The Origins of Global Warming

An interesting article on where the hype originated.

Blago's Slime

Seriously, this guy brings the concept of sleazy politicians to new levels. Plus, does he look like a cartoon character to anyone else?

Warning: shower may be necessary after viewing this video:

Part 1



Part 2



Gross. Gross. Gross.

You've just been slimed.

Another article against nationalized health care

A Health Care Model For Failure

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, January 27, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Socialized Medicine: Anyone who thinks a national single-payer system would be an improvement isn't paying attention. Medicare, which provides coverage for less than 15% of the population, can't get it right.

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The federal government seems to always be in a hurry to dole out pork, but it has problems reimbursing doctors who see Medicare patients.

Payments have been so late in some cases that doctors from New York to California have had little choice but to take out loans — some as large as $3 million — to bridge the gap.

The late payments, which can be over $100,000, are only part of the problem for doctors.

In too many instances, the compensation that is eventually provided by Medicare — an amount determined by bureaucrats, not the market, and is therefore subject to error — is simply not enough to cover the physicians' costs.

"When I saw a Medicare patient with pneumonia and they needed a shot that cost $30, and Medicare would reimburse only $21, I gave him the shot," Eugene Wood, a recently retired Jackson physician, told the Mississippi Business Journal last fall.

"I went ahead and practiced good medicine. But I just kept going in the hole."

The trend toward late and below-cost reimbursements creates trouble at two levels.

First, some doctors are cutting back on the number of Medicare patients they see — limiting medical care access for the elderly who rely on Medicare and have paid into it for 40 years or more.

Still others found that they have had to lay off staff and trim their own salaries to continue their practices.

Second, the arrangement kills incentives for medical school students to practice family medicine, which already seems to be a dying art, as only 8% of 2006 U.S. medical school graduates opted for family practices. That's about half the number of graduates who were choosing to go into family practice in the early 1990s.

Making $150,000 a year right out of school might sound like a dream to many, but when doctors owe a year's salary and often more in medical school student loans, their handsome incomes don't look as attractive. A family physician has to be as good a businessman as a doctor if he is to keep his practice above water.

If this is the mess that Medicare is producing, imagine the intractable complications that a universal government system would bring.

Who would want to practice medicine under those conditions? Where will sick Americans go when doctors are fleeing practices and the demand for care under a "free" system outstrips supply?

Medicare and Medicaid, the program for low-income Americans, cover a quarter of the U.S. population and will account for a fourth of federal outlays this year.

No matter how much a Washington player promises that he or she can bring health care costs down through a national system, the numbers say that under a universal program, the entire federal budget will be dedicated to providing health care.

Like it or not — and we don't — Medicare and Medicaid, both established in 1965, have become deeply embedded in the American fabric. They will not go away. The best we can hope for is some sort of reform that lessens the taxpayers' liabilities and increases the responsibility of individuals.

What the country doesn't need is universal care. If universal care is the only alternative, we'd prefer the status quo.

But even that's trouble. Already Medicare's Hospital Insurance is paying out more in benefits than it takes in from tax revenues. By next year, outlays for the entire program will exceed income. The Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be exhausted by 2019.

System trustees estimate that over the long term, Medicare will have $36 trillion in obligations that aren't funded under the current setup. That, according to analysts at the Heritage Foundation, means "every American household's share of Medicare's unfunded obligation is like a $320,000 IOU."

If Washington can't run a program for 44.1 million people without bankrupting the nation, how can it possibly operate a national health care system for more than 300 million?

But unless Republicans resolve to stop the movement for good, Washington will surely try — and fail.

Lack of grace and dignity from a wildly popular man

Obama hasn barely been in office a week and he has already shown a lack of humility and graciousness in the way he is handling the Rush Limbaugh situation. I, personally, cannot stand Limbaugh and will tell anyone who asks that I think his tactics are divisive and ridiculous. I, however, am not the President of the United States of America.

After one little attack from a right-wing pundit, Obama has already lowered himself to Rush's level, by responding and taking a jab at the conservative talk show host. Really? You've got to be kidding me.

