A Groundswell of Activism Against Drones
Activist opposition to Washington’s new affinity with unmanned aerial vehicles for use in surveillance and war is growing by the day. Anti-drone campaigns are now established in New York, Nevada, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, as well as a growing movement in the Midwest, with activity in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota, and Iowa.
This groundswell of activism and resistance is happening in tandem with a growing mainstream skepticism, manifesting in official leaks and criticism, editorials in the nation’s leading newspapers, and even legal challenges on the national and international level.
Visit Come Home America for more details on the local activism going on across the country.
This week’s top news:
Obama Ignored CIA Report Against Afghan Escalation: President Obama knew of a CIA assessment in 2009 that warned against the surge in Afghanistan and “purposely did not read it” before approving the massive escalation. Obama also ignored Vice President Biden’s memo, which concluded the plan wasn’t “viable.”
Israel Fears Rise of US-Supported Jihadists in Syria: The Israeli Defense Force is preparing for the possibility that jihadist terrorists will launch attacks on Israel from Syria if regime change topples President Bashar Assad, as is the aim of US support of the rebel militias.
US Rejected Chance for Incremental Progress in Iran Talks: As enthusiasm about the negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 begins to peter out, sources close to the talks have revealed that Washington hardened its position during the last round in Moscow, foregoing concrete progress in favor of an all-or-nothing posture.
US Drug War in Honduras Expands as Human Rights Abuses Increase: The expanded mission is run with six State Department attack helicopters and a special team of commando-style DEA agents who have now been implicated in the killing of several Hondurans on two separate occasions.
Iraq’s PM Calls for Early Elections Amid Calls to Resign: After months of political strife, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has threatened to call for early elections which could tighten his grip on power due to the Shiite leader’s harsh efforts to marginalize his political opponents.
Opinion and Analysis
- Justin Raimondo graded the regime changers, offered a historical analogy for our time, and considered the upside of nuclear proliferation.
- Kelley Vlahos delved into the relationship between Julian Assange and the president of Ecuador.
- Ivan Eland warned Obama against intervening in Syria.
- Richard Silverstein explained the significance of October’s U.S.-Israel war games.
- Philip Giraldi analyzed Abe Foxman’s hyperbolic hate-hunting.
1) Obamacare: What’s Next?
Repeal and replace. That’s what Independent Institute Research Fellow John C. Goodman urges Congress to do in the aftermath of last week’s Supreme Court affirmation of most of the Affordable Care Act. Goodman offers several reasons to scrap it. For starters, President Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment imposes heavy costs on employment: workers who make $15 per hour “will be forced to buy insurance whose costs (for a family) will equal half the employees’ wages,” he writes in the Daily Caller. This extra cost—and the still unanswered question of how businesses will respond as the healthcare law gets implemented—make for an uncertain employment climate at a time when hiring is sluggish. READ MORE
Let’s Repeal and Replace Obamacare, by John C. Goodman (The Daily Caller, 6/28/12)
Repeal and Replace, by John C. Goodman (Townhall, 6/30/12)
Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, by John C. Goodman
Event Alert: John Goodman, Anthony Gregory and Robert Murphy to Speak at FreedomFest! (Las Vegas, July 11-14, 2012)
2) Join Us at FreedomFest in Las Vegas
The Independent Institute is pleased to announce that John C. Goodman,Anthony Gregory, and Robert P. Murphy have joined the line-up of speakers at FreedomFest, the largest annual pro-liberty conference in the United States. FreedomFest 2012 will take place July 11 to 14 at Bally’s Las Vegas. Don’t miss this intellectually stimulating event!
