Good stuff, Maynard.

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U.S. intel faulted for de-emphasizing threats from Latin America

A report by the House Intelligence Committee last week criticizes U.S. intelligence agencies for failing to devote adequate resources and attention to the threats from Mexico and Latin America.

Yemen boosts security, warns U.S. embassy of imminent Al Qaida attack

Security sources said the Yemeni Interior Ministry has ordered the reinforcement of troops around the U.S. embassy in Sanaa.

The sources said the ministry has informed the U.S. embassy of an imminent strike by Al Qaida.

The Obama doctrine: Reversing Bush and creating vacuums of power from Casablanca to Sakhalin

Nature does abhor a vacuum as Socrates and Gallileo said but that horror only extends to approximately 32 feet as Torricelli learned. Alas! The implications for the increasing vacuum in the interplay of international forces that the Obama Administration is creating will cover more than the vast distances that in our age only take an intercontinental ballistics missile a few minutes to overcome.

It's An Issue of National Security

"Ahmed Omar Abu Ali is serving a 30-year sentence at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colo., for joining Al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate then-President George W. Bush," reports Fox News. Abu Ali is obviously dangerous, so when he requested some light reading material for his individual quiet time -- two books titled "Dreams from My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope" -- the prison denied the request, saying that the books contain material "potentially detrimental to national security." Maybe someone should alert the CIA that the author of these books is still on the loose. In fact, he has robbed several large banks, swindled two car companies, and runs various other Ponzi schemes through surrogates he calls "czars." He is approximately 6' 1" tall, is of dubious origin and has used several aliases (Barry Soetoro, Barack Hussein), and his last known residence is 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, DC."

Source: The Patriot Post

Around the Nation: Massachusetts Health Care

From The Patriot Post:

"With the debate over health care raging on Capitol Hill, one need only look to Massachusetts to see how ObamaCare would play out. A study conducted by Harvard-Pilgrim, a private insurer, has exposed the Bay State's insurance plan -- similar to Democrats' proposal -- for the disaster that it is. The plan, which was favored by former Governor Mitt Romney, requires residents (except those covered by the state) either to buy health insurance or to face penalties. In addition, for the past 15 years, under the "guaranteed issue" and "community rating" system, insurers must cover anyone who applies with no regard to his or her health or pre-existing condition. The result: people are waiting until they are sick or about to go into surgery to buy coverage. Many are buying coverage for a few months, running up astronomical bills, and then canceling it, leaving others to foot the bill.

Speaking of leaving others with the bill, The New York Times reports, "A hospital that serves thousands of indigent Massachusetts residents sued the state on Wednesday, charging that its costly universal health care law is forcing the hospital to cover too much of the expense of caring for the poor." The state is also dropping coverage for 30,000 legal immigrants to close a growing budget deficit. The question is, why is any of this shocking? How many socialist experiments have to fail before people realize that it just doesn't work?"

"As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions."

--James Madison

A Personal Inequity

"The problem with trying to equalize is that you can usually only equalize downward."
-THOMAS SOWELL-

By Thomas Sowell
Most activities do not exist for the sake of equality. They exist to serve their own purposes— and those purposes are undermined, sometimes fatally, when equality becomes the goal. Read more.

Democrat Boren Says Obama's Too Liberal, Unpopular

Card Check is Dead

Poll: Americans Oppose Public Insurance Company, 50% To 35%

SUMMER IN WASHINGTON

Even liberal commentator and columnist Susan Estrich is puzzled by the big push on government
sponsored health care:

The idea that somehow you're going to tax the "rich" enough to pay for quality health care for every American who doesn't have it, can't afford it or stands to lose it, not to mention for all of the undocumented aliens who receive it for free now and presumably will continue to in Obama health land, is almost laughable. It's one of those things candidates say in campaigns, ignoring the fact that it doesn't add up. But in a bill that might pass? Add a 5 percent surtax on every small business in the country that makes $250,000 or more? This is going to create jobs? What am I missing? Read more.

Obama’s Healthcare Plan a Lie

By: David Limbaugh

The most important thing to understand about the Democrats' domestic agenda is that they care more about establishing government control over our lives than they do about the stated policy goals of their proposals.

It's true of their fraudulently named stimulus packages, their cap-and-tax scheme and especially their universal healthcare plans.

