George H. W. Bush and "Voodoo Economics"

Harvard pres: ROTC talks on after DADT repeal
CAMBRIDGE — Harvard University’s president says she looks forward to a return to campus of the long-banned Reserve Officer Training Corps program, now that Congress voted this weekend to allow gays to serve openly in the Military. President Drew Gilpin Faust said in a statement that she plans to hold discussions with military officials and hopes they will lead to Harvard’s full and formal recognition of ROTC. The university banned the program on campus in 1969 amid Vietnam War...

After 4 decades, Harvard opens door to ROTC
Harvard University will welcome ROTC back to campus now that Congress has repealed a ban on gays and Lesbians serving openly in the Military, university president Drew Faust said. The move will end a four-decade standoff between one of the nation’s most prestigious universities and its Armed Forces. The tension began over the Vietnam War and continued in recent years as university administrators, faculty, and Students objected to what they saw as Discrimination against gays and lesbians. ...

George H.W. Bush narrates 'It's a Wonderful Life' for the visually impaired on Christmas Eve
According to many over the years, "It's a Wonderful Life" is a wonderful holiday movie. But millions of Americans who are visually impaired can only hear the dialog of Frank Capra's 1946 black-and-white classic. No longer. This year former President George H.W. Bush (No. 41) has recorded an oral description of the entire movie. He was the president who signed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. So this Friday evening, which just happens to be Christmas Eve, as ...

George and Laura Bush Visit Billy Graham, Friend and Spiritual Mentor
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Make that four presidents who have traveled to the Billy Graham Library. On Monday, President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura Bush, met with the Evangelist and his son, Franklin Graham, before signing copies of their books for a waiting crowd. Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, joined former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton to attend the 2007 library dedication. On Saturday, hundreds stood in a wet, nasty chill to reserve copies of "Decision Points," Bush's best-sell...

Simon Johnson's Voodoo History
“One of the sturdiest myths about supply-side economics is that George H.W. Bush called it ‘voodoo economics’ on the Campaign Trail in 1980. You’d think there’d be a scrap of evidence dating from 1980 in support of this claim. In fact there is none.” I wrote these words one year ago. The occasion was a statement from the President’s Budget director, Peter Orszag, who was taking jabs at “the Wall Street Journal - the editorial board that did m...

Scientists say carbsnot fatare the biggest problem with Americas diet
Just in time for the holiday-season blizzard of baked goods comes the news that Carbohydrates -- not fat -- are more likely to be responsible for Obesity, Diabetes, Heart Disease, and the other ills of modern civilization. The Los Angeles Times has a detailed report on the growing body of scientific evidence that until now has been treated as nutritional poison: Fat is good, carbs are bad. "The country’s big low-fat message backfired," Dr. Frank Hu, Professor of nutrition and epidemiology ...

William H. Gross
President John Malvey’ s Hall of Fame Induction of William (Bill) H. Gross, Founder and Managing Director, Pacific Investment Management Company. I’m Jack Malvey of Lehman Brothers, President of the Fixed-Income Analysts Society. On behalf of our Board, all of my member colleagues, and our many sponsors, I want to welcome our guests and the financial media to the highlight of our 17th Annual Bond Conference, today’s second annual Fixed Income Analysts Society "Hall of Fame" ind...

Economy grew modestly in July-September quarter
(12-22) 07:28 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Economy grew at a moderate pace last summer, reflecting stronger spending by businesses to replenish stockpiles. More recent barometers suggest the economy is gaining momentum in the final months of the year. Gross domestic product increased at a 2.6 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. That's up from the 2.5 percent pace estimated a month ago. While businesses spent more to build inventories, co...

Neil Cavuto: Bernie Sanders Will Need Depends To Filibuster Tax Cut Deal
Our friends at News Hounds caught this one from the other day. Besides the fact that it is completely disrespectful to Sen. Sanders, I've got another point to make. What Bernie Sanders did the other day with his eight and a half hour long Speech on the floor of the Senate was not technically a Filibuster. No one seems to think it's necessary to make a Senator who wants to hold up a bill actually take to the floor and do what Bernie did. All they have to do is put an anonymous hold on a bill and ...

Ron Paul vs. the Federal Reserve
Having recently been named head of the House subcommittee on domestic Monetary Policy, Ron Paul is looking forward to the chance to butt heads with the Federal Reserve, a longtime object of his scorn. The Texas congressman, who last year wrote the book End the Fed, fundamentally disagrees with the power that the system has over the value of paper money. "What I'm really asking for is competition, to get rid of the monopoly power of the Fed, because they don't have legitimate power to do what the...

Realist GHW Bush dealt with the shock of his sons neoconservatism by joking
Did you read Michael Kinsley's review of Bush's memoir in the Sunday Times yesterday? I thought this part-- Speaking of a sense of humor and the Middle East, when Bush called for a new Palestinian leadership, Barbara Bush the elder (“Mother,” he invariably calls her) rang up to say, “How’s the first Jewish president doing?” Maybe I’m deficient in humor, but I don’t see why this is funny, as her son clearly believes it to be. I might even find it alarming if Bush d

USS Bush decked out for the holidays
The carrier USS George H.W. Bush is all decked out for the holidays. The nuclear-powered flattop has taken first place in a holiday display competition among other ships stationed at Naval Station Norfolk. The ship is adorned with 6.2 miles of holiday lights. It also has a 25-foot wreath and a life-size Santa sleigh decked out in lights. An F/A-18 trainer jet stands in for Santa's reindeers. Va. watermen turned away on harvest extension Va. watermen turned away on harvest extension What would ...

