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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Israeli Navy escorts Gaza-bound activist boat to Ashdod
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 6: Politix
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Who actually pays income taxes.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/28/2010 09:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  To add insult to injury, according to the OECD, the U.S. "has the most progressive tax system and collects the largest share of taxes from the richest 10% of the population."

http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/23856.html
Posted by: eltoroverde || 09/28/2010 11:23 Comments || Top||

#2  I believe it's the unemployed.

Taxes on income reduce the money left to hire other people to do tasks (comparative advantage), and thus cause unemployment.

MORE IMPORTANTLY I believe the relative productivity (pay) ratio between two people is maintained POST TAX! This means lowering the pay of the productive lowers the pay of the less productive!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/28/2010 12:29 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm all for a flat tax. Everyone pays a percentage. That way the "poor" feel the bite of Obamacare just like the "rich". More than likely they won't vote for progressive bullshit if they have to pay for it too.
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/28/2010 12:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Amen to what Darth Vader said. Darth Vader for President.
Posted by: Private Eye || 09/28/2010 15:32 Comments || Top||

#5  AGREE DV...I'd set the rate at 10% - good enough for the church, good enough for the IRS.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 09/28/2010 16:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Meh. Regulatory costs are actually quite a bit more damaging than taxation at this point. The latest figures I heard indicated that imposed federal regulatory costs are around 35% of GDP. At least they're not spending that much. Yet.
Posted by: AzCat || 09/28/2010 19:00 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
The Afghan National Security Force: A Progress Report
Posted by: Water Modem || 09/28/2010 00:24 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Duroc on runway A4 you are cleared for taxi.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/28/2010 7:31 Comments || Top||

#2  One of the interesting graphs in the actual report shows the ANA shrank back to 5000 people in 2006. In essence we are starting over from that point.

To any 'burger who were there: What happened?

(I don't remember anything about it in the MSM)

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 09/28/2010 11:35 Comments || Top||


Economy
Shut Down the Fed (Part II)
I apologise to readers around the world for having defended the emergency stimulus policies of the US Federal Reserve, and for arguing like an imbecile naif that the Fed would not succumb to drug addiction, political abuse, and mad intoxicated debauchery, once it began taking its first shots of quantitative easing.

My pathetic assumption was that Ben Bernanke would deploy further QE only to stave off DEFLATION, not to create INFLATION. If the Federal Open Market Committee cannot see the difference, God help America.

We now learn from last week’s minutes that the Fed is willing “to provide additional accommodation if needed to … return inflation, over time, to levels consistent with its mandate.”

NO, NO, NO, this cannot possibly be true.

Ben Bernanke has not only refused to abandon his idee fixe of an “inflation target”, a key cause of the global central banking catastrophe of the last twenty years (because it can and did allow asset booms to run amok, and let credit levels reach dangerous extremes).

Worse still, he seems determined to print trillions of emergency stimulus without commensurate emergency justification to test his Princeton theories, which by the way are as old as the hills. Keynes ridiculed the “tyranny of the general price level” in the early 1930s, and quite rightly so. Bernanke is reviving a doctrine that was already shown to be bunk eighty years ago.
Posted by: tipper || 09/28/2010 08:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Fed was established to address the cyclic problem of recession/depression that America had experienced in the 19th Century. Since then, we've had the Great Depression and, now, the Great Recession. If you believe in fundamentals, it's time to reexamine if an institution is fulfilling the rationale for its existence.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/28/2010 9:23 Comments || Top||

#2  IIRC some of the Founders were against a Nat'l bank because of manipulation possibilities that would create unintended consequences not desired in a free and open market.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 09/28/2010 11:06 Comments || Top||

#3  "manipulation possibilities that would create unintended consequences not desired in a free and open market"

They're intended consequences now, Broadhead.

