Republicans Positioned for 2010 Takeback?

The latest Gallup poll suggests that the Republican victories in New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races are indicators of the future rather than one-offs, as Democrats claim.

McConnell: New Senate Leader

Hugh Hewitt applauds Mitch McConnell's performance during the Dem's all-night stunt:

After Democratic leader Harry Reid’s MoveOn.org all-night session Tuesday night, a move that resulted only in helping unify the weak-kneed Republicans who were peeling away from continued support of the Petraeus surge in Iraq, McConnell, the Republican leader, served notice to anyone watching C-SPAN that he now runs the Senate.

Read it all as Hewitt goes on to invent the word "mitchslapped". Heh.

Some Perspective Please

Conservative Jonah Goldberg writing in the liberal LA Times on the subject of the over-the-top poisonous rhetoric that dominates our political circus:

At Sunday's trial lawyer conference, for example, Barack Obama proclaimed that "people are tired of 'Scooter' Libby justice." Clinton's pardons for loyalist Susan McDougal, billionaire tax-evader Marc Rich and bomb-setting Puerto Rican nationalists apparently have slipped down the memory hole. For eight years, the right screamed bloody murder about Clinton's overreaching. He minted new executive privileges, "accidentally" rummaged through the FBI files of political opponents and sought electronic wiretapping powers — during peacetime — that today are denounced during the war on terror. Some on the right feared we were on a slippery slope to tyranny. Liberals often chortled about such right-wing paranoia.

Politics as Usual

Dems to Jump Left Again: Reid promises to tie timetable to next military appropriations bill before 4 July break:

Reid spoke Tuesday on the phone with a group of liberal bloggers he acknowledged helped drive the anti-war debate.

"I understand their disappointment," Reid said. "We raised the bar too high."

Tough to disappoint to barking base.

Earmark War Looming! Republicans want to hold Democrats to their earlier promises of making earmarked spending more transparent. Democrat chair of the House Appropriations Committee promises to kill all pet projects (Dem and Repub alike) if Republican leaders "demagogue" the issue.

Hmmm. I don't remember Republicans rushing out to make earmarks more transparent, or any fewer, when they were in charge. Too bad. If they had, maybe they'd still be in charge.

CAIR Membership Down 90% Since 2001:

The number of reported members spiraled down from more than 29,000 in 2000 to fewer than 1,700 in 2006. As a result, the Muslim rights group's annual income from dues dropped from $732,765 in 2000, when yearly dues cost $25, to $58,750 last year, when the group charged $35

Hopefully the downward spiral will continue.

"Hamastan" — Hamas has taken control of the northern part of the Gaza Strip as Palestine sinks into civil war. Isn't it a wonder that liberals are quick to blame the "neo-Cons" for pushing Iraq towards civil war, but won't own up to their own complicity in Palestinian troubles after celebrating terrorist victories in open elections?

"The streets of the Gaza Strip are full of hundreds of gunmen belonging to Fatah and Hamas," said Ayman Abu Sharkh, a lawyer from Gaza City. "People are afraid to leave their homes, because this is a real war and they are killing each other mercilessly. We never imagined that the day would come when we would see Palestinians slaughtering each other in the streets."

Hmmm. Doesn't come as a surprise to me.

Neo-Samurais? If we have neo-Cons, does Japan have neo-Samurais?

An ultranationalist, [Parliamentary candidate Yuko Tojo] seeks to restore Japan's honor by scrapping its pacifist constitution and enacting a full-fledged military, giving the country the clout she says it deserves. . . .

Her views are part of a resurgent right-wing fringe in Japan that espouses a hard line in territorial disputes with the country's neighbors and a rose-tinted view of its past militarism.

Breaking: Libby Gets 30 Months in Prison

For lying and obstructing justice, Lewis "Scooter" Libby was fined $250,000 and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, with another two of probation following his release.

From Giuliani to Gore

Giuliani's Firm Gave to Dems: Here's a shocker (not): Rudy Giuliani's law firm has a very generous PAC. It gave away nearly a quarter-million dollars to federal candidates in the 2006 mid-term election, 40% of which went to Democrats (including two under investigation for ethics violations).

MoveOn's Tea Party: Last week Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid capitulated to reality, withdrawing the timetable for surrender in Iraq from the war appropriations bill, but weakly tried to spin the move to his favor with verbiage for which I derided him. It has also raised the ire of the inappropriately-named MoveOn.org. Because Reid called the Iraq bill "weak tea" before he voted for it, the far-left group is asking members to send tea bags to Reid's office to register their displeasure with Reid for voting for the funding.

Why is it that references to Fred Thompson invariably call for him to either declare his candidacy or get out, while Gore is running a "stealth campaign"?

ABC to Air Counter-Gore Documentary: ABC has finally announced that it will run The Great Global Warming Swindle, a British documentary that refutes Gore's convenient lie. If you don't want to wait until it runs on ABC in July, you can watch it in full on Google Video.

"Libby Farce"

A nice article by John Podhoretz says, in part:

Maybe that's because the case against Scooter Libby is so astoundingly petty that arguing over it is like arguing over scraps.

Having begun his investigation with the possibility of bringing down the Bush administration due to the possible commission of a national-security felony, Fitzgerald has wound up trying to argue that the incomprehensible notes and Swiss-cheese recollections of reporters are indisputable facts.

Fun News

Marketing Stunt Terrorizes Boston. Chaos Ensues! Mayor Furious!
Boston authorities shut down a highway and turned out the bomb squads on fears of terrorism after spotting a "slew of blinking electronic signs" on bridges and other high-profile spots across the city.

Yep, that dangerous looking milkshake in LED looks like a terrorist to me!

Of course, the signs turned out to be nothing more than a creative advertising campaign for "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," a cartoon about a group of mystery-solving fast food items to be shown on Cartoon Network TV. Still, the mayor is threatening to sue Turner Broadcasting.

BTW, which Aqua Teen Hunger Force character are you? (I'm Master Shake)

Al Franken to run for Senate

Speaking of terror, rumor has it that failed radio mogul Al Franken is going to run for the US Senate in Minnesota, taking on incumbent Norm Coleman.

The news was not unexpected. Franken has been calling members of the Minnesota congressional delegation for their input on a run and he announced this week he would be leaving his show on Air America Radio on Feb. 14. He told listeners he would be making a decision on a race soon.

The only stunning news in all this is that Franken still has listeners.

BTW, Franken's political action committee is the "Midwest Values PAC", which (according to OpenSecrets.org) seems to rake in the most money from NY, CA, OR, WA, and in general every but the Midwest!

Look at the size of that tumor. It's huge!*
A woman kept telling the doctors that her weight gain wasn't due to her eating habits. Diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity, Taquela Hilton finally got a doctor to listen after at least 12 years.

The result was an operation that removed a 93 pound benign tumor - an ovarian cyst.

* Said in your best "Tiny Elvis" voice

Idiotic Headline of the Day
Bush, Dems Have Different Economic Views

Hey Planet Earth, Put a Cork In IT!
Volcanic pressure in Indonesia has been pushing out mud since May of last year, displacing 10,000 people and closing 20 factories. And it doesn't show any signs of slowing.

To stop it, geophysicists are going to drop 4,000 concrete balls that have been chained together in sets of four into the volcano's mouth. Even they don't think they can stop the flaming-hot mud's progress all together, but hope to create enough "friction" as the mud has to navigate through the barrier to significantly slow the flow. Says one "scientist":

It will make the mud tired. We're killing the mud softly.

Uh-huh. Sounds more like using BB's to stop a fire hose to me. This is the volcanic force of the planet Earth we're talking about here — the same forces that move tectonic plates around.

Milk Beer
When the United States gets a surplus of milk, our government turns to subsidies to prop up the dairy farmers. In Japan, an innovative liquor store owner turned his region's excess milk inventory into beer, soon to be marketed under the brand name "Bilk".

I wonder how it'll taste on cereal?

Who Am I?

I'm beginning to question some fundamentals:

I actually agree with AlphaMoonbat James Carville; he says that Howard "the Scream" Dean is incompetent and should be fired as chairman of the Democratic Party.

I disagree with conservative brainiac Ben Stein: he says that Iraq was better off with Saddam Hussein in charge (men fed to plastic shredders feet first, over 300,000 in mass graves in the desert, whole villages gassed, men shot in front of wives and children — I don't think so).

McKinney in Trouble with Voters

Good news from Georgia:

U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney is headed to a runoff against a relatively unknown challenger in a Democratic primary she was expected to win with ease.

HT to Vodkapundit, who reports "a very quiet, low turnout election, particularly compared to 2004.".

That won't be the situation here in Memphis, where we have more races and more candidates on the ballot than at any time in the history of the county. This primary is critical to conservatives because we could lose control of the county.

Technorati Tags: Moonbat Cynthia McKinney, Extremist Moonbats, People that give Moonbats a Bad Name, Georgia Politics.

Political News Roundup

Politics

Do you give money to the Sierra Club? If you do, you're putting Democrats in office! The Sierra Club is planning on putting between five and ten million dollars into competitive state races this year.

What makes a liberal a liberal? Mark Goldblatt weighs in and he's right on the money. [I know, I was one!]

Think Hillary can win? John Hawkins doesn't, and lists The Top 8 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Is a Weaker Candidate Than People Think.

Meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice is more popular than you'd think:

When Esquire asked American men who they would invite from a list of 14 notable women to a dinner party, they chose Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice - over such stars as Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Simpson.

Dinner with Condi? Sign me up!

Technorati Tags: Sierra Club, Looney Left Wing Organizations, Charity, Liberals, Progressives, Moonbats, Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice.

Congressional Record is a Lie

You've read about the tributes that congressmen make: to heroic citizens, kids that excel in academics or sports, and so on. The hometown paper prints the tribute or the congressman sends it out in letters to constituents.

John Stossel reports that these tributes never really happen, even though they appear in the Congressional Record.

But wait, there's more! Verbiage is not only invented, it is actually changed:

A congressman once got angry with a colleague and exclaimed, "You're trying to shut me off? You better not do that, ma'am. . . . Who do you think you are?"

You didn't read that in the Congressional Record. The Congressman or his staff had the Record print his comments this way: "I will say to the gentle lady for whom I have the greatest respect . . ."

The law says the Record must be "substantially a verbatim report." Congressmen use the word "substantially" to print their lies. ...

Of course, it would be embarrassing to actually stand in front of my colleagues and talk about Ted Nugent's archery, so I'll just make it seem as if I did. To make it extra convincing, I'll use phrases like, "Mr. Speaker, I rise today . . . " The additions cost taxpayers millions, but so what? They don't cost me anything.

The waste calculates out to almost $675 a page.

And I thought that it was just the MSM that lied to us.

I guess that I should quit being shocked at findings like this, but then again I hope that I never get so cynical that I come to expect this of our elected servants. Because deep down, I am still a bit of an idealist.

Technorati Tags: Congressional Record, Politics.

DeLay Wins One — Again

An appeals court has upheld a ruling that threw out a felony conspiracy charge against Tom DeLay. Still pending are charges of money-laundering and another conspiracy charge.

District Attorney Ronnie Earle said his office would review the ruling before deciding whether to continue the fabricated witch hunt appeal to yet a higher court.

I was going to comment on this ruling but can't beat what LDotter JLoophole said:

Let me get this straight.

White male republican. Commits no crime, but was accused of one, so is basically forced to leave.

Black female democrat. Assaults a police officer, punching him when he does his job. Dozens of witnesses. Continues to keep her political position.

Ah yes, things that make you go "Hmmm".

Rhymes with Right predicts:

I've no doubt that the rest of the charges will be easily refuted in court - and that the misconduct that has plagued this prosecution will lead to professional sanctions against the rogue prosecutor.

While I believe that Prosecutor Ronnie Earle is doing the legal version of a Mary Mapes, I have little hope of him ever being held accountable for it. As Rob at Say Anything points out:

When all's said and done it will come out that the Democrat Prosecutor was using his office to smear his political foes. He tried and failed to remove Texas Senator Kay Baily Hutchinson. In fact when it finally came to trial he had to admit that he did not have a case.

But Election Law points to a Houston Chronicle article that suggests that DeLay may be involved in, or at least connected to, a phone-jamming scandal in New Hampshire.

What Election Law does not point out is that the H.Chron. is a liberal rag that has it in for DeLay — a fact made clear when reading how the article is written. [Come on, it starts out with, "Tom DeLay isn't involved in every Republican scandal, although it's easy to see how you could get that idea." Sheesh!]

Yet journalists continue to wonder why people are turning to alternative sources for news and punditry.

Technorati Tags: DeLay, Tom DeLay, Ronnie Earle.

Birthday Wishes

Bill Frist's wife, Karyn, is arranging a birthday surprise for her husband:

I’m planning to surprise him on his birthday and instead of him looking at the headlines in the Washington Post that morning, he’ll be reading his “Birthday Album,” filled with birthday wishes from friends in Tennessee and from all across the country

Go here to add your birthday wish, although one wonders how secret this will be seeing as the collection site is on Frist's own PAC website. Still, how often does a Senate Majority Leader spend on the internet?

I'm Finally Impressed by McCain

At least, by the letter he sent to Obama, which begins:

I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere.

HT to Donald Sensing

Technorati Tags: McCain, Obama.

Red/Blue Divide in California

The Red inland and Blue coast holds true even in the microcosm of nutty California:

California is increasingly politically divided between an inland "red" state and a coastal "blue" state, according to a Field Institute study analyzing 15 years of election trends. ...

Coastal voters - in 20 counties from San Diego to Del Norte - favor Democratic candidates by sweeping margins while California's 38 in-land counties overwhelmingly favor Republicans.

Maybe it's something in the water.

Technorati Tags: Red Blue, California, California Politics.

What's Wrong with America

I took an online Zogby poll this morning. I do these every once in a while because (1) it gives some insight as to what pollsters are looking at (and thus what the media and politicians are concerned with, and from there what gets put into the American psyche) and (2) I get some fairly interesting newsletters from Zogby in return.

This morning's poll asked:

What do you think should be the number one priority for the next congress?

• War in Iraq
• Economy
• Social security reform
• Scandals/ethics
• Environment
• US foreign policy
• Homeland security
• Tax reform
• Federal budget deficit
• Off-shoring of jobs
• Poverty
• Racial divide in the US
• Health care
• Illegal immigration
• Nothing/not sure
• Other-Specify

What is missing from this list? What domestic issue has fallen so far off the radar that it doesn't even merit consideration?

Education.

Poverty is on the list, but if all our children were educated then poverty would be massively reduced, if not virtually eliminated.

Off-shoring of jobs is on the list, but if all our children were educated then we would be off-shoring our talent to help the developing world.

Racism is on the list, but if all our children were educated then a great deal of the causes of racism would be eliminated. Education is the key to true equal opportunity. And as the economic, political and academic segments of our society become integrated, racism melts away. The culture of victimization could not survive. There would be no more resentment from taxpayers for supporting a growing welfare state. Most importantly, you do not hate those who work work with, who help you be successful in your career, who live next to you and whose children play with yours.

If all our children were educated then the black family could grow strong again. Educated fathers tend to stay married, regardless of race. Educated girls have ambition, not babies, regardless of race.

If all our children were educated then crime would plummet. Tax revenues would be raised hand over fist. Everyone would have health care that they choose, not that the government tries to provide.

Some may say I'm being racist by stating things in a stereotypical manner. Some may say I'm oversimplifying. But none can sway me from the position that we are cheating our children and weakening our country's future because we are failing to address this problem.

Dysfunctional Republicans

Ann Coulter rips on the GOP. Money quote:

If Republicans were one-tenth as rough with the congressman who wants to withdraw troops in the middle of a war as they are on a congresswoman who calls it cowardly to withdraw troops in the middle of a war, we might have a functioning Republican Party.

Favs from Opposing Party

101 members of Congress and 137 lobbyists, former government officials and other political insiders were polled with some not very surpising results:

1. Of the 89 Democrats who responded, 45 percent picked Obama, the Senate’s only black member, as the politician that has the greatest potential to become president in 20 years.
2. The second most popular choice by Democrats was "Don't Know", at 13 percent.
3. Of the 89 Republicans who responded, 35 percent picked Sen. Joe Lieberman, as the Democrat in Congress they most admire.
4. The second choice of Republicans was blonde-in-the-pond Sen. Edward Kennedy, at 6 percent.
5. Arizona Sen. John McCain was named the most popular Republican senator among Democrats.

I go on the record here and now, if 2008 comes down to McCain vs. Lieberman for president, I'm voting Democrat. If it's McCain vs. Hillary, I'm writing in "AlphaPatriot".

And you can take that to the bank.

Political News on Both Sides

President Bush is showing signs of waking up to the government's spending problem, telling Congress to "push the envelope" to enact spending cuts in order to pay for hurricane relief.

You know things have gotten bad in New Jersey when the Star Ledger endorses Republican Doug Forrester for governor, however "reluctantly".

US News tells us how internet activists are taking control of the Democrat Party in a McGovern-like revolution:

In a lecture at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Peter Beinart said the mostly young Internet activists are clearly taking over the party. If so, this would be the first ray of sunshine for conservatives and Republicans in almost a year. The McGovern movement severely damaged the party, pushing it toward four presidential defeats in five tries, until Bill Clinton won by dragging the party back to the center in 1992. If the Internet people had prevailed in 2004, Howard Dean would have won the nomination and then been buried in an enormous landslide, just like George McGovern.

FBI Abusing Powers

This is not getting enough attention, from the MSM or the blogosphere:

The FBI has conducted clandestine surveillance on some U.S. residents for as long as 18 months at a time without proper paperwork or oversight, according to previously classified documents to be released today.

New Amendment Protecting Property Rights

If you are not outraged by the direction that the right of individuals to own property is taking in this country, then you are either a liberal or stunningly uninformed.

A PoliSci professor once told me that the original wording for the famous "unalienable rights" phrase was "life, liberty and property", but Rousseau's influence resulted in the change to "pursuit of happiness". So once again we were screwed by the French.

A freeper proposed this constitutional amendment for discussion:

RIGHT TO REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY

1. Whereas the power to tax is the power to destroy; Tax on all property, real and personal, except as income or on sale or transfer, above one-tenth of one percent per annum shall be prohibited.
2. The taking of property by eminent domain shall only be by just compensation for the purpose of the erection of public infrastructure.
3. Public property that is sold or otherwise converted to private use within 20 years shall first be offered to its original owner(s) or their heirs in substantially its original condition at its original price of acquisition.
4. Property that is seized for non-payment of taxes must be speedily sold at auction. Any amount above the tax owed and costs must be returned to the owner.
5. This article shall have no time limit on its ratification.

A damn fine idea. Personally, I would much rather have personal property protected by the constitution than the rights of same-sex couples limited by that document.

Schiavo Autopsy Shows No Abuse

The autopsy report for Terry Schiavo has been released and backs the husband's story: there were no signs of abuse and no possibility for recovery.

"Her brain was profoundly atrophied," Jon Thogmartin, medical examiner for Florida's Pinellas-Pasco County, told a press conference. "There was massive neuronal loss, or death. This was irreversible and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons."

“The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain," he added.

A bit of Schiavo trivia from the article:

About 40 judges in six courts were involved in the Schiavo case at one point or another . . .

Most Useless Politician Response, Ever

Needing no witty commentary:

Dear Mr. [insert real name of AlphaPatriot here],

Thank you for contacting me. It is an honor to serve as Majority Leader of the United States Senate and a privilege to respond to your concerns.

As a Senator, I regard communication with citizens like yourself as one of my highest priorities. A representative body that is out of touch with its constituents cannot function effectively. Your comments are always welcome, and with your help, we can ensure that Congress remains well-informed and accountable for its actions.

Again, I appreciate you taking time to contact me.

Sincerly yours,
William H. Frist, M.D.
Majority Leader
United States Senate

P.S. Please visit http://frist.senate.gov to register for my e-mail newsletter.

I have never received a blowoff like this from any politician before. Not one word addressing my concerns. Even when they disagree, they take the time to try and explain why.

By Zues, I wish I could remember what I wrote to him about! Damn email submission forms — in the old days I'd have a copy of my letter on my hard drive.

Dems in Crisis: No Middle Class

Some stats that will no doubt shock some Democrats:

A report released yesterday by Third Way says support for Republicans begins at much lower income levels than researchers had expected: Among white voters, President Bush got a majority of support beginning at an income threshold of $23,300 -- about $5,000 above the poverty level for a family of four.

The report says the economic gains of Hispanics have translated into strong Republican gains, as have economic strides across every category, save for black voters.

"As Americans become even modestly wealthier their affinity for Democrats apparently falls off. With middle income voters, it is Democrats -- the self-described party of the middle class -- who are running far behind Republicans, the oft-described party of the rich," the report says. ...

This month's issue of Blueprint, a magazine published by the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, has several articles looking at statistics similar to Third Way's income data, such as Mr. Kerry's losing married parents of young children by 19 percentage points, taking 40 percent of the group compared with Mr. Bush's 59 percent. Those parents made up 28 percent of the electorate.

This, of course, comes as no surprise to the informed. It has long been apparent that the Democrat Party has become the party of extremes — the very poor and the very rich. It is no more the party of the middle class then it is the party of "progressives", no matter how much the "party of no" pretends otherwise.

Op-ed of the Day

Food for thought in a humorous wrapping: Republican crisis biggest in US since Second World War. Well, almost.

NeoLibs

I may have finally found a political home.

QandO defines a Neolibertarian as "Pragmatic domestic libertarian; Hawk on defense". There's much more, but in the updates this set of general policies is proposed:

When given a set of policy choices,

• The choice that maximizes personal liberty is the best choice.
• The policy choice that offers the least amount of necessary government intervention or regulation is the best choice.
• The policy choice that provides rational, market-based incentives is the best choice.

In foreign policy, neolibertartianism would be characterized by,

• A policy of diplomacy that promotes consensual government and human rights and opposes dictatorship.
• A policy of using US military force solely at the discretion of the US, but only in circumstances where American interests are directly affected.

Although I "Blog for Bush" and strongly supported him in the last two elections (and would do so again) I did so because he was the candidate closest to my ideals. His foriegn policy is nothing short of brilliant which will reshape the world for decades.

As I have said several times in the past, however, I find his domestic policy to be nothing short of disastrous.

I left the Libertarian Party in 2004 when presidential candidate Michael Badnarik asked supporters to wear black on the anniversary of 9/11 "to mourn the deaths of the thousands of people who have died as a result of U.S. government policies".

Libertarians are often idealistic and myopic, ignoring the real world in pursuit of their goals, unable to compromise their principles. A little pragmatism is called for in the real world.

So drop by the Neolibertarian Network Blog and see what's happening.

(HT to Instapundit)

Update: Welcome Instapundit readers!

Sad Day for Freedom

CNet reports:

A Minnesota appeals court has ruled that the presence of encryption software on a computer may be viewed as evidence of criminal intent.

I shred my mail and personal documents. Does that mean I am doing something illegal?

Another Reformed Liberal

Keith Thompson was as liberal as they came, but has decided to walk away from the Left:

Now, I find myself in a swirling metamorphosis. Think Kafka, without the bug. Think Kuhnian paradigm shift, without the buzz. Every anomaly that didn't fit my perceptual set is suddenly back, all the more glaring for so long ignored. The insistent inner voice I learned to suppress now has my rapt attention. "Something strange -- something approaching pathological -- something entirely of its own making -- has the left in its grip," the voice whispers. "How did this happen?" The Iraqi election is my tipping point. The time has come to walk in a different direction -- just as I did many years before.

Read it all. Lucianne.com called this the best that the weekend had to offer. I think it is the best that I've read in quite some time.

Breaking the Fillibuster

GOP Bloggers has an interesting analysis saying why Republicans shouldn't change Senate rules regarding judicial confirmations. Be sure to read the comments, too.

Gonzales Has Style

Even though Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' policies are remarkably similar to those of his predecessor John Ashcroft, he is much, much more popular:

Lawmakers, including some Democrats who voted against his appointment, are praising his openness and mild-mannered demeanor. U.S. attorneys and career Justice Department employees say they welcome his open-door management style. And outside critics say they are merely grateful that Gonzales has agreed to hear them out.

DeLay's Approval Rises

The Dem attacks with the aid of their media brethern aren't doing Tom DeLay any harm in his home district. Over the last two weeks his approval rating has actually risen from 42 to 47%, with 60% giving him a letter grade of "C" or better.

BTW, before the DeLay matter comes up before the ethics committee, the committee must first deal with Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA). McDermott gave a tape of a phone conversation between Rep. John A. Boehner (R-OH) and GOP leaders to the press. Boehner sued and the court ordered McDermott to pay $60,000 in punitive damages. A DC Court of Appeals upheld the ruling last month so it's looking pretty grim for McDermott.

Speaking of ethics, WaPo points out that the ethics rules for Congress are anything but:

Congress allows its members to fly on corporate planes for the price of a first-class ticket, which is a small fraction of the real cost of using a private aircraft. After the initial DeLay stories, the Wall Street Journal reported that corporations and industry groups spent $3 million last year to sponsor almost 2,000 trips for members of Congress and their staffs. The Post reported that members of the House and Senate leadership, Democrat and Republican, have flown on corporate jets at least 360 times from 2001 through 2004. DeLay was No. 3 in the number of trips, and former Senate minority leader Tom Daschle was just behind him. The Chicago Tribune found 835 trips by Illinois lawmakers and their staffs since 2000, with two Democrats filing no disclosure forms.

The New York Times ran a front-page story on DeLay's wife and daughter being paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by the Texas Republican's political committees. But local papers soon found dozens of lawmakers paying their relatives, from the $357,000 paid to California Rep. Richard Pombo's wife and daughter (Los Angeles Times) to the more than $150,000 paid to the wife and stepdaughter of Vermont Rep. Bernard Sanders (Brattleboro Reformer) to the $107,000 paid to the wife of Arizona Rep. J.D. Hayworth (Arizona Republic).

Poor Republicans

The NY Times writes about the latest Pew study:

These working-class folk like the G.O.P.'s social and foreign policies, but the big difference between poor Republicans and poor Democrats is that the former believe that individuals can make it on their own with hard work and good character.

According to the Pew study, 76 percent of poor Republicans believe most people can get ahead with hard work. Only 14 percent of poor Democrats believe that. Poor Republicans haven't made it yet, but they embrace what they take to be the Republican economic vision - that it is in their power to do so. Poor Democrats are more likely to believe they are in the grip of forces beyond their control.

The G.O.P. succeeds because it is seen as the party of optimistic individualism.

For more on this subject I recommend Patrick Ruffini.

Cheney 8, Liberals 0

One has to dig back into one's memory to recall the brouhaha that surrounded Dick Cheney's refusal to turn over materials associated with the formation of the White House's energy policy. The matter first surfaced in February 2002 when some members of Congress wanted to know who helped craft the policy and what they said.

The administration argued that such disclosure was unprecedented, would damage the quality of information gained from conversations with individuals in private industry, and eroded the power of the presidency.

The case rocketed up to the Supreme Court, which sent it back down again. Today, the Court of Appeals reached an 8-0 ruling in favor of the administration:

A federal appeals court said on Tuesday that Vice President Dick Cheney did not have to divulge details about how the White House's energy policies were shaped, ruling in a case that touched on the constitutional separation of powers. ...

The ruling, by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, upheld the administration argument that it was not obligated to disclose whom it consulted on energy matters early in President Bush's first term and what was said.

The suit was brought by an unlikely coalition of the Sierra Club (of which I am not a member) and Judicial Watch (of which I am a member). Right Thinking from the Left Coast makes this comment about a Reuters report on the subject:

It is worth noting, gentle reader, that in this article Judicial Watch is referred to as “the watchdog group.” This is because they were going after a Republican. If they were going after a Democrat they would be back to “conservative watchdog group.” Also note that the Sierra Club is not listed as the “left-wing environmental group.” Doing so would actually require a shred of integrity and intellectual honesty on the part of the reporter.

In fairness, and most surprisingly, the New York Times article that I sourced above refers to Judicial Watch as "a conservative legal organization".

Bolton Update

Now that Rhode Island RINO Lincoln Chafee has decided to fall into line and back Bolton, his nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations will probably pass committee tomorrow morning.

Once there, it is expected that he will be quickly confirmed. Assuming, that is, that no one decides to fillibuster the nomination, though that threat hasn't yet been issued.

Stygus has a very good and even-handed summary of the Democrat's case against Bolton.

The Strange Move of Killington

Killington is situated in Vermont more than 30 miles from the New Hampshire border but that's not where they want to be. They want to be part of New Hampshire — and it might just happen.

Killington citizens claim they are being bled dry by Vermont taxes. Last year they claim to have sent $10 million to the state and only received a tenth of it back — not even enough to run the schools.

They've gotten so fed up that they are initiating procedures to seceed from Vermont and become part of New Hampshire.

A bill has already passed the New Hampshire House that will set up a commission to work out an interstate agreement, allowing Killington to become part of New Hampshire. The NH Senate will vote on the measure as early as next week.

Of course, even if New Hampshire sets up a commission, Killington will have to get a similar commission set up in Vermont, reach an agreement, get the agreement ratified by the legislators in both states and then in the U.S. Congress.

Feeling is that it will be a hard sell in Vermont:

Young said in March that Killington's efforts were a bad joke taken too far and Gov. James Douglas said in December that he thought the Legislature would have a hard time carving a hole in the center of the state.

On the other hand, there's this:

Killington town manager David Lewis said yesterday that a Vermont legislator has introduced a bill requiring the town to pay an exit fee before it can leave the state. Lewis said he sees that in two ways.

"Our feeling is that the state may owe us. We haven't exactly been living off the dole in Vermont for the past 50 years," he said.

Another angle he sees is that the bill is essentially an admission that the town can leave Vermont, and now it's just a matter of setting the price.

"It's an endorsement that our effort to secede is legitimate," Lewis said.

Don't you just love politics?

Quote of the Day

Today's quote comes from Jack Kelly and concerns Democrat obstructionism:

The only thing harder to find in the U.S. Senate these days than a Democrat with a conscience is a Republican with a spine.

Amen.

Runner up is Ann Coulter on pretty much the same subject:

In one sentence Republicans should state that the so-called "nuclear option" means: "Majority vote wins." (This is as opposed to the Democrats' mantra, which is "Our side always wins.")

Santorum's Insanity

Rick Santorum is off his rocker, sponsoring a bill to forbid the National Weather Service from providing weather forecasts to the U.S. taxpayer:

The bill, introduced last week by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., would prohibit federal meteorologists from competing with companies such as AccuWeather and The Weather Channel, which offer their own forecasts through paid services and free ad-supported Web sites.

Supporters say the bill wouldn't hamper the weather service or the National Hurricane Center from alerting the public to hazards — in fact, it exempts forecasts meant to protect "life and property."

I look up legislative activity using Thomas, a free service provided by the Library of Congress. This information can also be obtained through commercial organizations like Capitol Advantage and Congress.org.

Using Santorum's logic, the Thomas website should be shut down.

Hat tip to moonbat Tonetheman.

Taxing Figures

The Watcher has some interesting stats concerning the income tax, starting in 1913.

Feds to Fund Study of Obesity / Food Stamp Link

The Department of Agriculture has given an MTSU economics professor $120,000 to study the effects the federal Food Stamp Program has on obesity:

Historically, poverty has been associated with a decrease in food consumption, he said, but with the institution of the Food Stamp Act in 1964, poverty no longer had to mean a reduction in food consumption.

Since 1964, Baum said, the prevalence of obesity has dramatically increased, particularly among the individuals eligible for the Food Stamp Program.

"I think the federal government is interested in this because obesity is increasing health expenditures," Baum said, "and the federal government roughly pays for half of the health care in the country with Medicare and Medicaid.

"As medical expenses are increasing, it is a big concern for the government," he said. ...

Additionally, low-income families often overeat when food is available, and over time the body can learn to compensate for periodic food shortages by storing calories as fat.

As general manager of Jr's Foodland on East Main Street, Eric Habel says most of his customers, including those on Food Stamps, purchase the store's fresh meats.

Senate Dems Seek to Obstruct House Legislation

In a stunning show of arrogance, Senate Democrats are radically expanding their obstructionist tactics. Not content with conducting filibusters of judicial nominees on an unprecedented scale, Senate Democrats are now threatening to obstruct an emergency war-spending bill if House Republicans do not drop efforts to crack down on the growing illegal alien problem:

Senate Democrats are threatening to bog down the emergency war-spending bill with a broad debate on immigration if Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist doesn't win a guarantee from House Republicans to drop driver's license limits from their chamber's version.

Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said yesterday that he wants to ensure the eventual House-Senate conference will not include the House-passed Real ID Act, which cracks down on illegal immigrants' ability to use driver's licenses and restricts asylum claims.

No word from failed presidential candidate John Kerry, who (after two decades of voting against every military bill he could) is trying to reach out to military voters with an amendment to the $80 billion emergency military spending bill that increases survivor benefits.

In a further example of crass obstructionism, Senate Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, unable to derail the up-and-down vote of John Bolton, have delayed the committee vote on Bolton until next week. They say they need more time because they want to question even more witnesses. The real reason, of course, is so they have the entire weekend to convince moderate Republican RINO Senator Lincoln Chafee (RI) to defect, resulting in a tie vote in the closely-divided committee. A tie would kill the nomination.

Government Meddling in Manufacturing

In its infinite wisdom, the U.S. government has determined that people are too stupid to look at their tires and think, "Huh! I need to put some air in that."

To remedy this, automakers will have to add yet another idiot light to the dashboard that irratatingly flashes when tire pressure lower than 75% of the recommended inflation level (or when the bloody thing malfunctions).

For this protection, the cost of each new vehicle will go up between $48.44 and $69.89. It is hoped that this will save 120 lives per year.

Not that the value of a human life can be reduced to dollars and cents, but there is such a thing as ROI — and this just doesn't add up.

Low-balling the cost of the device at 50 bucks each, and assuming a mere 15 million new cars sold in the U.S. per year (again, a low figure given the strengthened economy), this works out to saving lives at the cost of $6,250,000 each.

Now, given that 42,815 people died in auto accidents in 2002, and that 41% were related to alchohol and 59% weren't wearing seat belts, wouldn't it be safe to assume that we could get far greater bang for our buck if we made people strap in and — if they were drunk — kept the car from starting in the first place?

Ah, but then our politicians would never be able to get back to the office after lunch.

