Obamacare: Waivers for the chosen companies not the others

Obama has been caught with the gross unfairness of his health-care takeover Obamacare and his lies. He said he would lower costs. Companies find that it is raising their costs. So what does he do? Does he fix the law? If he fixes the law it will apply to everyone, to every company. No. He plays favorites and allows his chosen favorites to opt out, but everyone else gets hurt. Our founders designed "A nation of laws, not men" so it didn't matter who was ruling: everyone got the same treatment by the law. But all Obama knows is power and favoritism. Yahoo News

The White House on Thursday defended granting waivers to some employers from a key provision of the new health care law, saying it was the best way to keep people insured until the law fully takes effect. At issue is a new requirement banning annual caps on benefits, which began phasing in last month. Many employers and insurers that offer low-cost, low-benefit insurance plans known as "mini-med" plans would not have been able to comply with the new requirement without raising monthly premiums to virtually unaffordable levels. So the administration has granted 30 waivers to date exempting companies from the requirement for a year. Waivers went to companies including Jack in the Box, Cigna and the company that insures some McDonald's workers, and another 114 applications for waivers are under review by the Health and Human Services Department. One waiver request has been denied, but HHS declined to identify which company was involved. "The waivers are about ensuring and protecting the coverage that people have until there are better options available to them in 2014," when the health law is fully implemented, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters. "We want to ensure that in the time that it takes to implement the law and to give people better options, that they don't find themselves at the mercy of an insurancecompany jacking up their rates. And that's why those waivers were granted." Another issue is a different provision in the law that will require that a specified percentage of healthplan expenditures — 80 percent to 85 percent — be spent on medical as opposed to administrative costs. That provision doesn't take effect until next year, but it got attention last week when the Wall Street Journal reported that McDonald's had alerted the administration it would not be able to comply. The administration subsequently indicated it would be flexible in applying the regulation. Both complications arise because of the decision by lawmakers and the White House to trigger certain protections in the legislation before the bulk of the law takes effect. After the contentious debate around the health care bill, policymakers didn't want the public to wait until 2014 to see any benefit. Once 2014 rolls around, nearly everyone will be required to carry insurance, and insurance marketplaces called "exchanges" will be established in which individuals will be able to shop for comprehensive insurance plans with government subsidies. Before that transformation takes place, new rules applied to the current system require the government to show flexibility in some cases.

More at Jewish World Review by Arnold Ahlert

Liberal Senator Feingold is a tea partier

Leftist Senator Feingold, who took away my Constitutional right of speech in political races (McCain-Feingold), explains how much he has in common with the tea partiers. He carries a copy of the Constitution in his pocket!! How things have changed. Last week Tea Party people were extremist nuts. Now he cherishes them. Ann Althouse I guess this follow my observation of "You are a racist bigot, now vote for me."

War on our sleepy Key Peninsula

The Key Peninsula is out of the way - you don't "drive through" a peninsula, because they are all dead ends - and quiet. Little culture - a lavender farm or two, a winery, one sculptor, but no other artists of note, and the down home Longbranch Improvement Club.

But war broke out Thursday night. An armed robbery of a marijuana grow/drug selling operation. One dead, at least two wounded, some thugs on the run, probably armed. We assume those on the run are looking for homes to break into to find keys and steal vehicles or to hide out until things cool off.

Our little cabin is about two miles away, so hopefully the thugs will find what they want without going so far. And they would be inclined to go east, the way they came, rather than west, toward our place. Although help is coming from the east... might avoid going that way.

I sincerely hope none of our neighbors is robbed or burglarized.

Seattle Times

787 test drags tail on runway

This video shows a 787 test aircraft dragging its tail on runway. This is an important test, among the tests that go beyond normal operations. They test takeoffs where the aircraft is going too fast and too slow, where the aircraft rotation at takeoff is too fast and too slow - which is this one - plus every other thing that can be done wrong by pilot error or different conditions. Boeing's video at Flightblogger at Flight Global magazine. It also shows landing on a wet runway and in high cross winds. I am not an expert on flight testing, but my last six months before retiring I worked in Boeing's flight text organization.

Antarctica in Google Earth Street View

This gives an idea what it is like to be in Antarctica on a beautiful day. About two of our five and a half days were like this, plus one with filtered sunlight.

This is one of the closer views of people. And this might be one of Travel Dynamics two ships - Corinthian II and Clelia II - because the people are wearing the same bright red parkas and navy blue inflatable life jackets. We know its not us because we didn't go to this island - Half Moon Island.


View Larger Map

You can "turn around" by clicking and dragging left or right. When you hover over the photo a yellow line appears with chevron marks on it. Click on a chevron to move along the "street" that Google's camera was following. Before following the yellow line you might want to turn your view so you are looking along it. The current view is to the side.

The photo part shows fuzzy; I don't know why. Click the "View Larger Map" link for a much larger, sharper view.

Street View requires Google Earth plug-in for Google Maps.

Update Bonus: A guy has set up a large window of one of the same views, so it pans (rotates right) automatically. It's worth a view. Keir Clarke Update: The guy who took the photos for Google Street View says he was the ship Minerva the week of January 23, 2010, just one week ahead of us.

Compare Glenn Beck's crowd in September to astro-turf One Nation October 1

The government-can-do-everything-better people had a rally in DC Saturday 10/2 in response to Glenn Beck's. (They now claim it was not in response, but when first promoting it they said so.) How did they do? Did they get a huge crowd? See for yourself. Lucianne Glenn got over 100,000 versus less than 10,000 for the liberals and socialists.

Pelosi/Reid Congress refuses to do its job

Congress spends a lot of time fooling with nonsense, while not performing its most essential functions. Thursday Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi passed a law controlling the volume of TV commercials. A big victory for those who don't have the will to hit the volume button. At the same time it refused to do one of the few things it really has to do - pass the budget. Friday was the first day of the new fiscal year. They have had nine months to pass the budget - 9 months. They didn't do it. Reid and Pelosi's Democrat Party has complete control of both the House and Senate. Why didn't they pass the budget? They have cobbled an excuse, but no reason. Investors Business Daily

... In the 14th-century poem "Parlement of Foules," Chaucer dreams of a comic parliamentary debate of birds. In 21st century America, our birdbrain legislature is a nightmare come true. Why would a Congress so firmly in the hands of one party and one ideology have to enact a continuing resolution to forestall a government shutdown, instead of passing a budget as required under law? When it has no worries about the president vetoing such a spending plan (he isn't running for re-election this year), why can't it get its act together? Because congressional Democrats are in a state of panic. They know an electoral catastrophe is looming, and inaction is easier to defend than action — especially actions such as spending trillions and letting the biggest tax increase in history take effect.

What a mess... They just couldn't allow the public to see how they would vote. We would have seen how badly they are overspending. Be sure to ask Reps. Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen, Adam Smith and Norm Dicks why they came home without doing what they were sent to DC to do. Oh... another thing. They just didn't have time to deal with Rep. Charles Rangel, who had to step down as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, the investigation into his ethics violations. He has four (4) rent-controlled apartments in New York City; he had his staff work on his personal charity. The House has the report from the Ethics committee, but they refused to hold hearings.

Conventional wisdom radio

If you want to hear the conventional wisdom on today's events you don't have to turn to ABC, NBC, CBS or CNN. KVI's morning host Bryan Suits provides it every day. He has exclusive access to long conversations with ABC News reporters around the world. And they avoid all controversy and carefully script the conventional wisdom. In his exclusive interview with an ABC woman in London (impressed?) today she couldn't even say that Jimi Heselden the owner of Segway who rode his Segway off a cliff into a river took a risk and lost - a combination of bold and dumb. No "... all possibilities will have to be considered..." And that is typical, not the exception. Conventional. How about a call in from the analysts at National Review, Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute... Prof. Michael Perry, Megan McArdle at Atlantic Mag... There are huge resources of interest to KVI's audience. Suits himself is much better. He is bright and interesting. He brings up interesting viewpoints on local/regional stories. So, if you like the conventional wisdom, tune to KVI from 5 to 9 am. Or else... Go online. But if you are driving there are few choices. Tune in Glenn Beck; he is very interesting, but he is into cosmic issues. A good local host who highlights the issues avoided by our big media is a treasure. John Carlson, David Boze. Bryan is with them - about half the time; the rest ... yawn.

