Life and Death - Remember in '10: Pro-Life News Report 12/31/09 #4789 (LifeNews.com)

Life and Death - Remember in '10:

From: LifeNews.com Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 

For pro-life news updated throughout the day, visit LifeNews.com.

Current Headlines

• Senator: Pro-Abortion Democrats Will Dominate Health Care Conference Cmte
• Ben Nelson to Run Television Ad Defending Health Care-Abortion Compromise
• Obama, Abortion, Supreme Court, Health Care Dominate Pro-Life News in 2009
• Planned Parenthood Found 2009 Difficult, Abortion Centers Closing Rapidly
• Pro-Abortion Health Care Could Cost Dems Control of House in 2010 Election
• Scientists: Embryonic Stem Cells Showing Little Progress 28 Years Later
• Hillary Clinton Barely Edges Sarah Palin as Most Admired Woman in Gallup Poll
• NARAL Bashed for 2009 Hall of Fame, Could Honor Late-Term Abortionist
• GOP Attorney Generals Threaten Suit Against Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill
• California Pro-Life Group's Office Suffers Break-In, Opponents Suspected
• Arizona Pro-Life Advocate Named One of Decades Ten Most Influential
• New Zealand Right to Life: Family Planning Doesn't Justify Abortion Drug Use



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Senator: Pro-Abortion Democrats Will Dominate Health Care Conference Committee
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Senator Charles Grassley is confirming the expectation that the conference committee that will meet to reconcile the differences in the congressional health care bills will be dominated by abortion advocates. If so, the Senate language funding abortions may emerge in the final legislation.


With the House and Senate approving divergent bills, a conference committee must meet to hammer out the final measure for each chamber to vote on before it can go to President Barack Obama.


The Senate measure current funds abortions and paves the way for forcing insurance companies to pay for abortions while the House measure has the Stupak amendment banning abortion funding.


Grassley said Wednesday during a press conference that Democrats named to the committee will likely "huddle secretly" in order to get the legislation written the way they want.


"I think that this will be one of those instances where, following along on the stimulus bill of last February, I will be a conferee but Democrats will huddle secretly and come to the conclusion of what they want to do and then announce it and, you know, it's a take it or leave it," he said, according to The Hill. "It will pretty much be partisan in conference," he added. Full story at LifeNews.com


Ben Nelson to Run Television Ad Defending Health Care-Abortion Compromise
Lincoln, NE (LifeNews.com) -- One day after a new poll showed him tanking with Nebraska voters because of his decision to compromise his long-held pro-life views and become the 60th vote for the pro-abortion health care bill, Sen. Ben Nelson will run a television commercial during a college football bowl game to defend his decision.


Nelson will make his case for supporting the Senate government-run health care bill that forces taxpayers to fund abortions and would allow the Obama administration to make insurance companies pay for abortions with taxpayers' premiums.


He will air a 30-second television spot during Wednesday night's Holiday Bowl game featuring the University of Nebraska showing him talking directly into the camera.


"With all the distortions about health care reform, I want you to hear directly from me," the Democratic senator says in the ad, according to the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper. Wearing a more casual open-necked shirt and sweater, Nelson will say during the Nebraska-University of Arizona football game: "I listened to you and took a common-sense approach to improve the bill." Full story at LifeNews.com

Obama, Abortion, Supreme Court, Health Care Dominate Pro-Life News in 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama, abortion, the Supreme Court and health care dominated pro-life news in 2009. As LifeNews.com looks back on the year -- the first with a new pro-abortion president -- we find the pro-life movement essentially on the defensive.


Thanks to a pro-abortion president and Congress, pro-life advocates spent most of their time attempting to hold back the opening of the floodgates ushering in an expansion of abortion and taxpayer financing of it.


With the health care debate continuing into the new year, those efforts will be forced to continue -- although the potential for pro-life gains in the 2010 elections provides significant hope for the future.


1. Health Care: The health care debate has become the central focus of the pro-life movement during the latter half of 2009 and for good reason. If the abortion language in the final bill is anything like what is currently in the Senate version of the legislation, the result would be the greatest expansion of taxpayer funding of abortions since the 1970s when the Hyde Amendment was adopted. The Senate bill not only would allow the forcing of taxpayers to pay for abortions but would let the Obama administration force insurance plans to pay for them as well.


The end result? With Hyde getting credit for stopping more than 100,000 abortions annually, the health care bill could result in a 10% or greater increase in abortions -- all financed with government money. This doesn't even touch on the rationing, promotion of assisted suicide, and lack of conscience protection for medical professionals found in the bill.


2. Barack Obama promoting abortion: The influence of the president of the United States on abortion policy can never be underestimated, despite some who still think the president doesn't have any impact.


LifeNews.com has the most comprehensive chronicle of Obama's pro-abortion actions, but the most consequential ones include his overturning of the Mexico City Policy and allowing tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to flow to abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood and Marie Stopes International that not only do abortions by lobby pro-life nations to overturn or water down their laws. Full story at LifeNews.com


Planned Parenthood Found 2009 Difficult With Abortion Centers Closing Rapidly
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion business in the United States, doing 305,310 abortions in its own facilities or just under one-third of all American abortions. But the billion-dollar abortion giant faced a tough year in 2009 as it saw abortion centers close at a higher rate than normal.


