From Venezuela to Austria to the USA

In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez wants the power to rule by decree for 1 year, again.  This is how Chavez implemented a lot of his socialist agenda in the past, such as nationalizing oil fields, telecommunication networks, and electricity companies.  This guy needs to go away.


Our PC story of the day: A judge in Austria rules that a man's yodeling offended his Muslim neighbor, and thus must pay a fine.  It sounds like this story came straight out of The Onion.


And finally, in the good ol' U.S. of A., the House has voted to repeal the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy that's been in place since the Clinton administration.  It passed 250-175 and now goes on to the Senate, in which it faces a tougher crowd.

Surprise!

Well, this is a surprise: Obama has reached a tentative deal with Republicans on tax cuts.

The summary:

• Social security payroll taxes drop 2% from 6.2% to 4.2% (employee's only; employer-side stays at 6.2%).
• Estate tax is cut to 35% (0% now, set to increase automatically to 55% on Jan 1, 2011), and only to estates greater than $5 million.
• Extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed for 13 months (financed by borrowing, not spending cuts).
• Allowing companies to claim deductions on 100% of most types of investments.
• Other unspecified tax breaks for students and working families.

This is one of the few moments I have to give credit to Obama.  There are some things that I don't like (unemployment benefits financed by borrowing, an estate tax that is >0%), but this is a good compromise.

Now, this is NOT a surprise: Schwarzenegger declares CA fiscal emergency. 

Goodbye freedom, hello tyranny!

I don't think any other combination of articles can make me angrier.


First: Feds are now tracking credit cards in real time.  

As a reminder and a reference, here's the fourth amendment in its entirety:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Someone please explain to me how this does not violate the fourth amendment.  I understand that "unreasonable searches" may be up for interpretation, but as I see it, tracking the purchases someone makes at a grocery store is most definitely unreasonable.


Second: The FCC is going to start regulating the internet.

This deals with the issue of net neutrality, which is incredibly complex.  This is the best explanation that I have read on it.

The article explains the issue very well, read it.

As an aside, this is a fantastic article which points out that the US is increasingly being run my thousands of regulations, not laws.


Third, and most upsetting: Car companies took secret bailout money.

Not even American ones only!! BMW and Toyota were among the recipients.  Just think about this.  We have an entity that is supposed to be independent and free from political influence and whose major job it is to control inflation.  Somehow, since 1913 when it was created, it has transformed into this behemoth that basically controls the economy.  The Fed is out of control.

Avalanche!

In case you have been living under a rock, you already know that Republicans are very happy (mostly), and Democrats are very sad (mostly).  Here's a summary:

US House

188 seats

239 seats

US Senate

53 seats

46 seats

The GOP has taken control of the House and reduced the Dem's majority in the Senate.  But perhaps the most important result is the State Legislatures - Repubs picked up 19 chambers, now holding the most chambers since 1928.  By law, every state redistricts every 10 years, and the party in power, now the GOP, usually has a big advantage.  

Here's a good link to review all the results.

Peggy Noonan has a great article.  Here's an excerpt that I particularly liked:

Here is an old tradition badly in need of return: You have to earn your way into politics. You should go have a life, build a string of accomplishments, then enter public service. And you need actual talent: You have to be able to bring people in and along. You can't just bully them, you can't just assert and taunt, you have to be able to persuade.

*cough* Sarah Palin *cough* Barack Obama *cough*

FInally, I can't help but sadly smile at this irony.

Jobless benefits

People are now turning down jobs because they make more on jobless benefits.  I believe benefits are at an unbelievable 99 weeks now.  Reading that article almost made me want to throw up: maximum benefits in MA is $943/week!  That's over $25/hr!!

Greater powers, fewer jobs, and new cajones

The president gets scary new powers under a new cybersecurity bill:

The new powers would give Obama a free hand to not only shut down entire areas of the Internet and block all Internet traffic from certain countries, but under the amalgamated bill he would also have the power to completely shut down industries that don’t follow government orders, according to a Reuters summary of the new bill.

Ever since 9/11, more of our freedoms have been lost.  The federal government says this is for our own protection, but have you ever thought about the consequences of these actions?  One of the goals of the terrorists was/is to instill fear in us.  It makes me sad to say that on this front, they have been unbelievably successful.  Every day, in the name of security, new powers are bestowed on the government and taken from the people.  If we want to defeat these terrorist bastards, we have to show them that their threats and attacks do not change our way of life, which is what they ultimately want.

Domestically, the economy doesn't look like it's getting any better.  CEOs have said that they are less willing to hire.  People have been hounding CEOs for their "exorbitant" pay, but the truth of the matter is that these people are the leaders of the economy.  The only thing they care about is their company.  And if they're saying that they're less likely to be hiring anyone in the near future, that's definitely worrying.