President Obama warned Republicans on Capitol Hill today that they need to quit listening to radio king Rush Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration.

"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package.

Now, it would have probably been better if someone from the Bush administration had responded to at least some of the constant barage of attacks, to try to elucidate Bush's reasons for certain decisions and actions, rather than just letting the press and the public have a field day with Bush jokes. But, Bush, himself, was right as to never lower himself to respond to silly personal attacks as Obama has just done.

Not to mention, this hints at our anointed President's true feelings about free speech. Can anyone say: Fairness Doctrine?

Yeah, about that change...

maybe not so much.

Why not ban ALL distractions?

Radios, CD players and mp3 players are distracting. They should be banned while driving. Having a passenger in your car is distracting. Cars should be constructed with only one seat. Windows are distracting, lets eliminate those.

Where does it end?

A national safety group is advocating a total ban on cell phone use while driving, saying the practice is clearly dangerous and leads to fatalities.

Grace and dignity from unpopular man

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not a big fan of Bush (mostly because of his fiscal policies and religious bias), but the hatred he incurs is outrageous and undeserved. He's kept us safe, which is the MOST important of a presidential task. So, it's nice to see articles, such as this one, recognizing the grace with which he has endured the taunting, personal attacks and general hatred constantly spewed against him. It takes a special person to rise above these things. And while I think he should not be so apologetic now, especially about his foreign policy decisions, this is another reason why he is a good, if not great man. Can you see Clinton being sincerely apologetic about anything? He's about as humble and sincere as O.J.

Velcro Presidency

Leadership: George W. Bush was pegged as a hate figure even before being sworn in. Yet he resisted bitterness, stuck to principle and became what history will judge to be one of our better presidents.

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We may have witnessed in the last eight the Anti-Watergate. Richard Milhous Nixon never forgot a slight, used federal law enforcement powers against his political enemies and infuriated the Republican Party's conservative base with policies ranging from wage and price controls to detente with communists to Supreme Court appointments.

President George W. Bush

Soon-to-be-ex-President Bush, on the other hand, has taken at least as much personal abuse, yet his graciousness seldom fails. While the 37th president acidly told the press, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore," the 43rd told the reporters at his final presidential press conference Monday that they were "just people trying to do the best they possibly can."
That's charitable in the extreme: Every step of the way, the establishment press has been eager to see this president fail.
And unlike Nixon, who so disappointed his supporters on the right that he was challenged for the GOP nomination in 1972, Bush stuck to the conservative principles on many if not most issues, including income and investment tax cuts, the invasion of two terror states and the appointment of Supreme Court justices.
Bush came to the plate with two strikes against him. He was falsely accused of stealing the 2000 election and hit the ground in the middle of a recession. Then came the first attack on the homeland since Pearl Harbor. In the face of the threat to both the U.S. and the free world, the commander in chief made war against governments that sponsored terrorism and cut taxes to revitalize the post-9/11 economy.
As he noted Monday, when the establishments of both parties in Washington insisted on throwing in the towel in Iraq, rather than accepting the status quo because the party might end up not doing well in the elections, Bush "decided to do something about it — and sent 30,000 troops in as opposed to withdrawing."
Asked about alleged damage to America's international image, the president offered a challenge: "Ask Africans about America's generosity and compassion; go to India . . . go to China and ask . . .. No question parts of Europe have said that we shouldn't have gone to war in Iraq without a mandate, but those are a few countries."
On Hurricane Katrina, he asked: "When I hear people say, 'The federal response was slow,' then what are they going to say to those chopper drivers, or the 30,000 that got pulled off the roofs?"
The one foreign-policy area where Bush may legitimately be faulted in the history books is in dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions. As the New York Times reported Saturday, a major covert program that would "subtly sabotage Iran's nuclear infrastructure" was begun by the administration early last year. It would "undermine electrical systems, computer systems and other networks on which Iran relies" and "is aimed at delaying the day that Iran can produce the weapons-grade fuel and designs it needs to produce a workable nuclear weapon."
If Barack Obama lets that program succeed, it'll be yet another reason history may place "the Velcro president" somewhere near the top tier occupied by the "the Teflon president," Ronald Reagan.

