Tuesday March 9th, 2010
World
& National News
Biden: US to
prevent nuclear Iran?
US Vice President Joe Biden expressed America's "absolute,
total, unvarnished commitment to Israel' security" at a press
conference in Jerusalem following a meeting with Prime Minster Binyamin
Netanyahu Monday morning.
As such, Biden said, Washington was "determined to prevent Iran from
acquiring nuclear weapons, and we are working with many countries
around the world to convince Iran to meet its international obligations
to cease and desist."
Rep.
Massa Claims Dem Conspiracy Forced His Exit
Resigning congressman swings widely on
last live radio show
In his final weekly radio show on Sunday morning, Rep. Eric Massa for
the first time detailed the events he believes led to the sexual
harassment complaint against him that prompted his resignation from
Congress, announced on Friday, but effective Monday afternoon. Massa, a
Democrat, also accused House Democratic leadership of conspiring to
remove him from office ahead of the reconciliation votes on health
care, given his vote against the legislation when it went before the
House last November.
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“I was set up for this from the very, very beginning,” he said, on what
Massa insisted would be the last broadcast of the Sunday morning show
on WKPQ 105.3 FM in Hornell. “You think that somehow they didn’t come
after me to get rid of me because my vote is the deciding vote in the
health care bill? Then, ladies and gentlemen, you live today in a world
that is so innocent as to not understand what’s going on in Washington,
D.C.”
Nancy
Pelosi's grip on House slips
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not accustomed to the word she’s been
hearing far more frequently in recent days: “no.”
Over the past two weeks, Pelosi has faced a series of subtle but
significant challenges to her authority — revolts from Democrats on the
Ways and Means Committee, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Blue Dog
Coalition and politically vulnerable first- and second-term members.
China
committed to U.S. debt, wary on gold
China, the world's biggest holder of foreign exchange reserves, renewed
its commitment to the U.S. Treasury market on Tuesday but said it would
be wary of substantially boosting its gold holdings.
The country's chief currency regulator said China would attract more
capital inflows this year, partly reflecting expectations of a stronger
yuan, but he left the market none the wiser as to when Beijing might
let the currency resume its rise.
ID
Card for Workers Center of Immigration Plan
Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill are
proposing a new national biometric ID card that would be required of
all U.S. workers. WSJ's Laura Meckler explains the proposal and the
objections from privacy advocates.
Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the
Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants,
would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as
fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.
The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration
overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar
bills in the past.
Obama
Rips and Rewards Health Insurers?
Give Them $336 Billion Check
ABC’s Z.
Byron Wolf reports: President Obama and Democrats launched a campaign
to vilify insurance companies in the final stretch of their health
reform effort.
Republicans, meanwhile, pointed out that those very same insurance
companies would get huge checks from the government if health reform is
enacted.
EU
warns US against protectionism in Pentagon deal
The EU on Tuesday warned the United States against protectionism after
a European-led consortium pulled out of the bidding for an Air Force
contract, saying the terms had been altered to favor a U.S. company.
EADS, the parent company of Airbus, had partnered with Northrop Grumman
to vie for the tanker project, but their consortium pulled out on
Monday. They said the terms of the deal appeared designed to eliminate
its design in favor of a smaller jet offered by rival Boeing Co.
The announcement left Boeing as the only bidder for the project.
Culled
out
Obama administration will accept no
more public input for federal fishery strategy
The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal
strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation's
oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.
This announcement comes at the time when the situation supposedly still
is "fluid" and the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force still hasn't
issued its final report on zoning uses of these waters.
That's a disappointment, but not really a surprise for fishing industry
insiders who have negotiated for months with officials at the Council
on Environmental Quality and bureaucrats on the task force. These
angling advocates have come to suspect that public input into the
process was a charade from the beginning.
Obama's
Healthcare Plan 'Makes No sense at all'
Former Massachusetts governor and 2008 Republican presidential
candidate Mitt Romney tells Newsmax that America needs to change course
or face the “unthinkable consequences” of its decline.
He also asserts that President Obama’s policies have extended and
deepened the recession, says his healthcare reform plan “makes no sense
at all,” and declares that Sarah Palin is definitely qualified to
become president.
Democrats'
Poll: 60% Say US on Wrong Track
A new poll on Monday found signs of trouble ahead for President Barack
Obama and his Democrats on national security issues such as the
handling of terrorism suspects.
The poll was conducted jointly by Democratic Corps, a Democratic
organization, and Third Way, a progressive non-profit organization. It
was done mainly to gauge voters' views on Democrats' handling of
national security.
The poll also found weaknesses for the Democrats on other issues ahead
of November elections, in which they hope to defend their strong
majorities in Congress.
Activists
Tell Obama to Protect Illegals
Immigrant rights groups on Monday demanded that President Obama impose
a full moratorium on deportations of illegal immigrants, arguing that
his policies have been worse for their cause than those of his
Republican predecessor.
Saying they've been "betrayed" by and lost patience with Mr. Obama, the
advocates suggested that the president could regain their support by
leading a fight on Capitol Hill for a bill to legalize illegal
immigrants. Mr. Obama took the first step toward legalization during a
meeting Monday at the White House with two lawmakers working on a bill.
Iraq's
Remarkable Election
The strategic benefits of an emerging
Middle East democracy.
It takes a cynical mind not to share in the achievement of Iraq's
national elections. Bombs and missiles, al Qaeda threats and war
fatigue failed to deter millions of Iraqis of all sects and regions
from exercising a right that is rare in the Arab world. Even the U.N.'s
man in Baghdad called the vote "a triumph."
