Our #1 story exposes the truth about crony political capitalism where the politicians get to write the rules and then use the loopholes they’ve written to get rich. #2 reminds us of a 2008 promise by Obama to reduce the deficit while #3 talks about all the scandals in the Obama Administration that the liberal media tries to ignore. Article #4 looks at the buildup of Democrats who have decided not to run again and what they signifies. Finally #5 looks at how the age old statement, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” has landed us with more and more fat people.
1. Polrony Capitalism (Politician Capitalism)
… The customary watchdogs having remained asleep, we need to rely on independents. Chief among these in Peter Schweizer, whose latest book Throw Them All Out (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011) gives us the clearest picture we've yet had of the activities of the new crony class….
….Though Schweizer makes an honest attempt to remain bipartisan, THE BOOK IS DOMINATED BY MEMBERS OF A CERTAIN POLITICAL PARTY THE NAME OF WHICH I WILL NOT MENTION BUT WHICH IS RUN BY POLITICIANS NAMED KERRY, DURBIN, AND PELOSI AMONG OTHERS.
JOHN KERRY specializes in using advance information on upcoming bills to make investments, which Schweizer correctly characterizes as a form of insider trading. During the ObamaCare debate of 2009 Kerry invested $200,000 in the healthcare company ResMed, the value of which shot up over 70%, a tidy little windfall even to a man married into one of the richest families in the United States. At the same time, ObamaCare cut Medicare reimbursements, so Kerry dumped all his shares in United Health, a medical insurance company deeply dependent on Medicare. Kerry, it seems, didn't have to pass the bill to know what was in it.
(JOHN BOEHNER also played this little game, though not a shiftily as Kerry, actually waiting until the debate was over to purchase, in December 2009, stock in several large health-related companies.)
DICK DURBIN attended the now-famous September 2008 meetings in which Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke warned members of Congress of imminent and universal financial collapse. He immediately unloaded large chunks of his stock holdings. A natural reaction; he was a little panicky at the time. You'd do it too.
"WE DESPISE PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES WHO BET ON THEIR OWN GAMES." SCHWEIZER TELLS US. "WHY DON'T WE FEEL THE SAME WAY ABOUT POLITICIANS WHO BET ON THE OUTCOME OF LEGISLATION?"
Another tool of corruption is the IPO (which, according to Schweizer, means "Invest in Politicians Often"). Companies about to go public invite certain strategically-placed politicians to make the first purchases in the offering, before the stockbrokers or anyone else. You can't really call it a payoff.
NANCY PELOSI is a particularly avid IPO fan. She and her husband made an incredibly large purchase of the Visa IPO amounting to 10% of their stock portfolio, raking off nearly a 50% profit on the original purchase in only two days. (Nancy Pelosi also had a station built on a light rail line in San Francisco near one of her office buildings. Real estate manipulation is yet another tool of the privileged class.)…
Crony Capitalism is a problem but Politician Capitalism is worse. It’s easy to use loopholes when you get to write them.
2. Obama: Three years ago promised a Net Spending Cut
During the 3rd presidential debate, President Obama said "There is no doubt that we've been living beyond our means and we're going to have to make some adjustments. NOW, WHAT I'VE DONE THROUGHOUT THIS CAMPAIGN IS TO PROPOSE A NET SPENDING CUT."
You can watch what BHO had to say about it at the link provided.
3. The Year in Obama Scandals -- and Scandal Deniers
With 2011 drawing to a close, it is time to account. As an early-and-often chronicler of Chicago-on-the-Potomac, I am amazed at the stubborn and clingy persistence of President Barack Obama's snowblowers in the media. SEE NO SCANDAL, HEAR NO SCANDAL, SPEAK NO SCANDAL.
Dartmouth College professor Brendan Nyhan asserted in May — while Operation Fast and Furious subpoenas were flying on Capitol Hill — that "one of the least remarked upon aspects of the Obama presidency has been the lack of scandals." Conveniently, he defines scandal as a "widespread elite perception of wrongdoing."
So as long as left-wing Ivy League scribes refuse to perceive something to be a scandal — never mind the actual suffering endured by the family of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, whose death came at the hands of a Mexican cartel thug wielding a Fast and Furious gun walked across the southern border under Attorney General Eric Holder's watch — there is no scandal!
Self-serving much?
Mother Jones' Kevin Drum likewise proclaimed: "Obama's presidency has so far been almost completely free of scandal."
This after the year kicked off in January with the departure of lying eco-radical czar Carol Browner. IN BACKROOM NEGOTIATIONS, SHE INFAMOUSLY BULLIED AUTO EXECS TO "PUT NOTHING IN WRITING, EVER." THE PREVIOUS FALL, THE WHITE HOUSE'S OWN OIL SPILL PANEL HAD SINGLED OUT BROWNER FOR MISLEADING THE PUBLIC ABOUT THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE FOR THE ADMINISTRATION'S DRACONIAN DRILLING MORATORIUM AND "CONTRIBUTING TO THE PERCEPTION THAT THE GOVERNMENT'S FINDINGS WERE MORE EXACT THAN THEY ACTUALLY WERE."
