News

June 21 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Gross, manager of the world's biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said the U.S. government must do more to support employment growth.

"What we've been able to apply in the last 20 years is a financial based employment structure where the magic of finance and asset appreciation" generated jobs, Gross said in a radio interview on "Bloomberg Surveillance" with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt. "That model no longer applies. We need to go back to the manufacturing roots of this country as opposed to the financial roots."

The U.S. economy lost more than 8.7 million jobs since January 2008. The jobless rate hit a 26-year high of 10.1 percent in October 2009 and was 9.1 percent last month.

"It's fiction to assume those people can all move to Silicon Valley and create the next Facebook," Gross said in the interview. "We need to put them to work doing something and producing a product that the rest of the world wants."

Nonfarm payrolls grew in May by 54,000, the smallest increase in eight months, after a gain of 232,000 in the previous month, the Labor Department reported June 3. The median forecast of 89 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for an increase of 165,000.

"We should not rely solely on job or corporate-direct payroll tax credits because corporations may not take enough of that bait," Gross wrote in a monthly investment outlook published today on Pimco's website. "Government must step up to the plate, as it should have in early 2009."

Job Creation

Unemployment has been one of the main challenges facing the U.S. economy since the global financial crisis began. It is also expected to be one of the main topics of the next presidential election, he said.

"Neither party has an awareness of the why or the wherefores of how to put America back to work again," Gross, 67, wrote in his commentary. "It is becoming obvious that the 2012 election will be fought on a battlefield of job creation."

The U.S. "labor force is too expensive and poorly educated for today's marketplace," Gross wrote. "If we are to compete globally while maintaining a higher wage base, we must train for 'middle' in addition to 'high tech.' Philosophy, sociology and liberal arts agendas will no longer suffice. Skill-based education is a must, as is science and math."

Under its "new normal" philosophy, Newport Beach, California-based Pimco expects a shrinking global role for the U.S. economy following the 2008 financial crisis.

Manufacturing Erosion

"The past several decades have witnessed an erosion of our manufacturing base in exchange for reliance on wealth creation via financial assets," Gross wrote. "Now as that road approaches a dead-end cul-de-sac via interest rates that can go no lower, we are left untrained, underinvested and over-indebted relative to our global competitors."

The Federal Reserve has left its target rate for overnight loans between banks at zero to 0.25 percent since December 2008.

"The private sector is the source of long-term job creation, but in the short-term, no rational observer can believe that global or even small businesses will invest here when the labor over 'there' is so much cheaper," Gross wrote. "That is why trillions of dollars of corporate cash rest impotently on balance sheets awaiting global-non-U.S.-investment opportunities."

Pimco's $243 billion Total Return Fund handed investors a return of 6.99 percent in the past year, beating about 74 percent of its peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The unit of Munich-based insurer Allianz SE, managed $1.3 trillion of assets as of March 31.

To contact the reporter on this story: Susanne Walker in New York at swalker33@bloomberg.net Tom Keene in New York at tkeene@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

===
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Trichet Seen Burying Ailing Nations With Interest-Rate Rise

2011-04-04T15:29:00.001-04:00

Hmmm, so a "one size fits all" Government doesn't work. Funny, who could have seen that coming? .....

April 4 (Bloomberg) -- Jean-Claude Trichet's shot against inflation may end up inflicting collateral damage on Europe's most cash-strapped economies.

Primed to raise its benchmark interest rate this week for the first time in almost three years, President Trichet's European Central Bank again faces the conundrum that its monetary policy rarely suits all 17 members of the euro area, where the kaleidoscope of growth ranges from record expansion to recession paired with a sovereign-debt crisis.

The upshot may be that the normalization of rates from a record low of 1 percent will disproportionately hurt Spain, Greece, Portugal and Ireland, while failing to nip inflation threats in Germany. Such uneven fallout risks exacerbating the two-speed European recovery and dealing further damage to the bonds of so-called peripheral nations. Credit Suisse Group AG is warning investors away from the region's stocks and banks partly because of concern the ECB is making a policy mistake.

"As the ECB continues to tighten, it increases the risk that the sovereign-debt crisis comes back," said Gavyn Davies, chairman of London-based hedge fund Fulcrum Asset Management LLP, which oversees about $1.5 billion in assets. "It will manifest itself with the troubled economies moving into slower growth rates, and the fiscal arithmetic will worsen again."

Trichet and his 22 fellow policy makers convene in Frankfurt April 7, a month since he surprised investors by signaling an increase in the ECB's key rate by a quarter of a percentage point as inflation accelerated to 2.6 percent in March, the fastest in more than two years. The yield on German 10-year government bonds, the European benchmark, rose for an eighth day, approaching the highest level in almost 15 months.

Primary Goal

In enacting the first rise since July 2008, policy makers would be focusing on their primary goal of price stability rather than secondary mandates to support growth. They'd also be taking the lead over the Federal Reserve in starting to withdraw emergency lending rates.

Belgian Guy Quaden, who retired March 31 as one of the longest-serving ECB council members, said "a cautious increase" won't hurt the region's economic recovery because "both growth and inflation have become again significantly positive."

Even so, the weakness of the periphery and its banks mean "the ECB simply cannot raise rates too aggressively without breaking up the euro zone," said Simon Maughan, co-head of European equities at MF Global Ltd. in London. A Bloomberg News survey predicts the central bank will lift its main rate to 1.75 percent by year-end, based on the median estimate of 31 economists.

Record Debt Burdens

Economies from Ireland to Spain are buckling under record debt burdens and the bursting of property bubbles, even as Germany expanded 3.6 percent last year, the strongest pace in two decades. In forecasting euro-zone growth of 1.6 percent this year, the European Commission predicts expansion of 2.4 percent in Germany, three times the anticipated rate for Spain, where unemployment is above 20 percent, the highest in the region.

The situation is a "precise reverse" of the period before December 2005, when the ECB last began raising rates, said Nick Kounis, head of macro research at ABN Amro Bank NV in Amsterdam. Then Germany was weak, with growth of 0.8 percent that year, while the Irish and Spanish economies expanded 6 percent and 3.6 percent.

"We were in a world where rates were much too accommodative for the periphery and much too tight for the core," Kounis said. "Now, the situation is the same, only the countries are different. It's a problem with their one-size- fits-all policy."

ECB Benchmark

The ECB has set its benchmark at 1 percent since May 2009. Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece, which are responsible for about 17 percent of euro-area gross domestic product, would need an average rate of minus 4.6 percent under the Taylor Rule, according to estimates by Credit Suisse equity strategists including London-based Luca Paolini. Germany, which accounts for almost a third of GDP, requires a rate of 4.5 percent, they say.

The Taylor Rule, devised by Stanford University economist John B. Taylor, is a measure of where rates should be set given inflation and growth projections.

Paolini and his colleagues recommend investors in continental European stocks stay 5 percent "underweight" the level suggested by benchmark indexes, in part because the ECB could be making a "policy mistake" if an April increase marks the start of a series of moves. In a March 9 report, they also cut their view of European banks to "benchmark" from "small overweight" and said low leverage and loan-to-deposit rates at Italian banks such as Intesa Sanpaolo SpA should help them outperform Spanish rivals.

Rising Rates

"For the Irish, Greek, Spanish and Portuguese banks, rising interest rates are negative," said Carlos Egea, a strategist on Morgan Stanley's peripheral sovereign and bank trading desk in London. "They're positive for the Italians."

