Free kibbles

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

Remember when universities pretended to be bastions of free speech? Not any more.

"The universities of Western Ontario and Toronto have signed a deal with Access Copyright that allows for surveillance of faculty correspondence, defines e-mailing hyperlinks as equivalent to photocopying a document, and imposes an annual $27.50 fee for every full-time equivalent student to pay for it all."

The copyright police state is on the march.

ECONOMY:

CBO report exposes the Obama economy. It's bad when the government admits real unemployment is 15 percent.

TAX AND SPEND:

It looks like Obama will need to raise the debt limit shortly before the November election. If this is accurate, and it might just be wishful thinking on the part of Republicans, Republicans might just get a little political benefit from giving Obama the power to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling after all, but I doubt it can offset the damage already done by losing the 2010 momentum. Besides, Republicans have done so poorly since taking the House, Obama may turn the tables on them on this issue too. If you remember, after Democrats trounced Republicans in 2006, they kept that momentum and trounced them again in 2008, except for Obama who barely won. The McConnell plan made it very unlikely Republicans will do the same in 2012. In the mean time, we all lose from increased spending and debt.

HEALTH CARE:

This article tells of a shortage of a cancer drug, but all it tells of the cause of the shortage is this:

"Four of those companies made a preservative-free version. So, when one of the biggest makers of the preservative-free methotrexate, Ben Venue Laboratories Inc., recently shut down its four factories in Bedford, Ohio, possibly for a year, due to serious quality problems, the on-again, off-again methotrexate shortage that began in late 2008 quickly turned into a crisis. That’s because the other companies cannot quickly pick up the slack."

I wonder why other companies can't quickly make up the slack. Could it be... government regulations? Note that the company that shut down production had serious quality problems. That happens when a company is protected from competition by government regulations.

Obama's birth control and morning after pill mandate is the tip of Obamacare's mandate iceberg.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Speaking of socialism, according to Obama's Department of the Interior, only the Venezuelan government steals more money from domestic oil companies than the US government.

"Nearly 64 percent of the revenue from oil producers in the Gulf of Mexico is marked for either income or royalty tax, according to the study done by the Department of Interior."

Ouch.

WAR:

US violates Syrian airspace with drones in an act of war.

"The West has ruled out a Libya-style military intervention in Syria to stop 11 months of bloodshed. "

I wouldn't count on it. This is playing out exactly like Libya. First British and French agents spark protests. Then they arm protesters. Then send in special forces. Then they drone support. Soon they'll be calling on NATO ostensibly to stop the bloodshed they started but really to increase the bloodshed, topple Assad and install a fractured, radical Islamic government they expect to be able to control by playing the factions against each other. Turkey may be keeping NATO out of it. Let's hope NATO stays out of if. We don't need to create terrorists in Syria who want to kill Americans too.

POLITICS:

The recount of the Maine caucus votes done by the same establishment that corrupted the first count reportedly increased Mitt Romney's margin of victory, still not counting Washington County which Ron Paul won handily.

"It turns out Paul won many of the communities that hadn't previously been counted. Paul beat Romney 21 to 5 in Waterville, according to the new GOP data. Paul also beat Romney 72 to 59 in Waldo County.

But the vote tallies were revised enough in other towns to add to Romney's lead, according to the new data.

In Limington, Paul originally received 20 votes. But after the recount, Paul received zero votes.

In Portland, Paul originally beat Romney 106-91. But after the recount, Romney beat Paul 106-91.

In Bar Harbor, the GOP originally said 22 people voted. But after the recount, it said 27 voted and the five extra votes went to Romney.

In Trenton, the GOP originally said 15 people voted. But after the recount, it said 20 voted and all five extra votes went to Romney."

Pretty much just as predicted. It's laughable.

Does Republican establishment corruption in South Carolina hide in the safety of numbers?

"Upon reviewing the Greenville County Precinct election vote data from the 2012, a disturbing pattern arose: Ron Paul averaged 24% in precincts where less than 250 people voted; he averaged less than 12 percent in precincts with more than 800."

Could be. Or maybe Paul just did better in rural areas.

Adelson to dump another $10 million on Gingrich. Gingrich must have threatened to drop out without the money.