Fake Schiavo Memo . . . Wasn't

The origin of the poorly-written Republican talking points memo that caused an MSM-initiated storm and that was widely debunked on conservative blogs has been found out. It came from a Republican.

Brian Darling works in freshman Senator Mel Martinez's (R-Fla.) office. He created the document, which he characterized as a "working draft", claiming never to have printed it. Somehow, Martinez got a copy and immediately gave it to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa):

Harkin said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore the Florida woman's feeding tube. "He said these were talking points -- something that we're working on here," Harkin said.

Other Republicans claimed ignorance of the document and now we see why — it was never circulated nor was it ever intended to be.

Darling offered his resignation, which Martinez quickly accepted.

Hat tip to Captain's Quarters.

Separating Libertarians and Conservatives

A rather good article by Donald Devine explores the differences between Tory conservatism, statist Libertarianism and fusionist conservatism. A snippet:

Meyer and Reagan adopted a program that combined both traditionalism and libertarianism, not in a rigid fusion as some of their critics suggest, but in what Meyer himself described as a "tension" between freedom and tradition. Free peoples established institutions to represent their values in a private sphere and demanded freedom to act on them from a government that was only to set a few, broad societal rules and otherwise leave the institutions free to each go their own way. These institutional mores were to be enforced through private social pressure rather than through state coercion. The formula was "libertarian means for traditional ends," fusing the best elements of both ideologies.

GovTrack: Too Cool

I found GovTrack.us in my referer log. The site allows you to follow bills as they work through congress.

The cool part is a "What are people saying" section about each bill and use Technorati to point pull out a portion of the blog post. Check out H.R. 47: To protect the right to obtain firearms for security, and to use firearms in defense of self, which I wrote about here.

The Important Fight: Local vs. Federal

Listed on the Tennessee Firearms Association message board are 38 bills that have been submitted to the current Tennessee congress and are now moving (or are stalled) in the great bureaucracy.

Local laws can rip away your rights faster than an early bird jumping on a worm. Faster than an ACLU lawyer ripping a cross off the courthouse wall. Even faster than a Democrat reaching for your wallet.

There are, of course, those instances in which local authorities actually try to expand restore your rights. For instance, Montana lawmakers "collectively thumbed their noses at the federal government" by exempting guns made in the state from federal regulation as long as they remain in the state. A damn fine idea, but legislation like this is barely less rare than acorns growing on cucumber vines.

No, the sad fact is that laws are usually made to restrict rights from ordinary citizen, elevate a few above the common masses, or curry favor with a particular demographic in a transparent effort to maintain power.

So when the opportunity comes to try and push "good" legislation and stop "bad" legislation from making it out of committee, one should jump on it. Which is where your state level gun organization comes in.

For instance, the Tennessee Firearms Association heavily lobbied for legislation allowing permit holders to be able to walk into a gas station to pay after filling up (it was forbidden because they also sell malt liquor). So whenever you stop at a station while armed for a Coke or a Dew, thank John Harris from TFA.

This year we are fighting to extend this right so that you can go into places like Applebee's for lunch so long as you don't drink. This will reduce the number of firearms left unguarded in parking lots and allow you to defend you and yours when walking to and from the restaurant.

Another bill exempts gun safes from sales tax, which is surprisingly sponsored by a pair of Democrats. Which seems only fair -- the party that wants us to lock away our guns is trying to make it easier on us to do it. A rare AlphaKudos to these two Dems, although this is a perennial bill that has never made it out of Democrat-controlled committees. Perhaps with a growing Republican presence that can be changed.

Of course, the TFA is also concerned with legislation that affects the sportsman. Which is why it is watching a pair of bills introduced by Sen. Burchett (Republican from Knox County) and Rep. Henri "no pledge" Brooks (Democrat from Memphis who has refused to say the pledge of allegiance since the third grade because the American flag is a symbol of slavery and racial oppression). One requires that everyone 15 or younger take a safety course before riding an ATV and carry papers proving they've done so when riding. Another institutes a $50 fine for riding on property without the owner's permission. Yet another bill requires a $45 registration fee for all off-road vehicles.

Few issues are more politically charged than felon's rights and there are a few bills on this subject:

• One restores citizenship to those "convicted of infamous crimes" after a year of release or end of probation.
• Another restores felon's "citizens' rights", another gives voting rights to anyone not currently incarcerated (unless they are rapists, traitors or committed voter fraud -- murderers are OK).
• Another rights restoration, only this one excludes murderers too.
• Another makes it a class E felony for handgun possession by someone convicted of any felony that involves use of force or drugs.

The message must be, "We trust you to vote for us, but we don't trust you to fight tyranny with a gun!"

The point is that it's all very well for you to make sure federal congress doesn't enact another "assault weapons" ban, but what good is it if you live in California where they have bans of their own? And with politicians on the loose, any state can be California. But with organizations like the Tennessee Firearms Association, your state might be like Vermont.

Take a search and find the appropriate organization for your state -- there are lots of lists of organizations available.

Find it. Join it. Support it. Today.

Update: Say Uncle has a pair of posts that illustrates the importance of what I am talking about. First, Iowa is considering an "assault weapons" ban of their own. Second, more pro-gun legislation is moving through the Illinois legislature than anti-gun (believe it or not).

Grassroots Government

Tapscott's Copy Desk proposes three interesting ways for blogs to be utilized in "the daily working of government."

Amy Ridenour follows up with two ideas of her own.

Dollars for Poles

Bush wants to reward allies:

'The $80 billion war funding request President Bush will send to Congress next week includes $400 million to help nations that have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Poland, a staunch ally in Iraq, is earmarked to receive one-fourth of the money.

The White House announced the fund, dubbed the "solidarity initiative," after Bush's meeting Wednesday with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.

At first this sounded a lot like buying friends. But then I thought, it's better to give money to good friends like Poland than to bad friends like Egypt.

FEC Election Spending Overhaul

Federal Election Commission are proposing an overhaul of the use of tax dollars for presidential political campaigns:

"The presidential public financing system is at an historic crossroads," Toner and Thomas wrote in a letter to congressional leaders. "If Congress does not act within the next two years, the system runs the serious risk of being totally irrelevant in the 2008 election and beyond."

I'm thinking that that snail has done left the shell. Stick a fork in it, it's done, 'cause "campaign finance reform" has forever changed the way fundraising is done in this nation.

Budget Cuts On the Way!

I certainly hope the reports of an "austere budget" are accurate:

The president, who campaigned for re-election on a pledge to cut the deficit in half by 2009, is targeting 150 government programs for either outright elimination or sharp cutbacks.

Bush will propose spending $2.5 trillion in the budget year that begins Oct. 1. For the current year, he is estimating the budget deficit will reach a record $427 billion. That compares with last year's $412 billion deficit and is the third straight year the Bush administration will have set, in dollar terms, a deficit high....

One of the biggest battles is certain to occur in the area of payments and other assistance to farmers, which the administration wants to trim by $587 million in 2006 and by $5.7 billion over the next decade.

Those payments go to farmers growing a wide range of crops from cotton, rice and corn to soybeans and wheat.

The United States and other rich countries have come under criticism for these agriculture subsidies from poor countries. In the current round of global trade talks, these nations are pressing for the subsidies' elimination.

Other programs set for cuts, the AP has learned, include the Army Corps of Engineers, whose dam and other waterway projects are extremely popular in Congress; the Energy Department; and a number of health programs under the Health and Human Services Department.

About one-third of the programs being targeted for elimination are in the Education Department, including federal grant programs for local schools in such areas as vocational education, supporting drug-free schools and Even Start, a $225 million literacy program.

The administration also will seek to restrain growth in mandatory spending, primarily by trimming costs in Medicaid, the joint program with states that pays the cost of poor people's health care.

Let the battle begin!

Campaign Spending Up 1200%

In all, party committees, individuals and interest groups spent $192.4 million on independent ads calling for the election or defeat of the president or his Democratic rival in the last election, a Federal Election Commission (news - web sites) analysis released Thursday shows. That compares with $14.7 million spent on such ads in 2000, and just $1.4 million in the 1996 presidential race.

Would somebody please ask McCain how that whole campaign finance reform thing is working out?

Reaction to State of the Union

The president was presidential, outlining a bold foreign policy, warning Syria and Iran that we have an eye on them, encouraging Iranians in their hopes for throwing off the shackles of brutal theocracy, delivering slaps to tyrannous allies Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and administering a focused and personal punch aimed at the head of Ted Kennedy.

His domestic policies were more progressive than anything the Democrats have dreamt of in years.

Meanwhile, the Democrats were as surly as British parliament back benchers.

Condoleezza Rice Takes Charge

I watched Condi's speech to the State Department when she walked in to take over this morning. She was respectful of the people whose lives she will be directing, noting the difficulties of their tasks and sacrifices they have made. Yet at the same time, in a nonagressive manner, she made it clear that they were there to implement the president's vision.

Amazing speech and very, very well done.

Spellings for Education Secretary

 

This woman could be the best thing that has happened to the American education system for a very long time. She is Margaret Spellings, and she is President Bush's nomination for Education Secretary.

When Bush wanted more testing and accountability from schools as governor of Texas, it was Spellings who oversaw the plan and gained support from business executives and lawmakers.

When Bush made student achievement and school choice his first domestic priority as president, Spellings led the negotiations with congressional leaders. The deal that emerged, dubbed No Child Left Behind, is the largest federal overhaul of education in a generation.

Spellings has been with Bush since the beginning of his political career; he trusts her and therefor will probably give her a lot of leeway to set her own agenda. And with such partisan Democrats as Ed Kennedy supporting her, she will probably easily win confirmation:

If so, Spellings, 47, would become the nation's eighth education secretary and the first woman to hold the job in more than 20 years. She also would be the first secretary in recent history to have school-aged children. Her daughter Mary, 17, attends a Catholic high school and her daughter Grace, 12, goes to a public middle school.

2005 Senate Committee Assignments

Majority Leader Senator Frist has made the committee assignments for Republicans during the upcoming session. As expected, Specter is on the Judiciary committee.

Tennessee senators are assigned as follows:

Frist:	Finance
	HELP
	Rules
Alexander:	Energy
	Foreign Relations
	HELP
	Aging
	Budget

Why is there a senate commitee on "aging"?

Inside the Washington State Machine

Wolfgang von Skeptik lays out exactly what the Gregoire "victory" will mean in his post Three Examples of Terrible Stupidity:

Similar tyrannical relationships, built on similar coups, were characteristic of local Democratic politics: the Haig and Kenny machines in Hudson County, New Jersey, and the Crump machine in Memphis. Because each of these county bosses delivered critical votes, they (and their local party apparatchiks) became absolute dictators. And thus it will be in Washington state now that the Seattle/King County Democratic machine has handed Gregoire the governorship.

What this means is that Washington state will now be ruled by the Seattle/King County Democrats: the most ruthlessly matrifascist Democratic Party apparatus in the nation, run by Patty Murray and Jim McDermott and their hand-picked puppets. It is the most hysterically anti-gun, most viciously anti-white-male, most rabidly anti-American, most vindictively politically "correct," most stridently female-supremacist Democratic organization in all the 50 states. It is so far Left it has come (via its gender and racial bias) fully Right: its ideology is ultimately an especially perverse form of National Socialism, with "all power to the Aryans" replaced by "all power to womyn and oppressed minorities." It is utterly impossible for people who have not encountered it first-hand to imagine its venomous zealotry. It is all the subversive evil of matrifascism personified, and it is now in total control of Washington state. Because of the magnitude of the marker it collected by delivering the governor's mansion, it now owns Gregoire , it now owns the legislature, and it now owns the state.

Long, but worth it.

Puppy Ban

Say Uncle finds that New Mexico is taking the first step towards telling people what dogs they can have as a family pet.

Partisan Investigations

Senate Democrats are calling for an investigation into "problems in the Bush administration".

Where were these Senators when the BATF earned the name "Burn All Toddlers First" in Waco, when storm troopers were ripping a Cuban child out of a closet in Florida, when a president lied under oath, when a first lady obstructed justice and withheld evidence in the first days of a new administration?

Not that I don't think that some things need to be investigated. I just think partisan investigations do a really, really poor job. Something needs to change.

Then again, the investigations into the poisoning of a Ukrainian candidate, the tracking down of billions of dollars in oil dollars for bribery and corruption, or even a little look into memo forgery at CBS all have their problems so maybe it isn't Congress that is flawed. Maybe it's Man.

The Consequential Nanny

Bernard Kerik: Abandoned by his prostitute mother, a high-school drop-out, a cop that worked his way up from narco to heading this nation's largest civilian police force with an annual budget of $3.2 billion.

He achieved national acclaim for making New York safe to visit again. He was the called the "top cop" and proved why in the aftermath of 9/11. He was sent to Iraq to help train their police force.

The president tapped him to protect all of America as secretary of homeland security. He prepared himself for a tough confirmation process but few seriously thought he wouldn't survive it.

But then came the sudden withdrawal of his name. What finally stopped him?

In the course of completing documents required for Senate confirmation, I uncovered information that now leads me to question the immigration status of a person who had been in my employ as a housekeeper and nanny.

A career of fighting and winning against incredible odds, halted by a nanny.

Under the president's leadership, our nation has the opportunity to continue to make bold strides against those that threaten our homeland. While I remain firm in my belief that I could make valuable contributions to the department and its efforts, I cannot and will not allow criticism or controversy related to matters personal to me to impede the focus or progress of these crucial endeavors.

Class act.

No Such Thing as Bad Press

I've expressed my disgust at the Libertarian Party forcing a recount in Ohio more than once, but I think The Sundries Shack has come up with an explanation for why:

I honestly can’t come up with an intelligent reason either of these groups are involved in this beyond getting their names in the national media. And at a cost of about $113,600, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than taking out full page ads or running commercials that people won’t likely see.

Blocking Alberto Gonzales

Liberals are vowing to fight the appointment of Alberto Gonzales to the post of U.S. attorney general.

Just imagine the outcry if conservatives were to try to block the son of migrant workers, a man who grew up with seven siblings in a two-bedroom house, from becoming the first Hispanic to occupy the country's top law enforcement position . Why, they'd be racist!

End of Civil Discourse

An Indian journalist makes a fascinating observation:

Reading the papers, watching TV, talking to friends and acquaintances, I get a queasy feeling. One of the great features of the American republic going all the way back to the Continental Congress was the ability of civic society to conduct civic discourse. People talked, people argued, people tried to rebut the other person’s argument at a level of granular detail. Political and philosophical positions were published in order to be read by supporters and detractors alike — the Federalist Papers being one of the best examples. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were about two great democratic leaders talking to each other, trying to reach out to their own support base as well as to their detractors.

This tradition now seems to be under assault. People are not trying to reach out, but trying to talk to their own friends who think like them, who agree with their views.

This is similar to what Chis Edwards of the Real Ordeal said in the comments of one of my previous posts.

Patriotism in the USA

Da Goddess posts about a counter protest. Nice.

CIA Truculence

Porter J. Goss, the new intelligence chief, has told Central Intelligence Agency employees that their job is to "support the administration and its policies in our work,'' a copy of an internal memorandum shows.

"As agency employees we do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies," Mr. Goss said in the memorandum, which was circulated late on Monday. He said in the document that he was seeking "to clarify beyond doubt the rules of the road."

I'm thinking that the first thing to do is to stop leaking CIA internal memos to the press!

But a second former intelligence official said he was concerned that the memorandum and the changes represented an effort by Mr. Goss to stifle independence.

That's right. You were told what to do now stop trying to take on the administration, salute and charge up that god-damned hill!

Sheesh! There needs to be some serious housecleaning at the CIA. Wartime is a really sucky time for it to have to take place, but . . .

Stateswoman Rice

ABC News is fairly certain that Condi Rice will be Colin Powell's replacement as Secretary of State, having made several reports of the matter as fact as has Reuters.

I don't know about that. I thought (as did just about everybody) Powell was an excellent and very necessary balance to the hawkish nature of Rice. And I don't know how Rice will take to having to go overseas and make nice when face-to-face with nearly-openly hostile foreign leaders.

A replacement for Rumsfeld maybe. A Secretary of State? The woman is brilliant and accomplished, but does she have the constitution for the post?

FCC Gets Buzzed

Jeff Jarvis exercised the power given to him by the Freedom of Information Act and comes to a rather shocking conclusion. Today's must read:

The shocking truth about the FCC: Censorship by the tyranny of the few.

Frist Says Don't Bother Him

I receive periodic newsletters via email from Senator Frist. He is, after all, one of my two Senators and the only one that I supported during his run for office.

In his latest newsletter (received today) he talks about how hard they are working and then comes this little blurb:

If you haven’t yet written me about the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee, don’t (please)!!! My mailbox is overflowing!!! We are addressing the issue appropriately within the institution of the Senate in a respectful and appropriate way that will be beneficial to the President.

In other words, "Yes you elected me to be your representative but don't bother me with your little opinions and viewpoints about how I should perform my duties because I know what's best."

Excuse me? You are my employee whose job is to represent me! If 55% of your constituents tell you to keep that liberal Bork-head out of this vitally crucial post then by Jove you had better do your best to do just that! How dare you tell me not to bother you with my little take on the matter. Are there any matters that I should bother you with or do you discard them all and do what you think is best anyway?

Frist swore to term-limit himself to two terms and he has two years left in his second. If he doesn't run for reelection then he doesn't need to listen to his constituents (the best argument against term limits that I've heard yet). If he runs for president in 2008 then he needs to mollify all the N.E. "conservatives" so again, he doesn't need to listen to his constituents.

But really, it is very bad form to tell your constituents that they aren't important to you anymore.

Reaching Out

Wizbang has an absolutely brilliant suggestion for Bush so he can "heal the divide".

Ashcroft Says Goodbye

From John Ashcroft's Letter to the American People:

My fellow Americans, for four years we have stood watch together. We have endured many things and we have accomplished many more. It has been the honor of my lifetime to stand beside you. And as I take my leave of this privileged post, I know that our efforts have not been in vain. The Builder of our city and the Author of our freedom has stood beside us. He stands beside us still.

Ashcroft and Evans Out

Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans resigned Tuesday, the first members of President Bush's Cabinet to leave as he headed from re-election into his second term.

Voter Ignorance

Right Side of the Rainbow posts a short anecdote that is the ultimate castigation of any argument for requiring every person to vote.

Funny, I only hear liberals espousing this particular philosophy. It's one of those "feel good" things on the surface, yet quite fascist in its implementation. Besides, the more ignorance in the voters, the more democrats get votes.

Attention Left-Wing Moonbats

If you're on the Left, you should blog this:

During the home stretch of the Northamerican elections, Osama bin Laden could prove to be the ace in the sleeve of president Bush. As we speak, Washington is negotiating a highly secretive agreement with Beijing, the Chinese capital, for the eviction of bin Laden from his sanctuary in the turbulent Muslim provinces of China, in the Northwest of the Great Wall nation....

However, Bin Laden could now see himself trapped in his refuge, if an extraordinary agreement between Beijing and Washington would come to pass, in which China would hand over to the United States the most wanted terrorist in the world.

The capture of Bin Laden would virtually guarantee the reelection of George Bush Jr., as it would confirm to the millions of undecided voters of the U.S. that the war against terrorism was judstified after Bin Laden had authorized the attacks of 9/11 against New York and Washington.

How eloquently conspiratorial! In addition, the post is filled with lots of tinfoil hat stuff like NASA spy satellites, clandestine meetings, secret organizations, and the Left's always-favorite boogie-bear -- the infamous "October surprise".

Hat tip to Airborne Combat Engineer

History Lesson

Abraham Lincoln is said by historians to have worked hard to make sure that Union troops fighting the Civil War could vote -- ballots that some say ensured his re-election.

Latinos and the GOP

A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies casts considerable doubt on the Bush Administration’s assumption that immigration policy is an effective tool in wooing the Latino electorate. In “Losing Ground or Staying Even? Republicans and the Politics of the Latino Vote,” University of Maryland Professor of Government James Gimpel uses a variety of national and state polls to show that Hispanic political allegiance to the Democratic Party has remained consistent over the years, and that any increase in the proportion of Latinos voting Republican is principally a consequence of low turnout among Latino Democrats.

Voter Fraud Suspected in Ohio

More than 800 voter registration cards in Summit County are being investigated (50 of which seem to have come from the AFL-CIO central office in Cleveland):

In the meantime in Lake County, elections officials said some voter advocacy groups are forging registration cards.

In one example, a man who's been dead for 20 years is apparently a new registered voter.

And in another case, it looks as if an entire neighborhood will be out of town on Election Day. Everyone there applied for absentee ballots.

One vote, one picture ID card. Simple and effective. And it doesn't "disenfranchise" anyone who isn't a criminal, non-citizen, terrorist or dead. Not doing so dilutes my vote and I'm getting damn tired of it.

CBC Not Happy with Treatment

Democrats have asked Congressional Black Caucus members to go into battleground states and campaign for Kerry. CBC members are unhappy because the Dems are "skipping Missouri and is not soliciting the expertise of hometown lawmakers".

Black lawmakers say that the DNC’s top-down approach is symptomatic of a bigger problem, acutely manifested in the Kerry campaign, in which support is demanded from black politicians who are then denied either a seat at the planning table or control over how resources are spent.

I don't know why they should be surprised. It's the way Democrats have treated them for decades.

Proof that Pandering Works

Marion Barry won the Democrat primary for city council Ward 8 in Washington D.C., defeating an incumbent and setting himself up for a sure victory in the regular election.

Remember that this was the man that was videotaped smoking crack while mayor of D.C.:

Barry was charged with three counts of felony perjury, 10 counts of misdemeanor drug possession, and one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to possess cocaine; however, he was convicted only of a single misdemeanor count of possessing cocaine in November 1989. He was acquitted on one possession charge and a mistrial was declared on the 12 remaining charges.

He got out, ran for and won a city council seat, then ran for and won his place as mayor. He stepped out of the spotlight for a while but now he's back and there's no telling where he'll end up. And no wonder with quotes like this:

What right does Congress have to go around making laws just because they deem it necessary?
— Marion Barry

Barry grew up right here in Memphis, Tennessee, where we also have a history of reelecting felons.

Memphis City Council member Rickey Peete was convicted of taking money for votes (that's called bribery -- can you say "bribery" children?) He got out of prison and ran for and won a council seat.

Of course it probably helped that he had the endorsement of the Memphis Police Association and the Afro American Police Association.

Politics is a lot of things -- dirty, disappointing, and sometimes repulsive. It is rarely dull.

Dems Need Affirmative Action on K Street

Usually a congressman can work a few terms then retire and get a job at a lobbying firm (the biggest of which have offices on K Street in D.C.) in order to make the really big bucks. That still seems to work -- if you're a Republican:

Retiring House Democrats are feeling a cold draft from K Street as they seek post-congressional employment at lobbying firms, trade groups and corporations.

By contrast, K Street is aggressively courting GOP lawmakers who have announced their retirements, suggesting that the business community is confident the GOP will retain the Speaker’s gavel in January and that business wants to fortify its Republican Rolodexes.

Aw, doesn't it just make you want to start a fund for those poor unemployed Democrats? Maybe Springsteen will hold a concert for them.

Voter Fraud

While Kerry sets up the post-election "they stole the election" rallying cry, some are concerned that our system allows for voter fraud:

Sloppy enough, notes John Fund, author of the new book "Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Undermines Our Democracy," that at least eight of the 19 hijackers who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon three years ago were registered to vote in either Virginia or Florida while they made their preparations for 9/11.

According to Fund:

Some of the sloppiness that makes fraud and foul-ups in election counts possible seems to be built into the system by design. The "Motor Voter Law," the first piece of legislation signed into law by President Clinton upon entering office, imposed fraud-friendly rules on the states by requiring driver’s license bureaus to register anyone applying for licenses, to offer mail-in registration with no identification needed, and to forbid government workers to challenge new registrants, while making it difficult to purge "deadwood" voters (those who have died or moved away).

We saw it in Florida in 2000(5,000 cons voted along with a host of illegals) and South Dakota in 2002 (hundreds of non-existent and dead Indians voted). This is damn silly. Who among us can't prove we are a citizen? Bring a picture ID or stay home.

Of course, if the dead couldn't vote then there would be very few Democrats in office.

Swift 6.7 Million

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have raised $6.7 million in recent weeks, mainly as a result of the publicity they have received for their low-budget but highly effective ads. Now this, from the New York Times:

Democrats made heavy use of these groups early in the race, raising tens of millions through organizations like the Media Fund, America Coming Together and the MoveOn.org Voter Fund, drawing complaints from Republicans who said they were illegal. Mr. Bush's campaign filed a complaint with the election commission in March alleging that the Kerry campaign and the Democratic groups were violating campaign finance laws by coordinating illegally.

Indeed, a procession of top strategists have moved back and forth between Mr. Kerry's campaign and the advocacy groups, drawing fresh rounds of Republican protests.

How blatant does unscrupulous acts on the part of liberals have to be in order to force the New York Times to finally sit up and take notice?

Aaron's Policy

It's comments like this that will make me hire him as Chief Policy Advisor when I run for the Senate:

Senior citizens are NOT entitled to government-subsidized free meds and Upper West Side rent-controlled apartments. Really want to improve the quality of life of seniors? Give tax breaks for homeowners to build “in-law” units or for extended families to buy duplexes and the like. When those in-law units become unoccupied as the in-laws reach 120, they become sources of income for the property owner. Now THAT’s the American dream. I’d be more liberal with policy on difficult situations like Alzheimers or persistant sicknesses, but the government and society would benefit by ENCOURAGING families taking care of themselves first.

Libertarian Shame

The Libertarian candidate for president is Michael Badnarik. The party is arranging local meetups with a twist:

He requested that Badnarik supporters and others show up for the Badnarik2004 Meetup, coincidently scheduled for September 11, wearing some clothing article colored black to mourn the deaths of the thousands of people who have died as a result of U.S. government policies.

Opposing U.S. foreign policy is one thing. Ignoring the fact that Saddam's regime was imprisoning children, raping women, cutting off the the hands of men, and killing upwards of 125 people a day is a distorted, myopic view of the world. While it is true that people continue to die in Iraq, they die because they oppose the establishment of a democracy and they die because they are armed men fighting to deny freedom to the Iraqi people.

Isolationism is one thing, mourning deaths of insurgents is another.

I remain true to Libertarian principles at the local level. At the federal level I remain a compassionate conservative.

Hat tip to James Taranto.

Rumors of Powell

He might stay as Secretary of State -- for at least a year, perhaps for another term:

The reason, the ex-official hinted, is that global events are moving in Powell's direction. In Iraq and on other future flash points like Iran and North Korea, an administration that once short-shrifted Powell's diplomacy now badly needs it. He also has more control than he's had in a while, especially over Iraq, where America's new viceroy, Ambassador John Negroponte, answers to the secretary of State. (The previous top civilian, L. Paul Bremer III, nominally worked for Powell's archrival, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.) And Powell no doubt realizes that if he leaves now, he will be departing at what is perhaps the low point of his reputation at home and abroad; another term would allow him to recoup.

Two Americas, Ideologically Speaking

A fascinating observation from Marvin Olasky about how ideologicaly split the parties have become:

(From 1972 to 2002, the average Republican in the House of Representative jumped from voting 63 percent conservative to 91 percent, according to the American Conservative Union, while the average Democrat's score dropped from 32 percent to 13 percent.)

And yet, be careful what you ask for. The problem with two differentiated parties (although still not as differentiated as some Christian conservatives would like) is that when a governor or president is a scoundrel, voters ideologically aligned with him don't have a good choice. They either have to vote for a person without character or for someone personally right but ideologically wrong.

Actually, I'm pleased to support this president. He is not nearly Reganesque as I would want him to be, but hey -- we are at war and I don't know of anyone I trust more to protect the future of my granddaughter.

My Blogging Could Die Happy

A rant by Cold Fury called Someday, some way can be called many things: powerful, astute, scathing, incisive, the list goes on.

It is everything that I have ever wanted to blog, wrapped up neatly in one succinct and trenchant post. Having read it, I may never need to blog again.

I Believe in Bumper Stickers, But . . .

. . . this post at DocB's shows a vet with real committment!

Politicians Protect Their Own

In a sad but entirely expected move, the Senate Ethics Committee refused to follow law and censure Senator Kerry for abandoning his post:

The Senate Ethics Committee rejected a complaint filed against Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) for continuing to draw a paycheck despite having missed most of the legislative session this year while campaigning for president. At the time of the filing, Kerry had voted only 14 times out of the Senate's 112 votes this year.

Secretary of the Senate Emily Reynolds was also named in the complaint, citing her responsibility to enforce the federal statute that requires she make deductions from a senator's paycheck for absence. In a letter to American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene, Reynolds refused to enforce the statute because her predecessors had not done so in other cases.

The complaint was filed by Hofstra law student Jonathan Stein, who accused Reynolds of willfully violating a federal statute and criticized Kerry for knowingly accepting salary to which he is not entitled.

A letter from Ethics Committee Chief Counsel Robert Walker said that Stein's complaint "lacks substantial merit." He noted that no deductions have been made in over 100 years, and "reasonable uncertainty over the continued viability" of the statute Stein says has been violated.

Weather-Vane Kerry

The Club for Growth, of which I'm a member, is airing a new 30-second spot in Boston this week that rather imaginatively addresses Kerry's waffling:

The ad shows Kerry's head, torso and arm as a spinning weather vane to claim that the Democrat makes decisions depending on which way the wind blows.

"In 1996 he opposed the death penalty for terrorists. Now he claims to support it," the ad says. "Sometimes he's for welfare reform, sometimes he's against it. For a 50-cent gas tax hike, then maybe not. Kerry voted for higher taxes 350 times, but now says he'd cut taxes."

I love the idea of airing this spot in Boston during all the hoopla surrounding the convention. People who can't get to work because of all the crap going on will be quite sympathetic.

You can see the ad on the Club for Growth website. Better yet, you can also join the Club for Growth on their website -- it's free! Better still, you can donate and help air commercials like these.

What if Berger Isn't Lying

A reader of The Corner brings up an interesting point:

There is a worse interpretation than the current one that Sandy Berger took the memos, notes and documents consciously, whether to avoid embarrassment or for whatever reason. What if he is telling the truth? What if he did take the material "inadvertently"? Think about this for a minute.

For that to be true, concealing documents and classified notes on his person to take them home must have been a routine, ordinary action. People do not commit felonies "inadvertently" unless they are above the rules (in their minds) and habituated to doing so.

For all of his defenders to be agreeing with this defense is truly worrisome since it means they have the same view of how to handle classified material. (Those harsh rules are just because security types are obsessive-compulsives.)

Which introduces the next question. What else has been lost and/or compromised over the years of the Clinton administration if this type of information handling was common or at least accepted?

Hat tip to non-blogging Advised by Wolves

Berger Incident Telling of Party Character

Why Democrats can't be trusted:

In poll after poll, Americans show a profound distrust of Democrats on national security. To understand why, look at the Sandy Berger affair.

Berger, you'll recall, formerly served as President Clinton's national security adviser and as John Kerry's chief adviser on security issues.

One would think the theft of classified documents from the National Archives last October would have elicited shock, dismay, concern, even anger from the former president.

But Clinton, told of the theft, had a different response. "We were all laughing about it," Clinton told the Denver Post.

He called Berger's actions a "nonstory" — in case the mainstream media didn't know what their marching orders were. The Kerry camp had a telling response: It blamed the Bush White House.

For his part, Berger termed the security lapse an "honest mistake."...

The Berger affair says much about the Clinton White House's sloppiness and lack of concern for national security.

It may also help explain why Americans show so little faith in one major political party when it comes to protecting them from foreign threats.

Campaign Tricks

No publicity is bad publicity:

When US first lady Laura Bush counselled her twin daughters on how to behave while campaigning with their father, she may have skipped the part about not sticking your tongue out at the media.

That is what Jenna Bush did yesterday after President George W. Bush arrived at St. Louis' Lambert International Airport.

Jenna and sister Barbara, travelling together for the first time with their father, had traded Air Force One for the waiting presidential limousine as Mr Bush talked to a group of people at the bottom of the plane's staircase.

After Mr Bush got in the back seat beside Jenna, the 22-year-old graduate of the University of Texas at Austin started smiling through the window at about 10 to 12 news photographers and radio reporters stationed on a platform.

Then she stuck her tongue out and began to laugh.

As everyone on the platform started to laugh and snap photographs, Jenna Bush looked at them for a few more seconds, smiling and laughing.

Kids will be kids.

Greatest Hits

Go see INDC Journal's Rall cartoon. The following post is pure icing.

Then go see Allah is in the House's Kerry/Edwards campaign poster. It just doesn't get any better than this, folks.

Bush Administration Speeds Cancer Drug Approvals

Bush's Food and Drug Administration is creating a new office designed specifically to speed up government approval of new cancer therapies:

Such "changes will make the review process stronger and more efficient," said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.

The new office will centralize all cancer-related drug efforts, allowing for better coordination among FDA reviewers, reduced costs and less duplication, officials said....

Thompson also said he hoped the coordination would help lower drug costs by saving money for scientists and drug companies.

This is great news, as cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the U.S., just behind heart disease and ahead of strokes.

Tell me again, just why are we spending all that money on AIDS research?

The Report

Dan over at Winds of Change actually read all 521 pages of the Senate Intelligence Committee Report and has a preliminary analysis that explodes several media myths partisan lies on the subject of terrorism. Nice.

Goodbye, Ben

Ben Stein pens his last column for E! Online, in which he speaks about his transformation since he began writing the column. He no longer holds the "stars" in Hollywood in the high regard that he once did. Read the whole thing, but here's a taste:

How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model?

Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails. They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer.

A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.

A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.

A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.

I no longer want to perpetuate poor values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject. The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.

"Straight Up Nigger"

So we get out of the car to walk into a McDonald's (excuse me, I mean "Mickey D's") in BF Arkansas and there are three African-American youths (perhaps 14 to 16 years old) standing behind their car talking rather loudly.

"You gotta be a straight up nigger," I hear.

I'm sorry to be so totally not "with it", but I was (to say the least) somewhat shocked. Although I hear an endless stream of the word in in movies, on television, in songs and from the mouths of black comedians, I have never heard it while walking with my wife in public in a place where there are small children present. And even after the hundreds, if not thousands, of times that I've heard it, I was offended.

I never heard the word in my parent's house while growing up. I was raised in the military (which is highly integrated) and never heard the word used in school. I realize that I grew up in a more innocent time, but even so, I was somewhat taken aback by the strength of my reaction to the word.

I, middle age white male, was offended.

