Federal Surplus of Deficit +/-, 1895-2010

The median line represents a balanced budget. Any deviation from this line indicates money taken from the citizens unnecessarily(surplus), or money spent that does not yet exist(deficit). 

Sometimes the numbers just scream. 

India to Produce High-Yeild Nukes

Financial Times: "They[Indian Officials] said India had built weapons with yields of up to 200 kilotons, which would be considered a “proper strategic deterrent” by the global community. A nuclear weapon above 50 kilotons is considered high yield. India’s enhanced capability gives it a considerable edge over Pakistan, its nuclear-armed arch-rival.
...

India, which has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, started developing its nuclear arsenal in 1974. New Delhi is estimated to have manufactured weapons-grade plutonium for at least 100 warheads. Senior Indian officials have insisted that the 1998 tests were successful and deny the need for anything more than computer simulations to gauge the yield of nuclear weapons."

This is good news. We have yet to see a war of nuclear exchanges happen because democracies were to strong. 

US, UK, French Ambasadors walk out on Ahmadinejad

Sky News: "In his address, Mr Ahmadinejad launched a scathing attack on Israel, a frequent target of his fury, accusing it of adopting "inhuman policies" in the Palestinian territories. ...

It is no longer acceptable that a small minority would dominate the politics, economy and culture of major parts of the world by its complicated networks, and establish a new form of slavery, and harm the reputation of other nations, even European nations and the US, to attain its racist ambitions," he said.

British delegates joined American and French representatives in leaving the room at the UN headquarters at this point."

The Canadian diplomats had already walked out prior to his speech. Its not often I am a fan of our diplomats, but this made me smile.

In other news, it appears Mr.Obama's temporary betrayal of Poland and Czech Republic for the purpose's of winning over Russian support for economic sanctions of Iran has worked. The last player on the security council who's support we need to a total embargo of gasoline to Iran is China. I don't know what lever Mr. Obama has to use on the ChiComs, but I wouldn't be surprised if it involved a rescinding of the recent destructive trade tariff we've put in place on tires. That would be nice, and a shrewd high-stakes play.

Mass. Bill Allows Police to Forcefully Vaccinate Without Warrant

Here's the bill from the The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Senate Bill No. 2028.

This is quite a succinct clip, but to summarize:
If the governor declares a state of emergency, then police are authorized to incarcerate unvaccinated adults, or vaccinate the individuals themselves. Read, police vaccinating people in there homes without warrants, or hauling them off to prison, still without warrant, until such a time as the crisis is over.
If the children are unvaccinated, they are permitted to take the child from the home, regardless of the current state of health, and place them with CPS.

Labor unions crippling the USPS

Federal Times: "Mail volume is down 12.6 percent compared with last year, and many postal supervisors simply don’t have enough work to keep all employees busy. But a thicket of union rules prevents managers from laying off excess employees; a recent agreement with the unions, in fact, temporarily prevents the Postal Service from even reassigning them to other facilities that could use them.

So they sit — some for a few hours, others for entire shifts. Postal union officials estimate some 15,000 employees have spent time on standby this year.

They spend their days holed up in rooms — conference rooms, break rooms, occasionally 12-foot-by-8-foot storage closets — that the Postal Service dubs “resource rooms.” Postal employees use more colorful names, like “holding pens” and “blue rooms.” "

After the previous post on the potential for health care to become a bastion of unionized labor with a government medical system, I started looking at other quasi-government agencies, that is, government agencies competing with private companies. The USPS is an organization that has been floundering for years, as the UPS and FederalExpress have thrived.

So, the question must be asked, is this how we wish our lives and loved ones to be handled?

Unionize the Healthcare!

Mark Mix WSJ: " The current House version of ObamaCare (H.R. 3200) goes much further. Section 225(A) grants Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius tremendous discretionary authority to regulate health-care workers "under the public health insurance option." Monopoly bargaining and compulsory union dues may quickly become a required standard resulting in potentially hundreds of thousands of doctors and nurses across the country being forced into unions.

Ms. Sebelius will be taking her marching orders from the numerous union officials who are guaranteed seats on the various federal panels (such as the personal care panel mentioned above) charged with recommending health-care policies. Big Labor will play a central role in directing federal health-care policy affecting hundreds of thousands of doctors, surgeons and nurses."

Reading this fine column, I went and looked up the provision 225A of HR 3200, and here it is:
"(a) In General- The Secretary shall establish conditions of participation for health care providers under the public health insurance option."

Suddenly, the union participation in the push for ObamaCare makes a lot more sense. The ranks and funds of Labor have been pillars of strength for the Democrat party to rely upon for generations, and it is only natural a Democrat-Fascist president would kick back to the unions. If this public option medical plan takes effect, it will make little economic sense in the short term for medical professionals to avoid being part of it and eliminate a giant swath of customers. Thus, a schism will develop in the industry itself, leading to an ever increasing number of doctors, nurses and other life saving professionals on the leashes of the Government, the Unions, and maybe even the patient.

So this is what we've come to. Obligatory and nigh compulsory Unionization of our health care system, engorging the ranks of the service unions, and turning our system of medical professionals into a collective bargaining system.
If we seek to turn our medical future into the Detroit auto makers of today, this is what we must do.

Joe Biden as President?

Washington Times: "The vice president, borrowing Mr. Obama's teleprompter for a speech before a friendly audience at the Brookings Institution, said "I" more than a dozen times as he pointed repeatedly to progress on the economy and to his lofty role in the process.

"Every week -- with notable exceptions -- I hold a Cabinet meeting. And most of the Cabinet secretaries attend," he told the audience in Washington.

"I made it clear that our focus had to be, in the first 100 days, accountability, transparency and responsiveness. I wanted each of those Cabinet secretaries to set up systems where they would have a high degree of confidence that as they implemented what they were in charge of, it would be done effectively and efficiently.""

This helps feed my suspicion that Obama is not running things, we have a consortium of Axelrod, Rhambo and some of the financers/hitmen from the campaign running things.
Or, maybe its just Rhambo and the speech writers.

In any event, its amusing for Biden to say "Today there's a growing consensus: The Recovery Act is, in fact, working"