Rethinking Social Insurance

The Heritage Foundation

The single greatest threat to the fiscal health of the United States is the runaway growth of the nation's major retirement and health care entitlement programs. Social Security and Medicare are projected to grow from 7.5 percent of GDP today to almost 13 percent of GDP by 2030. Already, the two programs consume over a third of the federal budget. The total present value costs of Social Security and Medicare over the next 75 years exceeds $41 trillion, or, as the Government Accountability Office points out, a debt burden of $135,000 for every man, woman, and child in America. If nothing is done to check the growth of spending on social insurance, federal spending as a share of the economy will increase by half, from about 20 percent to almost 30 percent, over the next 30 years...... (continue)

ElectionWatch: Networks Downplay Earmarks, Despite Millions Spent by Clinton and Obama

Oink, oink. Did you know that Congress used earmarks to spend $18.3 billion of your money on “pork” projects in fiscal year 2008? Presidential candidates Clinton and Obama both helped spend the money, but you might not know if you were watching the network news.......

If We Subsidize Them ...
By Rep. Ron Paul

For decades we have welcomed new immigrants to our American "melting pot". We respect those who come here peacefully to pursue their American Dream. But Americans have noticed lately that modern problems associated with illegal immigration are at a crisis point. Taxpayers are now suffering the consequences…

How Many Decades Will It Take to Fix FDA?
By Terence P. Jeffrey

The unfolding tragedy in which four Americans have died in the last two months and about 350 others have suffered adverse reactions after being injected with Chinese-made heparin -- a blood-thinning drug -- has its roots in a spectacular example of bad government that some federal watchdogs started barking at a decade ago. Elected officials in Washington, D.C., simply did not respond adequately to the warnings…

Murtha Named Top Porker in 2007

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) was named "Porker of the Year" for 2007 on Wednesday by the taxpayer watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW).

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Hillary and Obama: It's About to Get Real Ugly
By Armstrong Williams

Before the primary season began the Democratic Party reached an agreement with its potential presidential candidates that they would not campaign in Florida or Michigan and that the delegates from those states would be meaningless. All the candidates agreed, which in effect, made the Florida and Michigan primaries moot because none of the delegates could be used by the candidates vying for the nomination. The Clinton campaign was the main advocate for this "ban" because at the time they felt they were invincible and would have little competition from the field. A few months later Super Tuesday arrived..... (continue)

CONGRESS FAILS US ON TWO FRONTS: NATIONAL SECRITY AND EARMARKS

Robert Novak points out these two recent congressional failures:

1. Congress recessed without renewing authority for eavesdropping because Democrats bowed to trial lawyers' demands not to grant retroactive immunity from lawsuits for phone companies that helped U.S. intelligence agencies. It shows greater Democratic reliance on contributions from trial lawyers than their vulnerability on the national security issue.
   
   
2. House Republicans showed how much they really care about losing their fiscal responsibility brand when they rejected Rep. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), the leading crusader against earmarks, for a vacancy on the House Appropriations Committee. They picked Rep. Jo Bonner (Ala.), a former House staffer and a consistent supporter of earmarks. Flake's goose was cooked earlier when the House Republican Conference did not unilaterally impose a moratorium on earmarks.

Pelosi's Reckless Gamble on FISA
By Jed Babbin

With great fanfare, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her agenda for her first 100 hours last January. One of the seven things she promised to do was to enact all the remaining recommendations of the 9-11 Commission. One year later, with few of those items accomplished, Pelosi is gambling recklessly that terrorists will miss the opportunities given them by the House's failure to pass essential fixes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act........ (continue)

Profiles in Cowardice
By Andrew C. McCarthy

On Tuesday, we got a double-winner. First, the Senate voted to approve an overhaul of intelligence law which, though flawed, provides authority for American intelligence agencies to continue monitoring the savages trying to kill us. Second, we got inescapable confirmation that Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the two contenders to be the Democrats' nominee, are not fit to be president of the United States.... (continue)

Minnesota Poem

It's winter in Minnesota

And the gentle breezes blow

Seventy miles an hour

At thirty-five below.



Oh, how I love Minnesota

When the snow's up to your butt

You take a breath of winter

And your nose gets frozen shut.



