Americans build the Chinese army...

I am not very optimistic after hearing Bill Gertz on the Drudge radio show last Sunday evening.

In short, Mr. Gertz made the case that American consumers are funding the rapid expansion of the Chinese military through our purchases of the Chinese made goods being sold by Walmart.

Now, my of the Bush apologists on the right claim that a strong China is in the best interests of America, but I wonder if the parents of the men who will die fighting the Chinese Army will agree. After all, the Bush adminstration has said that we will not permit Taiwan to be reincorporated under the Chinese government via military force.

This puts us at an interesting crossroad, especially as Bush continues to push CAFTA to the American sheeple.

Is it really in the best interests of our future as Americans to continue exporting our manufacturing capabilites to 3rd world countries run by dictators and/or communists in an attempt to bolster their economies at the expense of our own?

It's clear that NAFTA failed on many levels, clearly shown by the huge trade imbalance between the United States and Mexico. Workers in blue-collar areas such as North Carolina, Ohio, and the rust belt may begin looking outside the Republican party as they value federal policy which favors employment opportunities over a conservative social agenda.

Either way, the mindless "free trade" rhetoric coming from Bush and some of his neo-con utopians must be confronted and shown to be as hollow as it really is. Otherwise, Americans will be in for a rude awakening when we become overreliant upon foreign made goods and unable to sustain ourselves without them.

Atlanta crane situation...

Why are the authorities in Atlanta spending time and money trying to preserve this man's life?

Wouldn't we all be better off allowing him to execute a death penalty on himself, thereby saving the costs of a trial and a lifetime imprisonment?

Constitutional Restoration Act...

This bill seeks to make a few, but important alterations to the federal judiciary of the United States.

Judge Moore explains the proposal much more eloquently than can I.

I am seeing quite a few websites and blogs popping up whose stated agenda extends beyond partisan politics and seeks the truth wherever it hides its oft ugly head, including this one. That blog claims that the CRA:

• Threatens with “impeachment and conviction” any judge who dares to uphold church-state separation

• This bill had 39 co-sponsors including D-Zell Miller and they represent the hard core fundamentalists that want to tear down the wall of separation between church and state.

• The polarization is not between religious and secular groups but is more accurately between people for a separation of church and state and those that want to write God into the Constitution. Many religious leaders are for a separation so to say it is just between secular and religious groups. That is overly simplistic.

Now, as I see it, the federalist principles held by the men who founded this nation have been violated since the Civil War began. Aside from that debate, the strength and greatness of this nation began with a clear recognition of INDIVIDUAL, unalienable rights. Perhaps the men who wrote the Constitution were Christians, perhaps not, but in either case the underlying principle cannot be denied.

Without the People, government would not exist. Without government, all People in America would retain their rights to self defense, private property, etc.

One must ask then, what is the source of these rights? If they are not handed down to People by government, from whence do they arise?

Some believe they come from God, some believe they are inherent to human beings. I am confused by the latter, for I cannot answer one simple question. How does man retain the right to live and private property but not whales or dogs? What is the difference?

Ultimately, the paranoid atheists on the left are flailing in the wrong direction, against a cause they ought support. An out of control judiciary which seeks to make its business every facet of human life threatens the atheist just as it threatens the religous fundamentalist.

Perhaps the risk to the atheist is greater than to the fundamentalist, as he believes that another life awaits unto which he shall pass at the conclusion of this one; whereas the atheist presumably conducts himself as though life on Earth is his one and only existence, and as such must maximize his enjoyment in the present because his life is finite and one day will forever end.

The bottom line is simple, the 2nd, 4th, 9th and 10th amendments are basically dead, and the federal courts seem unwilling to stem the tide of the destruction of the others. Until the judges who make law from the bench, while accountable to noone, are reigned in or impeached, our republic shall continue down the path paved by the once great Roman empire many centuries ago.

Confusing agendas...

Republicans in Washington are sending mixed messages.

Recently, they pretended to fight to save Terry Schiavo's life from judicial murder.

Now, they want to block legislation which would allow scientific research on stem-cells, which could potentially be used in the future to save people in debilitative conditions, such as Terry Schiavo.

Are they really pro-life? Of course not. People like Tom DeLay and George Bush depend on the religous right for funding and votes. I doubt either could care less about the issue of stem cell research, anymore than they really cared about Terry Schiavo.

Of course, the underlying issues are much less sexy, yet far more important to the nation as a whole. With our current budget deficits skyrocketing, is now really the right time to be spending money on scientific research?

Where does the Constitution grant power to the Congress to tax the American people in order to fund scientific research, anyway?

In reality, this is one more smoke screen clouding the public from seeing the real agendas going on behind the scenes such as CAFTA, the crumbling situations in Iraq and Afghanista, the looming China/Taiwan conflict, the North Korea mess, the illegal alien invasion, or the potential collapse of the dollar under unsustainable debt loads.

Oh yea, and don't forget about Part I of the American Idol finals tonight. Be sure to tune into that instead of educating yourself as to the facts surrounding the Social Security or Tax reform we need so desperately in this country.

The "Deal"...

After thinking about this all morning, I've uncovered the painful truth.

While some say the Senate is being held hostage by a minority, they are wrong.

The Senate is controlled by the majority. Not until now were we aware of who that majority is.

The majority of US Senators are in favor of big government, ignoring the Constitution, and against limiting their own power to those specific authorities granted them by the People as explained in Article I and Article II of the Constitution.

Socialist liberals who want judges to advance their agenda do indeed control a majority of the US Senate, and now the rest of us can clearly see who is in the minority.

But, in reality, how many Senators really want to vote for judges who will move in and begin enforcing the Constitution in a strict manner if that includes declaring Congress to be out of bounds when it attempts to usurp power from the People?

The truth is that Senators are drunk on power, and they wouldn't know what to do if they were told that 3/4 of what they do is totally Unconstitutional.

