Last year at this time, Kaine was trying to find ways to close the state's budget shortfall, then about $3 billion. Among other things, he proposed raising the cigarette tax to help cover a shortfall in Medicaid funding. Cutting Medicaid spending would close the rest of the gap.
Yet as Kaine told the Lynchburg paper the other day, "There was some 'strategery' involved . . . .From working with the incoming Obama administration, [I knew] they were going to do a stimulus bill that was going to have Medicaid money [in it]. And I knew it was going to pass."
But he didn't tell anyone. "I decided what I would do is, I would not make those cuts. Instead, I would propose a cigarette tax" -- one he knew would not get through the Assembly. "By putting the cigarette tax on the table too, I gave every legislator one way to make Philip Morris happy, by voting against the cigarette tax," Kaine explained. That would then leave lawmakers freer to vote in favor of the restaurant smoking ban -- which is precisely what happened: "A lot of [legislators] voted against the cigarette tax and then they voted for the smoking ban."
It worked like a charm -- and it fooled us, too. Note: First Post by Airandee
Welcome, Airandee. Two pointers. You don't need to repeat the link to the article within the article - just put it in the Source box. And please select your added comments and click on the paint bucket icon to highlight them. Looking forward to more of your contributions.
Seconded. A nice view of the sausage making -- Governor Kaine played his legislators like a fiddle.
As President Obama concludes his first jobs summit, almost a year into his presidency, the nature of the guest list hints at a deliberate initiative that's been underway for over 15 years -- and it's not one of the obvious presumptions that most would make. Notice that of the list of leaders invited, the majority are labor union leaders, leaders of businesses with government contracts, or leaders of businesses that operate on partial public funding. There is a common element across most of the businesses represented: in one capacity or another, even if they are private sector businesses, most on the list benefit from some form of public money.
There is a legal precedent over 15 years old that is the pervasive push behind such a premise, one that was the product of ACORN and labor union coalitions. And judging by Change to Win / SEIU's Anna Burger's plan for today's jobs summit, it's evident that this precedent is in play as we speak.
It's no coincidence that in the wake of America's economic crisis, some lawmakers have been pushing for infusions of public funds into the private sector. No, we're not just talking bank and insurance company bailouts. We're talking about tax credit and incentive programs, health care reform proposals, green jobs programs, energy efficiency initiatives, and even real estate development companies. As the conservative accusations of socialism have begun to sink in with progressive leaders -especially with union leaders, who are especially sensitive to being perceived as public spenders -- the language has been changing. Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand" doesn't sound so scary when it's wrapped in the glove of words like "co-ops" and "public-private partnerships" and "national service", which are now quickly being mainstreamed into the rhetoric.
To the observant reader, one can look at the list of Jobs Summit invitees and know what the outcome will be, and why. The goal is not to create jobs. The goals are to create public-private partnerships and to create union membership opportunities.
In 1994, when ACORN and its community and labor union allies won the first Living Wage fight against Baltimore's Inner Harbor development project, a national movement was underway. It was not only about Living Wage, but the premise itself opened up the door for a broader, more creative initiative.
The premise of Living Wage: any private business that benefits from public money can be controlled in part by government policy, and in this particular case, must pay their workers a living wage. While minimum wage is a standard national and state guideline across the board, living wage is different in that it calculates the income an adult with the average family of two must make in order to live comfortably in the middle class bracket for that geographic location.
The premise of today's broader movement: create more opportunities for private businesses and individuals to benefit from public money, and the government can then intervene to dictate anything it wants -- labor regulations, wages, health benefits, and much more.
As we see in SEIU's campaigns to unionize home child care workers and UAW and AFSCME's campaigns to do the same, any trickle of state or federal subsidies creates an opportunity for government and union entry, which drives up taxes and stresses the economy. And SEIU is applying the same logic to home care workers, nursing home workers, cafeteria workers, and the like.
We see this premise of control via public subsidy in action most obviously today with TARP and the bank bailouts. Conveniently for unions and community organizers, the bailouts outraged many -- even constitutional conservatives. Hence, why SEIU especially seized upon the opportunity to channel that collective rage and turn it instead into a marketing tool to create anti-capitalist hype. (Note that SEIU selectively excludes the Automaker Bailouts from its manufactured rage). Bashing capitalism and the free enterprise system has become a favorite pastime for some. It seems just downright trendy these days to equate greed or corruption with capitalism and use it as a basis for throwing out an entire economic system, doesn't it? When in your lifetime have you stood in line at the grocery store and overheard everyone from your postal carrier, to the elementary school's janitor, to your neighbor's college student son, all offering their theories on the evils of capitalism? You don't even have to know anything about economic theory or the important role of Capitalism in the founding of America to participate in this latest fad. (After all, in a study of the Ability Of College Freshmen To Identify Adam Smith And Karl Marx, only 26.6 percent could identify Adam Smith as the "father of Capitalism").
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2009 00:00 ||
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Amazing how every crisis turns into multiple opportunities to pick our pockets.
#2
Host a Jobs Summit and fail to invite the US Chamber of Commerce? Telling
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/05/2009 9:50 Comments ||
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The goal is not to create jobs. The goals are to create public-private partnerships and to create union membership opportunities.
Since Obama has taken office, employment in the private sector continues to tank at historic rates and yet growth in public sector employment is at a record high. (Both in numbers and rate of growth.) For the first time in history public sector employees make up over 50% of Union membership. Compare that to 2008 when union membership rate for public sector workers was at 36.8%. Increasingly state and local governments are defaulting on unsustainable union pension agreements. The rush to remove union crafted language written into their respective charters has been met with legal challenges at every turn. It doesnt take an economist to figure out this trajectory is unsustainable.
The silver glint of tens of thousands of dead fish dotted the brown water of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on Thursday. But among those fish, officials found just one Asian carp -- the dreaded invasive species that the state's largest fish kill was designed to root out and destroy.
"If there aren't any Asian carp, we still believe it was an essential operation," John Rogner, assistant director of the Illinois Natural Resources Department, said before the lone 22-pound fish was found.
"If there aren't any Asian carp, we still believe it was an essential operation," John Rogner, assistant director of the Illinois Natural Resources Department, said before the lone 22-pound fish was found.
