrations. Differences between Bushes, Clintons, and Obamas are of degree, not kind. Moreover, 2009-10 establishment Republicans sought only to modify the government's agenda while showing eagerness to join the Democrats in new grand schemes, if only they were allowed to. Sen. Orrin Hatch continued dreaming of being Ted Kennedy, while Lindsey Graham set aside what is true or false about "global warming" for the sake of getting on the right side of history. No prominent Republican challenged the ruling class's continued claim of superior insight, nor its denigration of the American people as irritable children who must learn their place. The Republican Party did not disparage the ruling class, because most of its officials are or would like to be part of it.

Never has there been so little diversity within America's upper crust. Always, in America as elsewhere, some people have been wealthier and more powerful than others. But until our own time America's upper crust was a mixture of people who had gained prominence in a variety of ways, who drew their money and status from different sources and were not predictably of one mind on any given matter. The Boston Brahmins, the New York financiers, the land barons of California, Texas, and Florida, the industrialists of Pittsburgh, the Southern aristocracy, and the hardscrabble politicians who made it big in Chicago or Memphis had little contact with one another. Few had much contact with government, and "bureaucrat" was a dirty word for all. So was "social engineering." Nor had the schools and universities that formed yesterday's upper crust imposed a single orthodoxy about the origins of man, about American history, and about how America should be governed. All that has changed.

Immigration divide may stall session

AUSTIN — When Texas House Speaker Joe Straus recently invited a group of Gillespie County Republicans to ask him anything, the most passionate questions did not focus on a looming $18 billion budget shortfall or worries over public education, water or high insurance rates.

Instead, fired-up "patriots" want action on an Arizona-style get-tough immigration law in Texas.

Some worry that a push from a vociferous segment of the GOP for the hot-button issue will ensure a toxic legislative session at a time lawmakers already face daunting challenges maintaining crucial state services.

Many Republican members, however, say they have no choice. Immigration may be a federal responsibility, but growing concerns about illegal immigration make it a line-in-the-sand issue for GOP voters.

"It is just so frustrating for those of us who were born here and for those who have come through the system and are upholding their end of the deal," said Fredericksburg businesswoman Angela Smith, who also is a leader of the Patriots of Gillespie County. "Those who would laugh it off or say that this is a far-right idea are not in the mainstream."

Reps. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, and Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, already have declared intentions to pass an Arizona-type immigration bill into law after the legislative session opens in January.

"I respectfully cautioned House leadership that it would make the voter ID debacle look like child's play," said Rep. Rene Oliveira of Brownsville, referring to the 2009 session when Democratic efforts to stop legislation on voter identification paralyzed the legislative process. "It will be really, really serious. Just as some right-wing Republicans are passionate about this, you will see Hispanics and many Democrats being just as passionate in their resistance."

Many Democrats and minority lawmakers take exception to what they consider a harsh over-reaction to the immigration problem. They view the Arizona law as unfair to Latinos because of the risk that people will be targeted, turning enforcement into a discrimination tool.

Added duty for officers

The Arizona law requires law enforcement officers to check a person's immigration status - while enforcing other laws - if they have a "reasonable suspicion" that the person they have stopped is in the country illegally.

The Scariest Unemployment Graph I've Seen Yet

The median duration of unemployment is higher today than any time in the last 50 years. That's an understatement. It is more than twice as high today than any time in the last 50 years.

OK, you're saying, but what does this mean? Does it mean we must increase the duration of unemployment benefits to protect this new class of unemployed, or does it mean we need to stop subsidizing joblessness? Does it mean we need to expand federal retraining programs, or does it mean federal retraining programs aren't working? Does it mean we need more stimulus, more state aid, more infrastructure projects, more public works ... or does it mean it's time to stop everything, stand back and let business be business?

You're going to find smart people make a case for all six of the above public policy directions. (I tend to side with the first of each coupling.) It's hard to know for sure how to design public policy for historically unique crises precisely because they are historical orphans, without precedent to show us the right way from the wrong.

IT’S no surprise that in recent years some on the left have embraced the term “progressive” as a substitute for “liberal.” The right has so demonized “the L-word” that during a Democratic debate in 2007, Hillary Clinton, asked by a voter whether she was a liberal, said that she preferred to identify herself as — of course — a “modern progressive.”

