Last week, the United States Preventive Services Task Force issued new guidelines recommending that women in their 40s no longer have annual mammograms and that women ages 50 to 74 have them only every other year, instead of annually. The recommendations were highly controversial, and by week’s end most health insurers and the federal Medicare program said they would ignore the panel’s recommendation and continue covering annual mammograms. This is as it should be: the federal government collects information and makes recommendations, and Americans are then free to consult their health care providers, ignoring the government if they so choose. The problem is that Obamacare would forever change this relationship.

When you read some of those files – including 1079 emails and 72 documents – you realise just why the boffins at Hadley CRU might have preferred to keep them confidential. As Andrew Bolt puts it, this scandal could well be “the greatest in modern science”. These alleged emails – supposedly exchanged by some of the most prominent scientists pushing AGW theory – suggest:

Conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more.

Earlier this month, the Obama administration moved to transfer alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from the military justice system at Guantanamo Bay to the jurisdiction of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Behind this move away from the military tribunal system, which delivered justice so effectively at Nuremburg, is an $8.5 million lobbying effort by the so-called “John Adams Project” launched in April, 2008 by the American Civil Liberties Union.

“The legislative auditor’s report of DBEDT offers erroneous findings and demonstrates a lack of understanding and appreciation of the critical role Hawai‘i’s overseas offices in Beijing and Taipei play in the economic future of our state.

“Hawai‘i is one of only two states in the United States that has been granted the opportunity to have an ongoing presence in China—the world’s fastest growing economy.  The Beijing office, under the leadership of Bo Wu and the Taiwan Office under Alex Lei have both been instrumental in developing solid working relationships with Chinese business, government, academic, and cultural leaders.

Our study found that the Hawai‘i Teacher Standards Board is in a state of confusion, unable to develop, administer, and deliver an effective teacher licensing program.  The board’s failure jeopardizes federal funding for the Department of Education (DOE), which is struggling to meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). The board has not applied new standards to teachers seeking an initial license. Moreover, the executive director assumed the board’s authority to approve new or initial licenses, which clouds the validity of approximately 3,800 licenses issued since 2003. Further, the board has no rules and procedures for appeals.

With the national debt now topping $12 trillion, the White House estimates that the government’s tab for servicing the debt will exceed $700 billion a year in 2019, up from $202 billion this year, even if annual budget deficits shrink drastically. Other forecasters say the figure could be much higher.   In concrete terms, an additional $500 billion a year in interest expense would total more than the combined federal budgets this year for education, energy, homeland security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

TAXILA, Pakistan -- Archaeologists warn that the Taliban are destroying Pakistan's ancient Gandhara heritage and rich Buddhist legacy as pilgrimage and foreign research dries up in the country's northwest.

"Militants are the enemies of culture," said Abdul Nasir Khan, curator of Taxila Museum, one of the premier archaeological collections in Pakistan.

"It is very clear that if the situation carries on like this, it will destroy our culture and will destroy our cultural heritage," he told AFP.

Hawaii Department of Education Hawaiian Studies instruction statewide has suffered a "decade of decline" as funding for the salaries of "kupuna program" instructors and teaching assistants are diverted to other uses.  The diversion of resources out of the classroom stems from "vague guidelines" and "weak oversight" according to a January, 2008 Audit report prepared by Hawaii State Auditor Marion M. Higa.

The Audit cites the Hawaii Board of Education and the top leadership of the Department of Education for "leaving the program without direction and in decline for more than a decade."

Confronted this spring with a $468M DoE two-year budget cut, the HSTA, DoE, and BoE went straight to the "Washington Monument Gambit"--cutting the most sensitive and prominent services.  Hawaiian style, this means the HSTA, DoE, and BoE conspired together to make furloughs as inconvenient as possible in order to pressure the Legislature for tax increases.  Also targeted, high school athletics.  Will they now settle for a one-time shot of $50 million?

The Honolulu City Council has won release of a previously unpublished Qmark Research poll cited as showing support for rail by Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is poised for another Saturday night cram down, forcing a Senate cloture vote mere days before his 2,074 page bill was given to Senators. Yet again, Congress will be forced to vote on a bill that none of them have actually read. More importantly, as we pour through the details, it becomes obvious that none of them even believe the plan will do what the bill says.

...a monthly abortion premium will be charged of all enrollees in the government-run health plan.  It’s right there beginning on line 11, page 122, section 1303, under “Actuarial Value of Optional Service Coverage.”  The premium will be paid into a U.S. Treasury account – and these federal funds will be used to pay for the abortion services.

Last Friday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other terrorists would be tried in a civilian court in New York City rather than before a military tribunal. Pressing Holder on this decision at yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee Oversight hearing of the U.S. Department of Justice, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked: “Can you give me a case in United States history where a (sic) enemy combatant caught on a battlefield was tried in civilian court?”

Holder responded: “I don’t know. I’d have to look at that. I think that, you know, the determination I’ve made…”

VIDEO -- Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asks: "Where would Osama Bin Laden be tried if he were captured tomorrow?

In spite of the fact that Graham's question is hardly unexpected--having been at the root of debate over the handling of GTMO detainees for several years--Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder, whose private law firm represents over a dozen GTMO detainees, again and again fails to come up with a clear answer....

Yesterday at 3:00 p.m. ET, the Treasury Department updated its calculation of the U.S. National Debt to: $12,031,299,186,290.07. That $12 trillion record high comes just eight months after it hit $11 trillion and is only expected to rise faster considering the federal deficit for 2009 was over $1.4 trillion. And what is the leftist majority of Congress going to do tomorrow about these skyrocketing deficits? They are going to pile on the spending faster.

Today, unions are dependent on government, not the private sector, for their livelihood. Therefore, unions like the SEIU have little interest in private sector job growth. Private sector jobs don’t help fund $60.7 million political campaigns. But government jobs do.

Combing through the data on the $18 million Recovery.gov website you’ll find tons of Obama stimulus success stories from across the country. In Minnesota’s 57th Congressional District, 35 jobs have been saved or created using $404,340 in stimulus funds. In New Mexico’s 22nd Congressional District, 25 jobs have been saved or created using $61,000 in stimulus cash. And in Arizona’s fighting 15th Congressional District, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending.

But none of the above Congressional Districts actually exist....

A report released Friday by the non-partisan and independent Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency in charge of running Medicare and Medicaid, blows the lid off of every one of Obama’s claims.

By now everybody who is paying attention knows that "furlough Fridays" were made as inconvenient as possible by the Hawaii Department of Education (DoE) and the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) in order to pressure the Legislature for tax increases.  Governor Lingle has proposed giving the DoE a $50M ransom payment from the "Rainy Day" fund if the HSTA and DoE agree to transfer furlough Fridays to non-instructional days.  But even without the extra $50M--and after the budget cuts made necessary by the decline of tourism--the DoE has plenty of money to keep schools open without cutting any class time. 

So what is the DoE wasting taxpayer money on?

"This is potentially very big news for the future of tourism in Hawai‘i. It will bring back a lot of jobs if we’re successful at bringing it about." -- Gov Lingle