In that case, the Obama administration has argued that warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their--or at least their cell phones'--whereabouts. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers say that "a customer's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records" that show where a mobile device placed and received calls. . . .The government does not need to know where I am, where I was, or who I was with. Ever.
"The biggest issue at stake is whether or not courts are going to accept the government's minimal view of what is protected by the Fourth Amendment," says EFF's Bankston. "The government is arguing that based on precedents from the 1970s, any record held by a third party about us, no matter how invasively collected, is not protected by the Fourth Amendment."
Some once-flourishing local charities have been unable to survive. Family Services of the Mid-South, a 115-year-old nonprofit, is closing this week after transferring a few of its programs to other agencies. The Destiny Foundation of Central Florida, which ran a children's clinic, thrift store and food pantry in Orlando, has suspended its operations and may close.And that was last year. Children's clinics, homeless shelters for families, food banks, shops that clothe children -- all are in danger as the national debt rises and unemployment remains high.
A recent survey by the Human Services Council of New York City, encompassing 244 local nonprofits, found that 60 percent had seen some decrease in public funding and 73 percent reported reductions in private donations. More than half had laid off staff in the past year, and 35 percent had eliminated programs.
One of the city's oldest and largest charities - the Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service - has laid off about 50 of its 550 employees. It's also eliminated a program that helped disabled people make the transition from welfare to work, and scaled down a program that's helping kids from troubled homes avoid foster care.
The quality that gives the Tea Party movement its legitimacy is that it is so fundamentally illegitimate: outside the establishment, bereft of representation on K Street, and without an identifiable face to speak for it on Meet the Press. This is a movement that sprang deep from within the viscera of America, not from some political poll or focus group.Exactly.
It is not Republican; it is not even conservative. It has no interest in debating the merits of No Child Left Behind, abstinence-only sex education or George W. Bush's rationale for going to Iraq. Replacing a "spend and borrow" Democrat with a "spend and borrow" Republican is not the goal of the Tea Party movement.
This movement is simply saying: "We are fine without you, Washington. Now for the love of God, go attend a reception somewhere, and stop making health care and entrepreneurship more expensive than they already are."
Machiavelli once said a republic stays healthy by returning to its first principles from time to time. The Tea Party movement is trying to get our nation back to its first principles to prevent our decline.
The good news is that the Dem president is such an inexperienced, inept, blundering, one-foot-always-in-mouth, out-of-touch, economy-wrecking socialist. That means independents are fleeing from him almost as fast as "moderate" conservatives.With the developments in Illinois and Indiana over the past 24 hours, the Cook Political Report now carries 10 Democratic-held seats in their most competitive categories -- meaning, theoretically, that if Republicans ran the table (and lost none of their own toss up seats in Kentucky, Missouri, New Hampshire and Ohio) they could get to 51 seats and the Senate majority.
Is it a longshot? Absolutely. But, remember that recent history has shown that in a national political landscape tipped in favor of one party a strong majority of toss up contests tend to fall that party's way.
The poll of 2,000 Republicans — sponsored by the liberal website but conducted by independent pollster Research2000 — paints a picture of a Republican base that’s angry, disaffected and acutely hostile to President Barack Obama. Thirty-nine percent of Republicans polled think Obama should be impeached, 36 percent say he wasn’t born in the United States and one in four say they aren’t even sure he’s a U.S. citizen. Another 63 percent labeled the president a “socialist.”Well, not "patently crazy", but at least too late. The time to see the birth certificate was during the election, no after he was seated. Time to forge ahead and try to save the country from bankruptcy. Which is why I will not stop calling Obama a socialist. 'Cause he is.
Those numbers are far higher than similar polls of Democrats and independents — polls that reveal dissatisfaction with many of Obama’s programs but not with the president personally.
“It was the first time we ever asked the impeachment question, ... but ask independents if Obama was born in the U.S., and about 85 percent say yes,” said Research2000 President Del Ali.
“This shows a huge vulnerability for Republicans,” says Jef Pollock, a veteran pollster and Democratic strategist working for Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) — who was forced to bolt from the GOP after conservative Pat Toomey attacked him from the right.
“Independents, who are particularly disinclined toward any kind of partisan rhetoric, are going to be turned off when they hear Republicans say stuff like this, which is patently crazy,” Pollock said.
First stop: Twitter.In spite of the conclusion in final paragraph above, the fact that so many Congressmen have seized on modern communication channels is surprising. More surprising is the Republican's lead, given Obama's rather effective use of these channels during his campaign.
Earlier this month, Mark Senak, senior vice president and partner at Fleishman-Hillard, a public relations firm in Washington, D.C., issued a report titled "Twongress: The Power of Twitter in Congress" in which he analyzed the Twitter use of all members of Congress. The findings surprised him.
In Congress, he found, there are 132 members using Twitter actively: 89 Republicans and 43 Democrats. It breaks down like this: In the Senate, there are 14 Republicans using Twitter compared to 11 Democrats; and in the House, there are 75 Republicans using Twitter (42.13 percent of the Republican Caucus) and 32 Democrats (12.45 percent of the Democratic Caucus). . . .
What about YouTube?
On Jan. 21, 2010, YouTube's CitizenTube posted a year-end wrap-up that showed 89 percent of Republicans and 74 percent of Democrats in Congress have started YouTube channels to engage their constituents. More importantly, people are watching the Republican channels much more often. According to the report, eight of the top 10 most-viewed and most-subscribed YouTube channels in Congress are from the GOP, though Democrats took two of the top three spots. The top 4, in order, are Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Ca., and Boehner.
A tracking of YouTube views by industry analyst TubeMogul shows that with few exceptions, Republican videos consistently drew more clicks than those from Democrats. . . .
And lastly, Facebook, the favorite of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Palin's Facebook page has more than 1.2 million fans.
No one in the House has that kind of reach. And we couldn't find any comprehensive analysis of engagement on FaceBook by members of Congress. But as of Jan. 22, 2010, Boehner had 31,757 fans of his page, compared to 8,745 for Pelosi. . . .
But while House Republicans may rightly crow about deeper engagement in social media than their Democratic counterparts, Senak. the author of the study, says neither side is doing particularly well compared to other large institutions. Both parties have a minority of members engaged in Twitter. And neither side has fully embraced the give-and-take of Twitter. Most members have elected to follow very few other people and rarely "re-tweet." In other words, he said, they are mostly using Twitter as a soapbox.
Ted “Blonde in the Pond” Kennedy came from a little town called Hyannis, which is in Barnstable County. According to the NY Times interactive election map, Barnstable’s results are as follows:
| Scott P. Brown | 61.5% | 12,331 | |
| Martha M. Coakley | 37.6% | 7,543 | |
| Joe Kennedy | 0.9% | 179 |
The Democrats managed to get slaughtered in Kennedy’s backyard. Now that should tell you something. And it certainly should tell the Democrats something. Think they’ll listen?
Get your bumper sticker today from the Republican Party of Tennessee:
Now that’s funny, I don’t care who y’are.
I particularly like the part of how taxpayers are subsidizing farmers who make more than the average American family.
From CATO:
HT to NetRightNation.
So says Michael Reagan, who is attempting to reinstate the Reagan Revolution.
No, scratch that -- it's the so-called "leaders" of the GOP who are at fault for this humiliating defeat -- and I say it's time to name names and make heads roll in our party. Because, my fellow conservatives, we have been BETRAYED by the very people who promised that, if we would just elect them, they would get into office and vote OUR conservative values.
THEY LIED... THE GOP DIED.
You can help.
Charlton Heston, Actor, Author, Patriot
Charlton Heston, the Oscar-winning actor who achieved stardom playing larger-than-life figures including Moses, Michelangelo and Andrew Jackson in historical epics and went on to become a best-selling author, a contentious Hollywood labor leader, an unapologetic gun advocate and darling of conservative causes, has died. He was 84.
Source: LA Times
A man of integrity and strength, and an American patriot. A force for freedom was lost when he retired from public life. Today a light is gone from the world.
An organization calling itself StopTeenDrinkingTN.org sent me a rather inflammatory letter asking me to contact Senator Paul Stanley, author of a bill that is designed to allow adult citizens of Tennessee to have wine delivered to their home from out of state wineries. One section claims (emphasis in original):
Senate Bill 1977, sponsored by your local state legislator, Sen. Paul Stanley, will make it legal to ship wine across state lines and directly into the hands of whoever opens the door of a home, no matter what their age. No ID check required.
Yet a simple search of current Tennessee legislation shows that article five of Senate Bill 1977 clearly states:
The containers must contain a label identifying the contents as containing alcohol and stating that a signature of a person age 21 or older is required.
Further, the status summary page shows that there have been no amendments to this legislation, meaning that the requirement of an adult signature has been in the text of the bill since the beginning. StopTeenDrinkingTN.org is lying, pure and simple. A check of their web site shows that the lie is repeated there as well.
This leads me to believe that StopTeenDrinkingTN.org is a fascist organization that will stop at nothing in their quest to extinguish freedom. The end, after all, justifies the means.
Rush Limbaugh is telling Texas and Ohio Republicans to "pimp yourselves for a day" and vote for Hillary in order to keep the war alive in the Democrat party:
I know I'm fighting an uphill battle here, folks, on trying to convince you Republicans in Ohio and Texas to cross over, pimp yourselves for a day, vote for Hillary to keep this campaign going, this Uncivil War, Democrat Party. I know what's going to happen. Even if I convince you to do it -- remember what this is, this is about us winning. You have to understand, it's not about Hillary winning; it's about us winning. It's about our party winning. It's about those people losing. They've got some problems in the Democrat Party. It's not all sweetness and light over there, and we need them to continue warring with each other. We love these stories of black people claiming they've been threatened with violence or their lives because they're not supporting Obama. We want all this kind of stuff out there. We want the Clinton campaign to keep pumping out these pictures of Obama dressed up as Bin Laden. We want this kind of stuff. If Hillary loses this thing, all of that's going to come to a screeching halt. We want all the disruption in that party as possible. It's about us winning. . . .
I also think it's important here to call out ladies and gentlemen, the media. The media has turned on the Clintons, and the bias and the venom shown toward the Clintons and the favoritism being shown toward Obama is offensive. We need to keep chaos alive. That is the slogan of this program, but we're not going to be able to keep chaos alive.
Texans and Ohioans have two choices: vote for a Democrat in the Democrat primary, or waste a vote when voting against McCain in the "Republican" primary. If it were me, I would vote for Hillary just to keep the chaos alive.
Hat tip to NewsMax.
