Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Pictures From The Sold Out Proffesional Bull Riders Fayetteville Invitational.

There was plenty of cold coors light on hand and a lot of Bull...






The things people will do for a free t-shirt. But if you have to work for it is it really free???








Cow Boy Up!!!!!!!




My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys.

No John Waynes In The Democrat Party.
Those of you that know me personally know that I have a bumber sticker on my Chevy Silverado that says my heroes have always been cowboys and has a picture of President Reagan and President Bush. The makers of the bumper sticker forgot to add John Wayne.

Anyways Richard Cohen, a big time liberal columnist, has a column out titled What John Wayne Can Teach Democrats.

Cohen writes:

Wayne was the quintessential anti-Democrat. Everything he stood for - from support for the Vietnam War to antipathy to the '60s and '70s counterculture - was in consonance with GOP positions. More important, though, his iconic man-on-horseback image has been adopted by virtually the entire Republican Party.

The Harris people tell us that Wayne, tied for third with Harrison Ford, is a particular favorite of men. Tom Hanks (No. 1 two years in a row) is beloved by women, and both Wayne and Hanks are the choice of conservatives. (Liberals chose Johnny Depp).

Wayne personifies the gender gap, the virtually habitual way white men vote Republican. There are many reasons for this - Democratic feminism, affirmative action, etc. - but one of them surely is that the John Wayne-style of the GOP appeals to the cowboy in most men. Even I, Eastern dude that I be, would rather follow the Duke than, say, Johnny Depp. Sorry, my man, but that's the way it is.

It is a quite interesting column but he is right about John Wayne being a Republican. Check out the Duke's 1966 Campaign Commercial: Reagan for Governor

State Of The Union Address Tonight.

President Bush will give his State of the Union Address tonight. Three things I would like to see in the speech that probably will not be in it.

1. Support for the Fair Tax.

2. A tough stance on immigration.

3. proposal for major cuts in out of control spending.

Will he mention any of these things in tonights speech?? I doubt it. Guess will just have to wait and see.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Saddam to sue Bush and Blair

The lawsuit accuses Bush and Blair of committing war crimes by using weapons of mass destruction and internationally-banned weapons including enriched uranium and phosphoric and cluster bombs against unarmed Iraqi civilians, notably in Baghdad, Fallujah, Ramadi, al-Kaem and Anbar.

The suit also accuses the U.S. president and British prime minister of torturing Iraqi prisoners, destroying Iraq's cultural heritage with the aim of eliminating an ancient civilization, and inciting internal strife. It also accused them of polluting Iraq's air, waters and environment.

The lawsuit demanded that Bush and Blair appear before court to answer the charges filed against them and requested the harshest punishment in line with Dutch legislation and the rules of international and humanitarian laws.

It also requested compensation for all material and moral damage inflicted on the Iraqi people.

Does this sound all too familiar? Yeppers, it is the talking points of the Democrat Party. Saddam will probably be rallying for President Bush’s impeachment next claiming that his civil rights were violated.

Dad Punches Out Teacher Aide's Accused Of Molesting

David Swafford, upset about his daughter's statement that she was molested by a teacher's aide...marched into the teacher's class and decked him. That's one way of doing it. Probably far less than what I would have done if it had been my daughter.

Swafford was arrested and charged with felony battery on a school employee after he hit the 35-year-old aide in front of a class full of students.

“I'm not real proud of what I did,'' Swafford told The Associated Press Wednesday. “You have to protect your children, and my daughter does not lie to me.''

There has been several other allegations made against the teacher assistant but until this incident he was allowed to continue working. He is now on paid suspension, in other words free paid vacation. No charges have been filed against him.

A Tampa radio station that named him ``Father of the Year'' offered him and his family tickets for the Daytona 500 race.

”If some other parents would do this, maybe some of these pedophiles would crawl back under rocks where they belong,'' Swafford said.

The school where this happened at is partly to blame for this. They had a father come in to discuss these molestation allegations made by his daughter and several other female students while the accused teacher assistant was present in the building. What did they expect would happen?

Like I said it is probably far less than I would have done had it been my daughter. Lord have mercy on the soul who would do this to my child because I sure the hell won’t.

Survivor Winner Guilty Of Tax Evasion, Fair Tax Plan Could Have Prevented It From Ever Happening

'Survivor' winner Richard Hatch is about to go to prison...for tax evasion. Turns out he didn't pay taxes on his million dollar winnings from the show. You know Richard Hatch is not the only one who practices tax evasion he just got caught. I wonder what he thinks of the Fair Tax Plan. Remember...under the plan, everybody pays taxes and you don’t ever have to fill out a form. April 15 becomes just another spring day to enjoy. http://www.fairtax.org/

ONLY 16% FOR THE HILDABEAST

Hell, I can't wait either. It'll make
for great blogging!!!

With George W. Bush down in the polls in his second term, you would think somebody; anybody on the Democratic side would rise to the top. Only it hasn't happened. And a new poll shows just how much Hillary Clinton will have to overcome if she wants a chance of winning come November of 2008.

According to a CNN/Gallup poll...a majority of voters say there's no way they'd vote for Hillary Clinton for president. It's a slim majority ... just 51% ... but it still doesn't speak well for her chances of living in the White House again.

What about the other 49% well, 32% say they might consider it and only 16% are in the diehard camp...they'd definitely vote for her. This is all an encouraging sign.

Perhaps people finally figured out Hillary Clinton? Maybe they realize that she is a power-hungry socialist, willing to do whatever it takes to grab power? Are they seeing through her attempts to repackage herself as a moderate on issues like religion, terrorism, the military and illegal immigration? We can only hope so.

She may have the '08 nomination all locked up, but Hillary is far from a sure thing in the general election. Thank God for that.

Canada Crime Rate 50% Higher Than US

Did you know that the crime rate in Canada is twice what it is here? That's right...not exactly what the media has led you to believe, is it? Read on and find out what happens when you declare war on guns as the former liberal prime minister did.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Hugh Hewitt Interveiws Joel Stein

Radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt interveiws "I don't support the troops" Joel Stein. Oh what a confused soul... After listening to this you just have to wonder about his thought process. Also keep in mind this is a Stanford College graduate. Stanford must be so proud.

I was right yesterday about Joel Stein he doesn't really know anyone in the military and hardly knows anything about the military. He claims he has a cousin in the military but just can't seem to remember there name. He also can't seem to remember if his editor at the LA Times liked the column or not or even had anything to say about it. Whats wrong Joel??? a little short term memory loss... I wonder what that could be from...

Click here to listen to the audio

Listen here for more great interveiws from the Jack Bauer of talk radio and the blogosphere radio blogger

Another Soldier's Response to Joel Stein

Yesterday I gave you my response to Joel Stein's column today another soldier sounds off with his response. Exellent response from LTC Steve Russell.

He says that Rome had its internal critics. So did Greece. But when the vast majority of Romans began to view the finer points of life as morally superior to the lower points of necessity, Roman youth lost their appreciation for what held Rome together in the first place. Soon, hired or conquered levies replaced Romans in the ranks. Why should Romans fight wars that they could not see any reason for fighting? After all, what impact did they have in Rome?

Eventually, the theory of a moral superiority in non-involvement met the cold steel of non-theoretically superior sword thrusts from Vandals and Huns that replaced Romans in the Roman empire.

This one is a must read folks.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Saddam's Atrocities Exposed On Video. Veiw At Your Own Risk!!!!

As the trial of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein resumes, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies is posting 4 videos of actual torture and murder that took place under Saddam Hussein’s regime.

FDD President Cliff May notes: “Television news, understandably, will not broadcast such videos. But they are, nevertheless, an important record of Saddam Hussein’s crimes against humanity that should be available to the public as his trial resumes.”

Now before I give you the link to these videos I must warn you. This material is extremely shocking and graphic in nature. It should not be viewed by children or anyone who thinks that such images might be to disturbing to witness.

I for one, didn't learn my lesson from watching the Al Qaeda beheading videos and I am now left with the same disgusting sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that I felt then. The images will bother me for days as the former images of torture from before did.