Museum of History and Industry gets agreement

MOHAI appeared to be in a budget corner on its relocation, which was required due to 520 highway construction. Mayor McGinn wanted to back out on the city's agreement to provide $7 million. But agreement has been reached. Good news. Seattle Times The Seattle City Council voted unanimously Monday to lock in a June agreement that would allow the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) to move forward with plans to relocate from Montlake to the Armory Building at South Lake Union....

3d CD: Do you want career politician and card-check supporter Heck?

Do you want to be represented by a career politician who favors ending the secret ballot in union-organizing elections? And can't oppose tax increases? Then vote for Denny Heck in the 3d Congressional District. The Seattle Times likes this combination. Because he is more thoughtful than his opponent. Heck has been around a long time. In the Legislature, working for Gov. Booth Gardner. Ran for Superintendent of Public Instruction against a long-time incumbent. The founder of TVW, Washington's CNN. Have you watched it this week? Maybe he was a tireless administrator and leader of TVW. But he sure worked hard to stay in Olympia. Taxes - Americans for Tax Reform say that Heck misrepresented Jaime Herrera's opposition to tax increases through signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. He sure didn't make any such promise. And he supports "card check" in union organizing elections. The Times finds this an inconvenient little flaw. But he is sure he opposes secrecy in union organizing elections. Card check replaces the election by turning in signed cards by over 50% of the work force being organized. A secret ballot allows a vote of the conscience, but when collecting signatures it is possible to put pressure from coworkers and union organizers. I understand that they can corner you at home. Olympia Business Watch Former Senator and Democrat nominee for President George McGovern opposes card check:

“Under EFCA, workers could lose the freedom to express their will in private, the right to make a decision without anyone peering over their shoulder, free from fear of reprisal…..To my friends supporting EFCA I say this: We [Democrats] cannot be a party that strips working Americans of the right to a secret-ballot election. We are the party that has always defended the rights of the working class. To fail to ensure the right to vote free of intimidation and coercion from all sides would be a betrayal of what we have always championed.”

Card check also forces binding arbitration on the company-union worker relationship. It is sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray, Sen. Cantwell and supported by Congressmen Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen, Norm Dicks, Jim McDermott and Adam Smith. [The AFL-CIO link no longer works.]

Do you want career politician and "card check" supporter Heck?

Do you want to be represented by a career politician who favors ending the secret ballot in union-organizing elections? And can't oppose tax increases? Then vote for Denny Heck in the 3d Congressional District. The Seattle Times likes this combination. Because he is more thoughtful than his opponent. Heck has been around a long time. In the Legislature, working for Gov. Booth Gardner. Ran for Superintendent of Public Instruction against a long-time incumbent. The founder of TVW, Washington's CNN. Have you watched it this week? Maybe he was a tireless administrator and leader. But he sure worked hard to stay in Olympia. Taxes - Americans for Tax Reform say that Heck misrepresented Jaime Herrera's opposition to tax increases through signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. And he supports "card check" in union organizing elections. The Times finds this an inconvenient little flaw. But he is sure he opposes secrecy in union organizing elections. Card check replaces the election by turning in signed cards by over 50% of the work force being organized. A secret ballot allows a vote of the conscience, but when collecting signatures it is possible to put pressure from coworkers and union organizers. I understand that they can corner you at home. Olympia Business Watch Former Senator and Democrat nominee for President George McGovern opposes card check:

“Under EFCA, workers could lose the freedom to express their will in private, the right to make a decision without anyone peering over their shoulder, free from fear of reprisal…..To my friends supporting EFCA I say this: We [Democrats] cannot be a party that strips working Americans of the right to a secret-ballot election. We are the party that has always defended the rights of the working class. To fail to ensure the right to vote free of intimidation and coercion from all sides would be a betrayal of what we have always championed.”

Card check is sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray, Sen. Cantwell and supported by Congressmen Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen, Norm Dicks, Jim McDermott and Adam Smith. (The AFL-CIO link no longer works.)

Now we know what promises ObamaCare broke

Obama repeatedly promised "Let me make this very clear" many things in his health care takeover. But he didn't keep many, if not all, of those promises. The list is long. What does an Obama promise mean? Washington Examiner

» Obamacare won't decrease health care costs for the government. According to Medicare's actuary, it will increase costs. The same is likely to happen for privately funded health care. » As written, Obamacare covers elective abortions, contrary to Obama's promise that it wouldn't. This means that tax dollars will be used to pay for a procedure millions of Americans across the political spectrum view as immoral. Supposedly, the Department of Health and Human Services will bar abortion coverage with new regulations but these will likely be tied up for years in litigation, and in the end may not survive the court challenge. » Obamacare won't allow employees or most small businesses to keep the coverage they have and like. By Obama's estimates, as many as 69 percent of employees, 80 percent of small businesses, and 64 percent of large businesses will be forced to change coverage, probably to more expensive plans. » Obamacare will increase insurance premiums -- in some places, it already has. Insurers, suddenly forced to cover clients' children until age 26, have little choice but to raise premiums, and they attribute to Obamacare's mandates a 1 to 9 percent increase. Obama's only method of preventing massive rate increases so far has been to threaten insurers.

The following might not have been promises, but they will increase the costs for business, kill jobs and increase government meddling in your affairs.

» Obamacare will force seasonal employers -- especially the ski and amusement park industries -- to pay huge fines, cut hours, or lay off employees. » Obamacare forces states to guarantee not only payment but also treatment for indigent Medicaid patients. With many doctors now refusing to take Medicaid (because they lose money doing so), cash-strapped states could be sued and ordered to increase reimbursement rates beyond their means. » Obamacare imposes a huge nonmedical tax compliance burden on small business. It will require them to mail IRS 1099 tax forms to every vendor from whom they make purchases of more than $600 in a year, with duplicate forms going to the Internal Revenue Service. Like so much else in the 2,500-page bill, our senators and representatives were apparently unaware of this when they passed the measure. » Obamacare allows the IRS to confiscate part or all of your tax refund if you do not purchase a qualified insurance plan. The bill funds 16,000 new IRS agents to make sure Americans stay in line.

NASA administrator Bolden is traveling to promoting Islam

NASA administrator Bolden is devoting much of his time to promoting Islam. What? NASA, the outfit that sends men to the Moon, etc.? Yes. President O told NASA Administrator Bolden that his very highest priorities included assuring the Islamic countries that it was they were instrumental in the success of the USA in putting men on the Moon. I can't exaggerate this. Obama really did. Obama pushes Islam science

President Obama told NASA administrator Bolden that one of his three top priorities was to help the Muslim world feel good about their contribution to science, mathematics and engineering.

Bolden is hard at work doing what Obambi ordered. Not just meetings, but traveling to Saudi Arabia. Orlando Sentinel

At the same time, Bolden -- against the advice of several top NASA officials -- intends to lead a high-level agency delegation to Saudi Arabia this weekend to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first Arab astronaut's shuttle flight. The planned visit comes just a few months after Bolden told the Middle East news outlet Al Jazeera that one of the top three priorities assigned to him by President Barack Obama was to "find a way to reach out to the Muslim world" – a remark that ignited Obama's conservative critics and forced the White House to spend much of July trying to defend and explain Bolden's comments.

But, despite President O, there are people in NASA who focus on the mission of space and air science. But they are muzzled. They can't speak on the record.

Another trip to the Middle East, coupled with the report about Bolden's ethical misconduct, could create new controversy at a time when the administration is trying to reach agreement with Congress on the future of NASA's human-space program. Congress has balked at Obama's desire to cancel the Constellation moon rocket program and rely on commercial spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. A Senate-passed compromise plan has stalled. "Administrator Bolden continues to be not only a distraction for the administration, but most importantly to the mission of NASA," said an administration official, who is not authorized to speak on the record, about Monday's reprimand. The official could not recall another incident in which a similarly high-level leader was so publicly reprimanded.

I-1098, for a state Income Tax, gets huge support from public-employee unions

Do you have the impression that the anti-income-tax people are only high income fat cats? The Seattle Times emphasizes their donations and again. But take a closer look; look past the headlines. The unions are putting more money into the pro campaign than the high income people are. And little people are also putting their money into the anti-income-tax campaign. The support is a few groups, but the opposition is a lot of individuals. Here are the data on donations the defeat campaign found at the state Public Disclosure Commission. Shown at Defeat1098.com.