The Conservative movement has lost a dedicated member. The Great Debate has lost a passionate voice. Tonight, I received this email from the chairman of the county GOP.
Dear Friends,
It is with complete shock and sadness that I report to you that Lt. Commander Tracy Dewitt, US Navy (Retired) passed away this morning. Tracy was also the President of the Northeast Shelby Republican Club. Currently, there are very few details and as more become available, we will pass them along.
Once in a while, an individual comes along that stands out in the crowd with those qualities of leadership and determination that rally the rest of us to get involved and make a difference. Tracy was one of these people. His commitment to our party made each of us work a little harder and reach a little higher.
Please keep his wife Gillis, their children, and the entire Dewitt family in your prayers.
Bill Giannini
Chairman
Tracy's passing was quite unexpected. I was trading emails with him just a couple of weeks ago. He will be missed.
If you are wondering how you can thank those that cannot be home for the holidays as they put themselves in harms way to protect our way of life, it's not too late to make a donation to Operation Gratitude.
Watch the video about this amazing organization:
The bicameral Reagan21 has finally gotten their website up. Admittedly, the color scheme is atrocious (who thought dark blue words on a black background would be a good thing?) and the whole thing is amateurish, but given that the group is dedicated to saving taxpayer money (among other things) I won't complain much.
The important thing is a new membership list is available. As of now:
Reagan 21 Members
Congressman John Kline
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann
Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn
Congressman Eric Cantor
Congressman Jeff Flake
Congressman Virginia Foxx
Congressman Trent Franks
Congressman Patrick McHenry
Congressman Marilyn Musgrave
Congressman Peter Roskam
Congressman Lynn Westmoreland
Senator Richard BurrExecutive Committee
Congressman Jeb Hensarling
Congressman John Campbell
Congressman John Shadegg
Congressman Paul Ryan
Senator Tom Coburn
Senator Jim DeMint
Congressman Tom Price
I am extremely pleased to see my congressman (rising star Marsha Blackburn) on the list, but not surprised. She ran on some of these issues.
I am displeased to see that neither of my senators are on the list.
Time for some phone calls. Marsha first!
Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) is predicting a landslide for Democrats in an election that is over a year away. He thinks it will be a "seminal election":
"They occur about once a generation," Schumer said today. "They change the tectonic plates of politics and they create a generation for one-party governance. Nineteen Thirty-Two, Roosevelt did it. In 1980, Ronald Reagan did it. And we’re about at the tail end of the Ronald Reagan era, where his ideas – fresh, and even as a Democrat, I’d say many of them needed at the time – have just lost steam, lost resonance, and people are ready."
But conservative members of both chambers of congress have been quietly meeting since last February without consulting party leadership, working out a platform committed to advancing a government cast in Reagan's mold.
They call themselves the Reagan21 and have issued a comprehensive policy statement designed to advance Reagan’s principles of liberty through a 21st Century vision for America. Summarized:
Ethics and Integrity:
- Holding elected officials to the "highest possible standard"
- An end to earmarks "until public confidence is restored"
Tax Reform:
- A new fairer, flatter tax system based on consumption
- Corporate tax rates that are "among the lowest in the world"
Spending Reform:
- Balanced budget
- Elimination of waste through a "top-down review of every single federal government program"
- Presidential line-item veto
Entitlement Reform:
- Personal ownership of retirement and health care decisions
- Block any effort to give Medicaid funds to the states
Health Care:
- Personal ownership of health insurance "without meddlesome middlemen and third-party control"
Education Reform:
- Local control of education
- Repeal of No Child Left Behind
- Education tax credits and scholarships
Immigration Reform:
- Border security
- Empower local police to assist federal efforts at fighting illegal immigration
- A federal "system of universal employee verification that is reliable and immediate"
- Adoption of English as our official language
Energy Independence:
- Tax incentives for conservation and innovation in alternative fuel technology
- "Environmentally responsible" increase in domestic oil production
- Reduction of cumbersome regulations
- Eliminating boutique fuels
- Building more refineries
National Security
- Expanding human intelligence and covert capability
- A strong military
- A commitment to remain diplomatically engaged
I have a few quibbles about some of the points, but they are minor enough that I would have no problem signing my name to a pledge to support these reforms.
Call your elected servants now. Ask them if they are a member of Reagan21. And if they say no, ask them to explain themselves.
Alan Keyes is one of the most powerful and dynamic speakers on the Right today, and I was privileged to see him speak last night. Captain's Quarters describes Keyes' performance thusly:
Until tonight, I have never experienced the powerful oratory of a man who may well be the modern master of the form. Watching Keyes dominate the stage and thunder, whisper, muse, and cajole his message to the CLC's convocation felt like being transported back decades, perhaps even a century, to when public oration determined the measure of the public man.
Too right. To get the full impact of the man you must see Keyes live.
I did not support Keyes' run for the presidency when he last ran because, frankly, I thought he is too extremist. This came out clearly in his run for the Illinois Senate in 2004.
But listening to him last night, I must admire his passion and his conviction.
As for whether he is somewhat of a nut, I give you two sides of the debate, both very well articulated and both, in their own way, absolutely correct.
Ed Morrissey was "impressed with and dismayed" with the "talented and troubling" Dr. Keyes.
Warner Todd Huston thinks that Keyes is a "pussycat" when compared to our founders, and although Keyes may be a bit dangerous, "we may be approaching a day when a bit of danger is the right prescription for what ills are infecting the US."
Read both reviews. Then see for yourself by clicking the links below to hear and see what we saw last night. Though again, the recording does impart the powerful impact of seeing the man up close and personal.
Alan Keyes on abortion.
Alan Keyes on Mitt Romney.
Alan Keyes on Fred Thompson.
Alan Keyes on the importance of the 2008 election.
Alan Keyes on values.
Alan Keyes on American principles.
Alan Keyes' closing remarks.
Though lightly attended, the CLC conference has been pretty good so far. The first speaker today was Dick Armey. I recorded a portion of his speech for your viewing pleasure, although I was sitting on the second row so the sound isn't great. But it's pretty good for someone sitting thirty feet away with a hand-held camera.
To view, click here (caution: 1.6 MB download, not streaming media).
To get the highlights, jump over to Captain's Quarters. Ed live-blogged the speech.
Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say 'what should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!
— Samuel Adams in a speech to the State House of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (1 August 1776)
The Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom has released the early results of their upcoming Religious Freedom in the World 2007. Some highlights:
Marshall also pointed out that some tyrannies, and their apologists in the West, prioritize "economic rights" and supposed "Asian" and "Islamic" values over religious freedom for individuals. But non-Western and historically poor countries such as Mongolia, Thailand, Mali and Senegal have achieved relative religious freedom, without sacrificing their culture or their religion. "It is a moral travesty of the highest order to maintain that because people are hungry or cold it is legitimate to repress their beliefs as well," Marshall riposted.
So who did the best? The top "free countries" were:
| Country | Religious Freedom | Political Rights (PR) | Civil Liberties (CL) |
| Estonia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Hungary | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Ireland | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| United States | 1 | 1 | 1 |
And the most repressive places on Earth:
| Country | Religious Freedom | Political Rights (PR) | Civil Liberties (CL) |
| Belarus | 6 | 7 | 6 |
| China | 6 | 7 | 6 |
| Iran | 7 | 6 | 6 |
| Iraq | 7 | 6 | 6 |
| Libya | 5 | 7 | 7 |
| Cuba | 6 | 7 | 7 |
| Eritrea | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| Saudi Arabia | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| Burma | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| China-Tibet | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| North Korea | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Sudan | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Turkmenistan | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Uzbekistan | 7 | 7 | 7 |
I haven't commented on the Scooter Libby situation, and won't other than to say I didn't think Bush had the balls. He surprised me.
But I have to pass on this tidbit from the Ace of Spades (via Dr. Sanity):
Our long national
nightmaresilly fantasia is over.Suggestion: Bush should have reduced the fine to a more reasonable $50,000, which just so happens to be how much Sandy Berger was fined for stealing and destroying classified documents and lying about it to investigators (he wasn't charged for the latter, but subsequent revelations has made it clear he did just that).
Making the fine $50,000 would have been more in line with Libby's transgressions, and it would have made it harder for Democrats to argue against it. The penalty -- no jail time, $50,000, probation -- would have been so similar to Berger's that one could scarcely mention it without also mentioning Berger.
Four days ago, Michael Yon covered an al Qaeda massacre in a small village in Iraq:
Soldiers from 5th IA [Iraqi Army] said al Qaeda had cut the heads off the children. Had al Qaeda murdered the children in front of their parents? Maybe it had been the other way around: maybe they had murdered the parents in front of the children. Maybe they had forced the father to dig the graves of his children.
Yon's latest dispatch addresses the fact that the MSM has studiously avoided reporting the tragedy:
But for those publications who actually had people embedded in Baqubah when the story first broke and still failed to cover it, their malaise is inexplicable. I do not know why all failed to report the murders and booby-trapped village: apparently no reporters bothered to go out there, even though it’s only about 3.5 miles from this base. Any one of the reporters currently in Baqubah could still go to these coordinates and follow his or her nose and find the gravesites. . . .
If much of mainstream media does not recognize barbarity, clearly their readers can and do. Readers throughout the world might consider contacting their local papers and favorite websites with the link to this update. The story is very important in that it is well-documented with photos and video, and the Iraqi and American soldiers who were present are named and easily reachable. Those mainstream reporters currently in Baqubah could readily take up the baton.
The UK Daily Mail prints an article written by a Muslim that was at one time an actual member of the network that planned and attempted to execute the recent bombings in London and Glasgow:
When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network - a series of British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology - I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy.
By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this "Blair's bombs" line did our propaganda work for us. More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.
As we celebrate our freedom in this country, it is important to remember that there is evil in this world whose objective is to destroy us, that we have young men and women fighting that evil as they help rebuild a nation that is experiencing that evil every day.
Support Michael Yon as he brings us the truth.
Support those who sacrifice by giving to these charities rated A+ by the American Institute of Philanthropy:
After a small slew decisions today, the WaPo has come to the conclusion that the Supreme Court Leans Conservative:
Four of the five cases announced today were decided by the conservative majority led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., as the divisions that narrowly but decisively split the justices on social issues were on full display. . . .
Today's decisions added to the court's rising number of 5 to 4 votes this term, substantially higher than last year's total. A few of them favor the court's liberal wing, but conservatives are on a recent roll.
Predictably, the Red Rag NY Times is up in arms about the decisions, printing a small slew of articles and editorials in protest. Indeed, the editorial spells out the Times' view in no uncertain terms: Three Bad Rulings.
