Open letter to the President of the Russian Federation Mr. Dmitry Medvedev

http://www.williamgomes.org/?p=22

Dear President of the Russian Federation,

Mr. Dmitry Medvedev, there is something common between you and me that is you are a law student, as I am. It is not the reason why I am writing to you. When my friends in Syria are drowning in romantic nationalism, you have added a new pace in that romance by sending Russian warships to the military base in Syria.

Mr. Dmitry, I do understand you want to add fire into the romance of my Syrian friends, that they will die in the flame of romance  and let others  know you are the number one in 'great power'.

But Mr. Great power let me share a secret with you; the romance of Syrian will end on the funeral of many soon.

Mr. Great power, I do understand that you understand the Power dimensions better than them.

Mr. Great, while your solders are dancing with 'Vodka', my Syrian friends are dying on blood bath of each others.

Mr. Great, obviously, I will invite other greats, Mr. Black, Mr. White and others.

Mr. Great, are you for the people of Russia or people of Syria?

Mr. Great, what is your nation, which is your first love, first interest?

Mr. Great, does the Russians army, learned to spread, love,

Mr. Great, does, warship will spread the love, in the barrel of guns?

Mr. Great, do you stand for peace or power?

Mr. Great, what makes you great, power or peace?

Mr. Great, what will be next, when the Resolution and Revolution both failed?

Mr. Great, I can assure, you Syria will be soon the first peace buyer.

Mr. Great, Syrian paid you only 3.8 billion dollars for your peace, that's really cheap?

Mr. Great, you are really great and my Syrian friends are really romantic indeed!

 

Mr. President, three cheers to your peace and one salute for their funeral!

 

With highest regards,

William Nicholas Gomes
Journalist and Human Rights Activist

E-mail:editorbd@gmail.com

Skype: William.gomes9

Face book: http://www.facebook.com/williamnicholasgomes

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/persecutionbd

http://www.williamgomes.org

 

Cc:

1. The African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS)
2. The African Democracy Forum (ADF)
3. Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH)
4. Amnesty International
5. Arab Foundation for Civil Society and Human Rights Support, Egypt
6. The Arab Penal Reform Organization (APRO), Egypt
7. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)
8. Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
9. Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC)
10. Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), Egypt
11. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
12. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
13. Conectas Direitos Humanos
14. Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies (DCHRS), Syria
15. East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP)
16. The Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement
17. Egyptian Foundation for Advancement of the Childhood Condition (EFACC)
18. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
19. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P)
20. The Human Rights Center for the Assistance of Prisoners (HRCAP), Egypt
21. Human Rights First Society, Saudi Arabia
22. Human Rights Watch
23. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
24. International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI)
25. International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
26. The Iraqi Human Right Society in Denmark
27. Moroccan Organization for Human Rights
28. Palestinian Human Rights Organization, Lebanon
29. Yemeni Organization for Defending Rights and Democratic Freedoms

http://www.williamgomes.org/?p=22

--
William Nicholas Gomes
Journalist & Human Rights Activist
80/ B Bramon Chiron, Saydabad,
Dhaka-1203, Bangladesh.
Cell: +88 019 7 444 0 666
E-mail:William [at] williamgomes.org,editorbd[at]gmail.com
Skype: William.gomes9
Face book: www.facebook.com/williamnicholasgomes
Twitter: twitter.com/williamgomes
Web site :www.williamgomes.org

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

CMS Reports Medicare Spent $240 Million on Penis Pumps

New post on Scotty Starnes's Blog CMS Reports Medicare Spent $240 Million on Penis Pumps by Scotty Starnes Boners for Seniors? From Heartland.org: According to data collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Medicare has spent more than $240 million of taxpayer money on penis pumps for elderly men over the past decade, and will surpass a quarter of a billion dollars this year for costs since 2001. The cost to taxpayers for the pumps more than quadrupled during that period, from a low of $11 million in 2001 to a high of more than $47 million in 2010. And these represent only the costs for external devices, technically classified as "Male Vacuum Erection Systems," not implantable devices or oral drugs such as Viagra. It gets worse. There is actually penis pump fraud which is costing taxpayers even more for seniors to obtain boners... One area of concern for CMS is the rise in fraud in relation to the pump devices. Earlier this year an Illinois man pled guilty to collecting more than $2 million from Medicare in a fraudulent operation where he repackaged $26 items from adult websites and sold them to seniors as medical devices, charging Medicare $284 apiece. Device fraud has become an increasingly common way for criminals bilk the taxpayers. Durable medical equipment (DME) is widely perceived as a "high risk" area for fraud, according to a spokesman for the HHS Office of the Inspector General.  And a report released last month by CMS found the error and improper payment rate for DME was above 60 percent, whereas no other area even entered double digits. Continue reading>>> Scotty Starnes | December 7, 2011 at 12:17 PM | Tags: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS, fraud, Medicare, penis pumps, Seniors | Categories: Political Issues | URL: http://wp.me/pvnFC-6dO Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://scottystarnes.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/cms-reports-medicare-spent-240-million-on-penis-pumps/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