Greece, where government debt is set to rise to 156 percent of GDP by 2014, will face an additional debt-service charge of 1.6 percent of GDP if market borrowing costs gain 1 percent on the back of the ECB raising rates, Paolini estimates.

Davies at Fulcrum says there is also the risk that investors again push up what they charge troubled economies to borrow relative to what they demand from Germany. With investors speculating Portugal soon will follow Greece and Ireland in seeking a bailout, its bonds sank last week, with the two-year yield topping the rate of the nation's 10-year debt for the first time since 2006. Irish 10-year yields traded at the highest since the birth of the euro.

Indebted Nations

A jump in government bond sales while rates are rising also may make it harder for Europe's most indebted nations to fund themselves. Euro-region nations will sell 147 billion euros ($209 billion) of bonds this quarter, net of redemptions, up 24 percent from the third quarter, analysts at HSBC Holdings Plc estimate.

While Andrew Bosomworth, Munich-based head of portfolio management at Pacific Investment Management Co., said too much tightening "could derail what is so far a very fragile recovery," he told Bloomberg Television March 29 that failure by the ECB to raise rates would leave a "considerable risk that inflation expectations will get out of control."

Import prices in Germany are rising at the fastest pace in 29 years, and inflation expectations, as measured by the difference in yields between five-year German nominal bonds and similar-maturity index-linked debt, have tripled to 2.25 percent since August, breaching the ECB's limit on March 23.

The central bank last month revised its 2011 euro-area inflation forecast to about 2.3 percent from 1.8 percent. It also boosted its forecast for expansion to about 1.7 percent from 1.4 percent.

'Clear Signal'

Trichet may be sending a "clear signal" to European governments that the ECB is unwilling to keep easing debt-market tensions for them, putting pressure on them to solve the crisis and restore fiscal order, said Thomas Mayer, chief economist in Frankfurt at Deutsche Bank AG. Countries have "had enough time to realize that a common monetary policy cannot be tailor made for everybody," he said.

The ECB has committed to providing banks with unlimited liquidity for maturities as long as three months through the second quarter. That will restrain the euro overnight index average, or Eonia, which serves as a benchmark for many private borrowing costs, said Julian Callow, chief European economist at Barclays Capital in London. Eonia was 0.588 percent April 1.

Households in the weaker countries nevertheless may suffer from tighter borrowing costs at the same time economic output could be restrained by budget cuts the International Monetary Fund calculates will help the euro area's fiscal deficit shrink to 4.6 percent of GDP this year from 6.4 percent last year. Private-sector leverage levels in Spain, Portugal and Ireland now run more than 210 percent of GDP, about 100 percentage points more than in Germany, Credit Suisse calculates.

Variable-Rate Mortgages

More than 83 percent of homes in Spain are owned, twice the share in Germany, and two out of five are burdened with an outstanding mortgage or housing loan, Eurostat data show. How the debts are financed also poses a hurdle. Variable-rate mortgages account for almost 100 percent of new lending in Portugal and about 85 percent in Spain, compared with 15 percent in Germany, according to the Brussels-based European Mortgage Federation. In Ireland, 85 percent of outstanding loans have flexible rates.

As the ECB raised its key rate by 150 basis points starting in December 2005, borrowing costs for households rose by more than 100 basis points in Spain, Ireland and Portugal and only about 50 basis points in Germany, an ING Groep NV gauge shows.

Boost Foreclosures

With real disposable income declining in peripheral countries as a result of tax increases and spending cuts, even a small increase in market rates may be enough to boost foreclosures and sap credit availability. Irish and Greek banks last year had nonperforming loans equivalent to more than 10 percent of their totals, with Spain's rate about 6 percent, said Giada Giani, an economist at Citigroup Inc. in London.

Banks in those countries will be hit most by higher interest rates as long as the ECB provides unlimited liquidity, keeping market rates below its benchmark. Financial institutions lent money to each other for 0.781 percent interest for a week today, less than the 1 percent charged by the ECB in its main refinancing operation.

While a couple of rate increases this year "are unlikely to have catastrophic effects on peripheral euro-area banks, they would definitely add more pressure to their already fragile situation" and risk "exacerbating economic divergence among euro member states," Giani said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Simon Kennedy in London at skennedy4@bloomberg.net ; Jana Randow in Frankfurt at jrandow@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net

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Why nuclear power is a necessity - CNN.com

2011-03-16T17:07:00.001-04:00

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/03/16/sjoden.nuclear.japan/

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NATION : No Cancer Surge at 3 Mile Island - Los Angeles Times

2011-03-15T16:16:00.001-04:00

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-08-31/news/mn-395_1_mile-island

Geithner Tells Obama Debt Expense to Rise to Record

2011-02-14T11:56:00.001-05:00

Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama may lose the advantage of low borrowing costs as the U.S. Treasury Department says what it pays to service the national debt is poised to triple amid record budget deficits.

Interest expense will rise to 3.1 percent of gross domestic product by 2016, from 1.3 percent in 2010 with the government forecast to run cumulative deficits of more than $4 trillion through the end of 2015, according to page 23 of a 24-page presentation made to a 13-member committee of bond dealers and investors that meet quarterly with Treasury officials.

While some of the lowest borrowing costs on record have helped the economy recover from its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, bond yields are now rising as growth resumes. Net interest expense will triple to an all-time high of $554 billion in 2015 from $185 billion in 2010, according to the Obama administration's adjusted 2011 budget.

"It's a slow train wreck coming and we all know it's going to happen," said Bret Barker, an interest-rate analyst at Los Angeles-based TCW Group Inc., which manages about $115 billion in assets. "It's just a question of whether we want to deal with it. There are huge structural changes that have to go on with this economy."

The amount of marketable U.S. government debt outstanding has risen to $8.96 trillion from $5.8 trillion at the end of 2008, according to the Treasury Department. Debt-service costs will climb to 82 percent of the $757 billion shortfall projected for 2016 from about 12 percent in last year's deficit, according to the budget projections.

Budget Proposal

That compares with 69 percent for Portugal, whose bonds have plummeted on speculation it may need to be bailed out by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Forecasts of higher interest expenses raises the pressure on Obama to plan for trimming the deficit. The President, who has called for a five-year freeze on discretionary spending other than national security, sent Congress a $3.7 trillion budget today that projects the federal deficit will exceed $1 trillion for the fourth consecutive year in 2012 before falling to more "sustainable" levels by the middle of the decade.

"If government debt and deficits were actually to grow at the pace envisioned, the economic and financial effects would be severe," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told the House Budget Committee Feb. 9. "Sustained high rates of government borrowing would both drain funds away from private investment and increase our debt to foreigners, with adverse long-run effects on U.S. output, incomes, and standards of living."

Yield Forecasts

Treasuries lost 2.67 percent last quarter, even after reinvested interest, and are down 1.54 percent this year, Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show. Yields rose last week to an average of 2.19 percent for all maturities from 2010's low of 1.30 percent on Nov. 4.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury note will climb to 4.25 by the end of the second quarter of 2012, from 3.63 percent last week, according to the median estimate of 51 economists and strategists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The rate was 3.61 percent at 10:48 a.m. today in New York. The economy will grow 3.2 percent in 2011, the fastest pace since 2004, according to another poll.

"People are starting to come to the conclusion that you've got a self-sustaining recovery going on here," said Thomas Girard who helps manage $133 billion in fixed income at New York Life Investment Management in New York. "When interest rates start to go back up because of the normal business cycle, debt service costs have the potential to just skyrocket. Every day that we don't address this in a meaningful way it gets more and more dangerous."

