Thursday July 2nd, 2009
World
& National News
Payrolls
Fall More Than Forecast
Employers in the U.S. cut 467,000 jobs in June, the unemployment rate
rose and hourly earnings stagnated, offering little evidence the Obama
administration's stimulus package is shoring up the labor market.
The payroll decline was more than forecast and followed a 322,000 drop
in May, according to Labor Department figures released today in
Washington. The jobless rate jumped to 9.5 percent, the highest since
August 1983, from 9.4 percent.
NKorea
ups tension with short-range missiles
North Korea test-fired four short-range missiles on Thursday, further
stoking tension in the region that was already high due to Pyongyang's
nuclear test and threats to boost its nuclear arsenal in response to UN
sanctions.
The North, which often fires short-range missiles as part of military
drills and usually times the launches for periods of diplomatic
friction, was hit with UN sanctions following its May 25 nuclear test.
Are
NKorea short-range missle tests a prelude?
Thursday's tests were expected; wha's at issue now is whether
Pyongyang will send a long-range missile toward Hawaii on July 4.
North Korea's launch of four short-range missiles Thursday was widely
expected by US and South Korean intelligence. The question now is
whether these firings were the main event or just a prelude to
something more threatening: the test of a long-range intercontinental
ballistic missile (ICBM).
Last month, Japanese media reported that Pyongyang might shoot a
long-range ICBM in the direction of Hawaii around the July 4 holiday.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates ordered the deployment in the region
of US antimissile interceptors and a sea-based tracking radar.
Taliban
Capture American Solsider in Afghanistan
Insurgents have captured an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan
after he walked off post with his three Afghan counterparts, officials
said Thursday.
Spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said the soldier disappeared
Tuesday.
"We have all available resources out there looking for him and
hopefully providing for his safe return," Mathias said.
Mathias did not provide details on the soldier, the location where he
was captured or the circumstances.
U.S.
Takes Aim at Cyberwarfare
The Pentagon's decision last week to establish a unified cybercommand
to defend the military's computer networks and attack those of U.S.
enemies raises at least as many questions as it answers, analysts and
experts in the field say.
"How does it fit into the strategic goals of defending our economy and
our way of life?" asked Marcus Sachs, who helped set up the U.S.
military's first cyberwarfare unit in 1998.
Honduras
resists pressure to allow Zelaya's return
Rejecting the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya, Honduras'
interim leaders dug in for a fight on Thursday after governments across
the region demanded the deposed leftist be restored to power.
In the worst crisis in Central America in a decade, Zelaya was toppled
by troops and whisked out of the country on the weekend in a widely
condemned coup after he angered opponents with plans to amend the
constitution to lift term limits.
Diplomats
reach out for solution to Honduras coup
International
diplomats who have threatened and isolated Honduras' coup-spawned
government took a softer approach on Thursday, trying to coax the
interim leaders into agreeing to restore the president they ousted.
Officials from the Washington-based Organization of American States
were expected to travel to Honduras, possibly as early as Thursday, to
open the first face-to-face discussions with people involved in
toppling President Manuel Zelaya, according to Ramon Velasquez, vice
president of Honduras' legislature.
California
ready to issue IOUs
Capitol in Sacramento. The governor
declared a fiscal emergency for
California.
With budget negotiators at a loggerheads and California government
facing a cash crisis, the state controller's office will start printing
IOUs this afternoon for the first time in 17 years.
The presses are set to start at 2 p.m., churning out 28,742 IOUs worth
$53.3 million that will be dispatched mostly to residents throughout
the state still awaiting their income-tax refunds.
CBS'
Chip Reid, Gibbs Spar Over "Town Hall"
CBS News White House Correspondent Chip Reid along with columnist
Helen Thomas got into a contentious back-and-forth with White House
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs at Gibbs' daily briefing yesterday.
The topic? The questions being asked at yesterday's health care "online
town hall," which were submitted by the public but selected by the
White House. Reid also brought up the fact that the audience was
selected by the White House and the college where the event was held.
The
Washington Post: Fastest Damage Control Ever
It was fast. Very fast.
At 8.04am, Politico's Mike Allen publishes an article: "For $25,000 to
$250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association
executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful
few" -- Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the
paper's own reporters and editors."
At 10.33am, Washington Post editor Marcus Brauchli sends out an email:
Marines
Deploy on Major Mission
Thousands Fan Out in Afghanistan's
South in Crucial Test for Revised U.S. Strategy
Thousands of U.S. Marines descended upon the volatile Helmand River
valley in helicopters and armored convoys early Thursday, mounting an
operation that represents the first large-scale test of the U.S.
military's new counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.
The operation will involve about 4,000 troops from the 2nd Marine
Expeditionary Brigade, which was dispatched to Afghanistan this year by
President Obama to combat a growing Taliban insurgency in Helmand and
other southern provinces. The Marines, along with an Army brigade that
is scheduled to arrive later this summer, plan to push into pockets of
the country where NATO forces have not had a presence. In many of those
areas, the Taliban has evicted local police and government officials
and taken power.
Emotion,
few details, in Obama's health care pitch
President Barack Obama wanted to put a human face on his plans to
overhaul health care, and a Virginia supporter did just that Wednesday.
Fighting back tears, Debby Smith, 53, told Obama of her kidney cancer
and her inability to obtain health insurance or hold a job.
The president hugged her - she's a volunteer for his political
operation - and called her "exhibit A" in an unsustainable system that
is too expensive and complex for millions of Americans.
Everyday
Low Politics
Wal-Mart buys protection by selling
out its competitors.
Corporate America's cheerleading for more government involvement in
health care now includes Wal-Mart, that liberal paragon of social
irresponsibility. The discount giant's ex-critics probably ought to be
more skeptical, given that this seems to be anticompetitive special
pleading in progressive drag.