On Sunday, 61% of eligible voters came out in Anbar Province, a former
extremist stronghold that includes the towns of Fallujah and Ramadi. In
the last national elections five years ago, 3,375 people—or 2%—voted in
Anbar. The other Sunni-dominated provinces that boycotted in 2005 saw
similar numbers: over 70% turnout in Diyala and Salaheddin and 67% in
Nineveh, all higher than the national average of 62%. American
Presidential elections rarely have such turnout.
School
Reform controversy
Federal testing has narrowed education
and charter schools have failed to live up to their promise.
I have been a historian of American education since 1975, when I
received my doctorate from Columbia. I have written histories, and I've
also written extensively about the need to improve students' knowledge
of history, literature, geography, science, civics and foreign
languages. So in 1991, when Lamar Alexander and David Kearns invited me
to become assistant secretary of education in the administration of
George H.W. Bush, I jumped at the chance with the hope that I might
promote voluntary state and national standards in these subjects.
By the time I left government service in January 1993, I was an
advocate not only for standards but for school choice. I had come to
believe that standards and choice could co-exist as they do in the
private sector. With my friends Chester Finn Jr. and Joseph Viteritti,
I wrote and edited books and articles making the case for charter
schools and accountability.
Waiting for Godot
The Obama Years
by Geoff Metcalf
"The
whole
problem
with
the
world
is
that
fools
and fanatics are always so
certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
-- Bertrand Russell
Reasonable people can (or should be able to) reasonably disagree if or
when they honestly consider facts that may contradict their
preconceived opinions and prejudices. However, unfortunately,
especially in the partisan environment of politics, reason, honest
analysis and fairness too quickly become victims of the “us versus
them” thing. Politics has become a blood sport where the only
golden
rule is “the team with the gold makes the rules”.
Politicians who were elected to represent the best interests, wants and
desires of their constituents, morph into petty, agenda driven
competitors quick to eschew reason for partisanship. Sadly, this
axiomatic reality is universal and not exclusive to any one party.
Politics is supposed to be the art of compromise. However,
increasingly, politics is a blood sport personifying the absolute worse
elements of abuse of power under the color of authority.
President Barack Obama, a year after promising "change" and a Kumbaya
tsunami of bi-partisan cooperation, now reluctantly admits he has not
succeeded in bringing the country together. In a recent People magazine
interview, the president begrudgingly acknowledged an atmosphere
of
divisiveness that has washed away the lofty national feeling
surrounding his inauguration a year ago. 'That's what's been lost this
year ... that whole sense of changing how Washington works,'
Obama
said.
"What I haven't been able to do in the midst of this crisis is bring
the country together in a way that we had done in the Inauguration," he
said, referring to last January 20 when hundreds of thousands flooded
into Washington to see him sworn in as America's first black
president...before reality and buyer's remorse.
The simple reality is Obama has failed because he and his party's
leadership (or critics will argue LACK of leadership) have
failed...failed to do what they said they would do...and failed to do
anything the "way" they promised.
Notwithstanding lofty eloquance, concensus and "unity' cannot be
mandated by imperial decree. Partisan acrimony is not and cannot be
bridled by harangue, bullying or bludgeon. Politics is the art of
compromise and the facts in evidence demonstrate that this
administration and this Democrat led congress has not been disposed to
engage in compromise. Rather the democrats have embraced a hamfisted
"our way or the highway" forced imposition of their will.
Now, in the wake of spelunking poll numbers, rampant buyers
remorse,
and a previously unimagined nostalgia for the Carter administration,
democrats seem shocked, amazed and confused that over half the country
does not approve of not only what they are trying to do, but how they
are doing it. Blaming the dark sky and coming ice age on Bush (or
Reagan or Nixon or Eisenhower or Lincoln) is a worn out dog that flat
out ain't gonna hunt.
When Mr. Cool was promising "change" little did ANYone assume that
change might result in a republican winning Teddy Kennedy's Senate seat.
It is a sad reality that at the same time our military has
significantly improved the quality of the U.S. Troops who serve, the
civilian leadership and politicians have regressed to a level
reminisent of uneducated fuedal bullies. The military is smarter, more
fit, better equipped, and as committed as any generation from Valley
Forge to Iwo Jima or Pleiku to Bosnia. We have an all-volunteer
military that is dedicated to protecting YOU. Conversely, the political
arena is littered with disingenuous, duplicitous partisans who long
since have abadoned their constituents for the next political victory
(and/or pork laden earmark).
I have recently re-read Dr. Robert Humphrey's
'Living Values for a New Millenium' in preparation for an
upcoming February
seminar.
In a 1997 speech before he passed away, Dr. Humphrey said, top
leadership, in both our civilian or military government, is afraid even
to discuss this apparent decisive need for new thinking both at home
and overseas. It was 13 years ago he observed, the news media and
public opinion polls advise, "The people sense a moral bankruptcy in
Washington" with a bickering inability in government to face these
deeper problems.
Wherever you go, you are little bit safer because of the military and
yet more at risk because of the coat room schenanigans of congress.
Wherever the military sets a boot EVERYONE has a friend, a defender and
a champion. However politicians seem more concerned about the next PAC
contribution than the wants, needs or well being of the very people
they were elected to represent.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard once wrote,“Moral relativism has set in so
deeply that the gilded classes have become incapable of discerning
right from wrong. Everything can be explained away, especially by
journalists. Life is one great moral mush—sophistry washed down with
Chardonnay.”