UN Set to Declare Terrorist State

The UN today is threatening to declare a Palestininian State which would be ruled by Fatah and Hamas criminals..
Israel and the US and other countries will be voting against the proposal.
The vote is occurring 8 days awfter Israel retaliated againgst Hamas gangsters who were firing barrages of missles against civilian targets in Israel.
Hillary Clinton said the path to a solution which pits the entire Arab world against the tiny state of Israel is through "Jerusalem" not New York.
The US has threatened to withold aid to the criminals in Ramallah if the gang's efforts are successful.

Does the world really need another Rogue Arab state?

--
Michael

Iran Re-Arming Criminals in Gaza

Isaeli intelligence satellites have spied the loading of rockets and other material in Iran believed to be destined for the Gaza Strip, The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday, November 25. According to a report in the U.K.-based Sunday Times, Iran began preparing the weapons shipment around the same time Israel and Hamas negotiated a ceasefire late last week. The shipment is said to include Iranian-made Fajr-5 medium-range rockets, the same model that was fired toward Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during Operation Pillar of Defense.

Ryan Plan Would Use Medicare Cuts To Pay for Tax Reduction for the Rich

In posts about the Ryan pick, I’ve argued that if we in the commentariat and the media get this right, the American electorate could have a salutary debate on the role of government. But, I stressed, that’s a big “if.”

We particularly need an eagle-eyed media to cut through the inaccurate and misleading stances that show up with increasing frequency around this time.

A classic, for example, is the one I talked about with Rachel Maddow last night: the claim that President Obama is “destroying Medicare” by reducing its growth rate to the tune of $700 billion in the Affordable Care Act.

Rep Ryan has precisely the same cut in his budget. The difference is what they do with the savings. As I noted on Rachel, the ACA uses those savings to cover the uninsured, along with these other services, noted by Jon Cohn:

Obamacare puts the money back into the pockets of people who need help with their medical bills. A portion of the money is earmarked for children and non-elderly Americans, who, starting in 2014, will become eligible for Medicaid or receive tax credits to offset the cost of private insurance. A smaller, but still significant, portion of the money is for seniors. It helps them pay for prescription drugs, by filling the “donut hole” in Medicare Par D coverage. It also eliminates out-of-pocket costs for annual wellness visits, some cancer screenings, and other preventative services. Those benefits have actually started already: In the first six months of this year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, more than 16 million seniors took advantage of the free preventative care provision.

I also found this piece to be an excellent review of the issue, stressing a very important dimension of the ACA’s Medicare savings:

None of these reductions were financed by cuts to Medicare enrollees’ eligibility or benefits; benefits were improved in the ACA. Cuts were focused on hospitals, health insurers, home health, and other providers. Except for insurers, all the affected groups publicly supported the reductions to help finance the ACA’s expansion in health insurance to about 32 million uninsured Americans.

This is in stark contrast to the Ryan proposed cuts, supported by House Republicans, which are largely used to lower taxes on the most affluent.

Finally, remember that these and other measures in the ACA actually extend the life of the Medicare HI trust fund and reduce its budget shortfall by a factor of five (see the last section of Paul’s piece here, the part on Medicare not going bankrupt).

What we have here is stark proof that it’s going to take real vigilance to have the discussion we need to have in this country about the role of government in our lives—in this case, in the lives of retirees who depend on guaranteed benefits under Medicare.

On the Economy / By Jared Bernstein

Paul Ryan, What a Bold Pick!

Paul Ryan, what a bold pick!

Just when Romney was being labeled as a wimp, he boldly chose Paul Ryan as his running mate.

This was bold on many levels.

Paul Ryan has vowed to end Medicare for seniors.

So Romney has boldly alienated the one group of people he still had some popularity with, that is, old white men.

Ryan said that his main political influence was atheist Ayn Rand.

Here Romney alienated the religious voters who weren't already alienated by his being a religious cult member.

You’ve heard them on television and read them on POLITICO — cheerful, defiant statements from Republican political professionals about Mitt Romney’s bold masterstroke in tapping Paul Ryan as his running mate, and turning the 2012 presidential race into a serious, far-reaching debate about budgets and the nation’s future.Don’t buy it.

Paul Ryan has zero foreign policy or national security experience. Romney also has no experience in that area. This is the least qualified foreign policy/national security ticket in the modern era. Neither has ever specialized in these concerns nor has either one ever served in the military. Nothing here. Nada. There is no comparison to any other ticket in the last 60 years. You probably have to go back to Stevenson/Sparkman in 1952 in terms of qualifications and even Stevenson had more experience than these two.

Paul Ryan has zero administrative or business experience. He has served seven terms as a US Rep. and has never run anything larger than a congressional office. He has not even run a think tank or something. Nor has he ever worked in the private sector.

This would not be a huge problem (see Obama, Barack) if his ticket mate had not spent the last several years claiming that a president or potential president must have that experience and arguing at times that any president should have worked at least 3 years in the private sector. That line of argument is no longer available to Romney.

Paul Ryan is particularly horrible with women's issues. He opposes abortion in all circumstances, making no exception for rape and/or incest. He supports the Sanctity of Life Amendment, which draws the line so early as to outlaw some forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization. He opposed the Lily Ledbetter Act on fair pay for women and, needless to say, supports every effort that would shove lesbians back into every closet. Single women, a huge problem for Republicans, are likely to run screaming from this ticket.

 Paul Ryan is a consummate Washington insider. He is a member of the most despised Congress in history and he is the favorite Republican for a certain, small class of centrist Beltway pundits. He has only made a living as a congressional aide, as a "consultant" for his family firm, or as a Congressman. Rhetorically, his selection means that Romney can no longer run as the outsider (if he ever could) or, at least, against Washington. This ticket is the least popular part of Washington.
Yes, this was a bold pick, but stupid.

President Obama said, “I'm glad he’s in the race, I welcome him.”

I don't doubt that.

I think every Democratic Party member welcomes Ryan into the race.

Wasn't Darth Vader available?