Thursday, October 27, 2011

What a One-World Government Looks Like

The Dutch government will fall unless the crisis is solved. So will the Italian government. So will the entire EU, according to Alan Greenspan. "At the outset of the creation of the euro in 1999," Greenspan said, "it was expected that the southern eurozone economies would behave like those in the north; the Italians would behave like Germans. They didn't. Instead, northern Europe fell into subsidizing southern Europe's excess consumption, that is, its current account deficits." In short, said Greenspan, the countries comprising the EU are incompatible. "The effect of the divergent cultures in the eurozone has been grossly underestimated."

Lennon's one-world concept was a communist one. "Imagine no possessions / I wonder if you can / No need for greed or hunger / A brotherhood of man / Imagine all the people / Sharing all the world." Lennon got his wish in soft form in the creation of the European Union. The result: class warfare in the extreme -- a racial powder keg ready to blow -- and full-scale bankruptcy. Now the EU will revert to what it has always been: a loose agglomeration of nations, often in conflict with one another. That's the way the world works. That's the way the world will always work. And that is not a bad thing. Better that some nations stand for individualism, freedom and entrepreneurialism than that we all stand for redistributionism and the spineless multiculturalism that results in destruction of standards.



Does Romney Have a "Nixon Problem"?

A ghost from 1968 haunts the campaign of Mitt Romney-- and no it’s not the memory of his father, the late Michigan governor George Romney, who stumbled as a leading GOP contender 43 years ago.

For the younger Romney, the more worrisome blast from the past involves the campaign of Richard Nixon who ultimately won the nomination by default but never managed to inspire real enthusiasm from the party faithful. As with Mitt, nearly all Republicans considered Nixon acceptable as a standard bearer since the former Vice President positioned himself in the safe center of the party. But grass roots activists felt far more excitement about candidates like Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater and California Governor Ronald Reagan (on the party’s right) or New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and New York City Mayor John Lindsay (from the party’s moderate, establishment wing).

Nixon carried the taint of a perpetual candidate who had lost high profile races (for President in 1960 and California Governor in 1962) and looked like an ideological chameleon who would assume any policy position or employ any unscrupulous stratagem for the sake of victory. The nickname “Tricky Dick” became inescapably affixed to his public persona.



House GOP Calls Janet Napolitano to Hill on Immigration Questions

Homeland Security officials say the border is more secure than ever, but the House Judiciary Committee wants to know why work-site enforcement has plummeted and whether hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens facing deportation will be granted amnesty.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will face these and other questions when she appears before the panel Wednesday morning, which follows on the heels of her contentious testimony before the Senate counterpart last week where she revealed that 396,906 illegal aliens were deported in the 2011 fiscal year.

Speak for Yourself, Mr. President

Even in the midst of a cross-country move, I can't resist commenting on President Obama's newest mind-meld with Jimmy Carter, President Malaise.

At a San Francisco fundraiser yesterday, the President had this to say:


Speak for yourself, Mr. President. Our ambition, imagination and will is completely intact -- it's just that we're saddled with a leader who neither understands nor respects the American character, and then projects his inadequacies onto us.


Actor Steven Weber at HuffPo Demands 'Nuremberg-Scale Trial' for Conservatives

... and the envelope please for Most Unhinged Rant at The Huffington Post, from among the hundreds of nominees ...

Those cursed right wingers, Steven Weber complains, what with their "rhetorical gymnastics" and "outrageously unhinged attitude," among other alleged crimes and misdemeanors.

President Obama has killed bin Laden, "Qaddafi's ka-dead and the Arab Spring's been sprung," US troops are finally leaving Iraq and the American people are "aroused and assembled," Weber writes. Despite all this, "the corporate media is taking the same sought-for outcomes which have wildly eluded the Right and reconstituting them into their kooky contrivances, constructing their alternate realities at odds with what is actually happening in the streets and in the people's houses that line them."

After insulting Republican presidential candidates, Weber comes to the overwrought point of his screed. A word to the wise: avoid ingesting any beverage while reading what's to follow (emphasis added) --



Losing the Economic Battle

On the issue of public debt, Washington is experiencing what psychologists call “learned helplessness.” The financial news is so relentlessly terrible that people have become numb to it and assume nothing can be done to regain control over our fate.

Bottle of ink

Today the world’s public and private debt exceeds an incredible 300 percent of GDP. We are at risk of succumbing to an ugly, downward, global mark-to-market in asset prices. Yet the discussion in Washington fails to reflect the immensity of the threat.

Some money managers have a theory that this mark-to-market process has been under way for some time. Stage One was the 1990s Asian crisis. Global financial markets concluded that Asia’s debt was dangerously high and its banks’ balance sheets not reflective of reality. Global traders pounced. Interest rates soared, equity markets plummeted, banks failed, and currencies collapsed.

Stage Two is happening in Europe today.



Everything You Need to Know About Public School Spending in Less Than 2½ Minutes

Neal McCluskey gutted the President’s new “Save the Teachers” American Jobs Act sales pitch a good while back, as did Andrew Coulson here. Thankfully, it seems a lot of senators agree it’s a bad idea.

Last week, a $35 Billion piece of the president’s new “stimulus” plan, which included $30 Billion to bail out government schools—againwent down in the Senate:

Our public education problem is huge; we’re spending far too much and getting way too little. But most people don’t know the basic details. They still think we need to spend more on education.

So, for all of you who want to get the details but don’t have much time, or have family and friends who need to be introduced to reality, I present to you . . . Everything you need to know about public school spending in less than 2½ minutes.



Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Report: Obama’s Muslim Advisers Block Middle Eastern Christians’ Access to the White House

Beirut Arab news agency al Nashra reported on Saturday November 22, that [White House Muslim envoy] Dalia Mogahed has succeeded in canceling a meeting between the Maronite Patriarch of Lebanon and President Barack Obama. Writing in al Nashra, the reporter said “an unnamed US source told the news agency, that those who sought canceling a visit of (the spiritual head of the Maronite Church) Patriarch Beshara Rahi to the White House are Dalia Mujahid (Mogahed), the highest adviser on Arab and Islamic Affairs in the State Department, who is from Egyptian origins. And that,” according to al Nashra, heeding a request by the higher leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, who consider that US Administration must support the Islamist Sunni current facing the Iranian current in the region.”

The al Nashra report, circulating now widely in the Middle East, but also in the United States and across the Lebanese Christian Diaspora confirms what was already known about the impact the so-called “advisors on Arab and Islamic Affairs” in the White House on Middle East issues in general and on US policies regarding the Christians in the Middle East.



