Please consider making a donation to our S&L bailout fund.

« FL Pro-Hamas Demonstration – ROP Alert | Home | Trees Are Causing Global Warming – Again »

Selected News For Week Jan 3 – Jan 9

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news items themselves.

In order to make the articles as readable as possible, please try to stick to the format described in the first of these weekly editions here. Please eschew articles from blogs or hugely popular sites like the Drudge Report, since most people will presumably see such material elsewhere.

Of course articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread should be posted there. As always, remember to excerpt heavily and to provide a link to the original source.

Related Articles:

 

This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 at 12:00 am. You can leave a response.

55 Responses to “Selected News For Week Jan 3 – Jan 9”

  1. Al Morone
    January 3, 2009 at 1:31 am

    From the UK’s Daily Mail:

    Britain’s ‘betrayed’ white working classes believe immigrants receive better treatment

    By Steve Doughty
    03rd January 2009

    White families on the country’s poorest estates believe they have been ‘betrayed’ and ‘abandoned’ by politicians who favour newly-arrived immigrants, a Government report acknowledged today.
    It found that people on council estates think they always come second to immigrants for housing and benefits.
    Many feel they have been shoved aside by politicians who use political correctness and allegations of racism to stifle honest discussion, it said.
    The report for the Department of Communities and Local Government drew an admission from Communities Secretary Hazel Blears that white working class people ’sometimes just don’t feel anyone is listening or speaking up for them.’
    She said people should be allowed to talk about their worries ‘without fear of being branded a racist.’
    The findings, produced by Mrs Blear’s ‘National Community Forum’, appear another step on Labour’s road away from multiculturalism, the left-wing doctrine that dominated ministerial thinking until the 2005 London July bombings.
    Under multiculturalism, ethnic minority groups are encouraged to develop their own identity while critics say values associated with white groups are dismissed as racist.
    Today’s report was based on interviews with 43 people on largely-white housing estates in Birmingham, Runcorn, Milton Keynes and Thetford in Norfolk.
    It found that ‘by far the most frequent context for referring to ethnic minorities is that of perceived competition for resources – typically housing, but also employment, benefits, territory and culture.’
    White working-class residents of some of the country’s most disadvantaged estates felt that immigrants were given priority in social housing
    On the Milton Keynes estate, ‘feelings of anxiety around housing were so acute that respondents claimed they had voted against the regeneration of the estate, which meant pulling down all breeze block houses and rebuilding them with new and better materials, because they feared that their necessary displacement during building work would result in them losing their places on the estate to immigrants.’
    Many residents were worried that refugees and single mothers could find council and housing association homes more easily than people whose families had lived in the area for generations.
    It said they felt that if they complained they would be told the system was fair and they were racist.
    The report said there was a ‘growing sense of unfairness and disempowerment among poor white people’ that was at its deepest in the most deprived areas.
    It warned that the resentment could provide fertile ground for far right political groups…

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....tment.html

  2. pinandpuller
    January 3, 2009 at 2:50 am

    This isn’t really news per se but I thought of an alternate title for the new Tom Cruise movie: “Eye Wide Shut”.

  3. BillK
    January 3, 2009 at 3:16 am

    Federal logic at work, from the AP:

    Motorists’ habits spur call for gas tax increases

    WASHINGTON — Motorists are driving less and buying less gasoline, which means fuel taxes aren’t raising enough money to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.

    A federal commission created by Congress to find a way to make up the growing revenue shortfall in the program that funds highway repairs and construction is talking about increasing federal gas and diesel taxes.

    A roughly 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by the commission until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.

    The 15-member National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing is the second group in a year to call for increasing the current 18.4 cents a gallon federal tax on gasoline and the 24.4 cents a gallon tax on diesel. State fuel taxes vary from state to state.

    In a report expected in late January, members of the infrastructure financing commission say they will urge Congress to raise the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon and the diesel tax by about 12 cents to 15 cents a gallon. At the same time, the commission will recommend tying the fuel tax rates to inflation.

    The commission will also recommend that states raise their fuel taxes and make greater use of toll roads and fees for rush-hour driving.

    Although the cost of gasoline has dropped dramatically in recent months, such tax increases could be politically treacherous for Democratic leaders in Congress. A gas tax hike was one of the reasons they lost control of the House and Senate in the 1994 elections. President-elect Barack Obama has expressed concern about raising fuel taxes in the current economic climate.

    But commission members said the government must find more road and bridge building money somewhere.
    “I’m not excited about a gas tax increase, but the reality is our current gas tax doesn’t pay for upkeep of the system we have now,” said Adrian Moore, vice president of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank in Los Angeles, and a member of the highway revenue commission. “We can either let the roads go to hell or we can pay more.”

    The dilemma for Congress is that highway and transit programs are dependent for revenue on fuel taxes that are not sustainable. Many Americans are driving less and switching to more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, and a shift to new fuels and technologies like plug-in hybrid electric cars will further erode gasoline sales.

    According to a draft of the financing commission’s recommendations, the nation needs to move to a new system that taxes motorists according to how much they use roads.

    “Most if not all of the commissioners have a strong belief and commitment that we need a fundamental transformation of the current system,” said commission chairman Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology policy think tank in Washington. …

    http://www.madison.com/tct/business/430440

    So given the above, the most patriotic thing you could do is buy a bigger gas-guzzling vehicle.

    Just think, if everyone drove a vehicle that got 4 MPG, the Government would be awash in gas tax revenue.

    So in a very real way, this is yet another crisis caused by the environmental movement.

    Meanwhile, Congress makes the leap that the way to offset losses in gas tax revenue caused by people driving less is to make driving more expensive.

    Sure! Then when the Federal gas tax doubles and people cut back more, they’ll need to – you guessed it – raise gas taxes further.

    This is no different than how municipal water departments across the country after working for years begging people to conserve water now sell less water and thus have raised the price of water.

    Only elected officials are stupid enough to believe that raising the price of an activity will result in more revenue rather than less of the activity.

    • DGA
      January 3, 2009 at 11:25 am

      I get a sinking, sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach that this is the sort of tax increase that will be so commonplace that the public has hardly time to study it before yet another one comes along, with the rats in charge as they are now. Gotta go, found a nice place in the backyard to bury my wallet. It’s real close to the coffee cans (plastic, thank you) that I buried earlier with any spare cash I had.

  4. BigOil
    January 3, 2009 at 10:30 am

    Democrats raising the gasoline tax is the change I am hoping for. It is the type of overreach that will upset the majority of Americans.

    Remember back to the last energy tax proposed by BJ Clinton – the BTU tax. That ended up being a lead trial balloon.

  5. cjokry
    January 3, 2009 at 12:22 pm

    A new tax on gas! Now I won’t be able to afford the fuel I need to set all of my money on fire before I throw it down a bottomless pit! Oh well, I’ll just have to give it to a government run by democrats instead.

  6. proreason
    January 3, 2009 at 2:17 pm

    Here’s someting for climate change kooks to really be worried about:

    Earthquakes at Yellowstone Supervolcano: Update

    1) The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory put out an update yesterday evening

    Yellowstone Lake Earthquake Swarm Update: 2 January 2008

    The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reports that as of 1800 MST on 2 January 2009, seismicity of the ongoing Yellowstone earthquake swarm continues. Over 500 earthquakes, as large as M 3.9, have been recorded by an automated earthquake system since the inception of this unusual earthquake sequence that began Dec. 27, 2008. More than 300 of these events have been reviewed and evaluated by seismic analysts. Depths of the earthquakes range from ~ 1km to around 10 km. We note that the earthquakes extend northward from central Yellowstone Lake for ~10 km toward the Fishing Bridge area, with a migration of recent earthquakes toward the north. Some of the dozen M3+ earthquakes were felt in the Lake, Grant Village and Old Faithful areas. Personnel of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory continue to evaluate this earthquake sequence and will provide information to the NPS, USGS and the public as it evolves.

    This earthquake sequence is the most intense in this area for some years. No damage has been reported within Yellowstone National Park, nor would any be expected from earthquakes of this size. The swarm is in a region of historical earthquake activity and is close to areas of Yellowstone famous hydrothermal activity. Similar earthquake swarms have occurred in the past in Yellowstone without triggering steam explosions or volcanic activity. Nevertheless, there is some potential for hydrothermal explosions and earthquakes may continue or increase in magnitude. There is a much lower potential for related volcanic activity.

    …

    3) Here is a bit of what Scientific American has to say on the topic: …

    “Eruptions are far enough apart that there is a very low probability of the next eruption happening in our lifetimes or anytime soon,” Daniel Dzurisin of the USGS told me in 2006. “The flipside is: [Yellowstone] has been active for millions of years and it’s going to erupt again sometime.”…

    http://www.usnews.com/blogs/ca.....pdate.html

    The odds of this turning into a cataclysmic event are very low, but at some point in the future, it will, and it will REALLY be something to worry about.

    Maybe it’s time for AlToad to set his juvenile mind to work figuring out how increasing taxes can stop vulcanism of a magnitude that happens every million years or so. It would be a better use of his time than what his current wet dreams of global warming/powergrabbing.

  7. BannedbytheTaliban
    January 3, 2009 at 3:08 pm

    The BBC continues its adoration of the Communist governments of the world.

    Che’s spirit burns on in Latin America

    By Daniel Schweimler
    BBC News, Buenos Aires

    Fifty years ago saw the triumph of the Cuban revolution, led by Fidel Castro. A key figure in that success was Ernesto Che Guevara, who led rebel fighters into Havana on 2 January following the overthrow of Cuba’s dictator Fulgencio Batista.

    But Che Guevara’s attempts to spread the revolution throughout the continent ended with his execution in a remote Bolivian school in 1967.

    His image and ideology were suppressed in his native Argentina – and beyond – throughout the 1970s and much of the 1980s, a period that saw much of Latin America governed by right-wing or even military administrations.

    Some in Latin America see Che as a failed revolutionary, while others say he was a misguided killer, a brutal man who ordered the execution of dozens of his opponents.

