Author: Personal Liberty

02.02.10 07:00 AM

Four men have been arrested and charged by the FBI with trying to wiretap the phones in the New Orleans office of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu, according to media reports.

Identified as James O’Keefe, Stan Dai, Robert Flanagan and Joseph Basel, all in their 20s, the men are known for their GOP ties. O’Keefe gained notoriety last year for making undercover videos of the liberal community-organizing group ACORN.

On January 25, the four allegedly attempted to gain access to Landrieu’s office while posing as telephone repairmen, and the event has already been dubbed "Louisiana’s Watergate."

"The individuals responsible have been charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purposes of committing a felony," Landrieu stated.

She added, "I am as interested as everyone else about their motives and purpose, which I hope will become clear as the investigation moves forward."

On account of some of the men’s ties to Republican Senator David Vitter, the latter has been called upon to denounce their actions, but the lawmaker refused, citing pending investigation.

"We’re blessed with an extremely competent U.S. attorney’s office in New Orleans, and I know they’ll handle this as aggressively as they have other serious cases," according to his official statement.

The men posted a $10,000 unsecured bond and were released. Their next court date is expected to be on February 12, CNN reported.

If convicted, the men would each face a possible maximum penalty of a $250,000 fine and 10 years in prison.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…fice-19591070/

02.02.10 07:00 AM

Last Wednesday’s State of the Union speech was more than an hour long, but President Obama devoted only one sentence to immigration, promising to fix a "broken" system by securing borders and enforcing the laws. For both opponents and proponents of immigration, this was not nearly enough.

In a commentary written for CNN, Ruben Navarrette Jr. stated that he was "disappointed" that Obama did not lay a more detailed plan for a comprehensive immigration reform that would give illegal immigrants a chance to regulate their status and would define the role of guest workers.

However, Navarette acknowledged that immigration reform "was always going to be an especially tough issue for Democrats since it splits the liberal coalition with Latinos on one side and organized labor on the other."

Meanwhile, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a conservative group, has attacked the president for putting emphasis on the need to create jobs while disregarding the fact that some 8 million jobs are currently held by illegal immigrants that could go to U.S. citizens.

"These jobs could be immediately transferred to American workers if the administration were to vigorously enforce laws against employers who hire illegal aliens and remove those workers from the country," said Dan Stein, president of FAIR.

Stein also chastised the government for allegedly abandoning worksite enforcement efforts.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…ress-19588378/

02.01.10 07:01 PM

South Carolina’s lieutenant governor Andre Bauer, a Republican, has been heavily criticized for his remarks in which he compared welfare recipients to stray animals and called on the state to stop providing welfare services to them.

At a town hall meeting last week, Bauer said, “My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.” (Reported by Greenville News)

Democratic State Senator Vincent Sheheen has called the remarks "immoral," and said he felt "disgusted."

"They show an unbelievable lack of compassion toward the unemployed workers in our state who are hurting during these hard times," Sheheen stated.

As the criticism mounted, the lieutenant governor took to the airwaves to salvage his image. In an interview with CNN, he stated that he regretted his comments, saying "I wish I had used a different metaphor."

However, Bauer went on to say that he would like to see "the culture of dependency" created by government assistance come to an end, as it takes away the incentive to be responsible.

"If some of these people who are currently on welfare were put to work you wouldn’t have an immigration problem," he said, quoted by the news source. "The welfare system is so entrenched that nobody wants to do manual labor jobs."

Bauer is running for governor to replace the incumbent Mark Sanford who has been involved in a sex scandal.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…arks-19579635/

02.01.10 07:01 PM

During his first State of the Union address on Jan. 27, President Obama said he will push for overturning the ban on openly gay people serving in the military. But his former rival John McCain criticized the proposal.

Obama called for abolishing the 1993 "don’t ask, don’t tell" law, saying that "this year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are."

The president’s words echoed his campaign promises from 2008, although he came under criticism from gay rights groups during his first year in office for not pushing the issue. In fact, many were not satisfied with last night’s reference, either, as Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said that "the next time the president speaks about our community, we expect him to provide a concrete blueprint."

On the other end of the opinion spectrum, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he believed the law should remain in place.

"At a time when our armed forces are fighting and sacrificing on the battlefield, now is not the time to abandon the policy," he told reporters after the speech.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…tell-19585101/

02.01.10 07:41 AM

http://www.personalliberty.com/featu…or-terrorists/

01.28.10 07:01 PM

On the heels of shocking losses in traditionally liberal states, many Democrats have begun to question the strategy behind negative political campaigns that compare Republican challengers to former President George W. Bush, Politico.com reports.

