Interesting Items by Alex Gimarc < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   Monday, July 13, 2009 Interesting Items Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy - In this issue: 1.  FedEx 2.  BMD 3.  Enviro Cops 4.  LA 5.  Ginsburg 6.  Tobacco Ban   1.  FedEx.  Next up for attack by the unions and their proxies in the fascist democrat majority in congress is FedEx.  The vehicle for this is the FAA Reauthorization Act passed out of the House on May 21.  In it, Rep. Oberstar (D, MN) placed a provision that would move FedEx from the Railway Labor Act to the National Labor Relations Act, completely changing the set of labor rules under which the corporation operates.  The bottom line is that it would become far easier to organize FedEx workers into unions (Teamsters anyone?), ultimately crippling FedEx in the marketplace.  The Railway Labor Act was intended to cover businesses that provide critical infrastructure services such as airlines and railroads.  FedEx started out as an airline – a cargo airline – with around 85% of its business done shipping things by air.  UPS, which started out as a ground shipping company ships around 85% of its packages by ground and has ended up in head to head  competition with FedEx.  In this legislation, UPS and the Teamsters have teamed up to push legislation that will end up crippling one of the most successful worldwide corporations.  Over the last couple of decades, UPS has given large sums of money primarily to democrat politicians, as have the Teamsters.  It appears that they have finally taken delivery on what they have tried to purchase over the last couple of decades, a change in the law that will cripple their competition.   2.  BMD.  President Teleprompter took his “I love me” road show to the Kremlin last week.  He planned on negotiating an agreement to ratchet back the number of nuclear weapons in the hands of both nations.  The Russians, on the other hand were far more interested in stopping the US BMD program, which is at least a couple decades ahead of anything they are able to do.  As of this writing, it appears that Obama got schooled, taken to the cleaners by the savvy former KGB agents now running Russia.  Although the WH did not verify or release the final agreement, Russian media ran a story that the US had given up its intention to provide a BMD shield in Eastern Europe, something high on the Russian KGB list.  If true, this represents a dangerous weakness in negotiations and yet another kneejerk appeasement out of our Leftist in Chief.  The world does not respect weakness or appeasement.  Such things only breed contempt and make the world  incrementally more dangerous for Americans every single time our elected leaders cave in to criminals, thugs, goons and bullies.   3.  Enviro Cops.  Coming soon to a neighborhood near you:  Enviro Cops.  As we discuss Taxman-Marlarkey, the Crap and Trade Bill passed out of the House a few weeks ago, it is always instructive to take a look at Europe and see how they are doing selling indulgences (sorry, I mean carbon credits).  In Great Britain, things are not going so well, and sales of carbon credits have not been enough to keep companies from potentially violating their set emissions limits.  So the British Environmental Agency is forming up a group of 50 green-coated auditors that will make the rounds of businesses, checking their utility bills and enforcing their carbon emissions limits.  As there is no Fourth Amendment protection in Great Britain, these intrusive audits will start taking place early and often.  Why should this concern us on this side of the Atlantic?  Because Cap & Trade sets this entire regulatory scheme up – puts it all into place where it can  fester and grow like some awful malignant bureaucratic tumor on our liberty and body politic.  Hot Air, Tues.   4.  LA.  When is the formal tax ruling of a municipal government not applicable to that government?  When you are Los Angeles and you are out of money.  The latest story from the land of fruits and nuts is about a demand from Los Angeles for back taxes from a local business.  A company in LA was classified as a wholesale and retail business in 1994.  Such a classification results in a lower tax rates for the business.  In 2007, when the city stated running out of money, they began sifting through the tax rolls and reclassifying businesses into higher tax rates.  The business in question was reclassified into the higher tax rate retroactively to 2004, complete with a demand for payment of interest and penalties.  LA demanded a very large check to be written immediately if not sooner.  When asked what happened to the 1994 ruling, the city responded that they were not bound by past rulings; only taxpayers are.  As a result, the business will now  be leaving LA, yet another honest businessman driven out of California by a rapacious, unlawful, democrat dominated local government.  Hot Air, Sat.   5.  Ginsburg.  Planned Parenthood was founded to carry out the eugenics work of Margaret Sanger by providing abortions to undesirables so that they would not reproduce and grow in uncontrollable numbers.  Over the years, their eugenics past has been effectively buried and now is hiding behind the cheerful little euphemisms of reproductive choice, a woman’s right to choose, and choice.  