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Heavy-Handed Politics

"€œGod willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world
without the United States and Zionism."€ -- Iran President Ahmadi-Nejad

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Where is Rudy?

By Robert D. Novak
WASHINGTON -- Rudy Giuliani is the only 2008 Republican presidential candidate who has not accepted an invitation to a "values voters" conference of social conservatives in Washington, D.C., Oct. 19-21 sponsored by the Family Research Council.

Giuliani's absence suggests that he will fare badly in the conference's straw vote though he leads the national Republican public opinion polls. Some 2,000 social conservatives from .....


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The UAW's Awakening

OpinionJournal
A union shows a new awareness of global competition.

Saturday, September 29, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

This week's deal between General Motors and the United Auto Workers is being hailed as a new era for Detroit, and for once that advertising may be justified. The UAW in particular made historic concessions that show a new awareness of global competition. What's less encouraging is how much this reality-based compromise still contrasts with the policies that unions and their political friends are promoting in the unreal world of .....


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Friday, September 28, 2007

“The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalry of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise.”
-- Mark Twain --

“Only two groups of Americans should worry about Hillary Clinton’s new health-care plan: the healthy and the sick. The healthy are going to pay more, since one of Clinton’s ideas is to prohibit insurance companies from giving them a discount.”
-- National Review --

SUPPLY & DEMAND: ECONOMICS LESSON 101

“One basic problem with nationalized health care is that it makes medical services seem free. That pushes demand beyond supply. Governments deal with that by limiting what’s available.”
-- John Stossell --

Law of the Sea pushed again

The Senate is close to ratifying the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, or Law of the Sea Treat (“LOST”), a decades-old international treaty to regulate the commercial use of the world’s oceans. President George W. Bush, much of Congress, the Navy, the Coast Guard, environmental groups, and oil companies support the treaty, stating that it guarantees the right to traverse certain regions that currently require permission from other governments. To date, more than 150 countries have signed on. Since 1983, it has been U.S. policy to comply voluntarily with the treaty portions relating to the traditional use of the ocean. We’re unclear on the problem this renewed push seeks to correct.

Despite this wide array of support, there are still many who believe it is a severe blow to American sovereignty. For example, the “innocent passage” provision in the treaty allows the UN bureaucracy to oversee international shipping and could thus severely hamper America’s ability to combat terrorism at sea. President Ronald Reagan refused to sign the treaty in 1982, when our Navy had nearly 600 ships to guarantee our right of passage. Now, we have but 276 ships, and that number is slated to decrease. As Cliff Kincaid, president of America’s Survival, points out, “What we need are more ships, not more lawyers and not more international tribunals.”

-- Patriot Post --

THE REAL SCOOP

Jon Soltz, illustrating what's wrong with the media today, posts a column at the Puffington Host, "So I'm a 'Phony Soldier,' Rush?"

His hit piece starts with some bravado:
As Media Matters reported today, Rush Limbaugh, on his show said that those troops who come home and want to get America out of the middle of the religious civil war in Iraq are "phony soldiers." I'd love for you, Rush, to have me on your show and tell that to me to my face.
Problem is Rush did not say what 'Media Mad Hatters" claims he said. I'll give Mr. Soltz the benefit of the doubt and assume he trusted what the Mad Hatters reported .. a mistake for sure. The Mad Hatters will not get the same benefit. They know what they reported was not accurate.

He was talking about one soldier, one Jesse MacBeth. For those who do not who he is, or have forgotten, or are not interested enough to find out for yourselves, this is from Wikipedia:
Jesse Adam Macbeth (b. Jesse Adam Al-Zaid,[1] in 1984) falsely claimed to be an Army Ranger and veteran of the Iraq War. He lied in alternative media interviews that he and his unit routinely committed war crimes in Iraq.[2][3] Transcripts of the video were made in English and Arabic.[4] According to the U.S. Army, there is no record of Macbeth being a Ranger,[5][6] or serving in a combat unit: he was discharged from the service after having been declared unfit or unsuitable for the Army, or both,[7] before he could complete basic training.[8]

After his release from the Army in 2004, Macbeth purported himself to be a veteran, telling war stories and garnering attention from mainstream,[9] alternative[10] and student media outlets. He joined Iraq Veterans Against the War in January of 2006,[11] and represented, or was scheduled to represent them publicly at various events throughout the country;[12][13][14] the organization has since said it does not endorse Macbeth or his accounts of military service.[11] Accounts in Macbeth's name appear on Military.com and Myspace.com, and both were used to post claims about military service in Iraq.[15] On September 21, 2007 Macbeth admitted in federal court that he had faked his war record. U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sullivan declared that Macbeth had been in the Army for just 40 days and had been kicked out as unfit.[16]


More can be read here:
Seattle Post Intelligencer: Poster Soldier for Anti-war Movement Was a Fake
and here:
AP: 8-month Sentence for Man Who Lied about Iraq Fighting

The transcript can be read here.
Video here:

Diversity Visas for Iranians Increase Since 9/11
After 9/11, the State Department allowed more and more Iranians to legally enter the United States through Diversity Visas, an immigration program that two government investigations have identified as a national security risk. Iran, among four other nations, is defined as a terror-sponsoring state by the State Department...