I looked over and saw a group of adults talking just a few feet away from the youths. The parents? I don't know, but I hope not. But even if not, why did they not say something?

It was repeated, louder and more emphatic. "You. gots. ta be. a. straight. up. nigger."

If the word has come to mean something less pejorative than when we were growing up, then fine. "Bitch" used to be a word that got your mouth washed out with soap, but these days it's someone who is being spiteful or difficult. Now everyone says it. "You bitch!" you can exclaim. There are worse things to say.

So if "nigger" is not the derogatory term that it once was, then everyone should be able to use it. I should have been able to turn to the kids and say, "He's right. If you're going to be a nigger you should be a straight up nigger!" and they would laugh and I would smile and wave. But I can't. Had I done so there may have been bloodshed. Because had I done so I would now be in jail for shooting one or two people as they would almost certainly have turned on me with hate-filled eyes, animus in their hearts and malice in their souls.

And rightly so, for it is a word filled with hate that should never be used.

It is a word filled with emotive historical context of which no one should be ignorant, and certainly not these youths, for if a word could ever be evil, then this one certainly is. Its mere utterance evokes imagery of separate water fountains and of stepping into the street with eyes downcast to give others the use of a sidewalk; of cross burnings and church bombings and lynchings in the dark of night; of wrongful arrests and beatings administered with barbaric cruelty in the name of order and justice.

It is a word which represents a concept that generations have fought and died to eradicate from our hearts and minds.

The abolition movement in this country started at least as early as 1688 and grew to include men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and George Washington. John Brown led a botched revolution to end it and women like Harriet Tubman risked their lives working the Underground Railroad. Our nation endured unimaginable savagery during a long and bloody civil war. Fighting prejudice gave us great civil rights figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.

The fight to rid the world of prejudice produced many more courageous men and women willing perform heroic acts. Every time the word is used, it is an insult to the valorous men of the Tuskagee Airmen, to the intrepid pugnacity of Fannie Lou Hamer, and to the incalculable courage exhibited by a group of children who became known as the Little Rock Nine. But these youths have probably never heard of these brave individuals, which makes it all the sadder. They do not understand the centuries of struggle and how far we have come.

The word represents a malignancy that has been cut out of our souls by innumerable acts of bravery; excised through unimaginable passion and indescribable suffering; expunged by boundless determination and extraordinary sacrifice.

At least, it should have been. The battle for civil rights was won, but the greater war for equality has been lost; the proof lies in the continued use of the word. The evil still exists as long as the word is uttered. These youths are throwing away all the gains by perpetuating the word, and what the word represents. They do not know that their use of the word is a tragedy of enormous proportions.

There is a sickness in the soul of black America that is no less pernicious than the sickness darkening the heart of Islam. The sickness is evidenced by the rise of victimization and entitlement culture, the breakdown of morals and of family, and the denigration of women. It is a sickness perpetrated in the worst imaginable case of black-on-black crime in history.

People, if you don't want me to say it then don't use the word. More importantly, if you don't want your peers of other races to say it, then don't use it. You can't be mad if they do. You mustn't.

But you will, won't you? And the hatred, the divisiveness will grow.

Bill Cosby is offended, too. He presented this message for the second time, this time to Jesse "Shakedown" Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

"Let me tell you something, your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day, it's cursing and calling each other n----r as they're walking up and down the street," he said.

Cosby continued railing about the state of black youth in America. "They think they're hip," he said. "They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere."...He complained about rap music: "When you put on a record, and that record is yelling 'n----r this' and 'n----r that' and cursing all over the thing and you got your little six-year-old and seven-year-old sitting in the back seat of the car--those children hear that. And I am telling you when you put the CD on and then you get up and dance to it, what are you saying to your children?"

And he also ripped into sitcoms targeting African-American audiences: "Comedians coming on TV [saying,] 'I am so ugly, you are ugly, yuck, yuck.' That's all minstrel show stuff. I am tired of it."

In May, Cosby got in hot water with several civil rights activists when he criticized the lifestyle, education and speech patterns of his fellow African Americans, saying there is no excuse for ignorant behavior.

"I can't even talk the way these people talk, 'Why you ain't,' 'Where you is'...and I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk," Cosby said in May. "And then I heard the father talk...Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth."

On Thursday, Cosby further elaborated his thoughts on the subject, saying once again that white people aren't to blame for teen pregnancy and high-school dropout rates.

"For me there is a time...when we have to turn the mirror around," he said. "Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you're sitting in."

Indeed -- a return to conservative family values was a theme in Cosby's tirade:

The more you invest in that child, the more you are not going to let some CD tell your child how to curse and how to say the word 'nigger.' This is an accepted word. You are so hip with 'nigger,' but you can't even spell it," an impassioned Cosby lamented.

Whatever happened to 'Black is beautiful?' Well, it was replaced with 'nigger please,'" he said to laughter....

"Education, ladies and gentleman, respect the elderly, respect for yourselves, respect for others," Cosby said.

"These young girls have no business having sex!" he emphasized as the crowd clapped approvingly.

Columnist Dawn Turner Trice says, "Blacks neither elected Jackson, nor appointed him. He was a product of the media and the times." Yet she believes that there is still a need for black leaders, and wonders who they will turn out to be:

One of the enduring hallmarks of a black leader, indeed any leader, is his or her ability to mobilize a mass of people. An effective black leader has to be able to reignite a fire under a community of disaffected people, but also those blacks with more education, more money and greater access to information than at any time in our history.

Who will the black leaders be?

Will they be community activists such as Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church, who isn't even African-American, but who has worked for years in impoverished black communities for change?

What about prominent and powerful blacks who aren't widely considered black leaders? I'm thinking about National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell or even Time Warner Chief Executive Officer Richard Parsons.

Smart lady, this Ms. Trice. I hope the black community starts looking around for a new set of leaders.

Jesse may see this coming as well:

Jesse Jackson, head of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, wipes a tear from his face in an emotional moment after listening to entertainer Bill Cosby address the civil rights organization's annual conference, Thursday, July 1, 2004, in Chicago.

Yep, Jesse has a tear -- because black America may finally be waking up to the fact that wallowing in the victimization and entitlement that "leaders" like Jackson dish out has been detrimental to the struggle, their lives, and the lives of their children.

How is black America receiving this message? For an answer I headed over to a discussion board at BET. I found that the vast majority of responses were along lines like these:

From sunshinegrl82:

Thank you Dr.Cosby! His message is one of accountability. He should've touched on the poor's dependence on the government too.

Since when did our government deserve our trust to the point where they are building our houses, feeding our children, building our apartments, giving us our money, handling our family business, and teaching our children what it means to be Black in America with the history books they distribute in public schools?

Poor Black people are allowing the same government that enslaved us for hundreds of years, to run their lives(mental slavery). Let me tell you. Our government hasn't changed so much.

From Kenny997T:

Dr. Cosby has said the same thing our mothers,father,grandparents have said all our lives get a good education work hard for what you want. Everything comes at some cost nothing comes for free! Today's youth glorify Basketball players,Football players, rappers and drugdealers its all in our face everywhere TV, Video and movies.
they are our modern day Robin Hood.
We make fun of the educated brothers and sistas we call them nerds. Its not hot to be smart, and get good grades respect your elders. It all begins at home. We our so quick to fault parents but the family structure has broken down completely.

From blkamazonqwn:

All I can say is thank you Bill!!! Our culture has gone backwards.

From olatokslaw:

not to boast, I remember my mother use to wake me up like 4.00am to study for exams that I have, while still at elementary/middle school.This was in NIgeria. I live alone now in USA for the last 4.5 yrs. I just graduated with 3.798 GPA in Biomedical engineering.she laid the foundation earlier. I work to pay bills and was going to school. If parents in America spend time with their kidds LIKE MY MUM did with me and my brother, then Cosby won't be saying this. his emphasis was not on using those words, but it would be better if they can speak English. I mean, I have a Black american friend who pronounces 50 as fity. she can't prounce it right in class. pretty sick. Coaby is plainly right.

From cannon07:

I am only 14 years old and I agree with everything that he said. I often thought about what Bill said and it is true. Black people don't want to live up the truth and the truth is we need to wake up. Just like the Missy Elliot joint wake up "i love jacob, but jewelry won't fix my place up.." All i can say is god bless bill cosby for making a statement that has been hidden for years.

From LPskin:

If racism died today, would we as African Americans immediately rise to prominence? Or how long would it take? 5yrs, 10? Would all of our AIDS problems, baby having baby issues and drug problems vanish? Truth is we?re all scared to say that if you erase racism as the sole cause to all of black Americas ills you would have to deal with issues that until now have been taboo in the black community.

There are dozens of messages like these. Some are negative, defensive, attacking, but they are few and far between.

These posts give me hope. Hatred, fear, ignorance -- these are things we should strive to leave behind. Billions for welfare and public education, and we are worse off than before. Please, please, let's start putting some thought into our policies instead of supporting the feel-good cause of the day.

The Jackson's and Sharpton's of the world are losing their importance as other leaders are standing up, other role models are stepping forward.

It's time to move -- not to move on, but to move forward. Together.

Update: The Boston Globe has an excellent take on why this is not just black America's problem:

From a white perspective, it is easy to cheer on Cosby then smugly write off his words as a long-overdue wake-up call for black America. It's their problem, not ours, right?

Their problem it may be, but the big issue -- declining values and standards -- isn't limited to one ethnicity or neighborhood.

Today the American minivan is hip-hopping along the way to soccer games and baseball practice. The beat is a better pickup than caffeine, but listen to the lyrics and the message is a real downer. Not to sound like Tipper Gore, but after a while you realize you are singing about shaking your "tailfeather," "milking the cow," and "double-Ds," with the n-word thrown around as generously as the Beatles used "yeah, yeah, yeah." White boys can't jump, but many of them want to be Kobe Bryant or, short of that, Ja Rule. They want the money, the cars, and the bootylicious babes, and they see no connection between those goals and reading "A Separate Peace." (Incidentally, it is difficult to explain why a certain ethnic slur is unacceptable when they hear their rap idols singing it on their favorite CDs.)...

The hip-hop generation is not all black. White America just likes to believe it is.

Read it all.

Conservatives Fight Back

The universe is a wonderful system of balance. If something tips too far one way, things have a way of reacting and bringing it back. That's why the free market works.

Case in point: Hollywood.

Movies with transparent political messages are being made and are marketed as "entertainment", when in reality they are as poorly based in reality as the most loathsome Nazi propaganda film. Hollywood elites are giving each other awards for "best documentary" which are proven to be facts cunningly blended with fiction, lies and misrepresentations made by those who hate America.

It has gotten so bad, the films are so monumentally biased, that the ability to be shown during campaign season is being brought into question. [A tactic that I am opposed to. We don't need government regulation, we need the people with a stake in America to make a change.]

But the people are fed up. We've had enough of the lies and distortions.

Just as the liberal media gave rise to Fox and talk radio (not to mention more than a few blogs), so now is Hollywood creating an alternate film market.

The American Film Renaissance Institute is dedicated to helping filmmakers produce films that promote American values, rather than erode them. Their next film festival will be this September in Dallas and already has ten films lined up, two of which are aimed at Michael Moore.

The first is "Michael Moore Hates America" [two movie trailers available], a $200K documentary made by Michael Wilson who is looking to make a name for himself. Hopefully he will do so by keeping to the truth and not resorting the to the distortion tactics that has made Moore loved by the left (most liberals don't mind a con artist as long as he is their con artist -- I find that most conservatives are a little more principled [no Ann Coulter cracks please]).

The second is "Michael & Me," made by Larry Elder, is specifically aimed at Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" mockumentary.

"My film is a defense of those who own guns and of the Second Amendment," said Elder, whose "The Larry Elder Show" from Warner Bros. Prods. starts Sept. 13 on CBS affiliates in most major markets.

As one would expect, the Global War on Terrorism will also be a subject of films at the Renaissance

And the war on terror also is expected to be a dominant theme at the American Film Renaissance.

"Liberal Hollywood has basically ignored the subject," filmmaker Jason Apuzzo said. His entry to the festival is "Terminal Island" and stars his wife, Govindini Murty, with a cameo from Irvin Kershner, director of "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Never Say Never Again." Kershner, who Apuzzo is careful to note that he doesn't share the same politics as Apuzzo and Murty, nevertheless mentored the couple in the making of their film.

"Conservative messages don't have a chance in contemporary Hollywood," Apuzzo said. "But there's another side in Hollywood. We are small in numbers but passionate."

"Terminal Island" is a black-and-white feature film about a woman being stalked by a Muslim terrorist who is himself being stalked by a bounty hunter.

"When you shop a script like this around," said Murty, "studio execs say, 'Is this about Muslim terrorists? We don't want to touch it.' "

So why have a couple of lawyers from Texas created a film festival? "I've always been interested in the cultural and political messages in film," Jim Hubbard said. "To be frank, whenever there is such a message, it's liberal. For 40 years the left has had a near monopoly, and we're going to counter that."

And that's what I love about America.

Sinking Opinion of Clinton

Gallup runs a retrospective poll on the Clinton eight-year reign of dishonor and depravity that will forever stain the history of a great nation presidency:

Clinton scores relatively well in comparison with other recent presidents when Americans are asked how his presidency will go down in history. Still, Americans have rated Clinton's handling of the presidency slightly lower in recent years than right before he left office.

One would think that the myth would grow stronger as people forgot what a prick he was, but that is not the case. So much for that whole "legacy" thing.

Clinton's retrospective job approval ratings in 2002 actually ranked toward the bottom of the list of the most recent presidents:

Goodness, ranked lower than Carter? I'd slit my wrists!

A couple of other tidbits:

1. Who do you think history will remember as the better president?
   • Former President Ronald Reagan, 69 percent
   • Former President Bill Clinton, 28 percent
2. Who do you think history will remember as the better president?
   • Former President Bill Clinton, 46 percent
   • Current President George W. Bush, 48 percent

Bush has another five years to build his legacy (and unlike Clinton these will not be one scandal-gate after another-gate) and he is already running ahead of Clinton.

But my favorite quote of this whole deal comes from a Dem:

Andrea Parron, of Harmony, R.I., a self-described "bleeding-heart Democrat," said given the choice of Clinton or Bush, "I'd take Clinton back in a heartbeat. But I would kick him in the groin so he could keep his mind on business."

Today's Must Read

NYU history professor Mr. Ferguson authors a fascinating article about how a power vacuum may come about in the 21st century and the results that an apolar world would bring. It's too good to excerpt -- read it all.

Mailing: Dems Should Apologize

Florida Democrats are more than a little upset:

Democrats in Sarasota and Manatee counties are seething over recent mailings that accuse Democrats of "historical atrocities and discrimination" against blacks to keep them in bondage.

The four-page mailing, written by an organization calling itself the Black Political History Education Project, calls on Democrats to apologize for their party's actions dating back to the Civil War.

Heh. Sounds like a damn fine idea to me.

Local Poll

A local radio station (Rock103) has a poll that poses this question:

They go in threes. Reagan, Ray Charles. Who would you LIKE to see third?

So far, the results look like this:

David Blane		1.8%
The a--hole who cut me off in traffic		5.4%
Britney Spears		7.1%
Bill O'Reilly		7.1%
Saddam Hussein		21.4%
Ted Kennedy		57.1%

Is it too tacky of me to think that sometimes the public gets it right? (Well, OK, at least the right-leaning listeners of one radio station.)

Bush to Finally Control Government Spending

The White House put government agencies on notice this month that if President Bush is reelected, his budget for 2006 may include spending cuts for virtually all agencies in charge of domestic programs, including education, homeland security and others that the president backed in this campaign year. ...

"Assume accounts are funded at the 2006 level specified in the 2005 Budget database," the memo informs federal program associate directors and their deputies. "If you propose to increase funding above that level for any account, it must be offset within your agency by proposing to decrease funding below that level in other accounts."

Even though the cuts are small (you have to start somewhere), the reaction has already set in and the rhetoric has begun:

But the cuts are politically sensitive, targeting popular programs that Bush has been touting on the campaign trail. The Education Department; a nutrition program for women, infants and children; Head Start; and homeownership, job-training, medical research and science programs all face cuts in 2006.

"Despite [administration] denials, this memorandum confirms what we suspected all along," said Thomas S. Kahn, Democratic staff director on the House Budget Committee. "Next February, the administration plans to propose spending cuts in key government services to pay for oversized tax cuts."

Look for this to be a huge campaign issue. After all:

Federal agencies' discretionary spending has risen 39 percent in the past three years. "I think the public is ready for spending cuts," Riedl said. "Not only does the public understand there's a lot of waste in the federal budget, but the public is ready to make sacrifices during the war on terror."

Clarke Flip-flops

Ex-chief of counterterrorism and current Bush critic is changing his story:

Richard Clarke, who served as President Bush’s chief of counterterrorism [and Clinton's!], has claimed sole responsibility for approving flights of Saudi Arabian citizens, including members of Osama bin Laden’s family, from the United States immediately after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The opening paragraph would lead one to think that Clarke is suffering from a rare case of ethical behavior. Of course, Clarke is actually changing his story:

This new account of the events seemed to contradict Clarke’s sworn testimony before the Sept. 11 commission at the end of March about who approved the flights.

“The request came to me, and I refused to approve it,” Clarke testified. “I suggested that it be routed to the FBI and that the FBI look at the names of the individuals who were going to be on the passenger manifest and that they approve it or not. I spoke with the — at the time — No. 2 person in the FBI, Dale Watson, and asked him to deal with this issue. The FBI then approved … the flight.”

Not only does Clarke contravene himself, but his account conflicts with the FBI's:

However, the FBI has denied approving the flight.

FBI spokeswoman Donna Spiser said, “We haven’t had anything to do with arranging and clearing the flights.”

Dems just won't let this alone. Even thought the highly politicized 9-11 Commission said last month that the six chartered flights that evacuated the Saudis were handled properly, Dems insist on inventing a scandal:

Instead of putting the issue to rest, Clarke’s testimony fueled speculation among Democrats that someone higher up in the administration, perhaps White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, approved the flights.

I guess Dems just don't think it's fair that they can't find a scandal that'll stick to the White House after Clinton provided so much fodder for Repubs during his eight years (Travelgate, Monicagate, White Water . . . the list is endless). Sometimes life just doesn't seem fair. Or maybe it's a karma thing.

Conservative 527s?

Republican Party leaders are attempting the difficult maneuver of reversing themselves 180 degrees on the use of 527 soft-money groups in an effort to convince skeptical GOP lobbyists, lawyers, donors and other party allies to build a network to rival the fundraising structure known as the ?Shadow Democratic Party.?

In other words, the Republicans are playing catch-up. And they have a lot of catching up to do if they are going to get close to organizations with the backing of billionaires like George Soros.

One of my favorite conservative 527s is The Club for Growth:

The Club for Growth, a nonprofit organization, raises money to purchase radio and television advertisements to advocate smaller government, lower taxes and strong defense and to support candidates who agree with those views.

What I really like about the Club for Growth is that they pick their battles carefully. They only get involved when they see a race that includes a smaller-government, low-tax candidate and which they believe they can make a difference. They have a history of making a difference by running a few well-placed ads.

If you have an extra few bucks, I highly recommend joining the Club.

A Clarke Lie Exposed -- On Tape

It has come weeks late, but CNN's Wolf Blitzer has dramatically knocked down one of former counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke's claims. He got the truth from the border patrol agent right in the middle of it. And after it was all over, Clarke was conveniently not available for comment.

Here's the way Blitzer set up the piece on CNN: "Who prevented the millennium bomb plot targeting Los Angeles International Airport? It's just one of a number of disagreements between the Bush administration and its former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke." The issue was what was behind the December 14, 1999, arrest of Algerian-born Ahmed Ressam at Port Angeles, Washington. He was on his way to plant a bomb at Los Angeles International Airport.

How was he nabbed? Blitzer said the Clarke version is that the Clinton administration had border agents "on high alert" and were on the lookout for terrorists. But Bush official Condoleezza Rice said the Clinton administration had nothing to do with the capture and that credit goes largely to one agent.

Blitzer interviewed the agent and the truth came out -- there was no such thing as a "high alert" in 1999 because anti-terrorism chief Clarke hadn't put such a system in place, even with the millennium celebrations looming.

Realizing that Richard Clarke's version of the story had been blown out of the water, Blitzer concluded the interview by saying, "We tried to reach Richard Clarke today to get his reaction to Diana Dean's story. We've been unable to speak with him so far. We hope to speak with him at some point."

On April 12, Mike Carter of the Seattle Times tackled the controversy. Setting up the conflict between Rice and Clarke, he reported, "At least one of the agents who helped apprehend Ressam sides with Rice's version of events." Michael Chapman, one of the customs agents who arrested Ressam, told Carter there was no special security alert. "We were on no more alert than we're always on," he said. "That is a matter of public record." Carter added that a review of the trial testimony in the Ressam case turned up no reference to a security alert. No wonder Clarke was unavailable for comment on CNN.

The Commission

Half-Bakered reproduces an account of the president appearing before the commission. Nice.

No Commies!

Sounds like a damn fine idea to me:

A Southern California city known as "Little Saigon" because of its large Vietnamese population has become the first U.S. city to declare itself a "no Communist" zone.

The city council in Garden Grove, about 30 miles south of Los Angeles, passed a resolution on Tuesday saying it "does not welcome, or sanction high-profile visits, drive-bys or stopovers by members or officials of the Vietnamese Communist government."

Time to Buy a KISS Album

KISS bass player Gene Simmons has caused an uproar among Australia's Muslim community by launching an attack on Islamic culture while in Melbourne. ...

"Extremism believes that it's okay to strap bombs on to your children and send them to paradise and whatever else and to behead people," he said yesterday.

The Israeli-born US musician went on to say Islam was a "vile culture" that treated women worse than dogs.

Muslim women had to walk behind their men and were not allowed to be educated or own houses, he said.

"Your dog, however, can walk side by side, your dog is allowed to have its own dog house... you can send your dog to school to learn tricks, sit, beg, do all that stuff - none of the women have that advantage."

He went on to say the west was under threat.

"This is a vile culture and if you think for a second that it's going to just live in the sands of God's armpit you've got another thing coming," he said.

Not that I agree with Gene. Islam as a whole does not feel this way. On the other hand, Wahhabism certainly does and is certainly a vile culture and is certainly at war with all of us.

I applaud his courage to stand up and say it.

Character

Debra Saunders has this to say about Democrat's ganging up to call for Rumsfeld's resignation:

Consider Tenet. If Bush hadn't kept Bill Clinton's director of the CIA when he assumed office, Bush would have been in the perfect position to blame Clinton for every intelligence failure he inherited. Bush knew that, but he kept Tenet anyway. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush didn't try to dump Sept. 11 in Tenet's lap. He didn't turn his CIA chief into a scapegoat -- as some Dems and Repubs wanted him to do.

"I don't think he works that way," Anderson explained. Blaming other people simply doesn't get a job done.

To think -- Bush had two solid chances to blame intelligence oversights on Democrats, but instead, he chose to stick with a man who he thought was more likely to get the job done.

Bush wasn't ruthlessly partisan. He didn't discard a man for the sake of convenience. And those are qualities that Washington wags simply cannot grasp.

Consider the Ashcroft/Gorelick conflict. Democrats were shamelessly turning the 9/11 hearings into an opportunity to attack the Bush administration, going after one administration official after another. Rice did well and did not sink to the level of gutter politics that Gorelick and Bob Kerrey were reveling in, yet she was savaged in the press. Ashcroft wasn't going to stand for it and used a Gorelick memo to show that it wasn't the administration's fault: they inherited a faulty system just as they inherited a crashing economy.

Bush's response? He chastised Ashcroft for blindsiding the Senator with her own words and actions.

Bush expects the best of behavior from all his people. No exceptions. And that is character.

You'd think this was obvious

Black Democrats see racism in party.

Partisanship

Feces Flinging Monkey lays out a fairly substantial argument that Democrats are the new conservatives:

There is no innovation here, no new plan or new future, nothing bold or risky or daring. It's a gigantic holding action. The only real change ever discussed is an increase in scale, an increase of quantity rather than kind. You can run the same speeches from the 1980 race and nobody would notice the difference.

Read the whole thing. Really. You'll thank me.

In this post, Monkey says he scored 16 out of 100 on the Libertarian Purity Test, leading me to wonder what I would score (what with me being so certain that I'm a domestic Libertarian and a foreign policy Republican and all).

I scored a 22:

16-30 points: You are a soft-core libertarian. With effort, you may harden and become pure.

Imagine that. Might as well resign myself to being a Republican for life.

Innovative Leadership verses, uh ... Europe

President Bush wants broadband internet access to be available to every American home by 2007:

The president has acknowledged that American is ``lagging a little bit'' on getting broadband available nationwide. To encourage the spread of this technology, Bush says the users shouldn't be taxed, and that the government should take steps to encourage the spread of competitive services.

Europe, it would seem, needs to take some pretty radical steps in this area:

Europe's large economies will continue to lag well behind the US for the rest of the decade partly because of their slow adoption of information and communications technology (ICT), according to a report published by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

From 1995 to 2002, average annual growth in gross domestic product per capita in Germany, France and Italy was 0.52 percentage points lower than in the US.

The EIU has calculated that 0.4 percentage points of that difference were caused by the European countries' lower usage of ICT.

Florida Dems Move Right

As Nader attempts to jerk Kerry left, a group of 18 Florida Democrats are forming a moderate organization to appeal to the voter base:

Moderate Democrats in both the Florida House and Senate have started their own group to raise money, a move party officials say will splinter Democrats.

Saying they want to shed their liberal tag and embrace their populist roots, a group of 18 Democrats has splintered from state legislative colleagues to form a new, more conservative fundraising organization.

Gorelick's Wall Stands

In spite of what seems to be a major conflict of interest, Senator Gorelick will be helping to draft the 9/11 Commission's final report -- including sections that deal with the "wall" between intelligence and law enforcement that she helped strengthened and that subsequently hindered anti-terrorism efforts.

Eleven senators (all Republican, of course) have called for Gorelick to testify before the commission:

"As she noted before the committee, these are issues she had `been spending a lot of my time on at the direction of the Attorney General,'" they wrote. "Therefore, it is our firm belief that any committee report or recommendations will be incomplete without public testimony by Ms. Gorelick about her activities while serving as Deputy Attorney General."

Absolute Must Read

The Appearance of Impropriety from NRO, the single most scathing dressing down of Gorelick I've seen to date.

Screw-ups Repeat

Even as the commission uncovers such crossed wires and barriers that may have played into 9/11, Congress is grabbing at a dangerous solution. It is considering a new policy that would only increase confusion and take a powerful tool away from the military. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is quietly circulating a proposal that would ensnare clandestine U.S. military operations in the same sort of procedural restrictions placed on CIA covert actions and that contributed to the Ashcroft charges and gave rise to the Berger-Tenet misunderstanding.

Happy Tax Day

39 percent of households pay no income tax at all.

This and other tax inequities are documented here.

Update from Fox News:

But 44 million people will pay no federal taxes at all — that's the highest number in U.S. history and it translates to 33 percent of all tax filers.

Before the Bush cuts were implemented the number of filers who paid no federal taxes was 30 million, or 23 percent of all tax filers. These numbers are much larger than those from 1980 when the revolt against federal income tax rates began. . . .

In addition to these 44 million zero-tax filers there are another 14 million whose incomes are so low, $20,000 or less, they are off the tax roles entirely. Add to that the dependents, children, family members and those who aren't taxed at all — it equals 122 million Americans who live completely outside the federal tax system.

Legacy?

Interesting that the rabid left says that Bush is the most divisive president of all time (I guess they weren't around for the Roosevelt years). Yet what one president in all of history has been hated so much that private citizens are willing to fund an anti-presidential library?

His name is William Jefferson Clinton:

A group dedicated to building the 'Counter Clinton Library' - a rebuttal to the Clinton Presidential Library - has been granted status as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization.

Not only will I send these people a small donation (next year -- the election is taking up donation money for this year), I will definitely plan a road trip to the building after it is built.

Getting to Know Condoleezza

A list of 20 things about Condie. Random excerpts:

1.	She's a fitness buff who likes to unwind by working out to music by heavy-metal legends Led Zeppelin, according to People magazine. She wakes up at 5 a.m. and hits the treadmill right away.
17.	In February 2001, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told reporters he was distracted the first time he met her. "I have to confess, it was hard for me to concentrate in the conversation with Condoleezza Rice because she has such nice legs."

Jews Finally Get a Clue

The Dems are reaping what they sow, and it isn't much. They are "irked" at Jewish defections from the Democrat ranks -- and donor files.

Although Jews make up slightly more than 2 percent of all Americans, they have played a wider political role for both demographic and financial reasons.

Jews are concentrated in such battleground states as Florida and Ohio. In the era of soft money, an estimated 50 to 70 percent of large contributions to the Democratic Party and allied political units came from Jewish donors.

While President Bush won only 19 percent of the Jewish vote in 2000, Republican candidates garnered 35 percent of the Jewish vote in 2002, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

While Bush has defended Israel on the international stage, Dems have continued to kowtow to terrorists like Arafat (remember the Clinton Kiss?).

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, hasn’t helped his party on that front by recently issuing statements that were widely interpreted as waffling on the controversial security fence the Israeli government is building at the edge of the West Bank.

The Dems are frantically trying to do some damage control. Why?

Jack Rosen, a frequent past contributor to the Democratic Party, and president of the liberal-leaning American Jewish Congress, has given $100,000 to Republicans since Bush took office.

And California businessman Ronald Arnall and wife Dawn, who in the past have given close to $1.5 million to Democratic candidates and party committees since 2000, raised $1 million for Bush at a fundraiser last August. In addition, Dawn Arnall gave $1 million at the end of 2002 to the Republican National Committee.

But it's not about that. The President is right to defend Israel for building the security fence. It is stopping the killing by keeping terrorists out. And the bottom line is that Republicans are more pro-Israel than Dems, and Jews are finally starting to realize it.

Atheist PAC

There's a new political action group called Godless Americans Political Action Committee (GAMPAC):

Atheists and other nonbelievers set up a political action committee yesterday to endorse candidates and lobby lawmakers to remove all traces of religion from the government.

But organizers acknowledged that they face a major problem. Most politicians won't want public support from their new group ...

The group only as a thousand dollars so far, a problem that may haunt them for a while until they get funding from some left-wing godless Hollywood types.

The potential voting bloc of unbelievers appears to be much smaller than the religious right. Although religious convictions are difficult to assess, polling expert Scott Keeter at the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press said that 30 percent to 35 percent of Americans identify themselves as evangelical Christians of various denominations.

Only 5 percent of Americans polled tell surveys that they don't believe in either God or a universal spirit, Mr. Keeter said. Pew studies have found that nonbelievers and people who state that religion has no significant role in their lives make up about 10.5 percent of adult Americans.

The Godless American PAC will make a presidential endorsement, Miss Johnson said, adding that the group would consider making a third-party choice.

Hmmm... wonder who that third-party choice will be?

Legacy in Haiti

Rich Lowry reminds us a bit of history:

If there was one moment when recent U.S. Haitian policy went wrong, it might have been in 1993 when Bill Clinton was considering whether or not to restore the exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide by force of American arms. Aristide had a well-earned reputation for thuggish tactics and emotional instability. Huddled with top aide George Stephanopoulos, Clinton briefly considered and then dismissed a CIA report that Aristide is a manic depressive. "You know," Clinton said, "you can make too much of normalcy."

Freedom in America
or, the Unhappy Libertarian

While I still maintain that homosexuals remain the most over-represented minority, anywhere, ever, I (speaking as a "conservative") favor allowing civil unions. Just because I (speaking as a "normal" man) find two men kissing revolting and repugnant does not mean that they shouldn't have the right to do so. After all, I (speaking again as a "normal" man) find two women kissing strangely erotic.

But that's not the point. The point is that two consenting adults in a loving, life-long, committed relationship should have the same rights and legal protections that married people do. And as another blogger once pointed out, America is about freedom. (It was either e-Claire or Spiced Sass, but neither has a search feature so I can't figure out which).

On the other hand, marriage is a religious rite. It is a commitment before God (or Gaea or Zeus or whomever). If a church wants to marry same-sex couples, then it can. If it doesn't, then the couple can either quit being homosexual [he said with tongue planted firmly in cheek] or they can find another church.

But (and my Libertarian persona absolutely cringes as I write this) the legality of a civil union cannot be left up to the states. It is a federal matter because life in America is not contained within a state. This is thoroughly and elegantly demonstrated by David Frum as he proposes eight questions for Andrew Sullivan. My favorite is number four:

A Massachusetts woman marries another Massachusetts woman. The relationship sours. Without obtaining a divorce, she moves to Texas and marries a man. Has she committed bigamy?

This is also the most trivial question. Frum proposes scenarios that go from the birth of a child to the death of a "spouse", with some of the "life" stuff in between. Read it and think.

Now think about this: if a state is able to define what is a "marriage", it is imperative that other states are not required to abide by that. Remember the Free State Project? The goal is for 20,000 Libertarians to move to New Hampshire in a brazen attempt to take over a state, elect Libertarian representatives and Senators, and become a force in American politics. Lead by example and all that. It is a project I heartily approve of, what with my Libertarian leanings and all.

But now imagine this: 40,000 Muslims move to Rhode Island and vote to define marriage as the union of a man with between 1 and 40 wives. 80,000 pedophiles move to Vermont and reduce the age of consent to 12. OK, maybe that last one is a little far fetched, but this is America where anything can happen.

Bottom line: this registered Republican is dead-set against the Federal Marriage Act unless it gets the government out of religious matters and errs on the side of freedom when defining a civil union. And that is exactly what the FMA is not.

I am beginning to question my Federalist roots.

Socialized Medicine

From our English-speaking, democratic friends come two tales of socialized medicine.

Our Canadian neighbors are experiencing the results of removing the profit motive from a vital market segment:

A study by Ipsos-Reid found that two-thirds of Canadians felt that they had waited too long for treatment in the previous 12 months. Half of those people felt that their condition or that of a family member had become worse because of this delay. . . .

Saying that there is "no doubt" that a shortage of health-care providers is a barrier to speedy care, the CMA called for the federal government to take action in its next budget, coming March 23.

"Canadians are telling us that waiting for health care is making them sick and tired," said Dr. Sunil Patel, CMA president. "As a physician, I too am tired, tired of constantly defending the system to patients asking me why. 'Why must I wait so long for my referral, my tests or my treatment?'"