Overall total amount raised: Defeat 1098 - $3,495,256 Yes on 1098 - $3,610,096 known as WASHINGTONIANS FOR EDUCATION HEALTH & TAX RELIEF Total contributions: Defeat 1098 – 2,367 Yes on 1098 – 531

"Defeat" has far more donors (above) and small donations, below.

Contributions $25 or less: Defeat 1098 - 887 Yes on 1098 - 189 Average contribution amount: Defeat 1098 - $1,477 Yes on 1098 - $6,799 Overall total from SEIU union: Defeat 1098 – $0 Yes on 1098 - $1,359,080 Overall total from unions: Defeat 1098 - $0 Yes on 1098 - $2,045,728

The public-employee unions are giving more money than the high-income people - over $1 million from Service Employees International Union and $100,000 each from the Washington Education Association and the Washington Federation of State Employees. Money from their members, of course.

Why do people think Obama is a Muslim?

President O and his family went to church for the third (3rd) time in a year, but not to worship God through Jesus Christ, like Christians do. Obama went to hear a Muslim speak. Muslim at a Christian church? Yes The Post and Email

... They went on foot to the St. John’s Episcopal Church situated across the Lafayette Park. But what is widely not reported by the White House and the MSM is that on that particular Sunday in that particular church, Dr. Ziad Asali, M.D., a Muslim, founder and president of the American Task Force on Palestine, was the guest speaker. He was there to speak on the subject of “Prospects of the two-state solution in the Middle-East.”

St. Johns Church special events

Obama has his priorities. Take a look: Islam is high. How does it look? Who is surprised that people think he is a Muslim?

Trails in Puget Sound and north

Washington Trails Association is the group of active hikers who help maintain trails and want to attract more. They have information about trails online. Washington Trails Association web site Wylie Slough on Fir Island in the Skagit Delta Lots of water fowl from autumn to spring, starring the snow geese, but avoid hunting season. Anacortes trails on Fidalgo Island Anacortes, as well as salt water all around, has 2,200 acres of forest area including numerous short hikes, there is something here for everybody. Families can take the short trail 20 to Whistle Lake, while others can plan a route to include several of the features of the area that include a summit with a view of Puget Sound, several lakes, and even a bog. Chuckanut Drive just south of Bellingham Oyster Dome is high above the Chukanut sandstone north of Puget Sound.* * I am a purist on the location of Puget Sound. Its north end is Admiralty Inlet between Port Townsend and Admiralty Head in the Fort Casey/Ebey area of Whidbey Island.

Holder's Justice Dept found wanting

Attorney General Eric Holder has politicized our Justice Department beyond belief. Nothing is straight with the Chicago mob. Now he has been publicly embarrassed for the incompetence that his cross purposes have caused - among other thing. Wash Times The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has lurched from multiple controversies into an outright embarrassment. In an order issued Sept. 16, U.S. District Judge John D. Batesof the District of Columbia gave Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s team the legal equivalent of a 2-by-4 across the head. The department's handling of a voting rights case from Shelby County, Ala., has been so slipshod as to invite questions of its legal competence across the board. Shelby County is challenging the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act's Section 5, an increasingly problematic requirement that election jurisdictions in several states, mostly Southern, secure "pre-clearance" from Justice for any change in voting practices. This includes minor details such as moving a polling place from a school gym to its cafeteria. The county writes, "in the last 10 years, [it] has sought pre-clearance numerous times, expended significant taxpayer dollars, time and energy to meet its obligations under Section 5 of the VRA, and has had at least one election delayed in order to ensure compliance." In a 2009 decision in a case from Austin, Texas, the Supreme Court barely saved Section 5 by deciding the case on narrower grounds while expressing doubts about its constitutionality. The Alabama county in the current case wants to decide the question once and for all. The Justice Department loves Section 5 because it gives federal bureaucrats immense discretionary power. Last month, it dropped a Section 5 case against Georgia rather than risk having Section 5 declared unconstitutional. In the Alabama case, it tried to avoid questions over constitutionality by using diversionary arguments, which Judge Bates eviscerated as "fishing expeditions." On the department's request for evidentiary discovery, the judge wrote, "The parties have pointed to no authority, and the Court is unaware of any, that would support discovery under such circumstances." Rejecting an argument by Justice, Judges Bates wrote in the county's favor that "a contrary conclusion would be absurd." The Heritage Foundation's Hans von Spakovsky and Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity observed, "The almost frivolous arguments raised by the Holder Justice Department to delay this case are just another example of how badly (and unprofessionally) that department is being run." Indeed, a competent Justice Department wouldn't get slapped down so definitively. In ordering Shelby County's case forward, Judge Bates served notice that the law takes precedence over raw assertions of privileged federal authority.

"Everybody Draw" cartoonist goes into hiding

Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris, who initiated "Everybody draw Mohammed day" last spring, has gone into hiding due to death threats. Seattle Weekly, where she was published, says the FBI recommended that she relocate and change her name and entire identity. How about those who are threatening her. Do they get to continue life as usual? Talk about chilling our First Amendment freedom of speech. Seattle Weekly

Cash for clunkers cost a lot for no benefit

As we guessed, there were no additional purchases of cars and trucks. Just the same number were purchased earlier. And we had to borrow billions from our future. Economists Atif Mian, Amir Sufi at NBER

... We find that the program induced the purchase of an additional 360,000 cars in July and August of 2009. However, almost all of the additional purchases under the program were pulled forward from the very near future; the effect of the program on auto purchases is almost completely reversed by as early as March 2010 – only seven months after the program ended.

Who claims ownership of this mess? Via Marginal Revolution.

Goolsbee got a new job; Has to lie

Austin Goolsbee has a long, honored career as an economist - a left-oriented one. Economix Blog But now he is working for Obama. He is off to a bad start if you listen to his words. Shreveport Times So does his new job mean he has to lie? Sunday he said: When VP Biden called it the "Summer of Recovery" he did not mean more jobs. Fox News

"The vice president was talking about the summer of recovery in reference to the Recovery Act, that you would see the creation of a series of infrastructure and other projects ramping up over the summer," Goolsbee said on "Fox News Sunday." "And you did see that." ... Goolsbee, though, said it would be "unfair" to suggest the "summer of recovery" was undermined by the jobs numbers

Biden has been saying new projects mean more jobs: ("Summer of Recovery" at White House - pdf)

But Summer 2010 will be the most active Recovery Act season yet for projects, ensuring a steady impact on jobs well into the fall and through the end of the year. Unlike previous seasons, when Recovery Act investments in tax relief and payments were driving economic rescue and recovery, Summer 2010 will be marked by thousands of highly-visible infrastructure projects across the country. Construction projects will continue to accelerate on roads, parks, buildings, and homes across the country. As summer construction season kicks into high gear, commitments made late last year to infrastructure investments will transition from committed dollars into tangible action—thousands of projects will break ground and thousands more will increase activity and hiring. The impact on the economy and job creation is far from complete. The Recovery Act is already responsible for up to 2.8 million jobs as of the first quarter of 2010, but this summer surge in projects will put it on-track for at least 3.5 million by the end of this year.

Biden's claim is hugely undercut by the jobs numbers. But it's your job, Professor, to cover for VP Bite Me, I mean, Biden. See also Fox News fact check.

Workers' paradise Cuba will lay off workers

Their system is not working. Fidel himself admitted it recently. So Cuba has announced that they are going to cut back government jobs and allow some private sector; now there is almost no private sector. Small businesses were outlawed in 1968. {It's impossible to stop all private enterprise - how do you stop Rita out in the country from selling eggs to her neighbors. Fidel tried to. But when a dictator tries to stop people from doing something it's ugly.) Reuters

Cuba will lay off more than 500,000 state employees by March and expand private employment to give them work in the biggest shift to the private sector since the 1960s, the Cuban Workers Federation said on Monday. Eventually more than a million jobs would be cut and, due to efforts to increase efficiency in the state sector, there would be few new state sector openings, the federation said in a statement. More than 85 percent of the Cuban labor force, or over 5 million people, works for the Soviet-styled one-party state, many of them in unproductive work. "Our state cannot and should not continue maintaining companies, productive entities, services and budgeted sectors with bloated payrolls (and) losses that hurt the economy," the statement said. "Job options will be increased and broadened with new forms of non-state employment, among them leasing land, cooperatives and self-employment, absorbing hundreds of thousands of workers in the coming years," it said. The plan is the most important reform undertaken by President Raul Castro since he succeeded his brother Fidel Castro in 2008 and the biggest shift to private enterprise since all small businesses were nationalized in 1968. The younger Castro indicated last month that reform was coming to reduce the inefficiency of the Cuban economy. "We have to erase forever the notion that Cuba is the only country in the world in which people can live without working," Castro said, upon announcing in general terms his plans to cut state payrolls and increase self employment in an August speech to the National Assembly. According to Communist party sources who have seen the detailed plan to "reorganize the labor force," Cuba expects to issue 250,000 new licenses for self-employment by the close of 2011, almost twice the current number, and create 200,000 other non-state jobs. ...