Who lost the world? Obama has paved the way for an explosive era


http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Conventional wisdom has it that the 2012 presidential election will be all about the dismal economy, unemployment and the soaring deficit. That appears a safe bet because such matters touch the electorate, are much in the news at the moment and have indisputably become worse on Barack Obama's watch.

It seems increasingly likely, however, that the American people will have a whole lot more to worry about by next fall. Indeed, the way things are going, by November 2012, we may see the Middle East - and perhaps other parts of the planet - plunged into a cataclysmic war.

Consider just a few of the straws in the wind of a gathering storm:

Moammar Gadhafi's death last week prompted the Obama administration to trumpet the president's competence as commander in chief and the superiority of his "small footprint," "lead-from-behind" approach to waging war over the more traditional - and costly and messy - one pursued by George W. Bush. The bloom came off that false rose on Sunday when Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, repeatedly declared his government's fealty to Shariah, Islam's brutally repressive, totalitarian political-military-legal doctrine.



Obama says he’ll be taking ‘executive actions’ without Congress on ‘regular basis’ to ‘heal the economy’

President Barack Obama told an audience in Nevada on Monday that he will be regularly announcing “executive actions” his administration will take to “heal the economy” without the “dysfunctional” Congress.

“I’m here to say to all of you and to say to the people of Nevada and the people of Las Vegas, we can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will,” Obama said.

“I’ve told my administration to keep looking every single day for actions we can take without Congress, steps that can save consumers money, make government more efficient and responsive, and help heal the economy. And we’re going to be announcing these executive actions on a regular basis,” the president said.



Obama says he’ll be taking ‘executive actions’ without Congress on ‘regular basis’ to ‘heal the economy’

President Barack Obama told an audience in Nevada on Monday that he will be regularly announcing “executive actions” his administration will take to “heal the economy” without the “dysfunctional” Congress.

“I’m here to say to all of you and to say to the people of Nevada and the people of Las Vegas, we can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will,” Obama said.

“I’ve told my administration to keep looking every single day for actions we can take without Congress, steps that can save consumers money, make government more efficient and responsive, and help heal the economy. And we’re going to be announcing these executive actions on a regular basis,” the president said.



It's Mitt's world, we're just living in it

WRITING in New York, Benjamin Wallace-Wells makes a case that Bain Capital under Mitt Romney played a significant role in creating the contemporary economy:

Mitt Romney is the real thing. He was, by any measure, an astonishingly successful businessman, one who spent his career explaining how business might operate better, and who leveraged his own mind into a personal fortune worth as much as $250m. But much more significantly, Romney was also a business revolutionary. Our economy went through a remarkable shift during the eighties as Wall Street reclaimed control of American business and sought to remake it in its own image. Romney developed one of the tools that made this possible, pioneering the use of takeovers to change the way a business functioned, remaking it in the name of efficiency. Whatever you think of his politics, you have to give him credit,” says Steven Kaplan, a professor of finance and entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago. “He came up with a model that was very successful and very innovative and that now everybody uses.”

Occupy Wall Street Protester: What’s With All These Greedy Bankers Working Such Long Hours?

“It’s weird protesting on Bay Street. You get there at 9 a.m. and the rich bankers who you want to hurl insults at and change their worldview have been at work for two hours already. And then when it’s time to go, they’re still there. I guess that’s why they call them the one per cent. I mean, who wants to work those kinds of hours? That’s the power of greed.” – Jeremy, 38

Either that, or it’s a work ethic that the “one percent” deploy so that they can, you know, be part of the one percent. Maybe they’re just men and women who work a job like everyone else and not the part of some plutocratic conspiracy to oppress the masses.

By the way, note the age. This isn’t some clueless college freshman. This guy is a grownup, apparently caught in a state of perpetual adolescence.



Gallup Poll: Americans want to scrap Electoral College

Americans have a message for the Founding Fathers: Let's pick presidents by popular vote.

A new Gallup Poll shows a strong majority of Americans -- 62% -- favor getting rid of the Electoral College. And for the first time, Republicans now agree with Democrats and independents that the popular vote should stand.

"Americans show relatively little attachment to this unique invention of the country's Founding Fathers," Gallup's Lydia Saad writes. "Those who advocate abolishing the Electoral College often do so on the basis that the system puts undue emphasis on a small number of swing states."


A Contract on the Rich

In the Massachusetts senate race Elizabeth Warren has repeatedly referred to a "social contract" that obligates the rich to transfer a greater share of their income to the poor. According to Warren, this conception of the social contract has shaped American society from the very beginning.

"There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own," Warren has declared. The state may allow its more affluent citizens to keep a portion of their wealth, but "part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward to the next kid who comes along."

That same argument -- that the collective has a claim on privately earned wealth -- has been showing up a lot these days. It's an argument with a long history among progressives, traceable back to turn-of-the-century leftists such as Eugene Debs, who ran for president on the Socialist Party ticket no less than five times. "We are on the eve of universal change," Debs declared in 1897, and continued declaring it until his death in 1926. That message of radical transformation has been the basis of the progressive politics for a century, from Teddy Roosevelt to Wilson, FDR, Johnson, Carter, and now Obama. Every time the left gains power, it is dusted off and put to work.



Infrastructure Projects to Fix the Economy? Don't Bank on It.

In a recent television ad for her network, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow stands below the Hoover Dam and asks whether we are still a country that can "think this big" — Hoover Dam big. The commercial is built on the assumption that American greatness is advanced by federal spending on major infrastructure projects.

If I had my own television commercial, I'd stand in front of the wreckage of Idaho's Teton Dam,which, like the Hoover Dam, was built by the federal Bureau of Reclamation. The Teton Dam was based on shoddy engineering and a flawed economic analysis. It collapsed catastrophically in 1976, just a year after it was built.

Increased infrastructure spending has bipartisan support in Washington these days. President Obama wants a new federal infrastructure bank, and members of both parties want to pass big highway and air-traffic-control funding bills. The politicians think these bills will create desperately needed jobs, but the cost of that perceived benefit is too high: Federal infrastructure spending has a long and painful history of pork-barrel politics and bureaucratic bungling, with money often going to wasteful and environmentally damaging projects.



Is ObamaCare Meant to Be Fiscally Irresponsible?

The Obama administration has officially scrapped one of the two entitlement programs Congress created under Obamacare. The failure of the "CLASS Act" shows how the rest of that law threatens every American's private health insurance.