It's time to reel in the DOJ ... by any means necessary

The Department of Justice is sending every law enforcement agency in
Alabama a reminder letter. The missives, mailed out Friday, are
intended to warn local sheriffs and police chiefs to tread carefully
when enforcing a key provision of that state's controversial
immigration law. About 156 agencies in Alabama receive federal funding
that could be put in jeopardy if they are found to violate the Civil
Rights Act of 1964.

Under the new state law, police are required to arrest anyone they
believe to be in the United States illegally. The law means police are
essentially checking the immigration status of anyone pulled over
during a routine traffic stop.

So far, that provision appears to be causing some serious headaches
for local and state officials. Last month, a Japanese employee on a
temporary assignment at a Honda plant was cited when he was stopped by
police at a routine roadblock even though the employee provided
officers with a valid international driver's license and his Japanese
passport. And a German executive with Mercedes-Benz was arrested after
a traffic stop. The man provided police with his German
identification. The man was later released after he was able to
provide authorities a copy of his passport and a driver's license.

It's little wonder that some local officials aren't happy with the new
rules. Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steve Anderson told the Wall Street
Journal that he was worried that enforcing the new provision was
intruding on his agency's resources for something "that is really the
job of the federal government."

And the new state law is having other unintended consequences.
Alabama's revenue commissioner fired off a note instructing all county
officials to stop demanding proof of immigration status from drivers
wanting to renew car tags.

Alabama is now at the center of the debate over a state's right to
enforce immigration rules. It is considered to have the harshest laws
on the books even though the number of undocumented immigrants there
was estimated to be 120,000 in 2010, according to the Pew Hispanic
Center.

Stay tuned. The devastating impact of the law continues to reverberate
around the state. Farmers and growers are complaining of labor
shortages, while local businesses worry about the damage the measure
will do to the state's image and its ability to draw tourists.

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Sacrifice at Pearl Harbor

Sacrifice at Pearl Harbor
Posted by Charles Burris on December 7, 2011 10:55 AM

Today is the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Here are the seven YouTube links to the superb 1989 BBC documentary, Sacrifice At Pearl Harbor (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). I have always believed that the shocking information revealed in the interview with reporter Joe Leib is "the smoking gun" in the Pearl Harbor story, even more so than the McCollum Memorandum, the "East Wind Rain" ("Higashi no kaze ame") radio message, or the pre-attack decoding of JN-25 transcripts. In addition, here are three articles ( 1, 2, 3) which explore important aspects of this crucial event that you will not find discussed by the network talking heads and their academic shills on today's news broadcasts. Finally, here is a book list of Pearl Harbor titles by both "revisionist" and "court historian" authors.

HELP WANTED AD FOR REPUBLICAN

---------

 
 
 
</mail/u/0/s/?view=att&th=1341939015700be3&attid=0.1&disp=emb&zw>
Help wanted ad:
Republican presidential candidate.  Must be 35; family man; hasn't flip-flopped on major issues in last decade; not a sexual harasser; not a friend of 9/11 truthers; didn't lose last race by 18 points; doesn't think vaccines cause retardation; didn't work in Obama administration; able to remember a list of three things.  Send resume, cover letter and letters of recommendation to webeditor@weeklystandard.com
 

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

[grendelreport] Obama's 17-Day Hawaii Vacation 'Looks Bad'

----------

 

 

 

 

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/Obama-Hawaii-vacation-Perino/2011/12/05/id/420016?s=al&promo_code=DA7D-1

Dana Perino: Obama's 17-Day Hawaii Vacation 'Looks Bad'

Monday, 05 Dec 2011 07:29 PM

By Paul Scicchitano

More ways to share...

<http://www.newsmax.com/App_Themes/Newsmax/images/articlePage/clear.gif>

 

President Barack Obama is sending the wrong message with the fact that his family will be enjoying a sunny, 17-day Hawaiian vacation funded in part with U.S. tax dollars while millions of Americans settle for a blue Christmas, critics say.

