Mood:  chatty

Why the Left Fears Free Speech on Campus

By David French -- NY Daily News.com

In an incident that is rapidly becoming famous even among people who don't follow the campus culture wars, leftist activists stormed the stage at Columbia University this month and triggered a wild melee during a speech by Jim Gilchrist, the controversial founder of the Minuteman Project.

The incident was shocking enough, but it cannot be viewed in isolation. The mob at Morningside Heights is just another piece of gathering evidence that the '60s are returning to campus.

It's a dangerous turn to an era not of "peace and love," but a step closer to the violence and threats that dominated campuses throughout much of the Vietnam War.

Consider this: In the spring, anti-war protesters blocked access to a job fair at the University of California-Santa Cruz and caused Army and National Guard recruiters to be escorted off campus by university police. According to one recruiter, "the situation had degraded" to such an extent that the recruiters feared for the safety of students and law enforcement officers.

Prominent conservatives like David Horowitz, Ann Coulter, Bill Kristol and Pat Buchanan have been attacked with pies and salad dressing during on-campus speeches. At UC-San Francisco, a crowd of students blocked access to and scuffled with College Republicans whose crime was merely handing out flyers to students. At Washington State, protesters disrupted, shouted down and threatened actors in a satirical play.

After a period of relative calm in the 1990s, one must ask why we have seen a rise in violent acts of censorship and intimidation by the campus left.

The war in Iraq is to blame for some of the violence, but the violence and threats encompass broader topics and represent an expression of rage and impotence - not the '60s expression of rage and power.

The protesters hide behind tactics of the '60s to lash out helplessly at a culture that seems (to them) to be inexorably moving right. With every branch of government in conservative hands, with the rise of conservative media and with the increasing influence of religious conservatives, the radical left feels under siege. To make matters worse, the conservative movement is now taking aim at the left's last cultural bastion - the nation's colleges and universities - in an effort to reopen the marketplace of ideas on campus.

In the '60s, the excesses of campus radicals eventually led to a cultural backlash that ushered in the Reagan era. These same excesses committed in an era of blogs, YouTube downloads and talk radio lead to a much more immediate response. So, rather than reveling in last week's momentary triumph, Columbia's leftist radicals find themselves on the defensive, blaming others for the violence and begging the administration not to search the Internet for clues about the protesters' identities.

In the battle for the hearts and minds of the public, they have already lost.

French is the director of the Alliance Defense Fund's Center for Academic Freedom.
Front Page Magazine ~ David French ** Why the Left Fears Free Speech on Campus

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 6:08 PM EDT

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Mood:  d'oh

Labor Leader Arrested for Racketeering

NEW YORK -- The president of the nation's largest municipal labor council was arrested on federal racketeering charges Tuesday, accused of stealing more than $2 million from the state, labor unions and even a Little League fund.

Brian M. McLaughlin, a seven-term Democratic state assemblyman and president of the New York City Central Labor Council, has been under investigation for several years.

He surrendered Tuesday morning and was released on $250,000 bail after a brief appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. Francis. McLaughlin and his lawyer, Jonathan Bach, declined to comment as they left U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

"Everyone should keep in mind that Brian McLaughlin has not been convicted of a crime and will be afforded the opportunity to respond to and defend himself against these allegations," said the labor council's executive board chairman, Denis M. Hughes.

The labor council is an umbrella group of unions that has supported Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In a 186-page indictment unsealed Tuesday, McLaughlin and others are accused of engaging in racketeering from 1995 through 2006 by using money collected for union activities to instead pay personal expenses, including credit card bills, rent and home improvements.

The indictment alleges McLaughlin committed mail fraud, embezzlement, money laundering and labor bribery by diverting money from various funds he controlled.

Among the funds identified were McLaughlin's political campaign committee, union accounts meant to provide benefits for union members and even contributions meant to support a Little League baseball program.

The indictment also alleges McLaughlin and others misappropriated funds from the state by creating fictitious jobs on his legislative staff and submitting false expense forms.

Among the expenses named in the indictment were more than $4,100 to maintain a boat in Tuckerton, N.J., and $4,200 for Long Island country club membership dues.

The indictment accuses McLaughlin of combining with others, not named in the indictment, to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in unlawful payments and things of value from street lighting contractors and other companies in the street lighting and traffic signal industry.

It also focuses at one point on a housing development created in 1950 by union leaders and electrical industry management that resulted in more than 30 large apartment buildings. As part of the development, residents created the Electchester Athletic Association Inc. to run a youth sports programs.

The indictment alleges McLaughlin used his position as state assemblyman to direct state money to that athletic association, then defrauded the association of more than $95,000.

