Michael Reagan:
Show Us The Shining City On The Hill

The bottom line here is that John McCain had better start giving better speeches and tell us what his vision is for America, and how he plans to get us there, and how he needs our help.

Lawrence Kudlow:
Bernanke's Next Challenge

Charlie Plosser, president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank, warned this week about the risks of inflation, overly aggressive interest-rate cuts and further damage being done to the Fed's credibility. I agree with Plosser.

Frontiers of Junk Science: Global warming snow job melting?

"According to a recent National Center for Policy Analysis report, last year’s declaration of impending doom from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the form of its Fourth Assessment Report was based on opinion instead of science. As hard data continues to emerge, global warming becomes increasingly difficult to defend. Hundreds of highly qualified scientists and climatologists unrelated to the UN’s IPCC pocket-science squad are contesting the assumption of so-called “experts” that CO2 is the primary force driving climate change. A number of scientists discount the warming theory entirely. In fact, many believe that the globe may be getting cooler—and some of them are putting their money where their mouths are. Believing that the world will be cooler in ten years, a pair of Russian scientists have even waged a $10,000 bet with British climate “expert” and global-warming alarmist James Annan. Meanwhile, China is battling its coldest winter in a century. Scores of people are dead and millions are stranded. Will Leftmedia shills report the events there with newfound skepticism for global warming? Don’t count on it."

-The Patriot Post

The law of unintended consequences - again

"In recent weeks, environmentalist groups have begun to realize what we in our humble shop have been saying all along: Federal biofuel and ethanol mandates have potential to do far more harm than good. The initial idea made a fair amount of sense—use a portion of our abundant corn crops to produce ethanol as an alternative to oil. The renewable fuel source reduces greenhouse emissions, in addition to reducing our reliance on foreign oil. Pressured by environmental lobbyists, the federal government quickly jumped on the bandwagon, enacting a series of ethanol subsidies.

Federal meddling confused the market, especially as it became apparent that government mandates and subsidies were unpredictable and subject to change. Farm subsidies are sacred to both Republicans and Democrats, but the consequences of this “solution” are now obvious, and even some environmentalist groups have begun to complain. Rising demand for ethanol means rising demand for corn and a corresponding rise in corn prices, which then in turn affect the prices of countless other foods, both directly and indirectly. The demand for ethanol and the resulting increase in food prices have also resulted in changes in land use that are damaging the environment, undoing much of the alleged environmental benefit that ethanol was to provide in the first place. However, those benefits were greatly overrated. If America’s entire grain harvest were devoted to ethanol production, it would replace only 18 percent of our automotive demand for oil.

Environmentalists are contradicting themselves—again—providing yet another example of the fundamental uncertainty of so much environmental “science.” Perhaps most importantly, the ethanol fiasco reveals the ineptitude of centralized government when it comes to running the market. As old-fashioned as it may sound, the laws of supply and demand are enough to handle even our energy troubles, so long as the market is free from government interference. Otherwise, we are at the mercy of the law of unintended consequences."

--The Patriot Post

“This year, the Republican bosses are going to deny Mitt Romney the nomination. They are going to cynically play politics, they are going to go with the liberal they think can win, and they are going to value victory over principle. They are going to forget the fact that Republicans who abandon principle for success invariably end up with neither.”

—Bob Lonsberry

“[W]hen all government...in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided...”

—Thomas Jefferson

World Tribune

China has penetrated U.S. databases: 'They are already in and we have to find them'

Chinese computer attackers have conducted an aggressive, non-stop campaign to penetrate key government and industry databases in the United States, according to a computer security specialist........

Thomas Sowell:
Economics, Anyone?

The other day, a reader e-mailed me to ask for an explanation of the gold standard. He had heard it advocated in one of the political speeches.

INSANE POLITICS

Donald Lambro:
Tax-and-Spend Democrats Just Don't Get It

Hillary Clinton has vowed throughout her presidential campaign to raise taxes on the richest Americans, but now the New York senator says she will postpone the tax hikes until the economy recovers.

La Shawn Barber:
Digging Up Democratic Skeletons

Democrats, seen as the civil rights party, supported slavery, opposed civil rights legislation, instituted the "Black Codes," and created the Jim Crow system.

"Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges, and Governors, shall all become wolves."