Research Fellow John Goodman will speak twice. His first talk is entitled, “ObamaCare: The Supreme Court Decision and What it Means for Your Healthcare.” His second talk is devoted to his new book, Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis. READ MORE
More information: John Goodman, Anthony Gregory and Robert Murphy to Speak at FreedomFest! (Las Vegas, July 11-14, 2012)
3) Syria’s Slippery Slope
In the 1980s, the U.S. government favored Saddam Hussein in the Iraq-Iran War, sending the tyrant intelligence technology, helping to plan his military attacks, and encouraging European allies to sell him weapons. Now the United States is providing the Syrian opposition movement with “non-lethal” communications equipment and keeping weapons exporters apprised of the rebels’ capabilities. Opponents of the regime have legitimate grievances—Bashar al-Assad has killed more than 10,000 of his countrymen—but this does not mean it is in the interests of the United States to equip them, Independent Institute Senior Fellow Ivan Eland argues in his latest op-ed.READ MORE
Stay Out of Syria, by Ivan Eland (6/28/12)
No War for Oil: U.S. Dependency and the Middle East, by Ivan Eland
4) Economics versus Environmentalism
Anyone who has followed the op-ed pages of leading newspapers or attended city council meetings has noticed two groups of people who can’t seem to stop quarreling with each other: economists and environmentalists. Why can’t they just get along? According to Independent Institute Senior Fellow Robert H. Nelson, the mutual animus of economists and environmentalists stems from their conflicting values regarding man’s relationship to nature. In other words, theirs is a conflict between clashing religions, albeit secular ones. READ MORE
Economics and Environmentalism: Belief Systems at Odds, by Robert H. Nelson (The Independent Review, Summer 2012)
The New Holy Wars: Economic Religion vs. Environmental Religion in Contemporary America, by Robert H. Nelson
The Independent Review (Summer 2012)
Subscribe now. First-timers, subscribe now and receive two extra issues free!
5) Pandemonium in Paraguay
When Fernando Lugo became the president of Paraguay four years ago, the former Catholic bishop pledged to end the era of the Colorado Party. Ultimately, he lost. His impeachment on June 22, led by that party but aided by former allies in the Authentic Radical Liberal Party, demonstrates the huge political risks that even moderate reformers face when they antagonize entrenched interest groups—in this case, disgruntled landowners who thought Lugo wasn’t doing enough to suppress the country’s periodic peasant land invasions. Although it didn’t amount to a coup d’état—constitutional procedures were followed and next year’s elections have not been cancelled—the impeachment was a big setback for a region that needs greater political stability, according to Independent Institute Senior FellowAlvaro Vargas Llosa. READ MORE
Paraguay’s Big Mistake, by Alvaro Vargas Llosa (The National Interest, 7/2/12)
Liberty for Latin America: How to Undo Five Hundred Years of State Oppression, by Alvaro Vargas Llosa
Lessons from the Poor: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit, edited by Alvaro Vargas Llosa
6) New Blog Posts
From The Beacon:
Robert Higgs (7/2/12)
Adiós, Amigos
Alvaro Vargas Llosa (7/2/12)
Roberts Was Influenced by the ‘Greenhouse Effect’
Melancton Smith (7/2/12)
Form Trumps Function on Taxpayers’ Blank Check
Mary Theroux (7/1/12)
John Goodman, Anthony Gregory and Robert Murphy to Speak at 2012 Freedom Fest!
David Theroux (6/30/12)
Fed Med to Fed Ed: Beware of the ‘Unconstitutionally Coercive’ Standard
Vicki Alger (6/29/12)
Limits on the Taxing Power?
Melancton Smith (6/29/12)
Chief Justice John Roberts Channels Oliver Wendell Holmes, Not Owen Roberts
Melancton Smith (6/28/12)
Federal Student Loan Interest Rate Update
Vicki Alger (6/28/12)
ObamaCare Mandate Upheld: Those Dirty, Rotten Taxes!
Melancton Smith (6/28/12)
College Loan Interest Rates: Real Change or Spare Change?
Vicki Alger (6/27/12)
A Brief History of the Case Against Obamacare
Carl Close (6/27/12)
What Does It Say That I Could Post a TSA Outrage Every Day?