The Slippery Slope of Government Programs

Mark Perry, of the "Carpe Diem" blog, highlights a disturbing aspect of this article:

Universal Healthcare And The Waistline Police

Imagine a country where the government regularly checks the waistlines of citizens over age 40. Anyone deemed too fat would be required to undergo diet counseling. Those who fail to lose sufficient weight could face further "reeducation" and their communities subject to stiff fines.

Is this some nightmarish dystopia? No, this is contemporary Japan. The Japanese government argues that it must regulate citizens' lifestyles because it is paying their health costs.

This highlights one of the greatly underappreciated of "universal healthcare." Any government that attempts to guarantee healthcare also control its costs. The inevitable next step will be to seek to control citizens' health and their behavior. Hence, Americans should beware that if we adopt universal healthcare, we also risk creating a "nanny state on steroids" antithetical to core American principles.

~Dr. Paul Hsieh in the Christian Science Monitor

Thanks to Ben Cunningham.

This is a dangerous slippery slope. Aside from all of the other reasons that government health care is inefficient and wrong-headed, these examples are easily identifiable and scary. Why don't the people who have problems with wire-tapping and video surveillance camera have a problem with this kind of taking of a person's basic rights? Just as something so commonplace and ridiculous as the seat belt law, people should have the right to make their own stupid choices. It should not be up to government as to what they eat, how they dress, etc. Where is it in the Constitution that government's job is to protect us from ourselves? Should they protect us from foolish investments? Where does it say that government should provide us with anything other than protection from force and fraud? Why is the government able to take such liberties today? And where has it gotten us? Deep into a deficit. Especially in California. This particular nanny state, once a golden land of entrepreneurial opportunity, is now driving business people away in droves, depriving us of jobs and cash flow, that we desperately need. And in the meantime, our Governor tries to invent new ways to tax us for his programs that have done nothing anyway. Oh excuse me, we don't call them "taxes" anymore, we call them "fees."

Below is another excerpt from the Paul Hsieh article about the nanny state trend:

Although American healthcare is only under partial government control in the form of programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, American nanny state regulations have exploded in recent years.

Many American cities ban restaurants from selling foods with trans fats. Los Angeles has imposed a moratorium on new fast food restaurants in South L.A. Other California cities ban smoking in some private residences. California has outlawed after-school bake sales as part of a "zero tolerance" ban on selling sugar products on campus. New York Gov. David Paterson has proposed an 18 percent tax on sugary sodas and juice drinks, and state officials have not ruled out additional taxes on cheeseburgers and other foods deemed unhealthy.

These ominous trends will only accelerate if the US adopts universal healthcare.

Just as universal healthcare will further fuel the nanny state, the nanny state mind-set helps fuel the drive toward universal healthcare. Individuals aren't regarded as competent to decide how to manage their lives and their health. So the government provides "cradle to grave" coverage of their healthcare.

It is a serious problem for California, when the best and the brightest are heading for the hills.
"In 2000, according to the state's Department of Finance, about 150,000 people moved into California. But in the years that followed the in-migration slowed, and in 2005 it reversed, when a net 52,000 people moved out. In 2008, the outflow topped 135,000 people." This is bad. Very bad.

My question is, where is all this increased spending going? Is your life better because of it? I can't see it, I can't feel it. Instead of improvements, I see failed programs, a failing school system, government agencies that everyone dreads (the DMV for example). Show me something that all this government money has improved. In fact, I'm pretty sure things are worse, even though we are throwing money around like madmen.

While it has the sixth highest tax burden in the nation, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, California is facing a breathtaking $40 billion budget deficit this year. This comes on the heels of a decade-long spending spree. Last year the state budget was $131 billion, up from $56 billion in 1998.

What I see is more and more excuses every day for spending and taxing because everyone's terrified to just do nothing.

Just do nothing.

Let people and companies fail. Let's learn from our mistakes. Let's become leaner and meaner and more efficient. These bailouts of big, bulky and inefficient industries teaches us all to function like the big, bulky and inefficient government, while removing consequences. When did we become a country of handouts?

