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“China’s sovereign wealth fund has lifted the veil on its U.S. securities holdings, revealing more than $9.6 billion of holdings in about 60 U.S. companies. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday, China Investment Corp. said it had spread its investments among a wide variety of index funds and blue-chip companies such as Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Visa, Pfizer and Apple. It also disclosed a $713.8 million position in Wall Street investment firm BlackRock and a $498 million position in two types of shares in the Brazilian metals giant Vale.” (02/09/10) http://tinyurl.com/yfbxgxu | | Report Bad Link |
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“Leading House Republicans raised the prospect Monday night that they may decline to participate in President Obama’s proposed health-care summit if the White House chooses not to scrap the existing reform bills and start over. In a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) expressed frustration about reports that Obama intends to put the Democratic bills on the table for discussion at the summit, which would be held Feb. 25.” (02/09/10) http://tinyurl.com/yk9cgb4 | | Report Bad Link |
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“In Baghdad, one civilian was killed and three others were wounded during a blast on a bridge linking Jadiriya to Doura. A sticky bomb in Doura killed a man. In Mansour, a sticky bomb wounded a man. Security forces reported confiscating 198 containers filled with arms, including rockets. A forgery gang was arrested. Six gunmen were killed and one Iraqi soldier was wounded during clashes near Makhmour. The gunmen are suspected of ties to al-Qaeda. A bomb in Rawa wounded one civilian. In Mosul, no casualties were reported after a bomb exploded in front of a hospital. Joint Iraqi-U.S. forces killed a suspected gunman.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yhf29ef | | Report Bad Link |
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“At least 16 Taliban members were killed during an Afghan/NATO-led military operation in southern Afghanistan, a local official told CNN on Saturday. The operation started Friday night in Babji village of volatile Helmand province — the region where U.S. and British forces are gearing up for a major push against militants.” (02/06/10) http://tinyurl.com/yflwp56 | | Report Bad Link |
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“The United States has made its first response to a lawsuit filed in federal district court in Missoula to test the Montana Firearms Freedom Act (MFFA), passed by the 2009 Legislature and signed into law by Governor Schweitzer. The MFFA declares that any firearms, ammunition or firearms accessories made and retained in Montana are not subject to federal regulation under the power given to Congress in the U.S. Constitution to regulate commerce ‘among the several states.’” (02/08/10) http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=3800 | | Report Bad Link |
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“Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) has lifted his controversial holds on more than 70 executive branch nominations, the senator’s office confirmed Monday night. With the announced release, the administration’s nominees no longer will face a politically difficult 60-vote threshold in order to be considered on the Senate floor. Shelby — who called for a near-blanket hold on the White House’s nominees late last week — had been frustrated by the lack in movement on Alabama-based projects he deemed necessary to national security. A spokesman for the senator said Monday that with attention brought to these two concerns, the political maneuver had ‘accomplished’ its goal and was no longer necessary.” (02/08/10) http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32718.html | | Report Bad Link |
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“Sri Lanka’s former army chief and defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka is to be court-martialled, officials said Tuesday, a day after he was hauled away from his office by armed troops. Hours before his dramatic arrest, Fonseka told reporters that he was willing to face any international probe into alleged war crimes committed by Sri Lankan troops in last year’s final stages of conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels. Fonseka has been moved to an undisclosed military establishment ahead of disciplinary proceedings, a military official said.” (02/09/10) http://tinyurl.com/ylcxoey | | Report Bad Link |
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“President Obama’s job approval rating has taken another dive, putting him underwater for the first time in the latest Marist poll. Just 44% of the country approve of the work Obama is doing, while 47% don’t like what they see.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yzb35el | | Report Bad Link |
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“The American Civil Liberties Union says a science instructor at a public community college in California is improperly teaching religious views on homosexuality and abortion as fact. ACLU staff attorney Elizabeth Gill sent a letter to Fresno City College officials on Monday about the introductory science class instructor, Bradley Lopez. Gill says Lopez’s teaching methods violate California laws protecting gays from discrimination and prohibiting religious indoctrination at public schools.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/ygjxkzv | | Report Bad Link |
