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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Warner Todd Huston

Newt Says that American Left Wing ‘Admirers Terrorists’

April 19, 2008 by 1 Comment

I have to say, right on Newt here. The left wing in America loves American terrorists. That what Newt said to Sean Hannity the other day.

“…the left wing of the Democratic Party, frankly, kind of admires American terrorists… they don’t mind at all that Farrakhan is anti-semitic. They shrug off Jeremiah Wright.”

Let’s face facts here. The left has always loved hatemongers, terrorists, and wild-eyed lunatics. They loved Malcolm X, the Weather Underground, Manson, the Chicago 7, and now they love Farrakahn, and murderers like Mumia Abu-Jamal.

But, watch the left get all upset like they’ve been attacked or something.

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

Pro Tibet, Not Much on History

April 19, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Let’s give them an “A” for feeling, but an “F” for history. Photographer Rowan Benum captured an amusing sign at a Pro-Tibet rally in California not long ago and it says loads about our fetid educational system in the US these days. History isn’t one of the better understood subjects, but feelings are there in spades.

Of course, we understand the sentiment. The Nazis now serve as the single worst example of human evil. Say someone is a Nazi and you can’t get a worse epithet. And the left in the US just loves to throw that name around at whom ever they don’t like. Bush is a “Nazi,” Bill O’Reilly is a “Nazi,” conservatives are “Nazis,” etc., etc.

So, what’s more natural than calling the Chinese “Nazis”? After all, the Chinese may be responsible for killing even more people than Hitler ever dreamed of killing and they are still around to rack up an ever higher murder rate. Certainly the Russians killed more than Hitler did — and this always makes me wonder why the word “communist” is not considered as bad a name to call someone as “Nazi,” but I digress.

Now, the sentiment that the Chinese are bad and we should not be allowing them to host the Olympics while pretending China is an upstanding member of the international community is one that anyone interested in liberty and freedom should consider salient.

With that sentiment I also agree.

Unfortunately, someone didn’t pay attention to their history teacher in California because, as we all know, the Nazis DID host the Olympics. It was 1936. And many people of the international community of 1936 wanted the Nazis to have the Olympics for the same reason that people today think we should allow the Chinese to have them.

It will “help” them become better members of the international community, or so goes the theory. And we can see how hosting the Olympics helped the Nazis reform themselves to join the international community in 1936, right?

Sadly, our pro-Tibet protesters need a history lesson. So does anyone who thinks it a good idea to let China host the Olympics.

By the way, the little tags at the top of the sign are Tibetan prayer cards or flags. Just in case you wondered.

(photo credit Rowan Benum)
Continue reading “Pro Tibet, Not Much on History”

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

ABC Debate Obama Flag Pin Question ‘Planted from the Right’? Nutrooters REALLY losing it now!

April 19, 2008 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Houston Chronicle blogger Bob Cavnar needs to take some time off, or lay off the caffeine, or maybe someone should gently tell him that the black helicopters aren’t following him after all. Whatever the case, Cavnar used his April 19th posting to go off on a wild eyed rant that is so twisted that it ends up blaming Republicans and Mickey Mouse for the fact that Barack Obama isn’t patriotic enough to wear an American flag lapel pin! This is just another hilarious example of the overheated far left’s panty bunching extravaganza that we’ve seen since the ABC debate aired.

During the last Democratic presidential debate, a woman from Pennsylvania was shown on videotape pointing out that Barack Obama refuses to wear an American flag lapel pin unlike most of the other candidates who do from time to time and Cavnar has decided that some dark, Obama hating conspiracy at ABC pushed this woman into the debate.

Here was her question at the ABC debate:

Continue reading “ABC Debate Obama Flag Pin Question ‘Planted from the Right’? Nutrooters REALLY losing it now!”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Selwyn Duke - Society/Culture

Unfair and Unbalanced

April 19, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

The phrase “fair and balanced” certainly has a positive connotation. It is thought the greatest quality a news outlet can possess; it has even become a motto of the Fox News Network. Yet I don’t find Fox very balanced at all.

Oh, I give credit where it’s due. Given that neo-communist organs such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and most other mainstream newspapers believe presenting the “other side” means airing the voice of socialist dissent, Fox and its soul mates are a major improvement. I say soul mates because, while among TV news outlets Fox may be unusual, its perspective certainly is not.

I am never fair and balanced, certainly not in the modern way of thinking. My problem with the approach is that it breeds something akin to the following reportage:

“God says Devil is evil; Devil says God is evil. We report, you decide.”

The above is more literally true than you may think. We often complain about internationalist news bureaus that will call terrorists by a euphemism such as “insurgents” or “militants,” but in the fair and balanced world it makes sense. After all, one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. Sure, that widely-accepted U.S. government definition of terrorism states that it is “. . . violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents . . .,” but, first, why should our perspective carry the day? Then, what is this business about “subnational” groups? It is obviously a tendentious definition allowing the biggest bullies on the block, nations, the latitude to employ an effective tactic while denying it to the less powerful. And we know that during WWII both sides aggressively targeted civilian populations. Let’s be fair and balanced now. And all is fair in love and war.
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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Morals/Sex - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

County Sheriff Runs Sex-Slave Operation from Jail — Guess Which Party?

