FACT SHEET: america's uninsured

The media repeat claims of 40 million to 50 million uninsured Americans, but facts from the Census Bureau and research organizations discredit it.

By Julia A. Seymour
Business & Media Institute

The media claim that there are 40 million to 50 million uninsured Americans and use that statistic to bolster calls for universal government-run insurance coverage. The inaccuracy has been repeated by print and broadcast journalists for years, but the true extent of the uninsured “crisis” is much smaller than those reports let on.

Myth: There are between 40 million and 50 million uninsured Americans. President Obama referred to “46 million uninsured Americans” in May 2009.

Fact: Anyone who reports that there are more than 46 million uninsured is exaggerating since the Census Bureau puts the number of uninsured at 45,657,000 people.

Fact: Nearly 10 million (9.7) of the 45.7 million uninsured are “not a citizen.” That makes every media claim of uninsured Americans higher than 35.9 million is wrong.

Myth: The 40 million to 50 million uninsured cannot afford health insurance.

Fact: More than 17 million of the uninsured make at least $50,000 per year (the median household income of $50,233) – 8.4 million make $50,000 to $74,999 per year and 9.1 million make $75,000 or higher. Two economists working at the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded that 25 to 75 percent of those who do not purchase health insurance coverage “could afford to do so.”

Myth: The 40 million to 50 million uninsured do not get health care.

Fact: The National Center for Policy Analysis estimates that uninsured people get about $1,500 of free health care per year, or $6,000 per family of four.

Fact: An Urban Institute study found that 25 percent of the uninsured already qualify for government health insurance programs.

Myth: People will remain uninsured without government assistance.

Fact: The Congressional Budget Office says that 45 percent of the uninsured will be insured within four months. CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin also said that the frequent claim of 40+ million Americans lacking insurance is an “incomplete and potentially misleading picture of the uninsured population.”

Fact: Liberal non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation put the number of uninsured Americans who do not qualify for government programs and make less than $50,000 a year between 8.2 million and 13.9 million. (The 8.2 million figure includes only those uninsured for two years or more.)

Fact: CBO analysis found that 36 million people would remain uninsured even if the Senate’s $1.6 trillion health care plan is passed.

The IslamicTerror Network

Al-Qaeda: The Terror Network that Threatens the World

by Jane Corbin
New York: Thunder's Mouth Press,


Corbin, a British journalist, has compiled a solid account of al-Qaeda's exploits since the group's inception in the late 1980s. While not groundbreaking, her work is accurate, sober, and well researched, using both written sources and personal interviews.

Al-Qaeda has three parts. First, the author reviews the early years of Osama bin Laden's terror network and its attacks between 1992 (a hotel bombing in Yemen) and 2000 (the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen). The second part shows Corbin's journalistic skills to good advantage as she describes in detail what is known of the September 11, 2001 operation, including biographies of the nineteen hijackers and how their cells operated before the attack. Third, Corbin ends with a cursory account of the "War on Terror"; the lack of depth here is understandable, given how difficult it has been for journalists to uncover much on classified U.S. counterterrorism efforts.

Corbin is rightly critical of the U.S. government's pre-9/11 blunders. Bill Clinton's inaction after the 1993 attacks that killed eighteen servicemen in Somalia "branded his administration as weak" in the eyes of al-Qaeda. She finds that his administration "lacked the will to counter [al-Qaeda] even after the African bombings in 1998." Despite a steady stream of al-Qaeda attacks, Clinton declined the usual daily intelligence briefing, accepting "only a written submission."

U.S. intelligence is also in Corbin's cross hairs. She recounts that when Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents noted that "small aviation schools had been giving a group of Arab men [flight] lessons," the FBI issued a memo noting, "Osama bin Laden could be using U.S. flight schools to infiltrate the country's civil aviation system." High-level officials in the bureau buried the memo because it suggested measures that "smacked of racial profiling." Corbin recalls that six months after September 11, the aviation school where hijacker Muhammad Atta and a cohort had trained received "student visas approved for flying lessons" from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, clearing the pair for takeoff.

As Corbin shows, America learned many tough lessons. Since then, she states, this country has become "a sadder and a wiser place."

IRAN UPRISING

• Security forces open fire at massive rally

• Iran state radio reports seven people killed in clashes

• Thousands defy ban to march in Tehran

A protestor holds up a bloodied hand in Tehran where thousands gathered to support Mir Hossein Mousavi. Photograph: Getty Images

Iran's post-election political unrest claimed its first confirmed fatality yesterday when shots were fired at supporters of the defeated presidential candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, who had defied an official ban on a mass rally in central Tehran.

