I think right now, this shows that we are getting away from a government that’s based upon consent of the American people, and we’re starting to live under a rule by edict or executive order...
So his job is destroying the basic decency of our democracy?RT @DailyCaller: We are very proud of, @NeilMunroDC for doing his job
— Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) June 15, 2012
UPDATE: Shortly after Jose Antonio Vargas' story on the issue of the undocumented was published in TIME, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that it would no longer deport young undocumented residents who qualify for the DREAM act. Those eligible will receive work permits.And Vargas has an introductory piece, "Inside the World of the ‘Illegal’ Immigrant":
A year ago this month, I wrote an essay for the New York Times “coming out” about my status as an undocumented immigrant — what many people call an “illegal.” I told of my journey of being sent from the Philippines to the U.S. at age 12 without knowing I didn’t have the right papers; graduating from college and working as a successful journalist; and relying on a support network of American citizens (my high school principal and superintendent among them) to get me through. But mine is just one story. So with the help of friends and supporters, I founded a campaign called Define American, to document the lives of the undocumented and harness the support of our allies around this very controversial and misunderstood issue.Check the link for the rest of the article, and the links to Vargas' NYT commentary and his website.
There are an estimated 11.5 million people like me in this country, human beings with stories as varied as that of the U.S. itself yet who lack a legal claim to exist here. It’s an issue that touches people of all ethnicities and backgrounds: Latinos and Asians, blacks and whites. (And yes, undocumented immigrants come from all sorts of countries, like Israel, Nigeria and Germany.) It’s an issue that goes beyond election-year politics and transcends the limitations of our broken immigration system and the policies being written to address them.
China insists the family planning policy is necessary because the country does not have the resources to deal with a population growing out of control. China is the world's most populous country, with a population of 1.3 billion. The government estimates that more than 400 million births have been prevented by the policy.And be sure to read the comment thread from the report at Raw Story, where enlightened progressives are all over the place in denial of the horror and defense of the policy, for example:
The policy is widely despised, and there is pressure to reverse it as China's population is ageing swiftly, prompting fears that there may not be enough young workers to sustain economic growth at current levels for much longer.
The penalty for breaking the rules on planned birth is the imposition of a fine and a loss of benefits such as free education and healthcare, but for many wealthy couples in China this is a price worth paying.
"This was very common in my hometown, even when the baby was close to term, women were forced to abort. Population control is fine, but what about those rich people who are allowed to have eight children," wrote one web commentator from Nanning, referring to a case in December last year when a wealthy couple in Guangdong had eight babies, including several born illegally to surrogates. "In 100 years, or even in 50 years, you will see how ridiculous population control is," a commentator from Ningbo said.
You do know that a fetus and newborn baby have no sensations of suffering or satisfaction. Can you imagine the pollution levels in China or the price of oil if there were another 500 million Chinese?
Barack Obama entered the White House as a savior. But he hasn't delivered. The ideological chasms in the US are as deep as they have ever been, with Republicans blocking the president at every turn. Who is responsible for his failure?
The United States of America, where yet another mammoth presidential campaign is taking shape, makes up less than 5 percent of the world's population. Yet it consumes about 25 percent of the world's oil. It has close to $16 trillion (€12.8 trillion) in debt, its expenditures will exceed its revenues by $1.3 trillion in this fiscal year alone, and the war in Afghanistan is costing it $2 billion. Each week. Many in this country are demanding peace in Syria, even as Washington quietly fights a dirty drone war in Pakistan. Some 169 prisoners are still stewing in Guantanamo. In Washington, D.C., the divide between the two political camps is so deep that it resembles an abyss. Is the current president of the United States really named Barack Obama? Is the era of George W. Bush really over?RTWT.
Obama's first term in office will end in just a few months time. The giant, many-faceted country, 27 times the size of Germany, needs a new plan -- a new project for the staggering global superpower. A president will be elected in November for 314 million citizens. A new president? Perhaps. It is conceivable that the first black president, Barack Obama, hailed as a savior when he came into office, will be replaced by the pale Mormon Mitt Romney, a Republican with somewhat dubious conservative credentials.
The office both men are vying for is the most difficult in the world. The US president's agenda is constantly jam packed with the weightiest and the most trivial of matters alike, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Sometimes major national projects and monumental global tasks are relegated to the periphery of that agenda, because domestic sports scandals or sexual improprieties capture the headlines, because lunatic pastors decide to burn Korans, or because new statistics are released showing that three-fourths of all Americans are overweight, more than 46 million live in poverty and gunshots kill more than 30,000 people a year, suicides included.
