Saturday, March 31, 2012

Re: Editorial: Big Oil’s Bogus Campaign

A big reason
for that failure is that some of those profits are being continuously
recycled to win the support of pliable legislators, underwrite
misleading advertising campaigns and advance an energy policy defined
solely by more oil and gas production.

Gee, This is identical to unions and union dues...

As to "OIL subsidies"... they enjoy not one bit more in deductions or
subsidies than any other industrial section of society. Only because
they are very profitable are you playing the class warfare card on
them.

I guess you'd be happier if they all moved offshore like the majority
of other base industries....like mining, steel production, circuit
board producers, and countless other high income, high paying, jobs
and employers.

Gas prices have nearly doubled under Obama.... just as they did under
Carter... coincidence? I think not. Both stopped issuing the needed
number of exploration and drilling permits to keep the futures market
in petrochemicals under control... and placed big bets on a still non-
viable or profitable solar industry.

Yet you think NOTHING about the hundreds of billions of dollars these
"green energy" companies take from the government only to soon go
bankrupt because they can't produce a product that is acceptable and
affordable.

Just as solar is a bet on the future so are exploration and drilling
permits... they take 5 to 10 years to have an effect.... any hole in
the process is rightfully reflected in the futures market...TODAY.


On Mar 31, 8:08 am, Tommy News <tommysn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> EditorialBig Oil's Bogus CampaignNYTimes Published: March 30, 2012
>
> Despite pleading by Mr. Obama, the Senate on Thursday could not
> produce the 60 votes necessary to pass a bill eliminating $2.5 billion
> a year of these subsidies. This is a minuscule amount for an industry
> whose top three companies in the United States alone earned more than
> $80 billion in profits last year. Nevertheless, in the days leading up
> to the vote, the American Petroleum Institute spent several million
> dollars on an ad campaign calling the bill "another bad idea from
> Washington — higher taxes that could lead to higher prices."
>
> President Obama and the Senate Democrats have again fallen short in
> their quest to eliminate billions of dollars in unnecessary tax breaks
> for an oil industry that is rolling in enormous profits. A big reason
> for that failure is that some of those profits are being continuously
> recycled to win the support of pliable legislators, underwrite
> misleading advertising campaigns and advance an energy policy defined
> solely by more oil and gas production.
>
> Studies by the Congressional Research Service, among others, say that
> ending these tax breaks would increase prices by a penny or two a
> gallon. Yet all but two Senate Republicans have been conditioned by
> years of industry largess to accept its propaganda. In the last year,
> the industry spent more than $146 million lobbying Congress. In
> Thursday's vote, senators who voted to preserve the tax breaks
> received more than four times as much as those who voted against.
>
> Money has always talked in Congress. Now industry allies are aiming at
> voters. The American Energy Alliance, a Washington-based group that
> does not disclose its financial sources, on Thursday began an ad
> campaign in eight states with competitive Congressional races.
>
> Voters in Michigan, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico
> and Colorado will hear a 30-second spot peddling the industry's
> misleading arguments against the Obama administration's energy
> policies — including the fiction that those policies have led to
> higher gas prices: "Since Obama became president," it says in part,
> "gas prices have nearly doubled. Obama opposed exploring for energy in
> Alaska. He gave millions of dollars to Solyndra, which then went
> bankrupt. And he blocked the Keystone pipeline, so we will all pay
> more at the pump."
>
> Four sentences, four misrepresentations. Gas prices, tied to the world
> market, would have gone up no matter who was president. Mr. Obama has
> not ruled out further leasing in Alaskan waters. Solyndra, a solar
> panel maker, is the only big failure in a broader program aimed at
> encouraging nascent energy technologies. The Keystone XL oil pipeline
> has nothing to do with gas prices now and, even if built, would have
> only a marginal effect.
>
> The message war has really just begun.
>
> The oil industry has the money, but Mr. Obama has a formidable megaphone.
>
> He must continue to use it.
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy

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**JP** Government Campaign against Tobacco

 

Re: Photographer reflects on bullied gay teen Rafael Morelos' suicide

Bruce,

While I do indeed recognize the difficulties in being "different"
within any bubble of society (gay is only one in a long list) the
fault lies in how well any individual is/is not prepared to deal with
the situation.

The answer is NOT to legislate childrens' morays it is to hold the
parents responsible for their childs' acts. We must also allow
families the leeway to discipline their children.

Kids are taught in school that they have a right to not be disciplined
and never have to "pay the piper" for their actions. There was far
less need for supposed "bully control" when the principal was allowed
to swing the paddle followed at home by mom and dad doing the same...
double jeopardy did not apply in my house or any that I knew growing
up.

Kids commit suicide when they see no solution to the matter... another
law putting more people in jail won't solve this... neither will a
"touchy feely" education with no repercussions. When kids see (and
feel) the results of their actions they will change their ways. Until
then there will be no solution.

On Mar 31, 11:20 am, Bruce Majors <majors.br...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It is true that most kids are taunted and so e are even beaten up
>
> Gay kids, or some gay kids, clearly get more of this
>
> Kids don't like gender nonconformist kids and their parents teach them not
> to like them
>
> It's considering more acceptable to beat up a feminine boy or ostracize a
> masculine girl than it is to do the same to someone for being fat or poor
> or having glasses or braces
>
> On Saturday, March 31, 2012, THE ANNOINTED ONE <markmka...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Makitta Noble, 13, outside Cashmere Middle School in Cashmere, is
> > wearing Rafael's favorite sweatshirt. She said some students would
> > taunt and call her friend names.
>
> > I don't know of a single person that I went to school with that was
> > not "taunted and called names".... If that's all it takes then the kid
> > had more problems than simply being gay.
>
> > On Mar 31, 8:30 am, Tommy News <tommysn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Photographer reflects on gay teen's suicide
>
> >> Posted by Erika Schultz
>
> >> STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES
>
> >> Malinda Morelos cries while describing her son on the day before he
> >> committed suicide from a bridge near their home in Cashmere.
>
> >> Staff photographer Steve Ringman and staff reporter Lornet Turnbull
> >> visited the small, agricultural town of Cashmere, Wash. earlier in
> >> this month.
>
> >> They were working on a story about 14-year-old Rafael Morelos who
> >> killed himself in January near the small cabin where his family had
> >> been living. Rafael was openly gay. His death has raised uncomfortable
> >> questions among family, school officials and this rural Washington
> >> community.
>
> >> From Steve Ringman:
>
> >> It's one of those stories where you feel very bad for the mother and
> >> for the family. It's a delicate time to be taking pictures. You want
> >> to be as sensitive as humanly possible.
>
> >> Steve said during emotionally difficult assignments, he shoots less
> >> frames than usual. He keeps aware that it is hurtful for the family to
> >> talk about feelings. He tries to be in the background and maintain
> >> some distance.
>
> >> Wait for the moment instead of forcing the moment out.
>
> >> It's a tragic story, but Lornet told it in a way that was very
> >> compelling. It's a story a lot of people here should read about.
>
> >> STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES
>
> >> A memorial poster is filled with messages for Rafael Morelos, 14, who
> >> hanged himself in January.
>
> >> STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES
>
> >> Makitta Noble, 13, outside Cashmere Middle School in Cashmere, is
> >> wearing Rafael's favorite sweatshirt. She said some students would
> >> taunt and call her friend names.
>
> >> Read Lornet Turnbull's story, Soul-searching in conservative Cashmere
> >> over gay teen's suicide.
>
> >> April 7: A benefit concert by the Seattle Men's Chorus, called "Come
> >> Together: The Music of the Beatles," is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the
> >> Performing Arts Center of Wenatchee. Sponsored by the Sleeping Lady
> >> Foundation and KOHO Radio, the concert will benefit the Morelos family
> >> as well as the Partnership for Children and Families. Tickets are $25
> >> for adults and $15 for students.
>
> >> Photos and More:
>
> >>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/picturethis/2017851894_c.html
>
> >> --
> >> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> >> Have a great day,
> >> Tommy
>
> >> --
> >> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> >> Have a great day,
> >> Tommy
>
> > --
> > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
> > For options & help seehttp://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
>
> > * Visit our other community athttp://www.PoliticalForum.com/
> > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
> > * Read the latest breaking news, and more.