The video is broken down into 4 chapters.

Chapter 1 has footage of cane beating, and people being thrown off of buildings.

Chapter 2 is where it starts to get bad. It contains footage of limb amputations and cutting off toungues.

Chapter 3 has footage of executions. Everything from blowing people up to a beheading.

Chapter 4 is a video of the nerve gas victims in Northern Iraq from 1985.

Folks if there was any doubt that we were wrong for invading Iraq and taking this mad man out of power it has been completely erased from my mind.

After veiwing this video I beleive Iraq not to be just a mission of national security and fighting terrorists but also a humanitarian mission. The world should be ashamed for letting atrocities go on like this without ever doing anything about it.

People who think that Iraqis had it better under Saddam Hussein than they do now should take note: at this video that has been released that shows some of Saddam's atrocities. I warn you again, it is not pretty.

My Open Letter to Joel Stein, Los Angeles Times Columnist: "I don't support our troops."

Joel Stein is a 30-something columnist for the Los Angeles Times, for which he writes weekly.

His column this week titled, "Warriors and Wusses" provoked a huge outpouring of e-mail to me from a lot of friends of mine. I hadn't even read the piece yet because I do not subscribe to the Times and don't read it that much. In fact the only time I read the LA Times is the same time I read the New York Times, when someone tips me to an article.

Upon reading it, I could understand why everyone once a response from me. So here we go.

I will not post the whole column here. I will post key points of the column in italics and respond to them in normal print.

Dear Joel,

In your recent column entitled "Warriors and Wusses" you wrote some of the following:

I DON'T SUPPORT our troops. This is a particularly difficult opinion to have, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to put bumper stickers on his car. Supporting the troops is a position that even Calvin is unwilling to urinate on.

and...

But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they're wussy by definition. It's as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn't to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward.


I understand you would rather not support any of us in the Armed Forces right now. Fine. That is your right as an American and I will continue to fight for your right to not support me. No need to thank me and I do not expect any thing for my service including your support.

I am, however, glad that you have made the comment: being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they're wussy by definition. I have been trying to tell people that you can not say your against the war but support the troops for over a year now and you are making that case in your column. So we do agree on something.

I feel the rest of your article is highly flawed, and will make my points as we go along.

You also wrote:

....those little yellow ribbons aren't really for the troops. They need body armor, shorter stays and a USO show by the cast of "Laguna Beach."

The real purpose of those ribbons is to ease some of the guilt we feel for voting to send them to war and then making absolutely no sacrifices other than enduring two Wolf Blitzer shows a day. Though there should be a ribbon for that.

and...

But blaming the president is a little too easy. The truth is that people who pull triggers are ultimately responsible, whether they're following orders or not. An army of people making individual moral choices may be inefficient, but an army of people ignoring their morality is horrifying.

I wonder if you have ever known anyone or ever had a family member serve in the armed forces. My guess is you probably haven't. This is one thing the left will just never understand. The Army doesn't need more body armor, or shorter stays, or a USO show. What we really need is for people like you to get behind our efforts, show a united front at home. Quit giving the enemy propaganda by writing things like that blaming our soldiers for pulling the trigger or trying to imply that we have no morals. Of course that comes naturally to a liberal like you who always blames America first. After all it was all America's fault that we were attacked any way.

...and you go on to write.

I do sympathize with people who joined up to protect our country, especially after 9/11, and were tricked into fighting in Iraq. I get mad when I'm tricked into clicking on a pop-up ad, so I can only imagine how they feel.

I don't need or want anyones sympathy. I volunteered to fight this war. I enlisted right after 9-11 and was intelligent enough to know then I was probably going to be going to Iraq. So, I was hardly tricked. Oh and buy the way I don't seem to have that pop up problem. I got a pop up blocker maybe you should try it out.

you also write.

But when you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you're not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you're willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism, for better or worse. Sometimes you get lucky and get to fight ethnic genocide in Kosovo, but other times it's Vietnam.

Here we go again with that blame America first mentality again. American Imperialism??? Please explain. If we where so imperialistic why didn't we just take over the whole middle east and take their oil??? Wouldn't that be the imperialistic thing to do??? You know we have fought many wars on other people's soil and have never asked for anything except for a place to burry are dead. Hardly imperialistic.

I guess you haven't heard about the mass graves found in Iraq. Maybe you missed the video tape of the torture imposed from Saddam. The war in Iraq is a humanitarian effort against genocide acted out by Saddam. Now we are re-building the infrastructure and helping the Iraqis regain their country. When the mission is complete we will come home. Hardly imperialistic.

Then you wrote

I know this is all easy to say for a guy who grew up with money, did well in school and hasn't so much as served on jury duty for his country.

Your implication here is that those of us serving in the armed forces grew up poor, didn't do well in school and serve constantly. I'll take the last point as a compliment. I grew up in a middle class house hold. We were not poor but we were not rich either. We could have had a lot more but my parents felt that the sacrafice of sending their kids to a private school was worth going without a few things and I thank them for that. I didn't enlist right after high school instead I went to work. After 9-11 I enlisted and took almost a 10,000 dollar pay cut to go fight the war on terror. Because I believed and still do believe in the mission.

you go on with

But it's really not that easy to say because anyone remotely affiliated with the military could easily beat me up, and I'm listed in the phone book.

Listed in the phone book you say... Well I guess you will be joining all the other Op-Ed columnist that have had there butts kicked by military personnel since the war started. Gimme a break Joel. Are you really that self centered to think that one of us would care enough to do anymore than click away from the screen after reading this garbage.

We have a world to save from the greatest threat of our time. Our country and the world is fighting for its survival. We are hardly worried about you. So sleep well tonight knowing that better men than yourself are willing to do rough, tough and brave things on your behalf to protect your wuss butt from the evil of terrorists all over the world.

Then to close your article:

I'm not advocating that we spit on returning veterans like they did after the Vietnam War, but we shouldn't be celebrating people for doing something we don't think was a good idea. All I'm asking is that we give our returning soldiers what they need: hospitals, pensions, mental health and a safe, immediate return. But, please, no parades.Seriously, the traffic is insufferable.

Well, It is pretty clear to me that your "we" lives in it's own little corner of the world and if you all do not want to have a parade for returning soldiers that is fine by me. However WE just might throw the biggest parade and Party since the end of WWII.

I leave you with an appropriate quote from John Stuart Mill:"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse."

"A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

"A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their own free choice - is often the means of their regeneration." ~~ John Stuart Mill

Trapped in the Wrong Government School

John Stossel continues his crusade to letting us know just how bad our government ran public education has become.

John Stossel tells us about people getting busted for trying to get their kids into a good public school. Even people who just want their kids to have a decent education are considered criminals.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Bush Says He Hasn't Seen "Broke Back Mountain"



President Bush has so far skipped BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN -- the Hollywood hit about two homosexual sheep herders that they call cowboys.

During a Q&A session at Kansas State University today, a student asked Bush: "I was just wanting to get your opinion on BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN if you'd seen it yet."

The crowd laughed softly before the student said loudly: "You would love it! You should check it out."

"I haven't seen it," Bush said flatly. "I'd be glad to talk about ranching, but I haven't seen the movie," he said to laughter. "I've heard about it."

I am sure that the President has a lot more important things to do than sit around and watch movies.

You know, of course, what this means..... It must mean that he's a homophobe., I'm sure that any day now John Kerry or some other person on the left will proudly announce that not only have they seen Brokeback Mountain, but he liked it.

Click here to watch the video. It is pretty funny.

Canada Kicks Out The Left And Elects Conservative.

Good news from North of the border....Canadians went to the polls yesterday and booted out the ruling Liberal party...and elevated the Conservatives to power. This marks the end of the 12-year rule of liberals. This is great news. Why? Because all the former Canadian Prime Ministers for the last 12 years have been America-hating French appeasers. But the tables have turned.

Instead of electing a French candidate from Quebec, Canadians have sent up Stephen Harper a 46-year-old economist. His platform: cut the national sales tax, clean up government, get tough on crime and improve health care delivery. He is also very pro-American, and relations are expected to improve.