The fact that Kim Kardashian's marriage lasted only 72 days can have a longer-lasting impact on the news in America than any environmental policy initiative. High gasoline prices (in the US "high" means that a liter of gasoline costs the equivalent of €0.77, or less than half the price of gasoline in Germany) are so important to so many people that they could decide the election. The fact that 52 percent of Republicans in Mississippi believe that Obama is a Muslim, or that 46 percent of Americans believe that man was created precisely as is written in the Bible can make political debates extraordinarily tedious.
Nobody said the second time would be the charm. Greece's political parties failed to form a government after last month's parliamentary elections, and neither Greek citizens nor their creditors have any appetite for another inconclusive result after Sunday's runoff vote. But no number of polls will spell political stability for Greece unless Athens can show the credible commitment to reform that the Greek establishment has dodged for decades.RELATED: At the Australian, "Greek leftist Alexis Tsipras slams 'Merkel's Europe' as election looms."
Not that too much in the way of reform is on offer at ballot boxes this weekend. The question after Sunday will be whether either of the two main parties can deliver Greece from the clientelism and corruption that bloat its government and leave its private economy moribund—even if they manage to form a government that can serve out the year.
Ahead of the election, the center-right New Democracy party looks to be leading the Coalition of the Radical Left—Syriza in the Greek abbreviation. But once again no party is likely to claim an absolute majority. Syriza was the sleeper story of last month's elections, winning second place with 16.8% of the vote; the party took less than 5% three years ago.
Syriza's ascent has given officials in Brussels and Berlin more than a few sleepless nights. Alexis Tsipras, the party's fiery 37-year-old leader, vows that he'll tear up the EU-IMF bailout agreement but keep Greece within the euro zone. If he becomes Prime Minister, has said he'd nationalize Greek banks, halt privatizations, reverse pension and wage cuts, and scrap the current pledge to fire 150,000 government workers.
But equally worrisome is the centrist parties' collapse into irrelevance. New Democracy chief Antonis Samaras has made the right noises about tax freezes and structural reforms, but if his party wins first place on Sunday it would likely have to form a coalition with Pasok, the socialist party that won third place in May. A joint government with Pasok and one of the smaller parties would be encumbered by coalition politics and peopled by many of the same officials who swelled Greece's public debt and turned "Greek accounting" into an international punchline.
Any government that is formed after Sunday will have to move carefully or face swift collapse. Mr. Tsipras thinks Angela Merkel is bluffing when she says she'll cancel Greece's funding if Athens cancels the bailout terms. He says the German Chancellor and other EU leaders are too committed to keeping Greece in the euro zone not to make concessions....
We hope the Greeks sort it all out, and that the Acropolis doesn't get destroyed in the process. But at one level the politics is a sideshow to the central lesson of Greece's crisis. For decades, and especially once they joined the euro zone, Greeks borrowed to consume beyond their means, and in 2009 the bill came due.
On Sunday Greeks try again to decide on the means of repayment: Mr. Samaras is offering to swallow the austerity medicine but seems fated to under-deliver on the restructuring that needs to accompany it. Mr. Tsipras is promising a free lunch. A Syriza victory Sunday would suggest that millions of Greeks still believe in no-cost dining.
That this is where Greece has come should give EU policy makers pause. Spanish banks are being bailed out and a deeper transfer union looms, but Greece shows that there are limits to what rescue money can achieve when it is poured into a broken political system.
The larger question raised by the current state of Greek politics is whether more transfers and more fiscal union can make Greece and the rest of Europe more like Germany. Or will they make European politics more like Greece's?
A STAMP collection in Berlin’s German Historical Museum sums up what, to many Germans, is the price of economic recklessness. A Weimar-era postage stamp worth five pfennigs in 1920 doubled in price the following year, then jumped to ten marks in 1922. It cost 30 marks in January 1923, 1,000 marks in May and 800,000 marks in October. By the end of 1923, sending a letter took ten billion marks. Next to this “document of an insane era”, the museum shows how worthless banknotes were defaced by Nazis with caricatures of Jewish speculators. It was at the height of hyperinflation, explains the display, that Hitler staged his failed Munich beer-hall putsch.Continue reading.
The moral is clear: profligacy leads to economic chaos, political extremism and ultimately to catastrophe for all of Europe. For today’s Germans, prosperity and democratic order must be based on sound money. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is in tune with this domestic mood when she insists that the euro zone must embrace a culture of financial stability if it is to overcome its debt crisis.
But is she drawing the wrong lessons from history? It was not hyperinflation in the 1920s but depression and mass unemployment in the 1930s that propelled Hitler to power. Like the hapless Weimar chancellor, Heinrich Brüning, Mrs Merkel is accused by critics of hastening disaster by pushing austerity during a deep recession. But whereas the 1930s is seared in American memory, it is less clearly remembered in Germany. The reason, says Professor Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich of the Free University of Berlin, is that Germany returned to full employment more quickly, thanks partly to Hitler’s own form of Keynesian stimulus: notably autobahn-building and rearmament.