And our British cousins' teeth are rotting in place:

Dentists are departing Britain's publicly funded National Health Service in large numbers, leaving a growing number of Britons without access to affordable care. The consequences for the nation's teeth cannot be good, the experts say.

A 2002 study by the independent Audit Commission found 40 percent of dentists were not accepting new patients through the state-funded system.

Perhaps we can send Hillary and she can save them.

Hart to Win!

An alert Lucianne.com reader found this little tidbit in the New York Times archives -- dated March 8, 1984:

Gallup's Survey Gives Hart 9-Point Lead Over Reagan
ATLANTA, March 8 -- Reports of a surge of support across the nation for Senator Gary Hart since his victories in New England Presidential primaries were bolstered today by a Gallup poll that showed him leading President Reagan in a national sample of voters.

Turning Up the Heat on Affirmative Action

The next logical step after the cookie sales: Student Group Offers Whites-Only Award:

A student group at Roger Williams University is offering a new scholarship for which only white students are eligible, a move they say is designed to protest affirmative action.

The application for the $250 award requires an essay on "why you are proud of your white heritage" and a recent picture to "confirm whiteness."

"Evidence of bleaching will disqualify applicants," says the application, issued by the university's College Republicans. [SNIP]

Jason Mattera, 20, who is president of the College Republicans, said the group is parodying minority scholarships.

Mattera, who is of Puerto Rican descent, is himself a recipient of a $5,000 scholarship open only to a minority group.

"No matter what my ethnicity is, I'm making a statement that scholarships should be given out based on merit and need," Mattera told the Providence Journal.

Legacy

Quote of the Day:

"You don`t hear anyone saying "I`m a Clinton Democrat, the way Republicans fight for the mantle of being known as 'Reagan Republicans,'" Luntz said. "And Gore is a footnote. Gore will be forgotten. He left no footprints on the American psyche."

Who's Best?

Unix Dude does an excellent "compare and contrast" exercise in Clinton 42 vs. Bush 43. Highly recommended reading.

Finally

Something comes out of the FCC that is actually worthwhile:

Federal Trade Commission regulations requiring telemarketing firms to identify themselves take effect Thursday.

Such calls had shown up on Caller ID as "out of area." Now the name displayed by Caller ID must either be the company trying to make a sale or the firm making the call. The display must also include a phone number that consumers can call during regular business hours and ask that the company no longer call them.

The Heart of Change

I quoted Johnny Hunter as saying, "The Republican Party is not the party of the rich, the Republican Party is the party of human dignity."

A commenter left a huge section of 1984 (you know the piece -- it starts out with fostering pain and misery and ends with "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- for ever.") with a kicker of "That is the Republican Party."

Please don't be surprised, but I took exception. Because if truth be told, the passage is far more descriptive of the Democrat Party, for they are masters at inflicting pain and misery, over and over, forever.

Democrats assert power by keeping the people in ignorance, dumbing down our children by concentrating on Rousseauean "nurture the children's emotions" and eliminating any chance at academic excellence.

Democrats assert power by fostering the ideology of victimization and entitlement, robbing the citizenry of ambition and hope, and eliminating the feeling of empowerment that comes with attaining that which you must work to gain.

Democrats assert power by nurturing the divisiveness of racism and class warfare. They foment multiculturalism in order to play one group against another.

The intelligentsia of the liberal wing gives only two forms of art -- that which the poor, uneducated cannot understand but must pay for with their tax dollars (e.g., a crucifix in a jar of urine) and the dull pap that endlessly spews forth from the liberal propaganda machine -- Hollywood -- for which they give each other endless awards and honors. (I felt compelled to mention art because the Orwell quote did. Besides, it's one of my pet peeves.)

Democrat power derives from pain, misery and jealousy. Eliminate these things and the Democrats lose all meaning, all need for being. But Democrats carefully nurture these things, all the while proclaiming that their goal is to rid the world of them forever. Clever Democrats, masters of the beating their breasts and crying crocodile tears, they deceive the public but it cannot last forever.

Silly Liberal, do not turn to the words of philosophers like Orwell for truths. They merely guide the way towards ideas. Look at the real world to find your truths. Look at how the real world works rather than the fantasies of a writer.

Look at how increasing the monies thrown at our educational system has failed to make the needed, nay essential, improvements. Then look for other ways of fixing it, such as vouchers to give our children most in need a chance for a successful future. This is the heart of Compassionate Conservatism.

Look at how increasing entitlement programs has created a culture of victimization among our minorities and driven a wedge of contention between the races. Indeed, it has actually fostered three generations of increasingly demanding recipients -- billions of dollars of hand outs are not enough, now they cry out that there must be reparations. Then look at how welfare reform of the 90s got more people working than ever before. Look past the feel-good policies to see what the results are, and try to find solutions that provides for those that need it, weeds out most of those who seek to abuse it, and lift up those who desire it. This is the heart of Compassionate Conservatism.

Look at how keeping the money of hard-working folk in a low-return Social Security program relegates our elderly to subsistence living, for they believed the lies of politicians who said that they would provide for them. Look at the faces of our young workers who must pay into the system as surely as they must pay taxes, believing that it is money wasted because Social Security will "go bankrupt" long before they retire. Now look at reforms aimed at giving these young industrious people choices in investing what is being taken from them, that they may have a comfortable retirement. This is the heart of Compassionate Conservatism.

Look at how taxing the rich robs everyone by eliminating jobs, stifling growth, keeping pay and benefits low. Look at how tax cuts have worked in times past and is now working in Europe (both France and Germany are cutting taxes to stimulate their economies). Look at cutting waste rather than taxing the easy targets. This is the heart of Compassionate Conservatism.

One may say that Compassionate Conservatism is failing: our school budget is larger than ever, jobs were not stimulated by the tax cuts, and government waste has not been eliminated. But if one says that then one is quite wrong and as short-sighted as the silly liberal with his nose in the works of Rousseau and Orwell and Marx and Huxley and Machiavelli and Chomsky and even Locke and Hobbes.

In the real world, Democrats have had a hold on our political system for six decades. While Republicans have temporarily gained the White House or Congress, it has been Democrats that have driven domestic policy. The first real challenge was Newt Gingrich's Contract With America in 1994, from which sprang meaningful welfare reform (which worked better than was hoped for). This was the beginnings of Compassionate Conservatism.

Other than revolution, change is slow. Painfully slow. Even revolution comes to fruition slowly (ask the students of Iran). It will take time to get things like vouchers accepted into the hearts and minds of the public, especially in the face of determined and highly emotive attacks from teachers unions. Education reform will take place. It must take place and this president will make it happen. His first attempt was diluted by working with a two-faced, drunken, murdering Kennedy that the people of Taxachusetts has seen fit to empower. But it was a necessary first step. And the president's next attempt will do better.

The tax cuts reversed the Clinton Recession. You can talk all you want about presidents not being able to change the economic winds blowing across the land but in the real world one sees that consumer confidence and consumer spending kept the dreaded double-dip from happening. The reason for that confidence rebounding after 9/11 was the public's trust in George W. Bush in leading the War Against Terrorism and protecting America. The reason for the consumer spending was that paltry $600 multiplied across the land by the number of eligible families.

The jobless recovery is the product of companies being more efficient and workers doing more with less. Worker productivity is up, so the jobs did not appear. But this is changing as the economy gathers steam -- the jobs are on the way.

There is much, much more but the point is that change comes in baby steps. One does not change the direction of a large ship quickly -- it is incapable of making right turns. And so it goes for changing policy in America.

We gave the Democrats 60 years and they failed in almost every regard. Isn't it time to give Compassionate Conservatism a chance?

Does this sound like a man getting ready to run for president?

While other states continue to face deficits and struggle to find their financial footing, Florida is more fortunate, thanks to fiscal discipline and good governance.

Over the last six years, we have prioritized the state's needs to make the most of limited resources during tough budget years. We've also lowered taxes, in turn spurring the economic growth to drive our state forward and generate revenues. We must stay this course of success and ensure we are prepared to meet the challenges that lie ahead.

Since 1998, we have provided more than $8 billion in tax relief to Floridians. We have also controlled government growth, ensuring that our state spending doesn't rise faster than the personal income of the people we serve. We've increased state revenues and, in the last year alone, created more than 97,000 jobs. The people in those jobs give less of their hard-earned money to the state government today than at any time in the last decade. Florida's tax dollars do not belong to the government; they belong to the taxpayers, and we are committed to making the most of their investment.

There's more, and it's by Jeb Bush.

Jeb/Rice 2008!

Rating the Dems

No real surprise here:

The most discourteous Democrat in Congress during this year's State of the Union address was veteran Rep. Maxine Waters of California. She refused to clap or stand when President Bush entered the chamber, even though Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a fellow Black Caucus member, tried to get her out of her seat.

The most courteous Democrat Tuesday night was Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee, another Black Caucus member. He was usually the first Democrat on his feet for Bush's applause lines, sometimes was the only Democrat standing and on occasion beat Republicans in getting up.

Statistically Speaking

At lunch today I fell into a discussion of voter fraud and heard the comment that both parties are power hungry and will do anything to win. While this is certainly true to a point, logic and simple deduction can be used to determine if they are equally reprehensible in this regard.

Given that the media is largely controlled by left-wing interests and that the majority of reporters lean to the left ideologically, it is understandable that the press is quick to print reports of Republican malfeasance whilst doing so reluctantly (at best) when reporting misconduct on the part of Democrats.

Now consider that during the election of 2000 we heard of 5,000 felons voting in Florida, University of Minnesota students voting in two states, the polls being held open past the legislated time in a St. Louis African-American precinct, dead people voting in Kansas City and Illinois, homeless people being bribed to vote with cigarettes (I can't remember where -- Minnesota again?), and illegal aliens voting in virtually every state in the nation. In every one of these cases the illegal votes go overwhelmingly to Democrats.

Consider also that in the 2002 midterm election there was a major scandal in the South Dakota Senator race because of orchestrated voter fraud on Indian reservations. Nonexistent people were registered to vote -- and somehow did so. People showed up by the van-full at precinct locations and started rattling off names until a valid name was found on the roll sheet -- and then they were allowed to vote under that name. Again, the Indian vote goes overwhelmingly to Democrats.

Now consider that in both of those elections the only allegations of vote manipulation by Republicans in a major race were anecdotal stories from Florida of intimidation at some poll stations (none substantiated by serious investigative reporting) and a charge that police set up a speed trap near a polling station in an effort to delay black voters (investigative reporting later revealed that the speed trap was three miles away and had virtually no impact on voters getting to that particular voting station). Even the report from the highly partisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was so thoroughly discredited that it garnered little media attention.

Given the extraordinary difference in the number of abuses reported for each party, especially against the backdrop of ideological leanings of the media, one can only deduce that Democrats routinely attempt to corrupt the democratic process by cheating.

Furthermore, this is substantiated by observing the rabid rantings and name calling that the left engages in whenever attempts are made to eliminate voter fraud by requiring clean voter rolls and voter identification. The left only stays in power through duplicitous and unethical tactics.

Any sane person would agree that some politicians of both parties engage in immoral practices and are willing to lie, cheat or steal to gain power. Being a Republican hardly makes one an angel, no more so does being a Democrat make one a depraved, power-craving soulless demon.

However, birds of a feather flock together and it is obvious that, statistically speaking, the population of Democrats are far more treacherous and iniquitous than their Republican opponents.

Quod erat demonstrandum.

This post dedicated to Tone the Man and The Great Leap Forward, both of whom regard me as "evil".

The Big Speech

If you don't know about the months of preparation, the size of the effort and number of personnel involved, and the intense politicking that goes on whenever a State of the Union address is being formulated, then you should read this.

Campaign Promises

Professor Fishel from American University is an expert on campaign promises. He has even published his research in a book: Presidents and Promises: From Campaign Pledge to Presidential Performance.

Historically, Fishel says, presidents keep about two-thirds of their campaign promises.

Only about 25 percent of all rhetoric in presidential campaigns has any kind of meaningful content. Most of it is symbolic rhetoric meant to reassure individual voters, so just digging through a lot of this to find out what the (promises are) is a major chore.

Clinton broke so many promises that his personal adviser, George Stephanopoulos, resorted to defending his boss by telling Larry King:

The President has kept all of the promises that he intended to keep.

In other words, a promise is something the ex-president said in order to capture a vote. The words were as meaningless as terms of endearment made to a starry-eyed intern.

Although many lists and examples of Clinton's broken promises exist, I was unsuccessful in finding a quantitative study (perhaps I'll have to buy Professor Fishel's book).

President Bush had already fulfilled about 40% of his campaign promises by the end of his first year in office. This seems to be a pretty good record for someone whose presidential agenda was wrenched out of his control by a brutal attack on September 11th. From that moment on, the president has been concentrating on foriegn affairs rather than the domestic agenda he campained on.

Still, a quantative analysis should be made, and Knight Ridder has done just that. According to the study, the president has fulfilled about 46% of his campaign promises in the first three years of his administration. Democrats will be hammering hard on some of the promises not yet fulfilled, so I look for the president to hammer Congress a little harder in the coming session.

Remember that while he was Senate majority leader, Daschle thrwarted every presidential initiative he possibly could. When Frist took over the post after the 2002 elections he was new to the task, untried and very green. He made mistakes that first year, but he learned and grew. Look for him to do much better this time around.

Also, as Knight Ridder points out, some promises are more important than others. The president delivered on three major tax cuts and eliminated the estate tax for family farms and ranches, but failed to triple the federal budget for Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers to assist the disabled and did not combine 60 federal programs into "five flexible categories". I'll take the successes and shed few tears over the failures, but that's just me. Obviously everyone's priorities are different.

I've reproduced the Knight Ridder findings below, reformatting it into a table and adding subtotals. I've also given the president partial credit where some action has been taken but doesn't meet the full extent of the promise made. ABORTION

Prohibit federal funds for international family-planning groups that provide abortion-related services.	YES. By a directive issued Jan. 22, 2001.
Sign legislation banning so-called partial-birth abortion.	YES, on Nov. 5, 2003.

100% of Abortion promises fulfilled

AGRICULTURE

Give more emergency aid to farmers to help them transition to a market regime.	YES. Included in 2001 farm bill.
Reform the crop insurance program.	NO. Blocked in Congress.
Establish tax-deferred Farm and Ranch Risk Management accounts that farmers and ranchers could draw from in hard times.	NO. Blocked in Congress.
Reduce and ultimately eliminate the estate tax for family farms and ranches.	YES. Included in the 2001 tax bill.
Fight Europe's ban on importing biotech crops from the United States.	YES. Bush has raised this issue with the European Union.
Exempt food from unilateral trade sanctions and embargoes.	YES. New regulations permit food shipments to Cuba and other so-called rogue states.
Admit China into the World Trade Organization and continue working to open key export markets to U.S. goods.	YES. China joined the WTO in 2001.

71% of Agriculture promises fulfilled

BUDGET

Reserve half of the budget surplus to strengthen Social Security by establishing personal retirement accounts.	NO. The surplus disappeared under pressure of war, recession and tax cuts, and Bush has not yet pushed his Social Security plan before Congress.
Pay down the national debt to the lowest level since the Great Depression as a percent of the gross domestic product.	NO. The budget surplus that Bush inherited has turned into an annual deficit, and the total federal debt has increased from $5.7 trillion in Sept. 2000 to $7 trillion this month. The debt is 65 percent of GDP now, up from 57.6 percent when he took office.
Return one-fourth of the budget surplus through broad-based tax cuts.	YES. Bush met his target of a $1.35 trillion, 10-year tax cut.

33% of Budget promises fulfilled

This is obviously the area where the president will take the most heat during the re-election campaign, and deservedly so. Even though he reversed the Clinton recession in spite of a devastating attack on America and a subsequent war, Bush has not reigned in pork-barrel spending or made any serious attempts to cut the big-government mindset. He has recently taken some significant hits from conservative groups on this issue. Look for it during the speech that will kick off his re-election campaign - the State of the Union address on Tuesday.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

Prohibit unions and corporations from giving "soft money" to political parties.	YES. Part of the campaign finance bill that Bush signed on March 27, 2002.
Give workers the right to block the use of their union dues for political activities.	NO. Blocked by Congress.
Raise the limit on individual contributions by adjusting it for inflation.	YES.
Require timely disclosure of contributions on the Internet.	YES. The Federal Election Commission is working on details.
Prevent incumbents from transferring excess funds from a previous federal campaign to a subsequent campaign for a different office.	NO.
Prohibit federally registered lobbyists from contributing to members of Congress while Congress is in session.	NO.

50% of campaign finance reform promises fulfilled.

This is a poor performance area for the president. No only did he fail to get his reforms into the Campaign Finance Reform bill that he signed, he ended up signing a horrible, unconstitutional piece of legislation (in spite of what SCOTUS says).

CHARITY

Establish an Office of Faith-Based Organizations in the White House to make it easier for such organizations to participate in government programs.	YES. By executive order in 2001.
Limit the civil liability of businesses that donate equipment, facilities, vehicles or aircraft to charitable organizations to protect them lawsuits if the donated items turn out to be defective.	NO. Stalled in Congress.

50% of Charity promises fulfilled.

Look for this to be in the State of the Union address as well - the president will seek to push his faith-based initiatives during the election season. If he can get money flowing into black churches, he may be able to further weaken the Democrat's grip on the black vote.

CHILDREN

Provide states with an additional $1 billion over five years to help prevent cases of child abuse or neglect.	Partial. Congress cut Bush's request in half.
Require states to conduct criminal background checks on prospective foster and adoptive parents.	YES. Signed June 25, 2003.
Provide $300 million over five years for college or vocational-education vouchers of up to $5,000 for youths who reach college age in foster care.	NO. Congress cut Bush's funding requests.
Set a goal to return children in foster care to their stable biological family or, with a judge's ruling, to adoption.	NO.
Help states establish paternity registries.	NO. Still working on legislation.
Provide $200 million in competitive grants over five years for grants to promote responsible fatherhood.	NO. Stalled in Congress.

17% of promises for children fulfilled.

CONGRESS

Adopt two-year budgets.	NO. Blocked in Congress.
Require a Joint Budget Resolution to promote early agreement on an overall framework, which the president must sign.	NO. Stalled in Congress.
Enact legislation to prevent government shutdowns if funding is not enacted by the beginning of the fiscal year.	NO
Support a bipartisan Commission to Eliminate Pork-Barrel Spending.	NO.
Seek legislation to amend the Constitution to give the president line-item veto authority.	YES, although Bush has not made it a top priority and Congress has not acted.
Ask Congress to act on presidential nominees within 60 days of submission of their names.	YES. Bush has repeatedly prodded Congress to act.

32% of Congress reform promises fulfilled, although those two items has not resulted in any legislation or procedural reforms.

COURTS

Impose stiffer penalties for frivolous lawsuits. Lawyers who file lawsuits as a form of harassment would have to pay the other side's expenses and could face other sanctions.	NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Amend federal discovery rules to limit inquiry to issues in dispute to prevent legal "fishing expeditions."	NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Raise the federal standard for admission of scientific testimony by requiring that the witnesses' findings be "generally accepted" by the scientific community.	NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Eliminate the private use of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act for civil suits. Lawyers have used the law to seek bigger judgments by accusing companies of "racketeering."	NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Take steps to make sure that national class-action lawsuits are heard in a federal court to prevent lawyers from shopping for friendly state judges.	NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Establish a "Client's Bill of Rights" to allow federal courts to hear challenges to attorneys' fees. Bush contends that clients who have been overcharged currently have very little recourse.	NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Require lawyers to disclose their fee ranges so potential clients will have more information before hiring an attorney.	NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Encourage reasonable settlements by making those who reject pretrial settlement offers and lose the case pay the other party's costs.	NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Require private lawyers who represent states and municipalities to return excessive fees to their governmental clients.	NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Prohibit federal agencies from paying contingency fees to private lawyers. Lawyers would be hired on an hourly rate.	NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.

0% of Judicial Reform promises fulfilled.

Democrats in Congress are heavily in the pocket of the lawyers and will not allow these to go forward. In addition, the War against Terror has resulted in the AG's and Justice Department's attention elsewhere and (in my opinion) the erosion of rights. (Yeah, this is out of irrelevant to the discussion but I felt compelled to throw it in somewhere.)

CRIME

Increase prosecutions under federal gun laws.	YES.
Increase funding for state gun-law enforcement.	YES. New $50 billion program signed into law in 2001.
Impose a lifetime ban on gun possession for juvenile weapons offenders.	NO.
Establish Project Sentry, a federal-state program to prosecute juvenile weapons violations.	YES.
Practice zero tolerance for terrorism.	YES. Launched war on terrorism.

80% of Crime promises fulfilled.

Personally, I oppose all but the last of these.

DEFENSE

Prohibit putting U.S. troops under U.N. command.	YES.
Pay U.N. dues in return for reforms and reduction of U.S. share of the costs.	YES.
Increase military pay by $1 billion a year.	YES. Signed into law Jan. 10, 2002.
Deploy national and theater ballistic-missile defense as soon as possible.	YES. Bush has ordered deployment in 2004.
Reduce the number of American nuclear weapons.	YES. The 2001 Treaty of Moscow promised to scrap about two-thirds of the U.S. nuclear arsenal over 10 years.
Earmark at least 20 percent of the procurement budget for next-generation weaponry.	YES.
Increase defense research and development spending by at least $20 billion from fiscal year 2002 to 2006.	YES. Funding levels are consistent with the goal.
Order comprehensive review of military weapons and strategy.	YES. Although it came in the form of a series of reviews.
Order "immediate review" of overseas deployments.	YES.
Renovate military housing.	YES. The military has already upgraded about 10 percent of its inventory and expects to modernize 76,000 additional homes this year.

100% of Defense promises fulfilled.

Clearly, this is the president's finest example of leadership.

DISABILITIES

Triple the federal Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers' budget for technologies to assist the disabled.	Partial. Funding has fallen short of the goal.
Create a new fund to encourage technologies that help the disabled.	YES. Funded at $5 million.
Provide $20 million to states to help people with disabilities work from home.	YES. Signed into law in 2001.
Provide $45 million for pilot transportation programs.	NO. Blocked in Congress.
Provide $5 million to help small businesses comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.	NO. Blocked in Congress.
Establish a $100 million matching-grant program for community-based transportation alternatives.	NO. Blocked in Congress.
Issue an executive order implementing the Supreme Court's Olmstead ruling, which requires moving disabled people from institutions to community-based facilities when possible.	YES, in 2001.
Increase funding for low-interest loan programs to help people with disabilities purchase devices to assist them.	YES.
Increase funding for special education to meet the federal obligation under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.	Partial. Funding as fallen short of the goal.
Create a national commission to recommend reforms of the mental-health service-delivery system.	YES. The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health delivered its recommendations to Bush on July 22, 2003.
Make it easier for disabled people to vote.	YES. Legislation signed on Oct. 29, 2002 requires states to make polling places more accessible.
Provide $10 million in matching funds annually to increase access for people with disabilities to organizations exempt from Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, such as churches, mosques, synagogues and civic organizations.	NO. Blocked in Congress.
Revise the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 rent subsidies to disabled people to permit them to use up to a year's worth of vouchers to finance down payments on homes.	YES. HUD has started pilot programs in 11 states.

54% of Disabilities promises fulfilled, with 15% partially fulfilled.

EDUCATION

Provide vouchers (cash subsidies) to low-income students in persistently failing schools to help with costs of attending private schools.	NO. Blocked by Congress. A pilot program for Washington awaits Senate action.
Increase maximum Pell grant (a need-based college scholarship) from $3,300 to $5,100 for first-year students.	Partial. The maximum increased to $4,000 in 2002, but Bush has not requested any additional increase.
Provide $1,000 Pell grant bonus to low-income students who take advanced math and science courses.	NO.
Establish a $1 billion math and science partnership program.	YES. Bush is working toward his 5-year funding goal.
Establish a $3 billion Education Technology Fund.	NO. Blocked by Congress.
Increase federal funding for minority colleges and universities by $437 million over five years.	Partial. Funding has fallen behind the goal.
Focus Head Start program on reading and place it under the Education Department.	NO. Blocked by Congress.
Launch a $5 billion five-year Reading First program to ensure that every disadvantaged child reads by the third grade.	YES.
Combine more than 60 federal programs into five flexible categories.	NO. The education bill provides more flexibility, but retained 45 separate programs.
Require annual reading and math tests in grades three through eight.	YES.
Require states to participate in the National Assessment of Education Progress, or an equivalent program, to establish a national benchmark for academic performance.	YES.
Establish a $500 million fund to reward states and schools that improve student performance.	NO. Blocked by Congress.
Provide $181 million over five years to expand the use of bonds for public school construction.	YES.
Provide school-by-school accountability report cards.	YES. School districts are taking steps to meet the requirement.
Establish 2,000 new charter schools - double the current number - within two years by providing $3 billion in loan guarantees.	NO. Blocked by Congress.
Provide $1.5 billion to help states pay for merit scholarships.	NO.
Establish a $2.4 billion fund to help states enact teacher-accountability systems.	YES.
Expand forgiveness of outstanding school loans from $5,000 to $17,500 for certain math and science teachers.	NO. Blocked in Congress.
Increase funding for the Troops-to-Teachers program to $30 million to recruit former military personnel to the classrooms.	YES.
Let teachers deduct from their taxable income up to $400 in out-of-pocket classroom expenses.	NO. A temporary measure that allowed teachers to deduct $250 for out-of-pocket classroom expenses was enacted in 2001 and expired on Dec. 31, 2003.
Establish a uniform reporting system to monitor school safety.	YES.
Require districts to let students transfer out of dangerous schools.	YES.
Change federal law so public school districts and local law enforcement can share information.	NO.
Require schools to have a zero-tolerance policy for classroom disruption.	YES.
Enact a Teacher Protection Act to protect teachers from discipline-related lawsuits.	YES.
Triple funding for classroom education to improve character.	YES.
Establish American Youth Character Awards to honor students' acts of character.	NO.
Expand the role of faith-based and community organizations in after-school programs.	YES. Signed into law in 2001.
Provide vouchers to lower-income students for after-school activities.	YES.
Immediately eliminate an $802 million backlog of school repairs on tribal lands.	NO. Funding levels fell far short of that goal.
Provide $126 million to replace six American Indian schools.	YES.

52% of Education promises fulfilled.

This is an area in which the president should be judged. He ran on a platform of being "the education president". Of course, the War Against Terrorism derailed most of his domestic agendas, so perhaps a 52% success rate isn't too bad.

ENERGY

Earmark a portion of federal oil and gas royalty payments for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program when energy prices increase.	NO.
Double funding for weatherization programs by adding $1.4 billion over 10 years.	YES. Funding on track.
Require the Energy Department to notify Congress when the nation's fuel supplies are low.	YES.
Establish an annual meeting of G-8 energy ministers or their equivalents to encourage international cooperation on energy.	YES.
Open 8 percent of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - 1.5 million acres - to oil exploration.	NO. Stalled in Congress.
Support tax credits for electricity produced from renewable and alternative fuels at a cost of $1.4 billion over 10 years.	NO. Stalled in Congress.
Establish a comprehensive federal policy for gas and oil pipeline transportation.	NO. Stalled in Congress.
Provide $2 billion over 10 years for "clean coal" research.	YES. Funding is slightly below but consistent with the goal.
Clarify tax issues related to purchasing nuclear power plants to relieve potential burden on purchasers.	NO. Stalled in Congress.
Streamline the process for hydroelectric projects seeking government approval to remain in operation.	NO. Stalled in Congress.
Require emission reductions by electric utilities for carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants.	NO. Bush abandoned his commitment to regulate carbon dioxide in the face of intense industry opposition.
Create a Home Heating Oil Reserve to protect against future shortages.	YES. The reserve was actually created during the Clinton administration, but Bush has funded it.

42% of Energy promises fulfilled.

ENVIRONMENT

Convert the $35 million "brownfields" (contaminated properties) cleanup loan fund into a block grant program.	NO. Blocked in Congress.
Make permanent the cleanup tax incentive, set to expire at the end of 2001.	NO. Congress has passed a series of annual extensions.
Require all federal facilities to meet all environmental standards.	NO. The administration has repeatedly sought exemptions for defense facilities.
Fully fund the $900 million Land and Water Conservation Fund.	NO. Blocked in Congress, but critics say Bush's proposal would have shifted money from other environmental accounts.
Provide matching grants for state programs that help private landowners protect rare species.	YES.
Establish a $10 million grant program to promote private conservation initiatives.	YES.
Establish the President's Award for Private Stewardship and give up to 50 awards annually.	NO.
Offer capital-gains tax relief for land sold for conservation purposes.	NO. Stalled in Congress.

25% of Environment promises fulfilled.

It should be noted that the president has succeeded in getting other environmental legislation passed as a result of the massive forest fires during the first years of his administration (e.g., Healthy Forests Initiative).

FOREIGN POLICY

Substantially increase financial assistance to help Russia dismantle nuclear weapons.	NO.
Support a moratorium on nuclear testing.	YES. But the Pentagon is developing weapons that may soon require testing.
Improve relations with India.	YES. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee committed to a "strategic partnership" in 2001.

66% of Foreign Policy promises fulfilled.

Again, the War on Terrorism intruded to change priorities. Foreign policy played little part in the president's campaign, yet this is an area in which he has excelled. He has freed two nations, gotten North Korea to the bargaining table (several times), convinced Iran to allow international inspectors to visit their nuclear facilities, Libya to renounce terrorism and the pursuit of WMD, and much, much more.

GOVERNMENT

Shrink the federal government by not replacing 40,000 senior and middle managers who will retire over the next eight years.	NO. That goal has been abandoned, but each agency was ordered to draft a five-year plan to restructure itself, with fewer managers.
Create a government-wide chief information officer to coordinate Internet services.	YES. Appointed April 16, 2003.
Establish a $100 million fund to support interagency e-government initiatives.	NO.
Establish a bipartisan "sunset review board" to recommend elimination of unnecessary programs.	NO.
Convert federal service contracts to performance-based contracts wherever possible so that the contractor has measurable performance goals.	YES.
Establish performance-based incentives for the civil service.	NO. This is under study.
Move all significant government procurement to the Internet.	NO. Still in the early stages.

29% of Government promises fulfilled.

HEALTH CARE

Enact a patients' bill of rights.	NO. Stalled in Congress.
Provide a 100 percent tax deduction for long-term-care insurance premiums.	NO.
Provide an additional $2,750 personal tax exemption to the caregiver for each elderly family member who has home care.	NO.
Provide a tax credit of up to $2,000 a year for health insurance for families that make less than $30,000 a year.	NO.
Increase the budget for Community and Migrant Health Centers by $3.6 billion over five years.	Partial. Funding has increased, but not at that level.
Strengthen the National Health Service Corps to put more physicians in the neediest areas, and make its scholarship funds tax-free.	YES.
Establish the Healthy Communities Innovation Fund, to provide $500 million in grants over five years to target specific health risks, such as childhood diabetes.	NO.
Double the National Institutes of Health's research budget.	YES.

20% of Health Care promises fulfilled.

IMMIGRATION

Establish a six-month deadline for processing immigration applications.	YES, with goal of full implementation by 2005.
Split the Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies: one to protect the border and interior, the other to deal with naturalization.	YES. Both of the new agencies are within Homeland Security Department.
Provide an additional $500 million over five years to improve immigration services.	YES. First installment of $100 million signed into law Nov. 28.
Encourage family reunification by allowing spouses and minors of legal permanent residents to apply for visitor visas while their immigration applications are pending.	NO.

75% of Immigration promises fulfilled.

MEDICARE

Guarantee that all senior citizens are entitled to keep the current benefits if they choose, instead of selecting alternatives offered as part of any reforms.	YES. Included in the Medicare bill that Bush signed on Dec. 8, 2003.
Give seniors the option of selecting plans that better fit their health-care needs.	YES.
Cover the full cost of health-insurance coverage, including prescription-drug coverage, for seniors with incomes at or below 135 percent of the poverty level. Cover some of the cost for seniors with incomes up to 175 percent of poverty.	YES.
Pay at least 25 percent of premiums for prescription drug coverage for all seniors.	NO. There is a gap in coverage for costs between $2,220 and $5,100.
Cover all catastrophic Medicare expenses in excess of $6,000 annually for all seniors.	Partial. The law lowered the threshold to $5,100 but covers only 95 percent of expenses over that amount.
Establish a $48 billion, four-year program to help states cover prescription-drug costs for seniors until Medicare is overhauled.	NO. Abandoned in the face of congressional opposition.

50% of Medicare promises fulfilled.

POVERTY

Establish Individual Development Accounts for low-income Americans. Give banks tax credits for matching up to $300 in deposits by low-income customers.	NO.
Establish the American Dream Down Payment Fund to give low-income families up to $1,500 in matching funds toward down payments for homes.	YES. Signed Dec. 16, 2003.

50% of Poverty promises fulfilled.

SOCIAL SECURITY

Reserve half of the projected surplus for strengthening Social Security.	NO. Bush has postponed action in the face of congressional opposition. It remains a goal.
Guarantee current benefits for seniors at or near retirement.	NO. Bush has postponed action in the face of congressional opposition. It remains a goal.
No increase in payroll taxes.	YES.
Give workers the option of investing in private retirement accounts.	NO. Bush has postponed action in the face of congressional opposition. It remains a goal.
Wall off the Social Security surplus from the rest of the budget by legislation.	NO. Bush has not pushed for it.

20% of Social Security promises fulfilled.

Look for this to be a big part of the State of the Union address.

TAX CUTS

Cut current income tax rates.	Yes.
Change income tax from a five-rate to a four-rate structure: 10, 15, 25 and 33 percent.	Partial. Congress lowered the rates, but rejected Bush's rate structure.
Double the child tax credit to $1,000.	YES.
Reduce the so-called "marriage penalty" by restoring the 10 percent deduction for two-earner families.	YES.
Expand the child tax credit for both married and single parents so higher-income families can take advantage of it.	NO.
Increase the annual contribution limit on education savings accounts, or Education IRAs, from $500 to $5,000 per child.	Partial. Congress increased the limit to $2,000.
Grant a deduction for charitable contributions to taxpayers who do not itemize.	NO. Stalled in Congress.
Extend the new charitable tax credit to corporations by making them eligible for a credit of 50 percent of the first $1,000 donated to charities fighting poverty.	NO. Stalled in Congress.
Make permanent the $5,000 adoption tax credit, and provide $1 billion over five years to increase the credit to $7,500.	YES. Credit increased to $10,000.
Permit families to make charitable contributions from IRAs without being taxed on the withdrawal.	NO. Stalled in Congress.
Raise the cap on corporate charitable deductions.	NO. Stalled in Congress.
Eliminate the estate tax.	YES. Will phase out and disappear in 2010, but will return a year later unless Congress makes the elimination permanent.
Grant a complete tax exemption for prepaid or college tuition savings plans.	YES.