    But what is clear is that Che Guevara’s image and ideals have continued to resonate – and in some parts of 21st century Latin America now stronger than ever.

    The reasons, for some observers, is that the region’s institutions are generally weak. The people simply don’t trust their governments, banks and judicial systems.

    Their protests are often lost in a sea of bureaucracy or corruption, and so for many, the only way to be heard is by taking to the streets.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7785690.stm

    People are so stupid. I’m sure they think “Honey, I’m going to protest the communist regime that has brought corruption and oppression to our people. Is my Che flag big enough?”

  8. BillK
    January 4, 2009 at 8:46 am

    The latest on the brainwashing education of our youth, from the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal:

    Nature makes a comeback in classes in Wisconsin schools

    By Andy Hall

    Geeta Dawar takes her seventh grade science students outside their Madison school to examine cracks in the sidewalk.

    David Spitzer gets his Madison elementary students to notice flocks of migrating geese overhead as the kids walk to school.

    And David Ropa has his seventh graders, even on an arctic morning, use their bare hands to dip testing vials into Lake Mendota.

    Nature is on the rise in many schools across Wisconsin, as educators strive to reverse a major societal shift toward technology and indoor activities.

    Today’s students are the first generation in human history raised without a strong relationship with the natural world, said Jeremy Solin, who heads a state forest education program at UW-Stevens Point for students in kindergarten through high school.

    The phenomenon of “nature deficit disorder” — a term coined by author Richard Louv in his 2005 book “Last Child in the Woods” — is contributing to childhood obesity, learning disabilities, and developmental delays, experts say.

    Solin cited research showing that on average, American children spend more than 30 hours per week connected to electronic devices, but less than an hour a month in nature. The disparity is rooted, in part, in parents’ increased reluctance to allow their children to freely roam outdoors, for fear of strangers, traffic, mosquitoes and other hazards.

    Solin said he’s been amazed, through discussions with more than 1,000 people at school districts, to find the same pattern in Wisconsin’s rural and urban areas.

    “Kids are able to identify hundreds of company logos but nothing in their backyard,” Solin told a group of educators at a session examining nature deficit disorder at a state teachers conference in October.

    To reconnect children to nature, school districts are expanding school forests around the state while also developing low-cost, small projects such as rain gardens that can be effective even in poor urban areas.

    “You need to find nature and connect with it where it is,” said Tim Peterson, science and environmental education coordinator for the Madison School District, who oversees the school district’s forest and also works to infuse everyday classroom activities with connections to the natural world.

    However, obstacles abound.

    Although research shows that outdoors-based learning can help raise academic performance, it’s difficult to spend time outdoors, many educators say, given schools’ tight budgets and the federal No Child Left Behind law’s focus on reading and math test scores.

    There are signs of change. In September, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a measure known as the No Child Left Inside Act to boost programs that expose children to the outdoors.

    In Wisconsin, which in 1927 became the first state to create legislation for school forests, 205 of 426 school districts have forests (which often include wetlands and prairies) and a few districts are added to the list each year through private donations or public funding.

    Dane County districts with forests include Madison, DeForest, Deerfield, Monona Grove, Cambridge, Verona and McFarland, which hosts one of the state’s newest school forests. An increasing number of schools are creating gardens and prairies, often on the school grounds for easy access.

    Their goals: Help students build a sense of connection to the land, demonstrate sustainable methods of management and, sometimes, raise money for the school district through sales of such products as timber, grapevine wreaths, Christmas trees and maple syrup. …

    http://www.madison.com/wsj/topstories/430453

    While I find it laudable that schools are trying to get kids “reconnected” with nature, I not only object to the time spent when kids should ostensibly be learning other things on such activities, but more to the point – nature deficit disorder?!?!

    Must everything be some type of societal “disease?”

    The answer, of course, is yes, as without the “disease” there cannot be any Government funding to “correct” it.

    Still, I’m sure Wisconsin’s lefties have a big problem with this. Christmas tree sales? Isn’t that tree murder along with recognition of religion? Maple syrup sales? Why, that’s sugar and will lead to more cases of diabetes!

    You get the idea.

    • BannedbytheTaliban
      January 5, 2009 at 4:14 pm

      Idea is good, execution is bad. I’ve seen more of the natural world by 16 than most will in an entire life time. All you have to do is sit in a tree stand. Encourage hunting and the shooting sports. But the libs will never go for that one.

    • wardmama4
      January 8, 2009 at 10:42 am

      Yepper – great liberal logic – pave over everything, turn it into a condo or parking lot, extoll the intelligencia and urbane astutitness of city dwellers and then when their children have no clue about real nature – take them out to

      to examine cracks in the sidewalk

      Obviously Geeta Dawar and her fellow liberal teachers in WI aren’t fit to teach my dogs, much less any children.

  9. BillK
    January 4, 2009 at 9:11 am

    The latest diversity “crisis” at the University of Wisconsin as reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

    UW System diversity plan results show more needs to be done

    By Erica Perez

    At the end point of a 10-year plan the University of Wisconsin System drafted to increase diversity at its 26 public colleges and universities, minority enrollment has crept upward.

    But the numbers suggest the system remains far from equitable.

    The final assessment of the program will not be presented to the Board of Regents until March, when the board will be presented with a plan for a new diversity effort. But an analysis of UW System data shows progress on the general goals has been spotty.

    “We as a state and we as a university are not where we need to be,” UW System spokesman David Giroux said. “Enrolling and graduating more students of color and more lower-income families of all colors are keys to our public success. . . . We need to reach a broader and deeper cut of the population.”

    Here is a look at some measures that were part of the effort, dubbed Plan 2008:

    • More minorities are enrolled than 10 years ago. But the college system isn’t keeping pace with the increasingly diverse population. For instance, the number of minority public high school graduates increased 70%, while college freshman minority enrollment went up 54%.

    • Minorities made up 10.1% of students in 2007, not including international students. That’s up from 8.1% a decade ago.

    • Minority students are less likely than white students to return after their freshman year. About 74% of minority freshmen come back, compared with 80% of white students. That gap has narrowed by only 1 percentage point in the decade.

    • The gap between six-year graduation rates for minority and white students has worsened – from a 21-percentage point gap for the class that began in 1998 to a 23-point gap for the fall 2001 freshman class.

    • The amount of financial aid to all students has doubled – up to $881 million in 2006-’07. But students today rely more heavily on loans and rack up more debt than they did a decade ago.

    • The percentage of system employees who are minorities has increased, from 8% a decade ago to 12% in 2006-’07.

    At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the centerpiece of recent diversity efforts has been Access to Success, aimed at helping minorities succeed in college. The program includes a first-year center, which provides tutoring and summer classes for students who aren’t prepared for college-level work.

    Since the program’s launch in 2005, a greater percentage of minorities return to UWM after their freshman year.

    “The most important thing for us is that we are an institution of access and that students that want to come to UWM can come and be successful here,” UWM Provost Rita Cheng said.

    Despite that success, minorities make up a slightly smaller percentage of the total UWM undergraduate population than they did a decade ago – about 17% this fall.

    Cheng attributed the drop to UWM’s improved academic reputation, which has drawn more Wisconsin students from beyond the diverse Milwaukee area.

    “I think it’s all very positive. You want to have a large research university drawing students from all over,” Cheng said, but added: “We’d like to see the percentage of minority students to be a bit higher.” …

    http://www.jsonline.com/news/e.....50249.html

    Basically a plea for more Government funding for higher education (which of course could never see tuitions go down because high tuitions correspond to “prestige” in the business) and more use of affirmative action for admissions as opposed to say, grades or other academic criteria.

    At least the minorities so-enrolled realize it’s a double-edged sword, something that of course “shows there’s work left to do”:

    A prime example: PEOPLE – Pre-College Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence. Since 1999, the program has recruited minority Wisconsin students in middle and high school and provided extra help as they prepare for college.

    PEOPLE participants have to meet the same admissions requirements as everyone else. But if they get accepted, they get free tuition.

    In the last decade, undergraduate minority enrollment at UW has increased from 9% to 13%. But the population is small enough that some say tensions remain.

    “People are jealous that we have the PEOPLE scholarship . . . saying we don’t deserve to be in college or we don’t deserve the scholarship,” Stuiber said.

    Gee, getting free tuition because of your (minority) race… that’s sure to breed racial harmony, right?

    • wardmama4
      January 8, 2009 at 10:52 am

      There is a program – the International Baccalaureate Program – which is offered to high achieving middle school students (both of my younger children were offered to take the entry test – we declined because the stupid school district we were in did not offer transportation to the only school (only one school per city/district is ever allowed to offer it) that offered the program.

      A IBC degree is presented at the same time a HS diploma is given – in Washington state – it is automatic acceptance at any state college. In Florida it is automatic 4 year tuition to any state college. It is automatic acceptance at many colleges and universities in the World.

      It is not based on income, social/economic group, race – it is simply based on the achievements of the individual student.

      And isn’t that what higher education should/was always about?

  10. BillK
    January 4, 2009 at 10:11 am

    So what else is new, from the San Francisco Chronicle:

    Hundreds in S.F. again protest Israeli bombings

    By Nanette Asimov

    Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators – including several Jews – protested outside of the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco for the fourth time this week, venting anger over Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

    The largely peaceful protest was among many public condemnations of the bombing around the world, in London, Manila and throughout the Middle East.

    In San Francisco, protesters draped in checkered Palestinian head scarves and carrying anti-Israel signs – “End the massacre”, “Gaza = Warsaw Ghetto” – marched from Hallidie Plaza to the consulate on Montgomery Street blocking traffic and shouting, “End the occupation now!”

    “I’m descended from Holocaust victims, and we need to identify with the oppressed – not imitate the oppressors,” said protester Jack Fertig, an astrologer by profession and known to San Franciscans a generation ago as Sister Boom Boom.