Lastly, a politician that is FINALLY willing to stand up to the destructive and backwards teacher's union.  Governor Christie of New Jersey announced reforms to the education system.  The proposed bill will:

* Prohibit salary scales based on seniority

* Grant raises based on classroom performance

* Give tenure based on classroom performance

He needs the state Legislatures to sign off on some of the reforms, but it's refreshing to see something being done about our dismal education system.  Although I must give credit to Obama as well, who - surprisingly - hasn't been a tool of the unions like I expected.

Kerry and Klaus

John Kerry recently blamed the Democrats' problems on Americans' inattentiveness and short attention spans.  Because of course, it's not possible that the politicians are at fault for our problems.  It must be us.


A rare thing in international politics that makes me smile: Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus.  He recently told the UN to buzz off.

Who coulda thought...

Can you say "unintended consequences"?

Apparently, neither Congress nor Obama can.

Roundup

Lots to talk about today.

On the domestic front:

A man was arrested for defending his home from potential gang members.  Why?  Because he used an AK-47 instead of a shotgun.  Give me a break.  When you have gang members coming to your house, on your driveway, you SHOULD NOT be worried about things like this.  Your and your family's safety is priority #1.  Imagine the consequences this will have: instead of defending themselves, people will be worried about being arrested.  Burglars/gang members/criminals will be emboldened.  Fantastic.

Small businesses are getting violated by enormous taxes. The business owner in this Washington Post article had his taxes go up SEVENFOLD.  I'm guessing most of this has to do with Obama's health care "reform".  In any case, this is absolutely the worst time to raise taxes for any reason, especially on small business, which drive a vast majority of US economic growth.  SO MANY businesses are withholding capital investments because of the uncertain business climate.  By the end of this week Obama is supposed to make some comments regarding taxes and the economy.

Ahh, the great climate change debate.  Or, if many people would have their way, there isn't a debate at all: global warming is happening! and it's due to humans!  Well, the debate is nowhere near done.  New evidence has shown that glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica are receding at a much slower pace than thought.  So instead of creating legislation that will without a doubt hamper industry in the US (e.g. cap-and-trade), how about we talk about it first?  Let's not make the same mistake here as we made with the financial and health care "reforms".

On the international front:

Well, what's the point of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks if you "can't allow even one concession"?  Or if you don't even recognize the national identity of your peace partner?!  I don't even know what to say about this anymore, it's such a joke.  I'm guessing Abbas knows he's powerless to do anything (even in the eyes of the Palestinians), so he's just going through the motions.

Scary charts

Obama wants another $50 billion stimulus.  Great.  This time it's for "long-term investments in the nation's roads, railways and runways".  How has Obama not learned that Keynesian economics does not work?  After trillions in stimulus, unemployment is still high, the economy is barely growing, and debt is at historic highs.  The chart below should scare you.

(This site has fantastic info about government spending - the most complete I've seen yet.)

In other news, the UN's attempt at monitoring Iranian nuclear activity is "being hampered".  What a shock!  Why won't they just unclench their fist?!

The charade begins again

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have started once again.  I see no reason why this round will provide results.

There are some things that are very curious to me, however.

1. It is truly confounding to me how people expect a Palestinian state to simply appear out of a few rounds of talks.  It takes infrastructure, a stable, legitimate government (Fatah is neither), and a viable economy, among many many other factors for a country to succeed.  Granted, the economy of the West Bank has been increasing at a healthy rate (~10%), especially considering the state of the world economy.  But how can people not realize a fundamental issue: Fatah still doesn't even recognize Israel's right to exist!!  Instead of trying to create a state that might end in chaos, it makes a lot more sense to work on baby steps.  Reform the education system; stop promoting hatred towards Jews; repeal idiotic laws that give the death sentence to Palestinians who sell land to Jews; encourage cultural and student exchanges; don't name public squares after terrorists!  Baby steps, not massive leaps.


2. The PA expects the future Palestinian state to be judenrein.  I don't understand how the world can hold such a double standard.  While Arabs are free to live in Israel and have exactly the same rights as Jews, it is pretty much accepted that Jews will be forbidden to live in Palestine.  According to Abbas himself: "I will never allow a single Israeli to live among us on Palestinian land."  Talk about apartheid...