Globe-trotter Obama Smashes Presidential Records

President Barack Obama loves to fly and it shows!

This past week, Obama wrapped up his latest foreign sojourn, returning from a whirlwind trip to Moscow, Rome, and Accra, Ghana.

But critics and political strategists contend that Obama's foreign globe-trotting will end up hurting him with the American electorate.

With just 175 days into his first term and in the midst of the worst economic crisis he says the nation has faced since the Great Depression, the new president is shattering all previous presidents' records for overseas travel at this early stage of a presidency.

Ron Paul: Obama Will 'Destroy the Dollar'
Newsmax.com

Congressman and two-time presidential candidate Ron Paul  says the economic stimulus plan is a "total failure," and he's pushing a bill requiring the Federal Reserve to disclose its dealings so Americans can find out who the "culprits" are behind the financial meltdown.

Huckabee: Palin Should Stick With GOP

“I hope she remains — let me be real clear — a part of the Republican Party,” Huckabee said. “I’m a little concerned when I hear her say that she may sort of branch out and go third party or go independent.”

FAIR: Obama Betrays Security for Illegal Amnesty
Newsmax.com

The country’s largest immigration reform group called the Obama administration’s massive illegal alien amnesty program a low priority that should take a back seat to security concerns.

"The American people have some very clear ideas about the priorities President Obama and Congress need to address, and a massive illegal alien amnesty isn’t one of them," Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) told Personal Liberty Digest.

Robert Bork: Sotomayor Unqualified, Isn't 'Entirely Governed by Law'
Newsmax.com

Legal scholar and former U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork doesn't believe court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's assertion that she is "entirely governed by law," as he believes she should be.

SPEND, SPEND, SPEND.

CNS News has audio of Joe "the brain" Biden telling attendees of a town hall meeting that in order to keep the federal government from going bankrupt, we need to ...ummm... spend more of the taxpayer's money. Makes sense, don't it?

California closes state offices to save cash

California's fiscal crisis has left the US state without courts and some administration offices were ordered to close on Friday.

Senate bill would expand federal hate crimes law - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON – People attacked because of their sexual orientation or gender would receive federal protections under a Senate-approved measure that significantly expands the reach of hate crimes law.

Brian W. Walsh pens a critique of this Senate bill:
Federal Hate Crimes Statute: An Unconstitutional Exercise of Legislative Power

Tax, spend and regulate -- no solution on health care

By Nathaniel Ward
The Heritage Foundation

While the media focused its attention on Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court, liberals in the House of Representatives introduced a health care "reform" package that will cost $245 billion a year by 2019.

Heritage Foundation blogger Conn Carroll digs into an alarming aspect of the legislation: it will effectively regulate your private health insurance plan out of business. Here's how it works, as Carroll explains:

[A]ll health insurance plans must confirm to a slew of new regulations, including community rating and guaranteed issue. These will all drive up the cost of health insurance. Furthermore, all these new regs would not apply just to individual insurance plans, but to all insurance plans. So the House bill will also drive up the cost of your existing employer coverage. Until, of course, it becomes too expensive and they just dump you into the government plan.

And all this will come at a huge cost to taxpayers. According to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, the price tag of these "reforms" will soar after 2012, reaching as high as $245 billion in 2019. (Curious, isn't it, that the costs increase only after 2012? What happens in 2012?)

Not only that, but the plan will cost taxpayers more than $800 billion in new taxes over the next decade. If you count state income taxes, the top marginal tax rate will top 50 percent in many states—and five states will have higher top rates than any European country expect Denmark. (France's top rate is 45.8 percent, and Germany's is 47.47 percent.)

Needless to say, this will be a disaster for the economy. "This runaway spending, coupled with the Democrats plans to raise taxes, will kill our struggling economy and leave us with double digit unemployment for years to come," Heritage's Conn Carroll writes. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office comes to a similar conclusion.