-- Thomas Jefferson --

Hillary still in bed with '96 scandal - - The Washington Times

Nearly one in five "HillRaisers," the elite big-money fundraisers for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, have ties to the 1990s fundraising scandal that tarnished her husband's presidency by offering Democratic donors sleepovers in the Lincoln Bedroom and other perks inside the White House

He's Downright Goofy in 'Da Head

Archbishop Called ‘Bonkers’ for His View of Shari’a
A call by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams for Britain to adopt parts of Islamic law (shari’a) to help maintain social cohesion has provoked strong reaction.~~ In a lengthy academic lecture delivered in London Thursday night, the head of the Church of England challenged what he said were misconceptions about Islamic law...

You Got That Right.......

‘We Are Acting Too Much Like Democrats,’ Paul Says
Washington – Presidential hopeful Rep. Ron Paul of Texas told conservatives gathered in Washington on Thursday that the Republican Party is “acting too much like Democrats,” especially the party’s frontrunner, Sen. John McCain. “We have drifted a long way from the positions we used to hold on limited government,” said Paul at the Conservative Political Action Conference...

Dems Will Reinstate Fairness Doctrine, Farah Says

Washington - At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday some attendees compared Democrats to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, claiming that the political right is being silenced by the political left.

"I am hear to warn you of what is going to happen to the First Amendment if the Democrats retain control of both houses of Congress and if Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama become president," said Joseph Farah, editor of WorldNetDaily, a popular Web site among conservatives. The First Amendment would be threatened, he said. Read more.

Leprosy outbreak causes concerns in Northwest Arkansas

SPRINGDALE - The medical community is warning the public: a leprosy outbreak in Springdale could blossom into an epidemic, if something isn't done soon.

Medical specialists say the Marshall Islands have the most cases of leprosy, in the world. And the city with the largest number of Marshallese people, outside the Marshall islands, is Springdale. And, Springdale MD Jennifer Bingham says, it makes sense, then, that leprosy is spreading to the city. "It's from the Marshall islands; that's why we're seeing it."

She says people must stick to treatment, when infected. And she says, when she treats those from the Marshall Islands, this doesn't happen. "We're not getting the compliance that is absolutely essential to take care of this process."

Bingham says without cooperation, leprosy, which has no vaccine, and is transmitted through the air, will spread, and could easily become an epidemic. "People absolutely should be concerned. What I'm afraid of, is when people start thinking about it enough, it will already be out of control." Full story.

Az. illegal-immigrant hiring law upheld - Yahoo! News

PHOENIX - A federal judge on Thursday upheld an Arizona law that prohibits businesses from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants and yanks the businesses licenses of those that do.

Whose economy was best?

By Richard W. Rahn

Under which recent president do you think the U.S. economy performed best? The policies of Presidents Bush, father and son, and Jimmy Carter clearly did not work as well as Ronald Reagan's and Bill Clinton's.

Read more....

The Strange GOP Nominating Victory

By Tony Blankley

Assuming John McCain gets the GOP nomination, it will show how whimsical history can be. It would be the first time in living memory that a Republican presidential nomination went to a candidate who was not merely opposed by a majority of the party but was actively despised by about half its rank-and-file voters across the country -- and by many, if not most, of its congressional officeholders. After all, the McCain electoral surge was barely able to deliver a plurality of one-third of the Republican vote in a three-, four- or five-way split field. He has won fair and square, but he has driven the nomination process askew.

Read full article at RealClearPolitics.

DOUBTING MCCAIN

By Dr. Jack Wheeler
Behind The Lines

Whoa... what a firestorm. At the insistence of many TTPers, last week's How the Clintons Will Destroy John McCain was made a free access article and promptly went viral over the Internet, becoming explosively controversial.

As you can see from the comments on the Member User Forum (145, a TTP record), the response from TTPers was overwhelmingly positive. I also received a number of responses from personal friends. Most were very supportive, a few were vehemently upset, with most of the latter assuring me that I remained their friend nonetheless. I cannot adequately express how much this meant to me.

Then there were those among the latter whose friendship I have lost. I am most regretful of losing that of Jim Warner's. Jim had been a dear friend of many years. I know of no finer man than Jim Warner, a man of unquestionable character and integrity.

As a captured POW held by the Communist Vietnamese for over five years, and a cell mate in the Hanoi Hilton of John McCain's for over a year, Jim felt it necessary to write a rebuttal to my article - without mentioning either my name or the article - in FrontPage Magazine.com.

