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Insider Report from Newsmax.com

Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. New Evidence Debunks Manmade Global Warming
2. Libyans Claim Gadhafi Lied About Daughter's Death
3. After 2 DUIs, Cheney Feared a 'Bad End'
4. Renewable Energy Subsidies a 'Massive Money Sink'
5. Chinese Workers Tops at Faking Sick Days


1. New Evidence Debunks Manmade Global Warming

New research from one of the world's most prestigious scientific organizations indicates that cosmic rays and the sun -- not manmade carbon emissions -- are the major factors influencing global climate.

"The science is now all-but-settled on global warming, convincing new evidence demonstrates, but Al Gore, the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) and other global warming doomsayers won't be celebrating," writes Lawrence Solomon, executive director of Energy Probe, in Canada's Financial Post.

"The new findings point to cosmic rays and the sun -- not human activities -- as the dominant controller of climate on Earth."

The findings, published in the journal Nature, come from CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, one of the world's largest centers for scientific research involving 60 countries and 8,000 scientists at more than 600 universities and national laboratories, according to Solomon.

CERN -- the organization that invented the World Wide Web -- built a stainless steel chamber that precisely re-created the Earth's atmosphere.

"In this chamber, 63 CERN scientists from 17 European and American institutes have done what global warming doomsayers said could never be done -- demonstrate that cosmic rays promote the formation of molecules that in Earth's atmosphere can grow and seed clouds." And the cloudier it is, the cooler it will be, Solomon notes.

"Because the sun's magnetic field controls how many cosmic rays reach Earth's atmosphere (the stronger the sun's magnetic field, the more it shields Earth from incoming cosmic rays from space), the sun determines the temperature on Earth."

So when the sun's magnetic field is strongest, fewer cosmic rays impact the Earth, which in turn leads to decreased cloud formation and warmer temperatures.

The link between cosmic rays and global warming was first proposed by two Danish scientists in 1996, and was immediately denounced by the IPCC.

But CERN scientist Jasper Kirkby, a British experimental physicist, accepted the Danes' theory. He told the scientific press in 1998 that it "will probably be able to account for somewhere between half and the whole of the increase in the Earth's temperature that we have seen in the last century."

It took Kirkby nearly 10 years to convince the CERN bureaucracy to proceed with his plan to create the chamber that replicates the Earth's atmosphere and has produced the recent results.

But CERN "remains too afraid of offending its government masters to admit its success," observes Solomon, author of "The Deniers: The World-Renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria, Political Persecution, and Fraud."

CERN told Kirkby and his team to downplay the results by stating "that cosmic radiation is only one of many parameters."

Solomon concludes: "CERN, and the Danes, have in all likelihood found the path to the Holy Grail of climate science. But the religion of climate science won't yet permit a celebration of the find."

 


2. Libyans Claim Gadhafi Lied About Daughter's Death

Moammar Gadhafi sought to drum up sympathy when he announced that his adopted baby daughter Hana was killed in a 1986 American airstrike, and even organized an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of her death.

But sources in Libya are now saying that Gadhafi lied about Hana's death and she is still alive.

The airstrike targeted Gadhafi's home in Tripoli in retaliation for the Libyan-sponsored bombing of a Berlin nightclub that killed two American servicemen earlier in 1986.

After the strike Gadhafi showed journalists a picture of a dead baby and claimed it was Hana. And some investigators probing the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing theorized that Gadhafi had ordered it to avenge her death.

But after Libyan rebels recently seized Tripoli, a hospital official told The Associated Press that Hana worked for him as a surgeon before the rebels came to the city.

"She was very tense and nervous as soon as the revolution started," said Gassem Baruni, head of the Tripoli Medical Center.

He said he used Hana's influence to secure supplies for the hospital, telling Hana he needed them to treat Gadhafi's troops when in fact he was helping the rebels' cause.

On Tuesday, Swiss officials disclosed that Hana's name had briefly appeared earlier this year on a Swiss government document listing senior Libyan officials targeted for sanctions.

Adel Shaltut, a Libyan diplomat at the United Nations in Geneva, said it was common knowledge that Hana wasn't killed in the airstrike.

"All Libyans knew from the very beginning that it's a lie," he told AP, claiming Hana was married and had children.

And Mohammed Ammar, a Tripoli resident, said his cousin graduated with Hana from medical school last year.