Sounds like somebody we can do business with.

Monday, January 23, 2006

5 Days Til The PBR Invitational...

Can You Ride For 8 Seconds!


COW BOY UP!!!!
Hold on to your seats the PBR Fayetteville Invitational is on its way. I picked up my tickets today for this weekend. I am bringing my camera and hope to bring you some great pictures as well. So stay tuned.

It May Be The Longest 8 Seconds Of Your Life Cow Boy.
8 seconds...that is all you got to do is ride for 8 seconds. Now 8 seconds doesn't seem that long unless your trying to hang on while riding a bull. These guys have got to be nuts!!!

Civil Rights vs. National Security

Let’s say you are the President of the United States and you have just learned that U.S. Intelligence agencies overseas have found the phone number of Osama Bin Laden's satellite phone. Osama makes a satellite phone call to a U.S. citizen living in a large metropolitan area like Chicago or New York. At the time of the call nobody is home. Intelligence operatives are certain that Bin Laden will try to place this call again, but it will probably be from a different phone. They are aware that Osama changes phones frequently to avoid being tracked down. So there is little time to waste. Their best chance to intercept Bin Laden's next phone call is to place a wire tap on the U.S. citizen's phone. The next phone call may be in a matter of minutes, or hours. There is no time to go before a court to get a wiretap order. So ... what do you do? Do you put the wiretap in place immediately, or do you take the chance of missing the next phone call from Osama while trying to get a court order?

Now, before you answer, imagine that this might have been a phone call from Bin Laden to Mohammed Atta an hour before Atta was to board that American Airlines flight in Boston. The call was Bin Ladin giving Atta the final go-ahead for the attacks of 9/11. Without a court order you intercept the call, discover the plot, and save 3000 lives. Wait for a court order and the 9/11 attacks go forward.

OK there's the scenario. Now remember, you're the President of the United States. You've taken an oath to protect the people and defend the Constitution of the United States and to uphold its laws. Obviously this character has some kind of ties to Osama bin Laden. Something may be in the works: another terrorist attack may be just hours away. Do you spend those hours trying to get a warrant? Or do you spend those hours trying to prevent the impending terrorist attack?

Now, with Bush there is, of course, no way he can win on this. If he orders the wiretaps he will be assailed by the left for violating the law and ignoring our civil rights, even though this person has clear ties to terrorism. If it is later discovered that he was aware of someone in this country with direct ties to terrorism but didn't take immediate action to monitor their activities, he will be accused of ignoring clear threats to our country.

Aren’t you glad you don’t have to make this decision? I know I am.

The most recent Osama Bin Lade tape, Osama threatens the United States with another attack that he says we will see in our homeland very soon. This tape serves as a clear reminder to just how real the above scenario could become and why we must have such protective measures in this time of war such as the Patriot Act and NSA wiretap surveillance. But some members of congress have called for the removal of the Patriot Act and the NSA wiretaps in the name of civil rights. Some have gone as far as to call for the impeachment of the President for using the wiretaps.

There has been a major attempt from the Democrat Party along with the main stream media to turn the central theme into civil rights for the upcoming mid term elections.

It started in December when Democrats objected to renewal of certain provisions in the Patriot Act. The timing of those objections was synchronized with the New York Times story of the NSA surveillance wire taps that the times had known about for quite awhile but never reported it until the time was right.

It's easy to say that you oppose the Patriot Act or that you oppose the NSA wiretap program because it invades peoples civil rights or privacy rights or this and that...but how many people have actually read the Patriot Act? How many people are aware of what these measures have prevented from happening? And what will happen if Islamic terrorists attack America again? Will there be a commission to investigate whether or not some liberals in Congress took out some provision in the original Patriot Act that might have stopped the attack?

The Patriot Act has stopped similar attacks from happening here. A terrorist cell’s plan in New York to set bombs on the Brooklyn bridge was uncovered. What about the terrorist training camp uncovered in California. This is just a small list but may not have been discovered until it was too late without the Patriot Act. Just as recently as last month Italian authorities arrested three Algerians who were members of Al Qaeda that had plotted attacks on railway stations and stadiums in the US. They were caught because of wire taps that Italian authorities had placed on the suspects phones.

Now, I fully understand the argument that if the Patriot Act is abused it could put some freedoms, liberties, and civil rights into jeopardy. However what good will your civil rights be when your body is laying at room temperature because we were unable to gather information on the next terrorist attack. The measures in the Patriot Act and the use of the NSA wiretap program have been proven to prevent attacks from happening.

In times of war and national crisis, it is common and, indeed, necessary that the pendulum between individual liberty and national security swings toward national security. However, to what extent, both morally and legally, is it acceptable to infringe upon the rights of the individual in order to attain this security? We are left faced with two competing risks: individual autonomy at the cost of civil security and stability on the one hand, and totalitarianism of the state against the individual on the other hand. There must remain a balance between the two in this juncture of history.

In 1759, Benjamin Franklin noted, "They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." His words have been widely cited in connection with arguments against Patriot Act provisions and surveillance programs.

Clearly, there is no evidence that anyone's "essential liberty" has been willfully violated by these national-security provisions or programs. Notably, however, Franklin's remark came almost 150 years before Albert Einstein's observation that e = mc squared. That simple formula brought us the A bomb that ended WWII and changed the world forever.

The world was a much different place when Ben Franklin was with us. Our country had the security from attacks on our home land by our fortunate geographic location. Thousands of miles of ocean on each side protected us from attack or invasion up until the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Even then it was nearly impossible for a long range bomber to reach us and there was no such thing as long range missiles. Much has changed since then. Today a missile from the other side of the globe could reach Chicago or St. Louis in an hour and a half. Add a chemical or biological warhead on it the results would be devastating. An unlikely scenario but it is possible. A more realistic scenario a nuke suitcase bomb smuggled across the border with the help of organized international gangs or crime.

The world is a dangerous place in its present situation. Iran is closed to having nuclear weapons. Osama has just threatened to attack again. The war on terror continues on and as usual the left remains in denial worried about civil rights instead of national security.

Do you know how worried FDR and Truman were about civil rights and privacy rights during WWII? So worried that they actually placed Japanese Americans in concentration camps and had mail, that was coming from the troops fighting over seas, opened, read, and censored before it was sent on to loved ones. Could you imagine the Bush Administration trying to pull that off today? Rounding up Muslims and censoring mail coming from Iraq in the name of national security. It would never ever be able to happen today.

Now, I am not suggesting that we do the same today. Advancements in technology has allowed us not to take such drastic measures. All that I am saying is there was a difference in priorities between then and now. We understood that we were in a fight for our very existence I often wonder if we realize it today.

We understood that if we lost the war back then there would be no civil rights for any body. The same holds true today.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Willy Nagin And The Choclate Factory



You just gotta love the free market....Internet entrepreneurs have started selling "Willy Nagin and the Chocolate Factory" t-shirts, making fun of the New Orleans' mayor's comments. He'll never live it down.

Could This Be Related To The Attack Osama Was Talking About.

Last month Italian authorities arrested three Algerians who were members of the al Qaida -linked terror group GSPC.

The three were plotting attacks on ships, railway stations and stadiums in the United States in a bid to outdo the casualties caused on 9/11, said Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu.

The arrests made front page news in newspapers in Italy, Britain and France. But apparently the only U.S. newspaper to mention them was the Philadelphia Inquirer, in a short AP dispatch on page A-6. The AP did not mention that the principal targets of the plotters were in the U.S.

Could this have been the attack Osama was talking about in that tape the other day??? It is believed that the tape was recorded some time last month and this Al Qaeda plot was busted up last month.

Also remember that kid at Oklahoma U who blew himself up outside the stadium durring the 4th quarter of a football game. Why did he have a plane ticket to Algeria in his room.

Related Story From the My Two Cents Worth Archives.
Oklahoma Terrorist Suicide Bomb Attempt Or Just A Suicide.

John Stossel and ABC Attacked For Report On Public Schools.