3. The Right of Return is impossible.  Palestinians demand that the refugees from the 1948 War of Independence, along with their descendants, receive compensation and/or given back their land.  So many problems with this.  First: exact proportions are disputed, but a majority of Palestinians were encouraged by Arab countries to leave, with the promise that once the Jews were forced into the Mediterranean, they would come back and enjoy a totally Jew-free life.  Needless to say, that didn't work out.  Now, many refugees that are in camps in Arab countries are denied basic human rights so that they can be paraded to the world in order to show how "cruel" the Israelis are.  Recently, Lebanon has given these refugees some rights, but they are still treated as sub-humans.  Second: including their descendants, the refugees number in the millions.  Practically, it is not possible to resettle all of them back in Israel.  The Palestinian refugee problem is so fascinating to me because their situation is unique in the entire course of human history.  In any other war, refugees have left and started new lives.  The "international community" has never demanded that refugees be allowed to return to the extent that they have with the Palestinians.  What about the 800,000+ Jewish refugees from the Arab states that were forced to flee?  Their property was often confiscated by the state, and yet we hear nothing about that.  Or how about the Sri Lankan refugees?  Over 300,000 refugees, 7,000 civilians killed - where's the outrage about that?  The insane number of Africans constantly displaced by civil war and genocide?  Nothing.

Closing thoughts: if this problem is ever going to get solved, Palestinians need to stop living in the past and stop looking at themselves like victims.  If you want a state, act like it.

Increasing government power

Well, this is scary.  In California and 8 other states, it is legal for the government to track you with GPS without a warrant.  According to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the government can come in the middle of the night and stick a tracker under your car because your driveway isn't considered to be private.  Wow.  Even weirder, the judges wrote that people who can afford to have fences and gates closing off their driveway do have this expectation of privacy, so the government isn't welcome.  Now, I am the last person to rant about the growing divide between rich and poor and how this country is run by the rich and oppresses the poor blah blah blah, but this is a seriously messed up ruling.

Another example of the federal government getting scary powerful: for a while now, the EPA has had the power to regulate greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide, which they classified as a pollutant.  Forget the fact that it's ridiculous to classify carbon dioxide as a pollutant, and forget the fact that the global warming debate is far from over (e.g. Climategate, Himalayan mountains controversy, "hockey-stick" graph).  This effectively means that the EPA now has powers traditionally given Congress: the ability to tax.  There's no way cap-and-trade will pass in Congress now, so it is likely that the EPA will step in.  Thankfully, Texas is doing what it does best: telling the government to back off.

President Obama's EPA is already well down the path to regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, something the act was not designed to do. It has a problem, however, because shoehorning greenhouse gases into that 40-year-old law would force churches, schools, warehouses, commercial kitchens and other sources to obtain costly and time-consuming permits. It would grind the economy to a halt, and the likely backlash would doom the whole scheme.

The EPA, determined to move forward anyway, is attempting to rewrite the Clean Air Act administratively via a "tailoring rule," which would reduce the number of regulated sources. The problem with that approach? It's illegal. The EPA has no authority to rewrite the law. To pull it off, the EPA needs every state with a State Implementation Plan to rewrite all of its statutory thresholds as well.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Chairman Bryan W. Shaw saw the tailoring rule for what it really is: a massive power grab and centralization of authority. 

Read the whole thing.

Other scary news: death of the dollar?  Probably not, but this is not a good sign for the economy.

Iran and nuclear power

Russian nuclear rods are beginning to be inserted into Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor.  Iran claims this will be used for civilian nuclear energy and medical uses, but almost the entire world doubts this is the case.

I find that it's useful to know some of the technical details about a subject before discussing it, so here's some background info on nuclear power plants.  There are two major types (or isotopes) of uranium, U-235 and U-238 (the numbers refer to the number of protons + neutrons).  U-238 is much more common in nature (99%), but in order to use uranium for electricity or weapons, you have to enrich some or most of it to U-235.  Power plants require 3-5% enrichment, while weapons require about 90%.  There are some medical uses for uranium as well, which require about 20%.  

Now, Ahmadinejad claims he wants to use his plants only for power and medical purposes.  The scary thing is that while it is difficult to enrich up to 20%, after this point it becomes relatively easy to go the rest of the way to 90% enrichment.  This is the "breakout" point that you read in some news stories.  So while Ahmadinejad may only enrich up to 20%, it is very easy to order the reactors to enrich to weapons-grade if he wants to.  

Another problem is plutonium.  Plutonium is a byproduct of this enrichment process.  The scary thing about plutonium is that it's almost totally useless except for use in nuclear weapons.  Iran has agreed to ship the plutonium back to Russia, but for some reason, I don't trust a genocidal, extremist dictator.  And Russia is notorious for having problems keeping inventory of their own uranium, so one can see how easy it would be for Iran to simply skim some off.

On to other news.