Finally, for all this talk by Harry Reid about "rights of the minority", when was the last time he demonstrated concern for the minority of taxpayers who pay the vast majority of all federal taxes? What about their rights to life and property?

Buy American Act...

Is it really that difficult for the US Government to buy products for use which are at least 50% manufactured in this country?

According to this story, our government may go without computers and cell phones according to guidelines passed by the House last week...

• On Friday, the Information Technology Association of America called the measure bad security policy and bad economic policy. The legislation, an amendment to the Homeland Security Authorization Act, would force the Department of Homeland Security to buy products mostly made in America.

  The legislation was authored by Rep. Don Manzullo, an Illinois Republican, and passed by the House on Wednesday. It would require more than 50 percent of the components in any end product procured by the department to be mined, produced or manufactured inside the United States.

  "With this purchasing prohibition, I guess (the department) will have to learn to do without computers and cell phones," ITAA President Harris Miller said in a statement. "I cannot think of a single U.S. manufacturer that could meet this 50 percent threshold for these devices, and I doubt that those charged with protecting our safety here at home can either."

Media outrage: cop beats handcuffed suspect...

Recently in Philadelphia, a police officer struck a handcuffed suspect 8 times. The incident was captured by a cameraman on a news helicopter.

• The motorist who was recorded on a TV news helicopter videotape as he was being struck by a city police officer after a car chase was behind bars yesterday, charged with a parole violation.

  Charles Baum, 30, of Kensington, was arrested Monday as his attorney, James Duckworth, was arranging for Baum to be interviewed by investigators with the police Internal Affairs Division about the April 28 incident filmed by WCAU-TV (Channel 10) news and shown around the country.

You haven't heard of this story? Maybe that's because the cop is black and the suspect is white...

Subsidies: a self fulfilling prophecy...

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics issues reports about employment information.

In this report, 2 numbers jump out at me.

While the median length of unemployment is about 11 weeks, the mean length is greater than 20 weeks.

This means that half of all unemployed people can find work within 11 weeks of becoming unemployed, yet the average person will spend nearly twice that amount of time within the ranks of the unemployed.

This tells me that unemployment benefits create a large number of people who don't really look for work while they are collecting benefits.

Iraq & al Qaeda...

The Democrat party would have you believe that the war in Iraq was, and continues to be, a diversion in the war on terror.

However, Al Jazeera says:

• Iraq's al-Qaida has denied US accusations that an upsurge in car bomb attacks in Iraq was ordered at a meeting of the group in Syria, according to an Internet statement.
  
  "The enemies of God are floundering after the increase in attacks against them," the group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said. "Is there no longer any room on Earth so that the mujahidin (holy fighters) have to meet in Syria?"

Now, if al Qaeda is in fact in Iraq, led by Zarqawi, doesn't that validate the Bush doctrine which states that we will confront our enemies abroad rather than at home?

If Zarqawi and bin Laden are part of the same terror network, how can they continue to claim fighting in Iraq is a diversion, IF they claim to support the war on terror?

Right of secession...

The United Nations is pulling out virtually all of its peacekeeping force from East Timor 3 years after it declared itself independent of Indonesian rule according to a popular vote.

Is this the kind of freedom, liberty, and democratic process that Mr. Bush wishes to spread around the world?

If so, what would prevent the State of Florida from seceding from the United States?

After all, when people are free, they do not wish to secede nor are they prevented from doing so. On the other hand, when tyranny exists and liberty is in recession, secession is declared illegal.

If you are one of the few people who has read the Declaration of Independence and can actually understand what was written, you'll quickly realize that the colonists seceded from the British King.

Do you really think they would have set up a system of government which didn't recognize the similar right of future Americans to peacefully secede from the Union that was established by the United States Constitution?

Reaping what has been sown...

The Democrat party has spent the better part of the 20th century capitalizing and advancing their careers upon the illusion "leveling the playing field" betweeen rich and poor.

The original income taxes in England and the United States were levied against those who had extraordinary wealth, supposedly to benefit the other 98% of the population.

Unfortunately, the additional revenue flowing into the Federal Treasury created a disease which affects politicians and addicts them to spending other people's money. The more they misspent, the more they were forced to take from constituents. However, they couldn't take everything from the "wealthy" sect, so they were forced to levy taxes against middle class people.

When the politicians continued to misspend that money, they had to get more by taxing the poor people. Thus, the original mantra of taxing the have's to provide for the have not's backfired on the poor people because the wealthy were able to establish fancy loopholes, shelters, and exemptions available to those with the knowledge and resources to take advantage.

Now, the majority of Americans believe the federal government has the authority to confiscate the property of the People to use in just about any conceivable manner, ranging from investigating steroids in professional sports, to providing medicine to Africans to fight self inflicted illnesses, to funding public schools, to guaranteeing secure retirement income for all Americans.

We face a major problem, because the infection suffered by politicians addicted to spending money which does NOT belong to them spreads faster then their ability to garner additional streams of revenue. Thus, we find ourselves living in a time where annual budget deficits are larger than the entire GDP of most countries around the world.

The most transparent attempt to alleviate this mess was to create "free trade" areas, via agreements such as NAFTA, which provided Americans the opportunity to purchase goods at much cheaper prices, thereby freeing up more capital for the politicians to tax.

Sadly, the politicians were too short-sighted to realize that the men who lost jobs due to NAFTA would not be able to purchase anything, instead turning to the government for assistance in the form of subsidies, food stamps, etc...

Until the People of this once great republic wake up and stop electing Congressmen willing to ignore the strict restraints placed upon them by the Constitution, our economy will continue heading towards collapse.

The dangers we face...

If America is in such grave danger from global terror networks, why haven't the American People in the form of National Guardsmen and militias been called forth to stand guard and protect the homeland?

In fact, when one such group of patriots recently did just that, our leader dubbed them "vigilantes".

That question is at the heart of this column by Dr. Edwin Vieira Jr.