Basij militiamen loyal to the hardline incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, were said to be responsible for the shooting, which took place as hundreds of thousands of pro-Mousavi demonstrators marched through the city centre to Azadi (Freedom) Square demanding the result of last Friday's election be annulled.

Photographs taken at the scene appeared to show one man dead and several others with bullet wounds.
Precise figures were not available, but some estimates suggested that more than 500,000 people were involved in the protest against the election "theft". Such large-scale protest has not seen in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"Mousavi we support you! We will die but regain our votes," shouted supporters, many wearing the green of the moderate's election campaign and carrying signs with the message "Where is my vote?"

Several vehicles were set alight in Tehran's streets and there were reports that protesters had taken to city rooftops at nightfall, shouting "Death to the dictator". Last night protesters promised they would be back on the streets again today.

The presence of huge crowds on the streets – and reports of other fatalities – appeared to dash earlier predictions that the unrest of the past three days would fade away. There was also a fresh twist when it was announced that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had ordered the powerful guardian council to investigate claims of election fraud.

Diplomatic sources said this was not a major shift, suggesting that Khamenei had merely warned Mousavi that he should proceed with his fraud complaints carefully, using only "legal" means available to him. Khamenei, who stands at the apex of Iran's complex political system, endorsed the election result on Saturday, dashing opposition hopes that he might be persuaded to order a recount or even annul the result.

The guardian council, comprised of 12 senior clerics, said it would rule within 10 days on two official complaints it had received from Mousavi and Mohsen Rezaie, another election candidate. The council vets candidates and must formally approve results for the outcome to stand.

The interior ministry, which announced the election result on Saturday, and the president have rejected charges of fraud. Ahmadinejad compared protesters to football fans angry that their team had lost.

Questions were asked though how 40 million Iranian votes had been counted and the results announced so soon after the polls closed.

Observers were stunned by the size of the Tehran rally, in defiance of a ban. And there was no sign of the anger diminishing: "Many of my friends are in prison," said Saman Imani, a student beaten by police. "Iran is becoming a dictatorship. Ahmadinejad is denying the Holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was."

Ebrahim Yazdi, leader of the banned opposition Freedom Movement and a veteran of the revolution, warned that Ahmadinejad's attacks on his opponents had opened a "Pandora's box" which had led to a deep crisis within the regime.

"The result of such a crisis now is that the rift among the ... personalities of the revolution is getting deeper," he said. "It is also between people and their government ... a rift between state and the nation. It is the biggest crisis since the revolution."

Further reports tonight spoke of people in Isfahan, Ahwaz, Zahedan, Yazd and Mashhad shouting "Allahu Akbar [God is great]" in support of the Tehran demonstrations. Mohammad Khatami, the reformist ex-president and a backer of Mousavi, attacked the government for banning the rally.

Ahmadinejad delayed a visit to Russia. .
Concerned governments around the globe were watching the situation closely. "The implications are not yet clear," said David Miliband, the foreign secretary.

The US president, Barack Obama, said he was "deeply troubled" by the post-election violence. "It is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran's leaders will be. We respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran," he said, adding that Washington wanted to pursue a "tough, direct" dialogue with Tehran.

The US president does not understand the difference between terrorism and diplomacy. Tough direct talks will only buy time for the terrorist regime to build their nuclear arsenal. He and his advisors lack experience, knowledge and the gumption to face anyone with a Islamic heritage and background.

What can one expect, from  the one who was born to a Muslim parent. Embraces socialism, educated in the  Madarasas in Indonesia and of course with a middle name Hussein who never has found a Christian Church in Washington DC since claims he is a Christian.

Don’t believe any thing you see in the fly by media. Dig deeper you shall find the truth.

PROXY WAR IN YEMEN

Proxy war feared in Yemen

Fierce battles between government troops and Shiite rebels in the northern mountains of Yemen are fuelling fears of regional instability and a possible proxy war between Shiite-dominated Iran and Sunniled Saudi Arabia.

A month-old government offensive -- Operation Scorched Earth -- has displaced nearly 50,000 people and created a humanitarian crisis as troops use artillery and fighter aircraft to attack the insurgents near the border with Saudi Arabia.