Almost 50% of people enrolled in Obama's mortgage relief program have left or fallen out.  This program was supposed to help those at risk of foreclosure by reducing their mortgage payments.  This joke of a solution doesn't solve the real problem: cheap credit.  People who shouldn't have been approved for ridiculous loans ($0 down?!) that got them will obviously have trouble with payments in the future, no matter if the government steps in.  If anything needs to be done, the government needs to take away the incentives from Fannie and Freddie and other banks so they don't make these loans anymore.  Obviously, that will not happen in a Democratically controlled Congress (see post on 8/11).

Finally, this headline is priceless.

Ethics in the House

Ahh, ethics scandals.  What would the great US Congress be without them?

Most recently, Reps. Charlie Rangel (D – New York) and Maxine Waters (D – Los Angeles) have been charged with various ethics violations.  Unfortunately, it doesn't surprise me.  This isn't limited to only Democratic politicians, either; Republicans are just as guilty.  What does surprise me though, is the sorry excuse Waters gave for her misbehavior.  She is being investigated for intervening on behalf of a bank, which she had personal connections to, in order to secure it stimulus funds.

It seems like blaming President Bush isn't limited to the two wars or the economy:

Embattled Rep. Maxine Waters on Friday blamed the Bush administration for her ethics problems -- saying she had to intervene with the Treasury Department on behalf of minority-owned banks seeking federal bailout funds -- including one tied to her husband -- because the Treasury Department wouldn't schedule its own appointments. 

Almost makes me laugh.  Almost.  Read the rest here.


In related news, about 53% of Americans think House Democrats are ethical, while 52% believe House Republicans are.  This CNN story makes it seem like this is good news, but it's difficult for me to see anything positive when only half of the country believes their elected leaders will make ethical choices.  Sad.

Home-ownership, the economy, and more!

Lot's of news today, so let's get right to it.

The government is rethinking it's role regarding home-ownership.  One of the reasons for the Great Recession (I would say 50% blame), is due to the fact that the government during the Clinton era encouraged as many people as possible to buy homes, even if they couldn't afford it.  (Why would they do something so stupid?  Votes.  Poorer folks in large cities who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford a home tend to be Democrat, for the most part.)  Now, it seems, they are thinking twice:

Washington is preparing to rebuild the national mortgage market atop the ruins of Fannie and Freddie. The proposal, due early next year from the Obama administration, could make it harder to buy a home by reducing available credit or requiring bigger down pay-ments. Low-income renters might get more government help.

Also, more evidence for a slowing recovery: Q2 GDP growth will likely be revised from 2.4% to 1%.  Double-dip recession possible?  Maybe.  This doesn't help: California residents' income drops for the first time since World War 2.


Many (a majority?) people in the US are getting worried about the ridiculous growth in government (which, ironically, began with Bush).  Another depressing statistic to support this notion is the fact that the average federal salary is now twice(!) as much as the average private sector salary.  What a shame.


In the international scene, Russia and China are resuming their gasoline trading with Iran.  Unfortunately, it looks like sanctions will have little to no effect.  But I don't think Obama will allow himself to be the president under whose watch Iran gets nuclear weapons.  Look for a military strike from the US or Israel in 2011 or 2012, barring Iranian leadership growing a brain and ending their enrichment, or – even better – a revolution!

Peggy Noonan and Other Updates

Well, it has been a while since my last post.  Life has a certain tendency to get in the way.

But have no fear, the world has not stopped spinning and politicians have not stopped acting like idiots just because I have not been writing about them.  Indeed, in the last 6 months many many significant changes have occurred in the world and the U.S.

I stumbled across a fantastic article by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal a couple days ago.  This is the money quote that I feel perfectly exemplifies the mood of the nation right now:

Our problems as a nation have been growing on us for a long time. Their future growth, and the implications of that growth, could be predicted. But there is one thing that is both new since 1994 and huge. It took hold and settled in after the crash of 2008, but its causes were not limited to the crash.

The biggest political change in my lifetime is that Americans no longer assume that their children will have it better than they did. This is a huge break with the past, with assumptions and traditions that shaped us.

Read the entire thing, it's though provoking.

Some other important updates:

• Obama's job approval has been on a steady decline, it seems, from the time he took office.
• The whistle-blowing site WikiLeaks has released thousands of secret reports from Afghanistan.
• The most recent Labor Department report claims the U.S. lost 131,000 jobs in July, leaving the unemployment rate at 9.5%.

Obama's YouTube Interview

Obama had an interview recently with questions submitted via email and YouTube.  Those questions that received the most votes from users were asked.  The questions touched on substantial issues such as healthcare, the economy, and foreign policy as well as lighter issues such as net neutrality and the fate of the USPS.