The fish kill, which continues through the weekend, was a preemptive strike designed to allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers a short period of time to perform routine maintenance on an electric barrier built specifically to stop the destructive species from entering Lake Michigan.
While the Natural Resources Department led the operation, the biologists and ecologists zipping along six miles of poisoned waterway Thursday were from Indiana, Ohio, New York, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Quebec and Ontario, all areas bordering the Great Lakes threatened by the aggressive fish.
The federal government was paying for much of what Rogner said was a $3 million project, which may need to be repeated in six months when the electric barrier is again due for a tune-up.
The low temperature Thursday helped keep the stench of decaying fish in check, as heavily bundled people in boats used hand and drag nets to scoop fish, some gasping, into barrels. The barrels eventually will be disposed of in landfills.
In Chicago on Thursday, Gov. Quinn downplayed reports that Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm was considering a lawsuit to force the closing of several Chicago area locks, which provide a waterway for boats and barges but also could be the conduit to the Great Lakes for the Asian carp. "She commissioned her attorney general to look at everything," Quinn said. "We're all working together."
DNA sampling has suggested Asian carp have penetrated the electric barrier and may already be in Lake Michigan.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2009 00:00 ||
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This is actually a big issue here. If the media had walked 100 yards north and looked at the Des Plaines River they would have seen the Asian Carp jumping happily along.
#2
Nobody really cares how many Asian carp there are (or were) in the Chicago Cloaca Maxima, unless one swims up their toilet & bites 'em. The real concern is Asian carp getting into the Great Lakes & (most likely) destroying the fishery & damaging the sport boating industry there. The DNA evidence don't look at all good.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus was romantically involved with a former staffer when he recommended her earlier this year to become the next U.S. attorney for Montana, a spokesman said.
The Montana Democrat and his former state office director Melodee Hanes began their relationship in the summer of 2008 after Baucus separated from his wife, Ty Matsdorf told The Associated Press late Friday.
Baucus nominated Hanes for the U.S. attorney post in March. But she later withdrew, saying she had been presented with other opportunities she couldn't pass up.
The Senate leader who's been a major proponent of Democratic health care legislation had submitted six names to a third-party reviewer, who whittled those to Hanes and two others.
Matsdorf said the senator sent the three names to the White House with no ranking to the White House to select a nominee.
Matsdorf said Baucus' relationship with his girlfriend had nothing to do with his decision.
"Senator Baucus recommended each of the three candidates based solely on qualifications, and merit, knowing whichever one the White House selected would serve Montana well," Matsdorf said.
The spokesman said Baucus and Hanes decided during the nomination process that she should withdraw her name because the couple wanted to live together in Washington, which they later did.
Matsdorf declined to say why the senator was just now disclosing the circumstances surrounding the nomination, which was first reported in Roll Call, an online publication that covers Washington politics.
Baucus and his ex-wife Wanda announced last April that they planned to divorce after 25 years of marriage, his second. In a joint statement, they said they had "parted ways amicably and with mutual respect."
Hanes started working for Baucus in 2002 and was his state director before leaving his office earlier this year for a position in the U.S. Department of Justice.
"Mel is supremely qualified and she got to her current position based solely on her merit," Matsdorf said.
President Barack Obama eventually nominated Helena attorney Michael Cotter for the U.S. attorney post, which supervises prosecutors of all federal crimes committed in Montana and the state's seven Indian reservations. Cotter is awaiting confirmation.
Word of Hanes' nomination follows other recent disclosures of romantic liaisons by political leaders, including South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and one-time Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards.
She came to town as a certified member of Chicago's great and good: a highly successful professional, an A-list socialiser and a prolific fundraiser for both president-to-be Obama, and for his adopted city's bid to win the 2016 Olympics. One way and another, Desiree Rogers seemed perfect for her new position in Washington -- until a couple of Virginia parvenus crashed a state dinner.
Unlike small children, White House social secretaries before her have generally been neither seen nor heard. Obscurity is a sign of success; their greatest moments are when glittering events unfold with the elegance and unobtrusive precision of a Swiss watch. Even close followers of the American presidency might be pressed to name a single holder of the job in the past couple of decades.
Ms Rogers right now is not being heard -- she declined to testify at yesterday's Congressional hearing into how Michaele and Tareq Salahi managed, uninvited, to attend last week's gala in honour of India's Prime Minister. But far too much has been seen of her of late, above all in unflattering headlines blaming her for the embarrassment. The question now is, will Barack Obama jettison his social secretary just as he dispensed three weeks ago with the services of the White House counsel Gregory Craig?
Mr Craig had become the face of the administration's failure to close Guantanamo Bay; Ms Rogers' claimed failings, in comparison, may seem rather less significant. Still, it can only be said that the 50-year-old holder of a masters from Harvard Business School had been riding for a fall. The first African-American social secretary, she delighted in making news even before the Obamas took up residence in the White House on 20 January. As Robin Givhan, the fashion critic of The Washington Post, tartly wrote after Crashergate broke, Ms Rogers "arrived in Washington this year to great fanfare, no small amount of it of her own making".
"I don't want to take a job where I'd be picking flowers," she told an interviewer in those heady days. Admiring articles described her as "the most important event planner on the planet", and unusually she was given the rank of "special assistant to the president" to go with the formal title of social secretary. She featured in Vogue magazine a month before the First Lady Michelle, her official boss, and by April was the subject of a spread in WSJ, The Wall Street Journal's glitzy style magazine.
Unfortunately, her critics say, somewhere along the way, Ms Rogers seems to have stopped paying attention to the nitty gritty of her job -- like making sure a person from her office was at the White House entrance on occasions like a state dinner, to make sure people who said they were invited actually had been.
Instead, it is said, the Bush administration appointee who had that task was demoted by Ms Rogers, and finally left the White House in June. That fact too was inevitably seized upon, as proof that the new social secretary was just another Chicago operator. According to The New York Timesdowager columnist Maureen Dowd, she was "unnecessarily politicising an office that required old pros". In The Huffington Post, meanwhile, Jacob Heilbrunn damned her as "a figure out of Vanity Fair -- preening and self-indulgent, lording it over her table at the state dinner, while ignoring her own mundane duties".
At one level, the simultaneous assault by two sharp-tongued writers in the goldfish bowl of the capital should not be taken over-seriously. Washington delights in cutting pushy outsiders down to size. Social secretaries are meant to be demure. The present one summons many epithets to mind, but "demure" is rarely among them.