Mary Theroux (6/26/12)
Individual Career Choices, Not Government Quotas, Should Define the Next 40 Years of Title IX
Vicki Alger (6/26/12)
From MyGovCost News & Blog:
Craig Eyermann (6/30/12)
Blazing Bullet Train: How the Federal Government Enables State Waste
Lloyd Billingsley (6/29/12)
Entitled to Waste: Mo’ Better Bonuses at the GSA
Lloyd Billingsley (6/27/12)
Time Runs Out
Craig Eyermann (6/27/12)
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 Retail $21.95 Sale $18.95 SAVE 14%!  Paperback & Hardcover eBook Also Available: 336 Pages • 6 x 9 Inches For Educators: |
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Delusions of Power: New Explorations of the State, War, and Economy By Robert Higgs In Delusions of Power, renowned economist and historian Robert Higgs calls into question our ingrained notions concerning the nature of government and political power. Higgs uproots the foundation stone upon which the state’s powers have rested and grown unchecked by the public. Beginning with the Founding Fathers and moving forward, Higgs reassesses the world wars, the Great Depression and the New Deal, and the financial debacle that began in 2008, demonstrating Americans’ loss of economic and civil liberties. He brings together the crisis in policymaking; key political actors and events; and the impact of war on the economy and liberties. For Higgs, war and its costs have had a major impact on American life, law, and freedom. Through reading Higgs’s work, one will gain a new understanding of the state’s power, democracy, and the issues threatening the pursuit of liberty, and the institutions of a free society. |
1-800-927-8733
Praise for Delusions of Power:
“Delusions of Power is an important book for our time on the nature of political power. Robert Higgs describes the government’s use of wars and real and fabricated crises to expand its power. It is history well-told and should be thought-provoking to all, whatever their political preferences.”
—Stanley L. Engerman, John H. Munro Professor of Economics and Professor of History, University of Rochester
“Even James Madison asked throughout his lifetime ‘In a free society, what is the proper relationship between individuals and the state?’ Few scholars in American history have contributed more to the freedom side of that inquiry than Robert Higgs. For years, his magisterial Crisis and Leviathan was the bible for all who wished intellectual ammunition to address Madison’s quandary. Now, Bob has done what once seemed impossible: He has written another book equally as vital to the issue. In Delusions of Power, Professor Higgs has assembled a lifetime of wisdom and analysis about this continually asked question; and future generations will look here for the courageous intellectual re-power with which to challenge the federal beast that consumes our freedoms every day.”
—Judge Andrew P. Napolitano, Senior Judicial Analyst, Fox News Channel
“There is no economist today who has thought more seriously than Robert Higgs about the relationship between the state and the economy. His examinations of the state are grounded in historical scholarship, rigorous analytics, and in a lively and blunt style. The reader will see many historical myths exploded and sacred cows skewered. Delusions of Power is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the permanent-war economies that have been created in the 20th and 21st centuries.”
—Peter J. Boettke, Professor of Economics, George Mason University
“No scholar has done more than Robert Higgs to demonstrate that a principled and powerful advocate of free markets can also be—should also be—a principled and powerful opponent of many of the most cherished notions by both liberals and conservatives regarding government power. And no notion is more cherished than the belief that the military is immune to the many problems that cause other government agencies to squander resources while failing in their alleged missions. Higgs’s careful scholarship inDelusions of Power exposes this notion as being a dangerous delusion.”
—Donald J. Boudreaux, Professor of Economics, George Mason University
“Towering thinkers of the past have identified the risks of submitting to the authority of a state. In this impressive book, Robert Higgs shows that in modern times these risks have grown immensely because of new technologies of communication, the erosion of constitutional protections, the empowerment of coalitions dependent on the state, and, most important, ideological currents that have blinded us to the inefficiencies of expanding the scope of government. Lively throughout and based on deep historical knowledge,Delusions of Power can be read profitably by anyone interested in the fundamental controversies of economics and politics.”
—Timur Kuran, Professor of Economics and Political Science, and Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke University
“Delusions of Power, a new book on an old, ever-important theme by an excellent economic historian acting as prosecutor, invites thought beyond the indictment. The author Robert Higgs tersely describes the state as ‘the most destructive institution human beings have ever devised.’ The charge is supported by a massive array of data and a narrative of the process by which the U.S. government has preempted an ever-increasing portion of its citizens’ resources and rolled back their liberty. It is striking that the charge of destructiveness is substantiated by analyzing the government’s deeds and misdeeds in the United States alone—a country widely regarded as having the most admired constitution and proud of its democratic roots. The reader cannot but think of most of Africa and much of the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, where the state has always wrought destruction that passes belief and whose peoples dream of America as a haven of prosperity and liberty. Government by the people is credited with powers to protect them; Higgs shows that this credit is undeserved even in the country where it is believed to be the strongest. God save the rest of the world, where such protective power is not even imagined to prevail.”