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Re: Photographer reflects on bullied gay teen Rafael Morelos' suicide

It is true that most kids are taunted and so e are even beaten up

Gay kids, or some gay kids, clearly get more of this

Kids don't like gender nonconformist kids and their parents teach them not to like them

It's considering more acceptable to beat up a feminine boy or ostracize a masculine girl than it is to do the same to someone for being fat or poor or having glasses or braces

On Saturday, March 31, 2012, THE ANNOINTED ONE <markmkahle@gmail.com> wrote:
> Makitta Noble, 13, outside Cashmere Middle School in Cashmere, is
> wearing Rafael's favorite sweatshirt. She said some students would
> taunt and call her friend names.
>
> I don't know of a single person that I went to school with that was
> not "taunted and called names".... If that's all it takes then the kid
> had more problems than simply being gay.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mar 31, 8:30 am, Tommy News <tommysn...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Photographer reflects on gay teen's suicide
>>
>> Posted by Erika Schultz
>>
>> STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES
>>
>> Malinda Morelos cries while describing her son on the day before he
>> committed suicide from a bridge near their home in Cashmere.
>>
>> Staff photographer Steve Ringman and staff reporter Lornet Turnbull
>> visited the small, agricultural town of Cashmere, Wash. earlier in
>> this month.
>>
>> They were working on a story about 14-year-old Rafael Morelos who
>> killed himself in January near the small cabin where his family had
>> been living. Rafael was openly gay. His death has raised uncomfortable
>> questions among family, school officials and this rural Washington
>> community.
>>
>> From Steve Ringman:
>>
>> It's one of those stories where you feel very bad for the mother and
>> for the family. It's a delicate time to be taking pictures. You want
>> to be as sensitive as humanly possible.
>>
>> Steve said during emotionally difficult assignments, he shoots less
>> frames than usual. He keeps aware that it is hurtful for the family to
>> talk about feelings. He tries to be in the background and maintain
>> some distance.
>>
>> Wait for the moment instead of forcing the moment out.
>>
>> It's a tragic story, but Lornet told it in a way that was very
>> compelling. It's a story a lot of people here should read about.
>>
>> STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES
>>
>> A memorial poster is filled with messages for Rafael Morelos, 14, who
>> hanged himself in January.
>>
>> STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES
>>
>> Makitta Noble, 13, outside Cashmere Middle School in Cashmere, is
>> wearing Rafael's favorite sweatshirt. She said some students would
>> taunt and call her friend names.
>>
>> Read Lornet Turnbull's story, Soul-searching in conservative Cashmere
>> over gay teen's suicide.
>>
>> April 7: A benefit concert by the Seattle Men's Chorus, called "Come
>> Together: The Music of the Beatles," is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the
>> Performing Arts Center of Wenatchee. Sponsored by the Sleeping Lady
>> Foundation and KOHO Radio, the concert will benefit the Morelos family
>> as well as the Partnership for Children and Families. Tickets are $25
>> for adults and $15 for students.
>>
>> Photos and More:
>>
>> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/picturethis/2017851894_c.html
>>
>> --
>> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
>> Have a great day,
>> Tommy
>>
>> --
>> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
>> Have a great day,
>> Tommy
>
> --
> Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
> For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
>
> * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
> * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
> * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
>

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Re: Photographer reflects on bullied gay teen Rafael Morelos' suicide

Makitta Noble, 13, outside Cashmere Middle School in Cashmere, is
wearing Rafael's favorite sweatshirt. She said some students would
taunt and call her friend names.

I don't know of a single person that I went to school with that was
not "taunted and called names".... If that's all it takes then the kid
had more problems than simply being gay.

On Mar 31, 8:30 am, Tommy News <tommysn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Photographer reflects on gay teen's suicide
>
> Posted by Erika Schultz
>
> STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES
>
> Malinda Morelos cries while describing her son on the day before he
> committed suicide from a bridge near their home in Cashmere.
>
> Staff photographer Steve Ringman and staff reporter Lornet Turnbull
> visited the small, agricultural town of Cashmere, Wash. earlier in
> this month.
>
> They were working on a story about 14-year-old Rafael Morelos who
> killed himself in January near the small cabin where his family had
> been living. Rafael was openly gay. His death has raised uncomfortable
> questions among family, school officials and this rural Washington
> community.
>
> From Steve Ringman:
>
> It's one of those stories where you feel very bad for the mother and
> for the family. It's a delicate time to be taking pictures. You want
> to be as sensitive as humanly possible.
>
> Steve said during emotionally difficult assignments, he shoots less
> frames than usual. He keeps aware that it is hurtful for the family to
> talk about feelings. He tries to be in the background and maintain
> some distance.
>
> Wait for the moment instead of forcing the moment out.
>
> It's a tragic story, but Lornet told it in a way that was very
> compelling. It's a story a lot of people here should read about.
>
> STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES
>
> A memorial poster is filled with messages for Rafael Morelos, 14, who
> hanged himself in January.
>
> STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES
>
> Makitta Noble, 13, outside Cashmere Middle School in Cashmere, is
> wearing Rafael's favorite sweatshirt. She said some students would
> taunt and call her friend names.
>
> Read Lornet Turnbull's story, Soul-searching in conservative Cashmere
> over gay teen's suicide.
>
> April 7: A benefit concert by the Seattle Men's Chorus, called "Come
> Together: The Music of the Beatles," is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the
> Performing Arts Center of Wenatchee. Sponsored by the Sleeping Lady
> Foundation and KOHO Radio, the concert will benefit the Morelos family
> as well as the Partnership for Children and Families. Tickets are $25
> for adults and $15 for students.
>
> Photos and More:
>
> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/picturethis/2017851894_c.html
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy

--
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Re: Trayvon Martin's Funeral Director: No Signs Of Fight On Body (VIDEO)

What this means to any logically thinking person... The "fight" was
one sided.... the victim had his nose broken and lesions on the back
of his head from having it pounded into the sidewalk... before he
defended himself..... these are irrefutable facts that the race
baiters ignore.

On Mar 31, 8:44 am, Tommy News <tommysn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Trayvon Martin's Funeral Director: No Signs Of Fight On Body (VIDEO)
>
> 03/30/12 - Huffington Post / AP -
>
> MIAMI -- The funeral director who oversaw slain Florida teenager
> Trayvon Martin's burial says he saw no signs of a fight on the body.
>
> Richard Kurtz says he prepared the body for interment and saw no marks
> on Martin's hands, face or body other than the gunshot wound that
> killed him.
>
> The 17-year-old Martin was killed Feb. 26 by neighborhood watch
> volunteer George Zimmerman in the city of Sanford, where Martin was
> visiting. Zimmerman has claimed self-defense and says Martin attacked
> and beat him.
>
> The results of an autopsy have not been released while the death
> remains under investigation by state and federal authorities.
>
> Zimmerman has not been charged, leading to racially-tinged protests
> around the country. Martin was black; Zimmerman's father is white and
> his mother Hispanic.
>
> Videos:
>
> http://youtu.be/FIBJwyAMF4M
>
> http://youtu.be/EdY6EnK6des
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy

--
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Re: Trayvon Martin's Funeral Director: No Signs Of Fight On Body (VIDEO)

Really?

