Posts
Campaign For Liberty — Ron Paul's Strong Opposition to the War Funding Bill: "I wonder what happened to all of my colleagues who said they were opposed to the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I wonder what happened to my colleagues who voted with me as I opposed every war supplemental request under the previous administration. It seems, with very few exceptions, they have changed their position on the war now that the White House has changed hands. I find this troubling. As I have said while opposing previous war funding requests, a vote to fund the war is a vote in favor of the war. Congress exercises its constitutional prerogatives through the power of the purse.
This conference report, being a Washington-style compromise, reflects one thing Congress agrees on: spending money we do not have. So this “compromise” bill spends 15 percent more than the president requested, which is $9 billion more than in the original House bill and $14.6 billion more than the original Senate version. Included in this final version — in addition to the $106 billion to continue the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — is a $108 billion loan guarantee to the International Monetary Fund, allowing that destructive organization to continue spending taxpayer money to prop up corrupt elites and promote harmful economic policies overseas."
"As Americans struggle through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, this emergency supplemental appropriations bill sends billions of dollars overseas as foreign aid. Included in this appropriation is $660 million for Gaza, $555 million for Israel, $310 million for Egypt, $300 million for Jordan, and $420 million for Mexico. Some $889 million will be sent to the United Nations for “peacekeeping” missions. Almost one billion dollars will be sent overseas to address the global financial crisis outside our borders and nearly $8 billion will be spent to address a “potential pandemic flu.”"
Monday, July 27, 2009
AP Sources: U.S. Man Was 'Gold Mine' of Terror Intel - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com
AP Sources: U.S. Man Was 'Gold Mine' of Terror Intel - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com: "When the American-born Al Qaeda recruit Bryant Neal Vinas was captured in Pakistan late last year, he wasn't whisked off to a military prison or a secret CIA facility in another country to be interrogated.
Instead, the itinerant terrorist landed in the hands of the FBI and was flown back to New York to face justice.
Months before President Barack Obama took office with a pledge to change U.S. counterterrorism policies, the Bush administration gave Vinas all the rights of American criminal suspects.
And he talked."
'"This was by the numbers. It was a law enforcement operation and it worked," said a senior law enforcement official, one of several authorities who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly discuss the case.
The official said Vinas provided "an intelligence gold mine" to U.S. officials, including possible information about a suspected militant who was killed in a Predator drone strike last November.'
Instead, the itinerant terrorist landed in the hands of the FBI and was flown back to New York to face justice.
Months before President Barack Obama took office with a pledge to change U.S. counterterrorism policies, the Bush administration gave Vinas all the rights of American criminal suspects.
And he talked."
'"This was by the numbers. It was a law enforcement operation and it worked," said a senior law enforcement official, one of several authorities who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly discuss the case.
The official said Vinas provided "an intelligence gold mine" to U.S. officials, including possible information about a suspected militant who was killed in a Predator drone strike last November.'
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Is Obama's 'Prolonged Detention' American? | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary
Is Obama's 'Prolonged Detention' American? | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once warned: 'Throughout the world today there are men, women and children interned indefinitely, awaiting trials which may never come or which may be a mockery of the word, because their governments believe them to be 'dangerous.' Our Constitution ... can shelter us forever against the dangers of such unchecked power' (dissenting, U.S. v. Salerno, 1987)."
Killing in War - David Gordon - Mises Institute
Killing in War - David Gordon - Mises Institute: "If a policeman legitimately shoots at a suspect, the suspect cannot claim the right to shoot back in self-defense."
"Soldiers in an unjust cause have, for the most part, no right at all to engage in violent action against soldiers in a just cause. Not only do they lack moral standing to engage in aggressive warfare; they cannot legitimately even engage in defensive war, in most circumstances."
"Soldiers in an unjust cause have, for the most part, no right at all to engage in violent action against soldiers in a just cause. Not only do they lack moral standing to engage in aggressive warfare; they cannot legitimately even engage in defensive war, in most circumstances."
A Fake Financial Fix | Mark A. Calabria | Cato Institute: Commentary
A Fake Financial Fix | Mark A. Calabria | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Of course, the administration tells us that bailouts won't be needed — because the same regulators who missed the signs of the current crisis will get added powers to prevent the next one.
We're supposed to believe that, if only the Federal Reserve had the same oversight powers over AIG as it now has over Citibank and Bank of America, that the bailout of AIG would have been avoided. Just think: If only AIG had been managed and regulated as well as Citibank — because Citi is in such great shape now."
We're supposed to believe that, if only the Federal Reserve had the same oversight powers over AIG as it now has over Citibank and Bank of America, that the bailout of AIG would have been avoided. Just think: If only AIG had been managed and regulated as well as Citibank — because Citi is in such great shape now."
