Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category

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Fastracks boon doggle, again…

July 28, 2008

When will people learn? From gutting Tabor, to referendum “C” the Independence Institute is becoming almost prophet like in getting things correct. As opposed to Colorado government, both Democrat and Republican.

I wish this wasn’t the case, because it’s not exactly enjoyable to be proven right at the expense of Colorado taxpayers. In 2004 I ran the David vs. Goliath campaign against RTD’s 67% tax increase called FasTracks. Goliath won. We said it was plainly obvious that it was going to be underfunded and over-cost. Read what we wrote back then. Of course the corporate welfare machine behind the tax increase, and Mayor Hickenlooper in front of it promised the impossible again.

But as Kevin Flynn of the Rocky Mountain News reports:

RTD conceded Friday that it cannot deliver the FasTracks program as promised to voters four years ago. The program, originally budgeted at $4.7 billion when voters approved a sales tax to support it, rose to $6.1 billion last year and is poised for a substantial increase next month during budget talks with the elected board.

This is an unfortunate situation where we taxpayers are in no situation to continue to fund this massive failure, while no mayor is willing to push the project back or cut lines in their district. At this point, everyone is looking for a viable solution. In addition to my suggestion to ask the voters to kill it, the Rocky gave some other possible solutions:

Strategies that will be discussed soon include some, all or a combination of these:
* Going beyond the original completion year of 2017.
* Trimming some project elements such as was done with the West Corridor light rail, the first FasTracks corridor to start construction.
* Shortening some of the planned lines.
* Privatizing the financing and construction of more than the two corridors now being privatized.
* Asking the legislature for permission to go to voters for additional taxes.You can bet that TaxTracks, as Ari Armstrong of FreeColorado.com calls it, will continue to dissapoint its supporters and demand more and more taxpayer money to stay afloat. Those options above are upsetting, no doubt, but fleecing our wallets continuously for another decade or so is even worse. I say we put it to another vote and let Coloradans decide if they have had enough.

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Pinwheel Cars

July 28, 2008

Mark Udall has decided that all of us need to follow him down his yellow brick road. I just have to wonder what he does when the wind does not blow?

Boulder, CO — Today U.S. Senate Candidate Mark Udall announced his solution to high gas prices: the WindCar 3000, an electric car powered by a giant windmill atop the roof that can also serve to catch favorable winds.

“The WindCar 3000 offers a practical alternative to Colorado’s addiction to oil,” Udall said.”With gas prices around $4 per gallon, now is not the time drill or produce more oil in the U.S. Now is the time for forward-thinking individuals to adopt exciting new technologies and free us from oil.”

Source and story cont.

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The Bakken Formation and energy independence

July 23, 2008

The Bakken Formation like the Pieance Basin Oil Shale holds great promise for development. Price and technology have been the big considerations in the past when exploitation of these resource’s have been discussed. Now, it seems that the price of oil is such that cost effectiveness may well be past the point of profitability. The opportunity costs involved take on many faces though. Mostly hunters and fishermen, but also ranchers, farmers, and those that care for the environment.

My Fiance who is a Geological Engineer and Geo-chemist has told me that the technology is now available that would allow extraction with minimal environmental impact. That, however does not include the refinery, or some portions of necessary pipelines. Those two issues are pretty troublesome to someone like me.

Then we get to the big money rumor mills that say there are impending finds in the north of Russia and in Indonesia. If true, the American Dollar will be in some rather serious trouble. Those folks in other places that are in fact propping up America through purchasing T-Bonds and such will in all probability stop doing so. Making a switch to alternative energy sources will be expensive enough without having to deal with a near worthless currency. This is where International and Political Economics come into play with a vengeance.

The flip side is that if we can rapidly build alternative energy sources as well as use the oil that we have available we should be able to weather the storm, so to speak. We also need to have a President that has the inner courage to reverse President Nixion’s policy that took the United States off the gold standard.

I believe that we are indeed heading into a rather rough row to hoe.