But the episode is also a warning, another small sign of how the mood is starting to sour on the "brand Obama" that Ms Rogers came to Washington so intent on promoting. Among the complaints is that Mr Obama has brought with him his own mafia, an incarnation of the infamous Chicago machine -- but a machine that can't even run a state dinner properly.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2009 00:00 ||
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FTA: "According to The New York Times dowager columnist Maureen Dowd, she was...."
#5
Obama continues to surround himself with utterly incompetent, self-important, well educated idiots. Just like him - they believe they are smarter than they actually are, and are far too arrogant (or stupid) to realize it.
Of all the men to elect as our first black president, why this ideologue, this preening narcissistic fool, this teleprompter-dependent double-talking empty suit, a buffoon, a boob?
#8
The Devil is in the details, President Papoon (not insane).
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2009 12:12 Comments ||
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In the same "Obama's a fool" vein, this E-mail from a trusted source
VERY QUIETLY OBAMA'S CITIZENSHIP CASE REACHES SUPREME COURT
AP- WASHINGTON D.C. - In a move certain to fuel the debate over Obama's qualifications for the presidency, the group "Americans for Freedom of Information" has Released copies of President Obama's college transcripts from Occidental College .. Released today, the transcript indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an undergraduate at the school. The transcript was released by Occidental College in compliance with a court order.
The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify, for the scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship. This document would seem to provide the smoking gun that many of Obama's detractors have been seeking. Along with the evidence that he was first born in Kenya and there is no record of him ever applying for US citizenship, this is looking pretty grim. The news has created a firestorm at the White House as the release casts increasing doubt about Obama's legitimacy and qualification to serve as president.
When reached for comment in London , where he has been in meetings with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Obama smiled but refused comment on the issue.
Under growing pressure from several groups, Justice Antonin Scalia announced that the Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear arguments concerning Obama's legal eligibility to serve as President in a case brought by Leo Donofrio of New Jersey . This lawsuit claims Obama's dual citizenship disqualified him from serving as president. Donofrio's case is just one of 18 suits brought by citizens demanding proof of Obama's citizenship or qualification to serve as president.
Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation has released the results of their investigation of Obama's campaign spending. This study estimates that Obama has spent upwards of $950,000 in campaign funds in the past year with eleven law firms in 12 states for legal resources to block disclosure of any of his personal records. Mr. Kreep indicated that the investigation is still ongoing but that the final report will be provided to the U.S. attorney general.
LET OTHER FOLKS KNOW THE NEWS, THE MEDIA WON'T !
So, either he lied to get aid he wasn't entitled to, or he lied about being a US citizen, either way, He's a proven Liar.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/05/2009 13:40 Comments ||
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I'm sorry, Redneck Jim. Snopes.com says it's a hoax.
(CNNMoney.com) -- Speeders doing more than 85 miles per hour in Georgia will soon pay an additional $200 in fines. Racehorse owners in New York now must fork over $10 to enter their steeds in events. And Massachusetts started charging a 5% tax on broadcast satellite service.
These measures are part of a record $23.9 billion in tax and fee hikes and $7.7 billion in other revenue increases enacted by states in fiscal 2010, according to a report released this week. This is a massive jump over the $8.1 billion in revenue hikes instituted the previous year.
"These are the highest tax increases ever," said Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, which co-produced the semi-annual report with the National Governors Association.
And more taxes increases are likely on the way, experts said.
States are wrestling with some of the worst budget deficits since the Great Depression. Rising unemployment has wreaked havoc on their vital revenue streams of personal income, corporate profits and sales taxes.
Though governors and lawmakers are reluctant to raise taxes, particularly in bad economic times, the current fiscal situation has left them little choice, Pattison said.
Some 29 states enacted revenue hikes for fiscal 2010, which began on July 1 in nearly all states. Personal income tax hikes accounted for the largest portion, some $10.7 billion. Corporate levies declined by $202.2 million.
Taxing the wealthy
An increasingly popular measure is the so-called "millionaire's tax" levied on wealthy residents.
Connecticut, for instance, raised its personal income tax rate to 6.5%, from 5%, for single filers with income greater than $500,000 and married couples earning more than $1 million. The increase in rates is expected to bring in $594 million.
Wisconsin hopes to collect an additional $278.5 million with a new tax bracket of 7.75% for its highest income earners - single filers making more than $225,000 and married couples earning more than $300,000. It also decreased the threshold of capital gains subject to tax to 30%, down from 60%. (The state maintained the 60% exclusion for gains on sales of farm assets.)
Another common revenue raiser is hiking cigarette taxes. Florida added a $1 per pack surcharge, while Delaware upped its levy by 45 cents. Kentucky increased its cigarette tax by 30 cents and doubled the tax on other tobacco products.
Many states added a slew of new taxes and fees to refill government coffers. New Hampshire now taxes gambling winnings, while Rhode Island instituted a $100 fee for the expunging of criminal records. Vermont extended its sales and use tax to digital downloads.
As part of a fee frenzy, New York established a $10 charge on horses entered in races, as well as a $50 bad check charge and a $100 fee on tax preparers who complete 10 or more returns. Those wanting to be certified as a security guard instructor now must pay a $500 initial fee and another $250 every five years.
"These were some of the difficult actions that were necessary to help address a record budget deficit," said Matt Anderson, spokesman for New York's Division of the Budget.
The Empire State was facing a shortfall of more than $20 billion. And despite these measures, another $3.2 billion mid-year gap has opened.
Super speeders
Georgia drivers had better not put the pedal to the metal or they will face a $200 fine and be labeled a "super speeder." The charge will be levied on those who drive more than 85 miles per hour, or 75 miles per hour on a two-lane road. The fee takes effect on Jan. 1 and is expected to bring in $23 million.
Seeking to eliminate a $2.5 billion budget gap going into fiscal 2010, Massachusetts officials searched for new ways to raise money. They found one in creating a tax on direct broadcast satellite services' revenues, which is expected to generate $25.9 million.
"The state was looking for some additional sources of revenue," said Bob Bliss, spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.
The 5% tax will be levied on the satellite companies, but they are expected to pass it along to their subscribers.