The prospect of a 1930s-like breakdown now is perhaps most palpable in Greece. In the fifth year of recession, Greeks chose in May to vote in large numbers for the extreme left and right, punishing mainstream parties that supported the austerity and reforms which came as conditions of the country’s bail-out. Even in the best scenario, in which centrists return to power in this weekend’s second election, a “Grexit” might only be delayed. And once the idea takes hold that a euro member can be pushed out, nobody knows where it will stop.
Contagion from Greece has clearly spread to Spain, which this week was promised up to €100 billion ($125 billion) in euro-zone loans to prop up its crippled banks. If Spain is touched, Italy is sure to follow and France may not be so far behind. As one observer in Berlin puts it, Germany’s real fear is not that the euro zone unravels to the Alps, but that it collapses all the way up to the Rhine. That is an existential threat for Germany, not just economically but also politically; its post-war rehabilitation and prosperity is built on reconciliation with France and deeper European integration.
MILAN — A growing number of European countries are being squeezed by a financial vise just days before a Greek election that could escalate the region’s political and economic turmoil.RTWT.
The rise of Italian and Spanish borrowing costs to alarming levels Thursday heaped pressure on leaders to prevent Europe’s debt crisis from engulfing its largest countries. No grand solution appears imminent.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel opposes solutions that many experts are pushing that would increase costs for Berlin.
Merkel has found herself isolated from the leaders of Spain, Italy and France, who want the 17 countries in the euro currency union to move quickly to bind their governments’ finances and debt.
Such action could take the form of jointly issued debt or European-wide guarantees on bank deposits. Either step would spread the risks that individual countries bear across the eurozone.
In a fight to keep his Senate seat in Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown lashed out Thursday at Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, saying she failed the test of “truthfulness and credibility and honesty” as evidenced by her past claims about her Native American heritage.More at that top link.
On Fox News, Brown responded to a statement Warren made about him being too cozy with Wall Street: “When you're running for elective office … you have to pass a test and the test is about truthfulness and credibility and honesty. And quite frankly she's failed that test as evidenced by her claiming to be a Native American and checking the box and making misrepresentations to not only Harvard but Penn.
He added: “She can rewrite her own history but she can’t rewrite mine.”
Warren has been dogged by claims about her Native American heritage. After initially claiming ignorance on the matter, Warren later admitted identifying herself as Native American while on the faculty at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. She said she did not use her Cherokee heritage to help get those jobs, but made the claims after she was hired. Her statements have come under criticism because she has thus far been unable to substantiate them.
Warren defended herself on Thursday, however, saying that by concentrating on the Native American controversy, Brown was trying to distract from the issues.
CLEVELAND — Framing his re-election bid as a stark choice between government action to lift the middle class and a return to Republican economic policies that he said had caused a deep recession, President Obama on Thursday called the presidential decision facing Americans a clear-cut one that will determine the long-term trajectory of the economy.Also, "Romney Assails Obama for Favoring Words Over Action." (Via Memeorandum.)
“This November is your chance to render a verdict on the debate over how to grow the economy, how to create good jobs, how to pay down our deficit,” Mr. Obama told enthusiastic supporters at Cuyahoga Community College here. “Your vote will finally determine the path that we take as a nation — not just tomorrow, but for years to come.”
The address, by a president who sounded as if he realized he was in a fight for his political life, represented a determined effort to stem two weeks of political and economic sliding that began with a grim jobs report. It came on a day of political gamesmanship in this crucial swing state, as Mitt Romney, the president’s rival, scheduled a speech 250 miles away in Republican-friendly Cincinnati in an effort to overshadow Mr. Obama and pre-emptively attack him for failing to revive the economy.
Speaking shortly before Mr. Obama in remarks that, like the president’s, were carried on cable news programs, Mr. Romney said Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign felt compelled to deliver a major address on the economy “because he hasn’t delivered a recovery for the economy.”
“Now, I know that he will have all sorts of excuses, and he’ll have all sorts of ideas he’ll describe about how he’ll make things better,” Mr. Romney said. “But what he says and what he does are not always the exact same thing. And so if people want to know how his economic policies have worked and how they perform, why they can talk to their neighbor and ask if things are better.”
In his remarks, the president acknowledged that divergent views between him and Mr. Romney on how to revive the economy would define the election.
“There is one place I stand in complete agreement with Mr. Romney,” Mr. Obama said. “This election is about our economic future.”
Mitt Romney’s latest attack ad against President Obama (the first negative spot of the campaign, as Jim Geraghty points out) sends two messages. On the surface it’s a cut-and-dry ad criticizing Obama as out of touch on the economy, but there’s another message that seems aimed at psyching out the Obama campaign. See if you can catch it:
Brett McGurk is drawing the ire of Senate Republicans, who point to an inappropriate relationship with his now-wife when she was a journalist.PREVIOUSLY: "WSJ's Gina Chon Resigns Over Racy E-Mails: Reporter, Now Married to Iraq Ambassador-Nominee Brett McGurk, Violated Dow Jones Code of Conduct."