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Fast Tracks

July 23, 2008

Once again the light rail plan foisted upon the voters via a bit of expansive liberty with the truth about what it will cost, as well as the impact on the people that are living along the corridor it is being constructed through is going bust.

Ari Armstrong lays it all to bear here.

From day one this project has been one big boondoggle. Jon Caldara of The Independence Institute has led the charge against this monstrosity that will certainly bankrupt the cities and citizens of metroploitian Denver.

From issues of heavy handed emmenient domain to what I am now believeing were pre-planned statements that were less than truthful this entire project is beggining to have the appearance, if not the smell of outright corruption.

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The Sky Is Falling On Gore Again

July 22, 2008

I found this piece, and love it!

By Henry Lamb
July 22, 2008

Al Gore has certainly secured his place in history. His Academy-Award-Pulitzer-Prize-winning prediction that climate change will raise sea levels by 20 feet will be studied by future history students, along with the predictions of Malthus and Paul Ehrlich.

With Gore-like zeal, in the 19th century, Malthus predicted that the world’s population would soon outstrip the world’s food supply. In the 20th century, Paul Ehrlich predicted that, “By 1985 enough millions will have died to reduce the earth’s population to some acceptable level, like 1.5 billion people.”

He also predicted that by 1980, life expectancy in the United States would drop to 42, and that the U.S. population would drop to 22.6 million by 1999.

The grand prize for idiotic predictions in the 21st century has already been claimed by Al Gore. His insistence that the earth will fry, that the seas will rise, and that life as we know it must undergo a “wrenching transformation” will be studied by his grandchildren with the same appreciation that his, and Ehrlich’s ridiculous predictions deserve.

Is it possible that Ehrlich and Gore really think their predictions are valid? Or, are they just following the instructions of Dr. Steven Schneider, who tells fellow scientists:

“We have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we may have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.” (Discover magazine, Oct. 1989)

Students of Malthus generally agree that he was sincere in his predictions, actively engaging his detractors in debate, and revising his conclusions accordingly. Malthus was sincerely wrong. The same cannot be said about Ehrlich, or Gore. Ehrlich jumped on the environmental band wagon early. His book “Population Bomb” was published in 1968, and was an instant best-seller. He rode the wave of book sales and popularity for a decade, making speeches and writing articles offering excuses for failed predictions and promising even worse consequences for what he called environmental abuse.

Al Gore saw an opportunity to re-claim the political spotlight when he chaired the June 28, 1988 Senate hearing that called Jim Hansen to testify that the current heat wave was caused by global warming. Gore, having been defeated in the 1988 presidential primary by Jesse Jackson in the South, and by Michael Dukakis in the North, turned his attention to the environment, and to global warming in particular.

It was Hansen’s testimony at Al Gore’s hearings that propelled the United Nations’ efforts to get into the global warming business. Before the end of 1988, the U.N. Environment Program, and the World Meteorological Organization established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to take charge of global research and action.

Gore’s selection as Vice President in 1992 provided the perfect stage for what was until then, his most influential performance. He publicly ridiculed then-President George H.W. Bush into attending the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro where the U.N. Convention on Climate Change was adopted.

Throughout the Clinton administration, Gore was “Mr. Environment.” He directed negotiations at virtually every U.N. Climate Change meeting during the 1990s working toward the Kyoto Protocol. When the negotiations stalled in Kyoto in 1997 because the U.S. Senate adopted a resolution directing the President to not accept the Protocol unless it applied to China and India and other developing nations, Gore flew in to save the day. Despite the Senate’s resolution, Al stood before thousands of U.N. delegates in Kyoto and announced that he had instructed the U.S. delegation to be “more flexible” in their negotiations. At the last moment, the Protocol was adopted, without participation by developing nations.

Al’s crushing defeat in 2000 left him rudderless for a few years, but he re-emerged with his “An Inconvenient Truth.” This spectacular movie won an Academy Award. Gore received the Pulitzer Prize. Once again, Prince Albert ascended to the global warming throne, despite the fact that the film’s assertions were not supported by science, according to more than 31,000 scientists.