Jim Sedlak, the director of STOPP International, a watchdog group, told LifeNews.com today that he's seen Planned Parenthood centers close over the year but never as fast as in 2009.


"STOPP has been fighting for 25 years to close down Planned Parenthood abortion facilities. During that time, we have seen the number of Planned Parenthood non-express clinics fall from a high of 938 in 1995 to 797 today," he explained. "More significantly, 2009 saw the rate of Planned Parenthood closings go from one a month to over two a month," he said.


"Although the organization reported record income ($1.04 billion) and a record number of babies killed in its own facilities, there have been a number of signs that Planned Parenthood is beginning to feel the relentless pressure from those of us who will not stand by and watch it take our money and kill our children," he said. Full story at LifeNews.com

Pro-Abortion Health Care Could Cost Democrats Control of House in 2010 Election
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- With less than 48 hours before the 2010 calendar year begins and jut 11 months until the 2010 Congressional elections, prognosticators are already firing off predictions on what will happen.


Most handicappers suggest Republicans will pick up seats in Congress because of the pro-abortion health care bill and Americans' disapproval of the Obama presidency.


But Reuters writer James Pethokoukis suggests it could cost Democrats control of the House entirely.


Pethokoukis points to modern history as a predictor of things to come. "American politics has a regular ebb and flow. In 13 of the past 15 midterm elections going back to 1950, the party in control of the White House has lost an average of 22 seats in the House. In 10 of the past 15 midterms the party running the Senate has lost an average of three seats," he said.


More recent political results show a change coming with pro-life Republicans winning gubernatorial races in the off-year elections in Virginia, replacing a pro-abortion Democrat, and in New Jersey. Full story at LifeNews.com


Scientists: Embryonic Stem Cell Research Showing Little Progress 28 Years Later
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In the 28 years that scientists have been toying with embryonic stem cells in animals and humans, not one human patient has even been treated. Despite President Barack Obama forcing taxpayers to fund the research, that destroys human life, scientists don't expect that to change anytime soon.


In a new interview with NPR, Len Zon, a stem cell researcher at Children's Hospital in Boston, admits that any hope of treating patients with embryonic stem cells is not forthcoming.


"I think that's still a ways off," Zon said. "Although there are some studies that the FDA is considering, I think we still have to figure out how to make these cells in a more efficient and effective way, and I think that's going to take awhile," he said.


Part of the effectiveness problem revolves around the fact that embryonic stem cells, when inserted as treatments in animals, still form tumors and prompt rejection issues from the immune system.


Zon told NPR that he holds out more hope for the new development called direct reprogramming. That's the process discovered by Japanese researcher Shinya that reverts adult stem cells to an embryonic-like state and avoids having to kill unborn children to obtain the cells. But even this process has yet to treat patients with the induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs) it creates. Full story at LifeNews.com

Hillary Clinton Barely Edges Sarah Palin as Most Admired Woman in Gallup Poll
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Pro-abortion Secretary of State Hillary Clinton barely edged pro-life former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin in a new Gallup poll asking respondents to name the woman they most admired. Clinton continued her placement atop the list but barely beat Palin 16 to 15 percent.


Talk show host Oprah Winfrey and first lady Michelle Obama finish third and fourth, with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Queen Elizabeth II, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and poet Maya Angelou -- all regulars on the list -- joined by newcomers German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Elin Woods in the top 10.


The poll asked for people to name their first and second choice of women living today that they admired and Winfrey received 8 percent, Obama 7 percent and Rice and Queen Elizabeth 2 percent each.


Hillary Clinton has now been named Most Admired Woman 14 times since 1993, spanning her career as first lady, New York senator, and now secretary of state. The three times she has not finished first during this time, she earned second place (to Laura Bush in 2001 and to Mother Teresa in 1995 and 1996). Full story at LifeNews.com


NARAL Bashed for 2009 Hall of Fame Award, Could Honor Late-Term Abortionist
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The top pro-abortion group NARAL is holding an end-of-the-year award voting process for its members. The award vote gives them a chance to vote on their favorite abortion advocate and the pro-life advocate or legislation they despise the most.


The Hall of Fame 2009 candidates include MSNBC talk show host Rachel Maddow, whose abortion advocacy knows no limits.


The Baltimore City Council, which recently passed a measure targeting pregnancy centers, can also receive an award as can a group of pro-abortion lawmakers who worked to force taxpayers to fund abortions in the nation's capital.


But one pro-life group tells LifeNews.com that the nomination of late-term abortion practitioner LeRoy Carhart for the NARAL Hall of Fame takes the cake.


Carhart is the Omaha, Nebraska-based abortion practitioner who has attempted to step into the shoes of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller of Kansas, who was shot and killed earlier this year. Full story at LifeNews.com

GOP Attorney Generals Threaten Lawsuit Against Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Thirteen Republican attorney generals are threatening a lawsuit against the pro-abortion health care bill. Although the suit would not challenge its abortion funding component, it could help pro-life advocates by overturning the bill if it becomes law. 