Adding to the mystery, however, some Libyans say they believe that after Hana's death in the airstrike, Gadhafi adopted another daughter and gave her the same name as a memorial to the first Hana.

Hana's current whereabouts, if she is indeed alive, are unknown. Her mother, sister Aisha and two brothers fled to Algeria on Monday, with their spouses and children, and she was not listed among those who had left the country.

 


3. After 2 DUIs, Cheney Feared a 'Bad End'

Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he arrived at a turning point in his life when he woke up in jail with a hangover after his second drunk driving arrest in a year.

The night in jail came after 22-year-old Cheney was busted in Rock Springs, Wyo., in July 1963. He had been arrested in Cheyenne, Wyo., in November 1962 for "operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and drunkenness."

The first arrest resulted in a 30-day suspension of his driver's license and forfeiture of $150 bail, The Smoking Sun website disclosed. The second case ended when Cheney paid a $100 fine.

Cheney writes in his newly released memoir "In My Time" that after work building electrical transmission lines, he would "spend considerable time in one of the local bars" where he and his fellow workers "consumed vast quantities of beer" and "if something stronger was called for," bourbon.

The beer and bourbon combination "helps explain how I managed to get arrested twice within a year for driving under the influence," Cheney recalls.

After the second arrest, Cheney said he realized that "if I didn't fundamentally change my ways, I was going to come to a bad end."

Cheney spent several hours reflecting on the "self-destructive path I was on," then moved out of the apartment he shared with a drinking buddy, telling him: "I'm going to make something of my life."

Cheney went on to compile a resume that includes U.S. congressman, White House chief of staff, secretary of defense, corporate CEO, and vice president.

 


4. Renewable Energy Subsidies a 'Massive Money Sink'

Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power are heavily dependent on government subsidies yet contribute little to America's domestic energy production, according to a new report.

The report from the Energy Information Administration, the Department of Energy's research arm, reveals that the federal government gave out $37.2 billion in direct energy subsidies in 2010, an increase of more than $19 billion over 2007.

"This 50 percent increase from three years ago confirms that federal energy favors are part of our out-of-control spending problem," Robert L. Bradley, Jr., the CEO and founder of the Institute for Energy Research, writes in Forbes.

Of the $19 billion increase, additional subsidies for renewable energy sources amounted to more than $9 billion, a 186 percent increase. Subsidies for renewables now total more than $14 billion.

Wind power was a major recipient of federal energy funds, taking in nearly $5 billion in subsidies last year -- a more than tenfold rise from 2007. Solar energy rose to $1.13 billion, and biofuels (ethanol) rose to $6.6 billion.

"Funneling money into renewables is certainly politically popular," Bradley observes.

"But at the end of the day, someone ought to ask: What exactly do green firms have to show for all that money? And the truth is: Not much."

Wind power today represents just 1.2 percent of total domestic energy production, despite the billions of dollars in subsidies.

"The reality is that, up to this point, renewable energy has been a massive money sink," according to Bradley, author of the book "Edison to Enron: Energy Markets and Political Strategies."

"Green energy is all red when it comes to consumers and taxpayers."

Robert Bryce, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, also pointed out the shortcomings of wind power in an article for National Review Online.

He noted that Texas has more than 10,000 megawatts of wind-generation capacity, yet during a particularly hot four-day period, the state's wind turbines produced no more than 2 percent of the total power demand even though their capacity is to produce nearly 15 percent.

That's because of a "dirty little secret," according to Bryce: "When power demand is highest, wind energy's output is generally low. The reverse is also true: Wind-energy production is usually highest during the middle of the night, when electricity use is lowest."

Bradley concludes: "If wind or solar or biofuels truly represent a revolution in American energy, that's great -- but let them compete on the open market. If these sectors can pump out low-cost, efficient energy, customers can be trusted to buy it."


5. Chinese Workers Tops at Faking Sick Days

In a surprising disclosure, a new global survey on employee absenteeism reveals that the country where workers are most likely to call in sick when they aren't is China.

The survey by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated -- a leading workforce management firm -- found that 71 percent of employees in China admit to calling in sick when they are not actually ill.

France had the smallest number, 16 percent, while the United States had 52 percent. Other nations in the survey were India (62 percent), Australia (58 percent), Canada (52 percent), the U.K (43 percent), and Mexico (38 percent).