Just what did you expect him to say?

On 31 March 2012 10:44, Tommy News <tommysnews@gmail.com> wrote:
> Trayvon Martin's Funeral Director: No Signs Of Fight On Body (VIDEO)
>
> 03/30/12 - Huffington Post / AP -
>
> MIAMI -- The funeral director who oversaw slain Florida teenager
> Trayvon Martin's burial says he saw no signs of a fight on the body.
>
> Richard Kurtz says he prepared the body for interment and saw no marks
> on Martin's hands, face or body other than the gunshot wound that
> killed him.
>
> The 17-year-old Martin was killed Feb. 26 by neighborhood watch
> volunteer George Zimmerman in the city of Sanford, where Martin was
> visiting. Zimmerman has claimed self-defense and says Martin attacked
> and beat him.
>
> The results of an autopsy have not been released while the death
> remains under investigation by state and federal authorities.
>
> Zimmerman has not been charged, leading to racially-tinged protests
> around the country. Martin was black; Zimmerman's father is white and
> his mother Hispanic.
>
> Videos:
>
> http://youtu.be/FIBJwyAMF4M
>
> http://youtu.be/EdY6EnK6des
>
>
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy
>
>
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy
>
> --
> Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
> For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
>
> * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
> * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
> * Read the latest breaking news, and more.

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Re: Trayvon Martin Case Evokes Reaction from Extremists, White and Black


http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/294779/10-things-we-ve-learned-trayvon-martin-tragedy-victor-davis-hanson

On Saturday, March 31, 2012, Keith In Tampa <keithintampa@gmail.com> wrote:
> I too think we all know what happened:
>  
> Because of the recent rash of break-ins around his neighborhood,  Zimmerman,  a neighborhood watch captain, was walking the neighborhood and spotted Tyvec Martin, a Black teenage youth who was dressed in dark, non-descript clothing, including a hoodie. Zimmerman first starts following Martin, but while on the telephone to the 9-1-1 Operator, Zimmerman changes course and returns to his vehicle.  Martin decides to confront Zimmerman and asks, "Do you have a problem?";  to which Zimmerman replies, "No".  Tyvec says, "Well, you do now!"  and begins to assail Zimmerman.  
>  
> Shortly thereafter,  Martin realizes that he has made a major faux pas,  when Zimmerman put a cap in his ass.     
>
> On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 9:40 AM, Tommy News <tommysnews@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I think we know what happened.
>> Zimmerman, a self-appointed self-important "security" wannabe, playing
>> "cop", driving around on "patrol", spotted and followed Trayvon
>> Martin, chased and confronted him, accused him, and then shot him
>> dead. Martin was guilty of walking while black with a hoodie on.
>>
>> On 3/29/12, Tommy News <tommysnews@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Trayvon Martin Case Evokes Reaction from Extremists, White and Black
>> > Posted in Black Separatist, White Nationalism by Ryan Lenz on March 26,
>> > 2012
>> >
>> >
>> > The killing of Trayvon Martin has aroused the passions of extremists
>> > on both sides of the racial divide, with some blaming civil rights
>> > leaders and the media for the controversy – and black separatist
>> > leaders suggesting vigilante justice for the neighborhood watch
>> > volunteer who shot the unarmed 17-year-old in Florida.
>> >
>> > Joseph Farah at WorldNet Daily, the archconservative website that has
>> > tirelessly attacked President Obama's citizenship, dismissed the
>> > activism surrounding the African-American teen's killing as bald
>> > opportunism. "[W]hen the race hustlers like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson
>> > and race hustler-in-chief Barack Obama started exploiting, I began to
>> > think we were being conned once again, by (the) vicious, biased,
>> > America-hating, leftist-controlled press," Farah wrote on Sunday.
>> >
>> > Farah went on to cite the case of a white teen set on fire by two
>> > black teens last month in Kansas City. "This is a real hate crime,"
>> > Farah said, "the kind you won't likely see reported on the national
>> > media and the kind you won't likely hear race hustling politicians
>> > like Sharpton, Jackson and Obama talking about."
>> >
>> > White nationalist Kyle Rogers, a board member of the white nationalist
>> > Council of Conservative Citizens, also attacked the media. "Almost all
>> > of the news items about George Zimmerman and Trayvon contains [sic] a
>> > combination of false statements, opinions presented as facts,
>> > transparent distortions, and a complete absence of some of some of the
>> > most relevant details," Rogers wrote on Saturday. "Is the media really
>> > reporting the news, or is this classic agitation/propaganda to advance
>> > a political agenda?"
>> >
>> > Civil rights leaders also were criticized by Jesse Lee Peterson, a
>> > black, anti-gay preacher who once thanked God for slavery. He said
>> > their actions are not about justice. "It's about getting even with
>> > whites and gaining political power," he wrote in a March 22 news
>> > release. "This is black hatred of white people and a result of more
>> > than fifty years of brainwashing by racist civil-rights leaders."
>> >
>> > Meanwhile, Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam, said in a
>> > message to his followers on Twitter, "Where there is no justice, there
>> > will be no peace. Soon the law of retaliation may very well be
>> > applied."
>> >
>> > Even more bluntly, New Black Panther Party leader Mikhail Muhammad
>> > announced over the weekend he was starting a "Wanted: Dead or Alive"
>> > campaign to bring justice for Trayvon. He offered a $10,000 bounty for
>> > the capture of George Zimmerman, the Hispanic man who shot Martin,
>> > according to the Orlando Sentinel.
>> >
>> > When asked whether he was inciting violence," Muhammad replied, "An
>> > eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
>> >
>> > The shooting in Sanford, Fla., occurred on Feb. 26 after Zimmerman
>> > spotted Martin wearing a hooded sweatshirt returning from a store to
>> > buy Skittles and iced tea. The Orlando Sentinel reported today that
>> > authorities say witnesses have corroborated "much of" Zimmerman's
>> > claim that he was left bloody and battered after Martin punched him
>> > and slammed his head into the sidewalk.
>> >
>> > More:
>> > http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2012/03/26/trayvon-martin-case-evokes-reaction-from-extremists-white-and-black/
>> > --
>> > Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
>> > Have a great day,
>> > Tommy
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
>> > Have a great day,
>> > Tommy
>> >
>>
>>
>> --
>> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
>> Have a great day,
>> Tommy
>>
>> --
>> Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
>> For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
>>
>> * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
>> * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
>> * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
>
> --
> Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
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>  
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>

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Health Insurance Mandate: Immoral, Unnecessary


Health Insurance Mandate: Immoral, Unnecessary
by Sheldon Richman, March 28, 2012

The Obama administration argued to the U.S. Supreme Court this week that people must be compelled to buy medical insurance (designed by the government) or the national medical-insurance market will fail. Thus, Obamacare advocates say, the insurance mandate is consistent with the powers delegated under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The argument, however, contains a fatal flaw. If the medical-insurance market would indeed fail without a mandate, it's only because of other mandates the government has already imposed. Thus the government has created the rationale for an extension of its own power.

The administration foresees two problems in the absence of the mandate. First, uninsured people will avoid routine and preventive medical care and go to hospital emergency rooms when they can't delay care any longer, raising costs to others. Second, some people will apply for insurance only after they are seriously ill. As a result, the insurance market will be dominated by sick people, making it unviable.