—Anthony de Jasay, author of The State and Against Politics
About the Author:
Robert Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy for The Independent Institute and Editor of the Institute’s quarterly journal The Independent Review. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, and the University of Economics, Prague. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow for the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation.
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GOP RELEASES ‘REPEAL OF OBAMACARE ACT’
House Republicans late Thursday released their proposal to repeal the 2010 healthcare law, arguing that it has increased healthcare costs, puts Americans at risk of losing coverage and is dragging down the economy. The Repeal of Obamacare Act is a response to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the law, and argues that despite that ruling, solving the nation’s healthcare problems must begin with repeal of the law… |
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McDonnell May Referee GOP Split at National Convention
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell often sidesteps thorny social debates in favor of kitchen-table concerns, but at the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., he may find himself playing referee in a showdown between the conservative and the establishment wings of the party. In his new role as chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, McDonnell will help shape the GOP platform… |
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NEW TSA POLICY: ORDERING TRAVELERS TO “FREEZE”
ON COMMAND? Bizarre power trip behavior of federal agency reaches new level of craziness. If you thought the bizarre power trip behavior of the TSA couldn’t get any crazier – think again. According to a friend of political commentator Lew Rockwell, the federal agency is now ordering travelers passing through security to “freeze” on command. Explaining how he had arranged with his family to split up… |
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CONGRESSMAN: AMERICAN SCHOOLS SHOULD BE MODELED AFTER ISLAM & USE KORAN
Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN), the Muslim congressman who once said that the Tea Party would “love” to see black Americans “hanging on a tree,” made another controversial statement during a May 26 speech. This time he gave what is at the heart of the Islamic mind and that is the indoctrination of Islam into the West. Speaking about the American education system… |
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Obama’s Social Security Number Challenged
If Barack Obama has an immediate eligibility problem, it is more likely to derive from the Social Security Number he has been using for the last 35 years than from his birth certificate. Ohio private investigator Susan Daniels has seen to that. On Monday, July 2, she filed suit in Geauga County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court demanding that Jon Husted, Ohio secretary of state… |
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TSA EXPLAINS BIZARRE NEW POLICY OF TESTING DRINKS PURCHASED IN AIRPORTS
The TSA has attempted to explain away a bizarre expansion of its powers inside airports as part of a move to employ “unpredictable measure(s)” to snare would be criminals and terrorists. Yesterday we reported on the fact that the federal agency is now demanding the right to test drinks purchased by passengers after they have already passed through airport security. Many passengers have recently complained… |
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THE NEXT BIG SUPREME
COURT CONTROVERSY: SAME-SEX ‘MARRIAGE’ The Supreme Court Justices have left a steaming Washington – a summer heat wave and a searing new dispute over how they made the health care decision – but no sooner had they departed than the next major controversy arrived. Awaiting them at the end of summer will be the issue of same-sex marriage, as emotionally charged as any issue they faced even in the difficult term just ended… |
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Lawmakers Back Bill For ‘Made In The USA’ Flags Only
Can you believe that American flags are, for the most part, not made in America? Furthermore, can you believe that the American government would not purchase American flags from American companies? Well, it’s true and the day before America celebrates her independence, lawmakers called on the House to pass a bill that would require the government to purchase flags made in the good old U.S.A… |
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FLORIDA JUDGE IGNORES EVIDENCE, RULES BARACK OBAMA NATURAL BORN CITIZEN
Florida Circuit Judge Terry Lewis shocked Florida conservatives by ruling that Barack Obama was a natural born citizen since he was born in the United States. Lewis also ruled that the Florida Secretary of State is not responsible to determine the eligibility of political candidates. Additionally, Lewis dismissed the lawsuit ‘with prejudice’ citing that Obama’s attorneys were correct to say that he was not yet the party’s official candidate and… |
