op ed review 12/6

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Beginning 1 year after enactment of the Cap and Trade Act, you won't be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to comply with the energy and water efficiency standards of the "Cap & Trade" bill passed by the House of Representatives. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that in a few years the average cost to every family of four will be $6,800 per year. In effect, this bill prevents you from selling your home without the permission of the EPA administrator.

http://www.nachi.org/forum/f14/cap-and-trade-license-required-your-home-44750/

In the last two weeks, eight national polls have been released showing what the American people think of Obamacare. The results of those eight polls show that by an average margin of 8.5 percent, more people oppose Obamacare than support it. Half of the eight polls show Obamacare facing a double-digit deficit.

http://healthcare.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmFiNzUwMzcwZTc3YjVjODEwMjcwZjM4MjFiNWI4OWE=

Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants could receive health care coverage from their employers under the bills winding their way through Congress, despite President Obama's explicit pledge that illegal immigrants would not benefit.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/30/health-bills-fail-to-block-illegals-from-coverage/

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius would be awarded unprecedented new powers under the Democrat health care bill, including the authority to decide what medical care should be covered by insurers as well as the terms and conditions of coverage and who should receive it. "The legislation lists 1,697 times where the secretary of health and humans services is given the authority to create, determine or define things in the bill.”

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/HHS-would-become-federal-giant-under-Senate-plan-8586777-73718162.html

The Obama Administration and the Congressional Democrat leadership are desperately trying to create the false impression that the government takeover of health care now pending in Congress is rolling towards inevitable victory. But the truth is that the legislation is now hanging by a thread, and can be routed by the growing tide of public opposition.

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/12/02/committing-harrycare

One day after Comcast and NBC announced their merger deal, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts proudly weighed in to strongly support the Senate Democrats’ health care reform bill. “Roberts’ heartfelt letter of support of the Democrats’ singular policy issue was the first action he took in what is expected to be a twelve-month regulatory review process…..a move that sets a new standard for blatant pandering...”

http://biggovernment.com/2009/12/04/comcast-nbc-deal-does-the-mergers-approval-rest-on-health-care/#more-41222

President Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” has ties to NAMBLA”

http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=927

He also has a recommended reading list for schools that will shock you.

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2009/12/breaking-obamas-safe-schools-czar-is-promoting-porn-in-the-classroom-kevin-jennings-and-the-glsen-reading-list/

The Obama administration has begun approving new lines of human embryonic stem cells that are eligible for federally funded experiments, opening the way for millions of taxpayer dollars to be used to conduct research that was put off-limits by President George W. Bush.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/02/AR2009120201955_pf.html

A bill that would have allowed same-sex marriage was rejected by New York lawmakers, a stunning outcome for advocates in a state that was the site of one of the gay rights movement's defining moments four decades ago, and a huge victory for opponents who said it could influence votes elsewhere.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Headlines/Default.aspx?id=795826

“Democrats had known there was an “intensity gap” between angry conservatives in the Republican Party and the unexcited Democratic base…..Yet no one suspected it was this bad.”

http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/markos-moulitas/70053-brutal-poll-for-dems

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) likes flowers. She spent $2,993 of your money on them between June and October.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/30013.html

Col. Van T. Barfoot, one of the country's last-surviving Medal of Honor winners, has been ordered by his homeowner’s association to remove a flagpole from his yard. The decorated veteran of three wars, now 90 years old, raises the American flag every morning on the pole, then lowers and folds the flag at dusk each day.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/POLEGAT02_20091202-091201/309031/#When:14:12:20Z

The people of Honduras elected their new president, conservative businessman Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo. "Hondurans are not just electing a president. Their participation is a vote for freedom over Chavez-style socialism,

http://www.worldmag.com/articles/16181

“A line 1,000 deep formed at Sarah Palin's first book-tour stop last month in Grand Rapids, Mich. Fans toting camping gear arrived more than a day early in rural Washington State. And in suburban Indianapolis, crowds were so large that organizers gave out stickers instead of autographs when Palin's hand cramped. A similar throng is expected to gather today in Plano….”

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-palinadv_04met.ART0.State.Edition1.518fbdf.html

On Saturday's Huckabee show on FNC, host Mike Huckabee interviewed gameshow host Chuck Woolery, who admitted to being conservative and voiced support for term limits, the Constitution, and tea party protesters.: "I'm now sacrificing my career coming out as a conservative.”

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2009/11/29/chuck-woolery-comes-out-conservative-jokes-ill-never-be-hired-hollywo

A survey of North American light rail projects shows that costs of most LRT systems range from $15 million per mile to $100 million per mile. Seattle's new light rail system is by far the most expensive in the U.S. at $179 million per mile…. “In other words, we're number 1!”

http://soundpolitics.com/archives/013562.html

______________________________________________________________________________________

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

“Global warming's new clothes” By Rosslyn Smith 12/4/09

Some are unhappy that the Copenhagen conference on climate change is going forward. I think that it is entirely appropriate in light of the revelations coming out of CRU/IPCC. After all, Copenhagen was where Danish author Hans Christian Andersen published The Emperor's New Clothes in 1837. While we tend to remember the little boy who called out "But he isn't wearing anything at all!" we often forget that the entire story was about far more than a vain ruler.