'Kind of Disruption'

While yields on the benchmark 10-year note are up, they remain below the average of 4.14 percent over the past decade as Europe's debt crisis bolsters investor demand for safer assets, Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show.

"The market is still giving the U.S. government the benefit of the doubt," said Eric Pellicciaro, New York-based head of global rates investments at BlackRock Inc., which manages about $3.56 trillion in assets. "What we're concerned with is whether the budget will only be corrected after the market has tested them. Will we need some kind of disruption within the bond market before they'll actually do anything."

Still, U.S. spending on debt service accounts for 1.7 percent of its GDP compared with 2.5 percent for Germany, 2.6 percent for the United Kingdom and a median of 1.2 percent for AAA rated sovereign issuers, according to a study by Standard & Poor's published Dec. 24. Among AA rated nations, China's ratio is 0.4 percent, while Japan's is 2.9 percent, and for BBB rated countries, Mexico devotes 1.7 percent of its output to debt service and Brazil 5.2 percent, the report shows.

Auction Demand

Demand for Treasuries remains close to record levels at government debt auctions. Investors bid $3.04 for each dollar of bonds sold in the government's $178 billion of auctions last month, the most since September, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Indirect bidders, a group that includes foreign central banks, bought a record 71 percent, or $17 billion of the $24 billion in 10-year notes offered on Feb. 9.

Foreign holdings of Treasuries have increased 18 percent to $4.35 trillion through November. China, the largest overseas holder, has increased its stake by 0.1 percent to $895.6 billion, and Japan, the second largest, boosted its by 14.6 percent to $877.2 billion.

'Killing Itself'

"China cannot dump Treasuries without killing itself," said Michael Cheah, who oversees $2 billion in bonds at SunAmerica Asset Management in Jersey City, New Jersey. "They're holding Treasuries as a means to an end," said Cheah, who worked at the Singapore Monetary Authority from 1982 through 1999, and now teaches finance classes at New York University and at Chinese universities. "It's part of what's needed to promote exports."

At least some of the increase in interest expense is related to an effort by the Treasury to extend the average maturity of its debt when rates are relatively low by selling more long-term bonds, which have higher yields than short-term notes. The average life of the U.S. debt is 59 months, up from 49.4 months in March 2009. That was the lowest since 1984.

The U.S. produced four budget surpluses from 1998 through 2001, the first since 1969, as the expanding economy, declining rates and a boom in stock prices combined to swell tax receipts.

Tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, the strain of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the cost of funding wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the collapse in home prices and the subsequent recession and financial crisis has led to the three largest deficits in dollar terms on record, totaling $3.17 trillion the past three years.

'Demonstrates Confidence'

The U.S. needs to manage its spending decisions "in a way that demonstrates confidence to investors so we can bring down our long-term fiscal deficits, because if we don't do that, it's going to hurt future growth," Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in Washington on Feb. 9.

The Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, which includes representatives from firms ranging from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Soros Fund Management LLC, expressed concern in the Feb. 1 report that the U.S. is exposing itself to the risk that demand erodes unless it cultivates more domestic demand.

"A more diversified debt holder base would prepare the Treasury for a potential decline in foreign participation," the report said.

Foreign investors held 49.7 percent of the $8.75 trillion of public Treasury debt outstanding as of November, down from as high as 55.7 percent in April 2008 after the collapse of Bear Stearns Cos., according to Treasury data.

Potential Demand

The committee projects there may be $2.4 trillion in latent demand for Treasuries from banks, insurance companies and pension funds as well as individual investors. New securities with maturities as long as 100 years, as well as callable Treasuries or bonds whose principal is linked to the growth of the economy might entice potential lenders, the report said.

"They are opening up a can of worms with the idea of all these other instruments," said Tom di Galoma, head of U.S. rates trading at Guggenheim Partners LLC, a New York-based brokerage for institutional investors. "They should try to keep the Treasury issuance as simple as possible. The more issuance you have in particular issue, the more people will trade them -- whether it be domestic or foreign investors."

Deficit Forecasts

The deficit for the current fiscal year is forecast to hit a record $1.6 trillion -- 10.9 percent of gross domestic product -- up from the $1.4 trillion the administration estimated previously. It would be $1.1 trillion in 2012, 7 percent of GDP. By 2015 it would decline to $607 billion, or 3.2 percent of GDP.

Obama's budget plan would reduce federal shortfalls by $1.1 trillion over a decade through spending cuts in areas ranging from heating subsidies for the poor to grants for airports and water-treatment plants and revenue increases, including letting taxes rise for married couples with more than $250,000 in annual income.

Still, about $4.5 trillion, or 63 percent of the $7.2 trillion in public Treasury coupon debt, needs to be refinanced by 2016. That gives the government a narrowing window as growing interest expense will curtail its ability to spend.

"There is roll-over risk," said James Caron, head of U.S. interest-rate strategy at Morgan Stanley in New York, one of 20 primary dealers that trade with the Fed. "It's a vicious cycle."

To contact the reporters on this story: Daniel Kruger in New York at dkruger1@bloomberg.net ; Liz Capo McCormick in New York at Emccormick7@bloomberg.net .

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

===
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m.guardian.co.uk

2011-02-13T14:36:00.001-05:00

http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/view.m?id=15&gid=business/2011/feb/10/imf-boss-calls-for-world-currency&cat=business

China’s Dagong Reduces U.S. Credit Rating to A+, Xinhua Says

2010-11-09T13:08:00.001-05:00

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- China's Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. cut its credit rating for the U.S. to A+ from AA because of a Federal Reserve plan to purchase bonds to spur growth and inflation, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The credit outlook for the U.S. is negative amid deteriorating debt repayment capability and a "drastic" drop in the government's intention to repay debt, Dagong said, as cited by the state-controlled news agency. The Fed's quantitative easing policy will erode the value of the dollar and is against the interests of creditors, the company said.

"Serious defects in the U.S. economy will lead to long- term recession and fundamentally lower national solvency," Dagong said, as cited by Xinhua.

Dagong, seeking to become an alternative to Standard & Poor's Corp., Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, ranks China's debt higher than that of the U.S. and Japan, citing widening deficits in the developed world. Global ratings methodology is "irrational," Dagong Chairman Guan Jianzhong said in July, and "cannot truly reflect repayment ability."

The credit rating company's remarks follow those of Chinese government officials, who have expressed concern that quantitative easing will hurt the country's economy.

"Many countries are worried about the impact of the policy on their economies," Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said at a press briefing in Beijing Nov. 5. "It would be appropriate for someone to step forward and give us an explanation, otherwise international confidence in the recovery and growth of the global economy might be hurt."

Chinese central bank adviser Xia Bin said Nov. 4 that the Fed's $600 billion on planned bond purchases is "uncontrolled" money printing, and Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said yesterday that the program could "shock" emerging markets by flooding them with capital.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joshua Fellman in New York at jfellman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

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The Constitutional Oath

2010-10-14T06:39:00.001-04:00

As an attorney and perpetual student of the law, I have never been comfortable with the idea of litigating constitutional issues. Courts represent the last resort for citizens oppressed by their own government.

As Jonah Goldberg noted at National Review, many progressive journolists [sic] and constitutional "experts" seem nonplussed at the idea of anyone examining the constitutionality of legislation that is not a judge or justice. The problem with that mentality is that the Constitution does not identify the Supreme Court as the sole arbiter of constitutional meaning.

