|
|
|
|
«Updated Daily« |
Thursday January 19, 2012
|
Made in the USA since 1998
|
|
BREAKING NEWS
|
Texas Gov. Rick Perry suspends his campaign for the GOP Presidential Nomination and endorses Newt Gingrich. |
|
Campaign finance records show that Democrats collect more money from Wall Street than does the GOP.
|
|
Obama, Democrats Receive More
Bain Capital Dollars Than Republicans
The Hill
Democrats have accepted more political donations than Republicans from executives at Bain Capital, complicating the left’s plan to attack Mitt Romney for his record at the private equity firm. During the last three election cycles, Bain employees have given Democratic candidates and party committees more than $1.2 million. The vast majority of that sum came from senior executives. Republican candidates and party committees raised over $480,000 from senior Bain executives during that time period. Recipients include Democratic senators facing tough reelection races this year, such as Jon Tester (D-MT), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Bill Nelson (D-FL). The sums collected by Democrats from managing partners and other senior executives at Bain could hamper the Democratic message that Romney is a corporate raider who does not care about workers, charges based on his record as CEO of Bain. |
|
Raiding of the Treasury to
Bribe the Irresponsible
Frank Salvato, Managing Editor
A little publicized political story, if played out to the satisfaction of California Democrats (read: Progressives), would not only set the stage for a politically motivated raid on the US Treasury, it would afford President Obama, his administration and political operatives plausible deniability in any “coincidental” benefit to Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign. And if you don’t think that has David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett and David Plouffe salivating, you haven’t been paying attention for the past three years. According to a report by TheHill.com: “A long list of California Democrats is urging President Obama to name a new housing regulator using a controversial recess appointment. “In a letter to the president, more than two dozen House members said the temporary head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Edward DeMarco, simply hasn't done enough to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure. The lawmakers are pushing the president to name a permanent director ‘immediately.’” Okay, let’s first examine the FHFA.
Promises, Promises:
The Reality of Campaign Speak
Frank Salvato, Managing Editor
As the campaign cycle progresses we are going to hear a lot about what one candidate or another is going to do about this or that. We will, to the point of weariness, be inundated with campaign promise after campaign promise, albeit, between gratuitous attacks, both political and personal. This is politicking and the American electorate – for better or for worse – has come to accept a certain amount of it from the people in the political class. But expecting grandiose pledges and believing in the unattainable, well, those are two different things. It is the truly foolish who believe half of what a political candidate says he can deliver, and the blame for that foolishness must fall on the shoulders of the individual voter. While Presidents sign legislation into law, it is Congress – the House and the Senate; the Legislative Branch – that actually crafts and passes legislation. Therefore, any promise made on the campaign trail by a presidential candidate, be it by the incumbent or the challenger (or the field of candidates vying to be the challenger), is subject to the debate and acquiescence of those in the Legislative Branch; in Congress. It is because of this that any promise made by a presidential candidate must be received by the voting public as more of an intention, rather than a promise.
 Editorials
Obama’s Racial Politics
Victor Davis Hanson
Never has America been more assimilated, integrated, and intermarried -- as is evident in everything from politics to popular culture, from statistics to anecdotes. Yet from late 2007 to 2012, Barack Obama has been establishing new rules of racial referencing. In general, his utterances follow a disheartening pattern. When he is ahead in the polls, has won an election, and is not campaigning, then he emphasizes the unity of the country. But when he is running for president, or campaigning for others, or sinking in the polls, he and his closest associates predictably revert to charges of racial bigotry, albeit usually coded and subtle. America is redeemed when it champions the Obamas, but retrograde when it does not. Obama’s race-based strategy is predicated on some unspoken assumptions: Any short-term damage incurred by engaging in racial tribalism can easily be later erased by soaring teleprompted speeches on racial harmony; the media will either not widely report his emphases on race or generally support his charges; a person of color can hardly be culpable of racial polarization himself given the history of racial discrimination in this country.
An Ignored ‘Disparity’
Thomas Sowell
One of the ways of trying to reduce the vast disparities in economic success, which are common in countries around the world, is by making higher education more widely available, even for people without the money to pay for it. This can be both a generous investment and a wise investment for a society to make. But, depending on how it is done, it can also be a foolish and even dangerous investment, as many societies around the world have learned the hard way. When institutions of higher learning turn out highly qualified doctors, scientists, engineers and others with skills that can raise the standard of living of a whole society and make possible a better and longer life, the benefits are obvious. What is not so obvious, but is painfully true nonetheless, is that colleges and universities can also turn out vast numbers of people with credentials, but with no marketable skills with which to fulfill their expectations. There is nothing magic about simply being in ivy-covered buildings for four years.
