Charles Krauthammer is to punditry what Beethoven was to classical music.
Mr. Krauthammer points out a glaring hypocrisy: why are the same people who demonized Bush for ridding the world of Saddam Hussein now pleading with the U.S. to intervene in Libya?
Krauthammer: "Voices around the world, from Europe to America to Libya, are calling for U.S. intervention to help bring down Moammar Gaddafi. Yet for bringing down Saddam Hussein, the United States has been denounced variously for aggression, deception, arrogance and imperialism."
"Facebook and Twitter have surely mediated this pan-Arab (and Iranian) reach for dignity and freedom. But the Bush Doctrine set the premise."
http://http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/03/AR2011030304239_pf.html
Friday, March 4, 2011
4 Dems join GOP fight to block EPA climate rules
Bill would bar agency from using federal law to control greenhouse gases
Four Democrats are joining a Republican effort to block the Environmental Protection Agency from reducing heat-trapping pollution blamed for global warming.
Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, Rep. Dan Boren of Oklahoma and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia will sponsor a bill supported by 43 Senate and seven House Republicans that would bar the EPA from using federal law to control greenhouse gases from power plants, refineries and other industrial facilities.
When you think it can go no further
LATEST ZERO TOLERANCE IDIOCY: A Virginia middle school student has been suspended for . . . opening the door for a woman whose hands were full. Really, why not just abolish public education, if this is what it has come to?
http://reason.com/blog/2011/03/04/chivalry-is-dead-was-murdered
Good thinking. Why blow money you have to borrow?
Brits Swing Budget Ax at
U.N. — Will U.S. Do Same?
Coalition led by David Cameron pulls plug on four U.N. programs — a body blow to the Obama administration
Average Milwaukee Teacher Paid $100,000 a Year ... With Summers Off
AP Graphics
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel confirms that's how much the average Milwaukee teacher will be paid in salary and benefits in 2011:
"the average MPS teacher would receive total compensation of $101,091 -- $59,500 in salary and $41,591 in benefits.
— 
Fifty years ago next week, the Jaguar XKE debuted, causing the tightening of pants from Albuquerque to Zhezkazgan. But that was 1961, when car design was both unregulated and barely wind-tunnel tested. What new car is "sex on wheels"?
A Weisman. It is (IMO) the modern interpretation of the E-type and it is the perfect equation for what I want in a car. Small, lightweight, GORGEOUS exterior (once again IMO), six speed manual, available turbochargers, rwd, option for coupe or roadster, and a chassis that Clarkson just loved. It's exactly the type of car that makes you want to have se.... ermmm... I mean that you would call "sex on wheels".
Unreal
Guarding Border ... With Bean Bags
-
-
U.S. Border Patrol is under fire for allegedly ordering its elite units to use non-lethal bean bag ammunition before responding with deadly force — a decision that may have cost agent Brian Terry his life.
Big Government Math
Algebra and Geometry I get, Obama Administration math, not so much.
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of the Dept. of Health and Human Services, admitted to double-counting in the Obamacare budget during a hearing this week on Capitol Hill. Republican Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois asked secretary Sebelius whether $500 billion in Medicare cuts were used to sustain the program or pay for the health-care law. "What's the $500 billion in cuts for? Preserving Medicare or funding the health care law?" asked Rep. Shimkus. Sebelius answered "both". He countered, "Your own actuary says you can't do both."
I think I'll try this new math at the grocery store tonight--two full carts out the door, paying for only one. I'm sure the arresting officers will know all about this new math and let me go on my merry way.
Good for Mr. Obama. This is a good thing. Everyone needs a hobby and this is one that he can share.
Obama Brewing His Own Beer at the White House
Barack Obama will go down in history as, among other things, the first president to brew his own beer in the White House.