This week the nation's largest employer blessed an employer mandate,
aka "pay or play." This would require businesses that do not offer
"meaningful coverage" -- i.e., government-approved -- to pay some
percentage of their payroll to a federal insurance plan. This mandate
is one of the more controversial policies in the Democratic health
package, and Wal-Mart's endorsement will help it along, or at least
give liberals political cover against business criticism.
Pakistan
Fights, Congress Sleeps
Democrats slow-roll aid to an ally.
More now than ever, Pakistan is acting as if it is committed to
fighting the Taliban. The military in recent days has expanded a
high-stakes offensive along the Afghan border, while the government
enjoys wide public support, even as casualties and refugees mount.
So naturally, the U.S. Congress is finding a way not to help. An aid
package has hit repeated hurdles on Capitol Hill, while U.S. allies
shortchange Pakistan on humanitarian assistance for the people
displaced by the fighting. This is myopic and dangerous. If Pakistan
fails to defeat the Islamist insurgency, the consequences will resonate
far and wide, in the worst case with al Qaeda getting Pakistan's
nuclear stockpile.
Pursuing Failure
by Geoff Metcalf
“Government's
view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it
moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving,
subsidize it.”
--Ronald Reagan
In the perpetual
battle of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ and the left/right spitting match-rock
fight, it is oftentimes too easy for ideology and partisanship to
overshadow reality. Both the “Us” team and the “Them” team are
rock
solid convinced they are right, the other guys are wrong and don’t want
to confused with any facts that contradict their preconceived opinions
and prejudices. Meanwhile, the nation is pretty evenly divided
between
mutually exclusive polar opposites. The gospel according to the left
and the gospel according to the right do not synthesize and it there is
any room for reasonable compromise the disciples flat out reject it on
principle (or stubbornness).
The mantra of disciples of the left is “We won! Shut up already…” The
mantra of the disciples of the right is “We’re coming back…”
This petty partisan spitting match has been ebbing and flowing for
decades. Each side clings to the belief they are right and their
opponents are wrong. Compromise is anathema despite a growing abundance
of facts in evidence.
Despite overwhelming empirical evidence that we cannot tax and spend
our out to prosperity, the Obama administration remains committed to
making a failed model work based on faith and hope.
There is no constitutional basis for the Obama dream quest. There is no
law, and for sure, there is no statistical model to even suggest what
the administration wants to do can or would work. In fact, there is
good evidence that the policy direction embraced by Obama (which has
already been tried and implemented in some states) routinely fails.
Perhaps my favorite P.J. O’Rourke quote is, “Giving money and power to
government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” This
time around the vehicle in jeopardy is nothing less than the country
and the potential fatalities are frankly “we the people”.
The Wall Street Journal recently published a perfect example (complete
with those annoying facts, details and statistics).
Basically the WSJ demonstrates how three states which have already
embraced (and implemented) Obama style progressive policies have
suffered significant negative consequences.
•
Once upon a time California, New York and New Jersey were, among
the most prosperous in the union.
• How did three successful states snatch defeat from
the laws of victory?
• They did it by implementing polices that Obama is
suggesting for the federal government.
I can’t help but
think of the old joke about the guy who goes to his doctor and says,
“Doctor, it hurts when I go like ‘this’…” The doctor nods and replies
“Don’t go like that.”
MBA types are always ‘case studying’ models and preaching the need to
‘test market’ concepts in a microcosm before rolling it out into the
macro. It is good advice and inevitably results in lessons learned that
can be replicated or mitigated before “going long”. Hey, just read the
WSJ numbers to see what happened to California, New York and New
Jersey. And the administration wants to replicate THAT model for the
nation?
Ideology aside, the demonstrated realities of progressive governance,
complete with mega taxes subsidizing assorted flavors of welfare,
enabled by gutless (clueless) politicians and bludgeoned by public
employee unions is NOT the solution to our national challenges.
For decades the once upon a time golden state was warned that tax and
spend anti-business practices would eviscerate small business and the
middle class. California politicians got the memo…but they never
bothered to read it. In fact, they went out of their way to ignore the
dire forecasts. The result has been businesses seeking less oppressive
tax environments in Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona etc.
North Carolina loves the obstinate myopia of those progressive states
wallowing in their own muck. The Raleigh-Durham Triangle is growing
like California ‘used to’ once upon a time.
However, whereas states have been free to experiment with models
guaranteed to drive away the tax base, Americans have had the luxury of
being able to bail on failed states for oasis-like North Carolina
alternatives.
Listen, it is not a partisan bumper sticker or election finesse but a
bona fide documented fact that more government involvement results in
increased costs and reduced services. The ‘case studies’ of California,
New York and New Jersey document the negative results of the counter
intuitive brain flatulence proposed by the administration. If Obamaism
is mandated nationally, there will be no safe havens left in the
country. THEN we are really S.O.L. (simply out of luck?).
Ronald Reagan articulated an axiom when he said, “Concentrated power
has always been the enemy of liberty.”
Metcalf Still on Amazon Shorts 'Best Seller
List'
Last year I had my third book posted to Amazon Shorts.
'Will in Acquinistere' it is a novel about a young boy with cerebral
palsey who goes on a Tolkein like adventure to a far away place to save
the world.
I was delighted to learn the story made it onto Amazon's 'Best Seller'
list on Amazon Shorts. They update it every hour so I could be in #2 or
#14 position depending on when you check.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/334884011
Despite
two harshly critical reviews, I still remain on the Amazon Short best
sellers lists.
Special thanks to Anne Rice for her continued encouragement.
I encourage you to please check out the story which I feel is much more
than just a 'childrens book'. It is serialized into five downloads and
is very inexpensive. Please sample at least the first part and
let me know what you think.
Will Part One