The officials provided a letter to the Associated Press threatening the lawsuit over the Medicare funding provisions in the deal Sen. Ben Nelson secured with Senate leader Harry Reid to become the 60th vote for the bill. The deal also included abortion funding. "We believe this provision is constitutionally flawed," South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster and the 12 other attorneys general wrote in the letter sent to Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. As chief legal officers of our states we are contemplating a legal challenge to this provision and we ask you to take action to render this challenge unnecessary by striking that provision," they ask. 


The letter was signed by top prosecutors in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington state. A conference committee begins meeting next year to work out a compromise between House and Senate versions of the bill and they will decide whether to keep this provision and abortion funding in the final bill.


California Pro-Life Group's Office Suffers Break-In, Opponents Suspected
Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- While the pro-life advocates at the Capitol Resource Institute pro-family group in California spent this past Christmas weekend with family and friends, their opponents appear to have broken into their office. 


Tim LeFever, the head of the group, shares the update with LifeNews.com. 


"Despite extensive security precautions, Capitol Resource Institute's Sacramento office was broken into over the holiday weekend. While staff was away with family, some took the opportunity to vandalize and take things of value. Unfortunately, it does not appear that this was a random entry in search of electronics and cash. Those responsible for this act apparently spent time poring through files and other things with little street value," he explained. "CRI is not too worried that our opponents may have gained a glimpse of our strategy; we are pretty up front about what we do and why we do it. But we take this as another sad reminder of the dynamics of the battle we are in. 


Opponents of our family friendly agenda have not limited their opposition to conventional education or activism. Our web site has been hacked, our signs and literature destroyed, and our staff has received threats of violence. It is a tribute to the determination of the staff and supporters of CRI, and the importance of this work, that CRI has not backed down. Each attack has been met with a renewed commitment to push on."


Arizona Pro-Life Advocate Named One of Decades Ten Most Influential Residents
Phoenix, AZ (LifeNews.com) -- The Arizona Capitol Times has named Center for Arizona Policy president Cathi Herrod one of the Decade's Ten Most Influential Arizonans. The pro-life advocate is being recognized in a distinguished list that includes Senator John McCain, former Governor Janet Napolitano, and ASU President Michael Crow. 


"As leader of the social conservative Center for Arizona Policy," the article states, "Herrod has successfully shaped state policy on some of the most divisive issues of the last decade. Whether it was her efforts to restrict abortion or the successful ballot measure in 2008 defining marriage between a man and a woman, Herrod has tirelessly led the fight." The Center for Arizona Policy has been leading the fight with other pro-life groups in the state of Arizona for years to stop abortions and protect the rights of pro-life advocates.


New Zealand Right to Life: Family Planning Doesn't Justify Abortion Drug Use
Wellington, New Zealand (LifeNews.com) -- The following update comes from New Zealand Right to Life: "The New Zealand Family Planning Association on 8 December issued a statement in defense of the use of the lethal drug, Mifegyne, RU 486 for the killing of unborn children in the first 9 weeks of pregnancy. 


The Association, an ardent advocate for a culture of death sought to refute recent press releases of Right to Life and other pro-life organizations. Family Planning claims that medical abortions are safe. Medical abortions are unsafe for unborn children who are the weakest and most de fenceless members of the human family. It is always wrong to kill the innocent. Right to Life believes that Family Planning have a complete disregard for the human rights of unborn children and for the protection of their lives. Family Planning claims that medical abortions are safe for women and that there have been worldwide, only 12 reported maternal deaths. 


This figure is questioned. There is believed to be substantial underreporting as doctors are very reluctant to indicate on a death certificate that the death of the mother was the result of having an abortion. Why is Family Planning in complete denial of the physical and psychological damage inflicted on women as a result of having an abortion?"

Copyright 2003-2009 LifeNews.com. All rights reserved.  For information on advertising or reprinting news from LifeNews.com, email us.

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war, the long war - TSA Red Flag: Plane Terror 'toon

From: caglepost.com Sent: Sunday, January 03, 2010

Cartoon by Nate Beeler

CHECK OUT OUR CARTOONIST BLOGGERS!

Check out our collection of cartoons called "Plane Terror" LOOK!

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Follow Daryl each day on Twitter at: twitter.com/dcagle

"We failed to react appropriately to them and, instead, displayed weakness,"  the Kremlin leader said in a somber televised address that followed a week of devastating attacks linked to Chechen separatists.
"And the weak are always beaten."
-- President Putin, 7Aug04
(quote source: Haaretz & Reuters, re terrorist school attack and killing of children in Belsan, Russia)

View quotes at http://harrold.org/quotes

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o'bamastapo - Obama Executive Order [12425] Alters Your Legal Protections

With the signing of an under-publicized amendment to Executive Order 12425, Barack Obama has fundamentally altered your constitutional rights. His actions are undermining your rights to protect personal privacy from a foreign internationalist police agency named Interpol. A one-paragraph executive order may seem inconsequential to many, but this action has far reaching implications and threatens the sovereignty of America.

Obama’s secretive Executive Order amended an order issued by President Reagan in 1983. Reagan’s order recognized Interpol as an International Organization and gave it privileges and immunities commonly extended to foreign diplomats. Reagan opened the door to allow Interpol to operate in partnership with the U.S. but with significant constitutional safeguards. Specifically, Interpol’s property and assets remained subject to search and seizure by American law enforcement, and its archived records remained subject to public scrutiny under provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. Interpol had to answer to the FBI and U.S. courts under Reagan’s order. These safeguards were stripped away by Obama’s action the week before Christmas without debate or explanation. Obama picked the holiday season to make this radical change to minimize media coverage.

