Political Football

accuracy in reporting:
link to NYTimes correction (bottom of page)

An appraisal on Saturday about Walter Cronkite’s career included a number of errors.

In some copies, it misstated the date that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and referred incorrectly to Mr. Cronkite’s coverage of D-Day. Dr. King was killed on April 4, 1968, not April 30.

Mr. Cronkite covered the D-Day landing from a warplane; he did not storm the beaches.

In addition, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, not July 26.

‘The CBS Evening News’ overtook ‘The Huntley-Brinkley Report’ on NBC in the ratings during the 1967-68 television season, not after Chet Huntley retired in 1970.

A communications satellite used to relay correspondents’ reports from around the world was Telstar, not Telestar.

Howard K. Smith was not one of the CBS correspondents Mr. Cronkite would turn to for reports from the field after he became anchor of ‘The CBS Evening News’ in 1962; he left CBS before Mr. Cronkite was the anchor.

Because of an editing error, the appraisal also misstated the name of the news agency for which Mr. Cronkite was Moscow bureau chief after World War II. At that time it was United Press, not United Press International.

–correction, New York Times, July 22

In this article, SoS Clinton apologizes for the harm the USA has done to the planet.

“We acknowledge now with President Obama that we have made mistakes in the United States, and we along with other developed countries have contributed most significantly to the problem that we face with climate change,”

The phrase change from “global warming” (which can’t be proven) to “climate change” (which the world has experienced since its inception) is significant. ***

Why this administration feels it needs to apologize for America at every turn makes me angry.

Climate Change in particular has become the single most costly urban legend in the 20th Century and has laid the path to he destruction of the US Economy while people wring their hands.

According to the United States Weather Bureau:
– This June is tied for the 8th coolest on record. The average temperature was 67.5. (That’s) 3.7 degrees below normal…which also occurred in 1897.
– This was the coolest June since 1958…when the average temperature as 67.2 degrees.

The threat to the global economy today is created by hysteria on one level or another. Where is the Statesmanship? In other breaking news, the “lion of the Senate” Teddy Kennedy, visited Mary Jo Kopechne’s grave for the first time recently…

I just had a conversation with some of my Republican friends noting that the world changed so much with MLK and RFK’s assasinations. The conversation consensus was that RFK was the smartest of the Kennedys’ and the one most likely to become and important leader in the world. I was 14 and at the Iowa Republican Convention, the day he was shot.

Where is the next Statesman?

*** insert standard “we should all be good stewards of earth resources, etc, etc…

It has been absolutely stunning (and not in a good way) how this current administration has had their way, passing legislation that has headed this country in a very dangerous path.

- passing trillion dollar legislative bills with the majority of those voting admitting they have not read them
- the administration urges these changes using a panic mentality “do this or catastrophe!”
- 85% of Americans that have heath care are satisfied with their coverage yet this Administration uses the cost of health care as the primary fiscal “bad guy”, inferring if fixed, life will be good again
- NY and CA are talking about a tax rate as high as 58% for some citizens

This is crazy.

This administration is using scare tactics to enable passage of a universal health care bill. Apparently ANY universal health care bill. Everyone I know, agrees that people should not be bankrupted by catastrophic illness. Why not start there by protecting people from those.

I mean, we don’t want to study what was wrong or right about the MASS plan?

Creating a universal health care system that is government run can not be the solution to our financial problems. This Administration hates business (large and small), rich people, and most especially pharma and insurance companies. A cadre of Community Organizers can’t have the vision to solve this problem.

Now BHO is saying everyone must be optimistic. hello?

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.

There is plenty of evidence to show tax increases do not increase tax revenue.

On one hand raising panic to pass huge state or personal entitlement bills, then later urging optimism about this country’s future with the bloat of debt – is an abomination, it’s idiotic and speaks to the dysfunction that we are seeing at all levels of this country.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/ContePnt/Public/Articles/000/000/016/677plgab.asp

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/07/enough_is_enough.html

Please let this be true.

Today the Sears Tower became the Willis Tower, as a British group added naming rights to it’s occupancy with a promise to bring new jobs to the city.

read more here.

How long will it be with the pending sale of the Cubs, that Wrigley Field will be named something else? I hope not.

A sign of the times I guess… all a little sad to me.

why does it seem like we’re heading into trouble here with American Companies Google, FACEBOOK and Microsoft feverishly fighting for technical superiority when cyber terrorism is very much on the rise…

what’s important here folks.
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/

http://trendmicro.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=727&WT.mc_id=2008HP_News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7990997.stm

http://perens.com/works/articles/MorganHill/

Declaration of Independence

(Adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776)

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Hedge Funds, Sub Prime Mortgage bundling, now Carbon Offsets.