I am beginning to have serious questions as to the motivations of our leaders. Much the same as the war on drugs, poverty, Aids, diversity, and racism, the war on terror seems to be another method by which power hungry politicians soak the American taxpayer out of his property via taxation.

The knee jerk Republicans claim that we may have to fight this war for decades so that we complete our generations obligation to "spread freedom" around the world.

News flash: the Earth will always have tyrants and dictators because human nature is what it is.

The problem with the knee jerk Republicrats who sell the sheeple on the idea that the infringements on our civil liberties are temporary and necessary while we battle "the terrorists".

When was the last time our federal government expanded temporarily?

Do as we say, not as we do...

I live in a town which is also home to a major university. Recently, it signed a deal where it would offer only Pepsi products at campus stores.

A caller made a great point in response to this story.

While university officials and educators are quick to point out the importance of diverisity and the wonders of socialist economic theory, apparently when it comes to their own pocketbooks, it seems that capitalism is their preferred methodology.

If they really believed in diversity, wouldn't they offer EVERY brand of soda, juice, milk, water, etc...?

America's future...

As found on Boortz.com, a Washington Times article states:

• 82 percent of Americans ages 18 to 24 feel optimistic about their futures; 82 percent of those ages 25 to 44 do so as well; and 75 percent of those ages 45 to 64 and 64 percent of those 65 or older agree. Only 15 percent to 22 percent of the respondents say they have grown more pessimistic over the past five years.

Not surprisingly those least removed from their government educations are most ignorant of the reality our nation faces.

Have those who feel pessimistic about the future of our once great republic read this column by Frosty Woolridge?

Dean's beliefs live and breath...

Recently, Howard Dean declared Tom DeLay should go home to serve his prison sentence, even though he has yet to be charged with a crime.

However, during his Presidential run last year, he said this:

• "I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials."

How do the Democrats continually find themselves defending the enemies of America such as Saddam, Osama, Castro, Chirac, Kofi Annan, yet they trip all over themselves trying to find fault with this country and its leaders, such as the Abu Ghraib story that won't die, George Bush's military record, and the Newsweek incident?

Hush Bimbo...

Rush just exemplified Senator McCain's tendency to vote with Democrats by citing the McCain - Feingold anti-free speech CFR bill.

Why didn't he criticize Bush for signing the bill instead of simply criticizing McCain for helping to write it?

Tariffs on Chinese imports...

Finally, the Bush administration might be waking up the the economic reality of the world we face. No longer can we afford to run the kinds of trade deficits that we've seen lately, nor can we afford to continue funneling dollars to the Chinese communists so they may build up their military.

Unfortunately, we have painted ourselves into a corner since China is the single largest holder of US debt outside the Federal Reserve Bank.

Nevertheless, I am puzzled as to why the Democrat party isn't in full support of tariffs against China. After all, tariffs would help both American unions as well as the Chinese laborers who can't afford to purchase the products they slave 15 hours a day to produce.

Once upon a time, the Democrat party really was a political movement dedicated to improving the lives of the average worker and for the extension of democratic reform around the world. Pushing for tariffs against Chinese imports would be an opportunity for them to make great strides at doing both.

However, they face a large dilemna when it comes to international trade and the "free" market (which doesn't really exist except in the minds of some).

They cannot simultaneously support tariffs against China and the passage of CAFTA or FTAA.

However, if their goal is to curb American dominance and advance the globalist agenda, they could do just the opposite, that being oppose tariffs and support CAFTA.

At that point, American unions would be on the short end of the stick, but as history has shown, most Democrat constituency groups are extremely loyal and demonstrate little, if any, will to reconsider their political affiliations.

Unfortunately, in this Washington Times article, it appears that the administration's position may not be as strong as many Senators would like to see.

• "I'm concerned there will be mounting protectionist pressure in the U.S." unless China moves quickly to change its policy, said Treasury Secretary John W. Snow in issuing the administration's warning yesterday.
  
  "I'm confident that if Congress sees China move," it will help "ward off protectionist pressures," he said.
  
  Mr. Snow gave China the option of taking half measures that would raise the value of its currency without allowing it to float freely in the world markets, as does the dollar and other major currencies.
  
  Mr. Snow said China's financial system is strong enough to support a change, as a result of financial reforms enacted in the past two years, but it does not have to move immediately to a free exchange rate to satisfy U.S. demands.
  
  "Let me make it clear we're not calling for a float. We calling for flexibility," he said. "China will be the judge" of how far it should go to deregulate its currency, he said.
  
  Mr. Snow also left himself room to fudge on the fall deadline if China's response is ambiguous. "It should be a real step. It should be something the world could see and know that China means business."
  
  Mr. Snow noted that Chinese policies "are highly distortionary and pose a risk to China's economy, its trading partners and global economic growth."

Random rants...

From the SF Chronicle:

• Uzbekistan acknowledged Tuesday that its crackdown last week on an anti-government demonstration and a prison break had been far more violent than it previously described, saying 169 people had been killed, including 32 government troops.
  
  ...
  
  International pressure and a measure of internal dissent were mounting against Karimov and his authoritarian government, even as Russia and China announced their support. Both nations have been trying to lure the Uzbek leader more closely to their respective spheres of influence.
  
  The revised casualty figures followed statements of concern and criticism from the United States, which maintains a major military base in Uzbekistan, shares intelligence with it on counterterrorism and has helped train and equip the Uzbek military and security forces.

Why am I being taxed so that my government can send money to Uzbekistan?

The Australian claims:

• The US State Department said it was "deeply disturbed" by the killings in Uzbekistan, a police state that is an important ally in Washington's war on terrorism.

Will we ever learn that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" foreign policy does not work?

The BBC says:

• Mr Straw has said this "plainly cannot be justified" and has demanded that aid agencies, diplomats and journalists be allowed access to the area.

How can the government of a country receive foreign aid without a provision that states the aid shall terminate immediately upon expulsion of those aid agencies?

