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June 2009

Although the Democratic health care reform proposal currently in Congress is not final, two key elements are emerging as to how the government will pay for the trillion dollar plus price tag: Taxing private insurance benefits, and cutting hundreds of billions in Medicare and Medicaid...

From Tim Blair down under:According to a source on the scene, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin – in Sydney after being released from quarantine – tonight told guests at a United States Studies Centre dinner that he feared he would be assassinated by the Secret...

Visualizations seem to be multiplying under the Obama administration, because it is so hard to fathom just how fast and far Obama is planning to increase the national debt. Since trillion has become the new billion, it makes sense to visualize that the Obama debt...

Paul Krugman proved, once again, why he has no credibility. In a column in today's New York Times, titled "The Big Hate," Krugman blames conservatives for the shooting at the Holocaust Museum because conservatives have had the audacity to harshly criticize the Obama administration.Krugman picks...

Barack Obama is spinning his public health plan option today as just another way of helping preserve the private insurance system. According to Obama, the existence of a public plan will provide healthy competition for private insurers, and will not be the first step toward...

In a highly scientific analysis, John Hawkins ranks the Top 40 Conservative Blogs. I'm pleased that he lists Legal Insurrection as #18.I'll take it. And thanks.--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter and Facebook...

One thing, to a certainty, is that the Holocaust Museum shooting by a long-time neo-Nazi white supremacist, who previously committed an attempted shooting at the Federal Reserve in 1981, will be used for political purposes.Although the shooting is only hours old, numerous blogs already are...

Latest tail-wags-dog faux story: Israeli "Minister without Portfolio" Yossi Peled sent an 11-page letter, revealed by the Jerusalem Post, to Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. At one point in the letter, Peled says that if the U.S. keeps moving in an anti-Israel direction, Israel should reconsider...

See Update No. 2 Below------------------------------------------------------When I saw the link at Memeorandum, I did a double take: Palin's `Rashomon moment'.Was CBS News' Political Hot Sheet blogger Charles Cooper really using a rape analogy for Sarah Palin, on the heels of the raging controversy over CBS late-night...

Ed Whelan "outed" law professor "Publius" causing an interesting Sunday at Memeorandum. My last post concluded that Whelan and Publius deserved each other.Now Whelan apologizes. And Publius accepts the apology and wants to move on to covering John & Kate Plus 8 (not that...

In today's New York Times, columnist David Brooks has a novel theory of why Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's Latina identity has worked its way into Sotomayor's speeches, if not her judicial decisions: Blame it on the 1970's.No, seriously. According to Brooks, Sotomayor had bad...

Annonyblogging-Gate keeps going, with new posts by Jonah Goldberg and others at Memeorandum.One blog post that hasn't received enough attention, though, is by Simon Owens at Bloggasm, who actually has spoken with both Ed Whelan and Publius. Are bloggers allowed to speak to people rather...

If you want to know why Barack Obama was spitting into the wind with his "historic" speech to the Muslim world, at least as regards the Israeli-Palestinian issue, there is no better example than this juxtaposition of Palestinians booby-trapping horses as part of a failed...

In a speech last February at Wake Forest University, columnist David Gergen "compared Obama’s ability to focus during difficult times to Tiger Woods’ ability to focus during a difficult golf match."Now this from the opening sentences of a lead NY Times article today:President Obama was...

Hamas reacted to Obama's "historic" speech to the Muslim world by attempting to kidnap Israeli soldiers along the Gaza border last night, in a coordinated assault timed also to coincide with the Lebanese elections:DEBKAfile's military sources report at least four Palestinians killed after Israeli air...

Election result are in from Lebanon, and the pro-Western "March 14" parties are the big winner:The March 14 alliance clinched around 70 out of 128 seats, maintaining its majority in parliament after defeating the Hizbullah-led alliance in Sunday's crucial elections. Celebrations broke out in several...

From The Guardian, showing that investment fraud is universal:Jawad Tawfiq, a 52-year-old Gazan actor and director, was dubious at first, but his nephew insisted. If they could scrape together enough money, the nephew said, large profits could be made from investing in the tunnels that...

Conservative blogger Ed Whelan "outed" an anonymous liberal blogger who penned under the name Publius. Turns out Publius is a junior law professor who was afraid that revealing his identity would jeopardize his career prospects and family relationships. While Publius worried about the reaction of...