Meanwhile, the indictment noted, McLaughlin continued soliciting donations to the athletic fund with sponsorship forms thanking the contributor and concluding with the message: "A CHILD IN SPORTS STAYS OUT OF THE COURTS!"

AP Writers Larry Neumeister in New York and Michael Gormley in Albany contributed to this
report. Tampa Tribune / Tampa Bay Online ~ Associated Press - Pat Milton **
Labor Leader Arrested for Racketeering

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 6:11 AM EDT

Updated: Wednesday, 18 October 2006 6:24 PM EDT

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Mood:  suave

Her Cross to Bear

She wore a gold one July 20, for a speech criticizing advertising directed at children. No picture available.) And she wore the diamond-studded one pictured above to the News last week. A Google Images search doesn't seem to turn up any others, though whenever you think you've noticed something new about Clinton, her aides usually produce rock-solid evidence that it has always been thus.

Clinton's Christianity, while never exactly lapsed, has rarely been forefront; noticing the jewelry doesn't strike me as (quite as) frivolous as reporting on her hairstyle. (He said defensively.)

Is it, perhaps, a sign that her faith may be a bit more in the foreground as 2008 approaches?

*Commenters have politely alerted me that a crucifix is a cross with a representation of that guy -- what's his name again? -- attached.

UPDATE: She's also wearing a cross in this lovely 2001 shot.

NY Daily News ~ The Big Blogs - Ben Smith ** Her Cross to Bear

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 3:15 PM EDT

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Mood:  spacey

Amazing Mars picture show planet's 'dramatic climate changes'

This is the amazing picture that shows the effects on Mars of 'dynamic climate changes'.

The image, taken during a test of the NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's instruments, is the clearest yet of the Red Planet and shows clay-rich areas that could have supported life.

See more pictures here
The Mail's Michael Hanlon shares his passion for the Red Planet

Scientists were also able to see frost, and layered deposits of ice and dirt at the polar ice cap which indicate "dynamic climate changes" as recently as 100,000 years ago, scientist Scott Murchie said.

This latest Mars mission will also determine whether there is enough water on the planet to support a manned mission.

Reader comments
UK Daily Mail ** Amazing Mars picture show planet's 'dramatic climate changes'

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 2:51 PM EDT

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Mood:  d'oh

Ned Lamont Running Low on Campaign Cash

Democrat Ned Lamont has just $329,560 cash on hand for the final weeks of the campaign, far less than rival Sen. Joe Lieberman whose account totals $4.7 million.

In reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on Sunday, the Lamont campaign said the multimillionaire businessman provided most of the money raised in the July 20 to Sept. 30 reporting period.

Lamont contributed $3,751,378 in the reporting period. Contributions from individuals totaled $1,091,766.

Last Friday, Lieberman's campaign reported it had about $4.7 million on hand heading into the last month of the campaign.

Lieberman's report showed he raised $6.1 million and spent $4.9 million between July 20 and Sept. 30.

Lieberman is running as an independent after losing the August Democratic primary. His campaign did not release a detailed breakdown of the donations, but he received nearly $5.5 million from individual donors and just over $632,000 from political action committees, according to the report.

The Lamont campaign said the candidate has contributed $6,252,878 himself to date. His campaign also said Lamont has received $2,758,174 from some 30,000 individuals through Sept. 30.

News Max.com ~ Associated Press ** Ned Lamont Running Low on Campaign Cash

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 2:11 AM EDT

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Mood:  d'oh

Public Health Insurance in Canada Financially Unsustainable According to Annual Study

Contact(s): Brett J. Skinner, Director, Health and Pharmaceutical Policy Research and Insurance Policy
The Fraser Institute, Tel (416) 363-6575 ext. 224 --- Email: bretts@fraserinstitute.ca
Click here for the complete publication.

Toronto, ON -- Provincial government spending on health care will consume more than half of total revenue from all sources by the year 2020 and all revenue by 2050 in six out of 10 provinces if current trends continue, according to a study released today by The Fraser Institute.

“The way public health insurance is currently structured in Canada is not financially sustainable,” said Brett Skinner, the Institute’s Director of Health, Pharmaceutical and Insurance Policy Research and author of the study.

“Provincial health spending has grown faster than revenue for a long time. We are nearing the limits of our capacity to pay for necessary medical care through public funds alone.”

Paying More, Getting Less 2006: Measuring the Sustainability of Public Health Insurance in Canada, is The Fraser Institute’s third annual report on the financial sustainability of provincial public health insurance. The study uses Statistics Canada data from the past five years to project growth trends in government spending on health care versus total revenue.

