When Israeli commandos boarded the first “freedom flotilla” boat, the Mavi Marmara, they were attacked with pipes, metal rods and chairs (the WWF wants their stuff back guys), and the result was nine dead boaters who were amazingly well armed for “peace activists.” It was also subsequently discovered that the majority of those on board who attacked the IDF had links to terror organizations.
Fast forward the tape to early this morning. Another flotilla ship, the Rachel Corrie — named after the left-wing “peace activist” who once burned an American flag and was later run over and killed by an Israeli tank while acting as a “human shield” — was chugging toward the blockade. This time though, the ship was boarded without incident. Early reports are that people on the ship were in contact with the Israelis and permitted the ship to be boarded.
I’m only guessing that this time the “activists” saw to it that the Rachel Corrie was loaded with priests, nuns, boy scouts and cute puppies:
The boarding of the Rachel Corrie containing activists and aid for Gaza was described by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday as a quiet operation. Netanyahu was quick to distinguish between the boat of Irish and Malaysian activists and the Turkish-sponsored Mavi Marmara which was boarded May 31 in an incident that left nine dead and scores wounded.
“The different outcome we saw today underscores the difference between peace activists who we disagree with but respect their right to express their different opinion and flotilla participants [on the Mavi Marmara] who were violent extremist supporters of terrorists,” said Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, here’s a real surprise — a mosque will be built in New York near Ground Zero where a different freedom flotilla took down the World Trade Centers and murdered thousands, and guess what else at least one of the people who getting the Ground Zero “in your face, America” mosque done is involved in?
The imam behind a proposed mosque near Ground Zero is a prominent member of a group that helped sponsor the pro-Palestinian activists who clashed violently with Israeli commandos at sea this week.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is a key figure in Malaysian-based Perdana Global Peace Organization, according to its Website.
President Barack Obama waves from the top of the steps of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Md., Wednesday, June 2, 2010, on his way to Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Obama complained recently that he had endured the toughest 18 months as a president of any since the Great Depression.
Perhaps he spoke too soon.
While his first year and a half may have been challenging on a policy level, the president is now facing political problems that have thrown his administration completely off message and are likely to inflict lasting damage on him and his reputation as both a political reformer who represents a new kind of politics and as a competent manager of the government.
Everything seems to be converging at once this week.
The nation is waking up Thursday to news that a second Democrat has come forward to confirm that the Obama administration dangled high-ranking government jobs in an attempt to move him out of a challenge to a Democratic incumbent senator.
Andrew Romanoff, a former state legislator in Colorado, said Wednesday evening that deputy White House chief of staff Jim Messina said three separate government jobs “might be available to me were I not pursuing the Senate race.”
It took something as awful as the Gulf oil spill to finally get some Democrats on board with what most of us on the right have been saying for two years: Obama and his administration are incompetent. Cokie Roberts was not happy on This Week. James Carville is not happy. Even the supreme liberal mouthpiece, Chris Mathews, has lost that loving feeling up his leg over Obama’s handling of the oil spill. All I can say is, welcome to the party pal.
The federal government does not have the expertise to fix this blowout. They shouldn’t even pretend they can like Secretary Salazar has threatened. If any company in the world can fix this it would be BP. They have the money and technology. People are rightfully pissed that they can’t get it fixed but when you consider the logistics then it almost understandable. People are critical that BP doesn’t have a clue. Well, if BP can’t fix it then it can’t be fixed. They are one of the most technologically advanced outfits in the world for oil and gas exploration. They have no doubt reached out to academics and their peers at other companies to get this under control.
This is what you get when you are forced to drill 40 miles offshore in a mile deep of water. If this had happened on land it would have been fixed in about 2 hours. Granted the oil would have spoiled the surrounding area much quicker but it could have been fixed. But our government will not allow drilling closer inland or on land much anymore.
Gov. Jindal of Louisiana is jumping up and down asking for help in cleaning up the oil. The feds are too busy working though impact studies and other bureaucratic paperwork to start cleaning this shit up. Obama could start the cleanup right now, without delay. Get it going and bill BP. We might not can stop the flow right now but we can attack the damn spill with everything we have. How about a little less golf and more focus Mr. President?
The shady ShoreBank bailout
by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
“No more bailouts, no more greed, how many profits do you need?”
That’s been a signature chant of community organizers and Big Labor thugs who have stormed bank offices and financial executives’ private homes decrying corporate welfare over the past several months. But now that the federal government and a coalition of big banking interests are poised to bail out a crony Chicago bank with longtime ties to the Obama administration, Saul Alinsky’s avenging angels are nowhere to be found.
ShoreBank is a Windy City investment bank with all the right (or, rather, left) ties. Its stated progressive mission isn’t merely to make good lending decisions, but to engage in Barack Obama-esque social engineering to “create economic equity and a healthy environment.” The ShoreBank corporate slogan: “Let’s change the world.”
The company website features a video of Obama in Kenya championing ShoreBank microlending projects overseas. ShoreBank has also touted itself as a “green” bank from its founding days — promoting dubious carbon credit programs, subjecting new borrowers to eco-litmus tests (“we look at how you use water, how you recover water and clean it, how you use energy, if you produce clean energy, how you manage CO2, whether you are offsetting CO2 that your product produces, if you are using sustainably produced materials”) and encouraging customers to participate in “EcoDeposits” to “directly support the green agenda.”