Ignoring his critics, and refusing to confront and debate the scientists who clearly refute his hyperbolic hallucinations, Al is now seeking to reclaim the global spotlight. He denigrates those who reject his unfounded predictions, and calls instead for massive national commitment to abandon fossil fuel, and launch a “go-to-the-moon” type campaign to convert all electricity generation to wind, solar, other “alternative” sources in the next ten years.

Gore has been spouting his predictions of climate disaster for more than a decade, while in reality, the global climate has actually been cooling.

The media, and uninformed politicians, gobble up Gore’s gloomy forecasts, just as they embraced Paul Ehrlich’s forecasts of people dying in the streets. History has proven Malthus to be sincerely wrong. History has proven Paul Ehrlich to be ridiculously wrong. History is proving Al Gore to be wrong as well.

But Gore must continue to peddle his predictions. His financial future is tied to his salesmanship. The more he cries “the sky is falling,” when the science says it is not, the more Al looks like a midway barker making whatever claims he thinks will separate the public from its money.

—

Henry Lamb is the Chairman of Sovereignty International , and founder of the Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO).

source:

I have been listening to world disaster pundits since I was a child. It really is getting old in my not so humble opinion.

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White in America

July 21, 2008

White In America!

For those of you that watched “Black in America” on CNN, you might be interested in how it is to be White in America

1. We are racists. WE can not use the “I have a black friend” excuse, it doesn’t work. WE have either owned a black person or OUR family has, and therefore WE as white people OWE every Black person in America something.

2. WE are in control of ALL money in America, WE have the ability to hire anyone, and WE never hire black people because they are black. That is the rule.

3. When Black folks walk past US and WE grab your wallet or purse, that is a racist response no matter where WE are or what time of day it is. IT is acceptable however to open OUR wallet or purse and empty the contents on the sidewalk and run because (see #1 WE OWE THEM).

4. WE vote for Barak Hussein Obama because you owe black people.

5. WE don’t vote for Barak Hussein Obama because you are racist.

Oh and according to all politicians, movie makers, media outlets, sitcoms, radio hosts, bloggers or basically ANYONE saying anything… White, hetero sexual, Christian, Males are the reason for everything bad in America. However; if you mention any facts that do not agree with that assertion YOU ARE A RACIST!

I hope one day to see true racial equality, I hope one day to see the end of the victim mentality in America, and the start of the personal responsibility era, maybe my grandchildren will see it but I honestly believe it is ingrained in the culture now. Oh Shit I must now be a racist.

Proudly Stole From:
White in America – American and Proud

Yes, I have a serious problem with these misconceptions…

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Why the Left can’t get it Right

July 21, 2008

By Mark Alexander

Ask a liberal about some manifestation of his worldview—for example, why he supports charlatans like Barack Hussein Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Albert Arnold Gore, Jean-Francois Kerry, et al., and he invariably predicates his response with, “Because I feel…”

Ask a conservative about what he believes, or why he does or doesn’t support John McCain, and he invariably predicates his response with, “Because I think…”

It has always been easier to “feel” rather than “think,” and that is why our national culture, and by extension, national politics (see Democrat Party Platforms) reflect only the most rudimentary remnants of the guiding principles established by our Founders. Of course, though Republican Party Platforms are more consistent with our Founding principles, Ronald Reagan was the last Republican president to stand firmly in support of those principles.

Liberalism tends to appeal to the worst of human instincts—greed, envy, laziness, victimization and every line of division. Its practitioners appeal to constituent “feelings,” and they thus convert emotions into political capital.

Leftist pathology is deserving of its own category on the short list of personality disorders, and liberal politicians have one uniformly defining characteristic: hypocrisy.

Liberal politicos advocate populist themes but are consummate elitists. They feign concern for the plight of the poor while hobnobbing with the richest of the rich. They are charitable with everyone’s income but their own. They decry school vouchers yet send their children to the finest academies. They hate SUVs, unless they are expensive imports. They advocate mass transit but commute on private jets. They express concern for the homeless yet maintain multiple manors.