Charles Manson Energy
Paul Driessen
“...gleaming white wind turbines generating carbon-free electricity carpet chaparral-covered ridges and march down into valleys of Joshua trees.” This is “the future” of American energy -- not “the oil rigs planted helter-skelter in [nearby] citrus groves,” nor the “smoggy San Joaquin Valley” a few miles away. The Forbes article’s poetic paean to Aeolian energy nevertheless voiced consternation that a 300-megawatt “green” turbine project might kill some of the magnificent California condors that are just coming back from the edge of extinction -- and the project might be cancelled as a result. Indeed, the US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) has asked Kern County to “exercise extreme caution” in approving projects in the Tehapachi area, because of potential threats to condors. The “conundrum will force some hard choices about the balance we are willing to strike between obtaining clean energy and preserving wild things,” the article suggested.
The European Crack-Up
Theodore Dalrymple
A Belgian journalist who interviewed me recently about the European debt crisis asked me whether I believed in the European Project. I replied that I would answer her question -- if she would tell me what the European Project actually was. By revealing my doubts, I proved to her that I suffered from the strange kind of mental debility known as Euroskepticism, a condition supposedly compounded of low intelligence and aggressive xenophobia. The low intelligence manifests itself in the patient’s view of European institutions as a gravy train for a transnational nomenklatura, rather than as the beginning of a new, generous, and free-spirited type of postnational identity. The xenophobia manifests itself as a secret desire for conflict and war, the European Union and its predecessors supposedly having been responsible for the avoidance of war on the Continent over the last 65 years.
|
| Analysis |
|
|
▪ Obama, Democrats Receive More Bain Capital Dollars Than Republicans
▪ House Dems Look to Borrowing, Tax Hikes to Pay for Payroll Package
▪ Certified Totals See Santorum Beating Romney in Iowa
▪ US: Al Qaeda Magazine Got into Guantanamo Cell
▪ SCOTUS Declines to Take On Public Prayer Cases
▪ IMF Seeks $600 Billion More in Funds
▪ Missouri Governor Proposes Higher Education Cut, Touts Economy
▪ UK Doctors May Strike Over Cuts to Pensions
▪ Iranian Lawmaker Says Obama Proposed Talks
▪ Keystone Pipeline Set to Be Rejected by Obama
▪ House Debt-Ceiling Vote Does Little But Highlights Reckless Spending
 |
IMF Seeks $600 Billion More in Funds
Thomson-Reuters
The International Monetary Fund is seeking to more than double its war chest by raising $600 billion in new resources to help countries deal with the fallout of the euro zone debt crisis, but the United States and other countries are throwing up roadblocks. The US and Canada said Europe must put up more of its own money to solve its sovereign debt crisis, clouding prospects that G20 talks in Mexico this week can lay the ground for a deal on bolstering IMF resources. "We continue to believe that the IMF can play an important role in Europe, but only as a supplement to Europe's own efforts," a US Treasury spokesperson said. The IMF currently has a lending capacity of about $380 billion and estimates there are about $1 trillion in "uncovered" financing needs over the next two years.
| |
UK Doctors May Strike Over Cuts to Pensions
The London Telegraph
Doctors have threatened their first industrial action for more than 30 years after refusing to accept cuts to their pension pots, which are each worth an average of $2.6 million. The British Medical Association, which represents 130,000 doctors and medical students, said two thirds of its members support industrial action which could cripple hospitals and GP surgeries throughout the country. The association rejected cuts to doctor’s pensions despite warning that some hospitals are so financially stretched that patient safety can no longer be guaranteed and that “accidents will happen.” Senior government figures said the reductions in their pensions were “modest” and in line with other public sector staff, “It seems a bit rich for doctors to be complaining about cuts and patient care when they leave the NHS as millionaires.”
|
| International |
 |
US: Al Qaeda Magazine Got into Guantanamo Cell
Associated Press
A copy of a magazine published by an arm of al Qaeda made its way to a terror suspect at the Guantanamo Bay prison, leading to an inspection of cells and a contentious new policy requiring special review teams to examine correspondence between prisoners and attorneys, US prosecutors said Wednesday. Navy Cmdr. Andrea Lockhart told a military judge during a pre-trial hearing that a copy of Inspire magazine got into a cell. She provided no details on who received the magazine or how. But she said the breach showed that prior rules at the base governing mail review were not adequate. Yemen's al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula launched the online, English-language magazine in 2010. An early issue contained tips to would-be militants about how to kill US citizens.
