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