All the News That's Fit to be Tied

I have an axe to grind, but unlike the New York Times, I freely admit it.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Climate Change = $126 Billion

If you want to know why investors and their media lackeys are hopeful about the upcoming Climate Conference in Copenhagen just think $126 billion in emission permits to be sold to firms that use energy. For this money they will lie, cheat, steal and exaggerate to get you to believe something will happen even though it's been known for some time there will be no binding agreement. They will be able to take this money from companies and the companies will pass this cost on to you. There you have it. Do you wonder why they are trying so hard to defend the recently uncovered emails, which The New York Times wouldn't publish because they may have been illegally obtained? Isn't that special? Legality did not bother the Times when it came to revealing intelligence concerning government wiretaps on America's enemies or the publishing of the now infamous Pentagon Papers. But it shirks at presenting data that disputes its long-held position on global warming despite the fact that there has not been any for more than a decade. Wake up New York Times. Wake up America.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Another Phony Deadline

If you listen to the media and the Democrats in Congress this is again the last chance for health care. If it doesn't pass this time it's done. The Democrats and their willing media lackeys want to create a sense of inevitability so that when the final vote does come it will go unnoticed. Well the truth is this is not the last vote. It's not even close. If this vote passes today it does not constitute anything but an interim victory. If it passes today, or should I say Saturday night, since Senate Leader Reid didn't have the courage to bring it to the floor during the week for fear the phone lines would melt, it still has many hurdles including a House/Senate conference and matching versions of the bill passing in both Houses. The media and Democrats have tried to put the obstruction of health care at the feet of Republicans, but really the debate is within the Democratic Party and the people of the country. If the Democrats were united and the people wanted the reform as proposed the Republicans are powerless to prevent it. The problem for Democrats is that the more people know about the bill the less they want it to pass. The bill is about putting health care in the hands of government. A government that has proven time and time again it cannot be competitive, efficient or innovative. Some examples include Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Affairs, Indian Reservation Healthcare, Amtrak, The FAA and many others. Some readers may be confused when they see Medicare in this list, but the fact is that Medicare has $46 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities so while it seems free to seniors, not counting the supplemental plans they must buy, it's not free and never has been. More and more doctors are refusing the take on new Medicare patients and if health care reform is passed this alone will be worse and not better. Despite all these obvious points the main reason for rejecting this reform package in its entirety is because it contains clauses that permit the Congress to opt out of the program, while requiring that everyone else takes part. That alone is reason enough for me. Melt those telephone and fax lines to your Representatives and Senators.

Monday, November 16, 2009

The Exoneration of Terror

In your heart you would like to believe that Attorney General Eric Holder would want the best for our country even if you disagree with the way he is doing it. But if you look at his decision to try five Gitmo prisoners in New York it is pretty difficult not to think he is aiming for the exoneration of the terrorists and the indictment of the FBI, CIA and the Bush Administration. On Friday night, while the President was in Japan, he announced a plan to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others detained at Guantanamo Bay, in New York, just about a mile from Ground Zero. Is he kidding? I won’t argue the mitigating or aggravating aspects of his action (plenty of others are doing that) only that it will result in the exoneration of most of those defendants and could take 5 to 10 years to complete. Any good defense lawyer could get two years out of just seeking a change of venue and demanding sensitive material that could jeopardize national security, not to mention Miranda, torture, a previous lack rights, etc. You could spend the first five years on the preliminaries and never hear of single piece of evidence. And all this is not to mention “time served.” One of the defendants has been in military and federal custody for over a decade already. It is safe to say that most of these defendants will get minimal time and in some cases no jail due to time already served. And of course this will put them in a position to sue the United States on a variety of grievances. Holder is just giving happy talk when he says they will be convicted, and his confidence in the New York Federal Court is way overrated. A terrorist or spy has not been executed in New York since the Rosenberg’s. You also have to remember that Holder has been a friend of America’s enemies in the past. He fought hard for the freedom of the FALN terrorists and Mark Rich, a fugitive wanted by the U.S., all of whom were pardoned by Clinton. It should be noted that the law firm he worked for prior to becoming Attorney General was active in the defense of terrorists. From the moment he was sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States he has tried to turn the Guantanamo Bay issue into an indictment of the Bush Administration and the CIA and has worked hard to poison the atmosphere by providing institutional support a for all lawyers making arguments against government conduct in the treatment of terrorists. His weak presentations against opponents of the U.S. and his failure to provide a strong defense on behalf of the government are a strong indicator of exactly where his sympathies are. There are those, like Holder himself, who says he believes that the courts can get convictions against these defendants, but the legal issues are myriad and surmountable for good defense attorneys. A good prosecutor, one that wants a conviction, would opt for a Military Tribunal.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Climate Conference Over Before it Begins

The upcoming Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, has been proclaimed a failure before the gates have even been opened. We are fortunate that most of the world, including our own government, is sensible enough to not destroy the goose that lays the golden egg for the benefit of a few. In this case the goose is industrial society and the golden egg is fossil fuel. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just daydreaming and the failure of climate change activists to handcuff the world's strongest economies is a stunning example of the world coming to its senses. A close look at the organizers of the conference demonstrates that they have financial interests in alternative energy and stand to make a fortune if some world-wide carbon trading scheme can ever be established. You can visit the site at http://en.cop15.dk/. See for yourself. As you read through their laughable efforts at reducing pollution you can see it is nothing but window dressing and wishful thinking. For example, the preposterous idea that by providing a million dollars to rebuild 20 old, inefficient concrete factories in Bangladesh makes up for the carbon footprint created by 20,000 people traveling to Copenhagen from all over the world. A million dollars would not cover the costs of demolishing the old factories even in a nation like Bangladesh; much less build 20 new ones. And this is only one of the many ideas offered to fool the participants and a media, whose understanding of basic biological processes is so scant they are incapable of intelligent analysis on the subject of climate change. For the time being we have been saved, but there is always next year.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

I Stand Corrected.