    He was among several Jewish protesters opposed to the bombing that began seven days ago in retaliation for rocket fire from Hamas, which killed an Israeli and wounded six people, the Israeli military reported. Israeli air strikes have reportedly killed about 400 Palestinians and wounded some 1,700 people. Hamas has threatened to resume suicide attacks on Israel.

    Protesters on Friday called Israel the main aggressor.

    “If you are strangled, you have to fight back,” said Buthina Rashid of Concord, who stood in the throng of protesters blocking Montgomery Street between Sacramento and California streets for two hours as police looked on.

    With Rashid were her 4-year-old niece, Rawan, and her 2-year-old nephew, Nezar, who each astonished the crowd by taking a megaphone and leading the crowd in a chant: “Free, free Palestine!”

    The demonstrators remained peaceful until around 5 p.m., when a small group carrying Israel flags gathered across from the consulate. Suddenly, anti-Israel protesters screamed, “Murderers!” and tried to push them.

    Police hustled the pro-Israeli group into the nearest open building. Then, as the marchers headed back up to Market Street, an organizer named Madean Elshorafa took a megaphone and ordered everyone to sit down in the street and admonished them to be peaceful.

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....15353M.DTL

    Ah, life in San Francisco.

    Our economy is “so horrible,” yet the professional protest crowd can still afford to travel to downtown S.F. to play their little games.

    Meanwhile, you’ve got to respect the pure audacity of equivocating Gaza with the Warsaw Ghetto.

    Truly amazing, but not surprising for a generation that likely has no historical context of anything that happened prior to 1967, if not 1997.

    • sheehanjihad
      January 4, 2009 at 10:22 am

      I would enjoy seeing how the residents of San Francisco would react to a group like Hamas taking over and ruling every aspect of their lives.

      Oh, wait, such a group exists. The Gay Rights activists are pretty much doing the same thing, albeit without bombs and rockets.

      The do have a lot in common though, forced ideology on any populace is de facto terrorism no matter who is doing it.

  11. artboyusa
    January 6, 2009 at 6:19 am

    A plug here, if I may, for “Terror and Consent” by Philip Bobbitt, which was on my holiday reading list. You don’t have to agree with all he says or with all his conclusions ( I sure don’t) but this is still a valuable book that makes a serious first step towards defining an overall strategy for dealing with the terrorist threat.

  12. BillK
    January 6, 2009 at 6:41 am

    From the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal:

    Recycling a losing deal for Madison in November

    By Barry Adams

    Recycling the soda and beer cans, newspapers, milk jugs, junk mail and other items that fill our hunter green bins was a losing deal for the city of Madison in November.

    For the first time since April 2002, the city had to write a check to cover its recycling costs in November because of the low price of commodities.

    For the first 10 months of 2008, the city received almost $700,000 from the sale of recyclables it collects. But in November, sale proceeds weren’t enough to cover the $51 per ton fee charged by Waste Management to have the material sorted at its Germantown facility north of Milwaukee. So, the city had to pay $41,249. By comparison, the city received $36,609 in October from Waste Management, and it was $106,000 in July.

    December figures won’t be available until mid-January.

    “The prices were really strong all year,” said George Dreckmann, the city’s recycling coordinator. “In the past, the decline in prices has been gradual and settles over a six-month period. In 2008, the decline was fast and sure so that over a two-month period there was a big swing and the markets just crashed,” he said.

    The drop in prices also resulted in a sharp decline in business for scrap dealers and others who buy and sell recyclable material. And for those collecting aluminium cans for extra cash, the payouts have dropped by almost half compared to July.

    At Resource Solutions, 5493 Express Circle, near the Dane County Regional Airport, the slowdown has resulted in layoffs. The company, which specializes in scrap metal and electronics, has cut four people since October and now operates with 10 employees.

    “A large chunk of our capital is tied up in our inventory, and if our inventory isn’t moving, we don’t have any cash flow,” said Amanda Wilmarth, vice president of corporate development. “It’s moving, but it’s moving much more slowly than we’re accustomed to.”

    Commodities soared in 2008 — including oil reaching $147 a barrel in July and gold shooting up to a record $1,033 an ounce in March — on a wave of unprecedented global growth, especially the booming economies in China and India.

    But a large part of the buying, especially in the oil markets, was fed by speculators who believed demand would only soar. Prices began to skid as it became clear the U.S. economy was weakening rapidly — a trend exacerbated by the paralysis in the credit markets after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings in September.

    Crude’s plunge was the most dramatic, with a barrel dropping to $35 in late December, but other commodities like gold, wheat and copper also plunged.

    Recyclables didn’t escape the economic downturn. …

    http://www.madison.com/wsj/top.....tid=430871

    So, to recap, a stupid mandated recycling program is losing the government money.

    Why? Because commodities prices are down in a market economy.

    The solution? Why, government legislation, of course!

    Those in the recycling business are hoping prices will rebound soon, but they believe the increases won’t be as rapid as the slide of late 2008.

    Dreckmann, who ordered 650 large residential recycling carts for 2009 after running out in 2008, said one way to increase the value of recyclable material would be to require more recyclable content to be used in newsprint, beverage containers and shampoo and detergent bottles.

    “We could help strengthen the domestic recycling industry and that would be good for the long term,” Dreckmann said. “It would give us more opportunity.”

    That’ll do it. The only way to fight market forces is to use legislation to control the market, naturally.

  13. BillK
    January 6, 2009 at 6:55 am

    Yes, the press are increasingly not only saying we’re in a recession but a severe recession.

    The “D” word is coming any week now…

    From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

    Mighty Big Three lose dominance of domestic auto market

    By Thomas Content

    It’s official now: The Big Three have lost their dominance of the U.S. auto industry.

    The combined U.S. market share of Detroit’s automakers in 2008 fell below 50% for the first time as sales of new GM and Ford vehicles limped to their lowest totals in nearly five decades, figures released Monday show.

    General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC captured 48% of the U.S. market last year, down from 51% a year earlier and nearly 54% in 2006, according to data from Ward’s Automotive. GM’s sales were its lowest in 49 years; Ford’s were its worst in 47 years.

    Unable to get credit and unwilling to make big purchases, consumers closed out the year by buying 36% fewer vehicles in December than they did during the same month in 2007.

    In all, 13.1 million vehicles were sold in the United States last year, down 18% from 2007 and the lowest total since 1992, according to trade publication Automotive News.

    The dismal results were expected, given oil price shocks, a severe recession, rising unemployment and low consumer confidence. And industry forecasts suggest that automakers aren’t banking on a revival anytime soon.

    “We expect the first few months of 2009 to feel much like last three months of 2008,” Emily Kolinski Morris, Ford’s senior economist, said during a conference call with reporters and analysts.

    Who is benefiting at the Big Three’s expense? Companies such as Subaru, which said Monday its U.S. sales crept higher in 2008 on strong demand for Forester and Impreza models. The Japanese automaker was alone in posting an increase in yearly U.S. sales, up 0.3% to 187,699 vehicles from 187,208 in 2007.

    The nation’s largest carmaker, GM, said it plans to cut production by another 180,000 vehicles this quarter, which would mean the company would produce less than half as many vehicles as it did in the first three months of 2008.

    Chrysler executives said they had no production changes to announce. All of the company’s factories, including its Kenosha engine plant, are closed until Jan. 20.

    But production cutbacks already announced will add more pressure on suppliers, particularly those in Wisconsin and across the Upper Midwest.

    “There’s going to be a tipping point with those guys – and once they go, that’s going to go up the rest of the supply chain and affect the Johnson Controls of the world,” said David Whiston, an auto-parts analyst with Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. “How many can these big suppliers afford to keep afloat?” …

    http://www.jsonline.com/business/37127459.html

    Of course if you look at the top selling vehicles for the year, it shows once again that the best way for the “Big Three” to stay afloat is to kill CAFE and let them concentrate on the trucks they make so well.

    But that will never happen.

  14. BillK
    January 6, 2009 at 8:08 am

    Today’s anti-Palin piece from the AP:

    Alaska trooper says politics slowed drug arrest

    Public Safety commissioner insists case was handled fairly

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A drug investigator says authorities delayed the arrest of a woman tied to Gov. Sarah Palin’s family until after the November election, in which Palin was the Republican vice presidential candidate, a newspaper reported.

    Sherry Johnston — whose son Levi Johnston is engaged to Palin’s daughter, Bristol — was arrested Dec. 18 on six felony drug counts. She is accused of selling Oxycontin, a strong prescription painkiller, and pleaded not guilty Monday.

    Investigator Kyle Young sent an e-mail to the Public Safety Employees Association saying the search warrant of Johnston’s house was delayed for political reasons, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28511089/

    No, no political axe to grind there, none at all…

    • Gila Monster
      January 7, 2009 at 9:17 am

      The investigator in Alaska, Kyle Young, and the union that represents him, are now saying the warrant was not delayed for political reasons. The allegations of political meddling by or on behalf of Sarah Palin are completely unwarranted but this retraction is getting little play on the MSM wire services. From the Anchorage Daily News;

      Troopers union backs off charge of political interference
      INQUIRY: There were no delays for political reasons in Johnston drug case.

      By TOM KIZZIA
      tkizzia@adn.com

      Published: January 5th, 2009 08:31 PM
      Last Modified: January 5th, 2009 01:55 PM

      The union representing state troopers has backed off allegations that a drug investigation of Sherry Johnston was slowed down last fall to shield the national candidacy of Gov. Sarah Palin.

      An inquiry Monday by officials for the Public Safety Employees Association concluded that investigators did not delay a search warrant for political reasons, said union president Rob Cox. Charges of political meddling erupted last week because of misunderstandings between investigators working on the case and senior state public safety officials, Cox said.

      The drug-selling case against Johnston — whose son, Levi, is the father of Palin’s new grandson, Tripp — did draw unusual scrutiny from top public safety officials, Cox said. He said union and state officials hope to meet Tuesday to sort out any misunderstandings and determine whether political considerations had any effect at all.

      “At this point, it really is a non-issue,” Cox said.