Whether the rulings are "bad" or not depends entirely on one's point of view.
The court upheld the right of a principal to suspend a student who promoted drug use by creating a banner that proclaimed, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus". In light of the lack of discipline in our public schools, I don't know that a restriction on children's free speech is uncalled for.
The court split hairs in ruling that tax money could be funneled to faith-based initiatives if the source was the executive office rather than congressional decree (which is prohibited by precedent). But the unspoken conclusion is that precedent may be overturned by this court if the proper case presents itself. In other words, a bad precedent created by a liberal court may be overturned in the future.
But the high point of the day had to be the loosening of restrictions on free speech as a result of the Constitution-shredding McCain-Feingold. The court ruled that the only advertisements that can be kept off the air in the days before an election are, in the words of Chief Justice Roberts, "susceptible of no reasonable interpretation other than as an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate."
Describing and then dismissing the rationale for the advertising restrictions, Chief Justice Roberts used a phrase that seemed to sum up the new majority’s view toward campaign finance regulation. “Enough is enough,” the chief justice said. . . .
It may be only a matter of time before the court reconsiders its 2003 decision upholding the constitutionality of the entire law, or at least expands its Monday decision to strike down any restriction on advertising. Three of the five justices in the majority, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas, declined to sign the chief justice’s opinion because it did not take that step.
Even before the last election I was vocal in my feelings that Bush's domestic policies are little short of disastrous. But the conservatation* of the Supremes offsets that a little.
* Shakespeare made up over 3,000 words. Allow me this one.
Update: Liberal spin is gearing up on this one. Check out this headline: Supreme Court Sides With Administration, Corporations In New Decisions.
Memorial Day grew out of the horror of the great Civil War which ripped this nation asunder. It is a day that has been set aside that we may remember our fallen heroes, those that have died while defending our noble experiment, the greatest nation in the history of Man.
This is the sixth Memorial Day in a row in which we find our nation confronting a great evil. While liberals moan about keeping Islamofascists locked up on a Caribbean island, our soldiers are kicking down doors in Iraq to find torture chambers.
A recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house turned up crude instruments of torture and an instruction manual that graphically depicts how they are to be applied, such as using a power drill to drill through a hand or applying a hot iron or even a blowtorch to the skin. The instructions do not tell captors to provide religious materials, legal counsel or cultural-specific meals. They do show how to break limbs and gouge an eye from its socket.A month ago five people were rescued from just such a torture house, one of them a mere boy and all of them beaten daily with chains and cables. This is the evil that the enemy brought to our shores.
Makes "waterboarding" look like a walk in the park, doesn't it? Makes getting your picture taken with a collar on and girl holding the end of a leash a little tame, doesn't it. The media is virtually ignoring the story of the al-Qaeda torture manual and victims rescued. It does not fit their agenda the way that months of Abu Ghraib coverage furthered their cause.
Similarly, the media is under-reporting the freeing of 42 Iraqis, one as young as 14, from an al-Qaeda prison. Some had been held as long as four months, suspended from ceilings, beaten and tortured. Some had broken bones.
Our troops are doing good things in Iraq.
On this Memorial Day we should remember all our soldiers, active and retired, alive and deceased. We should be grateful to those who have given their all and support those currently facing the horrors of war.
I encourage you to fly an American flag in memory of soldiers no longer with us, and open your hearts and wallets to support today's soldiers and their families. Some suggestions:
Disabled American Vets
Operation Gratitude (Read a news story about Operation Gratitude)
Adopt a Platoon
Treats for Troops
Operation Top Knot
Fisher House
Operation Hero Miles
Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund
USO
Alternatively (or in addition to), you can support former Green Beret and current photojournalist Michael Yon as he publishes the most unbiased truth about the situation in Iraq.
It's that time of year again!
The Memphis chapter of Friends of NRA will host a shoot to benefit FONRA and St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Proceeds from the shoot will be divided between the two.
FONRA is a non-political, charitable organization that offers education and monetary support for advancing shooting sports.
St. Jude Children's Hospital is one of the premier pediatric treatment and research facilities in the world.
Show up between 1 and 6 on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 23rd at 
Range U.S.A. There will be a variety of weapons to shoot, including submachine guns and exotic handguns in large calibers. For updates see the Memphis FONRA web site.
Donations for ammo are needed! As far as I can tell, these donations are tax deductible.
Technorati tags: Machine Gun Shoot, Charity Shoot, St. Jude Children's Hospital, Friends of the NRA, FONRA, Range USA.
After decades of opposing the death penalty for anyone except an unwanted child, Democrats seem poised to introduce legislation designed to win over gullible Christians reduce the number of abortions.
No, it will not restrict access to abortions -- children will still be able to walk into a clinic and get the "procedure". No, it will not prosecute adults that transport minors across state lines to avoid parental notification laws. No, it will not require health insurance companies to cover contraception.
But it will:
So obviously the answer is more money. Doesn't that fix everything?
Why is it that Democrats are willing to throw money at every program except standing up to terrorists?
Here's a shocker:
A congressional aide familiar with the legislation said the sponsors do not yet have a cost estimate for the measure.
Why bother with cost estimates when it's not your money?
Technorati tags: Democrats Wooing Christians, Abortion, Morals and Politics, Murdering Children, Democrats Spending Spree.
Ronald Montaperto was an intelligence analyst for the Pentagon. He has been convicted of passing "highly classified" information to the Chinese.
A crime for which he will serve three months in jail, three months of home detention and five years' probation.
That's right. A man that compromised national security will spend three months in jail, in spite of the fact that sentencing guidelines call for four to five years.
Why so little? Judge Gerald Bruce Lee (a Clinton appointee) was impressed that other traitors that infest our intelligence agencies wrote character references in support of Montaperto.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra, chairman of the House intelligence committee, said he is concerned by the apparent support for Montaperto from the U.S. intelligence community and promised a committee probe.
"You would think that the intel community would set the standard for holding people accountable for mishandling and passing of classified information to our enemies," Mr. Hoekstra said.
First, believing intelligence officers about the character of a fellow intelligence officer is like asking doctors to sanction other doctors who commit malpractice. Or judges sanctioning other judges for making up the rules as they go along rather than following the law. It just doesn't happen that often.
Second, who still believes that the members of our intelligence community have any respect for the rule of law or want to support American interests?
Third, how many more judgements like this will it take before Americans stand up and demand judicial reform?
Our dear friend Judge Lee (described as a "hero to criminal defense attorneys") is the one responsible for sentencing American terrorist Ahmed Abu-Ali, who was convicted of providing material support to al Qaeda and was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President Bush. Judge Lee decided not to impose the death penalty and settled for the much lighter sentence of 30 years.
Lee is also notorious for dismissing the kidnapping and murder charges against Jay Lentz even though a jury had found him guilty.
Legal experts said Lee's ruling, which came after he excluded much of the evidence prosecutors wanted to present to jurors, marked the first time a judge dismissed a jury verdict in a federal death penalty case.
Judge Lee, setting precedence and making it up as he goes along. What ever happened to shooting those who commit treason?
Finally, remember Lawrence Franklin? He was recently convicted of passing some classified material just like Montaperto. So here's a little table presented for comparison purposes:
| Ronald Montaperto | Lawrence Franklin | |
| Occupation | Intelligence Analyst | Intelligence Analyst |
| Conviction | Passing classified material to our enemy, the Red Chinese |
Passing classified material to our allies, the Israelis |
| Sentence | 3 months jail, 3 months house arrest, 5 years probation |
12 years in prison |
| Judge | Gerald Bruce Lee Appointed by Clinton |
T. S. Ellis III Appointed by Reagan |
And some people don't think it's important to have a Republican in the White House.
Technorati tags: Treason in our Courtrooms, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, Judge T. S. Ellis III, Conservative Judges, Liberal Judges, Need for Judicial Reform, Impeaching Judges, Ronald Montaperto, Lawrence Franklin, Judicial Reform.
I was privileged to hear Robert Loudom, a genetics researcher at the University of Memphis, speak tonight on the topic of When Does Life Begin. Favorite quote:
We've had rat embryonic stem cells for over 25 years and nobody has ever cured a rat of anything.
One other item that I noted: he said that recently he received word of the 75th condition that had been cured as a result of adult stem cells, while none have been cured with embryonic stem cells.
Technorati tags: Stem Cell Research, Embryonic Stem Cells, Adult Stem Cells, Medical Science.
Conservative Life comments on 'Obligatory Political Correctness Syndrome':
Are you a conservative? If so, have you ever asked yourself why you sometimes feel obliged to inject painfully obvious statements into your debates with liberals? Here's what I mean.
Suppose you're arguing in favor of criminal profiling at airports with a radical leftist, and you're making the point that most international terrorist groups are comprised of Muslim men between the ages of 18 and 40. Immediately following that statement you find yourself saying something like: "Of course, that doesn't mean that ALL Muslim men in that age group are terrorists."
You mention this even though you know that the little voice in the back of your mind is about to say: "No Sh**, Sherlock! Did you figure that out all by yourself, or did you have to consult a five-year-old first?"
It only gets funnier from there. And I get to add a new synonym for liberal to my vocabulary: Vichy-American.
Technorati tags: Political Correctness Will Destroy America, Liberals Leftists and Other Silliness, Conservative Causes, Vichy-Americans.
Sir - On the dictum of no taxation without representation, the dead should not be taxed.Nice!David Roche, London W2
America's North Shore Journal performs an analysis of Poverty in America 2005 with some surprising results, such as:
| Average Poverty Rate First Five Years of an Administration | |
| Reagan | 14.5% |
| Clinton | 14.1% |
| Bush 43 | 12.3% |
Go read the whole thing.
Technorati tags: Poverty, Economic Classes, American Economy, Exploding Liberal Myths, Exposing Media Lies, Stopping the Spin.
Over at Farmer for Congress (whom I endorse) there is a debate going on about my Congressman, Marsha Blackburn. There are complaints that she votes for omnibus spending bills and globalization.
Marsha takes a lot of heat from a lot of people, including (occasionally) me, but I take slight umbrage at these accusations and feel I must insert some rationality into the debate.
Yes, when bills get to the floor she usually votes along party lines but what you don't see is the monumental amount of work she does behind the scenes to cut out the fat before the bills get to that point. Why do you think the Club for Growth gives her a score of 95 and ranks her 15th in the House?
She is one of the strongest supporters of the Second Amendment we have in Washington.