For example, Dana Perino, who was White House press secretary for President George W. Bush, told "Fox and Friends" Monday morning that the Obama vacation simply looks bad.

"I know that a president always works. They set up the command center and it's like the national security room," Perino said. "For me, it is perception — Martha's Vineyard, Hawaii. If you are going to places like that, and for 17 days, you are asking for trouble."

Obama and his family will use their own money to rent a private beach-front residence in Kailua, Oahu, for their vacation. Described as a "Winter White House," the rental costs up to $3,500 a day or $75,000 a month, according to AOL travel blog Gadling.

But taxpayers probably will kick in more than $1 million to cover the added security and accommodations for the president's entourage and transportation, based on estimates from Hawaiian media organizations.

Last year, the Hawaii Reporter calculated the taxpayer bill for one Obama vacation in Hawaii to be in excess of $1.5 million — for a running total of about $6 million since the Hawaiian native was elected president.

The Plantation Estate at Paradise Point, where the Obamas vacation, was featured on the cover of Ocean Home Magazine in the April 2010 issue, according to Gadling.

The 7,000-square-foot rental features "five bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms, a media room with surround sound, a kitchen suited for a master chef, a dining room and great room, a secluded lagoon-style pool with tropical waterfalls and a lavish island spa." The ocean lanai and garden lanai also showcase ornate landscaping and "stunning views" of Kailua Bay and Mount Olomana.

The Honolulu Police Department spent $228,247 for the president's most recent Christmas/New Year's visit, according to the Hawaii Reporter, which noted that city taxpayers have never been reimbursed for $350,000 they spent on police overtime for Obama trips in 2008 and 2009.

It costs about $1 million to take Air Force One to Hawaii, and an additional $140,000 for each U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft that is used to transport presidential limos, helicopters and other support equipment, according to the Hawaii Reporter.

The Secret Service and Navy SEALs rented a total of six beachfront homes during the president's 2010 Christmas vacation for between $1,000 and $1,250 a day, the newspaper reported. Coast Guard personnel also patrol the beach in front of the vacation spot with 30-foot speedboats mounted with high-powered firearms and two smaller boats.

About two dozen Obama staff also stayed at the Moana Surfrider, a Westin Resort & Spa, on Waikiki Beach last year, which carries a non-government rate of between $350 to $450 a night.

Obama told 300 supporters during his November visit to Hawaii that he would be back "shortly" with Michelle and daughters Malia, 13, and Sasha, 9.

"It is great to be home, great to feel that Aloha spirit. And Michelle and the girls will be back shortly for Christmas vacation, as we do every year," he said at that time. "We'll see if Washington gets its business done, so I can get here as well. But that's always a challenge."

© Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Read more on Newsmax.com: Perino: Obama's 17-Day Hawaii Vacation 'Looks Bad'
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!

 

 

__._,_.___
Reply to sender | Reply to group | Start a New Topic
Recent Activity:

New Members 1

Visit Your Group
MARKETPLACE

Stay on top of your group activity without leaving the page you're on - Get the Yahoo! Toolbar now.

<http://us.bc.yahoo.com/b?P=3d1e42b8-205b-11e1-b440-4f8199f22e84&T=1ckrdoj5s%2fX%3d1323211203%2fE%3d1705323667%2fR%3dgroups%2fK%3d5%2fV%3d2.1%2fW%3dH%2fY%3dYAHOO%2fF%3d428991746%2fH%3dY29udGVudD0iUG9kY2FzdHM7R3JvdXBzO1dpZGdldHM7RmxpY2tyO0Jvb2ttYXJrO0dlb2NpdGllcztNYWlsO05ld3M7QWxlcnRzO0tub3dsZWRnZV9TZWFyY2g7IiBkaXNhYmxlc2h1ZmZsaW5nPSIxIiBzZXJ2ZUlkPSIzZDFlNDJiOC0yMDViLTExZTEtYjQ0MC00ZjgxOTlmMjJlODQiIHNpdGVJZD0iNDQ1MjU1MSIgdFN0bXA9IjEzMjMyMTEyMDM3MzM0NzEiIA--%2fQ%3d-1%2fS%3d1%2fJ%3d26228962&U=13c3k79nf%2fN%3dc8YfF2KJiVA-%2fC%3d493064.14543979.14562481.13298430%2fD%3dMKP1%2fB%3d6060255%2fV%3d1>
<http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/yg/logo/us.gif>
Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use
.
<http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=20194806/grpspId=1705323667/msgId=0/stime=1323211203/nc1=3848627/nc2=5758222/nc3=5028925>
__,_._,___