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GOP CONGRESS BREAKS ‘PLEDGE TO AMERICA’
What are the Republicans in Congress thinking? Seriously. What was in their collective minds when they passed a bill worth billions of dollars in stimulus to all sorts of true free loaders? According to John Hayward at Human Events, On Friday, the House and Senate passed an omnibus spending bill, which is a bit like passing a kidney stone, except it’s much more painful and expensive… |
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California Considers Allowing More Than Two Parents
Amidst the most disastrous economy in the 50 states, California’s so-called leaders still find time to muck around with radical social experiments designed to redefine and ultimately weaken the nuclear family. The latest one is a bill that would allow children to legally have more than two parents. It has already passed in the Senate and will be considered by the Assembly… |
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FEDS SAY YOU ARE A TERRORIST IF YOU LOVE LIBERTY
The Charlotte, North Carolina, police department has made it clear that Jesus is not welcome at its functions. According to the Associated Press, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) has informed its volunteer chaplains that they are not to mention Jesus’ name when they pray at official ceremonies. The Charlotte Observer reported that the new policy was announced by the head of the department’s volunteer chaplain program… |
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BARACK OBAMA BEGS DONORS FOR MORE AS MITT ROMNEY RAKES IT IN
In a phone call from Air Force One, the President reportedly told a group of top donors “I can’t do this by myself” and urged them to open their cheque books to “meet or exceed what you did in 2008″. Noting that most had “maxed out to my campaign last time,” Mr Obama told them: “I really need you to do the same this time,” according to a leaked transcript… |
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“Fire Eric Holder” Protest Shut Down
We have freedom of speech until that speech upsets the ruling regime. Then any and all stops are pulled out to silence the opposition. The United States Secret Service today shut down a grass-roots protest of students at the University of California. The protesters, according to a report from the White House, were calling on President Obama to fire Attorney General Eric Holder. And then, according to the S.S…. |
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POLICE CHAPLAINS TOLD TO STOP PRAYING IN JESUS’ NAME
The Charlotte, North Carolina, police department has made it clear that Jesus is not welcome at its functions. According to the Associated Press, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) has informed its volunteer chaplains that they are not to mention Jesus’ name when they pray at official ceremonies. The Charlotte Observer reported that the new policy was announced by the head of the department’s volunteer chaplain program… |
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STATES PLAN TO RESIST OBAMACARE
Leaders of the 26 states that challenged the federal health care law in court have one luxury with the outcome — they can do nothing. While the Supreme Court upheld the bulk of the Affordable Care Act, it did rein in the law’s expansion of Medicaid by ruling that the federal government could not withhold Medicaid funds to those states that don’t comply… |
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Bombshell Dropped In Fast And Furious Investigation
While the news comes forth that U. S. Attorney Ronald Machen will not prosecute Attorney General Eric Holder in regards to the House vote for contempt, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa dropped a bombshell into the Congressional Record. RollCall reports, The May 24 letter to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.)… |
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OBAMA GLOATS ON TWITTER: ‘STILL A BFD’ – SELLS SHIRTS
One of the more positive outcomes of the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold President Obama‘s Affordable Care Act, at least from the perspective of the President’s supporters, is that the Obama reelection team has immediately shown a new willingness to campaign on the President’s signature legislative accomplishment. They’re currently selling “Health Reform Still A BFD” t-shirts… |
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GOOGLE EXERCISES GUN CONTROL
With Google being the major presence on the internet and now seemingly having ties to the government and doing their bidding in providing information and even censoring web sites, it should come as no surprise that Google is now in the business of gun control. That’s right, Google Shopping is now controlling guns, ammunition and gun accessories from showing up in their search… |
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No Criminal Prosecution of Holder
