July DeWeese Report Roundup

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International Baccalaureate Program is the UN on Steroids

By Beverly Eakman

Back in the 1950s, international private academies, such as those in Washington, DC and New York City featured the International Baccalaureate (“IB” for short) because it was the choice of diplomats and others of European extraction. Sometimes parents there merely had a tour of duty in the U.S., but because their kids were expected to go home and take the International Baccalaureate test, their youngsters’ future prospects for college and career depended upon a rigorous scholastic regimen, which surpassed anything in American K-12 programs at that time. Many students flunked the test first time around. They got two more shots. Then it was either off to university, to trade school or something far less appealing.

The IB had its basis in the Swiss educational system. The Europeans, for all their faults, didn’t mess around with the basics of schooling back then. The curricula foreign kids got were much tougher than in America, even at most private schools. Not even pictures in elementary textbooks existed. Switzerland was considered la crème of the educational universe. If a parent had real money, that’s where they sent their kids. Former presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry, went to boarding school there. A common joke went: How do you tell a European student from an American pupil? Answer: The European kid takes three steps before his book-bag moves!
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The Killing of Aiyana Jones: Modern Police Tactics & the Demise of the Fourth Amendment

“Soon as they hit the window, I hit the floor and went to reach for my granddaughter. I seen the light leave out her eyes. I knew she was dead. She had blood coming out of her mouth. Lord Jesus, I ain’t never seen nothing like that in my life.”— Mertilla Jones, Aiyana’s grandmother
It was 12:40 am on Sunday, May 16, 2010. Twenty- five-year-old Charles Jones had just gone to bed after covering his 7-year-old daughter Aiyana with her favorite blanket. The little girl was asleep on the living room sofa, which was positioned under a window. Her grandmother was nearby. Suddenly, the silence of the night was shattered by a flash grenade thrown through the living room window, followed by the sounds of police bursting into the apartment and a gun going off. Rushing into the room, Charles found himself tackled by police and forced to lie on the floor, his face in a pool of blood. His daughter Aiyana’s blood.
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Ron Paul introduces “Private option health care Act”

In May, 2010, Congressman Ron Paul introduced the “Private Option Health Care Act” (H.R. 5444) which would completely repeal ObamaCare and replace it with free market solutions. Below is his speech presented on the floor of the House to introduce the bill, Statement of Congressman Ron Paul United States House of Representatives

Statement Introducing the Private Option Health Care Act
May 27, 2010

Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce the Private Option Health Care Act. This bill places individuals back in control of health care by replacing the recently passed tax-spend-and-regulate health care law with reforms designed to restore a free market health care system.
The major problems with American health care are rooted in government policies that encourage excessive relianceonthird-partypayers.Theexcessiverelianceonthird-partypayersremovesincentivesforindividualpatients to concern themselves with health care costs. Laws and policies promoting Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) resulted from a desperate attempt to control spiraling costs. However, instead of promoting an efficient health care system, HMOs further took control over health care away from patients and physicians. Furthermore, the third-party payer system creates a two-tier health care system where people whose employers can afford to offer “Cadillac” plans have access to top quality health care, while people unable to obtain health insurance from their employers face obstacles in obtaining quality health care.
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“Oil Addiction” Lies

By Alan Caruba

Next to the huge international hoax about global warming allegedly caused by carbon dioxide, the biggest lie being told to Americans these days is that we are “addicted” to oil and that we must convert our economy and society away from its use.
The first time I recall hearing this was during George W. Bush’s 2006 State of the Union Speech and, frankly, I was astounded to hear it from the son of a former President who made his fortune in oil. The latest to repeat the lie is President Barack Obama, but he is allied with environmental organizations that are anti-energy no matter what form it takes.

Americans and everyone else around the world are not “addicted” to oil or other energy sources such as coal and natural gas. They are used to maintain and enhance modern life.