The Interior Department inspector general and federal judges likewise blasted drilling ban book-cooking by Browner and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who falsely rewrote the White House drilling ban report to doctor the Obama-appointed panel's own overwhelming scientific objections to the job-killing edict….
The Obama Administration is a scandal.
4. The Democratic Nine
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) caused a bit of a stir when he announced he was not seeking re-election. Frank, a high-visibility member of Congress for more than 30 years, is in one of the safest Democratic districts in the nation. Yet he is not alone: there are several other Barney Franks fleeing the 112th Congress. EIGHT OTHER VETERAN HOUSE DEMOCRATS WHO RESIDE IN SAFE CONGRESSIONAL SEATS ARE THROWING IN THE TOWEL.
The problem isn’t merely in the House. Just this week, U.S. Senator Ben Nelson from Nebraska announced he won’t seek re-election this coming November. NELSON IS ONE OF SEVEN SENATE DEMOCRATS WHO HAVE DECIDED TO “VOLUNTARILY” RETIRE AHEAD OF THE 2012 ELECTIONS. This is a repeat of the 2010 elections when a flood of Democrats decided to retire rather than face certain defeat.
The retirement of rank-and-file Democrats is an especially bad sign for the Democrats if they have any hope of retaking the U.S. House. THE NINE HOUSE RETIREMENTS ARE EVEN MORE NOTABLE BECAUSE EACH RANKS HIGH IN SENIORITY FOR KEY HOUSE COMMITTEES — if the House returned to Democratic rule, they would be in line to assume chairmanships. Chairmanships are great perks, offering hideaway offices in the Capitol building and less restrained power and authority. Voluntarily walking away from Hill leadership is uncommon: House members can sit for twenty years on the Hill and never get close to a chairmanship.
To Democratic Party faithful, the nine retiring congressmen present a dramatic picture of the HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT DEMOCRATS ARE FACING AS THE 2012 ELECTION BEGINS. Some of the retirees had easily won re-election with 60-70% majorities. Their stampede for the exit is yet another admission that THE DEMOCRATS FACE A POTENTIAL “WAVE” ELECTION, AND OF COURSE, IT PORTENDS CONSIDERABLE TROUBLE FOR BARACK OBAMA….
There’s a lot of news recently about Obama’s rise in the polls. While he has risen in the polls from the low forties to the mid-forties, it still is a bad sign for the Democrats. Right now the Republicans and the Democrats are putting out ads against the Republicans. When the election gets nearer, those ads will be split.
5. More Bad Advice from Uncle Sam
…THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE'S (USDA) DIETARY GUIDELINES ARE THE GOLD STANDARD FOR HEALTHY EATING, ACCORDING TO MOST EXPERTS. The problem is that these recommendations promote a low-fat, calorie-restricted diet based on grains like bread and rice. These kinds of foods consist almost entirely of carbohydrates. When you digest carbohydrates, they are converted into sugar in your bloodstream, the same sugar found in ice cream, soda, potato chips, and all the other junk foods most people would recognize as unhealthy. Since high blood sugar is toxic, your body produces a hormone called insulin to bring it down to a reasonable level. The trouble with this, however, is that insulin brings down your blood sugar by converting it to fat and sending it into your fat cells to be stored. There are many problems with this process.
When people eat a high-carbohydrate diet like this, not only do they unintentionally avoid the fats and proteins their BODIES NEED TO PROPERLY FUNCTION, BUT THEY “STARVE AT THE CELLULAR LEVEL,” AS DR. MICHAEL EADES PUTS IT, BECAUSE WHAT THEY ARE EATING IS STORED AS FAT AND DOESN'T PROVIDE THE ENERGY THEY NEED. The result over time is a steady increase in body weight. And as health writer and documentary film maker Tom Naughton explains, it shouldn't be surprising that “... THE RISE IN OBESITY BEGAN AROUND THE SAME TIME THE SO-CALLED EXPERTS BEGAN TELLING EVERYONE TO CUT BACK ON FAT AND EAT MORE CARBOHYDRATES.”
Human evolution offers some interesting insights as well. While many experts today express skepticism when writers like Eades or Naughton suggest that low-carbohydrate diets can improve our health, those are the sorts of diets humans have maintained for most of our existence. And like the increase in obesity, rates of heart disease didn't shoot up until the push in the middle of the 20th century to remove saturated fat from our diets; the reason being that HUMANS HAVE NOT EVOLVED TO THRIVE ON GRAINS.
Overeating, little exercise, and poor parenting certainly have a role in all this, but in light of the above information, that role is not as significant as we have been told. PEOPLE OVER-EAT NOT BECAUSE THEY LACK SELF CONTROL, BUT BECAUSE THEY'VE BEEN TOLD TO EAT A DIET THAT PROMOTES HUNGER…
I blame PETA as well. But this gives you a good idea of why Mom was right when she told us to eat everything in moderation.
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