The concept of judicial review came about in Marbury v. Madison. Essentially, actions of the political branches would be subject to review and possible invalidation by the Supreme Court. Mind you, this case revolved around a political dispute between the outgoing Federalists and the incoming Jeffersonian Republicans. Chief Justice Marshall, an ally of the Federalists, ruled in favor of the Jeffersonian Republicans to garner support for the new role he had carved out for the judiciary. Ever since, the Supreme Court has assumed the final say on constitutionality with few exceptions, though no explicit authority exists.

This decision provides the basis for progressive belief that the Supreme Court represents the only means for decisions on the constitutionality of legislation, and it is outright wrong. This is the fall-back for progressives on the constitutionality of Obamacare. "Shouldn't we wait until the Supreme Court presents its opinion?" Heck no!

You see, all constitutional officers are required to take an oath to uphold the Constitution in Article VI cl. 3:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution.

As an officer of the court, I took an oath to support the Constitution to become an attorney, and I take it seriously. In fact, I risk being disbarred for advancing arguments that have been deemed beyond constitutionality (another argument for another day).

The President is required to take a specific oath according to Article II § 1:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

All Constitutional officers take an oath to support the Constitution, so the idea that the Supreme Court should be the only authority on the Constitution is ridiculous. Constitutionality should be examined in every decision or action taken by the federal government.

When our representatives in government ignore their oaths, abominations like Obamacare become the law. And when we as citizens ignore our representatives violating their oaths, we risk the contractual relationship that protects our rights from government power, through the Constitution.

Progressives do not care about constitutionality, nor do they take oaths to the Constitution seriously. Power is their game, and power runs contrary to our rights as citizens. Beware the progressive that hides behind the Constitution. Ridicule the progressive that openly ignores the Constitution, then vote them out:

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BigGovernment/~3/r_Lz7GkrRKY/

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The Myth of Capitalist Colonialism | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty

2010-10-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

The Myth of Capitalist Colonialism | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty

U.S. Competitiveness Slips, Switzerland Is Tops in WEF Study

2010-09-09T15:26:00.001-04:00

Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. slipped to fourth in the annual rankings of the world's most-competitive economies amid a record budget deficit, while Switzerland retained the top spot, the World Economic Forum said.

The U.S. fell from second, a year after losing the No. 1 position for the first time since the Geneva-based organization began its current index in 2004. A budget shortfall of more than $1 trillion and public distrust of politicians were among the weaknesses in the world's largest economy.

"A number of escalating weaknesses have lowered the U.S. ranking over the past two years," the study of 139 nations showed. "A lack of macroeconomic stability continues to be the United States' greatest area of weakness."

Switzerland, home to companies including drugmaker Novartis AG and food company Nestle SA, was credited for its innovation and business culture.

America's loss of competitiveness represents another obstacle to an economic recovery at the same time President Barack Obama asks Congress to take up proposals to spend $50 billion to repair and rebuild the U.S. transportation infrastructure and spur business investment and research.

"We want to put more Americans back to work rebuilding America -- our roads, railways, runways," Obama said yesterday in a speech at Cuyahoga Community College West Campus in Parma, Ohio, near Cleveland. "If we want to compete in this global economy, we need to rebuild this vital infrastructure."

Wasteful Spender

The U.S. ranked 87th for macroeconomic stability, and American businesses also increasingly questioned the government's ability to avoid meddling in the private sector and viewed it as a wasteful spender, the forum said. In its index of financial market development, the U.S. fell to 31st from ninth in 2008.

Switzerland held the premier position in the survey thanks to ranking fourth in the world for its business sophistication and second for its ability to innovate, the WEF said.

Sweden climbed two slots to second, surpassing Singapore which remained third. Sweden was credited for its transportation and high level of ethical behavior, while Singapore won points for its lack of corruption and for the efficiency of its government.

Germany, Japan, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Canada rounded out the top 10, the composition of which was unchanged from last year. Among the other Group of Seven economies, the U.K. and France each rose one spot to 12th and 15th respectively, while Italy stayed 48th.

Developing Nations

China led the way among the large developing economies, rising to 27th from 29th, while India dropped two slots to 51st. Brazil fell to 58th from 56th and Russia stayed 63rd. In Latin America, Chile was the highest-ranked country at 30th and South Africa, 54th, was the best performer in its region.

The report -- published each year by the organizers of the annual conference of business leaders, politicians and entertainers in Davos, Switzerland -- is based on 12 measures of competitiveness and an opinion poll of more than 13,500 business leaders. Chad was ranked bottom of all the countries studied.

To contact the reporters on this story: Simon Kennedy in London at skennedy4@bloomberg.net

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The Two Things Obama Needs to Say to Business | BNET

2010-09-02T16:29:00.001-04:00

http://m.bnet.com/blog/tribal/the-two-things-obama-needs-to-say-to-business/153?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

The impending November of Doom

2010-08-31T23:52:00.001-04:00

Most of you have probably seen this by now:

That 10-point GOP lead is the widest in Gallup's polling history, and suggest serious Democratic losses in November. If the elections were today, we'd lose the House, with seats to spare. The Senate is seriously in play. There's no hyperbole here -- the Dems are headed toward crushing defeats this November.

And it's worse than that even:

Now, an enthusiastic vote counts just as much as an enthusiastic one, but it's also harder to get that unenthused voter to the polls. The Democratic turnout machine, which has made great strides in recent years, is going to have its work cut out just getting base voters out, and even then we'd still come up short. Yeah, it's bleak. And the White House can whine all it wants about the "professional left", fact is that this goes far beyond some blog or cable news host. So what to do?

Digby:

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that if you want to get people enthusiastic you might want to pick a big old fight right about now instead of trying desperately to avoid controversy (also known as "kerfuffles".) In case the Democrats don't realize it, Republicans and right leaning Independents aren't going to vote for them no matter what they do. Even if they open up those FEMA camps and start rounding up every Muslim and Mexican looking person they see, it won't work. Neither will rolling over and playing dead.

This goes beyond "doing something", and into the realm of actually doing something to excite the base. The administration has done virtually nothing designed to reward its partisans. Half measures and compromises with Republicans who voted against final legislation certainly doesn't count. Failing to follow through on promises on everything from comprehensive immigration reform to DADT doesn't help. Fighting to open up more shoreline to drilling doesn't help. Lilly Ledbetter was a step forward, then the Stupak Amendment was two steps back.

In fact, from the beginning, this administration and Democratic congress seemed more concerned with "bipartisanship" for the sake of bipartisanship, than they were in passing the best possible legislation possible. Harry Reid came off the gate in 2008 by immediately whining about "60 votes" -- something I don't recall ever hearing from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The Obama Administration indulged Max Baucus' "negotiations" with Republicans Mike Enzi and company, even as those Republicans publicly bragged that their entire strategy was to delay and obstruct.

People may whine about cable hosts and bloggers who point out these failings, and try to shoot the messenger. But we don't have a noise machine like Fox's. Rush Limbaugh reaches a third of the conservative base on a weekly base. There is nothing even remotely close to that on the Left. Limbaugh's weekly audience is 20 million. Keith Olbermann's is maybe a tenth of that.

No, this mess is the administration's making, with a healthy assist from Harry Reid's Senate. The shame is that Nancy Pelosi's House, which did its job, will bear the brunt of the voter backlash. But the White House won't be spared.

Paul Krugman:

So what will happen if, as expected, Republicans win control of the House? We already know part of the answer: Politico reports that they're gearing up for a repeat performance of the 1990s, with a "wave of committee investigations" several of them over supposed scandals that we already know are completely phony. We can expect the G.O.P. to play chicken over the federal budget, too; I'd put even odds on a 1995-type government shutdown sometime over the next couple of years.