These tax increases likely won't be the last. Only five months into their fiscal year, another $14.8 billion in shortfalls has opened. And lawmakers and governors must contend with an estimated $21.9 billion gap for fiscal 2011, according to the report.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we see more tax increases," Pattison said. "We haven't hit bottom."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2009 00:00 ||
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"These were some of the difficult actions that were necessary to help address a record budget deficit," said Matt Anderson, spokesman for New York's Division of the Budget.
And how many government jobs were cut or are they ALL critical? /rhet question
#3
Georgia drivers had better not put the pedal to the metal or they will face a $200 fine and be labeled a "super speeder." The charge will be levied on those who drive more than 85 miles per hour, or 75 miles per hour on a two-lane road.
If you've spent any time on I-85 or I-75, been 'swarmed' by 'pack speeders' or held up for hours by our horrific Autobahn style, multi-car crashes, you'll understand the justification for this.
#4
they should TAX the governors and state legislators when ever they enact any budget that doesnt balance, paying the difference , if its running a defecit, with their own money. I think you would have better acceptance of reality.
#5
Besoeker, I thought the speed limit on I-85 was 85. I mean, isn't that what the 85 means?
Of course, I really like driving on the Washington beltway - especially the part that is I-495.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/05/2009 15:54 Comments ||
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Typickal big government grab from decent law abiding, tax paying, citizens who like to run over slow immigrant pooks.
#7
They have had the ability to control speed since 1968. The product was invented in Germany. The money they glean is like a drug for which they can never get enough. Think about it, you pass over a beam of light that controls the speed for that road.
I don't want to go into detail but they said it was too costly. In the future you will have to apply for a trip plan like aircraft. Then when you get to your destination you pay a parking tax as they have proposed in Norway or road use tax.
Soon even maybe you prepay your death tax. Plain and simple greed. Never happen, because entire system will fail. Then reboot and do it all over again.
#8
Besoeker, I thought the speed limit on I-85 was 85. I mean, isn't that what the 85 means?
Of course, I really like driving on the Washington beltway - especially the part that is I-495.
Rambler, I adore you. What is it that you drive, again?
As the USS Obama Administration slowly starts to settle into the waves, future historians will be kept busy searching for the source of the iceberg that holed it below the waterline on its maiden voyage to the land of Hope and Change. Was it the non-stimulating "stimulus"? The ludicrous Nobel Peace Prize? The decision to try the Sept. 11th plotters in lower Manhattan? The Afghanistan speech at West Point this week, splitting the difference between surging and surrendering as the photo-op cadets nodded off in the background? It's a tough call, and the first year's not even over yet.
But this administration is more than simply its swivel-headed Fearless Leader, ping-ponging between his teleprompters as the law of diminishing returns exerts its iron grip on his poll numbers. It's also the executive officers, the governing party's top senators and congressmen, the palace courtiers who enforce discipline among the spear-carriers as they split up the swag. In this, the Obama Administration is especially blessed, featuring both the frozen rictus of Anunciata d'Alesandro Pelosi as the speaker of the house and Harry "the Horse" Reid, an innocent Mormon virgin wandering among the fleshpots and real-estate deals of Las Vegas, as the Senate majority leader. The Right is, indeed, fortunate in its enemies.
Still, the prize for the dumbest Democrat currently extorting a salary from the taxpayer (check out what her staff costs you here) remains where it long has been, in the grip of Barbara "Call Me Senator" Boxer, née Levy, the pride of Brooklyn and, latterly, of Marin County, Calif., and former relation-by-marriage to Hillary Rodham Clinton during the brief marriage between her daughter, Nicole, and Hillary's sterling brother, Tony. Tony Rodham, you may recall, is a former prison guard and repo man who managed to get himself into hot water over a hazelnut deal in the republic of Georgia, got caught up in Pardongate, was assaulted in flagranteby a man who claimed Tony was boinking his girlfriend, got caught up in bankruptcy court and battled his ex over child-support payments.
Standing not quite five feet tall, Boxer has consistently distinguished herself in the discharge of her duties, including trying to prevent the certification of Ohio's electoral votes during the 2000 election, attacking Condoleezza Rice during her confirmation hearings, racially patronizing Harry Alford of the Black Chamber of Commerce, and dressing down my namesake, Brig. General Michael Walsh, for an act of what she considered lèse majesté. The general had to bite his tongue, but the righteous contempt with which Alford treats the senator's plantation racism was one of the feel-good stories of the year.
Not for nothing has she earned the people's choice award as America's Stupidest Senator and against some stiff competition. Now, the Terror of Tiny Town has stepped into the steaming pile of Climategate, the recent revelations via leaked/hacked emails and other documents from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. But is "Don't Call Me Ma'am" Boxer upset that a scheme designed to siphon trillions of dollars away from the western economies, reduce their standard of living to Third World levels and enrich crackpot global-warming enthusiasts like Albert Arnold Gore, Jr.? Of course not. What's got Barb's panties in a bunch is "E-mail-theft-gate." "You call it 'Climategate'; I call it 'E-mail-theft-gate. Whatever it is, the main issue is, Are we facing global warming or are we not... This is a crime."
Her agita comes as no surprise. Gangsters always get antsy when threatened with exposure of their rackets, and Climate Fraud is a hell of a racket, a grand bargain among greedy science whores, malevolent government officials and a supine but protective media -- Americans who get their news from The New York Times or the networks basically have no idea what we're talking about here -- who are all in this together.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2009 00:00 ||
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As has been stated elsewhere, Boxer has no legal authority to "investigate" anything at a university in England. I'm in favor of letting her rant and rave. It helps to further damage her already shaky reputation.
Frustrated by the lack of action to overturn the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Democrats in Congress are calling for at least temporary immunity so gay service members can testify at the Capitol about their experiences.
Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, Florida Democrat, introduced a bill this week to grant immunity to troops who otherwise would run afoul of the policy, which bans gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. He and other advocates see it as at least a first step to pushing the issue forward.
"You can't expect a legitimate and informed debate over repeal if you keep gay troops in the closet," said Nathaniel Frank, a senior fellow at the Palm Center, which researches sexuality and the military and supports changing the policy.
The don't ask, don't tell policy originated in the 1990s as a compromise. Homosexual soldiers were allowed to remain in the military, but only as long as they kept their sexuality private. Disclosure of homosexuality would be grounds for dismissal.