Of course, the clowns in charge don't want a free and open market. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 09/28/2010 13:58 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
We need to save the planet from global warmi– wait, what?
James Delingpole at The Daily Telegraph reports on this summer’s Bilderberg meeting, where the secret rulers of the universe meet every year to decide how to destroy Alex Jones. Delingpole has noticed an unusual item on the Bilderberg agenda:

The 58th Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Sitges, Spain 3 – 6 June 2010. The Conference will deal mainly with Financial Reform, Security, Cyber Technology, Energy, Pakistan, Afghanistan, World Food Problem, Global Cooling, Social Networking, Medical Science, EU-US relations.

Global cooling. It’s kind of like global warming, except the exact opposite.

I don’t know about you, but every once in a while I hear about how I shouldn’t drive a car, or use proper light bulbs, or basically live the life of a 21st Century American because it’s melting the icebergs and making Al Gore cry. Why are these guys worried about global cooling? Could it have something to do with the way “global warming” became “climate change” became “global climate disruption”? Will they now try to shift from “the polar bears need life jackets” to “the polar bears need comfy sweaters” and hope nobody notices?

Delingpole says:

The next few years are going to be very interesting. Watch the global power elite squirming to reposition itself as it slowly distances itself from Anthropogenic Global Warming (”Who? Us? No. We never thought of it as more than a quaint theory…”), and tries to find new ways of justifying green taxation and control. (Ocean acidification; biodiversity; et al).

That’s what it’s all about: using science, or something that resembles science, to control how you live your life. What’ll happen when everybody stops panicking about yesterday’s doomsday and they try to get us all worked up about tomorrow’s?

P.S. Mark Hemingway: Big Green regulations suffocate jobs, economic growth.


Posted by: tipper || 09/28/2010 08:05 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  using science, or something that resembles science

Ummmm, no. This crap resembles science kinda like the way my old Mazda resembles a Ferrari.
Posted by: Chemist || 09/28/2010 8:57 Comments || Top||

#2  It's not science, it's Settled Science(TM)!
Posted by: Iblis || 09/28/2010 9:56 Comments || Top||

#3  God has a sense of humor.
Posted by: Martini || 09/28/2010 15:47 Comments || Top||

#4  IMO it still comes down to there is NO SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS on the Sun's behavior, nor on its role, etc. as per effects on Local, Global Environment.

In any case, NATURAL OR MAN-MADE, GW IS NOT A GOOD REASON ENOUGH TO IMPOSE NATIONAL, GLOBAL SOCIALIST-GOVTIST ORDER + OWG + POLICE-WELFARE STATE, ETC, WIDOUT A POPULAR VOTE.

LEST WE FERGIT, THE US-WORLD LEFTS HAVE HISTORICALLY ALWAYS PROMOTED THEMSELVES AS THE "TRUE DEFENDERS/PROTECTORS" OF THE POPULAR VOTE + "WILL OF THE PEOPLE", as compared to the Right or Center-Right.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/28/2010 19:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Actually, we were afraid of global cooling in the 1970s. Anyone else remember "the new ice age," "nuclear winter," "shortening growing seasons," etc.?
Posted by: Tom || 09/28/2010 21:10 Comments || Top||

#6  WAFF > [Poster Analysis] I WILL PROVE WID A CALCULATION THAT GLOBAL WARMING IS NOT CAUSED BY [Man's]BURNING OF FOSSIL FUELS.

WAFF POSTER attempts to mathematically show other WAFF'ers that any simul burning of all of the World's known fossil fuel reserves + consequent release of gases into the atmosphere will NOT significantly increase CO2, etc. to dangerous levels???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/28/2010 22:23 Comments || Top||

#7  Oh, yeah, I remember, Tom. Particularly memorable is the Time magazine cover story about "The Coming Ice Age."

That's one (of many) reason I don't take the Warmenists seriously - they don't seem to understand (or more likely are unwilling to admit, because then there's no money and power in it for them) that the climate cycles. Not a damn one of them seems to know about the Medieval Warm Period or the Little Ice Age.

