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«Updated Daily« |
Friday May 25, 2012
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Made in the USA since 1998
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"It's Alice in Wonderland at best," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). "If this is cooperation, I'd hate like hell to see opposition."
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Senate Committee Cuts Aid to
Pakistan Over 'Treason' Conviction
The Washington Examiner
A Senate panel expressed its outrage Thursday over Pakistan's conviction of a doctor who helped the United States track down Osama bin Laden, cutting aid to Islamabad by $33 million -- $1 million for every year of the physician's 33-year sentence for high treason. The punitive move came on top of deep reductions the Appropriations Committee had already made to President Obama's budget request for Pakistan, a reflection of the growing congressional anger over its cooperation in combatting terrorism. The overall foreign aid budget for next year had slashed more than half of the proposed assistance and threatened further reductions if Islamabad fails to open overland supply routes to US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The United States has called for Afridi's release, arguing that he was acting in the interest of the United States and Pakistan. |
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Unclogging Politics from Government
Frank Salvato, Managing Editor
“That no more qualifies someone to be president than being a plumber.” That’s what Vice President Joe Biden said about the private equity experience as it relates to qualifications for being the President of the United States. As the politically aware look on in stunned silence, one has to wonder if good ol’ Joe didn’t go rogue from the Obama campaign approved teleprompter script. Why else would he bring up the subject of qualifications, a subject on which President Obama is intensely vulnerable? The subject of qualifications for the office of President of the United States is a contentious one, if not one that must be addressed from two vantage points: the legal qualifications set forth by the United States Constitution and the practical knowledge vantage point; the amassed experience of any given candidate. And where one is enshrined in the Founding Documents, the other is open to debate. Constitutionally, the qualifications are clear, at least to those who choose not to politicize the document.
Editor's Note: Her Soul Now
Shines in That City on the Hill
Frank Salvato, Managing Editor
It is with a heavy heart that we inform our readers that Ercille I. Christmas, a featured writer here at NewMediaJournal.us and a friend to all who embrace the idea of freedom, has passed away after a valiant battle with cancer. Ercille I. Christmas was born in the tiny Caribbean island of St. Kitts, the "Gibraltar of the Caribbean". She went through the procedures and processes needed to naturalize to the United States and became a US citizen, something that she viewed as an achievement; a designation she held with great pride, often referring to her new home as, "the land of the free and the home of the brave." For a great portion of her adult life, Ercille performed the duties of a supervisor in the insurance industry. But her life changed on September 11, 2001.
Obama’s Attacks on Bain No Surprise
AJ DiCintio
In a recent column, David Brooks (NYT) condemns President Obama for his attacks on Mitt Romney and Bain Capital, pointing out the crucially important role private equity firms have played in rehabilitating a formerly "bloated" and "sluggish" corporate America and offering empirical evidence for his assertions, including from scholarly studies that show private equity firms generally transform failing companies into "prosperous," job preserving enterprises. Further strengthening the piece, Brooks employs facts to counter "wildly misleading" allegations Democrats are making against Romney's former company and argues not just for continuing America's business renaissance but applying its best principles to the federal government. Moreover, he insightfully observes that while Romney argues he has the experience to apply sound business practices to government, Obama apparently deems the business transformation "not a good thing" even as he refuses to offer the country "[an] agenda to reform the public sector."
Obama Is Not a Socialist
Tony Rubolotta
The main stream media, Democrats, establishment Republicans and many Conservatives have something in common. They are all operating under the misconception that Barack Obama wants to advance a socialist agenda. He is not a socialist, Marxist, Democrat or communist. He is a man with an axe to grind and socialism is merely the grinding wheel. To illustrate the point, compare Obama to Barney Frank. I will give Frank the benefit of the doubt and accept that he acted with some good, some bad, and some very misguided intentions to advance a socialist agenda in housing. I do not believe he wanted to see the housing market destroyed, families lose their homes, and the financial industry left in ruins, though I could be wrong. Barney Frank is just your garden variety, power hungry, greedy socialist. I do not recall Barney Frank sharing any chuckles with Franklin Raines over the housing catastrophe they were instrumental in creating.
