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Sunday, October 10, 2010
Oil Shoots Upward - Again
It was not so long ago, in 2008, that the commodities bubble was rocking the American economy. Oil marched upward almost every day, peaking at close to $150 a barrel. Right before that, gold had proceeded to over $1,000 an ounce. The American people were getting killed at the pump, with gasoline peaking at over $4 a gallon.
There was much speculation at the time as to the cause for the price spikes, which can be boiled down to two arguments: 1) those who maintained that demand had peaked for oil, and that new supplies were needed; and 2) those who believed the surge was due to the devaluation of the dollar.
That summer, the oil bubble popped, and prices came crashing down, right in time for the financial system meltdown of Fall 2008. So, was there suddenly a new supply of oil that had been tapped? Or a commensurate decline in demand that justified the sudden drop in prices?
It was neither. We now know that investors were hedging against inflation. It created a bubble, it peaked, and investors cashed in. It ultimately popped, because like all economic bubbles, it was unsustainable.
So, now it appears that oil is marching upward again, rising to above $80 a barrel last week. Gold is maintaining its new highs at over $1,300 an ounce. Grain and other commodities are surging, too. To be fair, these could just be temporary fluctuations that are not indicative of commodities again experiencing inflation.
Certainly, one can hope. But hope is not a strategy, and it is not at all comforting based on experience. It could be that $4 a gallon for gasoline is very well threatening to slay American consumers at the pump once again.
These rising prices could indeed be another inflationary trend. Why?
Speculation is abounding that the Federal Reserve is once again preparing to engage in "quantitative easing," which means printing more money and injecting it into the economy and to finance government's voracious spending. Keep in mind that the Fed has already blown up its balance sheet from about $900 billion in August 2007 when the financial crisis began to well over $2.3 trillion today.
Federal interest rates, which were historically low throughout the 2000's, were taken to near-zero in December 2008, where they have remained ever since. They cannot go any lower lest they become negative. So, the only other way to ease is for the Fed to print more money for new assets, in this case treasuries.
Of course, any new treasuries purchases would come atop what has been the loosest, easiest monetary policy in American history.
Predictably, the dollar has been getting creamed on global currency markets under the assumption that more easy money is on the way. The reason is simple: The U.S. is increasing its money supply faster than other currencies, resulting in relative declines versus other currencies.
On the commodities side of the equation, since oil and gold are traded in dollars, there is a very strong correlation between the supply of dollars and the prices of these commodities (see chart).
Pretty much, the supply of dollars has been growing faster than the supplies of gold and oil. So, commodities prices are behaving predictably. Too many dollars chasing too few resources equals inflation.
In fact, commodities are very sensitive to the value of the dollar because of the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency. This gives U.S. policymakers a special responsibility to maintain price stability, or risk losing possession of the reserve currency.
Unfortunately, the Fed appears committed to more inflation. In its most recent statement it said that "measures of underlying inflation are currently at levels somewhat below those the Committee judges most consistent, over the longer run, with its mandate to promote maximum employment."
So, presently surging oil and gold are not strong enough indicators of dollar devaluation for the Fed. It wants more inflation.
An easy prediction to make, therefore, is that should the Fed follow through with another round of printing money, the increased supply of dollars will cause commodities to spike upwards eventually. The only questions are that of magnitude and timing.
Robert Romano is the Senior Editor of Americans for Limited Government (ALG) News Bureau.
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ObamaCare Waivers
By Adam Bitely
Want out of the new ObamaCare regulations? All you have to do is be a big business that offers mini med-plans and apply for a waiver from the Health and Human Services Department. Just simply indicate that it costs your business too much money and they will grant you an exemption. Click here for the rules.
Wouldn't it be nice if all Americans could back out of ObamaCare so easily?
Over the past few weeks, headlines have been made nationwide regarding large companies amending their health care plans or announcing plans to discontinue their plans altogether in light of new ObamaCare regulations. These companies range from McDonald's to 3M.
3M is dropping coverage for its retirees, achieving exactly what the Obama administration intended when they designed the Health Care bill. The government has created an incentive for companies to save money by dumping their Health Care coverage for their employees and retirees, which in turn dumps them into the government system.