From the CIA's very own website:

• [Uzbekisatan is a] transit country for Afghan narcotics bound for Russian and, to a lesser extent, Western European markets; limited illicit cultivation of cannabis and small amounts of opium poppy for domestic consumption; poppy cultivation almost wiped out by government crop eradication program; transit point for heroin precursor chemicals bound for Afghanistan

Further, when will the US Government admit publicly that America cannot simultaneously fight the war on terror and the war on drugs?

As we've seen in Afghan, freedom leads to huge increases in the production of poppy, much of which likely finds its way to this country. Unless and until the Afghan farmers have a similarly profitable alternative to cultivating poppy, they will continue to do so.

The situation in Uzbekistan highlights a number of foreign policy failures on the part of the US government. The inability to combat the American drug culture by eliminating supply, the support for dictators abroad, and the spending of tax dollars abroad unconstitutionally.

Dr. Limbaugh...

This opinion piece appeared in the LA Daily News recently. In it, the author champions Rush not for any particular viewpoint, but for the success he has had in bringing diversity to the media, to college campi, as well as balancing our national debate.

But, does he really believe in diversity of thought?

muslims reject Newsweek retraction...

It is not hard to believe that people who know nothing about the concepts of free press and non-government controlled media would reject the retraction of the story by Newsweek.

For that reason, it is time to try a media outlet for treason or sedition. It could be Dan Blather, Michael Isikoff, or any of a number of others who admit to aiding and abetting our enemies in theaters of war.

I believe that America is losing the War on Terrorism, and will continue to do so until the media is reigned in and resumes reporting news instead of creating it. Of course, that will not happen until they are shown that penalties result from irresponsible behavior.

LA to vote for mayor...

The KC Star offers this in their analysis of the LA mayorial election:

• Manny Hernandez couldn't care less that Los Angeles mayoral frontrunner Antonio Villaraigosa is Latino. Similarly, Edgar Garcia puts ethnicity low on the list of candidates' attributes.

  "There was a time when you voted for your ethnic candidate because they would represent you and the others wouldn't," said Garcia, a UCLA planning student from a working-class barrio. "I think we're past that now."

Did someone forget to tell Jesse Jackson and the NAACP about the fact that we are "past" voting for politicians strictly on the basis of ethnicity? Do they know that people of one race, gender, or ethnicity can represent those of different orientation?

UN ignores church burnings...

Thanks to Savage, there is this story entitled "God's houses in ruins: The world keeps silent as Serb churches, monasteries are destroyed in Kosovo under noses of peacekeepers".

Can it really be that Bill Clinton's great humanitarian adventure into Eastern Europe (that was to last one year) actually paved the way for the destruction of Christian churches by radical muslims while "peacekeepers" looked the other way?

WARNING: The following pictures would cause riots and murders were they off mosques in Mecca instead of churches in Kosovo.

View pictures of burnt churches here.

Tyranny in Zimbabwe

According to an African website:

• Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party is set to amend the constitution to nationalise all land, automatically nullifying court petitions by thousands of white farmers hoping to reclaim their confiscated property.
  
  Many of the farmers have refused to surrender their title deeds, arguing they are still the rightful owners of the farms from which they have been forcibly evicted by ruling party militants since 2000. Some of them have won court battles, but most of their applications are still pending in the administrative court.

Are we going to hear a speech from President Bush about the need for reform within the government of Zimbabwe?

For that matter, does President Bush actually regard the nationalization of private property to be contrary to liberty and the natural God-given code of human rights?

Better yet, let's just send them a check so they can stave off death from AIDS and instead starve to death.

Twisted principles...

If stories of a Koran flushed down a toilet can spark worldwide riots and multiple deaths, while videos of people being beheaded generate nary a whisper of complaint from the mainstream muslim world, I know all I need to know about the islamic religion.

Neo-con hypocrisy...

Pat Buchanan asks some interesting questions in his column today.

Specifically, he wonders how President Bush can simultaneously champion free and open elections in Latvia or Ukraine, yet allow Palestinian elections to be delayed because Hamas might win.

Check out this column from March 16 which predicted this dilemna with startling clairvoyance.

The Newsweek story...

If our military and diplomatic efforts in Afghanistan were really having the success that the conservative media would have you believe, is it really believable that the fallout from the Newsweek would be this severe?

Let Pantano go...

US Marine Corps 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano is facing capital charges for killing some enemies in Iraq, but an investigator working his case has recommended that the charges be dropped according to the Washington Times.

I only hope that Lt. Pantano is fully acquitted both for his own sake, but for the sake of the rest of the Marines and soldiers who may find themselves in a similar situation.

I will not be happy to find out that a member of our military has been killed because he was trying to decide whether or not his actions would land him in the defendant's chair at an Article-32 hearing in front of military brass.

Speaking of the military, today the list of bases to be closed came out, and next week I'm sure we'll be hearing all sorts of moaning and groaning from politicians in those districts. Ironically, I'm sure many of the complaints will come from anti-war socialists within the Democrat party who would rather see our whole military disbanded.

Identity theft continues...

Here is another story in the string of information theft cases which really has me wondering why our government continues to want to move towards centralizing personal data even more.

About a year ago, I read a fascinating story in Wired magazine exploring a concept for the distribution of ID cards which would not involve ANY centralized data storage.

The concept is fairly simple. Each person would report as usual to the DMV to obtain a driver's license in typical fashion. Upon verification by the government agent that the person presenting himself is who he says he is, the ID card is issued on which is contained a plethora of personal data.

Also embedded within the ID card is some sort of coded information which matches the fingerprint and/or iris scan image of the individual to whom the card belongs.

When a person needs to prove his identity, he merely presents the card to whichever authority requests it AND he unlocks the card's data by providing his fingerprint/iris scan.

The important concept is that no data is stored anywhere but on the card itself, but the card cannot be exploited without the corresponding fingerprint.