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“Hundreds of protesters denounced Iraqis still loyal to Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party on Sunday as tensions soared over the decision to blacklist suspected Baathists from next month’s election. Protesters chanted and carried signs that said, ‘No, No to Baath Party!’ and ‘The return of the Baath Party is a return to mass graves.’” (02/07/10) http://tinyurl.com/yje2gps | | Report Bad Link |
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“President Barack Obama’s administration is forming a new agency to study and report on the changing climate. Climate change has drawn widespread concern in recent years as temperatures around the world rise, threatening to harm crops, spread disease, increase sea levels, change storm and drought patterns and cause polar melting.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/ydukm5e | | Report Bad Link |
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“Thousands of Afghan soldiers and police will join U.S. and NATO troops in an upcoming offensive in southern Afghanistan, playing their biggest role in any joint operation of the Afghan war. The pending attack on the Taliban-held town of Marjah in Helmand province will be a crucial test for the NATO strategy of transferring more responsibility to the Afghans so foreign troops can go home.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yfv3eav | | Report Bad Link |
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“Navigational locks and gates in Chicago area waterways crucial for shipping may be opened less frequently than usual under a $78.5 million campaign to prevent Asian carp from overrunning the Great Lakes, officials said Monday. The plan falls short of closing the navigational structures entirely, as demanded by Michigan and five other Great Lakes states.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yj39el6 | | Report Bad Link |
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“Astronauts are inspecting space shuttle Endeavour for launch damage as they race toward a 200-mile high rendezvous with the International Space Station. The crew was using a 100-foot, laser-tipped boom early Tuesday to check the thermal shielding on the wings and nose.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/ygqdjhd | | Report Bad Link |
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“The Palestinians have asked the Obama administration to clarify a U.S. envoy’s proposal to restart long-stalled peace talks with Israel indirectly by shuttling between the two sides, the Palestinian president said Saturday. The talks collapsed a year ago during Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.” (02/07/10) http://www.denverpost.com/world/ci_14350556 | | Report Bad Link |
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“Federal investigators attempted Monday to launch an investigation into an explosion that tore apart a power plant under construction here Sunday, killing five people and injuring 12, but were rebuffed by local authorities. Middletown police and the fire marshal blocked the Chemical Safety Board team from entering the blast site, and lead investigator Don Holmstrom was barred from interviewing witnesses, board public affairs director Daniel Horowitz said.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yjgbvo3 | | Report Bad Link |
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“John Murtha, the Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania and decorated former Marine whose fierce opposition to the Iraq war helped catalyze public sentiment against the conflict, died Monday. He was 77. Murtha died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., surrounded by his family, his office announced.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/ykx86fn | | Report Bad Link |
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“Pakistani security forces have seized a key Taliban stronghold in a northwestern area that the government had declared free of militants a year ago after a military offensive but has experienced periodic violence since then. The army captured Damadola on Saturday as part of an operation launched in late January to quell the persistent violence in the Bajur tribal area.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yhem4xf | | Report Bad Link |
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“Costa Ricans have elected their first woman president as the ruling party candidate won in a landslide after campaigning to continue free market policies in Central America’s most stable nation. With most of the votes from Sunday’s election counted, Laura Chinchilla held a 22-point lead over her closest rival. Her 47 percent share of the vote was well beyond the 40 percent needed to avoid a run-off.” (02/08/10) http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=9774504 | | Report Bad Link |
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“Iran pressed ahead Monday with plans that will increase its ability to make nuclear weapons as it formally informed the U.N. nuclear agency of its intention to enrich uranium to higher levels. Alarmed world powers questioned the rationale behind the move and warned the country it could face more U.N. sanctions if it made good on its intentions.” (02/08/10) http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=9774412 | | Report Bad Link |
COMMENTARY
