Monday, December 27, 2010
"We're Becoming a Nation of Wussies"
UK Court Remands Nine Terror Suspects
The men, most of them of Bangladeshi origin, are charged with preparing bombing attacks against several targets in London and testing incendiary devices.
Mohammed Moksudur Rahman Chowdhury, 20, one of nine men charged with planning a terrorism attack, leaves Westminster Magistrates Court in London. (Lewis Whyld, Associated Press / December 27, 2010)
The LA Times Reported -
Nine men accused of terrorism and conspiracy to blow up high-profile targets that reportedly included the U.S. Embassy and the London Stock Exchange in a Christmas bombing campaign made their first appearance in a central London court Monday.
Most of the nine, ages 17 to 28, are of Bangladeshi origin. They were among 12 men arrested a week ago in three cities across Britain. Three were released without charge.
They were charged late Sunday after a weeklong interrogation by counter-terrorism police at a London police station. They appeared at the city’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday in three groups.Anti-terrorism prosecutor Sue Hemming said the nine men were charged with preparing to commit terrorist acts or assisting in them.The men were also accused of igniting and testing incendiary materials and downloading material for the preparation of acts of terrorism, Reuters news agency reported, and five of them were charged with possession of documents and records of potential use to terrorists. They will reappear in London’s central criminal court, the Old Bailey, on Jan. 14.
The Guardian newspaper identified the nine as Nazam Hussain, 25, Usman Khan, 19, Mohibur Rahman, 26, and Abul Bosher Mohammed Shahjahan, 26, from Stoke-on-Trent in the Midlands area of England; Gurukanth Desai, 28, Omar Sharif Latif, 26, and Abdul Malik Miah, 24, who were detained in Cardiff, South Wales; and Mohammed Moksudur Rahman Chowdhury, 20, and Shah Mohammed Lutfar Rahman, 28, from London.
Though few details were revealed about the targets, the BBC reported that the men were accused of carrying out reconnaissance of high-profile targets, including the American Embassy and the London Stock Exchange.
I wonder, would it be presumptuous of me to send an e-mail to the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and inform him of the latest developments in this case?
"UK Court Remands Nine Terror Suspects
The men, most of them of Bangladeshi origin, are charged with preparing bombing attacks against several targets in London and testing incendiary devices.
Mohammed Moksudur Rahman Chowdhury, 20, one of nine men charged with planning a terrorism attack, leaves Westminster Magistrates Court in London. (Lewis Whyld, Associated Press / December 27, 2010)
The LA Times Reported -
Nine men accused of terrorism and conspiracy to blow up high-profile targets that reportedly included the U.S. Embassy and the London Stock Exchange in a Christmas bombing campaign made their first appearance in a central London court Monday.
Most of the nine, ages 17 to 28, are of Bangladeshi origin. They were among 12 men arrested a week ago in three cities across Britain. Three were released without charge.
They were charged late Sunday after a weeklong interrogation by counter-terrorism police at a London police station. They appeared at the city’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday in three groups.Anti-terrorism prosecutor Sue Hemming said the nine men were charged with preparing to commit terrorist acts or assisting in them.The men were also accused of igniting and testing incendiary materials and downloading material for the preparation of acts of terrorism, Reuters news agency reported, and five of them were charged with possession of documents and records of potential use to terrorists. They will reappear in London’s central criminal court, the Old Bailey, on Jan. 14.
The Guardian newspaper identified the nine as Nazam Hussain, 25, Usman Khan, 19, Mohibur Rahman, 26, and Abul Bosher Mohammed Shahjahan, 26, from Stoke-on-Trent in the Midlands area of England; Gurukanth Desai, 28, Omar Sharif Latif, 26, and Abdul Malik Miah, 24, who were detained in Cardiff, South Wales; and Mohammed Moksudur Rahman Chowdhury, 20, and Shah Mohammed Lutfar Rahman, 28, from London.
