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konane's Blog

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The hunt is on .....

This is going to be good if it's true.  Picked it up via Powerline to The Strata-Sphere. 

Live links embedded.

"ABC Might Be Target of Leak Investigation

"Is it possible the NSA phone database story was a red herring, put out to leakers and reporters in order to make them break cover? The story, if true, definitely provided some important information on how to evade detection. It seems one target may be Brian Ross from ABC News. Ross has a record of exposing national security information to our enemies at left wing sites. His bio is impressive, but he seems to be a Woodward and Bernstein wannabe. He has high level sources inside the government: ".......
Entry #314

"What If Mexicans Were Crack?

Real article, real title, real author.
"What If Mexicans Were Crack?
Some similar arguments
By Johan Goldberg
National Review Online
"President Bush hoped to tone down and sober up the immigration fight Monday night. But it amounted to a soft “shush” at WrestleMania. 

The most interesting part of this political and ideological cage match is that few of the usual labels have much utility. President Bush and Senator Kennedy agree on a lot. Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, can sound like conservative Republicans in their demands to close the border. Weekly Standard editor and Fox News sage Bill Kristol declares himself a “liberal” on immigration and “soft” on illegal immigration. Both the Weekly Standard and the editors of the Wall Street Journal consider National Review to be part of the mob of “yahoos” trying, in Kristol’s words, to drive the GOP “off a cliff.”

 

So this seems like a propitious time to ask: What if illegal immigrants were crack? 

 

It’s not such a crazy comparison, by the way. There’s a reason why the drug war and illegal immigration have similar scripts, even though the actors reading the lines change.

 

The overwhelming majority of drugs entering this country cross the U.S.-Mexican border. Indeed, in the 1990s, to the extent that the debate over building a wall along the border got any traction, it stemmed from the war on drugs, not a war on illegal immigration. The steel fence constructed between San Diego and Tijuana—which works quite well, by the way—was built to stop drug traffickers, not gardeners.

 

Meanwhile, labels like “Left” and “Right,” “liberal” and “conservative” don’t get you very far when debating the drug war either. For example, National Review is foursquare against the drug war (though I dissent from my colleagues on this front). Meanwhile, the Weekly Standard has been a staunch supporter of the drug war, even taking hawkish positions on medical marijuana.

 

In 1996, NR’s editors wrote:

 

t is our judgment that the war on drugs has failed, that it is diverting intelligent energy away from how to deal with the problem of addiction, that it is wasting our resources, and that it is encouraging civil, judicial, and penal procedures associated with police states.

 

Similar arguments—from La Raza to Jack Kemp, Ted Kennedy to Ben Stein—fill the air today, with charges that immigration officials are a new “Gestapo.”

 

“How many border guards would it take to make the U.S.-Mexican border impenetrable?” asked the Washington Post this week. “The answer ... is: It depends. It depends on how much money people are willing to spend and how many trappings of a police state they’re willing to accept.”

 

There are other similarities. For many, “comprehensive reform” really means decriminalizing and de-stigmatizing illegal immigration just as “reform” of our drug laws translates to the same thing for drug use. Charges of racism echo each other in both debates as well. Somehow, it’s the fault of those favoring border security that most illegal immigrants are Mexicans and the fault of drug warriors that minorities are disproportionately in the drug trade.

 

But for me the most interesting similarity is the issue of futility and will. Drug-war doves claim that you can’t win the drug war because you can’t defeat the laws of supply and demand. As long as there is demand for drugs, there will be a supply, and no acceptable amount of militarization of the drug war will change that. This argument gets flipped on its head when it comes to immigration. Suddenly, militarization is essential to the top priority of cutting off supply.

 

But the fact is, in all likelihood your average illegal immigrant, desperate to start a new life for himself and provide for his family, will be no less determined to sell his labor than a drug dealer would be to sell his goods.

 

Some drug legalization advocates hang their position on a lot of moral preening about the absolute right of the individual to do what he wants. But many of the same people will then argue that it is—and should be—an outrageous crime to hire an illegal immigrant. Well, conservative economic dogma considers the right to form contracts with whomever you wish to be sacrosanct. It is “the socialist society” according to the philosopher Robert Nozick, “which would have to forbid capitalist acts between consenting adults.”

 

My point here is not to say one position is more right than the other. Drugs and immigration are, ultimately, very different things, and it’s the differences that explain why the analogy isn’t perfect. Citizenship, sovereignty, rule of law: These things are rendered meaningless if the distinction between legal and illegal immigration is meaningless.

 

But the key similarity is important. Most opponents of the drug war came to their position because they consider the effort worthy in principle, but ultimately futile in the face of a more determined “enemy,” and a bit silly since the gains of winning aren’t that important to them. The burgeoning war against illegal immigration has already been preemptively surrendered by many for roughly the same reasons. What that says about America probably depends on what you think about illegal immigrants or drugs. "

  http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzhjOTMyOGQwYmJhZDNhNWE4NWFmYjZiNGJiODc4MDE=

Entry #313

The senate has gone nuts!!!

I don't know who - what - where with the Senate bill on immigration but they have their heads squarely where no sun shines .....  they're totally out of touch with reality. 

First section is what Republican Senator Isakson says.  Georgia's Republican Senator Chambliss is even more conservative so don't believe Georgia is dropping the ball(s). 