Richard Klass: Questions about Questions about New START
Listening to GOP Senators raise questions about the New START agreement raises some questions for them. ·Why does Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) complain that the treaty is being rushed when there will be more time on the Senate Floor than spent in total on START I, START II and the Moscow treaty (SORT)? ·Why did Sen. John Kyl (R-Az) say New START was acceptable if modernization was agreed and then reverse course? ·Is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) simply implementing his top pri

Harvards disingenuous Solomon Amendment statement.
With the Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell almost certain now to be passed into law*, there has been some discussion of one thing that Conservatives and Republicans will absolutely require to have happen: to wit, the ending of the Ivy League’s continuing campaign against the Military by forbidding ROTC programs on their campuses.  Said campaign absolutely flaunts the intent of Congress (as per the ‘Solomon Amendment’), but has been generally tacitly tolerated by th...

Wild Chimps May Play Dolls
For the parents who have been wondering "Why is it that my daughter plays with dolls and my son just wants a toy fire truck?" scientists reported this week that they've seen something similar among chimpanzees in a forest in Uganda. The scientists say they've observed young, female chimps playing with sticks and logs as though they were dolls. Enlarge Sonya Kahlenberg/Harvard University/Current Biology A comparison of sticks chosen by chimpanzees for carrying (the four on the left) and ...

Africa has two species of elephants, not one
Chicago (Reuters) - Instead of one species of elephant, Africa has two, researchers said on Tuesday, confirming suspicions about the two distinctly different looking pachyderms. Using gene sequencing tools, teams from Harvard, the University of Illinois and the University of York in Britain have shown that instead of being the same species -- as scientists have long believed -- the African savanna elephant and the smaller African forest elephant are distant cousins, having been largely separate...

Politically motivated cyberattacks rising
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Web sites posting Controversial materials or promoting Human Rights are up against rising numbers of politically motivated cyberattacks, U.S. researchers say. Harvard University researchers who conducted the computer attack survey identified almost 300 attempts to silence independent media and Human Rights Web sites over the past year, NewScientist.com reported Tuesday. "There is almost always a political component to these attacks," Jillian York, one of the re...

Harvards disingenuous Solomon Amendment statement.
With the Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell almost certain now to be passed into law*, there has been some discussion of one thing that Conservatives and Republicans will absolutely require to have happen: to wit, the ending of the Ivy League’s continuing campaign against the Military by forbidding ROTC programs on their campuses.  Said campaign absolutely flaunts the intent of Congress (as per the ‘Solomon Amendment’), but has been generally tacitly tolerated by th...

Trade Not Aid Not Enough for Africa
By Bob Davis In a bid to boost Economic Growth in Africa, Congress passed the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act in 2000, which eliminated many Tariffs and quotas for African goods. Imports of clothing from Africa boomed, particularly because Congress didn’t require — as it often does in trade deals — that exporters use fabric that is either made domestically or imported from the U.S. Taiwanese and other Asian companies seized the opportunity to set up shop in the poorest African n...

Harvard Puts Lie To Kagans DADT Claims
From CNN: Harvard, Yale open up to ROTC plans after ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ vote December 21, 2010 (CNN) — The presidents of Harvard and Yale universities have expressed interest in ROTC programs after Congress voted to Repeal the Military’s Controversial "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy that has banned Openly Gay and Lesbian service members. The universities’ statements come five months after Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, t...

The College Diploma Fraud
For more than a half-century, government has tried to close racial gaps in educational attainment. Sad to say, those gaps have proven intractable. Nevertheless, the impulse remains as heartfelt as ever (perhaps due to its financially lucrative character), but the emphasis is now shifting from actual learning to equality of graduation rates. President Obama has spoken of adding 5 million graduates to the Workforce by 2020, and credential-mania is now all the rage. This shift is a disaster in the ...

ROTC still a long way off at Harvard
Harvard University is preparing to formally recognize ROTC, now that Congress has repealed the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, but that doesn’t mean Military training will return to campus anytime soon. Recognition will reverse decades-old opposition to the program that began with the 1960s anti-war movement. Opponents later cited the 1993 policy barring gays from serving openly. “The Repeal of DADT is a historic step,” Harvard President Drew Faust said...

Harvard shamefully reopens campus to ROTC while throwing transgender students under the bus
This has me absolutely fuming. Once DADT has been repealed, Harvard University will reopen its campus to ROTC. I look forward to pursuing discussions with Military officials and others to achieve Harvard's full and formal recognition of ROTC. I am very pleased that more Students will now have the opportunity to serve their country. I am grateful to the Massachusetts delegation for their unified support for Repeal. -- Harvard President Drew Faust ROTC was banished from Harvard in the first pl...

Why Retirement is the Happiest Stage of Life
When you’re 10 years old, you just can’t wait to be a teenager. When you’re a teenager, you yearn to be out of the house and away at college. When you’re in college, graduation can’t come soon enough. And when you’re toiling away at your career, you long for the day when you can finally slow down and retire. Then you retire and something happens, there’s nothing to look forward to. [See 10 Key Retirement Ages to Plan For.] Don’t get me wrong, I&r...;

Schools lift ROTC ban after don't ask vote
Published: Dec. 21, 2010 at 8:13 AM Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Two Ivy League schools say they'll welcome back the ROTC program now that the U.S. Congress repealed a ban on gays and Lesbians openly serving in the Military. The decision to reinstate the Reserve Officers' Training Corps ends a 40-year standoff between Harvard University and the Armed Forces that began over the Vietnam War and remained as university administrators, faculty and Students objected to the military's "don't ask,...