tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35191802009-11-12T21:25:59.000-05:00Comments and Links from a history and civics teacher in Raleigh, NC. e-mail betsynewmark @ att.netBetsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.comBlogger5000125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-8262368041371189322009-11-12T08:51:00.005-05:002009-11-12T09:10:04.813-05:00

The trend continues of local journalists digging into the numbers provided by the White House of how many jobs the stimulus provided and finding the numbers full of holes. The Boston Globe has found strongly inflated numbers for Massachusetts.While Massachusetts recipients of federal stimulus money collectively report 12,374 jobs saved or created, a Globe review shows that number is wildly

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-73004565089731554292009-11-12T08:36:00.004-05:002009-11-12T16:41:02.147-05:00

The WSJ has the story of a union election in California where there are allegations of the SEIU committing substantial fraud. The election was over whether a breakaway union of health care workers would win a vote among home health care workers for their union NUHW vs the SEIU-affiliated union, UHW. The allegations come from a former UHW worker who is telling tales of how he violated state and

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-28745901634138383902009-11-11T15:20:00.004-05:002009-11-11T15:32:09.260-05:00

Matt Welch has a hilarious post on what he calls the "Richard Hofstadter Drinking Game." The reference is to the 20th century historian who achieved everlasting fame among liberals by writing about "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" which he found in 19th century populist movements as well among conservatives of the Cold War era. "[T]he G.O.P. has been taken over by the people it used to

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-4658958579289299112009-11-11T14:37:00.002-05:002009-11-11T14:45:52.138-05:00

I've long thought that most reporting doesn't come from reporters wearing out their metaphorical shoe leather but from their receiving leaks from self-interested figures in politics and the bureaucracy. Ben Smith reveals how true this is when he tells how he got a little scooplette about John Edwards paying $400 for a haircut. It turns out that that little bit of bad PR for Edwards was fed him

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-56438760838505532612009-11-11T12:10:00.001-05:002009-11-11T12:12:10.354-05:00

Here are some videos that will make you smile and cry: dogs welcoming their owners home from Iraq and Afghanistan. And if that doesn't start you smiling through the tears, watch the last one.

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-28954089519680469732009-11-11T09:13:00.002-05:002009-11-11T09:16:53.874-05:00

David Ignatius makes an important point in his Veterans Day column today. In the aftermath of the Fort Hood shootings, some commentaries have examined the damage to the U.S. Army from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few have spoken about the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, as an extreme version of what can happen with an overstressed force.This picture of a traumatized military is

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-26943705156416933012009-11-11T09:01:00.003-05:002009-11-11T09:06:34.794-05:00

Jim Geraghty links to this little tidbit from New Jersey. Apparently, the Corzine administration was so hubristic to to be certain that he would be reelected that they never budgeted money for a potential transition to a new governor.Gov.-elect Chris Christie stopped by the Jim Gearhart show on 101.5 FM radio and dropped a bomb: There are no transition funds. He told the morning radio legend:

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-64900748464970722922009-11-11T08:33:00.002-05:002009-11-11T08:47:01.570-05:00

It's no surprise that Barack Obama's short video message for the fall of the Berlin Wall festivities should include a celebration of himself. Remember his wife saying that the first time she was proud of her country was when it started supporting her husband. After all, this is a man whose pride in America has long been tied to his own personal success. As he said in the 2004 Democratic

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-6387160177254052752009-11-11T08:21:00.002-05:002009-11-11T08:28:34.056-05:00

Remember when HMOs were the bright idea that was going to lower medical costs? It turned out that people didn't like having to go to one doctor to ask for referrals for all their other treatments. Well, the PelosiCare bill passed last weekend has a similar construct for Medicare recipients. Betsy McCaughey explains,• Sec. 1302 (pp. 672-692) moves Medicare from a fee-for-service payment system,

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-73084795387650029892009-11-11T07:48:00.002-05:002009-11-11T07:54:09.065-05:00

One Raleigh area middle school has come up with a novel way to increase funds raised to help the school. Give a student extra credit for bringing in $20.Selling candy didn't raise much money last year, so a Goldsboro middle school is selling grades.A $20 donation to Rosewood Middle School will get a student 20 test points - 10 extra points on two tests of the student's choosing. That could raise

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-40160517452065741012009-11-11T07:13:00.001-05:002009-11-11T07:34:23.553-05:00

Here is a depressing analysis.By one measure, the government already plays an outsize role in our so-called free-market economy--and it has little to do with the recession. Economist Gary Shilling has calculated that 58 percent of the population is dependent on the government for "major parts of their income," including teachers, soldiers, bureaucrats, and other government employees; welfare and

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-49337820131881220222009-11-10T06:49:00.002-05:002009-11-10T06:54:40.173-05:00

Big Government highlights this video from Halloween. The children from military families, White House staff, and D.C. families were invited to the White House to trick or treat. I thought it was a very nice idea. However, Code Pink thought it was a great opportunity to parade in front of the little children dressed as the ghouls and ghosts of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Observe the

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-8441852953697000332009-11-10T06:37:00.003-05:002009-11-10T06:49:34.306-05:00