The idea behind CLASS was that the government would run a voluntary and self-sustaining insurance plan to help the disabled pay for long-term care, including nursing home care. It was doomed to fail, thanks to a special kind of government price control Congress imposed on the premiums.

Congress required CLASS to set each applicant's premiums according to the average applicant's risk of needing such long-term care, rather than her individual risk. But averaged premiums are only attractive to people with above-average risks. Since few people with below-average risks would enroll, the average premium would rise. That would encourage more people with below-average risks not to enroll, and the vicious cycle would continue until the program collapsed.



The Myth of the ‘Ethical Vegan’

Veganism dates back to 1944, when British Vegan Society co-founder Donald Watson coined the term to mean “non-dairy vegetarian.” The Society expanded the definition in 1951 to state that “man should live without exploiting animals.” Vegans eschew animal products in food, clothing, household products, or for any other reason.

There are a variety of reasons why people “go vegan.” Some simply don’t like the taste of meat. Some claim veganism is “green,” and that a vegan lifestyle minimizes impact on the environment.

In 1997, a survey revealed three percent of the people in the U.S. claimed that they had not used animals for any purpose in the previous two years. Rutgers School of Law professor Gary Francione argued in 2010 that “all sentient beings should have at least one right — the right not to be treated as property.”



Tuesday, October 25, 2011

World power swings back to America

World power swings back to America

Assumptions that the Great Republic must inevitably spiral into economic and strategic decline - so like the chatter of the late 1980s, when Japan was in vogue - will seem wildly off the mark by then.

Telegraph readers already know about the "shale gas revolution" that has turned America into the world’s number one producer of natural gas, ahead of Russia.

Less known is that the technology of hydraulic fracturing - breaking rocks with jets of water - will also bring a quantum leap in shale oil supply, mostly from the Bakken fields in North Dakota, Eagle Ford in Texas, and other reserves across the Mid-West.



Vatican urges economic reforms, condemns collective greed

The Vatican called on Monday for sweeping reforms of the world economy and the creation of a ethical, global authority to regulate financial markets as demonstrations against corporate greed continued to spring up in major cities across the globe.

An 18-page document from the Vatican's Justice and Peace department said the financial downturn had revealed behaviours like "selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale," adding that world economics needed an "ethic of solidarity" among rich and poor nations.

Urging Wall Street powerbrokers to examine the impact of their decisions on humanity, the Vatican called on those who wanted to change economic structures to "not be afraid to propose new ideas, even if they might destabilise pre-existing balances of power that prevail over the weakest."

The document was released as "Occupy Wall Street" protests this month sparked similar anti-capitalist movements around the world with demonstrators angry over government bailouts of big banks, corporate bonuses, and economic inequality.



Key general: Iraq pullout plan a ‘disaster’

President Obama’s decision to pull all U.S. forces out of Iraq by Dec. 31 is an “absolute disaster” that puts the burgeoning Arab democracy at risk of an Iranian “strangling,” said an architect of the 2007 troop surge that turned around a losing war.

Retired ArmyGen. John M. Keane was at the forefront of persuading President George W. Bush to scuttle a static counterinsurgency strategy and replace it with 30,000 reinforcements and a more activist, street-by-street counterterrorism tactic.

Today, even with that strategy producing a huge drop in daily attacks, Gen. Keane bluntly told The Washington Times that the United States again is losing.

“I think it’s an absolute disaster,” said Gen. Keane, who advised Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was top Iraq commander. “We won the war in Iraq, and we’re now losing the peace.”



Retreating With Our Heads Held High

Today, President Obama declared the successful completion of his strategy to remove all American military forces from Iraq by the end of the year. He said: “[E]nsuring the success of this strategy has been one of my highest national security priorities” since taking office. “Over the next two months, our troops in Iraq, tens of thousands of them, will pack up their gear and board convoys for the journey home. The last American soldier will cross the border out of Iraq with their heads held high, proud of their success, and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops. That is how America’s military effort in Iraq will end.” In other words, our efforts in Iraq end neither in victory nor defeat, success nor failure, but simply in retreat.

The humiliation of this retreat is compounded by the dishonesty of its presentation. Today, President Obama claimed that the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq was the centerpiece of the strategy he has been pursuing there since taking office. But that was not the sole or even primary objective of the strategy he announced five weeks after becoming president. At Camp Lejeune in February 2009, to an audience of Marines, he declared:

This strategy is grounded in a clear and achievable goal shared by the Iraqi people and the American people: an Iraq that is sovereign, stable, and self-reliant. To achieve that goal, we will work to promote an Iraqi government that is just, representative, and accountable, and that provides neither support nor safe-haven to terrorists. We will help Iraq build new ties of trade and commerce with the world. And we will forge a partnership with the people and government of Iraq that contributes to the peace and security of the region.



Monster Prediction From BofA: Another US Debt Downgrade Is Coming In Just A Few Weeks

kingdome seattle implosion explosion

In an analyst note, Bofa/ML's Ethan S. Harris drops a bit of a bombshell prediction:

We expect a moderate slowdown in the beginning of next year, as two small policy shocks—another debt downgrade and fiscal tightening—hit the economy. The “not-so-super” Deficit Commission is very unlikely to come up with a credible deficit-reduction plan. The committee is more divided than the overall Congress. Since the fall-back plan is sharp cuts in discretionary spending, the whole point of the Committee is to put taxes and entitlements on the table. However, all the Republican members have signed the Norquist “no taxes” pledge and with taxes off the table it is hard to imagine the liberal Democrats on the Committee agreeing to significant entitlement cuts. The credit rating agencies have strongly suggested that further rating cuts are likely if Congress does not come up with a credible long-run plan. Hence, we expect at least one credit downgrade in late November or early December when the super Committee crashes.



Sunday, October 16, 2011

U.S. Copyright Czar Cozied Up to Content Industry, E-Mails Show

Top-ranking Obama administration officials, including the U.S. copyright czar, played an active role in secret negotiations between Hollywood, the recording industry and ISPs to disrupt internet access for users suspected of violating copyright law, according to internal White House e-mails.

The e-mails, obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, (.pdf) show the administration’s cozy relationship with Hollywood and the music industry’s lobbying arms and its early support for the copyright-violation crackdown system publicly announced in July.

One top official even used her personal e-mail account at least once in the course of communicating during the negotiations with executives and lobbyists from companies ranging from AT&T to Universal Music.