It begins, after all, with two con men who promise they can weave cloth of unsurpassed beauty to the enlightened but which would be invisible to any man who was unfit for his office or unpardonably stupid. They would then tailor that fabric into a fabulous suit of clothes for the emperor. The emperor invested in the venture because such traits would be useful to someone like himself as emperors tend attract both sycophants and self serving manipulators.

The emperor gave the weaver/tailors all the luxury materials they asked for and they immediately began a lavish charade of diligent labor in front of empty looms. One by one the emperor sent trusted people to check on the progress as he fed more and more resources into the project. Lest they admit to their own apparent unfitness, one by one the trusted advisors returned to rave about the beauty of the cloth being made. To a man they had accepted the con men's premise that they could weave a magic cloth and they ended up doubting their own abilities, not those of the con men. Thus they were doubly wrong, Not only did they fall for the con, they also failed in their duty to the emperor. When the emperor himself came for a fitting, the con men acted every bit the tailors, working invisible fabric with imaginary pins and needles and even the vain emperor began to doubt himself.

I can almost excuse the politicians and the speculators who promoted man made global warming (AGW). Like Anderson's emperor, they invested in a tool that would advance their self interest. Representative democracies are supposed to have checks and balances to help keep such self-interest within reasonable bounds. In addition to the way the researchers themselves violated scientific standards, the actions of our journalists and educators who jumped on the AGW bandwagon made matters worse….

So who are the weavers and the tailors in the tale of AGW? Certainly the scientists at CRU/IPCC, but they had a great deal of help.

For decades now appalling orthodoxy has been ossifying many academic disciplines. As a result students are never exposed to competing ideas and attitudes. Increasingly that orthodoxy has spread to the political class in general. Writes David Bernstein: “... it's clear that many liberal-leaning institutions, starting with the universities, are sufficiently engaged in groupthink that they lack the most basic curiosity about or knowledge of what their ideological adversaries believe, and are instead inclined to dismiss them entirely as mere evil reactionaries. [And they are sufficiently isolated from contact with conservatives that they don't have personal experiences to suggest otherwise; it's easy enough, for example, to go to a top university, on to a major journalism school, and from there to the New York Times or MSNBC or The Huffington Post without ever having had a serious intellectual discussion with a conservative colleague or mentor.]

The transformation of journalists from whistleblowers to cheerleaders became obvious to many Americans during last year's presidential election. So pervasive is the leftist atmosphere that ambitious people in other industries and in many urban settings have learned that to even express curiosity about conservatism instead of accepting the crudest of caricatures of the political opposition might stigmatize them as unpardonably stupid and unfit for their high status jobs. Those who used to love to say that dissent is the highest form of patriotism have been assiduously working to assure that dissent from the agenda they have been weaving will be considered the lowest form of stupidity.

The moral of the "Emperor's New Clothes" certainly applies to AGW and many of those who accepted the assertions by non scientists with political agendas that the science was settled. The emperor's advisors and subjects were so afraid of appearing stupid that they suspended their judgment. Thus they ended up demonstrating to the entire world that they were indeed stupid.

How appropriate that the busy weavers of the left and those who still refuse to see that there is nothing at all to see in AGW will be going to the home town of the emperor who put all his shortcomings on full display.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/global_warmings_new_clothes_1.html

______________________________________________________________________________________

FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"How many times has a liberal touted this or that government agenda with the idea that they're doing it 'for the children.' When more Americans begin to understand that the more accurate phrase is 'to the children,' it will be the beginning of the end for these power-hungry thugs. Here's hoping it happens sooner rather than later."

-Arnold Ahlert

"The reason the Democratic leadership and the White House are rushing to pass the [health care] bill is that they know it is killing them and believe doing it quickly will kill fewer of them than doing it slowly. If they pass it by year's end, perhaps voters will move on to other concerns by the November 2010 midterm elections."

-Byron York

"A liberal mistrusts lessons bought with experience. For him, theory is all. He's the only man who would sit down on a red-hot stove twice. That makes well-meaning Democrats marks for shysters selling health-care 'reform,' global warming and appeasement of radical Islamists."

-Wesley Pruden

"No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems -- of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind."

-Thomas Sowell

"President Obama was shown in photos Friday smiling with the couple who crashed his state dinner. The photos showed the husband, the wife and the president. If it's a crime to talk your way into the White House without a background check, all three of them could face charges."