This order marks a significant change in federal policy and usurps the constitutional power of our government by yielding it to an international organization. Michael van Der Galien writes, “This foreign law enforcement organization can operate free of an important safeguard against government and abuse. Property and assets, including the organization’s records, cannot now be searched or seized. Their physical operational locations are now immune from U.S. legal and investigative authorities.”

Obama has given an international organization unsupervised freedom to investigate Americans on our own soil without recourse or the supervision of our own government.

Andy McCarthy writing for the National Review asks some very significant questions: “Why would we elevate an international police force above American law? Why would we immunize an international police force from the limitations that constrain the FBI and other American law-enforcement agencies? Why is it suddenly necessary to have, within the Justice Department, a repository for stashing government files which, therefore, will be beyond the ability of Congress, American law-enforcement, the media, and the American people to scrutinize?”

Interpol is the enforcement arm of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The United States never signed onto the Rome Treaty which created the ICC because of the potential for abuse by foreign interests. Obama has signaled he may sign the treaty over these objections and subject Americans to prosecution overseas in the ICC. This is harmful for two reasons. First, the U.S. Constitution clearly states that it is the supreme law of our land and allowing the ICC to supersede the U.S. Constitution violates America’s sovereignty. Second, the War on Terror is unpopular with Europeans and the ICC may attempt to prosecute heroic American soldiers with trumped up war crimes. Obama is putting brave American men and women at grave risk.

An added wrinkle to this executive order is that Interpol’s operations center for the United States is housed within our own Justice Department. Many of the agents are Americans who work under the aegis of Interpol. This order has potentially created the new civilian security force that Obama proposed during his campaign. This group of law enforcement officials is no longer subject to the restraints enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
The order guarantees that Interpol officers have immunity from prosecution for crimes they may commit in the United States. Ironically, some Interpol nations are attempting to try American intelligence agents for their work abroad in the War on Terror.

This order shows blatant disregard for the U.S. Constitution. While Obama is extending due process rights to terrorists he is weakening those same rights for American citizens. If a citizen were to be prosecuted by Interpol their newly granted immunity would interfere with the discovery process. Since Interpol files are immune to disclosure, a citizen could be denied his right to see the information used to prosecute him or her.

Obama’s executive order has done more to weaken civil liberties than the much maligned Patriot Act. The silence in the mainstream media on this issue should scare all freedom loving Americans. Obama just signed away parts of our precious legal protections.
—–
Copyright 2009, Floyd and Mary Beth Brown. The Browns are bestselling authors and speakers. Together they write a national weekly column distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Floyd is also president of the Western Center for Journalism. For more info call Cari Dawson Bartley at 800 696 7561 or e-mail cari@cagle.com.


Floyd’s latest book (with Lee Troxler) is “Obama Unmasked,” from Merril Press. Mary Beth’s latest book is featured at www.condibook.com. Time magazine wrote of Floyd: “Brown has stature among devoted conservatives that almost matches his physical heft (6 ft. 6 in. and 240 lbs.)” See more at Floyd’s blog at www.2minuteview.com. To comment on this column, e-mail browns@caglecartoons.com.

Constitution Society: Founding Documents	Online Books	History Links	Quotations: American Values
TimeLine of: the Magna Carta	Declaration of Arbroath	History of: The US Bill of Rights	Constitution + more Amendments

earthquake - Southern California is 150 years overdue for quake like this.

Southern California is 150 years overdue for quake like this.

repeat of a year ago TV article ...Chilling video simulates a 7.8 quake,

published by KABC-TV:  November 12, 2008

video source: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=6502567

http://harrolds.blogspot.com/2010/01/re-58-shaker-in-valley.html The Imperial Valley has historically been one of the most seismically active areas in California.  A 19th century example: 7.8 Feb. 24, 1892 Imperial Valley, California There have been 20th century earthquakes of M 6 or greater in 1915, 1940, and 1979, with the strongest, a M 6.7 quake that killed seven people, occurring in 1940.  The geological forces that caused the November 23-24, 1987, 6.6 earthquakes are the same ones that pulled Baja California away from Mexico eons ago to form the Gulf of California. http://www.johnmartin.com/earthquakes/eqpapers/00000073.htm A friend said that he'd been in a briefing which discussed a scenario in which the "All American Canal" (what's left of the Red River) embankments & dams could rupture flooding the Imperial Valley. I worry that an earthquake that causes land to drop (like in Alaska some years ago) would happen in the area of Mexico that's SE of us about 20 miles or so.  From what I've read, the Sea of Cortez (sea level) is only kept from flowing back into the Imperial Vally by roughly 5 feet of soil.  I'd hate to imagine the Sea of Cortez gushing down toward us.  My house would be 60+ feet under water!   related:  http://harrold.org/rfhextra/earthquake.html

by Gene Gleeson  [excerpts]
article link: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=6502481

ELYSIAN PARK, Calif. (KABC) [2008] --  Scientists painted a chilling picture of what a 7.8-magnitude earthquake would look like.