John Stossel is a great American. His "Stupid in America" report on ABC's 20/20 last Friday night was truly amazing. Not only did he clearly show just how bad America's government schools really are, but he cited the principal reason that I have been writing about for over 2 years now: Government schools are a government monopoly controlled by unions. There is no competition.

Now Stossel and ABC are getting a good bit of hate mail. No surprise there. The National Education Association (NEA) is warning its members that John Stossel has "a documented history of blatant antagonism toward public [government] schools." Well, I don’t know if Stossel has a documented history of blatant antagonism toward government ran public schools or not, but I sure do. Stossel has written a response to the hate mail, and to the NEA. Here's your link. It's a good read ... especially for those of you who think public schools need more money to solve their problems.

Giving more money is not the solution to the public school system. We have been giving more money to public schools for years and the situation has continued to get worse not better. If you divide the U.S. Department of Education's figure for total spending on K-12 education by the department's count of K-12 students, it works out to about $10,000 per student. America spends more on schooling than the vast majority of countries that outscore us on the international tests. But the bureaucrats still blame school failure on lack of funds, and demand more money.

Giving more money to the public school system to improve is like giving more money to the drunken homeless man on the street to improve. The homeless man just spends more money on booze just like the public school system wastes more money on things that doesn’t improve education.

Now I have not been trying to antagonize anyone with my views on government ran schools. That is not my goal. I share my views on the poor quality of government ran education because I believe them to be true and want the situation to change.

Right now there is no group in the United States that presents a greater danger to the future of our country than the NEA and other teacher's unions. Not far behind would be the parents in this country who just don't realize, or just do not care what a hideous and horrible job these government schools are doing.

The only thing that will improve public education is competition. Let parents choose what schools they want their child to go too. The system works in countries that out scores us. It works for parochial and private schools that spend about half the money per student and have much higher test scores than public schools. Why does it work??? Because the school system becomes a business and there is a competition for students. The more students you can attract to your school the more money you receive. The students and parents become share holders and the school system has to provide them with a satisfactory product or loose them to a competing school that is doing a better job.

Hillary's Plantation Remarks

There is very little news coverage about the comments made by New York Senator Hillary Clinton at a Martin Luther King Day event on Monday. Here is what she said:

"When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about."

Oh really? A plantation! And what does the line "and you know what I'm talking about" mean? Well I know what she means and I think most of you do too. It is nothing more than racial pandering. She is trying to create and promote the image of Republicans as anti-black with her comments.

But the real story is the media coverage, or the lack thereof. Right now, if you take a cursory glance of the mainstream media, Hillary's remarks are receiving very little coverage. Now imagine if Bill Frist, Trent Lott, Dennis Hastert or Tom DeLay had said it. The media would be demanding their resignation. Need an example??? OK Trent Lott.

Trent Lott said far less than Hillary at Strom Thurmond’s Birthday party. When he said something about we wouldn’t have the problems we had today if we had elected Thurmond President. Well since one of Thurmond’s running points was segregation the media jumped all over Lott. Trent Lott apologized 7 times for his statement but it was never enough. The media never shut up about it until he resigned from his senate leadership position. Hillary makes racist remarks...and the leftist press gives her a free pass. Biased, liberal media?

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Public School Sex Education...

Osama Bin Ladin Tape A Sign Of Al Qaeda Weakness Not Strength.

In an audio tape broadcast on Aljazeera, Osama bin Laden has warned that al-Qaida is preparing an attack very soon, but also offers Americans a long-term truce.

"This message is about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how to end those wars," it began.

"It was not my intention to talk to you about this, because those wars are definitely going our way.

Folks, this tape was made from a position of weakness. You do not offer a truce to your enemies if you are winning. The fact of the matter is Osama never dreamed that we would stick the fight out as long as we have, and why should he have thought any different. After all we pulled out of the first Gulf war without toppling Saddam and left Somalia once the going got tough there. Osama even made the comment that the US didn't have the stomach for war after Somalia.

My guess is that Osama is tired of hiding in a hole while getting information about his closest friends being killed by American bombs in places like Pakistan. We are kicking terrorists butt and Osama knows it.

(Tape Continues)

"But what triggered my desire to talk to you is the continuous deliberate misinformation given by your President [George] Bush, when it comes to polls made in your home country which reveal that the majority of your people are willing to withdraw US forces from Iraq."

"The new operations of al-Qaida has not happened not because we could not penetrate the security measures. It is being prepared and you'll see it in your homeland very soon."

But the voice on the tape, which appeared to be aimed at the American public, also offered a truce:

"We do not mind establishing a long-term truce between us and you."

The tape went on to say:

"We know that the majority of your people want this war to end and opinion polls show the Americans do not want to fight the Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their [US] land.

"But Bush does not want this and claims that it is better to fight his enemies on their land rather than on American land.

"Bush tried to ignore the polls that demanded that he end the war in Iraq.

"We are getting increasingly stronger while your situation is getting from bad to worse," he told the US, referring to poor US troop morale and the huge economic losses inflicted by the war.

In response to the substance of the polls in the US, which indicate that Americans do not want to fight Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their land, we do not mind offering a long-term truce based on just conditions that we will stick to.

Spoken like a true anti-war activist at a rally.

Tell me that Al Qaeda is not watching the actions of Democrats like John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, and John Kerry. Tell me they are not taking there anti war statements and using them against us.

I am just wondering who is going to be the first one on the left to run to a microphone with a news crew and say maybe we should listen to Osama. Let's call a truce. We should learn to co exist and understand them. Who will it be??? John Murtha....Cindy Sheehan....Nancy Pelosi???

al-Qaida members may be among the dead

Well, I suppose Pakistan can call off their protest of the American bombing of a supposed meeting of Al-Qaeda leader. It looks like we sent a few Islamic terrorists to there eternal dirt naps. Preliminary reports are that the following Al Qaeda members have been sent to meet their 72 virgins.

Midhat Mursi also known as Abu Khabab was known to have been in the area at the time. Who is he? He ran a chemical and explosives training camp in Afghanistan.

Also possibly enjoying his 72 virgins is Khalid Habib, Al-Qaeda's chief of operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

And third on the list...Ubayda al Masri, who is supposedly Al-Qaeda's operations chief for one of the Afghan provinces.

Reports so far say that between four and eight foreign fighters were killed, along with 18 civilians, including 5 women and 5 children. Now...if these 3 scumbags are confirmed dead, will the mainstream media be reporting our military success? Of course not. innocent people died...and it's all George Bush's fault. That is the real story.

Obama Defends Hillary "Plantation" Statement.

Dem Sen. from Illinois Barack Obama is covering for The Hildabeast's stupid "plantation" remark. Now stop and ask yourself...would he be doing the same thing if a Republican had said it? I doubt it. I wonder what Barack would think about a Clinton Obama ticket...can't you just see it comming.
One of the accusations from the Democratic left, anti-war crowd is that there was no link between Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Actually, there was. Townhall.com columnist W. Thomas Smith will bring you up to speed.

N.Y. Times caught in photo fakery

The New York Times has been caught red-handed running a staged photograph of Pakistanis near a supposed U.S. missile. The problem? The missile in the photograph is old...and unexploded. Your kidding... The New York Times, making things up again.

Never forget that the best way to look at the news is not to look at it as news but rather look at it as a product. A product that represents the viewpoints of the seller. The seller has people who put the product together. They have people who market it to you in hopes of success. They measure their success by seeing how many people they can convince into believing their point of view.

I know some will say don't you do the same thing? Yes, it is true that I am bias, there is no doubt that there is a coservative slant to the news here but unlike the mainstream media I admit my bias upfront and I have never made a story up and tried to pass it off as accurate.

Related Stories from my two cents worth archives.

Fabricated Media Product, They've Been Doing It For Years.

Staged Events, Fake Photo Ops, and the Fabricated News Product.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

The War Between Wal-Mart and Big Labor Unions Rages On.