The latest escalation in a five-year-old civil war has targeted Zaidi Shiite rebels in the predominantly mountainous Saadah province.

Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's President, accuses the Zaidis, who form a majority in the north of the predominantly Sunni country, of trying to spread Shiite fundamentalism and seeking to reinstate clerical rule. The rebels, followers of Sayyid Abd al-Houthi, claim they are protesting against discrimination and poverty. They also object to the Yemen government's close ties to Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Mr. Saleh accuses Iran and its Iraqi-Shiite ally, Muqtada al-Sadr, and his Mahdi Army of backing the Houthis, while the rebels claim Saudi warplanes have participated in recent air raids on their hideouts.

For weeks now, fighting has raged along the mountains that overlook the main highway linking Yemen and Saudi Arabia, as the Yemeni military focuses on trying to destroy rebel arsenals, supply convoys and fortifications.

Repeated truces have failed and international aid agencies say they fear for 165,000 people who have been displaced by the fighting since 2004.

Yesterday the International Red Cross called for the establishment of a humanitarian aid corridor to rush relief supplies to trapped civilians.

Renewed fighting has only served to push the Arab world's poorest country one step closer toward becoming a failed state, with serious implications for the Middle East.

"Yemen is beset by a host of challenges that endanger both its domestic stability and regional security. The country faces a very bleak future," says Christopher Boucek of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Among Yemen's problems: violent extremism, international terrorism, religious and tribal conflict, separatism, piracy and international smuggling from the Horn of Africa.

Awash in guns and drugs -- there are about six million weapons for only 11 million adults -- the country has become a transit point for smuggling from East Africa to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.

The ancestral home of Osama bin Laden is also a magnet for al-Qaeda terrorists. Many Yemenis fought in the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s and returned home sympathetic to Islamic fundamentalists.

Counter-terrorism measures in Saudi Arabia and Iraq have also encouraged Islamist terrorists to flee to Yemen.

Now there are signs increasingly successful counter-terrorism efforts in Pakistan may be adding to its appeal as a terrorist refuge.

Two weeks ago, Peter Van Loan, the Public Safety Minister, said Canadian security officials have noted an increased flow of terror suspects to Yemen.

Months earlier, Dennis Blair, the U. S. director of national intelligence, told a congressional hearing in Washington Yemen is "re-emerging as a jihadist battleground and potential regional base for al-Qaeda to plan internal and external attacks, train terrorists and facilitate the movement of operatives."

The increased lawlessness worries Saudi Arabia, which fears Yemen could provide al-Qaeda with a chance to regroup, organize and train to launch cross-border attacks.

In January, the group's Saudi and Yemeni affiliates merged to form al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Republic of Yemen was created in 1990 when traditionalist North Yemen and Marxist South Yemen merged after years of border wars. But in 1994 southern separatists staged an unsuccessful civil war and ever since have backed a simmering uprising against the government.

"If the central government's authority and legitimacy continue to deteriorate, Yemen may slowly devolve into semiautonomous regions and cities," Mr. Boucek says. "This trajectory has occurred in other states, such as Somalia and Afghanistan, with disastrous consequences."

In an effort to forestall Yemen's collapse, the United States has equipped and trained local security forces, while Saudi Arabia and Iran are waging proxy ideological battles by backing different elements in Yemen.

"Yemen's window of opportunity to shape its own future is narrowing," warns Ginny Hill, a Middle East analyst with the London-based Chatham House think tank. "Future instability in Yemen could expand a lawless zone stretching from northern Kenya through Somalia and the Gulf of Aden to Saudi Arabia. Piracy, organized crime and violent jihad would escalate, with implications for the security of shipping routes, the transit of oil through the Suez Canal and the internal security of Yemen's neighbors."

DOES IRAN'S GREEN PARTY NEED U.S AID?

Iran’s clerical regime has forcefully reasserted its power, and the authorities in Tehran are  now trying to sweep recent election protests under the carpet. The streets are now quiet, and Iran’s top cop says that many of those arrested in the recent crackdown now face prosecution in Tehran’s public and revolutionary courts.
So what next? The Obama administration is moving ahead with plans to bankroll Iranian opposition groups, for starters. USA Today’s Ken Dilanian notes that the U.S. Agency for International Development is planning to dole out $20 million in grants to support “democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in Iran.”  The deadline for those grant applications passed yesterday.