But she doesn’t have as much company as you might expect: a recent USA Today/Gallup poll found that only one in four liberals would go by the label “progressive,” while 17 percent rejected the term and 57 percent were “unsure.” Even stranger, 7 percent of conservatives considered themselves progressives, and nearly half said they were unsure if the label applied to them.

Why is America so unclear on what progressive means as a political position? “Progress,” it would seem, is pretty meat-and-potatoes as words go — moving ahead, we assume. Shouldn’t it be clear who is committed to moving ahead?

JournoListers Conspired To Destroy Sarah Palin Day McCain Picked Her Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/07/22/journolisters-c

New e-mail mes

sages published by the Daily Caller Thursday show a coordinated effort by the JournoList's members to destroy Sarah Palin the moment she was named John McCain's running mate on August 29, 2008.

Some even discussed how the former Alaska governor's decision to have a Down Syndrome baby rather than abort it could be used against her.

As the attacks ensued, the Nation's Chris Hayes wrote, "Keep the ideas coming! Have to go on TV to talk about this in a few min and need all the help I can get."

Witness America's so-called journalists conspiring to destroy a woman most of the nation had not even heard of yet:

Ryan Donmoyer, a reporter for Bloomberg News who was covering the campaign, sent a quick thought that Palin's choice not to have an abortion when she unexpectedly became pregnant at age 44 would likely boost her image because it was a heartwarming story.
"Her decision to keep the Down's baby is going to be a hugely emotional story that appeals to a vast swath of America, I think," Donmoyer wrote.
Politico reporter Ben Adler, now an editor at Newsweek, replied, "but doesn't leaving sad baby without its mother while she campaigns weaken that family values argument? Or will everyone be too afraid to make that point?"

Will everyone be too afraid to make that point? This man is currently the National Editor of Newsweek.com!

Did The Credit Agencies Just Go Extinct?

The recently passed Donk (Dodd-Frank) Finreg abomination, which nobody has yet read is finally starting to disclose some of the interesting side effects of its harried passage. Such as that the rating agencies may have suddenly become extinct. As the WSJ's Anusha Shrivastava discloses: "The nation's three dominant credit-ratings providers have made an urgent new request of their clients: Please don't use our credit ratings." The Moodies of the world suddenly have good reason to not want their name appearing next to those three A letters (at least in Goldman CDO and bankrupt sovereign cases) out there: "The new law will make ratings firms liable for the quality of their ratings decisions, effective immediately." In other words, "advice by the services will be considered "expert" if used in formal documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That definition would make them legally liable for their work, meaning that it will be easier to sue an firm if a bond doesn't perform up to the stated rating." And since ratings are officially a part of a vast majority of Reg-S filed documentation, the response by issuers has been a complete standstill in new issuance, especially asset-backed underwriting and non-144A high yield issues, as the raters evaluate how to proceed. Alas, as there is no easy fix, underwriters' counsel and issuers will promptly uncover new loopholes and ways to issue bonds without the rating agencies' participation. Did Moody's and S&P just become extinct?

California Official's $800,000 Salary in City of 38,000 Triggers Protests

Hundreds of residents of one of the poorest municipalities in Los Angeles County shouted in protest last night as tensions rose over a report that the city’s manager earns an annual salary of almost $800,000.

An overflow crowd packed a City Council meeting in Bell, a mostly Hispanic city of 38,000 about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, to call for the resignation of Mayor Oscar Hernandez and other city officials. Residents left standing outside the chamber banged on the doors and shouted “fuera,” or “get out” in Spanish.

It was the first council meeting since the Los Angeles Times reported July 15 that Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo earns $787,637 -- with annual 12 percent raises -- and that Bell pays its police chief $457,000, more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck makes in a city of 3.8 million people. Bell council members earn almost $100,000 for part-time work.

City Attorney Edward Lee said the council members couldn’t discuss salaries in public without advance notice. The council then adjourned for a private session. About an hour later, the council members returned, and Hernandez read a statement saying the city would prepare a report on the salaries and seek public comment at the next council meeting, scheduled for Aug. 16.

Residents shouted in protest. Lee said he would have the room cleared if people continued to speak out of line. Police Chief Randy Adams said the fire department wanted to end the meeting because the crowd outside was blocking the door.

Schools confusing effort with results

If you find this column trite, unenlightening or grammatically-challenged, all I ask is that you treat me like a public school student: Give me an A for effort.