Yes, the weather here is wonderful

So I guess I'll hang around

I could never leave Minnesota

'Cause I'm frozen to the ground.

Russia's Putin bringing geopolitical 'change' while U.S. candidates talk

UNITED NATIONS -- While calls for "change" have been a potent part of the American presidential primary contest, a world away Russia's President Vladimir Putin is affecting some of that very change many people may prefer not to see. In the course of a week, Putin has threatened neighboring Ukraine with missiles, scorned the (click here for more)

U.S. kills recruiter of women suicide bombers

World Tribune

"BAGHDAD — The U.S.-led coalition has killed an Al Qaida operative said to have recruited women for suicide bombings in Iraq." (continue)

National security fears about China kill $2 billion 3Com deal

Financial Times

"Bain Capital and its minority Chinese partner, Huawei Technologies, have shelved their $2.2bn deal to acquire 3Com, a U.S. computer networking company, saying a key Washington committee charged with vetting foreign investments in sensitive sectors had told Bain it would not approve the purchase.

The setback to the deal highlights rising protectionist sentiment in the U.S. as both Democrats and Republicans seek to woo an American electorate suspicious of foreign investment and the effects of globalisation on domestic jobs."

Washington Post:
Supreme Court Declines ACLU's Suit Against Wiretapping

Washington Post:
Obama Chipping Away at Clinton's Supporters

Nice gig if you can get it ....

San Francisco Chronicle:
Mayor's 'Climate Protection' Aide Earns $160,000 Salary

Obama Makes It Ten Wins in A Row
“Help win on March 4” says a banner on Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign Web site. With Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) adding two more states to his win column on Tuesday -- Wisconsin and Hawaii -- many analysts say Clinton must win the March 4 primaries in Ohio and Texas to stay in the race...

Wisconsin Results Point to Gender Gap for Hillary
Network exit poll results for Tuesday’s Wisconsin Democratic primary show that Sen. Hillary Clinton battled Sen. Barack Obama to a dead heat among female voters, but lost to him among male voters by more than 2 to 1...

Lawrence Kudlow:
Obama's Big-Government Vision

Senator Barack Obama is very gloomy about America, and he's aligning himself with the liberal wing of the Democratic party in hopes of coming to the nation's rescue..... (continue)

Tony Blankley:
St. Obama Learns the Washington Ways

There is a joke going around Washington to the effect that Hillary is the senator from New York who was born in Illinois, while Obama is the senator from Illinois who was born in a manger...... (continue)

Ben Shapiro:
Barack Obama is a Fake

Sen. Barack Obama's star appeal is causing physiological reactions in his supporters. Which is to say, they're fainting........ (continue)

Michelle Malkin:
Michelle Obama's America -- and Mine

Like Michelle Obama, I am a "woman of color." Like Michelle Obama, I am a working mother of two young children. Like Michelle Obama, I am a member of the 13th generation of Americans born since the founding of our great nation........ (continue)

China, Russia Wary Over US Plan to Shoot Down Satellite
A year after China shot down one of its own orbiting satellites in an unannounced anti-satellite weapon test, China is objecting to plans by the U.S. to destroy a damaged American satellite that is heading for Earth. Russia has accused the U.S. of wanting to test a space weapon under the pretext of shooting down the damaged satellite...

Democrats Back Trial Lawyers Over National Security, GOP Says

Republicans say House Democratic leaders are putting the interests of trial lawyers ahead of national security by blocking House consideration of a bill that would modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Instead of taking up a bipartisan bill passed by the Senate last week, House Democrats recessed for 12 days on Friday without doing a thing about FISA. Read on.

Phyllis Schlafly:
Judges hold no rank in military chain of command

Federal courts in San Francisco and in Los Angeles just ordered the U.S. Navy to limit its use of sonar, the underwater technology essential for tracking enemy submarines and detecting the ocean floor.

Thomas Sowell:
'Supporting the Troops'

The Berkeley city council has made national news by telling Marine Corps recruiters that they are unwelcome in that bastion of the academic left.

Cal Thomas:
Misplaced Hope Can Be Dangerous

A President Obama might be worth the risk in peacetime, but with crafty enemies seeking to destroy us, can we afford to make what might be a fatal mistake by electing someone upon whom too many of us gave projected, ungrounded hope?