There are signs all around Southern California of past earthquakes, like the mountains that surround the Los Angeles basin, produced by big earthquakes in the past.

• More info: Great Southern California ShakeOut
• LIVE stream: Thursday morning at 9:59 a.m.
• Ready SoCal: Brochure (PDF)
• Ready SoCal: Brochure (Spanish-PDF) Page 1 | Page 2
• Ready SoCal: Brochure (Korean-PDF)

Southern California is on the eve of "The Big One," ..

What's coming is a 7.8 earthquake centered near the Salton Sea.

An earthquake that big would produce shaking 50 times stronger than the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

More: Ready SoCal Brochure (PDF)

Story: 2.8 earthquake strikes near Redlands

Story: Ready SoCal: Emergency kit

Story: Ready SoCal: Earthquake-ready house

Story: Ready SoCal: Store crucial documents

Video: Be prepared for disaster at all times

Video: Officials: Get ready for 'The Big One'

     "We clearly understand, given the predictability and the magnitude of this earthquake, that public safety, the fire service, law enforcement, emergency medical services and government will be overwhelmed," said Chief Michael Freeman, L.A. County Fire Dept.

     U.S. Geological Survey scientists have developed a video of the scenario. The red is the most violent shaking, exaggerated 1,000 times. Southern California is 150 years overdue for quake like this.

     "Landslides would be starting when they are subjected to the strongest shaking. Now we can see the S-wave, which is very intense in this particular area as the rupture hits us. There's the S-wave. Now the rupture is coming through at approximately 64 seconds. There you can see the offset across the fault as one side moves relative to the other approximately 12 feet, offsetting I-15," said Brad Aagaard, USGS research geophysicist, as he described the earthquake animation.

     The epicenter may be 150 miles away [in the Imperial Valley], but shaking from a great earthquake would be severe throughout the region, as demonstrated in animations showing how the shock waves hit Ontario, Orange County and central Los Angeles.

     "You'll notice that there's black areas; those correspond to areas that are undergoing very intense shaking, so even after areas reach a peak intensity in the red, the black areas continue to show what areas are subjected to strong shaking, even after reaching their peak intensity," said Aagaard.

• Quake animation: Southern California
• Quake animation: Buena Park
• Quake animation: Burbank
• Quake animation: Cajon Pass
• Quake animation: Corona
• Quake animation: Huntington Beach
• Quake animation: Lancaster
• Quake animation: Long Beach
• Quake animation: Los Angeles
• Quake animation: Marina del Rey
• Quake animation: Ontario
• Quake animation: Palm Springs
• Quake animation: Watts
• Quake animation: Woodland Hills
• Quake animation: Ventura
• USGS: More quake animations

     The challenge for average citizens, say the experts, is not just to ride out a big earthquake, but to be prepared to survive without outside help for days, even weeks. That means having fire extinguishers handy in your home or office; also, stocking up on food, medical supplies and lots of water.

Remember Hurricane Katrina? Officials here say "The Big One" would topple 1,500 buildings, start fires and kill and injure thousands.

     "Part of the analysis we were actually trying to understand: what makes a natural disaster become a catastrophe? And we end up with a question: Well, it's going to depend on how much our social system can hold together," said Dr. Lucy Jones, USGS.

(Copyright ©2010 KABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

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o'conomy - The Fix

From: hh Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2009

There recently was an article in the  St. Petersburg Fl. Times. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on:  "How Would You Fix the Economy?"  I think this guy nailed it! 
Dear Mr. President,
     Please find below my suggestion for fixing America 's Economy.
     Instead of giving Billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.  You can call it the "Patriotic Retirement Plan":

     There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force.    Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:
1)  They MUST retire.  Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.
2)  They MUST buy a new American CAR.  Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.
3)  They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.
     It can't get any easier than that!! 

P.S.  If more money is needed, have all members in Congress pay their taxes...
        Mr. President, while you're at it, make Congress retire on Social Security and Medicare.  I'll bet both programs would be fixed pronto!
If you think this would work, please forward to everyone you know.

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Re: the 5.8 shaker in the Valley

And, To you, I wish for a Happy New Year 2010.

     Lot's of little things fell out of cabinents or jostled off tables, expecially the picture frames that only have a fold out leg to prop'em up.  Minor plaster cracks in my PC store, lots of drawers with heavy contents slid open ...strangely, not a single monitor or PC was shaken off tables.    I was in my car driving slowly near home and thought that I'd had a sudden loss of air.  The car was weaving strangely.  I stopped nearby, got out and inspected by tires.  The tires looked OK but I drove to a nearby station with air to check'em.  There I saw lots of tin cans' etc scattered around on the floor.  The folks there said it was a 5.8.  Later in the day I heard that lots of folks' blood pressure shot up in Walmart & Costco below some of the high stacks of merchandise.  No major damage overall. But I hope they inspect the bridges and overpasses.