During the summer of 2009, conservative activists turned up the heat on Democratic politicians to protest the innovation-destroying, liberty-usurping Obamacare mandate. In the summer of 2012, it’s squishy Republican politicians who deserve the grassroots flames.RTWT.
In case you hadn’t heard, even if the Supreme Court overturns the progressives’ federal health care juggernaut, prominent GOP leaders vow to preserve its most “popular” provisions. These big-government Republicans show appalling indifference to the dire market disruptions and culture of dependency that Obamacare schemes have wrought.
GOP Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, vice chair of the Senate GOP Conference, told a St. Louis radio station two weeks ago that he supports keeping at least three Obamacare regulatory pillars: federally imposed coverage of “children” up to age 26 on their parents’ health insurance policies (the infamous, unfunded “slacker mandate”), federally mandated coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions (“guaranteed issue,” which turns the very concept of insurance on its head and leads to an adverse-selection death spiral) and closure of the coverage gap in the massive Bush-backed Medicare drug entitlement (the “donut hole fix” that will obliterate the program’s cost-controls).
Some Republicans are even trying to out-Obama Obamacare. GOP Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio is pushing a proposal to increase the mandatory coverage age for dependents to age 31. And once a fire-breathing dragon for repeal, GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee hem-hawed when asked by the liberal Talking Points Memo website whether Republicans would be introducing specific bills to preserve the guaranteed issue and slacker mandate provisions.
“Well, I think we need to be prepared,” Alexander told TPM. “And we will be prepared.”
In 2006, during the presidency of George W. Bush, the Justice Department launched the first of a series of misguided “gunrunning” schemes that eventually led to the death of federal Agent Brian Terry. Rather than look to ways to prevent such a tragedy from happening again, however, House Oversight Chair Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) spent his tenure as a committee chair trying unsuccessfully to embarrass Attorney General Eric Holder.Hardly. But read the whole thing for the rest of the lies.
Eric Holder in his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, has been evasive and has had several memory lapses. He states that he knew nothing of the gunrunning program, that he was not aware that guns were walking into Mexico during Fast Furious, that is until the reports became public in early 2011. Holder claims he knew nothing of the operation until almost three months after a Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry was killed by one of the 2,000 firearms that traveled across the Mexican border into the hands of drug cartels. He continues to insist that Fast and Furious was being handled by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) employees with little to no direction by the Department of Justice.And from late last year, see Andrew McCarthy, at National Review, "Fast & Furious Was . . . Bush’s Fault."
One of the most compelling parts of Eric Holder's testimony was the inclusion of an exchange with Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) regarding an e-mail written by the Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein to James Trusty, chief of the Department of Justice's Organized Crime and Gang Section. In this testimony and in this e-mail the words “Fast and Furious” were used. Chaffetz says the e-mail says Fast and Furious, Mr. Holder says it does not. Mr. Chaffetz says I have it in black and white. Eric Holder insisted the term was referring to the Bush Administration operations and later said, “I have superior knowledge.”
Eric Holder has tried to implicate the Bush Administration in this scandal all along. This is what Holder said to the committee:
“Although these law enforcement operations, which include Wide Receiver, Medrano, Hernandez, Fast and Furious, and others, were focused on the goal of dismantling illegal gun trafficking networks, they were flawed in both concept and execution. I share your concerns about how these operations were developed and implemented. That's why, just as congressional leaders have called for answers, I have asked the Department's Inspector General to conduct a comprehensive investigation as well”.
However, there are two differences between the Bush and Obama administration and their operations. At least three of four operations conducted under the Bush Administration, Wide Receiver, Medrano and Hernandez, were conducted by co-operating with Mexican law enforcement authorities. There was no effort by the Obama administration to co-ordinate with Mexico on Fast and Furious.
The next difference is the most important. There were no casualties as a result of any Bush administration efforts. As the result of Fast and Furious, one US Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and possibly Jaime Zapata have been killed, along with hundreds of Mexican citizens. Eric Holder seems indifferent to this fact. The Department of Justice is also apparently attempting to stonewall an investigation into the people that are responsible for these operations that have lead to the murder of government officials. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) says the Department of Justice is “out of excuses.” Contempt is the only tool Congress has to enforce the subpoena, says Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), who is the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The European Union was created to avoid repeating the disasters of the 1930s, but Germany, of all countries, has failed to learn from history. As the euro crisis escalates, Berlin should remember how the banking crisis of 1931 contributed to the breakdown of democracy across Europe. Action is urgently needed to stop history from repeating itself.