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“Freddie Peacock of Rochester, New York, was convicted of rape in 1976. Last week he became the 250th person to be exonerated by DNA testing since 1989. According to a new report by the Innocence Project, those 250 prisoners served 3,160 years between them; 17 spent time on death row. Remarkably, 67 percent of them were convicted after 2000 — a decade after the onset of modern DNA testing. The glaring question here is, How many more are there?” (02/08/10) http://reason.com/archives/2010/02/08/how-many-more-are-innocent | | Report Bad Link |
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“Whatever the merits of this particular grievance, it is rather amusing to hear complaints about the abuse of power from dairy farmers, who were pioneers in interest-group politics. They have been adept in using the power of government, as Adam Smith put it, to launch ‘conspiracies against the public’ and ‘contrivances to raise prices.’ And their efforts have had far-reaching constitutional implications.” (02/08/10) http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/123084.html | | Report Bad Link |
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“First it was the medical marijuana crowd in California who offered their state’s politicians an enticing arrangement: Legalize our pot and tax it. It will help close the state’s multibillion-dollar deficit. The ‘Manhattan Madam’ not only likes the idea but she wants to expand on it. Kristin Davis is the alleged madam who supplied Ashley Dupre and other high dollar call girls to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer for his personal amusement before the scandal broke in 2008 and drove him out of office. Now Davis wants to run for governor herself on the Libertarian Party ticket.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yzzawec | | Report Bad Link |
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“What is to be done about the idiocy that has spread, like a poisonous but imperceptible gas, from the Pentagon to Congress, and is now wafting through the White House, deranging all it touches? As it travels, this dismal infection transforms statistical impossibilities into magic numbers, which appear, to the uninformed observer, to confirm the most shameless lies of former Vice President Dick Cheney: that Guantánamo was teeming with hardcore terrorists, who couldn’t wait to ‘return to the battlefield.’” (02/08/10) http://www.fff.org/comment/com1002d.asp | | Report Bad Link |
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“Earlier today Libertarian Party national chair candidate, and future presidential hopeful, Wayne Allyn Root posted an article on his own blog Root for America entitled, ‘Lessons Obama Should Have Learned From Watching the Super Bowl.’ While the article is light-hearted and even entertaining for some I suppose, I came away from it asking myself, ‘When is Mr. Root going to learn his lesson about Libertarianism?’” (02/08/10) http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=3807 | | Report Bad Link |
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“Obama’s newest ‘deficit-conscious’ budget calls for a 9% increase in federal education spending. Instead of dumping the money on our flailing public K-12 system, he should try something that actually works. Today’s Wall Street Journal suggests that he look at the voucher program in Milwaukee. … It’s unlikely that the president will support vouchers. In Washington D.C., Obama killed the Opportunity Scholarship program even though it raised test scores while spending half as much money as government schools spent. The unions give to Democrats, and the unions don’t want competition to their public school monopoly. Unless we allow parents more choice, we effectively imprison kids.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yzjy7vs | | Report Bad Link |
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“In Ukraine, presidential elections look to have brought the country full circle. Voters have apparently returned to support Viktor Yanukovich, the villain in the country’s democratic ‘Orange Revolution’ of 2004. It was after fraudulent elections just over five years ago, when Mr. Yanukovich was declared the presidential winner, that Ukrainians persistently protested the phony results and eventually saw them thrown out. Their peaceful demonstrations inspired other ‘color’ revolutions and rattled Ukraine’s eastern neighbor, Russia. Ukraine must now get its geometry right and move forward instead of chasing its tail. Yet since the revolution, its democratic leaders have been running in circles, fighting each other while doing little to advance needed political and economic reforms.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yj4uuh4 | | Report Bad Link |
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“There’s a useful old carpenter’s adage — measure twice, cut once — that’s also pretty good advice for other projects, like crafting public policy. Knowing as precisely as possible how a society is ticking helps both to better understand problems and formulate solutions. Compared to woodworking, it’s harder to measure what is going on in a society — or even to know what to measure. And relying on the wrong measurements can mess up public policy, tilting decisions politically and ignoring a society’s shortcomings. The big emerging debate focuses on the single most influential economic statistic — the gross domestic product, or GDP, which is the market value of all the goods and services produced in a country over a year, including private household consumption, investment, government spending and exports (minus imports).” [editor’s note: as long as GDP includes the non-production of statist spending, it will never be an accurate measure of economic activity - SAT] (02/08/10) http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5456/gross_inaccuracies | | Report Bad Link |