Though few details were revealed about the targets, the BBC reported that the men were accused of carrying out reconnaissance of high-profile targets, including the American Embassy and the London Stock Exchange.
I wonder, would it be presumptuous of me to send an e-mail to the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and inform him of the latest developments in this case?
"Obamacare: Barely implemented, but already over-budget and under-serving
Unfortunately, the program's results so far leave much to be desired. The problem is not...
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Democrats Now Hitting Up Conservative Bloggers for Cash
Fleeced: The upper 1% earned 19.6% of total income before tax, and paid 41% of the individual federal income tax. "No other major country is so dependent on so few taxpayers"
Darned straight! The rich in this country pay far more than their fair share. And not only does bottom 47% of taxpayers pay no federal income tax, but the bottom 40% GET MONEY BACK! That goes right along in consistency with a prior post of mine: 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll: 50% of Americans that don't pay taxes thinks 'rich' people ought to pay more, even though top 1% pay more than bottom 95%
Note that the bottom 50% pay almost no taxes, while the top 5% pay about 60% of the federal tax bill. I agree with one thing - this isn't fair. But I think it is the rich that are paying too much, only to be sneered at by those that pay nothing at all and get OUR money back from the government. It's now gotten so bad, so unfair, that the top 1% pay more in federal taxes than the bottom 95%:
The rich are paying far more than their fair share, and instead of being thanked are demonized by Obama and their ilk. Dave Ramsey is right - Dick Durbin and those of his mindset are thieves. In addition, all data clearly shows that conservatives and the evil rich give far more of their money to charity than liberals. Liberals are very generous... with other people's money. But not their own. They are the true scrooges. With all of that as a backdrop, from Instapundit:EXPLODING A TAX MYTH: A 2008 OECD study of leading economies found that ‘taxation is most progressively distributed in the United States.’ More so than Sweden or France. The problem in the United States is that too many people vote, but don’t pay income taxes.And from Star Parker: Taxing the wealthy is just a sign of envy. The Wall Street Journal also ran this great piece: Taxes and the Top Percentile Myth
...Arguments for these retaliatory tax penalties invariably begin with estimates by economists Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics and Emmanuel Saez of U.C. Berkeley that the wealthiest 1% of U.S. households now take home more than 20% of all household income.The solution of course is an overhaul of the tax system such that everyone has some skin in the game. And our own Dave Camp has the plan. From George Will: Dave Camp's plan: Taxes made simple
This estimate suffers two obvious and fatal flaws. The first is that the 'more than 20%' figure does not refer to 'take home' income at all. It refers to income before taxes (including capital gains) as a share of income before transfers. Such figures tell us nothing about whether the top percentile pays too much or too little in income taxes.
In The Journal of Economic Perspectives (Winter 2007), Messrs. Piketty and Saez estimated that 'the upper 1% of the income distribution earned 19.6% of total income before tax [in 2004], and paid 41% of the individual federal income tax.' No other major country is so dependent on so few taxpayers.
A 2008 study of 24 leading economies by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) concludes that, 'Taxation is most progressively distributed in the United States, probably reflecting the greater role played there by refundable tax credits, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit. . . . Taxes tend to be least progressive in the Nordic countries (notably, Sweden), France and Switzerland.'
The OECD study—titled 'Growing Unequal?'—also found that the ratio of taxes paid to income received by the top 10% was by far the highest in the U.S., at 1.35, compared to 1.1 for France, 1.07 for Germany, 1.01 for Japan and 1.0 for Sweden (i.e., the top decile's share of Swedish taxes is the same as their share of income).
Many parents have heard FICA Screams. Indignant children, holding in trembling hands their first paychecks, demand to know what FICA is and why it is feasting on their pay.
FICA (the Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax) is government compassion, expressed numerically: It is the welfare state; it funds Social Security and Medicare. Sometimes it makes young people into conservatives.