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Twine, A Tiny Gizmo That Holds The Internet's Future

 

Interesting little gadget.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665571/twine-lets-you-make-a-personalized-internet-of-things

 

 

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

The Twelve Days of Fascism

http://lewrockwell.com/orig10/hawes3.1.1.html

 

 

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

jew says newt is done

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=vlLZPo1M9dQ

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

BO says capitalism doesn't work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qmj4trja7w&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fscottystarnes.wordpress.com%2F&feature=player_embedded

some people believe him

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Islamic cleric bans women from touching bananas, cucumbers for sexual resemblance

But even sub-semians love bananas.

Islamic cleric bans women from touching bananas, cucumbers for sexual

resemblance

Manar Ammar | 6 December 2011 | 1 Comment

http://bikyamasr.com/50403/islamic-cleric-bans-women-from-touching-bananas-cucumbers-for-sexual-resemblance/

 

Cucumbers are forbidden for women, says Islamic sheikh.

CAIRO: An Islamic cleric residing in Europe said that women should not be

close to bananas or cucumbers, in order to avoid any "sexual thoughts."

 

The unnamed sheikh, who was featured in an article on el-Senousa news, was

quoted saying that if women wish to eat these food items, a third party,

preferably a male related to them such as their a father or husband, should

cut the items into small pieces and serve.

 

He said that these fruits and vegetables "resemble the male penis" and hence

could arouse women or "make them think of sex."

 

He also added carrots and zucchini to the list of forbidden foods for women.

 

The sheikh was asked how to "control" women when they are out shopping for

groceries and if holding these items at the market would be bad for them.

The cleric answered saying this matter is between them and God.

 

Answering another question about what to do if women in the family like

these foods, the sheikh advised the interviewer to take the food and cut it

for them in a hidden place so they cannot see it.

 

The opinion has stirred a storm of irony and denouncement among Muslims

online, with hundreds of comments mocking the cleric.

 

One reader said that these religious "leaders" give Islam "a bad name" and

another commented said that he is a "retarded" person and he must quite his

post immediately.

 

Others called him a seeker of fame, but no official responses from renowned

Islamic scholars have been published on the statements.

 

BM

 

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Christmas Card to Obama Voters

New post on Scotty Starnes's Blog Christmas Card to Obama Voters by Scotty Starnes I'm sending this out to all my liberal friends this Christmas... H/T to The Looking Spoon   Scotty Starnes | December 7, 2011 at 12:25 PM | Tags: Christmas, Jesus, President Obama, savior | Categories: Political Issues | URL: http://wp.me/pvnFC-6dQ Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://scottystarnes.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/christmas-card-to-obama-voters/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Toys For Snots Contest Winner

http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=108294&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Iowntheworldcom+%28IOwntheWorld.com%29

 

 

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Obama Invokes Teddy Roosevelt to Press Agenda

Not JUST Obama, but Newt Gingrich ... "I'm a Theodore Roosevelt Republican."


Obama Invokes Teddy Roosevelt to Press Agenda
"President Obama came to this tiny middle American town [Osawatomie, Kan.] Tuesday to invoke the spirit of a long-ago Republican president in a speech that laid out, in his sharpest language yet, the economic and social arguments he will probably use against Republicans in 2012…. The president chose this town of 4,600 in eastern Kansas as a historical echo of a speech delivered a century earlier by Theodore Roosevelt, who used the same location to call for a strong central government that would protect ordinary Americans from what he called the greed and recklessness of big business and special interests." ( Washington Post)

TR loved bureaucracy and war.

Theodore Roosevelt, Big-Government Man
Jim Powell
March 2010 • Volume: 60 • Issue: 2 •

Theodore Roosevelt has been known as "the Good Roosevelt," "the Republican Roosevelt," and "the conservative Roosevelt," as distinguished from his fifth cousin Franklin, who's credited with ushering in modern American big government.

Yet promoters of big government have long recognized TR as one of their own.

Biographer Frank Freidel wrote that "While at Groton [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] first fell under the spell of his remote cousin Theodore Roosevelt. . . . Theodore Roosevelt believed in using to the utmost the constitutional power of the president. . . . This strong use of government was for the most part appealing to Franklin." During the Great Depression, FDR promoted "a program emphasizing national planning in the tradition of Theodore Roosevelt." Freidel noted that "in words reminiscent of Theodore Roosevelt, FDR declared 'the duty rests upon the Government to restrict incomes by very high taxes.'"