Liberals advocate diversity, unless your views don’t comport with their own doctrines of moral relativism. They want to preserve nature and the natural order but advocate homosexual “marriage.” They oppose the death penalty for the most heinous of criminal sociopaths, but they support the execution of unborn children in their mothers’ wombs. They believed that one nut who bombs an abortion clinic deserves far more law-enforcement attention than jihadi cells planning the 9/11 attacks. They called 9/11 victims “Little Eichmanns” while calling their murderers “oppressed.” They “support our troops” while calling for retreat and surrender.

Liberals call for “change” but are firmly committed to the status quo. They oppose nuclear power production while complaining about “global warming.” They call for racial, ethnic and religious harmony, but they rally constituencies by fomenting division and hate. They deride moral clarity because they can’t survive its scrutiny.

Indeed, liberals have turned the wisdom of their iconic sovereigns inside out.

Then: “My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” —John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 1961

Now: “Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you.”

Then: “I have a dream that my children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” —Martin L. King, Address from the Lincoln Memorial, 1963

Now: “I have a dream that my children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the content of their character but by the color of their skin.”

Liberals have replaced the original Constitution with their so-called “Living Constitution” so that they can insist on viewing the First Amendment through a wide-angle lens—except, of course, the “freedom of religion” part, where they opt to censor Christianity while imposing secular atheism. They advocate a “Wall of Separation” between church and state, but they tear down any obstacles between your income and the state. Of course, they also insist on viewing the Second Amendment through a pinhole.

Liberals protest economic recession, all the while suppressing economic growth with evermore taxes and regulations. Most of them are card-carrying members of the ignoble ranks of “useful idiots,” those Western apologists for Marxist-Leninist-Maoist collectivism. Of course, that card reads: “Member, Democrat National Committee.”

I have no doubt that you’ve already come up with a list of additional examples of liberal hypocrisy. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough bandwidth on the Internet to compile a comprehensive list here. (Feel free to post additional examples on our reader comments page.)

Liberal and conservative worldviews often collide for this reason: Disciplined conservatives put God first, family and country second and themselves third, while liberals tend to put themselves first, their country last, and serve gods made in their image. This is the most defining philosophical distinction between these two groups.

As we approach the next presidential election, Leftmedia types suggest that most Americans are in the middle—“moderate” or “centrist.” But political researchers are finding that we are in fact a deeply divided nation, with many voters strongly identifying with either conservative or liberal doctrines.

Let’s hope and pray that more of our fellow Americans, those guided by their feelings, will think better of this process and vote on right-minded principles. Otherwise, it will be difficult to seat candidates who, in the words of Samuel Adams, possess the qualities of “wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth…”

Sort of reminds me of something we were taught in Devil Pups on Camp Pendleton all those years ago. God, Family, Country, Corps…

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The Fourth of July, economics 101 revisited

July 5, 2008

The Daily Reckoning PRESENTS: Today is the day we celebrate the unique American experience with “pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells and illuminations.” But, in this DR Classique, first published on the Fourth of July, 2003, Bill Bonner can’t help but notice that America has changed quite a bit since the Declaration of Independence was signed…

LAND OF THE FREE
by Bill Bonner

“This is a society of true believers. The belief in democracy, market economics and the importance of religion is far more pervasive here than Marxism ever was in Russia.”
– Michael Ignatieff, The Daily Telegraph

It is the Fourth of July. Should we hang out the red, white, and blue bunting from our office balcony…or the black crepe? Should we whine about the America we have lost, or give a whoop for what we have left of it?

That star-spangled banner still waves, but does it still fly over the land of the free, we ask? Or over a country with a spy camera on every street corner…a nation so deeply in debt that freedom has become a luxury it can no longer afford?

Whatever direction we take, we trip over a contradiction. Things always seem to be black and white at the same time.