However, it sounds like some other senators from other states need to find theirs.   

Contact Washington through email or fax or phone ... it's my understanding since the anthrax scare that they simply don't open snail mail.

Embedded live links.

Georgia Republican Senator Johnny Isakson is said to be ready to introduce an amendment to any immigration reform bill that would require that the Department of Homeland Security certify that our borders are secure before a guest worker program can be instituted.        Pundits say that this would chase the Democrats away. Why?  This one is easy.  It's because Democrats don't want secure borders.  Democrats see the invasion force as a ready source of future Democratic votes.

Weighing in is Powerlineblog.com

"Reconquista, Here We Come!

 

"The Heritage Foundation and Senator Jeff Sessions try to blow the whistle on the Senate's compromise immigration "reform" bill, via the Washington Times:  (article below)

.."No Senator who votes for this proposal, regardless of party, should be re-elected in November. Of course, two-thirds of them don't have to run. The House may be our only hope."

"Bill permits 193 million more aliens by 2026

By Charles Hunt
Washington Times
"The Senate immigration reform bill would allow for up to 193 million new legal immigrants -- a number greater than 60 percent of the current U.S. population -- in the next 20 years, according to a study released yesterday.
    "The magnitude of changes that are entailed in this bill -- and are largely unknown -- rival the impact of the creation of Social Security or the creation of the Medicare program," said Robert Rector, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation who conducted the study.
    Although the legislation would permit 193 million new immigrants in the next two decades, Mr. Rector estimated that it is more likely that about 103 million new immigrants actually would arrive in the next 20 years.
    Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican who conducted a separate analysis that reached similar results, said Congress is "blissfully ignorant of the scope and impact" of the bill, which has bipartisan support in the Senate and has been praised by President Bush.
    "This Senate is not ready to pass legislation that so significantly changes our future immigration policy," he said yesterday. "The impact this bill will have over the next 20 years is monumental and has not been thought through."
    The 614-page "compromise" bill -- hastily cobbled together last month by Republican Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Mel Martinez of Florida -- would give illegal aliens who have been in the U.S. two years or longer a right to citizenship. Illegals who have been here less than two years would have to return to their home countries to apply for citizenship.
    Although that "amnesty" would be granted to about 10 million illegals, the real growth in the immigrant population would come later.
    As part of the bill, the annual flow of legal immigrants allowed into the U.S. would more than double to more than 2 million annually. In addition, the guest-worker program in the bill would bring in 325,000 new workers annually who could later apply for citizenship.
    That population would grow exponentially from there because the millions of new citizens would be permitted to bring along their extended families. Also, Mr. Sessions said, the bill includes "escalating caps," which would raise the number of immigrants allowed in as more people seek to enter the U.S.
    "The impact of this increase in legal immigration dwarfs the magnitude of the amnesty provisions," said Mr. Rector, who has followed Congress for 25 years. He called the bill "the most dramatic piece of legislation in my experience."
    Mr. Rector based his numerical projection on the number of family members that past immigrants have sponsored.
    Immigration into the U.S. would become an "entitlement," Mr. Sessions said. "The decision as to who may come will almost totally be controlled by the desire of the individuals who wish to immigrate to the United States rather than by the United States government."
Although most opposition has come from conservatives, liberals are growing increasingly uneasy about increasing the competition for American jobs -- especially the low-paying ones.
    Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, North Dakota Democrat, said yesterday that he would introduce an amendment to strip out the guest-worker program, warning that the legislation would "pull apart the middle class in this country."
    One of the most alarming aspects of the bill, opponents say, is that it eliminates a long-standing policy of U.S. immigration law that prohibits anyone from gaining permanent status here who is considered "likely to become a public charge," meaning welfare or other government subsidy.
    This change is particularly troublesome because the bill also slants legal immigration away from highly skilled and highly educated workers to the unskilled and uneducated, who are far more likely to require public assistance. In addition, adult immigrants will be permitted to bring along their parents, who would eventually be eligible for Social Security even though they had never paid into it.
    Mr. Rector estimated that the eventual cost of the bill to the American taxpayer would be about $50 billion per year. Mr. Sessions said he hopes to educate his colleagues about what's in the bill before they vote on it, but there's little evidence that they're interested.
    Last month, he asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to conduct an in-depth study and hold hearings into the fiscal impact of the bill as well as the impact the bill would have on future immigration. The committee produced no study and held one hearing strictly on the fiscal aspects of the bill. Only three of his fellow panel members showed up, he said. " 
Entry #312

Another media "faux pas"

  "mistake"  =  agenda     ...........  it's getting VERY old.  Shameful and tasteless.

"CNN'S LATEST 'MISTAKE'

This is getting to be a regular thing over at CNN.  Last night, CNN went to President Bush for his speech...but wait, it wasn't his speech. (video)  The president got a bad cue from the NBC pool cameras.  The video they aired was 16 seconds long...just enough to embarrass George W. Bush.  CNN called it a mistake.  Sure it was.  Not one other cable or broadcast news channel aired this false start ... but CNN did.  Can you see where this might  lead people to one conclusion: somebody at CNN did it on purpose.  Of course, they've done stuff like this before...remember the black X over Cheney's face during a speech he gave?