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ObamaCare Forces One Company to Cancel All Its Policies; Others Leave The Individual Market Fewer Choices for Health Care Shoppers

DespiterecentWhiteHouseclaimsthat“Yes,YouCanKeepYourHealthPlan,”ObamaCarehascausedone insurance company to terminate all its policies and two others to leave the individual market.

nHealth in Richmond, Virginia, which sells HSA/high deductible to employers, will not sell any new HSA plans after June 1, 2010, and will terminate all its customers by December 31, 2010, because it cannot survive ObamaCare’s mandates and regulations.
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“Gitmo” Got More

by Tom DeWeese

Barack Obama just put out the order to his administration to find places to cut the budget. They may save a million or two, but one can make Vegas odds that nothing significant will come of it. It’s just not possible to stop government spending. It’s not in their genes.

Case in point. While the nation reels from massive deficits and the president rails against bonuses paid to bailed out executives, he should be kicking some government butt over the incredible waste that was just thrown at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Gitmo).

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Green Jobs Don’t Exist in a Free Market

By Tom DeWeese

Al Gore stumps the nation spreading the virtues of going green, thrilled at the prospects of new industries that will crop up in the process. Of course, green jobs are the center of the scheme to enforce sustainable development. “We can shut down those old industries and yet be prosperous in the future as we protect the environment,” goes the mantra.

A large part of Obama’s $786 billion stimulus bill was devoted to green or renewable energy projects. Obama and his environmentalist hordes convinced Congress that the money would be used to create an army of home weatherizers, wind-turbine factory jobs and other employment opportunities that would help put to work the nearly 8 million people who have lost their jobs during the recession. “We know the jobs of the 21st century will be created in developing alternative energy,” Obama proudly proclaimed. This, of coursed, from a man who doesn’t know the difference between price and earnings or overhead and profit. Well, he doesn’t know shineola about the economy and job creation either.
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Is Salted Popcorn about to become a federal offense?

By Tom DeWeese

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is planning an assault on salt. The government intends to set regulations to limit the use of salt intake by Americans. The regulations would set “legal limits on the amount of salt allowed in food products.”
Of course, the excuse is “protection” of the health of the American people. Say the feds, limiting salt would prevent thousands of deaths from hypertension and heart disease.

In a complicated process, the FDA would analyze the salt in spaghetti sauces, breads, and thousands of other products that make up the $600 billion food and beverage market.

The main culprits behind the effort to have the FDA regulate salt is the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which has led a fight against salt for 30 years. CSPI wants the FDA to revoke salt’s GRAS statue (Generally Recognized As Safe).
CSPI is the undisputed leader among the food police. It has launched an all out campaign against the eating habits of Americans, attacking Italian, Chinese, fast foods, soft drinks, French fries, extra cheese pizza, and almost anything else that tastes good. You might guess that Michael Jacobson, the head of CSPI, is a rabid Vegetarian, horrified by nearly anything man chooses to eat.

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The Global Warming Gravy Train Ran Out Of Evidence

Here’s how the facts have changed since 2003, to the point that there is no evidence of global warming left.
1.    The greenhouse signature is missing. Weather balloons have scanned the skies for years but can find no sign of the telltale “hotspot” warming pattern that greenhouse gases would leave. There’s not even a hint. Something else caused the warming!

2.    The strongest evidence was the ice cores, but newer, more detailed, data turned the theory inside out.
Instead of carbon pushing up temperature, for the last half-a-million years temperatures have gone up before carbon dioxide levels. On average 800 years before. This totally threw what we thought was cause-and-effect out the window. Something else caused the warming!
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Tom DeWeese
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Tom DeWeese is President of the American Policy Center and National Grassroots Coordinator for CFACT (Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow) working to help local activists organize into Freedom Pods (www.CFACT.org). He is also the author of three books, including Now Tell Me I Was Wrong, ERASE, and Sustainable: the WAR on Free Enterprise, Private Property, and Individuals.