     This area around El Centro/Mexicali/Imperial Valley is where the next "BIG ONE" is overdue to hit acorrding to some articles.  Of the top 15 or so, the two in the 'lower 48' content that were strongest:

15.	7.8	March 26, 1872	Owens Valley, California
	7.8	Feb. 24, 1892	Imperial Valley, California

      One book predicted that the "Imperial Valley" area is due for a 'Grand Quake' 9+' or so!!!!  I worry that an earthquake that causes land to drop (like in Alaska some years ago) would happen in the area of Mexico that's SE of us about 20 miles or so.  From what I've read, the Sea of Cortez (sea level) is only kept from flowing back into the Imperial Vally by roughly 5 feet of soil.  I'd hate to imagine the Sea of Cortez gushing toward us.  My house would be 60+ feet under water!   Maybe we'd best be careful around December 21, 2012.  :-)

.bob harrold

21Dec2012 Countdown

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o'ship of fools - Pretty much sums up my sentiments . . .

From: thy Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010
Editorial:  What Airline TERRORIST Attack?
Thursday, December 31, 2009 
By: Howard Galganov

I really didn't want to write, nor did I want to produce an audio editorial until after the New Year, since my primary interest over the next few days is selfish. All I wanted to do is kickback, play with our horses, bum around, and basically do nothing other than what I have to do.

But, with this latest Presidential INSULT upon the American people and the Free World, I just couldn't sit here in silence.

If President Barack Hussein Obama is not personally determined to destroy America, he is without any question or doubt in my mind, the TERRORIST ENABLER IN CHIEF.

Barack Hussein Obama is WORSE than being an incompetent President.  He is a PRETENDER.  He is nothing more and nothing less than hot air, reading the scripts off his teleprompters that others write for him.

When we all finally saw Obama standing before the cameras, THREE DAYS AFTER the attempted bombing of the US plane over Detroit, his words were nothing short of mealy-mouthed.

I won't dwell on the fact that he basically called the Moslem TERRORIST with his nuts burnt off a SUSPECT.  Or that he defined this Moslem attack as an ISOLATED incident.  Or that he didn't refer even once to him being a Moslem, a member of Al Qaeda, or a TERRORIST.

None of what the Jerk-President said or didn't say bothered me as much as it should have, since I've come to accept that he is indeed the enemy within, deliberately or otherwise.

What REALLY bothered me though, was his demeanor and the way he was dressed.

He wore a tailored suit jacket with his American Flag Pin that he REFUSED to wear during the nomination campaign, because it was hokey.  And with the jacket, he wore an open collared white shirt and JEANS.

JEANS - What the crap is wrong with this man?

America just came under attack . . . AGAIN.

The Moslems are actively trying to make America bleed, and have succeeded in delivering yet ANOTHER terrible blow to the way the World flies into, out of, and around the USA.

Not only did it take Obama THREE DAYS to show his face, he didn't even demonstrate a modicum of RESPECT he should have for the American people and the office of the President, simply by wearing a proper suit while addressing the American people and the MOSLEM world concerning this most egregious attack.

Perhaps he wore the open collared shirt and jeans because he simply didn't have the time to dress appropriately because he had to cut away from his golf course, tennis match, or 1 on 1 game of hoops.

Here's a message to Barack Hussein Obama:

Being the President of the United States of America and the Leader of the Free World is a 100% job - 100% of the time.

There are no real vacations for the President.  There are no days off.  There are no holidays.  There is ONLY 100% responsibility.

A President's job is to PROTECT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, NOT to reinvent the Constitution.  And NOT to take over banks, insurance companies, the auto industry and play the roll of cheerleader for Big Labor.

The President's job is NOT to spend money so recklessly as to bring down the USA like no enemy has ever done before.

The President's job is NOT to quash Free Speech, as Obama wants to do with the Broadcast 'Fairness' Act.  NOR is it his job to strip away the secret ballot from people who will be PUSHED into unions they might NOT want to join.

The President's job is NOT to grow government to the size where the only wealth given to people will be the money literally stolen from the private sector to give to the bloated DO-NOTHING public sector.

The President's job is NOT to cripple small businesses while spending a TRILLION dollars on the smoke and mirrors stimulus programs.

The President's job is NOT to bring America to its global knees based upon the CONVENIENT LIE of Climate Change.

The President's job is NOT to take over one sixth of the American economy by socializing healthcare to the point where everyone must have coverage or risk the penalty of fines and prison, while denying the American people FREE CHOICE.

THE PRESIDENT'S JOB IS TO PROTECT AMERICA!

Here is the famous rhetorical question asked by Hillary Clinton during the Democrat's Leadership Convention that chose Barack Hussein Obama over her, that was spun into a pro McCain campaign ad:

"It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep.  But there's a phone in the White House and it's ringing.  Something's happening in the world.  Your vote will decide who answers that call.  Whether it's someone who already knows the world's leaders, knows the military.  Someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world.  It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep.  Who do you want answering the phone?"

In another of the many debates held during the Democrat's Leadership Convention, Hillary Clinton also said:

"His (Obama's) entire campaign is based on one speech he gave at an anti-war rally in 2002.  I give him credit for making the speech, but his speech was not followed up with action, which is the pattern we have seen repeatedly.  A lot of talk no action.  We have one speech in 2002 versus a record of accomplishment and a record of action."

Clinton also said: "Now I think you will be able to imagine many things Senator McCain will be able to say.  He has never been the president.  He will put forth his experience.  I will put forth my experience.  Senator Obama will put forth a speech he made in 2002."