Both problems are government creations: emergency rooms by law must treat everyone regardless of ability to pay, and new laws are increasingly restricting insurance companies' right to refuse to cover "preexisting conditions" or to charge already sick people more.

Thus it is the regulatory regime that makes the insurance market fragile.

Furthermore, the emergency-room issue is overstated. As Shikha Dalmia points out, such care is a bare 3 percent of total medical spending, less than the retail sector's loss from shoplifting. But even ignoring that point, a free and prosperous society would have charity hospitals and practitioners eager and able to help the relative few who could not afford care. A must-serve mandate is unjustified and unnecessary.

The principal issue is insurance regulation. Imagine if you could purchase home insurance ­ and demand payment ­ after your house burned down, or if you could buy an auto policy ­ and collect ­ after an accident. Such "coverage" after the fact would not be true insurance, which is a hedge against uncertainty. Under those rules, insurers would exit the market for more profitable activities.

Medical insurance is no different. For the industry to be viable, companies have to collect premiums while people are healthy in order to have the money to pay out when they get sick.

Doesn't that prove the mandate is needed? No. In a free society, people would have natural incentives to buy insurance when they are healthy. Government destroys those incentives. How so?

Young, healthy people of course will always be tempted to put off buying medical insurance. But this temptation would be reduced if we abolished all the government rules and privileges that make medical care ­ and hence insurance ­ artificially expensive. In myriad ways, government raises the cost of medicine: restrictive licensing, anti-competitive state insurance cartels, benefit mandates, and much more. All such interventions price people out of the medical market by making products and services more costly than they would be in a free and competitive marketplace.

Government also raises prices to the uninsured by maintaining policies that insulate people with insurance from the true costs of their decisions. The income tax, which doesn't count non-cash compensation as income, makes otherwise uneconomical "insurance" attractive, while creating an illusion of free or nearly free services. (The quotation marks are to indicate that insurance which covers volitional activities, such as the use of contraception, physical exams, and other preventive services, is not truly insurance.) When explicit prices are artificially lowered under an insurance illusion, people are less cost-conscious and thus consume more services than they would have.

Much medical care is elective and nonessential, but under our government-shaped system, rather than asking, "Do I need it and how much?" people ask, "Does my insurance cover it?" This raises real costs for all, but it especially raises prices to people who have no insurance or who would buy it in the individual market, discouraging them from doing so. As a result, fewer young and healthy people pay premiums, weakening the insurance industry.

This is purely a government-created problem.

Government mandates are backed by aggressive force, which is immoral. The end does not justify the means. And if we want a thriving medical insurance market, we need only free it from restrictions and, most importantly, privilege. Freedom and competition really work.

http://www.fff.org/comment/com1203y.asp

Seeing Like a Ruling Class


The Goal Is Freedom
Seeing Like a Ruling Class
Making society "legible."
Sheldon Richman
Posted March 30, 2012

(These remarks were prepared for next week's annual meeting of the Association of Private Enterprise Education.)

In the beginning ruling classes had a problem. It will be familiar to those acquainted with the Austrian critique of central economic planning: Rulers could not know what they needed to know to do the job they wanted to do. Societies, even seemingly primitive ones, are complex networks held together by unarticulated­and largely inarticulable­know-how (m tis). That presents a formidable obstacle to centralized rule, which requires minimum resistance from the ruled if it is to endure.

Rulers, however, were not without recourse. If they couldn't know the society they aspired to rule, they could (try to) shape it into something they could know. To use the term James C. Scott uses in his book Seeing Like a State, they could strive to make society "legible" in order to make it controllable.

Scott came to understand this point when studying "why the state has always seemed to be the enemy of 'people who move around.'" He discovered that "[n]omads and pastoralists (such as Berbers and Bedouins), hunter-gatherers, Gypsies, vagrants, homeless people, itinerants, runaway slaves, and serfs have always been a thorn in the side of states. Efforts to permanently settle these mobile peoples (sedentarization) seemed to be a perennial state project­perennial, in part, because it so seldom succeeded." He adds:

The more I examined these efforts at sedentarization, the more I came to see them as a state's attempt to make a society legible, to arrange the population in ways that simplified the classic state functions of taxation, conscription, and prevention of rebellion. . . . I began to see legibility as a central problem in statecraft.


Blind Rulers

The problem facing rulers ran deep: "The premodern state was, in many crucial respects, partially blind; it knew precious little about its subjects, their wealth, their landholdings and yields, their location, their very identity. It lacked anything like a detailed 'map' of its terrain and its people. It lacked, for the most part, a measure, a metric, that would allow it to 'translate' what it knew into a common standard necessary for a synoptic view."

Apprehending this problem was like shining a light on phenomena hitherto obscured by shadow. "Suddenly, processes as disparate as the creation of permanent last names, the standardization of weights and measures, the establishment of cadastral surveys and population registers, the invention of freehold tenure, the standardization of language and legal discourse, the design of cities, and the organization of transportation seemed comprehensible as attempts at legibility and simplification."

He compares such these devices aimed at legibility and simplification, which he calls "high modernism," to scientific forestry, in which resource management is strictly determined by the need for revenue. His list will raise eyebrows among us classical-liberal devotees of spontaneous social processes. Are we to believe that last names, freehold tenure, and standardization of weights, measures, language, and legal discourse were foisted on societies by rulers for their own convenience?


Ruling Contrivances

The story isn't quite so simple, but it is close. Scott acknowledges that the growth of commerce had a hand in the promotion of some of these devices. But his historical evidence shows that things we have tended to regard as the spontaneous products of liberal progress were in fact contrivances to benefit rulers. This is not to say these institutions are bad in themselves or that none of them would have evolved spontaneously. That seems unlikely. But it is reasonable to think they would have evolved differently in important respects had they not been driven primarily a quest for social control. The contrasting processes­spontaneous order versus what F. A. Hayek called "constructivist rationalism"­would seem to guarantee this. It is unfortunate that those institutions were born in association with tyranny, prompting resistance from average people who felt imposed on by their rulers.

Let's pause to appreciate the depth of the rulers' problem. What we learn from Scott is similar to what we learn from Elinor Ostrom, the Nobel laureate who studies the innovative ways that people communally manage common-pool resources without government assistance. Left to their own devices, people jointly find ingenious methods of overcoming obstacles to the efficient management of land and other resources. This category of solutions demonstrates that simple one-person/one-parcel is not the only private alternative to State ownership of resources. Moreover the number of potential solutions is effectively limitless. Thus how a given community will grapple with a given situation is inherently unpredictable. People really are the creative, entrepreneurial beings acting in an open-ended world that Israel Kirzner, inspired by Mises, describes.

That's what made the rulers' job so tough as nation-states were formed, driving them to measures intended to simplify the societies they wished to control and, yes, also to establish national markets. Scott writes:

[L]ocal practices of measurement and landholding were "illegible" to the state in their raw form. They exhibited a diversity and intricacy that reflected a great variety of purely local, not state, interests. That is to say, they could not be assimilated into an administrative grid without being either transformed or reduced to a convenient, if partly fictional, shorthand. . . . Backed by state power through records, courts, and ultimately coercion, these state fictions transformed the reality they presumed to observe, although never so thoroughly as to precisely fit the grid. . . . In place of a welter of incommensurable small communities, familiar to their inhabitants but mystifying to outsiders, there would rise a single national society perfectly legible from the center.