The left and labor unions in this country have been engaged in a war against Wal-Mart for quite a while now. Why do they hate Wal-Mart? Well, because Wal-Mart employees have resisted efforts at unionization. Labor unions don't like this. Labor union leaders feel that it is entirely fair for employees of a company to vote to unionize, but there is no fairness at all in rejecting unionization. You see the labor unions believe that if they are rejected at a place like Wal-Mart it is because the workers there were threatened or worried about loosing there jobs for being pro union. Workers would never turn down the almighty power to unionize and, of course, workers should never be allowed to eliminate their union.

You see, when Wal-Mart workers reject unionization that is something that just can't be ignored by the labor unions. Think of all the dollars labor unions are missing out on by not being able to unionize Wal-Mart. After all, Wal-Mart is America's largest employer with over 1.1 million workers. That is a whole lot of money something just had to be done. So when the workers won't take voluntary action to unionize the labor unions take another plan of action. They call for the help of their friends on the left and start a smear campaign against Wal-Mart.

First they get a national campaign against Wal-Mart going, focusing on how bad the work conditions are, how low the wages are, how bad the benefits are and so on. Then the media jumps on board with the left and the labor unions reporting how bad it is. Since it is a large corporation all the bad news must be true, we all know Wal-Mart doesn’t care about anything other than making a dollar. Then the labor unions send their lobbyist to state legislators to make laws that would hurt Wal-Mart the most.

Last week this tactic succeeded in Maryland. The Maryland legislature, controlled by Democrats, has passed a law over the Governor's veto which requires any business in Maryland that employees more than 10,000 people must spend at least 8% of its payroll on medical benefits. The best part about this is Wal-Mart is the only employer in Maryland with more than 10,000 employees. Of course the Democrats claim that they were not singling out any one company…Riiight… The Unions were mad at Wal-Mart, so they successfully used their lobbying power with the Maryland legislators to punish the object of their anger.

How did we ever get to the point in this country that an individual's health care is the responsibility of everyone but the individual? If the employer is going to be forced into paying for the employee's health insurance, what will come next? Life insurance and home insurance? What about auto insurance? We all need cars to get to work. We can't drive cars without insurance, so we can't get to our jobs without auto insurance. So why shouldn't the employer have to pay for that bill as well?

The only legal obligation that an employer operating in a free market should have toward its employee is to provide a safe working place and to live up to the terms of its employment contract with that employee. Whether or not health insurance is provided should be between the employer and the employee.

Oh and buy the way, do you think Wal-Mart is going to take the 8% loss on this? Of course not, there going to either cut back on future pay raises for their employees, or raise prices to cover the cost.

Another thing, the insurance that Wal-Mart employees will probably receive now will probably not be as good as the insurance that their employees previously had the opportunity of having. Before this Wal-Mart employees had to pay for their health insurance but there was no cap to what the insurance would pay. So if you ended up with a serious medical insurance and you were paying for your health insurance through Wal-Mart you didn’t have to worry about paying the doctor bill. I know this because I use to work at Wal-Mart from 1999-2000.

I'd like to see Wal-Mart do one of two things: (1) Close a few stores in Maryland to bring the total number of Maryland employees to under 10,000. Let the unions explain to the people why they lost their jobs. (2) Announce that the required 8% spending for health care will come out of future pay increases for Wal-Mart employees.

This Maryland law, by the way, is further support for my arguement that socialized medicine is inevitable in the United States, and trust me, that is not a good thing.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Most Senate Dems Took Abramoff Cash

For over a month now the media has been trying to portray the Abramoff lobbying scandal as primarily a Republican Party problem. Well according to a list released today by the Republican National Committee nearly 90% of Senate Democrats took money linked to disgraced ”Republican" lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

If this information is accurate the media is going to have a real hard time ignoring this scandal. Especially when 2008 Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton took more than $12,000 in tainted cash.

Of course she doesn’t even come close to the party's 2004 standard bearer, John Kerry, who raked in nearly $100,000 in Abramoff-linked donations.

In fact, 40 of the party's 45 U.S. senators made the Jack Abramoff dishonor roll. They are the following:

Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), who received at least $22,500 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), who received at least $6,500 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), who received at least $1,250 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), who received at least $2,000 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who received at least $20,250 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), who received at least $21,765 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), who received at least $7,500 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), who received at least $12,950 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), who received at least $8,000 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ), who received at least $7,500 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), who received at least $14,792 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), who received at least $79,300 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), who received at least $14,000 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who received at least $2,000 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), who received at least $1,250 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), who received at least $45,750 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), who received at least $9,000 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT), who received at least $2,000 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), who received at least $14,250 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who received at least $3,300 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator John Kerry (D-MA), who received at least $98,550 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), who received at least $28,000 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT), who received at least $4,000 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), who received at least $6,000 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT), who received at least $29,830 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) Received At Least $14,891 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), who received at least $10,550 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), who received at least $78,991 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), who received at least $20,168 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) Received At Least $5,200 in Abramoff-linke! d cash. .

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), who received at least $7,500 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR), who received at least $2,300 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), who received at least $3,500 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), who received at least $68,941 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator John Rockefeller (D-WV), who received at least $4,000 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO), who received at least $4,500 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), who received at least $4,300 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who received at least $29,550 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who received at least $6,250 in Abramoff-linked cash. .

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who received at least $6,250 in Abramoff-linked cash.

With all of these names look for the media to start back tracking on this scandle saying that since everyone was doing it there really wasn't no crime committed.

Even Kerry Was For Wire Taps, Before He Was Against Them.

John Kerry and the rest of the Democrats are trying to make a big deal about these wire taps. Well it looks like Kerry was for the idea before he was against it.

Kerry, 2001: "Passage of this legislation is going to make it a lot more difficult for new terrorist organizations to develop." "I am for tougher surveillance.... For instance, it's absolutely outdated to have a wiretap linked only to a telephone number in a modern age where you throw one away and use another 10 minutes later. So I think it's absolutely legitimate to track the wiretap to a specific individual. There are other kinds of things that we absolutely must do in order to modernize."

NEW ORLEANS --- THE "BIG CHOCOLATE?"

Prior to Katrina we knew New Orleans as the "Big Easy." Now Mayor Nagin Says it will be the Big Choclate because that is how God wants it to be.

He also claimed that God was mad at America for invading Iraq under false pretences and that God was mad at Black America for treating each other so badly...or something like that.

Well, at least he is living up to his parties mascot. click here for the story.

Hillary Clinton Calls GOP 'Plantation'

The Hildabeast said something potentially racist refering to the House of Represenetives as a "plantation" on Martin Luther King Day..... Now stop and ask yourself something. If one single Republican had called the House a plantation while it was under Democratic control, what would have happened? He or she would have had to resign, that's what. Will Hillary Clinton? No way, the media will cover for her quite nicely.

Senate Condemnation Hearings

The Senate confirmation hearings for Samuel Alito said more about the Senate than they did about the nominee. Thomas Sowell reports on some of the ridiculous things the Democrats said to embarrass themselves.

Let's give Iran some of its own medicine.

Since the world isn't going to do anything about Iran's nuclear weapons, Mark Steyn has an idea of what we could do to defeat the mullahs. I know you are thinking it is bombing them. Well it's not bombing...it's something else. Read on.

Stupid Idiots Cut Last 10 Minutes Of "24"

How moronically stupid can the staff at a television station get? Some pin headed idiot at WACH-TV, the Fox affiliate in Columbia, South Carolina decided last night that they would cut off the last 10 minutes of Fox's thriller "24" in order to make sure that viewers didn't miss the whole 10:00 WACH newscast. But wait! There's more! After the newscast they played a re-run from the first season of you guessed it "24"

I'll tell you what folks. I am so glad this didn't happen on my fox affiliate. I mean I do not watch much TV but if you really want to see me get wound up just take away my "24"

Monday, January 16, 2006

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.


Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and many of you have the day off. Today we are suppose to celebrate and remember the life of a great man, a man who held the United States to the promise made in the documents written by our founding fathers; that all men are created equal, and that all men are to be afforded equal protection under our laws. The so-called civil rights leaders of today aren't worthy to park Dr. King's car. Unfortunately people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will use this day and the message of Martin Luther King Jr. and turn it into trying to divide the country further into racial divide.