It is easy to understand Jim's desire to defend his cellmate with whom he suffered indescribable horrors at the hand of the communists. Thus the excruciating irony of Jim's article - for John McCain possesses a fraction of the integrity and decency of character of Jim Warner. I would trust my life to Jim Warner without a moment's hesitation. I would not trust my life to John McCain for a moment. Read more for free...

Based on using the actual tax tables,

Here are some examples (based on the actual tax tables) of what the taxes were/are on various amounts of income for both singles and married couples in the lower and middle-income tax brackets. So let's see if the Bush tax cuts help only the rich, as the media and the Dems insist....

Taxes under Clinton 1999< >     < >Taxes under Bush 2008

Single making 30K - tax $8,400<> <>Single making 30K - tax $4,500
Single making 50K - tax $14,000<> <>Single making 50K - tax $12,500
Single making 75K - tax $23,250<> <>Single making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 60K - tax $16,800<> <>Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K - tax $21,000<> <>Married making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 125K - tax $38,750<> <>Married making 125K - tax $31,250

“Today, the political platforms of at least one party in the United States and pretty much every party in the rest of the Western world are nearly exclusively about... government health care, government day care, government this, government that. And if you have government health care, you not only annex a huge chunk of the economy, you also destroy a huge chunk of individual liberty.”

—Mark Steyn

“We, the members of the New Republican Party, believe that the preservation and enhancement of the values that strengthen and protect individual freedom, family life, communities and neighborhoods and the liberty of our beloved nation should be at the heart of any legislative or political program presented to the American people.”

-- Ronald Reagan

“We believe that liberty can be measured by how much freedom Americans have to make their own decisions, even their own mistakes.”

-- Ronald Reagan

“We must be ever willing to negotiate differences, but equally mindful that there are American ideals that cannot be compromised. Given that there are other nations with potentially hostile design, we recognize that we can reach our goals only while maintaining a superior national defense, second to none.”

-- Ronald Reagan

“Extreme taxation, excessive controls, oppressive government competition with business... frustrated minorities and forgotten Americans are not the products of free enterprise. They are the residue of centralized bureaucracy, of government by a self-anointed elite.”

-- Ronald Reagan

“No man can well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.”

—Joseph Story

The January Employment Report: Private Employment Increased

By The Heritage Foundation

The Worst-Case Economy Reporting Handbook

Broadcasts are filled with sob stories about economic woes of "average Americans." But most of those featured are hardly "average," and there's more to their stories than meets the eye. BMI highlights some of the worst-case scenarios and blame-shifting..... Full story.

Amanda Carpenter:
Reid Plans to Stall Budget Process Until Bush Leaves Office

While most national media is focused on today?s Super Tuesday action, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is raging against the Bush administration back in Washington.......

The Real FDA Scandal

'Unchanged over the last half-century.'
WSJ.com

So Members of Congress and the press are working up another panic about the state of the Food and Drug Administration. The place is a mess all right, but as usual the most alarming news is receiving almost no attention.....

Continue reading.

The Lies of Tet

Vietnam-era media bias continues to shape our political debate.
By ARTHUR HERMAN
Wall Street Journal Online

On January 30, 1968, more than a quarter million North Vietnamese soldiers and 100,000 Viet Cong irregulars launched a massive attack on South Vietnam. But the public didn't hear about who had won this most decisive battle of the Vietnam War, the so-called Tet offensive, until much too late.

Media misreporting of Tet passed into our collective memory. That picture gave antiwar activism an unwarranted credibility that persists today in Congress, and in the media reaction to the war in Iraq. The Tet experience provides a narrative model for those who wish to see all U.S. military successes -- such as the Petraeus surge -- minimized and glossed over.

In truth, the war in Vietnam was lost on the propaganda front, in great measure.....

Read on.

REAL CHANGE

Newt Gingrich writes:

A few weeks ago, I called on the President and Congress to listen to the demands for real change coming from the American people in campaign '08 and to act immediately -- without waiting for the election.

Speaking directly to the President and Congress, this is what I said:

"The country is speaking loudly and clearly. The American people are rejecting the special interests, and the bureaucratic status quo in Washington. The question for you now is: What are you going to do about it?"

Well, today at least on one front, the answer is in. President Bush and the Congress, led by House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio), are leading an all-out fight for real change by ending the undemocratic, corrupt practice of pork-barrel spending through earmarks.