Then again .. it could just be a lack of skill in the control room.  Good help is hard to find these days."

http://boortz.com/nuze/200605/05162006.html#cnn

Entry #311

"Reality of the Leisure Class

Chattering class socialists always "know what's best for us" but taking a look at European social engineering shows they don't have a clue out where the rubber meets the road. 

"Reality of the Leisure Class

By Constantin Gurdgiev

Source Tech Central Station Daily Europe

"Andrew Carnegie's century-old conjecture asserts that large inheritance will decrease a person's labor-force participation. The idle wealthy classes aside, a somewhat different proposition applies for the working classes: a decrease in after-tax real income through higher taxation of wages and consumption will, in general, lead to falling hours worked and less leisure time.

 

From the point of view of European policymakers, accustomed to chronic unemployment, it is the latter part of this proposition that presents the greatest problem. Proponents of the European social model have argued that the excessively long hours worked by Americans cannot be accepted by European workers, who are willing to sacrifice higher income for more quality leisure. This implies that the European social model, with higher taxes, more social spending and severe restrictions on work time and working conditions, yields more free time to be spent on cultural activities, education, travel, family and friends.

 

There is, however, one problem with this idea: it is simply not true.

 

The latest evidence from the US Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the University of Chicago shows that while the length of the average work-week has been nearly steady in the US over the last four decades, the leisure time available to the American workers has risen even faster. According to the study's authors, Mark Aguiar and Erik Hurst,

 

"...between 1965 and 2003 leisure for men increased by 6-8 hours per week (driven by a decline in market work hours) and for women by 4-8 hours per week (driven by a decline in home production work hours). This increase in leisure corresponds to roughly an additional 5 to 10 weeks of vacation per year, assuming a 40-hour work week. We also find that leisure increased during the last 40 years for a number of sub-samples of the population, with less-educated adults experiencing the largest increases."

 

Thus, for women, paid working hours are getting longer; for men, they are falling. But unpaid working hours in household services, for both men and women, have been falling even faster. Thus, total work hours declined and leisure increased.

 

The second point made in the above quote is even more revealing. Apparently, it is the lower-educated, lower-income groups that are seeing the greatest expansion in leisure time. If the European Social Engineers are right and more leisure leads to a more meaningful and more satisfying life, the American model implies that the greatest beneficiaries of more flexible labor markets are the poor. This does make European complaints about increasing income inequality in the US somewhat fallacious.

 

Another myth is that Americans work more than Europeans. By now, a wealth of studies have found very little difference in work and leisure times between American and European employees, once one takes into the account the hours spent working in household production of trivial home services.

 

A January 2003 study from IZA-Berlin compared Americans and Germans and found that "...overall working time is very similar on both sides of the Atlantic. Americans spend more time on market work but Germans invest more in household production." According to the authors "...these differences in the allocation of time can be explained by differences in the tax-wedge and wage differentials."

 

The tax-wedge is a measure of tax burden that combines income tax, employment tax and consumption taxes to assess the overall effect of government levies on household income.

 

Ronald Schettkat of Utrecht University confirms that "...when time in household production is included, overall working time is very similar on both sides of the Atlantic" and shows that American men work almost exactly the same hours, paid and unpaid, as German men, while American women work actually 1.5 hours a week less than their German counterparts.

 

Conny Olovson of Stockholm University conducted a comparative analysis of the effects of tax regimes in Sweden and the US on labor market decisions by the households. The study found that while "market work per person is roughly 10% higher in the US than in Sweden, including home production on the side of work hours reduces the difference to approximately 1%". Just as before, higher labor and consumption taxes were responsible for the majority of the observed differences in the household decision to purchase or to supply home services using their own labor.

 

There is more to the story of the different labor markets found across the Atlantic than the simple home vs. firm production hours story told so far suggests. Thomas Sargent and Lars Ljungqvist in their 1997 paper show that the persistently high unemployment that plagued the European economies since the 1970s can be attributed to a large extent to the "welfare states' diminished ability to cope with more turbulent economic times, such as the ongoing restructuring from manufacturing to the service industry, adoption of new technologies and a rapidly changing international economy". Furthermore, the authors show that the European Social Welfare states' approach to the labor markets regulations is conducive to cumulative losses of skills in the economies with high unemployment rates.

 

According to the 2004 study by Stephen Nickel of the London School of Economics, "Comparing ... France, Germany and Italy with the United States, the difference in the tax wedge (around 16 percentage points) would explain ...around one quarter of the overall difference in the employment rate." The remainder can be attributed to other Social Welfare state features of the European model including the substantial differences in the social security systems and labor market institutions. Omitting Italy from consideration, Edward Prescott shows that the effective marginal tax on labor income accounts for most of the differences in labor supply across the Atlantic.

 

Finally, using the data for the OECD economies, Steven Davis of the University of Chicago and Magnus Henrekson of the University of Stockholm showed that during the mid 1990s "a tax rate difference of 12.8 percentage points was associated with 122 fewer market work hours per adult per year, a drop of 4.9 percentage points in the employment-population ratio, and a rise in the shadow economy equal to 3.8 percent of GDP. It also leads to 10 to 30 percent lower employment and value added shares in (a) retail trade and repairs, (b) eating, drinking and lodging, and (c) a broader industry group that includes wholesale and motor trade." To put this into perspective, the current tax wedge between the US and the EU15 stands at 18 percent.