U.S. adopts a new citizenship exam

The Washington Times
The federal government yesterday introduced a new U.S. citizenship civics exam designed to force would-be citizens to go beyond memorizing historical facts and instead grasp the fundamental meaning of being an American.

Gone are questions about the number of states in the union or what country the U.S. fought in the Revolutionary War. In their place are questions about why the colonists went to war with Britain or what powers are held exclusively by the federal government.


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Washington Times:
Virginia Immigration Commissioner Quits Over Anti-Israel Remarks

Boston Globe:
Senate Passes Hate Crimes Measure Attached to War Funding Bill

White House pushes sea treaty that conservatives oppose

White House pushes sea treaty - - The Washington Times
Top Bush administration officials yesterday pressed forcefully for quick Senate ratification of the long-stalled U.N. Law of the Sea treaty, telling a Senate panel that American commercial and military interests are increasingly at risk because the United States remains outside the 155-nation pact.



Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England and Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Patrick M. Walsh told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that criticisms that the treaty would curtail U.S. sovereignty, hurt U.S. businesses or constrain U.S. military missions were, in Mr. Negroponte's words, "myths."



Arguments against the treaty, the State Department's second in command said, "are completely unfounded. ... We cannot just go out and negotiate another treaty, much less one that is more favorable."



But the treaty, which was approved by the committee unanimously three years ago before failing to win a Senate floor vote, could face a tougher road this time, with at least two Republican lawmakers new to the panel expressing deep doubts about the pact.


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Editor faces hearing for profane editorial

Rocky Mountain News
The board overseeing Colorado State University's student newspaper voted Thursday to proceed with a formal hearing for an editor who published an obscenity in an editorial.


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STUDENTS WALK OUT

FOXNews.com - Colorado Students Walk Out During Pledge, Recite Own Version
BOULDER, Colo. — About 50 Boulder High School students walked out of class Thursday to protest the daily reading of the Pledge of Allegiance and recited their own version, omitting "one nation, under God."


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Why we're winning now in Iraq.

BY FREDERICK W. KAGAN
Opinion Journal

Democrats and Iran: Hillary outsmarts her dovish competition.


The Mayor Gets a Pass

By Michael Medved

Why do some political scandals grab national headlines but others make only local news? A recent trial highlighting the appalling corruption of Detroit's mayor certainly deserves more media attention: a jury awarded $6.5 million of city funds to two cops who guarded Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick before making charges about his drunken orgies in the Mayor's mansion, cover-up of drunk driving, and diversion of public money to frolics with his mistress and to mollify his wife. Mayor Kilpatrick charged the jury with racism, but both of the officers he fired for reporting on his misdeeds were black and one of them was a deputy police chief.

If the Mayor had been a white Republican, the judgment against him--with jurors flatly calling him a liar--would have rocked the nation, but our media culture chooses to ignore this lurid and appalling case that happens to center on a youthful, African-American Democrat--best known up till now for his two diamond earrings.

John Boehner: Pork Barrel Stonewall
House Republicans have launched a renewed effort to change the way Congress spends taxpayers' money. Our goal: Stop Congress from tucking members' pet spending projects into bills without public scrutiny and debate.

HeavyHanded says:

This would be good policy. However, Mr. Boehner, with all due respect, when it comes to spending, the Republucan party has lost all respect. It's one thing for the Democrats to spend, spend, spend... it's what they do... we have come to expect it. When the Republicans start spending like drunken Dems, you lose all credibility. You start talking about 'fiscal responsibility' and the sort, I then get an attack of MEGO. (My eyes glaze over.)

Amanda Carpenter: HillaryCare Door Wide Open to Illegal Aliens
Hillary Clinton claims her universal healthcare program will not cover illegal aliens, but the positions of her lead advisor on immigration and recent statements she has made to Spanish-language media outlets indicate otherwise.

Charles Krauthammer: Iran: The Unacceptable Risk to Stability
WASHINGTON -- Ahmadinejad at Columbia provided the entertainment, but Sarkozy at the U.N. provided the substance. On the largest possible stage -- the U.N. General Assembly -- President Nicolas Sarkozy put Iran on notice. His predecessor, Jacques Chirac, had said that France could live with an Iranian nuclear bomb. Sarkozy said that France cannot. He declared Iran's nuclear ambitions "an unacceptable risk to stability in the region and in the world."

John Hawkins: What They Don?t Want You To Know About The Jena 6 Case
Only in today's political climate, where so much of the "civil rights movement" is comprised of bottom-feeding race hustlers and shameless liberals who deliberately exploit racial tensions for their own political benefit -- could anyone demean the real civil rights movement that occurred during the sixties by comparing the struggles those brave people faced -- to what has been happening in Jena, Louisiana.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

The Soros Threat To Democracy

Investor's Business Daily
George Soros is known for funding groups such as MoveOn.org that seek to manipulate public opinion. So why is the billionaire's backing of what he believes in problematic? In a word: transparency.