| |
Iranian Pro-Freedom Activist Shot Dead in Texas
The London Telegraph
A medical student heavily involved in the Iranian women's rights movement has been murdered in Texas. Gelareh Bagherzadeh, 30, was found slumped over the wheel of her car after being shot in the head on the wealthy housing estate in Houston where her family lived. The vehicle crashed into the door of a garage and when officers arrived they found its engine still running and the tires spinning. Detectives said it was "too early to speculate" on whether Ms. Bagherzadeh's activism on behalf of women in Iran had any link to her death but said she was "very well known" for helping to organise protests. She had given numerous interviews criticising the Iranian regime and was a coordinator of SabzHouston, a local protest group.
|
| Islamist Terror |
 |
House Dems Look to Borrowing, Tax Hikes to Pay for Payroll Package
The Hill
House Democratic leaders are increasingly arguing that the next payroll tax package should not be fully paid for with spending cuts. Top Democrats say offsetting the entire cost of a yearlong payroll tax package, as Republicans have demanded, is a bad idea in a fragile economy. "When in our history have we had to pay for unemployment before?" said Rep. John Larson (D-CT), chairman of the Democratic Caucus. "This is a crisis." GOP leaders have insisted that the payroll tax package, which includes an extension of emergency unemployment benefits and a pay hike for doctors treating seniors, be wholly paid for with spending cuts elsewhere in the budget. But Democratic leaders this week are amplifying their push to use borrowed funds and tax hikes to cover at least the unemployment insurance provision.
| |
Certified Totals See Santorum Beating Romney in Iowa
The DesMoines Register
There are too many holes in the certified totals from the Iowa caucuses to know for certain who won, but Rick Santorum wound up with a 34-vote advantage. Results from eight precincts are missing and will never be recovered and certified, Republican Party of Iowa officials told The Des Moines Register on Wednesday. GOP officials discovered inaccuracies in 131 precincts, although not all the changes affected the two leaders. Changes in one precinct alone shifted the vote by 50 -- a margin greater than the certified tally. The certified numbers: 29,839 for Santorum and 29,805 for Romney. The turnout: 121,503. It’s not a surprise that the ultra-thin gap of eight votes on caucus night didn’t hold up, but it’s tough to swallow the fact that there will always be a question mark hanging over this race, politics insiders said.
|
| Government & Politics |
 |
Missouri Governor Proposes Higher Education Cut, Touts Economy
AP/FOX News
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D), proposed a third straight year of cuts to public universities Tuesday while favoring K-12 schools in an election-year budget plan that avoids tax increases and emphasizes efforts to expand private-sector jobs. Delivering his fourth State of the State address to a joint legislative session, the Democratic governor relished the fact that Missouri's unemployment rate has finally fallen from its recessionary peak to the same level as when he was sworn into office in January 2009. Nixon proposed a nearly $23 billion operating budget for the next fiscal year, a slight reduction from the current year's spending it. It would cut funding for higher education institutions by 12.5% while holding aid for student scholarships steady and would eliminate 816 state positions to help close a projected $500 million deficit.
| |
California’s Brown to Call for Decrease in Statewide Student Testing
McClatchy Newspapers
California Gov. Jerry Brown plans to call for less statewide testing and expanding lessons beyond math and English in his annual State of the State address Wednesday, according to his top education adviser. The Democratic governor faces a pivotal year as he asks voters to pass nearly $7 billion annually in higher taxes to shore up the state budget. At the same time, he wants lawmakers to reshape K-12 education by eliminating earmarks for school programs and redefining the state's yardstick for education performance. Sue Burr, executive director of the State Board of Education, told K-12 officials Tuesday that Brown will ask lawmakers to reduce the load of statewide tests students are required to take each year. "We think there's way, way too much testing in our system right now," Burr said.
|
| National & Local |
 |
Pelosi Flails at Attempt to Distances Dems from Occupy Protesters
The Hill
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (P-CA) sought to distance Democrats from the Left-leaning Occupy movement that’s swept the nation in recent months. Pelosi argued that the movement is largely "nonpartisan," unlike the "conservative" TEA Party camp, which she characterized as an extension of the GOP. “As opposed to the TEA Party, which was practically a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party, we don’t really have much of a connection with the Occupy [protesters],” Pelosi said during a public interview. “In fact, they probably have some sentiments that overlap between the two [groups].” The comments are something of a departure from the Democrats’ message last year, when a number of liberal party members went out of their way to embrace the Occupy movement in the face of GOP criticisms.