Is it one minute to midnight in Europe?Continue reading.
The failure of German public opinion to grasp the dire state of affairs in Europe today is inviting a repeat of precisely the crisis of the mid 20th century that European integration was designed to avoid.
With every increase in the probability of a disorderly Greek exit from the monetary union, the pressure on the Spanish banks increases and with it the danger of a Mediterranean-wide bank run so big that it would overwhelm the European Central Bank. Already there has been a substantial re-nationalization of the European financial system. This centrifugal process could easily continue to the point of complete disintegration.
We find it extraordinary that it should be Germany, of all countries, that is failing to learn from history. Fixated on the non-threat of inflation, today's Germans appear to attach more importance to the year 1923 (the year of hyperinflation) than to the year 1933 (the year democracy died). They would do well to remember how a European banking crisis two years before 1933 contributed directly to the breakdown of democracy not just in their own country but right across the European continent.
Astonishingly few Europeans (including bankers) seem to remember what happened in May 1931 when Creditanstalt, the biggest Austrian bank, had to be bailed out by a government that was itself on the brink of insolvency. The ensuing European bank crisis, which saw the failure of two of Germany's biggest banks, ushered in the second half of the Great Depression. If the first half had been dominated by the American stock market crash, the second was all about European banks going bust.
Global approval of President Barack Obama’s policies has declined significantly since he first took office, while overall confidence in him and attitudes toward the U.S. have slipped modestly as a consequence.RTWT.
Europeans and Japanese remain largely confident in Obama, albeit somewhat less so than in 2009, while Muslim publics remain largely critical. A similar pattern characterizes overall ratings for the U.S. – in the EU and Japan, views are still positive, but the U.S. remains unpopular in nations such as Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, support for Obama has waned significantly in China. Since 2009, confidence in the American president has declined by 24 percentage points and approval of his policies has fallen 30 points. Mexicans have also soured on his policies, and many fewer express confidence in him today.
The Obama era has coincided with major changes in international perceptions of American power – especially U.S. economic power. The global financial crisis and the steady rise of China have led many to declare China the world’s economic leader, and this trend is especially strong among some of America’s major European allies. Today, solid majorities in Germany (62%), Britain (58%), France (57%) and Spain (57%) name China as the world’s top economic power.
Even though many think American economic clout is in relative decline, publics around the world continue to worry about how the U.S. uses its power – in particular its military power – in international affairs.
There remains a widespread perception that the U.S. acts unilaterally and does not consider the interests of other countries. In predominantly Muslim nations, American anti-terrorism efforts are still widely unpopular. And in nearly all countries, there is considerable opposition to a major component of the Obama administration’s anti-terrorism policy: drone strikes. In 17 of 20 countries, more than half disapprove of U.S. drone attacks targeting extremist leaders and groups in nations such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
After Spain, the focus of the euro crisis has now shifted to Italy, which is struggling with a shrinking economy and rising bond yields. Prime Minister Mario Monti has denied that his country will ask for an EU bailout, but optimism about Italy's future is in short supply.
Claudio Pesaro actually had big plans for this year. The 35-year-old Italian, who still lives at home, wanted to buy his own place, marry his girlfriend and have children. But even though he has saved more than a third of the purchase price for a property, he can't find a bank that is willing to lend him the rest. His job is also at risk, as his company is making losses. As a result, he will have to put his plans on ice for now.RTWT.
Marco Michelli wanted to go into business for himself, starting a microbrewery complete with pub. Beer is popular in Italy, especially among the young. But the municipal authorities hampered him with conditions and fees, and the bank withdrew its commitment to fund his business. That was the end of his project.
These are just two typical stories from Italy, which is currently in the fourth year of its crisis. The mood in the country is depressed. The number of people committing suicide for economic reasons is increasing. The enthusiasm with which Italy greeted the introduction of the euro has long vanished. Now, around 65 percent of the population are skeptical of the common currency.
Hence, Italians were relatively tranquil in their reactions to the latest "Black Monday" on the stock markets, when stocks fell sharply following the announcement that the Italian economy had contracted by 0.8 percent in the first quarter of 2012. They have come to expect such plunges. The focus of the euro crisis is, after Spain, shifting again to Italy. Italian share prices have plummeted, and yields on Italian government bonds jumped back over the dangerously high 6 percent mark. Stock markets insiders report that hedge funds are investing large sums of money in bets against the country, on the assumption that yields will continue to rise -- and are thereby fueling the downward spiral.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has denied that his country will ask for an EU-led bailout. He told the German broadcaster Deutschlandradio Kultur on Wednesday that he realized Italy had a reputation as a "cheerful and undisciplined" country, but that it was "more disciplined" than many other European countries -- adding that it was "also not so cheerful."