When respondents were asked why they had taken a day off and falsely claimed they were sick, the overwhelming response in every country was that workers felt "stressed/needed a day off."

Other reasons include the need to take care of a sick child and not having enough paid leave.

Most respondents in the survey -- conducted by Harris Interactive -- said they spent their "sick" day in bed or watching television; workers in India and Mexico said they also spent time meeting with friends or relatives.

Nearly half of Chinese workers surveyed, 45 percent, said that providing more paid time off to employees would discourage taking days off with a feigned illness; 34 percent of Americans and just 12 percent of Mexicans agreed.

Employees in every country said given the opportunity to work from home and the option of taking unpaid leave would also discourage bogus sick days.

"This survey provides a fascinating look at the issue of absenteeism around the world," said Joyce Maroney, director of The Workforce Institute.

"It is interesting to see both the many similarities between regions and the marked differences."

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Newsmax.com




Insider Report from Newsmax.com

Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Fuel Economy Standard ‘Kills People’
2. China Attacks U.S. on Debt Debate
3. Environmentalists Blamed for Deadly Bedbug Plague
4. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Commander to Head OPEC
5. U.S. Customs: 500,000 Troops Needed to Seal Border


1. Fuel Economy Standard ‘Kills People’

The Obama administration on July 29 announced a new fuel economy standard that requires automakers to boost their fleets’ miles per gallon by 5 percent a year until they reach 54.5 mpg by 2025.

The standard is designed to save thousands of dollars in fuel costs over the life of a vehicle, but critics say it will have another effect: a rise in motor vehicle deaths.

The president reportedly has secured agreements from General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Honda and Hyundai to raise the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) to 35.6 in 2016 and to the higher figure nine years later, although the standard will be reviewed in 2018.

To increase their vehicles’ fuel economy, automakers will have to reduce their weight.

“So prepare to say goodbye to sport utility vehicles, pickups and minivans, the very vehicles millions of American families and businesses must rely upon every day,” the Washington Examiner observed in an editorial.

“By far the worst result, however, will be the fact that thousands will die because Obama, fanatical Big Green environmentalists, and their allies in the federal bureaucracy care more about removing micro-amounts of emissions than they do about the safety and convenience of people on the roads.”

Sam Kazman, general counsel of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a nonprofit think tank, called CAFE “a regulation that, plain and simple, kills people.”

A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study in 2003 estimated that for every 100 pounds of weight removed from a car weighing under 3,000 pounds, the death rate rises more than 5 percent.

A study by the National Academy of Science found that lighter vehicles required to satisfy CAFE — which was first enacted in 1975 — were responsible for up to 2,600 highway deaths a year.

And data from the government’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System, analyzed by USA Today, concluded that 7,700 people died for every one additional mpg attributed to CAFE regulation.

The Examiner concludes: “If CAFE standards were produced by a public corporation or small business instead of the federal government, the families of those killed by the regulations would have a prima facie case for a class-action lawsuit.”

 


2. China Attacks U.S. on Debt Debate

The Chinese government’s official mouthpiece has published a commentary attacking the United States for its handling of the debt crisis.

The opinion piece published on Xinhua, the state-run news wire, chided the U.S. for its “debt addiction” and said it was “time for Washington to revisit the time-tested common sense that one should live within one’s means.”

The commentary went on to say that American politicians need to “conduct an in-depth self-examination” and decide how to “shake off electoral politics and get difficult jobs done more efficiently.”

The article also called the battle between Democrats and Republicans over how to resolve the debt ceiling crisis “dangerously irresponsible.”

The prospect of a U.S. debt default unnerved global investors because it would hobble the global economy and roil financial markets by raising bond yields and borrowing costs, a point stressed by Xinhua.

China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, with an estimated 60 to 70 percent of its $3.2 trillion foreign exchange reserves in American assets.

The Financial Times observed: “China has little choice but to continue investing in U.S. assets because no other market is big enough to support its purchases.”

 


3. Environmentalists Blamed for Deadly Bedbug Plague

Government policies on the use of pesticides have led to a resurgent population of bedbugs — including some that carry a deadly antibiotic-resistant germ.

Bedbugs had been almost completely eradicated in the United States for half a century through the use of the now-banned pesticide DDT, but their population has grown rapidly during the past decade, overwhelming hotels, hospitals, schools, and apartment buildings, according to a report from the Heartland Institute.