According to Columbia University professor Hamid Dabashi, handing out U.S. taxpayer money to Iranian dissidents is precisely what Iran does not need. “This financial aid is not only a waste of taxpayer money under these severe economic circumstances, but is in fact the surest way to kill that inborn and grassroots movement,” he writes in a CNN commentary. “It mostly will be abused by expatriate and entirely discredited opposition groups ranging from the monarchist supporters of Reza Pahlavi to the members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization, and it will in turn strengthen the hand of the regime to denounce the Green Movement as funded by Americans.”

In other words, the United States shouldn’t be shopping around for an Iranian Ahmad Chalabi.

The role of U.S.-funded “civil society” programs in supporting pro-democratic movements is a worthy subject for a book. The United States, for instance, helped provide advice and support to Serbia’s opposition in its peaceful campaign to topple Slobodan Milosevic; U.S. taxpayers paid for spray paint used to tag walls with anti-Milosevic graffiti. Some U.S. money went to support individuals and groups who helped organize Ukraine’s Orange Revolution.

But in both of those cases, U.S. assistance was not the deciding factor: Both Ukraine and Serbia were swept by genuine grassroots movements that sprang up in response to widespread electoral fraud. Somewhat perversely, U.S. aid to pro-democracy groups has helped authoritarian regimes like Russia promote the idea of the “post-modern coup d’etat“: If you buy the Kremlin’s line, the U.S. government is actually pulling the strings behind all these global democratic movements — so by extension, your domestic political opponents are also on Uncle Sam’s payroll.

That’s precisely what Iran’s beleagured opposition does not need: To be painted as U.S. stooges, monarchist throwbacks, or nutty fifth-columnists. As Noah has pointed out here before, the really hard part is providing the right kind of support to Iranians without undermining their cause.

MOTHER MARIE-ALPHONSINE BEATIFIED

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NAZARETH, Israel (CNS) -- A newly beatified nun from the Holy Land could serve as an inspiration for Christians who remain there, said the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem.  The Nov. 22 beatification "breathes upon us a new spirit, renews our church and invites us to the happy hope that we ourselves, too, can be saints like her," said Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, referring to Blessed Soultaneh Maria Ghattas, founder of the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Rosary of Jerusalem.

"What the church needs most is the witness of saints," he added in his homily at the beatification, a major step toward sainthood. "Holiness is the sign of the church's credibility."  Patriarch Twal beatified Mother Marie-Alphonsine, as she is known, during a Mass for more than 3,000 people, who began filing into Nazareth's Basilica of the Annunciation almost two hours before the ceremony began. They filled the first-floor sanctuary, where the main ceremony took place; a closed-circuit TV showed the proceedings to pilgrims packed into the ground-floor sanctuary.

By the time the Mass began there was standing room only in both sanctuaries, and people crowded into the aisles, inching forward in the main sanctuary toward the metal fence separating the section next to the altar where members of the Rosary Sisters sat along with other dignitaries, including Helen Zananiri, whose prayer paved the way for Mother Marie-Alphonsine's beatification.  Zananiri had prayed for the protection of her daughter following a premonition just hours before a group of girls fell into a collapsed outdoor septic tank six years ago. All of the girls, including Natalie Zananiri, who was under the toxic water for at least five minutes according to testimony given in the beatification process, were pulled out unharmed.  "This is a very big event for us, for Christian Palestinians in this land," said Helen Zananiri. "It shows all the world that there are Christians who speak Arabic. We are very proud we live in this holy land."

And a reader sent us this helpful summary of Mother Alphonsine's life:

On November 22, 2009  Mother Marie Alfonsine Danil Ghattas, foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Rosary of Jerusalem, the only indigenous religious community in the Holy Land, was beatified in Nazareth.  In Rome at the noon Angelus, the Pope acknowledged the event and noted that "Mother Ghattas" has "the merit" of having founded "a congregation formed solely of women of the region, with the purpose of religious instruction, to overcome illiteracy and improve the conditions of the women of that time in the land where Jesus himself exalted their dignity."  The Pontiff affirmed, "The beatification of this very significant figure of a woman is of special comfort to the Catholic community in the Holy Land and it is an invitation to always trust, with firm hope, in Divine Providence and Mary's maternal protection."