46% of Tax Cut promises fulfilled.

Even with less than a 50% success rate, this is the president's signature issue. He successfully pushed through three huge tax cuts and eliminated millions of low-income Americans from the tax rolls. And he did this in the face of an oncoming recession and a war. Incredible.

TECHNOLOGY

Allow a dramatic increase in the number of H-1B visas for temporary high-skilled workers.	YES. The annual cap increased from 115,000 to 195,000 after Bush took office, but dropped this year to 66,000. Demand for visas has fallen off with downturn in the technology sector.
Permanently extend the tax credit for research and development.	NO. Blocked by Congress.
Continue the Internet tax moratorium for at least five years.	NO.
Establish a President's Technology Export Council to oversee high-tech exports.	NO. Stalled in Congress.
Establish more than 2,000 community technology centers providing free Internet access, computer literacy training and professional skills development.	NO. Blocked by Congress.

20% of Technology promises kept.

TEEN PREGNANCY

Provide at least $135 million for abstinence education, equal to the amount for teen contraceptive programs.	Partial. Funding reduced by Congress.
Direct the General Accounting Office to study the effectiveness of pregnancy-prevention programs.	YES. But the study was conducted by Health and Human Services, not GAO.

50% of Teen Pregnancy promises fulfilled.

TRADE

Restore presidential authority to speed trade treaties through Congress.	YES. Signed into law Aug. 6, 2002.
Tighten restrictions on military-technology exports and ease them on exports of civilian technologies.	NO. Blocked by Congress.

50% of Trade promises fulfilled.

Today's Must Read

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta provides an extensive list of Jacques Chirac's recent foreign policy failures in an humorous yet highly informative article [the following is sometimes slightly altered from original text]:

• At the start of 2003, foreign minister Villepin lead the resistance to the movement to liberate Iraq. Not only did the war take place (successfully), but:

  French Fries were renamed to Freedom Fries, sales of French wine in the USA fell and finally American tourism to France (one of the biggest earners of them all) suffered a major blow. Not only that, France was frozen out of the Iraqi rebuilding contracts, and that hurt (at least by the squealing that one heard from the French ministries).

• Chirac argued with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2002 over European policy and they were not speaking to each other for months on end.
• The Nice Treaty Negotiations royally hacked off almost everybody in Europe over Chirac’s high-handed behaviour.
• Then Chirac went and picked a fight with Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over comments made by one of the French parliamentarians.
• Chirac had words with Spanish Prime Minister Jose-Maria Aznar about Iraq and voting rights.
• After 10 European leaders of eastern Europe like Hungary and Poland published an Op Ed supporting the war, Jacques Chirac went on a hissy fit and warned these leaders off by threatening them on their EU accession.
• Then France told the European Commission to go whistle, while it merrily broke the EU’s financial stability pact
• Then picked a fight with Poland and Spain all over again over the EU Constitution.
• The voting procedure laid out in the incomprehensible EU Draft Constitution proposed that it be weighted by population, which wasn’t to the liking of Poland and Spain. Well, Jacques Chirac went off on a mutter on these two countries.
• In Africa, France's intervention in Ivory Coast smacked of hypocrisy after its major huffiness with USA for intervening without a UN resolution! Not only that, the Ivory Coast residents were not particularly enamoured of the French intervention either.
• The entire Columbian episode about Dominique de Villepin’s flight made France look like a laughing stock.
• Plus with the latest “veil” controversy, most Arab countries are definitely up against France, in spite of the Grand Sheikh of the Al-Azhar mosque in Egypt, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, saying that non-Muslim countries could pass any laws they wished -- to try and contain the conflict.
• Israel was a friend before, but with the rising ride of anti-Semitism in France is making that look dicey as well.
• Just look at how Jacques Chirac treated Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe. Mugabe is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, obnoxious, economically illiterate and driving the bread basket of Africa down the toilet. He has been vilified up and down the world and banned from quite a lot, including the EU. So what does Jacques Chirac do with Mugabe? He invites him over to the Elysee Palace for a red carpet welcome and all that.

Compare and contrast to U.S. foreign policy:

Still, what was worse was how US (and to a lesser extent, the UK) diplomacy managed to rack up successes such as getting Iran to sign up to the IAEA inspections, Libya to give up its WMD program, North Korea to pipe down and relax, China to open up more, Pakistan to pull back on its jehadis, Afghanistan to be managed by NATO and slowly on its path to normalcy, Syria to relax, Israel to reduce its intransigence, Congo for a smooth transfer of power, Georgia over its velvet revolution and the like.

Quote of the Day

Today's quote is from a post at The Conservative Zone:

Don't complain about history when it's current events.

Read the post to understand the context -- it's worth it.

Giuliani Leads Hillary in Poll

A new poll shows Rudy Giuliani leading Hillary Clinton, 50% to 46%, in a hypothetical Senate race.

Republicans have placed a high priority on beating Clinton in 2006 as a way of stopping a possible White House run by her in 2008. She is considered a potential contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination should President Bush be re-elected this year.

Giuliani's lead over possible contenders for Governor are significant indeed. He could probably walk into that spot.

This Has Got to be Good in an Election Year

Not everyone got the full benefit of last year's tax cuts:

Tax rates dropped last January, but most taxpayers have received only half of the cuts coming to them. That means many of them can expect a bigger refund or a smaller tax bill when they figure their 2003 returns this year.

Republicans Still Hold the Edge

From the latest Gallup poll:

Although the Democratic candidates for president have spent considerable time assailing Bush's Iraq policy -- clearly playing to their base -- Iraq as well as terrorism are solidly Republican issues, with few Americans saying they prefer the Democratic approach to these.

Other issues on which Republicans hold a perceptual edge are foreign affairs generally and gun policy. Democrats have a clear lead on the environment and education. Only four points separate the parties in perceived handling of the economy and taxes, but the Democrats hold the edge on both.

The Wall Street Journal breaks down the numbers.

More Morons in Government

Colorado state Senator Ken Chlouber wants to ban grocery discount cards because he thinks they are unfair.

These are the little cards that you get at Krogers or Safeway after filling out an application. In exchange for your name and some information about you and your family, you get a card that entitles you to discounts on certain items. If you don't want to give up the information about yourself, just don't get the card.

Although it isn't publicized what the grocery chain uses the information for, it isn't hard to imagine. They build a picture of your buying habits. Did you buy cat litter? Then why not offer a discount coupon for a brand of cat food they are trying to push (probably one with a higher profit margin and if they get your finicky cat hooked then you are buying it for life). Perhaps they even sell that information, for instance they can sell a list of cat owners like yourself to Cat Fanciers Magazine, who then sends you junk mail inviting you to subscribe.

You win and the grocery store wins. But Ken doesn't see it that way:

State Sen. Ken Chlouber will try to convince his colleagues the discount cards are unfair because he says people are being charged different prices for the same item, and maybe more importantly, the cards require people to give up private information, including their name, address and phone number, in order to get the discount.

“What are they doing with that information? What in the world are they doing? Are they selling it to anybody? Are they giving it to anybody? Trading it to anybody? Does government have access to that information?” asks Chlouber, R-Leadville.

OK, Ken -- there is no discrimination because the card is offered to everyone. If you don't want to help the grocery chain become more efficient or if you don't want to give up your personal information, then don't get the card. It's a choice and it doesn't have to be regulated.

But most importantly, why in the name of all that's constitutional would the government need access to that information?

What's worse -- this moron is a Republican. I think he should be excommunicated from the party for stupidity.

Dems Out of Touch

A new Zogby poll asked likely voters about the Bush tax cuts:

• 41% said that the tax cuts were good for them on a personal basis. Only 25% said that the tax cuts were bad for them.
• When asked what would be a fair tax rate for them if they made a million dollars a year, only 21% of respondents said the rate should be in excess of 30%.

This clearly shows that Dean and Gephardt's "repeal all Bush tax cuts" aren't exactly resonating with the majority of voters. Further, the Democrat rhetoric of soaking the rich doesn't play well, either.

But it looks like Dean is finally getting the message. Now he says that he will cut middle class taxes after he repeals all of the Bush tax cuts.

Eventually consistency will become an issue for this guy. I just hope that it's after he secures the nomination.

Also in the Zogby poll were questions about the need for religious values in a president:

• 60% said that it's important for a president to believe in God and be deeply religious.
• In the "red states", 67% want a president who is religious and and also has had success in managing foriegn policy and the economy. This percentage only dropped to 51% in the "blue states".
• "...62 percent of respondents agreed that "by removing prayer in school, by removing the words 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance, and fighting the display of the Ten Commandments or a nativity scene, we have eliminated our moral compass in daily decision-making." Thirty-four percent of likely voters polled disagreed with that idea."

Pakistani-American Mayor is a Republican

A Pakistani-American who came to America in 1967 has become the first Pakistaini mayor of a New Jersey township, and is believed to be the first Pakistani mayor in America.

"It's an opportunity to serve my community, where I have gained a lot for my family," said Chaudry, 62. "I want to be an example and a role model for my country, and for Pakistanis and Muslims who understand what America is all about and why they need to fully integrate with the community.

Buried near the bottom of the article is this (emphasis added):

As the Republican candidate in the 2001 election, Chaudry received 59 percent of the vote in this affluent Somerset County community known for its office parks.

Quote of the Day

From Everett Ehrlich in SFGate:

Dean's candidacy poses this paradox: For all his talk about wanting to represent the truly Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, Dean is essentially a third-party candidate using Internet technology to achieve a takeover of the Democratic Party.

The article contains some interesting insights and tidbits of information:

Consider, for example, what could be the first modern political campaign -- the Whig campaign for William Henry Harrison in 1840. Apart from some success as an Indian killer, Harrison had minimal credentials, but the Whigs figured out how to use the tremendous organizational apparatus of their party to promote him. They fabricated the image of Harrison as the "log cabin and hard cider" candidate, despite his more patrician roots, and used the party organization to enforce discipline around the fabrication -- to get everyone to say the same thing at the same time. And in America's first political mass media stunt, they constructed a 10-foot ball of twine, wood and tin, covered it with Whig political slogans, and rolled it first from Cleveland to Columbus and then from town to town across the country to call attention to their candidate (hence the expression "Keep the ball rolling").

Ehrlich was undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs in the Clinton administration and wraps up the article with four predictions, the first two of which I agree with. Go read it for yourself.

Kerry to Reward Fiscal Mismanagement

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry wants to reward states that have overspent their budgets with a $50 billion lifeline.

Then he wants to increase the price of nearly every American-made good and service by increasing minimum wage.

Then he wants me to subsidize the college education of other people's children.

Hell, I'm still paying on my student loans, not to mention my kids!

Big Labor Gets Away

Big Labor just won the right to spend union dues without letting the rank-and-file members know how their hard-earned money is being spent, and to what end:

In a New Year's Eve ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler granted the AFL-CIO's motion for a preliminary injunction, effectively halting implementation of the financial disclosure rules for the 2004 reporting year.

The new disclosure requirements would have given rank-and-file union employees more information about how their compulsory union dues are spent.

In some states you must belong to the union in order to get a job. The union takes your money and spends it to influence elections. Even if you are a rabid conservative, your money is spent to pursue the liberal agenda. You have no choice.

Judge Gladys Kessler just made it possible for them to influence the next election by continuing to operate outside of the public eye. Strike one for freedom -- not.

Judge Gladys Kessler is a Clinton appointee and has a history of being on the liberal side of things. She has:

• protected unions from corruption investigations.
• Ruled against the DOJ and forced them to release the names of all detainees in the 9/11 investigation.
• ruled that in spite of naviagation inturruption which will decrease barge companies' revenue, decrease water quality, higher water purification costs, and higher consumer costs due to impact on hydroelectric resources -- in spite of all that, human kind must step aside to preserve the nesting habitat for the nesting piping plover because "there is no dollar value that can be placed on the extinction of an animal species...".

Black Votes for the GOP

The GOP has a goal of winning 25% of the African American vote in 2004. This is a lofty goal and probably will not be achieved, but it is not outside the realm of possibility and is certainly achievable in the near future.

The trend is there. In 2002, fewer African Americans identified themselves as Democrats, while the number calling themselves Republicans (in the 26 to 35 age bracket) was up to 15%. Not much, but it is triple from two years before.

None of this is coincidental. More African Americans now have college degrees, ushering them into the middle class, shifting their values and priorities while prompting them to abandon the "blacks-as-victims" theology. Many low-income blacks have gained an appreciation for the opportunities provided by the free enterprise system and are rejecting the notion of government as prime savior. Meanwhile, there has been an emergence of a new generation of African Americans that exists in a multiracial, crossover world.

More importantly -- in fact, most importantly, I think -- is that the general African American electorate is beginning to wake up to the fact that the government's attempts at social engineering are dismal failures. A half-century ago the black community was poor but had strong family and social values. After forty years of Johnson's "war on poverty", 70% of black children are born out of wedlock, women have children with multiple partners (given the sterile term "multiple-partner fertility" for the PC crowd), less than half of black children live with an adult male, and children are raised in ever-changing family situations ("transitions").

As Larry Elder says, America's biggest problem is children having children:

I am talking about children, who cannot feed, clothe, and educate a child, having children. We have provided incentives for that very thing through our welfare state. [SNIP]

There was a time, after slavery, when a black man was as likely to have a child within the confines of a marriage as was a white man. Look at census data. The information we have indicates that, at the beginning of the 20th century, a black child was as likely to be born in a nuclear, intact family as was a white child. What happened? We launched Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, essentially going door to door and encouraging people to get on welfare.

Black America is waking up because there are an increasing number of African Americans that are stepping forward and voicing their displeasure:

• Star Parker was once trapped in the drug-infested welfare system. Today she is a self-styled conservative messenger and the author of Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can Do About It
• John H. McWhorter is a linguistics professor at Berkeley and author of Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority
• Shelby Steele is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. He authored A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America
• Ward Connerly sat on the Board of Regents of the University of California and led the fight to end racial preferences for university admissions in California. He documents his experience in Creating Equal : My Fight Against Race Preferences
• J.C. Watts was a four-term Republican House member who asks What Color is a Conservative?
• Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson is a dynamic and charismatic man who comes up with stuff like Boycott of the NAACP and often goes head-to-head against Jesse Jackson. That must be why he wrote Scam : How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America. He also wrote From Rage to Responsibility: Black Conservative Jesse Lee Peterson and America Today.
• Clarence Mason Weaver is a decorated soldier with a disability discharge. Today he has his own media company and author of It's OK to Leave the Plantation : The New Underground Railroad.

To this, of course, you can add almost anything written by Alen Keyes, Larry Elder and Thomas Sowell. And Walter E. Williams is an emerging economist that is proving very prolific.

The point is that the status quo is being questioned from the inside. Even though critics still call these brave intellectuals "racist", the fact that they are African American takes a lot of the sting out of the accusation. And "Uncle Tom" is beginning to loose its bite, having been repeated so much in recent years.

Now add the attacks on conservative Judicial nominees like Brown and Estrada, both of whom are the very essence of the American dream. Eventually there will be a reaction. But this is politics, not physics, so a reaction is not limited to "equal and opposite".

This is why the Democrat Party will lurch Right shortly -- way before 2008. Even the extremists fighting for control will eventually recognize that they cannot advance their agenda if they cannot win elections. And if current trends continue, they may never win another election. Ever!

Soros Agenda

The Opinion Journal carries an op-ed entitled The Soros Agenda:

In his political funding, Mr. Soros is exploiting the loophole in campaign finance laws that lets billionaires donate however much they want to private political lobbies. But more than that, he also turns out to be a leading cash cow for the Washington lobbies trying to restrict media competition and political speech. Mr. Soros is the personification of what deserves to be called the "public interest" conceit.

This is the idea that folks like Mr. Soros are merely selfless benefactors of truth and justice, but companies trying to protect their rights in Washington are greedy special interests.

The article points out that anyone can go to http://prs.soros.org/GrantsList/GrantSearch.asp and perform a search to show "the nearly 1,900 payouts that Mr. Soros made to entities since 1999", although the search I ran turned up 2,163 grants.

On last observation: looking at the source code for the page that lists the grants reveals that the links are of an unusual color, which can be defined in shorthand hex as "#666".

Not that that means anything, of course. Coincidences happen. But how terribly appropriate.

Libertarians of the Year

Radley Balko chooses the Libertarian Heros of 2003.

It is a somewhat surprising list as it contains the name of Harold Ford, Jr. Anyone familiar with the Tennessee Ford family will be shocked to see this name spoken highly of.

The Fords ran Memphis for many years, but have branched out to Nashville and Washington of late. One Ford was given a pass after shooting at a trucker on I-40, the major artery between Nashville and Memphis. Another was given a pass after threatening utilities workers with a shotgun as they attempted to perform repairs on the easement of a Ford property. The list of Ford indiscretions is long.

But Harold Ford does seem to be cut from different cloth. Seem is the operative word.

He speaks impressively, both in person and during television interviews. He is soft-spoken and gives reasoned, thoughtful responses.

However, his inclusion on the list is due to his rhetoric. The author says, "If his voting record ever aligns with his rhetoric, he could emerge as an important voice of reason in a party too consumed with class warfare and entitlement culture."

That is a mighty big if.

Harold Ford reminds me of a snake oil salesman -- or perhaps just a snake. A particularly slimy and venomous one, at that.

In speaking to TFA members (this year? Perhaps last year) he said that he had never joined the NRA because he had never been "invited" to do so.

Neither have I, but I joined nevertheless.

Harold Ford is one to watch. His name was mentioned as a candidate for House Minority Leader when it was up for grabs (Pelosi beat him out). His name will become nationally known in the next ten years. He is young and puts a good face on the party.

He frightens me because I don't trust him any further than I can chuck a feather under water.

American Socialism

Our media can chalk up another victory. By magnifying and distorting the facts on America's "health crisis" and by massively underreporting the problems with the health care in Canada, England, and other places, the American public now believes the government can do a better job than private enterprise:

A new Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday indicates most Americans believe health care is a business that should be not profit-driven.

The Harris Interactive poll, conducted for the newspaper's Online Health Industry Edition, found 31 percent of the U.S. public believes the government should provide most health insurance, 25 percent said non-profit organizations should do so, and only 22 percent prefer for-profit insurance.

About 42-percent of respondents said they believe universities should conduct the most medical research, compared with only 16 percent who think private companies should do so.

Regarding who should run or manage the manufacture of prescription drugs, 22 percent is unsure.

This story ran a month ago, yet didn't make a ripple in the media pool. I couldn't find it reported anywhere else.

It's time for a courageous politician or 300 stood up and denounced this.

The Plan

Colin Powell lays out what we'll do in 2004.

Ah, those embarrassing brothers

It seems that Neil Bush made $171,370 in one day of trading the stock of a company that he had once consulted for.

I'm not sure how this is illegal or even unethical, especially as he took nearly $300,000 in losses on the stock in 2000 and 2001.

We'll see how the moonbats treat this. I'm betting they will have completely forgotten the fact that druggie Roger Clinton attempted to solicit pardons for money, or that Hugh Rodham successfully solicited money for the same.

Democrat Decoy?

A bit of dirty politics in Illinois:

McHenry County Republican Party leader Bill LeFew on Monday accused Democrats of running a sham candidate in the Republican primary for the 63rd district state representative seat.

LeFew said he is convinced that Democrats are behind the candidacy of political unknown William E. "Ed" Beard and that members of the rival party encouraged or directed Beard to file last week's objection against county board member Perry Moy's candidacy. [SNIP]

LeFew issued a challenge to Beard to take a lie detector test and answer two questions: Did Democrats urge him to run for the seat, and did Democrats urge him to file the objection against Moy?

If Beard passes the test, thereby showing Democrats were not involved, LeFew will immediately resign as Republican Party chairman, he said.

"I know he is a Democratic plant," LeFew said.

Beard could not be reached to comment on LeFew's allegations.

Now that's funny!

Reformed Liberal Living in T.O.

Canadian Kathy Shaidle pens an op-ed that is both witty and bitter-sweet: I Used to Sneer at You. At the heart of the article is this thought:

Well, I am a recovering liberal, and Sept. 11 is my dry date.

Today's Must Read

Henry Lamb does a fine job of connecting the dots between the Democrat Party and the Democratic Socialists of America. His analysis is titled A socialist by any other name.

Lamb hits the nail on the head with this paragraph:

People who champion conservative, capitalist values might take a lesson from the Socialists, who have infiltrated the Democratic Party, and have now taken control. Rather than drop out of the Republican Party, and try to form another unsuccessful third-party movement, conservatives might come closer to achieving their goals by being more assertive at the local and state levels in the Republican Party.

Amen!

Hat tip to Pamibe.

How Political Parties Die

Today's must read is an article that examines three mainstream parties that have gone the way of the Dodo bird (Whigs in 18th century Britain and 19th century America, and the Progressive Conservatives in 20th century Canada) and compares them to three current mainstream parties:

Today, at least three great political parties are in a bad way. One is Israel's Labor Party, the other Britain's Conservative Party, the third America's Democratic Party. This isn't to say that any of them won't exist in five or ten or even twenty years' time, although in the case of the Labor Party that's not such a sure thing. It is to say that they will either have to change radically, as Britain's Labour Party did under Tony Blair's leadership, effectively becoming a new party, or circumstances will change radically – and in their favor. Right now, neither possibility seems likely.

An absolutely fascinating analysis, well worth the read. But for those who just want the crib notes (from the America-centric point of view):

• Each is in the midst of a long-term trend of losing seats (in the Democrats case, at both the federal and state level).
• Each is losing the battle for attracting young voters.
• Each has exhausted its leadership bench.

  As for former Vermont governor Howard Dean, his frontrunner status speaks volumes about what the Democratic Party has become.

  .
• Each remains in the shadow of successful past leaders

  The Democrats remain in the thrall of Bill Clinton, whose personal popularity did nothing to stop his party's slide.

• Each is ideologically divided.

  The Democrats are divided between Clinton-style pragmatists and McGovern-style radicals. The trouble for them is that the first seem unlikely to win the nomination, and the second have no chance of winning the election.

• Each is mired in the past.

  The Democrats, as American commentator Lawrence Kaplan writes, are stuck in a September 10 mindset. They have not yet come to terms with the September 12 reality.

Budgetary Restraint

Treasury Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Rob Nichols writes this about budgetary items other than those for prosecuting the war and homeland security:

The increases in all other discretionary accounts have been modest by historical standards. In the last budget year of the previous administration, fiscal year 2001, domestic spending unrelated to defense or homeland security grew a whopping 15 percent. With the adoption of President George W. Bush’s first budget in fiscal year 2002, that number was reduced to 6 percent; then to 5 percent in fiscal year 2003; and now to 3 percent in the current fiscal year.

There is room for more restraint as the economy recovers, but this is hardly the record of a domestic program spending spree.

Young Winners

I excerpted the best portion of a WaPo article titled Kerry's Quagmire:

By liberating the Iraqi people and then capturing Saddam Hussein, President Bush has shown himself to be quite capable when it comes to national security. More important, his administration, with its response to terrorists and rogue nations, may finally have put an end to the country's Vietnam syndrome.

In 1973, the average 25-year-old was likely to think of the United States as an imperialistic bully that traveled the world trying to impose its will on sovereign nations, sustaining heavy casualties in the process. Feelings of guilt and shame were common.

Thirty years later, the average 25-year-old is part of a generation that has become accustomed to winning battles rather than losing them. The generation's collective memory goes back only as far as the Persian Gulf War. Toss in the ousting of a genocidal maniac such as Hussein, the defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan or the U.S. action to protect Kosovo Albanians from Slobodan Milosevic, and Americans have cause to once again feel good about their country's military might and what it can accomplish. Even a setback in Somalia couldn't override that feeling.

The Newsweek poll shows that Bush is most popular with voters between the ages of 30 and 49, 53 percent of whom say they want him to remain in office.

A Foreign Policy that Works

Jonah Goldberg says Bush's foriegn policy is working. Not perfectly, but better than it has in quite some time. The money quote is at the end:

The best example of fruits of seriousness is, of course, Gadhafi. Contrary to what its critics claim, the Bush Administration was perfectly willing to talk rather than bomb (as it is in North Korea and Iran).

But unlike the talk from the Clinton Administration or the United Nations, Bush's words have serious credibility. If he promises billions in help, it comes. If he promises the thunder, it comes too.

That's why Gadhafi told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi last fall, "I will do whatever the Americans want, because I saw what happened in Iraq, and I was afraid." That was before he saw Saddam's tonsils on CNN.

Headline of the Day

Al Gore, Our Christmas Fruitcake. It's a pretty good column, too:

The New York Times editorialized that more medical information about Vice-President Dick Cheney should be made public because where the president and vice-president of the United States are concerned, "privacy concerns are less important than the public's confidence that its leaders are fit." [22 December]

Fit? Fit? Where were the Times' concerns about the fitness of politicians in the face of Al Gore's obvious personality disorder and poor reality testing while for eight years he was a heartbeat -- and later, a few electoral votes -- away from the presidency?

Heh.

Immigration Reform on the Way

It looks like President Bush is going to get back to items he ran on:

President Bush plans to kick off his reelection year by proposing a program that would make it easier for immigrants to work legally in the United States, in what would constitute the most significant changes to immigration law in 18 years, Republican officials said yesterday.

Lobbyists working with the White House said Bush is developing a plan that would allow immigrants to cross the border legally if jobs are waiting for them. The sources said the administration also wants to provide a way for some undocumented workers in the United States to move toward legal status.

Bush will try to make the plan more palatable to conservatives by including stricter entry controls, including increased use of technology at the border and steps toward better enforcement of current visa restrictions and reporting requirements, sources said.

About damn time. We need to let in workers that have jobs and keep out illegals. Simple concept. Impossible to do. Let's see how close we can get.

Quote of the Day

From the Union Leader:

The Democratic Party has become a central clearinghouse for crackpot conspiracy theories that are so outrageous and unbelievable that they make Oliver Stone look like a reasonable human being.

The article goes on to list a few of the ravings from just the last month:

• Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright asked Roll Call executive editor Mort Kondracke, “Do you suppose that the Bush administration has Osama bin Laden hidden away somewhere and will bring him out before the election?”
• Howard Dean repeated on National Public Radio the allegation that the Saudi government warned President Bush about the Sept. 11 attacks and Bush did nothing to stop them. Further, he called the theory "interesting".
• Dean suggested to a California crowd last week that White House political advisor Karl Rove may be responsible for circulating around the Internet a document that attributes to Dean an erroneous policy stance.
• U.S. Rep. James McDermott, D-Wash., alleged that President Bush knew where Saddam Hussein was hiding “all along” and timed the raid that nabbed him for political purposes.

To which we can now add this outrageous allegation:

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich vowed Saturday in Des Moines to fight any effort to restore a military draft, which he believes is inevitable under defense policies being pursued by the Bush administration.

Sen. Giuliani?

Rumor has it that Giuliani will take on Hillary for her seat in '06:

For Giuliani, challenging Clinton is a necessary step if he hopes to be a national GOP player. He could, if he chose, run for governor in 2006, but that wouldn't do him much good on the national stage. He would still be a pro-gay, pro-choice "Rockefeller Republican."

But Senator Giuliani would be a different matter. He would have slain the dragon, and slaying the dragon would bestow upon him exalted status. Major points of difference with the GOP's core constituencies — like the sanctity of life (abortion) and the evolution of mankind (stem cell research) — would become much less disqualifying.

Red State Republicans — those from the GOP stronghold states — could learn to love Rudy in a New York minute if he beat Hillary.

Today's Must Read

Is from Adam Groves: The Political Genius of the Bush Doctrine.

Best Political Cartoon of the Week

By Jeff Parker at Florida Today:

Wictory Wednesday

I explained why Bush was riding high in my post Inane Moonbat Barking.

Today, Dick Meyer, the Editorial Director of CBSNews.com, takes it even further and lists seven lumps of coal that Democrats have gotten for Christmas this year.

But the truth is that the radical Left is raising a lot of money because they have one goal -- to unseat the man who returned honesty, decency and integrity to the White House 1,427 days ago. The Bush-haters like billionaire George Soros are opening their checkbooks. Extremists organizations like MoveOn.org are taking money from international sources.

McCain-Feingold didn't stop the influence of money in politics. It just altered how the money flows.

Republicans depend on the the people -- the bulk of their donations don't come from lavish Hollywood parties or fund-raisers in Buddhist temples. Republicans get the vast majority of their donations from the people who give $50, $300, or maybe $1,000. People who can't afford much, but know that together we can change the world.

Please help by becoming a Bush Volunteer or, if you can afford it, donate a few dollars to the campaign.

Every right-thinking blogger can participate in Wictory Wednesday. Join the team that is fighting to stem socialism for as long as possible:

Today's Must Read

Go now and read David Brooks' op-ed in the NY Times, A Fetish of Candor. You'll die laughing!

I think we are all disgusted by the way George W. Bush's administration has allowed honesty and candor to seep into the genteel world of international affairs.

Until the Bush team came to power, foreign relations were conducted with a certain gentlemanly decorum. The first Bush administration urged regime change in Iraq, without sullying itself with the Iraqi peasants actually trying to do it. The Clinton administration pretended to fight terrorism without committing the sin of unilateralism by trying very hard. [--- SNIP ---]

The administration's fundamental problem is that it is not very good at dealing with people it can't stand. The men and women in this White House are exceptionally forthright. When they come across someone they regard as insufferable, their instinct is to be blunt. They seek to be honest rather than insincere, to not sugar things up but to let these people know how they really feel.

Sometimes you've got to be slippery to accomplish real good. The Bush administration is thus facing an insincerity crisis. It has become addicted to candor and forthrightness. It needs an immediate back-stabbing infusion.

Perhaps Al Gore could be brought in to offer advice.

Quote of the Day

Dennis Miller, from an interview in Time called 10 Questions For Dennis Miller:

Who in politics inspires you?
George Bush. He's been dealt an amazingly heavy hand of cards here, and I think he's doing his best ... Bush had the balls to start something that's not gonna be finished in his lifetime. The liquidation of terrorism is not gonna happen for a long time. But to take the first step? Ballsy.

Can you say oink?

Say Uncle is a little outraged at the latest omnibus bill. Citizens Against Government Waste has a nice three part analysis of the pork in the bill (originally seven separate spending bills all wrapped up into one -- the better to hide the excesses), which the good Uncle kindly summed up in one post. Adding it all up, Uncle says:

Grand Total: $82,302,000. Hey, here's where campaign finance should start. Stop vote buying now!

I have to agree. $82 million is a lot of money and the items Uncle lists are absolutely unforgivable wastes of our money.

On the other hand, one must keep a sense of proportion. The omnibus bill accounts for $820 billion of spending, making the pork just one tenth of one percent of the total. If my family kept foolish spending down to that level I'd be retiring at 55 instead of planning to work until I am 72!

Just an observation.

Bush Approval Remains High

Gallup titles their latest poll "Key Bush Ratings Remain Fairly Strong"

Bush's surprise visit to U.S. troops in Iraq over Thanksgiving was well received back home. Most Americans (79%), and even a solid majority of Democrats (65%), say the trip was a good idea.

And for historical context:

Bush's current job approval rating is fairly good for presidents in the third year of their presidency.

NRA Radio

Say Anything has a must read post titled Kerry Against NRA News Channel.

Today's Must Read . . .

... is from Tech Central Station: Worse Than the IRS?

Janklow Guilty -- Will Resign

Republican Representative Janklow was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter today. The jury deliberated for less than five hours.

Janklow said he would resign his House seat in January, the day he is to be sentenced.

Gee, ya think?

Republican Infighting

The Hill has an excellent article detailing some of the friction that the "drunken sailer spending" is having on the Republican party. A snippet:

The internal conflict, fueled largely by recent passage of the $78 billion Iraq reconstruction effort and the $400 billion prescription-drug benefit for senior citizens that squeaked through the House on Nov. 22, came to a head last week when President Bush abruptly terminated a phone conversation with a Florida Republican who refused his plea to vote for the landmark bill. [SNIP]

Feeney, a former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives whom many see as a rising star in the party, reportedly told Bush: “I came here to cut entitlements, not grow them.”

Sources said Bush shot back, “Me too, pal,” and hung up the phone.

Make no mistake -- it takes guts for a freshman rep to stand up to the president. I like this Feeney guy.

Creative Bloggers

Pamibe is one extremely talented blogger. This creation earns pamibe a place in the blogroll, but she has more -- go check her out:

Hat tip to Argghhh!!!, who does an excellent job introducing Pam's creation to the Blogosphere. Which blogger is more creative?

Today's Must Read

Power in Washington is shifting:

But slowly, the remaining cornerstones have begun to crumble, as the Democrats have become more attenuated in time from the House of Representatives — for 40 years their bulwark — and are frozen out of the remaining government. The Republicans — first, Newt Gingrich and now Tom DeLay and Speaker Denny Hastert — have been persistently prying the cold, almost dead, Democratic fingers off the law firms, lobbyists and trade associations. (They also have given and received succor from the new media of cable news, talk radio, the Internet and the now legions of conservative commentators.)

The Republicans have also begun doing to Democrats what Democrats did to Republicans for half a century — cutting them out of both the information and influence loop on legislation. The Medicare legislative process is a prime example. Over the last few months, when ranking Democratic congressmen and senators have spoken before vital trade associations, they have been unable to tell their audiences the status of Medicare legislation, for the simple reason that they have been cut out of the negotiations. On the other hand, key Republicans have been able to provide up-to-the-minute insights into the decision-making that can make or break whole industries.

Headline of the Day

A growing political force to be reckoned with: black Republicans

Nice article, worth a read. Money quote is at the end:

A study from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies last year found that in the previous two years, black support for Democrats dropped 11 percentage points, resulting in less than two-thirds calling themselves Democrats. Meanwhile, support for Republicans more than doubled among black voters, from 4 percent to 10 percent.

That is still a small percentage, but it does represent a 150 percent increase. Further, the largest Republican support comes from the youngest segment of black voters – the future.

If Sarasota is any indication, this trickle one day could turn into a dam-break.