 

All of this evidence does not bode well for the European model. While generating lower incomes than the US-styled approach to labor markets regulations and taxation, the so-called socially caring Welfare States of Europe effectively imprison large percentage of their population in perpetual unemployment. As the unemployed lose skills due to jobs absence, those in paid employment are forced by higher taxation of their income and consumption to waste their time off work on largely unproductive activities such as house work and DIY.

 

Less regulation and more flexibility in the labor markets, coupled with lower taxation of income and consumption, delivers in reality what the European model only promises in theory."

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=051506G

Comments
Entry #310

....Bizarre Infection Surfacing in South Texas

As if we don't have enough diseases to be concerned over, here comes another.

http://www.safesolutionsinc.com/morgellons.htm
http://www.morgellons.org/
 
"Doctors Puzzled Over Bizarre Infection Surfacing in South Texas




May 12, 2006
Deborah Knapp
KENS 5 Eyewitness News

If diseases like AIDS and bird flu scare you, wait until you hear what's next. Doctors are trying to find out what is causing a bizarre and mysterious infection that's surfaced in South Texas.

Morgellons disease is not yet known to kill, but if you were to get it, you might wish you were dead, as the symptoms are horrible.

"These people will have like beads of sweat but it's black, black and tarry," said Ginger Savely, a nurse practioner in Austin who treats a majority of these patients.

Patients get lesions that never heal.

"Sometimes little black specks that come out of the lesions and sometimes little fibers," said Stephanie Bailey, Morgellons patient.

Patients say that's the worst symptom — strange fibers that pop out of your skin in different colors.

"He'd have attacks and fibers would come out of his hands and fingers, white, black and sometimes red. Very, very painful," said Lisa Wilson, whose son Travis had Morgellon's disease.

While all of this is going on, it feels like bugs are crawling under your skin. So far more than 100 cases of Morgellons disease have been reported in South Texas.

"It really has the makings of a horror movie in every way," Savely said.

While Savely sees this as a legitimate disease, there are many doctors who simply refuse to acknowledge it exists, because of the bizarre symptoms patients are diagnosed as delusional.

"Believe me, if I just randomly saw one of these patients in my office, I would think they were crazy too," Savely said. "But after you've heard the story of over 100 (patients) and they're all — down to the most minute detail — saying the exact same thing, that becomes quite impressive."

Travis Wilson developed Morgellons just over a year ago. He called his mother in to see a fiber coming out of a lesion.

"It looked like a piece of spaghetti was sticking out about a quarter to an eighth of an inch long and it was sticking out of his chest," Lisa Wilson said. "I tried to pull it as hard as I could out and I could not pull it out."

The Wilson's spent $14,000 after insurance last year on doctors and medicine.

"Most of them are antibiotics. He was on Tamadone for pain. Viltricide, this was an anti-parasitic. This was to try and protect his skin because of all the lesions and stuff," Lisa said.

However, nothing worked, and 23-year-old Travis could no longer take it.

"I knew he was going to kill himself, and there was nothing I could do to stop him," Lisa Wilson said.

Just two weeks ago, Travis took his life.

Stephanie Bailey developed the lesions four-and-a-half years ago.

"The lesions come up, and then these fuzzy things like spores come out," she said.

She also has the crawling sensation.

"You just want to get it out of you," Bailey said.

She has no idea what caused the disease, and nothing has worked to clear it up.

"They (doctors) told me I was just doing this to myself, that I was nuts. So basically I stopped going to doctors because I was afraid they were going to lock me up," Bailey said.

Harriett Bishop has battled Morgellons for 12 years. After a year on antibiotics, her hands have nearly cleared up. On the day, we visited her she only had one lesion and she extracted this fiber from it.

"You want to get these things out to relieve the pain, and that's why you pull and then you can see the fibers there, and the tentacles are there, and there are millions of them," Bishop said.

So far, pathologists have failed to find any infection in the fibers pulled from lesions.

"Clearly something is physically happening here," said Dr. Randy Wymore, a researcher at the Morgellons Research Foundation at Oklahoma State University's Center for Health Sciences.

Wymore examines the fibers, scabs and other samples from Morgellon's patients to try and find the disease's cause.

"These fibers don't look like common environmental fibers," he said.

The goal at OSU is to scientifically find out what is going on. Until then, patients and doctors struggle with this mysterious and bizarre infection. Thus far, the only treatment that has showed some success is an antibiotic.

"It sounds a little like a parasite, like a fungal infection, like a bacterial infection, but it never quite fits all the criteria of any known pathogen," Savely said

No one knows how Morgellans is contracted, but it does not appear to be contagious. The states with the highest number of cases are Texas, California and Florida.

The only connection found so far is that more than half of the Morgellons patients are also diagnosed with Lyme disease.

For more information on Morgellons, visit the research foundation's Web site at www.morgellons.org.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA051106.morgellans.KENS.32030524.html

Comments
Entry #309

Troops to the border & Wiretapping

Embedded live links.

"TROOPS TO THE BORDER? IT'S ABOUT TIME

With 8 out of 10 Americans wanting our border with Mexico shut down, it may just be that the politicians in Washington are starting to listen. Or at least maybe somebody at the Pentagon doesn't have their head stuck up their you know what. It all started yesterday. The House voted to allow the Pentagon to help the Department of Homeland Security secure the border.