April 18, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, this time the AP has really done it. Dateline Custer County, Oklahoma: Sheriff Mike Burgess resigns after authorities charged him with running a sex-slave operation out of his jail using female inmates he bribed for the purpose. So, which party did the AP tell us our crafty entrepreneur was from? Well, they seem to have forgotten to mention it… shocking, I know.

Oklahoma sheriff charged with using inmates as sex slaves

ARAPAHO, Okla. (AP) — Authorities have charged a western Oklahoma sheriff with coercing and bribing female inmates so he could use them in a sex-slave operation run out of his jail.

Custer County Sheriff Mike Burgess resigned Wednesday just as state prosecutors filed 35 felony charges against him, including 14 counts of second-degree rape, seven counts of forcible oral sodomy and five counts of bribery by a public official.

Yikes, just plain yikes! It looks like our salacious sheriff of that unknown party is really in dutch for this one.

Continue reading “County Sheriff Runs Sex-Slave Operation from Jail — Guess Which Party?”

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

SEIU Storms Conference, Injures Visitors

April 18, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, it was funny seeing the SEIU and the CNA squaring off for a battle royale, but now things are really getting serious and at this point even a staunch anti-unionist has to say that things are getting out of hand.

The folks over at LaborNotes.org brings us the story of SEIU members being bussed in six, count them SIX, busses to invade and disrupt a conference being attended by California Nurses Association members in Dearborn, Michigan last weekend. Reports are that people were injured as the hundreds of bussed in SEIU members forcibly broke into the conference to disrupt the proceedings.

The ridiculous thing is that the conference was supposed to be about “democracy” in unions put on by Labor Notes Magazine.

This escalation of violence by SEIU members is a disturbing trend that really does make the lie to the claim that SEIU prez Andy Stern is interested in legitimate representation, but is more interested in coercion and intimidation.

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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Science - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton

Counterproductive Liberal-Progressivism

April 18, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Liberal-progressive environmentalists are starving the world’s poor.

Liberal-progressives are enthralled with imposing collectivist regulation to satisfy their religion’s “feel-good” agendas.

But the cost of liberal-progressive worship of collectivist abstractions is great. Diverting limited economic resources into less important or less effective uses, inherent in the straitjacket of government regulation, impoverishes the world with lower output. It also results in the loss of innovation inherent in the liberty of millions of individuals to experiment and discover the most effective and least costly ways to solve problems. Liberal-progressive-socialism’s claim that government bureaucrats are better at administering the economy than “greedy” individual workers and private businessmen is repeatedly belied by experience.
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00Publius Contributor - Abortion - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Yale Student’s ‘Abortion Art’ Claim a Scam

April 17, 2008 by 1 Comment

Warner Todd Huston
**Now With UPDATE**

The Yale Daily News breathlessly informed us of a female student, art major Aliza Shvarts, who claimed that her senior art project was a documentation of nine months of self-induced miscarriages. Her goal, of course, was to “spark conversation” about “the relationship between art and the human body.” What is really the truth with this so-called “art” project, though, is that Shvarts has pulled the wool over the eyes of the Yale Daily News, the willing dupes who claim to be her professors, and anyone reading this story on Drudge and believing she really induced her own miscarriages. It’s all a hoax. Or if not an outright hoax, it’s a misleading tale of a girl who hasn’t a clue about how one becomes pregnant, what the fake drugs she took are really capable of doing, and the psychological pain of a real miscarriage.

It’s also proof that our sources of news rarely if ever employ any common sense in how they write up the news. A tiny bit of logic put to this story of “self-induced miscarriages” would reveal it to be all stuff and nonsense. But, no, what we get instead is the story reported as if it is fact and not the cynical efforts of a kid that just wants her 15 minutes of fame. It is also proof that the liberal side of the abortion debate leads the ideological mindset of the news.

Here is the story in the Yale Daily News:

Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

Seems very grave and serious, doesn’t it? This girl put her body through the repeated physical abuse of impregnation and miscarriage for her “art.” If this were true, it would have been quite a physical ordeal. In fact, if it had really happened, I’d imagine that she might possibly have put her health, or at least her future ability to become pregnant, at risk. But, in truth she was likely never pregnant, she never had any “miscarriages” and there was nothing but common menstrual fluids resulting.

What was her “process”? How did she create these so-called miscarriages? She asked boys she knew to donate sperm (she claims she also asked them to have tests for sexually transmitted diseases), she supposedly implanted that sperm into herself, and then she took these claimed herbal concoctions misleadingly called “abortifacient drugs” to end the pregnancy with forced miscarriage.

The main question is, was she ever pregnant? I have to say most likely no. The “turkey baster” method of implanting semen for impregnation is very ineffective, though known to be successful. Sperm does not live for too long once it hits the open air, so implantation would had to have occurred quickly after the issuing of the fluids. So, to assume that this girl had actually impregnated herself is not a good bet. There is no indication that there was any sort of “controls” placed on her efforts at implantation and, since there was never once any medical care, there is no proof that she ever was pregnant at all.