If a reasonable number of voting Americans are beginning to feel as nauseous as I do every time I hear HIS voice or see HIS face, there should not be one Democrat left standing after 11/2010.

I cannot possibly say enough negative things about this HORRIBLE man who is single handedly destroying the GREATEST country that has ever been.

Not only will Barack HUSSEIN Obama NOT defend America, he will NOT recognize the Moslem enemy that has declared war on the American people.  Instead, he goes abroad demeaning his own country while SHOUTING OUT and PRAISING the virtues of Islam.

If you want to hear how I REALLY feel about the people who voted him in, and STILL support Obama, listen to my 20-Minute audio editorial by clicking on the Radio Icon at the Top of this Page.

I wish everyone who reads and listens to Galganov.com a very HAPPY NEW YEAR, especially in the knowledge that by 11/2010, the control of Congress by the Democrats will be nothing more than just a very bad memory.

And by 11/2012 - Barack Hussein Obama, just like Jimmy Carter; he too will be thrown into the trash-heap of failed leaders.

Remember the words of George W. Bush after the USA was attacked on 9/11: " Either you are with us, or you are with the TERRORISTS."  How clear was that?  ENOUGH SAID.

Best Regards . . . Howard Galganov

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o'head-in-the-sand - Charles Krauthammer: "Obama's dangerous denial"

From: thy Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010

All who voted for this moron are accomplices in the downfall of our magnificent Republic!

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Jan. 1, 2010 / 15 Teves 5770
Obama's dangerous denial
By Charles Krauthammer

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Janet Napolitano — former Arizona governor, now overmatched secretary of homeland security — will forever be remembered for having said of the attempt to bring down an airliner over Detroit: "The system worked."

 

The attacker's concerned father had warned U.S. authorities about his son's jihadist tendencies.  The would-be bomber paid cash and checked no luggage on a transoceanic flight.  He was nonetheless allowed to fly, and would have killed 288 people in the air alone, save for a faulty detonator and quick actions by a few passengers. Heck of a job, Brownie.

The reason the country is uneasy about the Obama administration's response to this attack is a distinct sense of not just incompetence but incomprehension. From the very beginning, President Obama has relentlessly tried to play down and deny the nature of the terrorist threat we continue to face.

 

Napolitano renames terrorism "man-caused disasters." Obama goes abroad and pledges to cleanse America of its post-9/11 counterterrorist sins. Hence, Guantanamo will close, CIA interrogators will face a special prosecutor, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed will bask in a civilian trial in New York — a trifecta of political correctness and image management.

And just to make sure even the dimmest understand, Obama banishes the term "war on terror." It's over — that is, if it ever existed.

Obama may have declared the war over. Unfortunately, al-Qaeda has not. Which gives new meaning to the term "asymmetric warfare."

And produces linguistic — and logical — oddities that littered Obama's public pronouncements following the Christmas Day attack. In his first statement, Obama referred to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as "an isolated extremist." This is the same president who, after the Fort Hood, Tex., shooting, warned us "against jumping to conclusions" — code for daring to associate the mass murder there with Nidal Hasan's Islamist ideology. Yet, with Abdulmutallab, Obama jumped immediately to the conclusion, against all existing evidence, that the would-be bomber acted alone.

More jarring still were Obama's references to the terrorist as a "suspect" who "allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device." You can hear the echo of FDR: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — Japanese naval and air force suspects allegedly bombed Pearl Harbor."

Obama reassured the nation that this "suspect" had been charged.  Reassurance?  The president should be saying: We have captured an enemy combatant — an illegal combatant under the laws of war: no uniform, direct attack on civilians — and now to prevent future attacks, he is being interrogated regarding information he may have about al-Qaeda in Yemen.  Instead, Abdulmutallab is dispatched to some Detroit-area jail and immediately lawyered up.  At which point — surprise! — he stops talking.

This absurdity renders hollow Obama's declaration that "we will not rest until we find all who were involved."  Once we've given Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent, we have gratuitously forfeited our right to find out from him precisely who else was involved, namely those who trained, instructed, armed and sent him.

This is all quite mad even in Obama's terms.  He sends 30,000 troops to fight terror overseas, yet if any terrorists come to attack us here, they are magically transformed from enemy into defendant.

The logic is perverse.  If we find Abdulmutallab in an al-Qaeda training camp in Yemen, where he is merely preparing for a terror attack, we snuff him out with a Predator — no judge, no jury, no qualms.  But if we catch him in the United States in the very act of mass murder, he instantly acquires protection not just from execution by drone but even from interrogation. The president said that this incident highlights "the nature of those who threaten our homeland." But the president is constantly denying the nature of those who threaten our homeland. On Tuesday, he referred five times to Abdulmutallab (and his terrorist ilk) as "extremist[s]."

A man who shoots abortion doctors is an extremist. An eco-fanatic who torches logging sites is an extremist.

 

Abdulmutallab is not one of these.  He is a jihadist.  And unlike the guys who shoot abortion doctors, jihadists have cells all over the world; they blow up trains in London, nightclubs in Bali and airplanes over Detroit (if they can); and are openly pledged to war on America.  Any government can through laxity let someone slip through the cracks.  But a government that refuses to admit that we are at war, indeed, refuses even to name the enemy — jihadist is a word banished from the Obama lexicon — turns laxity into a governing philosophy.