It's not always a bad thing to fail.

Sea Kittens: Kid tested. Mother approved.

Do the people over at PETA ever just sit back and take a look at some of the things they're saying?

Their latest nonsensical campaign is to rename the species formerly known as "Fish" to "Sea Kittens."

"Why?" You might ask.

People don't seem to like fish. They're slithery and slimy, and they have eyes on either side of their pointy little heads—which is weird, to say the least. Plus, the small ones nibble at your feet when you're swimming, and the big ones—well, the big ones will bite your face off if Jaws is anything to go by.

Of course, if you look at it another way, what all this really means is that fish need to fire their PR guy—stat. Whoever was in charge of creating a positive image for fish needs to go right back to working on the Britney Spears account and leave our scaly little friends alone. You've done enough damage, buddy. We've got it from here. And we're going to start by retiring the old name for good. When your name can also be used as a verb that means driving a hook through your head, it's time for a serious image makeover. And who could possibly want to put a hook through a sea kitten?

PETA's trying to be cute in their approach to this. But the mentality behind this movement is absolutely ridiculous and offensive. And it's as if we don't have bigger "fish" to fry at the moment with our Global Economy imploding and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yes, let's focus our efforts on important matters like changing public opinion of fish, banning text messaging while driving (rather than spending more resources targeting drunk or illegal drivers), banning trans-fats, and placing further burdens on restaurant owners by requiring they post nutritional information. At least we have our priorities in the right order.

Serious *groan*

"Something for Nothing"

How many times over do we have to prove that the private-sector does thing better than the government before people will start to believe it? And why do people feel that health care is a service that should be provided for free?

Why can't health care be budgeted for, just like food and housing? For those of you who are uninsured, I guarantee that there are financial sacrifices you could make that would free up enough cash to become insured. Yeah, it's not always easy. Life's not easy. It's not supposed to be. Why should it be the government/taxpayers job's to make life easier on those who choose to buy other commodities and services, rather than have foresight and protect their health? What are some things that we could relinquish to help afford health care? Cigarettes? I hear that's a pricey habit. Not to mention, terrible for your health and will probably make your rates go up. Restaurants? Those get expensive and are generally unhealthy anyway. That nasty shopping habit? Time to tear up the Bloomingdales cards, girl. Is it more important to look like Malibu Barbie or be able to fulfill a prescription or see your doctor regularly?

Point being, there are lots of places to cut the fat in pretty much anyone's budget. And what is more important than your health? There should be no excuses on this one. Have some personal responsibility, take care of yourself, don't wait for the government to bail your ass out. It may be too late, anyway.

Not to mention the numerous reasons why government-run health care has been proven not to work.

Here's a great post from the blog, Carpe Diem:

Entrepreneurs Can Solve Health Care Problems

From Devon Herrick's (National Center for Policy Analysis) study "Health Care Entrepreneurs: The Changing Nature of Providers:"

The market for medical care does not work like other markets. Providers typically do not disclose prices prior to treatment because they do not compete for patients based on price. Payments are usually not made by patients themselves but by third parties — employers, insurance companies or government (only 12% of medical costs are paid directly by patients, see chart above). And the amounts paid are not really market-clearing prices; they are "reimbursement" rates negotiated with bureaucratic institutions and networks. Furthermore, when providers do not compete on price, they usually do not compete on quality either. In fact, in a very real sense, doctors and hospitals are not competing for patients at all — at least not in the way normal businesses compete in markets.

The lack of competition results in a highly artificial market plagued by problems of high costs, inconsistent quality and poor access, according to Devon Herrick at the National Center for Policy Analysis in his study "Health Care Entrepreneurs: The Changing Nature of Providers."

But in health care markets where patients pay directly for all or most of their care, providers almost always compete on the basis of price and quality. Examples include:

Cosmetic surgery: Since it is rarely covered by insurance, patients pay out of pocket and are thus sensitive to prices; they can typically compare prices prior to surgery and pay a price that has been falling over time in real terms (see chart below).