Schools across New England have been publishing their end-of-year honor rolls in the local papers. Many of these schools - from Rockport to Bedford, N.H. to Cumberland, R.I. - also include something called the “Effort Honor Roll.” This is the honor roll for kids who, well, didn’t actually make the honor roll but should feel good about it, anyway.

You tried, you failed. Congratulations!

Ashton Elementary School in Cumberland, R.I., says that the Effort Honor Roll is to honor consistently outstanding effort at school. These efforts include “consistently exhibits politeness, kindness and respect toward others” and “consistently works to best of ability.”

If that best of your ability is a C - but it’s a consistent C - you still win!

It’s all very confusing. I’m the kind of guy who would say “Here’s the grade level you need for honor roll, either you make it or you don’t. Good luck!” But in this Era Of (Educational) Good Feelings, that’s asking too much of American students.

And some schools that aren’t starting effort rolls have decided instead to stop publishing honor rolls at all. If nobody wins, then nobody loses, right?

Pressure makes kids feel bad. Therefore, the liberal thinking goes, it must be bad. And so, The New York Times [NYT] reports, many affluent suburban high schools now have multiple valedictorians. They’re trying “to reduce pressure and competition among students.”

AL GORE SEX SCANDAL SHOCKER POLICE INVESTIGATE TWO MORE!

The ENQUIRER reports in an exclusive bombshell exclusive that police have investigated charges from TWO MORE WOMEN who claimed they were abused by former VP AL GORE!

The allegations come hot on the heels of an ongoing Portland, Ore., police investigation that reopened after The ENQUIRER exclusively revealed accusations by a licensed massage therapist who says Gore groped her in 2006.

The ENQUIRER recently uncovered shocking allegations, from two other massage therapists.

The first incident allegedly took place at a Beverly Hills luxury hotel when Gore, 62, was in Hollywood to attend the Oscars in 2007.

The second reportedly occurred a year later at a hotel in Tokyo.

Gold Coin Sellers Angered by New Tax Law

Those already outraged by the president's health care legislation now have a new bone of contention -- a scarcely noticed tack-on provision to the law that puts gold coin buyers and sellers under closer government scrutiny.

Dan Walters: Proposition 8 still perplexes Californians

Advocates of same-sex marriage rights were, to put it mildly, stunned when California voters passed Proposition 8 nearly two years ago, placing a ban on such marriages in the state constitution.

Californians' acceptance of same-sex unions had been steadily growing, the state Supreme Court had overturned a statutory ban on gay marriage, and the 2008 presidential election had a big turnout of young and nonwhite voters presumed to support "marriage equality," as advocates call it.

It later became apparent from exit polling, however, that Proposition 8 enjoyed strong support among black and Latino voters, which may have been decisive.

Gay marriage advocates suffered another setback when the state Supreme Court upheld the measure's validity. They divided over whether to pursue a Proposition 8 repeal in 2010, ultimately decided it would be an unwise tactical move, opted for a federal court challenge, and are now awaiting Judge Vaughn Walker's decision.

In a manner of speaking, however, Joseph Tauro, a federal judge in Boston, beat Walker to the punch when he declared that the federal "Defense of Marriage Act," which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, is unconstitutional.

Although Tauro's ruling was a victory for the gay rights movement, its legal basis could, ironically, undercut the lawsuit against Proposition 8. Tauro declared that Massachusetts had the authority, as a matter of states' rights, to decide whether to recognize same-sex marriage, and the federal law "offends" those rights.

The Roots of White Anxiety

In March of 2000, Pat Buchanan came to speak at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics. Harvard being Harvard, the audience hissed and sneered and made wisecracks. Buchanan being Buchanan, he gave as good as he got. While the assembled Ivy Leaguers accused him of homophobia and racism and anti-Semitism, he accused Harvard — and by extension, the entire American elite — of discriminating against white Christians.

A decade later, the note of white grievance that Buchanan struck that night is part of the conservative melody. You can hear it when Glenn Beck accuses Barack Obama of racism, or when Rush Limbaugh casts liberal policies as an exercise in “reparations.” It was sounded last year during the backlash against Sonia Sotomayor’s suggestion that a “wise Latina” jurist might have advantages over a white male judge, and again last week when conservatives attacked the Justice Department for supposedly going easy on members of the New Black Panther Party accused of voter intimidation.