Canadian researchers have recently discovered bedbugs carrying methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). MRSA is a bacterial infection that is highly resistant to some antibiotics and can be deadly if it reaches the bloodstream.

H. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis, blames the bedbug resurgence on “poor policy decisions.”

He told Heartland Institute: “Most households have never seen a bedbug before now. But in the early 1970s, the government banned the pesticide DDT, and now we’re seeing bedbug infestations in European and North American cities.

“This is another legacy of Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring,’ the 1962 book credited with starting the environmental movement, leading to the ban of DDT.

“By banning DDT, we’ve killed people in developing countries through the spread of malaria. Now we’re subjecting the U.S. population to bedbugs and other pests and vermin.

“Government should lift the ban on DDT and other pesticides that are effective in treating pests like bedbugs.”

Angela Logomasini, director of risk and environmental policy with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agrees.

“We had eradicated bedbugs in the past, then we banned DDT for home use, and now they’re back. I think this policy needs to be reevaluated.”

She also said, “We need a better regulatory environment. Rather than removing products from the shelves, which is where we are today because of the precautionary principle, more evaluation and experimentation is needed.”

 


4. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Commander to Head OPEC

In what Iran is touting as a “blow to the West,” a senior official with the nation’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is taking over as the new head of the OPEC oil cartel.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad named as his oil minister Brig. Gen. Rostam Ghasemi, who heads Khatam al-Anbia (KAA), an industrial giant owned by the Revolutionary Guards, and he was approved by Iranian lawmakers on Wednesday.

Ghasemi’s position as oil minister means he will preside over OPEC meetings this year, because Iran holds the rotating presidency of the 12-country cartel.

KAA has been targeted for international sanctions for activities relating to Iran’s nuclear program, the Guardian reported.

Ghasemi himself was added to the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals whose assets are frozen. Ghasemi cannot do business with Americans.

A Revolutionary Guards spokesman called the approval of Ghasemi as oil minister “a meaningful and crucial response to the attacks against the Guards from the West’s media empire.”

And an Iranian lawmaker was quoted as saying a vote for Ghasemi would be a vote for Iran’s “history of resistance.”

Britain’s Telegraph observed that “the fate of world oil prices could rest in the hands of a man who has devoted his whole life to opposing the West. Oil prices are high enough as it is, and the prospect of Iran using oil prices to hold the world to ransom is something that should give all of us sleepless nights.”

OPEC’s 12 nations, including Saudi Arabia and Iraq, account for about 79 percent of the world’s crude oil reserves and 44 percent of world production.

In 1973, Arab members of OPEC placed an embargo on oil exports to the United States and Western Europe in response to the West’s resupply of Israel during the Yom Kippur War.


5. U.S. Customs: 500,000 Troops Needed to Seal Border

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin has essentially thrown in the towel on efforts to completely seal the U.S.-Mexican border, saying that would require up to half a million troops.

Speaking at an event sponsored by the Center for American Progress (CAP) on Thursday, Bersin said: “We would need on the order of about 400,000 or 500,000 border patrol agents to seal the border.”

Those agents would have to be stationed “25 yards” apart along the entire length of the border, he said, adding that Americans would not want to pay “the costs that would be involved.”

CAP immigration policy director Marshall Fitz said for “the average American, who doesn’t think a lot about this and considers the United States the most powerful country in the history of the world,” it might not seem “unrealistic to think that we could actually seal the border,” CNS News reported.

He said Congress’ passing of the Secure Fence Act of 2006 “suggests that that is viable,” but called that aim unrealistic.

Bersin said he favored “satisfactory” control of the border.

But he insisted that the border is safer than it ever has been, and a CAP report authored by Fitz was cited to back that assertion.

In the Tucson, Ariz., sector, which has the highest number of illegal crossings, 616,346 people were taken into custody in 2000, the report noted.

In 2010, “only” 212,202 were taken into custody.

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Wow, looks like NOBODY is happy in the wake of Standard & Poor's decision to finally lay the smack down on Red Barry's profligate ass.

House Speaker John Boehner:

This decision by S&P is the latest consequence of the out-of-control spending that has taken place in Washington for decades. The spending binge has resulted in job-destroying economic uncertainty and now threatens to send destructive ripple effects across our credit markets.