She went to the Mexican border and visited the Minutemen early in their efforts to bring attention to the crises of national proportions and supported their cause, taking up the rallying cry to bring safety to America.
For years, taxpayers have been able to deduct a portion their state income tax payments from their federal tax burden, leaving a heavier load to those of us living in states without a state income tax. As a freshman in the House, Marsha was successful in getting taxpayers in states that don't have an income tax (e.g., Tennessee!) an equitable tax break -- one of her stated objectives when she first ran. A freshman!
You may blame globalization for manufacturing loses at home, but you'll be wrong. From 1995 to 2002, manufacturing was down over 15% -- in China! (Didn't see that one coming, did you?)
Poverty is lower under Bush. You may hate No Child Left Behind (I do), but scores are rising. The economy has been doing incredibly well under Bush. Unemployment has been at near-record low levels.
My biggest complaint with Marsha is that she doesn't understand technology and votes with the RIAA, but that's just a matter of education.
I will continue to vote for Marsha as long as she continues to act just as she has in the past.
And remember:
If you want to vote for a politician that always votes the way you want them to, run for office.
- AlphaPatriot
Technorati tags: Marsha Blackburn, Club for Growth.
Crossposted to TennWatch
Don't marry a career woman! Professional women are more likely to get divorced, more likely to cheat, less likely to have children, and, if they do have kids, they are more likely to be unhappy about it. And even "feminists" are happier when the man brings home the biggest paycheck!
Got Carpel Tunnel? It may be a sign of impending diabetes. A UK study shows that the problem can predate the onset of diabetes by up to 10 years.
For 50 years Detroit has been experiencing white flight, and now blacks are following suit. For first time, Detroit's black population falls. "The numbers suggest Detroit may be at the start of a black exodus rivaling that of whites after World War II." Most worrying is that it's middle-class blacks that are leaving and they are the ones sustaining the city.
Lordy, lordy! Who woke up Al Sharpton?
Many black youths fall under a spell of "gangster mentality," preventing them from becoming leaders and making a positive impact in politics, the Rev. Al Sharpton said.
The civil rights activist faulted Hollywood and the record industry for making "gangsterism" seem cool and acceptable.
"I think we've allowed a whole generation of young people to feel that if they're focused, they're not black enough. If they speak well and act well, they're acting white, and there's nothing more racist than that."
I think he's channeling Bill Cosby!
When Mannequins attack! A California woman (of course) is suing JC Penney because as a sales assistant took a blouse off the ferocious mannequin, the arm "flew off" and struck the dingbat lady in the head. This is one magical arm: not only did it gash her scalp, it also allegedly cracked a molar and left the woman with recurring shoulder pain. This is in California, folks. I wonder, did the store have a license for a "deadly dummy" license and, if so, did they comply with those strict trigger arm lock rules?
Woman goes to San Fran to protest the impending liberation of Iraq, woman (and a friend) stands on the upper deck of a bus, woman (nor friend) doesn't see Broadway Tunnel signs, woman's head slams into ceiling of tunnel, woman (and a friend) dies, woman's family sues. Tragic, yes, but doesn't this just reek of hippiedom?
The vehicle was a former school bus topped by the joined upper sections of two Volkswagen vans with sunroofs, the court said. Its height was 12 feet, 10 1/2 inches.
Canning and several other passengers were standing in the upper level, their heads through the sunroofs, when the bus entered the tunnel's nearly 20-foot-high west end under Hyde Street. At the eastern exit, which dips abruptly to 13 feet, 6 inches, she and Anthony Hernandez, 43, of Woodacre, were fatally injured when their heads struck the ceiling.
Thankfully, the court threw out the family's suit.
And while we're on the subject of courts doing the right thing (a subject rarely discussed), a federal judge in Oklahoma (Bush by 32 points) ruled that a Ten Commandments monument did not have to be removed from a courthouse lawn. The ACLU lawyer described the decision as "a loss for religious freedom".
From the "good news, bad news" department, far fewer Vietnam veterans suffered from combat stress than previously thought. A study in the 80s indicated that as many as 1 in 3 combat vets suffered from PTSD, whereas a new study puts this number at 1 in 5. The bad news, of course, is the 20 percent that did suffer the condition and the fact that 9 percent are still suffering over 30 years after the war.
Wanna kiss your cousin but are afraid of the stigma? Only in America, it seems -- and only in 24 states. John Stossel informs us that the genetic risks are minimal and worldwide 20 percent of all married couples are cousins:
The laws date back hundreds of years to the time when the Catholic Church campaigned against cousin marriages because in the Bible Leviticus says, "none of you shall approach to any that is near of kin."
Today's Washington Times editorial looks back 25 years to when Reagan's tax cuts were passed.
The four principal features of the tax-cut bill were:
- A 25 percent across-the-board cut in income tax rates
- The elimination of the distinction between "earned" income (wages and salaries) and "unearned" income (interest and dividend income), whose top tax rate was reduced from 70 percent to 50 percent (even Bill Clinton did not raise the top rate above 40 percent)
- The effective reduction of the top capital gains rate from 28 percent to 20 percent; and
- The indexing of tax brackets and personal exemptions for inflation, beginning in 1985.
The across-the-board cuts were phased in over 1981 (5 percent), 1982 (10 percent) and 1983 (10 percent). When the final cut occurred in 1983, the U.S. economy embarked on one of its strongest expansions in history, growing at an annual compounded rate of 4.4 percent throughout the 1983-1989 period. Unemployment collapsed from 10.7 percent during the fourth quarter of 1982 to 5.4 percent during the fourth quarter of 1989. Contrary to the predictions of liberal economists, who insisted the tax cuts would be inflationary, inflation diminished from an annual average of 12.9 percent (1979-1980) to 1.1 percent in 1986 and to an average of 3.7 percent (1983-1989).
It's nice to reflect on something pleasant in the past. And it'll be nice to look back in 20 years or so and reflect on the same thing about the Bush tax cuts.
Reformed liberals like me aren't exactly a rarity, as New Sisyphus explains:
New Sisyphus goes on to hypothesize as to what drove Heather MacDonald to the Right. Gotta love it!For every conservative, there is a story of how he or she became one. Oh, I've known one or two people out there who have been conservative forever, but not that many. Most people I know who are men and women of the right have traveled some distance to be there.
After three years, they're going back to having "French Fries" and "French Toast" on Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile, our friends enter the AlphaPatriot abode through double Freedom Doors and we put W Ketchup on our Freedom Fries.
A spokeswoman for the French Embassy noted that her country has been working "very closely" with the United States on the Middle East and that Presidents Bush and Jacques Chirac dined on french fries in February 2005.
Meanwhile, as rockets launched from civilian sites continue to rain down on Israel, France throws a hissy and cancels a Security Council meeting for the second time because they insist that everyone suddenly stop and start behaving before peace keepers can be sent in. Seriously.
France, which has proposed a draft resolution on the framework, wants fighting to stop immediately, to create a political framework for peace and then to send the troops. The United States, on the other hand, wants all of those things done at the same time.
If one could reasonably expect terrorists to lay down their arms if Israel will, then France's proposal would be reasonable.
Problem is, terrorists aren't. Reasonable, that is.
Then again, either are the French.
Stuart started his publishing company in 1956 with $8,000. 
He started the trend of sex-topic books with The Sensuous Woman, the first "how-to" book designed specifically for women. He also published porn star Linda Lovelace's autobiography, Ordeal.
So it is no wonder that Stuart was a controversial figure in the publishing world:
Stuart's five-decade career was spent as a writer, editor and publisher of books considered too racy or dangerous for other publishers."You can best describe me as a First Amendment fanatic because this is something I very deeply believe in," he told Reuters in a 2003 interview.
"The strength of this nation is its First Amendment, its freedom to express all kinds of ideas, and that the public has to make their own determination," Stuart said in the interview.
As a reporter in the 1950s, Stuart found that his stories were at times being censored so he started a magazine called Expose, collecting stories cast aside by newspapers and magazines worried about offending advertisers.
Stuart was the reason that William Powell's Anarchist Cookbook was published, going against the wishes of his own staff. The Cookbook contains instructions for making homemade bombs and booby traps, disguising marijuana plants by grafting leaves from a related species, and making drugs such as organic LSD from Morning Glory seeds.[Full disclosure: I once bought ten copies via mail and gave them as birthday presents. I figured that it would put me on a list in the FBI's basement somewhere, but thought it was worth it. I now know that I was way too small a fish (not to mention, completely harmless) to be entered into such a database.]
Stuart was also behind one of the biggest literary hoaxes of the time:
In 1969, he published "Naked Came the Stranger," a sex novel whose dust jacket claimed it was written by a Long Island housewife. In fact, the book was the work of more than two dozen reporters at Newsday and Stuart was in on the joke. The novel was a best-seller both before and after the hoax was exposed.The journalists in question were "trying to prove readers would read anything." In looking at the continued success of the New York Times, I guess they were right.
Lyle Stuart was a courageous champion of the free press that helped initiate social change in America. His presence will be missed — especially in this time of over-the-top Homeland Security measures.
Technorati Tags: Lyle Stuart, First Amendment, Freedom of the Press.
A 29-foot-tall cross erected on top of Mount Soledad in 1954 to honor returning veterans of the Korean War (and which replaced a cross that had been there since 1913) was scheduled for removal, thanks to the ACLU and their minions.But Justice Kennedy, acting for the Supreme Court, has issued a stay. This, in spite of the fact that just three years ago the Court declined the opportunity to get involved in the case.
In its most recent case involving religious symbols, the Supreme Court ruled last year in a pair of 5-4 decisions that overtly religious displays are unconstitutional, but historic ones are allowed.What a difference a conservative president makes. Even one as marginally conservative as Bush.The Court, then led by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, struck down framed copies of the Ten Commandments in two Kentucky courthouses while upholding a 6-foot granite monument on the grounds of the Texas Capitol.
The High Court's involvement will be interesting because of the Federal vs. State issue. You see, the plaintiff, Phillip Paulson, attacked both the cross on top of Mount Soledad and the tiny, almost unnoticeable cross in the La Mesa city seal in 1989. In 1991, Judge Gordon Thompson, Jr., a Richard Nixon nominee that is described as a "no-nonsense, law-and-order sort of judge", ruled that the Mt. Soledad cross violated Article I Section 4 of the California Constitution. The federal constitution was not cited.
So even though the Supremes have been allowing monuments with religious connotations to stand when they represent history (as the cross on Mount Soledad obviously does), this looks like a state rights issue.