President Goes to Iraq

President Bush gave up spending Thanksgiving with his family, and instead embarked on a secret mission to spend time with some of the troops in Iraq who must spend their holidays away from their families.

The president went to his ranch in Crawford, Texas with his family. To keep the appearance of business as usual, even the president's dinner menu was announced. But he slipped away unnoticed, flew to Washington to pick up the few aides that knew about the mission and a few reporters sworn to secrecy, and then flew on to Iraq.

The president spent two and a half hours on the ground in Iraq, devoting his Thanksgiving to our troops:

Bush spoke with soldiers from the 1st Armored Division and the 82nd Airborne Division at an airport mess hall. “You are defeating the terrorists here in Iraq,” he said, “so we don’t have to face them in our own country.”

Terrorists are testing America’s resolve, Bush said, and “they hope we will run.”

“We did not charge hundreds of miles into the heart of Iraq, pay a bitter cost of casualties, defeat a ruthless dictator and liberate 25 million people only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins,” the president said, prompting a standing ovation and cheers.

Wearing an exercise jacket with a 1st Armored Division patch, Bush stood in a line for food, dished out sweet potatoes and corn for Thanksgiving dinner and posed with a platter of a fresh-baked turkey.

Now that is a Commander in Chief!

Will there be an autopsy?

Albert Eisele writes this story of another mugging on Capitol Hill:

The Democratic Party, one of the twin pillars of the American political system and a major force in Congress for much of the 20th century, died last weekend while working on Capitol Hill. It was 175 years old. The cause of death was injuries suffered from an apparent mugging while trying to rescue the New Deal, the New Frontier and the Great Society.

Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said the victim’s body was found Monday in the excavation for the Capitol Visitor Center, shortly after Congress cleared the way for overhauling Medicare, the Great Society program created in 1965 that was considered the party’s most important legacy.

The time of death was uncertain, but it probably occurred between early Saturday morning and Monday afternoon, Gainer said.

Even though the body bore signs of a violent struggle, Gainer did not rule out the possibility of suicide, citing reports that the victim had been severely depressed since November 2000. [snip]

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) offered his condolences to the victim’s family and friends. “I know what it’s like to lose a patient on the operating table,” the heart-lung surgeon said. “But I could see that the deceased was in increasingly poor health in recent years, and I think it’s entirely possible death was due to natural causes.”

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said he was sorry to see his party expire. But he expressed confidence that it would reconstitute itself in a few years, “as soon as Ted Kennedy and Zell Miller figure out what we stand for.”

Today's Must Read ...

.. .comes from Byron York penning a column in The Hill: Democratic memos expose the media’s double standard. It starts out like this:

Imagine this:

A liberal publication obtains copies of secret internal memos by members of Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force. The documents reveal that Cheney and his aides not only consulted big energy companies but actually took orders from those companies in crafting national policy.

If an oil company wanted the vice president to hold off on an initiative, then the vice president held off on the initiative.

If an electricity giant wanted the vice president to block the appointment of a regulatory official, then the vice president blocked the appointment.

The documents even suggest the administration knows it is doing wrong; on one occasion, two of the vice president’s aides say they are “a little concerned about the propriety” of doing the energy companies’ bidding. But they do it anyway.

When the memos are published, the administration doesn’t deny the facts but instead accuses Democrats of stealing the documents.

Now ask yourself: Were all that to happen, do you think the story would be ignored by The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the news sections of The Wall Street Journal, and ABC, NBC and CBS?

And in the one big paper to mention the story, The Washington Post, do you think the only report devoted to the subject, a brief wire-service account on Page A-4, would be headlined, “Apparent Theft of Memos Probed”?

Todays Must Read

Thomas Roeser grades the presidents from Coolidge to George W.

So Just How Did It Go In England?

President Bush delivered a speech in England that was "one of the finest delivered by a visiting leader". It impressed even the harshest critics:

The Independent, a British newspaper that has been a consistent critic of the Bush administration, hailed the president for delivering a speech "with a degree of verve, eloquence and even humor that defied his reputation as the least articulate American president since Calvin Coolidge."

The Guardian, another left-leaning partisan newspaper, said Mr. Bush's speech was a "palatable, even attractive" expression of the Bush Doctrine of fighting terrorism around the globe.

Nile Gardiner, international-affairs fellow at the Heritage Foundation, described it this way:

Mr. Bush earned "grudging respect in Europe," Mr. Gardiner [international-affairs fellow at the Heritage Foundation] said, though "he will never be loved" on the continent.

"Increasingly, he is a man respected for doing what he says and implementing what he believes," Mr. Gardiner said. "And in the end, that is what really matters.

"Reagan was even more reviled in Europe than Bush is, and look at what he achieved."

The president did not come out an apologize to the English, but rather gave an elegant and sincere justification for the war of Iraqi liberation. Speculation has it that this diluted the efforts of the protest organizers. The predicted "hundreds of thousands of protesters" never materialized (in spite of what the BBC says). Even the main rally only drew somewhere between 70,000 protesters (according to Scotland Yard estimates) and a meager 30,000 (so says London’s Metropolitan Police).

For perspective, consider that three times more people marched to protest the outlawing of fox hunting than showed up to protest Bush in London:

Last year, for example, more than 300,000 people marched to protest the Blair government's intention to outlaw fox hunting. Thursday's crowds were dwarfed by those who protested Reagan visits two decades ago and were devoid of the extreme violence that marked British protests against Margaret Thatcher's poll tax. The Rolling Stones squeeze more people into stadiums every day than showed up to protest Mr. Bush on one targeted date.

The president made an impression on the personal level as well. Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell said that the real President Bush is “totally at odds” with how the media describes him:

“He is personally extremely engaging. He has a well-developed sense of humour, is self-deprecating and when he engages in a discussion with you he is warm and concentrates directly on you.

“He looks you straight in the eye and tells you exactly what he thinks.”

Mr Campbell, stressing that the President was “totally at odds” with his media image, went on: “I was not persuaded by what he said, but I was most certainly surprised at the extent to which the caricature of him was inaccurate.”

Bush impressed citizens that he met. He walked up to six kids outside of a pub and said, “Hi, I’m the President of the United States.”

Stuart Percival, 12, said: “It was fantastic. We shook hands with him and he put his arm around me. “I told him I had never met him before and he laughed and said: ‘You have now’.”

Pal Jade McKinnell, 11, said: “He was a really nice man. I once met Alan Shearer but he was not as good as George Bush, the President was far more impressive.”

Gemma Grieves, Tony Blair's neighbor, got a hug when she met the president:

Gemma Grieves, 26 — sporting a stars and stripes jumper — even got a cuddle from the President. She said: “It was a really tight hug. I thought he was lovely.”

So do I, Mrs. Grieves. So do I.

Senate Vote on Medicare Reform Today

Frist has scheduled the first test vote of the Medicare prescription drug bill for Monday. Many Democrats continue to self-destruct over this one by taking opposition too far:

Supporters from organizations such as AARP see it as a compromise that would provide coverage to people with low incomes and relief to those with high drug costs.

However, a poll last week by Hart Research showed that 65 percent of AARP members want Congress to go back to the drawing board. Many members of Congress already have canceled their membership in AARP, and some grassroots organizations such as Moveon.org advocate mass membership cancellations.

Can you imagine Democrats urging teachers to resign from the NEA? Can you imagine AARP supporting a politician that is so stridently opposed to a bill they are trying to get passed?

In spite of every Democrat presidential candidate being opposed to the measure, nine Democrat senators will vote for it (in varying measures of reluctance).

My main problem with the legislation is that it retains the ban on importation of lower-cost drugs from countries like Canada. Why should Americans subsidize drug companies R&D?

Oh yeah -- it also contains a billion dollars to subsidize emergency care for illegal aliens over the next four years.

Gotta Love It

Protest Warrior gets mainstream media coverage with an article in the Washington Times.

Quote of the Day

Donald Sensing writes a well-reasoned essay called Beware the compassion police: Why compassion cannot be a basis for public policy. Read it all, but I had to extract this quote:

Making compassion into policy or law for society compels others to conform to your idea of compassion, trampling on their freedom to be compassionate according to their own lights or to be hard-hearted as they wish. And compassion that coerces is not compassion at all; it is tyranny.

Blanco Wins Louisiana

Blanco wins by over 54,000 votes:

	Kathleen Blanco		730,747		52%
	"Bobby" Jindal		676,180		48%

Why Bush?

This is why even Libertarians like Say Uncle -- who say they are so disappointed in Bush's policies that they will absolutely, positively not vote for him even though they are already benefiting from his leadership -- should stay with Bush.

In a speech before the Tax Foundation, a policy group here that advocates lower taxes, Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said his staff was preparing "a number of proposals to simplify the tax code" and resurrected the idea of "lifetime savings accounts" that would allow people to put aside large sums of money and pay no tax on the investment income they receive.

The proposed "lifetime savings accounts" would allow $7,500 per individual (that's $15,000 for a married couple) to be put into an account for which there would be no taxes on dividends or stock profits. And it there would be a large degree of freedom for withdrawing money before retirement age without imposing penalties.

Look for this to be a centerpiece of the re-election message. Also look at it as the first step to Social Security privatization and significant tax code simplification.

Bush and the Liberal Tradition

Excellent article on the recent speech by the president:

But it would be a great mistake to see the Bush doctrine as conservative in a simple, partisan sense.

For what the president has given voice to are convictions central to the liberal tradition. Freedom is not just good for Americans or for the British. It is good for all people everywhere, because it reflects a universal aspiration, a permanent inclination of the human heart. While forms of government for securing individual rights will vary, as will the choices individuals and peoples make about how to take advantage of the blessings of freedom, no individual wishes to be imprisoned, tortured, or enslaved. Individuals should not be forced to be free, but free nations may be compelled to use force to counter the threat posed by governments that subjugate their own people and threaten the liberties of other nations.

These convictions are nurtured by the tradition of John Locke, who maintained that all men and all women are by nature free and equal. And the tradition of the authors of The Federalist, who believed that the experiment under way in America was relevant to all mankind, because all mankind had interest in discovering whether government based on the consent of the governed and devoted to protecting the rights of individuals was possible. And the tradition of John Stuart Mill, who identified the "permanent interests of man as a progressive being" with the spread of liberty in a manner consistent with the principles of liberty.

Quote of the Day

“As the Democrat party gets smaller, it becomes more liberal, elitist, and angry, and as it becomes more liberal, elitist, and angry, it gets smaller.”      -- Republican National Committee chief Ed Gillespie

Filibuster Action

samaBlog is providing real-time updates of the filibuster.

The filibuster is less than six hours old and he's already made 29 posts. I wonder how dedicated he'll be . . .

If you live in Illinois ...

... then you'd better read this from Free Will.

Alexander the RINO

Tennessee federal representative Marsha Blackburn co-sponsored a bill to permently ban Internet acess taxes. Way to go Marsha! (She's my rep.)

The ban is on hold in the Senate because of people like Republican Lamar Alexander who is demonstrating his Democrat tendencies.

The left-wing Tennessean says:

Sen. Lamar Alexander is not voting to raise taxes. He is not trying to increase the cost of Internet access, nor is he advocating a new tax on e-mail.

Instead, Alexander is trying to protect states from excessive control by the federal government. Yet the conservative, states-rights position the senator has taken on Internet access taxes has been turned on its ear by his critics, many of whom are Republicans.

But my question to Alexander is why he is choosing this issue to stand up for State's Rights? What other issue has Alexander even hinted at wanting to stand up for States Rights?

This is a smokescreen for the tax-hungry Alexander, proving that at least this leopard hasn't changed its spots.

Jindal News

A new poll shows GOP Louisiana gubernatorial candidate Jindal leading Blanco 48 to 43, which is outside of the poll's 4 point margin of error.

The Bushification of America continues.

Jindal News

An analysis of the importance of race in the race for Louisiana governor:

Race has not disappeared from Louisiana politics -- far from it. When New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, a black Democrat, crossed party lines to endorse Jindal last week, it was, in part, an indicator of racial tension within the state Democratic Party. ...

When Nagin stood next to Jindal last week, he said he had polled people all over New Orleans about supporting the GOP candidate. Most seemed open to the idea, he said, adding that African-American voters are beginning to question whether voting for one party is in their best interest.

That endorsement was a body blow to Jindal's opponent, 60-year-old Lt. Gov. Blanco.

It takes a strong turnout from traditionally Democratic black voters in New Orleans to elect a Democrat statewide in Louisiana.

So in these final days before the Saturday runoff, Louisiana finds itself watching not just the Democrat, but the GOP candidate scrapping for the black vote that has always been a lock for Democrats. Jindal needs a small number of black voters to shift the tide. Blanco needs nearly the whole city of New Orleans.

Election watchers noted that Jindal's supporters at his victory party after the primary in mid-October were predominantly white. Since that time, Jindal's campaign has become visibly more diverse.

Gov. Nuge?

Ted Nugent has gone from Motor City Madman to Second Amendment Activist to ultimate American country boy.

He is a published author (two books), sits on the NRA Board of Directors, is nationally recognized for his youth work through his Kamp for Kids, is a spokesman for D.A.R.E., and much more.

He's also fed up with politics in Michigan and is considering running for governor.

The man has incredible energy and great name recognition. Can you imagine him running as a Democrat? No. Perhaps as an Independent if the northern Republicans are silly enough to oppose his nomination in favor for one of their own.

There's plenty of time to decide - the current governor's term isn't up until 2007. In the meantime, the mere prospect of a Governor Nugent is pissing liberals off.

BTW, when Ted wins this race ('cause I think he will run) he will replace Democrat Jennifer Granholm.

Democrat governorships are dropping like flies these days.

Best of the Best

James Taranto makes a couple of excellent finds today.

First is End of an Era
Let history record Nov. 6, 2003, as the day on which the civil rights movement in America drew to a close. For that is the day the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published the following sentence, in an article on the judicial nomination of Janice Rogers Brown:

Prominent blacks charged President Bush deliberately chose a conservative black woman so it would be harder for senators to vote against her.

Second is Anti-Incumbent Mood?--II
We thought we did a pretty good job yesterday of debunking the notion that recent gubernatorial elections reflect an "anti-incumbent mood." Reader Josh Barro points out that there's another way of looking at the results that even more effectively demolishes the claim.

In 2002 and 2003, six incumbent Democratic governors sought re-election:

• Don Siegelman (Alabama)
• Gray Davis (California)
• Roy Barnes (Georgia)
• Tom Vilsack (Iowa)
• Ronnie Musgrove (Mississippi)
• Jim Hodges (South Carolina)

Of these six, only Vilsack and Davis (in 2002) won, and Davis of course was turned out in the recall election less than a year later.

Now, here's a list of Republican incumbents who sought another term:

• Mike Huckabee (Arkansas)
• Bill Owens (Colorado)
• John Rowland (Connecticut)
• Jeb Bush (Florida)
• Dirk Kempthorne (Idaho)
• Mike Johanns (Nebraska)
• Kenny Guinn (Nevada)
• George Pataki (New York)
• Bob Taft (Ohio)
• Rick Perry (Texas)
• Scott McCallum (Wisconsin)

McCallum was the only loser; 10 out of 11 GOP incumbents were victorious.

House GOP Snip Dem's Pork

This story might end up with legs once the press gets ahold of it.

The House majority party took the shears to a huge education and health spending bill, completely cutting the projects for the home districts of every Democrat, nine Republicans and an Independent because they voted against the initial version of the measure last summer. Democrats are crying foul:

Unapologetic GOP leaders say the decision reflects standard procedure in Congress, where uncooperative lawmakers can lose out on money for roads, clinics and other prized items for the folks back home. ...

By tradition, the House's roughly $450 million would be split 60-40 between majority Republicans and minority Democrats, Regula said. That means about $180 million is at stake for House Democrats. ...

Democrats say Regula's decision will disproportionately hurt the poor because 42 of the 50 poorest congressional districts are represented by Democrats, according to Census Bureau figures.

Mapping Victory

Today's must check it out is Adam Groves post on the Kentucky and Mississippi elections. He has a great pair of red/blue maps of Kentucky that you simply must see.

Jindal Picks Up Key Endorsements

The latest polls show Bobby Jindal in a statistical dead heat with his opponent, Kathleen Blanco, in the race for Louisiana governor.

The numbers are close in every area of the state, with the exception of Baton Rouge and New Orleans. In Baton Rouge, Blanco leads with 37 percent of the vote to Jindal's 30 percent. In the New Orleans area, Jindal leads by 9 points.

In Blanco's base in Acadiana, she's tied with Jindal, according to the poll.

Renwick said the polling numbers show no "gender gap."

Heh - no gender gap in a race that could place the first woman ever into the Louisiana governor's mansion. That's significant.

The voter turnout for this election is expected to be very small, even lower than the 4 October primary that only drew half of the registered voters. A poll adjusted for "likely voters" shows the gap between Jindal and Blanco widening:

But when looking only at those likely to vote, Jindal stayed at 44 percent, but Blanco fell to 40 percent, with 16 percent undecided.

Remember that the mayor of New Orleans crossed party lines and endorsed Bobby just three days ago.

Now comes news that the influential North-Central Louisiana Black Caucus has also crossed party lines and endorsed Bobby Jindal.

Vice chairman Glenn Heckard said the caucus consists of 118 black elected officials, businessmen and community leaders and that 93 percent of them voted to endorse Jindal over Democrat Kathleen Blanco in the Nov. 15 governor's runoff.

Although most of the members are Democrats, Heckard said they were attracted to Jindal because he represents a "breath of fresh air" for the state.

Also announced was Jindal endorsement by The Latino Coalition:

“When we looked at the candidates in this race, we found a very significant difference in the way to approach the problems facing Louisiana’s future. Ms. Blanco’s passive approach is without a doubt no match to Mr. Jindal’s detailed and assertive plans to move the state forward,” said TLC President Robert G. de Posada. “Bobby Jindal brings a bold vision for Louisiana that relies on an aggressive economic development strategy to create more and better paying jobs in the state.”

All Children Matter, a national, bipartisan group that favors using vouchers also endorsed Jindal.

The Building of a Legacy

According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, "Republicans have made significant gains both geographically and demographically" since 9/11.

The gains came chiefly among white Protestants, white Catholics, Hispanics in the West and Texas and in important swing states like Florida as well as in three states that Al Gore won in 2000 — Michigan, Minnesota and Iowa. Women and early baby boomers — people in their middle 40's to late 50's — are still more likely to be Democrats, while men, married people with children and people aged 30 to 44 are more likely to lean Republican.

President Bush runs dead even against an unnamed generic Democrat, the survey showed, but he beats all of his current Democratic rivals when they are named.

A look at the changes in the "swing states":

State	--- Current ---		-- 1997-2000 --		Net Change *	Winner in 2000
	GOP	Dem	GOP	Dem
Arkansas	33%	34%	21%	39%	GOP +15	Bush
Iowa	34%	27%	27%	32%	GOP +12	Gore
Michigan	31%	29%	26%	33%	GOP +9	Gore
West Virginia	33%	44%	31%	51%	GOP +9	Bush
Minnesota	31%	28%	26%	31%	GOP +8	Gore
Tennessee	35%	32%	30%	34%	GOP +7	Bush
Florida	37%	36%	33%	38%	GOP +6	Bush
New Mexico	35%	39%	30%	40%	GOP +6	Gore
Louisiana	33%	42%	31%	46%	GOP +6	Bush
Wisconsin	30%	29%	29%	33%	GOP +5	Gore
Pennsylvania	38%	38%	36%	40%	GOP +4	Gore
Missouri	28%	32%	27%	34%	GOP +3	Bush
Oregon	32%	33%	33%	36%	GOP +2	Gore
Ohio	31%	35%	32%	35%	GOP -1	Bush
New Hampshire	29%	20%	30%	19%	GOP -2	Bush

* Since September 11, 2001

Infanticide No Longer Legal

The killing of babies that has no medical basis other than depression of the mother has been made illegal.

"For years, a terrible form of violence has been directed against children who are inches from birth while the law looked the other way," Bush said.

With a stroke of the pen the man that restored honor, decency and integrity to the White House took our nation a small step away from the edge of a moral abyss.

James Pinkerton reviews the media's coverage of this event.

Republicans Sweeping the South

Republican Ernie Fletcher is headed for the Governor's Mansion in Kentucky.

It's after midnight and with 80% of the precincts reporting Republican Barbour leads 53% to 45% over Democrat Musgrove. Barbour's been ahead from the first with only 7 precincts reporting and he is now optimistically giving his victory speech. If the trend holds, he will be only the second Republican governor since the Civil War. There was a record turnout for the vote.

The South has always been a stronghold for men who are men and where honor and trust are the measure of a man. After eight years of despicable behavior by our national leader, Bush is the image of a principled and respectable leader, a man of true character. These things mean something to the Southerner, and the South is responding.

Finally, an ABC News poll shows that there are more Republicans than at any time in the last 23 years.

Jindal gets unexpected boost

Bobby Jindal, Republican candidate for Louisiana governor, received a high-visibility endorsement from the mayor of New Orleans, Democrat Ray Nagin:

The endorsement - a black big-city Democrat backing a conservative Republican - is unorthodox, though in keeping with the maverick mayor's unconventional style. In the primary he backed a conservative north Louisiana Democrat, Randy Ewing, who was not the first choice of other black political leaders, and who finished fifth.

"Maybe I'm throwing deep again," the mayor joked Monday, all the while insisting he was a "life-long Democrat." It was the most significant endorsement Jindal has so far received, and it follows similar unusual sanctionings of Jindal by black political and ministerial groups in the city, a key battleground for votes in the upcoming Nov. 15 runoff.

Reading the article you get the impression that Nagin is a rare bird: a politician that is trying to do the right thing. He shook off threats from members of his own party to do what he thinks is best for the city that he has been entrusted with. An ethical politician is a rare thing, but an ethical Democrat is the stuff of mythology.

Update: The latest poll has Bobby Jindal ahead by 11 points, with a 4 point margin of error:

Jindal had 49 percent compared to Democrat Kathleen Blanco's 38 percent in the independent poll by Verne Kennedy of Marketing Research Insight of Pensacola, Fla. The poll of 600 was taken Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights by Kennedy for a group of 25 wealthy business owners who contribute to both camps. The poll has a margin of error of 4.0 points, Kennedy said.

Based on his previous polls of Oct. 13 and Oct. 22 and the latest one, Kennedy forecast the race to be, at this point, 54 percent for Jindal and 46 percent for Blanco.

Hat tip to James Taranto.

Sabato's Louisiana Prediction

Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball is predicting Republican wins in Kentucky and Mississippi. Both races are interesting in different ways. Kentucky will likely go Republican because of a scandal concerning the current Democrat governor and a certain woman he appointed to the lottery commission. In Mississippi, the incumbent Democrat governor is running as vitriolic campaign as I've ever seen against a former Washington lobbyist, yet the Republican leads in the polls.

But Louisiana remains the most fascinating race of all. Will Indian-American Bobby Jindal keep the governorship in Republican hands, or will hard-campaigning Democrats wrest it away? Larry Sabato has this to say:

Currently, the Crystal Ball sees a toss-up in the Bayou State. Were it not for Democratic Senator John Breaux, who is pulling out all the stops for Democratic nominee Kathleen Blanco, we would declare Republican Bobby Jindal the frontrunner. But Jindal is finding Breaux to be the closest thing in modern Louisiana to a political boss the size of the Kingfish himself, Huey Long. Two-term Republican Governor Mike Foster, still popular at the end of his tenure, strongly backs Jindal. So a Jindal win would maintain GOP control; a Blanco triumph would give the Democrats their only net gain of 2003.

Quote of the Day

Today's quote comes from Zell Miller in regard to Dean's claim that he wants votes from "guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks."

Howard Dean knows as much about the South as a hog knows about Sunday.

Today's Must Read

is an Opinion Journal article by Zell Miller on why he will vote for Bush in 2004:

I first got to know George Bush when we served as governors together, and I just plain like the man, a man who feeds his dogs first thing every morning, has Larry Gatlin sing in the White House, and knows what is meant by the term "hitting behind the runner."

I am moved by the reverence and tenderness he shows the first lady and the unabashed love he has for his parents and his daughters.

I admire this man of faith who has lived that line in that old hymn, "Amazing Grace," "Was blind, but now I see." I like the fact that he's the same on Saturday night as he is on Sunday morning. And I like a man who shows respect for others by starting meetings on time.

Those were the "personal" reasons. He also details the political reasons. Read it.

Don't Regulate Cable

CATO has released an analysis of a General Accounting Office report on cable industry rate competition. The analyst is surprised that the GAO not only does not call for government regulation, it actually confirms that deregulation has benefitted consumers:

... the GAO notes that many factors have contributed to the rising cost of cable service: increased programming expenditures (especially sports); substantial infrastructure investments and upgrades ($75 billion since 1996); and increased customers service expenditures. In other words, while nominal cable rates have risen over the past few years, the amount and quality of the service the industry has provided has increased. When the number of new channels and increased viewing time are taken into account, it becomes clear that the quality-adjusted price of cable programming is actually quite reasonable and that "cable viewers appear to be substantially better off now than they were six years ago" as Michigan State University economist Steven Wildman found in an important new study. Moreover, the GAO alludes to the fact that the inflation rate may not be a very meaningful yardstick by which to compare cable rates anyway. Indeed, the price of many goods and services routinely rise faster than the inflation rate during any given period, but that tells us little about consumer value or welfare.

Bush to Come to Memphis

Well, not exactly. He's going to be at the DeSoto Civic Center for a political rally for Haley Barbour, Republican challenger to Democrat incumbent Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove. That should influence the poll numbers a little.

Mississippi Governor Race

The Democrat incumbent governor, Ronnie Musgrove, is running a highly offensive attack ad campaign against challenger Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee. Living in Memphis, I see these ads frequently - the governor is certainly well-funded. I have yet to see an ad in favor of Barbour.

So it is somewhat surprising that a recent poll shows Republican Barbour in the lead, with 50% to Musgrove's 45%.

Signifying Nothing has thoughts on what happens if neither candidate captures a majority vote.

Undocumented Legislator

Mr. Mike at Half-Bakered hasn't posted for 12 days and I'm getting worried that I'll miss out on gems like this:

The next time some politician comes out in favor of social services or governmental services for illegal aliens, note what office they hold. Then, show up at that House or Senate or City Council meeting and just take a seat with the rest of them. When they look at you funny and ask what you're doing there, tell them you're an "undocumented legislator."

Hat tip to goobage, 'cause I missed this when reading Mike's stuff for myself.

Differences in Perspective

Many of us bemoan the similarities between the parties, saying one is as bad as the other. But the truth is that serious differences exist on issues ranging from illegal immigrants to homeland security. Whether this is a result of the Democrats taking increasingly radical positions in an effort to differentiate themselves, or if they truly believe these things is unimportant. What is important, indeed absolutely essential, is that these differences exist.

One difference is how minorities are perceived and treated by the two parties.

For instance, when Clinton first built his cabinet he deliberately set out to build one with "diversity" in mind. This clearly evident when you consider that when Clinton asked for a list of candidates for Attorney General, he did not seek for the best qualified; he asked for a list of qualified women. Zoe Baird was proposed, but the "nanny problem" arose. Judge Kimba Wood was tapped next, but it turned out she had a similar problem. Finally, Janet Reno was selected and the result was 80 men, women and children dead in Waco, failure to investigate the selling of national secrets to China or flagrant campaign violations, and the return of an innocent child to a communist country. These are the rewards of Clinton's affirmative action program.

Compare that to Bush's seemingly effortless ability to build a diverse cabinet merely by choosing the most qualified individual for the job. Not one person was obviously chosen because of ethnicity or gender, nor has there been any evidence that better qualified individuals were passed over due to these factors. As he announced his picks, Bush was not derided for pandering, but rather for choosing too many from past administrations because of the experience that they brought. Indeed, the Left continues to assert that Bush is dumb and is only successful because of the people that he chooses to have by his side.

Yet Bush's cabinet includes three women (Veneman, Norton, Chao (who replaced Chavez)), two blacks (Powell and Paige), two Asian-Americans (Chao and Mineta, who is also a Democrat holdover from Clinton's cabinet), one Hispanic (Martinez) and one Arab-American (Abraham). His firsts include the first African-American Secretary of State, the first Hispanic Secretary of Labor, the first female National Security Adviser, and the first cabinet in U.S. history in which white men are the minority.

When he sits down with foreign leaders, Bush has Powell and Rice on either side. For all the talk of Clinton being "the first black president", Bush is the one who choose Powell for Secretary of State, making him the highest-ranking minority in U.S. history. And it was Bush who selected Rice for National Security Adviser, making her the highest-ranking black female in U.S. history.

But the differences go far beyond that. The Republican's are becoming the party of minorities who have achieved the American Dream:

• Arnold Schwarzenegger came to this country with less than a hundred dollars and is now a multimillionaire with a real estate empire and is the governor of the most populous state in the union.
  
• Mel Martínez, Housing and Urban Development Secretary, came to this country as a Cuban refugee at age 15.
  
• Sen. Spencer Abraham, Energy Secretary, is the son of Lebanese immigrants and the only Arab-American in the Senate during his term.
  
• Justice Janice Brown is a sharecropper's daughter, born and raised in the segregated South.
  
• Miguel Estrada was born in Honduras, immigrated at the age of 15.
  
• Indian-American Bobby Jindal is on the verge of becoming governor of Louisiana, in spite of highly conservative positions and dark skin; he is even garnering essential endorsements from traditionally Democrat black organizations.
  

All of these individuals earned their nominations through years of hard work and personal achievement. The message from the Republican Party is one that resonates with rural America and immigrants alike: work hard and follow the rules, and there is no limit to what what you can achieve in America.

Compare and contrast that message to the one coming out of the Democrat Party:

• Democrats in California are organizing work stoppages and boycotts in an attempt to save a new law granting drivers licenses to illegal immigrants from being overturned.
  
• House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi claims that the raids on dozens of Wal-Mart stores were "terrorizing", putting fear into people who are trying to feed their families. There is no mention from the Left that these people are breaking the law by being here.
  
• Democrat Senators have hijacked democracy and made excessive use of the filibuster to stop minority judicial candidate Miguel Estrada from being confirmed, and are preparing to do the same to Justice Brown.
  
• Even before this administration, Democrats famously came up with "Borking" judicial candidates. Justice Clarence Thomas' confirmation was a myriad of lies and slurs aimed at obfuscating rational debate.
  
• Democrats, fearful of alienating the powerful Teachers lobby, continue to fight against vouchers even though their minority base (who would benefit the most from breaking the NEA monopoly on education) are overwhelmingly in favor of them.
  

The list goes on, from the perpetuating of the victimization culture of welfare to rabid and increasingly irrational support for Jim Crow-era gun control laws.

What is becoming painfully obvious to any but the most ideologically-blinded voter is that Democrats are of the party that allow terrorists to move freely among us, the party that encourages violation of our borders and protects illegals in our midst, the party that celebrates diversity as long as the minority member in question adheres to a specific and narrowly defined dogma, and the party that trades our children's future for political expediency.

Is it any wonder that cracks are beginning to show in what was once a dead-certain voting block for Democrats?

Outrage of the Week

Even without being able to vote, illegal aliens have changed the makeup of Congress. Every ten years, House seats are reapportioned after a national census of all residents, not just legal residents or voters. Thus those states that serve as safe harbors for illegal aliens are rewarded, while those who work to expel them are penalized.

The Center for Immigration Studies performed a study that found that solely as a result of illegal aliens, California has three new seats and North Carolina has another. Meanwhile Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi and Montana each lost a seat due to illegal aliens living elsewhere. Also:

The growing numbers of all non-citizens -- both legal and illegal -- prompted nine House seats to change states after the 2000 Census. The population trend was responsible for six of California's new seats as well as one each for Texas, Florida and New York. The "loser" states were Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wisconsin.

Some congressional districts have so many non-citizens and so few voters that it takes less than 35,000 votes to win an election, compared to almost 100,000 votes in a typical district. The Los Angeles district of Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, a Democrat, has a population that is 43 percent non-citizen. In South Florida, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Republican, represents a constituency that is 28 percent non-citizen.

Is it any wonder that Democrats have become the party of the illegal alien?

He said that states that were in the Republican column in the last presidential election would have gained nine seats without the impact of immigration.

Rank Hypocrisy

This "cartoon" appeared on the Black Commentator website. In addition to making a respected jurist into Clarence Thomas in a fright wig, the accompanying article has invidious rhetoric like this:

Janice Brown is a Jim Crow-era judge, in natural blackface.

The cartoon and article lumps Brown with Thomas (the highest-ranking black jurist in US history), Powell (the highest-ranking minority in US history), and Rice (the highest-ranking black woman in US history). But the Left does not celebrate the accomplishments of these very capable people. The Left does not present them as inspirational examples of what can be achieved in America. The Left has nothing but contempt and caustic hyperbole for anyone who does not conform to a narrow-minded and extremist ideology.

Black Commentator in general, and cartoonist Khalil Bendib specifically, should be ashamed of their behavior. But shame is something of which the Left has no concept.

Today's Must Read...

is a hysterical "Arnold's Quiz" to test if you are Democrat or Republican. For example, under the heading of Sexual Abuse:

You're a Demo if you think Clinton was just having fun with women and it was time to move on rather than investigate his improprieties but Arnold was a real groper. You're a Republican if you think there's a difference between the president of the United States having sex with an political intern in the White House while his wife is sleeping in the next room and a big Hollywood star flirting on the set.

Wise Words

from Zell Miller:

``The United States Senate is the only place on the planet where 59 votes out of 100 cannot pass anything because 41 votes out of 100 can defeat it,'' said Sen. Zell Miller in remarks presented during a hearing last May before the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the Constitution.

``Try explaining that at your local Rotary Club or to someone in the Wal-Mart parking lot or, for that matter, to the college freshman in Poly Sci 101. You can't because this silly Senate math stands democracy on its head. ...

``The word `filibuster,' '' Miller continued, ``comes from a Spanish word for `pirate,' and that is exactly what the filibuster does: It hijacks the democratic process. The way it is being used in the Senate gives the minority an absolute veto on anything.''

Republicans to Win Kentucky

Kentucky has had Democrat governors for more than 30 years, but it looks like that's about to change. According to the latest poll, Republican candidate Ernie Fletcher is going into the final week before the election with a nine-point lead.

The reason that Democrats have fallen out of favor?

Republicans have said they have a chance to turn Kentucky into their column because scandal-tarred incumbent Gov. Paul Patton's troubles lifted ethics to the forefront in the race.