Once issued, the card would not be editable in anyway as to prevent tampering by hackers or counterfeiters and would presumably contain some encoded technology to authenticate the card as one officially issued by the government.

As with any system, there are potentials for exploits, but this to me seems far simpler than having paper Social Security cards and centralized databases with massive amounts of information stored therein.

In fact, I suspect it is so simple and efficient that our government wouldn't even consider the notion of exploring it further.

Shattering the myths...

The Washington Times reports:

• A record surge in exports and an unexpected falloff in imports in March enabled the economy to grow faster than previously thought last winter -- at a 4 percent rate or higher instead of 3 percent.

Does this end the Republican contention that trade deficits don't matter to the US economy?

International court opinions...

The BBC is reporting:

• An Italian man who married without telling his bride he was impotent must pay damages for abusing her "right to sexuality", a top court has ruled.

But wait a minute, I thought the Democrats have been telling us that marriage isn't about sex and child rearing. I thought marriage was about love for another person, regardless the method or possibility of procreation.

Any chance Anthony Kennedy will cite this case when he rules against gay marriage being federally recognized?

High gas prices...

Rush played some clips of Robert Byrd today in which he rambled on about how Americans deserve lower gas prices. This mantra has become a Democrat staple of late, moaning about the soaring cost of gasoline in the country.

Aside from the easy reference to their commentary about wars for oil in years past, I was wondering something else. How can the US Senate lower prices at gas stations around the country?

One method would be through subsidies, doubtlessly funded by "rolling back the tax cuts on the top 1%. (It seems that rolling back the tax cuts on the top 1% can fund most everything our federal government does, giving me pause to consider just how much money these ultra-wealthy people actually pay into the federal treasury.)

Of course, then we'd be told that the subsidies were nothing more than corporate welfare established to enrich the oil and gasoline companies, commonly known as "Bush's oil buddies".

It's a very creative catch-22 the RAT party is trying to work the Congress into, but it could all be avoided if the MSM would ask the RATs exactly how they plan to cut costs of oil while saving the environment and not drilling in ANWR or off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

O'Reilly doesn't grasp concept of Federalism

In his talking points memo to be read tonight, he says in response to the NY State judge who declared that the NY DMV cannot revoke driver's licenses based on immigration status:

• Tomorrow, President Bush should call New York Senators Schumer and Clinton into the Oval Office and tell them that if New York State refuses to enforce the Real I.D. Act it will forfeit all federal highway money, period. States cannot continue to defy federal law, period.

But wait, I thought that during the Schiavo matter we were told that the State judiciary has the power to interpret State law and that the legislative and executive branches are powerless to overrule the judiciary.

If neither George nor Jeb Bush couldn't step in and override federal or State courts in that case, how can do the same now?

Democrat opposition...

CNN reports that the Senate passed a war spending bill 100-0.

What happened to all the "wrong war, wrong time" rhetoric? If Senators felt the war should not continue, shouldn't they vote against funding it?

Punishing the innocent...

According to Orlando's Channel 6 News station:

• Florida's busiest airport will begin using high-tech iris-scanning technology to filter out possible terrorists and add an additional layer of security, according to Local 6 News.

As usual, the deterrent against the "terrorists" will do little to prevent attacks while probably tying up lines at airports even further.

Who will administer the iris scans? The TSA agents who are already not sufficiently trained to examine driver's licenses?

How much tax money will be used to pay for this new technology?

Against what will the iris scan be checked? The national database that "doesn't" exist?

State's rights is a minority party issue...

David Boaz explores the rise and fall of the conservative movement dedicated to strengthening a concept usually explained by the term 'States' rights'.

I have often said that States' rights are not a platform of either party anymore, but rather a tool used by the minority party in Washington to stall the majority from moving forward with its agenda.

Where does that leave voters who truly believe in the original intent of the 9th and 10th amendments?

Well, we could "waste" our vote on a 3rd party candidate like the Constitution Party or the Libertarian Party.

Or we could continue deluding ourselves that Republican and conservative are synonyms. As for me, I vote for the former...

US real wages fall at fastest rate in 14 years

Any chance wages are down because the supply of illegal aliens willing to perform cheap labor is up?

• Inflation rose 3.1 per cent in the year to March but salaries climbed just 2.4 per cent, according to the Employment Cost Index. In the final three months of 2004, real wages fell by 0.9 per cent.

  The last time salaries fell this steeply was at the start of 1991, when real wages declined by 1.1 per cent.

  Stingy pay rises mean many Americans will have to work longer hours to keep up with the cost of living, and they could ultimately undermine consumer spending and economic growth.

Follow-up to Dick Morris column...

FT.com has a headline that reads: "US real wages fall at fastest rate in 14 years".

There are a number of interesting statistics in the article, but I think that the tremendous influx of cheap labor in the form of illegal aliens, as well as the exportation of our manufacturing plants to China are the two main causes of the sluggishness of wage growth.

How big of a raise can cashiers at Wal-Mart reasonably expect?

Remember the column from Dick Morris yesterday claiming CAFTA should go forward because US unemployment is at 5%? Well, perhaps this bolsters my claim that the buying power of Americans needs to be considered in addition to the number of us who are employed.

Every problem is not ours...

The Washington Times reports:

• North Korea said yesterday it has taken a key step to build more nuclear bombs, as China resisted efforts by the United States to take a tougher stand with Pyongyang.

Assuming this is true, it begs the question: why are we so concerned with a nuclear North Korea when her neighbors are not?

Are we really better off being world policemen? Hasn't that policy had some negative results in the Middle East? Are we making the same mistake in SE Asia?

Dick Morris misses the mark...

In The Hill, Dick Morris wrote about CAFTA. He left out many points worth noting:

• CAFTA is an attempt to bring to the poverty-stricken countries of Central America the benefits of free trade with the colossus of the north. These nations are among the world’s poorest, and free trade would be a tremendous boon to their economies.