However, it is likely that this case will revolve around the constitutionality of the land transfers that the city council initiated in an effort to sidestep the legal issues and save the cross.
In 1992, the city council voted to sell 222-square feet of the the public park to a private buyer, the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association. The cost was pre-set to $14,500 and no other bids were considered. The 15' by 15' bit of land just happened to be directly beneath the cross that the court had ordered removed. In 1997 Judge Thompson ruled that the sale gave the appearance of preferential treatment to the Christian religion because of the size of the plot and the fact that no other bidders were solicited.
So in 1998 the city tried again, taking five bids for a half-acre around the cross and accepting the highest bid of $106,000. The winning bid came from the Mount Soledad Memorial Association and this time Judge Thompson upheld the transfer. But the infamous 9th Circuit overturned the decision 7-4, again citing the California constitution — this time Article XVI, section 5 which prohibits government from affording any financial advantage or subsidy to religion. It was this matter in which the Supreme Court declined to intervene.
In the meantime, the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association had taken advantage of the 1998 sale, pouring in nearly a million dollars to build a memorial to war veterans complete with flagpole and six concentric granite walls, selling over 1,700 plaques, 23 bollards and hundreds of pavers memorializing individual service men and women.
So what has changed since the last time the Supremes were petitioned?
In November of 2004, Representatives Duncan Hunter and Randy "Duke" Cunningham attached a rider to a spending bill that allowed the citizens of the city to designate the land a national veterans memorial, which was signed into law by President Bush in December 2004. The city council declined to do so, but a massive grass roots campaign gathered 73,000 validated signatures in just 23 days (more than double the number required), forcing them to put the issue in front of the voters.
Just five days before the vote, Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett ruled that the issue could appear on the ballot but decided that a simple majority would not suffice; two-thirds of the voters had to agree because changes in city parkland required a two-thirds majority and "there was no guarantee that Congress would not change the memorial's designation someday." An almost insurmountable obstacle because "someday" something might happen.
Voters stunned everyone (even supporters) when the measure passed with the support of 76% of the voters. Under the terms of the transfer, the land would belong to the National Park Service but be maintained by the Mount Soledad Memorial Association.
Then Judge Cowett stepped in again, issuing a temporary restraining order stopping the transfer along with a "tentative 34-page ruling" that questioned the constitutionality of Proposition A, the very proposition that she approved just two months before! In other words, she ruled for it before she ruled against it. (Note: Patricia Cowett ran unopposed in the last election. I wonder how she will fare in the next?)
So the issue has returned to Judge Thompson's court and in May he ruled that the cross must be removed within 90 days or the city will be fined $5,000 a day for each day that it remains standing.
It looked like the end of the road for the fight for the cross, especially as the city council needs five votes to pass anything and the council membership stands at only six because Democrat members Michael Zucchet, Charles Lewis, and Deputy Mayor Ralph Inzunza were indicted on federal corruption charges.
But replacements were found and an appeal was mounted, but in late June the infamous 9th Circuit rejected the appeal, leaving only a seemingly useless appeal directly to the Supreme Court as the final option.
Which is why Justice Kennedy's stay is so important:
Phil Thalheimer, chairman of the war memorial group, said the ruling "borders on divine intervention."This does not guarantee that SCOTUS will actually hear the case, much less that they will save the cross that was dedicated to those who put themselves in harms way to stop the spread of evil in Korea so many years ago."We were jumping up and down," he said. "For this to happen on July 3 -- the day before our Independence Day, which is about freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of expression -- it couldn't have happened better."
But it offers hope. Hope that the desires of citizens will be placed above the fight of one man, backed by the ACLU.
Also see:
Technorati Tags: Mount Soledad Cross, Honoring Korean War Veterans, ACLU, Anti-Christian Lawyers Union, Reasons Why the ACLU Sucks, Stop the ACLU, SCOTUS, Supreme+Court, Justice Kennedy, Atheist Phillip Paulson, Judge Gordon Thompson, Jr., Mt. Soledad Memorial Association, Church vs. State, Removing Christianity from America, War on Christianity, Rewriting the Constitution, Activist Judges, Superior Court Judge Patricia Yim Cowett, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, California Law, California Politics, San Diego, National Park Service.
TH: Did the Grateful Dead give you and Al Franken something to talk about during your debates?Great interview.AC: Apart from Al Gore, Al Franken is the most un-Deadhead like person I know of who purports to be a Deadhead.
TH: It's time to name names. Who are the other Deadheads who have infiltrated the conservative movement?
AC: As a Deadhead and a freedom-lover, I am wounded to the bone that you think the two do not naturally go hand in hand. The Deadheads I just met casually and not through conservative politics were almost always right-thinking, whatever they called themselves. Deadheads believe in freedom – not a government telling people how much water they can have in their toilets or where they can smoke or whether they should be allowed to own a gun. (Remember the photos of Jerry testifying before some Congressional committee while chain smoking? Yeah, he'd really bond with Henry Waxman.)
Technorati Tags: Ann Coulter, Grateful Dead, Conservative Culture.
Sound impossible? Not according to the vauge language in Section 115 Reform
5 Act of 2006, which is coming up for a vote on Thursday in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property.
For instance:
''(B) all reproduction and distribution rights necessary to engage in activities described in subparagraph (A), solely for the purpose of engaging in such activities, including-That's right, my friend, they are after you, the consumer.
''(i) the making of reproductions by and for end users;
Not only that, according to the language of the bill a downloading business would have to license a the copy that is copied into the serve cache!
''(iii) incidental reproductions made in the normal course of engaging in activities described in subparagraph (A), including cached, network, and RAM buffer reproductions.This is insanity! As the Electronic Frontier Foundation says:
By smuggling this language into the Copyright Act, the copyright industries are stacking the deck for future fights against other digital technologies that depend on making incidental copies. Just think of all the incidental copies that litter your computer today -- do you have a license for every copy in your browser's cache?Here are the members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. If you see your representative in this list, email, call and fax right now!This is dangerous language that creates a dangerous precedent. When courts look at how copyright should apply to new digital technologies, they often have few judicial precedents for guidance and thus they turn to the Copyright Act itself for clues about how Congress views similar issues. Incidental copies made in the course of otherwise lawful activities should be treated either as outside the scope of a copyright holder's rights or as a fair use (even the Copyright Office agrees on the fair use point). But you can be sure that the copyright industries will use SIRA as a precedent to the contrary in future fights.
And that's not the only dangerous, subtle change that SIRA would effect. By treating digital transmissions as "distributions" under the Copyright Act, SIRA would bolster arguments that the record industry is making in its case against XM Radio. What's more, the act creates a second, royalty-free compulsory license that applies to incidental copies for noninteractive streaming, subject to an important condition: the music service may not take "affirmative steps to authorize, enable, cause, or induce the making of reproductions of music works by or for end-users." Like the PERFORM Act, this would erode lawful home recording.
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Kinda puts that whole "free healthcare" thing into perspective, doesn't it?
But before you start to feel too smug about our tax rates, read The Conservative Zone's post, "And you thought you were done paying taxes".
Technorati Tags: Taxes, Economy, Socialized Medicine.
In 1970, about 19,000 households paid the AMT [Alternative Minimum Tax]. That number grew to more than 2.4 million in 2003. If no changes are made to existing tax laws, it's estimated that by 2010, 39% of married couples with children will pay the AMT in all income brackets.No law should be instituted without an expiration date — especially those concerning taking our money.More people will pay the AMT in the future mostly because the amount of income exempted from AMT has not been indexed for inflation. Regular tax brackets and tax personal exemptions are indexed for inflation in every year to prevent bracket creep, an automatic upward shift in the marginal income tax bracket through inflation. More people will pay the AMT not because they are making significantly more money, but just through the effect of small cost of living adjustments in their wage income.
Technorati Tags: Tax, Income Tax, Alternative Minimum Tax.
I love everything about this idea.Click on the pic to sign the petition calling for the censure of terrorist-loving, despot-defending, American troop-hating King Moonbat.
Technorati Tags: Carter,
Jimmy Carter,
Moonbats,
King Moonbat,
Censure,
Censure Carter.
The entry came from Laer at Cheat-Seeking Missiles. For a peek at all the entries, look here.
Others deserving special mention:
Technorati Tags: Conservative Slogans.
Technorati Tags: Hollywood, Movies, Entertainment, Conservative Causes.
So here is what I think could be the foundation of a true teaching moment for the anti-death penalty community. One of the main reasons its sermons don't resonate beyond the choir isn't that Americans are consumed with racist bloodlust or yearnings for vengeance. It isn't even because all death penalty supporters are unshakably convinced of the rightness of their position. It's because the anti-capital punishment crowd has lost all credibility. ...If that is so, then shame on the conservatives that would abandon a moral position just because of hysterical rhetoric from the left.I find it revealing that a significant number of conservatives I know (and even work with) either oppose the death penalty on moral grounds or are inclined to. But they are consistently put off by the radical chic crowd, which has grown deceitful, narcissistic and married to agendas no conservative would ever sign on to.
I am a conservative that opposes the death penalty. I will continue to oppose it, no matter how many times I am faced with the fact that Hollyweird limousine liberals also oppose it for the most insane of reasons.
My reasons for opposing the death penalty come down to three basic beliefs. First, I know that people change (I certainly have). Second, I believe that every individual should be given the opportunity to develop a conscious (whether it be by finding God or just having time to think about things).
My third and most important reason comes from a moral dilemma that I just can't get past: if it is wrong for an individual to take a life, why is it right for a group to do so? Society is a collection of individuals and should be governed by the same guiding principles.
I wish that my comments worked so I could get feedback on this issue. But I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts so please feel free to email me at "liberty" =at= alphapatriot -dot- com.
The test to become a U.S. citizen will be revamped to emphasize civics instead of trivia. ...Unless, of course, President Bush has his way and makes every border-hopping whacko a full-blown citizen.Currently, 97 percent of those who take the citizenship test pass, Aguilar said Tuesday. He said he wants to revamp it so that those who take the test are required to show some "attachment" to the United States and its Constitution.
"We're not going to give away citizenship," Aguilar said.
