Daily Links, January 4

Bond crisis on the way?
With strong Christmas sales and the Stock Market surging to a two-year high, talk is spreading that the long-awaited recovery is at hand. But gleaning the news from Europe and Asia as U.S. cities, states and the Federal Government sink into Debt, it is difficult to believe a worldwide Financial Crisis that hammers governments, banks and bondholders alike can be long averted. Consider. Fitch and Moody's have just downgraded the debt of Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Hungary. In Budapest, the poli...

Shattering Leftist Myths
Posted by Walter Williams on Jan 5th, 2011 and filed under Daily Mailer, FrontPage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. So many statements we accept as true, plausible or beyond question; but are they? Let’s look at a couple of important ones: Global Warming and U.S. Manufacturing decline. In 2000, Dr. David Viner of University of East Anglia’s disgraced Climatic Research Unit ...

Outcry over FDA withdrawal of anti-cancer drug Avastin
Christie Bowen awoke early one morning and couldn't figure out how to walk or get dressed. She began having seizures as her husband helped her downstairs so they could drive to a Hospital near their Windsor, Vt., home. Doctors there told her husband the Breast Cancer she had been diagnosed with three years earlier might have spread to her brain. She went by ambulance to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, a half-hour away in Lebanon, N.H., where a neurologist quickly diagnosed her. Cancer hadn't...

Another Day, Another Death Panel Smear
This column is a collaboration between KHN and The New Republic. I respect honest disagreements about policy. You think Health Care reform is a bad idea? That it will run up the Deficit or make it harder to find a doctor? I think you're wrong, but that's a reasonable debate and I'm happy to have it, just as long as you're truthful about what you are arguing and make some good faith effort to learn the facts. Often, though, the noisiest voices in the Health Care reform debate don't do those thin...

They're not above lying
THEY'RE NOT ABOVE LYING.... When it comes to the fight over Health Care, the political world could have had a great debate. Serious people had an opportunity to explore in detail how to improve a dysfunctional system, what should be expected of the government and the electorate, what reform could mean to The Economy and the nation's global competitiveness, etc. That never happened, of course. Opponents instead brought frequent, shameless, and practically pathological lies to the table. It's ha...

Barack Obama Is Against Raising The Debt Ceiling
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s Debt Limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s Debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifti...

U.S. National Debt Tops $14 Trillion Dollars
Yesterday, the U.S. Nation Debt clock rolled over and topped the $14 Trillion dollar mark! A great way to start the new year as the 112th Congress prepares to be sworn in today and face many serious economic decisions. Not the least of which is further increasing the Debt Ceiling which currently stands at $14.3 Trillion dollars. While some analysts believe the nation’s ‘Credit Card’ will cover the country’s Deficit spending until April, others, including myself, warn tha...

News bites: Pace of mine safety probe faulted, a conservative scientist who fears climate change, oil prices threaten the econom
The Obama Administration is facing criticism over its Probe of last year’s fatal blast at a West Virginia coal mine. “Mine-safety officials are coming under increasing fire for failing to provide status reports on their investigation into the accident last April that killed 29 Coal Miners at a Massey Energy Co. mine, and for letting months pass without any update to family members,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “Lawmakers are demanding an end date for the investigation from the

Wikileaks: US cables show Turkey backing Ahmadinejad as flexible but overruled by hardline mullahs
The latest release from Wikileaks shows a US diplomatic assessment of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 that concluded the Iranian president sincerely wanted a Nuclear Fuel swap deal with the West, but that his hardliner bosses in the mullahcracy considered it a “virtual defeat” and scotched the deal.  CBS also reports from the leaked assessment that the US believes Iran trusts the Great Satan more than its trading partner in Russia to adhere to the terms of any deal reached: Iranian Pr...

California Got What It Wanted
For a fascinating juxtaposition, recall that one of the photos in the “Once Upon a Time in Afghanistan” article at Foreign Policy we linked to earlier today features a handsome mid-century concrete hydroelectric dam, and is captioned: “Sarobi hydro-power plant on Kabul River is one of the country’s foremost power stations.” With German assistance, Afghanistan built its first large hydropower station, pictured here, in the early 1950s. At the time, it was state of...

Commission Lets 36 States Dump Nuclear Waste In Texas
HOUSTON — A Texas commission approved rules on Tuesday that pave the way for 36 states to export low-level Radioactive Waste to a remote landfill along the Texas-New Mexico border. The 5-2 vote by the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Commission came after last-minute legal maneuvering on Monday failed to delay the meeting, Environmentalists warned the dump would pollute groundwater and more than 5,000 people commented on the plan. The expansion stokes the debate over where – and if &nda...;

US, Chinese companies partner in solar plant
BEIJING (AP) - A U.S. company said Wednesday it wants to start construction this year in China of one of the world's biggest solar Power Plants after forming a partnership with a major state-owned utility company. First Solar Inc. announced plans in 2009 for the facility in northern China's Inner Mongolia region. The company said it hoped to break ground in mid-2010 but a pre-feasibility study was not approved until September and Regulators delayed approval of higher payment rates for solar-gen...