Sure, their economies will boon while our manufacturing and farming industries will suffer.

• Those who oppose illegal immigration cannot have it both ways. Either you alleviate poverty in Central America and encourage would-be immigrants to stay home and share in the increasing wealth or you keep them in poverty and watch as they flock over our borders.

This makes sense, although there is a third option. Secure our borders, kick out as many of the illegals already here that we can find, and watch domestic labor prices rise as we apply tariffs to China's goods.

• With 2 million people who were born in Central America now living in the United States, the Democrats oppose CAFTA at their peril. These voters will not take kindly to nativist sentiment in the party that says it offers them opportunity and compassion.

The same way the blacks faithfully support the same Democrat party which pretends the public school systems in urban areas are successful? The truth is that Democrat voters just aren't smart enough to realize who or what they are voting for.

• On the merits, CAFTA is a no-brainer. With an unemployment rate in the United States of 5 percent, there is no case against free trade, particularly not with a poor and small area like Central America.

Sounds like incremenatlism, especially with the FTAA on the horizon. Passing CAFTA would be a giant leap forward towards declaring the entire western hemisphere a free-trade zone.

• The more than $10 billion sent home by Mexicans and Central Americans living here attests to their concern for the folks back home.
• So why won’t the Democrats do for Central America what they did for Africa? Or, put another way, why won’t they do for their Hispanic constituents what they did for their African-American voters?

Americans whose roots trace back to Africa still send back billions of dollars to their families in Africa? Not hardly.

According to C.Net:

• Under section 215 of the Patriot Act, which has alarmed librarians, secret court orders can be used to obtain records or "tangible items" from any person or organization if the FBI claims a link to terrorism. The recipient of the secret order is gagged, and disclosing its existence is punished by a prison term. Section 215 is set to expire at the end of the year.

Perhaps this explains why we haven't heard more about abuses of the Patriot Act, since after all it is illegal to publicize the "secret orders", presumably issued by "secret courts".

Here is another related story from C.Net which paints a scary picture of federal gestapo agents acting under the cloak of secrecy.

Is this how President Bush spreads freedom and liberty to the American people, by witholding from us the very nature and scope of the activities of our federal law enforcement agencies?

Judicial lunacy in New York...

As heard on Rush, from the NY Sun:

• A judge ruled yesterday that the state Department of Motor Vehicles cannot proceed with a plan to revoke hundreds of thousands of driver's licenses based on immigration status.

  The DMV lacks the expertise and the statutory authority to act as "an enforcer" for the Department of Homeland Security, a state Supreme Court judge, Karen Smith, wrote in a decision released yesterday.

So, the DMV in New York State can issue driver's license, but cannot revoke them?

Only from a state which gives us fine Senators like Schumer and Clinton...

Saying anything to win...

According to the website of the newly launched 'New Politics Institute' :

• The rise of the conservative movement – Through the shrewd investment of billions of dollars over a generation, the conservative movement has built a powerful 21^st century political machine that has transformed American politics and culture, among other things ending the 100-year-long dominance of progressive thought and politics. NPI will help progressives better understand this new machine and offer strategies for taking it on each day.
  

Kos says:

• Yesterday, I took part in a press conference call to announce the New Politics Insitute -- an NDN think tank focused on winning elections, not policy.

Focus on winning elections but not policy?

Is that "progressive" code language for "say whatever the voters want to hear and then go about dragging the country further left down the socialist rathole behind France and Canada" ?

Halfbright gets it wrong again...

From a post at DailyKos:

• "If I were Kim Jong Il, I would read the message of Iraq to be, if you don't have nuclear weapons, you get invaded, and if you do have nuclear weapons, you don't get invaded. Because we didn't invade the Soviet Union and China. So I think we're sending the wrong messages and doing nothing to really prevent a very, very dangerous situation."
  --Madeleine Albright

Madam Secretary, hast thou the slightest notion by what means the North Koreans may have acquired such weapons? How about the Chinese for that matter, any clue how they got their hands on nuclear weapons?

Doth thou recall thine own words?

• "Iraq is a long way from USA but, what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face."
  Madeline Albright, Feb 18, 1998

Also on that post was this gem, obviously Kim Campbell does not like the idea of representative legislatures enacting the will of the People into law.

• "The courts have to overthrow legislation, because governments continue to breach constitutions. That's why you have a judicial branch to be umpires, to say when governments go too far. That's why you need judges who can't be fired!"
  --Fmr. Canadian prime minister Kim Campbell

Does Kim Campbell know that the judiciary (at least in America) is part of the government, and like the other two branches, derives its limited powers directly from the Constitution?

Does anyone really believe that the American patriots who wrote the Constitution meant to create a federal judiciary whose authority was limited to whatever scope it defined for itself?

Government schools and condoms...

We're told by the left that abstinence education alone will not work because "kids will be kids" and they will ignore the things their parents give them. Instead, the left tells us that we should properly equip young people with knowledge about the practice of safe-sex.

Do middle school kids really need condoms?

Once upon a time in this country, sex outside marriage was scorned. We have now devolved to a culture which hands condoms to its 12 year-olds.

How soon will we start giving elementary students condoms and explicit sex education or anatomy lessons?

When did it become the job of the government, via public schools, to decide when to introduce sex education to our youth, anyway?

United Airlines gets bailed out...

I'm not sure when the federal government got into the business of funding pension benefits to employees of private companies, but I'm even more disgusted by another facet of this issue.

The federal government bailed out Chrysler in the 1970's, and it isn't even an American company anymore. I believe that American auto manufacturing would have benefited as a whole if the free market had driven Chrysler out of business.

Similarly, what if we have too many airlines, and by salvaging United the feds actually keep prices artificially too low and thereby cause the other airlines to lose money and finance themselves through more and more debt?

I am simple minded, but I thought the 'invisible hand' concept is one that we in America believed in...

Cost - benefit analysis...