Texas Appellate Court Deals Another Blow to Islamist Lawfare—Upholds Free Speech Rights of Internet

Thomas More Law Center - News

ANN ARBOR, MI – On July 16, 2009, seven Texas-area Islamic organizations lost an appeal of the unanimous ruling of the Texas Second Court of Appeals at Forth Worth, which protected the free speech rights of internet journalists and at the same time dealt a blow to the legal jihad being waged by radical Muslim groups throughout the United States. The Islamic groups asked for a reconsideration of the appellate court’s recent decision through what is known as an en banc opinion (appeal to the whole court, not just a panel of the court). The Court ruling, in a per curiam (in the name of the whole court) two page opinion, upheld the dismissal of the libel lawsuit filed against internet reporter Joe Kaufman by the seven Islamic organizations. Read full story.

"For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting
enemies, and when one prevails the other dies."

By: Will Durant (1885-1981) American psychologist, philosopher.

"If our economy of freedom fails to distribute wealth as ably as it has created it, the road to dictatorship will be open to any man who can persuasively promise security to all."

By: Will Durant

Reflecting on Freedom

By Robert Ringer

As governments step up their attempts to defy nature and bring about equality on a global scale, they will find it necessary to employ force. And when force enters the picture, some people are going to come under the control of others.

Thus, you may be surprised, after a little probing, to find that when people espouse freedom, often they are referring to their freedom, not yours. Worse, you are likely to discover that their freedom necessitates the violation of your freedom.

When freedom is subjectively defined by each individual, it is reduced to a meaningless abstract. The only way freedom can be rationally viewed is in its pure, no compromise form: human freedom — the freedom for each individual to do as he pleases, so long as he does not commit aggression against anyone else. Read full article here.

EPA Cover-Up
By Walter E. Williams

The so-called “cap and trade” bill has been sold as a system for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the struggle against global warming. There’s a full-court press on the U.S. Senate to pass its version of “cap and trade.” “Cap and trade” is first a massive indirect tax on the American people and hence another source of revenue for Congress. More importantly “cap and trade” is just about the most effective tool for controlling most economic activity short of openly declaring ourselves a communist nation and it’s a radical environmentalist’s dream come true.

Health Care Bill Will Fund State Vaccine Teams to Conduct ‘Interventions’ in Private Homes

(CNSNews.com) - There is a knock at the front door. Peeking through the window, a mother sees a man and a woman, both in uniform. They are agents of health-care reform. “Excuse me, ma’am,” says the man. “Our records show that your eleven-year-old daughter has not been immunized for genital warts.” The make-believe scenario may not be so far-fetched under the health-care reform bill approved this week by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee.

Will Blue Dog Democrats Stop Health-Care Debacle?
by Michelle Oddis
HUMAN EVENTS

Rep. Tom Price says it's too soon to tell if the Blue Dog dissent will keep the legislation from passing before the August recess.

Read the Full Story Here

Media Spin Wrong on Wiretap Report

An independent federal investigation into President Bush's warrantless intercepts of al Qaeda communications found that intelligence agencies followed the program's procedures, did not spy on innocent Americans and gleaned valuable information on the terror network.

Contrary to claims by the political left that Bush wanted to listen in on private citizens, the report by five federal agency inspectors general did not report any such transgressions.

While these points were missed in Washington news media stories when the report was released Friday, the congressionally mandated document is replete with accounts of how well the eavesdropping was operated.  Read the Full Story Here

Liberals Gone Wild: Pelosi and Reid Hit Health Care Panic Button

Earlier this week, the warning signs were clear to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (perhaps made clearer after a visit to the White House): the liberal dream of a government health care takeover was headed down the same path trod by the Clinton Administration some 15 years earlier -- skyrocketing cost projections in the trillions of dollars, talk of an ever-expanding government bureaucracy, and plummeting support from the American public as the details began to trickle out.

Fearing that the more the American public learns about the impact of a government-run health care program, the more they would oppose it, liberals in Congress decided they had to.....

Censored on House Floor by Pelosi
by  Rep. John Carter
HUMAN EVENTS

Monday night Democrats voted to shut down the U.S. House Representatives rather than allow a handful of Republican Congressmen to speak on the floor. What could have been so offensive or frightening about our discourse that Speaker Pelosi felt she had to protect her party by gagging free speech in the House?

In fact, we had planned to speak on the lack of transparency of the House since Democrats took control. We had planned to criticize Speaker Pelosi for repeatedly denying Members, the media, and the public to right to read legislation before it was voted on. We were set to discuss House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s statement last week that if his Members were required to read the Democrats’ healthcare reform package before it was voted on, it would fail.