How many people, for instance, know that James Hansen, a man billed as a lonely "NASA whistleblower" standing up to the mighty U.S. government, was really funded by Soros' Open Society Institute , which gave him "legal and media advice"?

That's right, Hansen was packaged for the media by Soros' flagship "philanthropy," by as much as $720,000, most likely under the OSI's "politicization of science" program.

That may have meant that .....

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UPDATE:
A reader left a link in the comments section where James Hansen refutes this allegation. For easier access, here is the link to James Hansen:
James Hansen accepted no money from GAP.

CLARITY OF VISION

“Our problems are both acute and chronic, yet all we hear from those in positions of leadership are the same tired proposals for more government tinkering, more meddling and more control—all of which led us to this state in the first place... We must have the clarity of vision to see the difference between what is essential and what is merely desirable, and then the courage to bring our government back under control and make it acceptable to the people.”
-- Ronald Reagan --

China is propping up the despotic regime in Burma.

BY JODY WILLIAMS

Israel, Syria and the Glaring Secret

What happened in the Middle East on Sept. 6?

By George Friedman


EXCERPTS:

The first reports came from the Syrians, who said their air defenses fired at an Israeli warplane that had penetrated Syrian airspace and dropped some ordnance on the country's North. The plane then fled toward the Mediterranean at supersonic speeds, the Syrians said, noting that sonic booms had been heard.

A Syrian delegation was meeting Turkish officials about the same time, and the Turks announced that two Israeli fuel tanks had been dropped inside of Turkish territory, one in Gaziantep province and the other in Hatay province. That would mean the aircraft did come under some sort of fire and dropped fuel tanks to increase speed and maneuverability. It also would mean the plane was flying close to Turkish territory or over Turkish territory, at the northwestern tip of Syria.

The Israelis said nothing. It appeared at first glance that an Israeli reconnaissance flight had attracted Syrian attention and got out of there fast, though even that was puzzling. The Israelis monitor Syria carefully, but they have close relations with the Turkish military, which also watches Syria carefully. We would assume they have intelligence-sharing programs and that reconnaissance in this area could have been done by the Turks or, more likely, by Israeli reconnaissance satellites. Yet, an Israeli reconnaissance flight seemed like the only coherent explanation.

What was most striking from the beginning was the relative silence on all sides. The Israelis remained mum, not even bothering to leak a misleading but plausible story. The Syrians, after threatening to take the issue to the U.N. Security Council, have been less vociferous than one would expect. The United States had nothing official to say, but U.S. sources leaked a series of incompatible explanations. The Turks, after requesting an explanation for the fuel tanks, dropped the matter.....

....There has been persistent discussion of nuclear material in Syria, which, if we took the words seriously, would tend to indicate that something radioactive, such as enriched uranium or plutonium, was present. If what was delivered was not equipment but radioactive material, the threat might not have been a Syrian nuclear program, but some sort of radioactive device -- a dirty bomb -- that might be handed off to Hezbollah. The head of Israel's military intelligence was quoted as saying something about the attack having re-established Israel's deterrence power after its failures in the 2006 conflict with Hezbollah. Perhaps the problem was that the material was being transferred from North Korea to Syria on its way to Lebanon, possibly to use against Israel....

......At a time when the United States is signaling hostile intentions toward Iran, the events in Syria need to be understood, and the fact that they remain opaque is revealing. The secrecy is designed to make a lot of people nervous. Interestingly, the Israelis threw a change-up pitch the week after the attack, signaling once again that they wanted to open talks with the Syrians -- a move the Syrians quickly rebuffed.

When events get so strange that interpretation is a challenge, it usually indicates it was intended that way, that the events are significant and that they could point to further instability. We do not know whether that is true, but Israel and the United States have certainly worked hard to create a riddle wrapped in a mystery.

FULL ARTICLE.

Fined group tied to Hillary

The Washington Times
Fined group tied to Hillary

By Jim McElhatton
September 27, 2007

Officials of a defunct pro-Democratic group that was hit with a near-record campaign-finance fine last month hold strong ties to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, documents show.



At least four persons who worked for the America Coming Together (ACT) fundraising group, which the Federal Election Commission recently fined $775,000, work directly for the Clinton campaign or hold top positions with consulting firms hired by it.



In addition, the group's former president, longtime Clinton aide Harold Ickes, has been identified as a volunteer adviser to the Clinton campaign. In FEC filings, the campaign listed a debt to Mr. Ickes of more than $2,000 for travel-related costs.


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Denver Post:
Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov clash over adding to Iran sanctions

LifeSite.net
Georgetown Will Fund Law Students Who Intern at Planned Parenthood

Fox News/AP:
Dems Attach Hate Crime Legislation to Iraq Funding Bill

Arutz Sheva (Israeli National News):
University of California Backs Down from 'No Jews Allowed' Program

Burma’s Neighbors Reluctant to Apply Pressure
A day after China and Russia blocked Security Council condemnation of Burma’s military rulers, foreign ministers from neighboring Southeast Asian nations will meet on the sidelines of the U.N. Thursday to discuss the crisis, but sanctions won’t be on the agenda...