According to this year’s report, Manitoba and Saskatchewan are the most urgent cases with public spending on health care projected to consume half of all revenues as early as 2016. Those provinces are nearly matched by Alberta, projected to reach 50 per cent of all revenues by 2017, a fall from the projected date of 2035 in last year’s report. British Columbia and Prince Edward Island are next, both having 50 per cent warning dates falling in 2019. Ontario will reach the 50 per cent level of total revenues in 2020, nine years later than calculated in the 2005 study.

Public health expenditures are projected to reach 50 per cent of total revenues by 2024 in Nova Scotia, by 2029 in New Brunswick, and by 2030 in Newfoundland. Consistent with its 2005 ranking, Quebec remains the single best case with public health spending on pace to reach 50 per cent of revenue by 2056. This date is five years earlier than last year’s projection of 2061.

Skinner said the relatively “better” performance of provinces like Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Quebec is achieved at the expense of wealthier provinces because federal transfers take money from Alberta and Ontario to boost the revenue base of all other provinces.

“This makes the poor performance of Manitoba and Prince Edward Island even more alarming since they are among the biggest recipients of federal transfers.”

Skinner also notes governments have tried to maintain the financial viability of provincial public health insurance monopolies by restricting access to publicly insured goods and services. This has produced unacceptably long waits for medical services; reduced access to health professionals and high tech equipment; fewer hospitals; physical deterioration of existing facilities; withdrawal of public insurance coverage for previously insured medical goods and services; and the delay or outright refusal to provide public insurance coverage for new treatments and technologies available in other countries.

As an alternative, Skinner suggests that governments could slow the growth in public health expenditures while increasing the availability and accessibility of medical care if they introduce policies being used in other countries:

Require patients to make co-payments for publicly insured health services;

Acknowledge the individual right of patients to pay privately (via private insurance or out of pocket) for all types of medical services, including hospitals and physician services;

Allow providers to charge extra fees directly to patients above the public health insurance reimbursement level and receive reimbursement for their services from any insurer, whether public or private;

Permit both for-profit and non-profit health providers to compete for the delivery of publicly insured health services.

“As long as Canadians refuse to embrace these proven policy solutions, they can expect to continue paying more and getting less when it comes to health care,” Skinner said. “As health care spending swallows a larger and larger share of revenues every year, provincial governments will be forced to spend less on other public priorities or impose economically harmful tax increases and further limit access to necessary medical treatment.”

Established in 1974, The Fraser Institute is an independent public policy organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto.
The Fraser Institute ~ Brett J. Skinner ** Public Health Insurance in Canada Financially Unsustainable According to Annual Study

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 2:05 AM EDT

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Mood:  spacey

The real menace to American kids

We demonize Mark Foley but ignore the industries medicating children and making them fat, and even open our schools to people trying to kill them -- military recruiters.

By Bill Maher

If you think the worst thing Congress doesn't protect young people from is Mark Foley, wake up and smell the burning planet. The ice caps are cracking, the coral reefs are bleaching, and we're losing two species an hour. The birds have bird flu, the cows have mad cow, and our poisoned groundwater has turned spinach into a side dish of mass destruction. Our schools are shooting galleries, our beaches are cancer wards, and under George W. Bush -- for the first time in 45 years -- our country's infant mortality rate actually went up.

Read the labels on your food. It turns out the healthiest thing you can put in your body is Mark Foley's penis. He was probably the first fruit those pages ever came into contact with that wasn't drenched in pesticide.

Salon.com ~ Bill Maher ** The real menace to American kids

No need to comment, this rampant libtardation speaks for itself in it's idiocy.

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 12:01 AM EDT

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Mood:  chatty

NAACP to Monitor Elections in 10 States

The NAACP said Monday that it will monitor voting in 10 states next month, sending observers to polling places, taking citizen complaints and notifying the Justice Department of any serious problems.

The states were chosen based on those with pivotal elections, states with concentrations of black voters, and those with a history of polling problems, according to the Baltimore-based civil rights organization.

President Bruce Gordon urged voters to persist in trying to cast ballots.

"While the NAACP will take steps to counter obstacles to voter participation, we are encouraging our communities to cast their votes, even if it requires extra effort," he said in a statement released before a news conference at the group's headquarters.

"Civil rights activists went to extraordinary lengths to earn the right for black Americans to vote. Some lost their lives. We owe it to them and ourselves to honor their sacrifice by voting, no matter what challenges we face."