In a previous post I noted that I thought that Hasan a traitor and that to me it didn’t matter that he may have been a terrorist. He could have been any sleeper agent or converted lunatic. The fact that he committed treason overrides any other considerations. Now it seems that is not quite right. There is now certainty that he as a terrorist, but he is still a traitor.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The Word is Traitor

Nidal Malik Hasan is a Major in the U.S. Army. He is not a civilian, not a jihadist, not a terrorist. First and foremost he is a traitor and he should be treated like a traitor. I have not heard this word use by anyone yet. Not the media, not the military, not even the President. Hasan should be court-martial-ed and executed for treason. There is no doubt about his guilt and no mitigating circumstance for an officer who wantonly kills his men. He not only took the oath of a soldier. He went the extra mile and took a commission. His major job was to protect the men under his command, even if that command was indirect. Enlisted men are trained to trust officers and obey their commands. The troops in the base were not expecting to have to defend themselves on their own base from one of their superiors. For the most part troops on a military base do not carry arms unless their specific duties or maneuvers call for it. Hasan was given every chance. He gave lectures in which he espoused the dictates of the Koran. He found beheading infidels and filling their severed heads with boiling oil defensible. He defended the activity of Muslim terrorists. He was permitted to continue on active duty. We now know he was communicating with terrorists and that it may have been known by others in the chain of command. If this turns out to be true they should also bear some responsibility. Enlisted troops must know they can trust their officers without hesitation and without trepidation that he or she may kill them when they are defenseless. Many men have cracked from the prospect of being sent to a war zone and react badly. It is an issue of personal courage and Hasan chose to go out in a blaze of jihadist glory and put the blame on the Army and America rather than himself. There is ample evidence that his attack was premeditated. We do not need to know the workings of his inner mind, his personal conflict about his role in the military, or whether or not he is a Muslim. The military accepted him despite his flaws and he chose to repay the military by killing and wounding unarmed soldiers who where at home and not expecting to have defend themselves against one of their own. He should be stripped of his commission and executed by firing squad.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

It's Almost Over

Over the past several weeks the Democrats have been playing a little game. They have been trying to pretend they have passed health care so that when a version that passes both the House and Senate finally does come up for a vote the people will think it's already been done and that the final vote is just a formality when in fact it is the vote that really counts. It is all the votes that have taken place up to now that have not really counted. The five bills in Senate and the three in the House (or was it three in the Senate and five in the House?), were all meaningless committee and floor votes that only serve to begin the debate. All this hoopla, ceremony and histrionics over bills that are really meaningless is designed to stop you from paying attention to what they are doing. Even if the House of Representatives is successful in passing its health care reform package it must still go through the conference process with the U.S. Senate, which may not take place until the next Congressional session. And, most experts agree that if it goes into next year it's very unlikely to get passed by both houses and get to the President's desk. Congress may finally decide that it's better to do nothing than to make a mistake that could cost them the majority in 2010. Don't be fooled. Your freedom and our health care system are at stake.

Monday, November 2, 2009

The Party of Different

It is the fancy these days to call the Republicans the party of "no" on healthcare. Democrats and their toadies and lackeys in the mainstream media must feel that if they keep repeating it, it may appear to be true despite the false foundation it is built on. Republicans are not the party of "no" on health care they are the party of "different." One of the principle components of real reform is tort-reform. An idea vehemently rejected by Congressional Democrats because of pressure by the American Bar Association. This idea is part of a Republican proposal. Another principle component is to permit providers to sell policies across state lines thereby increasing consumer choice. The current law limits the number of companies that can sell in various states, which decreases competition and keeps prices high. A third important component is making such purchases tax deductible for individuals as they are for businesses. These three changes in the current law would have a dramatic affect on quality, price and availability. It would have a positive impact on those already with insurance and would make it more affordable for those who don't. These are the ideas that are ignored every day by politicians and journalists whose goal is to suppress these views rather than elevate them into the public space. It is just simpler to repeat the lie than to tell the truth.

Hey Larry; Write Any Good Jokes Lately?

Comedy writing is very difficult. That is why so often writers and comedians go for the cheap joke. The one that makes you laugh at the expense of someone who can be stereotyped. For example, just this past week Larry David put on a skit in which he accidentally urinated on a portrait of Jesus Christ and made a joke out of the fact that some people thought it was Jesus crying and constituted a miracle. HBO and his defenders say he makes fun of everyone and show no favorites. So I wanted to offer up a few ideas: How about a skit where a Muslim accidentally puts down his Koran in a men’s room and Larry comes in and urinates on it. Isn’t that funny? Or even better, how about one where Barack Obama uses the paper from a 10-page NY Times puff piece about him and the First Lady to get a fire started in a homeless camp. That would be a real funny one. I have more. Email your joke requests to gbuzz9@gmail.com