Well! Let's get right to it. Our border with Mexico is 1,952 miles long...and spans four states. Let's send all the troops that aren't in Iraq down there to stop the invasion of illegal aliens. The orders could be simple: our border is shut down....anyone caught trying to cross will be stopped. Any one that fires on our troops will be treated like a hostile invading force. should stop the influx.

So now the Pentagon is working on a plan to send the National Guard down there to help. It's about time. The governors of the four border states have been jumping up and down for months asking for help from the feds. After all, it is the responsibility of the federal government to protect the borders.

Now there will be opposition to this. Some will say the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits federal troops from conducting law enforcement duties. They're wrong. They're stopping an invasion. If we can't use troops to stop an invasion, what can we use them for?

Besides...remember when Bush Senior sent the Marines to Los Angeles to put down the L.A. riots? It's been done before.

________________________________

"THE NSA PHONE DATABASE

Boy, it's really hit the fan over this NSA wiretapping database. USA Today is reporting that the federal government has been keeping phone records on tens of millions of Americans, all with the help of AT&T, Verizon and (soon to be part of AT&T again) Bellsouth. Supposedly, the arrangement is that the calls are not listened to or recorded. Evidently the NSA analyzes the calling data...numbers dialed, duration and so forth...to detect any terrorist activity. Sort of like credit card companies tracking your spending patterns to search for fraud.

The president came out yesterday and insisted nothing was amiss, saying "The government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval. We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans." Members of Congress weren't swayed...lawmakers from both parties are quite upset. Expect investigations with the phone companies being hauled before Congress.

But people shouldn't be surprised. This has been going on for decades. The NSA was created in 1952 by Harry Truman, and has been spying ever since. In fact, there was a scandal 30 years ago that showed the NSA had been wiretapping for 20 years. It is outrageous that the government can do all of this without a warrant, but only a fool would believe they never do.

The moral of the story? Watch what you say into a telephone...because big brother might be listening --- or your husband could be on the extension.

http://boortz.com/nuze/200605/05122006.html#border
Comments
Entry #308

"Iran Declares War

Thanks to Powerlineblog.com for the heads up on this story.

You have to be a subscriber to access the rest of it so should you wish, click the lower link to see if you can find a suitable sign in.

"Iran Declares War

New York Sun Editorial
May 11, 2006

"President Ahmadinejad's letter to President Bush, widely interpreted as a peaceful overture, is in fact a declaration of war. The key sentence in the letter is the closing salutation. In an eight-page text of the letter being circulated by the Council on Foreign Relations, it is left untranslated and rendered as "Vasalam Ala Man Ataba'al hoda." What this means is "Peace only unto those who follow the true path."

It is a phrase with historical significance in Islam, for, according to Islamic tradition, in year six of the Hejira - the late 620s - the prophet Mohammad sent letters to the Byzantine emperor and the Sassanid emperor telling them to convert to the true faith of Islam or be conquered. The letters included the same phrase that President Ahmadinejad used to conclude his letter to Mr. Bush. For Mohammad, the letters were a prelude to a Muslim offensive, a war launched for the purpose of imposing Islamic rule over infidels." ....

http://www.nysun.com/article/32594

http://www.bugmenot.com/

Comments
Entry #307

"Snow issues detailed rebuttals to media

It's about time!!!!      Party    Now if he'd just set a few of them straight at press conferences ... one in particular comes to mind.
 "Snow issues detailed rebuttals to media coverage of the president. 

Bill Sammon, The Examiner
May 11, 2006 7:00 AM (4 hrs ago)

WASHINGTON - New White House Press Secretary Tony Snow is starting off in a combative mode against the press by issuing detailed rebuttals to what he considers unfair coverage of Bush.

“The New York Times continues to ignore America’s economic progress,” blared the headline of an e-mail sent to reporters Wednesday by the White House press office. "..............

http://www.examiner.com/a-104890~Snow_issues_detailed_rebuttals_to_media_coverage_of_the_president.html

Comments
Entry #305

"Tax and Spend Lessons

Taxes slow growth, by lessening purchasing power, lowering our standard of living because there is less money to spend on things that make our lives better. 

Hatred of the rich is Marxist thinking which has been a core philosophy of US leftist (themselves very rich, well insulated, tax sheltered by the best tax attorneys their well protected $$$$$ can buy) politicians for years.  Anything for votes including creating class warfare which is a tactic lifted directly from the communist playbook.

As I said in a comment on Todd's blog socialism and communism are fraternal twins. 

We can learn much by the best socialist model going .... or better yet sputtering ..... the European Union and compare its economy to our own bustling, growing economy.  No wonder they and our own leftist politicians want us to follow lock step behind the EU ............... to slow our economy into non-competition with theirs.

"Tax and Spend Lessons from Germany
By Amity Shales
Source Tech Central Station Daily 

"Bloomberg columnist Amity Shlaes alerts TCS readers to the tax situation in Germany, and lessons for Americans:

 

Right now we're having an intense debate about the merits of the Bush tax program. But it is probably worthwhile to recognize that the idea of tax increases is not merely theoretical. The other half of the experiment is being carried out in Europe.