McDonald's is currently providing mini-med plans for nearly 30,000 employees. With increases mandated by ObamaCare on the annual limits of such plans, McDonald's indicated that it was too expensive to offer the plans with the increases. That's why McDonald's applied for a waiver to be exempt from the annual limits increase on the mini-med health care plans. So in 2014, when the exemptions are no longer granted, McDonald's will most likely cancel the plans altogether dumping more people into the government system.
Just look at how the annual limits increase over the course of the next two years, according to HHS:
• For plan or policy years beginning on or after September 23, 2010 but before September 23, 2011, $750,000;
• For plan or policy years beginning on or after September 23, 2011 but before September 23, 2012, $1.25 million; and
• For plan or policy years beginning on or after September 23, 2012 but before January 1, 2014, $2 million.
The effect ObamaCare is having on individual Americans becomes clearer with each passing day. As the government hands down more regulations to put ObamaCare into effect, we will see a continued reduction in the number of people on employer health care plans. And this is all further evidence that the current health care plans Americans enjoy will continue to decrease as ObamaCare takes effect, standing in direct contrast to Obama's promise that most people would be able to keep their current Health Care plan.
In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor admitted as much in a recent regulation where they estimated that up to 69 percent of private health plans will lose their grandfathered status by the end of 2013 — forcing their customers to change providers whether they want to or not.
While government bureaucrats sift through 1,500 requests from businesses to receive waivers on annual limits increases, many Americans are in fear that they will soon be without the health care coverage they currently have. One thing is for sure though, it sure would be nice if all of America could apply for a waiver to escape the impending doom of ObamaCare.
Adam Bitely is the Editor-in-Chief of NetRightDaily.com.
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Obama's Labor Board Imposes "Card Check" Type Rules on Business
By Kevin Mooney
If the Republicans do take control of Congress next year, it would mean "hand-to-hand combat" to preserve vital policies, President Obama declared in a October 6th radio interview. But whatever the outcome is on Election Day, the administration's team of unelected lawyers is already going for broke to secure unpopular anti-business policies without legislative consent.
Earlier this month, the acting general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a memorandum to the board's regional offices directing them to file an injunction in federal court, known as a 10(j), that imposes strict stipulations on employers during union organization campaigns. This 10(j) rule sets new procedures in cases where a union claims an employee has been unlawfully fired.
Any union organizer who is said to be committing unfair labor practices must be kept on the payroll until a pending case is resolved under 10(j). The new rules do not offer any protections for employees who may be the victims of union misconduct.
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation sees this move as a backdoor way of imposing "card check" legislation that has failed to pass in Congress. Mark Mix, the foundation's president, has released the following statement:
"The NLRB Acting General Counsel's one-sided dictate creates a double standard against employees who want nothing to do with a union. For over 40 years, the National Right to Work Foundation has fought for the rights of hundreds of thousands of workers whose rights have been violated by union officials. Foundation attorneys frequently request 10(j) injunctions in cases in which union bosses are committing unfair labor practices against nonmember workers, but NLRB officials ignore those requests in virtually every case."
Mix added, "The Acting General Counsel's quick-snap injunctions rule creates a 'guilty until proven innocent' standard that will be used by union organizers to pressure employers into helping push employees into union ranks."
Kevin Mooney is a contributing editor to Americans for Limited Government (ALG) News Bureau, and the Executive Editor of TimesCheck.com.
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Security Proposal Stirs Defense Firms
A little-noticed provision in the annual defense-spending bill that targets overseas suppliers is sending ripples of concern through the U.S. technology industry. 
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wsj/xml/rss/3_7014/~3/5QODVALeqc4/SB10001424052748704011904575537840329583342.html
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Congress Aides Gain From Stock Trades
At least 72 aides on both sides of the aisle traded shares of companies that their bosses help oversee, according to a WSJ analysis of more than 3,000 disclosure forms covering trading activity by Capitol Hill staffers for 2008 and 2009. 
http://feeds.wsjonline.com/~r/wsj/xml/rss/3_7011/~3/7DyvCI8ZauA/SB10001424052748703431604575522434188603198.html
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Audience Member Hurls Book at Obama During Philly Speech
Obama's Sunday event, before a mostly black audience, was somewhat smaller and less enthusiastic than last week's rally in Madison.