Two peer-reviewed articles published Sunday in a scholarly journal cast doubt on a core assumption used to advance same-sex marriage.Continue reading.
A number of studies and articles have suggested that research shows no difference in outcomes between children whose parents have same-sex relationships and their peers raised by heterosexual parents. For example, the American Psychological Association (APA) stated in 2005 that “Not a single study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents.”
Yesterday the academic journal Social Science Research published a detailed methodological review of the research on which the APA bases its conclusion—a study that questions the validity of the “no difference” assertion. Conducted by a Louisiana State University family scholar, the article concludes:
[N]ot one of the 59 studies referenced in the 2005 APA Brief compares a large, random, representative sample of lesbian or gay parents and their children with a large, random, representative sample of married parents and their children. The available data, which are drawn primarily from small convenience samples, are insufficient to support a strong generalizable claim either way. Such a statement would not be grounded in science. To make a generalizable claim, representative, large-sample studies are needed—many of them.
Mondoweiss is a leftist "anti-Zionist" blog founded by Jewicidal kapo Philip Weiss of the self-loathing tribe. Two of its "principal aims" are to "foster the movement for greater fairness and justice for Palestinians in American foreign policy" and "to offer alternatives to pro-Zionist ideology as a basis for American Jewish identity" -- in other words, to conspire with the Left and the "Palestinian" jihadis to destroy Israel. And so it is a badge of honor to be demonized by these Useful Idiots, who are enraged over the recent AFDI/SIOA victory for freedom over "Palestinian"PropagandaProclamation Day. They are now calling it (sough cough) Palestinian Cultural day (talk about your oxymorons.)
These liberal Jews would rather chew off their own leg than see our people stand on their own two legs.
The euro is the world's first currency invented out of whole cloth. It is a currency without a country. The European Union is not a federal state, like the United States, but an agglomeration of sovereign states. European countries are plagued by rigidities, including those in labor markets—where language differences and the protection of trades and professions in many countries impede labor mobility. That makes it difficult for their economies to adjust to cyclical and structural economic shifts.Read it all at the link.
For such reasons, when the euro was created in 1999, Milton Friedman famously predicted its demise within a decade. He was wrong about the timing, but he may yet be proven right about the fact.
Greece is the epicenter of a currency and fiscal crisis in the euro zone. Markets fear a "Grexit," or Greek exit from the euro. That exit is almost a foregone conclusion. The endgame for the euro will be played out in Spain.
SAN FRANCISCO — There was the leather pouch, crafted in prison, that according to family lore may have contained a message about the escapees' hide-out.RTWT.
There were the flowers, which arrived reliably on special occasions at their childhood home — with no card attached.
And when Clarence and John Anglin's mother died in 1978, two men masquerading as women were said to have attended her Florida funeral, despite a swarm of FBI agents nearby.
Fifty years after the Anglins joined Frank Lee Morris and slipped away from Alcatraz — the wind-battered federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay — on a raft made of raincoats, tantalizing new morsels trickled out Monday to deepen the enduring mystery of their escape.
Many historians and law enforcement officials assume the men drowned in the bay's frigid waters. But since no bodies were found, the U.S. Marshals Service still searches for the fugitives, who today would be 81, 82 and 85.
The 1962 escape has become one of the best known unsolved crimes in American history. And in a decrepit upper hall of the island prison-turned-tourist attraction, an unlikely mix of characters gathered Monday to share what they know — and speculate about what they don't.
Among them was supervising U.S. Deputy Marshal Michael Dyke, who has worked the case since 2003 and still gets a tip every couple of months. A towering man with the deadpan expression of a seasoned investigator, Dyke said it was entirely possible that one or more of the escapees survived.
He has vowed to keep looking until the men "are apprehended, proven to be dead or self-surrender." (If none of those scenarios plays out by the time of each escapee's 99th birthday, the outstanding warrants will be retired.)
The FBI worked the case until 1978, when the Marshals Service took over. These days, Dyke said, he pursues it more "as a hobby" than a full-time endeavor. His supervisory role gives him plenty of other things to do. Still, his goal is arrest — although he admitted he would season their apprehension with a touch of flattery.
"I would just say, 'Excellent job,'" Dyke said during a panel discussion held to discuss the caper memorialized by Clint Eastwood in "Escape from Alcatraz."
"It was very meticulous what they did."
Joining Dyke were two of the Anglins' sisters and two nephews, who traveled all the way from Florida and Georgia in an attempt to humanize the brothers they called "good ol' boys" who "never hurt anybody."
Now 76 and 74, the sisters on Monday donned matching black turtlenecks under white blouses that were decorated to commemorate the escape — and the artistry of the fake heads the men used as decoys to fool guards doing bed-checks.
They brought with them the letters Clarence and John had sent from behind bars, as well as photos of the intricate paintings the brothers crafted of their girlfriends while serving their time on "The Rock."