We’ve been heading for the disaster we’re living in now – ever since we started the WAR on POVERTY 45 years ago – (which we’ve never made a dent in, by the way)…. http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_3_sndgs01.html

All I really need to understand is George Soros was an early supporter of Hedge Funds to understand – this can’t be good.

A fund, usually used by wealthy individuals and institutions, which is allowed to use aggressive strategies that are unavailable to mutual funds, including selling short, leverage, program trading, swaps, arbitrage, and derivatives. Hedge funds are exempt from many of the rules and regulations governing other mutual funds, which allows them to accomplish aggressive investing goals. They are restricted by law to no more than 100 investors per fund, and as a result most hedge funds set extremely high minimum investment amounts, ranging anywhere from $250,000 to over $1 million. As with traditional mutual funds, investors in hedge funds pay a management fee; however, hedge funds also collect a percentage of the profits (usually 20%).

More information here where I grabbed the paragraph.

Hedge Funds then the bundling of bad mortgages into subprime mortgages and selling them, IMO are the prime elements of this crisis. It’s not an economic down turn, it’s payback for all the stupid things that people have done to “make a buck” or “keep up with the Jones’”. Everything from salaries to houses were too inflated, as well as people’s drive for “things”. I have a sister that always parses things simply by “wants” v “needs”. More people should be like her.

Now, every day I think about my fairly substantial 401k and if it will be there tomorrow. I don’t worry about its value – I wonder if it will be there – if someone will take it – or maybe it’s not really there… Is that nuts?

The world today seems to be “about the scam” – about taking advantage of the crisis. You have been instructed that you don’t need to pay your credit card bill or house payments, but still buy your new ipod or blackberry… get a stay at home job and make 6 figures a year. Even the congress has to rush to pass 1,000 + pages bills costing Trillions of dollars, and almost all of the legislators admit to not reading the bill. what’s the rush! What are they hiding? What’s the scam?

I’ve told my friends, prepare to live without your cell phone or internet access or even your car and try to remember (or learn) how exist – it is getting just that odd out in the real world.

Carbon offsets are becoming an increasingly popular way for individuals and businesses to participate in solutions to global warming. The basic idea of a carbon offset is to figure out your personal contribution level to the global warming problem from such activities as driving, flying, or home energy use. This contribution is called a “carbon footprint.” The term refers to carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas. You can balance out your carbon footprint by buying carbon offsets. Your purchase funds reductions in greenhouse gas emissions through projects such as wind farms, which produce clean energy that displaces energy from fossil fuels. By funding these reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, you balance out, or offset, your own impact by an equivalent amount. Carbon offsets help you take personal responsibility for the environmental consequences of your activities.

Anything that is difficult to audit is ready for corruption. Bernie Maddoff? Enron? Have we learned nothing?

One of my favorite TV shows is “Living with Ed” the Greenman Ed Begley, the actor, and his wife star in a reality show. Ed is Green, very Green and his wife appreciates it but frequently thinks he goes too far. But I like him and think more people should live like him. No one needs a 50,000 sq ft mansion to live, I don’t care how rich you are. But you can’t make laws to tell people they can’t build 50,000 sq ft mansions! Anyway – Ed is always hopping on his computer to buy carbon credits. Last show I watched, it was because his wife was flying to Utah for a film festival and Ed was driving his hybrid. Guilt payments. I learn a lot from the show and it’s fun to watch. Ed doesn’t “force” his lifestyle on others but teaches. But do carbon credits work?

Then you have my candidate, Dr. Miller-Meeks. She was an alternate delegate to the AMA convention a few weeks ago when the President spoke in Chicago. She wrote about it several times in her blog – here is the link. She talks about the AMA going Green – sending out PDFs of the events, etc… hundreds of pages, but then everyone brings their laptops! Carbon Offset anyone???

Fossil fuel and cement emissions increased by 3.3 percent per year during 2000-2006, compared to 1.3 percent per year in the 1990s. Similarly, atmospheric C02 concentrations increased by 1.93 parts per million per year during 2000-2006, compared to 1.58 ppm in the 1990s. And yet, despite accelerating emission rates and concentrations, there’s been no net warming in the 21st century, and more accurately, a decline.

Mark Steyn’s 7/4 article