Dedicated feminist and current SCOTUS Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in an interview to the NY Times gave the following response to a question about abortions for poor women (h/t Hot air, Thurs): Q: Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And also, the lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women? JUSTICE GINSBURG: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn’t really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong. Ginsburg clearly is on board with the old eugenics goals of Planned Parenthood and apparently has no problem with the goal of controlling populations of undesirables (by their definition) via mass abortions.  This is why the left fights so hard to keep abortion funding in Medicare, Medicaid, and exports paid abortions worldwide, particularly to the Third World nations.  This has nothing to do with reproductive choices.  It has everything to do with weeding out Americans who are not up to the physical and class standards of the eugenicists.   6.  Tobacco Ban.  Last but certainly not least, is the latest push by the Tobacco Nazis.  This time they aim to make the active duty military completely smoke free.  DoD buildings have been smoke free since the days of Bill Clinton.  A Pentagon commission on health and welfare has recommended a complete ban on all tobacco products on all military installations, among all deployed troops, and removed from all commissaries and _base_ / Post Exchange stores.  This is little more than another way to make overseas deployments more uncomfortable, eventually hurting recruitment in the future.  Perhaps it is time to stop social engineering our active duty military.      More later - - AG If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. - Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia   State House, August 1, 1776.     Note: Interesting Items can be found at the following locations: The Alaska Standard http://thealaskastandard.com/ MatSuValley News http://www.matsuvalleynews.com District 28 http://www.dist28.com/ subscriber and supporter Elbert Collins at http://thatselbert.wordpress.com/ and the home page: http://home.gci.net/~agimarc Rod Martin's The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column: http://www.thevanguard.org/         How it started http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkFFwyyjZC8   COMING SOON     Nationwide protests at Capitol House & Senate Offices July 17 http://www.teapartypatriots.org/        Labor Day Tea Party ???  First Monday in Sept  http://www.teapartyday.com/   (with before and after)   March on Washington Washington DC 18,406 members and growing www.the912project.us    * Shout Out *   To any one organizing a Tea Party. Reply with your details (when where, etc) to this email with TP in the subject to be further posted to others on the Internet. You are welcome to join the This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  Rich Martin   .

    Interesting Items by Alex Gimarc < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it    Interesting Items by Alex Gimarc Monday, July 20, 2009   Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy -   In this issue: 1.  Health Care 2.  Chicago Way 3.  AK Medicare 4.  Epiphany 5.  ACU 6.  Revolt 7.  Special Session   1.  Health Care.  Details of the two ObamaCare bills started leaking out last week; so did cost estimates.  And it is worse than anyone expected.  On page 16 of the House Bill, Investor’s Business Daily found a line that essentially outlaws the writing of any new health care for any American once ObamaCare is signed into law.  If you have health care coverage that is not immediately shifted over to the new federal program, the instant you change jobs, you will end up on the new program.  There are provisions to provide complete medical coverage for the estimated 12 million illegals here in the US.  Those illegals make up around 25% of the mythical 47 million uninsured democrats are so famously worried about.  It also appears that the legislation will replace Medicare.  It may also replace Medicaid.  It will also force military retirees and family members into the federal program, eliminating Tricare and Tricare supplementary coverage  completely.  Obama last week started to address the notion of health care rationing, contemptuously brushing aside a question about rationing by noting that if you were really old, you might not need that operation and would instead be able to simply take pain medicine.  Thank you Doctor Obama.  The fact of the matter it that should this legislation pass, it will create in instant shortage and immediate rationing of medical care.  It does not address the problem of lawsuit abuse.  It will not address the problem caused by FDA regulatory abuse; that of slowing down innovation and approval of new drugs.  Indeed, under this administration, that already slow approval process is slowing down even more.  And with all things, democrat, what they don’t get right in congress, they will leave to their buds the trial lawyers to create in court via a series of lawsuits.  Should this pass, the elderly and the disabled will be the first inconvenient people  to get thrown under the bus by rationing away what they need to stay alive and live decently.  The only good news out there is that the entire thing is incredibly expensive, and the general public is rejecting new expenditures more forcefully every day.  Keep fighting this and don’t up.  One final note:  Congress and the Executive have excluded themselves from inclusion in this legislation.  When enacted, there will be a two-tier medical system here in the US – one tier for our Masters in Washington and one for the rest of us.    2.  Chicago Way.  One of the things that Obama and Rahm Emanuel brought with them to the WH is the Chicago Way – the technique of strong-arming, intimidation, payoffs, and bribes for their friends and enemies.  