In all my years in politics, I've never sensed such anger and frustration from our volunteers--those who do the hard work of door-to-door mobilization that Republican candidates depend on to get elected. Across the nation, wherever I go to speak with them, their refrain is the same: "I can't tell a dime's worth of difference between Republicans and Democrats." Our base rightly expects Republicans to govern by the principles--lower taxes, less government and more freedom--that got them elected. Today, with Republicans controlling both the legislative and executive branches of the federal government, there is a widening credibility gap between their political rhetoric and their public policies. ...I've spoken many times on the importance of electing true conservatives, not just someone who wears the "Republican" label. The fiscal conservatives in congress are frustrated by the defection of RINOs who are more interested in politics that good policy.To succeed in the future, the Republican Party must get back to basics. We need, in effect, another Republican takeover of Congress, reaffirming a commitment to less government, lower taxes and more freedom. As in 1994, this revolution will be driven by the Young Turks of the party--the brave backbenchers more inspired by Reagan than the possibility of a glowing editorial on the pages of the New York Times.
Support the candidate, not the party. My political contributions, such as they are, will not go to a national party. They will go to individuals that are endorsed by organizations like the Club for Growth. I highly recommend that you do the same.
A couple of choice quotes:
To rename a Christmas tree as a holiday tree is as offensive as renaming a Jewish menorah a candlestick.The article also notes that Gov. Schwarzenegger rescinded a five-year-old Gray Davis order to refer to the state capitol's Christmas tree as a "holiday tree."
— Mathew Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty CounselI'd have cut it down and put it through the chipper. f they decide it should be a holiday tree, I'll tell them to send it back. If it was a holiday tree, you might as well put it up at Easter.
— Donnie Hatt, Nova Scotia logger who cut down and donated the tree
It's good to have Republicans in charge, even if they aren't all conservative.
I supppose it is a bit dastardly of me to mark Thanksgiving Day in this way but I am going to remind my American readers that the devout Protestant Pilgrim Fathers who held the first Thanksgiving were also such devout communists that it took a couple of years of starvation before they gave communism up and rediscovered private property.
The Agitator puts it well:
This is smoke and mirrors. It's a cheap stunt by the GOP to deflect public criticism that doesn't really change much of anything. All the conference committee did was remove the earmark for the bridges. Alaska will still be getting the same obscene amount of money from the federal government, it's just that the state won't be required to use it to build those two particular bridges. It'll be up to the executive and the state legislature to decide how to spend it.HT to Club for Growth Blog.
If you think that the Army is a wonderful organization because it fields a Corps of Engineers that protects the wetlands, you're a Democrat. If you think it's wonderful because of its corps of specialists that protect us by doing wet work, you're a Republican.
In a speech to a group of conservative academics and policy experts, DeLay blamed the runaway spending of recent years on minority Democrats. When he took questions, the first came from a senior official at the American Conservative Union, who asked DeLay, "How large does the Republican majority in the House and Senate need to be before Republicans act like the fiscal conservative I thought we were?"Bless him, those are the kinds of questions our free-spending politicians need to be asked!
The Club for Growth, a conservative group that funds like-minded candidates for Congress, has turned the highway legislation into a bumper sticker for the GOP's fiscal failings. "Too many Congressional Republicans have veered away from the limited government agenda that got them elected to the majority in Congress. They have approved pork-barrel highway bills worse than the Democrats used to give us," says one appeal to supporters.My congressman, Marsha Blackburn, was a Club for Growth candidate and shows it by fighting for reigning in fiscal spending.
Which is why my money now goes to organizations like Club for Growth and the Heritage Foundation, and not one cent goes to the national Republican Party.
| Number of Pork Projects in Federal Spending Bills | |
| 2005 | 13,997 |
| 2004 | 10,656 |
| 2003 | 9,362 |
| 2002 | 8,341 |
| 2001 | 6,333 |
| 2000 | 4,326 |
| 1999 | 2,838 |
| 1998 | 2,100 |
| 1997 | 1,596 |
| 1996 | 958 |
| 1995 | 1,439 |
Meanwhile, President Bush travels to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and compares himself to Reagan.
I'm sorry, Mr. President, but while your foreign policy has been exactly right your domestic policy proves that you are no Ronald Reagan.
The Club for Growth blog is live-blogging the debate. Start at 9 am for the morning debate and then go to the continuing coverage post.
Interestingly, Club for Growth tells about the defeat of a smaller version of the Coburn Amendment which received only 13 "no" votes on a move to kill it (one of them was actually a Democrat!).
Meanwhile, Power Line reports that Patty Murray (D-WA) actually threatened senators who are speaking up in support of the Coburn Amendment. To paraphrase:
... we on the Appropriations Committee will take a "long, hard look" at any projects in your state.Incredible! This is precisely the kind of behavior that we need to change in Washington!
I plan to offer an amendment to H.R. 3058, the Treasury, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill, that would transfer funding from a wasteful pork project in Alaska to the much-needed repair and reconstruction of the "Twin Spans" bridge in Louisiana.The Club for Growth is promoting the amendment with a Key Vote Alert:
According to published reports, the Alaskan pork project costs $220 million for a 5.9-mile bridge connecting Gravina Island (population 50) to the Alaskan mainland. The cost of the bridge alone would be enough to buy every island resident his own personal Lear jet.Instapundit thinks it's a good idea:
PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: The more I think about it, the more I think that the Coburn Amendment is a big deal. It's setting the precedent whereby members of Congress go after each other's taxpayer-shafting pork projects rather than turning a blind eye and engaging in logrolling.More details at RedState.org who says that the Coburn Amendment is A Hill to Die On:
Make NO mistake - the establishment Republicans are terrified of this bill. The chutzpah of the little people demanding an end to one of the most immoral acts of Congress - earmarked pork spending - has got some in quite the tizzy.Hat tip to Power Line, who says:Word is that some are trying to stop the Coburn Amendment from even reaching the floor for a vote.
The Coburn Amendment may prove to be a historic rallying point for the forces of limited government and fiscal sanity. Then again, it may not. But it's a good place to start. ...As the citizen outcry grows, somewhere in heaven Reagan is smiling. Get this started by writing your Senator. Now.If there is to be a war, why not let it begin here? Write your Congressman.
Heh. I wonder how many would refuse to ride in my big, bad SUV if that was on it?
Available from BushFish.org. HT to Relapsed Catholic who says "OK, even I think this crosses the line... " via RightWingNation.
This is one of the pictures that were on display at Move America Forward's I Love America art display and rally.Goldberg's latest work is titled 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken Is # 37).
Bill at INDC Journal earns a link from The Seattle Times in an article about the list and Washington's controversial congressman Jim McDermott's placement on the list (he comes in at #38).
Captain's Quarters prints an excerpt of the book's introduction, written by Goldberg, and promises an interview with Goldberg later today.
In the meantime, here are the top ten:
Still, if anyone were interested in my opinion I suppose I would be writing the book. Bottom line is that Goldberg makes another important contribution to exposing the truth about the failed liberalism in our country. Can't wait to read the whole thing.
As the Gay Patriot says:
You know you want to see Lauer choke on the words when he announces Reagan as won....You can also vote for Reagan by dialing toll free 1-866-669-3104.
These days if you’re in favour of policies designed to promote global economic integration, policies that have led hundreds of millions in Asia, Latin America, and Africa out of the misery of grinding poverty, and have significantly lifted the standard of living of workers in the West too; if you support change to topple tyrannical regimes and give some hope to people who have suffered in fledgling democracies, you’re now more likely to be considered a conservative. What, exactly, is Left?
From a book review of Thomas Sowell's latest work:Consisting of six hard-hitting, factually grounded essays, Sowell examines key beliefs behind many actions, policies and trends trumpeted by the ideological Left which have resulted in counter-productive and oftentimes dangerous consequences. The biggest example today is liberals’ almost sacrosanct view of black ghetto culture.
On the other hand, I'll be attending the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in 2006. Maybe I'll meet some of y'all there.
ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger went into a hissy fit saying that the paper was full of "false allegations and unsubstantiated accusations." In a fit of hubris, Kellenberger:
... vowed the Swiss-based agency would stick to its principles of neutrality and expressed confidence the United States would remain its top donor. ...In other news, the House Appropriations Committee approved a bill that would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by $100 million, or 25 percent, starting in October."It is even likely that the American contribution will be higher this year than last year," he said.
Meanwhile, the House passed legislation to cut U.S. funding of the United Nations by 50% unless certain reforms were put into place by 2007, including overhauling its bureaucracy, creating a tougher internal watchdog and barring dictatorships from human rights posts.
A word of warning to the arrogant who come for an expected handout: the adults are in charge and won't give you your allowance if you aren't a good boy. Someone should tell Kellenberger.
A new study conducted for Republican senators alleges that the International Committee for the Red Cross has "lost its way" by abandoning its guiding principle of impartiality and is now working in "direct opposition to the advancement of U.S. interests." ...The report urges Congress to launch an investigation into the finances of the organization looking for, among other things, whether or not American taxpayer money is being spent on lobbying efforts. This is silly because money given to the ICRC goes into one big pot. If they don't spend "American" dollars on lobbying then they'll spend all their "European" dollars on the effort. Can you say fungible?"During recent years, the ICRC has undergone a significant and accelerating change whereby it has become more responsive to the preferences of the liberal and frequently anti-American international nongovernmental organization community," the report says. "The ICRC effectively no longer serves as the guardian of obligations that have been accepted under a ratified treaty or treaties. Rather, it has become an aggressive advocate - like Amnesty International - for enforcing a broader set of obligations."
How much does the American government give to the ICRC? Would you believe 1.5 billion dollars over the past 15 years? For the mathematically challenged, that is 100 million dollars per year.
I used to feel guilty for not giving enough to charity. The more I learn about how my tax dollars are spent (which is way over the traditional tithe amount of 10%), the more I figure that I'm covered.
Let's see. The Red Cross (or various arms of it) routinely throws away vast amounts of blood because they can't manage their inventory, has gotten into trouble several times in the past for mis-managing blood stock, refuses to recognize Israel's Magen David Adom Society (aka, Red Star) although it recognizes the Red Crescent which has been known to transport homicide bombers in their ambulances, and has had a financial scandal or three.
I'm thinking a little oversight would be a good thing.
A small center-right party, the Hungarian Democratic Forum, proposed the idea for putting a bust of Reagan near an existing statue of George Washington in City Park, a popular recreation site in the capital. ...Hungarians are smart people. Ya gotta love those New Europeans."Although he never visited Hungary, Ronald Reagan was the American president who most contributed to the democratic changes in this country," said Democratic Forum councilman Laszlo Szoke. "He was one of the most meaningful conservative politicians who helped end communism."
To be clear, I regard the Origin of the Species as a work of pure science that is neither good nor harmful. I believe in evolution, although I am not among the 13% of Americans who think that God had no role in the process (I am, however, among the 35% who don't want creationism taught in schools, but that is the subject of a different post).
