News of the Week
Election 2012 *************** Socialized medicine, from a survivor What to expect from America’s version of Britain’s NHS *************** Obama campaign turns frugal as it scrambles for donations Latest estimates from campaign advisors suggest that Mitt Romney and President Obama and their surrogates are likely to spend $1.4 billion each in the presidential campaign. But that doesn't mean their staffs are living high on the hog, especially the Obama campaign which has spent the past week issuing multiple urgent fundraising calls to supporters. *************** Will House Ethics Committee Let Shelley Berkley Off The Hook? This week, the House Ethics Committee is scheduled to decide on whether to proceed with the investigation of Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV), who is also running for Senate against Sen. Dean Heller (D-NV). The case against Berkley is clear-cut: she’s allegedly been directing federal bucks to kidney transplant programs in which her husband has a large financial stake. Obamacare *************** Lawyers Have Already Drafted 13,000 Pages of Regulations for New ObamaTax Law *************** Why are Republicans so awful at picking Supreme Court justices? Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s decision to side with the court’s liberal bloc and uphold Obamacare raises an important question for conservatives: Why are Republicans so awful at picking Supreme Court justices? Democrats have been virtually flawless in appointing reliable liberals to the court. Yet Republicans, more often than not, appoint justices who vote with the other side on critical decisions. *************** Who Leaked? Jan Crawford’s remarkable story on the Chief Justice’s vote prompts a bunch of questions. I’ll start with one: Who leaked the details to Crawford so soon after the case was handed down? If you stop and think about it, the leak is pretty incredible. It offers the details of the Justices’ deliberations in the highest profile case in recent memory just three days after the decision was handed down. I can’t remember anything quite like that. *************** Man, 22, who died from dehydration in hospital rang police for a drink of water A 22 year old who died from dehydration whilst in hospital was so desperate for a drink of water he phoned the police from his bed for help, an inquest has been told. *************** Judicial Betrayal The chief justice forgets his oath to be faithful to the Constitution. *************** Will More Doctors ‘Go Galt’ Because of Obamacare? At the June 29, 2012 anti-Obamacare rally hosted by American For Prosperity, blogger Ari Armstrong captured this short video of Dr. Jill Vecchio explaining how Obamacare will force her to practice substandard medicine. *************** The Obamacare decision as the “Compromise of 2012″? – let’s hope not Rumor has it that Chief Justice Roberts changed his vote in the Obamacare case. Even if he did, that leaves open the question of why. Most observers think he changed it for political reasons. For example Charles Lane compares Roberts’ decision to the Compromise of 1850 about which Roberts wrote as a student in an award winning history paper on Daniel Webster. "Hide The Decline" *************** New Study on CA Global Warming Law Indicates Higher Costs *************** Trend of CO2 emissions falling toward 1991 levels War & Terror *************** US designates Afghanistan as major ally The United States has designated Afghanistan a major non-NATO ally, giving the war-torn country special privileges as the US prepares to pull its troops out in 2014, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Saturday. National *************** Obamacare’s Threat to the Second Amendment Taxation: the other way to ban gun ownership. *************** U.N. Agreement Should Have All Gun Owners Up In Arms It may not come as surprising news to many of you that the United Nations doesn’t approve of our Second Amendment. Not one bit. And they very much hope to do something about it with help from some powerful American friends. Under the guise of a proposed global “Small Arms Treaty” premised to fight “terrorism”, “insurgency” and “international crime syndicates” you can be quite certain that an even more insidious threat is being targeted – our Constitutional right for law-abiding citizens to own and bear arms. *************** Muslim Congressman: U.S. Schools Should Be Modeled After Madrassas "America will never tap into educational innovation and ingenuity without looking at the model that we have in our Madrassas, in our schools where innovation is encouraged. Where the foundation is the Koran," Rep. Andre Carson (D-Indiana) said at the ICNA-MAS convention at the end of May. *************** Maryland Court Dissolves Injunction Against Blogger; Massachusetts Judge Orders Blogger to Take Down Blog Posts A Maryland judge has vacated an injunction obtained by ex-terrorist and convicted felon Brett Kimberlin against a conservative blogger, Aaron Walker, who repeatedly criticized him. On July 5, “Judge Rupp ruled that nothing Mr. Walker had done, said, or written fell under the Maryland