It's more then a dry exercise in accounting. It's the first step in the fight for real change. It's a fight to begin to restore accountability to how your tax dollars are spent in Washington.

Read more.

Let's be clear here, I am not a McCain supporter. I did, however, hear him today at CPAC saying he would fight to end earmarks and would not sign any bill that contained them, if he were president. Remember though, he was talking to a large conservative action group. He could have been playing the part of any good politician ... pandering to a particular group ... telling them what they wanted to hear.

I hope he was telling the truth.

Wynton Hall:
The Unknown History of Civil Rights

How interesting that so many race-related political myths continue to be perpetuated by Democrats who know better.

Thomas Sowell:
What Kind of "Experience"?

The front-runners in both political parties -- that is, Hillary Clinton and John McCain -- are making "experience" their big talking point. But what kind of "experience"?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.:
A Teaching Moment

Many in Washington recognize that the growing aggressiveness of Iran is a threat to U.S. interests in the region - from Iraq to Israel to the flow of oil through the Persian Gulf....

Hillary as Prez?

NOT A PRETTY PICTURE.

Click to enlarge (if you got the guts.)

The Jihadist Insurgency in Pakistan

Stratfor
Terrorism Intelligence Report
By Kamran Bokhari

The increasing crisis of governance in Pakistan over the past several months has triggered many queries from Stratfor readers, most wanting to know how events will ultimately play out. Would a collapse of the Musharraf regime lead to a jihadist takeover? How safe are the country’s nuclear weapons? What are the security implications for Afghanistan? Topmost among the questions is whether Pakistan will remain a viable state.

Globally, there are fears that the collapse of the current regime could lead to an implosion of the state itself, with grave repercussions on regional and international security. Pakistanis themselves are very much concerned about a disaster of.....

Read more about The Jihadist Insurgency in Pakistan.

Pay Attention to What Ahmadinejad is Saying

By Hugh Hewitt

Last week Iran's erratic president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad returned to one of his favorite themes--the destruction of Israel. Speaking in a televised address, Ahmadinejad called on the West to acknowledge Israel's "imminent collapse."

Speaking to a crowd on a visit to the southern port of Bushehr, where Iran's first light-water nuclear power plant is being built by Russia, Ahmadinejad further incited his listeners to "stop supporting the Zionists, as [their] regime reached its final stage."

"Accept that the life of Zionists will sooner or later come to an end," the Iranian president declared.

Like Hitler in the '30s, Ahmadinejad declares again and again his plans. And, like most of the free world in the '30s, these ravings of a determined fanatic are largely ignored.

The West desperately needs to pay attention to each and every speech by the ambitious-for-nuclear-weapons leader of Iran. And, if we are wise, we should take him at his word.

"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

-- Thomas Paine --

LACK OF POSTS

Sorry for the lack of posts, but a family medical emergency has kept me away.

In Search of a Legacy

“There was general amazement when (the now-muzzled) Bill Clinton did his red-faced, attack-dog, race-baiting performance in South Carolina. Friends, Democrats and longtime media sycophants were variously perplexed, repulsed, enraged, mystified and shocked that this beloved ex-president would so jeopardize his legacy by stooping so low. What they don’t understand is that for Clinton, there is no legacy. What he was doing on the low road from Iowa to South Carolina was fighting for a legacy—a legacy that he knows history has denied him and that he has but one chance to redeem. Clinton is a narcissist but also smart and analytic enough to distinguish adulation from achievement. Among Democrats, he is popular for twice giving them the White House, something no Democrat has done since FDR. And the bouquets he receives abroad are simply signs of the respect routinely given ex-presidents, though Clinton earns an extra dollop of fawning, with the accompanying fringe benefits, because he is (a) charming and (b) not George W. Bush. But Clinton knows this is all written on sand... Clinton knows that popularity is cheap, easily lost, easily regained. (See Lewinsky scandal.) But historical legacies are forever. He wants one, desperately. But to get it he must return to the White House. And for that he must elect his wife. At any cost.”