That is why we took up tango, dear reader. People who dance the tango or write poems don’t let contradictions bother them. They glide across the floor and enjoy themselves. As far as we know, no serious tango dancer has ever committed suicide. It’s the mathematicians and engineers who blow their brains out.

An ideologue or a mathematician cannot tolerate contradiction. His little world has to fit together neatly, like a crossword puzzle. It is ‘cat’ in one direction and ‘day’ in the other. Each intersection has to work perfectly.

But that is not the way real life or real people work. A healthy woman loves her husband, but often hates him too. She has two eyes, and sees a slightly different view of him with each of them. What is wrong with that? Likewise, even a man with only a single eye cannot help but notice that the world is menaced by inflation and deflation at the same time…and that America is both free and un-free at exactly the same moment.

What we have come to dislike about the neo-conservatives is not that their view of the world is right or wrong – for how could we know? – but that it is so small. They are true believers in a very tiny world…one with no room for mystery, contradiction, ignorance or humility. It has to be small; otherwise they could not understand it.

Neo-cons think they can see what no mortal has ever seen: the future. That is the twisted genius of the ‘Preemptive Attack’; they stop the criminal before he has committed his crime!

They think they can know what no mortal has ever known: not only what is good for himself and his country…but what is good for the entire world. And they intend to give it to them, whether they want it or not. In today’s email box, for example, George W. Bush himself sends us the following message:

“…liberty is God’s gift to humanity, the birthright of every individual. The American creed remains powerful today because it represents the universal hope of all mankind.”

Here we will take a wild guess: there are probably more than a few bipeds hobbling around the planet for whom the “American creed” is not so much a hope as a dread.

But the president continues:

“We are winning the war against enemies of freedom, yet more work remains. We will prevail in this noble mission. Liberty has the power to turn hatred into hope.”

“America is a force for good in the world,” continues the leader of the world’s only super-duper power, “and the compassionate spirit of America remains a living faith. Drawing on the courage of our Founding Fathers and the resolve of our citizens, we willingly embrace the challenges before us.”

America’s citizens, meanwhile, are deeply in debt. They see little choice but to back the system, such as it is. Free or un-free, they could care less. Just keep the money flowing. They have come to rely on government. They need Fannie Mae…and unemployment insurance…and social security…and jobs…and the Fed…and fiscal stimulus. Or, at least, they think they do.

After 50 years of the Dollar Standard boom, the average American finds himself less free than ever. He is a slave to the highest government spending and biggest public debt burden in history…and to the heaviest mortgage and other private debt load ever. He has mortgaged up his house…he has taken the bait of credit-card lenders. Now he has no freedom left; he must keep a job…he must pay attention to the Fed’s rates…he must have an interest in George Bush’s government (for now he depends on it)!

“July 4 should be about celebrating freedom and independence,” wrote Richard Benson, published in this week’s Barron’s, “yet the bankers are the only people jumping for joy. Never have Americans owed so much in terms of their total debt, the ratio of total debt to income and the amount of cash flow the debt needs to serve it. Americans used to believe that if they were debt-free, they were free. Today, Americans just want the freedom to borrow more, even if it means they are on the way to becoming enslaved by their debt.”

The average citizen is only a few paychecks from getting put out of his house. He no longer has the freedom to step back…to reflect…to think…to wonder about things…or enjoy the contradictions. Instead, he must listen to the words of economists as if they meant something…and bow before the politicians who control his livelihood…and place himself at the beck and call of every government agency with a dollar to spend.

The message from George W. Bush concludes with an endearing personal note, in which “Laura joins me in sending our best wishes for a safe and joyous Independence Day…”

Laura who, we wondered? Oh yes…the First Lady.

How we got to be on a first-name basis with the woman, we don’t know. We have never even met her. Why she should wish us a happy day, we don’t understand. But these are the peculiar, baroque eccentricities of America that make it such an endearing place to its citizens and such a rich treasure for contemporary ethnologists and stand-up comics.