Dave Camp was 14, working for his father's garage in central Michigan, when he made the acquaintance of FICA. Now 57 and about to begin his 11th term in Congress, he will chair the House Ways and Means Committee, where he will try to implement the implications of his complaint that 'the tax code is 10 times longer than the Bible, without the good news.'My recommendation would be to scrap income tax altogether and go with a consumption tax only, also known as the 'fair tax.' Of course, that would take all the graft out of the political arena. Politicians simply cannot do without that.
His aim is 'fundamental' tax reform, understood the usual way - broadening the base (eliminating loopholes) to make lower rates possible. He would like a top rate of 25 percent - three points lower than Ronald Reagan achieved in 1986, with what proved to be perishable simplification.
In George W. Bush's 2004 speech to the Republican convention, he denounced the tax code as 'a complicated mess' that annually requires '6 billion hours of paperwork' - now estimated at 7.6 billion. He vowed to 'simplify' it. The audience cheered. Then he promised new complexities. There would be 'opportunity zones' - tax relief for depressed areas - and a tax credit to encourage businesses to establish health savings accounts. The audience cheered.
Judge Napolitano: "A nation of sheep breeds a government of wolves"
“Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security” - Benjamin Franklin
Judge Andrew Napolitano also asks 'who will protect us from the government?'
Related:
Good grief: Maryland hospital bans all birth photos, video out of fear of lawsuits
Some expectant parents in western Maryland are objecting to a new policy that bans birth photography at the Hagerstown hospital.Reason #41,633 why tort reform is needed. If moonbats get their way, the only birthing pictures allowed will be for mutilated women pretending to be men:
The change took effect Nov. 1, prohibiting video, film or still photography until five minutes after birth.
...The U.S. Office for Civil Rights says birth photography by a family member or friend doesn't violate privacy laws, but that some hospitals prohibit it out of a fear of lawsuits.
Maryland is being infected by the ruling class mentality seeping out of DC and into the streets....Strangers banded together to pull a deer out of the freezing water of the Patapsco River on Thursday night.
Banned, by order of moonbats
“We seen the deer going under,” said Khalil Abusakran. “It couldn’t maintain. It was starting to freeze, and it was really getting bad.”
Abusakran brought a raft, and Jim Hart joined him.
“We had oars and shovels to break the ice, for the deer to get out,” Abusakran said.
But in the excited aftermath of the rescue, a Natural Resources Police officer on the scene wrote both men a ticket.
“And he didn’t say anything,” Jim Hart said. “We went in and out of the water numerous times. He didn’t stop us at all.”
They say they were ticketed for not wearing life vests, although both are over the age for mandatory use of flotation devices.
...The ticket itself doesn’t check off any specific violation, just a $90 fine.
Football fans outraged that Philly game moved to Tuesday on account of global warming
From Philly.com: The Wimps Who Stole Christmas
If you grew up anywhere in the wintry half of this country, you probably have fond memories of hiking up your snow pants and sloshing around with your buddies and your Pete Rozelle-signed football in the backyard drifts - and the only thing that comes a close second to playing football in the snow is watching a classic NFL matchup in a furious downpour of the white stuff.Hey - I agree. Hurricanes postpone football games. Lightning strikes postpone football games, albeit for a matter of minutes. Other than that, what the heck is the problem with snow? Bob didn't take the news well at all:
In 1948, the Eagles won an NFL championship at Shibe Park in a raging blizzard, a game that was never forgotten by the 36,309 die-hards who didn't think twice about braving those conditions to watch history in the making. Then there was the 'Snow-Plow' game in New England and the Pats' memorable playoff victory over Oakland in a snowstorm years later, and the frigid 1967 Ice Bowl in Green Bay. To paraphrase Frank Capra this Christmas season, for a true football fan it would not have been as wonderful a life had those remarkable games never been born.
That's why the decision by the NFL and the Eagles, with input from the city of Philadelphia, to postpone last night's game because of a snowstorm that isn't really all that (we might get 11 inches in the city - not exactly Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer territory, not even close) is more than downright disappointing.