Every year when this day comes around, if there is Republican President or a Republican Majority in congress, the media and the left begin with their usual talking points about how we've come a long way with race relations, but there's still much work to be done. The media then reports whatever anti-minority policy they can come up with and use it as evidence that Republicans are evil racists. It will be about Katrina victims this year. You can set your watch to it.

First up is race warlord Al Sharpton. Speaking in New Hampshire, Sharpton had this to say: "George Bush, after spending the week lobbying for Alito, justifying wiretaps and explaining for the thousandth time why he did not respond to Katrina, will stand somewhere on Monday and piously act as though he remembers Dr. King, when in fact, he has stood against everything Dr. King represented." Riiight cause you know Bush doesn’t care about black people and he is a racist.

The fact is Martin Luther King, Jr. would not recognize or even associate himself with the modern civil rights movement and is probably already spinning in his grave. People like Al Sharpton and The Rev. Jesse Jackson don't want race relations in this country to be solved because it would mean they would be out of a job. So they run around making claims that evil white republicans are holding them from rising up and pass around the collection plate.

So while you're watching the news today, take note of how many reports contain the phrase that there is still "much work to do." The work will never end I suppose.

Oh, and I guarantee I will be called a racist by the end of the day for posting this.

How Daley and LBJ disrupted King's dream

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. never stood a chance in Chicago. Now we know why. When King came to Chicago in 1966, bringing his civil rights movement to the North, his efforts were undermined by the mayor and the President. There was a deal made behind the scenes. As long as Democrat Mayor Daley backedDemocrat President Johnson and the war in Vietnam, LBJ wouldn't lift a finger for civil rights in Chicago.

This cannot be. We all know it was only the Republicans who were against racial progress.

I wonder if the truth about the civil rights act of 1964 is also about to make headlines ...... that it was the Republicans, NOT the Democrats, that passed the civil rights act.

As a percentage of their respective parties, more Republicans voted for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than did Democrats.

It was Republican President Richard Nixon, not JFK or LBJ that instituted the first affirmative action program with actual goals and timetables.

Hey Al Sharpton You Want To Talk About Wire Taps

Al Sharpton wants to talk about wire taps when it refers to President Bush using them to gather intelligence information on terrorists claiming it jeopardizes civil rights. Well, why not bring up when the government used wire taps on Martin Luther King Jr.

It was during the Kennedy Administration when FBI head J. Edgar Hoover received permission to wiretap Martin Luther King Jr. Who was the person granting him permission for the wiretaps? Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. This is hardly the actions of a party who is credited with being the champions of civil rights.

Somebody Has Got To Say It, This 15 year old got what was comming to him and No Tears Are Being Shed Here.

Christopher Penley, of Winter Springs, was accused of pulling out the pellet gun in a classroom Friday and pointing it at other students before forcing one into a closet, then leading deputies and SWAT team members on a chase that ended in a school bathroom when he raised the gun at a deputy.

Deputies responding to the 1,100-student school in suburban Orlando believed the gun was a Beretta 9mm, and didn't learn until after the shooting it was a pellet gun.

But Nation said Saturday the boy's parents were in contact with authorities during the incident Friday and were telling them that they believed Penley did not have a real gun. Nation said the boy's father went to the school to attempt to talk his son out of the situation.

"When he got to the school, they would not let him in and he was later told Christopher had been shot," Nation said.

The boy's father, Ralph Penley, was "extremely angry," Nation said. He believes that if he had been allowed to go to the school, he would have been able to talk his son out of the situation, Nation said.

I have already heard people say; I wonder what will happen to that police officer that shot that 15 year old in Florida? Well, nothing should happen to him. He did his job.

Sorry folks, but somebody has got to say it. This 15 year old got exactly what was comming to him. You can cry tears for him if you want to but there will be no tears shed here. If you aim any kind of weapon at a law enforcement officer expect to be shot. It does not matter what your age, sex, religion or race is, you will be shot.

I have heard others say; Well his parents told police that they didn't think the gun was real, they shouldn't have shot him. Yeah well easy for them to say there not looking down the barrell at the recieving end of that might not be a real gun... Sorry, but I would have shot the kid.

Then I have heard; well they should have let the father go in and try to talk him out of it. Are you kidding me. Folks this was not a lifetime tv movie where they talk the gun down to the ground and everyone cries tears of joy at the end while singing Kum-Bi-Yah. This was real life with a real life ending. Some people just can't grasp reality I guess.

The tradgedy in all of this was that no one saw the danger signs until it was too late, and if they did see them they failed to do anything about it.

Stupid In American Schools.

Did you happen to catch John Stossel's on ABC's 20/20 this past Friday night? I didn't, and now I'm searching for a transcript. At any rate, I did see Stossel on the O’Reily Factor last week and I did manage to look at some video excerpts on the ABC News website. It looks like John Stossel took a look at the incredible mess that is American public schools, and found them to be an unmitigated disaster. Should be no surprise, the public school system has been in trouble for a long time now.

One of the video excerpts that I watched focused on a math test that was given to American and Belgian high school students. The Americans, of course, thought that they had done very well on the test. Then comes the reality. They hadn’t done so hot. They only scored a 47. So how did the Belgian kids do? The Belgian students scored at 75%. In the interviews I watched the Belgian students say how easy they thought the test was and they seemed to be amazed that the American children did so poorly and were openly wondering just how stupid our children really are.

If you did see this Stossel special, were you surprised at how low American students score on tests compared to students from other countries? Sadly, you probably were. There is no way that America should be anywhere other than in first place when it comes to education. Fact is, we're in 25th place. Around the world 25 nations are doing a better job of educating their children than we are.

Stossel pointed out one huge and very important difference. In other countries parents get to choose the school their child will attend. They choose the school, and the government pays the bill making schools, and teachers compete for your kids. In the United States there is no competition. Here the government assigns your child to a school. The only way you can choose where to send your kid is to either move, or to pay out of your own pocket to send your children to a private school. Here the government has a virtual monopoly on education and it is closely guarded and protected the teacher's unions. Apparently Stossel was pretty hard on the teacher's unions. He said that they tolerate mediocrity. Teachers generally get paid the same whether they're average, below average or above average.

While our schools are getting worse, and our education compared to the rest of world is falling, the teacher's unions continue their fight to maintain the government monopoly on education and to prevent anything that even remotely resembles school choice to become a part of the solution.

Each and every one of us knows that competition improves the marketplace. Why, then, do we turn a blind eye to the idea of competition in education? Stossil also made an excellent comparison to competition and grocery stores. Imagine that if the government assigned each neighborhood to their own grocery store and it is the only grocery store that you could ever shop at. What do you think would happen to customer service once the owner knows you can’t go anywhere else? You would have spoiled milk and bad meat because there is no incentive to shelve a good product or take care of the customer. It is not like you can shop some where else. You would have real estate agents advertising houses in good grocery store districts. Just as the public school system is now.

We Missed Zawahiri For Dinner.

Early Friday morning, the CIA dropped a bomb on a house in Peshawar, Pakistan. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden's right hand man, was supposed to be there having a dinner celebrating an Islamic holiday. Unfortunately, he decided against going and sent some subordinates in his place. We had intelligence that Zawahiri was going to be there so we dropped a bomb on the house where he was believed to be, but missed Al-Zawahiri. Bummer. Reports are that 17 people in 3 houses were sent to their eternal dirt naps.

Now we're hearing that Pakistan is upset...they've filed a protest claiming innocent people were killed and Al-Zawahiri wasn't even there. There are protests in the street in Pakistan and of course the media is spinning it as a military failure. So what is one to make of all this?

So we tried to rid the world of one of the most-wanted terrorists. He was supposed to be having lunch but wasn't there. If Pakistan were more cooperative in this war and didn't tolerate the presence of terrorists operatives in their villages this incident may not have happened.

In the meantime, though the losses of innocent civilians are always regrettable, but let’s not forget that there were several Islamic terrorists that died in the raid as well. Maybe, Pakistan villages will think twice before they welcome people like Al-Zawahiri again.