They, too, will wonder about the contradictions. Why do Americans celebrate “freedom” ever more loudly, while becoming ever less free…? How can they crow about the “home of the brave” when they attack pitiful, third world nations that can’t defend themselves? How can they ballyhoo their own independence when their armies occupy two foreign nations?

Most people will ignore the contradictions altogether. Many will see them as hypocrisy. Some will be outraged. And a few will hear the off-tempo tango beat, and enjoy the holiday anyway.

Your editor,

Bill Bonner
The Daily Reckoning

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Amendment 46, leveling the playing field

July 2, 2008

June 30, 2008

Face The State Staff Report


Goodman, Corry and HartPacifica Network

While the November election is still months away, public attention is already heating up around Amendment 46, known as the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative, with two debates televised over the last two days.

On Sunday morning, CoCRI Executive Director Jessica Peck Corry squared off against CU Law Professor Melissa Hart during KUSA’s “Your Show” with Adam Schrager.

Less than 24 hours later, the duo hit the national stage for a second debate – this time on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman. The show was broadcast from the KBDI studios in Denver. Goodman’s show is traveling this week, airing two shows here before heading on to Aspen.

Amendment 46, if passed by voters this November, would ban discrimination or preferential treatment based on race or gender in government hiring, contracting, and education. Corry advocates color-blind outreach efforts, saying Colorado is too diverse to define disadvantage based on skin color and gender. Meanwhile, Hart believes past discrimination against women and minorities still demands race and gender-specific remedies.

As Face The State reported last week, a recent Wall Street Journal poll indicates that just 15 percent of Colorado voters are opposed to the initiative, with 66 percent saying they support it and the rest remaining undecided.

Corry and Hart have at least one more duel scheduled, with Schrager set to host a longer televised Oct. 6th debate from the University of Denver campus.

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How the Irish Saved Civilization, Again

July 2, 2008
How the Irish Saved Civilization, Again

The Irish Times reports that the Lisbon Treaty has been defeated in a referendum held in the Republic of Ireland. The Lisbon Treaty is a new version of the proposed EU Constitution, which had previously been rejected by the voters of the France and the Netherlands. This time, the French and Dutch governments refused to allow a popular vote. In the U.K., the Labour Party had promised a referendum, but that promise was broken. Former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing explained: “Public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we dare not present to them directly… All the earlier [EU Constitution] proposals will be in the new text [Lisbon Treaty], but will be hidden and disguised in some way.”

Treaty proponents lamented that Ireland, with only 1% of the EU population, could derail a 27-nation treaty. But the very fact that only 1% of the EU’s population was allowed to vote on a treaty which would massively reduce national sovereignty and democratic accountability was itself an illustration of the enormous “democratic deficit” of the EU in general, and the Lisbon Treaty in particular. According to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Lisbon Treaty would be defeated in every EU nation if referenda were allowed.

The referendum debate in Ireland involved some Irish-specific issues, such as the Treaty’s impact on farmers, its threat to Ireland’s official foreign policy of neutrality, and the danger that Ireland might be forced to raise its low corporate income tax rate of 12.5% (which almost everyone agrees has been an essential part of the economic success of the Celtic Tiger). But the broader opposition seemed to stem from the sheer incomprehensibility of the Treaty. Even Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen admitted that he had not read the Treaty, which is over 400 pages long and deliberately written to be obscure. Treaty proponents included both of the two largest political parties (Fianna Fail and Fine Gael), and they appealed to the Irish people’s strong support of trade with Europe, and to Ireland’s optimistically internationalist orientation.

A group named Libertas was formed to lead the opposition, and Libertas agreed with the principles of international trade and Ireland’s integration into Europe. But Libertas was successful at convincing Irish voters that the Treaty was perilous threat to the democratic sovereignty which is the glory of European civilization, and for which the Irish had struggled for so many centuries to win for themselves.

More coverage at the excellent British site EU Referendum (which astute readers may remember for its outstanding work in exposing media complicity in cooperating with Hezbollah to create staged pictures of the alleged Israeli atrocities at Qana, Lebanon).

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