So the Speaker obviously feels that if the public is truly aware of her party’s agenda, they will reject it. She is now making sure....

An "Extraordinarily Deep" 3% Cut in California School Budget?

Pro-tax reporter Jennifer Steinhauer warned about budget-cutting talks in California: "Details emerging from the talks suggested that the deal would require extraordinarily deep cuts to school systems and local governments..."

OBAMA'S SHIFTY ECONOMICS

By DICK MORRIS

Now President Obama says in The Washington Post that he never envisioned that his stimulus package would afford quick relief to the American economy, but would do so only after it had run its two-year course. But when it was passed, Obama sang a different tune, urgently demanding its enactment to speed relief to a sagging economy. He claimed it would "create or save" 600,000 jobs. Now, even as the economy loses 450,000 jobs each month, he pretends that it is a matter of time until the stimulus kicks in.

He now justifies the stimulus package by saying it was adopted to prevent the "collapse" of the economy and the banking systems. But it was really the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), first passed under President Bush, that stopped the banks from going under. At the time of the enactment of the stimulus package, Obama never mentioned that he was counting on it to save the banks.

All these shifting justifications are designed to.... Read more.

COMMENTARY

Econ 101: Health Care Reform

The market needs less government inefficiency not more to improve the system and lower health care costs.

By Gary Wolfram
Business & Media Institute

Nearly 90 years ago Ludwig von Mises, one of the founders of the Austrian school of economics, pointed out that once government intervenes in a market it creates unintended consequences that lead to further government intervention. This process continues until the government attempts to control the entire market.

America’s health care industry is a perfect example of what.....









Commentary
Econ 101: Health Care Reform
The market needs less government inefficiency not more to improve the system and lower health care costs.

By Gary Wolfram
Business & Media Institute
7/15/2009 1:30:29 PM

Send this page to a friend! (click here)

Nearly 90 years ago Ludwig von Mises, one of the founders of the Austrian school of economics, pointed out that once government intervenes in a market it creates unintended consequences that lead to further government intervention. This process continues until the government attempts to control the entire market.



America’s health care industry is a perfect example of what

Commentary: The unravelling of The Amazing Ozbama...

President OOPS-Bama

By Dan Kennedy
Business & Media Institute

Rejoice! The Amazing Ozbama is slowly disintegrating into OOPS-Bama.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the quietly growing, simmering buyers’ remorse - the realization that the President is anything but his promise, that his change is far more sweeping and radical than most Americans imagined. Ever so slowly but steadily, people are becoming disenchanted if not outright terrified or enraged. The latest to say “Oops!” is none other than Colin Powell.

By way of disclosure, .......

BAM'S SLIPPING GRIP ON THE PUBLIC

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

In the polling hierarchy, the least signif icant data measure is a president's per sonal popularity. Here, President Obama excels, with most polls showing him in the high 60s. Next comes his job approval, significant but not necessarily predictive.

Obama's approval, in the Rasmussen Poll, has now dipped to 51 percent, one point less than his 2008 vote share of 52 percent. In past polls, most voters registering disapproval for the president had voted for Sen. John McCain. Now, Obama's starting to lose people who backed him last November.

But the true predictive measurement is...... Read more.

Dick Morris' Political Insider

President Barack Obama's healthcare proposal is, in effect, the repeal of the Medicare program as we know it. The elderly will go from being the group with the most access to free medical care to the one with the least access. Indeed, the principal impact of the Obama healthcare program will be to reduce sharply the medical services the elderly can use. No longer will their every medical need be met, their every medication prescribed, their every need to improve their quality of life answered.

It is so ironic that the elderly, who were so vigilant when President George W. Bush proposed to change Social Security, are so relaxed about the Obama healthcare proposals.

Gingrich: Obama Health Plan Doomed by Taxes

President Barack Obama's healthcare plan will lead to a "red-tape-ridden" national insurance program — and says having bureaucrats make decisions on people's healthcare is "profoundly wrong."

Frank Rich Slimes Sarah Palin As Racist

Frank Rich: "She stood for the 'real America,' she insisted, and the identity of the unreal America didn't have to be stated explicitly for audiences to catch her drift. Her convention speech's signature line was a deftly coded putdown of her presumably shiftless big-city opponent." Read more.