Laser eye surgery: Competition is holding prices in check and improving quality in vision correction surgery, including accurate correction, faster healing, fewer side effects and an
expanded range of conditions that can be treated.

Price competition for drugs: Wal-Mart became the first national retailer to aggressively compete for buyers of generic drugs by charging a low, uniform price ($10 for a 90-day supply). Other chain stores have responded with their own pricing strategies.

Walk-in clinics in shopping malls and drug stores compete by offering low money costs and low time costs, and electronic prescribing improves quality using error-reducing software.

Telephone-based practices: TelaDoc, provides telephone consultations to 2 million customers. It allows patients access to a doctor any time of day from any location and also
uses electronic prescribing to reduce errors.

Medical tourism provides cash-paying patients health care outside of the United States in high-quality facilities that rival domestic facilities. Patients can save 30 to 50 percent by going abroad.

Bottom Line: In health care markets where third-party payers do not pay the bills, the behavior of providers and patients is radically different. In these markets, entrepreneurs compete for patients’ business by offering greater convenience, lower prices and innovative services unavailable in traditional clinical settings. What lesson can we learn from these examples of entrepreneurship in health care? The most important is that entrepreneurs can solve many of the health care problems that critics condemn. Public policy should encourage, not discourage, these efforts.



This promise of "universal health care" is similar to Obama's "Hope" and "Change." As economist, Thomas Sowell wonders, have we not yet figured out that the "promise of something for nothing" is like a pyramid scheme or any number of cons? All of the other countries that currently have universal health care have a number of problems with their systems.


For example:

...new life-saving medications that go immediately into the market in the United States take a much longer time to become available to Canadian patients-- if they ever get approved by the bureaucrats.

No doubt that lowers the cost of medications-- if you count costs solely in money terms, rather than in terms of how many people literally pay with their lives when the bureaucrats are reluctant to buy new pharmaceutical drugs, while they can continue to approve obsolete and cheaper drugs for the same illnesses.

Cancer survival rates are higher in the United States than in Europe. A recent report by the Fraser Institute in Vancouver estimates that annually tens of thousands of Canadians seek medical treatment outside of Canada, even though treatment is free inside Canada and they have to pay themselves for treatment elsewhere.

Other studies show that waiting times for surgery are months longer in Canada, Britain and Australia-- all countries with government-controlled medical care-- than in the United States.

First of all, the average uninsured American has above-average income-- and people living in poverty are already eligible for Medicaid.

There are of course some serious problems with Medicaid, as there is with government medical treatment at Veterans Administration hospitals and with Medicare. But such things only highlight the dangers of having the government take over the rest of the medical sector, given its dangerous failures where it is already involved in medical matters.

The lure of something for nothing may be seductive when you are in good health. But it can become a bitter irony when you are waiting for months for surgery to relieve your pain or when your life hangs in the balance while some bureaucrat decides whether you can get the best medication or something older and cheaper.

Why is Cheney so hated?

I really can't understand it. True, he doesn't come across as the most dynamic of personalities. He's no Obama, that's for sure. But, he is sincere, pensive, intelligent, deeply knowledgeable and straightforward. He doesn't feel like a greasy politician. He doesn't engage in doublespeak. He tells it how it is and doesn't beat around the bush (no pun intended). This is rare in politics.




It's a shame Cheney wasn't President in lieu of Bush.

I can't take it anymore...

Sometimes it feels like there is so much to be angry about, I don't even know where to start.

This indoctrination of our children/propaganda/brainwashing is just another example of PC lefties in the media, completely out of control.

Transcending Race

One more thought on Obama's mythic transcendence of race: if the Obama win is so transcendent, how is it that Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) is blaming the Senate appointment blocking of Burris (the "Magic Man") on race? I thought we were past that, now?

Just wondering.

And, by the way, I had to scour the Internet for this quote. The only mainstream media outlet that posted this part of his quote was Fox. CNN, ABC, NBC, the NYT and the Washington Post all seemed to miss this little tidbit:

While they might not be termed racist, their action is racist. I think that if Roland Burris hadn't been an African American, then he would have been allowed to accept the appointment and become a senator.