statutes relating to harassment, stalking, or Peace Orders.” *************** Lifeguard Fired for Saving Drowning Man… …outside his company’s designated “zone.” *************** The Flip Side to Illegal Immigration Forgotten in the latest hype about illegal immigration is the cycle of lawlessness that follows illegal entry into the United States. *************** Bias Hoax at Central Connecticut In March, hundreds of students at Central Connecticut State University held a rally to back Alexandra Pennell, a student who told the crowd that she had been receiving notes in her dormitory room attacking her for being a lesbian. Now Pennell has been expelled from the university and faces numerous criminal charges that she faked the notes *************** SWAT Team Raids Home of Freshman GOP Congressman's Sister A SWAT team raided the home of the sister of freshman Republican congressman Blake Farenthold of Texas *************** New Hampshire Passes Jury Nullification Law On June 18, Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire signed into law HB 146, a bill granting to juries in that state the right “to judge the application of the law in relationship to the facts in controversy.” *************** California bill would allow a child to have more than two parents Beaver had June and Ward. Ricky had Ozzie and Harriet. Mom and Dad, same-sex couples or blended families, California law is clear: No more than two legal parents per child. When adults fight over parenthood, a judge must decide which two have that right and responsibility – but that could end soon. *************** California's biggest community college fights to survive California's largest community college, the City College of San Francisco, will be forced to close next year if it fails to address a raft of longstanding problems that the school blames on state budget cuts. *************** Declaration of Independence, not Dependence As we celebrate our nation’s birthday this week, it is important to remember and teach our children the Founding Fathers were declaring our independence, not creating a culture of dependence. (They also protested unfair taxation, but that is another story for another day.) This is an especially important lesson, given the Supreme Court’s ruling last week on Obamacare. *************** Lamenting The Lost Legacy Of Independence Day Why do we still celebrate Independence Day? Is it a lingering habit, a mindless bit of nostalgia, a time to indulge in fireworks and barbecues, devoid of any deeper meaning? Can anyone honestly argue that our nation still honors the values, or practices the principles, for which our Founders fought? *************** Calvin Coolidge's '150 Anniversary of the Declaration of Indepedence' Speech *************** Google Chooses Communist-Oriented ‘This Land Is Your Land’ July 4th Theme *************** Netanyahu's Message for July 4, 2012 US Independence Day Economy
& Taxes *************** Dear Person Seeking a Job: Why I Can't Hire You Potential employers have to respond to the incentives and disincentives that exist in today's world, and those do not favor conventional permanent employees. *************** Spain May Not Be Uganda, But Will America Soon Be Argentina? The last few days have seen some rather concerning central-planning actions by Argentina. Fresh from their nationalization of Spain's YPF, not only did they "forbid individuals from buying dollars for savings" issuing a statement allowing dollars to be used for "travel, mortgages, and to send family members traveling abroad if they they run out of money"; but now we hear of the forced action on Argentina's banks to lend out 5% of deposits at rates well below inflation estimates in the next six months (or else) *************** Argentina bans buying dollars as a way to save Argentina's central bank on Thursday formally banned people from buying dollars for the purpose of saving them, confirming the government's de facto policy aimed at safeguarding foreign reserves. *************** Argentine province's finance squeeze fans yields A cash crunch in Argentina's biggest province, Buenos Aires, is driving bond yields higher due to increasing investor doubts about the local government's ability to pay its debts as ties with President Cristina Fernandez sour. *************** Argentina gives banks 6 months to grant new loans Argentine banks must offer to lend companies 15 billion pesos ($3.3 billion) by the end of the year at rates well below private inflation estimates, a central bank statement said on Thursday. *************** Disability Ranks Outpace New Jobs In Obama Recovery More workers joined the federal government's disability program in June than got new jobs, according to two new government reports, a clear indicator of how bleak the nation's jobs picture is after three full years of economic recovery. *************** June Job Creation at 80,000; Rate Holds Steady at 8.2% The U.S. economy created just 80,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate held steady at 8.2 percent, reflecting continued slow growth in the economy with the presidential election just four months away. *************** UN