Election 2012: Republican Presidential Primary

Following a Tuesday night debate focused on economic issues, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and businessman Herman Cain are tied in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the only other candidate in double-digits. Republican voters think either frontrunner would be likely to defeat President Obama but most expect Romney to be the nominee.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Republican Primary voters shows Cain and Romney each attracting 29% of the vote while Gingrich is a distant third at 10%. Texas Governor Rick Perry was the frontrunner when he entered the race and has suffered through a series of poor debate performances while sliding to fourth place at nine percent (9%). (To see survey question wording, click here.)



Saudis say Iran must 'pay the price' for alleged plot as US resists retaliation

Saudi Arabia has issued a menacing ­warning to Iran that it will have to pay a price for the alleged plot to hire a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate its ambassador in Washington.

The threat from the Saudis came as the Obama administration described the alleged plot as a "dangerous escalation" in the region.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said "clearly the plotting happened at senior levels of the Quds force [Iranian special forces]" but the administration resisted calls from within the US, mainly from the conservative right, to retaliate against Iran with military action.



Chinese military mobilises cybermilitias

Nanhao Group is, in many ways, an ordinary technology company. Its staff make online scoring systems, exam-mark scanners and other educational hardware and software.

But many of its 500 employees in Hengshui, just south-west of Beijing, have a second job. Since 2005 Nanhao has been home to a cybermilitia unit organised by the People’s Liberation Army.

“All staff under the age of 30 belong to the unit,” said Bai Guoliang, Nanhao vice-president. It is unclear what exactly the unit does, but according to a local government announcement when it was set up, it consisted of two groups tasked with cyberattack and cyberdefence.

Occupy L.A. Speaker: Violence Against “Bourgeosie” Will Be Necessary To Achieve Our Goals, “Long Live Revolution! Long Live Socialism!”…



Why New Hampshire’s Primary Tradition Is Important By William Gardner, New Hampshire Secretary of State

Every four years Americans elect the most powerful leader in the world. We go to the polls and select the man or woman who will be President of the United States. It is probably the most important political decision each of us makes because our choice can affect the lives and happiness of ourselves and our children for years into our future.

DEMOCRACY IS HARD WORK. Protecting American democracy has been a cause of freedom in our nation for over two centuries, and our fellow citizens who have gone before us dedicated their lives, and in some cases lost their lives, in that fight. The principles of democracy and freedom are worth every bit of that fight.


Fiji Water Founder: Washington Is ‘Killing’ Entrepreneurs

You would think a bad economy would lead to more start-ups and entrepreneurs, as the jobless turn to self-employment as a last resort. Yet the opposite is happening.

Between 1980 and 2005, firms less than five years old created 40 million net new jobs—equal to all of the net new jobs created in the entire private sector, according to The Economist and stats from the Kauffman Foundation.

In the past three years, the number of new companies formed each year fell by nearly a quarter. Their job creation also fell.

What’s wrong? The big problems are likely a lack of financing and consumer demand to buy the stuff start-ups are selling. But David Gilmour, the serial entrepreneur who founded Fiji Water and nine other companies, said the problem is Washington.



Mitt Romney and Herman Cain: A tale of two GOP businessmen

The two leading contenders for the GOP presidential nomination are also the two candidates whose claim to fame is their private-sector experience, and each has made that experience central to his argument that he’s best positioned to straighten out the economy.

But Mitt Romney and Herman Cain come from different ends of the business world. Their differing identities — Romney as the private equity, Wall Street-esque vice president, Cain as the fast-food CEO — reveal the disparate ways each will appeal to voters hungering for a “real-world” candidate.

“Herman Cain is a good guy. Vote for either one of us and you’ll be happy,” the former governor of Massachusetts said Monday at a town hall when asked about how his business experience matched up to Cain’s.


Five Reasons Why No One Has Landed a Blow on Romneycare

Perhaps the most head-scratching aspect of the Republican presidential debates has been that no one has been able to land a hard blow on Mitt Romney’s record on health care. But there are several good reasons why it hasn’t happened. These reasons may turn out to be far more consequential than anyone would have thought.

5. Romney has been running for president since 2007. As many others have remarked, Romney has been refining his positions for many years. He is clearly a much stronger candidate this time around than he was in 2008. But there are plenty of other people who run for President every four years, and never improve, so this alone doesn’t explain Romney’s strength.



Thursday, October 13, 2011

Democrats can’t occupy Wall Street

Left: A protester at America's Tea Party in Parker, Texas; Right: Protesters at the Occupy Wall Street campaign in New York

Can the Occupy Wall Street movement do for the Democrats what the Tea Party has done for the Republicans? Will a spontaneous grass-roots uprising against the rich neutralize the manipulated “Astroturf” Tea Party movement’s assault on big government, assure a second term for Barack Obama and lead to the new New Deal that progressives have been waiting for?

Alas, probably not. Ever since Richard Nixon won his reelection victory in 1972 by appealing to many of the discontented populists attracted to George Wallace, the Republican Party, formerly a party of big city boardroom types and small-town Rotarians, has been based at least in its rhetoric on right-wing populism. The Tea Party movement is merely an extreme exaggeration of the mainstream GOP.

But the Democrats since George McGovern captured the party’s presidential nomination in the same fateful year of 1972 have been the opposite of a left-wing populist party. Thus while right-wing populism reinforces the existing Republican story about America, any genuine left-wing populism would challenge the basic constituencies and values of the McGovern-to-Obama Democrats. There are six reasons in particular why Democrats are unlikely to benefit as much from populism as Republicans.




Obama urged to expel Iranian diplomats after D.C. terror plot foiled

This 2004 provided by the Williamson County Jail shows Manssor Arbabsiar, a U.S. citizen charged in New York federal court on Oct. 11, 2011, with conspiring to kill Adel Al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. (Associated Press/Williamson County Jail via Corpus Christi Caller-Times)

The GOP chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee is calling on the Obama administration to expel Iranian diplomats, after U.S. officials said Tehran was behind a plot to murder the Saudi ambassador in Washington.

“While I intend to support the president’s ultimate decision, I believe that he should consider expelling Iranian officials, especially known intelligence officers, from the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York, and the Iranian Interests Section in Washington,” said Rep. Peter King, New York Republican, in a statement.

Mr King said that if the terror plot — in reality an elaborate sting put together by a paid DEA informant — had succeeded, it would have been “an act of war” by Iran against the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.