US senators say military strike on Iran must be option

Both Democrats and Republicans say we may have to resort to a military strike to take out Iran's nuclear capability. That's a promising sign. Of course, the Democrats will say they were for it before they were against it.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Confirmation Hearings.

Blogging Will Be Light Today.

Sorry folks but I got a lot going on today so blogging will be light today and through the weekend.

Is There A Show Down Brewing Between Israel And Iran?

Things could get interesting between Israel and Iran. Apparently Israel wants the government of Iran to know that Ariel Sharon's incapacitation will not leave the country in any less state of military readiness. Maybe they will send an air strike and bomb Iran’s nuclear reactors for us.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

A Lesson In Flag Etiquette From WWII Vet Brings Tears To 4th Grade Girl.

This story comes from Duluth Georgia were a group of families who lived in a cul-de-sac thought it would be a great idea to get the kids together and help them paint an American flag to show some patriotism on the 4th of July. Sounds like a good idea, only one problem though; they painted it on the ground in the street.

If you know anything about flag etiquette, you know this is wrong, because the flag is never supposed to touch the ground. If it does touch the ground it is suppose to be retired of properly. It really is a shame that most Americans don’t know how to show proper respect for the flag. If you don’t know flag etiquette click here and count the ways the flag is misused every day by people who just do not know any better.

Now it is pretty clear to me that these families were not trying to be disrespectful towards the flag in anyway. They just did not know any better. Well they got a lesson on how to treat old glory from an 81 year old WWII veteran that made a little girl cry. Here's the rest of the story.

Service to self or country?

Ollie North has just returned from his 7th trip to Iraq and has something to say to John Murtha and his anti war party. Awesome reading.

Education: Then and Now

Schools in Charlotte, NC have made news because their students have the highest test scores among children in big cities. Why is that? Thomas Sowell says it is not because education is getting better in the South but rather education has gotten worse in the North. Sowell says you can thank liberalism.

America's Greatness Displayed In The Rose Bowl

Did you watch the Rose Bowl? Larry Elder says there was more to it than just the score....the event showcased what makes America great. Check it out.

A Midwestern Perspective on Politics and Economics

If you grew up on a farm in the midwest you may like this one.

DEMOCRAT
You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. Barbra Streisand sings for you.

REPUBLICAN You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So what?

SOCIALIST
You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

COMMUNIST
You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk. You wait in line for hours to get it. It is expensive and sour.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows. Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.

AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses. Your stock goes up.

FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. You go to lunch and drink wine. Life is good.

JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains. Most are at the top of their class at cow school.

GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour. Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.

ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don't know where they are. While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman. You break for lunch. Life is good.

RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You have some vodka. You count them and learn you have five cows. You have some more vodka. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.

TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two. You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts. You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives to milk production but use the money to buy weapons.

IRAQI CORPORATION
You have two cows. They are kidnapped by Al Qaeda. They send audio tapes of their mooing.

POLISH CORPORATION
You have two bulls. Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.

FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow. Everyone votes for the best looking one. Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the black one. Some people vote for both. Some people vote for neither. Some people can't figure out how to vote at all. Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is the best-looking cow.

CALIFORNIA CORPORATION
You have millions of cows. They make real California cheese. Only five speak English. Most are illegal.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Abramoff Probe Catching Democrats.

Ever since Jack Abramoff worked out a plea bargain with federal prosecutors the media and the Democrats have done their best to portray this as a Republican controversy. This is being used to paint the current House and Senate leadership as corrupt. That may be true, but there is something getting swept under the rug here. As it would turn out Abramoff had two members that are in the Democratic party on his payroll.

They are Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan. What are they accused of doing? Performing official acts in exchange for some sort of bribe from Abramoff. Both have returned large contributions from Indian reservations that Abramoff represented and apparently defrauded.

But will we hear about any of this from the mainstream media? Good Question. This story is from the Washington Times, not even close to being a left-leaning newspaper. The next time you see a story about Abramoff, see if the Democrats are mentioned in the article. I am willing to bet that if they are mentioned it will be a sentence or two toward the very end of the article.

Oh, and what's this I keep hearing about Hillary dumping some Abramoff money a few weeks ago?

GOP Says They Want Party To Return To Core Principles

This one may be too little, too late. There are a few Republican congressmen that are calling for a GOP return to core principles. You know...the one Reagan used to talk about: limited government. Not these days.

It must be an election year. That’s right it is. It amazes me how Republicans always get on board talking about the principles of Reagan when there running for office but then jump ship when they get elected.

Public Schools Are Cheating the Children

Another excellent column from John Stossel: he says government schools don't really have any competition....and as a result, the children are being cheated. Don't miss this one. Also don’t miss "Stupid In America: How We Are Cheating Our Kids" with
John Stossel on 20/20 airs Friday Jan. 13 10pm ET on ABC.

Michelle Malkin Has A Message For Harry Belafonte

Michelle Malkin has a few thoughts she would like to express about Harry P.O.S. Bellafonte. Don't come back. She also gives us a list of Bellafonte's past idiotic statements. Here is one of my favorites.

Celebrity activist Harry Belafonte referred to prominent African-American officials in the Bush administration as "black tyrants" at a weekend march, and he also compared the administration to Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany.

Career Beggers

It seems some people are not just getting by begging for money, they're actually starting to make a pretty affluent lifestyle for themselves. Don't believe me? Read on and find out. Man, the economy must be good if people can just give their money away.

Annoying Someone Could Cost You 2 Years In Prison.

Being annoying via the internet is now against federal law and can cost you 2 years in prison. Is this going too far?

It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.

"The use of the word 'annoy' is particularly problematic," says Marv Johnson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "What's annoying to one person may not be annoying to someone else."

What is the world coming too? I am actually agreeing with the ACLU on something. I wonder if hell is freezing over.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

What Are We Going To Do About Iran, And What If We Listen To The Left?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the leader of Iran, has told a crowd of "theological students" in Iran that Islam must prepare to rule the world. Ahmandinejad said "We must believe in the fact that Islam is not confined to geographical borders, ethnic groups and nations. It's a universal ideology that leads the world to justice," ”, Ahmadinejad said.

“We don’t shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to rule the world”, he added.

“We must prepare ourselves to rule the world and the only way to do that is to put forth views on the basis of the Expectation of the Return”, Ahmadinejad said, referring to the Shiite Muslim belief that the Mahdi, on his return, will establish justice in a world consumed by chaos and corruption.

Now when you put this Islamo fascist -idiot's thoughts on world domination together with some other things he has said you really begin to understand why he would be so dangerous with nuclear weapons and why we should not and can not allow that to ever happen. Here are some samples of previous recent comments; The Holocaust is a myth, Israel and the US must be wiped off the face of the Earth, and Iran is going to become a nuclear power no matter what the Western world thinks about it.

So now the question is what are we going to do about it?

Well if we are to listen to the left the first thing we would do is pull our troops out of the Middle East and allow Iraq to immediately fall under the control of Al Qaeda and other Islamo-fascist groups. This would prove to Muslims around the world that we do not have the strength or resolve to stand up to Islamic despots, which is how we ended up in this mess in the first place actually. Osama Bin Ladin has commented several times that we don’t have the stomach for war referring to our cut and run policy in Somalia.

Then we would take all of that money we've been spending on trying to liberate Iraq and spend it on socialistic welfare programs here at home. I mean we got Katrina victims who need help, how dare us expect them to help themselves at all. Then we should work to strip any executive powers from the President to gather information about terrorists because it might jeopardize civil rights. And to show Iran and other enemies that we have changed and can co exist we will engage in a year of self-loathing over the treatment of Islamic prisoners and detainees and demand our military undertake sensitivity training programs.

That would show them. Why I bet Ahmadinejad would just forget about his dream of world domination if we could just understand him better and his side of the story.

Oh how I hope the left is never in charge of National Security.