      Public Safety Commissioner Joe Masters issued a statement late Monday, repeating his assertion that the governor’s office was never clued in to the drug investigation and that trooper leaders were only trying to assure that the case was handled like any other.

      “Events nationally, and their affects (sic) locally, certainly may have influenced Ms. Johnston’s behaviors and ultimately the timeline of the case,” Masters said. “However, the accusations that political motives were behind the decision on how to manage this case are baseless.”

      WRONG ABOUT WARRANT

      A national flare-up of news coverage on the political meddling charge was triggered by the leak last week of an internal union e-mail written by a state trooper involved in the Johnston case. Trooper Kyle Young asserted that service of the search warrant against Johnston was delayed for political reasons, saying that after it was clear who the target was “this case became anything but normal.”

      Union officials backed up Young at first, saying they were confident and the handling of the case “smacked of political favoritism.” The union said it had verified his allegations with the rest of the Mat-Su drug unit, including case officer Donna Anthony.

      But on Monday, Cox said Young had played a secondary role in the case and turned out to be wrong about the warrant. Cox said Anthony told him Monday the search warrant against Johnston would not have been ready to serve before the election, regardless of the political climate.

      Johnston was arrested Dec. 18, the day the warrant was served. At her arraignment in state court Monday she pleaded not guilty to six felony counts of possessing and selling OxyContin.

      Even before last week, relations between the public safety union and the governor’s office were raw. The two sides had sparred in recent months over removal of Walt Monegan as public safety commissioner, and allegations Palin pressured officials to fire a trooper who was her ex-brother-in-law.

      Union officials stressed Monday that they had not gone out of their way to pick a fight over the Johnston case. Executive director John Cyr said Young never intended his e-mail to become political fodder.

      “He was shocked when it leaked to the press,” Cyr said, “and now I’m cleaning up the mess.”

      Young sent the e-mail to all the union members in the state.

      OVERREACTIONS

      The whole fracas started, Cox said, when Masters — appointed by Palin in September — issued a press release last week sternly correcting sworn trooper testimony regarding Secret Service protection in the Johnston case.

      Masters said investigators wrongly asserted that Johnston was under federal protection during the campaign. Young responded — and the union agreed — that Masters was overreacting: Secret Service protection had indeed affected Levi’s mother’s behavior, even if she wasn’t afforded direct protection. Young said the troopers on the case appeared to be getting smeared because of political pressure.

      “It made the drug unit look pretty bad, and I don’t think that was his intention,” Cox said of Masters’ original press release.

      That’s how there were misunderstandings on both sides, Cox said: Masters with his press release, and Young in his response to the press release. A meeting Tuesday should help sort all this out, he said.

      “Hopefully we’re willing to take egg on our faces together rather than cover up, as so often happens in political cases,” Cox said.

      Masters said in his statement Monday the administration hopes to work with the union to resolve such disputes. He ended on a frosty note: “We certainly would have been open to communications with the union regarding its perceptions of this case if it had come forward with its concerns.”

      http://tinyurl.com/75cghn

      Simple, it was all just one big misunderstanding by the union. No harm intended and we will get it all straightened out, no problem.

      But here’s the rub and BillK nailed it. The MSM does indeed have a political axe to grind so this “retraction” story will have a hard time seeing the light of day.

      I stumbled across it at my local fishwrap website (The Arizona Republic) late last night but as of this AM, this story has been scrubbed from their site and I didn’t get a link or screen-shot. I did recall that it was a McClatchy article so it emerged from a search of their site but try and find it at the major MSM outlets or wire services. You’ll get zilch, nada, zip and perhaps it will get circulated today but check the date this was published above, Jan 5th. Think it will see the light of day now?

      Liberal media bias against Sarah? We don hav no stinkin’ bias..!!

  15. BannedbytheTaliban
    January 6, 2009 at 9:19 am

    Another reason to hate the ACLU:

    ACLU files suit to allow counter-recruiting

    The Associated Press
    Posted : Tuesday Jan 6, 2009 7:31:36 EST

    NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — The ACLU is suing a North Carolina school system it says has denied access to a pacifist who wants to talk to students about alternatives to the military.

    The Winston-Salem Journal reported that Sally Ferrell represents North Carolina Peace Action and says Wilkes County Schools haven’t allowed her to present her message, even though military recruiters get time with students.

    Ferrell wants to recruit for such groups as AmeriCorps while also presenting information that might convince students not to choose the military.

    School attorney Fred Johnson says the policy provides equal access for presentations to students. Wilkes County Schools Superintendent Stephen Laws says the school’s policy doesn’t allow a recruiter to criticize other groups.

    Laws and Johnson say the school system will defend its policy.

    http://www.marinecorpstimes.co.....ng_010609/

  16. BillK
    January 6, 2009 at 9:22 am

    From The Hollywood Reporter:

    NBC: Ann Coulter not banned

    Network responds to rumors after bumping her from ‘Today’

    By Paul J. Gough

    NEW YORK — NBC News denied Monday that conservative author Ann Coulter has been banned from the network after “Today” dropped her from Tuesday’s program because of breaking-news events.

    The Coulter incident garnered huge headlines, which reported that network sources said NBC was not going to allow the frequent guest to appear any more.

    That’s not true, NBC News said Monday. Coulter’s segment was dropped from the schedule because of news that the show was expecting to cover in the Gaza Strip with the Israeli military action there and in Washington with the Obama transition. “Today” had booked former British prime minister Tony Blair. Coulter was to promote her new book, “Guilty: Liberal ‘Victims’ and Their Assault on America.”

    Late Monday, NBC said that it had offered Coulter a spot on the Wednesday “Today” show.

    “We’ve had Ann Coulter on ‘Today’ many times, but because of the news in Washington and the Middle East, we decided to cancel her appearance tomorrow,” NBC News said in a statement Monday. “Understanding the media as well as she does, we are sure she knows this happens from time to time. We look forward to welcoming her back in the future.”

    Instead, Coulter will appear on CBS’ “The Early Show” to promote her book, according to an announcement on Coulter’s Web site. It wasn’t confirmed immediately by CBS.

    “I guess this ends the ‘they just want to get ratings’ argument about liberal media bias,” Coulter wrote on her site of NBC. She was scheduled to appear Jan. 9 on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes.”

    Coulter has a history with NBC, particularly “Today.” She went toe-to-toe with former co-host Katie Couric in 2002, whom she called “the affable Eva Braun” in her book “Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right.” Couric protested Coulter’s portrayal of the “Today” interview with Ronald Reagan biographer Edmund Morris that called the former president “an apparent airhead.”

    In 2006, Coulter’s appearance on “Today” with Matt Lauer caused another uproar as they battled over some of the things she said about 9/11 widows and what she called “the left’s doctrine of infallibility” in another book “Godless: The Church of Liberalism.” She was also criticized in 2007 for her remarks on CNBC’s “The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch” about Jews.

    On Sunday, watchdog group Media Matters of America noted what it called several cases of “inflammatory rhetoric” in a copy of her book. It also questioned whether NBC would “help Coulter sell” the book by booking her.

    http://www.hollywoodreporter.c.....31d9dec3fb

    “Watchdog group?” “Media Matters?” On what planet?

    Meanwhile, this is the first time I’ve heard of a guest being bumped because of expected breaking news…

    • Alice L.
      January 6, 2009 at 10:32 am

      If I were Ann I would wear that “ban” like a badge of honor. I know of people who were banned from FR for defending Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. Consider banning a medal of courage from certain sites.

  17. BannedbytheTaliban
    January 6, 2009 at 9:27 am

    Hallelujah!!! Bush has done something right:

    From the Communist News Network:

    Bush casts wide net for marine conservation

    (CNN) — U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday will designate nine sites in three areas of the central Pacific as marine national monuments, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday.

    The new areas make up the largest area of ocean set aside for marine conservation in the world — 195,280 square miles — and, coupled with a 138,000-square mile designation in Hawaii two years go, mean that Bush will have protected more of the ocean than any other president.

    “The president’s actions will prevent the destruction and extraction of natural resources from these beautiful and biologically diverse areas without conflicting with our military’s activities and freedom of navigation, which are vital to our national security,” Perino said. “And the public and future generations will benefit from the science and knowledge gained from these areas.”

    …..Bill Chandler, vice president for government affairs for the non-profit Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI), said Bush is “to be commended” for his action.

    http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/0.....index.html

    I can’t believe the liberals are actually happy with something Bush has done. I’m even more shocked they didn’t give the credit to Obama.

  18. BannedbytheTaliban
    January 6, 2009 at 9:49 am

    The Religion of Peace continues its crusade:

    From the “we don’t want to point fingers” BBC:

    Arson attack on French synagogue

    Attackers rammed a burning car into a synagogue in the southern French city of Toulouse, officials have said.

    The car, packed with a petrol bomb, was set alight and then pushed into the synagogue door by a second car.

    The building caught fire but a local rabbi and about 12 people caught inside escaped unharmed after Monday’s attack.

    It came as the French defence minister met Jewish and Muslim community leaders to stress the Middle East conflict should not lead to violence in France.

    Police said they were investigating the attack and had not made any arrests.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7813265.stm

    Of course they don’t come out and say it was a muslim who did this. Just some anti-semite. Probably a youth.

  19. BillK
    January 6, 2009 at 5:46 pm

    Will CNN get paid back for their support of the One?

    From Television Week:

    CNN’s Sanjay Gupta Eyed for Surgeon General Post

    By Josef Adalian

    CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in line to be named surgeon general of the United States, according to two Internet reports.

    Should Dr. Gupta—who was named one of People magazine’s sexiest men alive in 2003—be confirmed, he would be the first made-for-TV surgeon general, bringing a camera-ready face to a role that has traditionally been seen as one of spokesperson for public health issues. Steven K. Galson has been acting surgeon general since 2007.

    ABC News reported on its web site that President-elect Barack Obama has made the decision to appoint Dr. Gupta to the position. However, CNN.com was a bit more circumspect as of 1:05 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, saying only that Dr. Gupta “has been approached” about the role.