for Contempt The White House and the Justice Department made clear Friday what had been expected all along: Attorney General Eric Holder will not face criminal prosecution under the contempt of Congress citation passed by the U.S. House. Legal experts noted this week in the runup to Thursday’s House vote that President Barack Obama’s assertion of executive privilege in the case would prevent a criminal prosecution under a practice dating to the… |
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ISSA CONFIRMS FAST &
FURIOUS WIRETAPS House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa has confirmed that wiretap applications reveal in-depth detail on the Fast and Furious operation, including evidence showing that “agents were well aware that large sums of money were being used to purchase a large number of firearms, many of which were flowing across the border.” Roll Call reports today that Issa released details concerning the wiretaps in the House… |
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HOUSE VOTES TO HOLD HOLDER IN CRIMINAL CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS 255-67
The U. S. House of Representatives, after 18 months of investigation and stonewalling by the Obama Justice Department have voted 255-67 to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal contempt of Congress. Holder becomes the first sitting attorney general to be held in contempt. Looks like the Obama administration has a first for everything. Fox News reports, The vote was preceded by a heated floor debate… |
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Top CIA Spy Accused of Being a
Mafia Hitman Enrique “Ricky” Prado’s resume reads like the ultimate CIA officer: veteran of the Central American wars, running the CIA’s operations in Korea, a top spy in America’s espionage programs against China, and deputy to counter-terrorist chief Cofer Black — and then a stint at Blackwater. But he’s also alleged to have started out a career as a hitman for a notorious Miami mobster… |
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ASKING ANNOYING QUESTIONS TO BECOME A CRIME?
On June 25, 2012 Barack Obama declared a national emergency in his latest executive order. The order titled, ‘Russian Highly Enriched Uranium,” stated that in light of earlier policy EOs (12938, 13085, 13159) that Barack Obama finds, “that the risk of nuclear proliferation created by the accumulation of a large volume of weapons-usable fissile material in the territory of the Russian Federation continues to… |
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SCOTUS DECLARES OBAMACARE CONSTITUTIONAL
The Supreme Court has upheld the individual mandate of Obamacare. The Court does not deal with any severability issues since they have upheld the individual mandate. While mainstream media first reported that the mandate was struck down, it was SCOTUS blog that called it first. This was the live blog and response to the reading of the opinion. Furthermore, Amy Howe at SCOTUS blog said… |
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Senator Suggests Impeaching Obama
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) floated the possibility of impeaching President Obama over the administration’s recent decisions on immigration, during an appearance on Bill Bennett’s radio show on Tuesday. Responding to a question about the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to pull back “on a program known as 287(g) — which allows the feds to deputize local officials to make immigration-based arrests”… |
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OBAMA DECLARES NATIONAL EMERGENCY IN LATEST
EXECUTIVE ORDER On June 25, 2012 Barack Obama declared a national emergency in his latest executive order. The order titled, ‘Russian Highly Enriched Uranium,” stated that in light of earlier policy EOs (12938, 13085, 13159) that Barack Obama finds, “that the risk of nuclear proliferation created by the accumulation of a large volume of weapons-usable fissile material in the territory of the Russian Federation continues to… |
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MUSLIMS ‘STONE’ CHRISTIANS IN DEARBORN, MI
Ok, for those who still think Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance, take a look at this year’s Muslim Arab Festival. This went on in America people! It happened in Dearborn, Michigan. Notice how the police see the quiet restrained Christians as a threat to public safety, while the bratty little Muslim kids assault them with milk crates, glass bottles, eggs and whatever they can find… |
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Man Beaten, Arrested for Carrying Handgun with Permit
A Minneapolis man says he suffered a concussion after receiving a beating from five police officers who attacked him after they noticed he was carrying a gun in his waist band, WCCO-TV in Minnesota reports. The problem is, Zachary King has a concealed carry permit to lawfully carry the firearm. He argues police still attacked him anyway as he was leaving a local nightclub on Father’s Day night even after… |
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WHY OBAMA ERASED HIS
WHITE GIRLFRIENDS When Genevieve Cook first met Barack Obama in the kitchen of a mutual friend’s New York flat, he was wearing jeans, a T-shirt and a dark leather jacket. It was 1983, and she was impressed when this cool, self-assured young man could tell immediately she was Australian. In those days most Americans, even supposedly cosmopolitan New Yorkers, couldn’t tell a Cockney from a Kiwi… |