But since then, gay rights groups, many Democrats and some Republicans have argued that the policy serves no purpose and costs the military the services of key personnel, including linguists and intelligence analysts needed to fight the war on terrorism.
Opponents of gays serving in the military said the carve-out exemption that Democratic lawmakers are proposing is a sign of their frustration.
"They were looking for a hearing this year, and that's clearly not going to happen, and they don't know when it's going to happen next year," said Tom Sears, executive director of the Center for Military Readiness.
Still, he said, it's "a wake-up call to Republicans" that the debate on gays in the military is coming soon - possibly when Congress takes up its next annual defense authorization bill.
Mr. Hastings, the bill's chief sponsor, has bristled at the slow pace of action to end the military policy.
He has sent two letters to President Obama prodding him to show leadership on the issue, and Mr. Hastings introduced an amendment to a defense bill earlier this year to stop the policy, though he withdrew the amendment rather than force a vote. The congressman said the White House and some of his fellow members pressured him not to go forward at the time.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2009 00:00 ||
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I my shock some of you but I really don't care if someone is gay and serves in the military. I spent 20 years in the Air Force and I can say without a doubt I have served with people who are gay. Truth is the issue of someones sexuality rarely if ever comes up in the course of your job. In 20 years I can never remember a time to announce my sexual preference in a staff meeting, or Commanders Call. I think that gays would have few problems if they acted the same way and not expect some sort of special status. When I first joined I remember supervisors anguishing whether they should confront a subordinate about behavior or job performance because of their race or gender. I made a vow that when I was a supervisor I would quit if I found myself even mildly thinking along those lines. Would I support a gay night at the NCO club? Not any more than I would support a white, black, or Asian night because it detracts from unit cohesiveness. Yes there are celebration of black/Latino/Asian history but that is more to highlight MILITARY heritage and those who fought for inclusiveness not special treatment. Do I approve of the gay lifestyle? No, but unless it affects job performance I really couldn't care less. P.S I also don't approve of mashing on the dance floor at happy hour by anyone (get a room).
#2
Sorry Sarge, in my twenty years in the Army I saw sexual behaviors that destroyed unit integrity. The military, unlike civil society, does control both heterosexual and homosexual behaviors. Don't ask, don't tell applies to both. When partners have cheaters in and among the unit, it causes the unit to split into factions. In an environment in which you have to depend on the person next to you to literally cover your back or be serious wounded or killed, you can't afford that kind of friction. Fraternization, adultery, and sexual harassment are already at the point that no one wants to look at the real numbers. Removing Don't Ask, Don't Tell will have to apply to the heteros as well, that's when you end being military and just become another organization with dysfunctional behaviors that will undermine effectiveness of that organization. The radicals in the gay community pushing this are not looking for justice, they're looking for power. They just don't want DADT ended, they also want to be exempted from punish for sexual behaviors that heteros are disciplined and discharged every year for. As soon as it's lifted, they'll make a big cry that they're being picked on for coming out in order to deflect that they would be held to those same standards everyone else has been held to for generations. That means not a General Discharge but a Less than Honorable or Bad Conduct Discharge with loss of veteran status. Nothing like increasing the time and resources the small unit commanders have to spend on problem children rather than on the mission.
#3
Spot on Cyber Sarge. There should be no place in the military or the Air Force for sodomy. The only thing a soldier should be concerned about going up his arse is his first sergeant's boot!
#6
The fact that gays are serving in the military shows they are capable of keeping their business, THEIR business. Nothing would change if they were suddenly "allowed" to serve except we would not discharge someone for saying "I'm gay".
#7
Figure this one out. A gay military couple go to Iowa or Massachusetts and gets married. They show up at family housing demanding their housing entitlement to married service members. It's a legal document as it would be for a straight couple from the same states. Do you give them family housing or do you give them a housing allowance to 'take it off post'. What happens next when the junior enlisted figure out that with that little piece of paper they too can get out of the barracks. While there are probably a number of 'no sex' marriages between opposite sex couples in the military, the low ratio of male to female means they are few and it doesn't have much an effect on command and control. So when, the barracks start emptying out of non-sexual same sex 'married' couples who do have the proper paper work, does the senior leadership figure out they've lost control.
Military service for gays is like the abstinent priesthood in the Catholic Church. With full and unquestionable understanding of the conditions of service, you 'serve' the duration to those conditions. When personal desires exceed the restrictions, you leave.
#9
I'm assuming you're being ironic, Shipman, but I'm with Procopius on this one. Even within the far-from-combat conditions of staff offices in the Pentagon and the service academies, overt sexual behaviors have corrosive effects. Add in the all-male makeup of combat branches in the Army and the consequences go up significantly. At a time of voluntary service, DADT is a decent compromise IMO.
#10
P2K, IIRC the Federal gov't does not recognize gay marriages (yet).
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/05/2009 14:37 Comments ||
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#11
It only takes one federal judge to alter that and removing DADT from the plate will be the nudge one is looking for. There's a 14th Amendment issue here and 'incorporation' can be a two way street. Then it'll require literally a constitutional amendment as in California to change it back to non-recognition.
#14
I'm sure you mean to be wittily sarcastic, Shipman, but I doubt you have much of a clue about what makes military units function well or how to lead one effectively.
The military, as has been noted more than once, is not civilian life - what works in the latter doesn't necessarily belong in the former. And in combat unit cohesion is a lot more important than sly witty digs.
#15
the Flamboyant Gays surely haven't been in due to DADT. The quiet ones (which have been in the military) are not an issue AFAICT, as most respect them and just don't want it "thrust in their face" so to speak, same as in any workplace. I've worked with gays that I like and gays that I didn't. Just like with straights, I don't need to know "how much ass you tapped" over the weekend, especially if it's literal. Keep it to yourself, don't sexually harrass anyone in teh workplace, and we all get along
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/05/2009 16:44 Comments ||
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#16
I'm sure you mean to be wittily sarcastic, Shipman, but I doubt you have much of a clue about what makes military units function well or how to lead one effectively.
You are absolutely correct on all points except for the ones pointed out.
Darkies
Wymens
Have no place in a military environment where their presence could lead to a lack of comabat effectivenss.
#17
And:
Since I can't edit.... it certainly makes sense that those folks would impair combat effectiveness by their presence. Much like an idiot would with a brass key.