 

Germany has a budget problem and so is increasing the value added tax (VAT). To deliver what the budget teams demand, Germany has discovered to its own chagrin, a rather large tax increase is required. So Germany is now planning the largest tax increase in history, an increase in the Value Added Tax to 19 per cent from 16 percent. The government recognizes and is even openly acknowledging that the consequence will be lost growth. (For more on this, see my updates at Bloomberg).

 

As if that were not enough the Social Democrats are demanding and getting a "Reichensteuer," a rich man's tax. It is an increase in the top marginal rate of income tax, mainly just to demonstrate that they are good class warriors. Aside from scoring points for the left-leaning party, the only effect of that should be to drive the job-creators over to Belgium or Luxembourg. Or to other tax havens.

 

The Social Democrats are, to my mind, worse than their Marxist parents. Hey, everyone is wrong from time to time. At least the Marxists of West Europe were sincere! Did I mention that they are also talking about introducing expanding the capital gains tax so that it affects more individuals?

 

You really want to keep your eye on Chancellor Angela Merkel. The reality is that she is stuck in a grand coalition, which means she must share the leadership with the Social Democrats. Angela is clearly a "mensch'' and she is hard not to like after Gerhard Schroeder, who was so very plastic.

 

But you want to remember that she is by training a particle physicist. The first half of her career was about doing science from top down; in other words she is more of an engineer by philosophy than a gardener. Temperament matters in a leader. Even someone who hates communism viscerally, as Angela does, won't naturally be a free marketeer unless it fits in her personality. "

 

Amity Shlaes is a columnist with Bloomberg news and a TCS contributor. "

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=051106G
Comments
Entry #304

"Where are the bodies?

"Everything you know is wrong

By John Stossel

Source Twonhall.com

"Where are the bodies?

For years, reporters have been alerting America to one scare after another. Chemicals, cell phones, SARS -- everything is going to kill us! You would think by now we'd be doing nothing but digging graves.

Instead, Americans are living longer than ever. Not that you'd ever know that from the mainstream media.

So let's grab a shovel to clear away the nonsense and dig out the truth: Myths, lies and stupidity are often the basis of today's scary news stories.

Reports that motorists using cell phones were triggering explosions at gas stations sent fear at gas stations through the roof (where gas prices, adjusted for inflation, haven't gone). But there is no evidence that cell phones are much of a threat.

The media keeps pumping out the stories. In 2004, the Poughkeepsie [N.Y.] Journal ran this scary headline: "Cell Phone Ring Starts Fire at Gas Station."

The story quoted the local fire chief, Pat Koch, as saying gas vapors were ignited by the ringing of a cell phone. But -- stop the presses and start shoveling -- just days later, Koch said: "After further investigation . . . I have concluded that the source of ignition was from some source other than the cell phone . . . most likely static discharge from the motorist himself." The truth is that anything that involves static or sparks can ignite gasoline fumes, including rubbing your rear end against a cloth car seat on a dry winter day.

At the University of Oklahoma, there's a "Center for the Study of Wireless Electromagnetic Compatibility," which researches the effects of electronic devices on our lives. The center examined incident reports and scientific data, and concluded that there was "virtually no evidence to suggest that cell phones pose a hazard at gas stations." The researchers went even further: "The historical evidence," it said, "does not support the need for further research."

You're about as likely to be toasted by a dragon. To its credit, the Poughkeepsie Journal gave its follow-up story as much play as the original. The media rarely do that. Usually, the alarmist and scientifically clueless media just keep churning out the scares.

A persistent media myth holds that chemicals are responsible for "the cancer epidemic." The truth is, there is no cancer epidemic. In fact, the cancer death rate has been declining for more than a decade. If you're tempted to argue that fewer die from cancer today simply because there are better treatments, look at the cancer incidence rates.

The incidence of prostate and breast cancer is up, but that's only because there's more early detection. Lung cancer increased in women because more women took up cigarettes, and skin cancer increased because of lunatic sunbathing. But overall, cancer rates are flat, and lots of cancers, like stomach, uterine, and colorectal cancer, are on the decline.

We think there's a cancer epidemic because we hear more about cancer. It's a disease of an aging population, and fortunately, more people now live long enough to get cancer. More talk about it, too. Many years ago, people who got cancer were secretive about it.

But the main reason we think there is an epidemic is that the media, suspicious of technology, hype dubious risks.

Almost every week, there is another story about a potential menace. Reporters credulously accept the activists' scares: While I've been a reporter, I've been asked to do alarmist reports about hair dye, dry cleaning, coffee, chewing gum, saccharin, cyclamates, NutraSweet, nitrites, Red No. 2 dye, electric blankets, video display terminals, dental fillings, cellular phones, vaccines, potato chips, farmed salmon, Teflon, antiperspirants and even rubber duckies.

I refused to do most of those stories. If one-tenth of what the reporters suggested was happening did happen, there would be mass death. The opposite is true: Despite exposure to radiation and all those nasty new chemicals, Americans today live longer than ever.

So grab a bar of chocolate (it's healthier than you think, if you eat the right kind) and a copy of my new book, just out this week.

Everything you know is wrong -- and that's very good news.

Award-winning news correspondent John Stossel is co-anchor of ABC News "20/20" and author.