The Power of Cool
Victor Davis Hanson
When Barack Obama two years ago joked at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner that potential suitors of his two daughters might have to deal with Predator drones (“But boys, don’t get any ideas. Two words for you: Predator drones. You will never see it coming.”), the liberal crowd roared. That failed macabre joke would have earned George W. Bush a week of headline condemnation from the New York Times and the Washington Post. Obama, in fact, has increased those judge/jury/executioner targeted assassinations tenfold during his tenure. But apparently, the combination of Obama’s postracial “cool” and the video-game nature of such airborne death -- no CNN clips of charred torsos and smoldering legs, no prisoners with their ACLU lawyers in Guantanamo, no American losses for Code Pink and Moveon.org to demonstrate against -- earned general exemption for that new liberal way of war. What bothered us about the Predator strikes in 2006–2008 was not the kills per se but the uncool nature of twangy Texan George Bush, who ordered them.
The Fantasy That Scandinavia
Is Heaven on Earth
Dr. Tim Stanley
British Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband wants Britain to become more like Finland. I know, I know -- no one cares what Ed Miliband thinks about anything. He could ask us all to join hands and board the love train and it would sound about as sexy as the announcement that the 8.30 to Reading has been delayed by ten minutes. But Ed’s latest foray into the facts demands analysis because it’s a common theme on the Left that Scandinavia is something for us all to aspire to. In a speech to the Sutton Trust, Miliband said that greater equality leads to greater social mobility (try telling that to the peasants in Maoist China) and that this was proven by the abundant happiness of the Scandinavian people. “If you are born poor in a more equal society like Finland, Norway or Denmark, then you have a better chance of moving into a good job than if you are born poor in the United States.” His conclusion: “If you want the American dream -- go to Finland.”
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▪ Senate Committee Cuts Aid to Pakistan Over ‘Treason’ Conviction
▪ Obama National Co-Chair Works in Private Equity
▪ Video: The Obama Spending Binge
▪ Senate Democrats Pay Female Staffers Less Than Male Staffers
▪ Leaked Emails: ‘Grossly Overestimated’ Enviro Report Used in Mining Ban
▪ UN Summit Will Push for a More Powerful Global Environmental Agency
▪ Ohio Man Convicted for Plot to Smuggle Money to Hezbollah
▪ Children Targeted in Syrian Conflict
▪ Russia Tests New Missile, in Warning Over US Shield
▪ Obama Jobs Council Has Private Equity Execs Despite Bain Attacks
▪ House Dems Want Colleges to Register Students for Same-Day Voting
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UN Summit Will Push for a More Powerful Global Eco-Agency
CNS News
Ahead of a mammoth United Nations sustainability conference in Rio de Janeiro next month, the Brazilian government has signaled a new push to get the UN’s top environmental body upgraded -- a push long opposed by the United States. Brazil wants to breathe new life into an initiative -- vigorously promoted since the 1990s by European leaders -- to replace the 40 year-old UN Environment Program (UNEP) with a full-fledged “specialized agency,” dubbed the UN Environment Organization (UNEO). Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira told a press briefing last Friday that the issue was a priority for her government, but she acknowledged that “there is no consensus in international organizations on the proposal to create an environment agency” during the summit, known as Rio+20.
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Russia Tests New Missile, in Warning Over US Shield
Thomson-Reuters
Russia tested a new long-range missile on Wednesday that should improve its ability to penetrate missile defense systems, the military said, in Moscow's latest warning to Washington over deployment of a missile shield in Europe. The Intercontinental Ballistic Missile was successfully launched from the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia and its dummy warhead landed on target on the Kamchatka peninsula on the Pacific coast, the Defense Ministry said. The new missile is expected to improve Russia's offensive arsenal, "including by increasing the capability to overcome missile defense systems that are being created", the ministry said in a statement. Russia opposes a missile shield the United States and NATO are deploying in Europe, saying it will be able to intercept Russian warheads by about 2018.