The great classical-liberal Benjamin Constant (1767-1830), whom Scott quotes, understood this well:

The conquerors of our days, peoples or princes, want their empire to possess a unified surface over which the superb eye of power can wander without encountering any inequality which hurts or limits its view. The same code of law, the same measures, the same rules, and if we could gradually get there, the same language; that is what is proclaimed as the perfection of the social organization…. The great slogan of the day is uniformity.


Customary Rights

Nowhere is the process more clear than in the case of land tenure. Indigenously evolved customary rights over land made taxation based on income and holdings nigh impossible. It was difficult (if possible at all) to know who owned what. Based on his research, Scott hypothesizes a village in which families have a complex of rights and responsibilities regarding cropland, grazing land, trees, and fallen fruit and tree limbs, with customs addressing all manner of situations, including what is to be done during shortages and famines. The customs, however, are not static. They "are better understood as a living, negotiated tissue of practices which are continually being adapted to new ecological and social circumstances­including, of course, power relations." (Scott has no wish to romanticize such arrangements: "[T]hey are usually riven with inequalities based on gender, status, and lineage.")

What's a ruler who wants to impose taxes on his realm to do? While the people within communities understand their customs, outsiders do not.

The mind fairly boggles at the clauses, sub-clauses, and sub-sub-clauses that would be required to reduce these practices to a set of regulations that an administrator might understand, never mind enforce. . . . [E]ven if the practices could be codified, the resulting code would necessarily sacrifice much of their plasticity and subtle adaptability. The circumstances that might provoke a new adaptation are too numerous to foresee, let alone specify, in a regulatory code. That code would in effect freeze a living process.
And what of the next village and the village after that?

Obviously, the ruling class cannot tolerate this "cacophony of local property regulations." An alternative needed to be found­and it was. "Indeed," Scott writes, "the very concept of the modern state presupposes a vastly simplified and uniform property regime that is legible and hence manipulable from the center."


Freehold Tenure

The answer was "individual freehold tenure." Scott writes: "Modern freehold tenure is tenure that is mediated through the state and therefore readily decipherable only to those who have sufficient training and a grasp of the state statutes."

[T]he complex tenure arrangements of customary practice are reduced to freehold, transferrable title. In an agrarian setting, the administrative landscape is blanketed with a uniform grid of homogeneous land, each parcel of which has a legal person as owner and hence taxpayer. How much easier it then becomes to assess such property and its owner on the basis of its acreage, its soil class, the crops it normally bears, and its assumed yield than to untangle the thicket of common property and mixed forms of tenure.

The device for accomplishing this was the cadastral map. "The cadastral map and property register are to the taxation of land as the maps and tables of the scientific forester were to the fiscal exploitation of the forest . . . ," Scott writes. "Just as the scientific forester needed an inventory of trees to realize the commercial potential of the forest, so the fiscal reformer needed a detailed inventory of landownership to realize the maximum, sustainable revenue yield."

For the map to be of use, the facts on the ground had to be made to conform to it. In other words, the lives of the inhabitants were to be disrupted to satisfy the ruler's appetite for revenue.

The mode of production in such communities was simply incompatible with the assumption of individual freehold tenure implicit in a cadastral map. . . . The state's case against communal forms of land tenure, however, was based on the correct observation that it was fiscally illegible and hence fiscally less productive. . . . [T]he historical resolution has generally been for the state to impose a property system in line with its fiscal grid.


Recalcitrant People

This is not to say all went as planned. Scott points out that people in the communities often continued to use their land as before, ignoring the scheme their rulers attempted to impose. But the rulers were undeterred. They proceeded as though their models reflected what was essential about reality­much like macroeconomists do today. Of course their tax decrees had unintended consequences. For example, the eighteenth-century French tax on doors and windows, which were used as proxies for determining the size of houses, encouraged the construction of homes with few doors and windows.

The people's ability to work around their rulers, however, was limited. Social life was disrupted, resources were extracted, and communities were prevented from further spontaneous development. How the world would have looked in the absence of ruling classes, one can only speculate.

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/tgif/seeing-like-a-ruling-class/

Noninterventionism: Cornerstone of a Free Society


Noninterventionism: Cornerstone of a Free Society
by Anthony Gregory, Posted March 30, 2012

A free society is impossible under an empire. Even the most just war you can imagine is a disaster for liberty and prosperity, as Ludwig von Mises pointed out. An unjust war amounts to murder, mayhem, and mass destruction. And a perpetual state of war guarantees that liberty will never be achieved. James Madison said it very well:
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and ... degeneracy of manners and of morals.... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
Indeed, from a purely consequentialist point of view, America has lost most of its freedom during its wars. Even the American Revolution itself had negative effects -- martial law, massive debt that ushered in Hamiltonian control of the new republic, and consolidation of power in the national capital.

The War of 1812 resulted in martial law in Louisiana, where people were jailed without habeas corpus simply for criticizing military law. A judge was jailed for issuing a habeas corpus writ.

During the Mexican War the executive branch unilaterally adopted taxing powers over U.S.-controlled ports in Mexico.

The Civil War brought with it mass conscription, corporate welfare, the death of real federalism, the suspension of habeas corpus, the jailing of thousands of dissenters, the censoring of hundreds of newspapers, the creation of a national leviathan with such new agencies as the Department of Agriculture, military commissions, and the use of the army against civilian draft rioters in New York.

With World War I, thousands of new agencies were created, millions were enslaved to fight in a royal European family feud, American citizens were jailed for saying things I say every day, income-tax rates skyrocketed into the 70s, and the federal government implemented economic controls that were later brought back in peacetime during the New Deal. In fact, the New Deal was basically the revitalization of the wartime economy from World War I.

World War II saw the conscription of 11 million Americans, the detention of hundreds of thousands of "enemy aliens" without due process, Japanese internment, martial law in Hawaii, a quasi-fascist command economy complete with comprehensive price controls, tax rates above 90 percent, censorship, and the prolonging of Herbert Hoover's and Franklin Roosevelt's Great Depression, which didn't end until the U.S. government stopped consuming 40 percent of America's income to wage the war.

The Cold War gave us drafts, especially during the hot wars with Korea and Vietnam, and surveillance and psy-ops directed against peaceful activists by U.S. intelligence agencies. With the war on terror we have lost the last remnants of the Fourth Amendment, habeas corpus has taken another beating, we are treated like prison inmates every time we fly, peaceful activists have been spied on, media have been manipulated by Washington, torture has become normalized, soldiers are not allowed to quit after completing their first or even third tour of duty, and Americans' telecommunications have been exposed to surveillance by the military.

War gave us the welfare state -- first for veterans then for the rest of us. It gave us Prohibition -- it was during World War I that beer was targeted, both for its German origin and its popularity on military bases -- and Prohibition led to gun control and the continued destruction of the Bill of Rights. War, under Lincoln and Wilson, gave us the corporate state, which is now a permanent feature of American life. War gave us federal meddling in education. It created virtually every precedent by which our liberty is robbed.

It is no exaggeration to say that had America not found itself in those wars, we would be much, much freer -- even if a New Deal were passed every decade, even if the Progressive Era had never ended, even if the Great Society were three times as grandiose, even if Obama had been president for the last century. There are many threats to liberty, and all are worth taking seriously. But nothing has approached war when it comes to destroying American liberty. And abroad, war has created conditions that almost always lead to less freedom and security, not more, for most people involved.

The CIA talks about "blow-back" -- the idea that U.S. intervention leads to unanticipated and unpredictable results that harm America and its interests. Few people take it far enough.