-Argus Hamilton

"How do you on the one hand say: 'We need to send these troops over there; it's critical; this is in our national-security interest to do this.' But then say: 'But we're only going to keep them there for 18 months; we're going to start to withdraw them after 18 months'? I just don't understand the logic of how that works. ... This is not a football game, where the time runs out. To win this war, you have to defeat the enemy.”

-CBS anchor Bob Schieffer

"If I were with the Taliban right now, I'd put a little Post-it up on that month in 2011, and say: 'This is when we do our surge.'"

-MSNBC's Chris Matthews

_________________________________________________________________________________________

GLOBALONEY

“The scientific consensus that mankind has caused climate change was rocked yesterday as a leading academic called it a “load of hot air underpinned by fraud”. Professor Ian Plimer condemned the climate change lobby as “climate comrades” keeping the “gravy train” going. In a controversial talk just days before the start of a climate summit attended by world leaders in Copenhagen, Prof Plimer said Governments were treating the public like “fools” and using climate change to increase taxes. He said carbon dioxide has had no impact on temperature and that recent warming was part of the natural cycle of climate stretching over ­billions of years.

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/143573

“Climategate: it's all unravelling now: Carbon trading is the Emperor’s New Clothes of international finance. It was invented by none other than Ken Lay, whose Enron would currently be one of the prime beneficiaries in the global alternative energy market, if it hadn’t been shown to be (nearly) as fraudulent as the current AGW scam. It is a license to fleece, cheat and rob…..”

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100018556/climategate-its-all-unravelling-now/

Leaked 'climategate' documents show huge flaws in the backbone of climate change science: 'Botch after botch after botch'

http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/lorrie_goldstein/2009/11/29/11967916-sun.html

IBD editorial: “The shameless denial with which major newspapers and networks have treated "Climategate" layers even more scandal on top of the original one: Mainstream media now co-conspires with scientific hacks and big government. The evolution of America's dominant media from guardians of our freedoms to enablers of government growth has been a decades-long story, their biases copiously chronicled. But their response to the scientific scandal of the century, since it broke a week and a half ago, bids to become known as history's great unmasking of these supposedly independent journalists.”

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=513989

Scientists have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based. It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6936328.ece

Two Hollywood conservatives (yes, there are some) have called upon the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to rescind the prestigious, profitable gold Oscar statuette that it gave ex-Vice President Al Gore two years ago for the environmental movie "An Inconvenient Truth.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/al-gore-oscar-global-warming.html

Hypocrisy is the vice we find hardest to forgive, but it’s also the one we most enjoy discovering in others. And nothing piques our interest more than eco-hypocrisy as practised by the “green” celebrities who have been spouting green virtue but spewing out hundreds of tons of carbon from their private jets or multiple holiday homes around the globe.

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/celebrity/article6931572.ece

It’s snowing in Houston:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl//6750042.html

_______________________________________________________________________________

BOOKS

Acress Sandra Bullock says meeting Leigh Anne Tuohy, who she portrays in The Blind Side, showed her there really are some Christians who "walk the walk." The film, which opened the week before Thanksgiving, presents the true story of the Tuohys -- a well-off white family in Tennessee -- who welcome a homeless black youth into their home and then adopt him as their son. That young man, Michael Oher, became an All-American selection for Ole Miss and a first-round draft pick. He now plays for the NFL's Baltimore Ravens.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=792418

_________________________________________________________________________________________

LEFTIST WATCH

The anti-war left is turning on the president it helped put into office, launching a counteroffensive against President Obama's decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan. Activist groups are joining liberal members of Congress in condemning the president's expected announcement on Tuesday that he will order roughly 30,000 more troops to the war zone ''I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do,'' do

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/30/anti-war-left-protests-obamas-afghanistan-war-strategy/

MSNBC reached a new shameful low when Chris Matthews referred to West Point as an "enemy camp." He was trying to convey his surprise that Barack Obama would go to such a place, somewhere, he said, where Paul Wolfowitz would be more comfortable.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzdhYTY0MDRiYTBlYjVkOTAwMjE2YWM5OGU5OTg1MDA=

Michael Moore writes that Obama should have fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal when the general went public with his call for up to 40,000 additional U.S. troops. "Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in' hate these generals," Moore said.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/57811

Former DNC chairman Howard Dean declares the debate between capitalism and socialism to be over. “We’re going to have both.”

http://www.breitbart.tv/howard-dean-declares-debate-between-capitalism-and-socialism-to-be-over/

Arrest the whistleblowers: "You call it 'Climategate,' I call it 'E-mail-theft-gate.... Part of our looking at this will be looking at a criminal activity which could have well been coordinated."

-Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

_____________________________________________________________________________________

ACTIVISM

“We have a suggestion. We believe that the ACLU, which is often at the forefront of the battle against religious liberty, could benefit from a little less bah humbug. Therefore, we recommend sending them a Christmas card. Don't be rude or crude, simply ensure that the card says "Merry Christmas" and send it to 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004. And sign it Bob Cratchit.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

ARTICLES

As the Congress prepared to vote to let us enter the world of waits for doctors, waits for specialists, waits for testing and waits for surgery, radiation and chemo, we should pause to consider the relative records of the private medical care system in the United States with the socialized system in the U.K. In 2008, Britain had a cancer death rate 0.25% while the United States had a rate of only 0.18%. The UK cancer death rate was 38% higher than in the United States.

http://biggovernment.com/2009/12/02/u-k-cancer-death-rate-is-38-higher-than-in-u-s/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BigGovernment+(Big+Government)

Sixteen of the top 20 box office earners have either a G or PG rating which should be a clue that R rated films don’t do as well yet studios continue to add gratuitous irrelevant sex scenes that ruin the film. Why? It certainly can’t be artistic license because the principal reaction to them is usually-‘Ew!!! Why did they do that?

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/aliciacolon/2009/11/29/part-ii-appreciating-true-erotica/

More Iowans consider themselves to be conservatives than moderates or liberals, offering the state's Republican Party a potentially large pool of converts as it struggles to win back voters, according to a new Iowa Poll. Most current and former Iowa Republicans agree on two reasons why the party has lost elections and voters. It has nominated lackluster candidates, and officeholders have neglected to make spending control a top priority, according to the poll.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20091129/NEWS09/911290341/-1/BUSINESS04/Iowa-Poll-Iowa-leans-conservative-offering-potential-for-GOP

RICHLAND—Welcome to Sarah Palin country, 220 miles and a world of politics away from Seattle. “By 9:30 Saturday night, some 250 of the faithful were camped outside the store, sitting in lawn chairs, covering themselves with blankets and sleeping bags, warming up with portable propane heaters. "She stands for what we stand for, which is greatly lacking in Seattle," said Debi Danielson, 54, of Yakima.”

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010379768_webpalin29m.html

“Just plain nuts: That's the only possible characterization for last night's presidential declaration of surrender in advance of a renewed campaign in Afghanistan. President Obama will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan -- but he'll "begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011." Then why send them? If you're going to tell the Taliban to be patient because we're leaving, what's the point in upping the blood ante?”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/setting_up_our_military_to_fail_lBlTIHm69SM02Lly5JbNaO

__________________________________________________________________________________________

NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

One of the best 2 minute speeches you’ll ever see on health care.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=G44NCvNDLfc

How government health care will work:

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

Crouching Tiger hidden hydrant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i5FlC1MpkE

The silent monks sing Halleluia

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

“A doggy Christmas surprise”

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

STS-129 Ascent Video Highlights

http://www.vimeo.com/7852885

__________________________________________________________________________________________

WISE WORDS

"The state tends to expand in proportion to its means of existence and to live beyond its means, and these are, in the last analysis, nothing but the substance of the people. Woe to the people that cannot limit the sphere of action of the state! Freedom, private enterprise, wealth, happiness, independence, personal dignity, all vanish."

-Bastiat

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."

-Thomas Jefferson

“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule”

- H. L. Menken.

op ed review 11/29

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

President Obama has shattered the budget record for first-year presidents -- spending nearly double what his predecessor did when he came into office and far exceeding the first-year tabs for any other U.S. president in history.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/24/obama-shatters-spending-record-year-presidents/

The Rasmussen daily Presidential Tracking Poll now shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15. This is the lowest Approval Index rating yet measured for President Obama.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

Newly released visitor logs show that more than two dozen of President Obama's top-tier campaign fundraisers visited the White House during his first nine months in office, providing more evidence of the administration's quiet effort to reward donors with VIP access including private briefings with presidential advisers. The records show that a Florida trial lawyer, a Hollywood music executive, and a Maryland health care executive scored meetings with the president.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/26/white-house-logs-point-to-donor-access/

The New York Times scales new heights of sycophancy in its report of the White House state dinner last night, which by their account was the most charming, imaginative, glittering – yet tasteful! – social event since Jackie Kennedy was Queen of Camelot.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100017885/sick-bags-at-the-ready-the-new-york-times-gushes-over-the-obamas-state-dinner/

Not that it matters politically because obviously she's a female Republican dunce and he's a male Democrat genius. But Sarah Palin's poll numbers are strengthening. And President Obama's are sliding. Guess what? They're about to meet in the 40s.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/11/not-that-it-matters-politically-because-shes-a-republican-idiot-and-hes-a-democrat-geniusbut-sarah-palins-poll-numbers-are-c.html

Unbelievable: Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four American security guards in Fallujah in 2004. The bodies of the security guards were burnt, hacked, hung for display on a bridge over the Euphrates river. But the SEALs are now facing criminal charges, for punching him in the face. “The military is sensitive to charges of detainee abuse highlighted in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,576646,00.html