Historian Eric F. Goldman said that Lyndon Johnson, who simultaneously launched huge domestic entitlement spending programs and escalated the undeclared Vietnam War, admired "the hyperactive White House of Theodore Roosevelt." LBJ reportedly remarked, "Whenever I pictured Teddy Roosevelt, I saw him running or riding, always moving, his fists clenched, his eyes glaring, speaking out."

Richard M. Nixon, who dramatically expanded federal regulation of the economy, liked Theodore Roosevelt "because of his great dynamic drive and ability to mobilize a young country."

In recent years, influential Republicans like Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove, and John McCain have gushed with admiration for TR.

For starters, TR reinterpreted the Constitution to permit a vast expansion of executive power. "Congress, he felt, must obey the president," noted biographer Henry Pringle. Roosevelt wanted the Supreme Court to obey him too. TR ushered in the practice of ruling by executive order, bypassing the congressional process. From Lincoln to TR's predecessor William McKinley, there were 158 executive orders. TR, during his seven years in office, issued 1,007. He ranks third, behind fellow "progressives" Woodrow Wilson (1,791) and Franklin Roosevelt (3,723) in that category.


Unintended Consequences of Foreign Wars

Theodore Roosevelt, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, believed that "we should regard with contempt and loathing the Americans . . . crying on behalf of peace, peace, when there ought not to be peace." He warned against "the Menace of Peace."

When, in 1892, there was a dispute with Chile, he urged an invasion. As a lieutenant-colonel with his Rough Riders, on a ship bound for Cuba, he wrote Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge: "You must get Manila and Hawaii; you must prevent any talk of peace until we get Puerto Rico and the Philippines as well as secure the independence of Cuba."

TR relished the prospect of war with Canada. In 1895, he wrote Lodge: "I don't care whether our sea coast cities are bombarded or not, we would take Canada." In a letter to his brother-in-law Will Cowles, Roosevelt said that the U.S. army would "have to employ a lot of men just as green as I am for the conquest of Canada."

As president, Roosevelt reversed the traditional U. S. foreign policy of refraining from intervention in the affairs of other nations. Intervention had been the exception, but he began to make it the rule.

TR promoted a big navy not to defend the country from a specific threat­since there wasn't any threat­but to be a tool for an expansionist foreign policy. "The primary concern of Roosevelt and his fellow-expansionists," observed historian Howard K. Beale, "was power and prestige and the naval strength that would bring power and prestige."

TR's most controversial intervention involved the seizure of the Isthmus of Panama, which had belonged to Colombia. He resolved to build a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans so the U.S. navy could be more easily mobilized in either ocean. Historian David McCullough observed that "Roosevelt's haste, his refusal­his inability­to see the Colombian position on the treaty as anything other than a 'holdup,' were tragically mistaken and inexcusable." Is it prudent to have a U.S. president who seizes foreign territory when convenient?

TR's other interventions­in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua­were small by later standards, aimed mainly at helping European investors collect debts from deadbeat Latin American dictators so that European governments wouldn't establish a military presence in the Western Hemisphere. But his aggressive advocacy of intervention undoubtedly made his successors feel more comfortable about entering foreign wars, which have killed Americans when the United States wasn't under attack, triggered nationalist reactions that supported dictators, and multiplied the number of foreign enemies, complicating efforts to maintain our national security.


TR's "Conservation" Subsidies

Roosevelt backed schemes that helped western-state politicians gain more clout. State-subsidized irrigation projects before TR aimed at attracting farmers who would try to grow crops in western deserts, but all these projects lost money. Roosevelt thought this experience didn't apply to him, and in the name of "reclamation" he decided that the federal government should promote desert farming.

Hence the Reclamation Act of 1902. Every western senator and congressman scrambled to get on board for a subsidized reclamation project. Nevada Senator Francis Newlands, for example, was particularly anxious about his state's declining population. To secure political backing, reclamation projects had to be spread around, and many locations didn't make any sense. They guaranteed losses.

TR's subsidized reclamation brought widespread financial ruin. Farmers who had no prior experience with irrigation overwatered their crops, their irrigation systems became clogged with silt, and they obligated themselves to pay for more acreage than they could handle. Many farmers quit, taxpayers were socked to cover the losses, and desert populations declined.

And despite TR's reputation as a foe of private monopolies, he approved unfair government practices that squeezed out private dam builders and helped the Bureau of Reclamation gain a dam-building monopoly. The Bureau of Reclamation became a vast federal bureaucracy with some 600 dams and reservoirs in 17 western states.