Last week, Arizona got a demonstration of how the new game is to be played.  Early last week, John Kyl (R, AZ) called for the stimulus debacle to be stopped, unspent money returned to the taxpayers, and cancel all projects not currently underway.  The next day Janet Napolitano’s replacement, a strong conservative Jan Brewer (R), received letters from four cabinet secretaries – Transportation, HUD, Interior and Agriculture – all pointing out how important the money was, how it was going to be spent, and suggesting that if she agreed with Senator Kyl, they would be pleased not to spend any of it in Arizona.  So under this WH, if you criticize spending, they will threaten to take that money from your state and spend it elsewhere.  This  is not the first time they have done this, having done it earlier in the year threatening to withhold Medicare / Medicaid money from California.  If this is to be the standard, imagine what this WH could do if they controlled all money for health care, energy and the environment.  Personally, I would like several of the states to get up and tell the Obama WH to go straight to Hell and force the issue.  Hewitt, Thurs.   3.  AK Medicare.  Wednesday the Feds announced a halt in signing up new Alaskans for senior and disability services.  The halt will only impact about 1,000 who are being processed into the system.  The reason given for the halt is that the state-run program is a mess.  Speculation up here immediately turned to a discussion of an anti-Palin hit orchestrated by the Obama administration, as Alaska is the only state with this sort of shutdown in place, as we know of other states with much larger problems than Alaska.  I would tend to not put much stock in that explanation, as there is a federal audit of the program underway, and one of the ways to take a variable out of the audit would be to simply shut down intake of new people for a time.  The program is intended to provide in-home care and support for the elderly and disabled Alaskans.  Nobody currently in the program will be affected.  There are currently 3,200 people receiving in-home care and  other 3,800 receiving more extensive services.  The feds said that the program shutdown was triggered by a waiting list of around 2,000 people.  ADN, Weds.   4.  Epiphany.  It has long been said that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality.  So it is for comedian Paul Rodriguez who was for years a typical Hollywood leftist, democrat, green, and supporter of all the usual trendy causes.  Rodriguez also is a farmer, and has seen first hand the devastation on the agricultural sector in California wrought by environmental lawsuits.  Last December a new management plan was approved by the feds that would shift the primary use of water used for farming in the Sam Joaquin Valley from farming to protection of the delta smelt.  There has been a significant drought in California in recent years and water for farming and drinking has been at a premium.   As a result, the farms are failing due to lack of water.  So often, environmental rules and restrictions created in reaction to lawsuits by Big Green hit voiceless people who are put out of business, lose everything they have, and move out of  the area.  Rodriguez was one of the people hit by the new management plan and has apparently seen the light.  He started speaking out strongly against the greens in particular and the leftist democrats in general.  Conservatives have a real opportunity here to stand up for the property rights of businessmen and people who actually work for a living against Big Green, who makes their money by putting people out business, out of their homes, and into poverty.  Hewitt, Fri.   5.  ACU.  One of the reasons that term limits have long been popular among conservatives is the demonstrably corrosive effects of spending long periods of time inside the Beltway (Washington DC).  The latest demonstration of that principle has been the actions of American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene and Executive Vice President Dennis Whitfield.  Politico reprinted a letter from Whitfield to FedEx promising public support in their fight against a Teamsters and UPS backed provision in the FAA Reauthorization Act that would change which labor laws they are governed by.  The letter stated that if FedEx were to “donate” two million dollars to ACU, the group would write letters, studies and opinion columns in opposition to the legislation.  FedEx refused and David Keene started writing letters blasting FedEx and in support of UPS and the legislation.  Ed Morrissey and Michelle Malkin carried the story, prompting a strong reaction by  ACU, saying that Keene was doing this on his own time and with his own dime and that ACU’s position in opposition to the legislation was consistent.  Whitfield did not explain his earlier letter to FedEx nor did he explain the attempted shakedown of FedEx.  The ACU may have been a great organization for a very long time, but this episode demonstrates very nicely why it is not a conducive for anyone to spend a long time inside the Beltway.  Hot Air, Sat.   6.  Revolt.  The uprising in Iran continued to percolate along last week with a fatwa tossed over the fence by the cleric who was considered to be Khomeini’s replacement.  He called the regime illegitimate, said that confessions forced out of protestors were without merit, and called for the people to remove the illegitimate rulers from their positions of power.  After the fatwa, protests in Tehran cranked up once again.  