—Charles Krauthammer

On Economic Downturns

“The fact that the market is not doing what we wish it would do is no reason to automatically assume that the government would do better. There are too many examples of government interventions that made things worse, the Great Depression of the 1930s being the most tragic. Those on the left love to believe that the stock market crash of 1929 showed the failure of the free market and that the New Deal interventions in the 1930s saved the day. But the stock market crash of 1987 was just as big and Ronald Reagan resisted loud calls for him to intervene. The result was not another Great Depression but the beginning of a decades-long period of prosperity. Before Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt came along, there was no expectation that the federal government would intervene when the stock market crashed or when there was a downturn in the economy. Previous stock market crashes and previous downturns in the economy worked themselves out faster and less painfully than the Great Depression of the 1930s, just as the 1987 crisis did. The track record of government intervention is far less impressive than its rhetoric.”

—Thomas Sowell

Taxes

“I’m sure everyone feels sorry for the individual who has fallen by the wayside or who can’t keep up in our competitive society, but my own compassion goes beyond that to the millions of unsung men and women who get up every morning, send the kids to school, go to work, try and keep up the payments on their house, pay exorbitant taxes to make possible compassion for the less fortunate, and as a result have to sacrifice many of their own desires and dreams and hopes. Government owes them something better than always finding a new way to make them share the fruit of their toils with others.”

-- Ronald Reagan

Washington Post:
Few Americans Think Stimulus Plan Will Work

Boston Globe:
Romney supporter Santorum questions McCain's 'temperament'

GOP Senators Reassess Views About McCain

His Old Foes Still Wary Of His Pugnacious Style
Washington Post

Duhhh.. What are unintended consequences?

Ethanol Mandates Could Drive Up Food Prices, Enviros Say

Environmental groups are backing away from federal biofuel and ethanol mandates. While renewable fuel sources may reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they also could raise food costs and cause shortages, critics say...

Senate Democrats Want More Stimulus Spending

Progress on the $150-illion stimulus package, which passed the House last week, has stalled in the Senate as Democrats fight to add to it from their wish lists...

MoveOn.Org Makes Its First Primary Endorsement

For the first time in MoveOn.org's history, the liberal advocacy group has voted to endorse a presidential candidate in the primary season. "That candidate is Barack Obama," MoveOn.org announced on Friday...

Disturbing. Very, very disturbing.

Clinton May Garnish Wages to Achieve Universal Health Care

Will Sen. Hillary Clinton garnish the wages of people who can afford health insurance but refuse to buy into her universal health care plan? On Sunday, she was asked that question three times and she didn't rule it out...

Star Parker:
Hillary's Plantation Politics

Why does the black candidate want to keep race out of the discussion, and why has Clinton made such a point to keep it in?

Donald Lambro:
GOP May Regret Raising McCain

The prospect of John McCain all but clinching the GOP presidential nomination in Super Tuesday's primaries has certainly raised the anxiety level among conservative Republicans.

Partisanship vs. Bipartisanship

Read a good post on bipartisanship and how it is overrated.

John McCain

UPDATE:
A couple of days ago I posted this:

THE CLINTONS WILL DESTROY JOHN MCCAIN

According to Dr. Jack Wheeler :

The number of fellow Senators who think John McCain is psychologically unstable is large. Some will admit it publicly, like Thad Cochran who says, "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine."

Others relate times when McCain screamed four-letter obscenities right in their faces in the Senate cloak room, like Dick Shelby, Rick Santorum, or Jim Inhofe. "The man is unhinged," one Senator told me. "He is frighteningly unfit to be Commander-in-Chief."

That John McCain is clinically nuts is scary enough. What worries a small group of GOP Senators and Congressmen even more is a deep and dark skeletal secret in McCain's glorified past to which they are privy, and which the Clintons will use to blackmail him.

Well, the author, Dr. Jack Wheeler, is now allowing this heretofore paid subscription only article to be read in its' entirety for free. Go here to read, "How the Clintons Will Destroy John McCain."

In addition, Dr. Wheeler is now granting free access to an article he wrote in November 2005, which also up until now, could only be read with a paid subscription. The article revealed that many staff members of the GOP on Capitol Hill thought McCain leaked classified information about secret CIA prisons for terrorists to the Washington Post .... an act many would consider treasonous.

The article, "To the Big House Instead of the Whitehouse?" can be read here.
(Update: Despite the promise to make this article free, as of 3:00 P.M. Sunday, clicking on the above link still brings you to a page unaccessible unless you are a paid subscriber.)

(Update, Monday, 02/04/2008:) The free link to the article "To the Big House Instead of the Whitehouse?" now works. You can now read the article for free here.