In the course of our discussion I complained that I didn't believe that Silent Spring was rated nearly high enough in the list — it is tied for 15th in the list of Honorable Mentions with three other books. Consider this surprisingly accurate information from Wikipedia:
Many including the African American Environmental Association , the Malaria Foundation International, and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons blame the banning of DDT throughout the world for a resurgence in malaria, causing the deaths of an estimated 88 million people—90% of whom were pregnant mothers and small children.So much for the effect of the data, but the real problem I have with the fact that it was all based on a lie:
One of Carson's controversial claims was that DDT is a carcinogen. This opinion has been accepted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which categorizes DDT as a probable human carcinogen. The US National Toxicology Program's Fifth Annual Report on Carcinogens describes DDT as a "substance which may reasonably be anticipated to be carcinogen." Other studies have failed to corraborate a link between DDT and cancer. On the contrary:But wait, there's more!
- In one study, primates were fed 33,000 times more DDT than the estimated exposure of adult humans in 1969. No conclusive link with cancer was detected.
- A study of 692 women, half of them control subjects, over a period of twenty years, established no correlation between serum DDE and breast cancer. DDE is a matabolite of DDT, and correlates with DDT exposure.
- A study examined 35 workers exposed to 600 times the average DDT exposure levels over a period of 9 to 19 years. No elevated cancer risk was observed.
- In another study, humans voluntarily ingested 35 mg of DDT daily for about two years, and were then tracked for several years afterward. No elevated risk was observed.
Carson wrote "Dr. DeWitt's now classic experiments [on quail and pheasants] have now established the fact that exposure to DDT, even when doing no observable harm to the birds, may seriously affect reproduction. Quail into whose diet DDT was introduced throughout the breeding season survived and even produced normal numbers of fertile eggs. But few of the eggs hatched." DeWitt's 1956 article (in Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry) actually yielded a very different conclusion. Quail were fed 200 parts per million of DDT in all of their food throughout the breeding season. DeWitt reports that 80% of their eggs hatched, compared with the "control"" birds which hatched 83.9% of their eggs. Carson also omitted mention of DeWitt's report that "control" pheasants hatched only 57 percent of their eggs, while those that were fed high levels of DDT in all of their food for an entire year hatched more than 80% of their eggs.Faking and misrepresenting data and the result is killing about as many people as Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein and Kim Il Sung combined.
Now that is beyond harmful. That's evil.
HT to Spiced Sass.
I'd like to have seen it expanded to all of human history (as I would have liked to have seen which of Rousseau's books would have made the list), but this is fairly interesting. And like Spiced Sass, I am confused by the inclusion of Darwin's Origin of the Species in the Honorable Mentions.
I would also like to see a list compiled by liberals. I wonder how high up the Bible would be on that list, and if the Koran would be mentioned at all.
Update: Say Anything has an interesting observation. Heh.
The Citizens Against Government Waste have released their 2005 Congressional Pig Book in which they detail 27.3 billion dollars of government spending that they deem to be a waste.
No doubt, they are correct. Every time a piece of legislation passes it seems that someone has tacked on an irrelevant amendment that spends our money in the most frivilous of manners.
And $27.3 billion is indeed a lot of money. I'd have to win a lot of lotteries to make that kind of dough.
But consider this: pork is a way of mollifying voters back home, and is thus a way to line up coalitions in our divided nation. The president's proposed budget for 2005 was $2.4 trillion.
In other words, about 1.1% of our spending went to grease the wheels of government. Even if we only consider the budget for discretionary spending (which was $818 billion), pork accounts for only 3.3%.
A small price to pay in my opinion, even if CAGW disagrees.
"When I really realized the plight of the women under the Taliban, I also found that American women really stand in solidarity with the women in Afghanistan," Mrs. Bush said."It's very hard to imagine the idea of denying girls an education, of never allowing girls to go to school, and I'm sure men as well were struck with the horror of it, but I think particularly American women were."
The whole point of prison is supposed to be about punishment for crime and rehabilitation for those who are capable of it. I think we are sending mixed messages to these ex-prisoners when we tell them that they have paid their debt to society but then withhold certain basic rights from them.I both agree and disagree.Remember that not all of these people are monsters.
It is important to remember that every day the gates of prisons across this land are opened and murderers and rapists are put back into society. As Chief Ruff recently said, "The only place where people go away for life is on television."
Not that rehabilitation doesn't take place. In perhaps as many as 30% of the cases those released go on to lead productive, hard-working, tax-paying lives. These people have "paid their debt" and have earned the right to be citizens. After staying clean for a set period of time they should they be allowed to vote, carry hand guns for protection, and even have their criminal records sealed so they won't be discriminated against in the job market.
It's the other 70% that do not have the right to participate in civilized society. Those that continue to rob, steal, plunder, rape and kill. We should allow them to vote?
I don't think so.
The president's budget for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1 will propose eliminating operating subsidies for Amtrak, administration officials said on Tuesday evening....A Capitol Hill aide notes that even if the president leaves the funding out of his budget, Congress will no doubt put it back it.Although this would be the first time the Bush administration has proposed no operating aid, President Ronald Reagan did so in 1985, describing Amtrak as a "mobile federal money-burning machine." Democrats and Republicans voted against Mr. Reagan's proposal.
If the president does leave it out I will be sending my reps sharply-worded letters warning them that the people of Tennessee see little benefit in subsidizing transportation for a bunch of damn yankees.
Today more than a hundred black clergy gathered at a Los Angeles megachurch to unveil a "Black Contract with America on Moral Values" [see below].
Jackson said his group would work with the Democratic Party if it agreed to endorse its moral "contract," which calls for a condemnation of gay marriage - as well as stronger families, counseling in jails and job creation. The name plays off the conservative agenda which GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich used as a political litmus test in the mid-1990s.
Later this month another group that has ties to Gingrich will announce a similar compact, the "Mayflower Compact for Black America". This group already has plans for organizing in key states ahead of the 2006 and 2008 elections.
Near the end of the month the conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation [of which I am a proud supporter] will play cohost to black conservatives "designed to counter dominance of the "America-hating black liberal leadership" and to focus African American voters on moral issues."
Most interesting is the reaction from blacks in power:
The meetings have a common goal: to foster a political realignment that, if successful, would challenge the Democrats' decades-long lock on the loyalty of black voters.No mention of the Democrats abandoning black children as they side with teachers who don't teach in increasingly failing schools. No hint that perhaps blacks should be concerned with moral issues as their culture of strong family values is being eroded by the nanny state. No thought for doing what is best for these Americans. No -- the reaction is to fear for their jobs.The effort has proved so successful already that Democrats who make up the Congressional Black Caucus are quietly expressing alarm — and planning countermeasures.
"I am frightened by what is happening," said Rep. Major R. Owens, an 11-term Democratic congressman from New York who has been conferring with colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus. "Our party is in grave danger. This Republican movement is going to expand exponentially unless we do something."
But what is really, really sweet is that they are going to be put up near Kodak Theatre, which is where the Academy Awards are held, for the entire month of February.
Hint: Oscar Night is Sunday, February 27.
Asked about the campaign, Citizens United President David Bossie said, "We're taking on Hollywood. We've done it in the past." Of the organization's many actions, one of its most famous challenges to Hollywood was Celsius 41.11, a documentary exposing "the truth behind the lies of Fahrenheit 9/11," the Michael Moore anti-Bush mock-umentary.Hat tip to non-blogging Advised by Wolves.
Q: Will President Bush continue on the same course in his second term or will he listen to people who advise him to rely more on soft power than on military force?A: We don't want to emulate the Europeans. The Europeans employ soft power day and night. They cannot get enough of it. That isn't our role. Our role is not to pretend - as the Europeans pretend - that soft power can change North Korea's Kim Jong Il or the mullahs. ...
Q: In Europe people resent that the US has moved away from multilateralism.
A: We will not allow our fate to be determined by a majority vote in the UN when there are dictatorships casting a vote. The world in which we live is not a world that we can trust with our fate. We cannot depend on Zimbabwe's vote to assure our safety. We will not subject ourselves to this sort of multilateralism.
We're proud of our armed forces who fight overseas against the terrorist threat so that America won't again face attack on our home soil. We're proud that coalition forces put an end to the violent regime of Saddam Hussein which paid over $34 million to Palestinian terrorists. We're proud that our forces have ended the Iraqi base of operation of terrorists that have killed scores of Americans. And we're grateful that our troops have made it that Saddam Hussein can never provide chemical or biological weapons to terrorists who will use it against American civilians. Now is not the time for America to retreat or show weakness. Please, support our troops as they help move America forward from the threats of terrorism.This was a timely and effective answer to the picture being painted by liberals and the MSM (as if the one is not merely a subset of the other).
Now that the election is over and the continuance of the Bush Doctrine assured for four more years, Move America Forward has reevaluated its purpose and set its sights on the United Nations -- they are preparing a campaign to broadcast the message that it is time for America to get out of the U.N.
Instead of serving as a rallying point for free nations and free people to unite to combat terrorism, the United Nations has become a safe harbor, apologist and defender of terrorist organizations and their agents.Their latest television commercial addresses this topic and can be downloaded and viewed from their website.Recently it has become clear that none other than the UN General Secretary himself, Kofi Annan, has been implicated in covering up the troubling "Oil for Food" scandal, and stonewalling investigators. The so-called "independent audit" of the alleged misdeeds of the UN's "Oil for Food" program is looking more and more like a whitewash.
This is a timely subject for two reasons. The first is that our politicians are getting ready to hand over $1.3 billion to the U.N. to build a new headquarters in the form of a loan with little to no interest. The second is, as Move America Forward's latest newsletter points out, the U.N.'s terrible track record of putting funds in the hands of terrorists. And now that they are in charge of nearly $4 billion in tsunami relief funds, there is no telling how much of that money will be diverted to one nefarious end or another.
I admit I am conflicted when pondering the subject of the United Nations. On the one hand I have a deep-rooted detestation for most of what the U.N. has become: bureaucratic, ineffective, anti-American, and an organization that gives terrorist nations seats of honor at the world table. On the other hand I believe in what the originally was intended to be: peer pressure on an international scale to advance the ideals of democracy and freedom, the coming together of many nations to help the oppressed and oppose tyrants, a place to coordinate efforts to bring food and medicine to those in need.
Unfortunately the United Nations is very much like pure Communism: an idea that sounds very good when explained but which fails miserable when implemented due to the avaricious, perfidious, venal, treacherous, praetorian and thoroughly despicable nature of man.