Continue reading “Yale Student’s ‘Abortion Art’ Claim a Scam”

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

Rep. Melissa Bean, Another Democrat AGAINST Free Speech

April 17, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

**Update at end of original**

In the devastated country of Zimbabwe the tyrant that runs the place, Robert Mugabe, has an iron fist on the political process. He often won’t allow members of the opposition party to leave their homes much less to go out and campaign for office. When political parties are physically prevented from even being allowed to engage in the process we call that tyranny. Now, it isn’t too far to go to say that Illinois Congressman Melissa Bean (D, 8th Dist) is beginning to head down the road to Robert Mugabe’s style of tyranny right here in the USA.

Yes, you heard me right. I just said that US Congressman Melissa Bean is beginning to act like the murdering tyrant, Robert Mugabe.

Let’s face reality, here. All too often we Americans groan at the mere mention of politics. We Americans are spoiled by our freedom in many ways. We moan about having to think of politics while there are countries where representatives of the people are thrown in holes so deep they are never seen again. One of those countries is the one the world has absurdly favored with the Olympics.

Another reality is that, whether we are sick and tired of our politics in this great country or not, politics is exactly what formed us, what informs us, and what reforms us. Without a direct and vigorous engagement in American politics we would fast find our freedoms gone, our liberty papered over by too much regulation and our fortunes leeched away by confiscatory taxation. To avoid these all too human pitfalls, these are the reasons our Founders set the system up the way they did.

Continue reading “Rep. Melissa Bean, Another Democrat AGAINST Free Speech”

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

Now CNA and SEIU Members are Beating Each Other Up

April 17, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Beatles once had a song in which the line “It’s getting better all the time” was featured as the theme. Well, that is how I feel about this fight for supremacy between the CNA and the SEIU over the enrollment of Ohio’s healthcare workers. Each day this fight gets funnier and funnier for those of us that are not a real big fan of unions.

Well, last week things got physical, the fight boiling over into fisticuffs for some members of the two battling unions. We get the gory details from the Los Angeles Times.

A nasty fight erupted at L.A. County hospitals today when organizers for the California Nurses Assn. launched a campaign to persuade 6,000 county-employed nurses to ditch the Service Employees International Union, the powerful organization that represents them, and join the CNA instead, Garrett Therolf reports.

Police arrested a CNA organizer accused of slapping an SEIU organizer and of stomping on the foot of another. A county official who asked for anonymity claimed CNA organizers dressed up as nurses so they could get into areas of the hospital normally off limits.

Every time I open a paper to see a story about the CNA/SEIU fight I feel like I should be popping some pop corn for the show I’m about to enjoy!

Ad the fight is spreading. From Ohio to California, Texas, and Nevada the CNA is aggressively courting new members setting the SEIU’s nerves on edge.

Now that they are starting to get physical we can assume that this fight is way beyond the annoyance stage and now into the truly meanstreet phase. We’ll keep an eye on the fun.
Continue reading “Now CNA and SEIU Members are Beating Each Other Up”

00Publius Contributor - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Nancy Morgan - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture

Shame On Islam

April 17, 2008 by

-By Nancy Morgan

Americans wonder why moderate Muslims don’t publicly condemn Islamofascism, terrorism, and the hijacking of their religion by fanatics who use women as suicide bombers and babies as human shields. A question seldom asked is why Americans aren’t publicly condemning these atrocities.

The barbarism exhibited by the fanatical faction of Islam is beyond the pale, by any civilized standards. And while America waits for Muslims to step up and condemn these barbarians, we go about our business as usual, condemning instead the unthinkable practice of putting panties on terrorists’ heads, and the cruel and unusual punishment of including pork on the menu provided to terrorists incarcerated in Guantanamo.

The irrational hatred of the West by many Muslims is seldom questioned. Instead, a large segment of the American public has taken a cue from them, adopting irrational hatred as a political philosophy. By not condemning irrational hatred, we implicitly endorse it. Just as we implicitly endorse terror tactics by not condemning them.

Throughout history, communities, civilizations and cultures have learned by example. Take the growing number of teen tarts performing non-sex on their boyfriends. Thank-you, Boy Clinton. Take the increasing number of school shootings mirrored on Columbine. The examples abound. So why are we surprised when Muslims in America don’t condemn the murder being practiced under their noses and in their names? Because no-one else is. America is too busy trying to appear non-judgmental and worrying about what everyone is saying about us. For shame.

Tell me again, what religion is it that uses women and babies as cannon fodder? Why, its Islam, the religion of peace. I’d call this shameful, if shame were still in vogue. Its not. America is a guilt society, whose primary motivation is to appear non-judgmental and politically correct. The multiculturalist crowd has convinced a large portion of Americans that all cultures are equal. We spend our time trying to understand the unimaginable instead of condemning it. Meanwhile, the terrorists are laughing at our naivety, as they plot to kill anyone who doesn’t ascribe to their faith.
Continue reading “Shame On Islam”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Frank Salvato - News - Society/Culture

Swinging Like Monkeys from the Branches of the Liberty Tree

April 17, 2008 by

-By Frank Salvato

Recently, in a Chicago suburb, a village trustee was issued a citation for disorderly conduct when she informed two less than discerning parents that the trees of the village were to be respected as elements of nature, not utilized like playground equipment. The citation was issued after the parents mistook verbiage used as that of being racist. It should be disturbing to all of us that a citation was issued because of words used in a non-aggressive fashion. Even more disturbing is that our society is willing to disregard free speech rights in pursuit of political correctness.

