The Nation Blog
by Katrina vanden Heuvel
12/27/09
Are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan creating a domestic terrorist threat? The potential disaster of a Nigerian man attempting to blow up a US airliner on Christmas day forces us to confront the question. … What is needed now are not partisan fights about whether the Obama Administration was doing enough to guard against terrorist attacks in the wake of shootings last month at Fort Hood, Texas. Instead, we should question whether our overreaction to the crimes against humanity on 9/11 — including the creation of an endless ‘war’ against terrorism — has done more to undermine our security than enhance it...
http://tinyurl.com/ya2qscr
Who’s to blame for the massive deficit?
Cato Institute
by Daniel J. Mitchell
12/29/09
Some Republicans … complain that Obama tripled the budget deficit in his first year. This assertion is understandable, since the deficit jumped from about $450 billion in 2008 to $1.4 trillion in 2009. As this chart illustrates, with the Bush years in green, it appears as if Obama’s policies have led to an explosion of debt. But there is one rather important detail that makes a big difference. The chart is based on the assumption that the current administration should be blamed for the 2009 fiscal year...
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11094
Fiscal irresponsibility
Intellectual Conservative
by Steven D. Laib
12/27/09
Years ago when I lived in California my office had a significant consumer bankruptcy practice. Along the way I did a lot of client counseling and learned a significant amount about how people got themselves into financial problems. Generally it started with spending well beyond their means in order to impress others. Then things started to go wrong and they weren’t able to make the monthly payments. They started borrowing from other people, or transferring balances between credit cards, and eventually had no recourse other than to call it quits and start over again. The United States of America is heading down the same path. Meanwhile, despite government claims to the contrary the economy continues to fail and tax revenues decline with it. This makes the situation worse, and the only medicine Washington is willing to prescribe is more taxes and more government spending. It seems that they are intent on killing, rather than healing the patient...
http://tinyurl.com/ychggsg
America’s decade of decline
The American Conservative
by Patrick J. Buchanan
12/28/09
According to the International Monetary Fund, the United States began the century producing 32 percent of the world’s gross domestic product. We ended the decade producing 24 percent. No nation in modern history, save for the late Soviet Union, has seen so precipitous a decline in relative power in a single decade. The United States began the century with a budget surplus. We ended with a deficit of 10 percent of gross domestic product, which will be repeated in 2010. Where the economy was at full employment in 2000, 10 percent of the labor force is out of work today and another 7 percent is underemployed or has given up looking for a job...
http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2009/12/28/americas-decade-of-decline/
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=IMF
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=budget+deficit
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=endless+war
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Global+War+on+Terror
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=domestic+terrorism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=terrorist+attack
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=9/11
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Katrina+vanden+Heuvel
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Daniel+J.+Mitchell
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Patrick+J.+Buchanan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Steven+D.+Laib