Mother Marie Alfonsine was born Soultaneh Maria in Jerusalem in 1843, of a pious and hard-working Arab family.  At 14 she entered the congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Apparition and after professing vows, was assigned to the sisters’ school in Bethlehem.  She was an outstanding catechist and educator and a tireless apostle, founding confraternities and associations that promoted the devotion to Our Lady through the prayer of the Rosary. During this period, she experienced repeated visions of Our Lady who asked her to found a congregation for the daughters of her land which would have the name of “Rosary Sisters.”  Her spiritual director, Father Joseph Tannous, Chancellor of the Latin Patriarchate, prepared the goundwork for the new order. Three years after its foundation  Mother Marie Alphonsine obtained permission from Rome to join the new congregation.

Mother Marie Alphonsine had a great faith in the Providence of God and a complete and filial confidence in the Virgin.  She is distinguished by two particular virtues:  a love for silence and the hidden life; and a love for the cross and for sacrifice.  Upon direction from the Blessed Mother, she told no one other than her spiritual director and the Patriarch about her conversations with Mary.  She suffered trials and lack of support with the silence, patience and dignity of Mary at the foot of the cross.

Over the years, the Rosary sisters have conducted schools, founded orphanages and other institutions and carried out pastoral and social work in the diocese of the Patriarchate and in other Arab countries. Mother Marie established a workshop in Bethlehem to give work to poor girls and helped found the first mission in Trans-Jordan.  In 1917 she was assigned to create an orphanage in the town of Ein Karem. There she could return to her life of prayer to fulfill Our Lady's wish that the Rosary be recited perpetually.  On March 25, 1927, Mother Marie Alphonsine died while praying the rosary with her Sister Hanneh Danil Ghattas.

James Martin, SJ

WHERE DOES THE STORY OF CHRISTMAS BEGIN?

Where Does the Story of Christmas Begin?

Christmas is here. and  our attention quickly goes to the familiar words of the infancy narratives found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. This is a healthy reflex. After all, the Gospel of Jesus Christ rests upon the historicity of the events that took place in Bethlehem as Christ was born. Our understanding of the identity of Jesus Christ is directly rooted in these narratives and our confidence is in the fact that Matthew and Luke give us historically credible and completely truthful accounts of the events surrounding the birth of Christ.

A closer look at the narratives in both Matthew and Luke reveals a richness that familiarity may hide from us. Matthew begins with the genealogy of Christ, demonstrating the sequence of generations as Israel anticipated the birth of David's Son - the Messiah. Luke, intending to set forth "an orderly account" of the events concerning Jesus, begins with the anticipation of the birth of John the Baptist and then moves to tell of the virgin conception of Jesus.

A careful reading of Matthew and Luke reveals both the elegance of detail and the grand expanse of the story of Christ's birth. Matthew gives particular attention to the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. The virgin birth, the birth of Christ in Bethlehem of Judea, the Herodian massacre of the innocents, the flight to Egypt, and the role of John the Baptist as forerunner are all presented as the fulfillment of specific Old Testament prophecies.

Every word of the Old Testament points to Christ. He is not only the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies concerning him, he is the perfect fulfillment of the law and the prophets - the entirety of the Old Testament Scriptures. The Christmas story does not begin in Bethlehem, for Israel had been promised the Messiah. As Luke reveals, Simeon beheld the baby Jesus in the temple and understood this infant to be "the Lord's Christ" - the Davidic Messiah. Simeon understood this clearly - the Christmas story did not begin in Bethlehem, or even in Jerusalem.

So, where does the Christmas story begin? In the Gospel of John we read: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made." [John 1:1-3]

The prologue to John's Gospel points to creation and to Christ, the divine Logos, as the agent of creation. Yet, with language drawn directly from Genesis, John begins his gospel "in the beginning."

In other words, the Christmas story begins before the creation of the world. As we celebrate Christmas and contemplate the Christmas story, we must be very careful not to begin the story in Bethlehem, or even in Nazareth, where Mary was confronted by Gabriel with the message that she would be the mother of the Messiah.

We must not even begin with Moses and the prophets, and with the expectation of the coming Son of Man, the promised Suffering Servant, and the heralded Davidic Messiah. We must begin before the world was created and before humanity was formed, much less fallen.

Why is this so important? Put simply, if we get the Christmas story wrong, we get the Gospel wrong. Told carelessly, the Christmas story sounds like God's "Plan B." In other words, we can make the Christmas story sound like God turning to a new plan, rather than fulfilling all that he had promised. We must be very careful to tell the Christmas story in such a way that we make the gospel clear. Christmas is not God's second plan. Before he created the world, God determined to save sinners through the blood of his own Son. The grand narrative of the Bible points to this essential truth - God determined to bring glory to himself through the salvation of a people redeemed and purchased by his own Son, the Christ. Bethlehem and Calvary were essential parts of God's plan from the beginning, before the cosmos was brought into being as the Son obeyed the will of the Father in creation.