"We've always rooted for 'em," Marie Anglin Widner said, in courteous defiance of Dyke.
Added her son, David Widner: "We don't condone anything that they did, but they were still human.... They wanted a different life than what they had, and that got 'em in a lot of trouble.
Bar Refaeli had complained she “doesn’t get hit on by guys,” but Olympic gold medalist Shaun White gave it a shot over Memorial Day weekend.Actually, skaters always do well with the chicks, so I'm not surprised.
The snowboarding champ was spotted with Maxim’s newly crowned “hottest woman in the world” at SoHo lounge Sway “dancing, hugging and kissing” into the wee hours of Monday morning, spies tell Page Six.
White was first seen entering the Spring Street club with five pals after midnight Monday, but sources say he was mostly concerned with monitoring his cellphone.
“He was distracted,” a witness said. “He was pacing, going outside and checking his cell.”
It soon became clear why, when stunning model Refaeli arrived to meet White at about 1:30 a.m.
The half-pipe hero and the Israeli ex of Leonardo DiCaprio promptly hit the dance floor, where they were going for the gold in the canoodle-a-thon. “They were all over each other,” our spy said. “They were dancing, hugging, kissing — you name it.”
Refaeli was seen leaving Sway at “around 3 a.m.,” and White gallantly walked her out and let her take his car home.
WASHINGTON — With evidence that powerful new weapons are flowing to both the Syrian government and opposition fighters, the bloody uprising in Syria has thrust the Obama administration into an increasingly difficult position as the conflict shows signs of mutating into a full-fledged civil war.The question now is what are we going to do about it? We shouldn't discount the arms transfers if the administration considers Syria a key national interest. I think it's a humanitarian interest and I'd authorized the use of force on that basis alone. Keeping Russian influence out would be an added benefit of U.S.-backed regime change in Damascus.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Tuesday that the United States believed that Russia was shipping attack helicopters to Syria that President Bashar al-Assad could use to escalate his government’s deadly crackdown on civilians and the militias battling his rule. Her comments reflected rising frustration with Russia, which has continued to supply weapons to its major Middle Eastern ally despite an international outcry over the government’s brutal crackdown.
“We have confronted the Russians about stopping their continued arms shipments to Syria,” Mrs. Clinton said at an appearance with President Shimon Peres of Israel. “They have, from time to time, said that we shouldn’t worry; everything they’re shipping is unrelated to their actions internally. That’s patently untrue.”
Russia insists that it provides Damascus only with weapons that can be used in self-defense.
As fighting intensified across Syria, there were reports that government forces were using helicopters to fire on a rebel-held enclave in the northwestern part of the country. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, reported that more than 60 people had been killed in the fighting, one-third of them government soldiers, while the United Nations released a report saying that Syrians as young as 8 had been deployed by government soldiers and pro-government militia members as human shields.
The fierce government assaults from the air are partly a response to improved tactics and weaponry among the opposition forces, which have recently received more powerful antitank missiles from Turkey, with the financial support of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, according to members of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in exile, and other activists.
The United States, these activists said, was consulted about these weapons transfers. Officials in Washington said the United States did not take part in arms shipments to the rebels, though they recognized that Syria’s neighbors would do so, and that it was important to ensure that weapons did not end up in the hands of Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.
Wall Street Journal reporter Gina Chon resigned on Tuesday over her relationship with a U.S. official who is now President Obama’s nominee to be ambassador to Iraq.Also at London's Daily Mail, "Wall Street Journal reporter resigns after racy emails revealed 'affair' with Obama's Iraq ambassador nominee (but he's still hanging on to his job)."
The Journal said in a statement that Chon had acknowledged that “she violated the Dow Jones code of conduct by sharing certain unpublished articles” with Brett McGurk, then a member of the National Security Council based in Iraq. The two are now married.
In 2008, the paper said, “Ms. Chon entered into a personal relationship with Mr. McGurk, which she failed to disclose to her editor. At this time the Journal has found no evidence that her coverage was tainted by her relationship with Mr. McGurk.”
Chon asked for and received a leave of absence, which was made public last week. A series of romantic e-mails had surfaced from that time period, which included not just flirting but discussions of McGurk’s negotiations with the Iraqis.
People like that pile of shit are why God denies me the power to choke people via TCP/IP...
— AblativMeatshld (@AblativMeatshld) June 12, 2012
The harassment that seems to follow people who get caught in the crosshairs of Speedway bomber Brett Kimberlin has started to put a spotlight on the staggering level of abuse that many activists, columnists, and bloggers on the Right have to endure just to exercise their First Amendment rights. If liberals had to deal with 1/10 of the same amount of harassment that conservatives do, it would be a front page story in every major paper in America and Barack Obama would be giving speeches about it. Unfortunately for those of us in the new media on the Right, we're considered important enough on the Left to try to destroy us, but we’re not important enough to the Right to draw the funding we need to get appropriate legal protection, to properly investigate stories, and to insure that an independent blogosphere still exists five years from now (Sorry, pet peeve). Since many people are unaware of what goes on behind the scenes, it seems like a good time to catalogue just some of the tactics liberals are using to try to stifle free speech on the Right.Read it all at the link.