Castro says Cuban model doesn't work

Cuba's economic system does not work. The evidence is obvious to everyone but high-income Americans and Europeans: Fidel Castro cannot feed his people; the shelves are empty at the grocery store. Latin American Studies - CNN

Hospitals don't have basic medical supplies. [TheRealCuba] The streets are a museum of cars from the 1950s.

Cuba doesn't work. Now Fidel Castro, the father of all Cubans, says so.

Castro [when asked] in an interview two weeks ago in Havana if the Cuban economic model was still worth exporting and he replied, "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore." - Reuters

Fidel tried to back off from his own words. But reporter Jeffrey Goldberg sticks by his report - that he quoted Fidel accurately and in context.

Jeffrey Goldberg, a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly magazine, said Castro, 84, had made similar statements before and that economic changes under way on the communist-led island made it "a truism that the Cuban model isn't working."

The photo: Empty shelves at a grocery store in Cuba.

Obama's HHS Sectretary threatens those who see increase in health care costs

Barone is shook up... HHS Secretary Sibelius will not allow insurers to say anything negative. And she has a big stick. This is Gangster government. Townhall "There will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases." That sounds like a stern headmistress dressing down some sophomores who have been misbehaving. But it's actually from a letter sent Thursday from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans -- the chief lobbyist for private health insurance companies. Sebelius objects to claims by health insurers that they are raising premiums because of increased costs imposed by the Obamacare law passed by Congress last March. She acknowledges that many of the law's "key protections" take effect later this month and does not deny that these impose additional costs on insurers. But she says that "according to our analysis and those of some industry and academic experts, any potential premium impact ... will be minimal." Well, that's reassuring. Er, except that if that's the conclusion of "some" industry and academic experts, it's presumably not the conclusion of all industry and academic experts, or the secretary would have said so. Sebelius also argues that "any premium increases will be moderated by out-of-pocket savings resulting from the law." But she's pretty vague about the numbers -- "up to $1 billion in 2013." Anyone who watches TV ads knows that "up to" can mean zero. As Time magazine's Karen Pickert points out, Sebelius ignores the fact that individual insurance plans cover different types of populations. So that government and "some" industry and academic experts think the new law will justify increases averaging 1 percent or 2 percent, they could justify much larger increases for certain plans. Or as Ignagni, the recipient of the letter, says, "It's a basic law of economics that additional benefits incur additional costs." But Sebelius has "zero tolerance" for that kind of thing. She promises to issue regulations to require "state or federal review of all potentially unreasonable rate increases" (which would presumably mean all rate increases). And there's a threat. "We will also keep track of insurers with a record of unjustified rate increases: those plans may be excluded from health insurance Exchanges in 2014." That's a significant date, the first year in which state insurance exchanges are slated to get a monopoly on the issuance of individual health insurance policies. Sebelius is threatening to put health insurers out of business in a substantial portion of the market if they state that Obamacare is boosting their costs. "Congress shall make no law," reads the First Amendment, "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."

Health care costs will rise despite Obama promises

But, but... President Obama promised I could keep my current insurance and ... He PROMISED. And he said he would use ideas from the Republicans... But Friday he said you people just don't understand. It's all very complicated and he tried. But see how he failed to fulfill his promises. Look at the analysis from his own Medicare Office of the Actuary Big G

President Barack Obama told voters repeatedly during the health care debate that the overhaul legislation would bring down fast-rising health care costs and save them money. Now, he's hemming and hawing on that. So far, the law he signed earlier this year hasn't had the desired effect. An analysis from Medicare's Office of the Actuary this week said that the nation's health care tab will go up -- not down -- through 2019 as a result of Obama's sweeping law, though the increase is modest. Obama offered some caveats when asked in his news conference Friday about the apparent discrepancy between what he promised and what's actually happening so far. On several other topics, too, his rhetoric fell short of a full accounting. A look at some of the claims at his news conference and how they compare with the facts: [Last Friday] Obama: Said he never expected to extend insurance coverage to an additional 31 million people "for free." He added that "we've made huge progress" if medical inflation could be brought down to the level of overall inflation, or somewhere slightly above that. The facts: Those claims may be supported in the fine print of the plan he pitched to Congress and a skeptical public months ago. But they were rarely heard back then. "My proposal would bring down the cost of health care for millions -- families, businesses and the federal government," he declared in March. Last August he predicted: "The American people are going to be glad that we acted to change an unsustainable system so that more people have coverage, we're bending the cost curve, and we're getting insurance reforms." On Friday, he conceded: "Bending the cost curve on health care is hard to do." The goal: "Slowly bring down those costs." The White House contends that although health care costs will rise when most of the changes take hold in 2014 and coverage is extended to the uninsured, costs will go down over the longer term as controls kick in. [Friday] Obama: "We took every idea out there about how to reduce or at least slow the costs of health care over time." The facts: One idea that most experts believe would do the most to control health costs -- directly taxing health benefits -- was missing in Obama's plan. Opposition from unions and others was too great, and Obama himself had campaigned against the idea. Some of the major cost controllers that did make it into the law -- including a tax on high-value insurance plans -- don't start until 2018. That tax was watered down and delayed, and other cost-control approaches also softened after opposition from hospitals and other interest groups. Health spending already accounts for about 17 percent of the economy and is projected to grow to nearly 20 percent in 2019. ...

The President promised and the President did not deliver.

White House aides owe $831,000 in back taxes

They really think they are different. You and I work and pay taxes. They ride free who work in our federal government. LA Times Top of the Ticket blog Over the years a lot of suspicion has built up across the country about Washington and its population of opportunistic transients coming to see themselves as a special kind of person, somehow above average working Americans who don't labor down in that monument-strewn former swamp. Well, finally, an end to all those undocumented doubts. Thanks to some diligent digging by the Washington Post, those suspicions can at last be put to rest. They're correct. Accurate. Dead-on. Laser-guided. On target. Bingo-bango. As clear as it's always seemed to those Americans who don't feel special entitlements and do meet their government obligations. We now know that federal employees across the nation owe fully $1 billion in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. As in, 1,000 times one million dollars. All this political jabber about giving middle-class ... ... Americans a tax cut. Thousands of feds have been giving themselves one all along -- unofficially. And these tax scofflaws include more than three dozen folks who work for the president with that newly decorated Oval Office. The Post's T.W. Farnum did some research and found that out of the total sum, just 638 workers on Capitol Hill owe the IRS $9.3 million in back taxes. As in, overdue. The IRS gets stiffed by the legislative body that controls its budget. How Washington works. Now, back taxes have been a problem for the Obama-Biden administration. You may recall early on that Tom Daschle was the president's top pick to run the Health and Human Services Department. But it turned out the former Democratic senator, who was un-elected from South Dakota in 2004, owed something like $120,000 to the IRS for things from his subsequent benefactor that he just forgot to pay taxes on. You know how that is. $120G's here or there. So he dropped out. And then we learned this guy Timothy Geithner owed something like $42,000 in back taxes and penalties to the IRS, which is one of the agencies that he'd be in charge of as secretary of the Treasury. The fine fellow who's supposed to know about handling everyone else's money. In the end this was excused by Washington's bipartisan CYA culture as one of those inadvertent accidental oversights that somehow never seem to happen on the side of paying too much taxes. And under Geithner's expert guidance the U.S. economy has been, well, wow! Just look at it. Privacy laws prevent release of individual tax delinquents' names. But we do know that as of the end of 2009, 41 people inside Obama's very own White House owe the government they're allegedly running a total of $831,055 in back taxes. That would cover a lot of special chocolate desserts in the White House Mess. In the House of Representatives, 421 people owe a total $6,524,892. In the Senate, 217 owe $2,774,836. In the IRS' parent department, Treasury, 1,204 owe $7,670,814. At the Labor Department, where Secretary Hilda Solis' husband had some back-tax problems before her confirmation, 463 owe $7,481,463. Eighty-one workers for the Federal Reserve System's board of governors owe $1,076,733. Over at the Justice Department, which is so busy enforcing other laws and suing Arizona, 1,971 employees still owe $14,350,152 in overdue taxes. Then, we come to the Department of Homeland Security, which is run by Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona who preferred to call terrorist acts "man-caused disasters." Homeland Security is keeping all of us safe by ensuring that a Dutch tourist is aboard every inbound international flight to thwart any would-be bomber with explosives in his underpants. Within that department, there reside 4,856 people who owe the tax agency a whopping total of $37,012,174. And they're checking our pockets for metal and coins?