Ummmm .... This wouldn't be the first time .....

That "something better" (i.e, the solution) turned out to be worse than the original source of the problem:
Studies Say Biofuels May Increase Global Warming
London
– Most biofuels cause more environmental damage than ordinary gasoline, according to a team of scientists led by a Nobel Prize winner. Since nitrogen is found in most crop fertilizers, the use of biofuels also produces nitrous oxide, a gas thought to be much more harmful to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide from fossil fuels...

Higher Gas Taxes, New Carbon Fees, Democrat Insists
Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) is proposing a new carbon tax to reduce U.S. energy consumption. Part of the proceeds, he said would help pay for universal health care -- “upon passage,” he noted. He also wants higher gasoline taxes and more taxes from "McMansion" owners...

From James Taranto, Opinion Journal.com:

"The Enemy Bill Richardson Won't Run From
New Mexico's Gov. Bill Richardson is running for president, and his position on Iraq can be summed up in 20 words: get out, vamoose, flee, scram, skedaddle, don't look back, bolt, beat it, go AWOL, quit, escape, run for your lives! He even says he wants to leave equipment behind, the better to bug out as fast as possible.

Some might see this as cowardly, because--well, it is cowardly. But CNN reports Richardson has found one enemy before which he will not shrink:

Richardson said if elected president he would decline the position of Honorary Chairman of the Boy Scouts of America because of that organization's policy barring participation by openly gay males, he said at a Democratic presidential debate Wednesday night.

When asked if he would accept the position, Richardson said, "No, I wouldn't, because I think as president I would commit myself, number one, that I will be a leader that prevents discrimination on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation."

And after all, what's the point of protecting America from al Qaeda if you're not going to protect America from the Boy Scouts?"

Senate Refuses Debate on Controversial Treaty

By: Ken Timmerman

The Bush administration is headed for another collision with its conservative base that bears all the hallmarks of the immigration debacle, where legislation that would have granted amnesty to illegal aliens bitterly divided the Republican party and ultimately went down in flames this past June.



This time the subject is a controversial international treaty that few Americans have ever heard of until now.



Officially known as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, opponents are referring to it more simply as the Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST.



What’s got them most riled up is the fact that neither the Bush White House, nor the Treaty’s supporters in the United States Senate, appear willing to have a forthright, honest, and full debate.



“They’re trying to ram this thing through in the dead of night,” said former Reagan administration Pentagon official Frank Gaffney, who now heads the conservative Center for Security Policy.

[Incidentally, Reagan opposed the Law of the Sea Treaty. - Heavyhanded]

On Thursday, the Senate Foreign Relationship Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, will hold its first hearing on the controversial Treaty. A bevy of senior Bush administration officials will all testify in favor of the Treaty. But not a single voice in opposition will be heard.


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Romney to the Rescue

Mitt Romney's Got the Right Stuff for 2008

By Ronald Kessler


Mitt Romney was faced with a crisis in July 1996. The 14-year-old daughter of Robert Gay, a partner in Romney's new venture capital firm, Bain Capital, had disappeared. As it turned out, she had attended a rave party in New York City and had become high on ecstasy. Three days later, her distraught father had no idea where she was.

Romney took immediate action. He closed down the entire firm and asked all 30 partners and employees to fly to New York to try to find Gay's daughter.

Romney set up a command center in a conference room at the LaGuardia Marriott just outside Manhattan. He hired a private detective firm to assist with the search and established a toll-free number for tips, coordinating the effort with the New York City Police Department, but he still wasn't satisfied. He raced through his Rolodex and called everyone Bain did business with in New York. He asked them to help his company find their friend's missing daughter.

The company's accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and its law firm, put up posters on street poles with a photo of the missing teenager. Cashiers at Duane Reade Pharmacies, which was owned by Bain Capital, put fliers in the bag of each shopper.

Romney and others from the Bain Capital posse trudged through every part of New York, even scouring Central Park, and talked with everyone they could - prostitutes, drug addicts - anyone who may have seen her. They also made rounds at the local nightclubs at 3 a.m., hoping someone somewhere could .......


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Sarkozy: If Iran Goes Nuclear, Prepare for War
Allowing Iran to acquire nuclear weapons could destabilize the world and lead to war, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the United Nations on Tuesday. In his maiden speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Sarkozy said: "There will be no peace in the world if the international community falters in the face of nuclear arms proliferation." Iran was entitled to nuclear power for civilian purposes, he said, "but if we allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, we would incur an unacceptable risk to stability in the region and in the world". In a broader warning against the dangers of appeasement, the new French leader said: "Weakness and renunciation do not lead to peace. They lead to war."


Wow. All I can say is "wow."

But then again, with France, when push comes to shove, who knows what they would do. Based upon past history ..... not much.

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David A. Ridenour:
Another Premature "Mission Accomplished": Law of the Sea Treaty Still Seriously Flawed

President George W. Bush has declared the Law of the Sea Treaty a victory of U.S. foreign policy and is lobbying the Senate to ratify it.