An SEIU union leader in Pennsylvania has resigned after he threatened legal action over an aspiring Eagle Scout's volunteer project. The resignations came one day after FoxNews.com reported that Balzano had said that the SEIU might file a grievance against the city of Allentown for allowing 17-year-old Kevin Anderson to voluntarily clear a walking trail in a local park, instead of paying union members to do the work.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,576438,00.html

The SEIU members who beat up an African-American tea party protestor in St. Louis have been arrested.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/laworder/story/292B2FBC013D06A886257679007AA369?OpenDocument

Replacement of the Seattle 520 bridge: “officials could build 30 of the existing structures for the same amount they want to spend on its replacement…..but….it will not increase general-purpose lane capacity.”

http://washingtonpolicyblog.typepad.com/washington_policy_center_/2009/11/520-bridge.html

Here comes another tax: A House bill still being drafted aims to raise $150 billion each year on the sale and purchase of stocks, options, derivatives and futures.

http://thehill.com//homenews/house/69295-dems-push-wall-street-150b-stock-tax

Former Clinton advisor Dick Morris says that under-30 voters, once the most enthusiastic supporters of President Barack Obama’s far-reaching health care reform, are now its strongest opponents. National polling following a TV and Internet ad campaign in Arkansas, North Dakota and Maine found that 65 percent of the youngest voters are opposed to Obama’s healthcare initiative, compared to 55 percent opposition among senior citizens.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Youngest-voters-spurn-Obamacare-72880197.html

This won’t help Obamacare: “Howard Dean Admits Health Care Bill Costs Trillions, Delivers Little”

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/11/27/howard-dean-stop-obamacare-now/

You liked “Cash for Clunkers”? You’ll love “Cash for Appliances”. “California, which will receive $35 million, preliminarily estimated that it will create 350 jobs. This was based on the assumption that for every $92,000 expended, one job would be created.” ( Editor’s note: When’s the “Cash for Computers” program coming?)

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/11/27/get-ready-for-cash-for-appliances-sometime/

What conservatives are increasingly calling the “showcase Senate primary” of 2010 has already taken some early and very positive turns for their candidate. The latest Qunnipiac University poll among Florida Republicans showed Marco Rubio, former speaker of the state House and the conservative hopeful in the GOP Senate primary next year, gaining dramatically on the long-presumed front-runner, incumbent governor Charlie Crist.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34518

Rep. Patrick Kennedy says Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin has barred him from receiving communion because of his support of abortion rights.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i4NIaJ-o5k6fIdytUkZ8lJiVLViQD9C4HI4O3

Climategate: the final nail in the coffin of 'Anthropogenic Global Warming'?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/

Sen. Inhofe Says He Will Call for Investigation on "Climategate"

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2188feb3-802a-23ad-4de4-3fbc0a92e126&Issue_id

But Obama administration climate czar Carol Browner on Wednesday rejected the email evidence and says she still considers the science settled.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/26/browner-rejects-doctored-data-claims/?feat=home_headlines

Obama Science Czar John Holdren is directly involved in the unfolding scandal.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/17183

______________________________________________________________________________________

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

A wealth of good columns this week:

Mark Alexander 11/25

You know the story of our First Thanksgiving, the three-day Pilgrim feast of 1621, after nearly half their company had died during the preceding winter. What you may not know, however, is that, in an effort to improve production at Plymouth Plantation, a collectivist policy was implemented in 1622 which almost destroyed the remainder of the settlement.

Plymouth Colony's governor, William Bradford, recorded in his history of the Colony that, to forestall another failed crop season, he would allot each family a plot of land, and mandate that "all profits & benefits that are got by trade, working, fishing, or any other means" must be forfeited to a common storehouse in order that "all such persons as are of this colony, are to have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provisions out of the common stock." In theory, Bradford believed that this would be good for the Colony since each family would receive equal share of produce without regard to their contribution.

Unfortunately, then as now, collectivism works only in theory.

Bradford wrote that his plan failed because it undermined the incentive to produce, noting that it "was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort."

After the abysmal results in 1622, Bradford wrote that the Colony leaders contemplated "how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop." They then decided to trade their collectivist plan for a free market approach, and in 1623, Bradford wrote, "This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any other means the Governor or any other could use. ... Instead of famine now God gave them plenty and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many. ... Any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day." As a direct consequence, the Colony celebrated a much greater Day of Thanksgiving in 1623.

The conclusion was obvious. Given liberty and incentive to be industrious, their Colony thrived. Indeed, by 1624, production was so abundant that the Colony exported corn back to England. And for generations since, to the extent that men have been set at perfect liberty to establish free markets, to produce goods and services without having profits seized for redistribution, our nation has thrived.

http://patriotpost.us/alexander/2009/11/25/count-your-blessings/

Charles Krauthammer 11/26/09

The United States has the best health care in the world but, because of its inefficiencies, also the most expensive. The fundamental problem with the 2,074-page Senate health care bill (as with its 2,014-page House counterpart) is that it wildly compounds the complexity by adding hundreds of new provisions, regulations, mandates, committees and other arbitrary bureaucratic inventions.