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/JohnStossel/2006/05/10/196842.html

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Entry #303

"It's All About the Documents

Seems what we need to do is close the border except for leaving, enforce our current immigration laws while mandating a chipped ID for any guest workers.  Not too much to ask after 9-11.

  Thumbs Up          Thumbs Up

For beginners there's the "Send A Brick" movement to send a brick to Washington to start building the wall....  Perhaps even the slow ones will get the message.      http://www.send-a-brick.com/ 

"It's All About the Documents

by Ray Haynes

Source CaliforniaRepublic.org 

"Everything we do in life is about the documents. We are born, we live, and we die with documents attached to us. So whenever you here someone claim that something is not wrong, it is just “undocumented,” keep that in mind.

For instance, in California, if you practice law without the appropriate documentation twice, you are guilty of a felony. Would it be a defense to that felony charge that you are not a felon, but rather just an undocumented lawyer?

How about the unauthorized practice of medicine? If someone dies, and you don’t have the right medical documents, you are guilty of murder. It is not just the “undocumented” provision of medical services.

Unlicensed contractors? Just undocumented carpenters, bricklayers, engineers, plumbers, and electricians.

We even have documents that establish our ownership of our property. Car thieves are car thieves, not undocumented motor vehicle operators. Trespassers are trespassers, not undocumented easement holders. If you take property from a store without a receipt, you are a thief, not an undocumented possessor of property

Businesses require the right licenses from government. Indeed, if someone starts up a bank and does not get a license from the state and federal government will find that they will go to jail for being an “undocumented” money lender or “undocumented” savings institution. It is not a defense to their crime to say that they don’t “have the right documents.”

One of my favorites came from one of my legislative colleagues this last week, when informed that the Democrats wanted to take last Monday off to participate in the immigration protests. He said he had found former legislators who were qualified to do the job of the California Legislature, were willing to do the work of the current Legislature at half the cost to the taxpayer, and would show up to do the job. Their only problem? They were undocumented, they had not received the right documents from the Secretary of State to vote in the Legislature.

The absurdity of the claims of those who wish to justify the lawlessness of those who break our immigration laws by calling those illegal aliens “undocumented immigrants” is evident. Everything we do in life is about the documents. We get a birth certificate that establishes our citizenship, and a death certificate that establish inheritance rights. Deeds say who owns real estate, and contracts establish legal obligations. If we don’t have registration for our car, we can go to jail as a thief, or, at the very least get a ticket. In fact, we don’t even have laws unless some legislator gets a document passed through the Legislature and signed by the Governor. All of life requires the right “documents.”

The protests of this last week can be encapsulated this way: thousands of criminals wanted the government to ignore their crime. That reality is not changed by saying that they “are human and we need to recognize their humanity.” Of course we recognize their humanity; they just need to follow the law. We will not justify their lawlessness any more that we would justify the lawlessness of a trespasser or thief on the grounds that they “needed” the property they took. Marching in the street, protesting the enforcement of a law does not justify breaking that law. A legal system that rewards lawbreakers is destined to collapse into anarchy. Indeed, those who protested this last week were asking for anarchy; an open border and unlimited immigration. That is dangerous for our country (as 9/11 pointed out), and extremely shortsighted.

Our immigration laws may be complicated, but that does not justify ignoring them. We should enforce those laws, and, if the enforcement proves that the laws are unworkable, then you look at changing the law. But until that happens, the laws should stand, and they should be enforced -CRO-

Mr. Haynes is a California Assemblyman representing Riverside and Temecula and freuent contributor to CaliforniaRepublic.org.

http://www.californiarepublic.org/archives/Columns/Haynes/20060509HaynesDocuments.html

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Entry #302

"From Refugees to Tycoons

Good for them!!  Dance
 
"From Refugees to Tycoons
By Val Macqueen
Source Tech Central Station Daily

"Immediately after he pulled off his '72 coup against President Oboto in Uganda, strongman Idi Amin -- full title: His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular (and also, curiously, King of Scotland) --decreed Africa should be for Africans. One of his first decisions as lord of beasts and fishes was to eject all the Asians -- some 40,000 or so, who were third generation descendants of Indians who had come to work for the British colonial administration during the days of Empire and who, when the British Empire was dissolved, created commercial enterprises.

 

Not for nothing had Amin been mentioned in a dispatch, when he was on the British side during the Mau-Mau uprising, as "virtually bone from the neck up, and needs things explained in words of one letter."

 

Having decided to eject the country's wealth-creators, he further ruled that these people, uprooted from their country of birth, could take with them only what they could carry. They had 90 days to get out.

 

The crisis this provoked in Britain at the time has been softened with the passing of the years, but because they were Commonwealth citizens with British passports, the government, in the face of almost universal opposition at home, did the right thing and decided to give them refuge. So 40,000 ethnic Asians arrived in an alien, monocultural group of islands in the clothes they stood up in and the one suitcase holding the meager possessions they had managed to carry with them. Their confusion and distress at having had to leave their country of birth and all their possessions to come to a cold, damp, hostile island must have been almost unendurable.

 

Back home Idi Amin distributed the property they'd been forced to leave behind among his friends and presided noisily over the decline of Uganda. The Asians, meanwhile, were billeted in drab refugee centers until they found their feet, and they displayed a resilience that still astounds.