On seeing two children climbing in a less than mature magnolia tree – and upon witnessing the damage they were causing to the tree – Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, the village trustee in question, asked the parents, who were supervising the children, to remove them from the tree. She cited safety concerns and the fact that they were damaging the tree. This resulted in the parents effectively telling Ms. Ramirez-Sliwinski to trumpet her opinion out of her rectum. It was at this point that the “offensive verbiage” was uttered.

Upon the parents’ suggestion that Ramirez-Sliwinski explore the possibility of turning her opinion into a suppository, Ramirez-Sliwinski said,

Continue reading “Swinging Like Monkeys from the Branches of the Liberty Tree”

00Publius Contributor - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

More on House Speaker Andy Dillion Recall (Michigan)

April 16, 2008 by 9 Comments

Warner Todd Huston

This fight is getting fierce, as I reported last month. Like all Democrats who claim to be interested in democracy, politicians like Dillon reveal that they are far more interested in keeping their political power than they are in serving the people. Dillon is the Speaker of the House of the State legislature who is using union thugs to stop citizens from signing a recall petition aimed at relieving him of his office over his support of wasteful spending and a massive tax increase.

It’s gotten so bad with the fear of the entrenched Democrat power structure, even the Michigan Assoc. of Police Organizations has jumped in to fight the citizen’s right to free political expression with an automated phone call that tells citizens that an “extremist” group is out to topple Dillon.

This is a perfect example of entrenched politicians abusing their power to stay in office and doing their level best to destroy the legal, legitimate efforts of community groups so that they, the politicians, can remain in power.

We like to imagine that we are in a democracy, but examples like this are perfect reasons to at times doubt that assumption. This is the most cynical effort of thwarting the citizen’s wishes that has been seen in quite a while and a spotlight needs to be shed on it for all to see.

If you want all the nuts and bolts of the legality of the fight, Ballotpedia.org has some fantastic info on this effort.

Continue reading “More on House Speaker Andy Dillion Recall (Michigan)”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - History - News - Patriotism - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Maine Uni. Puts U.S. Flags on Floor as ‘Art’

April 16, 2008 by 7 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

We have another incident of empty showboating by a half-sentient college kid who imagines herself to be making “art” and a “statement” by placing American flags on the floor in hopes that people would disrespect them enough to walk upon them. One Miss Susan Crane of the University of Maine at Farmington decided that her “art” was going to be an exercise in desecration.

Unfortunately, all we have is another disrespectful kid doing the same thing that a dozen other disrespectful kids have done at anti-American campuses across the country over the last 40 years or so. There isn’t a thing “new” or even unexpected about it at this point. This makes her “statement” empty and pointless. But Crane has been fooled by her anti-American professors into imagining she is sparking a “conversation” about patriotism and the flag.

“Ninety-five to 98 percent of the people didn’t walk on the flags,” Crane said of her findings. The other reaction she was hoping for was one of thoughtful reflection on his or her individual patriotism.

“It sparked conversation and thought about how we feel about our flag, which I think is very important. It was a very hard thing for me to do, to put the flag on the floor,” she said.

Oh, we get these sort of self-loathing, anti-Americans every single time there is national turmoil of some sort or another. They imagine they are being “edgy” and “artistic” with their displays of hate for their own country. And they get congratulated by their equally vacuous teachers and professors that were trained in the Marxist work shops of the Weather Underground, the SDS, or the equally Marxist NEA. But, when all is said and done, no “conversation” is sparked. Only emotions.

No one goes away from one of these idiotic displays of hate with any newer understanding of the issues of patriotism or the actions of the government of the United States. No history is learned, no issues settled. All we have is the self-congratulatory, circle-jerking of the hatemongers in our Universities who are so proud to be sending out into the great world another American citizen indoctrinated to hate their own country.

Continue reading “Maine Uni. Puts U.S. Flags on Floor as ‘Art’”

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

TV Reviewer Attacks O’Reilly… For NO Reason

April 16, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is the sort of liberal bias that is easy to see even by those out there who might try to pretend that liberal bias doesn’t exist in the media. Kevin McDonough writes a TV review column for United Feature Syndicate called “Tune in Tonight.”

Now, first of all, it must be pointed out that Mr. McDonough is a critic and, therefore, makes his living (or a portion of it as the case may be) by giving that opinion. So, it is without question that if he has a liberally biased opinion, the fact that his entire reason for writing is to disseminate that opinion is a legitimate practice. It isn’t my point to say that McDonough’s opinion is somehow illicit or should be stopped. The point I am making is that his is just another example of left-wing bias in the media.

Anyway, in one of his latest reviews in “Tune in Tonight,” McDonough takes a slam against Bill O’Reilly, really for no reason at all. I say no reason because Bill O’Reilly wasn’t the subject of McDonough’s piece and was only thrown in there because he has some sort of problem with O’Reilly’s point of view.

Here is how McDonough started a recent TV review:

Television has many powers. Its ability to distract (VH1), entertain (“The Office”), inform (“The NewsHour”), deceive (“The O’Reilly Factor”), anger (ditto) and sell (QVC) are well documented.