Fact-Checking Obama's SOTU

Obama's State of the Union speech was last night.  Here's a fact-checker for some of the claims he made.

For those of you who saw the speech, you may have noticed Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito mouth "not true" after Obama claimed that the Justices' recent ruling regarding corporate gifts to politicians and elections would have a deleterious effect on the US political landscape because of foreign influence.  PolitiFact rates Obama's claims as "barely true".

A New Era?

Here are two fantastic opinion pieces:

Peggy Noonan in the WSJ talks about looking forward from the Mass. Senate election.

Mortimer Zuckerman in US News and World Report explains how Obama has fallen from the public's eye.

This is really a tumultuous time in US politics.  Obama and the Democrats have faced massive backlash over government spending and debt, Congressional approval ratings are dreadful, Obama's approval rating is below 50%, and most people want Congress to stop working on healthcare reform and instead focus on jobs and the economy.  And that's not to mention numerous foreign policy blunders.

Hopefully the GOP won't drop the ball this time around.

Scott Brown Wins Mass. Senate Race

Scott Brown won the Senate race in Massachusetts tonight in a huge upset.  The GOP candidate upstaged Democratic candidate Martha Coakley for the seat formerly occupied by Ted Kennedy, who passed away last August.  His win gives the GOP the coveted 41 seats required to filibuster the health care bill.

For anyone who believes the government has no right to regulate and deeply involve itself in health care (1/6 of the US economy), this is fantastic news.  It is so far-reaching at this point that even some Democrats want to start over.

Interview With Christopher Hitchens

Michael J. Totten has a fantastic interview with Christopher Hitchens, and they a variety of topics such as anti-blasphemy laws, the Taliban, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran.
 
Part 1.
Part 2.

For those who aren't familiar with Mr. Hitchens, here is the introduction that MJT gives him:

The man should need no introduction, but I'll give him one anyway. He's the author or editor of more than twenty books, a journalist, a literary critic, a world traveler, a teacher, and a polemicist who migrated rightward from the radical left and no longer fits in anyone's convenient box. Last year Forbes magazine cited him as one of the 25 most influential liberals in the U.S. media, but at the same time he's a fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford. In 2005, Foreign Policy magazine cited him as one of the 100 most influential intellectuals in the world.

He's a regular contributor to Vanity Fair, Slate, and the Atlantic, and his most recent book, God Is Not Great, made him more famous (or, if you prefer, infamous) than ever. His best book, or perhaps I should say my favorite, is Love, Poverty, and War, a rich collection of travel pieces and essays on those three most important of topics.

Hitchens is certainly famous, and is recognized on the street a lot more often than I am. A tall and slightly disheveled man in his fifties rudely interrupted our conversation outside the bar at one point and said "I can't remember your name, but I recognize you from YouTube."

"You should read more," Hitchens said. He didn't remind the man of his name.

Not two minutes later, an attractive young woman walked up to him, squeezed his arm gently, and said "I love you."

"How often does this happen?" I said.

"This," he said and smiled at the pretty young woman, "doesn't happen nearly enough. But that," he said and gestured to the man who recognized him from YouTube and would not go away, "happens too often."

U.S. Starts Supporting Opposition Movement in Iran

There has been a nice development in the relationship between the U.S. and the Iranian opposition (or Green) movement.  In the Wall Street Journal:

The Obama administration is increasingly questioning the long-term stability of Tehran's government and moving to find ways to support Iran's opposition "Green Movement," said senior U.S. officials.

The White House is crafting new financial sanctions specifically designed to punish the Iranian entities and individuals most directly involved in the crackdown on Iran's dissident forces, said the U.S. officials, rather than just those involved in Iran's nuclear program.

It's welcome news that the Obama Administration has finally (slowly) embraced the Green movement in Iran, but it's a shame that it took Obama this long.  Critics of engaging the opposition in Iran point out that this would only add legitimacy to the claims of Ahmadinejad and Co. that the U.S. is "meddling" in Iranian affairs.  Yet these arguments fall flat because no matter what the U.S. does, Iranian leadership will continue spouting these allegations.  They have no qualms about lying to their citizens in order to stay in power.

Should America Go Bankrupt?

There was a very interesting article in the Financial Times yesterday by Gideon Rachman that proposed that America would perhaps be better off it it did go bankrupt.  Rachman points out that many countries changed for the better when they were teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

The US has formidable strengths that will allow its government to be profligate for far longer than other nations could get away with. But if the US keeps running huge deficits, sooner or later the country will start flirting with bankruptcy. Oddly, it might be best if the crisis came sooner rather than later. For a surprising number of countries, running out of money has been the prelude to national renewal...