    CNN, citing transition team sources, said Mr. Obama “is impressed with the combination of Gupta’s past government experience, as a White House fellow and a special adviser to then-first lady Hillary Clinton, along with his medical career as a neurosurgeon and his communication skills.”

    Dr. Gupta also contributes reports to CBS News and writes a column for Time magazine.

    CNN.com said the network’s management had released a statement saying, “Since first learning that Dr. Gupta was under consideration for the surgeon general position, CNN has made sure that his on-air reporting has been on heath and wellness matters and not on health-care policy or any matters involving the new administration.”

    As news of Dr. Gupta’s likely appointment spread through the CNN empire, insiders at the network said there was “excitement” over the nomination for the “genuinely well-liked” Dr. Gupta.

    “People are even joking about how he’ll look in his uniform,” one CNN insider said. …

    http://www.tvweek.com/news/200.....ne_for.php

    Well I’m sure we can look forward to lots of science-based information to come from the Surgeon General’s office once one of CNN’s propagandists is in place, right?

    Can you imagine the outrage were a GOP President to name a consultant to Fox News to a post?

    Look at how they treated Tony Snow.

  20. JohnMG
    January 6, 2009 at 5:54 pm

    All further appointments will heretofore be announced by the “Minister of Propaganda”!

    It’s a natural fit, don’t you think?

  21. BillK
    January 6, 2009 at 5:57 pm

    You and I know it’s pointless, especially after Harry Reid said Coleman would “never, ever serve” in the Senate, but here’s the story from Fox News anyway:

    Coleman Files Lawsuit to Contest Minnesota Senate Recount Results

    The head of Minnesota’s Canvassing Board claims it properly counted the votes that gave Al Franken victory in the U.S. Senate race but Norm Coleman filed a lawsuit Tuesday to dispute the tally of hundreds of absentee ballots.

    Norm Coleman filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Ramsey County Court to challenge the results of the Minnesota Senate recount.

    The state Canvassing Board on Monday gave Al Franken the victory over Coleman by a 225-vote margin — 1,212,431 votes for Franken to 1,212,206 votes for Coleman.

    However, Franken was not seated Tuesday in the U.S. Senate as the certification of the race requires seven days for validation.

    Coleman told reporters that the Canvassing Board wrongly double-counted some ballots for Franken and accepted 650 absentee ballots that were improperly registered.

    “As of today, not every valid vote has been counted and some have been counted twice,” Coleman said during an afternoon news conference.

    “Under Minnesota law, there can be no valid election certificate if an election contest is filed,” he said.

    In response to Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s call for the incumbent Republican senator to concede, Coleman said, “This race will be determined by Minnesota voters — not by Harry Reid.”

    The Coleman campaign said it is confident that the Republican will emerge the winner once the lawsuit is settles in state court.

    “Senator Coleman will indeed be shown to be re-elected as United State senator,” Coleman’s attorney Fritz Knaak told reporters Tuesday.

    Coleman shrugged off the idea that he might concede the election to avoid a protracted fight that could leave Minnesota with only a single senator in Washington for months.

    “Something greater than expediency is at stake here,” Coleman said. He added: “Democracy is not a machine. Sometimes it’s messy and inconvenient, and reaching the best conclusion is never quick because speed is not the first objective, fairness is.”

    The Franken campaign was quick to respond to Coleman’s announcement of a lawsuit, saying, “desperate times call for desperate measures.”

    “They make a series of unsubstantiated and, frankly, unclear allegations,” said Franken attorney Marc Elias, who added that he does believe the lawsuit will change the current ballot tally.

    Earlier Tuesday, Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat, told FOX News that he has no doubt that the five-person Canvassing Board, which he led, properly counted the ballots and Minnesotans chose Franken. But he agreed that the matter can only be resolved in the courtroom.

    “The state Canvassing Board looked at this and said, ‘Look there is no evidence but this is a theory but it can only be determined in a court where evidence can be presented.’ So if you think there are 300 more Franken votes in one county and 130 more Coleman votes in another county that has to get settled in court. So if they want to settle out that question, court is the only place they can do that,” he said.

    On Monday, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid’s spokesman said Reid hoped Coleman would accept defeat.

    “Now that the bipartisan state canvassing board has certified Al Franken as the winner, we hope Senator Coleman respects its decision and does not drag this out for months with litigation,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley said. “Shortly after Election Day, Coleman criticized Mr. Franken for wanting a recount and wasting taxpayer money. Now that it is clear he lost, Coleman should follow his own advice and not subject the people of Minnesota to a costly legal battle.” …

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....challenge/

    Yes, desperate times do call for desperate measures, like wholesale election fraud, manufacture of ballots and partisan “recounting” of votes.

    Were the tables reversed, it would of course be Reid telling the nation that the “voice of the voters needs to be heard” and he would be urging Franken not to give up until every possible legal recourse had been taken.

    As I’ve said several times, there’s no way Coleman can win, but at least he’s fighting the good fight.

    • JohnMG
      January 6, 2009 at 6:14 pm

      There are two possible outcomes to this mess, and neither one bodes well for the Republic.

      If Franken (and his enablers) is allowed to steal this election through chicanery and fraud, then all elections subsequent elections are pointless.

      If, as seems inevitable, the courts determine who emerges victorious, then all elections are pointless exercises approaching sophistry..

      Either way, “we the people” lose.

  22. Zilla
    January 7, 2009 at 10:58 am

    Fellow S&L’rs, indulge me for a moment.
    As some of you know, I am an active competitive shooter. This past year I was selected for the team to represent the United States in the upcoming F-Class World Championship match which will be held at Bisley in the U.K. As you can imagine, the cost of a trip like this is rather high. So, I am asking you to go to the team website, usfclass.com and donate if you can. There are two rifles being raffled or donations can be made directly.

    Thank you.

  23. BillK
    January 7, 2009 at 12:19 pm

    From Fox News:

    Protester Calls for Jews to ‘Go Back to the Oven’ at Anti-Israel Demonstration

    Like many other protests of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, this one ended badly — police had to cool an ugly fight between supporters of Israel and Gaza, breaking up the warring sides as their screaming and chanting threatened to turn into something worse.

    But some protesters at this rally in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., took their rhetoric a step further, calling for the extermination of Israel — and of Jews.

    Separated by battle lines and a stream of rush-hour traffic outside a federal courthouse last week, at least 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators faced off against a smaller crowd of Israel supporters.

    Most of the chants were run-of-the-mill; men and women waving Palestinian flags called Israel’s invasion of Gaza a “crime,” while the pro-Israel group carried signs calling the Hamas-run territory a “terror state.”

    But as the protest continued and crowds grew, one woman in a hijab began to shout curses and slurs that shocked Jewish activists in the city, which has a sizable Jewish population.

    “Go back to the oven,” she shouted, calling for the counter-protesters to die in the manner that the Nazis used to exterminate Jews during the Holocaust.

    “You need a big oven, that’s what you need,” she yelled. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,477450,00.html

    Wow, sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

    Like this:

    http://sweetness-light.com/arc.....-rop-alert

    Is Fox News busy trolling S&L for stories now?

    • Steve
      January 8, 2009 at 10:59 am

      “Is Fox News busy trolling S&L for stories now?”

      As we have oft-noted, several Fox News producers do read this site. As do several of their correspondents.

      For which we are grateful.

  24. BillK
    January 7, 2009 at 10:25 pm

    From Newsbusters:

    CNN Places Sarah Palin With 2008’s Criminals, Sex Addicts, and the Corrupt

    By Warner Todd Huston

    Showing they have no sense of morality, no grasp of corruption and no understanding of what defines a criminal, CNN gives us another one of those ubiquitous year in review stories, this one titled “Politicians who fell from grace in 2008.” In this one, CNN has decided to reveal for us their top eight politicians that found 2008 to be a “career-buster” because of their “crimes and misdemeanors” or their outrageous controversies.

    CNN features corruption mired Rod Blagojevich, the sex crazed Elliot Spitzer and John Edwards, and the criminal bribe taker Ted Stevens among four others. Each of these men in the CNN list have either been convicted of criminal actions, are indicted for corruption, lost their positions, been drummed out of their party, or are soon to face jail time. Among these eight criminals, however, is a name that doesn’t belong among this class of serial abuser of the public trust. It won’t be shocking to note that among the worst sex criminals, bribe takers, liars and thieves in politics for 2008, CNN ridiculously included the name of Governor Sarah Palin.

    Palin, however, has done nothing remotely like what these other political ner-do-wells have done. She did not take bribes, she did not indulge in sexual dalliances with co-workers or call girls, she did not get booted from her party or lose her job as Governor. She is not under indictment nor does she face jail time, yet CNN includes her in a list with Rob Blagojevich, John Edwards, Kwame Kilpatrick, Larry Langford, Tim Maloney, Elliot Spitzer and Ted Stevens.

    This CNN slide show is based on the idea that these eight politicians have fallen from grace because of their criminal actions. Many of them have lost their political office either by being thrown out, voted out or having resigned. Some of them are about to go to jail and nearly all of them took bribes and illicit freebies and then made false statements to investigators as well as filing false tax statements. Seven of these politicians are criminals and right there, before our eyes, CNN has Sarah Palin among them.

    Of course, there is no legitimate reason at all to lump Sarah Palin among these creeps as she has done nothing even remotely like what they have done. Each of the other seven at the very least have been disowned by their party. None of them could rally 10 people to their side should they try to make a public appeal. On the other hand, Palin has been an in demand participant in rallies all across the country as well as a sought after media guest.

    Just this past December, for instance, Palin was asked to go to Georgia to rally voters to return Senator Saxby Chambliss to office in a runoff election. This request was fully a month after she lost her bid to become vice president on the McCain ticket, yet Chambliss has repeatedly said that he won the reelection in part because she rallied the voters to his side. If Palin had a “fall from grace” as CNN claims, how was this possible?