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“Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha, the old soldier who looked like and in so many ways was a member of the Democratic establishment of another time, broke with the leadership of his own party and the opposition Republicans at a critical point in 2005 and said it was time to bring the troops home from Iraq. Murtha was a gruff warrior, with too many ties to defense-industry lobbyists and Pentagon insiders to number. He was the consummate insider, a Democrat who was more a part of the military-industrial complex — for better and for worse — than any Republican. For much of his career, he was a Democrat who was more liked by Republicans than by progressives in his own party. Ultimately, that’s what made his dissent so meaningful.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yddbzd4 | | Report Bad Link |
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“So what’s going on? Basically, of course, it is the growing dissatisfaction, in blue states as well as red, and the purple and mauves, too, with a government grown too big, complicated, and corrupt to function. It can’t do health care, swine flue, stimulus payments, carbon limits, education, jobs, corporate bonus control, or airport security. It can send 30,000 soldiers to the sinkhole of Afghanistan, because Congress long ago gave up any role in military policy and the peace movement long ago folded up, but that’s what Presidents always do when they want to seem to be strong. Reagan invades Granada, Bush I Panama and Iraq, Clinton Kosovo, Bush II Iraq and Afghanistan. All for no reason than showing that they can do something in Washington. But there’s more to it than that.” (02/09/10) http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/sale2.1.1.html | | Report Bad Link |
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“Since before even Ronald Reagan’s time, the conservative movement has complained about ‘liberal media’ bias, and to be fair, there is no shortage of valid evidence for that. The House impeachment of President Bill Clinton was a game-changer in that right-wing activists now had their own powerhouse cable television network (Fox News) and were slowly but tenaciously figuring out how to harness the real capabilities of the Internet. In fact, I would argue that the right wing was the first to recognize how to cow and manipulate the ‘old media,’ something they — and the real Left — had been trying to do for decades.” (02/09/10) http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2010/02/08/the-kid-the-pimp/ | | Report Bad Link |
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“It hasn’t exactly been a banner month for our favorite terrorist organization, the Transportation Security Agency. The name is three lies in one, much like the military MRE, in that it doesn’t transport anything, secures even less, and the Keystone Kops run a better agency. And given recent news reports and official reaction to them, it’s a good thing that most TSA employees don’t carry guns, or there would be even more self-inflicted pedal injuries than there are now.” (02/07/10) http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2010/tle556-20100207-03.html | | Report Bad Link |
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“What is the benefit to Wall Street in killing things or bringing the share price of companies to near worthless? Tails they win; heads you lose. Wall Street can and does make enormous profits on bets that share prices will decline (shorting), that companies will disappear (credit default swaps), that the economy will crater (interest rate swaps). And there’s a slogan on Wall Street: the trend is your friend. When it’s clear the bull is lying in the center of the ring (think Lehman’s death and the Merrill Lynch shotgun wedding on September 15, 2008), Wall Street moves its bets to the downside.” (02/08/10) http://counterpunch.org/martens03082010.html | | Report Bad Link |
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Legalizing drugs: It might end the war in Afghanistan and reduce prison overcrowding
Fr33 Agents by Ziggy Encaoua “Towards the end of last year, Gordon Brown and Barack Obama were uttering the idea of having a timetable for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, but I believe it to be a ploy rather for real. The reason I believe it to be a ploy is that the situation of perpetual war, with the Taliban not being able to defeat NATO outright and NATO not being able to defeating the Taliban outright, is the way the Military Industrial Complex wants it. It’s good for profit. It occurred to me long ago that if the Establishment wanted to truly defeat the Taliban and end the war in Afghanistan, they’d legalize opium.” (02/07/10) http://tinyurl.com/y94wals | | Report Bad Link |
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The illegality of cars and the re-birth of freedom