The British still shudder at the memory of the UK government having to go “cap in hand” to the IMF in 1976. It was humiliating – but it served a useful purpose. Britain’s brush with bankruptcy helped to convince the voters that things really needed to change, and prepared the ground for Thatcherism. France had a similar experience in the early 1980s – when capital flight from the country and collapsing tax revenues forced the government of François Mitterrand to abandon its hard-left policies.

Obviously, a bankrupt America is not something to be rooting for.  But is the scare of having no more money to spend what the US needs?

China is against Iranian sanctions

China announced today that "it is not the right time or moment" for sanctions against Iran.  This is no surprise, given the fact that Iran is a huge market for Chinese products.  After Germany, China has the second largest market in Iran.  And given the fact that China is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, effective UN sanctions against Iran are almost guaranteed to fail.  

Ah yes, I forgot; the words "effective" and "UN" do not belong on the same sentence.

Israel's Justice System

Israel's Supreme Court recently ruled that a road once closed to Palestinians living in the West Bank must be reopened to them.  It is fantastic to see such an honest justice system among such repressive regimes.  As this article points out, Israel is constantly accused of human rights violations in the media and internationally, yet it was Israelis who brought this to court.

There will undoubtedly be many commentators who jump to the conclusion that this court decision proves Israel is wrong in the way it treats Palestinians. But consider this: The case was brought by an Israeli human rights group — the Association for Civil Rights in Israel — paid for by donations from Israelis, argued in an Israeli court and decided by Israeli judges. And, as institutions in a democratic government, the decision will now be adhered to by the Israeli cabinet and military.

Michael Yon in Afghanistan

It is hard to know what is really going on in Afghanistan these days.  The media often takes a single fact or statistic and runs with it if it will give them good ratings.  Very few people stateside know how conditions are in Afghanistan.

Michael Yon is an independent reporter who is embedded with troops on the front lines.  His posts are amazing because they capture what is actually going on in a land that is 7500 miles away.  His unbiased and clear reporting is a breath of fresh air.  I encourage everyone to read his latest report: Arghandab & The Battle for Kandahar.

It gives a bit of background history regarding the Soviet invasion in the 80s, and explains how this current war is different from the Soviet's.

New Stimulus?

Can somebody please explain how this makes any sense?  Obama proposed today in a new plan to "spend our way out of this recession".

This is some serious short-term thinking.  I still don't know how he plans on paying for the previous Stimuli packages.  Every dollar that the government spends comes out of tax dollars.  Spending yourself out of a recession is like taking $100 out of your left pocket and putting $60 in your right, while shredding the remaining $40 into pieces, gone forever to government waste and inefficiency.

Death and Taxes

This is a great tool showing how freaking huge the government is.

Iran Needs 20 Nuclear Plants

Iran announced today it needs 20 enrichment plants.  When will they unclench their fist?!

Massive Growth of Department of Health and Human Services

Under the Senate healthcare bill, the Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius would have an amazing amount of power over the insurance industry.

The secretary is given the power to establish "the basic per enrollee, per month cost, determined on average actuarial basis, for including coverage under a qualified health care plan."
The HHS secretary would also have the power to decide where abortion is allowed under a government-run plan, which has drawn opposition from Republicans and some moderate Democrats.
And the bill even empowers the department to establish a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation that would have the authority to make cost-saving cuts without having to get the approval of Congress first.

This is seriously worrying.  It's scary that the government has this much power.

Switzerland Votes to Ban Minarets

Here's some troubling news: voters in Switzerland backed a vote to ban minarets.

More than 57% of voters and 22 out of 26 cantons - or provinces - voted in favour of the ban.The proposal had been put forward by the Swiss People's Party, (SVP), the largest party in parliament, which says minarets are a sign of Islamisation.

This is a very bad day for freedom of religion.   Hopefully this will be overturned in the Swiss Supreme Court.

Roundup

Here's a roundup of some really stupid things going on these past couple days.

Senator Reid bribed Mary Landrieu $100m to get her vote.
update 11/22: $300m, not $100m.

Jesse Jackson yet again makes an astoundingly stupid and racist comment.

Unions once again prove how outdated they are.  Now they are picking fights with the Boy Scouts over volunteer work.

What Does "pro-Palestinian" Mean?

And now for something that makes me happy.  Khaled Abu Toameh is an Israeli Arab whose honesty and intellectualism is really refreshing.  He wrote a piece today questioning what it means to be "pro-Palestinian".  He argues that rather than truly being supportive of Palestinians, most simply demonize Israel:

In their view, inciting against Israel on a university campus or publishing “anti-Zionist” material on the Internet is sufficient to earn them the title of “pro-Palestinian.” But what these folks have not realized is that their actions and words often do little to advance the interests of the Palestinians. In some instances, these actions and words are even counterproductive.