This is the height of wimpiness, and the girly-men who made this sad decision should be ashamed of themselves. The NFL has been rightfully called the No Fun League for a number of years, but this takes that to a whole embarrassing new level. In fact, let's name names here: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Eagles' owner Jeff Lurie and president Joe Banner, and Mayor Nutter - you are the Wimps Who Stole Christmas from football fans in Philadelphia.
Obama didn't talk about the game itself, but did address the Philly top dog as it were (via memeorandum): Obama applauds Eagles for giving Vick second chance.
You Must Be Kidding… PBS Glorifies Cuban Health Care System (Video)
Your taxpayer dollars at work promoting Cuba’s failed socialist system…
PBS recently aired a report on Cuba’s outstanding health care system.
This was simply unbelievable.
Out state-run media is no longer just liberal – It’s communist:
These useful idiots will believe anything!
They forgot to mention that Cuban President Raul Castro just warned his fellow Cubans that they are running out of time and if they don´t change now, their will be an economic collapse.
Mary Anastasia O’Grady at The Wall Street Journal corrected this latest leftist fairy tale.
A Cuban Fairy Tale From PBS
In his memoir covering four years in Cuba as a correspondent for Spanish Television, Vicente BotÃn tells about a Havana woman who was frustrated by the doctor shortage in the country. She hung a sheet on her balcony with the words “trade me to Venezuela.” When the police arrived she told them: “Look, compañeros, I’m as revolutionary as the next guy, but if you want to see a Cuban doctor, you have to go to Venezuela.”
That story was not in the three-part report by Ray Suarez on Cuban health care that aired on PBS’s “NewsHour” last week. Nor was the one about the Cuban whose notice of his glaucoma operation arrived in 2005, three years after he died and five years after he had requested it. Nor was there any coverage of the town Mr. BotÃn writes about close to the city of HolguÃn, that in 2006 had one doctor serving five clinics treating 600 families. In fact, it was hard to recognize the country that Mr. Suarez claimed to be describing.
The series was taped in Cuba with government “cooperation” so there is no surprise that it went heavy on the party line. Still, there was something disturbing about how Mr. Suarez allowed himself to be used by the police state, dutifully reciting its dubious claims as if he were reporting great advances in medical science.
Castro’s military dictatorship marks 52 years in power next week. But the “revolution” is dead. A new generation of angry, young Cubans now vents on Internet blogs and through music, mocking the old man and his ruthless little brother. On Nov. 29, in the city of Santa Clara, hundreds of students launched a spontaneous protest when they were denied access to a televised soccer match they had paid to watch. What began as a demand for refunds soon turned to shouts of “freedom,” “down with Fidel” and “down with socialism,” according to press reports.
Dissent is spreading in Cuba like dengue fever because daily life is so onerous. One of the best documented sources on this subject is the BotÃn narrative (“Los Funerales de Castro,” 2009, available in Spanish only), which pulls back the curtain on “the Potemkin village” that foreigners see on official visits to Cuba. Behind the façade is desperate want. Food, water, transportation, access to health care, electricity, soap and toilet paper are all hard to come by. Even housing is in short supply, with multiple families wedged into single-family homes. The government tries to keep the lid on through repression. But in private there are no limits to the derision of the brothers Castro.