So, O’Reilly’s show is only meant to “deceive” and “anger,” yet “The Newshour” is meant to “inform”? Pretty blatant bias there!

McDonough meant to write a piece on the upcoming PBS series about American poet Walt Whitman a man famed even in his day for an ambiguousness of his own sexuality. Rumors abounded that he was homosexual, but there is little real proof on whether he was or not. There is also some evidence that he might have been bisexual. Whatever the case, he was an early American poet who penned his most renowned book “Leaves of Grass.”

So, what the heck does Walt Whitman have to do with Bill O’Reilly? Well, nothing, but McDonough found a way to slam O’Reilly anyway. In the end, this is a perfect example of sticking liberal bias in a story for no substantive reason.

Continue reading “TV Reviewer Attacks O’Reilly… For NO Reason”

00Publius Contributor - Budget - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Let’s Fool Taxpayers And Hide Taxes Behind A New Name: ‘Dues’

April 16, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, it was just April 15th and we all know what that means. It was tax day, the day when we must pay tribute to the Lords in Washington. And on that day, The New York Times published a new spendaholic, high taxing idea to fool America’s taxpayers into accepting more tax by pretending it is something else. Stuffed with bad historic interpretation, Republican slamming, and typical old style Stalinist rhetorical games-playing this editorial by Richard Conniff whimsically dreams the dreamy, dream that we aren’t taxed enough and how we might fool Americans into paying more by just using a different name for them. To whit they aren’t to be called taxes anymore. They’re to be called “dues.”

Conniff begins his uninformed rant against people who stand against high taxes by implying that we are even unpatriotic if we don’t support confiscatory taxation and that our politicians are just too weak spinned to properly lead us to higher taxes despite public opinion.

The word “tax” was never pretty. But it has lately become the ugliest word in the English language, right up there with its evil twin, “death.” Even in time of war, ostensibly patriotic politicians blithely pledge to slay any tax that rears its ghastly head. Public officials dodge work they know desperately needs doing because of the possibility that it may cause an increase in taxes.

Conniff’s is a rather uninformed view of how the concept of taxes has been treated by politicians throughout American history, sadly. He says that taxes have “lately” become an “ugly word,” yet that is not the truth at all. Taxes have been a hot button issue since before the day Bostonians threw the tea in the harbor, so the claim that only “lately” have they become something politicians wish to avoid is simply misinformed.

And, even more ridiculously, Conniff imagines that the only way things get done is by more taxes. He completely rejects out of hand with his editorial the concept that wasteful spending be cut and ways of making the budget more efficient be investigated because he wastes not a word on the subject.

Then Conniff gets into the Republican bashing.
Continue reading “Let’s Fool Taxpayers And Hide Taxes Behind A New Name: ‘Dues’”

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

Union to Rebate Misspent Dues to Members

April 16, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This one is interesting. The SEIU was ordered by a California judge to rebate assessments charged non-union members who were charged fees by the union that were used to fight a political campaign against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

We get the story from the Sacramento Bee.

Judge Morrison England, in a decision Thursday, ordered Service Employees International Union Local 1000 to send notices to the workers who opted out of union membership. The union must issue refunds, with interest, to those non-union members who object to the special assessment. The rebate would amount to $135 plus interest for a worker who made $4,500 a month in 2005.

The special fee raised $12 million to fight Schwarzenegger’s agenda, about a quarter of which was paid by state workers who chose not to join the union.

But, how is it that this union was able to extort money from non-members in the first place, you might ask? It’s only because of the cozy relationship that the union has with the state that allows even non-union members to be ripped off by the union. Thanks to the stupidity of the state of California, even non-members have to pay money into the union! In any other situation this would be called theft. But, when a state government that bends over backwards for unions is involved, it’s called law.

Naturally, the SEIU thinks this is a bad ruling because it limits their “free speech.”

Continue reading “Union to Rebate Misspent Dues to Members”

00Publius Contributor - Business - News - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Launches Website to Attack Another Union

April 16, 2008 by

Well, now I have laughed out loud. It seems that the Services Employee International Union (SEIU) has now launched a website made solely to attack the California Nurses Association (CNA) all over their fight to unionize healthcare workers in Ohio.

It is un-inventively called “Shame on CNA” and it features video clips of nurses and workers who are upset at the CNA for their efforts.

It has sensational titles like “CNA exposed” and sections imploring folks to “take action.”

Ya gotta see it to believe it.

Doncha just hate union on union violence? I have to admit, I find it all hilarious.

00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Google - Inernet - Media Bias - News - Scott Cleland - Society/Culture - Technology

Why “White Spaces” is just corporate welfare innovation

April 16, 2008 by

-By Scott Cleland

The Hill has a good article highlighting the growing “battle” over “White Spaces,” or the potential for use of the buffer spectrum bands in-between TV channels to ensure that there is no interference with TV signals.

What I want to spotlight here is how many in the tech industry seem to think they can carry the word-banner “innovation,” like the biblical Ark of the Covenant, to defeat anyone standing in the way of their quest for corporate welfare.