 

What a difference two generations can make.

 

The British high-circulation Asian newspaper Eastern Eye, in conjunction with The Daily Telegraph of London, has just published its annual list of Britain's richest Asians. In all, six from East African refugee families made it into the top 10.

 

Number one is Mike Jatani, one of four brothers who started the Lornamead Group (beauty products) in 1978, eight years after the Amin explusion. Today, their company, started from scratch, is worth £650 million ($1.2 billion).

 

According to The Daily Telegraph, the pharmacy sector is the biggest, with the Mehta brothers (8th) and husband and wife team Navin and Varsha Engineer (12th) between them accounting for £300 million -- over half a billion dollars.

 

In the fashion segment, one of Britain's best loved women's clothing chains, offering outstanding fashion value for money, is New Look, owned by one Tom Singh, whose Indian parents brought him to England when he was one year old and set themselves the task of peddling goods from door to door. Tom Singh and his wife opened their first store in 1968. By the mid-1990s they had 200 stores. In 1998, they sold the chain to a venture capitalist for £156 million and Singh took a role as non-executive director. In 2004, New Look returned to the private sector and Singh rejoined as managing director. Sikh Tom Singh's in the No 6 slot. Also in fashion, Shami Ahmed, who created Bloggs jeans, comes in at No. 13.

 

Another Sikh, Jasminder Singh, born in Dar-es-Salaam, with his Radisson Edwardian Hotel chain, comes in at No 5.

 

The only new entry to the top 20 this year is an entrepreneurial travel boss at no. 18 with £95 million, displacing the fetchingly described "curry magnate", Sir Gulam Noon. Last year, Noon was 16th on the Asian rich list with £100 million, but now with just £85 million doesn't merit a place at the Asian top table. (The displaced Noon has been otherwise engaged in the traditional British rich man's sport of trying to buy a peerage under the table -- the second such Asian businessman caught in Tony Blair's latest wheeze to raise money for the Labour Party -- an encouraging demonstration of just how integrated Britain's Indians have become.)

 

Steel parts tycoon and cricket-enthusiast Lord Swraj Paul (he rather sweetly lists his membership of the MCC -- the world famous Marylebone Cricket Club -- on his resumé and contributes time and money to helping disadvantaged boys take up the game), is No 3 and worth £450 million. He and his wife recently managed to get Non-Resident Indian status from the Indian government, which means they will have the right to settle in India one day. Who comes around goes around.

 

Those expelled from East Africa were third generation immigrants to Africa, and had created assets and wealth. Which is why Idi Amin was so interested in them. Now, those families are again third generation immigrants, this time to Britain, and again they are rolling in wealth. How was this extraordinary feat accomplished twice?

 

How does one account for a group of people who came from the Third World to the First World with nothing but a suitcase, within three generations, overtook around 99.5 percent of the natives in terms of wealth?

 

Like the Chinese, ethnic south Asians have a reputation for possessing shrewd commercial instincts and a willingness to sacrifice short term advantage (i.e. going to work for someone else in return for a regular salary) in the service of a long-term goal. The entire family stays focused.

 

Those families in the 1970s were indeed strangers in a strange land. They didn't waste time on regrets. They hunkered down and got to work. The parents of Tom Singh traipsed around neighbourhoods peddling goods from door to door for years. As did others. They were thrifty. They worked long hours. They saved their money and reinvested it in themselves. Indians keep it all in the family and the mates of their children marry into the business also. Tom Singh's parents amassed some money from their door-to-door peddling, but it was their son Tom and his wife who opened the family's first store, and subsequently 200 more.

 

Another key to ethnic Indians' success is, they do not look to banks for money. If money is needed, they look within the family or extended family, offering a part of the business by way of repayment.

 

The three richest British Asians were excluded from the Eastern Eye/Daily Telegraph list because their business interests lie primarily outside the United Kingdom. Numbers two and three would be the notorious Hinduja brothers, whose fortune is estimated at around $8 billion.

 

Finally, not only the richest British Indian, but Britain's richest-ever individual come together in the person of international steel panjandrum 54-year old Lakshmi Mittal, born in Rajastan and whose £14.8 billion fortune puts him third in the world after Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

 

Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain is worth $818 million.  "

 

Val MacQueen is a TCS contributing writer.  "

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=050906A
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Entry #301

"al Qaida says US winning in Iraq

From Powerlineblog.com.  Good news from Iraq totally ignored by Democrats and MSM per usual .... the truth is not on their agenda. 

......"CENTCOM announced today that they had captured al-Qaeda correspondence in Iraq that discusses the state of the insurgency, especially around Baghdad but also around the entire country. Far from optimistic, the documents captured in an April 16th raid reveal frustration and desperation, as the terrorists acknowledge the superior position of American and free Iraqi forces and their ability to quickly adapt to new tactics." ...........

......"So, put it all together: al Qaeda in Iraq is failing. It has little military strength, and the Iraqi people "do not support its cause." It has succeeded in one arena only: the American media. Yet, despite the despair manifested by the authors of the captured documents, that one success may be all that al Qaeda needs. Because the perverse negativity of the American press is the only view that most Americans get of the conflict's progress. And, because of their shoddy coverage of the war, our reporters and editors provide the terrorists with their only gleam of hope."

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/014021.php 

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Entry #300
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