It will be an ugly scene, and it will be dangerous, too. The 1990s were a time of peace and prosperity; this is a time of neither. In particular, we're still suffering the after-effects of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, and we can't afford to have a federal government paralyzed by an opposition with no interest in helping the president govern. But that's what we're likely to get.

If I were President Obama, I'd be doing all I could to head off this prospect, offering some major new initiatives on the economic front in particular, if only to shake up the political dynamic. But my guess is that the president will continue to play it safe, all the way into catastrophe.

It's a slow motion car wreck in the works, and the best the White House and its allies can do is complain that we didn't clap loudly enough.

http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/yZqgp5-03sg/-The-impending-November-of-Doom

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The Other Half Of Search: Greplin Is A Personal Search Engine For Your Online Life

2010-08-31T16:38:00.000-04:00

The Other Half Of Search: Greplin Is A Personal Search Engine For Your Online Life

Republicans Take Unprecedented Lead in Poll on Midterm Election

2010-08-31T10:58:00.001-04:00

Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Republicans hold an unprecedented lead of 10 percentage points over Democrats ahead of the November midterm elections, indicating potentially "significant gains" for the party in Congress, according to a new Gallup poll.

Fifty-one percent of the registered voters surveyed by Princeton, New Jersey-based Gallup Inc. preferred a Republican congressional candidate, while 41 percent favored a Democrat.

This gap is the Republicans' largest in a series of polls this year, all of which have shown them leading Democrats by margins larger than their previous record 5 percentage-point differences in June 2002 and July 1994. In both years, Republicans gained seats in the House; in 1994, they reclaimed control of the chamber.

The poll "underscores the fast-evolving conventional wisdom that the GOP is poised to make significant gains in this fall's midterm congressional elections," wrote Frank Newport, Gallup's editor-in-chief.

Republicans have taken a 25-point lead over Democrats on enthusiasm about voting, according to the survey. "Republicans are now twice as likely as Democrats to be 'very' enthusiastic about voting, and now hold -- by one point -- the largest such advantage of the year," Newport wrote.

Tea Party Rally

Fox News commentator Glenn Beck and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Aug. 29 rallied fans and activists in Washington. Many of those gathered were members of the Tea Party movement, a loose coalition of voters seeking limits on government spending, taxes and debt.

The movement has grown as the federal debt has ballooned and Democratic President Barack Obama supported government spending to stimulate the economy and signed legislation to overhaul the nation's health-care system.

The generic poll in the past has proven to be a good predictor of mid-term elections, according to Gallup. The new survey was conducted among 1,540 registered voters from Aug. 23- 29 and has margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Democrats, who for the most of the post-World War II era controlled the House, held the largest lead in the generic ballot -- a 32-point margin in July 1974, a month before Republican President Richard Nixon resigned.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Bliss in Washington at jbliss@bloomberg.net

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Contact Form

2010-08-26T13:18:00.000-04:00

Contact Form

How to Be Productive: Stop Working | BNET

2010-08-11T17:30:00.001-04:00

http://m.bnet.com/blog/business-strategy/how-to-be-productive-stop-working/378?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

MSR Packtowl UltraLite from Backcountry.com

2010-08-09T09:26:00.000-04:00

MSR Packtowl UltraLite from Backcountry.com

Aurelle TOOB Brush at REI.com

2010-08-09T09:21:00.000-04:00

Aurelle TOOB Brush at REI.com

ORB / Knowledgebase / What ports need to be open on my PC for Orb streaming?

2010-08-04T14:49:00.000-04:00

ORB / Knowledgebase / What ports need to be open on my PC for Orb streaming?

Guide to Orb for streaming Media to the BlackBerry - BlackBerry Forums at CrackBerry.com

2010-08-03T17:01:00.000-04:00

Guide to Orb for streaming Media to the BlackBerry - BlackBerry Forums at CrackBerry.com

EPA rejects ‘Climate-gate’ bid to scuttle carbon rules - The Hill's E2-Wire

2010-07-30T16:31:00.000-04:00

EPA rejects ‘Climate-gate’ bid to scuttle carbon rules - The Hill's E2-Wire

Mitt Romney - Obama's worst foreign-policy mistake

2010-07-30T16:26:00.000-04:00

"New-START gives Russia a massive nuclear weapon advantage over the United States. The treaty ignores tactical nuclear weapons, where Russia outnumbers us by as much as 10 to 1. Obama heralds a reduction in strategic weapons from approximately 2,200 to 1,550 but fails to mention that Russia will retain more than 10,000 nuclear warheads that are categorized as tactical because they are mounted on missiles that cannot reach the United States. But surely they can reach our allies, nations that depend on us for a nuclear umbrella. And who can know how those tactical nuclear warheads might be reconfigured? Astonishingly, while excusing tactical nukes from the treaty, the Obama administration bows to Russia's insistence that conventional weapons mounted on ICBMs are counted under the treaty's warhead and launcher limits."

Mitt Romney - Obama's worst foreign-policy mistake

RealClearPolitics - U.S. Patients Face Lower Quality, Long Waits

2010-07-30T09:59:00.000-04:00

RealClearPolitics - U.S. Patients Face Lower Quality, Long Waits

Three Steps for Changing Reality | Fast Company

2010-07-28T17:24:00.000-04:00

to change the world you need to change reality, and to change reality you need to change perception, which you engineer with creative language.

Three Steps for Changing Reality | Fast Company

Mars Odyssey: NASA Spacecraft Camera Yields Most Accurate Mars Map Ever

2010-07-28T17:02:00.000-04:00

Mars Odyssey: NASA Spacecraft Camera Yields Most Accurate Mars Map Ever

moyermap.gif

2010-07-26T21:06:00.000-04:00

Obama-backed Unions outspending Corporations, 3 to 1, on campaign ads despite court ruling « Scotty Starnes's Blog

2010-07-20T13:05:00.000-04:00

Obama-backed Unions outspending Corporations, 3 to 1, on campaign ads despite court ruling « Scotty Starnes's Blog

Earliest Steps to Find Breast Cancer Are Prone to Error - NYTimes.com

2010-07-20T10:32:00.003-04:00

Hmmm, call me skeptical, but coming from the NY Times this gets the "hairy eyeball"... I dont know, but it seems like an agenda push piece to get folks on board with reduce healthcare costs? I.E. Rationing.

Earliest Steps to Find Breast Cancer Are Prone to Error - NYTimes.com

Despite all our healthcare faults, which country has the best survival rates for Breast cancer? is it the US? Yup!

Breast Cancer Incidence and Mortality Worldwide in 2008
Summary - GLOBOCAN

Again, though our system is not perfect (meaning before the changes of Obamacare come along), up to now it seems to be working better than ALL the other Developed countries as far as Breast Cancer is concerned. And speaking of healtcare and agendas...interesting timing...Obama... Helthcare mandate is not a tax, right? Oh wait.. yes it is.

Changing Stance, Administration Now Defends Insurance Mandate as a Tax - NYTimes.com

GoodAlum.com : Where are you a GoodAlum from?

2010-07-17T20:51:00.000-04:00

GoodAlum.com : Where are you a GoodAlum from?

Finding videos to play on your BlackBerry | BB Geeks

2010-07-15T15:16:00.000-04:00

Finding videos to play on your BlackBerry | BB Geeks

Americans in 70% Majority See More Jobless as Deficit Widens

2010-07-14T00:05:00.001-04:00

July 14 (Bloomberg) -- More than 7 out of 10 Americans say the economy is mired in recession, and the country is conflicted over how to balance concerns over joblessness and the federal budget deficit, according to a Bloomberg National Poll.