It led to waste on a colossal scale. More water has been lost due to evaporation from reservoirs in hot deserts than has been needed for human consumption in major western cities. It has been estimated that every year perhaps a million acre-feet of water­enough to supply Los Angeles­are lost, seeping into Lake Powell's canyon walls and evaporating in the desert sun.


Big-Government Bungling

Theodore Roosevelt challenged the prevailing American view that land-use decisions are best made by private individuals who have a stake in improving the value of their property. He throttled the privatization of land that had been going on for more than a century. In 1905 TR transferred millions of acres of government land from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture and established the U. S. Forest Service to manage it.

It's because he substantially limited privatization that today national forests account for about 20 percent of the land in the 11 westernmost states of the lower 48. Altogether, the federal government controls about a third of the land in the United States.

The rationale for "national forests" was that America supposedly faced a "timber famine." Gifford Pinchot, first head of the Forest Service, warned that America would run out of timber within 20 years. TR claimed that selfish private individuals were squandering America's resources and only public-spirited federal bureaucrats could be counted on to manage them. Despite Pinchot's claims about "scientific" forestry, the "timber famine" never happened.

Nor did Pinchot actually conserve much. Cattlemen overgrazed their herds on national forest lands precisely because it was common property. In effect, nobody owned it. If one person's herds didn't eat all the grass, somebody else's herds would get it, so the incentive was to consume as much as possible. Similarly, nobody had an incentive to maintain the value of common property because the benefits might go to someone else.

TR enforced the "best" conservation policies throughout the country. Fire was considered bad for forests, so the Forest Service fought fires everywhere, and Smokey the Bear became famous. By suppressing fire for decades, deadwood built up and trees grew more densely. Moreover, Forest Service officials, in their alleged wisdom, ordered less logging, which accelerated the buildup of combustibles in national forests. Increasingly, instead of having many smaller fires to deal with, they faced huge conflagrations, which are harder to fight and more destructive.

Roosevelt used federal power to establish five national parks as well as 51 wildlife refuges and 150 national forests, yet they all seem to have suffered from inadequate maintenance at one time or another. For example, since TR thought parks were for big game, park rangers slaughtered wolves, cougars, and other predators. Soaring elk populations consumed so much vegetation that beavers disappeared. Park rangers closed garbage dumps where bears feasted, and as a result starving bears raided campgrounds. They were slaughtered, too. Parks have been polluted by poorly maintained sewage systems because their gate receipts went to Washington and they had difficulty competing with bigger government programs for funding. Hope Babcock, former general counsel of the National Audubon Society, lamented TR's legacy: "Few would assert that the historical institutional paradigm for managing the nation's public lands has protected the natural resource values of those lands."


"Trust-Busting" That Suppressed Competition

The rationale for antitrust laws and TR's "trust busting" was the idea that, left alone, a free market tends to develop monopolies and government intervention is required to maintain competition. There was more than a little hypocrisy in this since TR supported high tariffs, which helped politically connected business interests by suppressing competition and in the process ripped off American consumers far more than any monopoly. In fact, it had been said that the "tariff is the mother of the trusts."

Nevertheless, Roosevelt demonized businessmen as "malefactors of great wealth," a phrase later used by his cousin during his anti-business crusades. TR's attorney general, Philander Knox, filed lawsuits to break up private companies, starting in 1902 with Northern Securities (a railroad holding company). The most famous antitrust lawsuits resulted in the breakup of American Tobacco Company and the Standard Oil Company in 1911, after Roosevelt left office.

Yet for more than two decades output had been expanding and prices had been falling in the American economy­the opposite of what one would expect with a lot of monopolies. Despite Roosevelt's allegations about railroad monopolies (which were largely built with government subsidies), in the previous half-century railroad mileage in the United States had expanded more than 250-fold to 258,784 miles, and railroad rates were falling. Cheaper railroad rates undermined local monopolies by giving people the choice of buying economically priced goods from far away. Regardless, TR signed the Hepburn and Elkins acts, which strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission's power to control competition by regulating railroad rates.

Historian Gabriel Kolko observed, "The dominant tendency in the American economy at the beginning of this [twentieth] century was toward growing competition. Competition was unacceptable to many key business and financial interests, and the merger movement was to a large extent a reflection of voluntary, unsuccessful business efforts to bring irresistible competitive trends under control." (Kolko went on to establish that the progressive "reforms of the early twentieth century were backed by big business as a way to restrain competition and protect market share.")