If it were not for the Mexican War, the question of the expansion of slavery into the new territories might never have exploded into the political conflicts that culminated in the Civil War. If it were not for the Civil War, the U.S. nation-state would have not had the manufacturing power and mercantilist interests of the North combined with the expansionist sentiments of the South, which became united, by force, in the national project of imperialism. If it were not for the Spanish-American War, the colonies seized by America at the time would not have been targets for a Japanese attack in World War II.


World War I and beyond

But World War I was the true starting point of all the trouble we've seen since. If not for U.S. intervention in World War I, the Germans would not have lost so decisively, the Allies would never had been able to impose such crushing conditions on Germany, and Hitler would have probably never come to power. Meanwhile, the United States also pressured the Russian democrats who had overthrown the tsars to stay in the conflict, leading to the conditions that allowed Lenin to take power. The Nazi and Soviet states -- two of the most infamous totalitarian regimes of modern times -- were born at least in good part because of U.S. meddling in World War I. At the same time, the Allies carved up the Middle East, messing up that region in ways that affect us to this day.

World War II was simply a consequence of World War I, although it too could probably have been avoided had Britain not declared war to save Poland -- which it never did save. But given the line between World War I and World War II, many assume the latter, the "Good War," was a clear victory for peace and democracy.

It's hardly that simple. World War II resulted in the amassing of far more territory under Stalin, who was certainly not much of an improvement over Hitler. Indeed, Hitler's greatest crime of all -- the Final Solution -- was a wartime measure. War was bad for the freedom of everyone ruled by Hitler, just as with any other government.

Moreover, in addition to Stalin's territorial grabs, the defeat of imperialist Japan opened the door to communist domination of Asia. Aside from the socialist takeover of China, it was during World War II that the United States supported Ho Chi Minh, who would later take over the communist government of Vietnam. World War II simply paved the way to communist control of almost half the planet, as well as the Cold War.

During the Cold War, the United States supported any regime poised against communism. That included the Ba'athists in Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein; the shah in Iran, which led to the textbook blowback of the Islamic Revolution; and, in the late 70s and early 80s, the mujahideen in Afghanistan, whose successors still plague most of that poor country. Eventually, the United States would side with Saddam against Iran (while sending Iran weapons illegally) and then turn on its ally, waging war with Iraq under George H.W. Bush. All of this meddling, of course, led to 9/11 and the resulting war on terrorism.

World War I led to World War II, which led to the Cold War, which led to the war on terror. It is a vicious cycle, and it needs to end, or else we will always be in a state of war, all sides believing they didn't start it, and peace and the freedom that depends on it will always be a dream.


The immorality of America's wars

But there is an even more fundamental reason to oppose wars as a general principle. Wars are almost always unambiguously immoral. War is, after all, mass killing conducted by government.

The great 13th-century Catholic theologian St. Thomas Aquinas and the Dutch Protestant Hugo Grotius of the 17th century etched out a Just War Theory to determine the moral status of a given war. For a war to be just, it has to be defensive. It has to eschew the targeting of innocents. It has to protect wartime prisoners. It has to be declared by a properly constituted authority. It has to be winnable -- a state can't just devote the population to a suicide mission with no chance of victory. It cannot result in more evils than it eliminates. Only those directly responsible for aggression can be punished. It has to have good intentions ­ revenge itself will not do. It has to spare civilians. It has to be publicly declared. It has to be a last resort. Both the cause in the war and the conduct in executing it have to be just.

America has waged virtually no just wars. Some wars might have been in retaliation for a direct act of aggression -- such as World War II in the wake of Pearl Harbor, but even that did not justify the firebombing or nuclear destruction of Japan's civilian centers, or the firebombing of Dresden and more than a hundred other German cities. Most American wars fail the Just War test on almost every count. And the morality of a nation that embraces immoral wars is more threatened than by all the social deviancies one could imagine combined.

It is for all those reasons that the classical liberal movement -- the movement of liberty -- has always had a particular abhorrence for war. The Levellers hated war. Jefferson and Madison wrote about it passionately. Lysander Spooner, although a radical abolitionist, opposed the Civil War. Most prominent pro–free market and pro-liberty Americans -- from Mark Twain and Edward Atkinson to Grover Cleveland and Andrew Carnegie -- opposed U.S. intervention against Spain in Cuba and the Philippines (where hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed by U.S. forces), and later in World War I. The Old Right coalition in the era of Franklin Roosevelt was concerned with the New Deal, but despite their disagreements one thing united them more than anything else: opposition to foreign war. The modern libertarian movement grew, not only in opposition to regulation and socialism, but also in opposition to the conservatives' embrace of the draft and the Vietnam War. And of course, if one issue unified and energized the Ron Paul revolution starting in 2007 it was opposition to George W. Bush's criminal foreign policy and war on terrorism.

Many issues are very important and cut right to the nub of what it means to be free. Such issues as censorship, gun control, drug prohibition, income taxation, fiat money and central economic planning are all crucial, and we should never flinch in opposing such depredations on liberty. But if there's any one issue on which all of liberty hinges, any one policy whose moral implications warrant the greatest urgency at all times, any one political question that determines whether you live in a semi-free country or a nation that is categorically preempted from becoming free, it is, as James Madison and many others before and after him have said, war. A noninterventionist foreign policy is the cornerstone of a free society. It is certainly not sufficient to allow for freedom, but without it, freedom is but a dream.

http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd1112e.asp

If They Can Force Us to Buy “Health Care”


If They Can Force Us to Buy "Health Care"…
March 29, 2012
By eric

This is written as the Supreme Court is weighing the constitutionality of ObamaCare – in particular, it is considering whether the federal government has the authority under the Constitution to force people at gunpoint to buy a health insurance policy from a private, for-profit business. That this is even being discussed -- as opposed to dismissed out of hand -- tells us just how far down the slippery slope we've already slid. But what most people -- especially people who support the mandate -- may not have considered is where the precedent about to be established will take us.

In law, precedent is everything. Because it becomes practice.

Once a given thing is countenanced by the courts, it becomes the basis for countenancing other, similar-in-principle things.  Some 25 years ago, when the courts ruled it was within the government's constitutional authority to stop motorists at random, without even the pretext of probable cause (as clearly demanded -- without qualification -- by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution), a precedent was established. Today, we are subject to random stops -- and random searches -- at any time, just about. It has become a routine -- and routinely accepted -- practice.

If the government has the authority to force each of us to buy a health insurance policy on the basis of "interstate commerce" or some appeal to the collective greater good -- then a new precedent will have been established. Why, having gone this far, stop there? Do you imagine the government will stop there?  Has it ever once, having expanded its authority, failed to expand upon that authority?

Why not also force people at gunpoint to buy life insurance?  As things stand, there are families left without a breadwinner – and the breadwinner's income – following an untimely death. Perhaps some people cannot afford to buy life insurance.  Surely life insurance is just as vital to interstate commerce – and the "security" provided by a policy just as much a "right" as the "right" to health care? Precisely the same arguments can -- and will -- be used. You are a fool if you don't see it coming. And it will not come because of the government's concern for you. It will come because of the concern over the money (and power) to be had – the two things really driving the individual mandate of Obamacare.

Private (an increasingly meaningless term) businesses have had an epiphany. They have come to realize that it's in their interests to crawl under the sheets with the government. Because government can force people to buy the businesses' product or service. Why compete for customers' dollars when you can use the police power of the state to compel them to hand over the loot? And even better, you (the "private" business) no longer need worry much about quality, efficiency or customer service. After all, what are your customers going to do? They have to buy what you're selling -- or else.