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Ohio Man Convicted for Plot to Smuggle Money to Hezbollah
Thomson-Reuters
An Ohio man was sentenced to more than six years in federal prison after pleading guilty to plans to ship $200,000 to the Muslim militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hor Akl, 39, of Toledo had pleaded guilty to planning to send the money inside a sport utility vehicle to Hezbollah to target Israel. Akl was sentenced by US District Judge James Carr in Toledo to 75 months in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, the US attorney's office said in a statement. He had pleaded guilty to five counts. They included conspiracy to provide material support to a group designated as a foreign terrorist organization, money laundering, perjury and bankruptcy fraud. Akl and his wife, Amera, dual citizens of the United States and Lebanon, began meeting with an undercover FBI agent in 2009, according to court documents.
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Children Targeted in Syrian Conflict
AP/FOX News
Syrian government forces and anti-government armed groups are both carrying out unlawful killings, torturing opponents and abusing children in the 15-month-old uprising, a UN-appointed panel of human rights experts said, though it underlined that security forces are still responsible for the largest share of the violence. The findings by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria show a chilling pattern of abuses that it says has become "increasingly militarized" despite UN cease-fire efforts. The report is based on hundreds of interviews since March with victims and witnesses who fled the country. The widespread human rights abuses by government forces occur "most often during large-scale, military attacks on specific locations known for hosting defectors and other anti-government sympathizers," it says.
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Obama National Co-Chair Works in Private Equity
The Daily Caller
One of Pres. Obama’s top campaign spokesmen is a private equity manager whose firm has shut down several factories and laid off hundreds of people amid a stalled economy. Federico Pena’s role at Vestar Capital Partners has emerged as Obama’s aides and deputies continue their effort to portray former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney‘s investment career as ruthless, job-destroying, profit-maximizing “vulture capitalism.” Pena has been a partner at Vestar since 2000. Pena is a former mayor of Denver in swing-state Colorado, a former cabinet member for President Bill Clinton and one of 35 “national co-chairs “ of the president’s 2012 campaign. The news will likely further undermine the Obama campaign’s effort to focus on Romney’s business practices, rather than Obama’s White House policies.
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‘Grossly Overestimated’ Enviro Report Used in Mining Ban
PJMedia.com
Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee are demanding answers from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar about leaked emails showing that the administration lacked scientific justification for blocking uranium mining on one million acres of previously designated federal lands in Arizona. The emails between National Park Service (NPS) officials include statements such as “my personal and professional opinion is that the potential impacts stated in the DEIS as [sic] grossly overestimated and even then they are minor to negligible” and “there exists no information we could find that would [suggest] how contamination of park waters might physically occur.” DEIS stands for Draft Environmental Impact Statement, being discussed in the emails by hydrologists.
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Video: The Obama Spending Binge
Reason.com
Liberal bloggers have been passing around a piece by Rex Nutting at Market Watch arguing that although “almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending,” in fact, “it didn’t happen.” Except, it did. In 2009, outlays spiked, rising from the $2.9 trillion spent in 2008 to $3.5 trillion. But what Obama did in subsequent budgets was stick to a newly inflated level of spending. Outlays in 2010 were just a hair short of $3.5 trillion. In 2011, they rose further, approaching $3.6 trillion. So even if you absolve Obama of responsibility for an initial growth spike, he still presided over unprecedented spending that was out of line with the existing growth trend. Obama’s average spending is far higher than under Bush or Clinton on both adjusted dollar levels and as a percentage of the economy.
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Pension Scammers Get to Avoid Prison, Keep Money Under Fed Amnesty
The New York Daily News
Hundreds of Long Island Rail Road retirees who scammed lucrative disability pensions in a massive $1 billion ripoff can avoid prosecution and paying back their ill-gotten gains if they admit guilt under an innovative amnesty program, the feds said Tuesday. The amnesty offer was mailed out to more than 1,500 LIRR workers who were able to double-dip on their pensions after retiring early and submitting a bogus disability claim that was rubber-stamped by the federal Railroad Retirement Board. The offer came as federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed a new indictment charging 10 more LIRR retirees with boosting their regular pensions with fraudulent disability benefits. Under the program, those who cut a deal by July 6 won’t have to return any past disability benefits while those who wait until Aug. 10 will have to return 50%.