This is outrageous and vile, especially coming from a man in the United States Congress. This is not some random guy. He is an elected official. Ann Coulter's inflammatory statements are plastered all over the blogospehere and the mainstream media. She is accused of virtolic hatred, but Bobby Rush is given a complete pass?

Wow.

Do as Barack Says, Not As He Does

I can barely leave my house without running into Obama's face. The man is not even in office and yet, he is EVERYWHERE. He is inescapable. I made the mistake of going into Barnes and Nobles the other day and was greeted by a barrage of Barack. Kiosk after kiosk showcased books plastered with his face.

Just out of curiosity, I did a search for Obama on Amazon. The search yielded 2,217 Obama books (73 of which are children's books), 1,897 Obama apparel & accessories, 12 Obama music CDs, 3 magazines with Obama on the cover, 77 Obama related DVDs, 102 Obama related office supplies, 157 Obama car accessories, etc. Slightly excessive for someone who is not even president, yet and did little in the Senate beside vote "present."

I guess it makes sense in our society which seems to prize image over substance more and more every day. A few flashy words, a snappy dresser and a big smile is enough to make the man a God.

The only thing emptier than his words is the world's obsession over him. Obama iconography has infected every aspect of our culture. How much worse is this going to get?



Why does man, who arose from the dirtiest of the dirty political cities, Chicago, seem to skate above any scrutiny? Why is it assumed he's squeaky clean and can do no wrong? People are so quick to make him a role model for their children, but the man's a smoker. What kind of role model is that? Not that being a smoker makes him a bad person, but it certainly isn't commendable or presidential behavior.

Parents use the President-elect as a parenting aid.

You could call it Obama discipline or Obama etiquette, and it goes something like this:

Get up! Do you think Obama would have slept late and not made it to school on time?

Why don't you guys share? Don't you think Obama would want you to share?

How much did you read? Obama would have finished the book by now.

Do you think Obama would sneak cigarettes? (Oops.)

Does anyone know where I can get a WWOD bracelet?










I don't care if we're talking about Obama, Palin or Paris Hilton, there is no excuse for this kind of idolatry. It is dangerous. He is just a person, a flawed person, just like the rest of us. Not to mention, HE HASN'T DONE ANYTHING YET.

Do people really have so little strength and confidence in themselves that they must project their hopes and dreams on this man? If so, that's a sad commentary on our society.

Does it even get any creepier than this?




I think it's great that people look up to and are inspired by our President, rather than a celebrity, reality star, musician, vapid athlete, etc. But this is excessive and scary. With people so enamored by a leader, it is easy to allow ourselves to be blinded by this adoration. And again, what does this say about people's inherent self worth? Why must we seek out someone on which to lavish such hero/messiah worship?

And can we tone down the hypocrisy just a tad? Shall we compare two articles: one on the fitness regimen of Obama and one on the regimen of Bush.

Can you guess which is which?

[Blank] has gone to the gym, for about 90 minutes a day, for at least 48 days in a row. He always has treated exercise less as recreation than requirement, but his devotion has intensified during the past few months. Between workouts during his Hawaii vacation this week, he was photographed looking like the paradigm of a new kind of presidential fitness, one geared less toward preventing heart attacks than winning swimsuit competitions. The sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games.

The more [Blank]'s life intensifies, friends said, the more he relies on the gym -- which is why he might be taking office in the best shape of his life. The gym is where he releases stress, maintains a routine and thinks without interruption. He sometimes wears headphones and barricades the outside world.

Versus:

[Blank] spends an enormous amount of time working out.

There’s no denying that the results are impressive. [Blank] can bench press 185 pounds five times, and, before a recent knee injury, he ran three miles at a 6-minute, 45-second pace. That’s better than I could manage when I played two sports in high school. And I wasn’t holding the most powerful office on Earth. Which is sort of my point: Does the leader of the free world need to attain that level of physical achievement?

I know it's tough, but can you figure it out?