Except for the book that was tossed at him that the AP did not report on.
It narrowly missed him.
Once again, it took the British press to report on this incident.
The Daily Mail reported:
This is the astonishing moment a book was apparently hurled at the head of U.S. President Barack Obama during a campaign rally in Philadelphia.
The flying missile narrowly missed hitting the President today.
It is not clear where it came from in the crowd.
But it is expected that there will be fallout from the security breach as the Secret Service investigates how close the President came to danger.
The rally was clearly an eventful one – other images showed a naked man being led away in handcuffs by police.
It is not clear if the man was involved in the book-throwing incident – or why he was not wearing any clothes.
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/10/audience-member-hurls-book-at-obama-during-philly-speech/
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Harry Reid Picks Two Dead Guys as the Greatest Living Americans
Nevada voters shouldn't feel bad about not being listened to, because as the video below illustrates Reid doesn't listen to interviewers either. Christian Broadcasting's White House correspondent David Brody has a weekly feature called Five 4 Friday where he asks puff-ball questions to public figures. This week's guest was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev).
For Question number three, Brody asked who were the greatest living Americans? Reid's answer was Robert Byrd and Teddy Kennedy both of whom are too dead to be considered greatest living Americans (if you cannot see video below click here).
Now giving Reid the benefit of the doubt for a second, maybe he wanted to give an answer to who were the greatest Americans ever? But that would mean that Reid was saying that the former KKK Grand-wizard along with a man who committed vehicular homicide and worked with the KGB to screw up US foreign policy during the Reagan administration were the greatest Americans ever.
On the other hand was it that the Majority leader couldn't name a greatest living American? But if he really believed in the policy of the President whose bills he had been shoving down the throats of voters, shouldn't he pick Obama?
Another explanation is now that Chicago politics is running the federal government, Reid is losing the ability to discern between dead and alive. After all, in Chicago the dead are the most loyal Democratic Party voters.
Maybe the answer is much simpler than that. Maybe Harry only listens to one voice, Harry Reid's.
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Oh God All Mighty, We're Never Going To Hear The End Of This
This will be their attempt at an October Surprise, pushing the scary scary conservatives idea, and how we want to kill people, apparently by throwing soft-cover books at them. So yeah, someone threw a book at Obama. I'm not celebrating...
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Check Your Mailbox to See Where U.S. Is Headed: Kevin Hassett
To understand where the advocates of big government will take this country, look at the U.S. Postal Service.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-10/check-your-mailbox-to-see-where-u-s-is-headed-kevin-hassett.html
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THROWING THE BOOK AT OBAMA: Literally. “Today’s book-throwing incident came as Mr Obama tried to r
THROWING THE BOOK AT OBAMA: Literally. "Today's book-throwing incident came as Mr Obama tried to rally voters in Phildelphia." Well, it's better than a shoe, I guess. But boy, it took Bush a lot longer to get to the stage where people were throwing things at him. And I don't think Bush ever had to deal with naked protesters: "The rally was clearly an eventful one – other images showed a naked man being led away in handcuffs by police. It is not clear if the man was involved in the book-throwing incident – or why he was not wearing any clothes."
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Your Tax Dollars at Work: Paying For Obamacare Propaganda TV Ads (Video)
The latest taxpayer-funded ad by Stop Medicare Fraud tells viewers that Obamacare will crack down on fraud in the medical industry.
It's nice to know your tax dollars are paying for this propaganda, huh?
"The new health care law helps us crack down on criminals and win against fraud."
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/10/your-tax-dollars-at-work-paying-for-obamacare-propaganda-tv-ads-video/
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Obama Implores Supporters “Don’t Make Me Look Bad” in Midterm Elections (Video)
The arrogance of "The One" strikes again…
President Obama pleaded with a crowd of supporters on Thursday in Maryland to prove the pundits wrong. Obama implored the crowd, "Don't make me look bad."