Democratic nominees for governor in New Jersey and Virginia and for the Senate in Massachusetts, all ran smear campaigns that compared their opponents to the former president. All three Republican candidates upset their liberal counterparts.

"Voters are pretty tired of the blame game," said Democratic strategist Steve Hildebrand, a top aide on Obama’s presidential campaign, quoted by the news source. "What a stupid strategy that was."

Meanwhile, Obama, who ran a successful presidential campaign criticizing then-President Bush, has continued to point blame at the previous administration more than a year into his first term.

Fox News reports that Obama and his top advisors have negatively mentioned the Bush administration seven different times since last week’s upset in the Massachusetts Senate election.

"The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office," Obama said last week. "People are angry, and they’re frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years."

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…2010-19577137/

01.28.10 07:01 PM

*Tiger replaced by a… frog? Accenture, one of Tiger Woods’ major sponsors, announced that the golfing legend would be replaced in their future advertising by a surfboard-riding elephant, a leapfrogging frog and other computer-generated animals. This time their $50 million annual budget will be spent on images they can control. Can’t say I blame them.

*Does that include a private jet? The Wall Street Journal ran a feature last week on how much it would cost to nab a seat at this year’s Super Bowl. In their research, bidding site eBay.com scored both the cheapest resale (still a hefty $1,750) and the most expensive package—a private box whose “buy now” price was a staggering $373,750. And no, it did not include transportation to the game by a private jet.

*Even the IRS commissioner needs help. This shouldn’t surprise you, but in a recent interview, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Douglas Shulman says he doesn’t even try to fill out his own tax return. “I find the tax code complex,” Shulman said. When asked why he didn’t help make the tax laws less complex, the commissioner put the blame on Congress. “I don’t write the tax laws,” he replied.

*Barack Obama’s populist pandering. No doubt the president’s promise to “tax those darned banks” will get the support of many voters. But consider: Many of his targets, such as HSBC, never took any bailout funds. Others, such as Wells Fargo, only accepted because they were forced to… and paid back every penny as soon as they could. Of course, such political favorites as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the auto companies—which were the largest recipients of government funds—will be exempt from the special tax.

—Chip Wood

http://www.personalliberty.com/chip-…ial-pandering/

01.27.10 07:01 PM

Although Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is thought to have enough backers to easily pass the Senate confirmation vote, recent reports suggest that support may be eroding, even among liberal Democrats.

Last week, media reported that prominent Senators Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) confirmed they would not cast their vote for Bernanke, who was nominated for the second term by President Obama last summer.

Boxer stated that her reservations were due to Bernanke’s "lead role in crafting the Bush administration’s economic policies, which led to the current economic crisis." Feingold added that the financial excesses of recent years, including predatory mortgage lending, happened on the current chairman’s watch.

However, this morning a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)said the House’s top Democrat hoped to hold the confirmation vote this week, according to Benzinga.com, a financial information website.

In addition, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted that Bernanke will have bipartisan support, although he declined to say whether he would vote in favor.

Uncertainty over Bernanke’s confirmation unnerved investors last week and helped contribute to the worst three-day slide for U.S. stocks since last March.

The chairman’s term ends on Jan. 31.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…inty-19577032/

01.27.10 07:01 PM

After one of his most trying weeks in office President Obama decided to re-hire his 2008 presidential campaign manager David Plouffe in an effort to retain as many Democratic congressional seats as possible in the upcoming elections.

Although many have speculated that the decision to bring Plouffe back was made in response to the Democrats’ stunning loss in the recent special Senate election in Massachusetts, Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod said on Sunday that the move had been planned for some time.

During his first day on the job, Plouffe delivered a defiant message, signaling an aggressive change in tone for the current administration and the Democratic Party as a whole.

"Instead of fearing what may happen, let’s prove that we have more than just the brains to govern—that we have the guts to govern," Plouffe wrote in an op-ed article for The Washington Post.

"Let’s fight like hell, not because we want to preserve our status, but because we sincerely believe too many everyday Americans will continue to lose if Republicans and special interests win," he added.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…rity-19576975/

01.27.10 07:01 PM

United States stock markets have just come off of their worst decade ever, with inflation-adjusted returns in the S&P 500 dropping as much as 30 percent. That’s a far cry from what investors were expecting at the turn of the millennium. Then, the Internet was creating paper billionaires overnight.

Fast forward 10 years and Nasdaq is still 40 percent below its peak. In addition, the Pew Research Center just designated the past decade as the “worst in 50 years.”