The Wireless Innovation Alliance, led by Google and its “Information Commons” poodles (the New America Foundation, FreePress, and Public Knowledge), has apparently suckered other tech companies (Microsoft, Dell and HP) into shielding and giving cover for Google’s broader information commons public policy agenda, which is needed in order for Google to fulfill it’s megalomaniacal mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Moreover, many tech companies must think that “playing the innovation card” in Washington is like an all-you-can-eat ticket to feed at the public trough.

Let’s get down to brass tacks here.
Continue reading “Why “White Spaces” is just corporate welfare innovation”

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

Obama Big Money ‘Bundler’ A Hugo Chavez Supporter, Will Media Report?

April 15, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Adding to the growing mountain of evidence that Barack Obama either intensely dislikes the very country of which he wants to be elected president, or at the very least surrounds himself with those who do, news is breaking that one of Obama’s big money donation “bundlers” is virulently anti-military and a supporter of Hugo Chavez — the well-known Venezuelan dictator famous for his hateful anti-American rhetoric. There is even a photo of Obama “bundler” and Code Pink operative Jodie Evans arm-in-arm with Hugo Chavez. (Evans is the red head in the middle)

Code Pink has been at the forefront of the anti-war movement and has involved itself in many attacks on our members of the military. They’ve even targeted the wounded for their attacks on the war in Iraq. Because of this connection, pro-troop groups are demanding that Obama return the $50,000 that Code Pink operative Evans gathered from her associates to donate to the Obama campaign.

Catherine Moy of Human Events details some of Code Pink’s campaigns against our wounded troops in her latest blog posting.

Code Pink has also waged a campaign of psychological warfare against America’s wounded warriors and their families by protesting at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, targeting them with signs bearing messages such as “Maimed for a lie” and “Enlist here and die for Halliburton,” the joint statement from pro-troops groups said.

Moy also recounts that Evans sat on the board of directors for a radical environazi group called Rain Forest Action Network (RAN) a group also connected to the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front, groups that the FBI have reported are responsible for more than 600 criminal acts causing more than $43 million in damages over the last few decades.

Evans has been an organizer and operative of Code Pink since September of 2002.

Melanie Morgan also gives us a little reminder of some more of Code Pink’s greatest hits:

Kicked out of Pakistan after protesting the Pakistani governments efforts to combat the jihadists operating in that country, Code Pink’s leaders have also been some of the strongest proponents of former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s regime. Code Pink leader Medea Benjamin even renounced the United States and moved to Cuba before being kicked out by the government there. Turns out, even tyrants have standards. Who knew?

These are pretty radical organizations that sponsor some pretty dangerous and fierce anti-capitalist, anti-American campaigns. Is this the sort of extreme hater that a candidate of “change” and a candidate that says we should “come together” should be accepting assistance from? Should a candidate that wants a “new” politics be so happy to take the donations of someone who has led groups that have perpetrated acts of domestic terror? Should Barack Obama be so quick to accept money from a woman who has planned campaigns to harass our wounded soldiers as they try to heal in the hospital?

Another pressing question is, will the MSM report this story? Will the MSM tell the country that their vaunted candidate of “change” and “civility” is working with people responsible for acts of terrorism against Americans?

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

Dueling Blogs– Alan Colmes Responds to Huston

April 15, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Git out yer shootin’ irons and settle in for a blog duel, folks, because the inestimable Alan Colmes has answered to my poking at him on his less than secret blog, LiberalLand.com. Mr. Colmes sent me a little email notice that he has answered to my ribbing of him on the 13th and I have the honor to reply in kind with a fisking of his latest.

Firstly, I will certainly admit that Mr. Colmes’ guns might bark a little louder than your humble Newsbuster’s (that’s me, of course). After all, he has a TV show and a radio show, as well as a well-visited blog. On the other hand, I merely watch TV and have been but a radio show guest speaker… however, I DO blog on one of the most visited conservative sites on the Internet (that would be Newsbusters.org, naturally).

Mr. Colmes’ reply consists of an opening sentence followed by bulleted talking points. So, what follows is his bulleted points after which my replies to each will appear.

Colmes began with this:

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

Dues Forcibly Used for Political Causes Coming to an End?

April 15, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is a story that has been coming to the fore more every year. The idea that union members should have a choice whether their dues money goes to fund political causes is getting more cachet all the time. Today we have another call to stop unions for using dues money for political causes without getting permission from the dues paying union members first, this time from the Sacramento Bee.

Editorial: Refunds from union are only right

Should government workers be forced to pay for political activities with which they disagree to keep their jobs? That was the fundamental question underlying the case federal court Judge Morrison England decided last week. In a ruling that relied on simple fairness and federal law, Judge England said no.

In the case before the court, the Services Employees International Union Local 1000 had imposed a special assessment on state workers it represented to bankroll its “Political Fight-Back Fund.” The fund was established in 2005 to finance the union’s campaign against Propositions 75 and 76, two measures on the November ballot that year, pushed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The union deducted $12 million from the paychecks of 92,500 of its state worker members to support SEIU’s campaign to defeat the initiatives. Some 28,000 non-union workers, state employees who opt not to join the union but are required to pay fees to finance the union’s bargaining activities from which they benefit, were also forced to pay. That’s where the union tripped up. The non-union members sued to get their money back, and last week they prevailed.