As Michelle Malkin points out:

Fit Republican president = Selfish, indulgent, creepy fascist.

Fit Democratic president = Disciplined, health-conscious Adonis role model.

The good news: In just a few short weeks, W. will be able to exercise in peace, free from the disapproving glares of journalists now rushing to mop the sweat — er, the glisten — from Barack Obama’s hallowed brow.

Apparently even his fashion choices speak volumes about his ability to govern us effectively. My personal favorite is what the editor at GQ, Jim Moore said about Obama:

There's a very modern thinker there. He's not the pattern-mixing guy, not even the khaki guy. You'll very rarely even see him in jeans. He has an urbane, citified kind of palate. He has a vitality to him, and his image transcends race.

Transcends race? Really? Wow. That's pretty impressive, although I'm still not entirely sure what this phrase means. And what is it about his style allows him to achieve this inhuman feat?

I think what we can take take away from the past few months is that we should all just try to be a little more like our homeboy, Barack.

I demand more Italian/Scottish-American representation!

Whatever happened to appointing someone on their merit rather than their race or gender? Please.

Latinos push Obama on vacant post

By Guillermo X. Garcia

After the withdrawal of Bill Richardson's name as an Obama administration Cabinet nominee, Hispanic leaders say they expect the president-elect to name another Latino to head the Commerce Department.

An Obama transition team source said a veteran California congressman, Xavier Becerra, has emerged as the leading congressional candidate to replace Richardson, the Hispanic governor of New Mexico, as President-elect Barack Obama's choice for a job that will include overseeing the 2010 U.S. Census.

“Even though he turned down the trade representative slot, Becerra is not only Hispanic, but he has the skill, talent and experience to do the Commerce job,” said the source, who was not authorized to speak for the president-elect.

“Xavier's name has gone to the top of the list of potential replacements in part because he is a member of the House leadership, he is well liked, he has very good credentials, and, of course, he was an early Obama backer,” the source said.

Becerra, a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and the House Committee of the Budget, turned down Obama's offer to be U.S. Trade Representative because he did not want to give up his House seniority.

But several sources, including two who know him, say Becerra might be tempted to leave Congress, where he has been for 16 years, for the Commerce slot.

Richardson, who has also held a variety of high-profile posts including Energy Secretary and U.N. ambassador in the Clinton Administration, became an early Obama supporter after his own bid for the Democratic presidential nomination fizzled.

After Richardson removed himself from consideration Sunday, Hispanic interest groups around the country began pushing to have the position go to another Hispanic.

San Antonio Congressman Charlie Gonzalez said the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which is meeting in Washington this week, “will be coalescing with other groups on a specific person to recommend” as Richardson's replacement. He declined to name any candidate.

He said Hispanic groups would strongly push to have a qualified Hispanic named as Richardson's replacement because of the need to have minorities, especially Hispanics, properly accounted for in the Census.

The Census Bureau, which conducts a national count once every 10 years, is part of the Department of Commerce. Many federal entitlement program allocations to the states are based on Census data.

While Gonzalez said he could not release the name, the Obama insider who is familiar with the situation, said the person under consideration is Becerra, 50, an eight-term congressman from Los Angeles.

The Obama official said Becerra's name “has risen to the top of the list” of potential Hispanics to replace Richardson, who removed himself because of a pending criminal investigation in his home state.

“I am crushed that Richardson is out,” said Linda Chavez Thompson of San Antonio, a member of the Democratic National Committee.

“I can't think of a single high-profile Latino at the level of Bill Richardson. He would have been ideally situated to positively impact the everyday life of Latinos, especially during these economic times we are living through,” Chavez, who until her retirement last year was the third-highest-ranking officer in the national AFL-CIO labor organization.

“We are going from three Latinos to two on the Obama Cabinet,” said Juan Sepulveda, a San Antonioan who served as the Obama campaign's Texas coordinator. “While we still have Sen. (Ken) Salazar and Rep. (Hilda) Solis at Interior and Labor, respectively, Richardson would have been the highest-ranking Hispanic in the cabinet.”