But, just as there was a technology bubble in 2000, today there is also a strong “pessimism bubble” about the U.S. economy over the coming decade. And like all bubbles, this one will eventually pop—as will the rising China bubble. Understanding this is the key to ensuring you don’t end up like investors who have spent the last decade waiting for Cisco to “get back up to $80.”

Rarely has the global stature of the U.S. been lower than it is today. A recent Washington Post/ABC poll found that 61 percent of the American people think the U.S. is in long-term decline. In another poll, 44 percent of Americans said that China was the top economic dog in the world, compared with only 27 percent favoring the U.S.

Much of the investment world holds the same opinion. In fact, the world’s top hedge fund managers are piling into gold, betting billions that the U.S. dollar is toast. Meanwhile, 17 percent of the U.S. workforce is unemployed, underemployed or has stopped looking for work.

And that’s music to the ears of contrarian investors.

Contrarian Trade #1: Buy American
After the financial meltdown of 2008, the greatest contrarian trade in the world became a bet on the U.S. But that’s exactly what I’m doing by shifting my own money and my clients assets back into the U.S.

First, investment is a game of expectations. Or as Bill Browder, formerly the largest investor in Russia, pointed out, Russia doesn’t have to turn into Switzerland for him make money. It just has to turn out better than people expect. In 1998, an investor I met in Russia said that he’d rather eat nuclear waste than invest in Russia. Yet, had he invested there, he’d have made 60x his money, just as Browder and his investors did.

Second, having lived abroad since 1991 has only strengthened my conviction that the global economy largely runs on U.S.-generated ideas. (This is not, as you can imagine, a popular position). The American Academy of Sciences estimates that 85 percent of economic growth in the U.S. is now produced by new ideas. In 2007, companies that were founded by entrepreneurs backed by venture capitalists provided 10.4 million American jobs and generated $2.3 trillion in revenues. That’s equal to the gross domestic product (GDP) of France.

Nowhere is the power of ideas more evident than in the case of decidedly unsexy U.S. manufacturing. On one hand, the media bewails that the American manufacturing workforce has shrunk by more than 40 percent since its peak in 1979, with 6 million of those job losses taking place over the last decade. But thanks to innovation and advances in technology, U.S. manufacturing output per worker recently hit an eye-popping $234,220 for each of that sector’s 11.6 million workers. Workers today produce twice as much manufacturing output as their counterparts did 20 years ago and three times as much as in the early 1980s. The U.S. steel industry—left for dead in the 1980s—produces more steel today than it did 30 years ago.

Contrarian Trade #2: Sell China
If there is one surefire way to make quick money in financial markets, it’s to bet on bubbles popping. Noted value-investor John Templeton made his first fortune over a 40-year period by betting on the rise of Japan. He made a bigger and quicker fortune by betting on the dotcom bust in 1999. I believe we are smack dab in the middle of a “pessimism bubble” about the U.S., much like the bubble about Japan 20 years ago, the Internet 10 years ago and China today.

Twenty years ago last month, Japan’s Nikkei index reached its historic peak of 38,916. In 1989, Japan was No. 1, as U.S. business school students pored over Japanese language texts and studied Japanese management techniques. A mere decade later Japan had been long forgotten and the world was in the midst of another frenzied bubble called the “New Economy.” Today, Japan and the Internet have been supplanted by the “China Miracle.”

Everywhere you look you see serious experts earnestly predicting the decline of the U.S. and the rise of China. And they will give you incredibly cogent, well-argued reasons for why you should listen to them. Many of these arguments I agree with myself. But the next time you read predictions about what the world will look like in 10 years, consider this. The most widely recommended stocks 10 years ago were America Online, Cisco Systems, Qualcomm, MCI WorldCom, Nortel, Lucent Technology and Texas Instruments. MCI WorldCom and Nortel went bankrupt. And if you invested in a portfolio of the others that survived, you’d have lost about two-thirds of your money. If the fates of Japan and Internet stocks are any guide, a similar fate awaits your “China strategy.”

Unlike many of those pundits who are so certain about what the world will look like in 2020, I never took that class on how to predict the future, naively opting for a course on Japanese joint ventures instead. But the two themes I’d bet on over the coming decade are to buy the U.S. and to sell China.

For the sake of my financial future, I hope you disagree.

http://www.personalliberty.com/perso…coming-decade/

01.26.10 07:01 PM

President Obama will deliver his much anticipated State of the Union address tonight. Experts believe that this year’s speech will be especially vital for the popularity of the current administration as it has introduced a surplus of legislation that has been heavily criticized by conservative leaders.