As the Bee editorial notes, its a good thing that unions are beginning to have taken away the ability to casually use of everyone’s dues money to fund the union leadership’s pet political causes. After all, what if Democrat union members were forced to see their dues used to fund Republican causes?

If this idea separating the use of union money from political campaigns becomes more widespread, this could put a great dent in funding for extreme leftist, anti-business, anti-American causes.

Let’s hope this is a ball that find a continued downhill path!

Continue reading “Dues Forcibly Used for Political Causes Coming to an End?”

00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Chicago Republican Party a Shill for Democrats

April 15, 2008 by

I don’t usually pick up in its entirety a column by someone who didn’t contact me and ask me to run it. But this one bears repeating, even unbidden! Doug Ibendahl over at ChampionNews.net wrote a great piece detailing how the folks that run the Republican Party in the City of Chicago are worse than a sham. Now, Ibendahl didn’t say it, but I think it is pretty obvious that they are just Democrats put in place by King Daley to keep the Chicago GOP a meaningless organization.

Reading the bull crap that is being offered as Republican Party leadership coming out of the City of Chicago is enough to sicken anyone. If you wonder why King Daley is the iron fisted ruler of Chicago and why someone just doesn’t do something, well, this is one of the things that helps him stay there. Even the so-called opposing party is in his service.

******

Chicago GOP slates formerly imprisoned Democratic Alderman

By Doug Ibendahl

If you thought the Republican Party in Chicago couldn’t get more pathetic, guess again.

The latest destructive behavior comes from two Chicago “Republican” Ward Committeemen already infamous for destructive behavior, Eloise Gerson and Tom Swiss.

On April 8, 2008, Swiss sent out a memo congratulating himself and Gerson for their efforts in recruiting candidates to fill vacancies on the November ballot.

Among the candidates recruited by Swiss and Gerson, several have never pulled a Republican ballot in a Primary Election in Illinois, while others have no voting record at all. Even more unfathomable, a few of the candidates thrown on the Republican ballot by Gerson and Swiss have lifelong Democratic voting records. This is all according to Voter Vault.

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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - GOP - Israel Teitelbaum - News - Society/Culture

Urging the Candidates to School Choice

April 15, 2008 by

-By Israel Teitelbaum

Dear Lovers of Liberty:

The recent 40-year commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has inspired many to seek fulfillment of the Civil Rights Movement he set in motion. As Bob Schundler points out, all of society rests upon the foundation of education. By improving education, all of society will be elevated. We are all in agreement that the Declaration of Independence was intended to grant individual liberty: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” And it was never the intention of our Founders to permit government to usurp the family, and financially coerce parents to send their children to government run schools.

The enormous damage this has inflicted, and continues to inflict day by day, is mind boggling. Children in one school have been told to cross dress, and countless others are subjected to videos that would be considered child abuse under different circumstances. The stats are dismal and so is our standing compared to other modern nations. Any business with this failure rate would have closed decades ago. Allowing freedom and competition is the very least we can do.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Swimming Pools Marked as ‘Necessity’ in Cash-Strapped Toledo

April 14, 2008 by

Warner Todd Huston

Maggie Thurber over at Thurber’s Thoughts has a story that reveals the nanny state foolishness we are so woefully stuck with these days.

Apparently, the City of Toledo, Ohio is sinking over half a million dollars into keep their city swimming pools afloat all the while the city is whining that they are out of cash and need to raise taxes. Naturally, the excuse is that the city is somehow obligated to provide entertainment for its citizens. You’d be excused if you thought that a little idiotic.

The Toledo Blade reports that director of Toledo’s department of neighborhoods Kattie Bond told the paper that, “It is important to provide recreational opportunities for citizens. We live in a city where we do get hot weather, so it’s important we provide a place for kids to at least get wet and cool off.”

Thurber notes that the city’s pools served only about 5,000 people during last year at a cost of $120 per person!

Using this assumption, the pools had about 5,000 unique visitors. The 2006 Census data shows that there are 74,896 children (under 18 years of age) in Toledo. Even if every visitor to the pools was a child, we would be serving less than 7% of the kids in the city. If we consider total population, those estimated 5,000 unique visitors represent less than 2% of the population.

Yet the city is planning to spend about $600,000 for this – which is about $120 per person served. It would be cheaper to buy every kid in the city a membership to the Boys and Girls Club ($5 per year for 16-18 year olds, but only $3 for 7-15 year olds) which would give them access to ALL activities, not just the pools.

Yes, swimming pools are nice, but are they so important that funding them comes before police or other services? Further, is a pool worth operating at far, far higher rates than private pools can operate at? Especially in a day when these cities throughout the country are constantly crying poor?

For such a huge cash outlay to serve so few citizens ( a number that seems to be declining year to year, to boot) it sure looks like these pools are ripe for cost cutting measures that can save the city millions.

Instead of looking to raise taxes, how about taking sensible cost cutting measures, Toledo? Were I a Toledoan, I’d be requiring such an effort before I;d agree to a single penny in new taxes.

Good post Maggie!

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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - History - Morals/Sex - News - Race - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Yes, Let’s Have Democrats Apologize for Slavery

April 14, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Just a few days ago I wrote an article ridiculing a woman from Connecticut for wasting the state legislature’s time bothering with a resolution that forced the state to apologize for the witch trials carried out by various Connecticut towns during the 1600’s. I mentioned that “apologizing” for things that happened hundreds of years ago was rather stupid. And witch trials aren’t the only things people want our government(s) to “apologize” for, as we all know. Certainly the long-past support of slavery by the United States is one subject most referenced for which apologies are sought.

I maintained then that such apologies do no one any good. Apologies, I claimed, can only be properly offered and only be graciously accepted by those actually harmed directly by a slight. Something that happened hundreds of years ago, I said, cannot be apologized for. Those slights just are. Live with it.

But, I may have found something that has changed my mind on the offering of apologies. It came in the form of an open letter to the Democrat Party penned by Lt. Colonel Frances Rice a retired US Army officer and member of the Lincoln Heritage Institute.

In her Open Letter to the Democrat Party, Frances was asking for an apology over slavery. I’ll specify here that she wasn’t asking for this apology from the “United States,” to be sure. She wants it directly from the Democrat Party. After all, as Frances’ points reveal, it wasn’t really the “United States” that supported slavery, but more specifically a faction of the country in the form of the Democrat Party and its antecedents. And, I have to say, the woman has a point.

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

Alan Colmes Agrees With Obama: Middle America is Full of Xenophobes

April 14, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

And now to add to the ever-lengthening list of Obamessiah apologists comes TV and Radio talker Alan Colmes to say that Barack Obama is right, Middle America IS filled with racist, overly religious, gun-nuts.

On his LiberalLand blog (the formerly secret blog he was hiding from the greater world), Sean Hannity’s co-host said the following:

And just where is he wrong? Pointing out why people may be bitter or frustrated, that there is xenophobia, that people sometimes cling to religion or feel paranoid about the government and embrace guns doesn’t mean you hate or disdain a portion of the population.

First of all people do not “cling” to guns and religion because of what a government does or does not do. It is especially demeaning to people’s religious sentiment to say that government is their reason for “clinging” to their religion. And secondly, Obama did not mean to say that people were merely frustrated. He was clearly trying to paint Middle America as racist, gun-nuts that were too stupid to understand what was going on around them.

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

Democrats’ Slavish Devotion to Big Labor a Vote Loser?

April 14, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Jennifer Rubin over at Commentary Magazine has a rather interesting little piece on CM’s “Contentions Blog” that, if true, shows that the Democrat Party’s devotion to Big Labor isn’t really the winning strategy that they think it is.

After noting that the AFL-CIO announced that they were devoting 53 million dollars to attack John McCain during this election cycle, and after noting that the Barack “no special interest money” Obama doesn’t seem to mind this absurd outlay of cash, Rubin reports on a study that shows some bad news for unions and their lap dogs in the Democrat Party.

Now comes some evidence that Democrats do the bidding of Big Labor at their political peril. McLaughlin & Associates, a well-regarded GOP polling group, has conducted a survey for a business group, Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, in the battleground states of Minnesota, Colorado, and Maine. The results (according to the press release) show that large majorities of voters in Colorado (68%), Maine (72%), and Minnesota (65%) oppose the EFCA. Moreover, voters in Minnesota and Colorado would be less likely to support Democratic senate candidates who support the EFCA. (Specifically, a plurality of voters would be less likely to vote for Democratic Senate candidates Mark Udall (44%) and Al Franken (41%) if they support this legislation.) To boot, at least 80% of voters in all three states believe that secret ballot elections are the cornerstone of democracy and should be retained for union elections.

This is one more instance in which Democrats have confused the interests of union power brokers with the interests of working-class voters. Unions may want to do away with workplace democracy, but real workers do not. Similarly, teachers’ unions hate school choice measures, but working-class voters whose kids are trapped in underperforming public schools like them.

Of course, the fact that the excesses of union manipulation, corruption, and stupidity won’t slow down Big Labor’s iron grip over the Democrat Party any time soon, but, as Rubin notes< these facts do lend Republicans with some clear strategy choices in the meantime.

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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture - Taxes

My, Obama, what big ear(marks) you have

April 14, 2008 by

-By Michael M. Bates

Senator Barack Obama will reform government. If you don’t believe it, just ask him.

Demonstrating his devotion to transparency in government, he recently endorsed a one-year ban on earmarks, those devilish special provisions that let lawmakers funnel money to pet projects without going through the normal review process. Earmarks permit legislators to sneak in spending that’s often tacked onto unrelated bills at the last minute.

Obama’s commitment to ending earmarks would be more convincing if he hadn’t resorted to them so much since going to Washington. The nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense calculates that Obama secured almost $100 million in pork for Illinois this fiscal year.
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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton - Unions

Labor Union Perspective

April 14, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

As the proposed trade agreement with Colombia reveals, labor unions are organizations of self-centered greed, which disingenuously cloak themselves with pretense of God, country, and mom’s apple pie.

President Bush, by calling for Congressional approval of the trade agreement with Colombia, is compelling liberal-progressives to choose between the high-flown, one-world internationalism to which they give lip service and kow-towing to organized labor.

Columnist Robert D. Novak described it this way in his April 4th article:
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