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Healthcare «
US Capitol Switchboard:
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As Progressives and Liberal
Democrats move forward with healthcare insurance reform via reconciliation --
against the will of the majority of US citizens -- some believe their actions
violate the constitutional amendment process.
Healthcare Takeover Foes
to Use Amendments as Tactic Source: The Washington Times
Capitol Hill Republicans are crafting hundreds of amendments in hopes of
tripping up the health care overhaul if Democrats scrape up the votes needed to
resuscitate the long-stalled measure by week's end. Even though Democratic
leaders on Sunday conceded they didn't yet have the votes to pass President
Obama's overhaul out of the House, Senate Republicans are threatening to put up
hundreds of amendments — one of the few weapons in their limited arsenal — to
force Democrats to take difficult votes on politically sensitive subjects.
Amendments don't have to be relevant to the subject matter under the
controversial tactic Democrats are using to avoid a filibuster, so Republicans
can force Democrats to take tough votes on any number of matters, such as
closing the detention facility for terrorism suspects at the U.S. Naval Base
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But they won't reveal any details ahead of time.
"Discussion about what we might do is something I wouldn't engage in in any
event, because I don't particularly want to tell the other side, and secondly,
we're optimistic that we may not have to get to that point," Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told reporters. Democratic leaders said they
can't risk passing any amendments to the bill, even if they agree with them.
Read more...
International Issues
For Iran, Enriching Uranium Only Gets Easier by William J. Broad, The New York Times
In the Iranian desert, at a sprawling industrial site ringed by barbed
wire and antiaircraft guns, a shift in the enrichment of uranium is
producing global jitters because it could shorten Iran’s path to the
acquisition of nuclear weapons. It is also illustrating one of the
peculiarities of uranium enrichment, a version of the rich getting
richer, really fast. The tricky process accelerates as it moves ahead.
“The higher the concentration, the easier it gets,” said Houston G. Wood
III, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the
University of Virginia who specializes in nuclear enrichment. The
process is, as scientists like to say, nonlinear.
Islamist Terrorism
National Security Case Studies: Special Case-Management Challenges by Robert Timothy Reagan, Federal Judicial
Center
On Friday, February 26, 1993, a bomb exploded in the parking garage of
the World Trade Center in Manhattan, killing six people and injuring
more than one thousand. On April 24, 1992, Ahmad Mohammad Ajaj moved
from Houston, Texas, to Pakistan, where he attended a terrorist training
camp called Camp Khaldan on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He learned how to make bombs, and he met Ramzi Ahmed Yousef. On
September 1, 1992, Ajaj and Yousef entered the United States using false
identities. Ajaj s passport was discovered to be a forgery. He was
indicted in the Eastern District of New York, where John F. Kennedy
International Airport is located, and imprisoned for six months on a
guilty plea. Yousef was stopped for traveling on an Iraqi passport
without a visa but released on his own recognizance because the
detention center was full.
Government & Politics
How Urban Planners Caused the Housing Bubble by Randal O'Toole, The CATO
Institute
Everyone agrees that the recent financial crisis started with the
deflation of the housing bubble. But what caused the bubble? Answering
this question is important both for identifying the best short-term
policies and for fixing the credit crisis, as well as for developing
long-term policies aimed at preventing another crisis in the future.
Some people blame the Federal Reserve for keeping interest rates low;
some blame the Community Reinvestment Act for encouraging lenders to
offer loans to marginal homebuyers; others blame Wall Street for failing
to properly assess the risks of subprime mortgages. But all of these
explanations apply equally nationwide, while a close look reveals that
only some communities suffered from housing bubbles.
National & Local
What Powers for the Federal Reserve? by Martin Feldstein, American Enterprise
Institute
The roles and responsibilities of the major central banks differ
substantially and have evolved significantly over time. The Federal
Reserve's operation and authority have also changed frequently in the
nearly 100 years since its founding in 1913. The recent financial
crisis, the widespread losses of personal wealth, and the severe
economic downturn have raised questions about the appropriate powers of
the Federal Reserve and about its ability to exercise those powers
effectively. As possible changes are contemplated, it is reasonable to
ask what powers should reside with the Federal Reserve, what powers
might be given to other government entities, and what actions should be
left to free financial markets. The financial sector is already one of
the most heavily regulated parts of the American economy. The financial
crisis was not due to a lack of regulation but to a failure of
supervision and of policy actions more generally.
American Fifth Column
Victims of Islamist 'Lawfare' Fight Back by Ken Timmerman, NewsMax.com
What do Hamas, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the
National Iranian American Council all have in common? They all are using
the protections of western legal systems to harass and in some cases
imprison their political enemies. Hamas lawyers have filed lawsuits
alleging war crimes against senior Israeli officials in British courts.
Former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni cancelled a recent trip to
Britain for fear of being arrested. CAIR has sued a wide variety of
individuals and groups that have dared question its ties to the Muslim
Brotherhood, even though documents describing those ties has been
entered into evidence by US federal prosecutors in terrorism-related
cases.Defending against these lawsuits is costly, and that’s part of the
point. Even when the complaints are withdrawn, as CAIR has done
frequently once challenged to produce internal documents through the
discovery process, they can cost unsuspecting defendants hundreds of
thousands of dollars in legal fees. The practice is known as “lawfare” –
using the law as a weapon of war.