To liberals, these grievances seem at once noxious and ridiculous. (Is there any group with less to complain about, they often wonder, than white Christian Americans?) But to understand the country’s present polarization, it’s worth recognizing what Pat Buchanan got right.

The Welfare Script

America’s welfare state has grown into an unwieldy hodgepodge of programs that provide various forms of assistance to tens of millions of Americans. It costs taxpayers nearly a trillion dollars annually and experts predict that, absent reform, it will keep growing in the years ahead.

The welfare state acquired its girth by following a familiar script — over and over again. The latest performance came at a recent hearing of the House Education and Labor Committee, which is pondering yet another proposed expansion of government: the “Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act,” an $8 billion add-on to the nation’s school-lunch and other child-nutrition programs. Here’s the routine:

Invite a star witness, in this case a celebrity chef, to draw media attention to the proposal.

Paint those supporting the plan as pure as the driven snow; smear those who object as callous Scrooges who (in this case) despise children.

Declare a “national crisis” to create a sense of urgency. In this case we face twin crises: nearly one in three children is obese, unfit for military service, and on track for adult-onset diabetes, while another 16 million kids go hungry because their parents must choose between “keeping the lights on or putting food on the table.”

Bring in a top dog from the administration to claim the moral high ground on behalf of those who stand to receive the latest government handout. Throw in a panel of “experts” from special-interest groups to up the ante on what needs to be done, thereby framing the chairman’s expensive ($8 billion in this case) plan as nothing more than a modest “first step.”

Finally, engage in some good old-fashioned political jujitsu. Invite a retired general to make the case that growing the welfare state can actually enhance our national security. And argue that “investing” billions today is the fiscally prudent thing to do because it will save much more in health and other societal costs down the road.

Such was the scene last week on Capitol Hill. Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, camera crews in tow, asked the sort of question one always hears whenever Congress considers a welfare expansion. “Why,” he asked, “in this great country, where we produce enough food, are children going hungry every day?”

Committee chairman George Miller (D., Calif.), the bill’s sponsor, tugged on heartstrings, intoning: “We cannot ignore the fact that for millions of children, the only meals that they can count on are those they get at school or in child care.” He also touted the positive effects his bill would have on our fiscal mess. “If we work in the schools to both increase nutritional opportunities and educate kids about the foods they’re eating,” he insisted, “we have a chance to really, dramatically drive down future health-care costs.”

Spending showdown looms as Reid clears deck for energy reform bill

Senate and House Democrats are headed for a clash this week over funding for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) races to clear the schedule for long-awaited energy reform legislation.

The Senate and House are squabbling over $22.8 billion House appropriators added to the supplemental bill. House lawmakers note that it’s fully paid for with offsets, such as $11.7 billion in rescissions to government programs that no longer need funding.

Senate Democratic leaders, however, doubt the House bill can pass their chamber with the extra spending, including $10 billion for an Education Jobs Fund to save 140,000 school jobs over the next year.

Senate passage is complicated by a pending veto threat from President Obama. He objects to the House proposal to pay for the education fund by rescinding money for the administration’s “Race to the Top” initiative, which rewards academically improved schools with grants.

A Senate Democratic aide said leaders will nevertheless schedule a vote on the House legislation. If it fails, the aide said, “we’ll have to figure out what to do.”

23% Say U.S. Government Has the Consent of the Governed

The notion that governments derive their only just authority from the consent of the governed is a foundational principle of the American experiment.

However, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 23% of voters nationwide believe the federal government today has the consent of the governed. Sixty-two percent (62%) say it does not, and 15% are not sure.

These figures have barely budged since February.

There is no gender gap on this question. Younger voters are more likely than their elders to believe the government today has the necessary consent. Among voters under 30, 28% say the government has that consent. Just 15% of senior citizens share that view.

From an ideological perspective, most liberal voters (58%) think the federal government has the consent of the governed. Most moderates (57%) and most conservatives (84%) disagree.

Democrats are closely divided on the question. Republicans and unaffiliated voters strongly reject the notion that the government has the consent of the governed.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 12-13, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Judge Orders Sheriff To Read Constitution After Denying Gun License

For all of you Second Amendment users, you will love this! An Iowa Judge harshly reprimands and orders Osceola County Sheriff Douglas Weber to take an in-depth course on the U.S. Constitution after denying one of his citizens, Paul Dorr, a concealed handgun license because of his politics.