It would have been the first time that three Hispanics would serve as Cabinet secretaries at the same time, he said.

Three Latinos — current Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and former Housing and Urban Development head Mel Martinez — served in the Cabinet of President George W. Bush, though not at the same time.

Three Latinos also served in Clinton's Cabinet, but not at once: former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros as HUD secretary, Richardson as Energy secretary and former Denver mayor Federico Peña, a Laredo native, served as head of the Transportation and Energy departments.

Signs of hope outside the U.S.

Could it be? A European leader who departs from all the climate change BS?

New EU President Klaus Is a 'Figurehead'; Appellation Rarely Used on Predecessor Sarkozy

By Tom Blumer

To say that President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic is not liked by Euro-elitists is a grand understatement.

European media has generally bent over backwards to give European Union politicians and bureaucrats in Brussels respect and the benefit of the doubt. If there is a voter referendum that enhances EU power, the press is for it, and those in countries like Ireland who reject its advances towards smiley-faced socialism are unenlightened.

Even France's widely disliked Nicolas Sarkozy received favorable treatment from the Europhile press during his 2008 stint as EU President.

That has changed now that Klaus, a fervent advocate of democracy and ardent opponent of statism, whatever its disguises -- including "climate change" -- has taken over that office.

David Charter, Europe correspondent for the UK Times Online, led the charge last Friday (the picture and caption above is from the Times's story page), and reported that things are getting quite testy between Klaus and the Europe uber alles crowd:

EU's new figurehead believes climate change is a myth

The European Union's new figurehead believes that climate change is a dangerous myth and has compared the union to a Communist state.

The views of President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic, 67, have left the government of Mirek Topolanek, his bitter opponent, determined to keep him as far away as possible from the EU presidency, which it took over from France yesterday.

The Czech president, who caused a diplomatic incident by dining with opponents of the EU’s Lisbon treaty on a recent visit to Ireland, has a largely ceremonial role.

But there are already fears that, after the dynamic EU presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy - including his hyper-active attempts at international diplomacy over the credit crisis and Georgia as well as an historic agreement to cut greenhouse gases - the Czech effort will be mired in infighting and overshadowed by the platform it will give to Mr Klaus and his controversial views.

Czech diplomats in Brussels insist that Mr Klaus is not a big part of their plans and are trying to limit him to one speech to the European Parliament in February and chairing one international summit, either the EU-Canada or EU-Russia meeting.

..... Tensions recently erupted between Mr Klaus and Brussels when a private meeting with senior MEPs descended into a slanging match after they presented him with an EU flag and said that they were not interested in his Eurosceptic views.

Mr Klaus responded: “No one has spoken to me in this style and tone in my six years here. I thought these methods ended for us 18 years ago. I see I was wrong.”

This led to a counter-attack from Mr Sarkozy in the European Parliament. He told MEPs: “The president of the European Parliament should not be treated like this and Europe’s symbols should not be treated like this, whatever people’s political engagement.”

What should not be lost in all of this is that Klaus is likely in better touch with the mood and outlook of average Europeans than the insulated bureaucrats and elitist politicians in Brussels. It's no secret that the blowback against radical steps to fight the non-problem of "climate change" is continent-wide, and growing ever more fierce.

In fact, as CCNet's Benny Peiser noted in the Wall Street Journal in mid-December, Europe has gone wobbly while the administration of the new president-elect of the US may be poised dive headfirst into the globaloney pool:

Participants at last week's United Nations climate conference in Poznan, Poland, were taken aback by a world seemingly turned upside-down. The traditional villains and heroes of the international climate narrative, the wicked U.S. and the noble European Union, had unexpectedly swapped roles. For once, it was the EU that was criticized for backpedalling on its CO2 targets while Europe's climate nemesis, the U.S., found itself commended for electing an environmental champion as president.

Thus, Klaus arrives at his supposed "figurehead" position at the EU just as European public opinion has swung dramatically his way. No wonder Europe's media is going out of its way to aspersions on him. Expect US media either to follow suit or to somehow forget one of its favorite mantras -- "we should be just like Europe" -- for at least a while.