#18
You know, I have more than a dozen close friends who are deployed for the 4th or 5th tour right now in combat situations. Another year away from their families, another year when they might die.
They and their units have seen more death and gruesome destruction than any person needs for a lifetime. And we're asking them to do it yet again in Afghanistan, with their hands tied by rules of engagement that are pretty much unprecedented in combat.
So excuse me if I don't give a flying fuck about challenging DADT right now.
#19
I did 29 years, first six in the USMC and USMCR as an enlisted (E1-E6) and then 23 in the Army as a commissioned officer. In Intel, combat arms and senior staff positions. I served with a number of people who were obviously gay, but had the good manners and common sense not to make a display of it. In combat arms units, I can tell you that openly flaunted homosexual lifestyle will be enormously corrosive to unit morale and discipline. Stop making the military the social lab for the gay agenda! Just becasue they obey orders doesn't mean it wont drastically affect efficient units, and do you really want to make the national defense the place you force the gay agenda?
#20
Since I can't edit.... it certainly makes sense that those folks would impair combat effectiveness by their presence. Much like an idiot would with a brass key.
It isn't 'presence'. It's 'conduct'.
I understand there might be confusion on those. Much like 'rushed political agenda' and 'considered decision' - or in your case - 'positive contribution' and 'terminal sarcasm'.
#21
The bottom line, as far as I can tell, is that everyone is celibate while Over There. At home, whatever you do at home with your significant other (of whatever duration), you don't talk about it on the base. Again as far as I can tell, Don't Ask Don't Tell is a restatement of that rule for homosexuals, the same as it holds for darkies and wymyns, Shipman... and the rest of humanity in all their glory.
#22
To continue: life would be so much less exhausting were the civilians to live by that rule as well... although Rantburg's Lurid Tales and Seedy Politicians sections would be ever so much smaller.
Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich has severely reprimanded US President Barack Obama for sending additional troops to Afghanistan.
Kucinich said in a statement on Thursday that extending the Afghan war would destabilize the United States at home.
"We are deeply in debt. Our GDP is down. Our manufacturing is down. Our savings are down. The value of the dollar is down. Our trade deficit is up. Business failures are up. Bankruptcies are up," his statement read.
The US president earlier on Tuesday announced plans to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in his new war strategy.
"The war is a threat to our national security. We'll spend over $100 billion next year to bomb a nation of poor people while we reenergize the Taliban, destabilize Pakistan, deplete our army and put more of our soldiers' lives on the line," the Ohio congressman said.
"Meanwhile, back here in the USA, 15 million people are out of work. People are losing their jobs, their health care, their savings, their investments, and their retirement security. $13 trillion in bailouts for Wall Street, trillions for war; when are we going to start taking care of things here at home?"
The new US troop surge would put more than 100,000 American forces in Afghanistan at an annual cost of about $75 billion.
The US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost 768.8 billion dollars and by the end of this fiscal year (October 2010) the price tag will approach one trillion.
Aside from the huge cost, the controversial wars have inflicted a high human death toll mostly on the civilian population of Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The people of Afghanistan don't want to be saved by us," Kucinich said on the House floor Wednesday.
"They want to be saved from us. Our presence and our Predator drones kill countless innocents, creating more US enemies and destabilizing Pakistan," he added.
Congressman Kucinich has long been a critic of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, repeatedly calling for withdrawal of troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Versus NEWSMAX > RADICAL ISLAMIST GROUP BENT ON DESTROYING AMERICA [Wash-based Group wants ISLAMIC STATE in CONUS-NORAM by 2050. LDR > "IN the final analysis, the US IS FINISHED"]???
#2
"We are deeply in debt. Our GDP is down. Our manufacturing is down. Our savings are down. The value of the dollar is down. Our trade deficit is up. Business failures are up. Bankruptcies are up," his statement read.
taking credit where credit is due, eh, fruitcake?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/05/2009 10:03 Comments ||
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#3
"Bomb a nation of poor people"
Er, Dennis, the nation is not the target here and nobody appointed you to speak for the people of Afghanistan. Condescending, simplistic, weasel-word Vietnam era rhetoric just will not make the grade anymore. Don't you have some tinfoil hats to pass out or a burning river to extinguish somewhere?
In 1912, a respected paleontologist at the British Museum confirmed that bones found in a Piltdown quarry came from the "missing link" between apes and humans. Forty years later, the so-called Piltdown Man was proved to be a hoax. Thanks to purloined e-mails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU), global warming is turning out to be the 21st-century equivalent of Piltdown Man.
E-mails between a small group of highly influential climate scientists at the center of the worldwide panic over global warming exposed multiple discussions among them concerning their manipulation of data and using various evasive tactics to avoid releasing the facts behind their ginned-up numbers to the public via Freedom of Information Act requests.
Here's a rogue's gallery of five major perpetrators of what's turning out to be the biggest scientific hoax in modern history:
Geoff Jenkins, chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's first scientific group and self-described "frontman explaining climate change." Jenkins admitted in 1996 to a "cunning plan" to feed fake temperature information to Nick Nuttall, head of media for the United Nations Environment program. At the time, Jenkins predicted temperatures in London would hit 113 degrees Fahrenheit and the Thames River would rise three feet even though 1996 was, in fact, cooler than 1995.
Phil Jones, director of the CRU, controlled two key databases that are the primary sources underlying claims by the United Nations and others of a global scientific "consensus" that catastrophic consequences will result from man-made global warming unless trillions of dollars are spent now to prevent it.
Jones e-mailed instructions to colleagues to "hide the decline" in temperatures and to pressure editors of academic journals to blackball the work of "climate skeptics."
After claiming that the original climate data had been destroyed in the 1980s, Jones was caught urging his CRU colleagues to "delete as appropriate" data requested under Britain's freedom of information laws.
Michael Mann, director of Penn State University's Earth System Science Center, is one of the lead authors of the U.N.'s Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change report. Mann was the originator of the "hockey stick" graph that supposedly proved that the Earth's temperature was at the highest level in recorded history. However, it also appeared to eliminate both the Medieval Warm Period, in which surface temperatures were higher than they are today, and Europe's "Little Ice Age."