    Palin is even supposedly an odds on favorite to be nominated president in 2012! How is that evidence of her being disgraced in 2008? …

    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/w.....ts-corrupt

    Greta Van Susteren has an update on her blog:

    “CNN-GATE” – why not a PUBLIC apology? and why not equal in exposure to the unfair trashing?
    by Greta Van Susteren

    MORE ON CNN-GATE: (and, yes, I am having some light hearted fun calling it CNN-GATE…this IS Washington, DC!)

    I just talked to a source who told me that CNN, from its Political Director, through a Wolf Blitzer producer Jill Chappell emailed a PRIVATE apology to the Governor of Alaska for putting her (unfairly trashing her) on the list with Senator John (”my wife is in cancer remission so I figured it was ok to cheat on her”), Governor Elliott (” has anyone seen my other black sock? the dryer again?”) and others….and then blasting the unfair trashing around the world ! The producer emailed that she did not know about the trashing and neither did Wolf nor the Political Director.

    so now two questions:

    1/ why didn’t CNN PUBLICLY apologize for this one? they sure unfairly trashed her publicly on that list….should not exposure of the apology equal the round the world exposure of the unfair trashing? That is what is done in court – you do what is necessary to make the person whole in the damage done to the person…and then it is over.

    2/ a producer? why did she get stuck doing the dirty work on this one? why didn’t someone higher up the corporate food chain send the message of apology if CNN really means it? the job stature of the person making the apology can mean much. This IS the Governor of the largest state…a former candidate for VP….and the trashing went world wide and was really lousy….

    (and yes, mistakes can be made….but how you respond to your mistakes says much about the person or the news organization.)

    http://gretawire.foxnews.com/2.....-trashing/

    It just shows CNN is following Obama’s lead in silently scrubbing items from their web site and then pretending as if they never existed.

    • 12 Gauge Rage
      January 8, 2009 at 9:06 am

      It was very easy for CNN to trash talk and vilify Sara Palin because she represented everything they despised about the average American. Sure she isn’t perfect, nobody is, but she was able to connect a lot better than Obama/Biden. But when the media has already got the deck stacked against you there really isn’t much you can do except to weather the storm.

  25. BillK
    January 8, 2009 at 3:00 am

    From an always optimistic AP:

    Analysts Suggest Chrysler Can’t Turn Around Company

    DETROIT — Even by the standards of battered automakers, Chrysler is in dire shape. Its sales in December were down a stunning 53 percent, far worse than Ford or General Motors, and analysts say it probably won’t survive the year as an independent company — despite $4 billion in government loans and the possibility of more.

    Things were so bad last year that a single Toyota model, the Camry/Solara midsize car, outsold the entire fleet of Chrysler LLC’s passenger cars.

    “Basically they’re done,” said Aaron Bragman, an auto analyst with the consulting company IHS Global Insight in Troy, Mich. “There is no real possibility of turning this thing around as an independent company in my opinion.”

    Chrysler will not comment on speculation about its future, spokeswoman Shawn Morgan said Wednesday.

    “We are completely focused on our plans to ensure the future viability of our company,” she said.

    U.S. sales of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brand vehicles fell 30 percent last year, the worst decline of any major automaker. It lost more market share than any of its peers, down to 11 percent. Analysts say most of Chrysler’s products, especially its cars, don’t look, feel or drive as well as the competition’s.

    Chrysler plans to introduce an electric car in 2010, but until then, there are few promising models to boost sales. Many analysts predict that by 2010, Chrysler will be acquired by another automaker or sold in pieces by its majority owner, New York private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.

    Chrysler’s chief financial officer has said the company needs $7 billion every 45 days to pay parts suppliers, and analysts question whether the company’s meager sales are generating enough cash to make those payments.

    Analysts also say an acquisition by General Motors Corp. is still possible. The two companies discussed it late last year before GM backed away to focus on its own cash issues.

    Nissan Motor Co. could be interested in buying Chrysler’s truck business. Chrysler is already signed up to make pickup trucks for the Japanese company.

    Jonathan Macey, a Yale University law professor who has been critical of U.S. automakers’ management, said Chrysler’s sales numbers are “further evidence of an unviable entity.”

    When automakers went to Washington late last year, their aim was to get enough money to become viable again. They wound up with only enough help from the Bush administration to get them through March, when President-elect Barack Obama will be in office and might provide more aid.

    Macey said giving the carmakers any money is burning cash.

    “I’m a big fan of not throwing good money after bad,” he said. “The idea that you would enter into a financing relationship like this without any parameters is more evidence of the complete insanity of all this.” …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,477766,00.html

    Sure, giving the “Big Three” billions of taxpayer dollars was a wonderful idea.

    I’m not sure who’s more out of touch, the Democrats:

    Some lawmakers say automakers need time to wring out the concessions, and point out that the recession and nearly frozen credit markets are at least partly to blame for poor sales.

    “You could make a car that could run on air or could fly and people wouldn’t buy it,” said Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. “I’m hoping that we may see some of that investor consumer confidence come back.”

    or Chrysler’s execs:

    In his presentation to Congress, Nardelli used charts that showed Chrysler could post an operating profit of $400 million this year if Americans buy about 11 million light vehicles overall. But in this economy, analysts predict the figure will come in smaller.

    Nardelli said Chrysler will improve fuel economy on 19 models this year, about three-quarters of its product line. Besides the electric car, it also has a deal with Nissan to produce a Chrysler subcompact in 2010.

    Last month, Chrysler showed off prototypes of a new 300 sedan, Charger performance car and Jeep Grand Cherokee, as well as new, more luxurious interiors under development for nearly all of its products.

    The problem, says Bragman, is that significant new products don’t arrive for another year. And Chrysler may not make it until then.

    “The good stuff doesn’t come in time,” Bragman said. “They don’t have any help coming really for 2009.”

    Remember, when you bail out Chrysler, you’re really bailing out the private investment firm Cerebrus.

    Daimler dumped this turkey just in time.

  26. BillK
    January 8, 2009 at 3:34 am

    Ah, the wacky left.

    From the San Francisco Chronicle:

    Protests over BART shooting turn violent

    By Demian Bulwa, Charles Burress, Matthew B. Stannard and Matthai Kuruvila

    (01-08) 00:17 PST Oakland — A protest over the fatal shooting by a BART police officer of an unarmed man mushroomed into several hours of violence Wednesday night as demonstrators smashed storefronts and cars, set several cars ablaze and blocked streets in downtown Oakland.

    The roving mob expressed fury at police and frustration over society’s racial injustice. Yet the demonstrators were often indiscriminate, frequently targeting the businesses and prized possessions of people of color.

    They smashed a hair salon, a pharmacy and several restaurants. Police in riot gear tried to control the crowd, but some people retreated along 14th Street and bashed cars along the way.

    The mob smashed the windows at Creative African Braids on 14th Street, and a woman walked out of the shop holding a baby in her arms.

    “This is our business,” shouted Leemu Topka, the black owner of the salon she started four years ago. “This is our shop. This is what you call a protest?”

    Wednesday night’s vandalism victims had nothing to do with the shooting death by a BART police officer of Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day – but that did little to sway the mob.

    “I feel like the night is going great,” said Nia Sykes, 24, of San Francisco, one of the demonstrators. “I feel like Oakland should make some noise. This is how we need to fight back. It’s for the murder of a black male.”

    Sykes, who is black, had little sympathy for the owner of Creative African Braids.

    “She should be glad she just lost her business and not her life,” Sykes said. She added that she did have one worry for the night: “I just hope nobody gets shot or killed.” …

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....155CN1.DTL

    So, just to clarify, protestors are upset that police killed an unarmed black man on BART, trash several stores and businesses including one owned by a black woman that caters to blacks, and the black protesters have no sympathy for her and say she should feel she’s lucky she’s not dead.

    Yeah, that makes sense.

    Police threw tear gas into the group to disperse it, said BART Sgt. Mark MacAulay. After 8 p.m., there were numerous arrests.

    “When you get that mob mentality, it can be dangerous,” MacAulay said.

    Other protesters marched on BART’s 12th Street Station about 7 p.m., prompting the transit agency to close the downtown hub station even as it was reopening the Lake Merritt and Fruitvale stations.

    The mob blocked the intersection of 14th and Broadway, near the downtown BART station entrance. As police put on helmets and gas masks and stood in a line formation, some demonstrators held signs that read, “Your idea of justice?” and “Jail Killer Cops.”

    One man lay in the intersection with his face down and his hands behind his back – intentionally evoking the position that Grant was in when he was shot.

    Some in the mob wore masks over their faces as they yelled at police. Roughly a dozen stood just a few feet away from police as they screamed at them. Chants included “pigs go home,” “the fascist police, no justice, no peace” and “we are all Oscar Grant.”

    Mandingo Hayes, who is black, said he participated in the protest because “we’re tired of all these police agencies getting away with shooting unarmed black and Latino males.”

    Then Oakland officials wonder why people don’t dare set foot in that town?

    Barbara Lee (D, of course) must be so proud of her district.

    From Wikipedia:

    Barbara Jean Lee (born July 16, 1946), is an American politician, and has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1998, representing California’s 9th congressional district (map). She is the first woman to represent that district. Lee is the First Vice-Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Lee is notable as the only person in either chamber of Congress who voted against the authorization of use of force following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

    Also:

    Lee has been a vocal critic of the Iraq War and supports legislation creating a Department of Peace.

    Perhaps she should start her efforts with her constituents.

  27. 12 Gauge Rage
    January 8, 2009 at 9:14 am

    And how exactly does Miss Barbara Lee intend for the Department of Peace to enforce it’s policies? Will she have the staffers of the Dept. of Peace beat the hell out of those people who disagree with her policies?