Just like the experts, Americans are torn about whether the federal government should focus on curbing spending or creating jobs, the poll conducted July 9-12 shows. Seven of 10 Americans say reducing unemployment is the priority. At the same time, the public is skeptical of the Obama administration's stimulus program and wary of more spending, with more than half saying the deficit is "dangerously out of control."

This concern over spending extends to aid for the jobless. With unemployment at a near-record high of 9.5 percent in June, the public is closely split on whether another extension of jobless benefits, which is stalled in Congress, is worth the $34 billion cost.

"They're just running out of patience," says J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co., a Des Moines, Iowa-based company that conducted the survey. "The number they're seeing change is the deficit. It's rising at what seems like an astronomical rate. The number that seems intractable is the unemployment rate."

The Obama administration expects a record budget deficit this year of more than $1.5 trillion, or 10.6 percent of GDP, according to projections the White House released in February. The U.S. deficit is a greater percentage of GDP than any other major industrialized nation except the U.K., where it is estimated to reach 11.4 percent, and Ireland, where it will be 12.2 percent, according to International Monetary Fund projections released in April.

The only deficit-reduction measure that gets strong support in the poll is higher taxes on upper-income Americans.

Bleak Mood

Four months ahead of the midterm congressional elections, the poll's results show a challenging climate for Democrats. The public mood is bleak, with 63 percent saying they believe the country is on the wrong track, the most negative reading of Obama's presidency. After a year of economic growth, 71 percent say the economy is still in recession; another 13 percent say the economy is faltering and will dip back into recession.

Only 1 in 6 say they believe they are personally better off than they were 18 months ago, when President Barack Obama took office. They are more apt to see the economy today as deteriorating than improving.

Hunkering Down

More than half say they are responding to the economic climate by hunkering down. Fewer than a quarter say they are getting back to normal and only 16 percent are seeing opportunity and taking risks. The public's posture is more pessimistic than the view of global investors polled a month earlier. In a poll of Bloomberg customers conducted June 2-3, more than twice as many respondents -- 35 percent -- said they are seeing opportunities and taking risks.

The divergence in the outlooks of the general population and investors fits the way each group is experiencing the economic cycle. The public confronts an unemployment rate hovering near a 26-year high, home values and retirement portfolio balances that remain below pre-recession levels, and the debt crisis in Europe that threatens the global recovery.

The public's perception is gloomier than some recent economic data: The U.S. economy has been growing for a year, first-quarter corporate profits were up more than 33 percent from a year earlier and research published in 1980 by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke points to the possibility of "an investment boom" following resolution of uncertainty such as the jitters provoked by the crisis in Europe. In addition, investors have benefited from a rise of more than 36 percent in the S&P 500 stock index since Obama took office even after the recent turmoil in the markets.

Tax Cuts

The public gives the Obama administration little credit for its tax cuts, which according to the Washington-based Tax Policy Center lowered federal income taxes for 93 percent of filers. Asked to compare their federal income taxes to what they paid during George W. Bush's presidency, only 7 percent say they are lower; 20 percent say their taxes are higher and 65 percent say they are about the same.

The Bloomberg National Poll is based on interviews with 1,004 U.S. adults ages 18 or older. Percentages based on the full sample may have a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Americans' anxieties over the economy are reflected in the top issues they see facing the country: Unemployment and jobs, cited by 41 percent, and the federal deficit, cited by 26 percent, dwarfed other concerns. Few Democrats share the concern over the deficit, with just 7 percent choosing it as the top issue -- last in a list of five -- versus 44 percent of Republicans and 31 percent of independents.

Work Needed

"People need to have work to keep their living going," says poll respondent Jane Phillips, an 80-year-old retired school teacher from Springfield, Ohio, who listed unemployment as the most important issue. "It downgrades our people if they don't have anything to do."

The two big priorities are reversed among respondents who say they will definitely vote in November and say the election is exceptionally important. A 41 percent plurality name the deficit as the top issue, compared with 33 percent who pick jobs among those who say they are intensely interested in the November congressional elections. Respondents who describe themselves as Republicans say they are more likely to vote, the poll shows.

"The debt that our kids are accumulating is going to be beyond belief," says Jim Tympanick, 55, of Foxborough, Massachusetts, an independent who works in technology support. "I don't see how it can be rectified without an increase in taxes."

Stimulus Package

The White House hasn't made much progress in selling its $862 billion economic stimulus package. Asked how their opinion of the stimulus has changed in recent months, respondents were divided about evenly among those who say they had become more supportive, those who are less supportive and those who haven't changed their opinion.

Other high-profile spending plans undertaken in the wake of the financial crisis have fared worse. The assistance package to automobile companies is becoming less popular: 48 percent say they had become less supportive in recent months versus 17 percent who say they have become more supportive.

By a two-to-one margin, the public classifies the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Plan that Congress passed in 2008 as the financial industry teetered as an "unneeded bailout" rather than "necessary."

Tax Options

Asked about a range of options to cut the budget deficit, the public is willing to consider removing the cap on earnings covered by the Social Security tax, currently set at just under $107,000, and eliminating tax cuts for the wealthy enacted under Bush.

The public opposes a 2 percentage point increase in income tax rates on the middle class, cutbacks in Social Security or Medicare benefits, though 52 percent say they would at least consider an increase in the eligibility age for Medicare to 67 from 65.

The public is divided on cuts in spending on defense, education, public housing, regulatory agencies or public works and on discontinuing extensions of unemployment benefits to help close the deficit.

Perceptions of the economy's performance split sharply along party lines. A 48 percent plurality of Democrats say the economy is getting better. Only 17 percent of Republicans and 19 percent of independents see an improving economy.

Young Voters

Younger Americans also had a slightly more positive read on the economy, with 31 percent of people under 35 saying they believe it is improving. Middle-aged Americans had the most negative reading, with only 24 percent describing the economy as getting better. Among those over 55, 28 percent say the economy is improving.

Voters in Western states also were more pessimistic, with 24 percent seeing an improving economy versus 27 percent in the Midwest, 29 percent in the Northeast and 30 percent in the South.

To see the methodology and exact wording of the poll questions, click on the attachment tab at the top of the story.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mike Dorning in Washington D.C. at mdorning@bloomberg.net ; Catherine Dodge in Washington at cdodge1@bloomberg.net .

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CloudBurst Load Tests Web Apps From The Cloud -- Cloud Computing -- InformationWeek

2010-07-09T12:20:00.000-04:00

CloudBurst Load Tests Web Apps From The Cloud -- Cloud Computing -- InformationWeek

The PVC Method of Hanging a Bear Bag | sectionhiker.com

2010-07-08T16:30:00.000-04:00

The PVC Method of Hanging a Bear Bag | sectionhiker.com

Determining number of open connections in your connection pools - Sahil Malik | blah.winsmarts.com

2010-07-07T16:06:00.000-04:00

Determining number of open connections in your connection pools - Sahil Malik | blah.winsmarts.com

How to transfer a database from one collation to another collation in SQL Server

2010-07-06T12:49:00.000-04:00

How to transfer a database from one collation to another collation in SQL Server

Appalachian Trail Parking, Access Areas and Pictures

2010-07-01T16:32:00.000-04:00

Appalachian Trail Parking, Access Areas and Pictures

Jeff Gundlach: The US will Politely Default on its Debt

2010-07-01T15:27:00.000-04:00

Jeff Gundlach: The US will Politely Default on its Debt

Arrests - Crime in the United States 2008

2010-07-01T13:24:00.001-04:00

Food For thought... Illegal Immigration...