Dr. Matthew Ladner: The Silent Crisis of American Higher Education
Few Yale seniors, it turns out, know which American President created the New Deal. Even fewer would know which one said, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

Larry Elder: Jena Six -- Another Story of Unequal Justice for Blacks?
About the so-called Jena Six, reasonable people can disagree about whether or not prosecutors initially charged the Jena, La., defendants too harshly.

Robert D. Novak: Socialized Medicine's Front Door
The Alice-in-Wonderland quality of legislating in Congress was typified this week.

Hugh Hewitt: There Is No Spoon Long Enough: Dining With Mahmoud
Would you have accepted the hospitality of the government of Iran in order to dialogue with the fanatic who is the darling of the world's media this week?

The Democrats refuse to allow public scrutiny of all earmarks.

BY JOHN BOEHNER


"No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value, or is stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty than that on which the objection is founded. The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." -- James Madison


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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Imbecilic statement of the week

Fox News' Alan Colmes to David Horowitz:

“Ahmadi-Nejad’s not a liberal. He’s a conservative. He’s very right wing. He was welcome at Columbia University. You shouldn’t be complaining.”

I WANT TO MARRY HIM:

CBS's Scottt Pelley might just as well have said that. He didn't of course, but he did say:

“[Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad] is genuinely religious, genuinely humble, there are no fancy clothes, fancy cars. He lives with his wife and his three children—they live in an apartment in Tehran. He is a very modest man and said to be absolutely incorruptible as well.”

Oh, I guess that wouldn't work. Ima-Nut-Job is already married. Besides, I forgot that: “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that like in your country... In Iran we do not have this phenomenon.”


Taxpayers, Beware: Record Tax Burden Is Rising

THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION
Congress is threatening to raise taxes significantly and often as it debates a variety of major tax and spending proposals. But before Congress launches into a new spate of tax hikes, policymakers and taxpayers need to understand the historical context of overall tax levels and where those levels are headed under current policy. Although federal taxes as a share of the overall economy have stayed relatively constant over the past 40 years, the amount paid by individual taxpayers hits a new record almost every year even after adjusting for inflation. Rather than continuing this trend, Congress should be looking to cut taxes and spending.


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GLOBAL WARMING HYSTERIA

By Walter E. Williams
Despite increasing evidence that man-made CO2 is not a significant greenhouse gas and contributor to climate change, politicians and others who wish to control our lives must maintain that it is.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Rep. John Dingell wants a 50-cents-a-gallon tax on gasoline. We've heard such calls before, but there's a new twist. Dingell also wants to eliminate the mortgage tax deduction on what he calls "McMansions," homes that are 3,000 square feet and larger. That's because larger homes use more energy.


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TODAY'S THOUGHT OF THE DAY

You must control your attitude ......
or it will control YOU.

SCHIP Bill Opens Federal Money to Illegals, Republicans Claim
The House and Senate compromise on the reauthorization and expansion of a children’s health insurance program would open the federally funded program to illegal immigrants, according to Republicans who oppose the measure...

Dumped by Reagan, Sea Treaty Now Up for Passage
An international treaty that President Reagan vetoed in the early 1980s is being re-visited in the Senate this week, and State Department and Defense Department officials are expected to push for its ratification. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is intended to establish rules governing military and commercial use of the world’s oceans...

May the Monks Prevail

By David Aikman

"Spare a thought for Burma, a large country in Southeast Asia that has been ruled by a tyrannical military regime since 1988. The leader of the opposition, Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been in and out of house arrest ever since the government refused to accept the results of the 1990 elections which were won by Suu Ky's party.

There is no freedom at all in Burma. Police spies are everywhere and foreigners are carefully watched. But recently, a new group has come forward to protest: the nation's Buddhist monks. Hundreds of them marched silently though the streets of the capital, Rangoon, demanding that the government apologize for the violent suppression of an earlier protest march they organized.Burma could be a wealthy and successful member of the international community if it were not ruled by a clique of corrupt generals. May the monks prevail."


RELATED:
Burmese riot police attack monks
Thousands of Burmese Buddhist monks and other protesters have been marching in Rangoon despite a crackdown that has reportedly killed at least one monk.

RELATED:

Burma: Protesting monks are beaten by security forces

• UK and international community call for 'restraint' by the junta • Desmond Tutu likens the protest to anti-apartheid movement • Military finally appears on the streets of Yangon

Burma's protesting monks have been been baton-charged and sprayed with tear gas after they defied the military's ban on demonstrations.

More than 10 monks were beaten by the country's security forces and over 200 are said to have been arrested in Rangoon.

Earlier, soldiers and armed police patrolled monasteries and other flashpoints as a night-time curfew ended and morning began.