Worse, they're packed into a monstrous package without any regard to each other. The only thing linking these changes — such as the 118 new boards, commissions and programs — is political expediency.

Each must be able to garner just enough votes to pass. There isn't even a pretense of a unifying vision or conceptual harmony. The result is an overregulated, overbureaucratized system of surpassing arbitrariness and inefficiency. Throw a dart at the Senate tome:

You'll find mandates with financial penalties — the amounts picked out of a hat.

You'll find insurance companies (who live and die by their actuarial skills) told exactly what weight to give risk factors, such as age. Currently insurance premiums for 20-somethings are about one-sixth the premiums for 60-somethings. The House bill dictates that the young shall now pay at minimum one-half; the Senate bill, one-third — numbers picked out of a hat.

You'll find sliding scales for health-insurance subsidies — randomly picked — that will radically raise marginal income-tax rates for middle-class recipients, among other crazy unintended consequences.

The bill is irredeemable. It should not only be defeated. It should be immolated, its ashes scattered over the Senate swimming pool. Then do health care the right way — one reform at a time, each simple and simplifying, aimed at reducing complexity, arbitrariness and inefficiency.

First, tort reform. This is money — the low-end estimate is about half a trillion per decade — wasted in two ways. Part is simply hemorrhaged into the legal system to benefit a few jackpot lawsuit winners and an army of extravagantly rich malpractice lawyers such as John Edwards.

The rest is wasted within the medical system in the millions of unnecessary tests, procedures and referrals undertaken solely to fend off lawsuits — resources wasted on patients who don't need them and which could be redirected to the uninsured who really do. In the 4,000-plus pages of the two bills, there is no tort reform.

Indeed, the House bill actually penalizes states that dare "limit attorneys' fees or impose caps on damages." Why? Because, as Howard Dean has openly admitted, Democrats don't want "to take on the trial lawyers."

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=513541

Another must read: David Horowitz: The Art of Political War for Tea Parties. “A movement without an effective strategy for defeating its opponents cannot succeed. Therefore it is important to reacquaint ourselves with the art of political war. While Democrats are morally bankrupt and clueless about policy – about what makes things work — they still win elections because they understand a simple fact: American politics is driven by the romance of the underdog, the story of the little guy who goes up against the system and triumphs in the end. It is a story about opportunity and fairness. To win the hearts and minds of the American voter, you have to tap the emotions the romance of the underdog evokes. Whoever does so has a winning edge…..at election time, it’s the political left and the Democratic Party who know how to wield it as a political weapon, and Republicans and conservatives generally who don’t. Of course the Tea Parties have changed all that. And that is another sign that we are in an extraordinary political moment. The Tea Parties draw on the heritage of America’s own revolution as an underdog nation and are the voice of the people, oppressed now by their own government which is out of control and determined to crush them.

http://frontpagemag.com/2009/11/26/the-art-of-political-war-for-tea-parties-by-david-horowitz/

________________________________________________________________________________________

FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"By the time Obama came to office, KSM was ready to go before a military commission, plead guilty and be executed. It's Obama who blocked a process that would have yielded the swiftest and most certain justice. Indeed, the perfect justice. Whenever a jihadist volunteers for martyrdom, we should grant his wish. Instead, this one, the most murderous and unrepentant of all, gets to dance and declaim at the scene of his crime. [Attorney General Eric] Holder himself told The Washington Post that the coming New York trial will be 'the trial of the century.' The last such was the trial of O.J. Simpson."

-Charles Krauthammer

"Nidal Malik Hasan, was unimpressed by our diversity. In fact, it may have been diversity that set him off. Hasan and other Muslim extremists don't practice diversity. They mostly practice Sharia law, which backlashes against anyone who won't submit to their fundamentalist view of the world. ... Why do so many American leaders seem ashamed and apologetic about America? Holding to the view that America is unexceptional and that no idea, policy, belief, or practice is to be preferred over any other is not diversity. Rather, it is thin gruel; unappealing and unappetizing, and it robs us of our strength. Did diversity build and sustain America through world wars and economic challenges? No, it was a firm set of principles held by patriots of many races who were willing to pay the price in money and blood. These days, we seem to be increasingly confronted with people who are the political equivalent of shoplifters: they want the benefits without paying the price. ... I grow weary of having to tolerate everything when none of those making such demands seem willing to tolerate much of what I believe. Shouldn't diversity be a two-way street instead of a roadblock?"

-Cal Thomas

"The American people are hearing a call to arms -- not literal arms, for our system can self correct. But we have to out-organize and out-pressure the Left. They have called us 'the enemy' ever since Alinsky's little book radicalized the revolutionaries of the Boomer Left after the violent revolutionary groups were readily suppressed. When somebody really considers you their enemy you have no choice. Either you return the compliment, or you get overwhelmed by the new Chicago Mob in D.C. The Left has shown how to fight from a position of the minority and win. American conservatives by a recent poll have a two-to-one majority. They are constantly undermined by the political Left: Ridiculed in the media, demeaned in the schools and universities, out-maneuvered in politics at the state and national level by Leftists who are far nastier and far more ruthless than ordinary, decent Americans. This is a struggle for the country. We need to toughen up."