Educated ignoramuses, the lot of 'em. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 09/28/2010 22:25 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
In The Washington Times: On Reconsidering Aid to Pakistan
Posted by: Water Modem || 09/28/2010 00:11 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pakistan, Palestine---the only difference is size.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/28/2010 5:40 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Going Dark - Richard Fernandez
Posted by: Water Modem || 09/28/2010 00:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ION OWG-THAT-CANNOT-BE-CONFIRMED-OR-DENIED, DER SPIEGEL > EU UP IN ARMS OVER US TRAVEL TAX.

versus

* CHINESE MIL FORUM > ONCE AGAIN THE US SPENDS US$750.0BILYUHN ON THE PENTAGON WHILE CHINA ONLY SPENDS US$150.0BILYUHN???

* SAME > HOW HUGE DEBT CAN LEAD TO MILITARY IMPOTENCE, DEFAULT, + REVOLUTION e.g. USJF Command.

* SAME > THE ROAD TO 2012: REVOLUTION OR WORLD WAR III PART II [Parts I-VII].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/28/2010 22:00 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Stuxnet: First Phase in now-aborted Israeli Military Attack on Iran
Posted by: Throns Ebbeque9685 || 09/28/2010 10:10 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  BS flags down on this one.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/28/2010 11:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Dunno if Israel feels the time is right to attack. If this is from Israel (and that is a big IF at this point), it might be a multi-pronged attack on the infrastructure of Iran. A virus here, a sabotage attack there, a bomb from Kurds there, suddenly the country's ability to move goods, electricity and fuel is severely cut. This will completely undermine Short Round and his government and might actually cause the collapse of the government without a Israeli shot fired.

All speculation on my part, but I doubt the Israelis are ready to let lead fly over Iran yet. Lebanon maybe.
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/28/2010 12:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Ala DAILY TIMES.PK, ISRAEL > says that IRAN is KEY to ACHIEVING PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/28/2010 21:14 Comments || Top||


Could Iran retaliate for apparent cyber attack?
[Al Arabiya] Iran has limited capacity to retaliate in kind to an apparent cyber attack that infected computers at its sole nuclear power plant, analysts say, but some worry it could seek to hit back by other means.

Security experts say they believe the release of the Stuxnet computer worm may have been a state-backed attack on Iran's nuclear program, most likely originating in the United States or Israel. But they say the truth may never be known.

Little information is available on how much damage, if any, Iran's nuclear and wider infrastructure has suffered from Stuxnet--and Tehran will probably never share the full details. Officials said on Sunday the worm had hit staff computers at the Bushehr nuclear power plant but had not affected major systems there.

Some analysts believe Iran may be suffering wider sabotage aimed at slowing down its nuclear ambitions, and point to unexplained technical problems that have cut the number of working centrifuges in its uranium enrichment program.

In the short term, intelligence experts believe Tehran's priority will be trying to identify the source of the attack and examining how the worm was uploaded onto its systems.

"The Iranian internal security and counterintelligence departments will need to nail down the culprits first, then work out how to turn the tables," said Fred Burton, a former U.S. counterintelligence expert who is now vice president of political risk consultancy Stratfor.
Posted by: Fred || 09/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  No. But they can, and do, a lot of proxy terrorism.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/28/2010 5:44 Comments || Top||

#2  No. But they can, and do, a lot of proxy terrorism.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/28/2010 5:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Oops
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/28/2010 5:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Please be type in this:

10 Print "Death to America!"
20 goto 10

And then Run.

Ha ha! Iranian hacker skills defeat infidel West!
Posted by: Solomon Snish5988 || 09/28/2010 5:52 Comments || Top||

#5  They couldn't do more than small time hacking that would quickly be contained.

However, terrorist attacks would be more their speed and gain more traction. Especially if they happened in Western Europe.
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/28/2010 12:47 Comments || Top||

#6 

Solomon, you have a bug in your program! It should be:

10 print "Death to America!"