RELATED:
Violent Crackdown Launched in Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Security forces shot and wounded three people, and beat and dragged away dozens of Buddhist monks Wednesday in the most violent crackdown against the protests that began last month, witnesses said. About 300 monks and activists were arrested, dissidents said.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Politico.com:
Clinton campaign kills negative story in GQ magazine

Reuters:
Supreme Court to Rule on Photo ID Voting Law

Las Vegas Sun/AP:
Congress Votes for Tighter Sanctions against Iran

Las Vegas Sun/AP:
Cubans Walk Out During Bush UN Speech

JOKE OF THE DAY

Iranian Women ‘Freest in the World,’ Ahmadinejad Says
In defiance of reports from the U.S. State Department and various human rights groups, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that “the freest women in the world are the women in Iran.” But human rights groups disagree...

‘Kick Iran Out of UN, Indict Ahmadinejad’
As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended his country’s human rights record in New York City on Monday, the U.N.’s top human rights body in Geneva heard an appeal for Iran’s expulsion from the U.N. and for its leader to be indicted under international law...

Incompetence with a capital "I"

Diversity Visa Program Called ‘Open Door’ for Terrorists
The State Department’s “Diversity Visa Program” is so prone to fraud that it is an “open door” through which terrorists can enter the United States legally, according to a government investigation...

Can I please have the government run my healthcare too?

They're sooo good at everything they do.

Phyllis Schlafly: Law of the Sea treaty doesn't hold water
The Law of the Sea Treaty is the globalists' dream bill. It would put the United States in a de facto world government that rules all the world's oceans.

Douglas MacKinnon: Message to PC police: We have a responsibility to monitor U.S. Mosques
New York Republican Congressman Peter King has become the latest target of those who value political correctness and pandering over the national security of our nation.

Dennis Prager: Does the Left Value Truth?
There are conservatives who lie and there are liberals who lie. Neither blue nor red has a monopoly on truth-tellers. However...

Thomas Sowell: Law Versus Mob Rule
It is painful -- and dangerous -- how little we learn from history, even when it is recent history.

Columbia University's Disgrace

By Hugh Hewitt

Columbia University's invitation to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at the prestigious university was a disgrace. Not only is Ahmadinejad a denier of the Holocaust and an inciter of genocide against the people of Israel, the nation he helps lead is actively engaged in the supply, training and direction of insurgents who are killing and wounding American soldiers and Marines. This abhorrent fanatic should be shunned by civilization, not welcomed and given a stage and microphone by a great institution that thus bestows on him prestige and legitimacy.

Opposition to the invitation from Columbia has been fierce but the arrogance of elite academia is such that not even near universal disgust has shaken the university's resolve to welcome Ahmadinejad--and not one trustee has voiced objection. Alumni and donors should remember from September 24 forward that a donation to Columbia is a gift to Holocaust deniers and anti-Semitic, anti-American killers in Iran.

Well, I have to say I agree. What was to be gained by this? I was surprised, shocked you might say, by the negative introduction given to ImaNutJob. If anyone deserves an introduction like this, it's this scumbag. I was expecting it to be a love-fest. However, I again ask the question, "What was the point?"

Not only does he advocate the annihilation of Israel, but that of the United States as well. At the the top of this blog, to serve as a constant reminder, I have one of ImaNutJob's quote's: "€œGod willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism."€

His appearance was disgusting, and needless.

RELATED:

1. Of Free Speech And Academic "Progressives" (By Bill Murchison)

So, in the end, Monday the Iranian wild man Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got a dressing down from the man who had invited him -- in the name of free speech, you understand -- to speak at Columbia University.

Likely, by time for the speech, Columbia President Lee Bollinger had no choice other than to perfume himself against the stench from a statesman who proposes to exterminate Israel, presides over one of the world's least free regimes and may, to boot, have a secret nuclear weapons program going. READ MORE.

2. Columbia University's Selective First Amendment Affinity (By David Limbaugh)

Over an avalanche of protests, New York's Columbia University invited Iran's Holocaust denying dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak on campus. That any American institution would furnish a propaganda platform for this murderous thug is symptomatic of staggering ignorance about our enemies in this global war on terror.

Self-congratulatory liberals, like Columbia's President Lee Bollinger, actually see the university's hosting of Ahmadinejad as a cause to celebrate -- advancing free speech and diverse viewpoints -- as opposed to something that must be reluctantly tolerated. READ MORE.

Monday, September 24, 2007

35W BRIDGE COLLAPSE

UPDATE 9/24/2007

From KARE 11 News:

Benefits help two families devastated by 35W bridge collapse



Nearly two months after the collapse, it's not just the 35W bridge that needs rebuilding. Those who lost loved ones and those who survived also need a great deal of help.

Two benefits Sunday night raised money to help a couple of those families.

Proceeds from the first benefit at Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis went to Mercedes Gorden, who was seriously injured in the collapse.

"It makes me wanna cry, which is why I wore waterproof mascara," Gorden says with a smile.

She was one of the last survivors to leave the hospital. Her vertibra was fractured and basically everything below her knees was shattered in the collapse. She currently depends on a wheelchair to get around.

"My fiancee can't work now," she says. "He's my full-time caregiver, so he doesn't have a salary coming in."

(Heh. HeavyHanded's daughter can be seen in the video. She is standing in the background, next to the door entry with paper (flyers) in her hand while Mercedes , in the wheelchair, is getting a hug from someone.)