It was just a few years ago when the Supreme Court decided that "cruel and unusual punishment" included the execution of someone who committed a crime a few months short of his 18th birthday. Now the question before the Court is whether or not it would be cruel and unusual to sentence someone to a lifetime sentence for a crime committed before the 18th birthday. Few states have such provisions,

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-46861953746363537932009-11-10T05:59:00.003-05:002009-11-10T05:59:00.816-05:00

Anne Applebaum has a very perceptive comment on all the celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Despite all the problems that there have been for the former East Germans and the other inhabitants of the Soviet bloc countries since the end of the Soviet Union, they are still doing so much better than might have been expected 20 years ago. And nothing about that progress was predictable. But

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-19957051533728428722009-11-09T19:45:00.003-05:002009-11-09T20:11:14.060-05:00

Remember how New London, CT thought it was so crucial to take over private property including Susette Kelo's perfectly fine home in order to give the land to Pfizer who would build a plant and presumably employ people in the area. The result was the notorious Kelo v. the City of New London case that set the precedent that a municipality could use eminent domain to take property from one private

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-74185111890598415162009-11-09T19:20:00.004-05:002009-11-09T20:16:48.091-05:00

Remember this?Here is the President speaking on September 9 before a joint session of Congress:And one more misunderstanding I want to clear up – under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.Sounds pretty definite, doesn't it?Yet, here is the President's press spokesman today.When asked whether the president supported Rep.

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-23713911514126361022009-11-09T07:33:00.004-05:002009-11-09T07:38:59.348-05:00

Brian Riedl asks the natural and important question about the close to $800 billion stimulus bill? What could that money otherwise have been spent?Those dissecting the White House claim that the $200 billion spent on the stimulus has created or saved 650,000 jobs have focused on the arithmetical errors in counting the hirings. They are ignoring a much more fundamental issue. Before Congress

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-57691297337283609012009-11-09T06:55:00.004-05:002009-11-09T07:54:59.062-05:00

There comes a point in a child's life when they realize that their parent's resources aren't limitless and there are just some things that Mommy and Daddy can't afford to buy them. Most of us learn that lesson when very young. Some still seem oblivious to the fact that the United States just doesn't have the money to pay for everyone's health care insurance. Fred Hiatt explains, Here is the

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-79249801392112921402009-11-09T06:45:00.002-05:002009-11-09T06:53:58.837-05:00

It's no surprise that the Democrats have tucked all sorts of little bonuses for the labor unions into the almost 2000 pages of the health care bill recently passed. It's all part of the quid pro quo that they have going with the unions. The unions spend millions and send out their myrmidons to work to elect Democrats. And then the Democrats turn around and reward them. Kevin Mooney summarizes

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-51499753129116982962009-11-09T06:39:00.003-05:002009-11-09T06:44:44.872-05:00

Thomas Sowell tries to explicate for the Democrats who don't seem to understand that government can't wave a wand and make health care costs suddenly come down. There is a fundamental difference between reducing costs and simply shifting costs around, like a pea in a shell game at a carnival. Costs are not reduced simply because you pay less at a doctor's office and more in taxes-- or more in

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-84676125070633358652009-11-09T06:16:00.003-05:002009-11-09T06:25:13.141-05:00

As we commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall, we should take time to reflect on why it fell and what it symbolized. The WSJ expresses it well today.Yet if the West's stand in Berlin demonstrates anything, it is that moral commitments have a way of reaping strategic dividends over time. By ordering the airlift in 1948, Harry Truman saved a starving city and defied Soviet bullying. As importantly

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-76390742340759037032009-11-06T07:21:00.003-05:002009-11-06T07:31:27.570-05:00

While we pause from the wall-to-wall coverage of the "war within the Republican Party," we can pause to notice that there is a little internecine conflict over on the left. Byron York reports that Moveon.org has raised money to target Democratic moderates. They should acknowledge what the Republicans are starting to learn. Certain districts aren't ideologically one way or the other. The only

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-44513030824058293222009-11-06T06:38:00.003-05:002009-11-06T15:53:41.005-05:00

Liberals have long been crowing about a political realignment from Republican to Democrat that was heralded by Obama's victory in 2008. As Charles Krauthammer argues today, that was a myth and the pendulum is swinging back. In the aftermath of last year's Obama sweep, we heard endlessly about its fundamental, revolutionary, transformational nature. How it was ushering in an FDR-like realignment

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-83569134940496237862009-11-06T06:22:00.002-05:002009-11-06T06:32:13.100-05:00

My heart goes out to the families and friends of the victims of the Fort Hood shooting yesterday. I keep thinking of the families so happy to have their soldiers home and then for this to happen.What strikes me is how much of the original reporting was wrong on this story. Just follow the automatic updates that Allahpundit put up yesterday and see how much of the original story facts were just

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3519180.post-66117126585861067112009-11-05T07:42:00.002-05:002009-11-05T07:48:07.666-05:00

How bad can Guantanamo be for the prisoners if some would rather stay there than be transferred to "supermax" facilities in the United States?Since 2005 an Arab American cultural adviser, who for security reasons is identified only by the name of Zak, has been employed at Guantánamo to liaise with detainees.He said that some detainees would rather stay put than go on trial in the US, where they

Betsy Newmarknoreply@blogger.com2