The Christmas story does not begin in Bethlehem, but we appropriately look to Bethlehem as the scene of the most decisive event in human history - the incarnation of the Son of God. Even as we turn our attention to Bethlehem, we must remember that the story of our salvation does not begin there. That story begins in the eternal purpose of God.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God." That is where the Christmas story begins, and John takes us right to the essence of what happened in Bethlehem: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." [John 1:14]

Let's be sure to get the Christmas story right, start to finish.

FEW THINGS TO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD

Ten Simple Things You Can Do

to Get Healthy and Stay Healthy

Throughout 2010

Listed below are ten essential elements of good health. If you take all of the actions listed below, you will be much healthier.

• Eat a Healthy Breakfast
  
• Drink at Least 8 Glasses of Water
  
• Take a Good Quality Multiple Vitamin/Mineral
  
• Connect with Other People
  
• Express Your Emotions Appropriately
  
• Eat Fruits and Vegetables
  
• Spend at Least 30 Minutes Outdoors
  
• Do Something Physically Active
  
• Take Some Quiet Time for Yourself
  
• Keep Regular Sleep Hours
  
• Establish a Relationship with a Doctor You Can Trust
  

ASUS EEE READER COULD HAVE DUAL COLOR TOUCHSCREENS

ASUS EREADER COULD HAVE DUAL COLOR TOUCHSCREEN

        The Times suggests that not only could it have dual color touchscreens like the prototype Asus showed at CeBIT (pictured), but it might even undercut Sony and Amazon on price.

Asus pretty much kick-started the whole net book craze, so it'll be interesting to see if they can shake up e-book readers, too. A second display could be used for a virtual keyboard and Web browsing, allowing the device to even compete with net books. The company says it's also thinking about built-in speakers, and a Webcam/microphone for cheap Skype calls.

Budget and premium versions are likely, and it's expected the pricier option would feature 3G. Right now, the two cheapest readers are the 6-inch Amazon Kindle 2 ($300) and Cool-er eBook Reader ($250). The Times says Asus is aiming closer to around $160. Previous Eee PCs have been cheaper than the competition, so you just never know…

Who said competition is bad?

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MAO, THE MASS MURDERER- alive and well in Obama's White House

Why let a holiday season come between the White House and making some political statements? The White House pegged controversial designer Simon Doonan to oversee the Christmas decorations for the White House. Mr. Doonan, who is creative director of Barney’s New York has often caused a stir with his design choices. Like his naughty yuletide window display of Margaret Thatcher as a dowdy dominatrix and Dan Quayle as a ventriloquist’s dummy. For this year’s White House, he didn’t disappoint.

These photos of ornaments on the White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room were taken just days ago. Of course, Mao has his place in the White House.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas without an ornament of legendary transvestite Hedda Lettuce.

He/She even signed it:

And, so soon after collecting the Nobel Peace Prize, why wouldn’t the White House have an ornament super-imposing President Obama onto Mt. Rushmore:

All around, a very Barry Christmas!

Welcome to Communism to the heart and soul of Capitalism

NETANYAHU TO OBAMA: STOP IRAN - OR I WILL

In an interview conducted shortly before he was sworn in today as prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu laid down a challenge for Barack Obama. The American president, he said, must stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons—and quickly—or an imperiled Israel may be forced to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities itself.

“The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu told me. He said the Iranian nuclear challenge represents a “hinge of history” and added that “Western civilization” will have failed if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

In unusually blunt language, Netanyahu said of the Iranian leadership, “You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran.”

History teaches Jews that threats against their collective existence should be taken seriously, and, if possible, preempted, he suggested. In recent years, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has regularly called for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” and the supreme Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, this month called Israel a “cancerous tumor.”

But Netanyahu also said that Iran threatens many other countries apart from Israel, and so his mission over the next several months is to convince the world of the broad danger posed by Iran. One of his chief security advisers, Moshe Ya’alon, told me that a nuclear Iran could mean the end of American influence in the Middle East. “This is an existential threat for Israel, but it will be a blow for American interests, especially on the energy front. Who will dominate the oil in the region—Washington or Tehran?”