Republicans have listened to the voices of the American people and worked to bring the spending binge to a halt. We are no longer debating how much to spend, but rather how much to cut. Unfortunately, decades of reckless spending cannot be reversed immediately, especially when the Democrats who run Washington remain unwilling to make the tough choices required to put America on solid ground....

The administration and Democrats in Congress had sought an increase in the debt limit without any spending cuts or reforms. Republicans made clear the American people would not tolerate that and fought for the largest spending cuts possible. With the Budget Control Act, we made a positive first step toward reducing the debt, but much more must be done.

In May, I warned, ‘if we don't act boldly now, the markets will act for us very soon.’ It is my hope this wake-up call will convince Washington Democrats that they can no longer afford to tinker around the edges of our long-term debt problem. As S&P noted, reforming and preserving our entitlement programs is the ‘key to long-term fiscal sustainability.

Fat chance, Mr. Speaker.  At best, Dems are blind guides, hopelessly welded to their rancid, discredited, destructive, quasi-religion, unable to abandon it and unwilling to even consider trying.  To do so for them would be to commit ideological suicide, and that they will not do.  At worst, everything, to quote Emperor Palpatine, is unfolding according to plan.

Which makes the ChiComms' reaction most....intriguing:

China said Washington only had itself to blame and called for a new stable global reserve currency.

"The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone," China's official Xinhua news agency said in a harshly worded commentary....

China roundly condemned the United States for its "debt addiction" and "short sighted" political wrangling and said the world needed a new stable global reserve currency.

"China, the largest creditor of the world's sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China's dollar assets," the Xinhua commentary said.

It urged the United States to cut military and social welfare expenditure. It also said further credit downgrades would very likely undermine the world economic recovery and trigger new rounds of financial turmoil.

"International supervision over the issue of U.S. dollars should be introduced and a new, stable and secured global reserve currency may also be an option to avert a catastrophe caused by any single country," Xinhua said.

So now we're being lectured about fiscal responsibility by the world's largest remaining communist power, as well as a regime that is inflating its own funny-money currency like the Hindenburg in order to cover up its own collapsing economy.  Obamunist dreams really do come true.

Kind of reminds me of this glimpse of the future:

 

Gotta give Beijing credit; they figured out decades ago what the Soviets never did: the way to get leverage over a capitalist enemy isn't by trying to out-arm (and therefore out-spend) them, but by becoming their bankers.  And their kung fu is strong, indeed.  Not that The One needed any encouragement to shutter the Pentagon.

If there's any silver lining in this debacle, it's that this might mean his early exit to the ol' driving range:

The downgrade of the U.S.’s AAA credit rating by Standard & Poor’s darkens President Barack Obama’s re-election chances...

S&P’s move deals a blow to Obama’s political standing by giving Republican presidential candidates the chance to attack him for being the first U.S. president to preside over a downgrade, said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey....

Republican presidential candidates who were quick to jump on Obama following the downgrade included former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the frontrunner in most polls, and U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who voted against the deficit-reduction deal enacted this week that prompted the S&P downgrade.

“America’s creditworthiness just became the latest casualty” in Obama’s “failed record of leadership on the economy,” Romney said in a statement. The downgrade is “a deeply troubling indicator of our country’s decline under” the president, he said.

Bachmann said S&P’s action “is a historically significant and serious event for the United States.” Obama “has destroyed the credit rating of the United States through his failed economic policies and his inability to control government spending by raising the debt ceiling,” she said in a statement.

And the punchline?:

Obama, who left for the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland hours before the downgrade was made public, didn’t immediately issue a response.

Well, you know the old saying: He who cuts and runs away lives to demagogue another day.

Or perhaps this is his version of a victory lap.  After all, this is the crisis he's been waiting for.  Even if he can't escape the fallout, he can take solace in having accomplished his "transformative" mission.

Makes you wonder if he and Scherherazade and the girls found a "Mission Accomplished" banner waiting for them when they arrived.

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"China Fingered (in Massive Series of Cyber Attacks)"

What would Joanie Laurer say?  In this case, probably "ouch":

Experts are calling for greater Internet security measures in government in the wake of a massive wave of global cyber attacks that saw two Canadian government agencies' computer systems infiltrated by what experts suggest was an espionage operation.

A report by Internet security company McAfee said the attacks — which spanned at least five years — likely were perpetrated by a foreign government and could be very costly for Canadian firms competing in the global marketplace.