  28. BannedbytheTaliban
    January 8, 2009 at 10:16 am

    As Israel continues its God given right to defend itself from the terrorist scum of Palestine, I found it very interesting to see how the major media outlets have come to characterize the conflict. Here are the latest headlines, listed from most pro-Israeli to most Pro-Terrorist:

    Fox News: Rockets Slam Israel
    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,477745,00.html

    USAtoday: Militants Fire on Israel (USAtoday the second most conservative??, I know it’s a short list)
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/w.....trip_N.htm

    CNN: Israel Launches Strike on 60 Gaza Targets
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/w.....trip_N.htm

    BBC: Israel Accused Over Gaza Wounded
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/w.....trip_N.htm

    Al Jazeera: Israel Fires on UN Gaza Convoy
    http://english.aljazeera.net/n.....51714.html

    It is amazing how the media can affect the world. Of course the Democrats/Liberals/Terrorist, but I’m being redundant, know that all too well. That is why they have cornered the market on News/Media outlets.

  29. BannedbytheTaliban
    January 8, 2009 at 10:29 am

    From the AP via MarineCorpsTimes:

    Sadr urges attacks on U.S. troops over Gaza

    By Sameer N. Yacoub – The Associated Press
    Posted : Wednesday Jan 7, 2009 18:11:59 EST

    BAGHDAD — Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday urged reprisals against American forces in Iraq to protest Israel’s Gaza offensive, as Arab anger grows over civilian deaths in the Palestinian territory.

    The strongly worded statement signaled a threat by al-Sadr’s militia fighters to renew violence against American troops after months of relative calm.

    It was unclear, however, just how much influence the once-powerful Shiite leader — who is believed to be in Iran — still has. His fighters have been hit hard in U.S.-Iraqi military operations over the past year.

    The U.S. State Department dismissed al-Sadr’s calls, describing them as “outrageous.”

    http://www.marinecorpstimes.co.....aq_010709/

    It’s America’s fault for everything. Execpt killing al-Sadr.

  30. wardmama4
    January 8, 2009 at 10:32 am

    In 2005, the last year for these statistics – the 50 (not 57) states took in 40 billion (yes, that is billion with a b) in gas taxes, tolls, license fees, etc for Transportation. After Administrative costs a whopping 28.5 billion was left – alas not all of that went to the roads, highways and other transportation infastructure. Only 13.5 billion went to Transportation, the other was sunk – yepper you guessed it – into unrelated to Transportation social programs.

    Ann Coulter is right in her new book – remove the glorification of single mothers (and I also include the glorification of illegals) and the majority of America’s social, economic, criminal, healthcare and moral problems would be resolved, overnight

  31. proreason
    January 8, 2009 at 6:15 pm

    Wall Street Journal:

    The Deficit Spending Blowout
    The looming red ink is unlike anything in U.S. peacetime history.

    Thanks to a 6.6% decline in revenues due to recession., a spending increase of some $500 billion or 19%, and assorted federal bailouts, the U.S. deficit for fiscal 2009 (ending September 30) will nearly triple to $1.19 trillion.. That’s 8.3% of GDP, which CBO says “will most likely shatter the previous post-World War II record high of 6.0 percent posted in 1983…..But there’s more. None of that includes the new fiscal “stimulus” that President-elect Obama has promised to introduce upon taking office in two weeks. The details aren’t known, but Mr. Obama and Democrats have been talking about at least $800 billion, and probably $1 trillion…if the economy stays slow the deficit could reach $1.8 trillion, or a gargantuan .12.5% of GDP.…..Federal expenditures are now rapidly outpacing the growth of the economy….we estimate the federal spending share of GDP will climb to 27.5%.…this money has to come from somewhere, which means that it is borrowed or taxed from the private economy. This spending blowout is .all but guaranteeing huge future tax increases, and anyone who thinks only the rich will pay is living an illusion.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/.....62735.html

    The decline is not due to “the rececssion”. It is due to the government forcing banks to make bad loans, and Democratic market maniputlations to win the election.

    The decline is revenues is just the beginning. There will be no capital gains paid for 2008, which are usually about 20-30% of total tax revenues. Unemployment will add to that.

    The race to have the government represent 27.5% of the economy is a disaster of unimaginable proporsions. Currently, the percentage is about 18%, so the Democrats are increasing government by 50% in one fell swoop.

    The economic problems we are having are NOTHING compared to the proposed solution. It is DISASTROUS and might spell the end of the country as we know it.

    This will spiral out of control, impact China and India, and dramatically increase the chances of another major war as China struggles to contain internal unrest.

    But hey, this isn’t impacting the Kennedy’s and Kerry’s at all. They pay no taxes, have no need to work and live off guarnateed interest from municpal bonds. So you see, even a major depression will not affect those lions of our democracy. In fact, they will come out of it in 8 years or so in even better shape than they are now. That’s why they can happily force our country to swallow a poison pill.

  32. BillK
    January 9, 2009 at 2:52 am

    From the Los Angeles Times, gee, why would this be important now?

    Gay marriage foes want campaign contributions anonymous, citing ‘harassment’

    By Jessica Garrison

    Proponents of a ballot measure that banned same sex marriage filed a lawsuit in federal court this week seeking to overturn state campaign finance laws that require that names and personal information of donors to state political campaigns be made public.

    They claimed that donors to Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California after one of the most heated campaigns in recent memory, have been the victim of threats and harassment because of their support for ending same-sex marriage was made public.

    “This harassment is made possible because of California’s unconstitutional campaign finance disclosure rules as applied to ballot measure committees where even donors of as little as $100 must have their names, home addresses and employers listed on public documents,” Ron Prentice, head of the Protect Marriage Coalition, said in a statement.

    Since 1974, state law has required that donors who give more than $100 must have their names disclosed.

    The law was intended to prevent money laundering and to provide disclosure of who is making contributions to political campaigns. It has withstood several previous legal challenges. Experts on the 1st Amendment experts said they did not believe the suit stood much of a chance of success.

    “This trashes the 1st Amendment and it is a thinly veiled attempt to eliminate transparency as to the role of money in state election campaigns,” said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the ACLU of Southern California. The ACLU was a major opponent of Proposition 8.

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....-of-1.html

    Of course the ACLU would be upset; they’ve already put in so much work in setting up programs for splitting big donations into multiple anonymous $99.99 contributions.

    Meanwhile, readers’ comments are of the usual “bigots hate the light of day” and “those who want to take away others’ civil rights deserve to be exposed” variety.

  33. BillK
    January 9, 2009 at 3:02 am

    From the Los Angeles Times:

    Pentagon drifting from nuclear deterrence, report says

    A task force recommends that leaders go back to school and refocus the nation’s nuclear mission.

    By David Wood

    After firing the two top Air Force leaders last year for a series of embarrassing nuclear weapons mishaps, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was told Thursday that the same problems of inexperience, poor training and splintered authority over nuclear arms affect the entire Pentagon, including its top leadership.

    A task force headed by former Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger painted a dismal picture of a Pentagon that has drifted from the mission of nuclear deterrence during the nearly two decades since the Cold War ended. Among the Pentagon’s senior military and civilian leaders, the panel found “a distressing degree of inattention” to the role of nuclear weapons in deterring attacks on the United States.

    Education in nuclear deterrence theory and practice at the nation’s top military schools has largely ended, senior-level exercises have stopped and the number of senior officials familiar with deterrence is rapidly dwindling and will soon become an “acute” problem, Schlesinger reported.

    Many senior leaders “lack the foundation for understanding nuclear deterrence, its psychological content, its political nature and its military role — which is to avoid the use of nuclear weapons,” the report concluded.

    Among Schlesinger’s recommendations: Send senior leaders back to school, ramp up training, consolidate responsibility for nuclear missions within the Pentagon bureaucracy and encourage the new administration to construct a new strategic framework to define the role that nuclear weapons should play.

    The report also urged creation of a position of assistant secretary of Defense for deterrence to oversee the nation’s nuclear weapons programs.

    Gates issued a short statement Thursday saying the nation’s force of intercontinental ballistic missiles, bombers and submarine-launched missiles “remains safe, secure and reliable.”

    “No one should doubt our capabilities or our resolve to defend U.S. and allied interests by deterring aggression,” Gates said.

    Schlesinger said Gates had reviewed all of his panel’s recommendations, and told reporters that “so far we have gotten no push-back” on them.

    Underlying the Pentagon’s loss of focus on the nuclear mission, officials said, is uncertainty and confusion over how deterrence — the prospect of certain nuclear retaliation — works in an age when many of the potential U.S. adversaries are not states but terrorists who hold no territory and are clearly willing to engage in suicide attacks.

    Within senior military and civilian circles, there have been ongoing debates about whether the leadership of Al Qaeda, for instance, would buy into the kind of mutual strategic deterrent rationale that governed the U.S.-Soviet confrontation during the Cold War.

    Without a clear answer, many officials have simply turned to other issues, Schlesinger indicated.

    The report said that the Navy had maintained its commitment to safeguarding nuclear weapons but that there had been “fraying at the edges,” and it urged Navy officials to conduct more frequent reviews of how it handles weapons programs. …

    http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....1904.story

    There is a point here of sorts; al Qaeda will never feel threatened by our nuclear arsenal.

    Of course, other nations do not either, because they know damn well that even if there are mushroom clouds over New York and Washington, America will likely lack the fortitude to use their nuclear weapons in response.

    Not that most of our nuclear weapons will actually work given a few more years’ of neglect.

    While our enemies have all modernized their arsenals over the years, the left has successfully painted simply updating ours from 1960s technology as somehow being an escalation of the “arms race.”

    (Who we’ve been in a “race” with since the fall of the Soviet Union I’ll never know, as our enemies have been developing weapons at full speed anyway.)

  34. artboyusa
    January 9, 2009 at 5:28 am

    Starbucks Boycott – does anyone know anything about this? I had an email this morning from someone I never heard of the gist of which was that UK troops in Iraq wrote to Starbucks saying how much they like their product and could they have some please? Starbucks supposedly wrote back saying they didn’t support the war, so no free joe for Johnny Redcoat. The email also says that Starbucks are being kicked off military bases in the US for the same reason and urges the recipients to boycott Starbucks in the UK (I already do anyway, since I prefer one of their competitors).

    Is there any truth to these allegations or is this just another bit of web-generated mythology? All responses and any info much appreciated.

