Financial Transaction Tax; Obama's Excessive Focus; Lame Duck Agenda;

The Washington Times opines: The world's leftists dream of the day when they might erect an international taxation system. Such would be the bottomless well from which they could exploit the world's productive energies to bankroll utopian schemes and build bigger, better and, most important, higher-paying global bureaucracies. Steps were taken last week to make this dream a reality. and build bigger, better and, most important, higher-paying global bureaucracies. Steps were taken last week to make this dream a reality.
At the Group of 20 meeting in South Korea, a coalition of 183 organizations from 42 countries called for a tax on financial transactions to raise funds to offset the impact of the global economic crisis. The so-called Robin Hood Tax would underwrite a number of programs with the purported aim of "reducing the unacceptably high rate of job loss, and achieve key development, health, education and climate change objectives in developing countries." How this miracle would be achieved is unclear. Taking money from productive enterprise and sinking it into bloated government programs is an unlikely recipe for success. Nonetheless, proponents of the Robin Hood Tax are convinced that government austerity drives, such as the one under way in Britain, are more of a threat to the disadvantaged than looming worldwide insolvency.

Global warming is the favorite excuse cited to justify an international tax regime. Earlier this month, a U.N. climate commission proposed a tax on international financial transactions that would serve as a fund that poorer nations could use to mitigate the effects of "climate change." Other taxes would be levied on international transport, which might include a special U.N. tax attached to airline tickets. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon rather optimistically called the proposal "financially feasible and politically viable" and lectured that the proposal was "not about charity" but about "doing the right thing for those who are suffering most from a crisis that they did least to cause." Perhaps extractions from this fund could be offset by matching cuts in foreign aid to those same nations.
There was a bit of good news in the battle against international leechcraft. On Oct. 21, the Chicago Climate Exchange announced it would no longer be involved in the carbon market. 
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/12/the-uns-global-tax-scheme/
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ABC News writes: En route back to Washington after a 10-day trip overseas, President Obama was introspective about his first two years in office.  The president told reporters aboard Air Force One that he had an “obsessive focus” on policy and he will now “redouble” efforts to get back to his core principles. 

Obama said he “neglected” things that matter a lot to Americans in his rush to get major legislation passed. He explained those things as maintaining a bipartisan tone, dealing with earmarks, making sure that policy decisions are fully debated and shaping public opinion.  He can better focus on these principals now, the president explained, because the economy is more stable.  http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/11/contrite-obama-vows-to-redouble-effort-on-core-principals.html  [It is those "core principals" which trouble me.]
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In talking about the Lame Duck agenda in Congress, Real Clear Politics adds: Which brings up the biggest scandal of all: Imagine a Congress still controlled by Democrats passing an extension of the Bush tax cuts for millionaires but leaving the unemployed out in the cold. If this happens, laugh out loud the next time a Democrat claims to be on the side of working people.
Yet administration officials have been talking about capitulating to the Republicans on the millionaire tax cuts without a word about the jobless, or even about extending the president's own tax cuts geared toward the non-privileged. And some Democratic senators just don't want to be bothered with a long lame-duck session. They want to take care of the wealthy and not do much more.  [Democrats refuse to consider the fact that it is the income held by the richest of us that provide jobs for the poorest, through their entrepreneurship, and investment in their businesses.]
If the president caves in on the tax cuts, then his speeches of the last few months were just empty talk. He'll be lending his hand to those who would drive the car right back into that ditch he loved to talk about. [I do not forget that this President said the Republicans can come along for the ride - but they will have to sit in the back seat......These businessmen are fearful of expansion because they don't know what Congress will do to them as regards personal taxes as well as business taxes.]  And if Democrats don't fight to turn the lame-duck session into a moment of action, they will end a Congress of remarkable achievement not with a bang, but with a craven whimper. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/11/15/a_lame_and_spineless_duck_107946.html
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(Reuters) - If President Barack Obama is not yet convinced that his international star power has faded, his next round of transatlantic summitry should clear up any lingering doubts.
Coming off a marathon Asia trip where Obama often found himself rebuffed by fellow world leaders, he will head to Europe this week where the agenda will be clouded by a growing divide over economic strategy and a sense of neglect among traditional U.S. allies.
The tricky thing for Obama is to show the Europeans not only that he's still important to them but that they're still important to the U.S.," said Sally McNamara, a European affairs expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AE3GV20101115
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The LA Times writes: The California Supreme Court decided unanimously Monday that illegal immigrants may continue to be eligible for in-state tuition rates at the state's colleges and universities rather than pay the higher rates charged to those who live out of state.
In a ruling written by Justice Ming W. Chin, one of the panel's more conservative members, the state high court said a California law that guarantees the lower tuition for students who attend California high schools for at least three years and graduate does not conflict with a federal prohibition on giving illegal immigrants educational benefits based on residency. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/11/undocumented-students.html
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The Washington Times opines: The new crotch-inspection policy is a direct result of al Qaeda underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed attempt to take down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 last Christmas. At the time, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said, in masterful doublespeak, "Once the incident occurred, the system worked." However, the incident itself was a symptom of systemic failure. Abdulmutallab's name was on various watch lists. He had traveled to Yemen to network with al Qaeda. Warnings concerning him had been received from Yemen and Britain. His father had even attempted to notify the United States about the coming attack. None of this made an impression.
Despite all the government bureaucracy and TSA's intrusive inspection practices, Abdulmutallab's attack was only foiled because of a faulty bomb and the actions of alert passengers. Now all passengers have to pay the price by having their privacy (and their privates) invaded, which is the Obama administration's alternative to instituting a policy that will target the source of the problem. Indeed, they refuse to admit that a Muslim problem exists. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/15/obamas-hand-in-your-crotch/
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Newsbusters reveals: President Barack Obama is peeved with the American press. They never say "thank you," he whined to journalists in Japan on Monday. According to the pool report from the press conference, one reporter said "Thank you, Mr. President." Someone said the reporter was Australian. "I knew it must have been an Australian because my folks never say thank you," Obama said. At that, the entire American pool said in unison -- admittedly with a bit of sarcasm -- "Thank you, Mr. President." PM Gillard could be heard chiming in, "There are a few cheeky Australians here." http://newsbusters.org/blogs/lachlan-markay/2010/11/15/obama-whines-american-journalists-never-say-thank-you
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Human Events reveals: First they want to give medals for “courageous restraint.” Now they want to tie both hands behinds our soldiers’ backs. This isn’t suicide, it’s negligent homicide, in my book.
Commanders have ordered a U.S. military unit in Afghanistan to patrol with unloaded weapons, according to a source in Afghanistan. American soldiers in at least one unit have been ordered to conduct patrols without a round chambered in their weapons, an anonymous source stationed at a forward operating base in Afghanistan said in an interview. 
“The idea that any combat unit would conduct any operation, including patrolling and even manning a security post—in which direct action may or may not take place—and not having weapons loaded, borders on being criminally negligent in my opinion,” says Lt. Col. W. Thomas Smith Jr., a recognized expert on terrorism and military issues. “This is nothing more than infusing politically correct restrictions into already overly restrictive rules of engagement. And this PC nonsense is going to get people killed.”  [While I trust those who write for Human Events, even I remain skeptical that this could possibly be true.  The part about "courageous restraint" has been verified, however....  God bless our soldiers.]