Boston Globe:
Muslim burial rites clash with Conn. laws

Republican senator decries cost of jailing deportable alien criminals

Philadelphia Inquirer:
Send them home, Specter says

The Hill:
Democrat Says Administration Is Cutting Border Funding

US Recognizes Independent Kosovo, Europe Split
Permanent U.N. Security Council members -- the United States, Britain and France -- on Monday recognized Kosovo’s declaration of independence, joining Italy, Germany, Turkey, Albania and Afghanistan as the first to welcome what the ethnic Albanian majority hopes will become the world’s newest sovereign state...

Pressure Increases on Senate to Confirm Judges
Leaders of 60 conservative groups wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, urging it to grant federal judicial nominees an up-or-down vote in the Senate this year, lest it risk being “remembered for presiding over historic levels of obstruction.”

Violence in Sudan .... again

CAIRO — After a three-year lull, southern Sudan has been plunged into violence.The United Nations reported that Sudanese in the southern state of Central Equatoria have been attacked in January and February 2008. They said the attackers were members of an unidentified militia that operated along the border with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

World Tribune — New violence in southern Sudan

Top Saudi prince threatens UK: Corruption probe could end anti-terror cooperation

LONDON — Saudi Arabia's most internationally prominent prince threatened to end counter-insurgency cooperation with Britain unless it halted an investigation of BAE Systems, a leading supplier of the Arab kingdom.

Read more.

Palestinian leader wants Blackwater to take over his security detail

RAMALLAH — Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas plans to replace his security detail with those trained by the United States.

PA sources said Abbas has been discussing the replacement of his personal security force with the Bush administration. They said the PA chairman wants a U.S. contractor to train his bodyguards in Western techniques and in the use of advanced equipment.

"Abu Mazen [Abbas] was very impressed by the security around President [George] Bush during his visit to Ramallah [in January 2008]," a PA source said. "Abbas has already discussed this with senior U.S. officials."

Read more.

$150 a barrel for oil?

ABU DHABI — The price of crude oil was expected to skyrocket to $150 per barrels over the next few months.An analysis by Saxo Bank said the price of oil would continue to rise sharply in 2008. The analysis said inflation as well as growing demand would fuel the rise in global prices.Saxo, the specialized investment bank headquartered in Denmark, said gold would hit $1,000 per ounce as the price of all precious commodities would rise. The analysis linked the movement of oil and gold.

World Tribune — Bank projects oil will hit $150 by year's end

Busy, Busy, Busy

Been real busy the past few days. My newer computer (new as of August) froze up on me when it tried accepting an update download from Micrsosoft (thanks guys).

So that is being looked at and I am now back to my 3 1/2 yr old computer after hooking it back up.

Computers.

Don't you just love them?

Not Happening Today in Our Schools

"It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country."

-- Noah Webster

In addition, with all the illegal immigrants not having any attachment to this country, it does not paint a rosy picture for our future.

Chaos Raining From Gaza

By David Aikman

"On a recent Jewish Sabbath, two brothers in Sderot, southern Israel, were injured by a Qassam rocket fired indiscriminately into the town by Hamas supporters in Gaza. One of the boys, an eight-year-old, lost both his legs in the blast. That day, 40 of the murderous rockets landed in the town, bringing the five-year total of rocket landings close to 8,000.

There is thus enormous pressure on the Israeli government to retaliate with a ground attack on Gaza. The problem is that if the Israelis go into Gaza, there is a strong probability that Hezbollah will resume attacking Israel with rockets from south Lebanon. Very quickly, a really nasty new Middle East war could develop, with Israel fighting on two fronts.

The Gaza chaos is desperate. The U.S. needs to do everything possible to stop these rocket attacks and forestall another round of bloodshed in the Middle East."

Barrage of Motions Unleashed in Defense of Marine Lieutenant Colonel Chessani

Hearings Begin Tomorrow

Tuesday, February, 19, 2008

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national legal advocacy group based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, today revealed that it has filed five motions on behalf of Marine Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Chesssani.

Read more at TMLC.

Room Temp or 98.6 Degrees?

Ailing leader Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president early Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying in a letter published in online official media that he would not accept a new term when the newly elected parliament meets on Sunday.

To read more, click here.