The report, released Wednesday, said that if even a fraction of the stolen data "is used to build better competing products or beat a competitor at a key negotiation . . . the loss represents a massive economic threat."...

The Canadian government was among 72 organizations, including the United Nations, U.S. government, defence contractors and other international companies, that were compromised, said the report.

Sure sounds like a ChiComm operation to me.  It's advanced, technically advanced, and so far under the radar the we're only discovering the Canadians had to discover it for us.

Shall we revisit the prophetic prognostications of Lev Navrozov?:

[L]et us recall that England became in the 17th century a strong military power due to its Industrial Revolution (spinning and weaving machines, Watt’s steam engine, the railway locomotive, and the factory system with its assembly lines). Arms that used explosives were called “firearms.” That was what war was like for about four centuries, including the past century: steel contraptions blasted out — by means of explosives — bullets, shells, bombs, etc., to kill enemy soldiers and destroy enemy installations.

Nano-weaponry makes it all as obsolete as firearms made bows obsolete in the 17th century....

All this may seem miraculous in 2008 just as firearms seemed miraculous in 1646. Yet the new epoch has come: The future world war will be a war of nano-weapons, not of firearms.

The advent of the epoch of firearms was fostered by the Industrial Revolution. There is no such nano-machinery revolution that would foster the production of nano-weaponry. My readers ask me where they can see nano-weapons as they can see firearms. Devoted to new weapons in all countries is the book Oblivion: America at the Brink by Lt. Col. Thomas Bearden (U.S. Army, retired). Bearden believes that the United States is “at the brink” in this respect. “If we are to survive, we shall need the most strenuous and rapid effort in our history, now.”

That quote was from....September 8th, 2008.  Makes Lieutenant Colonel Bearden's words almost tragic, doesn't it?

Ever see Terminator III: Rise of the Machines?  Think of General Brewster as Red Barry, and the ChiComms as Skynet.  The only question for the rest of us is whether we can make it to Crystal Peak in time.

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August 1, 2011

 

Eliminate the Mortgage Interest Deduction

Just 5.5 percent of tax returns filed by those making $20,000 to $30,000 used the mortgage interest deduction in 2009, with no significant tax savings...

REASON FOUNDATION

NHS Turns to Rationing

Two-thirds of health trusts in England are rationing treatments for "non-urgent" conditions as part of the drive to reduce costs by £20 billion ($32.9 billion) over the next four years...

INDEPENDENT (U.K.)

Higher Fuel Efficiency Standards Mean More Deadly Crashes

Lighter vehicles required to satisfy Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards were responsible for as many as 2,600 highway deaths in one year alone, according to a 2001 study...

WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Comparative Effectiveness Reviews

An expanded federal role in health care outlays will engender behavioral responses from the private sector driven by expectations of how comparative effectiveness findings will be used...

PACIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE

China's Soaring "Clean" Energy Sector

China's energy from nonhydro renewable sources grew by only 11.4 million tons of oil equivalent from 2000 to 2010, while its new energy supply from coal grew 976.4 million tons of oil equivalent...

ENTERPRISE BLOG



NCPA Blogs

John Goodman's
Health Policy Blog
The premier right-of-center health policy blog on
the Internet.

Bob McTeer's
Economic Policy Blog

Expert insights into economic growth and
monetary policy.

Retirement and Taxes: Reforms that Make "Cents"
Retirement reforms based on common sense.

Energy and Environment: Clearing the Air
Expert analysis on energy and environment issues.

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May 4, 2011

School Vouchers Work

D.C. Opportunities Scholarship voucher recipients had graduation rates of 91 percent, compared to the D.C. public school average of 56 percent...

WALL STREET JOURNAL

Inflation Rate in China Reaches Tipping Point

China's reported inflation rate on consumer goods rose to 5.4 percent in March, but its implied inflation rate is 8.4 percent, suggesting China is underreporting its inflation rate...

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

Technology Growth and Expenditure Growth in Health Care

Economic and political resistance in the United States to ever-rising tax rates will likely slow health care cost growth, with uncertain effects on technology growth...

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH

Control Spending Before Raising the Debt Limit

To put the United States on a path to financial responsibility Congress must cut current spending, restrict future spending and fix the budget process...

HERITAGE FOUNDATION

Green Energy in Spain

Since 2000 Spain has spent 571,138 euro ($848,202) to create each "green job"...