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o'scamcare - Mayo Clinic in Arizona to Stop Treating Some Medicare Patients - Bloomberg.com

From: baja Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010

Mayo Clinic in Arizona to Stop Treating Some Medicare Patients

December 31, 2009, By David Olmos 

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.

More than 3,000 patients eligible for Medicare, the government's largest health-insurance program, will be forced to pay cash if they want to continue seeing their doctors at a Mayo family clinic in Glendale, northwest of Phoenix, said Michael Yardley, a Mayo spokesman. The decision, which Yardley called a two-year pilot project, won't affect other Mayo facilities in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.

Obama in June cited the nonprofit Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio for offering "the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm." Mayo's move to drop Medicare patients may be copied by family doctors, some of whom have stopped accepting new patients from the program, said Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, in a telephone interview yesterday.

"Many physicians have said, 'I simply cannot afford to keep taking care of Medicare patients,'" said Heim, a family doctor who practices in Laurinburg, North Carolina. "If you truly know your business costs and you are losing money, it doesn't make sense to do more of it."

Medicare Loss

The Mayo organization had 3,700 staff physicians and scientists and treated 526,000 patients in 2008. It lost $840 million last year on Medicare, the government's health program for the disabled and those 65 and older, Mayo spokeswoman Lynn Closway said.

Mayo's hospital and four clinics in Arizona, including the Glendale facility, lost $120 million on Medicare patients last year, Yardley said. The program's payments cover about 50 percent of the cost of treating elderly primary-care patients at the Glendale clinic, he said.

"We firmly believe that Medicare needs to be reformed," Yardley said in a Dec. 23 e-mail. "It has been true for many years that Medicare payments no longer reflect the increasing cost of providing services for patients."

Mayo will assess the financial effect of the decision in Glendale to drop Medicare patients "to see if it could have implications beyond Arizona," he said.

Nationwide, doctors made about 20 percent less for treating Medicare patients than they did caring for privately insured patients in 2007, a payment gap that has remained stable during the last decade, according to a March report by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, a panel that advises Congress on Medicare issues. Congress last week postponed for two months a 21.5 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements for doctors.

National Participation

Medicare covered an estimated 45 million Americans at the end of 2008, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the agency in charge of the programs. While 92 percent of U.S. family doctors participate in Medicare, only 73 percent of those are accepting new patients under the program, said Heim of the national physicians' group, citing surveys by the Leawood, Kansas-based organization.

Greater access to primary care is a goal of the broad overhaul supported by Obama that would provide health insurance to about 31 million more Americans. More family doctors are needed to help reduce medical costs by encouraging prevention and early treatment, Obama said in a June 15 speech to the American Medical Association meeting in Chicago.

Reid Cherlin, a White House spokesman for health care, declined comment on Mayo's decision to drop Medicare primary care patients at its Glendale clinic.

Medicare Costs

Mayo's Medicare losses in Arizona may be worse than typical for doctors across the U.S., Heim said. Physician costs vary depending on business expenses such as office rent and payroll. "It is very common that we hear that Medicare is below costs or barely covering costs," Heim said.

Mayo will continue to accept Medicare as payment for laboratory services and specialist care such as cardiology and neurology, Yardley said.

Robert Berenson, a fellow at the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center in Washington, D.C., said physicians' claims of inadequate reimbursement are overstated. Rather, the program faces a lack of medical providers because not enough new doctors are becoming family doctors, internists and pediatricians who oversee patients' primary care.

"Some primary care doctors don't have to see Medicare patients because there is an unlimited demand for their services," Berenson said. When patients with private insurance can be treated at 50 percent to 100 percent higher fees, "then Medicare does indeed look like a poor payer," he said.

Annual Costs

A Medicare patient who chooses to stay at Mayo's Glendale clinic will pay about $1,500 a year for an annual physical and three other doctor visits, according to an October letter from the facility. Each patient also will be assessed a $250 annual administrative fee, according to the letter. Medicare patients at the Glendale clinic won't be allowed to switch to a primary care doctor at another Mayo facility.

A few hundred of the clinic's Medicare patients have decided to pay cash to continue seeing their primary care doctors, Yardley said. Mayo is helping other patients find new physicians who will accept Medicare.

"We've had many patients call us and express their unhappiness," he said. "It's not been a pleasant experience."

Mayo's decision may herald similar moves by other Phoenix- area doctors who cite inadequate Medicare fees as a reason to curtail treatment of the elderly, said John Rivers, chief executive of the Phoenix-based Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association.

"We've got doctors who are saying we are not going to deal with Medicare patients in the hospital" because they consider the fees too low, Rivers said. "Or they are saying we are not going to take new ones in our practice."

--Editors: Andrew Pollack, Bruce Rule

To contact the reporter on this story: David Olmos in San Francisco at +1-415-617-7103 or dolmos@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at +1-212-617-2563 or Rgale5@bloomberg.net

-0- Dec/31/2009 05:01 GMT

©2009 BLOOMBERG L.P. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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dark humor - Stockbroker's Advice - Buy now

From: joeb Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2009

Well here it is.... It's coming !

I called my stockbroker this morning and asked him what I should be buying.   He said, "canned goods and ammunition."

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