The blog Obama Foodorama reported this week that the president's Super Bowl party featured a selection called "White House Honey Ale," brewed right at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Obama Turns His Attention to Bullying
Since there's nothing much going on in the world, the President has turned his attention from golf to the topic of schoolyard bullying. As the appointment of a homosexual militant to be Safe Schools Czars makes clear, when the President say "bullying," they mean "getting teased for being the kind of kid who seems like he might turn out gay."
President Barack Obama will host a White House conference next week on preventing bullying. … Aides say this is a personal issue for both the president and his wife, Michelle Obama. The president taped a message for the "It Gets Better Campaign" last fall following the deaths of several young people who were bullied for being gay.
A personal issue?
Take heart, victims of bullying, you can still make a big mark in the world.
Is America in Decline?
Victor Davis Hanson doesn't think so. Here is a small portion of a great essay.
"The gloomy prognoses come from both the anguished conservative who sees the culprit as the erosion of American individualism and self-reliance, and the new Obama coalition that thinks a sense of exceptionalism abroad is synonymous with arrogance and imperialism, and at home was symptomatic of an inherent unfairness, a downright mean country that, thank god, had to change. The one gags at the foul whiff of decline, the other sees it as an aroma of welcome reset. Both confess it is here, both unwelcomed and welcomed."
http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/decline-is-in-the-mind-2/?singlepage=true
"The gloomy prognoses come from both the anguished conservative who sees the culprit as the erosion of American individualism and self-reliance, and the new Obama coalition that thinks a sense of exceptionalism abroad is synonymous with arrogance and imperialism, and at home was symptomatic of an inherent unfairness, a downright mean country that, thank god, had to change. The one gags at the foul whiff of decline, the other sees it as an aroma of welcome reset. Both confess it is here, both unwelcomed and welcomed."
http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/decline-is-in-the-mind-2/?singlepage=true
Sebelius: Yes, we’re double-counting Medicare savings
In her first appearance before the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee since the health-care law passed, Kathleen Sebelius responded to a line of questioning by Republican Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois about whether $500 billion in Medicare cuts were used to sustain the program or pay for the law.
“There is an issue here on the budget because your own actuary has said you can’t double-count,” said Shimkus. “You can’t count — they’re attacking Medicare on the CR when their bill, your law, cut $500 billion from Medicare.”
He continued: “Then you’re also using the same $500 billion to what? Say your funding health care. Your own actuary says you can’t do both. […] What’s the $500 billion in cuts for? Preserving Medicare or funding the health-care law?
Sebelius’ reply? “Both.”
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/03/04/sebelius-yes-were-double-counting-medicare-savings/
Something not often mentioned in MSM. From Jim
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS? OR WHERE THIS IS?
THE STATUE
This statue currently stands outside the Iraqi palace, now home to the 4th Infantry division. It will eventually be shipped home and put in the memorial museum in Fort Hood , Texas
The statue was created by an Iraqi artist named Kalat, who for years was forced by Saddam Hussein to make the many hundreds of bronze busts of Saddam that dotted Baghdad .
Kalat was so grateful for the Americans liberation of his country, he melted 3 of the heads of the fallen Saddam and made the statue as a memorial to the American soldiers and their fallen warriors.
Kalat worked on this memorial night and day for several months.
To the left of the kneeling soldier is a small Iraqi girl giving the soldier comfort as he mourns the loss of his comrade in arms.
Unemployment And The Arab Revolution
March 4, 2011: Libyans are rebelling against their dictatorial government, and one of the complaints is a lack of jobs. The unemployment rate is believed to be about 30 percent. Yet there are over a million foreign workers in Libya, and a million government employees. The foreigners comprise 20 percent of the population, and nearly half the workforce. There are plenty of jobs for Libyans, but most of the jobs require work most Libyans will not do. As a result, most of the jobs are held by foreigners, often illegal immigrants from Egypt and other African nations to the south. A revolution is unlikely to change this.