THE AMERICAN

April 26, 2011

Intercity Bus Makes a Comeback

The comeback of the intercity bus is noteworthy because it is taking place without government subsidies or as a result of efforts to promote energy efficient transportation...

NEW GEOGRAPHY/DEPAUL UNIVERSITY

Accountable Care Organizations Won't Deliver Better Health Care

Accountable care organizations will not only fail; they will most likely exacerbate the very problems they set out to fix...

HERITAGE FOUNDATION

Hold the Accolades on China's "Green Leap Forward"

China was responsible for half of the world's production of solar panels in 2010, but only 1 percent was installed there...

WASHINGTON POST

Who Owns the Fed?

The Fed's vaunted independence is a good thing, but independence trades off against accountability...

FREEMAN ONLINE

Health Reform and Medical Malpractice Reform

Why did the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act not emphasize malpractice reform as a more important component of health care reform?...

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

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April 21, 2011

Effect of High-Deductible Health Plans on Medically Vulnerable

The medically vulnerable enrolled in high-deductible health plans are at no more risk for cutting back on needed health care than others who enroll in the plans...

RAND CORPORATION

Natural Gas Will Fuel the Future

Natural gas will be a key fuel of the future...

MANHATTAN INSTITUTE

Are Democratic Presidents More Successful than Republican Presidents?

Party differences in economic performance are shown to be the effects of economic conditions inherited from the previous president...

UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO

"Great Garbage Patch" not so Great

There's no great mass of plastic bags the size of Texas; research has established that the reality is closer to 1 percent of the state's size...

REASON FOUNDATION

Look to China to Cut Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Emissions of what are considered the six main greenhouses gases fell 6.1 percent in 2009 from their 2008 levels...

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

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Friday, April 15, 2011

 

 

 

 

Feature: The Office of Personnel Management doesn't want the public to know that federal employees are counting hours spent on union activities as "official time."

FEATURED STORY: Taxpayers Are Footing Bill for Government Employee Union Activity

 

Federal employees are billing taxpayers for hours they spend on union activities, and the Obama administration is absolutely fine with that---as long as the American public doesn't find out. But this week in The Washington Times, Vincent Vernuccio called attention to Obama's "union welfare program" and the administration's attempts to cover things up. Yesterday Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) cited CEI's efforts to investigate this issue during a House Oversight Committee hearing on state budgets and public debts. Watch the clip here.

 

 

SHAPING THE DEBATE

 

Why Does Capitalism Enjoy So Little Support From Politicians?

Fred Smith's op-ed in Forbes

 

An Alternative to California Proposal to Tax E-Commerce

Jessica Melugin's op-ed in The San Jose Mercury News

 

What Should Lawmakers Do About Rogue Websites? (Video)

Ryan Radia's participation in a CEI-hosted panel discussion

 

Competition in the Railroad Industry

Marc Scribner's submitted comments before the Surface Transportation Board

 

Still Burning Witches at the FCC?

Wayne Crews' column in Forbes

 

Google Cleared for ITA Purchase

Wayne Crews' citation in The Boston Globe

 

The Obama Tax Hike Machete

John Berlau's op-ed in The American Spectator

 

China Bans Time Travel

Kathryn Ciano's op-ed in The Daily Caller

 

A Tale of Two Bridges

Vincent Vernuccio's op-ed in The American Spectator

 

Dodd-Frank Durbin Amendment Shifts Costs to Consumers

John Berlau's op-ed in NewsMax

 

 

                     

                                        

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March 31, 2011

Entitlements Are Bankrupting the Federal Government

By 2050, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid alone will consume 18.4 percent of gross domestic product...

CATO INSTITUTE

Which Type of Grocery Bag Is Best?

Studies show the traditional, thin plastic bag has better environmental performance and is likely to be considerably safer for human health...

THE AMERICAN

Using Generic Drugs Could Save Medicaid Millions

Medicaid programs overspent by $329 million as a result of underutilization of less costly generic prescription drugs...

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

Trade with China Is Good for the United States

Exports to China in 2010 jumped 30 percent from the year before, increasing far faster than exports to the rest of the world...

CATO INSTITUTE

Ethanol Policies Leading to Higher Food Prices

In 2001 only 7 percent of U.S. corn went to ethanol; by 2010, ethanol's share was 39.4 percent...

HEARTLAND INSTITUTE

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