The Dems Want Eurosocialism Really? -- Europe 75 Years Behind US

The Association of European Chambers of Commerce in Brussels warned that the transatlantic gap had widened yet further in the past five years by all key measures, despite the pledge by EU leaders at the 2000 Lisbon summit to transform Europe into the world's "most dynamic knowledge-based economy" by the end of the decade.

The EU-wide umbrella group, known as Eurochambres said the EU's overall employment rate was still stuck at levels attained by the United States in 1978, chiefly due to an incentive structure that discourages women from working and prompts early retirement by those in their fifties.

It found that the European Union's research and development levels were achieved by America as long ago as 1979, while the lag time on per capita income is 18 years.

"It will take the EU until 2072 to reach US levels of income per capita, and then only if the EU income growth exceeds that of the US by 0.5pc," the study said.

Christopher Leitl, the president of Eurochambers, urged EU leaders to grasp the nettle of reform at their spring summit this month, or face economic death. "It is a question of survival," he said.

DKK

Telegraph UK -- Europe 'needs 75 years' to catch US

Final Word On Coercive Interrogation

General Michael Hayden on Fox News Special Report.:

"A significant fraction of our knowledge of al Qaeda came from," the coercive interrogation techniques used in the early days following 9/11.

He also stated that those techniques were deemed legal by our government, including the informed leaders of both parties in congress but since then changes in the law and court rulings have restricted the use of these techniques.

That statement confirmed the comments of George Tenant and Michael Scheurer on O'Reilly.

While it is true that sometimes the prisoner will lie and provide false information that confuses amateurs in the movies, but today's effective, coordinated, trained, and experienced investigation team understands and uses that knowledge as part of a coordinated effort to ferret out the truth. I've heard that even the lies can confirm suspect information.

Can we put this canard to rest now or will we have to wait until Bush is no longer President and it is illegal to be a national defense conservative.
DKK

How Would Kennedy Be Treated Under Liberal Health Policy?

Problem is, governments that promise to "cover everyone" always wind up cutting corners simply to save money. People with Kennedy's condition are dying or dead as a result.
(...)

Temodar has been widely used in this country since the FDA approved it in 2000. But a British health-care rationing agency, the National Institute for Comparative Effectiveness, ruled that, while the drug helps people live longer, it wasn't worth the money - and denied coverage for it.

Barack Obama - and other Democrats - have been pushing a Senate bill to set up a similar US "review board" for Medicare and any future government health-care plan.

After denying this treatment completely for seven years, the NICE (did whoever named it intend the irony?) relented - partly. Even today, only a handful of Brits with brain tumors can get Temodar.

And if you want to pay for Temodar out of your own pocket, the British system forces you to pay for all of your cancer care - about $30,000 a month.

Things are no different in Canada, where the wait for an MRI (once you finally get a referral) has grown to 10 weeks. For Canadians relying on their government health care, the average wait time from diagnosis of cancer to surgery is beyond the guideline set by both the US and European societies for surgical oncology.

And HealthCanada, the government system, similar refuses to pay for treatments that are often covered in America.

Chad Curley, a 37-year-old auto worker from Windsor, Ontario, had a brain tumor like Kennedy's but can't have surgery because his is too large to be operable.

His tumor didn't respond to Temodar and the same doctors now treating Sen. Kennedy told him and his wife that the Avastin combination could stop his tumor from growing and add months to his life. But HealthCanada wouldn't pay to use Avastin to treat his tumor.

Chad's family and friends scraped together the $5,000 for the first round of treatment in mid-November; they later saw Chad's left-side paralysis start to subside. But the money ran out - and he died on Feb. 21.

In pushing for government-run health care, liberals are pushing for a system where only the Ted Kennedys of the world can get cutting-edge - and life-saving - care.

DKK

NYPost -- How 'Liberal' Care Would Kill Ted

For an Educated Man Obama Sure Does Gets History Wrong Alot!

John Bolton rips into Obama's understanding of history in the LA Times prompting this from Drew at Ace of Spades:

Allow me to offer some unsolicited advice to the McCain campaign…I know you want to do the whole Maverick thing and Democrats really hate Bolton but the thing is, conservatives love him. Announce he will be a part of your administration and I guarantee a lot more conservatives will swallow hard and support you.

Consider it a threefer….you’ll get a lot of wavering conservatives to support you with some degree of enthusiasm, this appointment will enable you to pull a lot more Maverick shit in other areas while keeping conservative support and oh yeah, it’ll be good for the country.

DKK

Drew at Ace Of Spades HQ -- The Moustache Speaks…And It Doesn’t Think Much Of Obama

Tying McCain To Bush

Barack Obama and the entire left wing spin machine have decided that linking John McCain to President Bush is going to be a winning strategy for them, enough so that you hear it over and over every time they make an appearance trying to make it stick.