As bad as HMOs and PPOs are -- as Soviet and DMV-like as the staff at your doctor's office may be -- at least they cannot put a gun to your head. At least, you have the option of telling them what you think -- and walking out the door. Shortly, that may change. And the only thing that will change is the threat of violence for noncompliance. The Soviet and DMV-like experience will be the same -- no, it will grow worse. Because you won't be able to say no -- or walk out the door.

Not without the NKVD stepping in to correct you.

And then the precedent will be expanded -- and become the general practice.

Life insurance. Home insurance (even if you've paid off your home and would rather save the $800 a year that is typically charged). And since this is a car-minded column, let's not forget cars.

GM and Ford and the rest of them are having a heck of time selling the American consumer on the merits of electric and other "green" cars. Surely, it is in the interests of the furtherance of interstate commerce and the Greater Good that Americans be required to purchase a "green" vehicle… . It would help the car companies. It would be an investment in "our future." Surely, we cannot afford to allow selfish and irresponsible people to avoid paying their fair share….

I wish this were farce. But if the Supremes hold ObamaCare "constitutional" then we no longer have a Constitution. What we will have is the precedent of unlimited, open-ended federal authority -- which in short order will become the routinized practice of forcing each of us to do (and buy) literally anything. The flower will have blossomed. America will cease to exist.

But we'll have "health care."

And much more besides…

Throw it in the Woods?

http://ericpetersautos.com/2012/03/29/if-they-can-force-us-to-buy-health-care/

Podcast interview w/ Ed Asner re American Politics

Posted yesterday morning at Electric Politics, a podcast interview w/ Ed Asner re American politics.

A couple things about Ed Asner you may not know: he's won more Emmy awards (seven) than any other male actor, he's a former President of the Screen Actors Guild and, oh yes, he's a Socialist. If you're of a certain age perhaps you remember his character Lou Grant from the Mary Tyler Moore show, or later on Lou Grant's eponymous spin-off. This interview, however, manages to avoid talking about Hollywood at all…

If you like the show please forward the link.

http://www.electricpolitics.com/podcast/2012/03/the_future_is_not_what_it_used.html

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The Liberal Legal Bubble
Liberals can't even imagine the opposition's arguments to ObamaCare's individual mandate.

Peter Suderman | March 30, 2012


How could members of the Supreme Court possibly seriously consider the argument that ObamaCare's individual mandate to purchase health insurance is unprecedented and unconstitutional? The quality of the arguments? The presence of a genuine legal debate? No, if you ask the law's liberal cheerleaders, there can only be one answer: pure partisan politics.

Since challenges to ObamaCare first took off, liberals have been laying the groundwork for a stepped-up public campaign against the Supreme Court should any part of the law be struck down. If the Court decides against the health care overhaul, it's clear that President Barack Obama and his defenders will make the Court a significant issue in the 2012 presidential campaign. Are liberals right to pin this week's developments on rank partisanship? In one sense there are. But the partisanship that's at fault here is their own.

From the beginning, ObamaCare's backers presumed that the nation's legal institutions would be on their side—and wouldn't require much effort to convince. Going into this week's Supreme Court arguments over the fate of the 2010 health care overhaul, liberal analysts were supremely confident. Since the law's passage, they'd been predicting that the law would pass constitutional muster with ease. In February 2011, Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe reassured readers of The New York Times that even conservative justices would not buy the challengers' arguments, insisting upon the "clear case for the law's constitutionality." Andrew Koppelman, writing in The Yale Law Journal Online, declared the mandate's constitutionality "obvious."

Liberal analysts maintained their enthusiasm even after multiple losses in the lower courts. The case against the mandate is "analytically so weak that it dissolves on close inspection. There's just no there there," wrote former New York Times legal correspondent Linda Greenhouse a few days before the arguments began. Slate's Dahlia Lithwick seconded Greenhouse and argued that the health law's individual mandate to purchase health insurance "is a completely valid exercise of Congress' Commerce Clause Power." Mother Jones' Kevin Drum suggested that the pro-ObamaCare side had a "slam dunk legal case." 

But after three days of Supreme Court back and forth in which many of the justices seemed willing to entertain and perhaps even accept the basic premise of the argument against the mandate—and possibly the rest of the law as well—liberals seemed much less confident.

After this week's arguments concluded, Jeffrey Toobin, a legal analyst for CNN and The New Yorker who had predicted that the law would easily secure Supreme Court approval, declared that "the last three days were a disaster for the Obama administration." Some were downright distraught: Lithwick warned that Supreme Court's skepticism that Congress might not be able to compel individuals to purchase a private product constituted a "dark vision of freedom." An even bigger surprise was that Solicitor General Donal Verrilli, who argued the case in front of the Supreme Court, seemed unprepared for the tough questioning from the justices.

What can explain liberals' widespread failure to anticipate the Court's wariness of the mandate? Research conducted by University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt suggests one possible answer: Liberals just aren't as good as conservatives and libertarians at understanding how their opponents think. Haidt helped conduct research that asked respondents to fill out questionnaires about political narratives—first responding based on their own beliefs, but then responding as if trying to mimic the beliefs of their political opponents. "The results," he writes in the May issue of Reason, "were clear and consistent." Moderates and conservatives were the most able to think like their liberal political opponents. "Liberals," he reports, "were the least accurate, especially those who describe themselves as 'very liberal.'"

Liberals, on the other hand, have a different theory. The Court is just a bunch of partisan hacks who've bought into the most extreme ideas of the Republican base. Lithwick has argued that despite the law's self-evident constitutionality, the decision has "everything to do with optics, politics, and public opinion." Harvard law professor and former Solicitor General Charles Fried, who signed an amicus brief arguing in favor of the law, huffed that "the whole thing is just a canard that's been invented by the tea party and [anti-mandate legal architect] Randy Barnetts of the world, and I was astonished to hear it coming out of the mouths of the people on that bench." 

The liberal position on the Court seems to be that as long as it accepts their arguments, it's an independent legal arbiter. But whenever it doesn't, it's a partisan political enforcer. The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn makes this explicit, arguing that it isn't just the health law that's on trial, but "the legitimacy of the Supreme Court."

So what now? To quote Lithwick: Optics, politics, and public opinion. Neera Tanden, a former administration health adviser and the president of the influential liberal organization the Center for American Progress, previewed the broader liberal response when she told The New York Times this week that "If this court overturns the individual mandate, it will galvanize Democrats to use the courts as a campaign issue….The idea that we would have gone through Bush v. Gore, Citizens United and now this."

Liberals never really took the legal arguments against ObamaCare seriously. But it turns out they are deeply concerned about the surrounding politics. 

Peter Suderman is a senior editor at Reason magazine.

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Limousine leftovers check out their offshore bank accounts in the Caymans



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Subject:
 

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Fwd: Can you help me?



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From: Sheriff Paul Babeu
Date: Friday, March 30, 2012
Subject: Can you help me?

Hi,

I wanted to drop you a quick note before the weekend gets underway...

Tomorrow my campaign will report on our first quarter fundraising. I'd love to be able to count you as a supporter. Can you help me out with a $25 donation?

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[DailyKos] *? 2 ALL: AMERICAN SPRING STARTS TODAY - WHAT ARE YOUR COMMENTS?*



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Greg Dempsey
Date: Friday, March 30, 2012
Subject: [DailyKos] *? 2 ALL: AMERICAN SPRING STARTS TODAY - WHAT ARE YOUR COMMENTS?*
To: Greg dempsey <gregdempsey@sti.net>


 

</mail/u/0/s/?view=att&th=13665f6b293d792a&attid=0.1&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1>
Hi Team!
 