Via Freedom's Lighthouse:
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/10/obama-implores-supporters-dont-make-me-look-bad-in-midterm-elections-video/
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Barack Obama: “Republicans Messed Up So Bad” That Millions Are Still Out Of Work
Worst. President. Ever.
Barack Obama is the worst jobs president since the Great Depression and possibly is the worst jobs president in US History.
(Source: US Misery Index)
They wanted to fundamentally change America. They did.
According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research the US unemployment rate has not fallen below 10.8 percent in the last 14 months. This is unprecedented. The actual jobless rate has now topped 9.5 percent for 14 straight months, the longest stretch since the 1930s.
From November 2008, the month he was elected, until now, the economy has shed more than an astonishing 4.4 million jobs. That's worse than Hoover.
The US economy lost another 95,000 jobs in September.
So, how does Obama explain his abysmal record? He blames Republicans.
Click on Image for Video–
From the video:
"There are three million Americans who would not be working again if not for the economic plan Joe and I put in place, that's the truth," President Obama told a crowd in Philadelphia.
"The hole we're climbing out of is so deep. The Republicans messed up so bad, left such a big mess, that there is still millions of Americans without work," he added.
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/10/barack-obama-republicans-messed-up-so-bad-that-millions-are-still-out-of-work/
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Enough About the Chamber of Commerce,When Will The Media Cover OBAMA's Foreign Donations?
The MSM has gone hog wild repeating administration charges that there is "secret foreign money" being used by groups such as the Chamber of commerce to help the GOP run advertising for the upcoming mid-term elections. In typical administration fashion there is no truth offered to substantiate the charges, they are only making demands that the Chamber of Commerce, prove the administration charges are false:
White House senior adviser David Axelrod said secret donations to outside political groups are "a threat to our democracy," singling out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for criticism less than a month before elections that will determine control of Congress.Those same news organizations that are rushing to write about the administration's unsubstantiated charges of foreign dollars financing GOP efforts, ignored those same charges about the Obama Presidential campaign in 2008. The difference between the 2008 charges and those being made today, is the charges against the Obama campaign were backed up with evidence.
"If the Chamber opens up its books," Axelrod said on CBS's "Face the Nation" program, "then we'll know. All we have now is their assertion" that foreign money isn't used for advertising in U.S. elections.
The Federal Election Commission said the Obama campaign has reported well over $200 million as coming from contributions of $200 or less. Only a small portion of that sum is attributable to donors the Obama campaign had disclosed.
During the last few months of the campaign Blogger Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs went through publicly accessible records and found foreign donors supporting the Obama effort. Geller published many reports including the series of donations to Obama made by Monir Edwan and Hosam Edwan (Palestinians born and raised in Gaza) totaling $29,521.54. A third brother, Yousef, reportedly gave the campaign about $4,000. After that particular donation was discovered by Geller, the WSJ followed up with the Obama campaign who said the money was returned. Nay, nay said the Palestinians, they told reporter Aaron Klein
Her investigation showed that Gaza was not alone. The Preident's contributions came from over 50 nations. The way they tried to scam the system was the foreign contributors were making multiple small donations, ostensibly in their own names, over a period of a few days, some under maximum donation allowances, but in aggregate they were in excess of the maximums.
Other donations came in from donors with fake names such as "Hbkjb," "jkbkj," and "Doodad." Also, thousands of Obama's foreign donations ended in cents. This was evidence of foreign contributors sending in donations in foreign currencies that exchanged into odd amounts. Donations from living overseas would more likely be in dollars so they wouldn't have those "odd amounts."
The Obama campaign received a substantial amount of money from countries that have an interest in seeing a weak American President: $366,708.22 from China; $25,259.00 from the United Arab Emirates; $7,062.60 from Russia; and $6,716.28 from Saudi Arabia. Obama also took in $6,350.00 from Indonesia; $5,000.00 from Kenya; and $1,750.00 from Egypt.
The records also indicate that Obama also took donations from Tamil Tiger leaders. The Tamil Tigers are, according to the FBI, the most successful terrorist group in the world. While the Hillary Clinton returned contributions from the Tamil Tigers, Obama kept them.
