http://www.drudge.com/user/tonyroma New links and comments. en-us http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Wordzilla/0.58 10 http://www.drudge.com/news/125403/anti-acorn-bill-may-defund-defense http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/22/whoops-anti-acorn-bill-ro_n_294949.html Ryan Grim---The congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN, passed with broad bipartisan support, is written so broadly that it applies to "any organization" that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. It also applies to any of the employees, contractors or other folks affiliated with a group charged with any of those things. In other words, the bill could plausibly defund the entire military-industrial complex. Whoops. <p><p> Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) picked up on the legislative overreach and asked the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to sift through its database to find which contractors might be caught in the ACORN net. <p>Lockheed Martin and Northrop Gumman both popped up quickly, with 20 fraud cases between them, and the longer list is a Who's Who of weapons manufacturers and defense contractors. POGO is reaching out to its members to identify other companies who have engaged in the type of misconduct that would make them ineligible for federal funds. <p> Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:31:37 -0400 tonyroma http://www.drudge.com/news/125403/anti-acorn-bill-may-defund-defense#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.125403 discussion, 0.5 daily 125403 http://www.drudge.com/news/124523/cap-whos-blame-current-us-deficits http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/08/deficit_numbers.html The real story is... fairly obvious. The policies of the Bush administration, which included tax cuts during a time of war and a floundering economy, are clearly the primary source of the current deficits. The Obama administration policies that are beginning to give the economy a needed jumpstartthe American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in particularplace a distant third in contributing to the 2009 and 2010 deficit numbers. The deficit picture for the years beyond still needs to be painted. It should be said that the generally worse deficit numbers reported today aren't all that surprising. Since the last projections in May, it's been plain that this recession has been worse than most analysts thought. With a weak economy comes lower tax revenue and higher safety net expenditureswith the loss in tax revenue causing the lion's share of the deficit problem. The effects of a deeper recession have a long-lasting impact. Even as growth is restored, it is growth from a reduced starting pointa smaller economy in 2009 usually means a smaller economy than previously predicted for several years hence. <p>Encouragingly, there have been signs of late that the administration's policies to end the recession are starting to take hold. Without such efforts, the picture would be much gloomier, particularly in the short term. One piece of good news is that the government is no longer expecting to spend another $250 billion rescuing financial institutions through the Troubled Assets Relief Programwhich explains the improved deficit picture for 2009. And the projections for deficits in future years would be far more pessimistic if the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act policies were not starting to get traction. Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:25:37 -0400 tonyroma http://www.drudge.com/news/124523/cap-whos-blame-current-us-deficits#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.124523 discussion, 0.5 daily 124523 http://www.drudge.com/news/124333/most-outrageous-us-lies-global http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/08/18/the_most_outrageous_us_lies_about_global_healthcare Annie Lowrey, Michael Wilkerson; Foreign Policy Magazine----As the U.S. Congress holds its first serious health-care reform debate since the Clinton era, the resulting public furor has featured increasingly overheated claims about everything from so-called "death panels" to the supposed prowess of America's homegrown medicine. Many of the most <b><i>wildly inaccurate</i></b> statements have been directed abroad -- sometimes at the United States' closest allies, such as Britain and Canada, and often at the best health-care systems in the world. 1. The lie: Stephen Hawking (who has Lou Gehrig's disease) and U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (who has brain cancer) would not receive treatment in Britain, which has a government-run health-care system.... <p>2. The lie: Canada's government-run health care is so bad that needy patients need to pay for care in the United States.... <p>3. The lie: European countries all have long-standing single-payer systems -- which is why their health-care systems work..... <p>4. The lie: In Canada and Britain, individuals lose the right to make their own health-care choices.... <p>5. The lie: The United States has the best health care in the world.... <p> Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:34:20 -0400 tonyroma http://www.drudge.com/news/124333/most-outrageous-us-lies-global#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.124333 discussion, 0.5 daily 124333