  35. BannedbytheTaliban
    January 9, 2009 at 10:19 am

    Its all Bush’s Fault, even when it is Clinton and Pelosi’s fault:

    Did Bush cause the financial crisis?

    “Consider the terrible consequences of the ‘anything goes’ Bush Administration, whose irresponsible non-regulation of financial institutions has led to this crisis.”

    Those words, from the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, sum up the charge against George W Bush – that in the eight years of his presidency he actively pursued policies of deregulation which caused the biggest financial and economic meltdown since the Great Depression.

    It is a grim legacy for President Bush to contemplate as he enters his final days in office – but is it true?

    Market collapse

    He certainly presided over a widespread failure of regulation.

    On his watch, the US authorities did little to prevent the sale of millions of mortgages to people who could never afford them.

    They failed to police the market in mortgage-backed securities which has now collapsed with such devastating consequences.

    And credit default swaps, those multi-billion-dollar bets on other people going bust, went virtually unregulated.

    …..
    In the blame game for this financial crisis, George W Bush comes a close second to greedy and unscrupulous Wall Street bankers.

    But there are serious flaws in this argument.

    Deregulation started long before President Bush came to power, and it was enthusiastically pursued by both Democratic and Republican administrations.

    Here is just one example:

    The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 separated the activities of commercial banks, which take deposits, from investment banks, which invest money. It was repealed in 1999.

    That relaxation of the rules enabled commercial lenders, like Citigroup, to trade instruments such as mortgage-backed securities and collateralised debt obligations.

    ‘Far-reaching reform’

    Many see the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act as a major, direct cause of the current financial crisis.

    But it was signed by a Democratic President, Bill Clinton, and supported by many other Democratic politicians, among them the scourge of Bush deregulation Nancy Pelosi.

    What is more, President Bush actually increased the burden of regulation on US companies, enacting in 2002 what he called “the most far-reaching reform of American business practices since the time of Franklin D Roosevelt”, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

    …..But Mr Bush is not entirely blameless.

    Affordable home ownership, especially for African-American and Hispanic borrowers, who had traditionally found it difficult and expensive to get a mortgage, was a key policy goal of the Clinton administration and one enthusiastically carried forward by President Bush.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7814704.stm

    I’m surprised they admitted as much, however, since most people only read the first few lines of any story, most will believe it is all Bush’s fault. But the take home message:

    There is no doubt that George W Bush is a natural supporter of deregulation and that his administration did nothing to stop all sorts of questionable financial activities in the private sector (even though it did not condone them).

    The government needs to mettle in the private sector, or dissolve it completely. Only more government and less free markets will bring the turmoil to an end.

  36. proreason
    January 9, 2009 at 10:54 am

    “This amounts to around $300 million of annual unpaid taxes”

    Reuters, Jan 9.

    UBS closing U.S. clients’ offshore accounts

    ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss wealth manager UBS AG (UBSN.VX) (UBS.N) is closing all the offshore accounts of its U.S. clients, the bank said on Friday, as it comes under pressure from U.S. tax authorities.

    The Swiss bank decided in July last year to stop offering offshore accounts to U.S. citizens after it was targeted by a U.S. tax investigation which challenges Switzerland’s famous banking secrecy laws.

    U.S. prosecutors have alleged UBS helped clients hide $18 billion of untaxed American money in undeclared accounts. This amounts to around $300 million of annual unpaid taxes, the newspaper said….

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090109/bs_nm/us_ubs_1

    This is what i’ve been ranting about for the last week or so.

    It’s just the tip of the iceberg.

    The people who do this are not Joe Blow citizen who makes a good salary. They are the Kennedy’s, Kerry’s and their fellow parasitic scum.

    I predicted a moment ago that the take would be $1 Trillion in year 1 from just taking 5% p.a. from these criminals. If this article is accurate, then that estimate is far too low.

    Meanwhile, we have regular readers of this site who are unemployed and who have lost their life savings in this manufactured economic crisis.

  37. artboyusa
    January 9, 2009 at 11:39 am

    Thanks, Gila. I thought as much. You know, I’ve only been to Starbucks occasionally but every time I went I saw some liberal, with the Guardian or the NYT under his arm, abusing the staff -”Too much froth, you scum! Do it over!”

  38. proreason
    January 9, 2009 at 12:23 pm

    Stossel nails Obama as an arrogant idiot.

    From ABC new, which for some reason unbeknownst to mankind chooses to let the brilliant John Stossel have a forum.

    Arrogant Conceit: Obama Thinks He Can Reform The Economy
    Obama’s Interventionist Reforms Go in Precisely the Wrong Direction

    …Obama’s nearly trillion-dollar plan will not merely repair bridges, fill potholes and fix up schools; it will also impose a utopian vision based on the belief that an economy is a thing to be planned from above. But this is an arrogant conceit. No one can possibly know enough to redesign something as complex as “an economy,” which really is people engaging in exchanges to achieve their goals. Planning it means planning them

    …This is not the first time a president chose reform over recovery. Franklin Roosevelt did it with his New Deal, and the result was long years of depression and deprivation.

    …FDR feared that signs of recovery had jeopardized his reform plans by removing the sense of emergency: “To hold to progress today, however, is more difficult. Dulled conscience, irresponsibility and ruthless self-interest already reappear. Such symptoms of prosperity may become portents of disaster! Prosperity already tests the persistence of our progressive purpose.”

    What a shame. Free people enjoying their lives make it harder for the administration to forcibly impose its utopian vision on them.

    …Obama has no real wealth to inject into the economy. He can only move around existing money while inflation robs us of purchasing power. Meanwhile, private investors who might have produced a better engine, battery, computer, cancer treatment or other wealth-creating and life-enhancing innovations, hold back for fear that big government will undermine productive efforts.

    The way to a lasting recovery is to greatly lighten the burdens of government. Then free Americans will save and invest…

    http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Sto.....amp;page=2

    We are now facing the greatest eneny we have ever faced, greater than Hitler, greater than Stalin, greater than Akmanutjob…….it’s our own leadership. We survived the wars, we survived the hardships, we survived the risks, but we will not survive the imposition of an inane, sophmoric, tried and proven wrong prescription for the economy we all depend on to survive.

    Despite the ample evidence of history, they are driving the country over the cliff.

    • 1sttofight
      January 9, 2009 at 12:34 pm

      I am afraid the only way to defeat the current threat is the same as the way the previous threats were defeated.

      By force of arms…

    • Media_man
      January 9, 2009 at 12:47 pm

      In a normal democracy these cycles of populist fantasy (i.e. – soak the rich) would play its course & then rational minds would realize the folly and go back to market based reforms. However, this isn’t any longer a normal democracy. We’ve got more tax eaters than tax payers and they don’t care about anything but their gov’t handouts.

      America is finished. The inmates are running the asylum and sanity won’t be returning, at least not in our lifetimes.

    • proreason
      January 9, 2009 at 1:01 pm

      There is a famous quote that goes something like (I am paraphrasing)…..”once slightly more than 50% of the population realizes that they can legally rob the slightly less than 50%, democracy is finished.”

      The elite Aristocracy in this country has figured out that they can permanently entrench themselves by legally bribing people with your money.

      1sttofight may be correct. If this economic confiscation gets enough out of control, and enough people refuse to submit to serfdom to the elites, we might see another revolution/civil war.

  39. BannedbytheTaliban
    January 9, 2009 at 3:07 pm

    And still more corruption:

    Big-money bash set for Perdue’s birthday

    Raleigh, N.C. — The North Carolina Democratic Party has scheduled a birthday reception for Governor-elect Beverly Perdue that has raised questions among political watchdogs.

    The Jan. 22 party at a private Raleigh home solicits donations from attendees ranging from $500 for a “friend” to $10,000 for a “host.”

    “The big question is where the money goes,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of North Carolina Common Cause.

    Individuals are limited to $4,000 in contributions to political candidates annually, but political parties can accept unlimited amounts of money and can give unlimited amounts to candidates or elected officials.

    “I think political parties can and should raise money for their benefit. It’s just that unlimited transfer to an elected officer or a candidate that we have problems with,” Phillips said.

    Perdue’s campaign finance reports show she and her husband, Bob Eaves, loaned her campaign more than $900,000 and that the loans are outstanding.

    Kara Bolton, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Party, says the fundraiser is for the party, not Perdue. Yet the invitation tells those wishing to attend to RSVP to Perdue’s Web site.

    http://www.wral.com/news/local.....y/4273735/

    And these are the people we trust to spend our tax dollars.

  40. proreason
    January 9, 2009 at 3:49 pm

    SHOCKER – Amica’s wealthiest increased wealth in 2008. From Forbes via the Middle East Times:

    The Forbes 400 Richest People in America

    The rich haven’t gotten richer–or poorer–this year. The price of admission to this, the 27th edition of The Forbes 400, is $1.3 billion for the second year in a row. The assembled net worth of America’s wealthiest rose by $30 billion–only 2%–to $1.57 trillion. …

    http://www.metimes.com/Busines.....rica/4278/

    Actually, this news is a little stale….Forbes published the list in September.

    But isn’t it interesting that in a period when the MSM was trumpetting the “longest recession since the Depression”, while the Stock Market was falling 20%, while the sub-prime “crisis” was undermining the economy……our wealthiest Aristocracies INCREASED their fortunes by 2%, after extracting living expenses for their decadent lifestyles.

    The average net worth of a Fortune 400 Aristocrat is $3.9 billion (reported, lol), so this tiny group of concerned citizens represents $1.56 Trillion in untaxed assets.

    According to CNN in Mar of 2008, 1.16M Americans had net worth’s of over $5M.

    The lower end of the filthy rich scale has actually lost assets recently in the economic “crisis”, but you can bet Teddy, Traitor Kerry, and anybody with assets over $100M hasn’t lost a penney.

    And of course, they pay no taxes, being Aristocrats and all.

You must be logged in to post a comment.


« Home | To Top
« FL Pro-Hamas Demonstration – ROP Alert | Trees Are Causing Global Warming – Again »