Museum of History and Industry

Our beloved MOHAI, the museum of Seattle history, has to move - and wants to. Mohai needs every dollar it can get to pull it off.

Seattle Mayor McGinn announced he opposes $7 million agreed to by the city parks commissioner. I can see McGinn's side, but I hope the money is approved. The $7 mil was agreed to while things were/are moving - less money from the Feds, more money from the State, etc.

Some are portraying this as reneging on an agreement, but the parks commissioner can't commit the city's funds and didn't. It requires a vote of the city council.

Money is tight, but I hope it's approved.

MOHAI

Congress closes another factory and sends jobs overseas

Congress caused a factory to close this month and the jobs to go overseas. GE has a factory in Winchester, VA, that makes incandescent light bulbs. Does until the end of September. Then it will close due to an act of Congress and 200 people will see their jobs shipped overseas. In 2007 Congress made the big decision for you*. Instead of each of us making the decision to save money by consuming less electricity for lighting, Big Brother took away our choice. They outlawed the incandescent light bulb invented by Thomas Edison in the 1870s. Now we all have to buy the CFL bulbs that are all made overseas or find another alternative. And CFLs are hazardous; they contain mercury, which is toxic. Keep them out of the house. No, can't - act of Congress. Ask candidates for Congress why sent these jobs overseas. And why they require us to use hazardous lighting in our homes. Washington Post * HR 6: Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 Technicality: This law does not outlaw incandescent bulbs, but puts in place standards that don't allow their use.

School named after AlGore and Rachel Carson built on toxic soil

Albert Gore, Jr., will certainly be honored to know that a (the?) grade school in Los Angeles named for him sits on toxic soil. Newsbusters A new school will be opening in Los Angeles next Monday that is named after Nobel Laureate Al Gore and Rachel Carson, the woman almost single-handedly responsible for DDT being banned in the '70s. Even more delicious than the names associated with the new $75.5-million Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences is that it was built on land thought to be highly-contaminated with various chemicals which could pose a threat to students. As the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday:

Critics say the campus' location poses a long-term health risk to students and staff. School district officials insist that the Arlington Heights property is clean and safe. And they've pledged to check vapor monitors and groundwater wells to make sure. [...] "Renaming this terribly contaminated school after famous environmental advocates is an affront to the great work that these individuals have done to protect the public's health from harm," an environmental coalition wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Unified School District. Making sure the school is safe "would be an even better way to honor their contribution to society." Construction crews were working at the campus up to the Labor Day weekend, replacing toxic soil with clean fill. All told, workers removed dirt from two 3,800-square-foot plots to a depth of 45 feet, space enough to hold a four-story building. The soil had contained more than a dozen underground storage tanks serving light industrial businesses. Additional contamination may have come from the underground tanks of an adjacent gas station. A barrier will stretch 45 feet down from ground level to limit future possible fuel leakage. An oil well operates across the street, but officials said they've found no associated risks. Like many local campuses, this school also sits above an oil field, but no oil field-related methane has been detected. Groundwater about 45 feet below the surface remains contaminated but also poses no risk, officials said.

...

Teachers union agrees that Senator Patty didn't save teacher jobs

Senator Patty Murray said she was saving 3,000 Washington teachers from layoffs by spending billions of borrowed dollars (nationwide; $208 million here). It was discovered and reported here that about 500 teachers received layoff notices in May and most of those notices were rescinded, so very few teachers faced job loss in early August when Senator Patty performed her heroic rescue. See SENATOR PATTY HEROICALLY SAVES JOBS NOT THREATENED and Part II. The Washington Education Association rushes to her defense: Senator Murray meant to say that janitors, bus drivers, lunchroom workers, counselors, nurses, teacher aides and administrative assistants would be saved from layoff or empty positions filled. Seattle Times Letters

Recent reports in The Seattle Times on the impact of the educator jobs bill overlook the number of education-support professional positions lost over the past 18 months. Hundreds of school counselors, nurses, bus drivers, teacher aides, janitors and administrative assistants have either been laid off or their positions were not filled due to attrition. As a result, we will see too many schools this fall with too many students and too few adults to mentor, coach, mentor, teach and support those students. Through her efforts to bring $208 million into Washington for educator jobs, Sen. Patty Murray is giving school districts the opportunity to fill hundreds of empty positions not reported in teacher-layoff numbers [“Murray errs on teachers’ jobs at risk,” page one, Aug. 24]. The Times reports did refer to the erosion of certificated positions. That erosion will have a lasting impact. We should not ignore, however, the other positions lost. These are important positions for every school and the impact of their loss to our students must be equally concerning. — Mary Lindquist, president, Washington Education Association, Federal Way

In this time of slow economy and cut backs what should be the priority in our schools? Teachers or bus drivers? Should we spend money we don't have for staff who are not in the classroom? Senator Patty got the bill passed on false pretenses. Now the money can be spent for almost anything, as we saw in Part II. Old trick. Hat tip: Washington Policy Institute's blog

Feds cleared Arizona sheriff, then started investigation

Attorney General Eric Holder has made a public spectacle of suing Arizona for enforcing law and, separately, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Holder is investigating Sheriff Arpaio despite a prior investigation giving his force and their operation a clean bill and high marks. So why is Holder investigating? Chicago politics? Bryon York describes the prior investigation by ICE - Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Washington Examiner

... ICE officials evaluated how the sheriff's office performed under a law that allows specially trained local law enforcement officers to enforce parts of federal immigration law. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, which is the largest sheriff's office in the Arizona, has 189 officers who have been trained by ICE to enforce federal immigration statutes. The report, crammed with acronyms and bureaucratese, is not light reading. But struggle through it, and the key sentence is this: "The OI and DRO supervisors consider the conduct and performance of the MCSO ... officers to be professional and meeting the requirement of the MOA." Translated, that means officials from the Homeland Security Department's Office of Investigation (OI), along with officials from the Detention and Removal Operations office (DRO), concluded that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO), in its handling of illegal immigrants, acted in a professional manner and complied with a memorandum of agreement (MOA) under which the government gave them the authority to enforce federal law. That agreement included a ban on racial profiling. ICE investigators also interviewed top federal officials involved in illegal immigrant cases in Arizona. They found an "excellent" working relationship between the sheriff's office and the feds. ICE talked as well to federal prosecutors in Phoenix, who described the cases brought by Maricopa County as "high quality." In all, it's a quite positive assessment of an operation that just six months later would come under the Justice Department's microscope for alleged civil rights violations. It also lends indirect support to Arpaio's contention that the Justice Department investigation is politically motivated.

Show us the data, Mr. Holder. All of it. Why does the investigation with high marks lead to a new investigation?

You are a bigot. Now vote for me

Quite a strategy: The Demos tell you you are a bigot if you disagree with any of their cherished policies. And you, bigot, are supposed to vote for the name callers, not the conservatives you agree with. Derek Hunter at Big Government

Are you opposed to Obamacare or illegal immgration? You’re a racist. Are you opposed to gay marriage? You’re a homophobe. Did you oppose Elana Kagan’s appointment to the Supreme Court? You’re a sexist. After less than two years of complete Democrat control of government, there aren’t many Americas progressives haven’t accused of some sort of bigotry for simply having an opinion different from theirs. The politics of “hope” and “change” have devolved into exactly what those espousing them claimed they would end. Is this really Democrat’s plan to win votes in November? Barack Obama campaigned under the banner of unity and ending the “politics of division.” But that banner was swiftly furled and the true banner of progressive politics began flying over our country. Progressivism leaves no room for debate or disagreement. To paraphrase former President Bush, to progressives you’re either with them or you’re with the enemy. During the Obamacare debate, opponents were compared to opponents of civil rights legislation. The ethically challenged Congressman from New York, Charlie Rangel, said “The group that were in Washington fighting against the health bill and fighting against the President, [they] looked just like and sounded just like those groups that attacked the civil rights movement in the South.” Left-wing blogs ran with this mantra and agenda-driven media outlets like MSNBC dutifully followed. They still advance the lie that African-American Members of Congress were pelted with racial slurs as they walked to cast their vote, something even the New York Times has acknowledged there is zero evidence of. The ends justify the means, no matter how sickening and divisive the means. ...