For our part, the Obama administration released five Quds Force commanders captured by American forces in northern Iraq two years ago to Iraqi government, which promptly sent them back to Iran.  These five commanders were pretty important captives, as they had been directing Iranian participation in the insurgency, particularly the use of armor penetration explosive rounds manufactured in Iran, imported into Iraq, and used effectively against American forces.  Apparently the release was in exchange for release of British  hostages and an American journalist taken hostage during the street riots currently going on in Iran.  Unnamed “senior US officials” referred to these guys as innocent civilians.  The Carterization of the war against radical Islam continues.    7.  Special Session.  It appears that the Alaska Legislature will call itself into a special session on August 10.  The two current topics would be a veto override of a Palin veto of $28 million of stimulus money dedicated to energy (mostly weatherization improvements); and confirmation of LtGen Craig Campbell as Lieutenant Governor.  The special session is simply an excuse to stick a sharp stick into Palin’s eye after she has resigned.    More later - - AG     If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than
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    Interesting Items by Alex Gimarc < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it    Interesting Items by Alex Gimarc Monday, July 20, 2009   Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy -   In this issue: 1.  Health Care 2.  Chicago Way 3.  AK Medicare 4.  Epiphany 5.  ACU 6.  Revolt 7.  Special Session   1.  Health Care.  Details of the two ObamaCare bills started leaking out last week; so did cost estimates.  And it is worse than anyone expected.  On page 16 of the House Bill, Investor’s Business Daily found a line that essentially outlaws the writing of any new health care for any American once ObamaCare is signed into law.  If you have health care coverage that is not immediately shifted over to the new federal program, the instant you change jobs, you will end up on the new program.  There are provisions to provide complete medical coverage for the estimated 12 million illegals here in the US.  Those illegals make up around 25% of the mythical 47 million uninsured democrats are so famously worried about.  It also appears that the legislation will replace Medicare.  It may also replace Medicaid.  It will also force military retirees and family members into the federal program, eliminating Tricare and Tricare supplementary coverage  completely.  Obama last week started to address the notion of health care rationing, contemptuously brushing aside a question about rationing by noting that if you were really old, you might not need that operation and would instead be able to simply take pain medicine.  Thank you Doctor Obama.  The fact of the matter it that should this legislation pass, it will create in instant shortage and immediate rationing of medical care.  It does not address the problem of lawsuit abuse.  It will not address the problem caused by FDA regulatory abuse; that of slowing down innovation and approval of new drugs.  Indeed, under this administration, that already slow approval process is slowing down even more.  And with all things, democrat, what they don’t get right in congress, they will leave to their buds the trial lawyers to create in court via a series of lawsuits.  Should this pass, the elderly and the disabled will be the first inconvenient people  to get thrown under the bus by rationing away what they need to stay alive and live decently.  The only good news out there is that the entire thing is incredibly expensive, and the general public is rejecting new expenditures more forcefully every day.  Keep fighting this and don’t up.  One final note:  Congress and the Executive have excluded themselves from inclusion in this legislation.  When enacted, there will be a two-tier medical system here in the US – one tier for our Masters in Washington and one for the rest of us.    2.  Chicago Way.  One of the things that Obama and Rahm Emanuel brought with them to the WH is the Chicago Way – the technique of strong-arming, intimidation, payoffs, and bribes for their friends and enemies.  Last week, Arizona got a demonstration of how the new game is to be played.  Early last week, John Kyl (R, AZ) called for the stimulus debacle to be stopped, unspent money returned to the taxpayers, and cancel all projects not currently underway.  The next day Janet Napolitano’s replacement, a strong conservative Jan Brewer (R), received letters from four cabinet secretaries – Transportation, HUD, Interior and Agriculture – all pointing out how important the money was, how it was going to be spent, and suggesting that if she agreed with Senator Kyl, they would be pleased not to spend any of it in Arizona.  So under this WH, if you criticize spending, they will threaten to take that money from your state and spend it elsewhere.  This  is not the first time they have done this, having done it earlier in the year threatening to withhold Medicare / Medicaid money from California.  If this is to be the standard, imagine what this WH could do if they controlled all money for health care, energy and the environment.  Personally, I would like several of the states to get up and tell the Obama WH to go straight to Hell and force the issue.  Hewitt, Thurs.   3.  AK Medicare.  Wednesday the Feds announced a halt in signing up new Alaskans for senior and disability services.  