The Des Moines Register writes:

A federal judge has lambasted an Iowa sheriff for denying a gun permit to an outspoken government watchdog and anti-abortion advocate whom some in the area considered “weird.”

It was wrong for Osceola County Sheriff Douglas Weber to deny Paul Dorr of Ocheyedan a permit to carry a concealed weapon three years ago, according to a court ruling issued Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett also ordered Weber to successfully complete a court-approved course on the U.S. Constitution within five months.

“In denying (Dorr) a concealed weapons permit, Sheriff Weber single-handedly hijacked the First Amendment and nullified its freedoms and protections,” Bennett wrote in the ruling.

Apology For Toyota?

In what is little surprise to anyone who is not a tort lawyer or megalomaniac Senator, government researchers determined that runaway Toyotas were caused by driver errors. While Toyota was quick to say that the matter is not yet settled, Shout Bits is now prepared to state that when an accelerator is pushed to the floor and the brakes are not applied at all, an accident may ensue. That’s right, when the US Government did an independent study of crashed Toyotas, they found that in every instance the gas pedal was to the floor and brake was unapplied. Naturally, all the Senators and trial lawyers who lined up to bash Toyota have apologized and admitted that Toyota actually sells high quality US made cars. Not yet, anyway.

From hearings on satanic rock music to steroids in baseball, Senators have never shied away from sensationalizing irrelevancies to distract from their many failings. The Senate does not have hearings on their own graft, pork, or special interest handouts. No, the Senate has hearings on whether teenagers should attempt to break aviation records, or whether cigarettes are unhealthy, or why Toyota is to blame for auto accidents.

Nobody can blame Congress for wanting to deflect attention from its massive, nation destroying failures, and its red herrings are usually harmless. After all, harping on lead paint on toys only ruined a handful of small business owners’ lives. In the case of Toyota, however, tens of thousands of jobs are at stake. Toyota has invested billions of dollars in US manufacturing along with decades of innovation that have driven up the quality of all cars worldwide. Congress’s whipping boy was a model of capitalism, prosperity, and the power of a free market to make everyone’s life better. Better still, Toyota never took bailouts from Washington (only union shops qualified for such aid).

Toyota played the game well, unlike BP, by prostrating itself before the uninformed bombastic jackasses who have never done anything to make cars safer. Mr. Inaba, Toyota CEO, nearly wept tears of blood as he admitted failings that his engineers most certainly told him were false. Inaba surely recalled the bogus acceleration charges levied against Audi ten years ago. Rather than defend his product, Inaba knew he had to submit to Orwellian prosecution in order to put the sensation behind him. Never mind that sudden acceleration complaints are only filed when the news is hyping them, not regularly as a real problem would suggest. Never mind that a cash strapped California driver clearly faked his high speed Toyota incident a few months earlier. Never mind that the accelerator systems allegedly at fault were used by many auto manufacturers. Never mind that Congress runs GM, Toyota’s main competitor. In fact Inaba deserves a prize for his containment and focus on preserving Toyota, rather than the objective truth that nearly all accidents are caused by driver error.

To Protest Hiring of Nonunion Help, Union Hires Nonunion Pickets

WASHINGTON—Billy Raye, a 51-year-old unemployed bike courier, is looking for work.

Fortunately for him, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters is seeking paid demonstrators to march and chant in its current picket line outside the McPherson Building, an office complex here where the council says work is being done with nonunion labor.

View Full Image

Jennifer Levitz/The Wall Street Journal

A protester pickets a building contractor outside the McPherson Building in Washington last month.

"For a lot of our members, it's really difficult to have them come out, either because of parking or something else," explains Vincente Garcia, a union representative who is supervising the picketing.

So instead, the union hires unemployed people at the minimum wage—$8.25 an hour—to walk picket lines. Mr. Raye says he's grateful for the work, even though he's not sure why he's doing it. "I could care less," he says. "I am being paid to march around and sound off."

Protest organizers and advocacy groups are reaping an unexpected benefit from continued high joblessness. With the national unemployment rate currently at 9.5%, an "endless supply" of the out-of-work, as well as retirees seeking extra income, are lining up to be paid demonstrators, says George Eisner, the union's director of organization. Extra feet help the union staff about 150 picket lines in the District of Columbia and Baltimore each day.