Senator Patty's lobbyist criticism boomerangs

Senator Patty Murray is running ads attacking Dino Rossi for connections to lobbyists. She knows about lobbyists He is a piker; she is the champ. Real Clear Politics

... It may not be a direct comparison, but Murray has her own connection to lobbyists: About a dozen former high-level staffers to Murray now serve in high-profile lobbying jobs. More than a quarter of Murray's campaign kitty this cycle has come from PACs. Bruce Boram, a Washington State GOP consultant who has advised Washington Republican Rep. Dave Reichert, called Murray's tactic "staggering." "She's been a senator since 1992," Boram said. "Anybody can tell you that she's plugged in with lobbyists. She's taken lots of PAC money over the years, so trying to turn that around on Rossi is the ultimate pot calling the kettle black."

If she brings up the topic Rossi can pursue the topic and show that her connections are deeper and wider than his.

Feminists are figuring out Gov. Palin

The feminists are realizing that Sarah Palin is changing the playing field; she is redefining feminism. The leftists are losing - big time. New York Times

In the 24 months since her appearance onstage in Dayton, Ohio, Ms. Palin has enthralled pundits and journalists who devote countless television hours and column inches to her every Twitter message and Facebook update, while provoking outrage and exasperation from the left. Case in point: Ms. Palin, now a Fox news contributor, and her cable colleague Glenn Beck planned a rally for Saturday on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial ... The left should be outraged and exasperated by all this — but at their own failings as much as Ms. Palin’s ascension. Since the 2008 election, progressive leaders have done little to address the obvious national appetite for female leadership. And despite (or because of) their continuing obsession with Ms. Palin, they have done nothing to stop an anti-choice, pro-abstinence, socialist-bashing Tea Party enthusiast from becoming the 21st century symbol of American women in politics. What makes this all the more frustrating, of course, is that progressives helped to give Ms. Palin her start; her political career was a natural outgrowth of feminist successes. As a teen, she played basketball thanks to Title IX; as an adult, she enjoyed a professional life made possible by the involvement of her load-bearing husband Todd, entering Alaska’s governor’s mansion at 42 with four children in tow and giving birth to a fifth while there. Ms. Palin, in turn, has been making a greedy grab at claiming feminism as her own. She recently marked the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment by expressing her gratitude “to those brave feminist foremothers who struggled and sacrificed, endured imprisonment and ridicule ... to grant future generations of American women a voice.” On the same day, she sent out this Twitter message: “Who hijacked the term ‘feminist’? A cackle of rads who want 2 crucify other women w/ whom they disagree on a singular issue.” The hijacking accusation goes both ways. Ms. Palin’s infuriating ability to put a new twist on feminism — after decades of the word’s being besmirched by the right and the left — allows her to both distance herself from and accentuate the movement’s maligned reputation. Her new spin, of course, is that she does not support policies that move women forward. You’d be forgiven for thinking she does. ...

Remember this is the leftists. More: Jennifer Rubin at Commentary's Contentions blog; she says the left's defeat is larger than these wormen admit.

Free coffee cuppings every week

Cupping? What's that. Coffee tasting. I haven't been to one yet. I like the idea of free coffee and trying different kinds, but it might be too Inside Coffee for me. I just have to try it. Seattle Times

Victrola Roastery & Cafe, 310 E. Pike Street: Wednesdays at 11 a.m. Stumptown Coffee Roasters, (in the basement of) 1115 12th Avenue: Daily at 3 p.m. Roy Street Coffee & Tea, 700 Broadway East: Daily at 10 a.m. Caffe Vita Coffee Roasting, (behind the roasters and upstairs at) 1005 E. Pike Street: Wednesdays and Fridays at 10 a.m. 15th Avenue Coffee & Tea, 328 15th Avenue E.: Daily at 11 a.m.

And Victroly has added additional times (did they change the above time?) at their three locations:

... every Saturday at noon at its Beacon Hill cafe, 3215 Beacon Ave. S., and cuppings on Sunday afternoons (no specified time) at the Roastery, 310 E. Pike Street. The cafe at 411 15th Avenue E. will hold Friday cuppings at 1:30 p.m.

I-1082 End state monopoly on workers' comp insurance

Washington is doing a poor job of providing "insurance" for on-the-job injuries. It's a mess. It is headed for insolvency. Only 4 states have a state monopoly in this area. Administrative costs are skyrocketing - up 82 per cent in 10 years. Workers take more time off for injuries - much more time. Average of 270 days versus 70 in Oregon. Initiative 1082 will open the market for other providers. Then with its monopoly gone employers can choose other providers and Washington will have to clean up this mess. See SaveOurJobsWA.com.

ABC News employee infiltrated Cordoba Mosque protest

This one got caught trying to incite a violent incident. Newsbusters ABC News has reprimanded one of its employees for trying to start some kind of ruckus during Sunday's Ground Zero Mosque protest.

A freelance audio operator covering a protest at the site of a proposed mosque and community center near Ground Zero has been reprimanded for his behavior. Andrea Lafferty, who was a speaker at the mosque opposition rally, first noticed the audio operator questioning a man in the crowd who was holding a sign which read, "No Sharia Here." ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider tells TVNewser the network has looked into Lafferty's complaint and agrees that the tech "aggressively" questioned members of the crowd with his personal camera. Adds Schneider, "He was not instructed to perform interviews or to engage with protesters and was there solely as an audio tech. He has been reprimanded for his behavior at this event."

"Reprimanded". Like, "Be cool about it next time"...?

Exploring Washington in detail

I greatly enjoy exploring - studying the map, getting "lost" so I can take a route I haven't taken before. And I enjoy exploring Washington. I have been to all the major places and attractions in my 60 years living here. Not that I have been to every county and every state park.

Nor to every city! (493) Nor ride every ferry! (34) Nor cross every mountain pass that has a road! (32) Nor visit every dam! (45)... every border crossing (12) every state fair... every lighthouse (23) - I have seen at least 21 of our lighthouses... every... (make up a category)...

Here is a guy who has done all of those. David Williams. It took years of course. He loves our state and appreciates the history. Seattle Times

Williams was born and raised in Washington and continues to find the state fascinating. Traveling to all these places is more than just sightseeing for him, it is also a way to experience history. Williams doesn't just visit the biggest and the best tourist attractions, he wants to see it all.

"Washington state history has kind of been my hobby since high school," Williams said. "It's my home state so I feel connected to it in that way."

The idea to visit these places was born in 1986, though it wasn't until he made a New Year's resolution in 2001 that Williams began his 34,977-mile journey through Washington. A day trip to the coast with his family took Williams through many small towns he had never heard of in 1986. Since then he has been excited to explore the state.

Now he is working on every state fair, every tribal casino and every state park. His web site: VisitEveryCityInWashington

Oops! I missed a big one. I have never set foot in Point Roberts, the little peninsula that pokes south of the border from British Columbia, west of White Rock, B.C. I have been offshore in a boat, but not on the shore.

But I have only missed one county - Stevens, bordering Canada just west of the county in the NE corner of the state.


Photo: Dave Williams in Oysterville, WA, on the Long Beach Peninsula.

Cordoba Mosque is at Ground Zero

The big debate about the mosque at Ground Zero is being fuzzied up by supporters who say it is not at Ground Zero. Look at the map. Then look at the photos of 9/11/2001 on the same block on Broadway, the site of Burlington Coat Factory.

The Ground Zero mosque is at Ground Zero.

Breitbart's Big Peace

But the big media don't want us to call it the GZ mosque. Well... The people behind it called it "Cordoba Center" until they attracted opposition. Cordoba, Spain. It was the center of Islam in Europe from 715 AD to 1031. And was primarily in Muslim hands until 1236. Cordoba is the symbol of Islam victorious over Christian Europe. Wikipedia

So the Cordoba Center - the Cordoba Mosque - could be called the Victory Mosque, or "Triumph of Islam over Europe."