Albuquerque Libertarian Examiner by Kent McManigal “I’ll let you in on a secret you may not be aware of: cars are illegal in America. Don’t believe me? Then just try driving around Albuquerque, or any other populated area, in a car and see what happens when you are found to be in possession of that car. Not a ‘licensed and registered car,’ but just a car. Even if you pay the State all the demanded fees, simply being in possession of a car is an excuse to be stopped and searched by enforcers at any time without any warning. Anything as heavily regulated as a car can not honestly be considered ‘legal’ anymore.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/y8fmgya | | Report Bad Link |
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“Leaving aside the highly dubious proposition that one’s personal religious beliefs should be directly translated into public policy — including laws governing citizens who do not share those beliefs — the notion that the Bible supports government redistribution of wealth should be firmly challenged. The fundamental question for those who consider the Bible authoritative is not whether it advocates charity or helping the poor. Obama, Wallis, and other statist Christians are not arguing for charity. They are arguing for government appropriation of property. The issue isn’t charity, but property rights. If the Bible rejects the notion of a right to property, then these people may have a basis for their perspective. But if the Bible supports a right to own property, safe from government redistribution to others, then their policy proposals are unbiblical.” (01/10) http://libertyunbound.com/article.php?id=469 | | Report Bad Link |
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“You mean we once did? I must have missed it when I blinked.” (02/08/10) http://c4ss.org/content/1845 | | Report Bad Link |
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“Nineteen states still maintain Prohibition era laws in which the state retains the sole right to distribute wine and spirits. As Prohibition died a justified death about 77 years ago, many state leaders justify the archaic state control laws with the rationale that without tight government control of booze underage drinking, driving while intoxicated, and domestic abuse cases would skyrocket. Well, on the surface that doesn’t seem to be the case in those 31 states where a private system of distribution exists.” (02/08/10) http://www.nolanchart.com/article7351.html | | Report Bad Link |
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“Given the libertarian tenet that everyone has the right to do as they choose as long as they don’t initiate or threaten force or fraud against anyone else, how can a person be both a Libertarian and a judge? Wouldn’t libertarian judges have to recuse themselves from every victimless crime case on the books? The Libertarian Party of Texas lists six judges running for election in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area: three for County judgeships, two for Court of Criminal Appeals, and one for Supreme Court justice.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/ykjfg9p | | Report Bad Link |
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Bottom up resistance to the GOP’s attempted top down takeover of the tea party movement
Poli-Tea by d.eris “Is it possible that the GOP’s public hijacking of the tea party movement could turn out to be a grave strategic error? Is it possible that the attempted coup will solidify resistance to the co-optation of the movement by the representatives of the establishment parties and their political apparatus? One thing is certain: if tea party activists do not fight to maintain their political independence, they will soon find themselves deprived of it.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yj8evvy | | Report Bad Link |
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“This week I debated the Socialist Party of Great Britain on Capitalism or Socialism? I have a soft spot for the SPGB because they share many of my ideals — reducing coercion, class, privileege and inequality, peaceful co-operation and mutual respect. They thoroughly reject the bureaucracy, the concentration of power and the barbarity of countries that call themselves socialist but in fact practice state socialism or worse. And they are genuinely willing to debate. So we had an engaging exchange. But I came away with three disappointments.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yhj3pau | | Report Bad Link |
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“For most of last year, Republicans spent their time attacking Democratic plans for reform, rather than describing their own. But now they’ve put a plan on the table. Showcasing that plan — and comparing it to what the Democrats have proposed — might help clarify a few things. The Republican health care plan is part of the ‘Roadmap for America’s Future.’ Its chief architect is Paul Ryan, ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee and a rising star in the party. Republicans boast that the Roadmap is serious plan to get the federal budget under control, which turns out to be a fairly large exaggeration.” (02/08/10) http://www.tnr.com/article/health-care/fairness-doctrine | | Report Bad Link |
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“I’m a professional economist, which means I can’t just be happy when people try to help others. Instead, I feel compelled to analyze whether their altruistic actions are efficient or if they seem to be a waste of resources. In a recent flash of insight, I came up with a way to make charitable impulses more productive, but I had to abandon the idea once I realized the government wouldn’t approve.” (02/08/10) http://mises.org/daily/4038 | | Report Bad Link |