Republican Insurgent-Love a Myth, Romney Shows: Ramesh Ponnuru

The conventional wisdom now treats Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, as the strong favorite for the Republican nomination. On Intrade.com, he is given a 61 percent chance of winning the nomination -- more than three times his closest rival, Texas Governor Rick Perry.

Romney’s strength may seem puzzling. He is running as the establishment candidate: the one favored by the party apparatus, the big donors, the Republicans who care more about the party’s power than about ideology. We have been told again and again that the Republican rank and file is more hostile than ever to the party’s establishment, which they regard as a collection of sellouts. So how can Romney be on track to win the nomination?

The answer is that the Republican establishment almost always wins presidential-nomination contests, and conservative insurgents almost never do. Since 1984, nobody substantially to the right of the party establishment has won the nomination. Make a mental list of the last four Republican nominees -- George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush and John McCain -- and the notion of a Romney victory in the primaries becomes less surprising.

Establishment-oriented candidates keep winning for two reasons. The first is that the party establishment has moved to the right, too, co-opting conservatives who might otherwise have overthrown it.



Opt-Outs From Sweden’s Government Health Care System Up 400%

Sweden and the Scandinavian countries in general are often cited by liberals here in America of how our government ought to govern. Specifically when it comes to health care.

But there’s a new trend on health care in Scandinavia. Fed up with long delays in accessing care, many of the country’s citizens are opting for private insurance, with the number increasing 400% over the last decade (via Mark Perry).

While Sweden has long taken pride in its public healthcare system, lengthening queues and at times inconsistent care have prompted many Swedes to opt for private healthcare with many gaining the benefit through insurance policies offered by employers, currently responsible for 80% of healthcare insurance market.

The idea behind private health insurance is simple enough: those put off by the idea of heading to publicly funded clinics and hospitals can purchase a policy through an insurance company and instead enjoy speedy medical attention with private doctors.

As many as 500,000 Swedes are now estimated to be using private healthcare insurance, up from 100,000 only ten years ago. And a flawed public system is often cited as the cause of the rapid expansion.

Long queues are one of the main complaints for consumers of Sweden’s public healthcare services, with patients sometimes forced to wait as much as fifteen times longer for treatment compared to private options.

This isn’t just happening in Sweden, either. Canada, too, has seen a boom in the number of opt-outs from its national health care system and in Great Britain reformers are attempting to water down that country’s national health care system and give citizens more private options (though that’s not been going so well so far for Prime Minister David Cameron).



Cain Surges, Nearly Ties Romney for Lead in GOP Preferences

Republicans' support for Herman Cain has surged to 18%, their support for Rick Perry has sagged to 15%, and their support for Mitt Romney remains relatively stable at 20%. However, Romney's support is matched by the 20% of Republicans who are unsure which candidate they will back for the Republican nomination in 2012.

Preferences for 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination



Gallup: Obama Hits All-Time Low Among Blacks as Cain Surges Among Republicans

Herman Cain

Gallup released new polling data today that showed African American presidential candidate Herman Cain's support was surging among Republicans even as President Barack Obama’s job approval hit an all-time low among blacks.

In a poll of 1,064 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents conducted Oct. 3-7, 18 percent said they supported Cain for president. That put the former Godfathers Pizza CEO in a close second behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who placed first with 20 percent.



Creation Myth

A week before President Barack Obama was scheduled to deliver yet another big-think proposal to Get America Working Again, reality intervened with a well-timed smack upside the head: Solyndra, a California solar panel company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Back in May 2010, as part of the run-up to what the administration was then touting as “Recovery Summer,” Obama used Solyndra as a poster child for both the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and his long-stated promise to create millions of “green jobs.” During a visit to the company’s factory in Fremont, he declared: “We invested…in clean energy because not only would this spur hiring by businesses but it creates jobs in sectors with incredible potential to propel our economy for years, for decades to come. And we can see the positive impacts right here at Solyndra. Less than a year ago, we were standing on what was an empty lot, but through the Recovery Act, this company received a loan to expand its operations. This new factory is the result of those loans. Since ground was broken last fall, more than 3,000 construction workers have been employed building this plant.…When it’s completed in a few months, Solyndra expects to hire 1,000 workers to manufacture solar panels and sell them across the country and around the world. And this in turn will generate business for companies around our country who will create jobs supplying this factory with parts and materials.”

Or not.



Young Americans Age 18-29 Are Less Critical of Government, More Open to Entitlement Reform, and More Socially Liberal


According to a recent Reason-Rupe survey, young Americans ages 18-29 are less critical of government, more open to change, more trusting overall, and more socially liberal.

Young Americans are the only age group in which a majority approves of President Obama’s job performance (52 percent approve, 42 disapprove). More young Americans approve of Congress’ job performance compared to all other age groups. Nevertheless, congressional approval remains extraordinarily low, even for young Americans at 23 percent.


Opinion: Ann Coulter: Romney for Pres, Cain VP

An illustrated guide: The homes Kamp Alinsky Kids won’t protest

You knew it was coming. The Kamp Alinsky Kids are taking a sight-seeing tour today. After a month of trashing Zuccotti Park at a public cost of $2 million per day, the riff-raff is marching uptown to occupy…wealthy people’s private homes.

According to the NY Daily News: “A ‘Millionaires March’ will visit the homes – or, more realistically, the gleaming marble lobbies – of five of the city’s wealthiest residents, including News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and conservative billionaire David Koch.”

Some millionaires and billionaires and their homes get protected, of course. Billionaire NYC Mayor Bloomberg, who refuses to crack down on protesters who have no permit to conduct the march, has a pass. Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman’s compound is off-limits. So is NY-based billionaire hedge fund mogul, Obama donor, and Dodd-Frank waiver beneficiary George Soros.



Wednesday, October 12, 2011

EPA Regulations To Close Dozens Of Coal Power Plans Around The Nation Costing Thousands Of Jobs

“So if somebody wants to build a coal-fired plant they can,” said President Obama speaking as a candidate of his proposed environmental policies in a now-infamous interview with the San Francisco Chronicle from. “It’s just that it will bankrupt them.”

That reality is now upon us as the EPA, under the guise of protecting the environment, is on the front line of the President’s war on coal. According to the Institute for Energy Research, dozens of coal-fired power plants representing 10% of total American energy production will be shut down under these regulations. Here’s a map of the plants at risk:

Think of every single one of those plants representing hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs both through direct employment and impact of the plants on the local economies. Also think of power supply shrinking as each of those dots disappear, increasing demand for energy from other plants (including very expensive, heavily-subsidized “green” alternatives like windmills and solar) that will result in utility rates going up for individuals and businesses.