So two years after the election, the mainstream media has yet to report on stories about President Obama's foriegn donations, stories that were verified by FEC documentation, but they are reporting unsubstantiated rumors made by all the President's men. More evidence that one cannot trust what comes out of the mainstream media.
During the last few months of the campaign Blogger Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs went through publicly accessible records and found foreign donors supporting the Obama effort. Geller published many reports including the series of donations to Obama made by Monir Edwan and Hosam Edwan (Palestinians born and raised in Gaza) totaling $29,521.54. A third brother, Yousef, reportedly gave the campaign about $4,000. After that particular donation was discovered by Geller, the WSJ followed up with the Obama campaign who said the money was returned. Nay, nay said the Palestinians, they told reporter Aaron Klein
"No, we did not receive any money back from the Obama campaign at any time," said Monir Edwan.Pamela wrote a series of articles which were barely mentioned in the MSM except to trash her. Her research not only showed foreign contributors, but people who had contributed well over the $2,500 dollar limit, an contributors from the progressive media
Her investigation showed that Gaza was not alone. The Preident's contributions came from over 50 nations. The way they tried to scam the system was the foreign contributors were making multiple small donations, ostensibly in their own names, over a period of a few days, some under maximum donation allowances, but in aggregate they were in excess of the maximums.
Other donations came in from donors with fake names such as "Hbkjb," "jkbkj," and "Doodad." Also, thousands of Obama's foreign donations ended in cents. This was evidence of foreign contributors sending in donations in foreign currencies that exchanged into odd amounts. Donations from living overseas would more likely be in dollars so they wouldn't have those "odd amounts."
The Obama campaign received a substantial amount of money from countries that have an interest in seeing a weak American President: $366,708.22 from China; $25,259.00 from the United Arab Emirates; $7,062.60 from Russia; and $6,716.28 from Saudi Arabia. Obama also took in $6,350.00 from Indonesia; $5,000.00 from Kenya; and $1,750.00 from Egypt.
The records also indicate that Obama also took donations from Tamil Tiger leaders. The Tamil Tigers are, according to the FBI, the most successful terrorist group in the world. While the Hillary Clinton returned contributions from the Tamil Tigers, Obama kept them.
So two years after the election, the mainstream media has yet to report on stories about President Obama's foriegn donations, stories that were verified by FEC documentation, but they are reporting unsubstantiated rumors made by all the President's men. More evidence that one cannot trust what comes out of the mainstream media.
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Good news: Job losses in 2009 bigger than thought. Better news: U.S. Won't Recover Lost Jobs Until M
Well, it;s neither good nor better news, but it is the reality of Obamanomics - the same failed policies that gave us stagflation under Carter. First from al Reuters, a bit of news that tells us what most of us already know - the Obama regime has been lying to us about eth jobs situation. It's much worse than they report every month.
Or not.
Hang onto your butts!
The economy likely shed more jobs last year than previously thought, but analysts say the undercount by the government should prove less severe than it did during depths of the recession.Uh - There's good news there?
The Labor Department on Friday will give an initial estimate of how far off its count of employment may have been in the 12 months through March. The government admitted earlier this year that its count through March 2009 had overstated employment by 902,000 jobs.Uh - the economy had a growth spurt? After 4 straight months of job losses? You know - if this were just some random faulty calculation then you would expect that it would underestimate some times and overestimate others. But this one consistently underestimates. Almost as if by design. But don't let the crappy numbers fool you, even though they are even crappier in reality. And neglect that the stimulus was supposed to create 3.5 Million NEW jobs, not lose 3.5 million. Forget all that because Congressmen like Sander Levin say that 'We've begun to climb the hill' thanks to Recovery Act stimulus. Really - trust not your lying eyes! Also to be ignored is this news from the Investors Business Daily (via memeorandum): U.S. Won't Recover Lost Jobs Until March 2020 At Current Pace. Somewhere in there good news lurks.
Analysts expect a much smaller miscount this time, given the economy's growth spurt in the second half of last year.
The U.S. economy lost 95,000 jobs in September, far worse than expectations for no change in employment. More Census-related temp jobs ended, as expected, but state and local governments slashed staff far more than predicted.A private sector that our community organizer-in-chief has waged war on. Yea - that'll work.