Democrat Patton was prohibited by state law from seeking a third term; but his trustworthiness was undermined last year when he first denied, then tearfully admitted, an extramarital affair with a woman he appointed to the state's lottery board.

Democrat Party: Morals? We don't need no stinkin' morals!

Fighting Justice Janice Brown

You know the liberals are on weak ground when the leading leftist paper in the world has to resort to ludicrous rhotoric like this:

The American Bar Association, all but a rubber stamp for the administration's nominees...

Here they go again

The Democrat's candidate for New Jersey Senate, Sen. Joseph Suliga, dropped out of his re-election campaign to seek treatment for "an alcohol-related problem". The Dems have replaced their candidate with lawyer Nicholas P. Scutari, even though the deadline for submitting candidates was Sept. 17.

A state Superior Court and an appellate panel have sanctioned the Democrat's obviously illegal actions (I suppose it could be argued that this makes it legal).

The Republican candidate, Martin Marks, is turning to the US Supreme Court, hoping they will rule on the case.

I am not hopeful, given that SCOTUS refused to hear the same kind of case when NJ Democrats replaced Torricelli with Lautenberg at the last minute.

Politicians get a Raise

Will unemployment at worrisome highs, the Senate approved a pay increase for the fifth straight year. The House did the same for themselves last month.

As in past years, the effort to deny senators their pay raise was led by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who has a policy of returning to the Treasury any pay he receives that is above his salary when he began his six-year term.

''How can Congress give itself a $3,400 pay raise while nearly 9 million people are unemployed, and 2 million have been out of work for more than half a year,'' Feingold asked.

With the latest increase, he said, members will have received five consecutive pay hikes totaling more than $21,000.

Good for him!

Are You a Moderate?

Today's must read is from Signifying Nothing, responding to a response to a CalPundit post in The Gigglesnort Test. An excerpt would not do it justice - I'll just say that it was just as subtly funny the second time that I read it.

FEC Dismisses Complaints Against Gore

Al Gore was accused of coordinating his campaign with union-sponsored ads.

Government lawyers concluded that an ad captioned "Under the George W. Bush Tax Plan, the Rich Get Richer" did not call for Gore's election.

Yeah, right.

They also concluded that a complaint brought by Rep. Meehan is "a low priority".

Both complaints were dismissed.

Quote of the Day

Today's Quote of the Day is a tie between two quotes from the same article: Six enemies of freedom by Martin L. Gross.

Quote the first:

Once the center of culture and intellect, France now is in the position of the Arab world of the 13th century, when their arrogance and anti-Christianity set the stage for the fall of the Muslim empire that had conquered half the civilized world. The same is now true of France, whose contributions to the world — intellectually, culturally, and scientifically — have virtually ceased, while America's continue to grow each year. Their envy will be their downfall.

And quote the second:

By 1972, anti-Americans had taken over much of the machinery — if not the average voters — of the Democratic Party, as witnessed by the presidential nomination of Sen. George McGovern, whose plan to confront the Soviet Union was to cut our defense budget by one-third. Today, those defeatist sentiments are echoed by all 10 candidates for the presidency, including retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who supported the effort until his ambitions tarnished his soul.

I just can't decide which one I like better.

Ahnold!

Professor Reiland pens a column about why the last-minute media attacks against Schwarzenegger didn't have the desired effect (well worth the click), but finishes up with why Democrats fear Arnold:

In Schwarzenegger's case, that comes down to a stance that's pro-business and anti-tax, a perspective that's pro-choice on abortion and supportive of gay civil unions. It's a position, in short, that targets free-spending legislators as the problem, not individual freedom. The result? On Tuesday, with registered Democrats outnumbering registered Republicans by 45 percent to 35 percent in California, Republicans took 62.4 percent of the vote.

Bottom line: It looks like this isn't, as they say, your father's Oldsmobile anymore. Under the headline "The new Republican Party?," here's how Sacramento Bee columnist Daniel Weintraub described the scene on the steps of the Capitol the day before the election: "Arnold Schwarzenegger plays guitar while Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider sings the campaign anthem, 'We're not gonna take it.' The rally at the state Capitol drew about 10,000 supporters and was a rainbow of ages, races and social status. No wonder the Democrats fear Schwarzenegger."

Time Magazine puts it this way:

Schwarzenegger represents a cultural politics that is missing in America: culturally liberal on issues like sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, fiscally conservative on taxes and spending, and hawkish on foreign policy. He is neither the interest-group drone of Democratic establishment nor the dour scold of the Republican base. He's the kind of guy who watches the same movies we do, who's both larger than life yet in touch with the cultural air we all breathe. He's an immigrant who doesn't alienate any region of the country, and a conservative who, one suspects, has a gay friend or two and isn't freaked out about it. That kind of complicated but real candidate has been my dream for most of my adult life. He may, of course, not turn out to be an effective Governor. But by being Governor at all, he has changed our political culture for good. And made the possibility of less-polarized politics a little bit larger than it used to be.

Bush News

Remember John McCain - the man ran against Bush in 2000 and who was Bush's biggest critic in the Senate pre-9/11? He's been picked to lead Bush's re-election campaign in Arizona.

And on the Judge front:

Marcia G. Cooke, a former chief inspector general for Gov. Jeb Bush, is expected to be named by President Bush as the first black woman to serve as a federal district judge in the state of Florida.

Update: Arizona Daily Sun tells us that Arizona is one of the fabled "swing states":

Arizona's rapidly growing population and its more moderate politics are prompting both parties to devote more attention to the state than they have in the past.

Political scientists says Arizona, where nearly a quarter its voters registered in the other-party category, has the potential to be a swing state.

See What You Miss?

US Representative from TN Marsha Blackburn
TN House Minority Leader Tre Hargett
TN Senator Mark Norris
TN Representative Dolores Gresham
TN Representative Paul Stanley
Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell
Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice-President of the National Rifle Association
Reverend Bill Adkins

These are just some of the 300+ people at the Memphis Friends of the NRA Banquet. I missed talking to Rep. Blackburn because I wasn't pushy enough before the meal, and I didn't try to get close to Wayne LaPierre because he was surrounded by a mob all the time, and I missed saying hi to the Sheriff. Everyone else I talked to.

I thanked Tre Hargett (my rep) for his work and talked to him about next year's legislative agenda as it relates to gun rights. I sat at the same table as Rep. Gresham and talked to her a little. I also introduced myself to Rev. Adkins and thanked him for his work in saving the Shelby County Gun Range at Shelby Farms. The good reverend promised to come speak at a TFA meeting, which I eagerly look forward to.

These are the people that politically concerned people need to talk to, and these are the people that need a talking to. Every time they come out of the insulating halls of government they need to be made aware of what we the people think, what concerns us, and what is troubling us.

All in all, it was truly an excellent, excellent evening. The food was good, LaPierre gave a stirring address, there were games with big prizes, silent auctions, and a real, live auction (the name of the auctioneer escapes me but he was a professional that really livened things up). A good time was had by all.

This was my first Friends of the NRA Banquet. It certainly will not be my last.

Update: The banquet committee chairman reports:

We had a gross dollar figure of $62,000.00 and a net figure of $42,000.00. The Memphis Friends of NRA Chapter is now the number one chapter in the state of Tennessee of funds raised in 2003 and also has set an all time record for the highest amount of funds ever raised in the state of Tennessee.

Louisiana

The Governors race in Louisiana is the most exciting thing going on in politics today. Bobby Jindal is the 32-year-old son of Indian immigrants with an impressive record of accomplishments even for someone twice his age.

He became the head of the state's health-care system at age 24, director of the Breaux-Thomas national commission on Medicare at 26, president of the University of Louisiana system at 27, and a top adviser on health policy to President Bush at 29... He was admitted to medical school but dropped plans to be a doctor after winning a Rhodes Scholarship. His academic background in health-care administration impressed Gov. Mike Foster, who named him to head the state's $4 billion Department of Health and Hospitals. Mr. Jindal imposed budget discipline and rooted out so much fraud that he was able to turn the state's $400 million Medicaid deficit into a surplus.

Bobby took first place in the primary and will face Democrat Kathleen Blanco, the current Lt. Gov. With positions like these, it's easy to see why he's popular:

But the major issue in the governor's race is how to prevent the state from falling further behind its neighbors in economic growth. Louisiana is the only Southern state where more people are leaving than moving in. The "bright flight" of the state's most promising young people has become the most important symbolic issue of the race. Ms. Blanco says wants to be "the governor who brought our kids back home." But she offers only vague hints on how she'd do this, if elected, other than to call for a summit of experts to examine the state's government. For his part, Mr. Jindal rejects nostrums like tax increases on oil companies or a higher minimum wage: "The only businesses left would be the U-Haul business for people to continue to leave our state." Instead, he would eliminate business taxes on debt and manufacturing equipment and carve out a greater role for the private sector in road building and the provision of health care for the poor. He would expand school choice and allow home schooled children to participate in extracurricular activities at their local public school.

The main thing is that the man just makes sense:

Part of his philosophy is a belief that the federal government can't be Louisiana's salvation. He told National Review that the federal government's $20 billion bailout of the states was flawed because "it required no efficiencies from the states." Bailouts mean that "states expand Medicaid in good times and go to the federal government in bad times," he concluded.

New Hope for Blue America

Joel Kotkin pens a clear-headed analysis of the California election:

It’s time for the East Coast sophistos to stop making jokes about California, and start listening up. The resounding victories of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the equally breathtaking defeat of Governor Davis and the Democratic Party, mark a potential turning point, not only for California but also for urbanized, coastal America. In one evening, a seemingly unalterable trend toward ever-greater regulation, higher taxes, and social engineering within the Gore zone of “blue states” not only has been challenged but also overcome.

In political terms, the election also holds up a great lesson for both Democrats and Republicans with regard to political trends along the highly urbanized coastal regions. In California, what Howard Dean would call “the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party” got its rear-end kicked. Nearly two thirds of Californians, including a large contingent of Democrats (and the bulk of independents) voted for either Mr. Schwarzenegger or state Senator Thomas McClintock, his more conservative competitor.

Of course, not all Democrats deserted their party. In the parallel universe also known as San Francisco, the recall was defeated by four to one, and Lieutenant Governor Bustamante won a resounding victory. Indeed, the Bay Area counties remained the last holdouts for party orthodoxy.

But everywhere else, the tide was with the Republicans. In Los Angeles County, the largest urban jurisdiction in the nation, the recall vote was split down the middle, and Mr. Schwarzenegger beat Mr. Bustamante 45% to 37%. With Mr. McClintock’s vote added, Republicans gained 56%, a remarkable number in what was considered a bedrock “blue” county.

Mystery Solved!

Mr. Mike has solved the mystery of Hillary's presidential paperwork - by picking up the phone and calling the FCC. Who said bloggers can't do investigative journalism?

Presidential Demands

Further proof that honor, decency and integrity has returned to the White House:

President Bush demanded that his staff meet a Tuesday deadline to turn over documents for the Justice Department's investigation into who leaked the identity of an undercover CIA officer.

Quotes of the Day

In response to Calpundit saying that we are up to 15 women who say Arnold fondled them, Balloon Juice says:

According to my calculations from the lessons learned during the Clinton years, Arnold is approximately one rape charge away from a NOW endorsement.

And Dizzy Girl has this to say:

And just so you know, I'm ashamed the California is part of the United States. I'm ashamed that I live in a country where our political system has been made a joke of by a bunch of gun-grabbing, anti-American, Castro-loving, Hollywood-type morons. Can we just divorce the state already???

Another Democrat Switcheroo

Politician runs for office. Politician gets drunk. Politician gets thrown out of a casino. Politician is suddenly unelectable, so he quits the race and the party gets a judge to OK substituting another candidate on the ballot. The new candidate just happens to be the Democrat incumbent.

Republicans are going to appeal to the New Jersey Supreme Court. Any bets on that outcome?

Union Reporting

The administration has issued new regulations that will require labor unions to disclose financial details such as how much they spend on politics and lobbying, gifts, overhead and management.

The rules will force national, regional and local unions with income of more than $250,000 to provide much more financial detail in the annual forms they are required to file with the Labor Department. The forms haven't been updated in more than 40 years, administration officials say.

"The current financial disclosure forms that unions file provide little of value to rank-and-file members about their union's finances and operations, and they have failed as an effective deterrent against financial misconduct," said Labor Secretary Elaine Chao in a statement.

It's about time.

Today's must read

Bobby Jindal is the son of Indian immigrants, and he may very well be the next Governor of Louisiana.

Oh yeah - and he's a Republican. And he just took first place in the primary, leaving him to face whichever Democrat comes in second.

Watch Out New Hampshire

The Free State Project has chosen New Hampshire as the state slated for invasion to which 20,000 Libertarians will move in an attempt to take over engage in a noble experiment, reducing the size and scope of government and seeing what happens.

"It's not difficult to see the reasons for New Hampshire's victory," adds Vice-President Elizabeth McKinstry, who is originally from New England. "The state boasts the lowest state and local tax burden in the continental U.S., the leanest state government in the country in terms of government spending and employment, a citizen legislature, a healthy job market, and perhaps most important, local support for our movement."

In other words, New Hampshire is already close to being a Libertarian utopia, so the change should be fast and easy. I hope they are successful - it could show middle-of-the-roaders that tax-and-spend government really isn't necessary.

One interesting note: New Hampshire was selected using Condorcet's Method, about which I previously blogged.

Clinton Haters

Today's must read is by Bret Stephens, as he explains why he is a "Clinton hater":

To his supporters, he was the shaper of the new American center, the brightest Democratic light since John F. Kennedy, the toast of European elites. To people like me, he was a hollow and posturing and feckless man who embodied that side of America that was also hollow and posturing and feckless. And he was the bane of people for whom American fecklessness was a matter of life and death people like that woman in Srebrenica who buried her family.

Celebrity Republicans

California Republicans must be pleased with Schwarzenegger's progress. They are looking to tap other celebrities into public service. Dennis Miller, Kelsey Grammer, and Martina Navratilova have all been spoken of in recent weeks.

Speaking of Dennis Miller - he's come out in favor of Schwarzenegger:

Arnold. The larger than life character who, of the four, came off as the everyman. My candidate. A brilliant track record. Has taken on two endeavors in his adult life and became the biggest success in the world at both of them. The only salvo the opposition can summon so far is some, “wild behavior” in his twenties. Hey, I’ll tell you how deranged I was in my twenties, I might have voted for Gray Davis.

Keeping Secrets

The secrets of Area 51 are secure for another year, by order of President Bush.

Mr. Bush's order effectively lets the Air Force flout environmental laws without a public accounting. That is understandably upsetting to a group of former workers and two widows represented by Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor who filed suit in 1994, claiming that exposure to toxic materials illegally burned on the grounds had caused gruesome skin rashes and respiratory ailments.

The secrecy surrounding Area 51 has been obsessive, even for the military, which does not like to acknowledge its existence, much less whether officers illegally handled hazardous waste. In 1995, in response to the suit, President Bill Clinton issued the first annual exemption to protect the military from having to make disclosures.

While armed patrols and ominous signs warning of "deadly force" isolate Area 51, situated about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, foreign satellite photos of buildings and of a runway several miles long hint at its uses. Rather than performing alien autopsies, the Air Force is more likely to be using the site to test new military hardware. Few would disagree that such work deserves to be classified, but it should not give the government a pass to break the law or to abuse the basic rights of its workers.

NASA Safety Panel Resigns

The entire panel of nine experts on the NASA space safety advisory panel resigned en masse after receiving sharp criticism from Congress:

Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee said the ASAP failed to spot potential danger signs in the operation of the space shuttle and that NASA should reconstitute the panel.

Might I point out that the Senate Appropriations Committee has such mental giants as Robert Byrd (who is the only man technically qualified to oversee design flaws in buggy whips), Patrick Leahy ("You get fifteen democrats in a room, and you get twenty opinions"), and evidently someone's grandmother.

Boycotts work

In further proof that boycotts work (just like I said they did), the Dixie Chicks are abandoning their roots and going rock 'n roll.

We don't feel part of the country scene any longer, it can't be our home any more.

Democrat Bad News Roundup

Recall
The highly suspect ruling by the 3-judge panel that postponed the recall election has been unanimously overturned by an 11-judge panel. That means, according to the handy counter in the upper right of this page, that the election will take place in 14 days.

Good. Let's get the circus over with so we can turn our attention to more important matters.

Bustamante
Judge orders Bustamante to return $4 million in campaign funds that were collected illegally, primarily from Indian tribes and unions. Although the judge is giving Bustamante the benefit of the doubt, declaring that Bustamante had probably "acted in good faith", it is difficult to understand how the judge arrived at this opinion. Bustamante's actions suggest that he knew what he was doing was illegal. First, he placed the money in an old fund and then played musical funds, moving it from the first, then a second, and finally a third fund. Second, he spent the funds in an extraordinarily short time. The judge couldn't order him to return any of the money because it has all been spent.

Clark
First, Clark claimed that someone in the White House pressured him to link Hussein to 9/11. Later, the best "link" he could come up with was a Canadian think-tank.

Now Clark claims, "I would have been a Republican if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls."

One problem. There are no records in the White House call logs of Clark attempting to get in touch with Rove.

The People's Vote

U.S. News & World Report are have 100 documents that have shaped America, from the Lee Resolution of 1776 to the Voting Rights Act in 1965, and they want you to vote on the ten that you feel were the most influential. I'm glad I get ten votes, I was immediately torn between the Virginia Plan and the Federalist Papers (you can't tell that I'm a Constitutionalist, can you?).

Outrageous Hypocrisy

The Democrat Party is endangering our nation by vulgar pandering to illegal aliens - illegals that the Democrats know will vote their way as soon as they can get a driver's license in their hands. Gray Davis just signed into law a measure that will do just that, even though he knows it endangers the country:

Davis knows this. In fact, he vetoed the same bill last year that actually had some safety features in it, saying that it was too dangerous in this age of terrorism. And yet, the bill he just signed was stripped of all security elements, but he did it anyway because he’s willing to do anything, including putting untold millions of Americans at risk of life and liberty, to hold onto his job for another three miserable years.

An illegal alien that makes good should be a hero to Democrats everywhere. Yet now they are using a technicality to start a smear campaign against Schwarzenegger:

As a 21-year-old bodybuilder, Schwarzenegger came to the United States in 1968 on a B-1 visa, which allows visiting athletes to compete and train, but bars them from drawing a salary from an American company.

But in his 1977 autobiography, Schwarzenegger said he reached a deal with a legendary figure in the bodybuilding industry "to pay me a weekly salary in exchange for my information and being able to use photographs of me in his magazine."

That arrangement, said a half dozen immigration attorneys across the nation, appears to have violated the terms of his visa.

You may agree or disagree with the scale of the offense. But you have to admit, for a party willing to endanger American lives by letting terrorists get driver's licenses they sure have a lot of gall getting pissy about a salary paid a few months too soon 25 years ago.

This'll make you think

How much does your state spend on infrastructure? Roads, bridges, power plants, water purification systems, and so on. You'd think it was a lot - this stuff is important.

Alongside the checkbox for recall and a replacement governor in California, the ballot this fall will include Proposition 53. This is a constitutional amendment that will require the legislature to spend a whole 1% on infrastructure.

Monies have also been squandered by our politicians for selfish political gain at the same time that our infrastructure is virtually ignored. If there's ever an infrastructure crisis like crumbling water mains at Hetch Hetchy or schools with leaking roofs, the politicos simply propose an expensive bond measure and let the voters decide. That's planning?

Other than some minor bridge widenings, the newest span over San Francisco Bay, the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, was built some 50 years ago. That may explain the insufferable daily San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge backup. There's been much talk of a Southern Crossing, a new span that would alleviate Bay Bridge traffic, but you can be sure we'll have the Second Coming before we ever get the Southern Crossing.

The 1% figures increases gradually to 3% in ten years. 3% of our money to build schools, bridges, water mains. Jeez, you'd think that the government could spend some of that money for everyone instead of all funds going to bloated government social programs.

I don't know what it is in Tennessee. Maybe Bill Hobbs does - he's reporting that the unreported (other than his blog, that is) Tennessee surplus is even larger than previously thought. Does any politician know what's going on with our money?

Universal Healthcare

Lean Left Kevin posts about health insurance premiums, and Say Uncle does a nice job of replying. Read 'em both.

Why Communism Fails

And why it will never succeed is the subject of a post by Donald Sensing. Excellent read, and he asks for your comments.

Quote of the Day

From one of my favorite Democrats:

"Once upon a time, the most successful Democratic leader of them all, FDR, looked south and said, 'I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill clad, ill nourished,'' Today our National Democratic leaders look south and say, 'I see one third of a nation and it can go to hell.' " - Senator Zell Miller, (D-Ga).

Today's Must Read ...

comes from Tech Central Station in the form of an article by Hans Labohm, A New Road to Surfdom?

Our freedom and economic well-being are still exposed to hazards, which could be grouped as follows:

• Egalitarianism
• High taxes
• Interest groups
• Trade unionism
• The ideology of stasis
• Regulation
• Precautionary principle
• Man-made global warming and Kyoto.

Egalitarianism
If there is anything at all which socialism still separates from other political currents, it is its emphasis on egalitarianism. ... There is a vast political majority in all countries in favour of some kind and some degree of income redistribution. But there is permanent fight about the extent of it, partly because there is a trade-off between the creation of wealth and the distribution of wealth. Overgenerous income redistribution will under­­mine incentives, thus diminish­ing the creation of wealth, from which we all suffer. In many countries in Europe, critical thresholds have already been exceeded in that respect.

High Taxes
Tax reduction was part of the so-called supply side revolution. Its aim was to improve the supply side of the economy, as opposed to the demand side, which was the main focus of Keynesianism. The underlying philosophy was illustrated by the so-called Laffer Curve in the seventies, named after the American economist Arthur Laffer. He posed that, beyond a certain level, high tax rates would stifle economic activity, thus lowering total tax revenues for government, while lower tax rates would promote economic activity, with increased government revenues as a result. Tax reduction was a favourite objective of our ministers of finance but has faded into the background over the last few years in many countries because of the recession.

Interest Groups
...The (classical) liberal project for an integrated Europe includes the repeal of the privileges to minority groups at the expense of the immense majority, because they invariably result in impairing the wealth and income of the majority. It was the American economist Mancur Olson who first analysed the growing ossification of national economic systems caused by the advent of special interest groups. The latter are acting as distributional coalitions, i.e., to receive special favours from the government in the form of protection, subsidies, monopolistic status, or other forms of barriers to exit and entry in a particular industry. If successful, their actions turn market participants into rent-seekers, thus stifling economic dynamism and growth.

Trade Unionism
Trade unions deserve separate treatment in the colourful parade of interest groups. European integration and the increased competition that it entails have not substantially weakened their political power. In many countries trade unions are being regarded as esteemed partners in so-called social dialogue. Their involvement has even been enshrined in the institutional arrangements on European level in the framework of the macroeconomic dialogue of the EMU. But the same well-respected dialogue partners have for a long time held our societies hostage, in the sense that they have effectively blocked all kinds of socio-economic reforms which are long overdue, including the efforts to make labour markets more flexible and to reform pension schemes, so that they will become sustainable. It should not be forgotten that society as a whole pays a high price for this kind of behaviour of a minority imposing its will on the majority. Just by way of illustration, in Germany only 18 percent of the workers are member of a trade union.

But there are signs that the public at large is fed up with it. In France -- of all places -- a popular movement has emerged, called Liberté, j'écris ton nom (Freedom, I write your name), led by a young student Sabine Herold. The movement has publicly opposed the strikes of civil servants and public sector employees, which have become a favourite pastime in France. It has mount­ed a massive counter-demonstration mobilizing 100,000 people. It never happened before, either in France or anywhere else.

The Ideology of Stasis
Then there is the ideology of stasis, a notion that has been coined by the American author Virginia Postrel. She points out that despite the fact that today we have greater wealth, health, opportunity, and choice than at any time in history, there is a chorus of intellectuals and politicians who loudly lament our condition. Technology, they say, enslaves us. Economic change makes us insecure. Popular culture coarsens and brutalizes us. Consumerism despoils the environment. The future, they say, is dangerously out of control, and unless we rein in these forces of change and guide them closely, we risk disaster.

In her book, The Future and Its Enemies, Virginia Postrel explodes this myth, embarking on a bold exploration of how progress really occurs. In a multitude of areas of endeavour she shows how and why unplanned, open-ended trial and error -- not conformity to one central vision -- is the key to human betterment. Thus, the true enemies of humanity's future are those who insist on prescribing outcomes in advance, circumventing the process of competition and experiment in favour of their own preconceptions and prejudices.

Postrel argues that these conflicting views of progress, rather than the traditional left and right, increasingly define our political and cultural debate. On one side, she identifies a collection of strange bedfellows with different political backgrounds -- from right to left -- who all share a devotion to what she calls "stasis," a controlled, uniform society that changes only with permission from some central authority. On the other side is an emerging coalition in support of what Postrel calls "dynamism": an open-ended society where creativity and enterprise, operating under predictable rules, generate progress in unpredictable ways. Dynamists are united not by a single political agenda but by an appreciation for such complex evolutionary processes as scientific inquiry, market competition, artistic development, and technological invention.

Regulation: Good, Bad, and Ugly
As far as regulation is concerned, deregulation efforts of the eighties seem to have reversed gears and degenerated into something what looks like a new regulation frenzy. But like Sergio Leone in his masterly spaghetti Western "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," we have to make a clear distinction between different sorts of regulation. The good regulation is supportive of free markets. This sort of regulation manifests itself for instance in the European financial services sector. The bad regulation stifles markets. This kind of regulation manifests itself if many markets of goods, especially as regards overzealous safety and environmental require­ments. And the ugly regulation has a protectionist effect. In agriculture, for instance, the de facto prohibition of the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Europe, offers a case in point. All is all, one can hardly escape the feeling that there is far too much regulation of the bad and ugly types.

Precautionary Principle
Furthermore, there is the precautionary principle. Who doesn't want to be better safe than sorry? Yet, there are limits. If pushed to extremes, the cost of precaution could easily outweigh the benefits. We finance the fire brigade via our taxes, but not every house has a sprinkler installation. And at the apogee of the Cold War, there were even people who did not possess a nuclear shelter in their backyard.

In other words, a risk-free world is unthinkable and there are limits to the application of the precautionary principle. We believe that some risks are too small to warrant additional expenditure. If we would spend more on them, then we will have to forgo the satisfaction of other needs, including the precautionary measures that will protect us against other risks that we believe to be more likely. In short, the application of the precautionary principle should be subject to the same simple cost-benefit analysis, which we also apply in all other fields of human decision-making... Excessive application of the precautionary principle prevents action until there is complete certainty that it will not produce any harm. But 100 percent safety can never be guaranteed. The result is paralysis and stagnation.

Man-Made Global Warming and Kyoto
At the same time another spectre is haunting us, if we may believe the official position of the EU: man-made global warming! But the putative threat of man-made global warming is probably a statistical artefact. Surface-based temperature measurements do indeed show some increase in worldwide temperatures, but these measurements are unreliable. They are skewed because of several reasons; for instance, the closing down of two-thirds of weather stations over the past three decades. The remaining stations are often in urban regions that are exposed to the so-called urban heat island effect, which means that cities are warming up as the population increases, while the open countryside is not. The most accurate temperature measurements -- those by satellites -- do not show any significant global warming. So global warming does not pose a serious threat. But the measures that have been proposed to counter it do! They entail an additional layer of costly bureaucratic regulation and will stifle economic growth.

Hat tip to Advised by Wolves

What's Ten Bucks?

You can donate online. It's fun. It's fast. It's easy. It's painless. It's necessary. Do it. Do it now. For the children. For Soccer Moms and Nascar Dads. But most importantly, just to stick it in the eye of every bleeding-heart socialist Deanie Baby out there!

Smoking Ban? No Problem!

A smoking ban went into effect for many Florida night spots, but one club is fighting back with a new drink: the nicotini:

Soak tobacco leaves in vodka overnight, deaden the juice's harshness by adding a couple other liquors, and voilà, the nicotini of Las Olas.

Taxin' Dean

The Tennessee Tax Revolt reports that Vermont (ol' Howard Dean's home state) ranks fifth in terms of per capita tax burden on its citizens and second when taxes are shown as a percent of personal income.

The same study shows that President Bush's home state of Texas ranks 49th and 48th in those categories, respectively.

Who do you want setting our tax policy?

Note: for interested Tennesseans, we rank 48th in per capita and 46th as a percent of personal income. Not bad for a state that had a revenue surplus this year even without an income tax.

Cozying Up to the Core

The Red Rag New York Times reports that both Democrats and Republicans have figured out that the party that motivates their core constituency is the party that wins, rather than the campaign to win over independent voters.

Brilliant

I have never been so profoundly impressed by anything that I've read in the blogosphere as this essay on Responsibility by Bill Whittle. It's slow starting, but I think I've found a new idol.

Eternal thanks to The B.O.G. for pointing the way.

Texas Republicans Giving Everyone a Bad Name

With the Texas Democrats solidly in power for the last century and a half, a spirit of bipartisanship reigned. The Republicans took the legislature for the first time and are going wild.

You can argue all you want about whether or not the Democrats running off and hiding instead of doing the jobs that they were elected to do is a good thing or not (I think it is the height of immaturity). You can argue all you want about the Republicans levying large fines on the missing Dems are a good thing or not (I think it is not).

But now it seems that the Republicans are actually thinking about suspending elections until the Dems come back and the redistricting plans are in place. Why not just rip up the constitution and select a king?

Evolution

Whilst perusing Truth Laid Bear's wonderful ecosystem, I noticed that Pathetic Earthlings is one link away from being bumped from Adorable Little Rodent to Marauding Marsupial. While it is true that he is the absolute top rodent, one would think that ol' PE would want to make it to a larger mammal. Assuming, that is, that he indulges in the ego-racking activity of paying attention to such things, of course. (So few of us do.)

Now it seems to me that any RTB member would immediately want to help out a comrade-in-scotch arms scotch, so here is a well-deserved link:

In An Interesting pro-Arianna View of the Recall Pathetic Earthlings says that this article is "from a decidedly left-of-center publication." Wherever it's from, is certainly is a pretty good read.

Oh, and for totally gratuitous link (or two), he also has a tip on a good non-French brandy and claims responsibility for the 49ers comeback in Super Bowl XXIII.

If that doesn't get him out of my genus, nothing will! Move on, brother RTBer!

Update: I went to read Truth Laid Bear's blog and saw that his ecosystem is frozen in time until he and his ISP can get things straightened out. So all this was for naught. Oh well, such are the results of good intentions.

Preventing another Enron

The SEC issued a "guidelines memo" yesterday that requires additional review and approval by corporate audit committees before projects proposed by outside auditors (ala Andersen) can be done by the same firm. This is a deliberate attempt to increase the red tape and (therefore) costs when hiring the firm to do the work that proposed it, thus 'spreading the work around' and (they think) making everyone a little more honest.

How silly.

CATO has the answer:

Americans have been inundated with financial scandals at large corporations during the past two years. In many cases, unethical behavior and poor oversight of corporate management are to blame. But a deeper look reveals that the flawed structure of the corporate income tax has been a key driver of corporate waste and inefficiency. The tax code distorts financial and investment decisions and spurs executives to hunt for tax shelters.

Three fundamental flaws in the corporate income tax are behind the distortions and tax shelters. The first flaw is that the corporate income tax rate is very high. Currently, the U.S. statutory corporate rate is the second highest among the 30 major industrial countries. That high rate reduces investment, encourages firms to move profits abroad, and provides incentives to push the legal margins of the tax code.

The second flaw is that the corporate tax base of net income or profits is inherently complex because it relies on concepts such as capital gains and capitalization of long-lived assets that are difficult to consistently account for in a tax system. Costs of capitalized assets are deducted through depreciation, amortization, and other rules. The tax rules for capitalized assets and capital gains are repeatedly exploited in corporate tax shelters. These rules also cause economic distortions as they interfere with capital investment, business reorganizations, and other decisions. Capital gains taxation and capitalization would be eliminated under a replacement "cash-flow" tax system.

The third flaw is the gratuitous inconsistency of the tax code. Examples include the different tax treatment given to debt and equity and the different rules imposed on corporations and the half dozen other types of businesses. Such inconsistencies played a key role in the tax shelters exploited by Enron and other firms. Worse, they have created large costs to the economy by distorting capital markets and channeling investment into less productive uses. A cash-flow tax would eliminate these distortions and put all businesses and investments on an equal footing.

Go and read. Then vote Libertarian.

Wanna know how screwed up our over-regulated government is?

There won't be any reruns of Conan the Barbarian, or Total Recall, or even Different Strokes on open air in California:

The airing of "Total Recall" or another Schwarzenegger film, or a repeat of a "Diff'rent Strokes" episode with Gary Coleman on broadcast television in California would trigger the Federal Communications Commission's equal time provision, allowing other candidates to demand the same amount of time.

Naw - couldn't happen. Right?

In 1972, NBC aired a Doris Day movie in which comedian Pat Paulsen appeared for 30 seconds. Because Paulsen had launched a satiric presidential campaign, he was ruled a legitimate candidate. Two Republican candidates requested and got 30 seconds in the same time slot as a result.

AS IF seeing Schwarzenegger acting would convince anyone to vote for him! Strangely, cable is not affected:

Cable channels are not covered by the FCC rule, which in the past kept reruns of "Death Valley Days" off the air while Ronald Reagan ran for president. A repeat of a "Saturday Night Live" episode featuring Don Novello, aka Father Guido Sarducci, on cable, for instance, would not trigger the provision.

Novello, Schwarzenegger, Coleman and more than 240 other candidates, have filed to run in the Oct. 7 election to recall incumbent Gov. Gray Davis. The equal time rules was to kick in on Wednesday, when the state was expected to officially certify the list of candidates.

Let's hear it for a Schwarzenegger movie marathon on USA!

Vacation in Paradise

The prez is vacationing in that part of the world I call God's Country, because Texas is beautiful and wonderfully warm (which I love and miss so much!). The New York Times reports:

The president for the most part continued his monthlong ranch routine as if it were, say, 98 degrees, by clearing cedar and going fishing. On Thursday, when the official Crawford high (measured in the nearby town of McGregor) was 105.8 degrees, and on the same week that the Waco newspaper warned people not to exercise in the heat, Mr. Bush went for a run — at noon.

...