How Harry Reid's Senate rules change could backfire

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks about President Barack Obama's jobs bill. | AP Photo

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s sudden decision to force a narrow change in the chamber’s procedures could backfire.

First, it could make it harder for Democrats to break GOP filibusters because Republicans may be even less willing to close off debate on legislation.

Even worse for Democrats, the tactics Reid employed to change a Senate precedent could make it easier for Republicans to justify using similar procedures to force simple-majority votes on hugely contentious issues, such as repealing Democratic priorities like health care reform and Wall Street regulations, Senate experts on both sides of the aisle said Friday.



OCTOBER 15TH UNITED FOR #GLOBALCHANGE

On October 15th people from all over the world will take to the streets and squares.

From America to Asia, from Africa to Europe, people are rising up to claim their rights and demand a true democracy. Now it is time for all of us to join in a global non violent protest.

The ruling powers work for the benefit of just a few, ignoring the will of the vast majority and the human and environmental price we all have to pay. This intolerable situation must end.

United in one voice, we will let politicians, and the financial elites they serve, know it is up to us, the people, to decide our future. We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers who do not represent us.

On October 15th, we will meet on the streets to initiate the global change we want. We will peacefully demonstrate, talk and organize until we make it happen.

It’s time for us to unite. It’s time for them to listen.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Occupy Wall Street: A Manifesto

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men, women, and transgendered—and any other human who is able to elude the tyranny of work for a couple of weeks—are created equal. We gather to be free not of tyranny, but of responsibility and college tuitions. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that a government long established and a nation long prosperous be changed for light and transient causes. So let our demands* be submitted to a candid world.

First, we are imbued with as many inalienable rights as a few thousand college kids and a gaggle of borderline celebrities can concoct, among them a guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment and immediate across-the-board debt forgiveness—even if that debt was acquired taking on a mortgage with a 4.1 percent interest rate and no money down, which, we admit, is a pretty sweet deal in historical context...

...but down with the modern gilded age!



We Must Always Be on Guard to Protect Liberty

How free is Turkey? Turkey is almost entirely Muslim but lacks most of the repressive characteristics of many of the Arab Muslim countries. It has a largely free market with a high rate of economic growth.

But Turkey ranks in the middle among other countries in terms of economic freedom and per capita income. It also has less religious freedom and freedom of speech than is common in most of Europe and the United States and, thus, less liberty.

The Mont Pelerin Society, most of whose members are economists and other scholars who were inspired by the great economist and philosopher F.A. Hayek, is holding a meeting here in Istanbul to discuss the nation, the state, and liberty. The discussants are drawn from many countries and cultures, resulting in a very stimulating debate, some of which is summarized here, along with my own observations and thoughts.

Many English speakers use the terms freedom and liberty interchangeably, but these terms have different meanings. You would not hear someone say, “I have liberty from cancer.” He would say, “I am free from cancer.”


Nine Reasons Why Republicans Ought to Nominate Herman Cain


Let us assume that the field bidding to be the Republican standard bearer in 2012 will not expand. Let us assume also that neither New Jersey Governor Chris Christie nor Sarah Palin will throw their hat into the ring. Let us further assume that neither Mike Huckabee nor Paul Ryan is having second thoughts. In which case, Mitt Romney is still the frontrunner. Yet conservatives appear no more prepared to embrace him now than they were in 2008. Rick Perry hasn't proved a viable alternative and Michele Bachmann's fifteen minutes is up. Over the past week or so, with straw poll triumphs in Florida and Illinois, Herman Cain has begun to strike the right chord with Republican voters and has seen his poll numbers rise. So here are nine reasons why Republicans should nominate Herman Cain for President.

1. He Has No Sense of Entitlement
Cain wasn't born into a life of privilege. Yet he bore no resentment because of it. He believed in the American Dream yet understood he had to work hard for it. Cain set goals for himself and made sure he had the education necessary to attain them. He found opportunities and seized them. Cain grew up with the knowledge that the world doesn't owe one a living. He has earned his place in the world.


Judge: Americans do not have right to choose food


A Wisconsin judge has decided – in a fight over families' access to milk from cows they own – that Americans "do not have a fundamental right to consume the milk from their own cow."

The ruling comes from Circuit Court Judge Patrick J. Fiedler in a court battle involving a number of families who owned their own cows, but boarded them on a single farm.

The judge said the arrangement is a "dairy farm" and, therefore, is subject to the rules and regulations of the state of Wisconsin.

"It's always a surprise when a judge says you don't have the fundamental right to consume the foods of your choice," said Pete Kennedy, president of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which worked on the case on behalf of the farmers and the owners of the milk-producing cows.



Nearly Half of U.S. Lives in Household Receiving Government Benefit

Families were more dependent on government programs than ever last year.

Nearly half, 48.5%, of the population lived in a household that received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2010, according to Census data. Those numbers have risen since the middle of the recession when 44.4% lived households receiving benefits in the third quarter of 2008.

The share of people relying on government benefits has reached a historic high, in large part from the deep recession and meager recovery, but also because of the expansion of government programs over the years. (See a timeline on the history of government benefits programs here.)

Means-tested programs, designed to help the needy, accounted for the largest share of recipients last year. Some 34.2% of Americans lived in a household that received benefits such as food stamps, subsidized housing, cash welfare or Medicaid (the federal-state health care program for the poor).


GOP’s Alternative Buffett Rule: Voluntary ‘Tax Me More’ Check Box on IRS Form

Having condemned President Obama’s “Buffett Rule” proposal to raise taxes on some millionaires as “class warfare,” Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., proposed his own solution to billionaire Warren Buffett’s complaints that he paid a lower tax rate than his secretary.

Scalise said he plans to submit a bill Wednesday night that would add a line to the 1040 tax form allowing people who feel they do not pay enough income tax to opt-in to paying more.

“I wanted to make sure that there was an option out there on the IRS tax form for those out there who wanted to send more of their money into Washington to help pay down the deficit,” Scalise said. “It’s an idea that solves a few problems and ensures that taxes won’t be raised on America’s job creators.”

Scalise said his bill will allow Buffett to “put his money where his mouth is” and “send in a check” to the U.S. Treasury.



Why men are in trouble


For the first time in history, women are better educated, more ambitious and arguably more successful than men.

Now, society has rightly celebrated the ascension of one sex. We said, "You go girl," and they went. We celebrate the ascension of women but what will we do about what appears to be the very real decline of the other sex?