-James Lewis

_________________________________________________________________________________________

GLOBALONEY

“The Real Global Warming Disaster: Is The Obsession With 'Climate Change' Turning Out To Be The Most Costly Scientific Blunder In History?” by Christopher Booker Just imagine if we learned we were about to be landed with the biggest bill in the history of the world - simply on the say-so of a group of scientists. Would we not want to be absolutely sure that those scientists were 100 per cent dependable in what they were saying? Should we not then be extremely worried - and even very angry - if it emerged that those scientists had been conspiring among themselves to fiddle the evidence for what they were telling us? This is the extraordinary position in which we find ourselves thanks to news reported in Saturday's Daily Mail which has raised huge question marks over the reliability of the science behind the theory of global warming..”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1230113/The-devastating-book-debunks-climate-change.html

The impression left by (the emails) is that the climate-tracking game has been rigged from the start.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703499404574559630382048494.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The New York Times is forced to concede that "the (email) documents will undoubtedly raise questions about the quality of research on some specific questions and the actions of some scientists." But apparently the paper's environmental blog, Dot Earth, is taking a pass on publishing any of the documents and emails that are now circulating. Andrew Revkin, the author of that blog, writes, The documents appear to have been acquired illegally and contain all manner of private information and statements that were never intended for the public eye, so they won’t be posted here. Of course, when the choice is between publishing classified information that might endanger the lives of U.S. troops in the field or intelligence programs vital to national security, that information is published without hesitation by the nation's paper of record. But in this case -- the documents were "never intended for the public eye," so the New York Times will take a pass.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/11/nytimes_we_wont_publish_statem.asp

Judge for yourself: Here’s a summary of the emails:

http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2009/11/20/climate-cuttings-33.html

Aren’t Nobel Prize winners supposed to be smart? Al Gore, on the Tonight Show told viewers, "….the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees…" Actually the temperature at the earth's core is about 5,000 degrees Celsius....If the temperature anywhere inside the earth was 'several million degrees,' we'd be a star.

http://www.examiner.com/x-14766-Charleston-Ron-Paul-Examiner~y2009m11d19-Al-Gore-turns-up-the-heat

_______________________________________________________________________________

BOOKS

“Why Obama’s Government Takeover of Health Care Will Be a Disaster,” by David Grazer. If Barack Obama has his way, the American health care system is headed for a train wreck. In this vital expose, Dr. David Gratzer reveals how a government takeover by Washington will put a massive new bureaucracy between doctors and patients, create rationing, and kill the spirit of innovation that has made American high tech medicine a world leader in the treatment of cancer and other diseases. Dr. Gratzer, a first-hand witness of the failures of Canada’s healthcare system, shows why socialized medicine will make America sick.

http://www.encounterbooks.com/books/obamahealthcare/

Syndicated conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg, who authored the No. 1 best-seller Liberal Fascism, has made the leap into the big leagues of right-wing punditry. His second book, tentatively titled The Tyranny of Clichés, has just been sold for $1 million, according to publishing sources.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20091122/SUB/911229998

Sarah Palin appears well on her way to becoming a million-selling author. "Going Rogue" sold 700,000 copies — a number that includes pre-orders — in its first week of release, according to a publishing official close to the former Alaska governor.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jlxDCO3o2Lipkwnit2WjvF0TCa5gD9C5KEL00

The news media's mad dash to highlight the inflammatory passages of Sarah Palin's new book largely misses the point. Many Americans see her as a vehicle for their anger and disgust at Washington, and the Palin phenomenon is part of a larger trend of turning against the Establishment across the board. There are many signs of voter resentment. And the result could be a tide of hostility that will turn Washington on its head in next year's midterm elections and maybe in 2012. "The American people have gone shopping, and they have purchased all the ingredients necessary for a political upheaval," says pollster Frank Luntz, author of What Americans Really Want . . . Really. "The question is: Are they going to cook the stew?"