LOS ANGELES — If the Stanley Cup playoffs test anything, they measure players’ ability to maintain discipline in the midst of fatigue, pressure and frustration.Here's that hit:
By losing that discipline early, the Devils lost any chance they had to win their fourth Stanley Cup. Steve Bernier’s boarding penalty on the Los Angeles Kings’ Rob Scuderi in the first period proved to be the turning point in the Kings’ 6-1 victory in Game 6 on Monday night.
The Kings scored three power-play goals as the result of that penalty.
“I wish I could take that play back,” Bernier said.
The Devils’ captain, Zach Parise, refused to blame Bernier for the defeat.
“We feel for him,” Parise said. “In that situation, you’re going to feel like it’s your fault. But it’s not his fault.”
Moments before Bernier’s hit, Los Angeles center Jarret Stoll skated across the ice to check the Devils’ Stephen Gionta into the boards at the red line. Devils Coach Peter DeBoer yelled at the officials for failing to call a penalty.
As Scuderi chased after the puck behind the net, Bernier led with his left shoulder and left elbow in pinning Scuderi, who fell to the ice, bleeding from his nose and upper lip. Bernier received a game misconduct at 10 minutes 10 seconds of the first period, as well as a five-minute penalty that forced the Devils to play short-handed for the latter infraction’s duration.
“As the first guy, you need to finish your hit,” said Bernier, who added that he did not see Stoll’s hit on Gionta and did not believe he deserved a penalty.
In the wake of Wisconsin's recall election, the Washington Post's Greg Sargent, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell and other commentators disappointed with the result are not blaming the electorate or the apparent success and popularity of Gov. Scott Walker's reforms. Instead, they are singling out the Supreme Court's 2010 campaign-finance decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, as the reason for Mr. Walker's 7-1 spending advantage.RTWT at those top links.
Citizens United held that associations of Americans, including corporations and labor unions, have a First Amendment right to make independent expenditures in support or opposition to candidates for public office.
In a sense, Citizens United did have an important effect on the Wisconsin election. But the effect was almost exactly the opposite of what many pundits imply.
Labor unions poured money into the state to recall Mr. Walker. According to the Center for Public Integrity, the NEA (National Education Association), the nation's largest teachers union, spent at least $1 million. Its smaller union rival, the AFT (American Federation of Teachers), spent an additional $350,000. Two other unions, the SEIU (Service Employees International Union, which has more than one million government workers) and Afscme (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), spent another $2 million. Little or none of these independent expenditures endorsing a candidate would have been legal under federal law before Citizens United.
By contrast, the large spenders on behalf of Mr. Walker were mostly individuals. According to the Center for Public Integrity, these included Diane Hendricks, Wisconsin's wealthiest businesswoman, who spent over half a million dollars on his behalf; Bob J. Perry, a Texas home builder, who spent almost half a million; and well-known political contributors such as casino operator Sheldon Adelson and former Amway CEO Dick DeVos, who kicked in a quarter-million dollars each. Businessman David Koch gave $1 million to the Republic Governors Association, which spent $4 million on the Wisconsin race.
These donations have nothing to do with Citizens United. Individuals have been free to make unlimited independent expenditures in support of candidates since the Supreme Court case of Buckley v. Valeo (1976).
I have seen no published reports of any corporate expenditures on behalf of Mr. Walker, though presumably the $500,000 Chamber of Commerce contribution to the Republican Governors Association fund came largely from corporate sources. Several groups also ran issue ads that presumably benefited Mr. Walker; these groups are not required to disclose their donors and may have received corporate contributions. Corporations and unions could run issue ads before Citizens United, as long as they did not clearly refer to a candidate.
For the most part, though, Mr. Walker's direct, big-ticket support came from sources that have been lawful for decades.
His opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, got his support primarily from labor unions, whose participation was legitimized by Citizens United. Without that decision so demonized by the political left, Mr. Barrett would have been at even more of a financial disadvantage.
Speaking generally, Citizens United is likely to benefit Democrats more than Republicans...
Stack is the guy whose involvement in exposing the Anthony Weiner sex scandal resulted in him being “SWATted” and, subsequently, harassed by Rauhauser, who became obsessed with a paranoid conspiracy theory of WeinerGate.And see Brooks Bayne at The Trenches, "BREAKING: Neal Rauhauser Believes SWATter is One of His Own."