This is not an unusual situation in the Arab oil states. In Saudi Arabia, the unemployment rate is 12 percent, but many of those men are unemployed by choice. Arabs tend to have a very high opinion of themselves, and most jobs available to poorly educated young men, do not satisfy. Thus most Saudis, and Libyans, prefer a government job, where the work is easy, the pay is good, the title is flattering, and life is boring. In the non-government sector of the economy, 90 percent of the Saudi jobs are taken by foreigners. These foreigners comprise 27 percent of the Saudi population, mostly to staff all the non-government jobs.
Aspirin (maybe we should just make it a suppliment)
Ibuprofen May Reduce Risk of Developing Parkinson's Disease, Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (Mar. 2, 2011) — A new study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers shows that adults who regularly take ibuprofen, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), have about one-third less risk of developing Parkinson's disease than non-users.
Op-Ed: 'Race-Baiting' Eric Holder Should Resign
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. should resign. He is a disgrace to his office and to his country.
Mr. Holder is a race baiter. On Tuesday, he testified during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the voting rights case involving members of the New Black Panther Party. In the 2008 election, Black Panthers - dressed in military fatigues and wielding a club - threatened voters at a Philadelphia polling station. They denounced the voters as “crackers” and vowed those voters would not be allowed to help defeat then-candidate Barack Obama. Their goal was to bully and intimidate. This was a clear case of violation of voting rights. Such behavior may occur with impunity in banana republics - not in the world’s leading democracy.
Rep. John Culberson, Texas Republican, confronted the attorney general, demanding to know why the Justice Department refused to prosecute the Black Panthers - especially considering they were caught making the menacing gestures on tape. Mr. Holder shamelessly played the race card. He claimed to take offense at comments by civil rights activist Bartle Bull, who called it the most serious example of voter intimidation he had ever seen at the polls.
“When you compare whatpeople endured in the South in the ‘60s to try to get the right to vote for African-Americans, to compare what people subjected to that with what happened in Philadelphia … to describe it in those terms I think does a great disservice to people who put their lives on the line for my people,” Mr. Holder said.
Protesters Finally Leave Wisconsin Capitol (Do these guys look like union members?)
MADISON, Wis. — Pro-union protesters who had been camping out at the Wisconsin Capitol for 17 days vacated the building peacefully late Thursday after a judge ordered the building closed at night but ruled the state was wrong to restrict access to the building during the day.
With a group hug, and singing "Solidarity Forever," about 50 protesters grabbed their sleeping bags, pillows and drums and left through two rows of Democratic state lawmakers and others who thanked them for their efforts.
Hillary Likes Al Jazeera
She's probably just probably just taking a shot at Fox News.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton likes how Al Jeezera is covering
the action in the Middle East. Her criticism of American
news organizations is they have "a million commercials and, you
know, arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news which, you know, is not particularly informative to us,
let alone foreigners."
Hillary Clinton: television critic. Keep your day job Mrs. Clinton, Al Jeezera would like to be America's ONLY network.
Pension Time Bomb
Don't worry, somebody else will pay for this.
State and local governments have underestimated by $1.5 trillion how much they will owe to public employee pension funds.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/03/AR2011030302918.html
State and local governments have underestimated by $1.5 trillion how much they will owe to public employee pension funds.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/03/AR2011030302918.html
Progressive Utopia
One day we'll have enough rules and regulations, and everyone will be safe.
Compliments of Michelle.
Egypt, all to ourselves
Cassandra Jardine finds Egypt full of the spirit of the 'lotus revolution' – but empty of tourists.
Napolitano caught in another lie.
Bringing a Bean Bag to a Gunfight
When Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry 
was murdered by drug smugglers in Arizona last December, Tom Tancredo revealed that Terry’s BORTAC unit (the Border Patrol’s equivalent of a SWAT team) were armed with bean-bag rounds in their weapons:
Here’s the part Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
and Border Patrol management are trying to hide: Border Patrol Agent Terry and the BORTAC team were under standing orders to always use (“non-lethal”) bean-bag rounds first before using live ammunition. When the smugglers heard the first rounds, they returned fire with real bullets, and Agent Terry was killed in that exchange. Real bullets outperform bean bags every time.