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“Despite the juiced-up GDP numbers of the last two quarters, there is no illusion that the depression is over and the boom has resumed. While GDP is reported as being positive, the employment numbers remain weak. The headline jobless number has one in ten people out of work. Include those who have become discouraged and dropped out of the labor force, and the number is one in five.” (02/08/10) http://mises.org/daily/4099 | | Report Bad Link |
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“A cigarette tax increase is not a reliable way of raising revenue, and the brunt of the burden will fall disproportionately on lower-income individuals (’Taxes key in competing health legislation,’ Feb. 3). Tobacco taxes are an unsustainable and risky way to fund health care, because they rely on a very narrow tax base and encourage smuggling and other untaxed purchases. This unreliable tax revenue stream will dry up, but of course Medicaid costs will keep rising.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yk5v745 | | Report Bad Link |
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“Last week, the House approved another increase in the national debt ceiling. This means the government can borrow $1.9 trillion more to stay afloat and avoid default. It has been little more than a year since the last debt limit increase, and graphs showing the debt limit over time show a steep, almost vertical trend. It is not likely to be very long before this new ceiling is met and the government is back on the brink between default and borrowing us further into oblivion.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yz67tdv | | Report Bad Link |
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“Some Americans have declared 2010 the ‘best year to die.’ Due to the temporary expiration of the estate tax or death tax, all individuals that pass away this year are guaranteed that their loved ones will receive their inheritance in full. Those that pass away are not forced to leave their mourning family with the burden of paying exorbitant taxes on their belongings. Yet, in Obama’s 2011 proposed fiscal budget he plans on reinstating the 45-percent death tax with a $3.5 million exemption.” (02/05/10) http://tinyurl.com/yjqcafm | | Report Bad Link |
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“What the federal bureaucracy calls ‘the largest peacetime mobilization effort in U.S. history’ is now underway. It’s the 2000 census — and if you’re an American citizen, it’s got a few questions for you. As many as 53, in fact. America’s founders felt it was important enough to know how many people lived in the country that they wrote a requirement for a census every ten years into the third paragraph of Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution.” (written 05/00; posted 02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/l4zu8q | | Report Bad Link |
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“Around the country, twenty two states are currently considering a bill known as the ‘Firearms Freedom Act.’ This bill declares that guns, accessories, and ammunition made within a state, sold within that state and kept in that state are not subject to federal laws or regulations under the ‘Interstate Commerce Clause’ of the Constitution. Montana and Tennessee passed a Firearms Freedom Act into law in 2009, and a number of states are moving that direction in the 2010 legislative session.” (02/08/10) http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=591 | | Report Bad Link |
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“I see the current state of affairs as an intensification, perhaps even a culmination, of four interrelated 25-year political trends: a growing distrust of conservative and liberal ideologies, a growing movement away from the two parties and toward political independence, increases in the racial-minority (which usually means Democratic-voting) share of the population, and a growing inability of the Republican party to bridge the gap between its populist and elite wings. Together, these trends raise the specter of a serious independent, populist presidential candidacy for the first time in a century. And if the GOP doesn’t adapt to the shifting political terrain, there is even a remote possibility that the identity of America’s two dominant parties will change for the first time since the 1850s, which saw the death of the Whigs and birth of the Republicans.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/ye8yxmr | | Report Bad Link |
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“Amy is an unwitting porn star. She is among the most-downloaded in the reviled genre of child smut. Photos of her sexual abuse at the age of 8 and 9 by her uncle have proliferated to the point that every day, sometimes several times a day, someone is caught with the more than decade-old images. Every time this happens, she’s notified by police and reminded that uncountable strangers have gotten off on the trauma she suffered — and, once again, she feels victimized. Her uncle is in jail, but what of these vicarious abusers? She’s hoping to make them pay, too. The 20-year-old is seeking restitution — to the tune of $3.4 million — from those caught in possession of these images.” (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/yl6lvg9 | | Report Bad Link |