Bigger Than Madoff | Chris Edwards and Tad DeHaven | Cato Institute: Commentary
Bigger Than Madoff | Chris Edwards and Tad DeHaven | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Take Medicare. The Government Accountability Office reports that the program makes about $17 billion in improper payments each year. And that doesn't include problems in the new $60-billion-per-year prescription-drug plan, which is a juicy target for criminals. Harvard University's Malcolm Sparrow, a specialist in health-care fraud, recently testified to Congress that official estimates are 'lacking in rigor,' are 'comfortingly low and quite misleading,' and exclude many kinds of fraud and abuse. He thinks that as much as 20 percent of the federal health-care budget is consumed by fraud, which would be $85 billion a year for Medicare."
'The bottom line is that the enormous size and complexity of federal health programs results in a huge waste of taxpayer funds. The inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services recently told Congress: "Although it is not possible to measure precisely the extent of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, everywhere it looks the Office of Inspector General continues to find fraud against these programs."'
'The bottom line is that the enormous size and complexity of federal health programs results in a huge waste of taxpayer funds. The inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services recently told Congress: "Although it is not possible to measure precisely the extent of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, everywhere it looks the Office of Inspector General continues to find fraud against these programs."'
Mischa Barton Hospitalized Under Involuntary Psychiatric Hold - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment - FOXNews.com
Mischa Barton Hospitalized Under Involuntary Psychiatric Hold - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment - FOXNews.com: "where she was hospitalized under Section 5150 of the California Welfare & Institutions Code, which allows authorities to hold a person for up to 72 hours if they present a danger to themselves or to others."
Is that pre-crime?
Is that pre-crime?
The Jobs Problem - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute
The Jobs Problem - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute: "Mandating benefits for employees imposes costs on employment. The would-be worker bears the cost. It makes the worker more expensive to hire. The employer has to pay not only a salary but also a benefit. If you make it more expensive to hire people, fewer people will be hired.
It is no different from eggs at the supermarket. If they are $2 each, you will purchase fewer of them — you will economize. This is nothing but the law of demand: consumers will demand less of a good at a higher price than of a good at a lower price. A salary plus benefits amounts to a price that the employer must pay to purchase the work of a laborer. At a higher price, less work will be purchased by the employer.
That means that requiring employers to provide health benefits to employees will make the present job situation worse, not better. It will intensify the current problem that people want to work more but are having a hard time getting employers to hire them."
It is no different from eggs at the supermarket. If they are $2 each, you will purchase fewer of them — you will economize. This is nothing but the law of demand: consumers will demand less of a good at a higher price than of a good at a lower price. A salary plus benefits amounts to a price that the employer must pay to purchase the work of a laborer. At a higher price, less work will be purchased by the employer.
That means that requiring employers to provide health benefits to employees will make the present job situation worse, not better. It will intensify the current problem that people want to work more but are having a hard time getting employers to hire them."
The Zimbabwe-ification of South Africa? | Marian L. Tupy and Michael Kransdorff | Cato Institute: Commentary
The Zimbabwe-ification of South Africa? | Marian L. Tupy and Michael Kransdorff | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Even when the government has succeeded in distributing land, much of it has ceased to be economically viable. According to the government's own statistics, some 50% of land reform projects have failed. A once thriving potato farm in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands is now a makeshift soccer field. A former tea estate in Magoebaskloof in Limpopo has become an overgrown forest. The list goes on."
Obama's Disappointing Secrecy | Benjamin H. Friedman | Cato Institute: Commentary
Obama's Disappointing Secrecy | Benjamin H. Friedman | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The administration recently threatened to veto the intelligence authorization bill, the annual legislation that funds the Central Intelligence Agency.
The trouble with the bill, according to the administration, is a requirement that intelligence officials brief some secret intelligence activities to Congress's full intelligence committees rather than just the 'gang of eight' (each party's leader in each house and the chairmen and ranking members of those committees). The administration wants to keep the power to determine whom it briefs."
"Thanks to a report written by the inspector generals of several federal agencies, we also learned last week that the National Security Agency's controversial, warrantless wiretapping program (the "terrorist surveillance program" to its Orwellian creators) found few, if any, terrorists, contrary to its advocates' claims."
The trouble with the bill, according to the administration, is a requirement that intelligence officials brief some secret intelligence activities to Congress's full intelligence committees rather than just the 'gang of eight' (each party's leader in each house and the chairmen and ranking members of those committees). The administration wants to keep the power to determine whom it briefs."
"Thanks to a report written by the inspector generals of several federal agencies, we also learned last week that the National Security Agency's controversial, warrantless wiretapping program (the "terrorist surveillance program" to its Orwellian creators) found few, if any, terrorists, contrary to its advocates' claims."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)