So far in 2010, the U.S. has added just 613,000 jobs — for a monthly average of 68,111.
Employment bottomed in December 2009 at 129.588 million — two years after peaking at 137.951 million. At this year's pace, the U.S. won't recoup all those 8.36 million lost jobs* until March 2020 — 147 months after the December 2007 high.
That would obliterate the old post-World War II record of 47 months set in the wake of the 2001 recession.
The current jobs slump also is the deepest of any in the post-war era, with payrolls down as much as 6.1%. They are still 5.6% below their December 2007 level.
With state and local governments likely to shed workers for at least the next year or two as budget woes continue, the hiring burden will fall entirely on the private sector.
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News Being Manufactured: A Graphic Example of How This is Done to Slander Israel
By Barry Rubin
It is understandably hard for people to believe the amount of violence that is staged and stories that are manipulated coming from the Middle East. Here is a bit of video from the eastern part of Jerusalem.
See what happens: Kids are throwing stones at passing cars with Israeli license plates, some of them run into the road and throw stones. A car is also deliberately parked across the road, partly blocking it. The Israeli driver slams on his brakes but one of them is hit by the car and flies up and over it.
Note the following:
1. The Palestinian and other media release a story saying the driver deliberately hit him. Here's a report in al-Jazira with a photo designed to lie about what happened. This claim is clearly not true. If the driver had been speeding and wanted to do injury he could easily have hit three or four of the kids. Indeed, I've been told that Arabic-language news media is reporting that the driver killed two children (only one was slightly injured). The response to this could be terrorist attacks to get revenge. This is a common pattern.
2. There are a lot of reporters there filming (you can see them on the left and bottom edges). So this was set up for media coverage, as is so much violence in the West Bank particularly. Indeed, there are at least seven photographers visible and there are as many journalists, if not more, than there were rock-throwers.
3. At the end there is a very strange scene. The boy does not appear to have been injured seriously. (I was once hit by a car exactly in this manner and walked away. If you are thrown into the air you will just get some bruises, as long as you don't fall under the car.) But there is an ambulance which has just been standing there waiting for something like this to happen, a sign it is being staged.
4. Yet the boy is holding onto the ambulance door, trying to avoid being put into the ambulance. Why? It may be too much of a stretch to say he fears being made into a martyr by his comrades, or maybe he just wants to stay with his friends but he looks pretty desperate not to get in. If I've overreached on this point I apologize.
5. The Israeli driver's back window has been smashed in by a stone. The driver of course isn't going to stop because he fears for his life and also might be hit by more stones at any moment. He reported the incident to the police and didn't try to hide that it had happened.
6. Some of the driver's friends suggest that he may have been personally targeted for an ambush because he has been an activist on Jerusalem-related issues. They say his car is well-known and he often travels that road. This might be true since there is no evidence of rock-throwing at any cars before he arrived.
Here's a technical analysis of the incident.
If you see stories in your local newspapers or on television saying that an Israeli settler deliberately ran down and killed two Palestinian boys you now know the real story. But most of the readers or viewers won't know any better.
Multiply this story by hundreds of such cases, far too many to correct; add the fact that such clear proof of falsification is often lacking; and blend in the sympathy of many reporters with misreporting events. (Even after Israel released footage showing the soldiers landing on the deck of the Mavi Marmara were attacked and beaten, the New York Times implied that this didn't prove anything).
Now you get a picture of the situation regarding media coverage of Israel.
It is understandably hard for people to believe the amount of violence that is staged and stories that are manipulated coming from the Middle East. Here is a bit of video from the eastern part of Jerusalem.
See what happens: Kids are throwing stones at passing cars with Israeli license plates, some of them run into the road and throw stones. A car is also deliberately parked across the road, partly blocking it. The Israeli driver slams on his brakes but one of them is hit by the car and flies up and over it.
Note the following:
1. The Palestinian and other media release a story saying the driver deliberately hit him. Here's a report in al-Jazira with a photo designed to lie about what happened. This claim is clearly not true. If the driver had been speeding and wanted to do injury he could easily have hit three or four of the kids. Indeed, I've been told that Arabic-language news media is reporting that the driver killed two children (only one was slightly injured). The response to this could be terrorist attacks to get revenge. This is a common pattern.