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DEMS ADMIT OBAMA’S NOT ELIGIBLE
Weary of defending in court the Constitutional eligibility of their man at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the Democrat Party has finally admitted Barack Obama is not qualified to be president of the United States– and that it doesn’t matter. According to a motion filed by Party attorneys in a Tennessee eligibility lawsuit, “…Defendants… |
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Man Facing 10 Years in Prison After Photographing Cops Making Arrest
It was just after midnight on New Year’s Day when Antonio Buehler spotted a pair of Austin cops manhandling a woman at a gas station during a DUI investigation, so he pulled out his cell phone and began taking photos. That, of course, prompted one of the cops to storm up to him and accuse him of interfering with the investigation. Austin police officer Pat Oborski shoved Buehler against his… |
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RNC CONFIRMS: DELEGATES ARE NOT BOUND TO ROMNEY
Just on a whim I decided to call the RNC HQ in Washington, DC ( |
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OBAMA: ‘HAVE YOUR WEDDING GUESTS SEND ME MONEY’
The Obama campaign is desperate. No, I mean really desperate. Barack Obama and his campaign have come up with the Obama Event Registry, which asks supporters who are getting married, having a birthday or any other special event in their lives to think of him and his campaign and tell their guests to give generously to his re-election. Seriously, I want to throw up. According to the website… |
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White House, ‘Washington Post’ Coordinate Another
Anti-Romney Attack In politics, the media narrative is everything. The media narrative drives the national conversation, opinion, and, unfortunately, poll numbers. Thanks to bad economic news and a number of unforced errors, narrative-wise, Obama and his media pal have had a very bad June. Desperate to change the subject for Their Precious One, this week we saw the media attempt to rescue Obama by pushing the White House talking points about illegal… |
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PRO OBAMA BIOGRAPHER ADMITS OBAMA FAMILY HISTORY BASED ON MYTH
Yet another Barack Obama biography has been recently published. This time it was written by someone friendly to Obama. David Maraniss, in his book, Barack Obama: The Story, sought to chronicle the early years of young Obama and tell of things that molded and shaped him into being the person he is today. Maraniss diligently researched as much as he could about Obama’s childhood, including the relationship between his parents… |
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DESPERATION: OBAMA SURROGATE CALLS TO MAKE VOTING MANDATORY
Peter Orszag, former head of the Obama Office of Management and Budget, is desperate. With even Roll Call recognizing that President Obama is fighting an uphill battle for re-election, Orszag is floating a trial balloon: mandatory voting. His call for forced voting comes in an op/ed for Bloomberg News: The U.S. prides itself as the beacon of democracy, but it’s very likely no U.S. president has ever been elected by… |
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Obama Campaign Spends More Than it Raised in May
President Barack Obama’s campaign and the Obama Victory Fund spent $15 million more than they raised in May, campaign finance reports show. The campaign and the Obama Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee with the Democratic National Committee, raised more than $54 million last month, but they spent $69 million. The committees spent $34 million on advertising and the rest on various expenses including payroll, travel, food, and equipment… |
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ELECTIONS CHIEF: OBAMA ‘FIBBING’ ABOUT KENYA BIRTH
The chief elections officer in the state of Arizona, who ignited a firestorm of outraged Democrat reaction when he answered a hypothetical question regarding Barack Obama and the 2012 presidential election ballot, has told a meeting of Republicans that he believes Obama might have lied about his birth being in Kenya in order to gain status in the American college system… |
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1) Will Obamacare Guidelines Create Bad Incentives?
A survey of more than 24,000 physicians conducted online by Medscape last February found that twice as many doctors believe that new federal medical practice guidelines will harm patients than believe the guidelines will benefit patients. Those guidelines, part of the federal healthcare overhaul, were inspired by the valid observation that a lot of medical care is haphazard and mediocre, but they are the wrong solution and may create more harm than good, according to Independent Institute Research Fellow John C. Goodman, author of Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis.