The data does not bode well for men. In 1970, men earned 60% of all college degrees. In 1980, the figure fell to 50%, by 2006 it was 43%. Women now surpass men in college degrees by almost three to two. Women's earnings grew 44% in real dollars from 1970 to 2007, compared with 6% growth for men.



Thursday, October 06, 2011

Sarah Palin-affiliated law firm made early-state deadline inquiries

Ken Vogel and I both have sources telling us that calls were made on behalf of a mystery candidate to various early states to determine presidential filing deadlines.

The calls were made by representatives of the law firm Baker Hostetler - a firm that employs lawyer Mark Braden, who represents Sarah PAC, her political action committee.

As Ken notes, while he nor representatives of Palin’s campaign would comment on the calls, Palin is the only GOP politician eying the presidential race who is represented by the firm.



Wall Street protests swelled Wednesday to their largest numbers yet, after local unions pledged support to a third week of demonstrations against inco

After Rick Perry’s wobbly performance shifted some momentum back to Mitt Romney, conservatives began another round of speculation about his appeal in the early-primary states. It seems that his religious affiliation remains a serious problem for him.

USA Today reported on latest Gallup poll question:

Although three of four Americans say they would support a presidential candidate who is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Gallup Poll finds that 22% say they would not.

That figure has not changed much since Gallup started measuring opinion on this subject in 1967. One difference comes by party: While 27% of Democrats say they would not support a Mormon for president, that figure is 20% for Republicans.

Those rates may not sound like much, but they could tip a close election — and are likely to be somewhat understated because some poll respondents would be reluctant to admit to anti-Mormon bias. Another recent survey by pollster Gary Lawrence, himself a Mormon, confirmed the bias, but Lawrence offered a more positive spin:



Wall Street protests grow after unions' endorsement

Protesters have been camping out at New York's Zuccotti Park for more than two weeks.

Wall Street protests swelled Wednesday to their largest numbers yet, after local unions pledged support to a third week of demonstrations against income inequality, corporate greed, corruption and a list of other social ills.

Thousands meandered from lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park -- considered a rallying point for the largely leaderless group -- to Foley Square near City Hall.

The crowd then looped back to the park, punctuating a 19-day protest that promotes a wide, if not ambiguous, range of messages.

Causes range from social awareness to radical change in America's financial and political systems, while other participants appeared content to simply get caught up in the spirit of demonstration.

Still, while the fledgling movement has struggled in its definition, demonstrators appear steadfast in their general criticism of the country's wealthiest 1% and its purported influence.


Ten Lessons from Obama

The election of Barack Obama brought all sorts of contradictions. A man with about the least prior executive experience in presidential history was suddenly acclaimed a “god” and the smartest man ever to assume the office.

Most important, a number of critical changes were heralded that would help address the supposed disasters of the Bush administration: a new “reset” foreign policy, a Keynesian economic miracle, a commitment to “millions of green jobs,” and a promise to end politics as usual, specifically the hardball divisive rancor of the past. Obamism, in short, was not a mere change in administration, but a religion.



Bernanke Warns Recovery 'Close to Faltering'

Europe has a debt crisis. America has a jobs crisis. Corporate profits could be in trouble. World financial markets are in turmoil. And no one seems prepared to ride to the rescue.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke bluntly warned Congress on Tuesday of what most of America has sensed for some time: The economic recovery, such as it is, "is close to faltering."

The central bank chief spoke on a day when the stock market spent most of the trading hours in bear market territory — down 20 percent from its most recent highs in April. A late-day rally helped the market finish higher.



Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Two East Texas coal power plants to be idled to meet emissions limits

Luminant, the Dallas-based electricity generator that has protested federal regulators' timetable to curtail emissions from its coal-fired plants, said Monday it will idle two of those facilities and stop mining Texas lignite at some locations by the end of the year, costing about 500 jobs.

Luminant said it took the actions to prepare to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which requires electricity generators in 27 states to cut emissions by Jan. 1, a deadline CEO David Campbell called "unrealistic."

The company said it will spend about $280 million through 2012 on emissions control equipment, but won't complete the projects in time to meet the deadline.

Also Monday, Luminant said it sued the EPA in federal appeals court, seeking to overturn the new rule. It said it will seek a stay of the rule's implementation "because of the immediate and irreparable harm that it will inflict."



In Defense of Romney

Over the past several months, Mitt Romney has been an excellent presidential candidate. He has performed superbly in the debates. He has outorganized his rivals. He has relentlessly stayed on his core theme of putting Americans back to work. He has taken Rick Perry apart with a cold ruthlessness that is a wonder to behold.

Josh Haner/The New York Times

David Brooks

Go to Columnist Page »

David Brooks’s Blog

The intellectual, cultural and scientific findings that land on the columnist’s desk nearly every day.

Related

And throughout this period of excellence, he has done almost nothing to endear himself to Republican activists. They have spent this season of excellence searching for anyone else: Palin, Trump, Bachmann, Perry, Cain and now (Please! Please!) Christie. On Nov. 4, 2010, Romney earned the support of 23 percent of Republican voters, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls. Today, he also has support from 23 percent of Republicans nationwide.



Ann Coulter To Eric Bolling: Wall Street Protests Look Like ‘The Beginning Of Totalitarianism’


As the Occupy Wall Street protests grow and their demands slowly start to solidify, much of their anti-corporate rhetoric is hitting a sour note with conservatives. On tonight’s Follow the Money, host Eric Bolling and guest Ann Coulter discussed the danger of similar “mob uprisings” and the apparent hypocrisy of some of its celebrity supporters, including Roseanne Barr and Michael Moore.

RELATED: Bill O’Reilly And Sean Hannity Send Film Crews To Occupy Wall Street Protests

To Coulter, the protests on Wall Street were far too familiar: “all of those quotes,” she told Bolling, referring to comments by protesters that had played before her, “could have been said in 1789 France before the Revolution… this is always the beginning of totalitarianism.” These revolts, she continued, were favorable to Democrats– “the Democratic Party love mob uprisings, it’s their rise to power.” He also had some words for celebrities getting involved in the affair, particularly Barr and Moore for their comments. Barr, who called for “beheading” the rich, got something of a pass from Coulter for being a “comedienne, so I assume that was a joke,” but she did note that the vague guillotine reference was no coincidence. As for Moore, who claimed that “capitalism destroyed my town,” Coulter noted that Moore wasn’t even from Flint, Michigan, but “an affluent suburb nearby,” so his rally against the rich sounded hollow to her and Bolling both.