In 2003, Canadian statistician Steve McIntyre exposed the flawed methodology behind Mann's hockey stick. The recent e-mail leak led another scientist to quip: "Dr. Mann is in transition from Penn State to State Pen. We can only hope he does a better job with license plates."
Mann has been a committee chairman for the National Academy of Sciences and a member of multiple NAS panels and committees.
James Hansen, head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, whose records were also cited as evidence, second only to the CRU data, of incontrovertible man-made global warming. McIntyre also caught Hansen engaging in the same sort of statistical manipulation in which past temperatures were lowered and recent ones "adjusted" to convey the false impression that the nonexistent warming trend was accelerating. After trying to block McIntyre's IP address, NASA was forced to back down from its claim that 1998 was the hottest year in U.S. history.
Al Gore, Former Vice President Al Gore is the author of "An Inconvenient Truth," star of the 2006 Oscar-winning movie of the same name and winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless efforts to limit economic development in industrialized countries with a cap-and-trade scheme. Many experts agree that such a system would increase food and energy prices, while wasting trillions of dollars on alternative energy sources (in which Gore is heavily invested). Gore's case rests on the now-discredited theory that carbon dioxide emissions (which are increasing) are heating up the Earth's atmosphere, even though actual global temperatures have been declining for at least a decade.
These five, though far from being the only ones, are among the top perpetrators of the Great Global Warming Hoax. They should never be taken seriously again.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
More to add to the list:
Mick Kelly-East Anglia, Tom Wigley-UCAR, Thomas Karl-NOAA, Gavin Schmidt-GISS, Marguerite Gascoine-East Anglia, Linda Livingston-East Anglia, Geoff Jenkins-Hadley Center, Tom Karl-NOAA, Stefan Ramstorf-Potsdam Univ, Robert Watson-UN.
#2
given the opportunity, the UN will fleece the rich western countries as fast and as effectively as possible. It is run by a bunch of 3rd worlders who once they see the comforts of a rich society. lose all moral bearing and simply "go for the money"
Its a new "thing" to them ( the comforts of the west ) Rich Western leaders however, dont lose all sense of obligation when the "see the money" as they are very used to having "western comforts" and are by and large, wealthy themselves. You can take the Mud Hut Dweller out of Elbonia but, you cant take the Elbonia out of the Mud Hut Dweller.
#3
Unfortunately, Hollingsworth's article on recent creationist science (linked on that page) shows that her opinion on matters scientific is totally worthless.
#5
Others, like Cold War dissidents making furtive contact with the West, arrange discreet meetings to discuss what "evolutionary biologists don't want to talk about, the origins of the information in the digital code of DNA necessary to produce life."
When former Cambridge biochemist Douglas Axe computed the chances that the four amino acids that form DNA could self-arrange themselves into just one functional protein, he found it was 1:10164 -- or less than the odds of finding one marked subatomic particle in the entire observable universe.
In other words, the evolutionary story now universally taught to students fails to account for the origin of the basic information that forms the very blueprint of life. Yet even though most of the scientific establishment rejects the notion of an intelligent designer, Meyer says nobody has come up with a better explanation.
Ironically, attempts to discredit ID have turned it into forbidden fruit on college campuses. Many recruits are grad students who understand the complex nanotechnology of the cell and the dead ends in Darwinian evolution much better than their professors. "It looks like engineering," Meyer says. "Replication. Digital code. We own the metaphors. They know the future is with us."
The day before a debate in Shrewsbury, England, commemorating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth in February, Meyer quietly met with some of the top biologists in the United Kingdom who wanted him to know they "were on our side" despite the "reflexive hostility" shown by evolutionists who resist the theistic implications of ID, but find it easier to brand its adherents as "creationist whackos" than to address the numerous deficiencies in Darwin's theory.
"The actual evidence shows that major features of the fossil record are an embarrassment to Darwinian evolution; that early development in vertebrate embryos is more consistent with separate origins than with common ancestry; that non-coding DNA is fully functional, contrary to neo-Darwinian predictions; and that natural selection can accomplish nothing more than artificial selection -- which is to say, minor changes within existing species," writes Discovery Institute senior fellow Jonathan Wells, who has two Ph.D.s from the University of California at Berkeley in molecular and cell biology. "Faced with such evidence, any other scientific theory would probably have been abandoned long ago. Judged by the normal criteria of empirical science, Darwinism is false."
Isn't it interesting that the vast majority of Americans have never heard any of these scientific challenges to Darwinism even though the scientific method is based on questioning existing theories? "If we've defined science such that it cannot get to the true answer, we've got a pretty lame definition of science," Axe said.
There are several fallacies in that passage, to my eye, among them that minor changes per mutation somehow disprove the cummulative effects of natural selection in the aggregate over time.
But then I've never had any difficulty reconciling my faith with the mechanisms of evolution.
#7
When former Cambridge biochemist Douglas Axe computed the chances that the four amino acids that form DNA could self-arrange themselves into just one functional protein, he found it was 1:10164 -- or less than the odds of finding one marked subatomic particle in the entire observable universe.
Granted, my understanding of statistics is minimal at best -- I still am not amused by my Intro. Stats professor's response to how we know the formulae are true, "Well, it seems to work so far." -- but just because the odds are extremely low it doesn't mean that the thing only occurs the very last time. It could happen the first time, then not again until the 10165th... or twice in a row, then not again until 20,230 times later. Statistical probabilities are based on an infinite number of tries, and do not imply regular periodicity.
Mr. Wife once worked on a project that required, as I recall, seven different inventions of product and process to make happen. Each invention had something like a 90% probability to come to fruition. Naturally, the product did not go to market, because the total probability was so low (0.90 x 0.90 x 0.90 x 0.90 x 0.90 x 0.90 x 0.90 = ? Go on, pull out your calculator. You know you want to.) Nonetheless, the company made pots of money by putting each of the inventions into pre-existing products, where they did work.
#9
I highly recommend an article in the December issue of Scientific American: "What Undersea Vents Reveal about Life's Origins". These hydrothermal vents (not black smokers) are actually producing methane and hydrogen from dissolved CO2. The tiny pores in the rock are taking the place of cells, and metabolic pathways have been found in primitive lifeforms living in the vents which mimic parts of the purely chemical pathways taking place.
They've discovered at least one lifeform there which predates both Archea and Bacteria. So, these vents may be the original location of life on earth, with no direct dependence on the sun. The energy source is the methane and reduced hydrogen found in the hot water in the vents.