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“At the Memphis party on Saturday, someone in the audience asked her about the prospects for what he called the ‘two words that scare liberals — President Palin.’ Let’s be clear on why those words should terrify anyone with a thinking brain. Palin is someone who has clearly never seriously thought through any issue of national importance on her own. She’s excellent at reciting a raucous speech, but she can’t improvise a coherent sentence, which usually reflects an inability to form a coherent idea. … She is deluded enough to believe (or at least to say Sunday morning on Fox News) that her brief, aborted stint as Alaska’s governor gave her more executive experience than President Obama has even now. She believes that the country should elect leaders, including presumably herself, who seek solutions in ‘divine intervention.’” (02/08/10) http://www.slate.com/id/2244062/ | | Report Bad Link |
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“Courtesy of the Obama administration, we’re experiencing more and more Nixonian moments. Take medical reform. The health insurers started out in Obama’s camp. But a shuffling of policies and a few insurance companies began making obvious points about how this or that feature would raise costs, not decrease them. And the Obama administration struck back.” (02/08/10) http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003984.html | | Report Bad Link |
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“Counterinsurgency, or COIN, has been in vogue at the Pentagon since the success of the Iraq surge, and its dominance was cemented when President Obama chose General Stanley McChrystal, former head of special operations forces and a recent convert to counterinsurgency, as his commander in Afghanistan. Shortly afterward, Obama promulgated his new strategy ‘to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan.’ The primary tool would be COIN. Counterinsurgency theorists obsessively study ’small wars,’ such as the British war in Malaya, the French war in Algeria, and the wars in Vietnam. The emphasis is on using the least amount of violence against the enemy, familiarity with the local culture, and painstakingly removing popular support for the insurgents.” (01/10) http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/obama-afghanistan-stoner-cops | | Report Bad Link |
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“Three decades ago, angst over the looming insolvency of Social Security reached fever pitch. President Ronald Reagan responded by grasping the third rail of American politics long enough to add decades to the entitlement’s solvency by increasing the taxes employers and employees paid and by incrementally extending the age of retirement from 65 to 67. In the years since, the sprawling Medicare/Medicaid system has replaced Social Security as the emblem of impoverished entitlements. Despite duly repeated warnings that the program is unsustainable — or perhaps as a result of those constant cries of ‘wolf!’ — we have become numb to the peril. The entitlement train that has been a mere smudge on the horizon for years is now approaching the cliff of insolvency at high speed.” (for publication 03/01/10) http://www.amconmag.com/article/2010/mar/01/00008/ | | Report Bad Link |
AUDIO & VIDEO
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Dana Walsh, GOP primary candidate for Congress versus Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), joins host Paul Molloy. 10-11am Eastern on WTAN 1340 AM, Tampa Bay, FL, KLRG 880 AM, Little Rock, AR or live on the web. [live radio or stream] (02/09/10) http://thefreedomworks.com/ | | Report Bad Link |
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“Taking it to the Extreme :: Dire Predictions :: UN Gun Control? :: Did gun owners obey themselves out of guns? :: Birchers :: Secession :: Peaceful Evolution vs. Agent Provocateurs :: Lincoln :: Money Post-Secession :: Women Getting Stood Up By Men :: Nazi Example Overused? :: Uncensored Extended Internet-Only Edition NOT FOR BROADCAST! :: Mark Interviews Jeff Tucker.” [MP3] (02/09/10) http://media.libsyn.com/media/ftl/FTL2010-02-08.mp3 | | Report Bad Link |
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“Public miseducation and the shame of history.” [MP3] (02/08/10) http://tinyurl.com/fdr1578 | | Report Bad Link |
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Mere marketing or spot-on dystopian satire? [Flash video] (02/07/10) http://www.hulu.com/adzone/watch#50032734 | | Report Bad Link |
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“Muhammad Sahimi, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California, discusses the newest round of proposed US sanctions on Iran, the odd idea that choking off supplies of refined petroleum will pressure Iran to give up uranium enrichment, how sanctions will effectively impose a gasoline tax on ordinary Iranians and consolidate the power of the Revolutionary Guard, generous concessions made by moderate Iranian presidents that were rebuffed by the Clinton and Bush administrations and the new doubts about Iran’s supposed nuclear ‘breakout’ capability.” [Flash audio or MP3] (02/03/10) http://antiwar.com/radio/2010/02/03/muhammad-sahimi-3/ | | Report Bad Link |
MOVEMENT NEWS & EVENTS
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Check our sidebar calendar for this week’s freedom movement events. Don’t see your event? Drop us a line at info@rationalreview.com … or see: www.rationalreview.com/add-your-event-to-our-calendar … for instructions on adding your events directly! http://upcoming.yahoo.com/group/4042/ | | Report Bad Link |