The Coming Post-Obama Renaissance

The Parting of the Clouds

In every literary, historical or cinematic masterpiece, times must grow darkest before the sunrise and deliverance. Tolkien worked that classical theme to great effect. A sense of fatalism overtook a seemingly doomed Gondor — right before the overthrow of Barad-dûr and the dawn of a new age of men. The historian Herodotus, in literary fashion, also brilliantly juxtaposed the Greek collapse at Thermopylae (the Spartan King Leonidas’ head impaled on a stake), and the Persian firing of an abandoned Athens, with Themistocles’s sudden salvation of Western civilization at Salamis. In the classic Western film, hopelessness pervades until out of nowhere a Shane rides in.

What Was Hope and Change?

We are living in an age of such morality tales, though the depressing cycle reminds us that the gloom is hardly fiction or artistry. For those with a little capital there is only a sinking stock market. It seems to wipe out more of their 401(k)s each week, as if each month cancels out yet another year of prior thrift. Near zero interest means any money on deposit is only insurance, not any more a source of income. Millions are trapped in their unsold houses, either underwater or facing an end to any dreams of tapping equity by sale.

And for the greater number without savings? Stagnant GDP, 9.1 unemployment, another $5 trillion in debt, $1.6 trillion annual deficits, and sky-high fuel and food prices have combined to crush any notion of upward mobility. (If in 2004 5.7% unemployment was supposed to mark a “jobless recovery,” what exactly is 9.1% called? If Bush’s average $500 billion deficits over eight years were abhorrent, what must we say of Obama’s average $1.6 trillion over three? Really bad?)



What if the NFL Played by Teachers' Rules?

Imagine the National Football League in an alternate reality. Each player's salary is based on how long he's been in the league. It's about tenure, not talent. The same scale is used for every player, no matter whether he's an All-Pro quarterback or the last man on the roster. For every year a player's been in this NFL, he gets a bump in pay. The only difference between Tom Brady and the worst player in the league is a few years of step increases. And if a player makes it through his third season, he can never be cut from the roster until he chooses to retire, except in the most extreme cases of misconduct.

Let's face the truth about this alternate reality: The on-field product would steadily decline. Why bother playing harder or better and risk getting hurt?

No matter how much money was poured into the league, it wouldn't get better. In fact, in many ways the disincentive to play harder or to try to stand out would be even stronger with more money.


Jesse Jackson: America 'On Edge of An Explosion'

Civil rights activist and former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson warns that the American economy resembles nothing so much as the Titanic, and if President Obama and Congress doesn't do something soon, America's streets could easily explode in civil unrest.

Jackson warned in a Newsmax interview that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg might have a point when he predicted rioting on the streets.

“There is real tension in the streets because people are becoming so desperate,” he said. “We’re really on the edge of an explosion.”

Jackson said it is time to revisit President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty, targeting jobs to the most needy areas.


Republican Sponsored H.R. 1505 Would give DHS Police State Powers over 80% of the U.S.

By John Galt September 30, 2011 – 21:30 ET If you live within 100 miles of any ocean, you’re in the “zone.” If you live within 100 miles of the United Nations in New York City, you’re in the “zone.” If you live within 100 miles of the Canadian or Mexican border, you’re in the “zone.” If you live within...

If you live within 100 miles of any ocean, you’re in the “zone.”

If you live within 100 miles of the United Nations in New York City, you’re in the “zone.”

If you live within 100 miles of the Canadian or Mexican border, you’re in the “zone.”

If you live within 100 miles of a foreign embassy, consulate, or declared international trade zone with foreign ownership, you’re in the “zone.”

What zone is this that I speak of?

And does an Indian Reservation border count as an “International Border?”



Denmark Introduces ‘Fat Tax’ on Foods High in Saturated Fat

gty butter fat foods jt 111002 wblog Denmark Introduces Fat Tax on Foods High in Saturated Fat

ABC News’ Olivia Katrandjian reports:

Denmark has introduced what’s believed to be the world’s first fat food tax, applying a surcharge to foods with more than 2.3 percent saturated fats, in an effort to combat obesity and heart disease.

Danes hoarded food before the tax went into effect Saturday, emptying grocery store shelves. Some butter lovers may even resort to stocking up during trips abroad.

The new tax of 16 kroner ($2.90) per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of saturated fat in a product will be levied on foods like butter, milk, cheese, pizza, oils and meat.



Finally, The Cognoscenti Ask: What Could We Be Thinking?

The way I think about it," Barack Obama told a TV station in Orlando, "is, you know, this is a great, great country that had gotten a little soft."

He has a point. This is a great, great country that got so soft that 53% of electors voted for a ludicrously unqualified chief executive who would be regarded as a joke candidate in any serious nation.

One should not begrudge a man who seizes his opportunity. But one should certainly hold in contempt those who allow him to seize it on the basis of such flaccid generalities as "hope" and "change": That's more than "a little" soft.

"He's probably the smartest guy ever to become president," declared presidential historian Michael Beschloss the day after the 2008 election. But you don't have to be that smart to put one over on all the smart guys.

"I'm a sap, a specific kind of sap. I'm an Obama Sap," admits David Brooks, the softest touch at the New York Times. Tina Brown, editor of Newsweek, now says of the president: "He wasn't ready, it turns out, really."



The Latest Crime Wave: Sending Your Child to a Better School

In case you needed further proof of the American education system's failings, especially in poor and minority communities, consider the latest crime to spread across the country: educational theft. That's the charge that has landed several parents, such as Ohio's Kelley Williams-Bolar, in jail this year.

An African-American mother of two, Ms. Williams-Bolar last year used her father's address to enroll her two daughters in a better public school outside of their neighborhood. After spending nine days behind bars charged with grand theft, the single mother was convicted of two felony counts. Not only did this stain her spotless record, but it threatened her ability to earn the teacher's license she had been working on.

ccflaherty

Alabama Immigration students

Hispanic students have started vanishing from Alabama public schools in the wake of a court ruling that upheld the state's tough new law cracking down on illegal immigration.

Education officials say scores of immigrant families have withdrawn their children from classes or kept them home this week, afraid that sending the kids to school would draw attention from authorities.

There are no precise statewide numbers. But several districts with large immigrant enrollments -- from small towns to large urban districts -- reported a sudden exodus of children of Hispanic parents, some of whom told officials they planned to leave the state to avoid trouble with the law, which requires schools to check students' immigration status.