"The FBI estimated that 14,005,615 arrests occurred in 2008 for all offenses (except traffic violations). Of these arrests, 594,911 were for violent crimes and 1,687,345 were for property crimes."

I'd like to know how many of these arrests were commited by illegals. Once we know that, and based on standing immigration law we could then we can estimate what the "real" number of people that would need to be deported (on top of the ones we already know from the stats above). Im think the number is MUCH less than 11,000,000. Agree? / Disagree? Why / why not?

See link below for official FBI stats...
Arrests - Crime in the United States 2008

The ‘Rahn Curve’ Shows Government Is Far too Big

2010-07-01T00:39:00.000-04:00

President Bush was a big spender, but President Obeys is taking profligacy to the next level. In his first year in office, Obama pushed through a pork-filled "stimulus" that was supposed to increase jobs and prosperity (at least according to the discredited Keynesian theory). Instead, the economy has been weak and unemployment increased. In his second year in office, Obama rammed through a giant new healthcare entitlement, in part based on the absurd claim that bigger government would reduce red ink (the Congressional Budget Office should be abolished for aiding and abetting that fraud). Now we just witnessed the amazing spectacle of Obama actually getting to the left of Europe's socialist leaders and arguing with them at the G-20 summit that government spending should be even higher.

Unfortunately for taxpayers, government already is too big, and that is true on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This new Center for Freedom and Prosperity video explains that there is a spending version of the Laffer Curve, and that it shows that government is much larger than the "growth-maximizing" level. As shown in the mini-documentary, academic research reveals that government spending should consume only 20 percent of gross domestic product. Thanks to the Bush-Obama spending spree, however, total government spending in America now amounts to about 40 percent of economic output.

It is quite likely, by the way, that the real growth-maximizing level of government spending is much lower than 20 percent of GDP. As noted in the video, the academic research is constrained by a lack of data for nations with small government. Free-market jurisdictions such as Hong Kong and Singapore enjoy the fastest growth, and they both have public sectors that consume about 20 percent of economic output, so it should come as no surprise that scholars conclude that growth is maximized when government is about that size.

But what if there were nations with smaller levels of government? Indeed, the video shows that most nations in North America and Western Europe did have very small governments in the 1800s and early 1900s - often amounting to less than 10 percent of GDP. Does anyone actually think that the United States would have grown faster 100 years ago if the burden of government spending was doubled?

We'll never know the answer to that rhetorical question, but one thing we surely know is that government today if far too large. It doesn't really matter whether the growth-maximizing level of government is 10 percent of GDP or 20 percent of GDP. We have a bloated public sector today that is consuming 40 percent of GDP and the long-run projections indicate that the problem will get much worse because of entitlements and demographic changes.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BigGovernment/~3/OC6XKjW4EPQ/

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The Zeray Gazette: The Economics of Star Trek

2010-06-30T17:45:00.000-04:00

http://locustsandhoney.blogspot.com/2009/03/economics-of-star-trek.html

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Dems to Supremes: DISCLOSE that!

2010-06-30T11:52:00.000-04:00

Dems to Supremes: DISCLOSE that!

Private Sector Adds Few Jobs - WSJ.com

2010-06-30T10:14:00.000-04:00

Private Sector Adds Few Jobs - WSJ.com

New Network Design Could Make the Internet 100 Times Faster

2010-06-30T10:11:00.001-04:00

New Network Design Could Make the Internet 100 Times Faster

A New Low for Laptop Pricing: $37

2010-06-30T10:11:00.000-04:00

A New Low for Laptop Pricing: $37

NYT: 30 Valedictorians: Too Much of

2010-06-29T17:20:00.001-04:00

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/opinion/l29graduate.xml

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Michelle Malkin » Video: Pete Stark pisses all over voters concerned about border security

2010-06-29T17:08:00.001-04:00

http://michellemalkin.com/2010/06/29/video-pete-stark-pisses-all-over-voters-concerned-about-border-security/

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Boston Review — Cass Sunstein: The Daily We

2010-06-29T13:23:00.000-04:00

Boston Review — Cass Sunstein: The Daily We

Boat Clubs Boston Harbor Boating Club The Navigator Club

2010-06-28T20:03:00.000-04:00

http://www.thenavigatorclub.com/

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Chavez's Venezuela: Beware of rabid dog Outside the Box - MarketWatch

2010-06-28T16:58:00.000-04:00

Chavez's Venezuela: Beware of rabid dog Outside the Box - MarketWatch

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Is Anyone Counting "Jobs Destroyed or Averted"?

2010-06-28T11:35:00.000-04:00

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Is Anyone Counting "Jobs Destroyed or Averted"?

Meet Hudson - hudson - Hudson Wiki

2010-06-21T17:09:00.001-04:00

http://wiki.hudson-ci.org/display/HUDSON/Meet+Hudson

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

2010-06-17T16:28:00.001-04:00

Health-care rules may force some to change coverage, leaked document suggests

http://bit.ly/9bPEwV

FCC Opens Inquiry On Broadband Regulation -- Broadband Regulation -- InformationWeek#community

2010-06-17T16:06:00.000-04:00

FCC Opens Inquiry On Broadband Regulation -- Broadband Regulation -- InformationWeek#community

Statism or free market? Calling for a fair debate - Libertarian Blog - Bonzai: A Libertarian Blog

2010-06-17T15:25:00.000-04:00

Statism or free market? Calling for a fair debate - Libertarian Blog - Bonzai: A Libertarian Blog

Home - The Daily Bail

2010-06-17T15:09:00.000-04:00

Home - The Daily Bail

NPR Poll: Congressional Battleground : NPR

2010-06-15T09:37:00.000-04:00

NPR Poll: Congressional Battleground : NPR

Ari Fleischer Says It's Bad for Our Democracy to Exempt Half the Country From Income Taxes - WSJ.com

2010-06-14T14:10:00.000-04:00

Ari Fleischer Says It's Bad for Our Democracy to Exempt Half the Country From Income Taxes - WSJ.com

Step aside, HAL 9000 — socialuxe

2010-06-14T12:28:00.000-04:00

Step aside, HAL 9000 — socialuxe

Administration Delays Release of a Drug Report - NYTimes.com

2010-06-14T11:47:00.000-04:00

Administration Delays Release of a Drug Report - NYTimes.com

Billions for 'green jobs,' whatever they are | Washington Examiner

2010-06-11T11:54:00.000-04:00

Billions for 'green jobs,' whatever they are | Washington Examiner

Constitution of No - Jim DeMint - National Review Online

2010-06-11T09:59:00.000-04:00

Constitution of No - Jim DeMint - National Review Online

Michelle Malkin » Fundraiser for Fleeing AZ Illegal Aliens

2010-06-10T11:58:00.000-04:00

Michelle Malkin » Fundraiser for Fleeing AZ Illegal Aliens

Video: Ass Quest 2010 | The Daily Show | Comedy Central

2010-06-09T11:29:00.001-04:00

3 Minutes in...Good Stuff!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Ass Quest 2010

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Tea Party

Video: Ass Quest 2010 | The Daily Show | Comedy Central

Hot Air » ObamaCare could wipe out health insurance for 1 million low-income workers

2010-06-08T10:21:00.000-04:00

Democrats will get their wish — but the employees won’t get their coverage. The law imposes the penalties for mini-med plans in three months, but the exchanges won’t start until 2014. That means more than three years of having no insurance at all for low-income workers who previously had it, even if Obama and Pelosi sniffed at the worth of the plans.