Mr. Suarez’s report, by contrast, is like a state propaganda film. In one segment, an American woman named Gail Reed who lives in Cuba tells him that the government’s claim of its people’s longevity is due to a first-rate system of disease prevention. He then parrots the official line that Cuba’s wealth of doctors is the key ingredient. What is more, he says, these unselfish revolutionary “foot soldiers” go on house calls. “It’s aggressive preventive medicine,” Mr. Suarez explains. “Homes are investigated, water quality checked, electrical plugs checked.”An abundance of doctors? Not in the Cuba Mr. BotÃn lived in. In 2006 the government claimed there were 65,000 doctors. That number, he says, was “a figure that many professionals considered inflated.” When Cubans complained they couldn’t get care, he notes that the state upped the number “magically” to 71,000 five months later. Given Fidel’s habit of making things up, it’s hard to know how many competent doctors the government has trained. But there is no disputing the fact that thousands of medics have been sent overseas in large numbers to earn hard currency for the regime. There is also no question that Cubans are paying the price at home…
Hat Tip K. Solomon
"Researchers: Ancient human (400,000 year old) remains found in Israel
from Atlas Shrugs
Researchers: Ancient human (400,000 year old) remains found in Israel: "
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Researchers: Ancient human (400,000 year old) remains found in Israel: "
Professor Avi Gopher from the Institute of Archeology of Tel Aviv University holds an ancient tooth that was found at an archeological site near Rosh Haain, central Israel, Monday, Dec. 27, 2010. Israeli archaeologists say they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern man. A Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave in central Israel said Monday they found teeth about 400,000 years old. The earliest Homo sapiens remains found until now are half as old. Archaeologist Avi Gopher says further research is needed to solidify the claim. If it does, he says, "this changes the whole picture of evolution."(AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
This find changes evetything. Beginning with evolution theory and crazy crackhpot Jew hater Louis Farrakhan. Won't be long before calypso Lou is calling this a Mossad plot.
Countdown to the Muslims claiming the remains as fakestinian....5,4,3,2,
Researchers: Ancient human remains found in Israel Breibart
(AP) - Israeli archaeologists say they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern man.A Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave in central Israel said Monday they found teeth about 400,000 years old. The earliest Homo sapiens remains found until now are half that old.
Archaeologist Avi Gopher said Monday further research is needed to solidify the claim. If it does, he says, "this changes the whole picture of evolution."
Accepted scientific theory is that Homo sapiens originated in Africa and migrated out.
Not so fast. Science cannot be absolute when they rely so heavily on assumptions instead of concretes.
Dr. Ran Barkai from the Institute of Archeology of Tel Aviv University walks at the archeological site where ancient teeth were discovered near Rosh Haain, central Israel, Monday, Dec. 27, 2010. Israeli archaeologists say they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern man. A Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave in central Israel said Monday they found teeth about 400,000 years old. The earliest Homo sapiens remains found until now are half as old. Archaeologist Avi Gopher says further research is needed to solidify the claim. If it does, he says, "this changes the whole picture of evolution."(AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
China deploying carrier-sinking ballistic missile
from The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
China deploying carrier-sinking ballistic missile: "China's military is deploying a new anti-ship ballistic missile that can sink U.S. aircraft carriers, a weapon that specialists say gives Beijing new power-projection capabilities"
China deploying carrier-sinking ballistic missile: "China's military is deploying a new anti-ship ballistic missile that can sink U.S. aircraft carriers, a weapon that specialists say gives Beijing new power-projection capabilities"
New global banking rules proposed on bankers' pay...
from Drudge Report RSS Feed - Drudge Feed, Drudge RSS, Drudge XML
New global banking rules proposed on bankers' pay...: "
New global banking rules proposed on bankers' pay...
(Second column, 8th story, link)
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New global banking rules proposed on bankers' pay...: "
New global banking rules proposed on bankers' pay...
(Second column, 8th story, link)
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How Obamacare keeps families trapped in poverty
from Beltway Confidential
How Obamacare keeps families trapped in poverty: " In order to help pay for the $20 billion "Doc Fix" in Medicare payment rates, the government now has an “exchange recapture subsidy,” which basically allows the government to compel low-income families to return any excess subsidies they might have gotten from Obamacare. Shikha Dalmia has a must read piece at The Daily...
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How Obamacare keeps families trapped in poverty: " In order to help pay for the $20 billion "Doc Fix" in Medicare payment rates, the government now has an “exchange recapture subsidy,” which basically allows the government to compel low-income families to return any excess subsidies they might have gotten from Obamacare. Shikha Dalmia has a must read piece at The Daily...
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