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People plans to have hundreds of volunteers monitoring elections in Maryland, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

On the Net: NAACP
San Francisco Chronicle ~ AP - Alex Dominguez ** NAACP to Monitor Elections in 10 States

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 9:28 PM EDT

Updated: Monday, 16 October 2006 9:36 PM EDT

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Mood:  spacey

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has been using campaign donations instead of his personal money to pay Christmas bonuses for the support staff at the Ritz-Carlton where he lives in an upscale condominium. Federal election law bars candidates from converting political donations for personal use.

Questioned about the campaign expenditures by The Associated Press, Reid's office said Monday he was personally reimbursing his campaign for $3,300 in donations he had directed to the staff holiday fund at his residence.

Reid also announced he was amending his ethics reports to Congress to more fully account for a Las Vegas land deal, highlighted in an AP story last week, that allowed him to collect $1.1 million in 2004 for property he hadn't personally owned in three years.

In that matter, the senator hadn't disclosed to Congress that he first sold land to a friend's limited liability company back in 2001 and took an ownership stake in the company. He collected the seven-figure payout when the company sold the land again in 2004 to others.

Reid portrayed the 2004 sale as a personal sale of land, making no mention of the company's ownership or its role in the sale.

Reid said his amended ethics reports would list the 2001 sale and the company, called Patrick Lane LLC. He said the amended reports would also divulge two other smaller land deals he had failed to report to Congress.

"I directed my staff to file amended financial disclosure forms noting that in 2001, I transferred title to the land to a Limited Liability Corporation," Reid said in a statement issued by his office.

He said he believed the 2001 sale did not alter his ownership of the land but that he agreed to file the amended reports because "I believe in ensuring all facts come to light."

Reid labeled the AP story as the "latest attempt" by Republicans to affect the election. AP reported last week that it learned of the land deal from a former Reid adviser who had concerns about the way the deal was reported to Congress.

On the Ritz-Carlton holiday donations, Reid gave $600 in 2002, then $1,200 in 2004 and $1,500 in 2005 from his re-election campaign to an entity listed as the REC Employee Holiday Fund. His campaign listed the expenses as campaign "salary" for two of the years and as a "contribution" one year.

Reid's office said the listing as salary was a "clerical error."

Residents and workers at the Ritz said the fund's full name is the Residents Executive Committee Holiday Fund and that it collects money each year from the condominium residents to help provide Christmas gifts, bonuses and a party for the support staff.

Federal election law permits campaigns to provide "gifts of nominal value" but prohibits candidates from using political donations for personal expenses, such as mortgage, rent or utilities for "any part of any personal residence."

The law specifically defines prohibited personal use expenses as any "obligation or expense of any person that would exist irrespective of the candidate's campaign or duties as a federal officeholder."

Land deeds show Reid and his wife, Landra, purchased a condominium for their Washington residence at the hotel for $750,000 in March 2001. The holiday fund has existed for years the at the condo, workers said.

Reid said Monday he believed the expenses were permissible but he nonetheless was reimbursing the campaign.

"These donations were made to thank the men and women who work in the building for the extra work they do as a result of my political activities, and for helping the security officers assigned to me because of my Senate position," Reid said.

Larry Noble, the Federal Election Commission's former chief enforcement lawyer, said Reid's explanation is aimed at a "gray area" in the law by suggesting the donations were tied to his official Senate and political work.

"What makes this harder for the senator is that this is his personal residence and this looks like an event that everybody else at the residence is taking out of their personal money as they're living there," Noble said.

On the land dealings, Reid announced Monday he had failed to disclose two other transactions on his prior ethics reports and would account for those on his amended reports along with the 2001 sale.

The first, he said, involved the sale in 2004 of about one-third acre of land in 2004 he owned in his hometown of Searchlight, Nev. And, he said he had not reported his ownership since 1985 of a quarter acre of land his brother gave him in 1985.

Reid said the failure to disclose those transactions previously was due to "clerical errors" and they amounted to "two minor matters that were inadvertently left off my original disclosure forms."

He had asked the Senate Ethics Committee last Wednesday for an opinion on the 2001 land sale but decided to amend his forms prior to the committee acting.

Reid's announcement came after numerous newspapers nationwide published editorials criticizing both his initial failure to disclose the full details of his Las Vegas land deal and his response to AP's story.

The $1.1 million land deal was engineered by Jay Brown, a longtime friend and former casino lawyer whose name surfaced in a major political bribery trial this summer and in other prior organized crime investigations. Brown has never been charged with wrongdoing, except for a 1981 federal securities complaint that was settled out of court.

Ethics experts told AP that Reid's inaccurate accounting of the deal to Congress appeared to violate Senate ethics rules and raised other issues concerning taxes and potential gifts.