See also Buzztab.

Al Gore is down and took his global warming crusade with him

Even delusional Albert Gore, Jr., sees that his self-enriching cap-and-trade legislation is dead for this year, which means just plain dead.

Washinton Times

Poor Al Gore. As if an impending divorce and allegations of sexual misconduct from an Oregon masseuse weren't bad enough (he has since been cleared of wrongdoing), the apparent collapse of "cap-and-trade" legislation in the U.S. Senate has driven the former vice president to despair.

As reported by Steve Milloy on his blog Green Hell, Mr. Gore recently admitted to supporters in a conference call, "[T]his [cap-and-trade] battle has not been successful and is pretty much over for this year." Mr. Gore blamed everyone and their monkey for the failure of Congress to pass comprehensive climate legislation, including his former colleagues: "The U.S. Senate has failed us," he lamented, "the federal government has failed us."

The fortunes of Mr. Gore's global-warming crusade certainly are in decline: A recent Rasmussen poll found that just 34 percent of respondents "feel human activity is the main contributor" to global warming and that the percentage of those who consider global warming a "serious issue" has "trended down slightly since last November."

Mr. Gore himself is to blame for at least some of the public backlash against global-warming orthodoxy: Using bad science to justify bad policy will inevitably rub people the wrong way. And Mr. Gore has not helped his cause by consistently expressing outrageous falsehoods ("the debate is over") and shamelessly trying to shield his assertions from legitimate criticism by claiming "settled science." All the while, he has enriched himself and pushed a left-wing economic agenda

...

Green Hell blog - Steven Milloy

Speaking about the likelihood of climate bill being passed by Congress in 2010, Al Gore told a conference call of supporters tonight that, “this battle has not been successful and is pretty much over for this year.” Gore bitterly denounced the Senate and federal government stating several times, “The U.S. Senate has failed us” and “The federal government has failed us.” Gore even seemed to blame President Obama by emphasizing that “the government as a whole has failed us… although the House did its job. [emphasis added]”

Gored urged his listeners to take the “realistic view that they had failed badly.” Gore said that “Comprehensive legislation is not likely to be debated” and that a “lame duck debate” is a “very slim possibility indeed.” (N.B. We thought, because Gore told us, that “the debate” was over.)

Gore said “the government was not working “as our founders intended it to” and laid more blame at the feet of fossil fuel interests who conducted a “cynical coordinated campaign” with “unprecedented funding” and “who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars just on lobbying.” He criticized “polluters” for “dumping global warming pollution into the atmosphere like it was an open sewer.”

Gore blamed the skeptics for “attacking science and scientists.” “They [the skeptics] did damage and cast doubt,” Gore said.

Asked why the alarmists were ineffective in addressing Climategate, Gore bitterly blamed a “biased right-wing media… bolstered by professional deniers.”

...

Senator Patty heroically saves jobs not threatened - part II

The new stimulus money for saving teachers' jobs is not limited to saving teacher jobs. Less than 500 teachers were facing layoff last spring in Washington - a fraction of the 3,000 Murray funded, as we reported in part I on August 13. What will the school administrators do with the money? Peter Callahan at Tacoma News Tribune, who discovered the fiction of saving 3,000 jobs, dug further. He found that the money is not limited to saving jobs, as claimed, but can be used for almost anything. There is no barrier to school districts moving the funds; there is at the state level. Blank check. More administrators with nice offices, instead of teachers in the classroom. Pay raises for them? TNT

In the continuing search for details about the $206 million in education jobs fund money that will start flowing to the state's 295 school districts next month, I asked federal officials about so-called anti-supplanting rules. That's the language placed in most federal education appropriations to prevent states from replacing state money with federal money. The point is to make sure federal funds are to enhance support of schools, not simply replace money that otherwise would have flowed from the state. But the anti-supplanting rules in the education jobs proposal (called Supplement, Not Supplant or SNS) apply only to states. There does not appear to be anti-supplanting rules that apply to the local school districts. This was confirmed by technical staff with the federal Department of Education. The department wants the money to be used quickly and wants it to go toward school building jobs – rehiring laid off staff, preserving existing staff or hiring new staff. But because the money can be used on existing staff, spending it that way would presumably free up dollars already budgeted from existing sources – mostly state appropriations and local levy money. So what can districts do with those freed-up dollars? Anything they would normally spend money on including the things that the program specifically prohibits the states to do such as fill rainy day funds or pay down debt. It could also be used for a purpose the federal dollars cannot be used for _ central administration. ...

Why did the federal Department of Education (DOE), which requested the bill, ask for such loose language?

This was done so that districts could have flexibility and be creative with the money, department staff said. And the department hopes it will be used to immediately boost education and preserve school-based jobs

DOE "hopes" the money will be used for its intended purpose. They are pretty naive. There are a lot of creative people figuring out how to use it. Yes, their first interest is education. But they will make sure - sure - that they spend every dollar, somehow. -- See also "Truth Needle! False: Murray's statement about teachers' jobs in today's Seattle Times.

Reagan ended the Cold War

Did Reagan "win" the Cold War or just "end" it? Both words say that he was responsible. Newly declassified information adds credibility. Gorbachov was leading a failing empire. He gets a little, just a little, credit. Reagan was acting; Gorbachov was reacting. Reagan was pushing; Gorbachov was backing up. I am overdue following up on my statement in March. Fred Kaplan did an excellent job: Slate Ron and Gorby's Excellent Adventure: How Reagan Won the Cold War - by Fred Kaplan [quote] So, did Ronald Reagan bring on the end of the Cold War? Well, yes. Recently declassified documents leave no doubt about the matter. But how did he accomplish it? Through hostile rhetoric and a massive arms buildup, which the Soviets knew they couldn't match, as Reagan's conservative champions contend? Or through a second-term conversion to detente and disarmament, as some liberal historians, including Slate's David Greenberg, argue? This is an uncomfortable position for an opinion columnist (and occasional Cold War historian) to take, but it turns out that both views have their merits; neither position by itself gets at the truth. Reagan the well-known superhawk and Reagan the lesser-known nuclear abolitionist are both responsible for the end of that era—along with his vital collaborator Mikhail Gorbachev. The Gorbachev factor—too often overlooked in this week of Reagan-hagiography—was crucial. If Yuri Andropov's kidneys hadn't given out, or if Konstantin Chernenko had lived a few years longer, Reagan's bluster and passion would have come to naught; the Cold War would probably have raged on for years; indeed, Reagan's rhetoric and actions might have aggravated tensions. Still, at some point, some Kremlin leader would have had to mount a major reassessment of the situation. The Soviet system was dysfunctional; its empire was collapsing; the cupboard was bare. And Reagan's surging military budgets, without question, brought this internal crisis to a head. Here was Gorbachev speaking at a session of the Politburo in October 1986, days before he traveled to Reykjavik, Iceland to offer Reagan a groundbreaking disarmament plan, including a 50 percent reduction in nuclear arsenals. If he didn't propose these cuts, Gorbachev told his colleagues:

[W]e will be pulled into an arms race that is beyond our capabilities, and we will lose it because we are at the limit of our capabilities. … If the new round [of an arms race] begins, the pressures on our economy will be unbelievable.