Mounting evidence shows that monopolies are rare in free markets, as changing consumer tastes, changing business conditions, new technologies, and new competitors both foreign and domestic (when free) relentlessly challenge established companies. With very few exceptions, monopolies have persisted only when government has enforced barriers to entry that prevent new or old companies from competing in a market. Licenses, monopoly franchises, and trade restrictions are among the most common government-enforced barriers to entry.

Alarmed at the increasing size of major industrial corporations (which were often helped by tariffs and other kinds of privileges), many people didn't seem to realize that markets were expanding even faster­corporations were increasingly serving national and international markets. John D. Rockefeller earned his fortune refining kerosene from western Pennsylvania oil, but rivals discovered oil fields in Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, and California as well as overseas. New products like Thomas Edison's electric lights attracted customers away from kerosene lamps, and Henry Ford's cheap Model T cars needed gasoline, a petroleum product that enabled new oil companies to establish themselves. Rockefeller's Standard Oil thrived because it was a low-cost competitor, investing in cost-cutting technology, yet so intense was the competition that its market share declined. There would have been more competition had TR focused on lowering tariffs and repealing corporate privileges, and refrained from attacking big discounters like Standard Oil.

It's past time to evaluate Theodore Roosevelt and other progressives not according to their personalities and speeches, but according to their actions and consequences.

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/theodore-roosevelt-big-government-man/

Newt Gingrich Is in Love With Himself

Newt Gingrich Is in Love With Himself
Newt Gingrich's self-love is boundless. Unearthing a string of quotes going back to the 1980s, Kirsten Powers looks at the former House speaker's long record of self-infatuation.
Kirsten Powers
Dec 7, 2011 4:45 AM EST

"I told somebody at one point [of my presidential campaign], 'This is like watching Walton or Kroc develop Walmart and McDonald's.'" So said Newt Gingrich, whose presidential campaign boasts roughly 40 staff members.

"I am going to be the nominee," the modern-day Narcissus declared while gazing at his reflection in the polls.

"I am much like [Ronald] Reagan and Margaret Thatcher," the man who was run out of Congress in disgrace and is despised by nearly every conservative who has ever worked with him recently mused to CNN.

"I don't want my country to collapse. I don't want my daughter and wife raped and killed," Speaker Gingrich told a stunned Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter in 1994 in explaining why America, nay, the world, needed him. After all, he told her, "People like me are what stand between us and Auschwitz."

And they said Al Gore was an exaggerator.

Self-aggrandizing distortions of reality have been Gingrich's hallmark for decades. Most recently, he redescribed his sleazy lobbying for conservative bête noire Freddie Mac as the work of a "historian." It's not hard to envisage that in the delusional swirl known as Newt's thought life this is true. Only in the confines of his gray matter could it make sense that a man who wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on Belgian educational policy in the Congo would be sought out by Freddie Mac for historical advice.

"People need to hear what I have to say. There's no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn't matter what I live," Gingrich explained to Wife No. 2, who was confused that he was dumping her for his mistress the day after giving a speech on family values.

GOP Sen. Tom Coburn, who does not count himself a fan of Gingrich, referred Sunday to the former speaker having "one standard for the people [he is] leading and a different standard for [himself]." This is because narcissists cannot function without double standards. After all, what kind of mental gymnastics had to occur for Speaker Gingrich to argue that President Bill Clinton should be impeached for lying under oath about an affair with a staffer while Gingrich was carrying on an affair with a staffer?

Newt's fantastical repurposing of reality is amusing. Until you imagine him propagating another reign of tantrums on America, and on a much grander scale.

But this occurred during an era that was riddled with bizarre Gingrich antics. The most famous was Gingrich forcing a government shutdown because Bill Clinton didn't talk to him on Air Force One while they were flying back from a funeral. With no sense of embarrassment, Gingrich told reporters, "It's petty, but I think it's human."

On one level, Newt's narcissistic self-involvement and fantastical repurposing of reality is amusing. Until you consider he could potentially have an opportunity to propagate another reign of tantrums on America, but on a much grander scale.

But he has changed, say his supporters. He has matured. He's different.

Did you hear about the time Newt Gingrich compared the mild-mannered Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to Joseph Stalin? It was three months ago. Perhaps it's not a coincidence that a newt is a cold-blooded animal known for releasing a toxic residue that can be severely irritating.