I got to give her a hard time about her cameo appearance on the news clip.

Also from KSTP News:

Concert raises money for 35W bridge survivor

The 35W bridge benefit concert, held in honor of survivor and hero Mercedes Gorden was a success Sunday night.

On Aug. 1, Gorden was on top of the world. She had just received a promotion and a raise from her job at Best Buy's headquarters and she was heading home.

Gorden almost made it that day, the car in front of her made it, but Gorden's Ford Escort plunged nose first 60 feet straight down to banks of the Mississippi.

Gorden was to be married in September, but postponed the wedding so that she would have time to recover in order to dance with her fiancé.

On Sunday, Gorden enjoyed the music that was played in her honor at the Fine Line Music Café in Minneapolis.

The concert's proceeds will go towards Gorden's recovery.

The Fine Line Music Café raised thousands of dollars through music and also through an online auction. Everything was donated.

"It's astonishing to see all the support," said Gorden.



UPDATE 9/23/2007:
HeavyHanded and one daughter went down to the Fine Line Music Cafe to check it out and make our contribution. Another one of my daughters was handing out flyers at the door as you entered. The place seemed quite active and a quite a few people came through the door, it seemed to me. Music had the place rockin' and rollin. And of course, I had to sample the beer.

Donations can still be made:

While Mercedes has insurance, the recovery process will be long, with inevitable unforeseen (and uncovered) expenses. If you are interested in providing financial assistance during Mercedes’ recovery, please send donations here:

Online:

www.paypal.com
ID: almostredd@hotmail.com

Note: PayPal charges a one-time fee and a percentage of the total amount you donate. If you want the full amount of your donation to go to Mercedes, we urge you to use the address below. Also, these donations are not tax deductible.

By Mail:

Mercedes Gorden Recovery Fund
Midwest Bank
108 West Main
Dalton, MN 56324-0278
attn: Julie

A portion of all proceeds collected will be turned over to the American Red Cross – MN Chapter


UPDATE 9/21/2007:

The benefit show for Mercedes Gorden is this Sunday, September 23rd at the Fine Line Music Cafe, downtown Minneapolis. It starts at 6pm but I was told that the doors open at 5pm. There is a $15 suggested donation fee at the door.

Six bands are playing:

6:15 COACH SAID NOT TO
6:50 THE DEATHS
7:30 SO IT GOES
8:15 OCEAN BLUE
9:00 MELISMATICS
10:15 TAPESNTAPES

There will also be a silent auction.

All proceedings will go to Mercedes Gorden and to the Red Cross.


UPDATE 9/01/2007:

News video from KARE 11 News, Minneapolis
Neighbors build wheelchair ramp for 35W bridge collapse survivor

-------------------------------------------------------------------
As some of you may know because of an earlier post, one my daughters was very fortunate, thank God, in that she was on the way to the Minnesota Twins baseball game, on that very route, 1/4 of a mile from the bridge, stuck in traffic, when it went down. She had had a power outage earlier at her apartment that put her and her fiancee a little behind their intended time of departure. We are grateful for that.

Others, as we all know, were not as fortunate. My son's girlfriend's neighbor lost his son in that tragedy.

Another daughter of mine has a friend and co-worker that was on the bridge when it went down. She had just crossed the bridge when it buckled in front of her and underneath her and she dropped 60 feet and hit a bridge support. The car directly in front of her made it safely across the bridge.

Click to enlarge photo.

She (Mercedes) is still in the hospital -- on Wednesday it will be 2 weeks. It has been horrific for her. She was not able to get out of her car on her own. She suffered shattered feet, ankles, and shins, and a fractured back. She has suffered from excruciating pain, obviously; and when she does get out of the hospital, she will be in a body cast, and in a wheelchair, with many months of therapy. The doctors told her and her fiancee that if this would have happened 10 years ago, they would have had to amputate both of her legs.

She was to be married in a few months. Not sure of the status of that. If the time frame remains unchanged, she will be getting married in a wheelchair.

Her fiancee (Jake) is trying to set up a fund raiser at the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis for some time in September. Last I heard, they were still looking for bands to volunteer to play at the fund raiser.

There is a website http://www.caringbridge.org/ where you can go and where Jake is posting updates on how Mercedes is doing. It has pictures of her car, the bridge and of her after the accident.

You can sign the guest book if you wish, or you can leave messages for her to lift her spirits and to show your support. You don't have to know her in order to wish her well. The outpouring from complete strangers can do wonders. To enter her journal, look under the banner and pictures and on the left side of the page where it says 'Visit a CaringBridge website', you will see a window and a GO button. In the window, enter: mercedesgorden (just as I have typed it with no space between her first and last name.

It is a sad, but compelling story. Mercedes was into yoga and dancing prior to this accident. Now, it will be next to a miracle that she might walk again.

There is a second website for her where you can go and donate money to help them out if you have the resources to do so. (Any donation made on the first mentioned website, CaringBridge, goes to keep that website up and running - which is cool, too - but does not go toward helping Mercedes and Jake with their expenses.)