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Senate Democrats Pay Female Staffers Less Than Male Staffers
Washington Free Beacon
A group of Democrat female senators on Wednesday declared war on the so-called “gender pay gap,” urging their colleagues to pass the aptly named Paycheck Fairness Act when Congress returns from recess. However, a substantial gender pay gap exists in their own offices, an analysis of Senate salary data reveals. Of the five senators who participated in Wednesday’s press conference -- Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Patty Murray (D-WA), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) -- three pay their female staff members significantly less than male staffers. Murray, who has repeatedly accused Republicans of waging a “war a women,” is one of the worst offenders. Female members of Murray’s staff made about $21,000 less per year than male staffers in 2011, a difference of 35.2 percent.
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Obama Bundler’s Husband Received $1 Billion Plus in DoE Solar Loans
Washington Free Beacon
New disclosures show that one of President Obama’s bundlers is the wife of an executive at an energy company that received a more-than-$1.2 billion Department of Energy (DoE) loan guarantee for a solar power plant. Arvia Few is a bundler for the Obama re-election campaign who has promised to raise between $50,000 and $100,000. She began bundling for Obama in the first quarter of 2012. Her husband, Jason Few, is an executive at a company that has benefited handsomely from the Obama administration’s clean energy spending, records show. The US Department of Energy granted NRG Solar a $1.237-billion loan in September 2011 to help build NRG’s California Valley Solar Ranch, which is described as “a 250 MW alternating current PV solar generating facility” by the US Department of Energy.
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DoJ Pressures University to Allow Man Access to Women’s Restrooms
The Daily Caller
Despite opposition from female students, the University of Arkansas at Ft. Smith has decided on “advice of counsel” to allow a 38-year-old anatomically-male, transgendered student access to the women’s bathrooms on campus. According to a report from the conservative Campus Reform, the university decided to reverse its transgender policy after receiving a letter from the Department of Justice. The school’s initial solution was to allow the man to use gender-neutral bathrooms instead of the women’s restrooms, and to offer to convert more bathrooms into gender-neutral areas. “Because of the stance we took, the individual filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Justice,” Mark Horn, vice president of university relations, told Campus Reform.
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40 Catholic Dioceses & Organizations Sue Obama Administration
CNS News
The Archdiocese of New York, headed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, headed by Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the University of Notre Dame, and 40 other Catholic dioceses and organizations announced they are suing the Obama administration for violating their freedom of religion, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. The dioceses and organizations, in different combinations, are filing 12 different lawsuits filed in federal courts around the country."This lawsuit is about an unprecedented attack by the federal government on one of America’s most cherished freedoms: the freedom to practice one’s religion without government interference. It is not about whether people have access to certain services," ," the archdiocese says on the website.
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InFocus The Progressive Movement and
the Transformation of American Politics
Progressivism was the reform movement that ran from the late 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century, during which leading intellectuals and social reformers in the United States sought to address the economic, political, and cultural questions that had arisen in the context of the rapid changes brought with the Industrial Revolution and the growth of modern capitalism in America. The Progressives believed that these changes marked the end of the old order and required the creation of a new order appropriate for the new industrial age. While the Progressives differed in their assessment of the problems and how to resolve them, they generally shared in common the view that government at every level must be actively involved in these reforms.
The Briefing Updated May 25, 2012
The latest round of talks with Iran allowed each side to state its position. The only agreement achieved was to schedule another meeting for mid-June in Moscow. Israel believes Iran is using the talks as a means of “buying time” while it both continues to move its nuclear weapons development facilities underground and to complete its nuclear weapons development program. This week the UN reported that Iran has increased the number of centrifuges in its underground facility by an additional 350.
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