"I was charging $60,000 a speech," Gingrich, bragged last week, of his pre-presidential-run days. So wrapped up in his own grandiosity is he that he never felt it was inappropriate to say such things to supporters at a shopping mall in South Carolina where the median annual income for a family of four is about $58,000.

"I helped Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp develop supply-side economics," the "new" Newt announced last week, which no doubt caused considerable shock to economist Arthur Laffer.

"I helped lead the effort to defeat communism in the Congress," Gingrich claimed in the same interview. Busy man!

Republican New York Rep. Peter King­who served under Speaker Gingrich­ told a reporter last week, "[Gingrich has] a superiority complex­and I don't think he had that much to be superior about."

In brainstorming notes unearthed in the 1997 House Ethics investigation of Gingrich, he had scribbled: "Gingrich­primary mission: advocate of civilization, definer of civilization, teacher of the rules of civilization, arouser of those who fan civilization, organizer of the pro-civilization activists, leader (possibly) of the civilizing forces."

David Boaz, a vice president at the libertarian Cato Institute­a hotbed of anti-Gingrich sentiment­told me, "My main concern is you don't want this guy's finger on the button. He is a megalomaniac and volatile."

Yesterday morning on MSNBC, Joe Scarborough, who was an active member of the '94 GOP revolution, said bluntly, "Newt Gingrich is a bad person [politically]."  Scarborough has turned his morning show into a passionate one-man "Stop Newt" campaign, ringing the alarm bell that Newt is dangerous.

Will anybody listen? To date, Gingrich is surging to the top of the polls, with potential voters seemingly impervious to Gingrich's dark side.

So far. Remember, a month ago it was Herman Cain who was riding high. Gingrich has had the good fortune of peaking late, after the other anti-Mitt contenders have crashed and burned.

Boaz sees Gingrich's top-tier status ending when voters are more informed about him. He says, "Most people have lives and don't follow politics that closely. People have short memories. His 15 minutes aren't up yet, but they will be. There has been this desperate search for the anti-Mitt Romney. Gingrich seems like a plausible national leader but he will shoot his mouth off and people will notice it. It will move people back to Romney when they realize [the truth] about Newt."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/12/06/kirsten-powers-newt-gingrich-is-in-love-with-himself.html

Travelling the roads with safety

:

 

Subject:  Travelling the roads with safety                 Perhaps our roads are quite safe after all  !!   No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1392 / Virus Database: 1520/3833 - Release Date: 08/14/11

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Gingrich To Glenn: ‘I’m a Theodore Roosevelt Republican’

Gingrich To Glenn: 'I'm a Theodore Roosevelt Republican'
written by Ilana Mercer on 12.06.11

I'm a Theodore Roosevelt Republican. In fact, if I were going to characterize my -- on health where I come from, I'm a Theodore Roosevelt Republican and I believe government can lean in the regulatory leaning is okay. -- Newt Gingrich (the gibberish too).

To some -- perhaps many -- Republicans, to be a Theodore Roosevelt Republican is quite respectable. Therein lies the rub. If you're the type of (Robert) Taft Republican who values your life, liberty and property -- then Teddy Roosevelt, "the guy who started the Progressive Party," and was a proponent of "progressive ideals" -- is bad news.

If you didn't already know Newt was bad news; then Glenn Beck makes it abundantly clear. Especially politically poignant is Newt's folksy retelling of Teddy's food safety awakening.

About "'TR's drummed up a phony 'food safety crisis,'" Thomas J. DiLorenzo observed the following:

… there were no epidemics related to commercial food processing" in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Roosevelt's "pure food laws" were aimed "at protecting producers," not the general public. For example, as Powell recounts, some of these early laws set exceptionally high regulatory standards on imported foods as a form of veiled protectionism. Food inspection laws during the Roosevelt era were invariably favored by larger corporations who understood that the laws would disproportionately harm their smaller competitors. "The 1906 Pure Food And Drugs Act empowered the Agriculture Department's notorious quack, Harvey Washington Wiley, to conduct crazy crusades against foods competing with the interest groups he served" (mostly larger corporate interests).

In Into the Cannibal's Pot, I mention the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos whom TR killed.

In all, TR was happiest when he was killing. Like many a mass murderer, TR began his career by killing animals, one biographer alleging that "after an argument with his girlfriend a young Teddy Roosevelt went home and shot his neighbor's dog."

Glenn mocks the self-important Speaker: "… So you're a minimum regulation guy on making sure the people don't fall into the vats of sausage?"

Yes, Newt Gingrich got mince-up well in the Glenn grinder.


http://barelyablog.com/?p=45280