Netanyahu said he would support President Obama’s decision to engage Iran, so long as negotiations brought about a quick end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “How you achieve this goal is less important than achieving it,” he said, but he added that he was skeptical that Iran would respond positively to Obama’s appeals. In an hour-long conversation, held in the Knesset, Netanyahu tempered his aggressive rhetoric with an acknowledgement that nonmilitary pressure could yet work. “I think the Iranian economy is very weak, which makes Iran susceptible to sanctions that can be ratcheted up by a variety of means.” When I suggested that this statement contradicted his assertion that Iran, by its fanatic nature, is immune to pressure, Netanyahu smiled thinly and said, “Iran is a composite leadership, but in that composite leadership there are elements of wide-eyed fanaticism that do not exist right now in any other would-be nuclear power in the world. That’s what makes them so dangerous.”

He went on, “Since the dawn of the nuclear age, we have not had a fanatic regime that might put its zealotry above its self-interest. People say that they’ll behave like any other nuclear power. Can you take the risk? Can you assume that?”

Netanyahu offered Iran’s behavior during its eight-year war with Iraq as proof of Tehran’s penchant for irrational behavior. Iran “wasted over a million lives without batting an eyelash … It didn’t sear a terrible wound into the Iranian consciousness. It wasn’t Britain after World War I, lapsing into pacifism because of the great tragedy of a loss of a generation. You see nothing of the kind.”

He continued: “You see a country that glorifies blood and death, including its own self-immolation.” I asked Netanyahu if he believed Iran would risk its own nuclear annihilation at the hands of Israel or America. “I’m not going to get into that,” he said.

Neither Netanyahu nor his principal military advisers would suggest a deadline for American progress on the Iran nuclear program, though one aide said pointedly that Israeli time lines are now drawn in months, “not years.” These same military advisers told me that they believe Iran’s defenses remain penetrable, and that Israel would not necessarily need American approval to launch an attack. “The problem is not military capability, the problem is whether you have the stomach, the political will, to take action,” one of his advisers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told me.

Both Israeli and American intelligence officials agree that Iran is moving forward in developing a nuclear-weapons capability. The chief of Israeli military intelligence, Major General Amos Yadlin, said earlier this month that Iran has already “crossed the technological threshold,” and that nuclear military capability could soon be a fact: “Iran is continuing to amass hundreds of kilograms of low-enriched uranium, and it hopes to exploit the dialogue with the West and Washington to advance toward the production of an atomic bomb.”

American officials argue that Iran has not crossed the “technological threshold”; the director of national intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, said recently that Israel and the U.S. are working with the same set of facts, but are interpreting it differently. “The Israelis are far more concerned about it, and they take more of a worst-case approach to these things from their point of view,” he said. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Michael Mullen, recently warned that an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would undermine stability in the Middle East and endanger the lives of Americans in the Persian Gulf.

The Obama administration agrees with Israel that Iran’s nuclear program is a threat to Middle East stability, but it also wants Israel to focus on the Palestinian question. Netanyahu, for his part, promises to move forward on negotiations with the Palestinians, but he made it clear in our conversation that he believes a comprehensive peace will be difficult to achieve if Iran continues to threaten Israel, and he cited Iran’s sponsorship of such Islamist groups as Hezbollah and Hamas as a stumbling block.

Ya’alon, a former army chief of staff who is slated to serve as Netanyahu’s minister for strategic threats, dismissed the possibility of a revitalized peace process, telling me that “jihadists” interpret compromise as weakness. He cited the reaction to Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza four years ago. “The mistake of disengagement from Gaza was that we thought like Westerners, that compromise would defuse a problem—but it just encouraged the problem,” he said. “The jihadists saw withdrawal as a defeat of the West … Now, what do you signal to them if you are ready to divide Jerusalem, or if you’re ready to withdraw to the 1967 lines? In this kind of conflict, your ability to stand and be determined is more important than your firepower.”

American administration sources tell me that President Obama won’t shy from pressuring Netanyahu on the Palestinian issue during his first visit to Washington as prime minister, which is scheduled for early May. But Netanyahu suggested that he and Obama already see eye-to-eye on such crucial issues as the threat posed by Hamas. “The Obama administration has recently said that Hamas has to first recognize Israel and cease the support of terror. That’s a very good definition. It says you have to cease being Hamas.”

When I noted that many in Washington doubt his commitment to curtailing Jewish settlement on the West Bank, he said, in reference to his previous term as prime minister, from 1996 to 1999, “I can only point to what I did as prime minister in the first round. I certainly didn’t build new settlements.”