Now since I've been so nice to you, could you please kill me last?
Posted by: gorb || 09/28/2010 13:53 Comments || Top||

#7  I say stone to death the virus ridden computers! Then, the other computers will act better - until HAL 9000 shows up!
Posted by: borgboy || 09/28/2010 15:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Just a wild thought, but suppose the Stuxnet virus was merely a warning, meant to be discovered. Someone could be sending a subtle message that ALL of Iran's computing power is corrupted with an even more devastating worm capable of far greater damage unless Iran backs off its enrichment process. After all, Short Round is suddenly willing to "accept" foreign nuclear fuel, and allowing the "used" fuel to be reprocessed elsewhere. They were strongly against this before.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/28/2010 16:09 Comments || Top||

#9  #6: #4 is correct: only early versions of BASIC were case sensitive.

/College Computer Science Professor
Posted by: Ptah || 09/28/2010 20:52 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
The Tragedy of Detroit and how immigration and multiculturalism destroyed it.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/28/2010 20:46 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Compare wid RENSE > {DailyMail.UK] EU TELLS BRITAIN IT MUST GIVE WELFARE TO [foreign]MIGRANTS, as the UK's restrictions have been found by the EU to be INCOMPATIBLE wid EU regulations + protocols???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/28/2010 21:19 Comments || Top||

#2  B - that's from 2009. Surely, under Teh Messiah, the revived City of Detroit has become a new Mecca?

wait...what?

Posted by: Frank G || 09/28/2010 21:21 Comments || Top||

#3  D *** NG IT, CLEARLY THE PROB WID BANKRUPT "BIG/HYPER-GOVTS" IS THAT THEY ARE NOT BANKRUPT ENOUGH.

NET > Certain Perts claim US DEBT-TO-GDP IS ACTUALLY AT 93& OF US GDP, NOT THE OFFICIAL "83%", HENCE THE US FED-GOVT ONLY HAS A MERE 7.0% TO GO IN SPENDING BEFORE REACHING THAT MAGICAL 100% = "TOTE DEBT = TOTE REVENUE" EQUALIST IDEAL OF PERFECTION.

* HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER > SOVIET "ALPHA" SUB SKIPPER > [paraph]"D *** NG IT, 100% IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH - I WANT DEM COUPLINGS LOOSENED NOW - NOW, NOW, N-O-E, NOW - TO GET 110-125%"!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/28/2010 21:29 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
46[untagged]
5Govt of Iran
3Hezbollah
3Govt of Pakistan
3Hamas
2Commies
2al-Qaeda in Arabia
2al-Qaeda in Iraq
2al-Shabaab
1al-Qaeda
1Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
1Govt of Syria
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
1Islamic State of Iraq
1Palestinian Authority
1Taliban
1TTP

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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
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tu3031
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2010-09-28
  Israeli Navy escorts Gaza-bound activist boat to Ashdod
Mon 2010-09-27
  Sonny Jong Un gets promoted!
Sun 2010-09-26
  Drone boys rack up 7 more in North Wazoo
Sat 2010-09-25
  US walks out of Ahmadinejad UN speech
Fri 2010-09-24
  MILF drop separatist demands
Thu 2010-09-23
  Aafia Siddiqui Gets 86 Years
Wed 2010-09-22
  Three drone strikes kill 28 in Waziristan
Tue 2010-09-21
  Chicago man arrested in foiled bomb plot
Mon 2010-09-20
  ETA offers peace to Spanish govt.
Sun 2010-09-19
  Yemen's Abyan deputy governor survives Qaida assassination attempt
Sat 2010-09-18
  Yemen foils Somali pirates hijack attempt on foreign ship
Fri 2010-09-17
  Pope visit: Five suspected Islamist terrorists arrested over assassination plot
Thu 2010-09-16
  Dronezap waxes 12 bad boyz in North Wazoo
Wed 2010-09-15
  French parliament adopts ban on full-face veil
Tue 2010-09-14
  Dronezaps All Over the Place in North Wazoo


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