2. There are a lot of reporters there filming (you can see them on the left and bottom edges). So this was set up for media coverage, as is so much violence in the West Bank particularly. Indeed, there are at least seven photographers visible and there are as many journalists, if not more, than there were rock-throwers.
3. At the end there is a very strange scene. The boy does not appear to have been injured seriously. (I was once hit by a car exactly in this manner and walked away. If you are thrown into the air you will just get some bruises, as long as you don't fall under the car.) But there is an ambulance which has just been standing there waiting for something like this to happen, a sign it is being staged.
4. Yet the boy is holding onto the ambulance door, trying to avoid being put into the ambulance. Why? It may be too much of a stretch to say he fears being made into a martyr by his comrades, or maybe he just wants to stay with his friends but he looks pretty desperate not to get in. If I've overreached on this point I apologize.
5. The Israeli driver's back window has been smashed in by a stone. The driver of course isn't going to stop because he fears for his life and also might be hit by more stones at any moment. He reported the incident to the police and didn't try to hide that it had happened.
6. Some of the driver's friends suggest that he may have been personally targeted for an ambush because he has been an activist on Jerusalem-related issues. They say his car is well-known and he often travels that road. This might be true since there is no evidence of rock-throwing at any cars before he arrived.
Here's a technical analysis of the incident.
If you see stories in your local newspapers or on television saying that an Israeli settler deliberately ran down and killed two Palestinian boys you now know the real story. But most of the readers or viewers won't know any better.
Multiply this story by hundreds of such cases, far too many to correct; add the fact that such clear proof of falsification is often lacking; and blend in the sympathy of many reporters with misreporting events. (Even after Israel released footage showing the soldiers landing on the deck of the Mavi Marmara were attacked and beaten, the New York Times implied that this didn't prove anything).
Now you get a picture of the situation regarding media coverage of Israel.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are Lebanon: Liberation, Conflict, and Crisis (Palgrave Macmillan), Conflict and Insurgency in the Contemporary Middle Eastand editor of the (seventh edition) (Viking-Penguin), The Israel-Arab Reader the paperback edition of The Truth About Syria(Palgrave-Macmillan), A Chronological History of Terrorism (Sharpe), and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley).
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For 2 years no Social Security COLA increase since ’75; Obama years in office 2
RWBNews: Spread the wealth to unions, schools, welfare but screw the seniors and disabled, right Obama? This is the second time since COLA for Social Security has been implemented in '75 that there has been no COLA for Social Security. The first time was (drumroll) This year. How's that spread the wealth thing working for you, Obama?
By AP on http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/10/government-expected-nix-cost-living-increase-social-security/?test=latestnews
WASHINGTON — As if voters don't have enough to be angry about this election year, the government is expected to announce this week that more than 58 million Social Securityrecipients will go through another year without an increase in their monthly benefits.
It would mark only the second year without an increase since automatic adjustments for inflation were adopted in 1975. The first year was this year.
"If you're the ruling party, this is not the sort of thing you want to have happening two weeks before an election," said Andrew Biggs, a former deputy commissioner at the Social Security Administration and now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
"It's not the congressional Democrats' fault, but that's the way politics works," Biggs said. "A lot of people will feel hostile about it."
The cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, are automatically set each year by an inflation measure that was adopted by Congress back in the 1970s. Based on inflation so far this year, the trustees who oversee Social Security project there will be no COLA for 2011.
The projection will be made official on Friday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases inflation estimates for September. The timing couldn't be worse for Democrats as they approach an election in which they are in danger of losing their House majority, and possibly their Senate majority as well.
This past Friday, the same bureau delivered another painful blow to Democrats: The U.S. lost 95,000 jobs in September and unemployment remained stubbornly stuck at 9.6 percent.
Democrats have been working hard to make Social Security an election-year issue, running political ads and holding press conferences to accuse Republicans of plotting to privatize the national retirement program.