Of course, the run did allow Mr. Bush to add a Secret Service agent to the membership list of his "Hundred Degree Club," which consists of people able to run with him when the temperature hits 100.

...

On Friday, Vice President Dick Cheney descended from his summer home in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming to the dry Texas prairie, where he met with the president on Iraq and cast for bass in Mr. Bush's stocked pond. Mr. Cheney normally pursues trout in cold mountain streams.

"Dick Cheney is a great fly fisherman," Mr. Bush told reporters.

"But not a member of the Hundred Degree Club," Mr. Cheney said.

Only in California

Some quotes concerning the recall race:

"It's humorous," said Adrian Wallace, who was visiting San Francisco with his family from London. "It sort of feeds the stereotype of California having so many crazies."

It's not a stereotype if it's true - it's a trait.

"I can't decide between him and Gary Coleman," laughed Billy Vasquez of Oakland. "Larry Flynt from Hustler is a good one, too. I mean at least he knows how to run a business. They're all freaks, but at least this recall isn't boring."

See what I mean?

Williams said she's never before voted for a Republican but added, "Arnold is Arnold. He's not really a Republican."

Truer words have never been spoken.

This promises to be fun. Let the nutty Californian jokes begin!

Daschle in Decline

Senate Minority Leader Daschle is a falling star, according to recent polls:

The new numbers reflect a turnaround in Daschle’s fortunes. In 2001 and 2002, after the defection of Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) gave control of the Senate to Democrats, Daschle’s favorable rating rose from 34 to 40 percent. His unfavorable rating stayed between 20 and 30 percent.

Daschle’s ratings began to slide after his party lost the Senate. By March of this year, his favorable rating had fallen to 32 percent while his unfavorable rating jumped to 38 percent — the first time his ratings had tipped into negative territory.

Daschle is leading the filibuster of three Bush judicial nominees. After the August break, this number will go up, doing even more damage to his popularity:

But Daschle’s problems go far beyond judicial nominations. In his home state, many see him as obstructing nearly everything Bush wants to do.

“People in South Dakota are flat-out disgruntled with the position that Sen. Daschle has taken against the president,” said Randy Frederick, chairman of the South Dakota Republican Party. “Democrats have blocked this, and they’ve blocked that, but they don’t point to anything positive where they tried to move the nation in the right direction.”

In particular, Frederick pointed to a statement Daschle made in March, just before the war in Iraq. “I am saddened, saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we’re now forced to war,” Daschle said. “Saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn’t create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical for our country.”

“People have not forgotten that,” said Frederick.

And then there’s Daschle’s loss of clout. Being Senate majority leader was a big part of his appeal to South Dakotans last year.

During Sen. Tim Johnson’s (D-S.D.) reelection race, Daschle told audiences that a vote for Johnson was also a vote for Tom Daschle as majority leader.

It didn’t quite work out that way.

Soccer Moms Going Republican

A new poll shows that the Democrats are losing a couple more key constituencies:

Gore benefited from what political analysts call a "gender gap" in voting that has been a major part presidential politics since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980: women favoring Democrats by wide margins, men favoring Republicans by equally wide margins.

However, further analysis of the 2000 presidential detected what is now referred to as the "marriage gap" — a partisan divide that could be a major advantage for Bush in his re-election bid and attest to his ability to attract female voters, particularly wives and mothers. In 2000, only 44 percent of married voters of both genders supported Gore, compared with 57 percent of unmarried voters.

Fifty-six percent of married voters voted for Bush in 2000. And last month, a poll by former Clinton White House pollster Mark Penn found that if the presidential election were held this summer, Bush would once again win married voters by an even larger margin, 50-29, over a generic Democrat.

Moreover, Penn found that Bush has essentially achieved parity with Democrats in terms of women voters: the president was favored 42-41 percent over the generic Democrat in the poll — a stunning achievement for a party that has registered gender gaps of 21 percent over the last quarter century.

Even more daunting to the Democrats is the fact that the "soccer moms" — the term pollsters have long applied to the pivotal swing vote of suburban married women with children — have morphed into "security moms" since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

[SNIP]

The problem for the Democrats seeking the party's 2004 president nomination is even more complex, however.

Women, mostly liberal activists of the kind that make up NOW's membership, account for nearly 60 percent of the vote in Democratic primaries. So most of the candidates must pursue these voters in a way that does not move their campaigns too far to the left and alienate moderates, the swing voters in the general election.

"Yes, if Republicans do not expand their constituency, they will suffer at the ballot box, but the same can be said for Democrats," Matthew Dowd, Bush's pollster, writes in the current issue of the Brookings Institution's "Review" periodical. "For instance, if the Democrats continue to lose ground among union households, white males and stay-at-home moms, they will forever be the minority party."

We can only hope. Wouldn't it be nice if the Republicans became the new Democrats and Libertarians became the new Republicans?

Will we never be rid of these people

There should be no surprise here:

The FBI is investigating allegations that Denise Rich, the songwriter and wealthy Democratic Party fund-raiser, illegally reimbursed relatives and employees who donated to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign, the Daily News has learned.

A grand jury is questioning witnesses in Manhattan Federal Court about the donations, as well as money donated to the New York State Senate 2000 campaign that ultimately supported Clinton, according to two sources.

One source said the FBI also is looking into possible obstruction of justice charges involving Rich.

The Clinton legacy goes on . . .

Voting the Party Line

I have always subscribed to the "vote the man, not the party" theory. Eugene Volokh has a thorough and intriguing post about why he's a party line voter (emphasis in original text):

I generally think the country would be better off if the Republicans (for all their warts) are in control than if the Democrats are. So if I and those like me vote for a Democratic candidate over a Republican because we think that this particular Democrat is better (smarter, more honest, or even more in agreement with us on many issues, despite his party affiliation), and this candidate's election ends up giving Democrats control of the relevant legislative chamber, then we've hurt the causes that we favor: By electing this candidate, whom we like, we've essentially elected a party that we dislike. And even if the candidate breaks with the party in some cases (which may be part of why we voted for him), in most situations -- both when voting on legislation, and, as importantly, voting on whom to put on various legislative committees and the like -- he'll follow party discipline.

Gun rights advocates recently saw this in action in Tennessee. Kent Coleman (D) ran for the TN House seat for Murfreesboro. During the run-up to election, he answered an NRA legislative survey with all the right answers and earned himself an "A" rating. Furthermore, in the survey he specifically stated that he supported the removal of carry prohibitions on restaurants that serve alcohol and relaxing TN reciprocity standards (to recognize permits from other states that did not recognize ours).

Coleman beat his Republican opponent by forty votes. Don't tell me that the NRA rating didn't make a significant difference in rural Tennessee!

Coleman was assigned to the House Judiciary Committee and was made Secretary, and subsequently appointed to a new subcommittee - ironically called Constitutional Protections.

When the bills he said he supported during the campaign actually came up for a vote, he waffled, saying he had not heard from his constituents. The NRA and TFA mounted a drive and Coleman's office was flooded with calls. Still, he voted no because his Chief of Police and some of his restaurant owners did not like them. Total reversal of stated position, total negation of his constituent's wishes.

Once in office, Kent Coleman became a party man and voted the party line.

Eugene is right - vote the party you want, not the man.

Having said that, Eugene also has a list of exceptions to this rule and must also be considered. It makes me absolutely sick to say this, but rule of thumb, I'll vote the party. And I hate the two party system.

Scary!

Microsoft wins Homeland Security contract!

The Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday it has awarded a five-year, $90 million enterprise agreement to Microsoft Corp to become the department's primary technology provider.

Under the contract, Microsoft will supply desktop and server software to the newly created department, which has merged parts of 22 different agencies into one entity.

The agreement delivers licensing coverage for about 140,000 desktops and will help the department to establish a common computing environment, Homeland Security said in a statement.

OMG, who thinks that "Microsoft" and "Security" belong in the same sentence?

The last big government contract that Microsoft got was for $471 million for 494,000 Army computers. That worked out to $953/computer. This deal works out to the tune of $643/computer.

The government should go Linux. I bet Red Hat would give them a real sweet deal.

Update: Microsoft Admits Flaw in Windows Software

Microsoft Corp. acknowledged a critical vulnerability Wednesday in nearly all versions of its flagship Windows operating system software, the first such design flaw to affect its latest Windows Server 2003 software.

Microsoft said the vulnerability could allow hackers to seize control of a victim's Windows computer over the Internet, stealing data, deleting files or eavesdropping on e-mails. The company urged customers to immediately apply a free software repairing patch available from Microsoft's Web site.

Perfect for the U.S. Army and Homeland Security.

Hatch Wants Constitutional Amendment

Remember Sen. Orrin Hatch? The one that wanted to blow up the computers of people who downloaded copyrighted material? Well, old Hatch is back in the news - this time for proposing a constitutional amendment that would allow foreign born people to become president, if they have been naturalized citizens for at least twenty years.

This seems tailor-made for a certain Austrian-born, politically-ambitious, RINO out in California. Ahhhrrnold has been eyeing the governorship for some time, and was seemingly maneuvering to run in the 2006 election (although the recall may throw that effort all a-skilter). And Schwarzenegger has been a long-time supporter of the crazy old honorable Senator, often appearing at fund raisers. But no, claims Hatch's staff:

Hatch spokeswoman Margarita Tapia said the legislation was not drafted with Schwarzenegger or anyone else specifically in mind when Hatch came up with the 20-year requirement. "It was a policy judgment not associated with any one individual," she said.

Let's see, this is 2003, and Schwarzenegger became a naturalized citizen in 1983 . . . borrow and carry the one ... Oh, surely that's just a coincidence!

Perhaps Demolition Man will prove to be a prophetic piece of work after all (although 61st amendment seems a little high, and who really believes that Taco Bell will win the franchise war?).

Hat tip to Political Wire for pointing out the story.

History and Analysis from Fred

Fred Barnes has an excellent piece on the Davis recall effort in California:

THE MEDIA and political establishment in California hasn't learned a thing in 25 years. In 1978, the Los Angeles Times editorialized sternly against the fiscal drain and "chaotic effects" of Proposition 13, the referendum that cut property taxes deeply and touched off an anti-tax wave across the country. Now, faced with a referendum to toss Democratic governor Gray Davis out of office, the newspaper is warning against the "deeper fiscal hole and the partisan political chaos" that may result. A quarter century ago, the San Francisco Chronicle declared Proposition 13 "a revolutionary threat, a total threat, to the stability of all government." Likewise, the recall drive is abetting "the dysfunction" of state government. "It's reckless, it's outrageous," the Chronicle insists. Democratic party leaders, who dominate California politics, and politically connected elements of the business community say the same thing. "We can't tolerate the chaos," Warren Christopher, the secretary of state under President Clinton and now a Los Angeles lawyer, said.

These arguments aren't working any better now than they did in 1978.

Fred make some very interesting points, especially concerning the gains by the Republican party in California. Personally, I think a Republican governor of California is about as likely as the Tooth Fairy, but it does make for interesting times.

Hat tip to Molly's Musings for pointing out the article.

Lies

L.T. Smash weighs in on the effectiveness of "military intelligence", then goes on to give his slant on the relevance of it all:

But the crux of the debate on Hardball was whether that faulty intelligence was used to sell the war with Iraq to the American people—in other words, as one pundit put it, whether “we went to war on a lie.”

I wasn’t sure whether I should be amazed or amused by this argument. Today was the first time I’ve heard of this debate, which apparently has been going on for a while now. When Bush made those remarks in the State of the Union Address, that bit of intel didn’t even register with me. In fact, I didn’t even watch the speech.

You see, I wasn’t home that night. I was here in the Sandbox, busy getting ready for war. A war, I might add, for which I had been actively preparing for two months. A conflict which had been debated—and authorized—in the United States Congress last October.

You can read the Congressional Resolution here. Not once does it mention the words “uranium” or “Africa.” It does talk quite a bit about Saddam’s failure to live up to his responsibilities after the First Gulf War, his well-documented support for terrorists, and his brutal treatment of the Iraqi people, however.

But why confuse the issue with facts, when there are political points to be made?

Go and read the whole thing (with links intact). Then add LT to your blogroll.

Confidence in Voting

SK Bubba is all a-twitter about proposed legislation designed to ensure that votes are all counted correctly and that disabled people get the same protection. "Verifiable" is the big topic, ensured via paper trail.

Of course, the legislation proposed by the New Jersey Democrat has absolutely nothing in it to make verify that the voter in question is actually entitled to vote! No requirements for a picture ID, no requirements for cleaning voter rolls of criminals, no requirements designed to keep illegal aliens from voting, no requirements to keep people from voting as their neighbors, no requirements designed to keep people from registering their dog to vote.

Over 5,000 felons illegally voted in the Florida 2000 election. Felons overwhelmingly vote for soft-on-crime feel-good democrats. Eliminating these voters alone would have stopped the whole cherry-picking vote, scoff-law SCOFLA judicial activism, "count every vote unless it's from the military" debacle.

Every time Democrats talk about reforming elections, they stomp on every effort to verify the voter. As a result, dead people, illegals, felons, and even imaginary people vote in every election. Where's the outrage?

NEA efforts

The Washington Times reports that the evil powerful teachers union (National Education Association) will target swing states in '04. That is to say, they are going to do exactly what the Club for Growth has been doing for several years - pour dollars and focus activists on vulnerable candidates that don't agree with their position.

The National Education Association will target 16 states where voters were most closely split in 2000 in hopes of replacing President Bush with a "pro-education" Democratic president in 2004, the teachers union's chief lobbyist said before this week's annual NEA convention.

Thinking that the NEA wants a "pro-education" president is like thinking that Saddam Hussein wanted to comply with UN resolutions. The NEA wants a strongly pro-union president that will protect jobs, no matter the consequences to our children.

And in House and Senate races, "we may find some right-wing Republicans that we can take out," said Randall J. Moody, the NEA's federal policy manager, at workshops to outline the group's political strategy.

Evidently, a "right-wing Republican" means someone who thinks that pouring money into schools that turn out graduates that can't read, much less do basic algebra problems, is a bad idea.

NEA members are being recruited to help register millions of black and Hispanic voters, who made up 12 percent of voters in the 2000 election, Mr. Moody said.

Isn't it ironic that the very people who are most hurt by failing schools are the ones being hoodwinked into perpetuating them?

So as the NEA did in the 2000 and 2002 elections, it will recruit "moderate" House and Senate candidates; do polling for candidates it supports, particularly in 40 to 45 House races "that really are contested"; raise funds for candidates; provide direct mail to members; and "turn out the vote," he said.

"Moderate" Republicans, that is. A Democrat with their position on education would be called a "conservative Democrat".

"Politics move our policy. We work through UniServe," Mr. Moody told delegates at two political workshops Saturday. UniServe is the NEA's system of paid coordinators for all school districts in the country. Their salaries are paid from local and national NEA members' dues.

That's right. Our tax dollars pay for high-powered lobbyists who work to get more tax dollars spent, even (or perhaps especially) in the case of failure. That is vile.

Although Republicans control both houses of Congress, "it's not a very good working majority" because of moderates who do not support many policies of the administration and Republican congressional leaders, Mr. Moody said.

"Moderates are diminishing, but they are very crucial. ... There are four to five moderate Republicans in the Senate. We can make a difference by working with them. On the House side, there are 40 to 50 moderates who make a difference. There are 40 to 45 Republicans who vote against [school] vouchers. Their leadership over there is very right wing, very anti-public education. They will beat these moderates back into line if we don't work with them."

Yes, vouchers and school choice can be viewed as anti-public education. It is very pro-education in that only schools that continue to fail will be affected. In the end it can even be seen as pro-public education because it will force public schools to perform better in order to continue to receive money. Capitalism works. A giant wooden shaft should be mercilessly driven through the heart of the NEA monopoly.

Do it for the children.

NEA leaders want to target vulnerable conservative Republican House and Senate incumbents in the same way that the Club for Growth, a Republican-oriented pro-free-market political action committee targets moderates by fielding more conservative challengers in Republican primaries, Mr. Moody said.

"We're looking for primaries to support moderate Republicans and keep safe seats. We know the Club for Growth will support right-wing extremists. On the Republican side, if a moderate loses and a right-wing candidate wins, we've lost that vote."

The Club for Growth does not support right-wing "extremists". The Club for Growth concentrates on electing politicians that believe in small government and economic growth-strategies. The Club is not affiliated with a particular party. It just turns out that most Democrats are of the tax-and-spend ideology (and a growing number of Republicans as well).

The problem for Democrats is that the Republicans have stolen many of their issues," such as education and Medicare prescription drug coverage, the lobbyist said.

The NEA will counter in the coming election campaign by emphasizing "how extreme they are," he told the delegates.

The problem for Democrats is that they have dominated the federal political sphere for decades and done an increasingly poor job (especially in education). Some people are finally waking up to that fact, including their minority base.

Two major issues, Mr. Moody said, will be Mr. Bush's support for school vouchers, which permit families to use their children's public school funding toward expenses in alternative schools, and his faith-based initiative to provide federal grants to religious charities and service organizations to help school, antipoverty and criminal justice programs.

Silly NEA, minorities overwhelmingly support school choice. And I just can't see the administration's desire to send money into poor black churches to support community programs as a bad thing.

"We support the separation of church and state. This administration's whole philosophy has been to blur those lines, to move us away from political stability and good public policy. They want to bring in religious groups to share in that [federal] largesse. What they really want to do is allow them to continue to discriminate in who they hire and use federal money to do that. We oppose that."

I love this! Allowing parents to choose the best educational opportunity for their children is going to destabilize the political structure of America. Oh . . . my . . . goodness . . . run for the hills!

Of course they oppose using federal money to discriminate against people they want as teachers. Why would the NEA want to spend money only on good teachers and successful programs when those monies would be away from the greedy clutches of NEA administrators and lobbyists?

Many delegates who attended the weekend plenary sessions expressed optimism that Democrats could defeat Mr. Bush next year.

"Bush is going to defeat himself," said Peggy Lear Bowen of Reno, Nev., a member of the state board of education.

"How? Are his lips moving?" said Miss Bowen, a middle school history teacher who is allied with Sen. Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat and deputy Senate minority leader.

It is teachers like these, my friends, that are why little Johnny and little Jane can't read.

Medical Malpractice Propaganda War

Democrats successfully stopped legislation that would cap the amount of damages that we-the-little-people could sue for in cases of medical malfeasance. Senator Dr. Frist played politics by rushing this to the floor, bypassing many of the usual steps in the legislative dance.

What is more disturbing is that lessons of history is being ignored: California already tried capping awards way back in 1975, with further tort reform in 1988. Unsurprisingly, it did not work. Proposition 103 (passed in November 1988) forced the insurance industry to reduce rates and open their books, and suddenly rates stabilized. It worked so well that serious consideration is being given to repeal the award caps passed a quarter century ago.

The problem is that rising insurance costs and trail lawyers have been unfairly demonized by the AMA, the Republican party, and a surprisingly willing media. USA Today conducted a six week study and found that doctors pay a relatively small percentage of their income for malpractice insurance, ranging from a median cost of 1.5% (for a surgical cardiologist) to 6.7% (for an OB-GYN). Granted, these are median costs and they will vary from state to state, but these figures are a far cry from a medical industry debacle that threatens to bring down the entire health care infrastructure. Our medical services are not "in crisis".

In fact, the whole "rapidly rising malpractice insurance" scare is just that - a scare. A myth. Insurance rates rise and fall in cycles, responding to a large number of factors (return on investment, entry of new insurers into the market, etc.). And when one adjusts for inflation one finds that malpractice premiums actually dropped from 1991 to 2000 - by nearly a third. In fact, government regulations and mandates is twice as damaging to our health care costs.

Another problem is the way costs are allocated. Rather than penalizing those doctors that make mistakes, litigation costs are shared by all doctors in a given specialty or area

Rather than demonizing lawyers who represent victim's of malpractice, the medical community should do a better job of policing itself. The Philidelphia Business Journal found that

Most of the malpractice claims paid in Pennsylvania are due to negligent treatment by a relatively few number of doctors. According to the National Practitioner Data Bank, only 4.7 percent of Pennsylvania's doctors are responsible for 51.4 percent of all payments in malpractice cases and those doctors have had three or more claims.

How bad is it? In spite of the fact that less than 2% of malpractice claims result in an award at trial, the Campaign for Patient Protection claims that, "Medical malpractice is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, more deaths than breast cancer, AIDS and traffic deaths." Also:

Eight times as many patients are injured by a medical malpractice as those actually file a claim; 16 times as may suffer injuries as receive any compensation. One in five Americans has suffered a serious medical or prescription error.

All I know is that if my daughter received the care that Jesica Santillan did (who died after a heart-lung transplant because the blood type of the donor did not match), or my wife received the care given to Linda McDougal (who underwent an unnecessary double mastectomy because the lab mixed up biopsy samples), I would want the ability to retain a lawyer and sue. Moreover, if a janitor with six children had an experience like this, he should be able to find a lawyer willing to take the case. That won't happen very often with a $250K cap on awards.

However, even if one agrees with the lawyers in this particular case, one should not miss the opportunity to take a jab at them:

Strom's last laugh?

Gene, over at Harry's Place, made a fascinating observation about one of Strom Thurmand's last wishes.

Government Information Awareness

In response to the Total Information Awareness program being pursued by the government, a pair of MIT researchers are setting up a Government Information Awareness web site designed to allow citizens to create dossiers on government officials:

The system will start by offering standard background information on politicians, but then go one bold step further, by asking Internet users to submit their own intelligence reports on government officials -- reports that will be published with no effort to verify their accuracy.

[SNIP]

But the controversy gave McKinley the idea for the GIA project. "If total information exists," he said, "really the same effort should be spent to make the same information at the leadership level at least as transparent -- in my opinion, more transparent."

Right on! Find the site at opengov.media.mit.edu.

Scandal-free

Bush White House untouched by scandal:

Mr. Bush, by contrast, largely has been untainted by scandals as he nears the midway point of his third year in office. Political experts said that has helped the president enact more of his agenda than they initially thought possible.

"Political capital is a very finite commodity and you want to spent it strategically," said Matthew T. Felling of the Center for Media and Public Affairs. "Previous administrations have had to spend their political capital — or have just had it deducted from their account — through various scandals."

Hardball

You are either with us or against us:

The Bush administration yesterday suspended all U.S. military assistance to 35 countries because they refused to pledge to give U.S. citizens immunity before the International Criminal Court.

The administration warned last year that under a provision of the new U.S. anti-terrorism law, any country that became a member of the new court but failed to give exemptions to Americans serving within its borders would lose all U.S. military aid -- including education, training and financing of weapons and equipment purchases.

I love a president that says what he means, and stands by what he says. Even when it means playing hardball.

Now, if we'll only quit giving money to Arab governments that sponsor anti-American newspapers.

Dr. Ruth at Bush Fundraiser

The president continues his full-court press and raises over $34 million in six weeks for his campaign fund, and even famous democrats on jumping on board as Dr. Ruth headlines at a Florida Bush fundraiser:

Decked out in a red, white and blue silk outfit made for her by designer Bill Blass, Dr. Ruth said she came to the Bush fund-raisers as a favor to the Saulls, who often support her charitable causes.

"I'm a Democrat, everybody knows it," she said. "But when they said they needed me, I am here."

An Israeli freedom fighter at the age of 16, Westheimer said she told the president Monday she was pleased with the recent progress being made on the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. She said she was also supportive of the administration's efforts to improve reading among school children.

Thurmond Dead at 100

Former South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond was the nation's longest-serving senator. He died Thursday in his hometown of Edgefield, South Carolina.

Thurmond participated in the Normandy invasion on D-Day and was awarded five Battle Stars. In all, he earned 18 decorations, medals and awards for his military service. Thurmond served 36 years in Reserve and on active duty, attaining the rank of major general in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Rest in peace, Senator.

Government Waste

Microsoft landed a $471 million deal to provide software for 494,000 US Army personal computers. Doing the math, this works out to $953 per computer. And for what? As noted on Slashdot:

The great things about this deal: the Army is going through a reseller, when clearly they have the purchasing power to buy direct; and most of the computers they purchase are normal consumer machines which will be purchased with Windows and Office already installed, so the Army will be paying twice for each machine.

I hate the 2 party system

Yet more on Republicans worried that a Davis recall will hurt the party:

Some recall supporters believe President Bush would become more likely to seriously contest California in 2004 if Davis gets ousted and is replaced by a Republican governor. But other party strategists believe that if an unpopular Davis remains in office, he could become a weight on the eventual Democratic presidential nominee, thus boosting Bush's prospects.

Said one senior national GOP operative, referring to Davis: "I'm not sure that we are not better off having someone who is so unpopular ... representing Democrats there. The quagmire is if you get a new Republican in office, and the [state's] problems are just translated to them."

As I posted before, the single, most-important consideration in the decision as to whether or not the governor of California should be replaced is what is best for the citizens of California! The national party should be concerned about all their constituents, not the health of the party.

While it is true that most American voters are about as intelligent as lemmings, I don't believe that anyone would relate the performance of a new state governor that must undo a decade of troubles would "transfer" the blame to an incumbent president. Besides, Bush as about as much chance of carrying California as I do of becoming Pope (and I'm not Catholic).

Morris Interview

Why I like Dick Morris:

Q: Before we get to the real serious stuff, what do you think of Hillary Clinton's book "Living History"?

A: Well, it's selling really well, but I question the editorial judgment of those who list it as a best-seller under nonfiction, as opposed to fiction.

Q: Are you a Democrat or a Republican or both?

A: I'm an independent. I hate both parties equally. I think the Republican is run by the NRA, the Christian Coalition and is dominated by intolerance. I think the Democratic Party is the wholly owned subsidiary of the AFL-CIO, the labor unions and various other special interests. I think that both of these parties are crooked to the core.

Effective Advocay?

From the Mercury News:

When state lawmakers voted down a financial-privacy bill Tuesday afternoon, consumer advocate Jamie Court wanted to give them a taste of their own medicine.

So he hopped on the Internet, bought their Social Security numbers for $26 a pop and posted parts of them on his group's Web site.

Where are You on the Compass?

This is not a bad test for determining your political compass, although I think some of the questions are up to interpretation (and I think I ended up not nearly libertarian enough):

Take the test here.
Hat tip to The Smallest Minority for the link.

Zero-sum Game

Remember when Bush was running for president and said that he wanted to give tax cuts to the people who pay taxes? According to the Washington Times, the Bush tax cuts mean even more families have no tax liability at all:

Thanks to the 2001 $1.35 trillion tax cut and last month's $350 billion tax cut, 39.6 million families will have no income tax liability in 2003, according to numbers by the Tax Foundation and Citizens for Tax Justice.

And that's only the first two tax cuts. Soon we'll have to add in the latest procreation-subsidation program currently under consideration by congress:

The figures apply even before Congress acts on a bill to provide 6.5 million families, who are already off the tax rolls, with up to another $400 per child, bringing the total per-child tax credit to $1,000. The bill would extend the full $1,000-per-child credit to married couples making up to $150,000, eliminating the eligibility "marriage penalty."

So far Bush has further subsidized those who pay no taxes, has failed to cut the size of government, said he would sign the 'assault weapons' ban extension, and enthusiastically endorsed an education bill sponsored by blonde-in-the-pond Kennedy.

As far as I'm concerned, this president has a disastrous domestic agenda.

Sibling disagreement

Concerning the child tax credit, one of my brothers said to another in an email debate:

But the real issue here is should people who pay no taxes get money for not paying any taxes because they are poor. Sounds like welfare to me. If, on the other hand, the working poor are paying too much in Social Security taxes, then let's reform the Social Security system. But the Dem-Wits don't want to address that issue, so they "frame the debate" as a refund to the working poor instead of Social Security reform.

Just another way of lying.

True enough, but I disagree on one point. The real issue is why is there a child tax credit at all? What constitutional basis is there for using tax monies to subsidize the act of procreation? Why is it that someone with children should have their tax burden reduced at all? If a family consists of two parents and seven children, does it not stand to reason that they consume substantially more government services than a family of four? If so, what kind of twisted logic does it take that says they pay less and get more?

It is said that teenagers are God's punishment for enjoying sex. If I didn't get to enjoy the sex, why should my money help support your teenager?

If you can't afford to have kid and pay your taxes, the don't have a kid! You're broke! What in the name of all that is holy makes you think you can feed, clothe, and educate another human being? If you absolutely must have a kid, write your congressman and get taxes reduced. Vote for smaller government. But do not expect me to help support you in your drive for genetic immortality. I don't care if you have a kid or not.

Hatch on a Rampage

69 year-old Senator Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made news Tuesday when he expressed the desire to give copyright holders the ability to hack into citizen's computers and destroy them whenever illegal copyrighted information is found.

One wonders what comes next. Placing explosives in photocopy machines that can be set off any time magizine articles are copied for illegal distribution?

Bush in Germany

One man's perspective of A Compassionate Conservative visits Auschwitz, excerpted here in the hopes it will make you go read the whole thing:

Last weekend, the president and First Lady Laura Bush toured Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp where, sixty years ago, Polish Jews endured one of the world's worst real-life nightmares. It is said that to visit one of these camps is a life-changing experience for all who go there. Apparently, the president was no exception.

"Powerful...so sad...all the little baby shoes..." These words were all Mr. Bush could manage to express verbally after the two-hour tour.

[SNIP]

So the next time you hear an angry liberal spew hateful epithets like "Fascist" or "Nazi" at this good and decent man, just visualize him walking through Auschwitz, holding his wife's hand, his throat choked with emotion, moved beyond words.

Then get down on your knees and thank God that at this moment in our nation's history, this compassionate conservative is our president.

Hispanics back Estrada Nomination

From Reuters:

Hispanic Americans, by a nearly nine-to-one margin, believe judicial nominee Miguel Estrada deserves a confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate where he is being blocked by Democrats, a poll released on Wednesday showed. While about half of the 800 respondents were identified as Democrats, 87 percent said they back Republican President Bush's bid to make Estrada the first Hispanic judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

I wonder how many results did they have to discard to get a 50/50 Democrat/Republican Hispanic population?

Micromanagement

As a relative novice in the political community, allow me to express some shock and awe as to exactly how our government works. Today I found myself perusing the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004. This is where our august Congress sets aside monies for our armed services to operate. In it, I found such mundane and seemingly reasonable things as:

Funds are hereby authorized to be appropriated for fiscal year 2004 for procurement for the Army as follows:
(1) For aircraft, $2,158,485,000.
(2) For missiles, $1,553,462,000.
(3) For weapons and tracked combat vehicles, $1,658,504,000.
(4) For ammunition, $1,363,305,000.
(5) For other procurement, $4,266,027,000.

Seems innocent enough. My company approves the next year's budget for capital expenditures in a similar manner. Monies are allocated for missle defense R&D, which makes sense - we don't want run-away costs nor do we want to underfund vital research. Even $1,661,307,000 for DOD working capital and $65,279,000 for running military retirement homes appear reasonable enough.

Under section 321 (general definitions applicable to facilities and operations) I am relieved to find that highly technical terms are laid out, by Congressional Decree, such as:

The term `unexploded ordnance' means military munitions that--

(A) have been primed, fused, armed, or otherwise prepared for action;
(B) have been fired, dropped, launched, projected, or placed in such a manner as to constitute a hazard to operations, installations, personnel, or material; and
(C) remain unexploded either by malfunction, design, or any other cause..

Whew! I'm sure glad we got that straightened out!

Then we start getting into a little more detail. Wetlands management. The rules governing how naval vessels can be used for artificial reefs (i.e., scuttled in shallow waters). Rules for transferring equipment between ships. Bonus increases (e.g., hostile fire and imminent danger pay went up from $150 to $225 - I hope that's per week and not per month).

I grew in a military family and I often heard the phrase, "It would take an act of Congress to get that changed!" I heard it so often and in relation to such mundane matters that I never took it seriously. But in this act of Congress we have:

SEC. 632. PAYMENT OR REIMBURSEMENT OF STUDENT BAGGAGE STORAGE COSTS FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN OF MEMBERS STATIONED OVERSEAS.

Section 430(b)(2) of title 37, United States Code, is amended in the first sentence by inserting before the period at the end the following: `or during a different period in the same fiscal year selected by the member'.

Congress controls accumulation of leave time, shipment of military personnel's vehicles, and medical and dental screenings for reserve units that have been mobilized. They set bonuses and incentives, lay out 'disciplinary actions...for misuse of defense travel cards', approve funds for improving housing in specific locations, and, in Subtitle B - Education and Training (8) they make certain that Section 3142 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991 is:

(D) amended in the section heading by adding a period at the end.

Wow - glad we caught that missing period!

It seems to me that at some point we should hire good people, give them general guidelines, and say, "Make it so!"

Current Events

In this country, incumbents have to really screw up to lose reelection. So why would three-term County Sheriff Williamson switch parties to seek a fourth term?

“I think that the local Democratic philosophy has changed over time and I can no longer identify,” Williamson said on Monday. He cited his fiscal and social conservatism, which he said is no longer in step with the county Democrats. “It’s a philosophical difference between me and the current Democratic Committee.”

Meanwhile over in Toledo City, Council member Betty "Lucas County’s longest-serving Democrat" Shultz switched to the Republican party:

"I, and many others, feel very strongly that the Lucas County Democratic Party has moved too far to the political left. So far, in fact, that I no longer agree with the local professional party leadership."

And back in Maryland, two mayors leave the Democrats for the GOP:

"I am coming back home," said Goldsborough, 56. "Thirty-eight years ago, I was a registered Republican, but I changed 26 years ago because I couldn't vote in the Democratic primary. This party is moving and shaking, and I just want to be in it."

Willey, 61, a lifelong Democrat who described himself as a "pro-business candidate" in favor of development on the Shore, said he received more help from Republicans than members of his own party during his last campaign. He said it made sense for him to switch party affiliation

To remind us that defections go both ways, Jim "it's all about timing" Jeffords is celebrating the two-year anniversay of his defection from the president by insisting that he is still relevant and "attacking President Bush for a pattern of 'deception and distortion' in his policies and governing."

Hey Jimmy, how's that milk-protection legislation going?

Integrity in the Real World

Since 1994, US Representative Zach Wamp has represented his district without accepting any PAC donations. Assuming Frist keeps his promise of two terms, Zach is going to run for his seat. To do that he needs big money, and the slick little weasel he's running against is a Ford of the Memphis Fords - a family with a long and rich political history (if scandals make for a rich history).

So Zach has decided to begin accepting PAC donations for his Senate campaign fund. Still, ten years of federal-level servi