Social and environmental justice may make for good Volvo bumper stickers. They do not, however, make for a good bottom line. While the bank was on do-gooder missions around the world, business at home was in trouble. As The Wall Street Journal reported, “Losses racked up during the recession have left the bank facing a demand to raise new capital or face likely closure by regulators.”
Enter the Chicago political friends and family of ShoreBank. The ties are long and deep, as the Central Illinois 9/12 Project has been chronicling for months:
How much will the H.R. 3200 cost? Historically, the cost estimates of every medical program implemented by government has cost more, often significantly more. Massachusetts passed a universal-coverage plan in 2006, which required all residents to have health coverage and gave subsidies for lower-income uninsured families. Sounds like the plan the government wants to pass for the country. The plan was estimated at $472 million for 2008, yet the actual figures for that year were $628 million. They made some assumptions that proved incorrect. They assumed that as more people joined the system the premiums would go down across the board. They further assumed that as more people became insured the number of people visiting the emergency room would drop dramatically. They assumed this would save them money. It backfired! None of these things happened and the health care reform that was supposed to save money has cost more money than expected!
Similar budgetary problems have been seen in Federally run programs.
When Medicare, Part A was established in 1965, covering the hospital insurance portion of the program, the cost was estimated at $9 billion annually by 1990. The actual spending in 1990 for Part A was $67 billion.
In 1967 the new Medicare program was estimated at $12 billion for 1990. The actual Medicare spending for the program in 1990 was $110 billion.
A universal entitlement to kidney dialysis was enacted in 1972 at a cost of $100 million for 1974 and actual spending was $229 million for that year.
The DSH program established in 1987 which states use to provide relief to hospitals serving large numbers of Medicaid and uninsured patients was estimated at a cost of less than $1 billion in 1992. The actual cost for that year was $17 billion.
When Medicare’s home care benefit was changed in 1988 the projected cost for 1993 was $4 billion. The actual cost in 1993 was $10 billion.
Under the title of Public Health & Workforce Development are a number of grants, scholarships and other programs, providing training, services and a whole new array of studies relating to health care – a lot of money being spent to support the expansion of government, special interests, illegal immigrants and labor unions, but little to help solve the health care issues.
The first expansion is the establishment of the Public Health Investment Fund, which requires deposits from the revenues of the Treasury in the amount of $88,700,000,000 over 10 years. This money is authorized to be appropriated by the Committee on Appropriations of the House and Senate for carrying out the activities under the designated public health provisions. These areas include Community Health Centers, National Health Service Corps Program, National Health Service Corps Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs, Primary Care Loan Funds, Primary Care Education Programs, Nursing Workforce Development, The National Center for Health Statistics and the Agency For Healthcare Research and Quality.
To make these programs even more appealing is the stipulation that “Amounts appropriated under this section, and outlays flowing from such appropriations, shall not be taken into account for purposes of any budget enforcement procedures including allocations under section 302(a) and (b) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act and budget solutions for fiscal years during which appropriations are made from the fund.” More spending without any concern for balancing the budget or controlling the country’s deficit. We don’t have it, but let’s spend it!
The first program – Community Health Centers – will obtain increased funding in the amount of $38,800,000,000.
The National Health Service Corps is being amended allowing the Secretary to issue waivers to individuals who enter into a contract for obligated service to pay for their education. It further raises the loan repayment amount from $35,000 to $50,000 and will be adjusted thereafter to reflect inflation. Additional appropriated funds for this program are $796,000,000 over the next 10 years. Additional funding is authorized in the amount of $3,171,000,000 over 10 years to cover the National Health Corps Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs.
The Frontline Health Providers Loan Repayment Program will be established to address unmet health care needs in certain areas, populations, or facilities as designated by the Secretary. Individuals participating in this program must agree to serve for a period of 2 years in a health professional needs area specified in the program. This program has a clause that if there are an insufficient number of applicants for the program, then all excess funds from the program will be transferred to the National Health Service Corps to recruit more people to take advantage of this fund.
The Secretary shall establish a primary care training and capacity building program consisting of grants and contracts to plan, develop, operate or participate in accredited professional training in the field of family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics or geriatrics. Funds for this program are from the Public Health Investment Fund in the amount of $3,023,000,000 for 10 years and will include the following:
Capacity Building in Primary Care – grants to specialties of family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics or geriatrics, with preference given to entities that train individuals who are from underrepresented minority groups or disadvantaged backgrounds.
Training of Medical Residents in Community-Based Setting – a program established for the training of medical residents in community-based settings, with preferences given to entities that support teaching programs addressing the health care needs of vulnerable populations or are a Federally qualified health center or rural health clinic, as well as preference to those training individuals from underrepresented minority groups or disadvantaged background.
Training for General, Pediatric or Public Health Dentists and Dental Hygienists – grants and contracts to plan, develop, operate or participate in an accredited professional training program or oral health professionals, with preference given to individuals who are from underrepresented minority groups or disadvantaged backgrounds.
Grants for Health Professionals Education – Advanced Education Nursing Grants is being amended, including increases in dollar amounts for the Nurse Faculty Loan Program. Funding for this program is $1, 450,000,000 over 10 years.
That’s been a signature chant of community organizers and Big Labor thugs who have stormed bank offices and financial executives’ private homes decrying corporate welfare over the past several months. But now that the federal government and a coalition of big banking interests are poised to bail out a crony Chicago bank with longtime ties to the Obama administration, Saul Alinsky’s avenging angels are nowhere to be found.