calls for 'billionaires tax' to help world's poor The United Nations on Thursday called for a tax on billionaires to help raise more than $400 billion a year for poor countries. *************** Guess who’s bailing out bankrupt western governments now… *************** Is Marxism Coming Back? It is true that as the financial and economic crises roll on, as more and more disasters accumulate, as more people are thrown into unemployment and suffering that more and more of us will question the fundamentals of our economic system. It is inevitable that many will be drawn to some of the criticisms of capitalism, including Marxism. *************** Cities Consider Seizing Mortgages A handful of local officials in California who say the housing bust is a public blight on their cities may invoke their eminent-domain powers to restructure mortgages as a way to help some borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth. *************** Euro Crisis Breakthrough Breakdown *************** 80% Of The World's Industrial Activity Is Now Contracting Tomorrow's NFP may or may not beat expectations, following some modestly better than expected employment-related data points (then again last month NFP was again supposed to come in solidly above 100K only to cross below the critical threshold), but keep one thing in mind: with the average June seasonal adjustment being a deduction of over 1 million jobs, several tens of thousands in marginal absolute job numbers + or - will be nothing but statistical noise. *************** Jobless Claims Point to Weak June Jobs Report Don’t worry about the jobless claims numbers, because the Fed’s gonna rip with QE3 any day now. *************** US manufacturing shrinks for first time in 3 years U.S. manufacturing shrank in June for the first time in nearly three years, adding to signs that economic growth is weakening. *************** An "Economic Quality" Scorecard Of The Obama Administration *************** China's Landing Getting Harder As Stimulus Fails To Prime Pump The spread between HSBC's and China's version of Manufacturing PMI increased a little over the weekend when the headline of China's data point managed to cling perilously above the 50-line of expansion over contraction (while HSBC's drifts lower and lower under 50). The headline print - still its lowest since Nov 11 - however, hides a much less sanguine truth in the sub-indices with the new orders index fell once again staying in the contractionary territory under 50. *************** International *************** Nicolas Sarkozy's home raided by French police Detectives investigating alleged illegal campaign-financing by L'Oreal heir Liliane Bettencourt search Carla Bruni's Paris mansion *************** Uzbekistan quits Russia-dominated security pact Uzbekistan has suspended its participation in a Russia-dominated security pact of ex-Soviet nations, officials said Thursday, a move that reflected tensions inside the grouping. *************** The Laffer Curve Wreaks Havoc in the United Kingdom Back in 2010, I excoriated the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, noting that David Cameron was increasing tax rates and expanding the burden of government spending (including an increase in the capital gains tax!). *************** A world first - Deployment of an anonymous and confidential registery of homophobes In a world first, the organization Gay Line announces the deployment of a register of homophobic acts. "We know that homosexuals for fear of disclosing their orientation, are silent and rarely report homophobic incidents they witness or victim, depriving them of their appeal. Moreover, this silence does not provide a true picture of the problems surrounding this discrimination, "says Laurent McCutcheon, president of Gay Line in the introduction to the press conference this morning. *************** Mexico's old rulers claim presidential election win Mexican opposition candidate Enrique Pena Nieto's campaign team claimed victory in the country's presidential election on Sunday after exit polls showed him winning by a comfortable margin. *************** France may extend TV licence fee to computer screens Culture minister says government is considering making those who own a computer screen but no television pay up *************** Opinion *************** California teachers unions should be ashamed Anyone who wonders why a school district can't dismiss a teacher accused of molesting kids might want to direct that question to the California Teachers Association. Or ask the California Federation of Teachers, or United Teachers Los Angeles, or the handful of cowardly legislators who let Senate Bill 1530 die last week in committee *************** Ronald Reagan Riding a Velociraptor *************** The United States — a nation of takers? In a post about the inability of the German national soccer team to win tournaments recently, I wondered whether this failure had something to do with a change in the German ethos. But what about the American ethos? Has it changed? *************** ***************  *************** |
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