In his address to Congress, Obama will most likely touch on the healthcare bill, the cap-and-trade environmental plan, the proposed fee on banks that were bailed out by the government and several foreign policy issues including the closing of Guantanamo Bay and the unrest in the Middle East, according to Fox News.

"He is a president who has laid out an agenda much more specifically than previous presidents, which has gotten him into trouble because it’s a broad agenda," said Brookings Institute scholar Stephen Hess, quoted by the news source.

"He has a lot of pieces that have to be reconciled and it will be noted if any of them [are] not mentioned" in the speech, he added.

Democratic leaders in Congress set the State of the Union address as a third timeline to pass the healthcare reform bill. It is still unclear whether that goal will be accomplished.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…port-19566689/

01.26.10 07:01 PM

The Supreme Court ruled on Jan. 21 that campaign finance laws should be relaxed to reflect constitutional rights to free speech. However, the decision was strongly criticized by liberal politicians, and even John McCain expressed his disapproval.

The ruling in Citizens v. Federal Election Commission eases the limits on corporate campaign donations, in practice allowing businesses, unions and advocacy groups to air political ads, according to media reports.

Justice Anthony Kennedy explained that the decision reflects the majority’s belief that government’s regulation of who provides information to citizens violates the First Amendment.

However, Representative Steve Kagen (D-Wis.) said the ruling is "an affront" to his constituents and added that "people have constitutional rights, not corporations," quoted by Green Bay Press Gazette.

Top Democratic leaders in Washington have also expressed their dismay, warning that the ruling will cause corporate money to flood politics, create greater corruption and erode democracy and free elections by promoting special interests.

Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Tim Kaine confirmed the administration is preparing a "forceful response" to the Supreme Court’s decision that he said "must not be allowed to stand."

Meanwhile, Senator John McCain, (R-Ariz.), declared himself disappointed with the ruling that weakens the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 he co-sponsored.

The act banned unregulated contributions to national political parties, outlawed advocacy ads in the 60 days before an election, limited contributions and required donor disclosure.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…nted-19574277/

01.25.10 07:01 PM

We don’t know why, but poor health information surrounds us everywhere. Some of it is just down right lies. And the general public has no way of knowing if what they hear, read or see is authentic or bogus.

Is it the media sensationalizing information for a “compelling story?” Is it government agencies in cahoots with some industry looking to quash the competition? What if it’s the companies themselves misrepresenting their goods? Then again, it could be simple ignorance.

I’d like to share an item with you that recently came to my attention. A patient of mine told me about an article on acupuncture she had read in a major newspaper. She said that the article was positive toward acupuncture and mentioned that it is very effective for certain diseases. It also noted that acupuncture was being taken seriously by physicians of Western medicine—and many were now studying it. So far, so good.

But the article went on to say that given the trials conducted by these M.D.s, the only thing important to acupuncture was the insertion of the needles—anywhere on the body! So according to their reports, patients got better by mere virtue of a needle or needles being inserted into their bodies at random locations.

Ridiculous!

This is not the first time I have heard such claims made by physicians trying to dismiss 3,000 years of Chinese medical history, case studies and theory. It’s their way of saying Chinese medicine is not only childlike but its efficacy is based solely on the placebo effect. This was the understanding I walked away with years ago after seeing a documentary on the subject hosted by Alan Alda.

In this documentary, a physician treated a patient with an illness using a single acupuncture point. The patient felt better. The next week the same patient was treated using a different acupuncture point. Again, the patient felt better. And I remember thinking, “Of course the patient feels better. Both points selected are indicated for her problem.” But the show’s message was: acupuncture must work on the placebo principle since both points worked.

The theory of Chinese medicine is based on relationships in the body between organs, fluids, oxygen, thoughts, etc. And since there are many causes for any given disease and many associated signs and symptoms, to be truly effective the acupuncturist must select acu-points that address not only the main problem, but also the symptoms and secondary problems.

Thus, one could use the “horary” acu-point for that time—the point in the body holding the most qi (energy) for the current time period. Or, they could select the “master point” for the particular problem. Or a combination of points on different meridian channels to make an energetic current in the body. And so on.

So we practitioners say, “Of course many points work for any given illness. They are supposed to! But to get rid of the problem or alleviate the pain for the long term, the correct points must be selected and sequenced. Otherwise, acupuncture becomes a symptom-chasing method of masking problems in the short term. And this is not its domain.