Culture Wars
Immigration, Political Realignment & the Demise of GOP by James G. Gimpel, Center for Immigration
Studies
How has the growth of the immigrant population changed the political
partisan leanings of the places where immigrants have settled? The
answer to this question is of considerable interest to academic
specialists, journalists, interest groups, and political parties engaged
in the immigration policy debate. If the impact of mass immigration is
politically neutral, there is no reason to be concerned that
constituencies will change appreciably by the settlement and
naturalization of new arrivals. In that case, immigration might have
economic and cultural impacts that should be anticipated, but no one
need be concerned about political shifts. On the other hand, if
immigration does change the politics of locales, districts, and even
entire states, then what might those changes entail? Certainly one
important implication will be a resultant public shift toward favoring
governmental activism — a belief that government should do more, rather
than less. Latino voters, for instance, are presently among the
demographic groups that are most strongly behind an activist government.
This is undoubtedly because they have, on balance, lower incomes, and
concentrate in areas monopolized by Democratic Party politics into which
they are easily socialized.
Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics
by AJ DiCintio, The New Media Journal
The two thousand pages of hocus-pocus that is Barack Obama's dangerously ironic
healthcare "reform" plan do nothing to solve the crucial problem of bringing
medical costs under control while protecting the excellence of American
medicine. However, that mountain of carefully premeditated doublespeak and the
Everest of mumbo jumbo liberals have spewed in support of it do serve one good
purpose: They prove that whoever first possessed the courage to report the
existence of "lies, damned lies, and statistics" deserves far more praise than
he has gotten for alerting us to the nature of the most vile corruption that
exists in every field of human endeavor.
Editorial:
We Simply Can’t
Afford Another Entitlement
Program by Frank Salvato, Managing Editor, The New
Media Journal Congressional Progressives are
arm-twisting, threatening, promising and cajoling each and every member of the
Legislative Branch in an effort to advance proposed healthcare insurance reform
legislation. They are setting the stage to use the reconciliation process to
advance the legislation in the Senate, even though the process was created to
address budgetary financial issues, exclusively. And one House member, Louise
Slaughter (P-NY), is even concocting procedure that would literally bypass any
need for the House to vote on the Senate proposal. The effort that is going into
circumventing the will of the American people is wickedly stunning.
Another Modern ‘Modest Proposal’
by Howard Linett, The New Media Journal
My wife and I woke a week ago last Tuesday at 06:00 to the news on our radio
alarm-clock. The top story was how American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
was critical of the construction of 600 additional apartments in Pisgot Ze'ev, a
northern Jerusalem neighborhood of 50,000 families, including my family.
Secretary Clinton openly opposes the construction believing that any new
construction in the "Pisga" (what we call our neighborhood - I'm not quite sure
how the US Department of State categorizes my neighborhood - East Jerusalem or
over the 1967 "Green Line") will be an impediment to, if it does not totally
derail the efforts to get the Palestinian Authority to return to the negotiating
table across from the waiting Israeli Government. Secretary Clinton thinks my
neighborhood, which shelters perhaps a majority of the Christian Arabs left in
Jerusalem, is Palestinian territory. That fifteen-second news item was all it
took to give me a week-long headache. Friday Secretary Clinton pretty much
blamed the entire Middle Eastern mess on Israel and my headache returned. This
op-ed is my headache remedy.
Iran Demands Nurses In Bolivia Wear Hijabs by Ann "Babe" Huggett, The Reality Check
On Wednesday, November 24, Iranian demands that female nurses don the hijab in
response to Iran’s providing $1.2 million for funding of the new El Alto city
hospital in Bolivia sparked a national outcry among women’s rights advocates
within Bolivia. In an international teleconference in La Paz held between
Bolivian President, Evo Morales, and Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to
celebrate the hospital’s opening, nurses were shown wearing hijabs as part of
their new uniform regulations.
Obama's Ideology Threatens America by Alan Caruba, Warning Signs
During what can only be hoped will be the final struggle between the socialist
and capitalist approach to health care the debate is focused on the cost of
Obamacare, its impact on the nation’s economy, its legislative over-reach, and
the fact that it will ration care. If Obama wins, America loses. The “reforms”
will ultimately end up killing people who would otherwise have survived illness
or injury if it is implemented. Beyond that, Obama’s efforts to control large
segments of the economy will pick up momentum.
Multimedia
NMJ Radio Operation Baghdad Pups &
The Forum
A news-issues analysis Internet-based
radio show available for download also
broadcast on NetTalkWorld Global Talk
Radio and heard by the US Military
around the world.
NMJ-TV The Census: Getting
Personal
There is a great deal of confusion about the Census "long form" -- or "American
Community Survey" -- which has 12 pages of questions because the Census Bureau
has failed to explain their approach. Jerry Day of the Matrix News Network posed
some questions to the Census Bureau. The answers should trouble you...