| |
EPA Creates Bureaucratic Nightmare for Farmers
FarmFutures.com
The US Senate and the Senate Agriculture Committee failed to stop the EPA from issuing a regulation which will require a Clean Water Act National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit when applying pesticides. EPA issued its new rule on November 7, 2011, which was its final obligation in terms of complying with the National Cotton Council, et al. v EPA case of 2009. That case held that any person discharging pesticides and leaving a residue, waste or surplusage through a point source and into a water of the United States will be required to obtain a NPDES permit before application. This case still poses a legal risk for tillage agriculture. EPA, on October 31, 2011, promulgated what it called a Pesticide General Permit under the CWA for governmental entities and left row crop farming alone.
|
| Fifth Column |
 |
SCOTUS Declines to Take On Public Prayer Cases
NewsCore/FOX News
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take on two cases in which lower courts ruled public prayers at government-sponsored events were unconstitutional. The court rejected an appeal of a US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that said the predominantly Christian prayers that began meetings of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners in North Carolina were unconstitutional for violating the First Amendment's prohibition on government endorsement of a single religion. The justices also refused to weigh the merits of a US Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision that ruled the recitation of a religious invocation at a monthly school board meeting in the Indian River School District in Delaware was unconstitutional. The decision to reject the appeals means both lower court rulings will stand.
| |
Activist Judge Orders Removal of School Prayer Mural
Reuters/Yahoo! News
A federal judge has ordered the immediate removal of a Christian prayer mural displayed in the auditorium of a Rhode Island high school, saying it violated a US constitutional ban on state-sponsored prayer in public schools. US District Judge Ronald Lagueux rejected the school's claims that the message in the mural -- which opens with "Our Heavenly Father" and closes with "Amen" -- was purely secular. "No amount of debate can make the School Prayer anything other than a prayer, and a Christian one at that," Lagueux wrote in a 40-page opinion. Jessica Ahlquist, a student at Cranston High School West, sued the city of Cranston and its school committee in April 2011 to remove the banner, which dates back to 1963. As an atheist, Ahlquist said the mural made her feel excluded and ostracized.
|
| Culture Wars |
The Defending the Constitution Project
BasicsProject.org has initiated The Defending the Constitution Project to educate people on legislative initiatives which are designed to protect the Constitution or would have the effect of encroaching on the Constitution and undermining the fundamental law. It is our hope that after reading more about the importance of the Constitutional design, activists will advocate to protect the Constitution by working to defeat or support such initiatives.
Read more
NEW! The Briefing: Updated Jan. 19, 2012
Israel is engaged in a Cyber War. A hacker claiming to be from Saudi Arabia disclosed the credit card numbers and private information of thousands of Israelis. Then several Israeli government, business and not-for-profit websites were hacked and temporarily put out of service. In the week since the initial “attack,” a clandestine group of like-minded Israeli activist hackers has appeared and counter-attacked. They began by releasing the credit card numbers and personal information of several thousand Saudis. Then they brought-down the UAE and Saudi Stock Exchanges. Most recently, in part as a response to Hamas announcing its Cyber War against Israel and attacking, the Israeli hackers released the credit card numbers and personal information of several thousand Arab individuals from around the world. The Israeli group acknowledges that it is violating Israeli law. Its goal is to inflict increasingly horrific payback on those sheltering the hackers attacking Israel and allowing their attacks. The Israelis’ theory is that when the pain becomes too great to bear, then the enabling countries will stop the hackers they are hosting.
Read more
|
|
Opinions expressed by contributing writers are expressly their own and may or may not represent the opinions of The New Media Journal, BasicsProject.org, its editorial staff, board or organization. Reprint inquiries should be directed to the author of the article. Contact the editor for a link request to The New Media Journal. The New Media Journal is not affiliated with any mainstream media organizations. The New Media Journal is not supported by any political organization. The New Media Journal is a division of BasicsProject.org, a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)(3) research and educational initiative. Responsibility for the accuracy of cited content is expressly that of the contributing author. All original content offered by The New Media Journal and BasicsProject.org is copyrighted. Basics Project's goal is the liberation of the American voter from partisan politics and special interests in government through the primary-source, fact-based education of the American people.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance a more in-depth understanding of critical issues facing the world. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 USC Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to:http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
|
|
|