This was not a sudden development. Three years later, in a November 1989 phone conversation with Egon Krenz, the general secretary of the East German Communist Party, Gorbachev recalled when he first became a member of the Politburo and some of its members wanted to look at the state budget: "But Andropov said, 'Do not get in there, it is not your business.' Now we know why he said so. It was not a budget, but hell knows what." The precise effect of Reagan's "Star Wars" speech—his high-profile and insanely impractical plan to build an antimissile "shield"—is hard to gauge. On the one hand, documents reveal that Gorbachev asked Yevgeny Velikhov, his chief science adviser, to evaluate whether Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, as it was formally called, would pose a threat. Velikhov replied that the project was fanciful and that the Soviets could build countermeasures—or deploy additional offensive missiles to saturate the Star Wars system—much more cheaply than the United States could construct additional defenses. However, at the same time, perhaps succumbing to pressure from his own military-industrial complex, Velikhov advised that it might be a good idea to build more missiles, just in case. This analysis may have calmed Gorbachev a bit, but not entirely. At a Politburo meeting in March 1986, Gorbachev said, "Maybe we should just stop being afraid of the SDI! Of course, we cannot be indifferent to this dangerous program. But [the Americans] are betting precisely on the fact that the USSR is afraid of the SDI. … That is why they are putting pressure on us—to exhaust us." If somebody says, "Maybe we should stop being afraid of the bogeyman," it usually means he is afraid of the bogeyman. It's pretty clear that in the spring of 1986 Gorbachev and all those around with him were at least a little afraid of the SDI bogeyman. The next month, April '86, brought the Chernobyl disaster, which, among other things, made Gorbachev realize that information had to circulate more openly (the beginnings of glasnost) and made him think that the ultimate enemy may be nukes themselves. He didn't realize it, but Reagan viewed nukes the same way. Samuel Wells, a Cold War historian at the Woodrow Wilson Center, who has examined all the relevant documents, put it this way in a phone conversation: "His staff, for all of the first term and most of the second, kept this out of the press, but Reagan was terribly, deeply opposed to nuclear weapons—he thought they were immoral." Reagan's vision of SDI—a shield that would render nuclear weapons obsolete—was scientifically preposterous but, by all accounts, genuine. Many of his hawkish aides (most notably the still-active Richard Perle) scoffed at it; they liked SDI because it would scare the Russians and, if it worked, might give us nuclear superiority. But Reagan believed what he said. At their face-to-face summit of October 1986 in Reykjavik, Reagan went far beyond Gorbachev's proposal of a 50 percent strategic-arms cut. To the alarm of some aides, who were not let in on the discussion, he suggested that the two sides get rid of nuclear weapons altogether and jointly build an SDI system to guard against a nuclear revival. Gorbachev initially dismissed the idea. "I do not take your idea of sharing SDI seriously," the minutes (which were declassified by the Soviets 12 years ago) show him saying. "You don't want to share even petroleum equipment, automatic machine tools, or equipment for dairies, while sharing SDI would be a second American revolution—and revolutions do not occur all that often." Reagan replied, "If I thought that SDI could not be shared, I would have rejected it myself." The Reykjavik talks finally fizzled. Gorbachev said he'd accept the zero-nukes plan if Reagan pledged not to test nuclear weapons in outer space (a crucial element of SDI). Reagan wouldn't accept that condition. However, Gorbachev returned to Moscow persuaded that Reagan—who had earlier struck him as a "caveman"—honestly had no intention of launching a first strike against the Soviet Union, and he made this point clear to the Politburo. He could continue with perestroika, which involved not just economic reforms but—as a necessary precondition—massive defense cuts and a transformation of international relations. He needed assurances of external security in order to move forward with this domestic upheaval. Reagan gave him those reassurances. Subsequent conversations between his foreign minister, Edvard Shevardnadze, and Secretary of State George Shultz reinforced his confidence. In the last couple years of the Reagan administration, Reagan would propose extravagant measures in arms reductions. His hawkish aides would go along with them, thinking the Soviets would reject them (and the United States would win a propaganda victory). Then, to the surprise of everyone (except perhaps Reagan, who meant the proposals without cynicism), Gorbachev would accept them. In the end, Reagan and Gorbachev needed each other. Gorbachev needed to move swiftly if his reforms were to take hold. Reagan exerted the pressure that forced him to move swiftly and offered the rewards that made his foes and skeptics in the Politburo think the cutbacks might be worth it. Gorbachev wasn't the only decisive presence. If Reagan hadn't been president—if Jimmy Carter or Walter Mondale had defeated him or if Reagan had died and George H.W. Bush taken his place—Gorbachev almost certainly would not have received the push or reinforcement that he needed. Those other politicians would have been too traditional, too cautious, to push such radical proposals (zero nukes and SDI) or to take Gorbachev's radicalism at face value. (There's no need to speculate on this point. When Bush Sr. succeeded Reagan in 1989, U.S.-Soviet relations took a huge step backward; it took nearly a year for Bush and his advisers to realize that Gorby was for real.) The end of the Cold War may be the most oddball chapter in the history of the 20th century. How fitting, then, that the two most oddball leaders, Gorbachev and Reagan, made it come to pass. [end of quote] For more of the declassified documents - CI.edu For Gorbachov's view read Vladislov Zubpk.

Stimulus failed - Even liberals now see

The heart of liberalism admits what the data clearly show: Obama's stimulus failed. Daily Beast

Billions in stimulus money have failed to make the economy soar. Douglas Schoen on how Obama has hurt the recovery by flooding America with free cash. Recent reports from the Federal Reserve, the Labor Department , and the Commerce Department clearly and demonstratively show that the Obama Administration’s policies have not succeeded – indeed they have failed in ways that are clear and unambiguous. The Obama administration’s policies and programs are not producing real, long lasting results, and there has been no real growth. Put another way, an unprecedented degree of federal government spending and intervention vis-à-vis the $787 billion dollar economic stimulus package, the $81 billion dollar bailouts of GM and Chrysler, and the enactment of health care and financial regulatory and reform bills have done nothing to stimulate our anemic recovery and have fundamentally failed at creating private sector jobs, or generating economic growth necessary for a sustainable, healthy recovery. The net result of Obama's failed policies is that consumers are reluctant to spend, entrepreneurs are reluctant to invest, and employers are reluctant to hire to the degree necessary to spur economic growth. Indeed, they have done little more than generate an unsustainable national debt, which now exceeds $13 trillion. ...

I turn myself in, Boss Pelosi

Powerful Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised today to investigate those who is funding opposition to the Cordoba Center, better known at the Ground Zero Mosque. She is very concerned that we (yes) are bigoted, unlike those who attacked the LDS/Mormon Church after the positive vote for marriage in Prop. Eight in California. For example Jacob Weisberg at Slate. I boldly put myself up for investigation. I oppose it because it is a symbol of Muslim victory. That's why they named it Cordoba after the furthest Muslim incursion into Europe at Cordoba, Spain. But no one paid me for my risky work in opposition. I do not oppose having another mosque in New York City. There are already many of them. Google Maps shows nine in Manhattan alone. Some report that there are at least fifty in The City. Go ahead, build another. Just don't put it at Ground Zero. Most of 3,000 people have no grave, because not one part of their body could be found after ninteen Muslim extremists flew two airplanes into the World Trade Center Towers. We call that sacred ground. Not sacred to a religion, but to our American civil religion. Your investigation can be very busy starting today. Scott at Powerline confessed, though he didn't put money in - just his time and effort. Charles Krauthammer wrote his opposition in the Washington Post. Who paid Charles? And his column is nationally syndicated, so you can investigate newspapers in every state. Hugh Hewitt is a powerful blogger, talk-radio hosts and - a law professor! His radio show is supported by advertisers, who are supported by listeners. Go after all of them. And I pay the annual fee for Hugh's podcast. So you caught me. Debra Burlingame, the sister of American Airlines Flight 77 pilot Chic Burlingame, is up front. I doubt she got paid. She's a tiny fish; get her. We call Pelosi "Boss Pelosi," because her father was a political-machine politician in Baltimore and she learned from him and uses his techniques, as all can see. Jim Miller explains.

Even Pakastanis won't give to Pak flood relief

You didn't yet give to the relief effort for the massive, continuing flooding in Pakistan? Neither did your coworker who grew up there and travels there. The government is so corrupt everyone knows money sent will be diverted to personal uses - or to the Taliban. Christian Science Monitor

Many of the Pakistani-Americans who live in ethnically diverse Jackson Heights, Queens, are saddened by the flooding in their homeland and even have relatives among the displaced. But, despite family ties, many aren't giving to the relief effort because they simply don't trust the Pakistani government. “The money might reach a quarter of the people who really need it,” says Mussarat Khan as he leaves a doctor’s office. “The doctor and I were discussing the flood, there is just so much corruption.” Whether the corruption allegations are true or not, perceptions that money would be wasted is one reason relief organizations say contributions for flood victims are way down. “There has been a tepid response, it is down significantly from other disasters of recent times,” says Ken Berger, president of Charity Navigator, a Glen Rock, N.J., evaluator of charities. “There could be a host of different reasons – from donor fatigue to people not feeling comfortable because of their concerns about terrorism." Mr. Berger says some of the problem could be related to the difficulty of media reaching the flooded areas. But, he says, giving could also be down because people are on summer vacation or simply because of the vast geographical distance between the US and Pakistan. Although some people may not give because of their concerns about corruption, he says those same concerns existed for Haiti, where contributions after January's earthquake far outpaced the rate of giving in the aftermath of Pakistan’s flooding...