*? 2 ALL:
 
AMERICAN SPRING STARTS TODAY -
 
 </mail/u/0/s/?view=att&th=13665f6b293d792a&attid=0.2&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1>
 
Liberty Underground News reports:
 
"The 'Occupy' movement, which we prefer to call the 'Democracy Movement,' revs up in Washington, DC today to emerge from the winter chill, endorsed by general assemblies across the nation. This will be the first of many large protests this year.

"People coming should meet at Franklin Square, 14th and K, near the McPherson Square Metro Station at noon. We will walk about eight blocks to the EPA. Ralph Nader, Helen Caldicott, Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers, and a bunch of other people will be there. At the EPA you may catch the Metro at the Federal Triangle Metro Station to get out of town after the event. LUV News will be there.

"Kevin Zeese points out the EPA is tightening security. Nothing the government fears more than peaceful protesters pointing out that they are selling out the American people."
 
</mail/u/0/s/?view=att&th=13665f6b293d792a&attid=0.3&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1>
 
American Spring starts today - what are your comments?
 
Greg Dempsey
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SECULARHUMANIST/
Voice of the People
 

========

EPA Goes on Red Alert as NOW DC/Occupy EPA Comes to Their Headquarters this Friday JOIN US

Submitted by Kevin Zeese on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 15:12

 

EPA Headquarters Warns Employees: occupy demonstrators are coming Large Security Force will be present
 
Today, an internal memo was leaked from EPA Headquarters stating how nervous the Agency is about the up-coming March 30th OccupyEPA Rally. Following is the memo to employees:
 
From: EPA Security Updates
To: All HQ
Date: 03/27/2012 11:52 AM
Subject: Peaceful Demonstration Anticipated at EPA HQ 03/30/12
EPA has learned that Occupy EPA demonstrators are expected near EPA Federal Triangle facilities Friday, March 30, for a rally scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in the grassy area between 12th Street and the entrance to the Federal Triangle Metro Station.
As a precautionary measure, FPS will increase its presence in the Federal Triangle area, and Security Management Division personnel (wearing orange vests) will be outside to answer employees' questions. The following measures will be in place:

EPA guards will check badges outside building entrances from late morning to mid- afternoon.
If you expect visitors during this time on March 30, please alert the Security Management Division by sending an email at least 24 hours in advance to OARM-OA-SMD- OB@epa.gov.Include in your message visitors' names, the building they will visit, and their expected time of arrival. Visitors will be initially checked outside.
Additional security alerts will be sent as needed. If you have questions, please send an email to OARM-OA-SMD-OB@epa.gov.
"Why is EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson wasting precious tax dollars on a large security presence on a "peaceful demonstration," asked Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, an EPA whistleblower. "Americans have the right to protest peacefully for what they believe in and demand as citizens." This expenditure is a waste of taxpayer money that would be better spent on the justice we are asking for and our environmental protection. This demonstrates yet another example of Ms. Jackson's inability to listen to the voices of the people and women in particular, who object to the way she and her leadership are doing business."

"With the public health crisis confronting this country," said Dr. Margaret Flowers, "Ms. Jackson needs to use taxpayer money to make sure we have clean air and water to protect our families and this planet from the corporate takeover, not to protect herself and EPA employees from peaceful demonstrators." Lisa Jackson locked down the agency during the last large protest and demonstration held by Occupy forces.
OccupyEP A willl begin their march at noon from Franklin Square Park (13th & I Streets NW), proceed down 12th Street, cross Pennsylvania Avenue, and rally outside the EPA headquarters on 12th Street, under Lisa Jackson's window, at 1:00 pm, Friday, March 30, 2012 (outside the Federal Triangle Metro stop). 
 
 
Please see Dr. Coleman-Adebayo's recent article on the occupy movement in Black Agenda Report: http://blackagendareport.com/content/occupy-epa-–-march-30-launching-american-spring
See "call to action" by Professor Noam Chomsky at: www.occupyEPA.com,
 
www.occupyEPA.com
www.nowdc.org
www.marshacoleman-adebayo.com

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Re: **JP** Abbottabad Journalist under threat

PTI USA strongly condemned the horrendous act by KPK Administration and agencies  and police on Senior press Members and columnists it's called discrimination and double standard injustice we the international community and. Bloggers demand the KPK government to take serious action against those are held responsible against this disgrace behavior and owe an ministers owe apology to members of Abbottabad Hazara press club .
PTI USA
Member Advisory
Committee 
Aslam khan
Facebook 







Khan

On Mar 30, 2012, at 9:06 AM, Mohammad Khan <zubair_pak1@yahoo.com> wrote:

Dear All

Check this 24th march clip , a black day in the history of Journalism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCbaD44bxuw&feature=g-all-u&context=G2ff3830FAAAAAAAACAA
or can search with title Abbottabad Press Club

This clip  Show that the senior journalists of Abbottabad are being
targeted by police
and ununiformed persons.


But the question remains who is responsible for targeting them. The
answer is; the place is entry gate of Abbottabad press club and
forcefully stopped at the gate are senior members of PC Mr Zubair Ayub
Express TV Ex president Press Club, Shoukat Jadoon Executive
member APNEC, Mohammad Zubair khan, Khurum Shahzad senior member AUJ
and PC etc. why they do that, this is also a big question, answer is
that, these journalist try to enter in PressClub with black strips,
they are protesting against the KPK gov over illegal tactic against
journalist and newspapers. .

Men using slang language and supervising the police to stop and
torture are not governament servants but they are so called journalist
working as agents of ANP's minister (Sardar Naveed Alam and Amir
Shahzad Owner and CEO of Sarhad News group of Papers, Raja Haroon
Marketing Head of Mahasab etc ) . These are owners of  newspapers  and
news agents but present their self as journalist. The ANP minister's
and gov have bribed big volume of  advertisments. So these so called
journalist  were not willing to give right of protest as Mr Beshir
Bilour has moved a privilege motion against a leading news paper of
Hazara region,Hazara News  and registered cases against another news
paper of Haripur for reporting a story revealing his corruption. The
senior journalist only demanded to attend Bashir Blour function  with
black strips. this  would show their protest against Minister's
pressurizing tactics.

One have to rember that on 21th march working journalist arranged a
big rally in the favour of freedom of press, which give shock to KPK,
in this rally these so-called journalist not participate.

The bitter irony is that the freedom of speech and media (as in all
other issues like name of province and equal rights in jobs and
development funds) was one of the pretexts which the ANP's KPK
administration used in invading Hazara's rights. What kind of freedom
a journalist has when he is threatened by privilege motion and cases?

The Pakistani and  international community has to play an active role
in protecting the journalists of Abbottabad through creating voice and
it also needs an independent committee to investigate the daily
violations that the so called journalists (owners, administrators and
PR managers of Political parties, News agents who are using name press
club and union of journalist as their tool) are exposed to, and to
present those who are responsible.

For it is illogical to imagine that the so called journalist who are
known as agents of administration and the political authorities would
hold the their own self, responsible, while they themselves are
responsible of torturing senior journalists apart from the stopping of
many others to enter into Press club for coverage of Bashir Blour
function by the help of police. The  authorities are responsible for
these  atrocities, as they are responsible of providing safe
environment for journalists to work in.


We working jouirnalists  here in Abbottabd are commented to defend
freedom of press. But we need country wide support and we are hopeful
that all working journalist raise their voice with us for the sake of
journalism, working journalist

Take Care
Allah Hafiz
Mohammad Zubair Khan

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