Also, I recommend "Here Be Dragons" by Dennis McCarthy. This is a very recent book - Oxford U Press - on biogeography. It's an excellent and accessible antidote to ID. McCarthy is a fine writer, in the vein of E. O. Wilson and Darwin.
Another great choice is the "The Ancestor's Tale", by Dawkins, which traces the continuous evolution of life backwards in time to the ancient organisms mentioned above.
Either book would make good Christmas presents for younger people - say at the high school science level. I think Fred would get a small commission if you accessed Amazon via the ad on the 'Burg's front page.
The UN summit in the Danish capital is likely to end in a global deal to limit greenhouse gases in order to control global warming.
But writing in the journal Nature, a group of leading academics, have warned that unless countries meet their most ambitious targets temperature rises will go above 3.6F (2C).
If there is a "weak agreement" temperatures may even rise by 7.2F (4C) by the 2060s.
This will mean melting of the glaciers, sea level rise, mass droughts and flooding.
Mark New of the University of Oxford and one of the authors of the paper, said even countries like Britain could suffer from problems like mass migration and food shortages.
"Even affluent communities would see substantial and unprecedented changes to how they live, while for the majority, fundamental transformations might be necessary for survival."
Dr New called for a rich countries to increase their targets, while also giving developing nations help to reduce emissions. He also said it will be necessary to help vulnerable countries like Bangladesh adapt to sea level rise and other impacts of warming.
"The challenges involved in reducting emissions soon and fast enough to have even a small chance of keeping temperatures below 2C are much larger than most people realise, requiring unprecedented collective will among the governments of both the developed and developing world. Ongoing climate negotiations offer little to suggest that sufficient collective will currently exists to meet this mitigation challenge. The risk of allowing the world to experience 4C of warming this century demands both accelerated efforts at effective mitigation and serious planning for adaptationto changes that may be larger than those usually considered."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Meanwhile Senator Vreenak reviews a flashdrive full of climate model predictions.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/05/2009 12:17 Comments ||
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#7
What is the perfect global temperature anyway? Seriously, there doesnt seem to be a consensus on what earths optimal median temperature should be. It may sound incredibly ignorant but maybe a slight temperature increase may be a good thing or at least not necessarily a universal bad thing. If the climate gurus are correct life may get even more unpredictable for the folks that live in a flood plain but I get an extension on my growing season. And isnt evolution what the Gaia worshipers are all about?
#8
If you live in much of the northern US, the place where you live was under a mile or two of ice 10,000 years ago. That's just a blink of the eye in geological time. The earth's climate changes, and has changed for billions of years before we arrived on the scene. It will continue to change whether or not we allow a bunch of crooked politicians to cheat us out of several hundred billion dollars.
#9
What is the perfect global temperature anyway?
For which month? JOE! is keeping my sekret data sekret, but I can crank out a number for you if you will write the month you're interested in on the back of quality 500K negotiable dollar bond I can may cough up an answer in dawgs good time.
Nothing's a much fun as packing the car after a craft show, in cold rain changing to snow - in early December - in central Virginia.
These clowns keep promising Gerbil Worming - when are they going to deliver? >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/05/2009 22:03 Comments ||
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#12
21 Degrees, right here, right now, in central Alabama to boot. (Montgomery area)
Global Hysteria is a far bettr name.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/05/2009 22:18 Comments ||
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#13
We had snow Thursday, and it's supposed to start again tonight. Thursday night was COLD - -1F. We usually don't get temps like that until January.
The idiots predicting the "end of the world" all have their names on those emails I've downloaded and been reading. The most overwhelming sense one gets from those emails is utter contempt for anyone not in their little "group". They should all be forced to emigrate to Alice Springs or Coober Peady in Australia, and be forced to live on charity.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/05/2009 22:28 Comments ||
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Obama's Safe (for perverts) Schools Czar Kevin Jennings in the news again. OK, it's not important enough news for the NYT, WaPo, ANC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC. It just affects what your children learn in school.
Out of curiosity to see exactly what kind of books Kevin Jennings and his organization think American students should be reading in school, our team chose a handful at random from the over 100 titles on GLSEN's grades 7-12 list, and began reading through.
What we discovered shocked us. We were flabbergasted. Rendered speechless.
We were unprepared for what we encountered. Book after book after book contained stories and anecdotes that weren't merely X-rated and pornographic, but which featured explicit descriptions of sex acts between pre-schoolers; stories that seemed to promote and recommend child-adult sexual relationships; stories of public masturbation, anal sex in restrooms, affairs between students and teachers, five-year-olds playing sex games, semen flying through the air. One memoir even praised becoming a prostitute as a way to increase one's self-esteem. Above all, the books seemed to have less to do with promoting tolerance than with an unabashed attempt to indoctrinate students into a hyper-sexualized worldview. Straight out of the Marxist and perverts' playbooks. Grades 7-12. That's 12-18 years old.
Posted by: ed ||
12/05/2009 10:57 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
As President Obama concludes his first jobs summit, almost a year into his presidency, the nature of the guest list hints at a deliberate initiative that's been underway for over 15 years -- and it's not one of the obvious presumptions that most would make. Notice that of the list of leaders invited, the majority are labor union leaders, leaders of businesses with government contracts, or leaders of businesses that operate on partial public funding. There is a common element across most of the businesses represented: in one capacity or another, even if they are private sector businesses, most on the list benefit from some form of public money.
As the USS Obama Administration slowly starts to settle into the waves, future historians will be kept busy searching for the source of the iceberg that holed it below the waterline on its maiden voyage to the land of Hope and Change. Was it the non-stimulating "stimulus"? The ludicrous Nobel Peace Prize? The decision to try the Sept. 11th plotters in lower Manhattan? The Afghanistan speech at West Point this week, splitting the difference between surging and surrendering as the photo-op cadets nodded off in the background? It's a tough call, and the first year's not even over yet.
Frustrated by the lack of action to overturn the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Democrats in Congress are calling for at least temporary immunity so gay service members can testify at the Capitol about their experiences.
Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich has severely reprimanded US President Barack Obama for sending additional troops to Afghanistan. 
The UN summit in the Danish capital is likely to end in a global deal to limit greenhouse gases in order to control global warming.