Breitbart.com ~ Associated Press - John Solomon ** Reid to Reimburse Campaign for Donations

Related: This Blog *** Harry Reid reaped $1.1 million from sale of land he didn't own
Breitbart.com ~ Associated Press - John Solomon ** Senate Dem Leader Decides to Amend Ethics Reports
Breitbart.com ~ US Newswire ** Reid Statement

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 8:46 PM EDT

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Mood:  silly

One phrase stands out in Democratic speeches this campaign season.

Ned Lamont uses it in his Connecticut Senate race. President Clinton is scheduled to speak on the idea in Washington this week. Bob Casey Jr., Pennsylvania candidate for Senate, put it in the title of his talk at The Catholic University of America -- then repeated the phrase 29 times.

The term is "common good," and it's catching on as a way to describe liberal values and reach religious voters who rejected Democrats in the 2004 election. Led by the Center for American Progress, a Washington think-tank, party activists hope the phrase will do for them what "compassionate conservative" did for the Republicans.

"It's a core value that we think organizes the entire political agenda for progressives," said John Halpin, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. "With the rise of materialism, greed and corruption in American society, people want a return to a better sense of community -- sort of a shared sacrifice, a return to the ethic of service and duty."

Republicans have used the phrase, too. GOP Sen. Rick Santorum, who faces Casey, a fellow Catholic, in November, wrote a book last year titled, "It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good." But liberals say that Republican policies promote a "radical individualism" -- advocating individual retirement accounts above Social Security, health savings accounts over affordable insurance, and tax cuts that Democrats say benefit only the rich.

"We really feel that it speaks to the central moral challenge of our time," said Alexia Kelly, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, an advocacy group that formed two years ago.

"Our religious traditions call us to that deeper vision of caring for all, being in it together, not a go-it-alone culture," said Kelly, who has worked for the U.S. bishops and served briefly as a religious adviser to 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. "I think it's important that it crosses faith traditions."

Tom Perriello, a co-founder of the Catholic Alliance, said the approach would help end what he sees as a self-defeating practice among liberals -- treating religious Americans as a constituency that needs special handling, instead of crafting a message meaningful to all voters.

But he acknowledged that the strength of the "common good" as a unifying theme also is a weakness. The term is so broad it's hard to define and can be misinterpreted as a call for "big government," Perriello said. "The question right now is who is going to define it."

Advocates say they don't want to tie the phrase to a laundry list of narrow policies, but intend to convey a broad philosophy of governing with a positive appeal.

It won't be easy. Under Roman Catholic teaching, promoting the "common good" would include opposing abortion -- a position both Santorum and Casey embrace -- and opposing gay marriage to protect human dignity and the family. "Common good" Democrats are generally changing how they talk about abortion, calling it a tragedy to avoid -- rather than a private issue. But most have not come out against the procedure.

"I would argue that the conservative evangelical and traditional Catholic stands on same-sex marriage and abortion are stances in favor of the common good," said Richard Land, head of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention and a supporter of President Bush.

"We believe that traditional marriage is the basic building block of society."

The "common good" theme came up in meetings among Democrats and faith groups after the 2004 election, when the party felt blind-sided by the values vote and was frantic to solve its religion problem. Exit polls showed 78 percent of white evangelicals voted for President Bush. Bush, a Methodist, also won the Catholic vote 52 percent to 47 percent over Kerry, who is Catholic.

Around the same time, The American Prospect, a liberal policy magazine, ran articles by its editor Michael Tomasky, and by Halpin and analyst Ruy Texeira, urging the Democrats to develop a clear vision of the "common good" so Americans know what Democrats stand for.

Tomasky drew on political philosophers, and Presidents James Madison and Franklin D. Roosevelt, among others. But the term also conveniently tapped into a guiding concept in Catholic and some Protestant traditions. It can be found in many papal encyclicals -- a pontiff's most authoritative declaration -- most recently in Deus Caritas Est, the first encyclical from Pope Benedict XVI, who wrote "the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply."

The twin sources of the idea can be seen in who's adopting it.

From the political left, the Campaign for America's Future, which has worked with MoveOn.org and the AFL-CIO, released an "Agenda for the Common Good" in June.

Mara Vanderslice, a religious outreach director for Kerry's presidential campaign, formed a political consulting firm last year called Common Good Strategies to "help Democrats reframe the national religious debate." The Casey campaign in Pennsylvania is a Vanderslice client.

On the Net: Center for American Progress --- Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good

Breitbart.com ~ Associated Press - Rachel Zoll ** 'Common Good' a New Theme for Democrats

Posted by yaahoo_06iest at 7:35 PM EDT

Updated: Monday, 16 October 2006 7:44 PM EDT

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