Furthermore, the idea that a needle inserted into the body at any location and at any depth will heal the body is ludicrous. And here’s why.

Acupuncture is a science based on understanding etiology and pathogenesis of disease and the flow of qi (vital energy) in meridians (pathways) and specific location of points on those meridians. Proper depth of needle insertion must also be mastered as well as precise location of insertion. If the needle misses the exact location of an acu-point, the patient will not experience the “arrival of qi.” With no arrival of qi, there is no curative effect. If you miss the point but stay on the actual meridian channel, you will still receive an effect, but not as strongly as if you were to hit the point and channel concurrently. If you insert the needle too far you can puncture an organ or artery. If too shallow, you miss the channel and fail to activate the energy.

This theory and energy anatomy is so important that students of Chinese medicine spend years memorizing and training to locate point accurately, to needle them precisely. Moreover, acupuncturists become intimately familiar with several hundred different points, their effective uses en solo and in combination with others, and their contraindications. If these practices are not adhered to, patients would either fail to get better or they could get much worse.

And so the idea of inserting needles into the body at random to cure any illness or disease is pure fantasy. I’ve had patients tell me they went to another practitioner for their sinus problems, but felt no different after a dozen treatments. After one of my treatments, their sinuses were already draining. They ask me how this is possible when the same points were used by both of us. The answer: the former practitioner missed the points, even by a fraction in any direction, or by incorrect depth of needle insertion.

Acupuncture points are each named and numbered and indicated for specific problems. This is based on thousands of years of clinical experience and millions of case studies. And any acupuncturist will tell you that using points for stomachache will not help neuropathy; that points for acne will not help knee pain.

Thus, inserting needles at random locations to cure anything and everything becomes a non-issue. It is simply a false statement. If it was true, and I wish it were, then everyone who ever went to an acupuncturist would already be cured of all of their health problems. And each time you got a splinter, your body would suddenly be free of disease. For every bee sting, you would have one less arthritic joint.

So we are left with the problem of the media presenting to the public information on health that is bogus, misinformed and potentially hazardous. But is it the fault of the media to sensationalize a story by making it bipartisan? Or is the establishment offering the information and queering it for their benefit?

While the public has no real way of knowing, it is probably safe to assume both parties are at fault. In the end we can only take responsibility for our own health decisions. So if you are considering trying something for your health that is out of the mainstream, do as much research as you can, visit centers, talk to other patients, interview practitioners. Don’t rely on reports by opposing organizations or sensationalized media presentations. They’re only looking to push an agenda or make ratings.

—Dr. Mark Wiley

http://www.personalliberty.com/healt…h-information/

01.25.10 07:01 PM

A newly released public opinion survey suggests that if Sarah Palin decided to run for president in two and a half years, she would not only have to go against the wishes of the majority of Democrats. Chances are, she would also run into trouble convincing her fellow Republicans to offer support.

The CBS News Poll, released on January 19, showed that 71 percent of respondents opposed a potential White House bid by the former Republican vice presidential candidate, and only 21 percent supported a similar plan.

Even among self-identified Republicans, as many as 56 percent said they did not like the idea of the former Alaska governor running for president in 2012. On the opposite side of the political spectrum, a staggering 90 percent of Democrats expressed the same opinion.

Palin’s popularity figures have remained low, as well, as the survey found that 41 percent of Americans have a negative view of her as a politician, and only 26 percent approve of her performance.

The results came despite the release by the former McCain running mate of her best-selling memoir last November, and after she started a new job as a Fox News commentator. Palin is also scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the National Tea Party convention in Nashville, Tenn., in early February.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…lans-19569053/

01.24.10 07:01 PM

A recent study has found that adding fish oil to intravenous (IV) solutions may be beneficial for intensive care patients with the life-threatening blood infection known as sepsis, which is caused by an overwhelming immune response to infection.

Researchers at the University of Southampton in England followed 13 patients who received a fish oil supplement with their IV solution and 10 respondents who only received the traditional nutrient solution.

The study found that patients who had received fish oil had better lung function, lower levels of chemicals in their blood and a shorter stay in the hospital.

"This is the first study of this particular fish oil solution in septic patients in the ICU," said researcher Philip Calder in news reports. "The positive results are important since they indicate that the use of such an emulsion in this group of patients will improve clinical outcomes, in comparison with the standard mix."

Cader added that traditional solutions do not contain omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil and may actually promote inflammation rather than reduce it.

Seperate research has found that a high intake of omega-3s can help lower the risk of age-related macular degeneration, heart disease and chronic kidney disorders.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…psis-19566508/