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/obama/2009/11/25/trouble-is-brewing-for-obama-democrats-in-2010.html

_________________________________________________________________________________________

LEFTIST WATCH

"Climate change" and "health care" are different ends of the same stick: They're both all-purpose pretexts for regulating every aspect of your life. Don't take my word for it - listen to the (new EU President) “2009 is also the first year of global governance….” Did you get that memo? And, if you disagree, who do you call? Who do you vote out of office if you want a change in "global governance"? Previewing Copenhagen, global warm-monger Tim Flannery is entirely upfront about the end-game: “We think of them as being concerned with some sort of environmental treaty. That is far from the case... They deal with every aspect of our life and they will influence every aspect of our life, our economy, our society…”

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Mzc1MTkzNDc3NWE0ZDc2NzljOTZjZjU4YTAyYTE3YmE=

President Hugo Chávez is heaping praise on Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, the Venezuelan better known as Carlos the Jackal and implicated in hijackings and terror attacks across Europe in the 1970s and ’80s, describing him in a speech here Friday night as a “revolutionary fighter.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/world/americas/22venezweb.html

Chavez has also praised former dictator Idi Amin. Chavez on Friday called the East African dictator a nationalist and a patriot.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iWTsnsM0rYELrgPSOLNaBZm-wI4gD9C4HDEO0

"We even have blacks voting against the health care bill. You can't vote against health care and call yourself a black man." -Jesse Jackson

_____________________________________________________________________________________

ARTICLES

Four Tactical Steps That Will Defeat Obamacare

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34534

You might have missed it, but the Islamic Apology Police were on the case of the Republican governor-elect of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell this week. It seems that following the jihadist attack on Fort Hood, the Rev. Pat Robertson, a longtime ally of McDonnell's, criticized Islam on his television show. And no one in these not-just-politically-but-also-Islamically-correct times is permitted to do that -- not even, as we have learned to our horror, senior Army personnel when presented with incontrovertible evidence that a jihadist is in their ranks. Here's what we know: Islamic law (Shariah) punishes "leaving Islam" with death. Islam has a bloody history of expansionism. Almost exactly two-thirds of Muslims in four countries polled in a 2007 survey favored both Shariah and the caliphate. And the Muslim Brotherhood's manifesto for "a grand Jihad" in America calls for "destroying the Western civilization from within" so that Islam is "victorious over all other religions."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Political-Islam-is-bent-on-world-domination-8563358-70641137.html

“Major Hasan was the first mass murderer in U.S. history to give a PowerPoint presentation outlining the rationale for the crime he was about to commit. And he gave the presentation to a roomful of fellow army psychiatrists and doctors. Some of whom glanced queasily at their colleagues, but none of whom actually spoke up. And, when the question of whether then-Captain Hasan was, in fact, “psychotic,” the policy committee at Walter Reed Army Medical Center worried “how would it look if we kicked out one of the few Muslim residents.”

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/11/26/major-nidal-hasan-had-an-enabler/#more-93397

How do you spell hypocrisy? Try N-e-w-Y-o-r-k-T-i-m-e-s. Yep, the paper that triumphantly published everything from The Pentagon Papers to all types of highly classified documents on eavesdropping and wire tapping, compromising the safety and security of all Americans, especially those in the military and spies, while piously basking in the glory from the hate America first crowd for doing so, has suddenly become circumspect.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/11/more_weather_hypocrisy_at_the.html

Sarah Palin could expect a lot of support in Iowa’s Republican caucuses if she launched a campaign for the 2012 presidential nomination, according to The Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll. “More than two-thirds of Republicans like what they see, making her a credible candidate for the 2012 caucuses should she decide to run for president, strategists say.”

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20091122/NEWS/91122002/1001/NEWS/Iowa-Poll-State-Republicans-like-what-they-see-in-Sarah-Palin

Interesting take on the history of American politics: “Philosophically speaking, there are two Americas, each with a founding father…”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/which_america_do_americans_wan.html

The flap over breast cancer screening has provided a fascinating insight into the political future of ObamaCare. Specifically, the political left supports such medical rationing even as it disavows that any such thing is happening.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704779704574552320222125990.html

A chart showing the true 10-year cost of the health care bill currently before the Senate. As the chart makes clear, the costs of this legislation do not kick in in any significant way until 2014, and so the real 10-year cost is $1.8 trillion for the 10-year period for 2014 to 2023. Let me spell that out: $1,800,000,000,000.

http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/docLib/20091123_Senate_Bill_Cost_Chart.pdf

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try five 9/11 plotters by a civilian court in New York rather than a military tribunal at Gitmo is already paying dividends — for the terrorists. The five terror suspects want to use their "not guilty" pleas as a chance to voice their hate-filled beliefs and grievances against the West. In short, we're giving them a prime-time soapbox in the most important city on Earth from which to spout their hate and recruit new adherents to their murderous cause.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=513332

“A SAD END: Illegal Alien Scandal Hammers Final Nail In talk radio KVI's Coffin”

http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2009/11/seattle-talk-host-caught-employing.html

__________________________________________________________________________________________

NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

The Gatlin Bros on Fox & Friends

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f6IPRPuGyc

Saturday Night Live skit: “China wants its money back.” (Offensive material warning!!!)

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/china-cold-open/1178451/

What this means: “If Obama's Lost Saturday Night Live, He's Lost...”

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/11/025002.php

__________________________________________________________________________________________

WISE WORDS

"They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare.... [G]iving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please."

-Thomas Jefferson