US, Chinese companies partner in solar plant
BEIJING (AP) — A U.S. company said Wednesday it wants to start construction this year in China of one of the world’s biggest solar Power Plants after forming a partnership with a major state-owned utility company. First Solar Inc. announced plans in 2009 for the facility in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region. The company said it hoped to break ground in mid-2010 but a pre-feasibility study was not approved until September and Regulators delayed approval of higher payment ra...

First Solar, Chinese Company Partner In Massive Solar Plant
Beijing — A U.S. company said Wednesday it wants to start construction this year in China of one of the world's biggest solar Power Plants after forming a partnership with a major state-owned utility company. First Solar Inc. announced plans in 2009 for the facility in northern China's Inner Mongolia region. The company said it hoped to break ground in mid-2010 but a pre-feasibility study was not approved until September and Regulators delayed approval of higher payment rates for solar-gener...

US, Chinese companies partner in solar plant
A U.S. company said Wednesday it wants to start construction this year in China of one of the world's biggest solar Power Plants after forming a partnership with a major state-owned utility company. First Solar Inc. announced plans in 2009 for the facility in northern China's Inner Mongolia region. The company said it hoped to break ground in mid-2010 but a pre-feasibility study was not approved until September and Regulators delayed approval of higher payment rates for solar-generated power. Ch...

Clearing the Browser Tabs Happy Birthday Professor Tolkien Wednesday Edition
I do not know how this slipped past me, but Monday was the eleventy-ninth birthday of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.I have a special love for Tolkien’s works, since his tales of Hobbits and Middle Earth kindled in me at a fairly young age a love for reading that I’ve never managed to lose. I found a couple little treats: audio clips of Tolkien reading his own work. It’s a shame no one thought to get a recording of him reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I’d shell ou...

Darrell Issa: Step Away From the Corporations
Remember “freedom fries”? That’s what the House Republicans, when they were last in the majority, renamed French Fries, after France refused to support the invasion of Iraq. It seems like renaming fries might be just about the extent of food Regulation that some in Congress are willing to support. The new Republican majority threatens a barrage of investigations. California Republican Darrell Issa is the new chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Issa ...

Bayer AG seeks EU approval for new blood thinner
Germany's Bayer AG says it has submitted an application seeking authorization to sell its new anti-clotting drug Rivaroxaban within the European Union. The company said Wednesday it is seeking approval from the European Medicines Agency to sell the blood thinner to prevent strokes in people with a common heart rhythm problem and treat deep vein thrombosis. Rivaroxaban is being developed by Bayer Healthcare and U.S. pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, based in New Brunswick, New Jersey....

Political Quote of the Day
From former Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go.”A little context from Fox Nation: The numbers tell a different story. When the Pelosi Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007, the National Debt stood at $8,670,596,242,973.04. The last day of the 111th Congress and Pelosi’s Speakership on December 22, 2010 the National Debt was $13,858,529,371,601.09 - a roughly $5.2 Trillion increase in j...

Pelosi: Hey, we were all about deficit reduction!
When a leader leaves an organization, or at least leadership of it, one expects a rather rosy take on the leader’s stewardship of it. But come on: Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go. Fox makes sure everyone understands the context: When the Pelosi Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007, the National Debt stood at $8,670,596,242,973.04. The last day of the 111th Congress and Pelosi’s Speakership on December 22, 2010 the ...

House budget chief wants concessions over debt (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The incoming Republican Budget chief in the U.S. House of Representatives said he will demand spending concessions from the Obama Administration in exchange for any rise in the National Debt ceiling. Paul Ryan, who takes over as chairman of the House Budget Committee as the new Congress convenes on Wednesday, said Republicans could seek to impose caps and other spending limits to control the impact of any rise in the government's $14.3 Trillion borrowing li...

Nancy Pelosis biggest lie yet
The former Speaker of the House speaks lies, Speaker Pelosi Leaves With a Whopper At her final Press Conference as House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, “Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go.” The numbers tell a different story. When the Pelosi Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007, the National Debt stood at $8,670,596,242,973.04. The last day of the 111th Congress and Pelosi’s Speakership on December 22, 2010 ...

Dont raise the debt ceiling
Daniel Foster at NRO Corner thinks Republicans will get a great bargain in exchange for raising the ceiling on the National Debt — which just hit $14 Trillion. That’s the on-the-books figure, by the way. From Daniel Foster: “Unlikely as it may seem at the moment, I’m becoming more and more convinced that congressional Republicans can get a lot — in terms of Spending Cuts, entitlement reforms, and the like — in exchange for agreeing to raise the federal Debt ceiling at s

Bill O'Reilly: Nobody will bail out America if our economy collapses (video)
"ObamaCare is a powerful divide between Conservatives and liberals," acknowledged O'Reilly on Talking Points Commentary. O'Reilly spoke of the emotional investment many Americans have in the Repeal  of the federal Health Care takeover. Symbolizing all that is wrong with America, many consider Obamacare an outrageous assault on the Free Market place by an intrusive government as well as  a curtailing of individual freedom. Since the Democrats have controlled Congress, National Debt has ...

Quote of the DayNancy Pelosis final lie edition
Seriously, this is just a shameless lie.  Nancy Pelosi at her final news conference as Speaker of the House summing up the House’s priorities under he leadership: "Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go." No. It hasn’t. When the Pelosi Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007, the National Debt stood at $8,670,596,242,973.04. The last day of the 111th Congress and Pelosi’s Speakership on December 22, 2010 the n...