I couldn't agree more.  How are their actions counterproductive?  Well, for one, they spread misinformation, which is the heart of any problem.  No matter how many times they say it, Israel is not apartheid.  Secondly, they are indirectly supporting Hamas and Fatah by demonizing Israel.  They are doing their work for them.  I don't have to point out that Hamas is a terrorist organization and Fatah is pathetically inept and corrupt.  He goes on:

It is hard to see how organizing events such as “Israel Apartheid Week” on a university campus could help the cause of the Palestinians. Isn’t there already enough anti-Israel incitement that is being spewed out of Arab and Islamic media outlets?  If anyone is entitled to be called “pro-Palestinian,” it is those who are publicly campaigning against financial corruption and abuse of human rights by Fatah and Hamas. Those who are trying to change the system from within belong to the real “pro-Palestinian” camp.

Furthermore, he proposes a fantastic idea:

Let’s substitute Israel Apartheid Week with Palestine Democracy Week, where Palestinians would be urged and encouraged to demand an end to financial corruption and bad government.

One thing I've always found interesting is how mutually exclusive being "pro-Palestine" and "pro-Israel" are when they don't have to be.  I suppose I would fall into the latter category.  But if an organization or group popped up that did what Toameh proposed, I would be completely for it because not only does it help the peace process by weeding out violence and bad government, but it also directly helps the lives of Palestinians.


So I guess that makes me pro-Palestinian as well.

Follow the Bailout

This is a great resource to see where all the bailout money has gone.  Total committed: $11 trillion!!  Keep in mind, the entire GDP of the US in 2008 was about $14.5 trillion.

Healthcare Passes the House

The House passed the $1 trillion healthcare bill last night by a vote of 220-215.  It's pretty hard for people to get a grasp of what exactly $1 trillion looks like; this site does a pretty good job of visualizing it.  Just remember, every single one of those dollars (plus interest) comes from you, the taxpayer.

One Republican voted aye, while 39 Democrats voted nay.  It's so sad to see the government slowly but surely work its way into the private sector, first with finance, then autos, now health care.  What happened to capitalism and the freedom of people to do business without government intrusion?

The Senate will vote on its version of the bill in near future.  There are some good signs; many Blue Dog Dems are against including a public option, so hopefully they, along with the Republicans, can muster 60 votes to block the bill.

If not, well, I hope the government does a better job managing health care (1/6 of the economy!) better than it does Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and every other program it runs.

After the government forces many private insurers into bankruptcy because of its artificially low prices, you better get a good spot in the government hand-out line, it'll be crowded.

Iran's Green Revolution

There hasn't been much news lately about the reform movements in Iran.  November 4 was the 40th anniversary of the taking of the US embassy by Khomeini-ists, so every year the government hosts an anti-US rally with chants of "death to America", "death to Israel", and the usual good stuff (I really didn't want to link to Al Jazeera, but I couldn't find any other videos from the anniversary).  This year, however, there were mass protests of the current regime as well.  This article has some interesting facts about what's going on in the movement

The ostensible leaders of the movement, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mohammad Khatami, and Mehdi Karroubi, are former high-ranking officials of the Islamic Republic who would likely keep much about the Islamic Revolution in place. Contrast this with the young men and women on the streets, and you see differences that go beyond the generational. The protesters are aiming to bring down the very system of which their leaders are a part.

Needless to say, this is great news.  I never understood reformers who supported Moussavi; he holds almost the same views as Ahmadinejad with respect to foreign policy and Khamenei's supreme rule.  
In other news in Iran, a college student has become a sort of hero in Iran for criticizing Khamenei to his face.  Surprisingly, the student is still alive.  Of course, the regime is using their "tolerance" as an example of the democratic values it has.

Iran tests advanced warhead design

Surprise!  There's new evidence that Iran has been fooling around with some nuclear warhead designs that they're not even supposed to know about.

The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as "breathtaking" and has added urgency to the effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Usually, when nuclear scientists use "breathtaking" to describe advances in nuclear technology and Iran in the same sentence, that's not a good thing.  Well, I guess reasoning and talking with them will always work.  I mean, it's not like we've been trying the past 30 years.  Obviously, Obama knows what he's doing.

Neo-Nazis banned

This topic, and my stance on it, will probably be controversial.  German authorities today banned a neo-Nazi group.  The AP has details:

Authorities in Berlin said on Thursday they have banned a neo-Nazi group whose members appeared in public wearing a black uniform similar to that worn by Hitler's paramilitary "storm troops."Police conducted dawn raids at the Berlin homes of leading members of the "Frontbann 24" group, described as "the fastest-growing neo-Nazi organisation in Berlin" by Ehrhart Koerting, the city's interior minister.