“Medical practice guidelines that serve as a handy checklist can be an aid to good medical care,” Goodman writes in his latest op-ed. “As I explain inPriceless, however, the danger is that high-quality medicine will take a back seat to ‘cookbook medicine,’ That’s what happens when the checklist substitutes for the doctor’s best judgment.”
Goodman suggests that there is little evidence that paying doctors and hospitals for performance improves health outcomes. One study he cites—conducted by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—found that hospitals that operated under “pay-for-performance” guidelines initially achieved higher performance scores than hospitals in the control group, but the superiority in health outcomes vanished after 5 years. Goodman worries that the federal guidelines, along with the quiet shifting of Medicare patients into Accountable Care Organizations, will create perverse incentives to withhold care from patients. Even though “the latest pilot programs show that paying doctors and hospitals for performance doesn’t improve quality,” he writes, “we are about to usher in the era of big brother medical care.”
The HMO in Your Future, by John C. Goodman (Townhall, 6/23/12)
Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, by John C. Goodman
John C. Goodman on Fox & Friends Fri. June 22:
2) What the U.S. and Brazil Can Learn from Mexico’s Economy
With 34,000 Mexicans killed in drug-war violence since President Felipe Calderón took office in 2006, it’s not surprising that the U.S. media has underreported the good news about Mexico’s economy. That neglect is unfortunate. Mexico’s success story offers lessons for other Latin American countries but also for its neighbor north of the Rio Grande. READ MORE
The US Should Take Lessons from Mexico, by Ivan Eland (6/25/12)
Brazilian Economy Threatened by Bloated Government, by Alvaro Vargas Llosa (Investor’s Business Daily, 4/10/12)
Lessons from the Poor: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit, edited by Alvaro Vargas Llosa
3) The Independent Review: Summer Issue Now Available
The Summer 2012 issue of The Independent Review is hot off the press! This exciting issue addresses a wide range of topics in political economy and related subjects, including the following questions:
- Why is it helpful to view the long-standing conflict between economics and environmentalism as a clash rooted in different religious assumptions? Read the article.
- How is the welfare state shaping Latin American populism?
- Which institutions have succeeded most in helping state governments control their spending? Read the article.
- What are the two greatest misconceptions about rights?
- Why have federal efforts to foster economic development on American Indian reservations failed?
- Which dubious assumptions undergird criticisms of the mail-ordered bride industry?
- What are the cultural origins of Greece’s current fiscal tragedy?
- Why are many academics complaining about Europe’s heavy-handed university administrators? Read the article.
- Why do historians typically overrate the virtues of Woodrow Wilson, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman? Read the review essay.
- How could Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker have improved his treatise about the worldwide decline in violence?
- Why have so many Western intellectuals over the past 150 years expressed contempt for capitalism and capitalists? Read the book review.
The Independent Review (Summer 2012)
Subscribe now. First-timers, subscribe now and receive two extra issues free!
4) Think Tanks’ Deceptive Defense Cuts Are Better than Nothing
There’s good news and bad news for advocates of fiscal sanity in defense spending. Two prestigious think tanks in Washington, DC, have issued reports that may foreshadow improvements in how the political establishment will discuss defense budget cuts. The Center for a New American Security proposes additional cuts of $500 billion to $550 billion over ten years, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies calls for a one-third reduction in the Pentagon budget. Unfortunately, although the proposals will make it easier to talk about cuts beyond those approved by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his boss in the Oval Office, they are much less significant than they appear, according to Independent Institute Research Fellow Winslow T. Wheeler. READ MORE
Think-Tanked: Old Wine in Dark Bottles, by Winslow T. Wheeler (Time Magazine Battleland Blog, 6/13/12)
5) New Blog Posts
From The Beacon:
Mary Theroux (6/25/12)
How States Can Control Their Spending
Carl Close (6/22/12)
Anna Jacobson Schwartz (November 11, 1915-June 21, 2012)
Robert Higgs (6/21/12)
Nothing Outside the State: Non-Profit Edition
Mary Theroux (6/20/12)
My Money’s on Obama Because…
Randall Holcombe (6/20/12)
From MyGovCost News & Blog:
Craig Eyermann (6/23/12)