It is meant to denigrate McCain, after all everyone hates Bush, but people don't like it when the President, particularly when he isn't running for election, is bashed.

The people who like the comment are already Obama's, the people who hate them are for McCain and those in between are going to get sick of it just as I have.

DKK

Economy Refuses To Recess...ion

The Labor Department's report that applications for unemployment benefits came in at 357,000 -- a decline of 18,000 from the previous week -- offered investors some relief about the health of the job market a day ahead of a key monthly reading.

While the weekly readings can show volatility, the latest drop left applications for benefits at their lowest level since mid-April. Still, the four-week average for those getting benefits rose to 3.086 million, the highest since March 2004.

Among retailers reporting solid May results, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said sales at stores open at least a year rose as consumers sought bargains.

Subodh Kumar, global investment strategist at Subodh Kumar & Assoc. in Toronto, said the jobs figures and the Verizon Wireless deal offer some investors reassurance about the health of the economy.

"It looks like the U.S. is not in recession but, I would say, tepid growth," he said, adding that the Verizon bid for Alltel is "encouraging."

"Companies are willing to invest in their businesses," Kumar said.

DKK

Ace of Spades HQ -- DJIA Soars Nearly 200 Points on Jobs Report, Stimulus Check Spending

Dangerous Judgment and Bulldog Stubbornness -- Not A Good Combination

Even more astonishing than Mr. Obama's absence from Iraq, however, is the fact that he has apparently never sought out a single one-on-one meeting with Gen. Petraeus. The general has made repeated trips back to Washington, but Mr. Obama has shown no interest in meeting privately with him. It's enough to make you wonder who exactly Mr. Obama listens to when it comes to Iraq?

Mr. Obama frequently decries the danger of "dogmatists" and "ideologues" in public policy, yet he himself has proven consistently uninterested in putting himself in situations where he might be confronted with the hard complexities of this war. It suggests a dangerous degree of detachment and overconfidence in his own judgment.

After all, Mr. Obama was among those in January 2007 who stridently opposed the surge and confidently predicted its failure – even going so far as to vote against funding our soldiers in the field unless the Bush administration abandoned this new approach. It is now clear that Mr. Obama's judgment on the surge was spectacularly wrong.

Yet rather than admit his mistake, Mr. Obama has instead tried to downplay or disparage the gains our troops have achieved in the past 12 months, clinging to a set of talking points that increasingly seem as divorced from reality as some in the Bush administration were at the darkest moments of the war.

Mr. Obama continues to insist that "Iraq's political leaders have made no progress in resolving the political differences at the heart of their civil war" – despite the passage of numerous pieces of benchmark legislation by the Iraqi Parliament and unequivocal evidence of grassroots reconciliation across the country.

Mr. Obama also continues to claim that America has "simply thrown U.S. troops at the problem, and it has not worked" – despite the dramatic reduction in violence in precisely those areas of Iraq where American forces have surged, and since handed over to Iraqi Security Forces.

And of course, Mr. Obama persists in his pledge to withdraw all combat forces from Iraq, on a fixed timeline, beginning the moment he enters office – regardless of the recommendations of our commanders on the ground, regardless of conditions on the ground, and regardless, in short, of reality.

America is longing for an informed and principled debate about the future of Iraq. However, such a debate seems unlikely if the Democratic nominee for president won't take the time to truly understand the dynamics on the ground, let alone meet with commanders.

The time for talking points is over. Too much is at stake. When will Mr. Obama finally return to Iraq and see the situation for himself?

Obama's Fabled Judgment is based on a myth and has proven dangerously wrong ever since!
DKK
WSJ -- Why Obama Must Go to Iraq

Gore's Top Advisor's NASA Numbers Don't Add Up -- Are The Facts Twisted To Fit A Very Costly Theory?

Investigate Hansen and NASA: Agency Is Doctoring Temperatures In an Effort to Vindicate Global Warming Theories

Let me explain -- no, there is no time. Let me sum up: NASA's temperature records are growing farther and farther away from everyone else's as NASA routinely-- and without offering any explanations why -- "adjusts" old temperature readings downward and new temperature readings upward, all in an effort to show rising temperatures where satellite readings show none.

Actually, it's worst than that; if a few continens or large landmasses like Africa or all of Canada aren't playing nice and in fact are getting colder, NASA ignores them altogether.

Must read. Long, but convincing.

DKK

Ace of Spades HQ

Update:

Video of NASA's, "adjustments," to the US temperature readings -- Note, the flat trend (which corresponds to some other readings) becomes a warming trend: