00Publius Contributor

00Publius Contributor - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Socialism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Union Tries to Interfere in Petition Results, Fails

August 18, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Denver right-to-work balloters won a small victory last week when a judge accepted the legitimacy of the gathered signatures on their ballot effort by tossing out a nuisance lawsuit brought against them by unions.

The union representatives sought to have more than the legally required amount of petition signatures verified hoping to have Amendment 47 thrown out. But Judge Christina Habas said she had no authority to do so.

Judge Christina Habas ruled Wednesday that she doesn’t have the authority to review every signature submitted by the right-to-work group. State law limits the court’s jurisdiction to the random sample reviewed by the Colorado secretary of state’s office, she said.

The Judge determined that the Colorado Secretary of State followed the proper procedures to verify the signatures on the ballots and therefore Amendment 47, a move to ban forced paying of union dues, is legal and correct.

Amendment 47 spokesman Kelley Harp said Thursday the ruling shows that the allegations are “frivolous.”

It goes to show that unions will go to any lengths from intimidation, to threats, to any manner of nuisance lawsuits to thwart the ability of people to democratically vote and have their voices heard.

Continue reading “Union Tries to Interfere in Petition Results, Fails”

00Publius Contributor - China - Communism - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Frederick Meekins - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture

China Agitates To Undermine American Liberties

August 18, 2008 by

-By Frederick Meekins

It’s bad enough that those living under the heal of tyranny have their God-given rights suppressed but one expects to hear of this transpiring in less-developed countries that have never really known freedom to begin with. However, things have really gotten out of hand when those living in the United States have to fear for their livelihoods for speaking out against abridgements of liberty occurring overseas.

According to an Associated Press story titled, “Protestors Take CNN To Task Over Commentator’s China Remarks”, Jack Cafferty observed, “We continue to import their junk with lead paint…and poisoned pet food and export, you know, jobs to places where you can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out stuff we’re buying from Wal-Mart. I think they’re [the Chinese government] the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.”

So instead of addressing the factuality of the allegations, a group of Chinese Americans took to the streets outside of CNN’s Hollywood office and called for the firing of Jack Cafferty. Of the group, one must question whether its loyalties were to be found with Red China or the United States.
Continue reading “China Agitates To Undermine American Liberties”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Gays - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Oh, Those Hate Filled, UnAmerican Gays

August 17, 2008 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Isn’t it grand that in the United States of America you are free to hold a political position or affiliation, free to donate your money to any political party you desire, and not lose your job over it? The United States has always been the epitome of freedom of political speech.

… unless you are a gay guy that wants to support John McCain. In that case, all bets are off.

At least this is what a fellow named Jonathan Crutchley discovered when he decided that John McCain would be a better president in this age of Jihadi terror and donated $2,300 to McCain’s campaign. Apparently, freedom of political choice is not allowed in gay circles.

You see, Mr. Crutchley happens to be the chairman of the board that runs a gay dating site named Manhunt. And the intolerant gays surrounding him have forced him to quit his job. To be sure, Crutchley didn’t donate company money and didn’t make any announcements that his gay website was sponsoring his efforts or McCain’s. It was a personal donation quietly made with his own money.

Yet here is what the hate filled gays in his company have officially said of him:
Continue reading “Oh, Those Hate Filled, UnAmerican Gays”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Family - Immigration/Immigrants - Media Bias - News - Race - Religion - Science - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Science Daily: Linking Depression With ‘Americanization’ of Latinas

August 17, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Another day another “study” of dubious worth. This time it is Science Daily letting us know that “Latinas” in the United States have high rates of depression because of that dreaded “Americanization” they apparently unfairly face. So now, just the gall-darn, odiousness of becoming “Americanized” is enough to send “Latinas” to the funny farm, I guess. But, it seems to me that this “study” tends to say that it is single motherhood and out of wedlock pregnancies causing the depression not the fact that they are “Latinas” that have become acculturated to American ways.

Just look how horrible it is for Latinas to become Americans:

A study of 439 U.S. and Mexican-born Latinas seeking pregnancy and postpartum services at public health clinics in San Antonio uncovered elevated levels of depression among the more “Americanized” women, report researchers from The University of Texas School of Public Health and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

First of all, I have to say that the term “Latina” is ridiculous in the first place, just as is the word “Latino.” The term Latino covers far too many cultures, nationalities, races and languages to be a useful term. A Haitian person has a different culture than does a Mexican and those “Latinas” actually born in the United States (women such as appear in this study) have absolutely no cultural connection to a Bolivian… yet they are all supposedly “Latino.” The term Latino is completely unacceptable for its imprecision to be used as a category in any serious study.

Continue reading “Science Daily: Linking Depression With ‘Americanization’ of Latinas”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Entertainment - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Singer Randy Newman on McCain’s Music List: ‘Then Again, Hitler Liked Some Good Music, You Know?’

August 17, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Blender Magazine, self billed as “the ultimate guide to music and more,” is famous for compiling “lists” of music for one thing or another. This month they’ve gone politics with the candidate’s top ten favorite songs as reported by the campaign offices of John McCain and Barack Obama. To make a mountain out of this mole hill, they also invited as commentators on these lists aging funnyman Randy Newman and exhibitionist Gregg Gillis who goes by the stage name “Girl Talk.”

For the most part, it is all pointless gibberish that these two “experts” are blathering concerning the two candidate’s music picks. But two things stand out… but first the Blender lists:

Continue reading “Singer Randy Newman on McCain’s Music List: ‘Then Again, Hitler Liked Some Good Music, You Know?’”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Loses in California, Now Trying to go National

August 17, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the most annoying sayings in American politics is “what happens in California will next happen in the rest of the country” as if California is always at the cusp of all the good ideas in politics. Well, apparently the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) is finding that old bromide not very helpful because its latest political coup failed to pass in California. So, in true never-say-die union thug fashion, the SEIU is reversing the truism. It didn’t work in California, so they are trying to force it on the rest of the nation anyway.

The Wall Street Journal’s Deal Journal has an interesting little story on how the SEIU is taking their legislative fight against Private Equity firms to Congress since they lost their battle in the California State House to force the PEs into stricter regulation.

It seems that the SEIU thinks that the PEs should have greater transparency in their investing practices. The SEIU imagines that it should be allowed to create rules for the PEs to reveal all sorts of information on their investments they currently don’t have to disclose.

Of course, what the SEIU is trying to do here is use that info to root out what investments that the PEs have with non union companies and then use that info to try to pressure the PEs into closer involvement with unions.

In any case, the transparency law failed in Sacramento so the SEIU is now shifting focus to Congress to try and force the bill that failed in California on all of us.

It is interesting how the unions are trying to force other people to comply with more transparency laws when unions have always fought tooth-and-nail to defeat transparency laws when it comes to their own business!

Continue reading “Union Loses in California, Now Trying to go National”

00Publius Contributor - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Nancy Salvato - News - Security/Safety - Socialism - Society/Culture

Censorship May Open Our Eyes to China

August 17, 2008 by

-By Nancy Salvato

Reporters charged with covering the Olympics are now whining about “not knowing what they will be able to cover and not knowing how much the Chinese government will censor their online coverage.” (1)

The fact that the mainstream media is even remotely surprised at a Communist Government not allowing complete freedom of the press is laughable, irrespective of the fact that China promised them complete freedom to report on the events after this one party state was awarded the honor of hosting the Olympics. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is absolutely right when it reminds folks that the Chinese government is “only doing what authoritarian and dictatorial regimes always do.” (2)

Those reporters who dominate the mainstream media are finally getting a small taste of what it feels like to navigate the barriers set up by a country that limits their liberty to speak their mind. The New Media writers have been all too aware that the continuing erosion of our own country’s freedoms in the name of political correctness has been steadily subsuming our constitutional rights for years now. Many writers plying their craft in the New Media are used to their message not being published by agenda driven mainstream papers. A substantial number of people who rely on the New Media for the news have long recognized that the sovereignty of our people is being subsumed by the one world agenda being preached by the socialist left and echoed by the alphabet network lemmings. The hours spent identifying and exposing the prejudices embedded in the mainstream coverage of the issues has well honed the analytical skills of New Media writers.

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00Publius Contributor - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - Race - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Howard Dean Plays Race Card, Media Folds

August 16, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

**Video Below the Fold**

Barack Obama has been fond of playing the race card in this campaign telling his enraptured audiences that Republicans will attack him because he’s black, even though no GOP candidate or campaign has done so to date. But, Obama is a newcomer to the racemongering game when compared to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. True to form, in a recent interview Dean has once again called the GOP a “white party” attempting to make this campaign about race issues instead of candidates and platforms.

This is the sort of cynical, hate-filled garbage that Democrats have universally parlayed as campaign rhetoric since the 1960s. As recently as the August election in Tennessee’s 9th District, for instance, a black challenger to a white, Jewish incumbent featured both racial and religious epithets thrown at the Congressman by the black, Democrat challenger. That obscene campaign barely rated a mention in the Old Media. The response by the Old Media to the ease with which Democrats resort to race baiting, though, also shows the impunity that Democrats enjoy on the issue. That Dean knows he can say such a thing and not feel he’d be taken to task for it proves not only that the Democrats are dividers and not uniters, but that the Old Media can be relied on to give them a complete pass on their divisiveness.

As an aside, it is such hypocrisy of Howard Dean to use race and his claim of “inclusivity” as a bat with which to hit at the GOP. Before becoming a candidate for president in 2004 and then the DNC Chairman, Howard Dean was the Governor of Vermont, a state with a .7% black population — a whopping 3,500 black citizens. So, yeah, he ought to know all about working with minorities, why he’s been up to his nose in them for decades.

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00Publius Contributor - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Morals/Sex - News - Religion - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Liberals are meaner, cheaper, more willing to steal than Conservatives

August 16, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Peter Schweizer, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, has a new book out that is sure to drive the loony left, well, even loonier. In the new book Makers and Takers, Schweizer tells us “why conservatives work harder, feel happier, have closer families, take fewer drugs, give more generously, value honesty more, are less materialistic” than lefties in America.

This from his website:

  • Seventy-one percent of conservatives say you have an obligation to care for a seriously injured spouse or parent versus less than half (46 percent) of liberals.
  • Conservatives have a better work ethic and are much less likely to call in sick than their liberal counterparts.
  • Liberals are 2_ times more likely to be resentful of others’ success and 50 percent more likely to be jealous of other people’s good luck.
  • Liberals are 2 times more likely to say it is okay to cheat the government out of welfare money you don’t deserve.
  • Conservatives are more likely than liberals to hug their children and “significantly more likely” to display positive nurturing emotions.
  • Liberals are less trusting of family members and much less likely to stay in touch with their parents.
  • Do you get satisfaction from putting someone else’s happiness ahead of your own? Fifty-five percent of conservatives said yes versus only 20 percent of liberals.
  • Rush Limbaugh, Ronald Reagan, Bill O’Reilly and Dick Cheney have given large sums of money to people in need, while Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Michael Moore, and Al Gore have not.
  • Those who are “very liberal” are 3 times more likely than conservatives to throw things when they get angry.

The American left prides itself on being superior to conservatives: more generous, less materialistic, more tolerant, more intellectual, and more selfless. For years scholars have constructed–and the media has pushed–elaborate theories designed to demonstrate that conservatives suffer from a host of personality defects and character flaws. According to these supposedly unbiased studies, conservatives are mean-spirited, greedy, selfish malcontents with authoritarian tendencies. Far from the belief of a few cranks, prominent liberals from John Kenneth Galbraith to Hillary Clinton have succumbed to these prejudices. But what do the facts show?
Continue reading “Liberals are meaner, cheaper, more willing to steal than Conservatives”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Invented ‘News’

August 16, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Remember during Bush’s run for the White House in 2000 when it was announced that Dick Cheney was his choice for vice president and the media meme became that Cheney added “gravitas” to the ticket? This is a small example of manufactured news. It wasn’t the fact that Cheney added much to the ticket, but that the media universally adopted a single word to describe the effect that Cheney had on the race. This is an example of the herd mentality in the Old Media. Sometimes, like with the choice of “gravitas” in 2000, that herd mentality is somewhat innocuous. But, other times it becomes an impediment to truth. Paul Campos found such an impediment a few weeks ago with the ridiculous worry that Barack Obama was “too skinny” to become president.

Saying, “This is a cautionary tale about how journalism sometimes gets practiced in contemporary America,” I find reason to agree with Campos’ assessment. He came to the conclusion that the “contemporary media echo chamber” has come to operate by “mistaking its own weird little obsessions for the actual concerns of the audience it’s supposed to be edifying.”

The story Campos settles on was the silly notion that made the rounds that Barack Obama was too skinny to be president.

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00Publius Contributor - China - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - President - Religion - Society/Culture

What Would Happen if there was an Olympics and Nobody Came?

August 16, 2008 by

-By Don Boys, Ph.D.

On Aug. 10, President Bush attended a registered church just before the opening of the Olympic Games. The Washington Times reported that Bush was denied permission to visit an unregistered church service or meet with officials of the unregistered church movement. His controlled visit was arranged by China’s President Hu. Of course, Bush could have held a news conference accompanied by unlicensed, unfettered, and uncontrolled preachers but he did not do so. Might be considered a little too militant.

The president told an NBC reporter that attending the service gave him opportunity to say to the government, “Why don’t you register the underground churches and give them a chance to flourish?” Evidently, someone fouled up on Bush’s pre-trip briefing. The unregistered churches do not want nor would they accept government registration! The underground church officials rightly understand that no government has the authority to control a church. Moreover, the unregistered churches are flourishing very well, thank you albeit suffering for their stand. The U.S. should have stood with them and boycotted the games!

Samuel Lamb is a 70-year-old leader of an unregistered church in Canton who keeps a black case by his bed. It is packed with clothes and a toothbrush. He said, “If they want me to register, I just pick up the case and say, ‘take me to jail, I’m ready….I will never register.’” In fact, these courageous leaders consider jail as their seminary training!

Continue reading “What Would Happen if there was an Olympics and Nobody Came?”

00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

NY Paper: July’s Killing of Liberals in Tennessee Church is Rush Limbaugh’s Fault

August 15, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Rush Limbaugh killed some church goers in Tennessee last July. That is the message from a Newsday.com columnist for a local New York newspaper chain. Now, I’ve listened to Rush Limbaugh many times. Because of my schedule, I cannot listen every day, so certainly I have not heard every word the man has ever uttered, but I am sure that you won’t be able to find a time when he told people to go out and kill liberals. Neither have I ever heard Sean Hannity advocate murder. Michael Savage…. well, I haven’t heard it but I almost wouldn’t be surprised, almost. Still, even Savage is smart enough not to do so I am sure. Regardless of a complete lack of such incitement to murder made by these “right-wing Shock jocks,” as she puts it, Jenna Kern-Rugile is sure that the killings of the members of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville last July is the fault of Limbaugh, Hannity and Savage.

Her premise is that the “rhetoric of extreme right pundits” such as Limbaugh, Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly “might” have caused shooter Jim D. Adkisson, 58, to gather up his guns and perpetrate a murder spree on July 27 at the Unitarian Church in Knoxville.

Might the shooter have heard talk-show host Rush Limbaugh say that “liberalism is the greatest threat this country faces” and “the Islamofascists are actually campaigning for the election of Democrats” and that riots at the Democratic Convention would be “the best damn thing that can happen to this country.”

Kern-Rugile also wonder “might the shooter” have listened to Hannity. She also notes that the killer had some conservative books in his home.

Some proof she has there.

Continue reading “NY Paper: July’s Killing of Liberals in Tennessee Church is Rush Limbaugh’s Fault”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Dangerous Sop to Unions

August 15, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Donald Lambro had a great piece warning about the promises that Barack Obama has quietly made to the nation’s unions on August 8. Of course, we have talked about it many times here on the blog, but the union’s “card check” plan in their so-called “Employee Free Choice Act” is a bad, bad bit of policy that would deprive union members of one of the oldest benefits of a democracy: the secret ballot.

Lambro does remind us of Obama’s union promises, but he makes two great points that I have not really seen discussed.

Firstly, Lambro mentions that Obama’s union support has been quiet.

Obama doesn’t talk about this issue much before general audiences, but it his No. 1 promise when he speaks to unions — pledging that the so-called Employee Free Choice Act will become law in 2009 if he wins the presidency in November.

Unlike past candidates, Barack Obama has not used his union support very obviously in stump speeches. Its as if he is trying to hide from the general voting public his union support. This is an interesting observation.

Secondly, Lambro brings out a singular fact that should be talked about more often.

The House passed the card-check bill last year, but when it went to the Senate, it fell nine votes short of the 60 votes needed to end a Republican filibuster. With predictions of a six-seat Democratic gain in the Senate this year, Obama Democrats hope they can get just close enough to a 60-vote majority to pass this dangerous and very anti-democratic legislation.

If John McCain does not win and the GOP loses more seats n the Senate, a victory for the anti-democratic unions seems a sure thing. We anti-unionists should be discussing this thin wall blocking “card check” in the Senate far more often than we have.

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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Frank Salvato - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - News - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture

Moqtada al Sadr’s Penchant for ‘Community Organizing’

August 15, 2008 by

-By Frank Salvato

Radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr is planning to disarm his Mahdi Army and oversee its transformation from Islamist fighting force into a civic and social service organization. Al Sadr wants us to believe that this cadre of anti-American jihadists is going to voluntarily lay down their weapons and all become “community organizers.” The truth is that al Sadr has been an attentive student, having studied the transformations of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza from violent jihadi organizations into armed factions validated by the electoral and political processes.

It has become clear to the wide array of jihadis fighting against US and Coalition forces in Iraq that they cannot win militarily. The superiorly trained and equipped militaries of the West – the US leading the way – are simply too potent to engage on the battlefield. Even in the streets of Anbar Province, where jihadis employ terrorist hit-and-run, urban guerilla tactics, the dark hearts of the jihadi taskmasters have come to understand that Allah will not have his bloodlust satisfied through direct and/or indirect military confrontation with the West.

So, Moqtada al Sadr, understanding the limitations of his military abilities in his stand-off with the West, has chosen to take one step backward to take two steps forward. He is yielding on the military battlefield in deference to engaging on the socio-political battlefield. This is not a unique approach to circumventing the advancement of liberty by those who strive to oppress.

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00Publius Contributor - Inernet - Media Bias - News - The Heritage Foundation - The Law

Important FEC Ruling for Blogger Freedom…

August 15, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently the FEC just made a good ruling for our side. The Heritage Foundation has the report…

Blogger Freedom Reaffirmed

Bloggers and web site operators may support, oppose, link to, and work cooperatively with federal political candidates. This freedom was reaffirmed when the newly re-constituted Federal Election Commission released its first two enforcement cases August 12.

The Commission’s refusal to regulate blogging and internet sites is not new, but it is notable is that the pro-blogger decision was made within a week or two of the new Commission taking office. Of the scores of items on its docket, the new Commission chose to address this one first: quite likely because they wanted to send a signal to that bloggers are free to engage in politics

Specifically, the Commission said that Gordon Fischer, a former state political party chairman, did not violate election law when he maintained a web site and blog (Iowa True Blue) promoting Barack Obama and criticizing Hillary Clinton. (Our friends at CCP note that the complaint was filed by a Clinton supporter: observing that all too many FEC complaints are filed for political harassment
Continue reading “Important FEC Ruling for Blogger Freedom…”

00Publius Contributor - Abortion - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Family - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Lied About Vote Against Live-Birth Abortion Ban, Media Mum

August 14, 2008 by 8 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Jill Stanek has done yeoman’s work on uncovering the fact that Barack Obama and his surrogates have been outright lying about Obama’s constant votes against the Live-Birth abortion bills when he was in office in the State legislature. His claims have been a staple of Old Media reports from the beginning, but now that Stanek has revealed the truth we will have to see if the Old Media corrects the record or if they suddenly just go mum on the subject like they have so far.

The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act (BAIPA) both in the Illinois and Federal legislatures was meant to make illegal death by neglect of born but unwanted infants. These bills were opposed by the bulk of the Democrat Party because of the fact that the original bills could have been construed to say that a pre-birth fetus was a “person” that was protected by law. So, the bill in Congress was altered to address that concern by adding a “neutrality clause” that made it clear that the bill would not protect a fetus in utero.

As Obama continues to tell the tale, as a State Senator he said he voted against the Illinois bill because the Federal “neutrality clause” was not included and that therefore he could not support the Illinois bill. Turns out he is not telling the truth about this fact. Even worse, he knows better because he was part of the legislative committee that added that very “neutrality clause” to the very bill he voted against in 2003.

Continue reading “Obama Lied About Vote Against Live-Birth Abortion Ban, Media Mum”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union, Charity Paid Thousands to Firms Owned by Official’s Relatives

August 14, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A.Times had a great investigative story this week about typical union corruption. Before going into the story, I’ll remind you that Barack Obama is promising the unions that he will gut the Office of Labor Management Standards responsible for rooting out and prosecuting union corruption. It seems Obama thinks unions are innocent until their corruption is ignored later.

Now, as to the Times story, what he have is typical union cronyism and corruption writ large. Paul Pringle of the Times give us “Union, charity paid thousands to firms owned by official’s relatives” in which we discover the sort of union cronyism that we find in nearly every union everywhere, especially in the Service Employee International Union (SEIU).

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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Flight 93 - History - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Flight 93 Update…

August 14, 2008 by

Memorial Project Superintendent lies about receiving threats

Blogburst logo, petition

Joanne Hanley, superintendent of the Flight 93 Memorial Project, cannot answer the damning facts about the crescent design (now called a broken circle), so she has decided to slander the people who are pointing them out. In a speech at the Memorial Project’s August 2nd meeting, she cited a list of “threats” she had received from critics, saying for instance that her “career would be destroyed.”

In defense of Superintendent Hanley, Flight 93 family member Calvin Wilson expressed his disgust at the violent threats and charged that critics were acting like the terrorists themselves. Three Pennsylvania newspapers covered Hanley’s claims to have been threatened, one editorialized against the uncivilized critics, and a Memorial Project press release highlighted Wilson’s outraged response to the supposed threats.
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Europe - Jeff Lukens - Media Bias - Military - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture

No More Vietnams

August 14, 2008 by

-By Jeff Lukens

The war in Iraq may be ending in much the same way the war in Vietnam appeared to be ending in 1973 with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords. We had finally won in Vietnam, but then lost the peace two years later. The outcome of the 2008 presidential election could determine whether Iraq becomes “another Vietnam” should there be a significant renewal of insurgent activity.

The Left would have us believe we were stuck in Iraq in an endless and unwinnable quagmire like they said we had in Vietnam. That comparison, however, has not held up. While much about the two wars is similar, a key difference was Lyndon Johnson’s muddled strategy in Vietnam compared with George W. Bush’s winning strategy in Iraq.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Morals/Sex - News - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

NYT Columnist David Carr: ‘It’s News When We Say It Is’

August 13, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

So, why did the Old Media seem to miss the John Edwards Love Affair story? Well, maybe it was because the Old Media hadn’t deigned to decide for us that it was “news” until after the New Media had chewed up and spit out the story for days and days? Apparently, that is what David Carr of The New York Times thinks, anyway. In an interview with CNN he alludes to the fact that he is used to the Old Media deciding when something is officially “news” and that maybe he and his contemporary journalists have lost that level of control they were used to enjoying. This fall from grace is being seen most readily in the Edwards story that the New Media had digested for a week before the Old Media got to it

CNN’s Election Center Blog posted the Carr interview on August 10 with the headline “Edwards affair: Was media part of a ‘conspiracy of silence’?” This CNN posting purports to explore why the Old Media seemed absent from the story for so long?

The CNN piece cites many factors from the fact that the Old Media has a disdain for National Enquirer stories to a claim that the Old Media is reticent to exploit sex stories. The former is a sensible precaution and the later an outright laugher. After all, the Old Media had no problem whatsoever in exploiting the rumors of George H.W. Bush’s affair, Newt Gingrich’s affair, Newt’s successor to be Bob Livingston’s affair, the John McCain affair story, Larry Craig’s restroom stall story, or Mark Foley’s Page Scandal… but then again, THOSE are Republican sex scandals. The same delicacy the Old Media handles sex stories with as claimed by CNN does not exist for those sorts of stories.

Continue reading “NYT Columnist David Carr: ‘It’s News When We Say It Is’”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Negotiates State Contract While Running TV Ads for Governor

August 13, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Interestingly, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on TV, radio and print ads helping Washington State’s Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire get reelected. This is the same Governor that the SEIU is negotiating a new contract with for state workers in that union. Naturally, Gregoire’s Republican opponents are crying conflict of interest, and its hard to deny their charge.

Republican candidate for Gov. Dino Rossi is saying that this is a definite conflict of interest. “When you have one party, whether it’s Republican or Democrat,” Rossi said, “that’s in power for so long, you end up with the appearance of institutional corruption, and that’s what this looks like.”

Rossi is also pointing to the favors Gregoire gave to Indian Casino owners for campaign support as a conflict.

Continue reading “Union Negotiates State Contract While Running TV Ads for Governor”

00Publius Contributor - Congress - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture

Egg on Their Faces

August 13, 2008 by 2 Comments

-By Dan Scott

The Edwards scandal has revealed for public viewing many things about today’s politics which those more cynical among us knew instinctually. We held back because we didn’t want to come off as conspiracy loons like Mel Gibson in the movie, Conspiracy Theory. Most of us who follow the political drama are continually cataloging the various pieces of the puzzle to connect the dots as it were to look ahead to the final game plan.

This week the dots are falling into line as we arrange more of those seemingly disconnected stories. The stories of note are the ones where John Edwards finally admits the obvious and Harold Wolfson spills the beans. Back in February I noted the clever game being played by the media using the Deselection process to eliminate candidates they didn’t like.This deselection process choked off undesirable candidates by smothering much of the coverage they should have gotten. The MSM excused their actions by claiming they only needed to cover the more popular candidates and not clutter the airwaves and pages with no name candidates they deemed the public had little interest. Now it seems the MSM kept one candidate (Edwards) in the running to deliberately siphon off votes from another candidate (Clinton) they wanted to loose.

The NE (National Enquirer) followed up on a tip regarding John Edwards having an affair. The NE’s reporters did some good old fashioned investigative journalism, which seems to be an oddity these days and found that indeed John Edwards was committing adultery, inappropriately using his position to hire his paramour, arranged substantial monthly payments, it seems fathered a child with a woman not his wife and then lied about it when confronted. Now there is nothing of great news worthiness in and of itself regarding a philandering politician. However, this year being an election year anything regarding a candidate is newsworthy and especially if the candidate presents themselves as the clean cut moral edifice as John Edwards has. However, we should not be too quick to focus on John Edwards because he is not the real story here, but how the story was handled.
Continue reading “Egg on Their Faces”

00Publius Contributor - Entertainment - Frederick Meekins - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture

Doctor Who Tackles Transgenic Menace

August 13, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Frederick Meekins

As culture passes through various stages of technological development, the science fiction of a particular point in history often reflects the concerns regarding the horrors discerning intellects at the time feared could possibly be inflicted upon the earth should what is then considered new knowledge get out of hand. For example, throughout the 50’s and 60’s, speculative literature often focused on the impact of radiation as embodied by the origins of Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, and the Fantastic Four.

Though these characters still remain at the forefront of popular culture, in some instances their origins have been slightly reinterpreted to reflect the concerns of the new generation of authors putting their own creative spins on them and to capture the imaginations of a contemporary fan base. For example, in the Spider-Man films, the arachnid conveying its abilities to an unsuspecting Peter Parker is no longer just an average one accidentally bombarded with radiation but rather one deliberately tinkered with at the genetic level that somehow escapes lab captivity.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Europe - Media Bias - Military - News - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - UN - Warner Todd Huston

Georgia/Russian War: Blame Obama

August 12, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

General Wesley Clark had one thing right during his tenure as a general in the U.S. military. He understood the portentous nature of the Russian’s move to take control of the airport in Pristina, Kosovo at the end of the 1999 NATO engagement in Yugoslavia. He ordered NATO forces to gear up to prevent the Russians from taking the airport but was opposed by British Gen. Michael Jackson, at the time head of the Kosovo peacekeeping forces, who reportedly told Clark that he wouldn’t help him start a third World War.

I don’t know if Clark fully realized what the investment of the Pristina airport might have meant for future Russian actions, but he seemed to know then that it wasn’t a good thing. In retrospect, we can see that, even though they backed down in 1999, it taught the Russians the lesson that they could act with impunity without fear of any real consequences. Later, though, the Russians found that they could not count out any action with Bush in the White House.

Now, let’s face the truth about Russia. She has never, ever been part of the club. No Russian leader has ever seemed convincingly interested in joining the western world and act as a responsible member of an international community. Oh, there was that brief, shining hour when Boris Yeltsin came close, and then only just. But none before and certainly none after have been interested in joining the enlightened world. And, once again, we are seeing Russian belligerence hold true. In this case, instead of purely militaristic aims, we are seeing a Russia planning on an energy hegemony over Europe and willing to act the bad boy to achieve those aims.

Certainly the weakling states of the European Union haven’t the guts nor the military to force Russia to behave herself. Just as certain, the members of the EU have no will to stop Russian plans to control all energy in the region. Only the U.S.A. has displayed the will to oppose moves such as Russia’s in the world today and even that will is anemic.

Continue reading “Georgia/Russian War: Blame Obama”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - Technology - Warner Todd Huston

What is Tennessee’s Senator, Bob Corker, Doing? Selling us Out, That’s What!

August 11, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ken Marerro over at Blue Collar Muse has a nice round down on the low down of the guy living down to expectations, Bob Corker (R, Tenn.). It appears that Senator Corker is selling down the river the erstwhile GOP House members who made such a strong stand on energy last week. Corker is signing onto a Senate energy bill that is little else but a GIANT give away to the Democrats.

A friend emailed me about Bob Corker’s involvement in the Gang of 10. He asked, “What is Corker doing?” To quote Bob Corker himself, he is doing “…exactly what I came to the Senate to do.” To the host of Tennesseans who bemoaned the choice of Corker over Ed Bryant as our Senate choice in 2006, he’s doing exactly what we feared. In fairness, for two years Corker has been a pleasant surprise. However, he couldn’t have picked a worse time to begin living down to our expectations.

Just like GOP Senators in the Gang of 14 and judicial nominees, Republicans in Energy’s Gang of 10 are undermining GOP leadership and strategy. Mitch McConnell and GOP leaders have worked this issue for months with the backing of Republicans and Democrats; legislators and voters. Pressure was mounting on Democrats to surrender their sellout of Americans. Gas and oil prices were falling. Support for Energy Independence via drilling and R&D for alternative and renewable energy sources was growing. It seemed inevitable the GOP would get their vote and sooner rather than later. Now, thanks to meddling by Corker, instead of continuing to exploit flaws in Democratic policies, Senate GOP leaders might be forced to regroup and decide if they can even continue in the face of the Gang’s treachery.

It gets worse, of course. Hit up the Blue Collar Muse for the rest of this infuriating tale of Republicans that are more like… well, they are RINOs, let’s face it.

00Publius Contributor - Book Reviews - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Entertainment - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Is Amazon.com Deleting New Conservative Book Reviews?

August 11, 2008 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

(Important notice! I have radically changed my mind about the review of this music. See the new review.)

So, here is a curious thing. I have been reviewing books at Amazon for a few years now and never had the occasion to have one censored by Amazon.com. But, I just had two reviews in a row deleted by Amazon and it has caused me to wonder how often other conservatives have their reviews summarily eliminated from the Amazon site?

I have noticed, of course, that leftists use Amazon quite well to give conservative books a bad Amazon rating. In the past, whenever I wrote a positive review of a conservative book, for instance, I would be loaded up with negative votes on the review by Amazon visitors. But whenever I wrote a review of a non-political book, I got favorable votes on my review.

But, up until now, I’ve never had a review completely deleted by Amazon.

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00Publius Contributor - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Education - History - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Socialism - Society/Culture

The power of one

August 11, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Michael M. Bates

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who passed away this week, meticulously documented Communist oppression in his books. The subject was one with which he was all too familiar.

In the final days of World War II, he wrote critically of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in a letter to a friend. Describing the mass murderer as “the man with the mustache,” he received an eight-year prison sentence for the impertinence.

Such was life in the Soviet Union. Secret police, neighborhood spies, knocks on the door in the middle of the night, false charges, clandestine tribunals, show trials, and long-term incarceration in an extensive prison and work camp structure named by Solzhenitsyn the Gulag Archipelago were all too real. The author estimated that 60 million people were swallowed up in the system.

In achingly specific detail, he chronicled it all. One incident included in the first book of his exhaustive Gulag Archipelago trilogy still remains with me more than three decades after reading it.
Continue reading “The power of one”