Online postings recruit paid activists for everything from stopping offshore drilling to defending the Constitution.

In California, one group is offering to pay $10 and up per hour to activists to hold signs in demonstrations against foam cups and plastic bags.

In Bellevue, Wash., the Faith and Freedom Network plans to hire activists for about $10 an hour next month to promote statewide candidates with Judeo-Christian values for the fall elections, says Gary Randall, the group's president. Recruits will knock on doors and will be dispatched in large groups, hoping to draw media attention, he says.

Pierce Hutchings, a Chicago businessman and baseball fan, staffed a rally at Wrigley Field on the Cubs opening day in April by posting an ad on Craigslist offering $25 of his own money to anyone willing to show up.

HOW DR. BERWICK WILL CONTROL YOUR DOCTOR AND YOU

Barack Obama’s recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick as head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) marks a new low in his destructive presidency, and that is saying something!

After forcing the Orwellian Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) onto an unwilling populace and through a reluctant Congress, he installs an elitist who admits to being “in love” with Britain’s National Health Service into a position of incredible power without so much as a hearing.

This is an affront to the American people, and to Constitutional government. It also completely confirms our predictions regarding the true nature of ObamaCare. It will be modeled after the NHS with rigid budgets, income redistribution, command-and-control structure, “death panels” (The National Institute for Clinical Excellence, or NICE), and a weighty bureaucracy. Ironically, this comes at a time when the British are struggling with the bureaucratic morass of the NHS authority.

How does Dr. Berwick hope to control the billions of decisions made by practicing physicians every day? Daniel Henniger, in his Wonder Land column, has some revealing, and frightening, quotations:

"The unaided human mind, and the acts of the individual, cannot assure excellence. Health care is a system, and its performance is a systemic property."

"I would place a commitment to excellence—standardization to the best-known method—above clinician autonomy as a rule for care."

"Young doctors and nurses should emerge from training understanding the values of standardization and the risks of too great an emphasis on individual autonomy."

97% of Scientists Do Not Believe in the Theory of Catastrophic Man-Made Global Warming

As I mentioned in Al Gore Appears–Note to Warmers: No More Do-Overs!:

If at first they don’t succeed then they will deny and lie again! And that goes for the second time, the third, the fourth …. You get it – as never-ending as Florida recounts; it goes on and on until responsible people step in and put a stop to it.

From the ardent Internet believer in global warming “theory” who can’t provide any real scientific evidence, to the East Anglia researchers who insist that Climategate is merely a misunderstanding, to IPCC defenders who claim their reports are only in error by a few insignificant typos, to Al Gore still battling the imminent destruction of planet Earth by the evil “global warming pollutants,” there can never be too many chances to ignore defeat and start all over again – from the beginning.

OK … now … certainly if you’ve tried to follow the warmers arguments at all, you remember the claim of a “scientific consensus.” It was showcased in Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth. Supposedly, all credible scientists were absolutely certain that the things he said in his movie were true; just as surely as gravity exists and the earth is round.

It’s part of the basic propaganda formula. Claiming that everyone who’s anyone believes … is sometimes called the bandwagon technique. In this case, the “everyone” refers to scientists, and that adds an appeal to authority, another propaganda ploy. (related article on these techniques and others) Al Gore was very direct. “This isn’t me claiming these things,” he insisted. (I’m not going to watch the movie again to make sure I have this word for word, but it’s accurate.) “These are scientists.” And he went on to quote figures from a published article on how many articles had been published that referred to global warming.

Then Al Gore’s claims were reviewed. Lists of factual errors and speculations in his film were created, some longer than others. A British judge found misinformation and made it the law of the land to reveal and discuss them when showing the film to school children. It turned out that the paper on which the consensus claim was based misrepresented what scientists had said in their papers, and why they had even bothered to mention global warming. (Follow the money. The federal government was writing grant offerings in a wide variety of fields requiring its mention.) And even if the paper had been accurate, it had little very little to do with Al Gore’s specific claims.

Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to the Government

Update: Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley is pushing the bill.

Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America's small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

Call Congress and Tell Them to Oppose The eBay Reporting Provision in the Housing Bill: 1-866-928-3035

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: "This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay's PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America's small businesses are breathtaking."