Hot Air » ObamaCare could wipe out health insurance for 1 million low-income workers

Mother Teresa: Empire State Bldg. Won't Commemorate 100th Birthday

2010-06-07T16:30:00.000-04:00

Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

HP Enables Remote Printing via an E-mail Address - PCWorld

2010-06-07T13:42:00.000-04:00

HP Enables Remote Printing via an E-mail Address - PCWorld

E.J. Dionne Jr. - Obama's double bind: Oil and the economy

2010-06-07T13:11:00.000-04:00

E.J. Dionne Jr. - Obama's double bind: Oil and the economy

Hot Air » Video: “The stimulus failed”

2010-06-07T13:07:00.001-04:00

Hot Air » Video: “The stimulus failed”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Changes in China Could Raise Prices Worldwide - NYTimes.com

2010-06-07T10:58:00.000-04:00

“For a long time, China has been the anchor of global disinflation,”

Changes in China Could Raise Prices Worldwide - NYTimes.com

Gas Line Excavation Unearths 3,500 Year Old Cultic Vessels | Green Prophet

2010-06-07T10:45:00.000-04:00

Gas Line Excavation Unearths 3,500 Year Old Cultic Vessels | Green Prophet

Obama Regulatory Zeal Could Slow Recovery | wowOwow

2010-06-04T17:02:00.000-04:00

Obama Regulatory Zeal Could Slow Recovery | wowOwow

America's Choice: Obama's Big Government or Prosperity | wowOwow

2010-06-04T16:58:00.000-04:00

America's Choice: Obama's Big Government or Prosperity | wowOwow

Louisianans to Obama on BP oil spill: Show us we matter - CSMonitor.com

2010-06-04T15:34:00.000-04:00

Louisianans to Obama on BP oil spill: Show us we matter - CSMonitor.com

Resolution threatens power of Office of Congressional Ethics

2010-06-04T15:12:00.000-04:00

Resolution threatens power of Office of Congressional Ethics

EDITORIAL: Walpin-gate reopens - Washington Times

2010-05-28T22:18:00.000-04:00

EDITORIAL: Walpin-gate reopens - Washington Times

CNN || White House admits effort to keep Sestak out of Senate race

2010-05-28T17:15:00.001-04:00

http://m.cnn.com/primary/_v9PZ6O-i2Sj8SGlwl

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Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy:Amazon:Books

2010-05-24T10:26:00.001-04:00

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d.html/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/181-0097946-2761814?a=046508138X

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US wireless not competitive enough - FCC • The Register

2010-05-21T11:10:00.000-04:00

US wireless not competitive enough - FCC • The Register

Pentagon won't say ship sinking is an act of war - Yahoo! News

2010-05-20T17:02:00.001-04:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100520/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_koreas

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Rand Paul: Cut Spending But Not Medicare Doctor Payments - Washington Wire - WSJ

2010-05-20T15:32:00.001-04:00

Meaning... "…as long as we have govt grossly distorting the market for heath care with medicare and medicaid and not allowing competition for insurers…cutting medicare payments to doctors is just making a bad situation worse..."

Rand Paul: Cut Spending But Not Medicare Doctor Payments - Washington Wire - WSJ

Researchers start up cell with synthetic genome : Nature News

2010-05-20T13:33:00.000-04:00

Researchers start up cell with synthetic genome : Nature News

Hot Air » The Tea Party Imperative

2010-05-20T12:11:00.000-04:00

The American people tired of being lied to. We’re tired of being defrauded. We’ve had it with fabulously expensive programs that do nothing but enhance the power of those who administer them. We reject the tired excuse that government only fails when it’s not big enough. We know the romance of the State is a lie. The evidence of its failure is piling up around us, at a rapidly accelerating pace.

Hot Air » The Tea Party Imperative

Google Secure Data Connector - Google Code

2010-05-19T17:10:00.000-04:00

Google Secure Data Connector - Google Code

Going to Mars: Are we there yet? Are we there yet? | Analysis & Opinion |

2010-05-19T15:51:00.000-04:00

Going to Mars: Are we there yet? Are we there yet? | Analysis & Opinion |

Smartphone? Try heartphone - FierceMobileHealthcare

2010-05-18T19:35:00.001-04:00

http://www.fiercemobilehealthcare.com/story/smartphone-try-heartphone/2010-05-11?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss

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Oil-Rich America?

Recruiters Seek E-Commerce Executives - WSJ.com

The Washington Establishment's Big Problem

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Explosive Email Shows Anti-Palin Author McGinniss, Random House Likely Published Literary Hoax (Andrew Breitbart/Big Government)

Russia plans $65bn tunnel to America - Times Online

President Obama's Folly

Having Lots Of People Work For Small Firms Is A Sign Your Economy Is Dysfunctional

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White House creates online petitions site - msnbc.com

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U.S. Geologists Sharply Cut Estimate Of Shale Gas

Obama's Lowest Priority: Some Deportation Cases

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Trichet Seen Burying Ailing Nations With Interest-Rate Rise

Why nuclear power is a necessity - CNN.com

NATION : No Cancer Surge at 3 Mile Island - Los Angeles Times

Geithner Tells Obama Debt Expense to Rise to Record

m.guardian.co.uk

China’s Dagong Reduces U.S. Credit Rating to A+, Xinhua Says

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U.S. Competitiveness Slips, Switzerland Is Tops in WEF Study

The Two Things Obama Needs to Say to Business | BNET

The impending November of Doom

The Other Half Of Search: Greplin Is A Personal Search Engine For Your Online Life

Republicans Take Unprecedented Lead in Poll on Midterm Election

Contact Form

How to Be Productive: Stop Working | BNET

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Guide to Orb for streaming Media to the BlackBerry - BlackBerry Forums at CrackBerry.com

EPA rejects ‘Climate-gate’ bid to scuttle carbon rules - The Hill's E2-Wire

Mitt Romney - Obama's worst foreign-policy mistake

RealClearPolitics - U.S. Patients Face Lower Quality, Long Waits

Three Steps for Changing Reality | Fast Company

Mars Odyssey: NASA Spacecraft Camera Yields Most Accurate Mars Map Ever

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Obama-backed Unions outspending Corporations, 3 to 1, on campaign ads despite court ruling « Scotty Starnes's Blog

Earliest Steps to Find Breast Cancer Are Prone to Error - NYTimes.com

GoodAlum.com : Where are you a GoodAlum from?

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Americans in 70% Majority See More Jobless as Deficit Widens

CloudBurst Load Tests Web Apps From The Cloud -- Cloud Computing -- InformationWeek

The PVC Method of Hanging a Bear Bag | sectionhiker.com

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How to transfer a database from one collation to another collation in SQL Server

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Jeff Gundlach: The US will Politely Default on its Debt

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The ‘Rahn Curve’ Shows Government Is Far too Big

The Zeray Gazette: The Economics of Star Trek

Dems to Supremes: DISCLOSE that!

Private Sector Adds Few Jobs - WSJ.com

New Network Design Could Make the Internet 100 Times Faster

A New Low for Laptop Pricing: $37

NYT: 30 Valedictorians: Too Much of

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Boston Review — Cass Sunstein: The Daily We

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NPR Poll: Congressional Battleground : NPR

Ari Fleischer Says It's Bad for Our Democracy to Exempt Half the Country From Income Taxes - WSJ.com

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Hot Air » ObamaCare could wipe out health insurance for 1 million low-income workers

Mother Teresa: Empire State Bldg. Won't Commemorate 100th Birthday

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