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ACORN set to steal elections again using aliases
ACORN--the 'Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now'--has reared its ugly head again.This time, the organization, which has been officially dissolved, has re-emerged under different names across the country.These organizations are set to attempt to do the same thing ACORN did in 2008 for Obama. ACORN was implicated in voter intimidation, registering illegal aliens to vote, allowing the same person to register multiple times under various fictitious names, including the deceased, all with the goal of getting Obama elected. This time the group wishes to...
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Proposed Obama DOE changes to raise water heater prices $67 to $974
Great article – takes you though every room in the house, and how this Administration is raising our costs of living all in the name of often-times contradictory energy savings: How does reduced energy per wash cycle save anything if you have to run more cycles to get your clothes clean:
Here's the opening. Read the entire article.
The Obama administration isn't satisfied giving the American people several big things we don't want — the stimulus package, expanded bailouts, Obamacare — but it is also hitting us with a multitude of bothersome regulations. Perhaps most annoying of all is Washington's attempt to redesign home appliances. Just weeks after taking office, the president announced an accelerated process to create stringent new energy efficiency standards for nearly everything around the house that uses energy. The Department of Energy is well on its way towards accomplishing this goal, boasting of more than 20 such regulations since President Obama came to office.
If past experience is any guide, these regulations will raise the purchase price of appliances — in some cases more than is ever likely to be earned back in the form of energy savings. Worse, several may adversely impact product performance and reliability. There are potentially problematic regulations on the way for virtually every room in the house.
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77% Of Americans Believe They Have Better Judgment Than Obama
I don't have the paid service for Rasmussen so can't check the breakdown from this poll but Don Surber does, and the results are typical:
It was a simple, straightforward question from the Rasmussen Poll: "Whose Judgment You Trust More on Economic Issues?"
The choices were yourself or President Obama.
From mainstream America came the reply: 77% of likely voters said themselves. Only 16% are weenies.
But among the political class — our moral and intellectual superiors — only 5% trust their own judgment over the president's.
92% said Obama.
92% lub Obama so much they trust HIS judgment over their own.
Incredible.
The unemployment national rate is at 9.6%
Unemployment has now topped 9.5 percent for 14 months in a row, the longest stretch since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
And millions are now on food stamps:
FDR feared this self-reliant people might come to depend permanently upon government for the necessities of their daily lives. Like narcotics, such a dependency would destroy the fiber and spirit of the nation.
What brings his words to mind is news that 41.8 million Americans are on food stamps, and the White House estimates 43 million will soon be getting food stamps every month.
What exactly has Obama done other than ruin this economy, and promoting policies that will only further destroy this economy? But 92% of Obama lovers think he has the answers.
Just crazy.
But at least someone is golfing eh?
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Physicist Hal Lewis Resigns Over Global Warming Corruption
Prominent physicist Hal Lewis has resigned from the American Physical Society in disgust over how the science establishment has sacrificed its integrity for government payoffs to prop up the discredited global warming hoax. From his letter of resignation:
When I first joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven years ago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by the money flood (a threat against which Dwight Eisenhower warned a half-century ago). …
How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d'être of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society.
It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford's book organizes the facts very well.) I don't believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.
So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of this challenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone along with it. …
This scheming at APS HQ is so bizarre that there cannot be a simple explanation for it. Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as they used to be, but I don't think that is an issue. I think it is the money, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. There are indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fame and glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being a member of the club. … When Penn State absolved Mike Mann of wrongdoing, and the University of East Anglia did the same for Phil Jones, they cannot have been unaware of the financial penalty for doing otherwise. As the old saying goes, you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. Since I am no philosopher, I'm not going to explore at just which point enlightened self-interest crosses the line into corruption, but a careful reading of the ClimateGate releases makes it clear that this is not an academic question.
I want no part of it, so please accept my resignation.
Public money doled out by liberal ideologues has made real scientists a dying breed. Unless Big Government is scaled back dramatically, Hal Lewis will be one of the last of them.
Liberalism is dragging us back into the dark ages.
On tips from Kevin S, G. Fox, and Jack Bauer. Hat tip: Watts Up With That.
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HMM: NASA Head Ignores Congress, Eyes Cooperation With China….
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