The halt will only impact about 1,000 who are being processed into the system.  The reason given for the halt is that the state-run program is a mess.  Speculation up here immediately turned to a discussion of an anti-Palin hit orchestrated by the Obama administration, as Alaska is the only state with this sort of shutdown in place, as we know of other states with much larger problems than Alaska.  I would tend to not put much stock in that explanation, as there is a federal audit of the program underway, and one of the ways to take a variable out of the audit would be to simply shut down intake of new people for a time.  The program is intended to provide in-home care and support for the elderly and disabled Alaskans.  Nobody currently in the program will be affected.  There are currently 3,200 people receiving in-home care and  other 3,800 receiving more extensive services.  The feds said that the program shutdown was triggered by a waiting list of around 2,000 people.  ADN, Weds.   4.  Epiphany.  It has long been said that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality.  So it is for comedian Paul Rodriguez who was for years a typical Hollywood leftist, democrat, green, and supporter of all the usual trendy causes.  Rodriguez also is a farmer, and has seen first hand the devastation on the agricultural sector in California wrought by environmental lawsuits.  Last December a new management plan was approved by the feds that would shift the primary use of water used for farming in the Sam Joaquin Valley from farming to protection of the delta smelt.  There has been a significant drought in California in recent years and water for farming and drinking has been at a premium.   As a result, the farms are failing due to lack of water.  So often, environmental rules and restrictions created in reaction to lawsuits by Big Green hit voiceless people who are put out of business, lose everything they have, and move out of  the area.  Rodriguez was one of the people hit by the new management plan and has apparently seen the light.  He started speaking out strongly against the greens in particular and the leftist democrats in general.  Conservatives have a real opportunity here to stand up for the property rights of businessmen and people who actually work for a living against Big Green, who makes their money by putting people out business, out of their homes, and into poverty.  Hewitt, Fri.   5.  ACU.  One of the reasons that term limits have long been popular among conservatives is the demonstrably corrosive effects of spending long periods of time inside the Beltway (Washington DC).  The latest demonstration of that principle has been the actions of American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene and Executive Vice President Dennis Whitfield.  Politico reprinted a letter from Whitfield to FedEx promising public support in their fight against a Teamsters and UPS backed provision in the FAA Reauthorization Act that would change which labor laws they are governed by.  The letter stated that if FedEx were to “donate” two million dollars to ACU, the group would write letters, studies and opinion columns in opposition to the legislation.  FedEx refused and David Keene started writing letters blasting FedEx and in support of UPS and the legislation.  Ed Morrissey and Michelle Malkin carried the story, prompting a strong reaction by  ACU, saying that Keene was doing this on his own time and with his own dime and that ACU’s position in opposition to the legislation was consistent.  Whitfield did not explain his earlier letter to FedEx nor did he explain the attempted shakedown of FedEx.  The ACU may have been a great organization for a very long time, but this episode demonstrates very nicely why it is not a conducive for anyone to spend a long time inside the Beltway.  Hot Air, Sat.   6.  Revolt.  The uprising in Iran continued to percolate along last week with a fatwa tossed over the fence by the cleric who was considered to be Khomeini’s replacement.  He called the regime illegitimate, said that confessions forced out of protestors were without merit, and called for the people to remove the illegitimate rulers from their positions of power.  After the fatwa, protests in Tehran cranked up once again.  For our part, the Obama administration released five Quds Force commanders captured by American forces in northern Iraq two years ago to Iraqi government, which promptly sent them back to Iran.  These five commanders were pretty important captives, as they had been directing Iranian participation in the insurgency, particularly the use of armor penetration explosive rounds manufactured in Iran, imported into Iraq, and used effectively against American forces.  Apparently the release was in exchange for release of British  hostages and an American journalist taken hostage during the street riots currently going on in Iran.  Unnamed “senior US officials” referred to these guys as innocent civilians.  The Carterization of the war against radical Islam continues.    7.  Special Session.  It appears that the Alaska Legislature will call itself into a special session on August 10.  The two current topics would be a veto override of a Palin veto of $28 million of stimulus money dedicated to energy (mostly weatherization improvements); and confirmation of LtGen Craig Campbell as Lieutenant Governor.  The special session is simply an excuse to stick a sharp stick into Palin’s eye after she has resigned.    More later - - AG     If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than
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