To donate money to help Mercedes, go here:
http://www.howwastheshow.com/mercedesinfo/

Let's keep the victims and their families in your thoughts and prayers.

Update:
The Fine Line benefit is now officially booked for Sunday, Sept. 23rd starting at 6:00. The band lineup will be confirmed by Wednesday of this week and will start contacting volunteers for flyering and the silent auction at that time.

Please pass this web address along to as many places as you can, including friends, blogs and message boards.

This message will be posted at the top of this site until Sept. 23rd. Please scroll down for recent postings.

TODAY'S 'THOUGHT OF THE DAY'

Everyone has a photographic memory ....
some just don't have any film.

Lisa De Pasquale: Columbia and Ahmadinejad: The New Woodward and Bernstein
This week the once-esteemed Columbia University will host another speaker in its on-going "Conversations with Islamo-Fascists" series. I can hear the speaker's introduction music now:

Dinesh D'Souza: Ahmadinejad is in, ROTC is out
President Lee Bollinger of Columbia University is a very open-minded guy, in his own opinion.

Donald Lambro: Hillary's health-care nightmare
No sooner had Hillary Clinton unveiled her latest plan for universal health-care coverage last week than the Club for Growth was denouncing it as another attempt at socialized medicine.

"The State governments possess inherent advantages, which will ever give them an influence and ascendancy over the National Government, and will for ever preclude the possibility of federal encroachments. That their liberties, indeed, can be subverted by the federal head, is repugnant to every rule of political calculation."

-- Alexander Hamilton

Enforced Secularism
—Albert Mohler

"The Church of England has taken the unusual step of asking the British government not to pass a proposed anti-discrimination law. It seems that the law could, among other things, lead to legal action against churches and Christians who uphold biblical standards of sexual morality.

According to media reports and the church's statement, the proposed law could allow homosexuals to sue if they heard a sermon that declared homosexuality to be sinful. A homosexual might also sue if denied membership in a church and felt they had been put in a "humiliating position."

In its submission to Parliament, the Church of England also argued that any legislation in this area must respect the right of Christians to live according to their faith. Similarly, Christian schools must be able to teach in accordance with Christian conviction and principles.

It seems that the Church of England is now forced to defend its right to be a church in England.

We are living in strange times."

The men who gave us the "Bridge to Nowhere" may be headed there themselves.
BY JOHN FUND

As it enables Iran, Germany is forgetting its own history.
BY YOSSI KLEIN HALEVI

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Union Fund Embezzlements 'Epidemic,' Analyst Says
Eleven union officials were indicted and eight were convicted in August on charges of embezzling union pension funds, following probes launched by federal auditors and investigators at the U.S. Department of Labor. Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, said union embezzlements and financial misdeeds have become epidemic -- a fact documented in a new report and largely ignored by the media...

“’I don’t feel no ways tired. I come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me that the road would be easy. I don’t believe He brought me this far,’ drawled presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton, mimicking black voice to a black audience, at the First Baptist Church of Selma, Alabama. I’m wondering if Mrs. Clinton visits an Indian reservation she might cozy up to them saying, ‘How! Me not tired. Me come heap long way. Road mighty rough. Sky Spirit no bring me this far.’ Or, seeking the Asian vote she might say, ‘I no wray tired. Come too far I started flum. Road berry clooked. Number one Dragon King take me far’.”
—Walter Williams

“[Bill Clinton is] promoting a book called ‘Giving.’ So far he’s collected over $250 million.”
—Argus Hamilton

“MoveOn has been a cancer within the Democratic Party for years now, and not one leading Dem has had the guts to recommend surgery. Indeed, Democrats are terrified of the group’s much-exaggerated power—but, then, it’s always been the illusion of power, the bravado, that put totalitarian minorities over the top.”

—Ralph Peters

Petraeus’ Plan, Popularity Jump After Testimony, Polls Show
Even though Gen. David Petreaus was the target of attacks by liberal groups and congressional Democrats, the American public now views him -- and his recommendations for making continued progress in Iraq -- more favorably than before he testified before Congress, according to a number of recent polls...

‘General Betray Us’ Ad Violated Election Law, Group Says
A conservative group has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against MoveOn.org Political Action and the New York Times Company regarding last week’s “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?” full-page advertisement. The formal complaint charges that the organizations responsible for the full-page ad violated federal election laws...

Democrats Framing the ‘Betrayal’ Argument
MoveOn.org has released the latest ad in its controversial “betrayal series” – this one, criticizing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans for a “betrayal of trust.”

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann: The Dark Side of Hillary Clinton's Health Care Plan
The public face of Hillary Clinton's new health care plan is sunny, filled with choices for consumers and bright with promises for better health care for all. But a close examination of the proposal alongside other initiatives of Sen. Clinton in the past few years reveals a dark side she wants to hide from public view until after the election is over.

Robert D. Novak: Rudy's Coup
Giuliani caught the spirit of Republican rage over the left-wing MoveOn.org's full-page ad in The New York Times.

Ken Connor: Big Government is the Enemy of Freedom
Regrettably, however, our love affair with all things big appears to extend to government.