I don't need to say how sick and twisted Nazis are.  They are very sick and twisted.  However, restricting free speech is not the way to go.  No matter people's opinions, no matter how wrong they may be, it is not right censor them.  Obviously, this isn't the case if these people are causing violence, and, admittedly, that's a hard thing to judge.  Nevertheless, it sets a dangerous precedent.  In fact, US law somewhat agrees.  Holocaust denial is illegal in a number of European countries, but not in the US.  The US is one of the few remaining countries that truly does protect free speech and thought, even if they are dumb, ignorant, and idiotic.  

On a related note, not too long ago a Danish newspaper published a series of cartoons that set the Muslim world aflame because they depicted images of Muhammad (which is forbidden in Islam).  Radicals called for people's heads to be cut of, etc etc.  Ironically, the cartoons were published to criticize self-censorship in Islam.  It was encouraging that the Danish PM stood on the side of free speech.  Hopefully, this belief will be more common in the rest of Europe.  Anyone care to disagree?

Waste

Here's a sampling of the types of things we're spending the stimulus money on from the Washington Examiner:

- $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.
- $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.
- $430,000 to repair a bridge in Iowa County, Wis., that carries 10 or fewer cars per day.

Can anyone explain to me why the government is paying for improvements to Microsoft headquarters, a private company?

Paying More For Less

Californians get screwed.  The Census Bureau released some data on local and state governments recently.  In the LA Times yesterday:

Texas students "are, on average, one to two years of learning ahead of California students of the same age," even though per-pupil expenditures on public school students are 12% higher in California. The details of the Census Bureau data show that Texas not only spends its citizens' dollars more effectively than California but emphasizes priorities that are more broadly beneficial.

Basically, Californians, with one of the highest tax burdens in the state, pay more for less.  Texas, one of the states with the lowest tax burdens, is outshining the Golden State.  If you want to look at the glass half (or a quarter) full:

In what respects, then, does California "excel"? California's state and local government employees were the best compensated in America, according to the Census Bureau data for 2006. And the latest posting on the website of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility shows 9,223 former civil servants and educators receiving pensions worth more than $100,000 a year from California's public retirement funds.

Yes!  We get to pay the most to government employees.  I knew it was worth it living here.  If you are a Californian and feel like being depressed because your day was just way too happy, read the rest of the article.


Time to move to Texas?  Giddy-up.

Anti-Semitism in America

This makes me sad.  The ADL recently conducted a poll on anti-Semitism on the US.  The results speak for themselves.

Even in this 2009 good news survey, some bad news remains a constant, such as 30% believing that American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America, 29% believing that Jews are responsible for the death of Christ. Equally of concern is that  more than a quarter of African-Americans -- 28% -- hold anti-Semitic beliefs and more than a third of foreign born Hispanics --35% --have such attitudes.

The stats on blacks and Hispanics is particularly surprising for me.  I would assume that minorities, being stereotyped themselves, would know better.  The poll points out that overall, anti-Semitism is at a historic low of 12%, which is still ridiculously high (1 in every 8 people?!).


L'chaim!

Iran + Nukes = bad news

Mahmoud and Company has yet again gone back on their word.  In the WSJ today:

The deal [to ship nuclear fuel to Russia to be enriched] was seen as an important first step in winning cooperation with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. Iran says it is interested in developing only nuclear energy, while Western and Arab officials worry it intends to build weapons.  Iranian officials in recent days had suggested they would object to any provision that would see them shipping out all of the fuel at once. 

I can't imagine a reason why they would object to this if their intentions are for civilian energy, like they say.  And, like always, they wait till the last second to make these announcements in order to buy more time.  I don't see how this can end well.

• Option 1 - "International community" is gamed by Iran.  Not hard to believe that Iran can secretly make high-enriched uranium, given the fact that a secret facility was just discovered near Qom.  While Iran my not directly use nukes against Israel, it certainly won't mind giving them to non-state players such as Hizbollah.
• Option 2 - "International community" sanctions Iran.  This will not have an effect, as Russia and China will veto.  See Option 1 for results.
• Option 3 - US strike on Iran.  Hard to say how this will play out.  In the US, 42% would support an air strike.  More difficult to predict how Iranians will react though.  They obviously don't support the current government, but something like a military strike can unite them.
• Option 4 - Israeli strike on Iran.  This can be done with or without US consent.  Undoubtedly, Israel would like to get the US go-ahead, but if they feel threatened enough, I don't think they'll hesitate.  Backlash will probably be stronger from the Iranians if this were to happen.

In summary, bad news all around.