"Privacy groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and small business organizations like the NFIB sharply criticized this idea when it first appeared earlier this year. What is the federal government's purpose with this kind of detailed data? How will this database be secured, and who will have access? Many small proprietors use their Social Security number as their tax ID. How will their privacy be protected? What compliance costs will this impose on businesses? Why is Sen. Chris Dodd putting this provision in a housing bailout bill? The bill also includes the creation of a new national fingerprint registry for mortgage brokers.

"At a time when concerns about both identity theft and government spying are paramount, Congress wants to create a new honey pot of private data that includes Social Security numbers. This bill reduces privacy across America's payment processing systems and treats every American small business or eBay power seller like a criminal on parole by requiring an unprecedented level of reporting to the federal government. This outrageous idea is another reason to delay the housing bailout legislation so that Senators and the public at large have time to examine its full implications."

Call Congress and Tell Them to Oppose The eBay Reporting Provision in the Housing Bill: 1-866-928-3035

Montana Parents Weigh In on Proposed Kindergarten Sex Ed

HELENA, MONTANA -- An overflow crowd jammed the Helena school board meeting Tuesday night to voice their concerns -- and support -- about a proposal to extend sex education to children as young as kindergarten age.

According to the 62-page draft proposal, beginning in kindergarten, school nurses will teach students proper terms such as "nipple, breast, penis, scrotum and uterus." Once they are promoted to first grade, children will learn that sexual relations could happen between two men or two women. By the time students are 10 years old, instruction will include the various ways people can have intercourse, be it vaginally, orally or through "anal penetration," according to the proposal.

"As educators and as parents and as communities, we need to be more proactive in helping inform our students at an appropriate age what the risk factors are associated with their own behaviors so that they can make better decisions about their well-being," Dr. Bruce Messinger, the Superintendent of Helena Public Schools, told Fox News.

Click here to view the proposed curriculum.

The Montana Family Foundation is fighting the proposed changes, telling Fox News its biggest concern is teaching graphic sexual detail to kids who are not emotionally able to process or comprehend it. If the changes pass, kids as young as 5 will begin to learn medically accurate names for a number of both male and female "private parts."

"The problem is they think it would be age appropriate to teach different sexual positions and different sexual variations to 10 year olds," said Jeff Laszloffy of the Montana Family Foundation.
Messinger said parents will be able to have their kids opt-out, but Laszloffy said teachers want to have the same option.

"I think the reason it is such a concern is it tramples parental rights, it places government squarely between parents and their children," Laszloffy said.

Attacks on Freedom

Something's happened to America, and it isn't good. It's become easier to get into trouble. We've become a nation of a million rules. Not the kind of bottom-up rules that people generate through voluntary associations. Those are fine. I mean imposed, top-down rules formed in the brains of meddling bureaucrats who think they know better than we how to manage our lives.

Cross them, and we are in trouble.

The National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) received an anonymous fax that a seafood shipment to Alabama from David McNab contained "undersized lobster tails" and was improperly packed in clear plastic bags, rather than the cardboard boxes allegedly required under Honduran law. When the $4 million shipment arrived, NMFS agents seized it. McNab served eight years in prison, even though the Honduran government informed the court that the regulation requiring cardboard boxes had been repealed.

How about this one? Four kindergartners -- yes, 5-year-old boys -- played cops and robbers at Wilson Elementary in New Jersey. One yelled: "Boom! I have a bazooka, and I want to shoot you." He did not, of course, have a bazooka. Nevertheless, all four boys were suspended from school for three days for "making threats," a violation of their school district's zero-tolerance policy. School Principal Georgia Baumann said, "We cannot take any of these statements in a light manner." District Superintendent William Bauer said: "This is a no-tolerance policy. We're very firm on weapons and threats."

Give me a break.

Here's another: Ansche Hedgepeth, 12, committed this heinous crime: She left school in Washington, D.C., entered a Metrorail station to head home and ate a French fry. An undercover officer arrested her, confiscating her jacket, backpack and shoelaces. She was handcuffed and taken to the Juvenile Processing Center. Only after three hours in custody was the 12-year-old released into her mother's custody. The chief of Metro Transit Police said: "We really do believe in zero-tolerance. Anyone taken into custody has to be handcuffed for officer safety." She was sentenced to community service and now carries an arrest record. Washington's Metro has since rescinded its zero-tolerance policy.