It is for this reason that I direct you to the contribution page of Move America Forward and suggest that you offer a few dollars to help the campaign.
Even if the campaign does not remove the United States from the U.N., it will serve to put the fear of poverty and unemployment into those useless parasites that fill the ranks of the U.N. staff. Perhaps that will be enough to initiate a few reforms that will make it so the bloated organization will return to doing more good than harm for at least a few years.
Now, the victims face "the disaster after the disaster" -- the risk of death from cholera, malaria, typhoid, diarrhea, and dysentery on an epidemic scale. The lack of potable water and water-borne illnesses will be the major killer. The tragedy will grow daily.My position in the Senate allows me to see the bold responses of so many. Yesterday, I spent most of the day on the phone -- with my friend Carl Lindner whose son is putting together medical and relief supplies on a 747 chartered to India early next week. With Franklin Graham and my friends from Samaritan's Purse who are in the field right now with assessments and who are investing heavily especially in rural areas that so frequently escape the attention of government relief efforts. With Condi Rice and our U.S. officials. With the ambassadors and leaders of the countries affected whom I have called to express our sympathy and support. With Fred Smith, whose Fed Ex is supplying transport. ...
America must be the moral force. The United States is the most generous and caring nation on earth. And President Bush yesterday pledged the steadfast support of our government. As majority leader in the Senate, I pledge the full support of the Senate. The magnitude of this human tragedy may well define us in the years to come. The world has seen in recent years how tough the U.S. can be -- now they must see how magnanimous and caring we are as a nation. And we also must act as a people -- to show how much we Americans care about the world and our fellow human beings who hurt and are in need of hope. Now is the time for us to act. No one can sit on the sidelines.
First, consider making a donation -- even if you can only afford a few dollars. USAID has a very informative site up about the disaster and how you can help. Here's the link -- http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/tsunami/ -- and another link to the list of relief organizations working in the area -- http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/tsunami/ngolist.html. You can also click on www.amazon.com to make a direct donation to the Red Cross. So far, as I write this, Amazon has collected more than $4 million from nearly 70,000 people! My personal recommendations based on my discussions with people on the ground there include World Vision, Samaritan's Purse, Catholic Relief Services, and International Rescue Committee. For more information about how to help those in need, visit the State Department's website at www.State.Gov.
David Limbaugh reports that Planned Parenthood's private funding has seend [sic] steady decreases recently. But they are still turning a profit on abortions and other services and their government funding is "taking up the slack."
While the couple ate breakfast, another customer showed the baby off around the cafe. After eating, they took the girl to visit their pastor.The dead woman was eight months pregnant when the child was cut out of her. Yet there are those among us who believe that it would be perfectly legal/moral/ethical for a woman who is nine months pregnant to go to a doctor and have the baby's brains sucked out through a needle."It was a beautiful baby," Mike Wheatley said. "Absolutely beautiful."
When does a fetus become a baby? I don't know and so am unwilling to make a call. I would rather err on the side of caution on this one.
What was determinative is that the two political parties view the American people very differently. The Republican Party has become the party of individualism, believing that free enterprise, market economies, and individual choices give people the best chance of a good life; that if ordinary Americans are left alone to make their own decisions, they will generally be good decisions, so they--not the government--should have the power to make them.Read it all.Conversely, the Democratic Party is the party of centralization, believing that a wise and benevolent, best-and-brightest, urban blue-county government can make better choices than those of rural, red-county Americans. This is not a new belief; it is the legacy of the 1930s (the New Deal) and the '60s (the Great Society). It was fully reflected in John Kerry's campaign: Taxes must rise and government must grow; trade must be regulated and limited; the 1935 Social Security system is perfect and nothing about it may be changed.
But America today is very different than in the '30s and '60s. Socialism is dying; collectivism is vanishing. Market economies have overtaken government-run ones around the globe. Life expectancy is increasing; inflation-adjusted median family income is up 24% in 20 years; 69% of American families own their own homes, and 52% own stocks, bonds or other financial instruments. Americans have expanded their vision and abilities and prospered; we have become an opportunity society where individualism is far more important than centralization. People want to be a part of that progress, to participate in the pursuit of happiness.
A few statistics even hint that a turnaround is already in motion. The Census Bureau reports that between 1996 and 2002, the number of black children living in two-parent families increased for the first time since the 1960s, from 35 to 39 percent. Black teen pregnancy rates have plummeted 32 percent in the last 15 years, well surpassing the decline among white and Hispanic adolescents. Thanks to the 1996 welfare reform bill, black mothers have been joining the workforce in record numbers and making enough money to pull more of their children out of poverty than we've seen since anyone's been keeping track of these things.As I said, a fascinating look at the sociological factors that are obstructing this process and those that are helping to bring it about.And the men—the much needed husbands and fathers? You can see a glimmer of hope here, too. People are talking about fathers—a lot.
Buried in the article is this statistic:
According to Wilson, employed, single black fathers aged 18 to 21 in Chicago's inner city are 18 times more likely to marry eventually than their jobless counterparts.I have long held the opinion that the primary domestic problem that America faces is education. The day that every child, regardless of socioeconomic status, is given the opportunity to obtain an education is the day that our problems across the board begin to recede. Poverty, racism, rampant drug abuse, crime, gangs, over-crowded prisons, and the breakdown of the family unit -- we battle them all when we give our children the opportunity to succeed.
I voted for Bush the first time because he ran on an education platform. I voted for him the second time because of his firm leadership in the Global War on Islamofascism, but I still expect him to be the "education president".
After all, that's what being a Compassionate Conservative is all about. And as columnist Julia Youngs puts it, "George W. Bush kept the presidency because he was the more progressive candidate."
Note: I'm not defending nor opposing this legislation, merely reporting, so don't spew the hate. Although I have opinions of a fairly liberal nature on this subject, I don't follow the arguments for or against and do not feel qualified to publically opine. This simply isn't a hot-button issue for me and I still feel that this is an awful lot of fuss for a mere 0.5% of the households in America.
Mr. Cox's first words were to let us know that the lawyers had warned him not to talk about politics. Later I asked him why and he said it was because of the 501C status of the organization (duh!).
So why is it that John Kerry is holding campaign rallies in churches?
If people can't cough up their driver's licenses at the voting booth without bleating about being persecuted, the country is better off without their votes.
Bill Hobbs has an ambitious agenda: to scour through all the reports of voter fraud during the coming days and attempt to identify discernable patterns: participants, methods, targeted areas, etc.
Nothing makes me madder than those who nulify my vote by casting bogus votes. You can help by clicking on the button and sending Bill links to stories about cheaters and the things they do. Every single time they do it.
A must read that you'd better get to before his server goes down under the load: he is the "Blogtruth for the Day" posted on the front page of Lucianne.com and got an Instapundit mention.
Then if you have time, you can read my post from yesterday on the subject, Swift Boats vs. the Media.
In a 1995 interview with the Dallas Morning News, Clinton drug czar Lee Brown claimed "marijuana is 40 times more potent today than was the case 10, 15, 20 years ago." Lately the ONDCP has been warning that "today's marijuana is twice as strong" as the pot of the mid-1980s.It's time to stop spending money trying to stomp out something that anyone's grandmother can grow in back of the garden shed. It didn't work for alcohol (hence the term "bathtub gin") and it won't work for pot.Either the marijuana people smoked in the 1960s and '70s was not psychoactive at all, and its perceived effects were a mass delusion, or someone is exaggerating. Otherwise, we'd have to believe that the level of THC (marijuana's main active ingredient) in today's pot exceeds 100 percent.
In fact, the ONDCP says the current average is something like 7 percent, up from 3.5 percent in 1985, based on analysis of marijuana seized by federal agents. But seizures are not necessarily a representative sample, and if the focus of anti-pot efforts has shifted in the last two decades, the 1985 data may not be comparable to more recent measurements.
Still, marijuana probably is somewhat more potent, on average, than it used to be, because growers have gotten better at producing high-quality cannabis. Contrary to what the government says, however, there's little reason to believe stronger pot is worse for you. If anything, it's healthier, since people smoke less of it to achieve the effect they want.
Legalize it. Tax it. Let 'em smoke it in bars. Fewer fights. Fewer complaints. Opiate for the masses is a good thing.
A growing number of shareholder activists say it is simply too hard to follow the political money. Many of their proposals call for companies to post contribution data on their corporate websites and to explain why the money was given, something that isn't required by campaign disclosure rules.Hear, hear! In fact, I want this expanded. I particularly want this to be true of financial institutions. If Bank of America is helping to fund the Sierra Club (hypothetical -- I don't know) then I will close my account and go elsewhere.
Citing his belief that individuals should be judged only by their merit, Texas A&M University President Robert Gates bucked the nation's higher education establishment Wednesday by announcing the school would not use race as a factor in admissions or scholarships.The decision came as a surprise to many students because A&M has for many years been desperately trying to attract more minority students and shed its reputation as inhospitable to those groups because of its long history as an all-male military academy. This fall, 82 percent of A&M's undergraduates are white, 2 percent are black, 9 percent are Hispanic and 3 percent are Asian-American.
A&M administrators have said for years they have been hampered by the 1996 Hopwood court ruling barring Texas universities from using race preferences. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared up growing legal confusion over the matter this summer by saying race could be used as one of many factors in admissions and scholarships, prompting the University of Texas, Rice University and other Texas schools to implement such policies.
Gates, a former CIA director appointed to head the 45,000-student campus in 2002, said he will continue to make attracting minorities a top priority, but he intends to accomplish this through increased outreach efforts and scholarships targeting first-generation college students who come from lower-income families.
When Arnold Schwarzenegger presented his environmental plan a week ago, he had experts on hand to explain the details while he laid out the overall goals for reducing air pollution and energy usage.Meanwhile, Bustamante returned $177,000 of the $3.8 million that was raised in violation of the law.The next day, when Gov. Gray Davis unveiled a three-state partnership to reduce global warming emissions, he had little expert help, a handful of specific proposals he could easily describe and no overarching goals.
The Star Spangled Ice Cream company donates 10% of its profits to charities that support the men and women of the US Armed Forces.They have a range of flavors (chocolate flavors include both Irrelevant Belgian Chocolate and Dutch (Reagan) Chocolate), some with bad puns in their name (US Navy Battle-Chip and School Prayerleens & Crme). But personally I'm trying to decide between Gun Nut and vintage flavor Clinton Im-Peach. Although the logo pictured in this post sounds pretty yummy.
Did I mention that some of the flavors can be ordered online - at prices cheaper than liberal Ben & Jerry's mail order?