Netanyahu will manage Israel’s relationship with Washington personally—his foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, of the anti-Arab Israel Beiteinu party, is deeply unpopular in Washington—and I asked him if he could foresee agreeing on a “grand bargain” with Obama, in which he would move forward on talks with the Palestinians in exchange for a robust American response to Iran’s nuclear program. He said: “We intend to move on the Palestinian track independent of what happens with Iran, and I hope the U.S. moves to stop Iran from gaining nuclear weapons regardless of what happens on the Palestinian track.”

In our conversation, Netanyahu gave his fullest public explication yet of why he believes President Obama must consider Iran’s nuclear ambitions to be his preeminent overseas challenge. “Why is this a hinge of history? Several bad results would emanate from this single development. First, Iran’s militant proxies would be able to fire rockets and engage in other terror activities while enjoying a nuclear umbrella. This raises the stakes of any confrontation that they’d force on Israel. Instead of being a local event, however painful, it becomes a global one. Second, this development would embolden Islamic militants far and wide, on many continents, who would believe that this is a providential sign, that this fanaticism is on the ultimate road to triumph.

“Third, they would be able to pose a real and credible threat to the supply of oil, to the overwhelming part of the world’s oil supply. Fourth, they may threaten to use these weapons or to give them to terrorist proxies of their own, or fabricate terror proxies. Finally, you’d create a great sea change in the balance of power in our area—nearly all the Arab regimes are dead-set opposed to Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. They fervently hope, even if they don’t say it, that the U.S. will act to prevent this, that it will use its political, economic, and, if necessary, military power to prevent this from happening.”

If Iran acquires nuclear weapons, Netanyahu asserted, Washington’s Arab allies would drift into Iran’s orbit. “The only way I can explain what will happen to such regimes is to give you an example from the past of what happened to one staunch ally of the United States, and a great champion of peace, when another aggressive power loomed large. I’m referring to the late King Hussein [of Jordan] … who was an unequalled champion of peace. The same King Hussein in many ways subordinated his country to Saddam Hussein when Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990. Saddam seemed all-powerful, unchallenged by the United States, and until the U.S. extracted Kuwait from Saddam’s gullet, King Hussein was very much in Iraq’s orbit. The minute that changed, the minute Saddam was defeated, King Hussein came back to the Western camp.”

One of Iran’s goals, Netanyahu said, is to convince the moderate Arab countries not to enter peace treaties with Israel. Finally, he said, several countries in Iran’s neighborhood might try to develop nuclear weapons of their own. “Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons could spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. The Middle East is incendiary enough, but with a nuclear arms race it will become a tinderbox,” he said.

Few in Netanyahu’s inner circle believe that Iran has any short-term plans to drop a nuclear weapon on Tel Aviv, should it find a means to deliver it. The first-stage Iranian goal, in the understanding of Netanyahu and his advisers, is to frighten Israel’s most talented citizens into leaving their country.  “The idea is to keep attacking the Israelis on a daily basis, to weaken the willingness of the Jewish people to hold on to their homeland,” Moshe Ya’alon said. “The idea is to make a place that is supposed to be a safe haven for Jews unattractive for them. They are waging a war of attrition.”

The Israeli threat to strike Iran militarily if the West fails to stop the nuclear program may, of course, be a tremendous bluff. After all, such threats may just be aimed at motivating President Obama and others to grapple urgently with the problem. But Netanyahu and his advisers seem to believe sincerely that Israel would have difficulty surviving in a Middle East dominated by a nuclear Iran. And they are men predisposed to action; many, like Netanyahu, are former commandos.

As I waited in the Knesset cafeteria to see Netanyahu, I opened a book he edited of his late brother’s letters. Yoni Netanyahu, a commando leader, was killed in 1976 during the Israeli raid on Entebbe, and his family organized his letters in a book they titled Self-Portrait of a Hero. In one letter, Yoni wrote to his teenage brother, then living in America, who had apparently been in a fight after someone directed an anti-Semitic remark at him. “I see … that you had to release the surplus energy you stored up during the summer,” Yoni wrote. “There’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s too bad you sprained a finger in the process. In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with a good fist fight; on the contrary, if you’re young and you’re not seriously hurt, it won’t do you real harm. Remember what I told you? He who delivers the first blow, wins.”

by Jeffry Goldberg

THE ATLANTIC