Pat Buchanan's commentary today asks: who really won World War 2?

He makes a strong case that America defeated Hitler while paving the skids for Stalin and the rest of the Asian dictators.

I have always viewed World War 2 through the lens of nationalism, wondering why our men went and died there. Was America better off with the end of Hitler's Third Reich? How did Hitler threaten America while we remained neutral?

We were attacked at Pearl Harbor by Japan, yet we retaliated against the Italians and Germans while fighting our first battles in Africa.

Am I claiming to buy into the 'FDR knew about the Pearl Harbor attacks ahead of time' theory? No, however, there can be no denying that war can and often is used as a political tool to generate increased patriotism and economic growth while providing cover for other failed or unpopular policies.

Sadly, with war often comes reductions in civil liberties which are not often restored and can never be undone...

Poverty is a choice...

Walter Williams explains How Not to Be Poor.

What struck me the most is that while we constantly hear about "large segments of the black community living in poverty", a two-parent family with 2 kids where both parents work minimum wage jobs can exceed the federal poverty guidelines by $3000 annually.

Therefore, any family who lives in poverty does so by choice.

Also interesting are the facts that blacks have been involved in city government and school administration in many of America's urban areas, and yet those schools produce some of the most ill-prepared students of all.

Finally, Williams hits it out of the park by explaining how blacks and whites who live in families with two parents are equally well to do financially, thereby demonstrating how the real curse of the black family is not the skin color, but the absence of one parent.

Of course, the left at this point is claiming that black men aren't around because racist police and prosecutors put them in jail at much higher proportional rates. (Not that black men are statistically more likely to violate the law.)

Political money line...

A site has recently come to my attention which has quite a bit of excellent information regarding political campaign contributions by various PACs and other organizations.

Perhaps one of the PACs will sponsor an event for John Kerry at which he will publicly sign his Form-180...

Tips for new bloggers...

Right Wing News has some suggestions for the aspiring blogger.

S.148...

I guess I missed the clause in the Constitution which grants power to the United States Congress to regulate professional boxing in America.

CNN/SI story...

Update: I searched Thomas.Loc.gov and found out the bill is numbered S. 148, and was passed by unanimous consent.

I am tired of bills being voted on without a record of the vote of each member. I think our republican system of government is completely undermined when we the People cannot find out how our particular representative voted on a given issue.

Our failing government...

From the SBSun.com website, published yesterday:

• Two Christian organizations Monday rebuked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for encouraging the Minuteman Project's volunteer policing of America's border with Mexico.

  The Minuteman Project, which launched its campaign against illegal immigration in Arizona last month, plans to move its efforts to California in August.

  "We are appalled that Governor Schwarzenegger, who as our state's chief magistrate is pledged to maintain the rule of law, has chosen instead to praise a group of vigilantes who operate outside the law, saying they've done a terrific job in patrolling the border with Mexico,' the California Council of Churches and Pomona-based Progressive Christians Uniting wrote in a strongly worded letter to the governor.

  "Such a statement is dangerous and unprecedented,' the letter continued. "No responsible or moral public official would encourage citizens to take the law into their own hands, particularly on an issue that is already so laden with division and hatred.'

Make sure you read carefully that last sentence.

I thought in America, the People elect representatives to work in government for us. Poll after poll show the desire of the American people to have our borders secured so that our hospitals, schools, roads, and culture are not destroyed beyond repair by illegal aliens who come here.

When our elected leaders fail us, it is not only our privelege, but further our right and obligation to do the necessary work, in this case working border patrol.

In the once famous, and apparently recently forgotten, words of Thomas Jefferson:

• We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

John Longnecker understands personal liberty...

This post spells out enough facts and evidence (as if there wasn't already a plethora 20 times over) to illustrate the lunacy of the anti-gun left who so often take the side of criminals as they attempt to demonize those of us who wish to protect the lives of our families without relying on government to do it for us.

Union socialism...

From CNSnews.com:

• While most organizations celebrate anniversaries with great fanfare, the AFL-CIO may mark its 50th birthday in Chicago this July with an internal leadership struggle that threatens the job of the coalition's president, an avowed socialist who spent tens of millions of dollars in union dues in a failed ten-year quest to re-take the U.S. House from Republicans. That leader, John Sweeney, who turned 71 Thursday, also saw George W. Bush beat his favored Democratic candidates in 2000 and 2004.

Hillary's fundraising scandal...

Will the scandals involving the Clintons ever end?

Whose life will end mysteriously during the fallout of this one?

Does anybody actually believe that the Bush Justice department, which did next to nothing about Sandy Burglar's treasonous "accidental" theft of top secret documents from the National Archives, will actually pursue Hillary and her henchmen to the full extent of the law?

Why does it seem like George Bush is only interested in bringing people "to justice" when he can squash the civil liberties of ordinary Americans in the process?

Why do bin Laden and Saddam deserve to be brought to justice, but not the illegals who are bankrupting our social services or the criminals in Congress who use campaign funds for personal agendas?

"Risky" private SS accounts...

Government revenues depend on the macroeconomy. If people are making money and spending it, government revenues go up.

Those who suggest that private SS accounts are subject to disaster in the event of an extended economic downturn never bother to explain how the traditional SS checks will be funded during the same period of economic downturn.

After all, today's SS plan is strictly pay as we go, and therefore a year of decreased federal revenue means the liability must be debt financed.

This phony argument only works on those people who still ignorantly believe that there exists some "fund" with individually labeled accounts for each of us who pay into the SS fund every week.

Bush: puppet and puppeteer...

According to WND,

• "A U.S. congressman is blasting President Bush as someone who surrounds himself with yes men, labeling Vice President Dick Cheney "the biggest a-- kisser of all."

Of course, this flies directly in the face of pre-election, conventional wisdom among the crowds who visit Daily Kos, Democrat Underground, and who read Paul Krugman who were telling us that Bush is a puppet controlled by Karl Rove, Cheney, Scalia, Tony Blair, or any number of other people.

