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POPSReaganomics A suburb of Atlanta and a bastion of Conservatism discovers cognitive economic dissonance. They want government services but don't want to pay for them. Sound familiar? It's the drum beat from the Right that we hear every election season. Cut taxes (especially for the wealthy) and do away with government services. It seems the residents of this small town are finding out, albeit somewhat late, that "trickle down" is a myth and doesn't work. Wake up Republicans!
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POPSOil: $60/bbl. by next year (?) I agree that the oil market has been driven by speculation. I'd _love_ to see $60/bbl. if only to screw the world's oil-dictators. But should it go that low again? The best way to screw the world's oil-dictators is to find a successful alternative energy source and $60/bbl. oil will only dampen demand for alternatives. BTW, such wild price swings are a typical feature of an item whose supply is dwindling.
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POPSA radical new idea could save the world’s ecosystems. Tickell proposes setting a global limit for carbon pollution then selling permits to pollute to companies extracting or refining fossil fuels. This has the advantage of regulating a few thousand corporations - running oil refineries, coal washeries, gas pipelines and cement and fertiliser works for example - rather than a few billion citizens.
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POPSSpain Reeling On July 4, Zapatero said: “To be optimistic is something more than a rational act, it is a moral requirement, an act of decency and, if I may say so, elegance.” Imagine that quote from a Leftist.
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POPSIstiklal The oil that was their independence, has become their chain.
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POPSWe Need to Protect More Land, Not Less There are few better investments of taxpayer dollars than the land reserve project, which has protected millions of acres of sensitive lands nationwide and significantly reduced soil erosion, all the while costing taxpayers about one tenth as much as traditional farm subsidies. And unlike most farm subsidies — which concentrate wealth in the hands of the wealthy — this program spreads the money around and creates more economic value than it costs.
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POPSMore Delays With Iraq SOFA A majority of the Iraqi parliament wrote to the US congress last week rejecting a long-term security deal with Washington if it is not linked to a requirement that US forces leave. "The majority of Iraqi representatives strongly reject any military-security, economic, commercial, agricultural, investment or political agreement with the United States that is not linked to clear mechanisms that obligate the occupying American military forces to fully withdraw from Iraq," the letter to the leaders of Congress said. A majority of the Iraqi population does not want a long term military presence in Iraq, and Iraqi politicians are mindful of this as election time nears. At the same tine, the US is also approaching elections, and the war in Iraq is extremely unpopular among the majority of the American people.
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POPSMisery index Potential Article title: The Land-Pain Threshold... At a point in time where individuals are screaming that there is no debt available for land... and their is exesss equity on the sidelines, there has to be a threshold by which we tend to decide to jump back in... We can look at the "Misery" index... and correlate that index with the cost of land... and the index of homebuilders... and get to a number that is overly complicated... bottom line. Find the deals
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POPSIndependent study validates Canada's medicare program With all the shouting in the U.S. as to how the Canadian system is so totally inferior than the fee based system at home, it is nice to occasionally find an article such as this to clip. As someone who has lived under both systems, and who makes major use of heathcare services, I can tell you without any hesitation, that the Canadian system is far fairer and superior to the discriminatory system in my home country, the U.S.