Archive for July, 2009

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Prof. Gates’ Unconstitutional Arrest

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

“The now-infamous Gates story has gone through the familiar media spin-cycle: incident, reaction, response, so on and so forth. Drowned out of this echo chamber has been an all-too-important (and legally controlling) aspect: the imbroglio between Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley has more to do with the limits (or breadth) of the First Amendment than with race and social class. ”

“The issue is not how nasty the discourse between the two might have been, but whether what Professor Gates said–assuming, for argument’s sake, the officer’s version of events as fact–could by any stretch of both law and imagination constitute a ground for arrest for “disorderly conduct” (the charge leveled) or any other crime.”

Harvey Silverglate explains Freedom of Speech @ http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/28/gates-crowley-arrest-first-amendment-free-speech-harvard-opinions-contributors-harvey-a-silverglate.html?partner=email

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The Myth of Free-Market Health Care in America

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

“…before ObamaCare can be beaten back decisively, its critics need to answer this question: How did his plan for a government takeover of roughly a fifth of the U.S. economy get this far in the first place?”

“The answer is not that Democrats have a lock on Washington right now—although they do. Nor that Republicans are intellectually bereft—although they are. The answer is that both ObamaCare’s supporters and opponents believe that—unlike Europe—America has something called a free market health care system. So long as this myth holds sway, it will be exceedingly difficult to prescribe free market fixes to America’s health care woes—or, conversely, end the lure of big government remedies.”

Full commentary by Shikha Dalmia @ http://www.reason.com/news/show/135127.html

Posted in Health Care & Medicine | No Comments »

Martial Law and the War on Terrorism

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
 ”The New York Times reported last week that the Bush administration considered sending in the U.S. military to arrest the so-called Lackawanna Six in 2002. Ironically, one of the worst prosecutorial overreaches by the Justice Department in the war on terror almost resulted in a temporary period of martial law.”
“The Lackawanna Six was a group of half-a-dozen Yemeni-Americans from a Buffalo suburb who traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the spring and summer of 2001 and attended an al-Qaeda training camp. Some members of the group asserted that they fled the camp after they heard appeals for violence against America.”

Full column by James Bovard @ http://www.fff.org/comment/com0907j.asp

 

 

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Doctors demand Obama apology

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

Dr. Richard S. Kerr, M.D., a West Virginia Libertarian Party member and a retired doctor with 36 years experience, asked President Barack Obama Thursday to apologize for comments made in his Wednesday night press conference accusing doctors of conspiring to make children sicker for profits.

“President Obama should be ashamed of himself for trying to scare Americans into supporting his government takeover of medicine by falsely accusing doctors of making children sicker.  I have never heard a more disgusting or blatantly phony conspiracy theory.  We treat our patients with the respect, care and concern you will never find in Obama’s government-run rationed care bureaucracy,” said Dr. Kerr.

“On behalf of my colleagues, I respectfully ask President Obama to apologize for such a slanderous lie and ask him to stop engaging in sickening conspiracy theories to push his government-run scheme….”

Full release from The Libertarian Party @ http://www.lp.org/news/press-releases/doctors-demand-obama-apology

Posted in Health Care & Medicine | No Comments »

Media Raising Concerns Over Goldman Sachs’ Gov’t Influence

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

“Even the mass media is starting to take notice of the longtime cozy relationship that both the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Bank have with Goldman Sachs, a major Wall Street bank holding company and Democratic Party donor.”

“The most notable example of this mainstream attention to Goldman Sachs is a must-read exposé in this month’s Rolling Stone magazine by reporter Matt Taibbi.”

“Taibbi describes in “The Great American Bubble Machine” how Goldman Sachs serves as a “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money,” which has been at the center of many government-created bubbles (and bailouts) that are the antithesis of free enterprise. The latest bubble/scam Goldman Sachs is working on, Taibbi stresses, is the “carbon credit” commodity that is working its way through Congress through the slogan “cap-and-trade.”  ”

Full column by Thomas R. Eddlem @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/economy/sectors-mainmenu-46/1482

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No need for ‘Iraq war rush’ to government-run medicine

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

America’s third largest party Tuesday urged Congress to take its time deliberating the proposed government takeover of the nation’s health care system amid pressure from the White House to quickly adopt the troubled proposal quickly and with minimal debate.  Libertarians oppose the plan, which deepens the federal budget deficit and leads to the rationing of basic health care.

“As confidence in President Obama’s plans for a federal government takeover of medicine plunges, the White House is pressuring legislators to rush to judgment while the plan can still be salvaged,” said William Redpath, Libertarian National Committee Chairman.  “We urge Congress to deliberate this massive government takeover carefully, take their time to allow Americans to read the full bill and then vote down this legislative disaster.”

Full release by The Libertarian Party @ http://www.lp.org/news/press-releases/libertarians-no-need-for-%E2%80%98iraq-war-rush%E2%80%99-to-government-run-medicine

Posted in Health Care & Medicine | No Comments »

If the policy elite really wanted to cut costs, they would deregulate medicine.

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

“The statist establishment would love a single-payer health-care system like Canada’s if it were politically achievable. Barack Obama said that if we were starting from scratch, single payer is what he’d back. But, thankfully, Americans are still libertarian enough to cringe at turning the medical system entirely over to government.”

“So with single payer out of reach, the fans of government control have grabbed for second best: the “public option.” This would be government-run health insurance that would “compete” with private insurance…”

Full column by John Stossel @ http://www.reason.com/news/show/134829.html

Posted in Health Care & Medicine | No Comments »

Fed Backers Scared by Ron Paul’s Audit Bill

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

“Congressman Ron Paul’s H.R. 1207, calling for an audit of the Federal Reserve, has attracted 270 cosponsors in less than five months. The Republican congressman’s bill has received strong bipartican support, and approximately 100 of the bill’s cosponsors are Democrats. Support for H.R. 1207 has frightened some of the Fed’s champions in the academic world, Fed officials themselves, and, of course, many of the Fed’s friends in the financial world.”

“There are obviously some who don’t want the American people to know what the Fed has been doing ever since it was launched in 1913.”

Full article by John F. McManus @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/economy/commentary-mainmenu-43/1433

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Where the New Deal Went Badly Wrong

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

The current economic downturn has spurred calls for another New Deal – government action to stimulate new business activity and expand regulation of the business activity that does occur.

The Milken Institute has release a report showing that FDR’s New Deal actually prevented a normal economic recovery. The report (pdf) is @ http://www.milkeninstitute.org/publications/mirsp/16-25mr43.pdf

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The Public Trough

Monday, July 13th, 2009
 “Last year, over 15,000 individuals worked for organizations whose sole goal was to rip you off. No, not the mafia or Goldman Sachs, but another distinctly criminal class—Washington lobbyists. In 2008, corporations and unions spent over $3 billion to bribe officials who claim to work for you.”

“Because the federal government has so much power and money, it makes sense that private companies want to influence public policy: make friends with the bully and try to snag some stolen lunch money…”

Full  column by Dr. Rand Paul @ http://amconmag.com/article/2009/aug/01/00035/

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