At the time, the government denied such “bizarre Internet-fueled rumors”:
“There was no order given to CBP law enforcement personnel – now or in the past – that dictates the use of less-than-lethal devices before using deadly force,” stated CBP’s Southwest Border Field Branch Office of Public Affairs.
Oops:
Records show agents fired beanbags in fatal border gunfight
Brady McCombs Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Thursday, March 3, 2011 12:00 amBorder Patrol agents shot beanbags
at a group of suspected bandits before the men returned fire during a confrontation in a remote canyon, killing agent Brian Terry with a single gunshot, records show.
THE CASE OF THE DEADLY DOLPHINS.
“Cold weather, not oil, seems responsible for the recent spate of baby-dolphin deaths along the Gulf coast, according to researchers at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab . . . Melting snow — a rarity for the state — was behind the water temperature drop.”
“THE GUYS AT ENRON NEVER WOULD HAVE DONE THIS:”
Bill Gates on states’ accounting flimflams. “The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist said state budgets have received a puzzling lack of scrutiny and have been ‘riddled with gimmicks’ aimed at deferring or disguising the true costs of public employees’ health care and pension obligations, citing California’s ongoing budget crisis as an example of creative deficit spending and the subsequent cuts to education spending as an unacceptable cost.”
Obscene Salaries Uncovered at NPR
Kevin Klose, president emeritus of NPR, paid more than $1.2 million. CEO Gary Knell received $956,513 in compensation in 2008.
Uncloudy day on the budget front
John's post on Secretary LaHood's testimony before the Senate Budget Committee reminded me of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's testimony to the same committee on February 17 regarding the president's budget. The president's plan accumulates $13 trillion in new gross debt, with interest payments on the debt rising to $844 billion a year by 2021. Under President Obama's budget, total federal spending will increase another 65 percent by the end of the decade. In fact, accumulated deficits under the president's budget are greater than those in the Congressional Budget Office baseline, which assumes we essentially do nothing.
Geithner freely conceded under questioning from Senator Sessions that the president's own budget calls for interest payments and obligations that are "excessively high" and "unsustainable." Geithner presented himself before the committee as an innocent bystander. Senator Sessions gamely called him on the charade.
If he had a sense of shame, Geithner would have to have been embarrassed.
One quarter of the ice comes from where we did not think it was formed. (What we do not know, but think we do, astounds)
Radar image shows the Gamburtsev Mountains (bottom) overlain by the ice sheet, which has been deformed by a bulge of refrozen ice (center).
Some Antarctic Ice Is Forming from Bottom
ScienceDaily (Mar. 3, 2011) — Scientists working in the remotest part of Antarctica have discovered that liquid water locked deep under the continent's coat of ice regularly thaws and refreezes to the bottom, creating as much as half the thickness of the ice in places, and actively modifying its structure. The finding, which turns common perceptions of glacial formation upside down, could reshape scientists' understanding of how the ice sheet expands and moves.
The scientists found that refrozen ice makes up 24% of the ice sheet base around Dome A, a 13,800-foot-high plateau that forms the high point of the East Antarctic ice sheet, at 3.8 million square miles roughly the size of the continental United States.
Good News, if correct. DoL’s numbers have a habit of being significantly readjusted three weeks later.
Unemployment dips to 8.9 pct., 192K jobs added
Unemployment drops to 8.9 percent, nearly two-year low; Employers add 192K jobs
Sent to a gun fight with a bean bag
Jill Torrance/Arizona Daily Star Border Patrol agents salute their fellow agent Brian Terry during his memorial at Kino Stadium Friday, January 21, 2011.
Border Patrol agents shot beanbags at a group of suspected bandits before the men returned fire during a confrontation in a remote canyon, killing agent Brian Terry with a single gunshot, records show.
The documents say the group of illegal border entrants refused commands to drop their weapons after agents confronted them at about 11:15 p.m. Two agents fired beanbags at the migrants
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