This proves to me just how desperate and helpless the American left is these days as they struggle to cope with their repeated defeats in recent elections.

States' rights...

Here is a positively great story from Utah, where the State legislature has recently voted to ignore various provisions of President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" program.

As has been previously criticized here, the NCLB program clearly violates the principles of Federalism, limited central government, and the clear language of the 9th and 10th amendments to the US Constitution.

According to this Fox News story:

• Thumbing its nose at President Bush's No Child Left Behind education law, Utah this week enacted legislation to give its own state education standards priority over federal rules.

  "This clearly is a signal that local leadership, local decision-making are extremely important when it comes to education policy," said Utah's Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman.

  Utah is one of 16 states challenging or considering challenges to NCLB. Many state officials say they think the law is too rigid in measuring student proficiency and often conflicts with how states track their own progress.

William Schneider in The Atlantic Online has this to say:

• A grassroots rebellion is under way against one of President Bush's signature legislative achievements. And it's starting, of all places, in Utah—Bush's most supportive state in last year's election. "Our duty is to stop the federal encroachment that's been taking place for the last 40 or 50 years," state Rep. David Cox, a Republican, told a local television reporter.
  

Jeremy Jones...

Here is one more story to dispel the leftist notion that government can protect people and those who choose to arm themselves are paranoid right-wing fanatics.

FBI Mistakes Allow GA Suspect to Go Free

Having been thrice arrested previously, this man is now suspected in as many as 20 rape/murders across 5 southeastern States.

The clearest lessons I can take from this are that 1) government is not beyond making errors, 2) it cannot protect the People, and 3) those who love freedom must affirmatively act to defend themselves and their families from violent predators like Jeremy Jones.

Stop Her Now...

For the 6 people who have not yet heard, there is a new website out there called stophernow.com which takes direct aim at Hillary in an attempt to derail her bids for Senate reelection and/or her 2008 Presidential run.

Excerpted from the site:

• Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson dismissed the Stop Her Now effort.

  "New Yorkers are tired of false and negative attacks from shadowy right-wing organizations," Wolfson said."New Yorkers know that Senator Clinton is a balanced-budget, tax-cutting Democrat who is working hard to create jobs and opportunity across the state."

If Hillary is indeed a tax cutter, I'd love to hear about which programs she is going to cut from the federal budget.

O'Bloviator...

Last Thursday's "Talking Points" memo from FNC's 'The O'Reilly Factor' says:

• A scientific poll by Fox News/Opinion Dynamics says the following: an astounding 91 percent of Americans believe the illegal immigration problem is very serious or somewhat serious.

On tonight's show, Bill said that only 350,000 people have signed on to his online petition urging Congressional action on the illegal alien invasion taking place along the Mexican border.

That tells me all I need to know about Bill O'Reilly's viewership numbers...

Oil rigs in the Gulf...

Rush just mentioned a recent story which suggested that the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico are having the reverse impact on marine life as the enviro-whackos would have you believe.

Here is an excerpt from a story I found:

• IN THE 1990s, Greenpeace famously likened the dumping of old oil platforms in the deep ocean to throwing empty beer cans into the sea. But a report published on 8 April supports claims that disused oil platforms can become havens for marine life - at least in the warm, shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where 3600 rigs are in place off Louisiana alone.

Here is the Washington comPost story he was referring to:

• A rusting oil rig perched on the muddy bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, notorious for its vast "dead zone" off the Mississippi Delta, might seem an unlikely setting for a thriving ecosystem.

  But that is exactly what Paul Sammarco has found on more than a dozen of the 4,000-plus drilling platforms that dot the Gulf. Sammarco, a marine biologist at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, has discovered that the rigs have spawned lush marine habitats that are home to a profusion of rare corals and 10,000 to 30,000 fish each.

Reminder of Quinn's First Law: Liberalism always generates the exact opposite of its stated intent...

Spoofstick...

Here is a great extension for Firefox, it helps you prevent being "spoofed" while browsing the internet.

(If you don't use FF, you probably vote for Democrats or don't know the difference between Republicans and conservatives.)

Rush on Will...

I read this yesterday, and now I hear Rush talking about the same column. He just reiterated George Will's point that private health care plans are paid for by the employer while government health care is not an expense of the company.

From where do these governments obtain the capital needed to fund their health care plans?

Ultimately, every cost for everything is paid for by a consumer or by an employee, either in terms of higher prices or lower wages.

Democrat lies...

The Democrats claim to speak for the common man, but what they don't publicize is that they do so because they consider the "common man" incapable of making wise decisions in his life.

-Democrats don't trust the People to save adequately for retirement, instead they tell us we need Social Security there as a "safety net".

-Democrats don't trust parents to be able to raise their own children, instead parents are being barred from sex-ed classes and are parental notifications in case of an abortion by an underage girl are not required in 17 states.

-Democrats don't trust voters to elect the "correct" officials into public office, who will pass the "correct" laws, so the Democrats are left to filibuster judges who wouldl reclaim the benches from the activists disquised as impartial judges.

-Democrats don't trust the People to use guns in a responsible manner to defend themselves and their homes, so they are forced to oppose measures like the recent expansion of the 'Castle Doctrine' in Florida so that people are increasingly reliant on government for protection instead of themselves.

-Democrats don't trust the ability of blacks and other minorities to be able to earn their way into colleges and offices, instead citing the necessity of quotas and other standards for entrance or hiring so as to ensure an "equitable" and "fair" mix of genders and ethnicities.

-Democrats don't trust the People to be able to properly educate their own children, so instead the Democrats are forced to support a federal public school system which gets worse every year in terms of the quality of education as well as the level of discipline enforced against increasingly unruly students.

-Democrats don't trust the People to be able to negotiate adequate benefits to the terms of their employment in the private sector, instead the Democrats are forced to support nationalized health care plans which have proven disastrous in every country where they have been tried.