The Saddam Link To Terrorism

You would think this would be front page material in every paper across the county. Saddam Hussein was training Islamic terrorists before we removed him from power. Of course it is not, and I am willing to bet a lot of you have never even heard about this story until now.

According to Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard, there are new documents that have been captured from Iraq that proves Saddam Hussein was, indeed, training Iraqi terrorists in Iraq, thousands of them. The training took place at training camps inside Iraq in the four years leading all the way up to the invasion.

Of course the mainstream press has ignored this story. You have to go to The Weekly Standard website to get this information. Why? Because the news if favorable to Bush and supports his decision to get rid of Saddam Hussein. See if the mainstream media started reporting stories like this more people might actually start to think invading Iraq was the right thing to do. That makes the news simply unfit to print. So, you want more information? Here's your link!

Also, remember this top story from a while back about how we found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? It was on 10 A in the local paper here in a 2 paragraph insert world roundup brief section.

Stop Making It About Abortion, Abortion Will Never Be Illegal Folks.

I am going to probably get some hate mail over this post but what’s new. I am so sick of these Supreme Court Nominations coming down to nothing more than what does he think about Roe vs Wade, as if it is the most important issue facing this country.

The media and Democrats loves to target the abortion issue during these hearings because they know that it is one of the few issues that the majority of Americans agree with them on.

Just so you know I am a pro life kind of guy in my personal life. I would never promote anyone to have an abortion but I am not obsessed with it. It is not a political goal for me to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Why is that? Because what have you accomplished by over turning Roe vs. Wade? Nothing, all you accomplish is placing the issue back with the states and state legislatures and since most people support a woman’s right to choose most states will make it legal within there state. Oh, sure, there will be a few states that will outlaw abortion. All that accomplishes is to make it difficult for poor women to travel to another state to get the procedure done. This will result in more children being born to woman who don't want them, and can't raise them properly. For the rest, it will simply be a matter of traveling to the neighboring state where the procedure remains legal.

I know this is comes as shocking and bad news for those of you who are obsessed with being pro life, but once again, repeat after me: Abortion will never be illegal throughout the United States, even if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Give it up, folks. There are issues we face in this country that are far, far more important than abortion. Let's concentrate on things such as the rule-of-law, private property rights, and the right to bear arms. Kelo vs. New London is far more important to Americans than Roe v. Wade.

Osama Bin Ladin Dead?

Well, well, well, looks like those predictions are coming true already. Remember my prediction about Osama?

Osama Bin Ladin will not be found, nor will he be heard from. Rumors will start to spread that he died last year from Kidney failure and is buried in Iran where he was receiving treatment.

Well, According to National Review's Michael Ledeen, Osama Bin Laden died from kidney failure last month and is buried in Iran.

Bremer: We Didn't Have Enough Troops

Paul Bremer, who used to be in charge in Iraq, now says the biggest problem in Iraq was....not enough troops. The left and the media is praising the book, but wait a minute. Wasn't the left calling for no troops in Iraq. Wanting us to withdraw troops. Oh well the book criticizes the Bush administration and that deserves praise I guess.

Is The Left Curing Poverty or Using Poverty?

How does government lift a million people a month out of poverty? Thomas Sowell says you won't believe what country is doing it: China. How are they doing it? Is it through a socialist wealth redisribution program? Nope, it is the exact opposite. They have created more wealth. More wealth equals less poverty.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Plunging In To The New Year!

Polar Bear Club In Chicago Takes Yearly Swim In Lake Michigan

How about a nice freezing cold swim to start the year off right? I think I will just stick to hangover recovery.
I am sure you have heard by now about the Pentagon study that came out that showed at least 74 Marines died in Iraq because of insufficient armor plating. The media has been running this report everywhere and insinuating that the soldiers died only because they were denied armor. They are out there blaming President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Hilery has taken the opportunity to show her support for the troops by saying that it is inexcusable to not give our troops the best body armor. OK, fine, I agree, but who decides what the best armor is, politicians in DC or troops on the ground?

As is the case with most stories, there are two sides to it. Thanks to the Main Stream Media you only get one side of the story. Which is how could anyone disagree with the results of the study? We should get the troops more body armor to save lives! But like I said there are two sides to this story.

A lot of our troops have made it clear they don't want to wear any more body armor. Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade are already required to wear Kevlar drapes, knee pads and fire-resistant uniforms. Many troops say they already feel weighed down by it all and are happy to take it all off at the end of the day. One Second Lieutenant even says wearing more body armor would restrict his mobility and actually increase his chances of getting killed.

So once again I ask, who decides what the best armor is, politicians in DC or troops on the ground?

Let The Alito Confirmation Hearings Begin

Supreme Court Nominee Judge Samuel Alito heads for the Hill today to begin his confirmation hearings in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Expect a lot of grandstanding and hot air with the opening statements, especially since Teddy Kennedy is on the committee. So far, the conventional wisdom seems to be that he'll be confirmed, although not by the wide margin that John Roberts was.

Expect the left to try and smear Alito trying to make him out to be some Right winged crazed racist, cause all conservatives are racist you know. Anyways this has been the Democrat playbook for over 20 years.

Also, if you plan on watching this circus and waste of tax dollars here is a little something you can try to keep your interests. Monitor your watch and see how long it will take for the Democrats to bring up mistreatment of prisoners at either Abu Ghrab or Gitmo. They love bringing that story back up any chance they can.

And let’s not forget about abortion, we got to know where he stands on abortion, oh and the wiretaps.

You know these hearing are a complete waste of time. Everyone has already made up their mind on whether they are going to vote to confirm this guy or not. No one is going to change their mind due to these hearings either. Although there is one thing I like about these hearings. It exposes the Democrats to who they really are. Unfortunately not enough people watch or pay attention to take notice.

Attention Surplus Syndrome, or A.S.S.

You've heard of Attention Deficit Disorder or A.D.D.....Professor Mike Adams has a new one: Attention Surplus Syndrome or A.S.S. He tells us more in a letter to his students. Excellent and rather humorous column on class room etiquette.

Help Wanted, Openieng For Board Of Director, Must Be A Woman.

Can’t you just see this happening in the future of our country? The Norwegian government is getting ready to shut down about 500 companies because they don't have enough women on their boards of directors. Why doesn’t the government just take over the ownership of these companies and become the CEO. Then they can put whoever they want on the board of directors.

HIV Suicide Bombers.

Al-Qaeda is trying to recruit Islamic terrorists to give our troops the AIDS virus. Now that my friends is a perfect example of the terrorist mindset of our enemy, they will sink to the lowest measures possible. I wonder if Cindy Sheehan still thinks they are freedom fighters.

Hot Tubs And Cold Moralizing

The rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that is going on down at the Gulf has created massive corporate welfare. Did you know you're paying to rebuild casinos? George Will reports.

The Medicare Mistake.

Some in the Bush administration are now admitting the Medicare prescription drug program is a big screw-up. Well Duh, I could have told them that while they where trying to promote the welfare bill. Who do they blame? Karl Rove, says Robert Novak.

American Singer Belafonte Calls Bush 'Greatest Terrorist'

Harry Belafonte what a great American guy! Now he's calling President Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world." I'm sure those words warmed the hearts of many liberals and almost the entire Hollywood crowd. By the way, Belafonte works for the UN too ... as a UNICEF "goodwill" ambassador.

Friday, January 06, 2006

School Vouchers Struck Down In Florida

A huge victory for teacher's unions in Florida leaves poor students in failing schools. The leftist Florida Supreme Court struck down a voucher program that would have allowed children to use vouchers to attend a private school. Bear in mind, those vouchers were only available if the government school these kids were attending were failing to do the job. So ... the government tightens its grasp on your child. Nothing surprising there, the surprise is that parents continue to allow this to happen.

Judge gives child-rapist

So if you’re a perverted child molester Vermont may be the place for you. Mark Hulett admitted to raping a little 7-10 year old girl several of times. You would think the penalty would be pretty severe in a case like this wouldn’t you? Well Judge Edward Cashman sentenced the child molester to just Sixty days. That's right. Sixty days in jail. Judge Cashman says he just doesn't believe in punishment any more.